Good Gains, Well Played

It's been a weird week of news with the lukewarm PS5 Pro announcement, the stealth PS5 controller price hike, more Microsoft layoffs, and Annapurna's gaming team quitting. 

However, in the backend Isli gives his final impressions of Astro Bot and I talk about my 11 hours with Forever Skies early access.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:26 PS5 Pro
- 13:45 PS5 Controller Price Hike
- 19:13 PS+ September Additions 
- 20:05 Destiny 2 To Change Content Strategy
- 22:00 Star Wars Outlaws First Big Patch
- 26:50 Xbox Game Pass Standard Tier 
- 30:22 More Xbox Layoffs
- 32:34 Annapurna's Gaming Team Quits
- 34:54 4A Games To Remain With Embracer
What We're Playing
- 36:25 Astro Bot
- 41:00 Forever Skies
- 01:18:50 Star Wars Outlaws
- 01:26:00 Tight Secure Code Windows

The big news this episode is Sony suddenly taking Concord offline and refunding all purchases. Then, during what we've been playing, Isli talks about Astro Bot, I give updated impressions of Star Wars Outlaws, and then I talk about Chants of Sennaar after finishing it. 

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:33 Concord Goes Offline
- 20:51 Star Wars Outlaws
- 22:19 Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 
What We're Playing
- 24:30 Astro Bot
- 27:50 Star Wars Outlaws
- 42:03 Chants of Sennaar
- 55:53 YouTube's Interesting AI Chat Summary
- 01:00:12 PS5 Pro Rumors

This week Xya and I recap some highlights from the Nintendo Direct, speculate Sony's future live service plans, then in the back half I talk about the Marvel's Midnight Suns DLC and my impressions of Star Wars Outlaws.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:37 Atomfall Hands On Previews
- 01:47 PS5 Pro Leaks
- 07:01 Star Wars Outlaws PS5 Save Issue
- 08:27 Misc. Bits
- 10:00 Speculating The Future Of Sony's Live Service Games
- 23:30 Nintendo Direct
What We're Playing
- 32:00 Final Fantasy XIV
- 33:53 Sword Of Convallaria
- 37:18 Marvel's Midnight Suns DLC
- 45:53 Star Wars Outlaws
- 58:50 Sniper Elite 5

This episode we recap our favorite things shown at Gamescom this year, and then in the back half I give my initial impressions of Concord after ten hours of play. 

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:21 FFXVI PC Release Date Announced
- 01:10 August Game Pass Wave 2 Lineup
- 01:55 Gamescom Recap
What We're Playing
- 25:02 Honkai: Star Rail
- 27:31 Black Myth: Wukong
- 34:20 No Man's Sky Awkward Moment
- 36:44 Concord
- 01:02:40 The Broken Chair Incident
- 01:08:58 Geico Rant

On this episode we cover Krafton acquiring Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP, Ubisoft laying off folks at two locations, and Replaced getting delayed to 2025.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:35 Krafton Acquires Tango Gameworks And Hi-Fi Rush IP
- 08:40 Ubisoft Layoffs
- 10:33 Replaced Delayed To 2025
- 11:23 Meta Quest Gets Native HDMI Beam Support
What We're Playing
- 27:54 FFXIV
- 33:35 No Man's Sky
- 54:15 Virtual Photography At County Fairs

We've got another closure this week with Meta deciding to shutdown Ready at Dawn. We've also got an unexpected film adaptation of an unreleased video game, and the former co-founder of Arcane announcing his next project. 

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:13 Star Wars Jedi Survivor PS4/Xbox One Release Date
- 01:08 DOOM And DOOM II Enhanced Versions Announced
- 04:14 Former Arcane Co-Founder Announces New Game
- 07:33 Kingmakers Getting A Film Adaptation
- 10:30 Ready At Dawn Shuts Down
What We're Playing
- 16:42 Alan Wake 2
- 30:06 Final Fantasy XIV
- 32:40 Bloodborne And No Man's Sky

It's been another rough week in the games industry as Bungie is hit with layoffs and Game Informer has been shutdown. 

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:36 Avowed Delayed
- 04:35 Valorant Launches
- 05:07 Activision's SBMM Test
- 16:54 Layoffs At Bungie
- 34:47 Game Informer Closed
What We're Playing
- 38:10 Final Fantasy XIV & Elden Ring
- 45:18 Alan Wake 2
- 1:03:20 Baldur's Gate 3 Durge Run

It's an interesting week with the WoW dev team has unionizing, SAG-AFTRA starting their video game strike, and the Fallout London mod finally releasing.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:19 WoW Team Unionizes 
- 13:45 SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike
- 23:41 Fallout London Releases
- 29:42 Valorant Out In Open Beta
What We're Playing
- 32:20 Alan Wake 2
- 41:42 No Man's Sky, Shadow Of The Erdtree, Baldur's Gate 3
- 01:08:55 Elgato Stream Deck+ Upgrade Modules
- 01:11:18 Toilet Bowl Cleaners

While light on news we did have the announcement that Bethesda has officially unionized, though they need to work out the details with Microsoft. It'll be interesting to see what kind of waves this sends through the industry at large.

Then, after the short news section, Isli finally starts Alan Wake 2 and I finally get into Shadow of the Erdtree.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:15 Bethesda Unionizes
- 03:40 Nintendo Releases Official Joy-Con Charging Stand
- 05:40 Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 Details
- 08:40 Baldur's Gate 3 Hidden Miniquest
What We're Playing
- 13:50 Alan Wake 2
- 29:57 FFXIV Dawntrail / Shadow Of The Erdtree
- 34:00 No Man's Sky
- 46:00 Elden Ring / Shadow Of The Erdtree
Misc.
- 59:38 Air Fryer
- 01:05:48 Legendary Protein Pop Tarts
- 01:10:58 Elgato Wave 3 Mic
- 01:12:47 Rants

This week we get into the Xbox Game Pass changes, how the publisher of Manor Lords pushed back on an  outrageous post launch content claim, and in the back end I talk about my experience with Once Human.

Here are the timestamps:

Intro
News Highlight
- 00:10 Manor Lords Publisher Pushes Back
- 12:15 Xbox Game Pass Changes
- 15:28 PS Plus July Games
- 19:14 PlayStation Stars Coming Back Online
- 21:50 VR Headsets
What We're Playing
- 28:53 Shadow Of The Erdtree
- 31:47 Signalis Issues
- 33:15 Once Human
- 40:10 Helping People Through Lies Of P