Welcome back to Pause Screen! This week Kaz has finished up Shadow of War and picked Animal Crossing up again, Kyle’s had the full Mario experience in Super Mario 64, Super Mario Bros 35, and Paper Mario: The Origami King, and William has finished farming season in FGO to begin the endgame in Xenoblade Chronicles. For news on the Hype Train, we talk a lot about Microsoft’s purchase of Zenimax, but we also discuss Steve in Smash, Spider-Man Remastered, the new studio Dreamhaven, CD Projekt Red’s rededication to crunch, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Nexus Mods ban all political mods https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14373
• Microsoft bought Zenimax for $7.5 freakin’ billion dollars
• Digital Foundry got their hands on the Series X’s backwards compatibility, and it looks freakin’ rad. For example, Monster Hunter World runs at 30-35 fps on the Xbox One X, while it’s at 60 fps and looks even nicer on the SX. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oe1LUJyCCs 
• Steve for Smash https://youtu.be/hA2Kyz9JFdQ 
• Michel Ancel (Rayman, Beyond Good and Evil) has left game development for good, but has been accused of abusive workplace behavior in the wake of leaving https://www.usgamer.net/articles/report-michel-ancel-beyond-good-and-evil-2-abuse-mismanagement-liberation 
• Sony detailed Spider-Man Remastered, which involves replacing Peter Parker’s face with a 14 year old’s, among other things. It looks nice! https://blog.playstation.com/2020/09/30/marvels-spider-man-remastered-detailed/ 
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity showed some gameplay, it looks nice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZB75gT8YTk 
• Mike Morhaime Founds a new Game publisher, Dreamhaven https://www.wowhead.com/news=318121/mike-morhaime-announces-new-game-company-dreamhaven 

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Warcraft: Shadowlands release date has been delayed to later this year, no specified date. But the prepatch is coming Oct 13th https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1311766412571049990?s=09
• After seeking out reporters about a year ago and committing to never doing crunch again, CD Projekt Red sent out an email to their staff this week announcing mandatory crunch for the next 6 weeks until Cyberpunk comes out. Turns out business is still gonna business. https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1311059656090038272?s=20 
  • CDPR studio head Adam Badowski responded, saying it was “one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make” and that “everyone is well compensated for their extra hours” https://twitter.com/AdamBadowski/status/1311245204356304896 

Welcome back to Pause Screen! This week Kaz has been playing Hollow Knight, Shadow of War, and has finished Death Stranding. William has finished up with Mark of the Ninja Remastered, finally returned to Xenoblade Chronicles, and is mired in a farming event in Fate/Grand Order. As for Kyle, he’s played through Touhou Luna Nights, Maneater, Fall Guys, and some more… questionable titles. On the Hype Train there’s a lot to talk about:  the long awaited prices and release dates for the new consoles, the announcement of Final Fantasy XVI and Hogwarts Legacy, new trailers, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Microsoft unveiled the Series S and pricing/release info
  • Series S is $299, Series X $499
  • Releases November 10
  • Preorders go up 9/22
  • EA Play added to Games Pass
• Sony had a Playstation Games Showcase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjji8NEW9lo 
  • Final Fantasy XVI (timed console exclusive, will launch on PC same time)
  • Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • CODBLOPS: Cold War
  • Resident Evil 8: Village
  • Deathloop (exclusive)
  • Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
  • Oddworld: Soulstorm
  • FNaF: Security Breach
  • Demon’s Souls (exclusive)
  • Fornite
  • PS Plus Collection
  • God of War: Ragnarok
  • Releases November 12, $499 with disc drive, $399 without
    • Preorders were a nightmare
• Nintendo had a Partner Showcase direct https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Q3FdosFBo 
  • Monster Hunter Rise
  • Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
  • They’re making Fitness Boxing 2 for some reason
  • Disgaea 6
  • I finally understand what kind of game Empire of Sin is
  • Sniper Elite 4
  • Hades
  • Balan Wonderworld
  • Rune Factory 5
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps (plus this and Ori 1 are getting physicals on Switch!)
• HYRULE WARRIORS AGE OF CALAMITY
• Ubisoft had their Ubiforward for September
  • Scott Pilgrim
  • Riders’ Republic
  • Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake
  • Immortals: Fenyx Rising
• 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim releases on 22

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Twitch now runs ads midstream whether you like it or not, leading to hilarious scenarios like this: 

It’s time for another episode of Pause Screen! This time, Kyle’s finally finished the futuristically fatalistic Final Fantasy VII, fully fallen into Fall Guys, and endured the fallen flat Double Kick Heroes. William has reconnected with his lost love: the Wii U Pro Controller, with which he’s played Touhou Luna Nights, Mark of the Ninja Remastered, and Hyrule Warriors. And to wrap us up, Kaz has been playing Luigi’s Mansion 3, and has returned to the handheld modding scene. On the Hype Train, we talk the Mario 35th anniversary Direct, new DC game announcements, poorly titled hashtags, the Lab Zero dissolution, being out of touch, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Nintendo did a Mario direct today for SMB’s 35th anniversary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UcjEq2Dgk
  • Original SMB Game & Watch with a color screen. $50
  • Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury on Switch. Looks like they added a new dive move, and the expansion seems neat. Confirmed to have online multiplayer
  • Super Mario Bros. 35. It’s Tetris 99, but Mario. Goes away forever 3/31/21.
  • Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
  • Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Has 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy 1. Limited release, goes away forever 3/31/21. Comes out 9/18.
• The eShop now lets you cancels pre-orders up to 7 days out, sales now have a timer on them
• Gamescom stuff
  • Ratchet and Clank gameplay demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GffelVJeGws 
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum got announced. It’s a “Prince of Persia-like stealth game” with a branching narrative https://www.ign.com/articles/gollum-lord-of-the-rings-game-prince-of-persia-stealth-branching-narrative-exclusive-trailer 
• Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad game finally got announced/unveiled https://twitter.com/suicidesquadRS/status/1297326553106325504 
• As did Gotham Knights, from WB Montreal. You get to play all of the not-Batman characters (he’s apparently dead) and do the whole Batman video game thing. But with 4 players! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhVf_3TeTQE 
• Crusader Kings 3 came out and is apparently very good
• Avengers comes out tomorrow and apparently exists
• Big Yeetus
• Game Freak put no thought whatsoever into the name of Pokemon Masters EX, a title and content update to their mobile game. The hashtag was trending this week and made me giggle; they even registered it and did the thing where the hashtag has a little icon next to it. 

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Lab Zero completely fell apart in the past 2 weeks. It went from a bunch of people quitting to Mike Z supposedly parting ways with the company to him firing everyone but himself from the company as of yesterday. Wild story, RIP Skullgirls and Indivisible. https://twitter.com/personasama/status/1301237982532231168 
• Ubisoft’s mobile game Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad launched last week. The story is about Umbra, a group of renegade protestors causing riots in the streets, committing terrorist acts, and rising up against the government to seize control. The opening cinematic literally uses the Black Lives Matter fist as this group’s insignia. It was impressively stupid of them, and they removed it as of Tuesday, but geez. https://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/1299778491811069954 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9_CLKOOp8I 
• Vlambeer (Ridiculous Fishing, Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers) is no more https://twitter.com/Vlambeer/status/1300840760296837120 
• Apple terminated Epic’s account on the App Store https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-epic-games/apple-terminates-epic-games-account-on-app-store-idUSKBN25O2YM?il=0 

Welcome back to Pause Screen! This week, Kyle’s been playing The Touryst, Xeno Crisis, Battletoads, and the original Final Fantasy VII, William’s finished his genocide run of Undertale and is moving through Fate/Extra, and Kaz has been playing Carrion, Ring Fit Adventure, and has finished The Last of Us 2. In news on the Hype Train, we talk Epic’s new legal battle, the Switch releasing in Brazil, new multiplayer modes, Oculus requiring Facebook logins, Control: Ultimate Edition and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Epic has launched itself into a massive legal battle against Apple and Google after cutting their prices for in-game Fortnite currency by 20% and bypassing the respective phone stores with their own payment system, which resulted in them getting removed from Google Play and the App Store. They’ve had a whole ‘nineteen eighty fortnite’ campaign lampooning Apple’s classic commercial, and are really trying to paint themselves as the little guy taking down the big monopolies. It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out; in the meantime, Apple is going to block all Epic dev accounts as of August 28th, which is a big deal for anyone using the Unreal Engine.
  https://www.polygon.com/2020/8/13/21366455/fortnite-ios-apple-app-store-gone-removed-v-bucks-change-discount
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ibk713/apple_has_informed_epic_games_that_it_will/
  https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/
• AGDQ started on Monday, is running entirely virtually. It’s… okay.
• The Switch is going to be released in Brazil, marking their big return after pulling out of the country in 2015 https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1296084506613624834
• Untitled Goose Game and Ghost of Tsushima are getting free multiplayer updates, but sadly no crossover play between the two games
• Microsoft Flight Simulator came out and is apparently neat
• Spiritfarer launched out of nowhere and is also apparently neat
• Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War: The Movie: The Game got announced

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• 505 Games announced Control: Ultimate Edition alongside the new trailer for the AWE expansion (the Alan Wake one). People don’t like it because to get the PS5/Series X  version of the game with ray tracing and better performance, you have to buy said ultimate edition at full $60 price. So if you bought the game/season pass on sale this past week for $40, you don’t get to have those sweet upgrades when AWE comes out. It’s kinda sleazy, but 505 says their hands are tied on it. It’s an interesting aftereffect of the split between Microsoft and Sony this gen, I think.
  https://controlgame.com/ultimateeditioncommunityblog/
• Oculus headsets will require you to log in to Facebook for full functionality (read: store access, some games not working) starting in 2023. Welcome to the dystopia! https://www.oculus.com/blog/a-single-way-to-log-into-oculus-and-unlock-social-features/
• Paradox fired its narrative lead and creative director on Bloodlines 2 out of nowhere, replacing them with a business guy to get the game out. Sounds like a troubled project. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/08/19/brian-mitsoda-has-been-fired-as-narrative-lead-on-bloodlines-2/
• Retro is hiring a lead producer on Metroid Prime 4. Can’t wait till 2027 https://twitter.com/RetroStudios/status/1294332258074218497?s=09

Time for another episode of Pause Screen! In this episode Kyle talks about Forager, Transistor, Spongebob: BfBBR, and Smash; William covers his Undertale genocide run, Fate/Extra, and what happened to his Switch; and Kaz relates her adventures with Animal Crossing, FE: Three Houses, Carrion, WoW, and the Lastu of Us 2. On the Hype Train, we talk Sony’s State of Play, xCloud, the Nintendo gigaleak, Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, recent announcements, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Sony had a State of Play today
  • Crash 4 looks great. No microtransactions (supposedly), lots of callbacks to the original trilogy. Footage was 60 FPS, hopefully that’s in the final game. And you get to play as Dingodile! Hopefully that means good things for Tiny Tiger?
  • Hitman 3 has a VR mode
  • Braid Anniversary Edition is a thing. It’s prettier, has all of the commentary
  • The Pathless exists. Also, the line “you won’t be able to take on the cursed spirits until you return light to the obelisks” is the most generic video game phrase I’ve heard in a looooong time
  • Spelunky 2 takes place on the moon, has online multiplayer
  • You can historical anime your way through Genshin Impact if you really want to
  • Aeon Must Die is a decent looking, stylish indie beat em up
    • Apparently all the devs working on Aeon Must Die quit the studio this week after missed paychecks and poor crunch conditions. This trailer was put together by contract developers from the company who still owns the IP. Seems weird on Sony’s part to still show the trailer under those conditions. https://twitter.com/calibrono/status/1291474562752950273 
  • They showed some Bugsnax gameplay, it looks like Viva Pinata had a baby with Pokemon Snap and Skyrim elements. Love the sense of humor
  • Vader Immortal is a VR game where you get to murder people as Darth Vader and are presumably immortal
  • Control’s second expansion certainly looks like more Control
  • Auto Chess coming to PS4. It’s only like 2 years too late to the party
  • The Pedestrian is a videogame that you could play. You’re the person from the walking sign platforming your way through environments. Looks like Lost in Shadow.
  • Hood: Outlaws and Legends is a 4 player 3rd person action RPG thing that looks super generic
  • Temtem (that Pokemon knockoff that everyone forgot about) is coming to PS4
  • Godfall continues to look weirdly fun to me despite being almost guaranteed to be a kinda boring launch title. They showed a bunch of gameplay and it looks comfortably generic/mediocre, and is just Destiny, but Devil May Cry with a dose of Dark Souls. You even get to adventure through the lands of earth, air, fire, and water.
• Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is going to be free to play and will support 120 FPS on the Series X https://twitter.com/Halo/status/1289298976550731776
• xCloud is launching as part of Game Pass on September 15th. It’ll allow you to play Game Pass games on Android devices, like tablets and phones. iOS is blocking it because Apple requires games to have individual listings on the App Store—they don’t allow for any kind of other storefront, even for a streaming service like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KCtXJUekyo
• Nintendo had a ‘gigaleak’ last week—that is, someone hacked into their servers and got a ton of data out. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in there (dev notes in source code for games like Starfox or Pokemon Red/Blue, early Yoshi designs, etc.), but digging through the data is quite the moral dilemma, given how it was obtained.
  https://switcher.gg/s/nintendo-news/early-prototype-wiimotewii-startup-disc-code-gigaleak-unreleased-games-nintendo-office-floor-plan/
• According to Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada, more than half of fighting game players use wifi for online matches https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2020/aug/02/over-50-percent-console-fighting-game-players-use-wi-fi-online-matches-according-katsuhiro-harada/
• Nintendo randomly pushed a Smash update with Small Battlefield and a better tickrate for 1v1 online matches on Tuesday night
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe got announced for the Switch, which means there are now like 3 Wii U games that haven’t been ported yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSSQ0Z6eDhU
• PS4 has sold over 112 million units, Switch has now sold 61.5 million
• Fall Guys came out, already has over 1.5 million players
• Horizon: Zero Dawn came out on PC, is a solid port
• Microsoft Flight Simulator came out, is apparently really neat
• All Xbone controllers will work with the Series X. They’ve said this before, but it’s worth reiterating given the next news story…  https://twitter.com/xboxuk/status/1290295664019222528

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• PS4 controllers will only work to play PS4 games on the PS5, although your PSVR headset will still work with a free adapter https://blog.playstation.com/2020/08/03/playstation-5-answering-your-questions-on-compatible-ps4-peripherals-accessories/
• Spider-Man in Square’s Avengers game is going to be exclusive to PS4 https://blog.playstation.com/2020/08/03/a-friendly-neighborhood-spider-man-lends-a-helping-hand-to-earths-mightiest-heroes-in-2021/
• EA launched Rocket Arena a few weeks ago, which was their attempt at a hero shooter. It launched for $40. It’s already on clearance in most stores for $10 or less. Two weeks after its 7/14 release, it had 142 concurrent players at its peak. It’s a pretty spectacular failure, and really speaks to the realities of making a multiplayer-focused game in the modern era. https://www.ccn.com/ea-new-multiplayer-game-rocket-arena-total-failure/

Here is another episode of Pause Screen! This episode Kyle and William are Kaz-less, and have no one to stop them from complaining about games they don’t like. Luckily, they’ve been playing games that they like well enough, with Carrion, Neon Abyss, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, and Smash on Kyle’s side, and Undertale, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and Xenoblade on William’s side. After an impromptu discussion about the nature of violence and narratives in video games, we jump onto the Hype Train to cover the Xbox Games Showcase, UbiForward, the Nintendo Direct Mini, some recent releases, and more! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Microsoft had their big Xbox Games Showcase today, which was similar to Sony’s event last month in a whole lot of ways. Few AAA releases, no details on release date or price, and lots and lots of cinematics. However, we did get a meaty Halo Infinite demo to open the show.
  • Halo Infinite
  • Fable
  • Forza Motorsport
  • Everwild
  • Avowed
  • Grounded
  • The Medium
  • Psychonauts 2
  • The Gunk
  • New Genesis Phantasy Star Online 2
  • Crossfire X campaign (developed by Remedy)
  • Tetris Effect Connected
  • Destiny 2: Beyond Light
• Dragon Quest 11SWAEFOUWEOEFUODSIGOFDGA is coming to Xbone in December, will be on Games Pass
• Microsoft is launching xCloud in September, will integrate it with the Games Pass subscription https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/16/21326797/microsoft-xcloud-launch-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-free
• Ubisoft held UbiForward (their not-E3 conference) on 7/12
  • Far Cry 6
  • Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  • Watch Dogs Legion
  • Hyperscape
• Ghost of Tsushima and Paper Mario: The Origami King came out, got decent reviews. 
• Rocket League is finally going free to play
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales will have an ‘optional 60fps/4k performance mode’, which I’m assuming will downgrade detail to enhance performance. Also, the replies to that tweet are amazing. https://twitter.com/insomniacgames/status/1285225145909620736

In this episode of Pause Screen we have a hard talk about terrible things that have been going on in several gaming communities. We need to talk about things more to help stop things like this from happening in the future.  In the news we talk about upcoming Limited Run Games, including some Game Boy Color games, Deadly Premoniton 2, NBA 2K21 use of Kobe Bryany and standard edition price, the next gen of games look and prices and the future of physical media and more.  Come pause with us! But in all seriousness, we can make our communities better, be kind, keep an eye out for red flags and keep each other safe. 

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Limited Run games had their “LRG3” showcase, where they announced a bunch of games they’re releasing physically. They have a lot of nice stuff coming, with Castlevania

Anniversary Collection and Shantae on GBC being my personal highlights. https://limitedrungames.com/blogs/news/lrg3-2020

• Deadly Premonition 2 came out and is performing exactly as you would expect it to, both critically and technically
• Game announcements
  • Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, a Temple Run ripoff phone game
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
  • Steelrising, from the folks who did Greedfall https://twitter.com/PlaySteelrising/status/1280552156530016258
  • Superhot: Mind Control Delete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-ismbvR9g
• NBA 2K21 got announced, and will be $70 for the standard version. Think that’s going to be the new price for next gen? Also, they have a Kobe Bryant version for their expensive collector’s set, which feels real sleazy to me. Also also, you have to buy the collector’s edition to get the PS5 upgrade. https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311250/nba-2k21-playstation-5-xbox-series-x-versions-70-dollars-next-gen-price-increase-games
• Capcom says 80% of its sales are digital, and that number is rising https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-capcom-says-game-sales-are-80-percent-digital-and-rising
• We now know what PS5 box art will look like https://blog.playstation.com/2020/07/09/first-look-box-art-for-upcoming-ps5-games/

SAD TRAIN

• Turns out the entire competitive Smash Ultimate scene was made up of sexual predators and pedophiles. And sleazebags making false allegations against M2K. And even the Reddit megathread tracking everything got taken down thanks to mass reporting, so there isn’t a central source for all of this anymore. It’s a complete and utter disaster that will take years to rebuild from. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53308579
• On that note, EVO Online has been cancelled after all their announcers/games left when people came forward with accusations against Joey Cuellar, aka Mr. Wizard. He’s since been ousted, with Tony Cannon taking control, but it’ll be interesting to see how it impacts the event going forward.
• Reckful, a popular Twitch streamer and WoW player, took his own life earlier this week. It’s a sad reminder to take care of yourself as the world falls apart.

It’s time for another episode of Pause Screen! This week, Kaz has picked 3 Houses back up and watched some video game movies, William is stalled in Xenoblade and admiring the FGO engine update, and Kyle is playing Timespinner, Death’s Gambit, and all sorts of garbage on the Xbox 360. As for news, we talk about the Mixer’s sudden shutdown, a new wave of allegations, Cyberpunk delays and anime, Pokemon announcements, Crash 4 and more! Then to finish, we have an impromptu discussion about video game media and touch on how much we value gameplay and story integration. Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Crash 4 got announced! After being almost completely leaked. Geoff Keighley looked sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOGwx3Ju6QQ
• The Pokemon Company unveiled New Pokemon Snap (and Pokemon Smile, and cafe) last week, followed by Pokemon Unite this week. As always, fans are unhappy.
• The new Smash character is Min Min from ARMS. She looks like Incineroar’s worst nightmare. Also, there’s a Vault Boy Mii Gunner skin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_NNyXaBW-I
• EA announced a new proper Skate game, though it’s very very early. The creative and game directors seem jazzed, though. https://twitter.com/EA/status/1273764835080024064
• Star Wars Squadrons got leaked and then announced, looks pretty decent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCcfJ9uEwvs 
• The Last of Us 2 came out to critical acclaim and internet bickering
• There was a lot of drama about whether or not Spider-Man Miles Morales was a full game or an expansion. Insomniac settled it by citing Uncharted: Lost Legacy, just like we did two weeks ago. We’re so good.
• The Brothers and A Way Out people are doing another co-op story game that will EMOTIONS you, it’s called It Takes Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blwlcwlAXwA
• There were a bunch of other trailers for a bunch of other games, but it’s hard to cover them all because not having E3 freakin’ sucks
• Gonna turn this into an anime podcast for a bit… Cyberpunk 2077 Edgedancers, TWEWY both getting anime
• 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim getting localised in September https://wccftech.com/atlus-upcoming-13-sentinels-aegis-rim-finally-dated-for-september-release/

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• There’s been another huge wave of sexual assault and other allegations through many communities, gaming included. Big names include Chris Avellone (game designer, working on stuff like Vampire 2 and Dying Light 2, worked on Fallout New Vegas and Planescape Torment, was co-founder of Obsidian), Tobi Dawson (Dota 2 caster), and Ashraaf Ismail (game director for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla), and lots of esports players(method Josh) in various communities https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-06-24/video-game-industry-rocked-by-outpouring-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations 
• Microsoft unexpectedly shut down Mixer on 6/22. Big bummer for that community, but it’s not surprising given that they had .2% growth year over year compared to everyone else’s 60-100%, and that’s after paying folks like Shroud and Ninja 8 digits to come over to the platform.
  MS worked things out to hand off to Facebook Gaming, which apparently is a streaming platform. They’ve since confirmed that there won’t be FBG integration into the Series X, though; I assume they’ll work something out with Twitch.
• Cyberpunk got delayed again to 2077 November 19. Seems like a good window for a console launch, doesn’t it?

https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/1274782037619048449?s=09 confirmed there will be no more warcraft movies. I am very sad

Things might be crazy, but Pause Screen is still here! Kaz is still working on the WoW gold grind, Kyle’s been playing Minecraft Dungeons,Yooka-Laylee, Kororinpa: Marble Mania, and Shovel Knight, and William begins to tell the tale of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. In the hype train, we talk Sony’s ‘Future of Gaming’ PS5 event, and a ton of the games that were shown. We also talk about EA on steam, Microsoft and mods, the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, and the sorrow of E3 being dead. Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Sony’s big PS5 event was today!
  • Opened with GTA5, which might be the worst choice I could’ve conceived of
  • The console looks like a fake one designed for a TV show, but it’s real. Comes in digital and physical versions, physical has this tumor of a disc drive on the side. Unclear if you can put it on its side, but I’m betting you can.
  • Demon’s Souls (sixth archstone?) fractured mode?
  • Horizon 2: Forbidden West
  • Stray
  • Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (now with OCs)
  • Resident Evil: Vil.l.age
  • Ghostwire: Tokyo
  • Returnal
  • Dramatic high school dinosaur people with hair
• Sony doubled down on their “we believe in generations” statement in the event. Thoughts? It has big repercussions on digital libraries, and I think it represents a big gulf in their thinking vs. Microsoft’s
• EA has been putting a bunch of its games on Steam, prepping to launch EA Access (their subscription service) on the platform https://www.gematsu.com/2020/06/battlefield-1-3-4-v-and-hardline-mass-effect-3-and-andromeda-and-star-wars-battlefront-i-and-ii-now-available-via-steam
• The Microsoft store on PC now allows for mods (in beta) https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-beta-store-pc-starts-adding-mod-support-games-includes-design-tweaks
• Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Man, this year’s E3 is great! Right, guys?

This week we’re Williamless, but Kaz and Kyle make up for it by playing World of Warcraft, Animal Crossing, Indivisible, Minecraft Dungeons, and more. On the Hype Train, we round up all the latest next gen rumors and news—from Xbox backwards compatability and HDR reconstruction to Sony’s rumored PS5 reveal next week. We close out by talking about Valve’s excursion to China, free Raymonds for the people, the possible return of a long-lost classic and more! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The rumor mill says Sony is going to have a PS5 conference on June 3rd https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1265645230973308929
• Sony had a State of Play about The Last of Us II. It’s definitely The Last of Us 2. Lots of cursing, very… squishy audio. Very pretty, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eML5icfq5VM
• Microsoft put out a big writeup on the backwards compatibility of the Series X. Highlights include that old games will run natively on the SX, HDR reconstruction that applies it to OG Xbox and 360 games, quick resume (game suspension) for old titles, and even special techniques to increase frame rate and resolution on select old games https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/05/28/xbox-series-x-next-generation-backward-compatibility/
• Game Pass has 5x the subscribers of Playstation Now, which could have some big ramifications for the next consoles https://www.businessinsider.com/xbox-game-pass-is-much-bigger-than-playstation-now-2020-5
• A hacker is giving free Raymonds out to everyone in Animal Crossing, which is upsetting the black market https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/21/21266398/animal-crossing-new-horizons-raymond-hacking-nintendo-switch-villager-black-market-free-nook-miles
• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition got good reviews
• Ubisoft and Brian O’Malley (the author of Scott Pilgrim) are teasing the game’s return. I’m betting Limited Run does a print of it this summer, they’ve been teasing it too. https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-potentially-teasing-return-of-delisted-scott-pilgrim-game
• The 3DS’s OS source code has been leaked and posted online along with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Look forward to near perfect emulation, I guess. https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-leaks-ultimate-3ds-os-source-code-has-been-leaked-and-pok%C3%A9mon-d-p.211467/
• Remember that story about G2A offering to reimburse devs who could prove they sold illegally obtained keys and Wube Software (the Factorio people) took them up on it? Well, turns out they were right and G2A is paying them $40K, 10x the full value of the 200 keys their own internal audit found were illegally obtained/sold. Sounds like they’re trying to clean up their act, though. https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/20/21265275/g2a-confirms-it-sold-stolen-game-keys
• Valve has an alpha of their Chinese Steam client up. IT does things like block users from playing games between 10 PM and 8 AM, hides community content unless it’s been government approved, and shows the user a healthy gaming advisory upon starting any game. Everyone really wants that money. https://win.gg/news/4554/valve-quietly-releases-censored-steam-china-client-to-alpha
• 2K’s marketing spend is slated to be double its usual in 2024. People thought it was for GTA6, but they clarified that Rockstar would be handling those expenses and that these are for ‘commitments to third parties’. Any guesses on what would be this big for them? My money’s on a big Bioshock release or something to do with sports. https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-6-release-date-2023-2024

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Blizzcon got cancelled, will likely have online stuff early next year instead https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/23434523
• Evo is online only and will now host tourneys for MK11, Them’s Fightin’ Herds, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, and Killer Instinct instead, with ‘special exhibitions and content’ from all the original lineup except for Smash. https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/14/21258675/evo-2020-online-dates-smash-bros-ultimate-lineup
• Amazon’s Crucible released to poor reviews https://opencritic.com/game/9471/crucible