Podcast Unlocked

By IGN

Games & Hobbies Video Games

What's Podcast Unlocked about?

Love Xbox? IGN's Podcast Unlocked is your source for everything Xbox One and Xbox 360. If you live and breathe Halo, Gears of War, Forza, and more, Podcast Unlocked has you covered. Tune in every week for the latest video game news for Xbox junkies around the globe.

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LAST EPISODE

Halo Infinite: Reacting to ...

10.26.2021

With six minutes of new Halo Infinite campaign footage to chew on, we spend a lot of time in this episode reacting to the footage we've all been waiting over a year to see. We talk about the open world, ...

Podcast Unlocked episodes:

10.26.2021 Halo Infinite: Reacting to the New Campaign Footage With six minutes of new Halo Infinite campaign footage to chew on, we spend a lot of time in this episode reacting to the footage we've all been waiting over a year to see. We talk about the open world, ...
10.19.2021 New Avowed Details Emerge as Xbox Celebrates 20 Years - Podcast Unlocked 516 A plethora of new details about Avowed emerged this last week from Windows Central's Jez Corden who reports that it's deep into development and will feature destructible environments, and elements Pillars of Eternity fans are familiar with. We brought Jez ...
10.12.2021 Surprising No One, Forza Horizon 5 Is Awesome It's the busy fall games season and we've got a LOT to talk about, from Forza Horizon 5 preview impressions (spoiler: it's absurdly good) to Back 4 Blood first impressions, the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remasters being real, Ubisoft's latest ...
10.05.2021 Xbox in Japan: Why We’re Optimistic Xbox boss Phil Spencer reaffirms his commitment to supporting the Japanese game market and Japanese-developed games. We discuss what needs to happen and what we'd like to see. Plus: our impressions of Big Team Battle in Halo Infinite's second weekend ...
09.28.2021 Halo Infinite's Multiplayer Is Glorious (So Far) Two big topics dominate this week's episode. First and foremost is our recap and analysis of the first weekend of the second Halo Infinite multiplayer test flight. We were all incredibly impressed by what 343 has put together so far. ...
09.21.2021 This Fall Is FPS Heaven Battlefield 2042's short delay has set up a heck of a Fall/holiday season for first-person shooter fans. We discuss each of the five major FPS games out between now and the end of the year: Far Cry 6, Back 4 ...
09.14.2021 Star Wars: KOTOR Is Back...but Not on Xbox Beloved original Xbox classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (aka KOTOR) is back as...a timed PlayStation 5 exclusive? We discuss the strange circumstances of this long-awaited revival, from the exclusivity deal to the developer behind it and more. ...
09.07.2021 Alan Wake Is Back! Alan Wake is back and we are incredibly excited. Will this lead to the long-awaited sequel? We discuss... Plus: it's time to give Psychonauts 2 its flowers after an incredible journey that began in the early days of the original ...
08.31.2021 Analyzing Halo Infinite’s Release Date and Hardware Surprises Halo Infinite finally has a release date, and it's not what any of us would've guessed. We analyze what the December date may or may not mean, celebrate both the unsurprising special-edition Halo controller and the definitely-surprising special-edition Halo Infinite ...
08.25.2021 Reacting to Xbox's Gamescom Showcase We recorded this episode live immediately following the Xbox Showcase at Gamescom. We discuss why we thought this was a poor overall showing for Xbox due to pacing and notable game absences like Halo Infinite, Bright Memory Infinite, Scorn, and ...
08.18.2021 GTA Remaster Rumor: Why We’re Excited A credible rumor suggests that Rockstar is preparing to release an Unreal Engine remaster of the Grand Theft Auto 3/Vice City/San Andreas trilogy. We discuss the technical side of that, the financial side of it, which one we're most excited ...
08.10.2021 Buckle Up for Xbox’s Big Gamescom Show Xbox announces its big Gamescom event. We make our predictions for what we think we're going to see, along with what we think we might not see at this particular event. Plus: our highlights from the second Xbox Twitch indie ...
08.03.2021 Xbox's Great Weekend with Halo Infinite's Impressive Tech Preview and the Ascent It was a big weekend for Xbox. In this episode we break down the different modes and experiences we tried in the Halo Infinite tech preview, share thoughts on The Ascent, and explore the question that will never die: does ...
07.27.2021 Dead Space Remake: Is EA Back in Gamers' Good Graces? EA's just-announced Dead Space remake leads us to discuss whether or not EA has turned the corner and started to re-earn gamers' trust. Plus: our impressions of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X and S, a bit on Death's ...
07.21.2021 We Need to Talk About Tom Clancy’s XDefiant Reactions to Ubisoft's new Tom Clancy-universe-blending first-person shooter XDefiant have been polarizing, to say the least. We spend the bulk of the show discussing the controversial game announcement, from the challenges it faces to why it's upsetting some Clancy game ...
07.15.2021 FPS Games to Level Up...in the Cloud? With word from Battlefield 2042 developer DICE that cloud computing will soon level up the capabilities of first-person shooters, we discuss what we'd like to see and what we think we'll see. Plus: what we hope the studio formerly known ...
07.06.2021 Xbox Goes '90s In this episode of Unlocked, the crew joined by Taylor Lyles discusses Microsoft's team up with All-4-One for a neat "I Swear" Xbox All Access remix, revisits the Phil Spencer interview from Unlocked 500, theorizes what could be happening with ...
06.30.2021 Phil Spencer Interview: 20 Years of Xbox We celebrate the 500th episode of IGN's long-running Xbox podcast in the best way we can think of: by hanging out with the Head of Xbox himself, Phil Spencer, who has been at Xbox since Day One. We talk to ...
06.17.2021 E3 2021 Was Xbox’s Best E3 Ever This episode was recorded live immediately after the Xbox Extended E3 Showcase, hosted by Gamertag Radio's Parris Lilly. Parris joins us for this episode to discuss Xbox's big E3 games (like Halo Infinite, Redfall, Starfield, Forza Horizon 5, and many ...
06.08.2021 12 Xbox E3 Predictions As E3 2021 looms, it's time for our annual E3 predictions episode! We make a dozen total predictions about what we think we're going to see at Xbox's E3 press conference. And then make sure to join us live for ...
06.01.2021 The Holiday 2021 Xbox Calendar Starts to Fill in As E3 2021 looms, the big games are starting to show their hand. We discuss the recent gameplay reveals for Far Cry 6 and Dying Light 2 – both of which also got firm Fall release dates. Plus: Bungie's next ...
05.25.2021 Outer Worlds' Xbox Future Just Got a Bit Clearer Microsoft takes full control over Obsidian's Outer Worlds franchise from Private Division, so we discuss what that means for the future. Plus: Starfield's release window becomes clearer, No Man's Sky gets a thematically appropriate Mass Effect Easter egg, and more!
05.19.2021 Why We Love Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is out and we spend most of the show discussing it, from whether or not it was worth the wait (hint: it was), to what we think of Mass Effect 1's quality-of-life upgrades, to how it ...
05.12.2021 Gears and Fable's Next-Gen Tech Revealed As Fable and Gears of War's next-gen tech is revealed, we discuss what their new engines mean for the future of those franchises - and the franchises around them. Plus: our impressions of Resident Evil Village, 12 Minutes, what we ...
05.05.2021 Halo Infinite's Tempting PC Features Halo Infinite details its impressive PC features and options, leading some of the Unlocked crew to ponder whether to stick with it on Xbox or move to PC. Plus: the Xbox Compatibility Team drops another batch of FPS Boost games, ...
04.27.2021 Xbox Series X Goes Big on 120fps The Xbox compatibility team delivers again by boosting a ton of fairly recent EA games -- including Battlefield V and Titanfall 2 -- up to 120fps on Xbox Series X. Plus: Respawn incubates a new game, It Takes Two gets ...
04.20.2021 xCloud's Apple Launch Is Key to Xbox's Master Plan Another big week for Xbox! We talk about why we think xCloud's long-awaited Apple/iOS rollout is key for the future of the Xbox platform, Discord turning down Microsoft's $10 billion offer, Psychonauts 2 and Xbox's underrated 2021 lineup, Resident Evil ...
04.13.2021 What if the Kojima-Xbox Rumor Is True? The gaming community is buzzing about a hot rumor that Microsoft is in talks with legendary game developer Hideo Kojima to develop his next game for Xbox. We humor the rumor and discuss what it would mean for Xbox, as ...
04.06.2021 Xbox Game Pass Is Getting Sony Exclusives Now Xbox Game Pass is on such a roll that it's landing first-party Sony games now! MLB The Show 21 is a huge get for Game Pass. We discuss MLB's smart, forward-thinking move as well as the incredibly momentum of the ...
03.30.2021 Should Call of Duty Go Back to WWII AGAIN? With Sledgehammer reportedly back in the Call of Duty business and prepping a World War II-set video game for this year's entry in the series, we discuss whether we even want another WWII-set CoD. Plus: It Takes Two is excellent, ...
03.23.2021 What Gotham Knights' Delay Might Mean for Rocksteady's Suicide Squad One of 2021's big releases, Gotham Knights, just got pushed to 2022. We discuss what it means not just for that game, but for Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as well. Plus: Xbox Live gets rebranded, Microsoft might ...
03.17.2021 Bethesda Makes it Rain on Xbox Game Pass Bethesda held a fantastic roundtable discussion with Phil Spencer and some of the Xbox leadership team, and we discussed our impressions of the first big post-acquisition event, from Phil's comments on exclusivity to his admiration of the id Tech engine ...
03.10.2021 Microsoft OFFICIALLY Acquires Bethesda. Now What? Big Xbox news this week as European and American regulators sign off on Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda, making the acquisition official. What will Microsoft do next? Which games will be exclusive? We discuss that and much more on ...
03.03.2021 Anthem Died So That Mass Effect and Dragon Age Might Live Lots of BioWare news to discuss this week, from Anthem's cancellation to Henry Cavill (aka Superman aka Geralt)'s Mass Effect project to Dragon Age 4 no longer being a live-service game. Plus: Xbox's Aaron Greenberg downplays recent Elden Ring rumors, ...
02.23.2021 FPS Boost Continues Xbox's Back-Compat Mastery The Xbox backwards compatibility team flexes their muscles again with FPS Boost, an unexpected and awesome new improvement to back-catalog games. We celebrate the new feature. Plus: Diablo 2's long-rumored remaster has us super excited, we wonder what's next for ...
02.17.2021 Ex-Bungie Devs’ New (Old) FPS Is Controversial We discuss the return of Six Days in Fallujah, a resurrection of a canceled 2009 game based on real-world events, including its A-list team of ex-Bungie developers and what they've said about the controversial project so far. Plus: we're excited ...
02.10.2021 343's New Halo Project? We Want a Horror Game With a job posting suggesting that 343 Industries is spinning up a new Halo game besides Halo Infinite, we speculate on what it might be – and decide we want a Halo horror game. Plus: our impressions of Xbox exclusive ...
02.03.2021 What We Think After Seeing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition To quote a line from Halo 2 in describing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: "There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?" Yes, we're talking about the long-awaited remaster of BioWare's beloved sci-fi ...
01.27.2021 Making Sense of Microsoft's Averted Xbox Live Gold Disaster What a week! There's so much to discuss on this episode, from Microsoft shockingly doubling the price of Xbox Live Gold only to just-as-shockingly walk it back later that same day, to the insane new Star Wars: Knights of the ...
01.20.2021 Where Will Ubisoft Take Star Wars? The new Lucasfilm Games publishing umbrella once again dominates our conversation this week, as the first new non-EA Star Wars game in a decade gets announced. We discuss Ubisoft and Massive's upcoming open-world Star Wars adventure, including what it might ...
01.13.2021 Will Bethesda's Indiana Jones Game Be an Xbox Exclusive? Will the just-announced Indiana Jones game from Bethesda, Machinegames, and Todd Howard be an Xbox exclusive? We discuss this fascinating announcement. Plus: is Star Wars gearing up for life after EA? And we sort through the revelation that Microsoft tried ...
01.05.2021 Discussing 10 Xbox Exclusives for 2021 Happy New Year! On our first Unlocked episode of 2021, we look ahead to the (long) list of Xbox exclusives coming this year. Plus: Gears 5: Hivebusters rocks, Fortnite's developer moves into...a mall(?), Games With Gold for January includes an ...
12.22.2020 1-on-1 With Double Fine's Tim Schafer: Psychonauts 2, Being Acquired by Microsoft, and More! Our final episode of 2020 is a special one! Ryan welcomes Tim Schafer, the head of Double Fine (aka one of the newest Xbox Game Studios), for a 40-minute conversation about life since being acquired by Microsoft. But don't fret ...
12.16.2020 Cyberpunk 2077's Current-Gen Nightmare + Perfect Dark Reboot Is Finally Real Our penultimate show in 2020 is a big one! We spend the first half of the show discussing the nightmare scenario that is Cyberpunk 2077 on the current-gen consoles. After that, we dig into the big Xbox news from The ...
12.09.2020 Analyzing BioWare's Big Shakeup Digital Foundry's John Linneman and Gamertag Radio's Danny Peña join us to talk about all sorts of Xbox stuff this week! Topics include: the future of BioWare after their big studio leadership shakeup, next-gen sports games on Xbox Series X, ...
12.02.2020 What Will Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer Be Like? What will Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer be like? Special guests Ray Apollo from Twitch and Cam Hawkins from DualShockers join Ryan and Brandin for an extra-fun episode that also discusses Microsoft's underrated next-gen efforts, more awesome stuff coming to Xbox Game ...
11.24.2020 Hitman Devs' James Bond Could Be the Best 007 Game Ever The developer of Hitman has a new James Bond game in the works. We discuss why it could be the best Bond ever. Plus: Phil Spencer says an Xbox smart TV app is closer than we think, some of us ...
11.18.2020 Analyzing the Xbox Series X\|S's Fast Start Next-gen is now officially current-gen! The Xbox Series X and S are out, and we talk about our first week of living with them. Plus: we analyze Microsoft's big first-week numbers, address shortages expected well into 2021, talk about another ...
11.11.2020 Mass Effect's Future Just Got Brighter It's the week you've been waiting for: the next-generation of Xbox has officially arrived with the Series X and Series S. We discuss the launches of Microsoft's two new consoles. Plus: EA and BioWare finally confirm Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, ...
11.06.2020 Xbox Series X Final Impressions and Audience AMA Welcome to a special two-hour episode of Unlocked that was recorded live with all of you, along with special guest panelist Parris Lilly from Gamertag Radio! We played the Series X for two hours now that the review embargo has ...

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