Glixel Podcast

After a few weeks away (sorry about that) we're back, and ready to dig into today's release of Prey. Is it really what we thought it was going to be? Turns out it's not quite the "Dishonored in space" type game we were expecting, and borrows heavily from Bioshock, Half-Life and even survival games.

With Microsoft finally releasing the specs for its upcoming Xbox Scorpio super-console, we dig into what it might mean for games in the year ahead and speculate on when we might see the new console, how much it might cost, and whether virtual reality support was a major consideration as it was for Sony with the PS4 Pro.

The first trailer for Destiny 2 dropped earlier this week, and despite not showing any gameplay at all, there's plenty to learn from what little it showed. Significantly, it leans hard into jokier style thanks to Nathan Fillion's Cayde-6 that seems unlikely to be the representative of the tone of the final game.

We also dig into the best games of 20 years ago, and remember Bungie's Ghost In The Shell-alike Oni, which was published by Rockstar back in 2001.

On this week's podcast (episode 22 for those of you keeping count) John, Simon, Rachel and Miguel ponder what the future might hold for the Mass Effect series after the poor reception Andromeda received this week. While there's a good chance it has sold very well, the fact that it has a Metacritic score of just 74 and a user rating that's even lower has to mean the studio is taking a long hard look at whatever it does next. Later, Simon and Miguel argue over Simon's wishes to see a future Zelda game with more realistic, higher-fidelity visuals

In just a few short days we'll all have the pleasure of playing Mass Effect Andromeda and complaining about its weird animation and oddly scripted story, but for now you'll just have to make do with us moaning about it for 20 minutes. After we suck all the fun out of one game you're looking forward to playing, we move on to trying to pin down the dichotomy that is Ghost Recon Wildlands. On one hand it's a brilliantly realized sandbox shooter, and on the other its a clumsy attempt at tackling contemporary geopolitics. Could they have done it better? Finally, Miguel enlightens us on his latest obsession: the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game.

With Simon out sick, this week we're joined by Area 5's Ryan O'Donnell to really dig into what we love most about the breathtaking The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Prepare yourself for a full-on blast of unbridled enthusiasm. Before we do that and put Rachel to sleep though, John walks us through the next batch of PlayStation VR games (including Starblood Arena, the awesome-sounding Descent-style multiplayer shooter) and we talk about how Ghost Recon Wildlands reminds us of the Far Cry games.

Between the four of us, we definitely have some mixed feelings about the Switch so far. We're all in agreement that Zelda is an incredible achievement, and probably one of the best games that Nintendo has ever made, but we definitely have some misgivings about the device itself – both the hardware (especially the Joy-Cons, which are an acquired taste) and the system software. For all the advancements we've seen on PC, mobile and other consoles (including some of Nintendo's own) there's a lot about the Switch that feels incredibly out of date. 

Also on this episode – a special piece of exclusive #content – the first ever audio unboxing of a Nintendo Switch, freshly delivered by the UPS guy.

We manage to talk about the completely brilliant PlayStation 4-exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn for over an hour without really spoiling anything major. At least we hope so. Much as we were desperate to talk about some of the major story beats and crazy sci-fi reveals from later in the game, Rachel kept us in check with an air horn.

We talk about the big news story of the week – as first reported by the Wall Street Journal – PewDiePie, AKA Felix Kjellberg – the most successful YouTube personality in the world – being dropped by Disney subsidiary Maker Studios after he released videos duping semi-clueless contractors from the online task marketplace Fiverr into brandishing a sign that read "death to all Jews," and paid a guy to dress up like Jesus and expunge Hitler of his sins.

Then, to lighten the mood, Rachel tells us all about Arkane's upcoming "Dishonored in space" game, Prey.

John and Simon desperately wanted to tell you about Horizon Zero Dawn, but they're not really allowed to until next week. That certainly didn't stop them from trying though.

After we so confidently predicted on last week's podcast that Destiny 2 couldn't possibly be released this year, Activision went and announced that the game would be out before the end of the year. We talk about this, what the next "traditional combat' Call of Duty from Sledgehammer Games might be, and ponder what the three virtual reality games that Valve has said it's making might be (our bet: something Portal.) Later in the show, we discuss the fact that this year's big gaming expo E3 2017 will be open to the public for the first time, with 15,000 tickets going on sale on Monday. What can you expect if you're lucky enough to score a ticket? Could it possibly be worth the $250 asking price?