Xbox Partner Preview Review (March 2026) - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.26.26

Summary

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Kinda Funny Games Daily – Xbox Partner Preview Review (March 26, 2026)

Hosts:
Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr, Snowbike Mike, Roger Piccorni
Date: March 26, 2026
Theme:
An immediate, comprehensive breakdown and critical review of the freshly aired Xbox Partner Preview showcase, featuring group reactions to each major announcement, reflections on Xbox’s showcase philosophy, and a title-by-title analysis of everything shown.

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Episode Overview

This episode finds the core Kinda Funny Games Daily crew, joined by Roger Piccorni, assembling right after their live reaction to the 2026 Xbox Partner Preview stream. With opinions ranging from disappointment to tempered optimism, the team dissects both the format and the substance of Xbox's latest showcase focused on third-party and indie titles coming in 2026 and (mostly) 2027. The group discusses what worked, what failed to land, takes viewer feedback, and debates Xbox’s ongoing messaging and presentation strategy in a rapidly evolving gaming landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. General Impressions of the Showcase

• Overall Reception: The team is broadly disappointed, describing the presentation as “flat,” “awful,” and “lacking juice or wow factor.” Despite a handful of notable titles, the event is seen as failing to generate excitement or justify its format.

  • Greg (04:05): “I thought this was awful… There was no punch to anything… I’m flabbergasted by this performance.”
  • Mike (08:14): “I agree… Lacking the wow factor. We did get 19 games, but… Each trailer was kind of lacking that X factor.”

• Blessing’s Attempted Positivity: Initially tries to support Xbox (“Oh, you’re crazy. I thought it was fantastic. We got Hades 2,” 06:14), but quickly concedes agreement that the presentation was disappointing in execution despite several games of interest.

• Consensus Points:

  • Excitement about a few surprise reveals and release confirmations.
  • Frustration with “bait and switch” teases (notably for Stranger Than Heaven—promised a deep dive, received a generic trailer).
  • Concern that the Partner Preview format “feels like another stop on the train” (19:31), too low priority.

2. Critique of Presentation & Format

• Lack of Flow, Vision, and Hosts:

  • Absence of a unifying host or narrative leaves viewers disoriented.
  • Jarring interstitials, no developer interviews or “pitch” for the games.

• Failure to Sell the Games:

  • Roger (12:31): “You need somebody [with] VO, a vision—‘here’s why you should care about this on Xbox;’ not just some stinger like it’s a YouTube upload.”
  • Bless (15:34): “You feel like no one’s heart’s in it… It feels like it’s fulfilling marketing obligations 1,000%.”

• Comparison to Other Showcases:

  • Group praises Nintendo Indie Direct and Annapurna Interactive’s shows for clear formatting, professional production, and developer insight.

• Repeated Complaints:

  • Long-range, vague release dates (many in 2027) evaporate hype.
  • Most of the content could have been a blog post or spaced out as rolling announcements.

• Notable Community Quote:

  • [13:33] User “G Danner 97”: “Might be the most bizarre showcase I’ve ever seen—2027 dates, bad formatting, bad trailers even for exciting games.”

3. Xbox’s Current Showcase Philosophy

• Perception of Low-Priority “Partner Preview”:

  • Lacks the production and polish of a main Xbox Showcase or Developer Direct.
  • Mike: “A third-party presentation should be games coming out this year or very close”—not far-off stuff that’ll be forgotten by launch (10:07).

• Development Partner Dilemmas:

  • Points out that poorly presented third-party games suffer exposure loss rather than benefit: “Not doing a good job for fans or for developers.”

4. Segment by Segment: Key Games Discussed

[Timestamps reference minutes:seconds]

a. Hunter: The Reckoning – Death Wish [24:33]

• Initially excited for a reboot, but turns out it’s not related to the early 2000s game, but to the World of Darkness tabletop franchise. Made by Teyon (RoboCop: Rogue City devs).
  • Greg: “I hate summer 2027, but I digress.”
  • Mike: “That deflates all my excitement… as I’ll forget about this game until it’s finally time.”

b. Wuthering Waves [31:29]

• Popular Genshin-like gacha RPG coming to Xbox in July 2026, Xbox Play Anywhere, Game Pass.
  • Bless: “People like this one a lot… It’s that level of free-to-play gotcha open world.”

c. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn [33:27]

• Third-person action RPG adaptation with a closed beta (locked behind $80-$289 digital packs).
  • Greg: “I leave this presentation not whelmed, I’m not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed.”
  • Bless: “A closed beta for a single player action RPG is weird… That is a demo that you gotta pay a lot of money for.”
  • Mike: “The announcements, the world premieres… trailers were all kinda there, but it just wasn’t very enjoyable to watch” [72:33].

d. Grave Seasons [41:08]

• Farming sim with horror elements, launching August 24, 2026, on Game Pass.
  • Roger: “I want to understand how much it’s focusing on the horror vs. the farming. If it’s a 7-hour experience, I’m in. But if it’s heavy, deep farming, that’s not for me.”

e. Serious Sam: Shatterverse [43:32]

• Multiplayer roguelike version of Serious Sam; the crew finds it forgettable, out of place.

f. Stranger Than Heaven (RGG Studio, Yakuza Devs) [45:13]

• Major letdown: heavily promoted “deep dive” is just a trailer; more info now promised at a future date (May 6).
  • Greg: “This should be a fucking slam dunk.”
  • Roger: “Just disappointed, man… excited for the breakdown, but now we wait weeks for a real look.”

g. Super Meat Boy 3D [48:33]

• Date reveal for anticipated indie. Underplayed by the showcase’s lack of energy.

h. Forever Ago (Annapurna) [49:23]

• Narrative road trip with focus on memory, loss, hope.
  • Greg: “Sucker for these kind of games… I do love taking photos in games.”

i. Ascend to Zero [53:01]

• Action roguelite, freezes time, coming July 13. One of the show’s few energetic standouts.
  • Bless: “Looks really cool… [but] there’s a lot of roguelites now. They might be becoming Eggo waffles for me.”

j. Dispatch [54:30]

• Award winning story game, now finally on Xbox. Excitement for its arrival but nothing new to show.

k. Alien Deathstorm (Rebellion) [54:50]

• Atmospheric FPS, but the group finds it generic and uninspired.

l. Frog Squad [56:24]

• Party co-op platformer for up to 8 players. Mike: “I love these games, but if you lose your momentum with a distant release date, you just forget they exist.”

m. Bluey’s Happy Snaps [58:33]

• Bluey adaptation in the style of Pokémon Snap. Skepticism about minigame quality but tentatively excited (for parents and Bluey fans).

n. Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl – Cost of Hope DLC [60:09]

• Major expansion, 20 hours long, coming Summer 2026.

o. Musa: Dirty Fate [61:59]

• Action game set in feudal Korea, beautiful concept but the trailer fails to “deliver the pitch.” Mike: “This won’t do the game justice at all.”

p. The Eternal Life of Goldman [64:02]

• Hand-animated, fairy tale-esque Metroidvania; strong impression and demo available.

q. Vaunted [65:52]

• Tactical RPG with unreliable narrators, “didn’t show well at all,” confusing trailer.

r. Hades II [67:25]

• Finally coming to Xbox, April 14. Group highly recommends it; “fantastic game.”

s. Artificial Detective [67:59]

• Post-apocalyptic adventure where robots investigate humanity’s disappearance. Unclear how much is gameplay vs animation, but intriguing visual style.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the “Zero Juice” Showcase (05:45, Greg):
  “There was no punch to anything… Like, I love watching video game trailers and being excited for video games and like this, this—I was so… I’m still floored that this was just this flat.”

• Praise for Nintendo Indie Direct/Annapurna (12:31, Roger):
  “You need a narrator that’s actually going to explain to you what these games look like... It can’t just be a bunch of random [trailers]. You have to produce this event!”

• On “Marketing Obligation” Vibe (15:31–15:34, Greg/Bless):
  Greg: “This is fulfilling marketing obligations 1000%.”
  Bless: “And you feel that here.”

• On the Bait-and-Switch (05:19, Greg):
  “They promoted Stranger Than Heaven as a main event... and then we just get a trailer and a tease to come back in May? Fuck you. Absolutely not. That is awful.”

• Fan Assessment (13:33):
  Super Chat: “This might be the most bizarre showcase I’ve ever seen…2027 dates, bad formatting, bad trailers—most would have been better as solo announcements…could have been an email.”

• Show Ratings (72:19+):

  • Greg: “Awful, 2.5 [out of 10].”
  • Roger: “3.5 – 4.”
  • Mike: “Five or six... actually still not met my expectations.”
  • Blessing: “Wow. Wow.”

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Notable Timestamps

• [03:56] – Start of detailed Xbox Partner Preview analysis
• [06:14] – Blessing’s initial positivity and turn
• [13:33] – Audience super chat nails sentiment: “most bizarre showcase…could’ve been an email”
• [24:33] – Game-by-game breakdown begins
• [45:13] – RGG’s Stranger Than Heaven major letdown
• [67:25] – Hades II confirmed for Xbox/Game Pass

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Takeaways & Conclusions

• Substance Over Style: While some solid and surprising games were present, nearly all energy was dissipated by flat, lifeless presentation, poor pacing, confusing trailer selection, and distant release windows.
• Xbox’s Messaging at a Crossroads: The lack of vision for the Partner Preview format raises concern about Xbox’s ability to meaningfully champion smaller partners without diluting anticipation for flagship moments.
• Recommendations:
  • Take notes from Nintendo and Annapurna—presenters, dev interviews, better voiceovers, and curated pacing.
  • Avoid over-promising deep dives and under-delivering; don’t lean on blog posts as substitutes for marketing.
• Optimism Remains—Cautiously: Games like Hades II, Eternal Life of Goldman, Grave Seasons, Forever Ago, and Ascend to Zero did break through, but mostly in spite of the show's format rather than because of it.

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Final Ratings:

• The consensus—“This was a bad show, but some interesting games.”
• A teachable moment for Xbox as it juggles quantity, quality, and meaningful fan outreach.

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Transcript

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If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com kindafunny.

[A]

What's up everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Thursday, March 26, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30, aka Bicep. Poppy. It's blessing. Eddie. Oh yay. Junior good day, Greg. Hi. How are you?

[B]

I'm doing well. How are you doing?

[A]

I'm good. Classic shirt. I like that.

[B]

I like the shirt a lot. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Kind of funny. Daily one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

One day it'll be back. Also look at. Just flex on them.

[D]

Flex on. Just.

[A]

God damn. Whoa.

[D]

It's working.

[A]

Whoa. Whoa.

[D]

Over there.

[A]

Of course, the master of hype, Snowbike Mike.

[D]

Good morning, Greg.

[A]

Nice to see you. It's nice to see you Mike, Greg.

[D]

Happy to be back. Happy to be talking all things Xbox with you.

[A]

Are you? Because it seems like there's a malaise on you. We'll get to.

[D]

I'm sure it's 2027.

[A]

And rounding out the quartet, of course, it's the tastemaker, Roger Piccorni.

[C]

What up everybody?

[A]

Hey, Roger, how are you?

[C]

I'm doing well. How are you doing?

[A]

I'm good. Happy to have you here. Of course, of course. Games daily. Usually not packed with four different people, but maybe you're listening later or watching later. We're coming in hot off of live, reacting to the Xbox partner preview. We just watched it. It was more than 30 minutes of games coming in 2027 for the most part. We're going to run through them of course, title by title, thing by thing. Because this is kind of funny. Games daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the biggest news in gaming. And right now this is at the top of the list, the Xbox partner preview. Of course, if you watched live and you're watching live right now, we need your comments on YouTube.com kindafunnygames you can super chat to tell us. What did you think? Did you like it? Was it worth it? What'd you think? Kebab's already pops off and says felt like a very long state of play from 2019. We'll get to all of that in a second. Remember, of course, we couldn't do this without our support from our Patreon producers over on patreon.com kindafunny thank you, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The Psalm twining For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper report. Time for some news. One item on the rope for a port.

[B]

Baker's dozen.

[A]

I've been there too.

[C]

Yeah, because I was thinking tots because we're all together

[A]

when we audible on the shows. It gets kind of wacky out there. Who's going to do what over there? Of course, number one on the rope report is the Xbox partner preview. We of course will go title by title through this whole thing, talk about what we thought of each game, what we thought of the overall deal. But at top level, hot off of it. I thought this was awful. Oh my God. Oh my God. Everybody. I understand how hard it is to do a showcase. I understand having partner restrictions. But I think what's crazy is I had to go double check my work, right? Of like wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. What is an Xbox partner preview? Right? And to jump back. And of course, when you go back far enough, you find of course, November 20, 2025, there was an Xbox partner preview in which they promised us an exclusive fucking at Double oh seven. And we got to see a car. So the fact that here we are. They could have learned from that lesson. Instead, hey, we're gonna give you Stranger Than Heaven, the official promotion for Stranger Than Heaven. In the Xbox wire post, you'll get an in depth look at RGG's new project, Stranger Than Heaven. Fuck you. Absolutely not. We did not. We got a trailer and then a tease to come back on May 6 for a deep dive.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

That is awful. That is terrible that this is arguably one of the big. It's one of the three things you promoted that you can't do that you can't bait and switch. Like I'm not even. That is offensive. But then surrounding it were trailers for games that don't look bad but just don't have the stuff. I didn't, I, I, I'm flabbergasted by this performance. There's stuff in here that I'm excited for.

[D]

Of course.

[A]

There's stuff in there that caught me off guard. That Ascend to Zero game, right? That popped up and you're slow in time and doing stuff like, well, fuck yeah, forever ago. Definitely a great game. But like there was no punch to anything right there in the chat. Kylo kylo. Rich says zero juice. Exactly. Like I love watching video game trailers and being excited for video games and like this, this I was so I'm still floored that this was just this flat. This flat. Am I wrong? Blessing. My crazy blessing.

[B]

Oh, you're crazy. I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was great. We got Hades two.

[A]

Ye.

[B]

An exciting thing, right? That's one that we've been waiting to come to more consoles. That was one of my games of the year last year. Was it my game of the year last year? I forget what my number one is.

[D]

2.

[B]

The Hades 2 was at least my top. Maybe you're right.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Blueprints and Hades 2 were like the back and forth like my number one and two. So that being announced here that coming to Xbox way sooner than I would have thought. I think it's really exciting, right? Like that is a game that was announced with the Nintendo exclusivity and came out last fall. And so for us to turn around and have it on Xbox this quickly I think is really cool. Grave seasons that, you know, that's a game that comes out of what's the horror Blumhouse games. Right? And that's one that I know you've been looking forward to and that's one that I think has a lot of unique stuff to it. Right. When you're talking about a cozy farming game with a horror slant going on there, I think that's really cool. I think that's really interesting. I'm with you on Stranger Than Heaven. I like seeing a new trailer for it, but I think it's a really bad call to go. This is going to be one of the main events of this showcase. And then we, once we get here

[A]

going, games get announced and then we

[B]

get here and they're like, oh, we, we'll show you a lot more later. No, you can't do that. Like, you had to show us that. Now if you're going to advertise that as a thing being here, just like you talked about with the 007 thing, you go through the list. Eternal Life of Goldman looks cool, right? Like, I think there's a handful of games here that are for sure going to speak to people in the audience. Wuthering Waves, of course, is a big one as well.

[A]

To be clear. I'm not saying the games are bad. I think this presentation was awful. Sorry.

[B]

Now I agree with you fully, actually. I think it's. I think it was terrible. I was trying. I was trying to, you know, I'm trying to be more positive with Xbox because people think I'm too negative.

[A]

That like, you know what I mean? That's the Internet. You can go find anybody being happy one way or anything. You guys, here's what I want you to know. I'm your boss and I think you're doing a great job. Mike, step it up. Where were you last week? Yeah, where were the.

[C]

Were you last week?

[A]

I don't even know. Mike, what did you think?

[C]

Top.

[D]

Yeah. Greg and Bless, I both agree with both of you. This was lacking the juice lasting the wow factor there. We did get 19 games. We did get answers to things that we wanted.

[A]

Right?

[D]

Hey, there's a number of games that aren't coming to Xbox. Where are they? Dispatch is on the way. Hades 2 is on the way.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Like, I think we got three of those where it's like, hey, those are cool games coming over to Xbox that you've missed. Hey, we have games that we've never seen before. I think they had about three games that were like, these are new reveals coming right now. Hunter the Reckoning. That's an old school PS2, original Xbox Gamecube. Title that some fans will enjoy. Here's ads Alien Death Storm. A game that we're probably never going to play.

[B]

Right.

[D]

But here's a bunch of games that have never been seen before. And then we got into the mix of here's your big three. I think Stranger of Heaven really lacked in the wow department there. I really wanted to see more of that. I wanted to get in depth on that. Now having to wait till May 6 does suck on that. That's not fun. I think I'll even say I don't think the Expanse showed well either. I was watching that failure and I think that that missed a big pop. A big wow of like Expanse. Fuck yeah.

[A]

I mean my, my take on that and I know we'll get to it eventually, but since we're introducing her right now is I agree that that didn't look like a triple A successor to Mass Effect. That looked like we're doing a double arpg. And I'm like, fuck yeah. I mean, I'd rather you present it as is.

[B]

That's my thing is I think the way they presented it is, to Greg's point, exactly what the game is. And I think with that you presented it well. Right. Like I not had, like I'm not had the highest expectations of what the Expanse is going to be, but I came out of this trailer going, oh, that looks fun. Like I like a lot of the details that you see on like the character outfits and things like that. Like, I think the combat looks cool. There's so much going on in the Expanse trailer that has me like, damn, okay, that actually looks better than what I expected it. Does it look like the next coming of Christ? Absolutely not.

[D]

But yeah, I think that's the problem

[A]

that comes next week when we talk

[D]

about games in this presentation. Each trailer was kind of lacking in that.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

Just X Factor. There's something about a trailer from Sound Effects not being there. Right. The right music balance, the choice there where it's like when you watch these trailers, there needs to be a ramp up, there needs to be some excitement and all of them fell flat. And I think that affects your mainstays. Like the Expanse, where that could have been way better and I don't think that showed well. And then being hit with titles where it's like, hey, that's summer 2027. Hey, a third party presentation should be games that are coming out this year or very close to get me excited on what is going to round out the year with my first party titles. We know it's A packed year. But Xbox should be working out there as third place to say we are working on these third party partnerships to get you more games to justify why you should be getting Game Pass, why you should be getting a console, why you should be spending time with our hardware and our ecosystem. These are the presentations that you show and go, hey, Sarah Bond used to work really hard to get Riot games, right? This is what we're doing here with this new regime, this new team to make sure we're getting you the games that you want. And none of that popped where it's like, stop everything, we're ready.

[C]

Remember, remember how much fun we had at this table with the Nintendo Indie Direct of like, that was such a good presentation, even if it was the most mind blowing video games in the world. Because they Nintendo has a vision for that specific Nintendo Direct and even the indie worlds and everything of like, hey, we're gonna have a narrator that's gonna walk you through certain games that's gonna explain to you what these games look like. If I'm Xbox, I'm a team that's creating these specific presentations. You need to take a step back and realize like that's what you need. You need Aaron Paul, or maybe somebody's a little more energized to go in there and actually do the VO for some of these trailers to not just be like, hey, I'm gonna get a team for the last one, which is Artificial Detective that has like a stinger, like a 5 second stinger in the beginning of it that feels like it's a YouTube upload. And in the middle of this thing, like you need to actually get like these developers to create trailers that are made for this showcase and have a vision for the showcase. It can't just be a bunch of random. You have to produce, you have to produce this event. It can't just feel like lesser than. Because people are going to stop tuning in and you're going to situations like this where you have cool ideas, cool trailers. You see, you know Hades is putting out great trailers, right? But then you have these smaller games that are putting out trailers that are not very good, that are not showing well. You need somebody to have the VO to have the vision to be like, hey, this is what this game is. This is why you should be excited for it. This is why you should be excited for it on Xbox. This, it's coming to Game pass. Say it out loud. Like, don't just have it on the graphics.

[A]

Yeah, don't just have it there with littering. With the other thing and don't have the weird inter.

[C]

Interstitial that has like the generic weird like you know, ambient music that's going. It feels creepy. It feels like a liminal, liminal space. Like it's, it's bizarre to have all that. And of course there are some good games here. Eternal Life of Goldman. As we Talked about the Stalker 2 DLC I think was dope, right? Like that's cool. But I look at all the like ads, like why should I care about that game? Like it just looks like a generic alien video game. Like give me the pitch for all of these. And I don't think that is too much to ask for a presentation that is supposed to be market because you're not doing a good job for the fans that are watching this. You're not doing a good job for these developers who are out here who don't have, who have various levels of, you know, amounts of money that they can spend on these marketing Xbox. You should be taking the time and actually helping them with this and making sure that everybody understands why I should care about, you know, Frog Squad and not just saying, oh it's coming to this thing. It's like that game was announced three months ago and Mike didn't even know about it. Right? Like that's crazy because he's the fucking party mode guy, right? Like explain to me what these games are and why we should care. So yeah, this isn't. This is a really bad presentation. And especially with Stranger Than Heaven, which that should be a fucking slam dunk right there.

[A]

Yeah, easy peasy, right? G Danner 97 pops in with a super chat. Says might be the most bizarre showcase I've ever seen. 2027 dates, bad formatting, bad trailers even for exciting games, even for good looking games. Most would have been better as solo announcements. Obviously in the free chat I saw the usual announcements of. This is the definition of could have been an email.

[B]

Yeah, I mean that's one thing as we were talking here, right, that I was thinking about which is could you have taken all these trailers and just went hey, we're doing. I know, PlayStation plus or not PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Blog would do it every now and then of like here are. All right, here are seven games that we want to show off and they do it over the course of an hour or two, right? Where every 20 minutes, here's another one and they do the blog post I to shoot Xbox some bail here or the team some bail here. I think the problem with that is how many people care about blocks. How many people care about, you know, clicking over to a thing and reading an article and reading. Actually clicking into the trailer. Everybody knows that people will tune in for a showcase. People will tune in for a. An hour long video with a bunch of different trailers here. I think the problem here is that this is very clearly, when you're looking at the totem pole of Xbox presentations, this is so low on the list. Right at the top we have the Xbox Showcase. Maybe right under that or next to it we have developer Direct. Maybe under that we have like ID at Xbox. And then here you have the partner preview, which feels like a smack dab at the bottom. So much so that they don't have a host. So much so that we have these in between segments that are, oh, here's the recap of what you just saw. And it's just like static images for 10 seconds with no flow to it.

[A]

You know, look back at the one before. Sorry. But back to back ones now we're like, wow, these missed the mark.

[B]

Yeah. And that's the thing where we're talking about produce. Right. Like, obviously I don't. It's not that the team at Xbox can't produce. Like the team that does the social and like showcase type stuff because we've seen them do it with the developer directs, which are incredible. When you go into the studio and interview the developers and all that stuff, that stuff is absolutely well produced. This just feels like it's so low on the priority list that it very much is. All right.

[A]

This is fulfilling marketing obligations 1,000%.

[B]

And you feel that here.

[A]

So yeah, you feel like no one's heart seen. And I know a lot of people. I'll toss in Jake here. Jake super chats and says this was kind of booty cheeks. It didn't feel like it had life or excitement. It showed when it showed. When they got Aaron Paul to talk like he's dealing with mental anguish. Right. Like again, I imagine Aaron Paul's direction was be Robert Robertson about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also he's just reading off a page.

[B]

Excuse me, I'm choking on coffee. Did they ever call that out of like, here's Aaron Paul or here's Robert.

[A]

No, he did the thing there at the end where he said he made a joke about them being hot or whatever. I don't know, I thought that was the wink and not that.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

And I chat. Remind me, last time around, didn't they do something similar?

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Expedition 33, Jennifer, didn't she do it last time? Around or something. Jennifer English, Is that right? Yeah, Chat let me know. I remember there being something like this where somebody who doing something put it in there.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I was just surprised they didn't make a bigger deal out of that. But if that was the wink and

[A]

nod, I guess I think it was, but who knows? Yeah. You know what I mean? Let's get a few more in from the top level. Of course we're gonna go deep and deep and deep and deep and deep into this. Frantic. Josh says, I'd give it a 5 out of 10 due to some fun announcements, but it was all over. A strange. But it was all. Oh, but it was. Overall, thank you very much. A strange presentation. Not much flow or rhythm to it. Love you guys. We love you too. Thanks for hanging out. Lorenzo goes. This was probably the last thing Bond slash Spencer were around for. I think Xbox just released it because it was there and they would lose money with partners if they didn't release it. Just a. So an opinion. Well, yeah. Yes, clearly. I mean, this would have been baking while they were there, but I don't think.

[C]

I don't.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Yes, they would have lost money, but I doubt.

[C]

I don't think Asha Sharma can do much of this.

[A]

All right, day one. Show me the partner directly what the fuck we're putting out there. I don't think that was it. You know what I mean? Tilted Crow says, take me back to the days of hearing nothing till a faithful A fateful week, June slash July. I understand the industry has changed quite rapidly, but these smaller showcases just feel like they could be blog posts.

[B]

See, I disagree with that part. Only for the sense of so many of these games would get gotten lost if you hold this until June. July. Right. Like, where does Serious Sam show off? You think Serious Sam is going to compete when you have the next Legend of Zelda announced?

[C]

But my argument is like, aren't these things already getting lost? Like, isn't that what this is? I understand, like there's viewership on this thing, but like, are people retaining this information? I mean, there's so many games. It's just. I don't know.

[A]

You're not wrong. Yeah, you're not wrong. My argument here. Right. And again, to the point, I'm with bless of. Like, no, no, we don't need to go back to E3 when it's just a fire hose of content.

[B]

You can't.

[A]

Especially with the amount of games and the number of we just come out. Right. It's more the idea that go Back to good showcases. You bring up the Indie Direct. We bring up the State of Play in February as well. Like, granted, bigger announcements, maybe for State of Play, but indie, like Nintendo's fun to vibe with that too. This was just presented poorly. Do these games stand out? Yes. You know, the chat, even the super chats have been very negative. The chat over there, I've seen a lot of sevens, a lot of whatever. And it is that idea that you come in here and a game that does not speak to Greg Miller because there isn't a dead wife in it, is speaking to someone out there who is wishlisting and who is doing it. So it's like it is happening and you are getting more eyes on it. I just think there's a more attractive way to do this than the way we got here.

[B]

I think extrapolate some of these points too. Like E3 is year round. There are more games getting announced than ever before. Right. And so we're in a place where to Roger's point, right, like games are getting lost, but they'd get lost whether. I think they'd get more lost if you just put them all in June, July. But no matter what, you're right. Like they are getting lost because we're getting a showcase.

[C]

And especially when you're. You aren't putting your best foot forward in terms of pitching the games to the audience. It's just here's a bunch of trailers together of various qualities, right. Like that is. That was my point mostly is like, hey, like, sure, you're putting it into this direct. I'm glad that, you know, there's less games so that people could focus on it and it means a lot to these developers. But you know, when you have a random game in here that doesn't have a good trailer that, you know, Xbox isn't doing the pitch for you. It's just, Just because it's here doesn't mean it's helping too much.

[B]

Yeah. And I think the problem with this is now it feels like another stop on the train, right? Like, it doesn't feel like a major stop. It doesn't feel like, oh man. Okay, we got to tune into this. This feels like another place where it is. All right, we're going to the grave. Seasons developers probably like, all right, we got more stuff to show. Okay, well, Xbox is doing a thing. Cool. We can show up there. Oh, there's another thing going on. We can show up there and like, it feels like that's the case for so many of these devs where it Is all right, like we got to find a place to put these games. You find this as a stop on the destination. But it feels like such a minor, like are we get here? Not a major stop. Like you know, we are just here to talk about the games. We're not here to present the games to show them in a way that's exciting to the audience.

[A]

Onus prime super chats, it says when we get to June and it's an 8, an 8 or a 10 out of 10 show, we all talk about how well paced it was and didn't have fat. This is where all the trim fat goes. 5 out of 10, which again, marketing agreements, this, that, the other. I think to the point of are we servicing these games? If I was on the inside talking about it, I understand wish lists, I understand how important they are, yada yada yada. So many of these games would so much benefit from. Hey, how about instead of being in this one, you do the partner preview in 27 and drop that day? Yeah, you know what I mean? Where there's more of a chance of somebody being like that looks really cool. I'm interested in that. I would jump into that right now. Instead of being like oh well now 2027, like it's in the ether, by the time we get there it's gonna be like oh yeah, that alien ads game, was that. What was that? Was that good? Was that bad? Was it? I don't even remember, you know, having strong feelings.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Everybody, it's time to go game by game throughout this show by show. But before then, I'll remind you that we couldn't exist day by day without your [e-mail] kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames app on Spotify. You can go there and pick up a Kinda Funny membership. Get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of Greg Miller in a podcast series called Greg Way. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by patreon.com kindafunny yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'd love you to come give us $10 to get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me and get good karma because Patreon is the best place that gives us the best revenue share on the Kinda Funny subscription. But if that's not your style, we'd love it if you came over and signed up for a free account. That's right, a free patreon.com kinda funny follow gets you the weekly schedule, access to Quips, Patreon's version of Twitter, and as an exclusive bonus, this Friday, March 27th, it gets you access to a live Greg Way. That's right. At 9:30am Pacific, 30 minutes before kinda Funny games daily, I'll go live, answer chats and record the day's Greg Way. Any free member can come ask me questions in the chat. What have you got to lose? Sign up for a free sub on patreon.com kinda funny and I'll see you Friday, March 27th on Patreon at 9:30am Pacific. Who else are you going to talk to? A shoe

[D]

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[A]

And of course this Xbox partner preview started with Hunter Colon, the Reckoning, M Dash, Death Wish. So Hunter the Reckoning for Mike. Death Wish is coming. Mike, lay it on me. You immediately were like, you knew it. You spotted. You knew this was.

[D]

Yeah, this is one of Those old school 2002. I would put it in like my double A, top down, hack and slash shooter games, you know what I mean? Kind of like a Space Marine 2 kind of vibe back in the day, like that level of stuff. And so, yeah, I think people who have played this game or know about the franchise will be excited. I think most people probably go like, you guys, what is this game? What is this franchise? I have no idea. But for me it's like, oh yeah, this was an old game that I played on the original Xbox in GameCube. I remember Hunter the Reckoning and just going, oh yeah, I play this game again. So we'll see what a 2026 version is. I don't know.

[A]

Would you like a lot of good news, bad news all mixed together points here? Because I'll start with the bad news. I'm on the Xbox wire. No relation to the early OO's action games of the same name. Hunter the Reckoning decade.

[B]

Solid.

[A]

What?

[D]

Fuck that.

[A]

Wait, what?

[C]

How do you do that?

[A]

Why do you do that?

[D]

Well, it's a tabletop game in the world of darkness.

[A]

Let me give you.

[B]

It's like Prey.

[A]

Let me give you the original paragraph then. That paragraph, because the opening paragraph I do think has good news in it. Fans of dark gritty adventures will love Hunter the Reckoning, Death Wish, the newly announced action RPG from Polish studio Teyon, recently known for the excellent RoboCop Rogue City. Then the second one, no relation to the early oh's action games of the same name. Hunter the Reckoning, Death Wish is a fresh take on White Wolf's horror tabletop RPG about contemporary monster hunters as part of their larger world of darkness setting alongside Vampire, the masquerade, the ascension, etc. So, okay, I personally like that setting. Like I don't have any, you know, I don't know anything about anything from before. So to set the table here, be like, yo, the people who made Rogue City, which was a game we all started, like, this should be stupid. And it was awesome for what it was. And then to be in here, be like, all right, cool, action rpg. It's going to be in the tabletop universe. Okay, okay, I like what you're putting down. I hate summer 2027, but I digress.

[D]

Yeah, summer 2027 really hurt me on that one. But yeah, as you build it out, right, it has the mix of everything that you'd want. Giving me. What was the PlayStation when we were hunting vampires and werewolves?

[A]

Oh, the Order 1880.

[D]

The Order 1886. Right.

[B]

Like modern day.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. I mean the name carries it for me. The write up definitely carries a little bit more. Summer 2027 deflates all of my excitement for it as I will forget about this game until it's finally time.

[A]

Craig, lift. Kevin, I'll need your help. That's already gone, but they say they did notice it's published by Nacon. Is there a Nacon logo at the end of this? Saying they're publishing it because remember, it

[C]

was in the beginning.

[B]

Yeah, there was like a million logos at the beginning, which is weird. Bottom right.

[A]

Yeah, I saw the tayon early and then saw the world of darkness over here, I think.

[B]

Yeah, it fades out then. Fades in here.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, woof, woof, everybody. Let's see if we see this game ever. Oh, they call us the one who like, hey, we might be going bankrupt. Yeah, we filed for insolvency. Looking hot over here right now. So we'll see if that happens. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a weird supernatural action rpg. I played a bit of Bloodlines when it launched. There's a million things in review, period. I do still want to get back to it for as double a an RPG as that seems.

[B]

But I want a new definitive vampire game.

[A]

What's that one we keep talking about that comes up every so often?

[B]

Oh, the Bandai Namco from Witcher People.

[A]

Yeah, the one from the Witcher People.

[B]

The one for the Witcher.

[C]

The one that.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, hold on.

[B]

I'm opening up my sled Walker of the Blood.

[D]

Walker. That's right.

[B]

I feel like there's one more word in there somewhere.

[A]

Well, and I'm opening my wish list because I thought. Cool.

[B]

No, I guess we got it. Oh, Blade could be it. Because yeah, my thing is, you know, obviously we've had Castlevania, we've had zombie. Or we've had a vampire games before, but I feel like we're overdue for like the new.

[C]

And I don't like werewolves. It's like the King Kong Godzilla thing. Like, don't put werewolves in my vampire. You know what I mean? Like, I just want.

[B]

You don't want your peas touching your Mac.

[C]

Exactly. You want them all.

[D]

I want Undead in there. I want mummies in there. I want Frankenstein to show up. I want. Tom Cruise could be in it.

[C]

You want it all. You just put the. The guy from the. The swamp and that's crazy.

[B]

Did you not like Resident Evil Village?

[C]

Yeah, I like it.

[D]

But they have the tall lady then everything after. I didn't care for.

[A]

He was a fan of the. Like me. Yeah. There's a big interview on. Paging through here again for the one rushing. Yeah, Xbox Wire is always great about. Here's a bunch of supplementary material. Usually when Tim hosts, I can parse through it a bit easier to find stuff for y', all, but I'm trying to host and do this. You know what I mean? I'm doing a great job.

[B]

You're doing great. But I'm also surprised that they have now. I'm not that. Not that I'm surprised that they did this. One of the things I was talking. I was thinking about earlier as we were just talking about the. How you package the showcase is I was thinking about the Annapurna showcases that they do, which I think are also excellent, where they. Every segment for each of the games and developers is like, we're going to Portland. We're going to, like, wherever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Hanging out with them. And like, even if they don't announce a new game from that dev, the segments are always still interesting and exciting because it is like the dev, like playing a guitar and being like, this game is inspired.

[D]

That's why I had a major Nelson to kick it off.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Hey, here's the quickest paragraph description that Greg is reading you. Let's get into this.

[B]

If I were to. If I were to like, be on the team here to producing this, I would say, hey, like, the. The blog posts are cool and all that stuff. People aren't reading that. What we should do is we should do the Annapurna thing and have it be. Let's find a selection of games, let's go to the developers, let's hang out with them.

[C]

Let's produce those way too much. Way too much budget.

[B]

Way too much.

[C]

Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, it's tough. So I was gonna say, I mean, what you should do is get Danny O'Dwyer and his team to do like. Yeah. To do like the no Clip stuff. Even remote. Their Remot stuff is incredible. So, yeah.

[B]

Yeah, that's a good call, too.

[A]

I like these two paragraphs from the interview with Xbox and one of the producer devs. How familiar are you and your team with the tabletop rpg and the larger world of darkness setting. Jumping into the middle of it. I didn't actually know the older Hunter of the Reckoning video games. I just learned about them when we started this one. But that was a different approach because it was more like a beat em up action thing and we're going full rpg. We definitely wanted it to take an approach much closer to that of the original bloodline Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines. So it's the same world Based on the new 5th edition of Hunter the Reckoning. It changed a bit because in the old editions they play characters who are imbued with or. I'm sorry, yeah, no, imbued with special.

[B]

Imbued.

[A]

Imbued. Thank you. I was like, I'm still not seeing with special abilities. Whereas in the 5th edition there are some more general people who need to fight a stronger enemy so they need to group into so called cells. In our game you belong to one of those cells.

[B]

Okay. I mean treat.

[A]

I'm intrigued as well. It's just gonna be a long time till we see or hear anything about it. So that sucks. And will Nacon stay alive to publish this game? We'll have to wait and see. From there we jumped into Wuthering Waves. Worthering Waves is a story rich action RPG built around exploration of freedom headed Xbox series X and S. Worthing Waves arrives on the Xbox Xbox cloud and Xbox Game Pass in July 2026. It will be an Xbox play anywhere title of course. Wuthering Waves been around for a while tearing up mobile devices left and right. Mikey.

[D]

To tearing it up.

[A]

People like this one a lot really

[B]

in that Genshin impact camp of like. Okay, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw like a bus pass.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like for Wuthering Waves. Like it's that level of. Of.

[C]

When did this come out? When did this happen?

[B]

Like three years ago.

[A]

Yeah, it's been a while. Wow. Sure.

[B]

Yeah, it's been at least like three years.

[C]

Like I learned about this in like six, six months.

[D]

May 3rd, May 23rd, 2024 was the initial release date for that two years. Yeah,

[B]

dude, those got those free to play gotcha open world like games, you know. Like I. I had the what like six months with Genshin where I was like damn, this is crazy. Like the fact that this game exists is kind of nuts. But then you get into the gotcha aspects and it's like okay, well that's

[C]

how you Now I understand now I

[B]

don't want to play this anymore because

[D]

that six star character, man, dude, I

[B]

could not do it. I had to get Aloy in that game. And then I was like, okay, I'm

[A]

good enough from there. I mean, no, we have nothing to say. It's a gotcha. It's been around forever. I assume you know it's coming to Xbox. Congratulations everybody from there. One of the ones y' all in the chat were most excited for. I think we at the table were most excited for the Expanse Osiris reborn coming of course, spring 2027. However, there is a closed beta coming on April 22, 2026. Mike said we gotta get into that. You wanna know how you get in, Mike? Uh oh. The beta will become available on Xbox series X and s from April 22. For those who support the development of the game as founders and purchase the Miller's Pack or the Collector's Edition on the game's official site.

[D]

Benefit me for getting game pass. I'm paying 20 plus dollars a month.

[A]

30 now, right?

[D]

Yeah, a lot of money every month.

[A]

Closed beta will run all the way up to the release. So you have plenty of time to purchase either edition and jump in.

[B]

Can I ask a question? Closed beta for a single player action are weird. That was my first thought.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What are you doing here?

[C]

That's a weird one, right?

[D]

And then I have to pay to get into like.

[B]

Am I just.

[C]

It's just a demo at that point,

[A]

but let me tell you.

[B]

Is my save carry over? Probably not at all. Then what are we doing?

[D]

This is probably like a good test for them. This is them definitely testing the waters of like. Are players liking what we're seeing? Are they enjoying the feedback? What are the smaller things that we can address right now? Ahead of the day, one patch and fix this.

[A]

As for what you'll be playing when you get get access. The beta will allow you to experience a full mission taken directly from the game. It starts as you and your twin return to your base. Pink Water Force Station on a mysterious ship you took by force to escape arrows. That's what you're playing. If you'd like to know. Of course. You said like I said. You can get it from either the Miller Miller's Pack or the Collector's Edition Miller's Pack. No, hold on. I'm sorry. Miller's pack, $80. Okay, okay. Collector's Edition. Just guess. No, Roger, give me a guess how much you played for a collector's edition.

[C]

100.

[A]

100.

[D]

Okay, 120.

[B]

I was also gonna say 120 for a mere $289.

[A]

$289, you can get the collector's edition.

[B]

Does it come with a switch?

[D]

With the Rossinante spaceship model series S. Here's what.

[A]

Okay. Okay. So here's what you get to give them. Okay. To everything. Digital copy. Early adopter item for captain's cabin. The A Discord role. Name in the credits. Miller's. Miller's OPA Heavy armor. UN Special ops assault rifle. A digital art book. A digital OTS hall of fame. Miller's casual outfit. Miller's revolver Exclusive Beta access. Ship model medallion. This is, I think, physical. This is all physical. Ship model medallion, art book, patches and stickers.

[C]

A Discord role.

[B]

What's the role, though?

[A]

Now, real quick, just and again, to give it full context for this sucker.

[B]

That's good.

[A]

Miller's patch pack. Collector's edition. Expensive. Standard pack is $50. Deluxe pack is $60. Standard would get you the game. Early adopter item for your cabin. A discord roll. Then deluxe pack is when he goes up to name in the credits, Miller's heavy armor, the assault rifle. And then Miller's pack is when you get all the other stuff. Up until the physical items,

[B]

the closed beta is just early access. But they just call. They're calling it.

[D]

No, no. One mission.

[A]

I was gonna say one mission. It's a demo.

[B]

That is a demo that you got to pay a lot of money for.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

Maybe they're putting more stuff in as they get closer. A1 mission. The beta will give you a full mission taken directly.

[D]

Now, don't a lot of people buy these and then they refund it right after they play the demo? Isn't that how this normally works when people do this?

[C]

Oh, I don't know.

[D]

I feel like they've done this before where it's like, oh, you can play the demo or play the weekend early. People buy it, then they just do

[C]

a char back on their MX right after this.

[D]

Like, what? This is not okay.

[C]

Yeah. You know what's bad with Mike saying

[D]

at all?

[A]

Let's move away from collectorizations. What did we think of the demo? Mike, go ahead and kick it off.

[D]

The presentation was good. I'm excited you get to hear some of the terms from the Expanse novel and show that you love. Right? Like, I just wish it was a little bit more of the story lore. Deep dive. I'm sure they've had that, and I just haven't seen that. I thought for me, this one, I think the big three that we talked about when they promoted this would get a little more screen time, a little more deep dives. Especially how long this show was. This felt like, hey, here's a. A solid trailer that people will enjoy. But for me, it was like, oh, I thought we were gonna go a little bit deeper on this. So I didn't love this. Walking away from it.

[A]

Yeah, I'm with you. Of. I wanted more based on you promoted this way. I thought I would have loved a what we got. And then a. Hey, everybody, it's me from the studio. We're walking you through part of the mission you can get if you get into the early beta. You know, I mean, like, show me moment to moment. There's choices that pop up and dialogue and gunplay. And again, I think all of it looks like from what we're seeing, solid double A game, I'm. I'm totally down. I am excited for this game, but I leave this presentation not whelmed. I'm not overwhelmed, not underwhelming. Like, okay, like, I still don't know this game. I want to know this game.

[C]

That's. That was the first thought that I had. It's like, what makes this different? Like, what makes this unique? Unique. Like, I, as someone who does not know the Expanse, only knows of it. I want to understand why this universe is unique. And I look at this and I'm like, okay, this looks like any other, you know, double A, you know, sci fi. We're trying to do Mass Effect. So, yeah, going to the developer, having a voiceover, having Aaron Paul say, this is why you should play the Expanse. This is what it is. I think that would have gone along.

[A]

Poor Aaron Paul just catching straight on this show.

[C]

I mean, he was there. You know what I mean?

[A]

If you're an audio listener, you can't watch this. Of course, the Xbox description here goes. In this third person action RPG set in James S. Corey's iconic universe, the power balance between Mars and the Belt is on the edge of collapse. As your own custom captain, you'll gather a crew and forge your own path through a volatile solar system shattered by conflict. Then in the longer piece on the Xbox blog, which I will not read all the way through, I like their subheads here as you start getting ready. Right. Choices have consequences. It's not just about bullets. I guess I should read some of this. So I'm gonna do this, but gather your crew before venturing forth. Like, again, it sounds like we're copying. It's Mass Effect and I want it.

[B]

But, like, I want that. I'm very okay with that because I feel like we don't get enough mass Effect like games that we get them here and there, right?

[C]

The one that Matthew McConaughey.

[B]

Yeah, I know Exodus is coming out, but this looks better than exodus, right?

[C]

Also 2027.

[B]

Oh, I don't know.

[C]

Or is that like all right.

[B]

But I look at this trailer. Honestly, for me, I leave this trailer a little bit more sold than I was before. Not to like the greatest extent, but I was never like like the number one believer of this game. I'll just trust you guys. Of like, okay, it sounds like you guys are. But seeing this trailer, I'm like, you know what, I could be in the move mood for this kind of game, right? Like third person action shooter with RBG elements choosing dialogue. I'm in space. Like I feel like we don't get games like this all the time. So I'm excited to know more.

[A]

I just. Yeah. Again, back to this, I think being such a flat showcase 2027 spring 2027. Yeah, a paid beta. Like I'm not. This isn't getting me. It is worth calling out. Of course they end this with talking about the fact that this is going to be an Xbox Play Anywhere title. It will be day one on Game Pass ultimate. So you do have something to look forward to there if you're sticking with the Xbox for the Expanse.

[C]

Osiris Reborn Exodus has also come out in 2027.

[B]

So big year for Expanse versus Exodus. The X versus X. Oh my God.

[A]

I never thought I'd see him.

[C]

Oh my God. Someone knocked over everything.

[A]

From there we went to Grave Seasons. Grave Seasons launches August 24th on Series XS Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud. It will be launching day one with Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Play Anywhere. In the latest trailer for this Farming sim with a terrifying twist, your old cellmate writes an ominous letter about the new town you just moved to. While it seems warm and welcoming at first, something is amiss beneath the surface. In addition to the game's release date being announced, developer Perfect Garbage also announced a public demo is arriving soon. Stay tuned for more details. Play this at SGF a long time ago. I'm not the farming sim guy, but the horror vibe of it being a Blumhouse game got me interested enough to where again, if this was dropping right now, I'd be like, let's go right now. I want to go play right now. But I can wait. I'll wait till August and see what my review schedule is.

[D]

Greg, you're up, right? You have so many of these games. You just talked about Tomagotchi life. You just have Pocopia Animal Crossing Season 2 Switch.

[A]

I'm living my best life. This starts going to. My concern is, is this going to go two Fields of Mystery two Harvest Moon to the incredibly successful indie game that I cannot grab.

[B]

Stardew Valley.

[A]

Thank you. Stardew Valley. Which aren't great games. Like, I don't like. I don't like farming sims. I like the cozy sim. Whatever.

[C]

I'm sort of where you're at. Where it's like, I love Fields of Mysterious so much that I just want to play Fields of Mystery. And this is like, how much are we actually doing here? Is this just like, oh, it's a taste of all these things and then you have the horror and then you're focused on that. Because if that's what it is and it's like a maybe a seven hour experience, I'm like, I'm in for that. But if it is like, hey, no. You actually are worrying about the interpretations of the crops and doing all that. I don't. I don't want to do that.

[A]

It looks to me like it's going to be that. Which is what I'm into. Of like, it looks like it's, yes, crops and harvesting. But then you have this book of people being murdered in the occult in this mystery. I feel like it's going to be more. Let's get into the horror part of it, then let's get into the farming part of it. But we'll see.

[C]

April 7th.

[D]

Yeah, I watch this. Put down the pizza. Bet right now. Roger will play this, come out and say this is one of his favorites.

[A]

It's wow.

[D]

I mean, I'll just.

[C]

I'll just not play it to spite you. That's fine.

[A]

I mean, I'll take it.

[D]

I don't think I'll put you on to a good game.

[B]

I think Roger will like it.

[A]

I don't think Roger will like it. I'll pizza about you.

[D]

I'm putting Roger on a good game right now.

[C]

So should I try it and then see if I like it or not? Is that what the pizza bed is?

[A]

Yeah. You're not involved. You get to eat free pizza either way.

[C]

Okay, easy.

[D]

Yeah. Free pizz either way.

[A]

And you won't. You'll eat your little gruel out of the thing. Talking about you want to eat the pizza, but you won't do it.

[C]

I'll stare at it longingly.

[A]

From there, we move to serious Sam Shatterverse. Just a nails on the chalkboard trailer for Greg. I'm like, I hate everything that's happening. I don't like this. It's the Volvo. It is behavior. Serious Sam is back in a new explosive shooter unveiled today. In this new installment five alternate universe, Sam's must come together, work together and save the Shatterverse from the antics of the series godlike protagonist Mental. The five Sam's with all their own unique abilities, must face off against hordes of ferocious enemies while taking advantage of rich arsenal of powerful weapons. True to Serious Sam form, which I couldn't even fucking tell you what is what. What is Serious Sam known for? It looks like fantastic fun. It is coming this year to Xbox series Xs. Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud. It will be an Xbox play anywhere title.

[C]

There's a whole other universe out there, Greg. People playing multiple Serious Sam games.

[A]

They grew up and they were like, I love serious, more serious sales.

[D]

They clicked on that storefront button is right bless. And they just said dude, I'm a play.

[B]

That's the only reason I know what Serious Sam is. Just browsing on the PlayStation Store and being like, oh, seriously on sale.

[D]

It feels like. Feels exactly right for 2026 of like how would you make another Serious Sam? I would make it a roguelike. Okay, yeah, that sounds right. Put three different decisions for people to make that'll affect their gameplay. All right, perfect.

[A]

But it also feels so 2021 to be like it's a multiverse tale. You know what I mean? Like I thought we all. Haven't we all agreed we're done with that now.

[D]

Is this multiplayer? Because there's multiple Sams running around. It's just a shared experience.

[C]

You're choosing like a classic.

[B]

I assumed it was multiplayer.

[D]

Yeah, it looks multi.

[A]

I thought it was a single player.

[B]

I was getting Arcade Again vibes from it. Yeah, which you never want. I'm sorry, sorry. Arcade Again.

[A]

But let me see if I can get a drawn out post here on serious.

[B]

Actually, is that still. Is Arcade Again still playable?

[A]

I don't think so.

[B]

I missed that game. That was a fun one to five

[A]

player co ops this chat.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So that. That's your. I think that's your Shattered Spaces. All the different Sams that you can play as coming together.

[A]

Okay. Shout out. Shout out.

[C]

Shout out. Shout out.

[B]

Shout out. Gucci.

[A]

Okay, fine. Godspeed be with you Sam fans. From there it was in fact stranger than heaven. Of course we were promised an in depth look at RGG's new project and instead we got a trailer and then an advertisement for showcase. Awesome. Roger, what'd you think? You were stoked.

[C]

Yeah, I'M just disappointed, man. I mean it looks good. It looks visually good. I like the combat. I like seeing the, the guy punching the guy and like rolling down the hill. Like there's, there's all that. I like how tight the combat feels like. I mean, it probably doesn't feel too different from Yakuza if I were to take a guess. But I like how intimate it is. You're focusing on one person at a time. But yeah, no, just seeing and at this and then be like, okay, I'm excited for the breakdown. Let's see the gameplay thing. And it's like, no, we're waiting a few weeks now. That sucked. But from what I see, it looks cool. I just need to know more about it. I need that deep dive. But yeah, I guess we're getting in a few weeks.

[D]

How do you feel about the setting and the five different eras? Right. We're gonna time jump a lot here.

[A]

Yeah, between five different eras. 1915-1929-1940-1951 and 1965.

[C]

Nice. It's really, that's really dope. I like that, that idea there. I don't. I'm assuming it is just the guy getting older. Right. It's not like a time time jump situation where he's like, like time traveling rather. But yeah, I do think that this leads to my theory of it is going to connect to the Yakuza games pretty, pretty heavily. I mean, this is Kamurocho. They show it right there.

[A]

Right.

[C]

So like this is going to be the origin of one of the, you know, Yakuza alliances or something like that. But I do like that this is. It feels different enough where you aren't like, you don't have the baggage like Blessing was talking about of being like, hey, I want to pick up the, you know, the fifth Yakuza in the franchise. Oh, now I have to learn and watch all these games. So. So yeah, it was cool. It looks good. Looks visually good. It feels like a big step forward for rgg.

[B]

But I like a lot of animations. Like there's the animation of them rolling down the hill together like mid combat.

[C]

People keep on saying Snoop Dogg. Is that true or no?

[B]

This guy that looks like Snoop Dogg.

[A]

Okay. Yeah.

[C]

Okay, well, shout out to Snoop Dogg. I mean, they have, they have celebrity cameos all the time, so.

[B]

Oh, really?

[C]

Yeah, they had a Samoa Joe and I think, yeah, you're right.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Kenny Omega's always been trying to get into that game.

[A]

Where's Snoop Dogg? We'll find out.

[B]

Has been in video games.

[D]

We'll probably see like some like tie ins to Yakuza. Like you brought up of like grandparents, father, stuff like that.

[A]

Like.

[D]

Oh, that's that character. What? That's crazy.

[C]

Did y'.

[A]

All.

[C]

Did this do anything for you?

[B]

Is Snoop Dogg.

[C]

Is that really Snoop Dogg?

[B]

That might be Snoop Dogg.

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

Wait, hold on. Actually, I can't tell.

[C]

I don't think that's.

[B]

I can't tell.

[C]

I don't think that's Snoop Dogg.

[B]

Yellow.

[C]

Does this do anything for y'?

[D]

All?

[B]

I think that might be Snoop Dogg, bro.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

No dead ass. Wait, hold on. Look.

[A]

Go Back to join IGN.com IGN. 17th 2024 Yakuza slash Like a Dragon dev seemingly teases Snoop Dogg appearance in project.

[B]

That's 100. Snoop.

[A]

Is that Snoop?

[D]

Yes.

[A]

And then. Yeah, look. RGG put out a. A photo of Snoop Dogg in whatever outfit.

[C]

I thought he was just. I thought he was just walking around.

[B]

That's so funny. Wow.

[C]

Apparently that's him job.

[B]

He was in Tekken. Tekken Tag tournament too. So like for him to make another

[D]

Call of Duty ghost.

[C]

Oh, and what was the. The true crime game? Oh, this is kind of like a true crime game. This is like a sleeping dog. Come on. The connection's right there, everybody.

[A]

It was in front of you all the time. If you want to know more. Like all of us, because we were promised more about Stranger than Heaven, you can tune in yet again on May 6th at 4pm Pacific. I imagine we will be live reacting. That too. And I'll be angry about it. It is, of course, like we said, coming to everything or whatever. And it'll be Xbox play anywhere title and be available with game Pass. So you got that going for you. One quick. I am getting. Hold on. Yeah, that's. That's Snoop. Everybody confirmed.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. Who do you think that was? Soup. Don't worry about who I'm getting my breaking news. It's me. That's all it says. It's me. It's Cisco. Back channeling after Stranger Than Heaven, we moved on to Super Meat Boy 3D, a game we've all been waiting for. A game we enjoyed playing at gdc. Another trailer I thought just didn't fit. There's no vibe, there's no tone to this direct or whatever partner showcase, but kind of under.

[B]

This is the release date announcement, which should hit way harder. But I think maybe because of the leak. Yeah, we kind of expected it to come out. I think people were expecting it at the Nintendo Direct. Is that what the Streets were saying,

[C]

well, no, no, it was just. It was leaked on the Nintendo store. So then I think we're trying to figure out like where would it be

[B]

where people trying to like create a Nintendo showcase or something.

[C]

I think I was. I think,

[B]

yeah.

[A]

I ruined your life. I'm sorry.

[B]

It's okay. Played exciting.

[A]

Yeah. March 31st coming out again. Xbox Play anywhere title and available on Xbox Game Pass. So again they continue to put all sorts of great games on Xbox Game Pass which shouldn't be overlooked by the general us being like, what is going on here? After Super Meat Boy 3D, it was a Greg ass game, everybody. Forever Ago from annapurna. Coming fall 2026 again, the part where I just go, ah, come on. Follow Alfred on a journey to unlock memories of his life in Forever Ago. An upcoming narrative advent. Revisit beautiful locations from Alfred's past, meet characters and document his story with photographs in a single player road trip that explores broken dreams, loss and regret.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

But also courage, hope and the power of friendship. Forever ago launches fall 2026 for Xbox of course, Xbox PC and Xbox Cloud. It will be an Xbox Play anywhere title and be available on Xbox Game Pass again. Game Pass and Xbox Cloud and play anywhere. Killing it. This will be all over my Rog ally and Xbox series X. Yeah.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

I'm a sucker for these kind of games, these kind of narratives. This looks like a lot of fun. I do love taking photos in games as well. It'll be interesting to see what we get into. But a tone setter that again I was like, yes. And I was so hopeful. Maybe today. No, we will let it build.

[C]

But I will say I think this is one of the few gray ass games that I'm actually going to play because I got teary like watching this trailer like this hit me in a way that I didn't expect you to play.

[A]

What do you mean? What you. What are the. Well, strange.

[C]

Well, no, I mean yeah, very much played great. No, but I turn around, you're just playing some fucking guy that's like a fucking lumberjack cutting down. Like, what are you doing? You got like four of these every year that I'm like, I'm not touching those ones.

[A]

But okay, fair enough.

[C]

Yeah. And I also don't like being sad. So I. This one I will let myself.

[A]

I just got to see how the other half lives. I'm always so happy.

[B]

I'm half in, half out. I'm half and half out. Like the thing that always I not always. I think that common times Will keep me away from a game. Like this is how it feels to move in control.

[A]

Like what is the moment to moment.

[B]

What is the moment moment. Like how slow am I walking in this thing? Like when I'm jumping on the different rocks in the. On the river. Like how clunky is crimson desert. Yeah. And I'm not like I'm being dead ass like cuz like you know me. I'm like you Roger. Like I'll play a Greg ass game probably like a few times a year. Maybe I'm somewhere between you and Greg. I think when it comes to this like more narrative, more sad somebody's wife died kind of experience. But they can be here and miss sometimes. And I think that movement will be the. The thing that often filters me out.

[D]

I'm interested in these games. Sometimes they just last a little too long.

[A]

That is another Great point.

[D]

For 12 hours. If this game, if you came to Greg and was like Mike, this is a good hitting game. Three to four hours. I'd be like Greg, I'll give it to you.

[A]

My hope there is that Anna Perna kind of gets that mixtape is coming up. I do not expect mixtape to last longer than Titanic the Motion Picture. You know, maybe, maybe, maybe two. Maybe two movies. Not Titanic but you know what I mean. Like I feel like that's going to be a get in, get the emotional highs of being a kid and get out. And I feel like you would know to do that. But we'll wait and see. Sadly I have to wait till fall 2026. If it doesn't get delayed, it'll probably get delayed. But I digress. Let's get to a game that has a hard hitting Release date of July 13th. We're talking ascend to zero. This one of the standouts of the show. One of the first things that made me set up and go oh wait, I don't know what this is. What is this? Bend time to save the world and Ascend to zero in this action Roguelite time is your ultimate weapon and you are able to manipulate it to gain the edge in battle. Freeze foes in their tracks, gain a second or two to reset and reload and make the of your moments to utilize skills, abilities and refine your run in this cyberpunk inspired pixel art setting. Ascend as era launches July 13th Xbox of course across the board Xbox, PC, Xbox Cloud. It is play anywhere it is game pass looked awesome.

[B]

Looks really cool.

[A]

I'm generally not even this type of gamer but like the freezing time I'm such a Big fan of. I'm using that right now as my ability in Starfield. Having a great time.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

Anybody else? Just Andy. We wait for Andy.

[C]

No, it just hurts my eyes a little.

[B]

It looks like my kind of game, but also like. Like, I think I'm hitting the dangerous place. Oh. I think I'm starting to take a turn that I never thought I'd take, which is maga. We just got. No, not that. Not yet.

[C]

Wowing is very.

[B]

Yeah, no, the turn being. Man, there's a lot of rog lights.

[A]

Yeah. You know, like, I think since I don't dive into so many of them, it's easier for me to be like, oh, this seems.

[C]

Yeah. When you see the three cards now it's.

[B]

Yeah, now it's starting to become a thing of like. It's like when you eat your favorite

[A]

food over and over again.

[B]

It's like when I was like kid and every morning I used to eat Eggo waffles.

[C]

Same here. And you microwave them.

[B]

And you microwave. Yeah, you microwave them too. Yeah, yeah. And it's like I ate that every single morning. And after many, many years of doing that, I look at Eggo waffle now and I'm like, nah, that was me for hot dogs.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

As well.

[B]

So Roguelites might start becoming that for a little bit.

[C]

Yeah. Tough man.

[A]

We'll have to wait and see then. July 13th. I'm looking forward to it. Beyond that, we moved into Dispatch coming summer 2026, explaining of course why the one, the only, Aaron Paul was in fact narrating this Xbox partner preview you. The full collection of episodes arrives this summer on Xbox. Xbox, PC, Xbox Cloud. It will be a play anywhere title. But they are stopping short. It is not a game pass title.

[D]

Yeah, this is one of those like blessings says like man that hasn't come to Xbox. That's too bad.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Well, guess what? Now you got a great game coming your way that you'll get to play. This one is a. This is a must play. This is a must play game.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A great one. We all enjoy it here and yeah, excited for Xbox people to finally get it. Even though you could totally forget you didn't have it. Oh, that's not there. Shit.

[B]

Fuck.

[A]

From there we moved into ads. Alien Deathstorm. New from Rebellion, that's Atom Fallen Sniper Elite is Alien Deathstorm. An atmospheric first person adventure where second to second survival hinges on responding to a monstrous, constantly shifting threat on a storm blasted off world colony. In the world premiere, we got a first glimpse at a Settlement ravaged by violent weather conditions and terrifying alien creatures where figuring out what happened quickly evolves into a fight for survival. Deathstorm is heading to Xbox, of course. Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud. It will be a play anywhere title and it will be Game Pass.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Doesn't look great. Doesn't look terrible. Again, there was no game here where I was like that fucking Nintendo stupid ass Dinosaur Tokyo scramble.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

But I look at this one, I'm like, no, I'm good.

[C]

Yeah. When I look at this, it feels like It's Alien Isolation 2. But like, without the aliens. And I don't want to be so, you know, IP pills where it's like, you can't make a good alien game that isn't based off of aliens. But, you know, it does feel so much like that to the point where I'm like, oh, this is just generic alien game. You know, number 44, right? I don't know. It didn't give me anything. Talk about again, the voiceover. Give me the pitch. It didn't give me that pitch of like, man, I got to play this game. There's something different about it.

[A]

Yeah, we'll wait and see. There's an interview up on the Xbox wire as well. I'm trying to page through, but not nothing jumping off the page where, I

[B]

have to tell you, developer, though, I didn't realize.

[A]

Rebellion.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Snapper Elite.

[C]

Oh, yes.

[B]

Oh, can I say, I don't like this screen, by the way. We saw this screen after every game. There's too much space between the coming 2027 2.

[C]

And I always think there's something else.

[B]

I always think they're going to fade in something else.

[C]

You got to put that down.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, you got to put that down. From there we went to Frog Squad. Slapstick puzzle platformer. Frog squad is hopping onto Xbox. Work with your friends to explore the sewers and secure food for the swamp king. Use your exceptionally sticky froggy tongue to traverse levels and bring back enough snacks to hit the food qu. The king, lest you become the food quota. With support for up to eight players to fund co op or, oh, cooperative sorry, option for your next game night. It's launching June 2026. Xbox Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud, Xbox play anywhere, and of course, Xbox game pass. Michael, you are the party mode king. You are the friend slop king.

[D]

I love these games. I do love these games. You know what I have a problem with is trailers and release dates for these games. Because you get to see these games, you go, oh, wow, I played that. It's like Ah, that's 2027. Oh, that's mid-2026. It's just too long to wait. I feel like some of these games when you get the momentum and you come out with a cool trailer and people are like oh wow, a perfect one is that one where you're a hotel. You're in the hotel and the one guy's dead and you got to move the. The guy out of the hotel room who's dead. You're like this game is a must play. I want to play this right now. They're like we don't even have a release date. It's like all right, well I'm going to forget about you for six months.

[C]

Months.

[D]

That's what this game will be of. Like I won't think of this game until it comes out and then we'll play it and hopefully we'll have a fun time like anytime that is cooperative fun puzzle solving with my friends. This tongue mechanic that they got giving me some Pikminesque vibe where it's like hey big item, small things trying to move the big item.

[A]

I love that I got a big item and small.

[B]

How do I feel about copperative? Is that too crazy?

[C]

I don't like slot man.

[B]

I mean yeah, yeah. But we land. Here's my. Here's my thing right? Cuz I. The friends like games, whatever we want to call them, they become more and more and more popular. Right. I feel like we need more inspired art styles for them cuz now it's starting to be a be in a place where yes I see this beasts. It's going to come out later in the year. By the time we get around to this game coming out I'm going to be like oh what was that? This looks like a million other of the friend like games that I. So I would like to see more variety there from these kind of games. It's my.

[C]

That's a great call.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

From there we rolled into one that I'm tentatively excited about. Bluey's Happy Snaps of course. Based on the Bluey cartoon. Join Bluey and Bingo for a big exciting adventure and capture all your favorite moments using dad's special camera. Discover brand new locations from the show. Snap picture perfect poses of Australian wildlife and get hands on with play for real life activities. It's all recorded in your one of a kind scrapbook Featuring hundreds of collectibles to unlock. Bluey's Happy Snaps arrives on Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud in fall 2026. It will be played anywhere and it will be Game Pass. I don't have high hopes for this. Just an enjoyable bluey version of a Pokemon Snap filling in the thing. The real life games, I don't know. But when you do that frame there of them playing volleyball, that's when I'm like, don't think that would have been the right idea. That didn't look like a good volleyball minigame for me to play. But we shall see. It's coming to everything as well. They were interesting. Of, of course, the wires promoting all the Xbox stuff. The Showcase itself had PlayStation Xboxes and stuff tossed on there.

[D]

Crazy side.

[A]

This one did not.

[C]

Mike has a side.

[D]

Can you believe that Killer Bean still isn't out? Like, these are the games that I see. And I'm like, oh yeah, I would play that. It's like that game's not even out yet. That game's never coming out. It's like, all right.

[B]

No, Killer Bean's one of the ones where you gotta. You gotta promote it early. You gotta let the streets know. You gotta let the word spread. Thought Killer Bean.

[A]

You got to let them know about

[D]

the Killer Bean party animals. When that came out and it was like, it's going to take two years to get there to the finish line. Like we needed you.

[B]

Now that's a unicorn game.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

From there we moved on to stalker 2, heart of Chernobyl. Cost of hope. This is the first details about the major Chernobyl expansion. This of course heading your way. Summer 2026. I'm looking in here. The DLC will be released on Xbox. Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG and PS5. Both the base game and the DLC will support Xbox play anywhere. Mike, you're my shooter guy.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

What do you think?

[D]

I mean, I really enjoyed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 when it did come out. I liked that very difficulty, the difficult curve to it. It was just kind of buggy when it first launched. Had some. This writing here, had some tones of Russia and Ukraine with that war going on. That was very interesting. Of like, oh shit, okay, okay. But yeah, it's like one of those. If I put S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in the worlds of the metros and the dying lights, that it's like, this is a 7 to 8 out of 10 game that I'm going to either fall in love with and love love, or it's just going to be like, hey, that was a good enough time. I'll never talk about or play that again. And that's where Stalker goes for me. And it's like, you either get Become Die Hard into stalker and love the punishment or you jump off of it.

[A]

How long would you like this DLC to last you?

[D]

This DLC last me from start to finish. 20 hours maybe.

[A]

In this massive story that can take more than 20 hours to explore. Crushed it.

[D]

I mean, I. I would assume that this team, especially with what they've gone through and now to get to where they're at, they're making big pieces of content for you to play and enjoy. People want that. If you're playing a Metro or a stalker, you want big, sizable story chunks that you can get lost in and keep playing for a long time.

[B]

Time. I want to make it clear I'm.

[A]

I'm laughing at Roger. Roger started.

[B]

I'm not laughing at the world.

[A]

Say hi. What happened? Nothing.

[B]

Nothing.

[A]

Don't worry about. Fair enough. Fair enough. We'll move on. Up next was Musa Dirty Fate. We saw another world premiere in Musa Dirty Fate, an upcoming action title set in feudal Korea. An unknown powerful force has swept your land. And with fields and crops withering to dust that people have turned to the most extreme methods of survival. It's up for you to track down the threat and save your subjects. Paterly Korean inspired landscapes paired with slick third person combat give us a first glimpse of Musa Dirty fate. Coming in 2027 for series of Xbox, Xbox, PC, Xbox Cloud. It will be played anywhere. It will be Xbox game pass. A awkward trailer. We need a sound effects. This is why. Why it was just vo over this and. No, no, no. But there was a lot of blood and a lot of action, right?

[B]

Yeah. It's a game that I. I like the opening.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The like the kind of speech he was giving talking about the decimation of these people and all this going on.

[C]

Gut wrenching. Yeah. It's like really?

[B]

It's like, damn, this is like up.

[D]

Everybody's got a purge. Everybody's got a purge.

[B]

Everybody's got a. And like he's. There's always a blade. He's like delivering it in such a. Like, like, I want to say beautiful but like, you know, heartbreaking way where it's like, damn. All right, what are they setting up here? Let me get into the gameplay. And it's like, it's in that weird in between space for me where I want to like it. It looks like the kind of game that I typically like. Right. Like, it's a fun, fast paced action thing. But I think you're right. I think it is the sound effects. Like, I need to hear more of like the pure and see more of like the pure gameplay to really take it all in.

[D]

It felt like the chicken game but not the chicken game.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

When the chicken game was like, oh wow, like I want to play this right? Like this should probably be a game where we all walk away going like, oh, we're interested in that. Like I play that. And that trailer did not do this game justice at all. I walked away going, going. That was really boring to watch right there. That second half after the VO was like, ooh, I'm fine.

[A]

Yeah. This is coming 2027 and a special shout out to the chat where Dionysus said moose of people gonna die as I love a good Jar Jar people

[C]

gonna die about dirty fate. And I, I keep on saying like dirty bit, you know, I mean like dirty, dirty fate.

[A]

Up next, the eternal life of Goldman. A game we have seen and been impressed by before. Reaffirmed. It's coming in 2027 to Xbox, Xbox, PC, Xbox Cloud. It will be plenty where it will be on Game Pass. Even better. There is a demo today. Jump into the whimsical platformer coming to Xbox later this year as the titular Goldman. You'll explore a magical hand drawn world inspired by fairy tales and myths. Your mission is to kill the deity, a mysterious fearsome creature that everyone knows about but no one has ever seen. Equipped with his trusty cane and a unique host of abilities, golden must adventure across this vibrant landscape. Landscape. Each area and level lovingly crafted and colored by hand using classic frame by frame techniques. That's why it looks so impressive.

[B]

Yeah, I, I mentioned earlier that I checked this out during Steam Next Fest. The demo's still available on Steam and now it's available on Xbox if you want to play it on Xbox. I was very blown away by the visuals of this game. Right? Like getting into it, it's like wow, they were not joking as far as like the hand drawn animation. Every frame looks incredible. Everything flows so smoothly. It kind of is. Is ridiculous to to look at. Platforming was fun as well too. Like it seems like a way bigger game than I expected, which I'm kind of scared about. You know, I mean like, you know, during the show you mentioned Hollow Knight, you mentioned these other Metroidvanias and I'm kind of like damn, this might be one that people devote their, like devote a few weeks to devote a month to to like get into it and clear everything out. But yeah, this is one that I think is going to find a strong audience that, that adores it for Metroidvanias.

[C]

Now There's. We talk about. We were talking about Roguelites earlier, but like Retrovanias are kind of in the same boat where there's so many of them. And I feel like you need. And like seeing this, it's like this is just so gorgeous and it looks so deep and interesting from like the original announcement and seeing this, it's like, fuck, man. Like this game is way deeper than I would have ever imagined. Yeah, I'm very, very excited that just. I think this is the best game shown here today for sure.

[A]

Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely on the short list. From there we went to Vaunted. Vaunted is another world premiere we showed today a tactical RPG with an explosive action and dynamic combat where turn based planning is paired with real time action to open up unique opportunities, unravel the story of an expedition gone horribly wrong. With the help of three extremely unreliable narrators, powerful weapons, unique special abilities and a brand of questionable allies. Wanted is coming to Xbox on PC later in 2026. Keep an eye out for more details. I don't think it showed well. No, that was also another not show well at all.

[D]

Blessing was like, is this turn based? I was like, I haven't. I didn't know it was an XCOM like at all. It was, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I was confused the whole time watching, watching this.

[B]

Yeah. I still can tell you what the gameplay is like. We see a bunch of different things here. I wish this would almost be a better one if they had like an overview trailer.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Whereas welcome to the world of Vaunted and like a really quick here's what the game is kind of thing. Because you're showing me different things that look kind of cool and like there's an art style here that is like, that stands out from a lot of the other games. But also. Yeah. The. This trailer brought together. It's like, ah. Yeah.

[C]

And then they start doing this which is like the low, you know, frame rate.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Cut scene where I'm like, is that a mistake? What's happening right now? Now? Yeah, it's just a really bizarre trailer.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I think par for the course on this showcase. Just not the right trailer for the right show. Definitely needs a description more than.

[B]

There's something aesthetically that really reminds me of Borderlands, like between the.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

For me it's Battleborn.

[B]

Oh yeah. That's such a good poll.

[A]

Actually an art style that stands out. I'm like, I disagree but I understood what you meant for the show. Right.

[B]

Compared to the other games of the show. Yeah.

[A]

But No, I don't. I don't look at this and go, hell yeah. I do look at Hades too though, and go, hell yeah. Coming to Xbox finally. April. April 14th of coming to Game Pass. Coming to Xbox everywhere. If you haven't played Hades 2, guess what? There it is. It's there. You can go get it now. Side boob.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

Everybody loves Hades too, right? We all every knows we love Hades 2. Hayes 2 is great.

[B]

Fantastic game.

[A]

If you haven't played it. There you go. It's on.

[B]

Game like showing me the gameplay is legit. Kind of dangerous because I'm like, what if I go back to my desk, boot up Hades 2 real quick and

[C]

that's my whole day.

[B]

That's my whole day.

[A]

Good. We did it.

[D]

No, you have one more.

[A]

No, I'm saying for Hades. Does anybody have anything else to say about Hades? No. All right, we're moving out. And then. Yes. The final game they showed, of course, Artificial Detective. All of humanity has disappeared. You are going to be this Artificial Detective as you get out there and discover it. Coming 2027. Another. Ah. Okay, this is interesting. I don't know how much of this trailer I believe is actual gameplay. And then it's like, okay, okay, okay. Boom. Our show closed with the world premiere of Artificial Detective, a stylish post apocalyptic venture. In the trailer we meet a wise Kraken robot detective tactics with his greatest case yet. Finding out why humanity has disappeared. One twist in the mystery. A single human child has been left behind. And the pair must work together to solve the case and save humanity in an explosive third person action adventure. We can't wait to see more of Artificial Detective arrives on 2027. Xbox Everywhere, Xbox Cloud, Xbox, whatever, PC. It'll be Xbox play anywhere. No mention of game Pass.

[B]

You compared it to Procopia on the stream and I didn't understand it until you reread the thing and I was like, oh, I see.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Humanity, Human. Humanity being gone.

[A]

Humanity's gone. And we're trying to figure out why.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you got all this stuff coming in. Which Again, Big Hero 6. We remember this. Baymax's foes remember this thing a little. Never forget.

[B]

You watched that recently, didn't you?

[A]

Yeah, I never watched it concurrently when it originally came out. Ben has introduced it to me since then. Now we know we like Baymax a lot.

[B]

Oh, Baymax is great.

[A]

Way smarter than they called the show afterwards. Baymax. Since Baymax was like the standout, I think more than the big. But I digress. What do we think of this everybody?

[C]

Yeah, I mean it doesn't look like a real video game. I mean hopefully that gameplay segment is actually gameplay because than really impressive. But yeah, something about. I just, I need to see more about this. I mean I don't. Nothing about this really like kind of like blew me away. I don't think it was. I don't know. Was this the right move to end the thing with?

[A]

Probably absolutely not.

[C]

I mean, well, I mean if you

[D]

look at like what, eye catching.

[C]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like it is, but it just didn't do anything for me, sadly.

[D]

Yeah, I, I liked the look of it. I thought it was the most eye catching. I mean of course coming 2027, that's a long time from now. There's going to be a lot of questions, questions asked about that. But it, you know. Yeah, it had this gameplay that's like. Is that the gameplay? I don't know. But at least they were showing something more than just the hyper realistic sci fi trailer that we've seen with other games like this. Right. It gives, gives me Ubisoft, the one where Jacob Joseph Gordon Levitt tried to give me the sign up again, Good and Evil beyond Good and Evil two vibes like okay, here's your super flashy trailer but like get me to the game, we'll see, you know. Yeah.

[B]

I didn't disbelieve the gameplay when they showed it. Right. Like for me it did look like gameplay but in a way where like I could kind of see some of the stiffness, you know, like the movie remind me of like a Resident Evil or something like that. Just as far as the over the shoulder, you know, you kind of like you have a limited range of movement but it is like a slow plotting. I'm going to take out these enemies and try to manage my space sort of way and like.

[D]

Cool.

[B]

I want to see more. I don't know if I am sold yet on like the fun factor, but I think there's an aesthetic here that is interesting and it is eye catching.

[C]

I'm looking into this developer to kind of get a vibe and it seems like they're more of a 3D animation company than anything. So it seems like a Cana British spirits and also it seems like they're based in San Francisco which is like a rarity.

[B]

Should we go over there?

[A]

Yeah, go over there.

[C]

But yeah, Vivek Studios they said built to create badass 3D animation for young adults. So it seems like that's kind of Their bread and butter there. So you see that with the trailer and everything, it looks like something from Blur Studios. So I honestly reading that it actually sells me on. Yeah, exactly. Here. If you had the voiceover saying, this is a studio that's never made a game before and they make amazing 3D animation and now they're making the first game. Yeah, I would be like, oh, fuck. Okay, now I'm into it because like,

[B]

you be playing the. The AI guy and you command your little dog to like, do this. Like, I can see this game come together. Like, I can kind of. I can kind of feel the gameplay as. As they're doing it. But my main thing is like, I hope it's fun. I hope like when we have the controllers in our hands, there's something. We're like, yo, this is the next Kana meets Resident Evil or whatever you want to call it. I don't like the title though. I think Artificial Detective is like, yeah,

[A]

it's not as Try and be too smart.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, he's a little corny.

[A]

But we shall see in 2027. And that, ladies, gentlemen and enbies was the Xbox partner pre reaction and review.

[C]

No big dud.

[A]

Sucks.

[D]

You know, Mike, I'm on like a six is where I was going to be at five. Six.

[A]

I stand by an awful 2.5.

[B]

Wow. Wow.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

3.5 to 4.

[A]

3.5 bad. Okay.

[D]

I saw Paris say, like, I think Mike's expectations were higher. My expectations were set very accordingly and they were actually still not met.

[A]

I agree.

[D]

That's probably about a five or six. I thought like, oh, we just get a seven. We'll just get like a good. And like in my mind was like, I want to say this is good, but like, it just wasn't right. And that was just because it wasn't. It was lacking a lot there. The announcements, the game pass announcements, the world premieres, the, you know, partnerships, like, they were all kind of there. But when you watch the games and the trailers, it was like, this isn't very enjoyable to sit through and watch and get excited about.

[A]

Agreed. Some super chats in here before we transition to WE news. Singleton writes in and says presentation of as primarily an Xbox gamer with an ally X and game pass. There's a lot of good info to be happy about. Of course. Yes, I stand by that as the exact same gamer with my Xbox ally and how much I love it. Like, yeah, game pass, Xbox play anywhere. Great stuff. But again, I just think a bad presentation for all this information. The right hodaldo wrote in and said birthday tax for my seven year old, Theo. Happy birthday, Theo. I hope you have a great time. Magic Gun 23 says bless his men on his volleyball arc. So I highly recommend he peeps. Peeps iq. What is that? Argue the best sports anime ever made.

[D]

Oh, I know.

[B]

Everybody tells me about Hike.

[D]

Have you not watched it yet?

[B]

No.

[D]

Oh, but you'll. You'll freak if you watch that. Yeah, me and Bear covered it on kind of anime, which you should watch. Baron and I love talking about anime with y'. All. That is the volleyball anime that everyone loves. It is so good.

[B]

Is there romance in it? You know what?

[D]

I don't think so. It's more about teamwork. In the season one, there was no romance yet.

[B]

I'll think about it.

[A]

Coming together Final super chat comes from Tilted Crow to comment on the production. I think the fact that Square Enix had a more entertaining update video on their latest releases Parentheses co starring Matt Mercer and Ben Starr speaks volumes.

[B]

Yeah, it just doesn't feel like a. This is a priority showcase, right? Like, this just feels like a. Hey, let's. We have a thing. All right? Let's pull in trailers. Let's fulfill these obligations.

[A]

And Josh Frog and said the show. The showcase felt soulless. Nothing grabbed me really quick.

[D]

Can we circle back? Are you looking for love on the volleyball court?

[B]

I mean, you know, you never know. You know, you never know.

[A]

Looking for love everywhere.

[B]

You never know. Roger, don't worry about it.

[A]

Blessing. Finding love.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Would be huge news. But if I wanted something smaller, Sega came to the mom and grop shops in the video game world, where would I go?

[C]

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

[A]

That's right. You're still getting.

[D]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[B]

These are gonna be big news tomorrow.

[A]

Okay, then this is to preview. Then tomorrow you say that. You say that PlayStation's gonna close the studio.

[B]

I. I think Star Fox is more important.

[A]

Leave. It's all over then. Fine. A teaser for you tomorrow maybe. For Games Daily. Number one, shout out to our friend Alanah Pierce. Alanah Pierce launches Charge Pictures, a creator first production company focused on video game adaptations for film and television. The initial slate includes Dead Take and Unholy Trinity adaptations.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Alana continuing to do amazing stuff in the industry. Of course you could go read about that on Variety if you really wanted to. Wow. If you. Then yes. Wario 64 says God of War live action series casts loss alum Sonia Walgar as Freya so we got that. I don't know if you're going that deeper tomorrow.

[B]

No, that's we news. I'm talking the other.

[A]

Can I say this one? I'm just gonna say it.

[B]

Just say it because people know it.

[A]

And then the other one for you. Super Mario Galaxy movie put out a trailer and, and a tweet that says let's rock and roll. Fox McCloud joins the Super Mario Galaxy movie in theaters April 1st.

[B]

We're gonna, we're gonna talk about this

[D]

as someone that's not iconic of Funny Games Daily tomorrow. Don't love that, don't love the, the tease on that one that they spoiled it for you. Yeah, I don't like that at all.

[A]

They want to get your ass in the seats, so I'm already getting my ass.

[C]

They already spoiled Pikmin already. Yeah, I mean, it's happening.

[A]

I didn't know that.

[C]

Oh yeah, they put it on their. They're like, oh, here are all the characters in the movie. And then it's just a Pikmin in one frame.

[A]

And it's like, that's okay.

[B]

Well now you just pulled it for me. That's okay.

[C]

Well, it's a official thing.

[B]

Everybody tackle you after this episode. So you know.

[A]

And that's it for Wii News, everybody. And that's it also for this show, Kinda Funny Games Daily. Believe it or not though, we have a humongous games cast. Up next, it's the Soros preview. Andy, Roger Blessing sitting down to talk about this one. What Andy got up to in Helsinki, what Roger thought when he got to play it in San Francisco. A whole bunch of good stuff's coming up there. Of course, if you're watching or listening and you're not like on the live stuff right now, you could get that on demand. YouTube.com kindafunnygames Podcast services are around the globe. Of course, if you are watching live on Twitch, just keep hanging out. If you're on YouTube, there'll be a new YouTube link for you to go check out. And of course, no matter where you're watching us, like subscribe, share and remember, we couldn't do this without your support. If you love what we do at Kinda Funny, please pick up a membership. Patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kinda funnygames Apple Spotify. You toss us a few bucks, we give you all of our content ad free. Your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series called Greg Way. And of course, of course good karma for supporting an 11 person small business got through it. I was like, I'm like, I'm gonna get through that.

[C]

Proud of you.

[A]

Thank you, everybody. That's it for Games Daily. Until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.

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