News broke that The Legend of Zelda will be adapted into a live action feature film. TLoZ will be directed by Wes Ball, who helmed all three Maze Runner films, as well as Kingdom of the Apes (releasing soon). He's a filmmaker with a background in VFX, so I think it is safe to say that the majority of this film will be green screen and visual effects heavy. But what else can we extrapolate about the coming film?

2023 has been a banner year for gaming and it isn't even over! It's a good problem to have, but it is almost definitely a result of the bullwhip from the pandemic. Sony especially doesn't seem to be talking about much coming in 2024. Add in the layoffs that have been happening and we have to ask: are we in for a weak 2024?

You ever play a game that is just... good? Good graphics, well made, nothing particularly wrong with it - but it's just... Fine? That's how Matt is feeling about Spiderman 2. Maybe it's because it is a sequel that came too quick, or maybe it's the realistic graphics. We're diving into what's missing. Oh and console wars. We are gonna talk about the banality of console wars some too.

Today was marred by the tragic news of fLoE passing. He was a well known personality in the FGC and a common sight at tourneys. He was taken too young, and our thoughts are with his family. As seems natural, while talking about fLoE we got onto the subject of icons in fighting games, which led into what makes a game iconic. How would you replicate that?

A 10 outta 10 episode on 10/10 get it?

I wish there was some cool story as to how this topic came about but it really was a "you're a ten outta ten" joke that made Matt go down a rabbit hole of ten out of ten games from ten different consoles. I did my best to throw at least a couple curve balls for the long time listeners while Matt brought the culture of retro games.

Matt's been shouting it from the rooftops and singing it on every corner, but if you've missed it: he loves Lies of P. The clever adaptation of Pinocchio into a grimdark soulsborne action fantasy has us thinking what other public domain stories could make for a great game - and what genres would they fit.

Tokyo Game Show has just wrapped up. We talk about the surprises of the show, some news about exclusivity for 3rd parties, industry speculations, and Kamiya leaving Platinum.

We waited to record until we were able to read the big Microsoft Leak for ourselves. Personally, I feel it is a big nothingburger. And so far as I can tell, the only people hyping this as a big deal are engagement farmers on Twitter.

That being said: there is some value to what this confirms about how Microsoft, and by extension executives think about mergers, acquisitions and the future of gaming et al. So, let's dig into it!

It's my birthday episode! And the planned topic was "what makes a game 'cinematic' and what are the best cinematic games out there." But then a few big pieces of news dropped - and we knew we wanted to talk about that too. So, the first half of this episode is about Unity, Embracer Group and ESA (E3) news, while the back half is about the planned topic.

It sounds eclectic but it actually works pretty well.

It's been a bit of a packed year for games. Maybe that's because the Pandemic caused a crunch that is only now whip lashing onto the market. Who knows but one side effect has been: many games, good games, have come out and been forgotten in the pack.