YoVideogames!

Deep in the gaming doldrums we caught a bit of a breeze this week as the GTA6 trailer leaked early. And we finally have something that looks next gen. It's coming 225 (or later, let's be honest) and so 2024 continues to look ugly post Q1, but who knows - maybe TGA has some surprises for us!

Sweet baby Keighley stepped in a semi soft turd this week when he decided to defend TGA decision to categorize Dave the Diver as an indie game. He said "indie" can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but that can't be true, right? There has to be a definition of what makes a game independent... Right?

Do a quick google on Sony first party games coming out in 2024. Not seeing anything? Neither are we and that adds to what seems like a bit of a slide in outlook for Sony going into next year.

Golden Joystick, Game Awards, BAFTAs - what do they all have in common? Bullshit categories. Who picks them? How are they organized? Why is it seemingly nonsensical? Now that The Game Awards has announced its nominees - let's go through some categories and try to figure this out!

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.