Welcome to Pause Screen’s first episode of the new year! Over the holidays William’s picked up Ring Fit Adventure plus Xenoblade, Kaz has been enjoying more WoW, and Kyle’s played a ton of Resident Evil, Blaster Master 0, and Bravely Second. On the hype train, we talk Nier: Automata’s last secret, what Lucasfilm Games means for Star Wars (and Indiana Jones!) games, Scott Pilgrim’s physical release, and more! We also interrupt ourselves with plenty of tangents, such as ‘what is a Soulslike?’ and more Important Topics. We also discuss how we fared with last year’s resolutions to finish up! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Fan finally found Nier: Automata’s last secret: a hard-coded cheat code at the beginning of the game to take you to the end credits and unlock all of the bonus modes in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj95Gumb-_8 
• Ubisoft is making an open world Star Wars game, from the team that did The Division https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-game-ubisoft-open-world-story-the-division-massive 
• Related, Lucasfilm Games is the new label for all games Star Wars. Sounds like they’re branching out from EA. https://www.starwars.com/news/lucasfilm-games 
• Bethesda and Machine Games are doing an Indiana Jones game https://twitter.com/bethesda/status/1349023307228704770 
• Scott Pilgrim is getting a physical release
• Nintendo is buying Next Level Games (the Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon/3 people)
• Pokemon Snap Coming April 30, 2021
• Cd projekt red has owned up to it’s mistakes and commits to quality moving forward https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/1349462362764537862?s=09

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Christmas is over
• Hogwarts Legacy postponed to 2022

Discussion:

New Year’s resolutions!

William 

• 2020: ‘I just need to find more time to actually game’
• 2021: repeat

Kyle 

• 2020: ‘Only buy 3 games per month for the first 6 months of the year and not worry about my backlog or how many games I beat this year’
• 2021- play less, and become a fan of a relevant game

Laura 

• 2020: ‘Get to 250 mounts in WoW’
• 2021 – Un ashamedly enjoy videos games

It’s nearly the holidays, and we’re here with another episode of Pause Screen! William’s still taking it easy on games with just FGO, while Kaz is immersing herself in WoW, but also had time for Bugsnax, Civ 6, and even some HotS, and Kyle has triumphed over La-Mulana, Fall Guys Season 3, Resident Evil 3 remake, and Mad Rat Dead. On the Hype Train, we talk Sephiroth in Smash, the Game Awards, Diablo Immortal’s alpha, and more! We also visit the sad train with the eventful Cyberpunk 2077 launch, CDPR’s PR difficulties, and we finish that up with some good ol’ EA purchasing another studio. Then, to close us out, we talk about what it means to love art, whether or not it has good ratings. Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The Game Awards happened and no one cares
  • Sephiroth is in Smash soon, which is wild
  • Mass Effect will exist again in 15 years
  • Dragon Age has more concept art than last year
  • Back 4 Blood got revealed
  • Ghosts N Goblins Resurrection is fugly
  • Super Meat Boy Forever is finally coming out on 12/23
  • Ruined King: A League of Legends Story looks like Battlechasers 2, which I guess I’m on board for
• Nintendo had an Indie World presentation and no one cares (AMONG US on SWITCH?!)
  • Except Spelunky 1 and 2 are coming to Switch, which is neat
  • Also Dicey Dungeons is out on Switch now too, which is also neat
• Diablo immortal tech alpha is starting, mostly for Australians but you can try to get in. https://twitter.com/DiabloImmortal/status/1339708451346378752?s=20
• Bravely Default II final demo is out

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Cyberpunk was inflicted upon the gaming public
  • Epilepsy, shady review practices, death threats, and genitals abound.
  • They also had a train wreck of a board call about the game. Highlights here: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/kd926z/cdpr_board_call_some_highlights_and_full_recording/ 
  • Sony has now pulled the game from sale and is offering a full refund to anyone who bought it digitally https://www.playstation.com/en-ie/cyberpunk-2077-refunds/ 
• CDPR also announced that Devotion was coming out on GOG, but then immediately decided it wasn’t anymore because China told them not to. https://twitter.com/redcandlegames/status/1339148313032060929?s=21
  https://twitter.com/GOGcom/status/1339227388438306817 
• Take 2 was going to buy Codemasters for $900m, but then EA showed up with $1.25b. The consolidation of the industry continues https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/12/ea-agrees-to-purchase-codemasters-create-a-massive-racing-game-powerhouse/ 

Discussion:

• Loving ‘bad’ games and cult of objective quality    https://kotaku.com/its-okay-to-love-bad-art-1845859275 

The next gen is here and we’re so excited! too bad our episode had some technical difficulties (or human stupidity?) and most the episode was lost, we still gush over Xbox Series X and Kaz recounts her experience so far with the PS5. in the news we talk about Mass Effect Legendary Edition (No, Andromeda didn’t happen), Phil Spencer trying to keep Elden Ring relevant, and the Roblox ‘Oof’ kerfuffle. Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Mass Effect Legendary Edition got announced—it’s a compilation of all 3 ME games plus all their DLC. No, Andromeda didn’t happen. Sounds like it’s a remaster, with some updated textures and whatnot here and there. They also confirmed that they’re working on the next ME game, though it sounds like it’s a looooong ways out. https://blog.bioware.com/2020/11/07/happy-n7-day-4/ 
• Elden Ring still exists, Phil Spencer has been playing it https://www.gamespot.com/articles/phil-spencer-has-played-quite-a-bit-of-elden-ring-calls-it-miyazakis-most-ambitious-game/1100-6484314/ 

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Roblox is turning the ‘oof’ death noise into a microtransaction, since it was apparently stolen from a game called Messiah. You will have to pay $1 to say oof. This is peak internet. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54902039 

After a short break, Pause Screen is back and a lot has happened over the past month! Kyle’s checking out some new releases with Xcourgebringer, Gonner 2, Crash 4, Fall Guys season 2, and the XCloud version of Bloodstained. Kaz has finished her GB Macro product, and has played Shadows of War, Animal Crossing, pre-patch WoW, and a little bit of the Age of Calamity demo. William is also partaking of the demo, and has also checked out Genshin Impact, and is just about done with Xenoblade Chronicles. On the Hype Train, we talk the surprise Nintendo Partner Direct, the PS5 UI, the Demon’s Souls remake trailer, the FFXVI website, Cyberpunk delays, Halo Infinite troubles, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Nintendo had another random partner mini-Direct
  • Hyrule Warriors: AoC got a demo
  • Bravely Default 2 comes out February 21, took fan feedback and made changes
  • No More Heroes 1 & 2 are out on Switch
  • Control and Hitman 3 will be streamable on Switch
• Sony unveiled the PS5 UI
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TBPrYJDoDE
  • Cards for each thing you can do in a game
  • In-game guides
  • Looks like PS4 and PS3 had a baby
• Destruction All-Stars delayed to February, will be on PS+ for two months instead of being $70 https://blog.playstation.com/2020/10/26/destruction-allstars-coming-to-playstation-plus-in-february/ 
• FE1 is getting a surprise localisation for the 30th anniversary. Limited availability, though
• Demon’s Souls got a new gameplay trailer, looks a little bit more grim. They also confirmed they’ll have a filter to make it look more like the old game’s desolate feel, so it’s not just me that thinks that’s a thing. But man, the game is real pretty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiDpDKGhGps
• Square just put up a website for FFXVI, featuring details about the world and characters https://na.finalfantasyxvi.com
• Bugsnax is on PS+ for November, essentially making it a pack-in
• Next gen hype check-in

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Cyberpunk got delayed again, this time 3 weeks. It comes out December 10th… for now.
• Halo Infinite’s director has left the project, apparently has been replaced by the Joe Staten hire https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1321494790098354177?s=21 

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