GamesBeat Decides

The evil White House in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid parody game Never Stop Sneakin' includes Health and Human Services secretary Dr. Acula (who is probably a vampire) and Vice President Helicopter (who is a helicopter), and that nearly kills host and PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb on this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast. 

Never Stop Sneakin' is a new stealth action game from Dust: An Elysian Tail developer Humble Hearts, and Jeff and co-host Mike Minotti talk about it on this week's episode along with the news and a ton of games. Let me ask you something: Do you love raging about loot boxes on the internet? Well, then this is one of the best weeks of the year for you with the microtransaction trifecta of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Forza Motorsport 7, and Star Wars: Battlefront II. All those games are driving players mad by disrupting progression or offering pay-to-win alternatives in competitive multiplayer. 

Additionally, we talk about the following games:

Star Wars: Battlefront II

Golf Story

FIFA 18

A Hat In Time

Heat Signature

Super Metroid

Super Mario RPG

The Super Nintendo Classic Edition is out this week, and we got our hands on one. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, host and PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb asks co-host and reviews editor Mike Minotti whether it lives up to the excitement.

We also talk about the news from the last week. Bethesda wants to get close with Nintendo and its fans. Game developers admit they're afraid to speak out due to "toxic" gamer culture. Xbox boss Phil Spencer gets a promotion. And w easo talk about Monster Hunter: World and Nier: Automata.

In the second segment, Mike and Jeff spend a lot of time trying to determine what the "core" Mario games are. This is a pointless exercise that we take far too seriously. You should join us and share your list -- but only if you agree with our opinions.

Games discussed this week:

SteamWorld Dig 2

Mystic Melee

Thimbleweed Park

Super Nintendo Classic Edition

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Fall is upon us, and we are gasping for breath under a deluge of games. That's one of the reasons this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast is extra long. We spend a ton of time talking about games before diving into some news, but the big topic this week is all about big games like Lawbreakers, Agents of Mayhem, and Battleborn crashing and burning immediately after launching. 

Lawbreakers has only a couple hundred people playing at any one time, and Agents of Mayhem was the No. 16 best-selling game in the United States during its debut month of August, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. Lawbreakers and Agents are the latest releases from Cliff Bleszinski and Saints Row team Volition, respectively. These are important creators who have made hits before, but their latest projects are commercial flops. What makes this even more fascinating is that neither game is critically reviled. Few people hate Agents of Mayhem or Lawbreakers -- it's just that no one is playing them. 

You can get that discussion in the second half of our episode. In the first segment, we talk about everything else. Here's the full list of discussed games:

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Talisman: Digital Edition

Hearthstone

Fortnite: Battlegrounds

Observer

The Little Ball That Could

Metroid: Samus Returns

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Last week, everyone was mad at GamesBeat for posting a video of Dean playing Cuphead poorly. This week, it's PewDiePie's turn for ... worse things. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about why PewDiePie is bad, why he keeps doing this, and why other YouTubers are sick of his crap.

As part of the fallout from PewDiePie discussion, the podcast tries to figure out what this means for the future of copyright, DMCA law, and Fair Use protections on YouTube. On top of that, Mike and Jeff get into some other headlines like South Park's difficulty slider giving your character darker skin, Battlegrounds hitting 1 million concurrent players, and Games Done Quick raising $227,000 for Hurricane Harvey relief. The crew also dives deeper into Metroid: Samus Returns, Mario + Rabbids, and Super Mario 64 Online.

Here's the full list of discussed games:

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Super Mario 64 Online

GTA Online

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Metroid: Samus Returns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMhbjtb3wU

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The collection of gamers that compose YouTube and Reddit have turned their suspicious gaze upon GamesBeat, and we swear we didn't mean to offend. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Dean Takahashi, Jeffrey Grubb, and Mike Minotti humble themselves before this great and terrible force. Together, we are holding hands and begging for one last chance to "git gud."

We awoke this ancient legion of frustrated gamers with a 26-minute demo of Dean playing the upcoming Xbox One and PC platformer Cuphead. In the video, Dean struggles with the tutorial and fails to pass the first stage. To paraphrase one YouTube comments, it's like watching an artificial intelligence slowly figure out how to run and jump at the same time. It's difficult to watch, and that made us at GamesBeat laugh. Dean is no professional esports athlete, and he's a good sport about being made into the butt of a joke. So we uploaded the video. But many viewers didn't see the humor. Instead, a lot of people are using this video as evidence that people like Dean don't have the basic skills required to adequately assess games. And that is our big topic in the first segment of the podcast this week.

In addition to our Dean drama, we also dive into the news and some of the games we've spent some time with.

Games discussed include:

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Absolver

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Metroid: Samus Returns

Knack 2

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

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Half-Life 2: Episode 3 died a long time ago, but its soul found some new life this week when writer Marc Laidlaw apparently published the story he had planned to close out the trilogy. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, we talk about Laidlaw's attempts to finish his story and our feelings about a Valve that isn't interested in making Half-Life anymore.

In addition to Half-Life, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti dive into the news like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds beating Dota 2 for concurrent players on Steam and Final Fantasy XV mods. The crew also has a chat about some recent games like the surprising Mario + Rabbids and the PC version of Destiny, which is hilariously better than its console counterparts.

Mike and Jeff also choose the Top 5 best Mario spinoffs.

Games discussed include:

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Destiny 2

Hearthstone

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

New Super Mario Bros.

https://youtu.be/YNZgsbBMlp0

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Microsoft delayed Crackdown 3 to next year, and the publisher doesn't have a lot of other releases to fill in the gaps for its upcoming holiday season. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, managing editor Jason Wilson, reviews editor Mike Minotti, and I (PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb) try to figure out what the hell Microsoft is doing.

The Xbox One X is launching November 7 for $500, and Microsoft is focusing on what the upgraded console will do for your current library. The company doesn't have a choice when it comes to that pitch because it is only publishing 4 games in all of 2017. Those include Halo Wars 2, Forza Motorsport 7, Super Lucky's Tale, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds for Xbox One. We explain some of the reasons why Microsoft has retreated from making its own games, and we talk about why it is probably still important to have a strong first-party lineup.

Additionally, we talk about the news and how Sonic the Hedgehog was never good regardless of Minotti's confusion.

Games discussed:

Sonic Mania

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Neverwinter

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Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan are in the news in the United States for holding rallies and murdering a counter-protester in Charlottesville, Virginia. This grim reality weighed on our minds when we went to record the GamesBeat Decides podcast this week, so we decided to talk about the history and the future of how games depict white supremacy.

This week, VentureBeat social editor Anthony Agnello and VentureBeat managing editor Jason Wilson join host Jeffrey Grubb on the GamesBeat Decides podcast to talk about the Nazi-killing escapism of Wolfenstein and Bionic Commando. The group also touch on fighting against World War II-era Germans in online games like World of Warships as well as the depiction of the KKK in Mafia III. That leads into whether we should have high hopes that Ubisoft will confidently tackle the racial implications of American white supremacy with the cult in its upcoming Far Cry 5 shooter.

On top of the discussion of fascists, this week's show features the news as well as some of the biggest games released so far this August.

Games we talk about:

- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

- Agents of Mayhem

- Sonic Mania

- Strikers 1945

- Gravity Rush 2

- Citadel: Forged with Fire

- Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne

- Neverwinter

https://youtu.be/SGY-BHB25GA

We are talking road-trip games on the GamesBeat Decides podcast this week. PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb and reviews editor Mike Minotti talk through their memories of playing video games on America's highways, at Disney World, and that one Shoney's in Central Ohio.

The hosts also talk about news stories like Middle-earth: Shadow of War's microtransactions, Take-Two's deep respect and love for the PC, and Activision's remaster plans.

Games discussed include:

- Mega Man Legacy Collection 2

- PUBG

Regular host Jeff Grubb is on vacation and is getting ready to road trip up to Mount Rushmore, but he came in to record this week's podcast with Mike Minotti. Inspired by this presidential monument, the GamesBeat Decides crew is going to pick which characters should go on the Mount Rushmore of video games.

We also talk about the news and some games on this episode, so join us, won't you?

Games discussed this week:

- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

- Mega Man Legacy Collection 2

- SMT: Strange Journey