YoVideogames!

Larian Studios, makers of the Divinity games, have had a massive win with regards to Baldur's Gate 3! A triumph some may call it, and now: some fans say every RPG should follow its example. The thing is BG3 is the result of a perfect storm, and while we love that it has succeeded - not every game should, or even can, follow its path.

This week's episode ranges from 70's gay porn aesthetics (my mustache, we are talking about my mustache) to an intro to Xenogears lore. It's Matt's Birthday episode, so he gets to take us on a journey into any topic he wants!

Are critics out of touch? You look at Rotten Tomatoes for instance and critics give Indy 5 a 69%(nice) while the audience gives it 88%! Does that mean the critics are wrong? I say it means they are looking for different things and in todays media landscape an aggregate score means nothing. But that leaves out another class of pseudo critic - the content creator; whose whole brand can be built on loving or hating "the thing".

And that presents a problem for audiences be it games or movies. If much of the content out there is built around tearing apart or overhyping - how do you just enjoy things anymore?

FF16 has been out for a few days now and overall it is getting a positive response. However, there does seem to be a portion of gamers who are mad the game isn't "true" open world, and it lacks traditional RPG elements. Some even claim it doesn't have classic Final Fantasy elements. We'd argue none of these points were promised, but also they are in fact in the game. And we'll go even further to say there's a strong case against open world in Final Fantasy, and maybe even games in general moving forward.

Every game should have a demo. Yes it means development might be a little longer but it already takes 5 years nowadays to complete a triple A game. Polishing a demo won't add that much to that kind of timeline and the benefits far outweigh that extra work.

All the showcases are done and now we get to say how we really feel! We feel... pretty good! There were shocking surprises, and maybe not enough gameplay for our tastes but overall it looks like 23/24 is going to be a very good time to be a gamer.

Square Enix is facing down some lack luster pre-order numbers for FF16. Granted, I don't think that means anything because in the digital age - do many people really care about pre-ordering a game? I'd say only your most hardcore audience. That being said, looking at previous sale numbers, it does seem like making FF16 a PlayStation exclusive will hurt the game long term, and if we know that, then why do it?

Poor release apology statements, released as images, are so prevalent these days that they are their own category of meme. It seems like once a month we see a statement with a remix of "we're sorry - we'll do better!" Currently, the response is to bully studios over the poor releases, but someday we will have to start voting with our wallets and stop buying new releases altogether, I guess.

Sony brought out an expansive number of announcements and trailers, but very little concrete release dates and even less actual gameplay. I wouldn't say this blew my balls off, though there was still a decent amount to be intrigued, or even excited by. Let's get into it!

This week's episode is wide ranging and inspired by how seemingly pointless the reviews are for Tears of the Kingdom, both positive and negative. Between reviewers often pumping out inane, sometimes bought and paid for reviews, and review bombing - do things like meta critic even matter anymore? Do critics matter in general, anymore? The big questions.