GamesBeat Decides

On this special episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, Jeff interviews Brendan Greene, PUBG creative director and the titular PlayerUnknown. Enjoy, and come back next week for our GOTY GAMESBEAT REWIND SPECTACULAR!

GamesBeat Decides hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti pop in for a quick catch up. The crew is busy picking the best games of the year, so that means time is running short for your normally scheduled program.

But on this week's episode, Jeff and Mike talk about Hellblade, Gorogoa, and Hearthstone. They then dive into a news appetizer with some NPD numbers, PUBG on Xbox One, and more.

Games discusses:

Hearthstone

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Gorogoa

What Remains of Edith Finch

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

It was a busy week in video games. The Game Awards unleashed its "world exclusives" on Thursday, and we dive deep into all of the announcements from that show on this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast. On this episode, GamesBeat IndieBeat editor Stephanie Chan and VentureBeat managing editor Jason Wilson join host Jeffrey Grubb. The trio spends time trying to pick up the pieces of their lives as they catch up Game of the Year and prepare to cover Sony's PlayStation Experience. 

As part of the discussion of The Game Awards, the crew took some time to talk about Hideo Kojima's eternally upcoming PS4 (PS5?) exclusive Death Stranding. The artist formerly known as "Konami employee No. 455540" revealed a new 8-minute teaser for the game that featured giant humanoid-looking creatures, a ominous world, and a baby inside the throat of The Walking Dead actor Norma Reedus's throat.

But outside of trying to navigate the mind of Kojima, the GamesBeat Decides crew also took some time to discuss A Way Out developer Josef Fares shouting "fuck the Oscars" on stage during The Game Awards and what is happening over on crowdfunding platform Patreon. 

Games discussed: 

Nier: Automata

Yakuza 0

Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Champions Ballad DLC

Never Stop Sneakin'

Reigns: Her Majesty

Healthy Breakfast

Gorogoa

Engare

Hearthstone: Kobolds & Catacombs

Skyrim Switch

Dragon's Dogma PS4 remaster

Civilization VI

Elder Scrolls Legends: Clockwork City expansion

TriDo

Star Wars: Battlefront II has emoted and win poses just like in Overwatch, but one thing you can't customize most of the heroes with are costumes. While different outfits -- often called skins -- seem like a great fit for this take on the Star Wars universe, it's not here because Lucasfilm and Electronic Arts couldn't agree on how to bring them into the game. On this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about this news and other reasons Battlefront II's launch went wrong. 

In addition to Battlefront II, the Decides crew talks even more about Battlefront II -- it was a huge story. But the episode also covers CD Projekt Red's take on live services and how that affects its employees as well as Vivendi's ominous promise to Ubisoft. 

In the second segment, Jeff and Mike try to figure out what games they should catch up on before the end of the year. 

Games discussed: 

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Nier: Automata

Hitman

Super Mario Odyssey

Forza Motorsport 7

Assassin's Creed: Origins

Star Wars: Battlefront II comes out this week and a lot of people are already playing it and yelling about it on the internet. A significant number of fans don't like its business model and progression system, and it is letting publisher Electronic Arts know it. On the GamesBeat Decides podcast, host Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti got together with guest Bob Gardner from Intel to talk about Battlefront II, EA, and the most downvoted comment in the history of Reddit. 

In addition to EA, we ask what in the world makes Nintendo think it will sell 25-to-30 million Switch systems next year. The only possible answer is Pokémon ... or China? Who knows, but that's a big number. The Decides crew also sorted themselves into Hogwarts houses after hearing the news that Pokémon Go developer Niantic is taking that license on next. We also dive into some tidbits about new Hitman, GameStop's Xbox One X sales, and the sexiest phrase in the English language: "recurrent consumer spending." 

Here are the games we talk about this episode: 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Switch)

Rocket League (Switch)

Doom (Switch)

Super Mario Odyssey

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Star Wars: Battlefront II

Assassin's Creed: Origins

Factorio

Fortnite

Stellaris

Magic Arena

Banner Saga

The Witcher 3

Nier Automata

Mike has returned from BlizzCon, and Jeff Kaplan is his best friend now. We spend a portion of this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast going over what happened at BlizzCon and some of the games Mike got to play.

In addition to Minotti's Anaheim Adventures, we dig into the news and the difference between a cup for liquids and a cup for wieners.

Games we talk about this episode:

Super Mario Odyssey

Doom on Switch

Need For Speed: Payback

Call of Duty: WWII

BlizzCon games

Sony Interactive Entertainment showed off a brutal scene from The Last of Us: Part II at Paris Games Week on Monday, and the cruelty in that clip generated a loud response from fans and others who were watching the publisher's live show. On this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss why Sony would want to use shocking violence to market a blockbuster sequel.

In addition to watching The Last of Us characters smash arms in with a hammer, we also talk about some recent releases and the news. The big headlines include Microsoft dropping the Kinect, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds fate in China, and the rest of the announcements from Paris Games week. 

Here's a list of the games and hardware we talk about on the show:

Super Mario Odyssey

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Destiny 2 (PC)

Xbox One X

This is a special moment because it is time for a bonus episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast and it is also, officially Mario time. In this show, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss Super Mario Odyssey. Mike has put in a lot of time with it, and he gave it a 100 out of 100 in our review. 

During this episode, Mike explains why he loves Odyssey so much. Join us, won't you?

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It was already a busy year, but publishers are apparently trying to test if they can kill people through overexposure to huge game releases. On Friday, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Super Mario Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed: Origins launch for various platforms, so I hope you're caught up on your backlog. We've spent some time with a couple of these games, but on this episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, we can only talk about Ubisoft's open-world historical murder simulator. 

Origins is the first Assassin's Creed since 2015. Ubisoft took 2016 off after sales for the series started to dip. GamesBeat reporter Stephanie Chan is on the case, and she has found that the game is beautiful and vast, but she has some reservations. In particular, she has noticed a conflict between the open world and the narrative. Expect a full review of that soon. 

We also get into the news about allegations against NeoGAF's owner and what that means for the discussion about sexual assault in gaming. Finally, we end the episode with a breakdown of the September NPD report and Destiny 2's dominating sales. 

Here are the games we talk about:

Golf Story

Fire Emblem Warriors

The Evil Within 2

Assassin's Creed Origins

Bury Me, My Love

High Hell

Divinity Original Sin 2

Dragon's Dogma

Etrian Odyssey V

This week's GamesBeat Decides podcast was already a long one, and then -- right before we were going to upload it -- we had to make it even longer. That's because hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti pulled an emergency bonus session to talk about the breaking news that Electronic Arts has closed Dead Space developer Visceral and canceled its Star Wars game.

That revelation is shocking on its own, but EA made it even more startling with a candid blog that explains why it made this choice. Put simply: loot boxes. EA only wants to invest its money in games-as-a-service (GaaS), and Visceral's Star Wars was a single-player linear game. It turns out that it's difficult to sell loot boxes in something like that, so EA has found it difficult to justify its budget.

In addition to EA pulling the Band-aid off of one of its multiple Star Wars projects, we talk about some other news involving loot boxes. For example, is Hearthstone too expensive and why doesn't the ESRB game-rating organization think this is gambling?

In the second half, we talk about Awesome Games Done Quick because speedrunning is pure and good.

On top of that, Mike and Jeff discuss some recent releases they've spent some time with, which include the following:

Cuphead

Divinity: Original Sin II

Golf Story

South Park: The Fractured But Whole