Kaz is out again with moving/internet problems, so it’s time for William and Kyle to go off the rails yet again. Kyle gets hooked on Splatoon 2, while William continues Nier and falling into the depths of Fire Emblem Heroes. In news, we talk Nintendo World Championships, microtransactions, Valve’s new game announcement, and Square Enix’s future. We wrap up with the best Top 5 we’ve had to date. Come pause with us!

WB decided to add a bunch of microtransactions to Middle-Earth: Shadow of War for some reason. This trend is awful.

https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Official-Announcements/Introducing-the-Market/m-p/1611183

Valve announces Artifact, a Dota 2 card game, during The International. Audience is sad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5mY8XqrHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4jPtrDCLo

 Steam now has more monthly active users than Xbox Live.

https://www.techspot.com/news/70443-steam-now-has-more-monthly-active-players-than.html

 Nintendo is doing a 2017 World Championships. Fingers crossed for Smash for Switch!

http://nwc.nintendo.com/

Various fiscal reports came out, Nier: Automata apparently sold well digitally, Persona 5 did ‘well’ with 1.8 million units, and Square gives us their philosophy on the gaming market moving forward.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/persona-5-sold-well-as-phantasy-star-online-2-cont/1100-6452280/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-14-expansion-and-strong-nier-automat/1100-6452283/

Top 5 Top 5s That We Didn’t Write

5 – Top 5 Top 5 Top 5s That We Did Write

4 – Top 5 Purplest Dragons

3 – Top 5 Anime Deaths in Not Anime Games

2 – Top 5 Attack Names

1 – Top 5 Things Named Yoshi

Kaz may be out this week, but that doesn’t stop William and Kyle from having good video game times. This week, Kyle falls head-over-heels for Has Been Heroes, and William gets into the weird parts of Nier. In news, we talk a lot of Dota 2, yet more SNES Classic, Death Stranding, and Nintendo. Come pause with us!

Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds has overtaken Fallout 4 and is now the game with the highest player count not made by Valve on all of Steam.

https://www.vg247.com/2017/07/31/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-overtakes-fallout-4-holds-highest-peak-player-count-of-any-non-valve-game-on-steam/

Dota 2 will now match new players with people who get commended for good behavior regularly, and will also limit them to 25 easy-to-learn characters. They’re trying to make it user-friendly, is it working?

http://blog.dota2.com/2017/07/welcoming-new-players/

Nintendo says that the SNES Classic Preorders will start this month

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/snes-classic-pre-orders-available-this-month-ninte/1100-6452173/

Nintendo is doing pretty well so far this year

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-sales-soar-thanks-to-switch-consoles-and-/1100-6452014/

Metroid Samus Returns has some content locked behind amiibos

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/metroid-amiibo-figures-unlock-fusion-suit-more-in-/1100-6452003/

Death Stranding still isn’t a game, but it does have clouds!

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/death-stranding-has-a-pretty-incredible-fog-system/1100-6452256/

Kyle begins settling into his new place, while William buys a bunch of PS games, and Kaz reinforces her desire to be the best in Legion. In news, we discuss SGDQ, whatever Scott Cawthon is up to now, and a couple of Nintendo announcements.  Kyle finishes up by sharing with us the games Nintendo Power convinced him were awesome, whether they were or not, and we talk about losing our childlike wonder.  Come pause with us!

SGDQ raised $1.76 million this year! 

For the first time, they killed the animals in the Super Metroid run. They got over $250,000 for this segment alone, $128,152 voted to kill them  vs $126,711 to save them

FNaF 6 was announced and cancelled in a Steam community post by Scott Cawthon this past week..

http://steamcommunity.com/games/506610/announcements/detail/1343611811951288957

 No lives/game overs in Mario Odyssey!

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/07/05/nintendo-says-there-are-no-game-overs-ever-in-upcoming-super-mario-odyssey/

17 seconds of footage(?) from BotW’s second DLC pack.

https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/883283238793482241

New trailer focusing on Awakening characters in FE: Warriors

https://serenesforest.net/2017/07/05/warriors-new-awakening-themed-trailer/

Top 5 Games I Love Because of Nintendo Power – Kyle

5. Spider-Man
6. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
7. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
8. The Lost Vikings 2
9. Killer 7

The plot thickens for Kaz in Uncharted, Kyle gushes over Paper Mario: Color Splash and William get a brand “new” console.  In news we get excited over the SNES classic and more Blizzcon tickets announcements, we talk about the SAG_AFTRA stirke and about the switch’s firmware update.  Then William finishes off by loading his save point on Final Fantasy V, the most overlooked game in the series. Come pause with us!

The SNES classic is real! IS YOUR BODY READY

http://kotaku.com/nintendo-announces-snes-classic-1796418700

More Blizzcon tickets going on sale July 5th! https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/20855979/another-chance-at-tickets-for-blizzcon-2017-on-sale-july-5

http://www.pcgamer.com/more-blizzcon-tickets-are-going-on-sale-in-july/

Resident Evil 2 remake has replaced voice actors for Leon and Claire thanks to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Strikes are hard when your union only covers ~30% of workers.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/resident-evil-2/claire-redfield-voice-actress

Rocket League Tournament will be televised on NBC Sports https://www.gamespot.com/articles/rocket-league-tournament-will-be-televised-on-nbc-/1100-6451090/

Switch firmware 3.0 is out, which will finally stop your TV from auto-switching to your Switch all the time.

http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22525/~/nintendo-switch-system-updates-and-change-history

Save Point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_V

Kaz gets naked for raiding once again, Kyle gets his game hipster on, and William is somehow not embarrassed by Fire Emblem Heroes. In news, we talk Malthael, many things Nintendo, Pokemon, and Bethesda. We round this week out with our hopes and dream for next week’s E3 reveals. Come pause with us!

 Nintendo revealed the Switch’s online service, it’s delayed until 2018. It seems real neat! http://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

 Nintendo unveiled how voice chat is gonna work on the Switch for Splatoon 2. It isn’t pretty. https://mynintendonews.com/2017/06/01/heres-a-look-at-horis-official-splatoon-2-headset-and-how-voice-chat-works/

Pokemon Nintendo Direct tomorrow early in the morning. They’ve been teasing a “Legendary” Summer in Pokemon GO https://twitter.com/NinSwitchNews/status/871734894052823040

Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 announced! But not for Switch. And it’s just 7-10. But I’ll still buy it again.

 Playstation 3 production has ended in Japan http://gematsu.com/2017/05/playstation-3-production-ended-japan

Discussion: Let’s talk about Prey. Remember Bethesda’s review policy? Prey came out without advance reviews, and it seems like hype never actually built up for it despite getting solid reviews across the board.

http://kotaku.com/prey-shows-that-bethesdas-review-policy-is-even-bad-for-1795064470

Top 5 – E3 Hopes and Dreams Special Edition

Kyle

Pie in the sky: Bloodborne 2

5. Kingdom Hearts 3 release date
6. A Rayman Legends followup
7. Something from Platinum. Bayonetta 3? Vanquish 2?
8. Super Mario Odyssey
9. Smash for Switch Deluxe

Kaz

Pie in the sky: Trauma center VR or switch

5. Death Stranding shown off as a game and not weird trailers
6. Possible PS Vita sequel
7. Holo lens re hype (lets see some cool table top games with it)
8. Skyrim switch release date / skyrim2(elders scrolls 6)
9. Bloodborne 2

William

Pie in the sky: Metroid–by Fromsoftware

5. Another FF7 trailer (this is actually more unlikely than FromMetroid)
6. Metroid collection with all the 2d games (this is actually the least likely)
7. New FE Warriors trailer and release date
8. Smash 4 Switch, with GC controller support
9. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 holiday release

This week Kaz joins the wonderful world of Mario Kart 8, Kyle can’t shut up about Guardians of the Galaxy, and William continues his descent into madness and bunny ears with Fire Emblem Heroes. In news, we talk the future of VR, the future of MMOs, and the future of the Switch. Then, we talk how franchises based in the future would fare in culinary combat. Future future future. Come pause with us!

Kyle – Darksiders 3 is a thing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-QgJ-EFq7A

Chet Faliszek leaves Valve

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-05-02-chet-faliszek-leaves-valve

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is selling like crazy

http://nintendotoday.com/analyst-says-mario-kart-8-deluxe-is-a-mega-hit/

 Bethesda claiming a trademark on the name of a game by a child company https://www.gamespot.com/articles/game-changes-its-name-to-avoid-legal-battle-with-b/1100-6449781/

 New MMORPG on kickstarter promising some interesting things https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1791529601/ashes-of-creation-new-mmorpg-by-intrepid-studios

http://www.pcgamer.com/mmo-ashes-of-creation-goes-to-kickstarter-and-smashes-its-target-in-a-day/