RIP Concord (Aug 2024 - Sep 2024) | This Week in Videogames

stick around to learn more about how surfshark lets you browse the web freely and securely plus get four additional months for free when you sign up using offer code skillup at Surf shark.com Forge SL skillup Gamers when Concord was first revealed I made a flippant offhand joke being like Oh let's hope it doesn't follow the same fate as other things with Concord in the name sadly much like my accidentally prophetic gag about Sony buying bunge my powers of pressence were painfully precise yet again because just today at around 3:00 a.m. Sydney time Concord followed both the jet liner and the cruise liner into the annals of History Concord is no more let's begin with the official statement from Ryan Ellis game director at firewalk Studios quote Concord fans we've been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us however while many qualities of the experience resonated with players we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn't land the way we intended therefore at this time we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6th 20124 and explore options including those that will better reach our players while we determine the best path ahead Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all Gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 and PC end quote they're then going to provide some specifics about refund processes based on where you bought it before concluding quote we'll keep you updated and thank you again to all free Gunners who have joined us in the Concord Galaxy end quote this is quite possibly the single biggest flop in the history of triaa gaming this was a game conceived around 8 years ago and in active development for around 4 years it was a studio of around 150 people many of them industry veterans from games like Destiny Call of Duty Halo and more most notably this was a first party Sony release because Sony bought firewalk Studio after having played Concord they were so certain that this was going to be the next big thing that they skipped over the marketing Partnerships they've done with games like death stranding or the exclusive Partnerships they've done with Final Fantasy games they just went straight to owning the entire studio and now with the development cycle wrapped and the game launched Concord was averaging fewer concurrent players than there were people working at the studio finding parallels to this sort of failure is difficult but there are some and none of them are at all flattering the day before immediately comes to mind a game that was an actual well-documented scam which launched so badly after all its lies fake trailers that the publisher pulled it from sale and issued refunds to anyone that bought it before that Sega bit the dust on their live service shooter before it was even released hyenas was in development at creative assembly for over 5 years and was actually the most expensive development project ever undertaken at Sega but their Executives looked at that game and said better to bin this than release it Amazon's Crucible is another really good parallel now this one actually did release earlier than intended because it was during the pandemic and Amazon's Executives saw an opportunity to launch the game while we're all stuck at home Sound Logic except for the fact that the game wasn't finished when I reviewed it I was like take this down put it back into beta finish it and then release it Amazon did take it down but rather than continue developing it they scut it entirely a more recent parallel might be Suicide Squad that is of course still available for sale though at the time of riding there are 95 people playing that one on PC that one was in development for over a decade at Rocksteady and cost Warner Brothers hundreds of Millions ions of dollars despite Warner Brothers Executives believing right up until the moment of its release that they had a billion dollar game on their hands I mean redfall also has to come into this conversation right like if we're talking about first party releases that bombed catastrophically then we can't not mention that one crazy to imagine that Phil Spencer said that internal reviews for that one put it well above the 56 Metacritic score that that game ended up getting and it's like dude how who are these people internally reviewing your video games and for me that's actually a really important through line in all of this concord's failure seems at least partly like it could have been avoided because we all [ __ ] told you this would happen wall to--all coverage from every corner of the internet all of it screaming that Concord was not ready for launch that its core systems needed work that the cast of characters was not compelling enough and that its business model had absolutely no chance of succeeding in this current climate hell there were two Bas with deeply disappointing play counts and Sony themselves would have been able to see how weak their pre-order numbers were were they expecting that people people would just magically start buying this if they sponsored a bunch of streamers to play it like come on man who are you listening to internally that leads to outcomes like Crucible like suicide squad like redfall and like Concord as for the future of Concord the blog post from firewalk did strongly hint at the idea of this pivoting to a free-to-play model and yeah obviously that would help that is not the only issue this game is facing there is a lot more that needs to change or be fixed or be added for this game to be able to compete and that's setting aside all of the work that would need to go into developing monetized progression systems since Concord doesn't have any of that right now honestly I just can't see how this comes back I know there's an episode of Amazon's secret level devoted to Concord which will Air in December and yeah that might seem like a good opportunity to relaunch the game as a free to-play title but honestly I just can't see Sony putting good money after bad on this one their entire live service push has rocked this publisher to its core with numerous canceled projects and misfires other than hell divers 2 obviously so I personally would expect that Sony are far more likely to retreat to safer territory rather than double down but hey you never know okay so that's Concord but while we're in this General territory we just got an update on what's happening with Rocksteady after the flop of Suicide Squad and it's exactly what we all knew would happen euro gameer is reporting the studio has begun laying off staff with the quality assurance team more than hared going from 33 people down to 15 there are reports of other discret Cuts including someone who is actually opportunity leave but it doesn't appear to be a mass layoff affecting all departments at all levels interestingly though Euro gamer are reporting that with so many QA jobs cut there has been a quote acknowledgement by Rocksteady Senior Management that the product quality will now suffer as a result end quote that's something anyone playing Destiny right now can certainly sympathize with but that's a story for another episode all right plenty of Xbox news this week as well and a lot of it isn't great but let's start with some good Xbox news first recently Sony announced that the price of the PS5 in Japan would be increasing by over 20% they gave people a grace period for that which led to consoles being quickly s snatched up this past week selling out in multiple locations across Japan as a result the Xbox series X consoles got a not insignificant sales bump automaton media report quote at Yoda Bashi one of Japan's biggest electronic retailers the Xbox series X console shut up to number eight on the games and console sales chart on the morning of August 29th on the previous day it wasn't even in the top 100 end quote much of the console demand is driven by excitement from Monster Hunter Wilds which drops sometime next year and since that also releases on Xbox the is that people who couldn't grab a PS5 chose to purchase the Xbox instead if XBox maintains its competitive price point in Japan and continues to secure third party support from Japanese developers there's a chance it could pick up some market share but that is still a very very small slice of the console piie since Nintendo and Sony have had Japan all but locked up for the past 30 years either way it's a good news story at a time when Xbox is struggling to win any positive press and this week in particular felt a little rougher than most there's a game called in not at the last song and it's an upcoming Souls like based on Italian folklore earlier in March this year the studio had actually announced their planned Xbox Port would be delayed so they could create a quote Superior experience for PC and PS5 players end quote that got the Xbox community in a tears because they felt unfairly deprioritized and fair enough it led to the developer Gama games getting in touch with Xbox it's not exactly clear what transpired there but in a trailer that released some months later it was clear that in autria was headed for release on Xbox on the same day as PC and PS5 fast forward to this week and the developer has just announced an indefinite delay of the game on Xbox quote unfortunately at this time we have to announce an indefinite delay of the Xbox version we understand how disappointing this news is to the Xbox Community unfortunately despite our best efforts and the hard work of our dedicated team we've encounter challenges that have delayed our release on the Xbox platform we want to emphasize that this is not a decision we've made lightly end quote what were these challenges well on Twitter the developers said that Microsoft has just stopped replying to their emails when asked exact what the issue was Jam has said this quote communication with Xbox the game works fine on Series S and X but we can't go through the submission process and they can take even 2 months to reply to us end quote now I want to be clear that this is just one side of the story and we have not yet heard from Microsoft on their view of events it is possible that this g games is just totally talking out their ass but it would be an odd claim to make if untrue given that it would be pretty easy for Microsoft to just respond with receipts I can tell you this though a while back Edmund work worked on a piece for our patreon where he spoke to developers about the process and commercials behind porting a game to Xbox one of the responses he got that he didn't include in that article was from a medium-sized developer who we won't name here and they said this quote on the technical side Xbox is easier than PlayStation to get through certification and submit builds Etc the biggest issue and it's the same with all of them really is they never reply to emails you have to constantly be on them to get a response not sure if they're overworked la bad at their job Etc I used to think it's because we're small fry but I've heard the same from others end quote so to be clear this is a person who says that Xbox's certification process is actually easier than Nintendo's and Sony's but that all platforms are hard to reach when it comes to the certification process interesting to note that Gama have not blamed this delay on the challenges imposed by porting the game to the Xbox series s to the contrary they've actually said that the game runs better than expected on that platform not so for Dune Awakening though at Gamescom the funcom chief product of officer Scott junor had this to say to vg247 about the release timeline for various ports quote so it's one of the reasons we're coming out on PC first there's a lot of optimization we need to do before we release on the Xbox but yeah Xbox series s is a challenge end quote it mirrors laran struggles porting borders Gate 3 to the series s a challenge so onerous that it prompted Xbox to weigh for the very first time their feature parody requirement meaning that Boulders Gate 3 could launch on Xbox without offering couch Co-op to anyone playing on Xbox Box Series S when we interviewed Studio boss swen vinky on the friends per second podcast he said that doing a simultaneous release on all platforms was killing them and that once they delayed the Xbox Port they felt like they had more breathing room to focus on each platform properly we asked when flat out do you think the Xbox series s holds back game development and he said this quote it just defines certain parameters in which you have to develop and there are ways of doing that it just takes development effort end quote and that seems to be the theme you can certainly get your game running on the series s it's remarkable piece of Hardware given its size and price point but it does require additional development effort and that can make things tricky depending on timelines budgets Etc all of this touches on a very puzzling situation surrounding black myth Wukong now that game has gone on to have a level of success that no one could have anticipated it's already sold through 10 million units it is the second most concurrently played game of all time on Steam and it was apparently so popular in China that it caused a nationwide sellout of ps5s you know how much of a bounce Xbox got out of this release zero because Wukong did not release on Xbox and at this point we don't exactly know why according to developer game science they have said they delayed their planned Xbox Port so they could optimize it for x and S but you got to guess that they really mean they're trying to squeeze this visually ambitious game into the series s that was a claim that was subtly contested by Xbox who put out their own statement saying that they quote can't comment on deals made by our partners with other platform holders end quote which implies that Gam science has some sort of exclusive deal stopping it from coming to Xbox that was a claim backed up by jez Cordon of Windows Central and Paul tassy of Forbes who said they had sources confirming an exclusive deal does exist but their reporting has been contested by Jeff grub who says that no exclusivity deal exists and his sources are very certain about that what's weird is that game science could just come out and clarify this but they haven't we also personally approached them directly for comment through their PR agency but we did not get a response it's really weird man like if Xbox are going to come out and subtly accuse you of having some sort of secret deal you should probably respond to that claim either way missing out on Wukong has been a huge loss for Xbox this is the kind of game that sells consoles as we saw in China and whatever the reason for Xbox missing out is the situation certainly doesn't help put wind in their sales at a time when their console business really needs that separate to all of this Phil Spencer sat down for a storytime interview at paxwest and he was very candid in that chat at one point discussion turned to Xbox not signing Destiny as an exclusive when they had the chance to do that he ful lamented quote I've passed on some of the worst game Choice decisions end quote he told the story about how he passed on signing Guitar Hero as an exclusive saying jokingly quote I hear that turned out to be a pretty good game end quote the interview has been picked up widely and has led to plenty of criticisms of Spencer like he's admitting that he's bad at his job or whatever but that's really not it there's lots of things to criticize Phil Spencer for choosing to release redfall for example or shuttering Tango gamew works as another example but this moment was just a guy reflecting on the fact that it's impossible ble to accurately predict 100% of the time what's going to be a hit or a Miss in this business so while I think we should keep up the pressure when it comes to things like fumbling IPS or needlessly laying off stuff I think we can lay off this particular interview a quick lightning round to finish off legendary Capcom creative hideaki ituno is leaving Capcom after 30 years with the company this man directed powerstone 1 and two Auto modelista Devil May Cry 3 four and five plus Dragon Dogma 1 and 2 there are very few people in the history of video games with a CV like that and atuna says he'll now embark on a new adventure making games somewhere else he hasn't said where yet so stay tuned remedy has found a publisher for control 2 and it's Anapa interactive it's a strong partnership given anap Perna's footprint in the TV and movie business and the deal is predicated on Anapa being able to license both control and Alan Wake for various trans media projects genuinely sounds like a win-win to me very happy that remedy have the certainty and funding that they need to continue building their weird ass games and finally super disappointing news about visions of Mana which came out just this week the studio that made it they've already been shut down Bloomberg reports that NES and 10cent are pulling back on their Japanese footprint after having little to show for it despite significant investment NES owns Uka Studio who just put out visions of Mana a game published by square anx visions of Mana is actually a very solid game as we'll discuss later in the show so this does seem particularly cruel I can't imagine what it would be like to be fired in the same week that players are playing and loving the game you worked on for years prior that sadly is the state of the video games industry in 2024 so what got announced or delayed this week well Nintendo actually hosted two back-to-back webinars this week the first being a partner showcase and the second was an indie World Showcase let me cut to the Chase and answer the question I know you're already asking no there was no silk song don't be ridiculous silk song does not exist it is just another Australian hoax like drop bears and Ray Gun the Showcase did have plenty of video games that do exist though like the batro friends of Jimbo update which is a free DLC that adds cosmetic cards inspired by The Witcher 3 vampire survivors da the diver and Among Us love that never got a release date which I'm very happy about since this is the next game from the team that made Gris and it's basically Gris to it truly is and I'm ecstatic about it it arrives on the 15th of October indie game of the year sea of stars is getting a major DLC update Title throws of the watchmaker sometime in quarter 2 2025 nice to see the team still working on that one power watch simulator gain headlines this week when they claimed they wouldn't have equipment powerful enough to clean asmin Gold's house but apparently they can handle Shrek's humble abod since there is a Shrek themed DLC arriving sometime in September Pizza Tower absolutely took over steam when it launched last year and as of right now that is available on the switch Tetris forever is the latest in the gold Master Series that exhumes old games and provides plenty of Museum like archival material to accompany them they most recently did the very well-received Jeff Min collection and this Tetris drop features several classic and rare Tetris games some of which were never actually released outside of Japan this is arriving sometime toward the back end of this year speaking of retro bundles Capcom fighting collection 2 is the second volume in a series that brings back popular and less known Capcom Fighters this one has Capcom versus SNK Mark of the Millennium 2001 which is apparently a very big deal and the fighting game Community are going nuts over this but it also has power Stone 1 and two Street Fighter Alpha 3 Capcom fighting Evolution and a few more no date for this one yet but it's arriving sometime in 2025 that previously announced suen 1 and 2 remaster now has a release date locked in for March 6th next year and the Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake will arrive on November 14th big news for civilization 7 fans it's actually headed to to the switch on the same day as every other platform February 11th next year not sure how fun it's going to be to play this one on a switch but you know you can do it so there you go though I would recommend waiting for reviews to report on how this runs on switch because my guess would be not very well the my Sims cozy bundle is a re-release of the My Sims games which first debuted on the Wii U and Nintendo DS think the Sims meets Animal Crossing and you're mostly on the right track that one Launches on November 19th and finally Yakuza kuami is the re-release of the PS3 and PS4 remake of the original yuck as a game first released back on the PS2 it's now making its way to switch on October 24th meaning that nintend drones will be able to begin their Adventures through Kamar rucho and Beyond but you will need to continue that Journey on other platforms if you're hungry for more and those were the Nintendo webinars or at least the highlights because there was actually way more stuff announced there and there's no way I could cover it all if you want to see the full showcases you'll find them over on Nintendo's YouTube channel all right moving right along what else got announced or delayed this week well copycat is a game we shouted out last year in our put this on your radar segment it's a bit of a tear Joker since it's about a cat who gets replaced so if you're in the mood to feel really sad then this one now has a release date September 19th exclusive to PC circling back to yakaza for a moment rgg have just announced that rgg Summit 2024 is happening on September 20th and it's there that we'll no doubt find out what the next like a dragon game will be with it likely being shown in more detail and perhaps even playable at Tokyo game show that live stream is happening on the 20th at 700 p.m. Japan time so rgg fans Marque calendar Croc is back and I couldn't be happier because I love me some Croc back in the day Ro remaster has been announced from developer agono games who actually made the original and now they've kind of reformed as a boutique publisher for this project the remaster promises HD graphics new controls and a digital museum with design documents art interviews and all that good stuff great to see Croc getting the love and attention he deserves while Concord is on its way to live on a farm with all the other live Services we haven't heard from for a while Square enx have just announced that their recently released live server shooter is going free to play we're talking of course about foam Stars which launched early this year to middling reviews and plenty of complaints about egregious in-game monetization Square did sand back some of that cash shop stuff to make it less offensive but the game is still exclusive to PS4 and PS5 which seems like a massive own goal given that steam would be a rich source of players to prop the game up either way if you have a PlayStation and didn't grab this when it was a ps+ offering you can grab this for free from October 4th onwards speaking of PlayStation a release date leak that looks fairly legit but should still be taken with a grand assault is Lego Horizon Adventures which will apparently arrive on PS5 PC and the switch on November 14th that leak comes courtesy of a now scrubbed link on the PlayStation website which is why the leak looks pretty legit I did a preview for this one a little while ago it's good but it's no Lego Star Wars or anything a good one to play with the kids maybe since good co-op games aren't exactly easy to come by one delay announcement this week and it's for demon school and Indie title with a fair amount of Buzz behind it it's doing the whole Persona Shin Mame tensei thing but with Italian horror Vibes the team says they need more time to flesh out the world and as such the game will now arrive quarter 1 next year fair enough two game cancellations this week so of the first one is a real surprise and a huge body blow to Bandai Namco support for their recently released big budget MMO blue protocol will end on January 18th next year if you haven't heard of blue protocol before there's a good reason for that it was never actually released outside of Japan despite Bandai having every intention of doing so now that Global launch will never happen as the entire game will be taken offline with Bandai providing only vague reasons as to why quote we wanted to deliver an experience that is like stepping into the world of anime and we've been challenging ourselves to create a world where each and every player can enjoy Adventures as the main character of the anime we have worked hard to prepare for the release however we have come to the conclusion that it will not be possible to provide a service that satisfies all of you end quote the reality is that unfortunately this game just totally bombed in Japan unable to capture a player base and plagued with issues that gave the community no hope that things would improve the significant investment that Bandai made into it blew a massive hole in their earnings leading their online division to become insolvent a true disaster for Bandai the next fromsoft game cannot come soon enough the other cancellation was of the more secret variety Liam Robertson of did you know gaming recently reported on the canceled Crash Bandicoot 5 game that was in pre-production planning over at Toys for Bob before Activision canned it due to low sales for Crash Bandicoot 4 apparently the fifth entry in the series would have been a crossover of sorts with Crash Bandicoot teaming up with Spyro the Dragon for an all new adventure can you imagine how Peak that would have been I am so mad at Bobby cotk for a lot of reasons but shutting down such a promising premise is yet another reason to strongly dislike this man if you want to catch the full story on the crash five that might have been I'll leave a link to the digo gaming video below the like button so what came out last week well that Aimbot arve for all platforms B switch it's that doublea game that looks a lot like Ratchet and Clank from the PS2 era not many reviews out for this one yet but the ones that are out are generally positive game reactor for example scored on an eight and said quote I've enjoyed reliving The Nostalgia of beloved games like rash and Clank Jack and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot but with a contemporary touch and quote very much what we hope for and expected emo The Smiling man was a real out of left field drop from Nintendo and it seems to have made a good impression it's sitting at a strong 79 on open critic with most reviews hovering at that seven or eight out of 10 Mark like Press Start who scored an eight and said quote it's a testament to the team's strong writing that after so long they can craft a story rich with drama and Intrigue that sits firmly beside or even slightly above the other games and perhaps that's just enough for now but I can't wait I hope we'll eventually see more of the famicom detective Club hopefully less than three decades later end quote not for for nothing but Edmund also played a bit of this one and found himself really enjoying it so it looks like a pretty safe pickup if you're into the whole visual novel thing gunam breaker 4 is definitely more Gundam Breaker but the fans seem perfectly happy with that as it now sits at a very positive 80% on Steam critics have it at about the same a strong 78 on open critic techraptor scor this one a seven and said quote the story isn't the greatest and the hacken slash gameplay does get repetitive after a while despite the ability to mix up skills that said if you're just looking for a model kit simulator there's plenty of fun to be had until the next gunam game comes around end quote squirrel with a gun true story this one it peaked at over 2100 concurrent players on Steam making it three times more popular than Concord it's like the hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby meme except the coughing baby wins three times this is basically just a memy Sandbox game like goat simulator but with a well armed squirrel apparently it's a decent enough time if you set your expectations at the right level it's sitting at 81% very positive on Steam and while there isn't an open critic or Metacritic page IGN actually reviewed this one scoring it a 6.5 and saying quote I still adore this violent rodent and have high hopes for a sequel that's bigger more fleshed out and less prone to crashing but this first shot leaves a fair bit to be desired end quote visions of Mana from the now defunct Uka Studios feels rather Bitter Sweet and that this is clearly a worthwhile and well-made game from a studio that was shuted the day they shipped their product currently it's sitting at a very positive 85% on Steam and a strong 77 on open critic and reviews tell the story of a classically inspired jrpg that's not without its problems but it's got it where it counts IGN were particularly complimentary scoring at an eight and saying quote there are definitely some pacing issues and some questionable design choices later on and the occasional frame rate drop and awkward lip syncing can distract but the flashy and exciting combat deeply rewarding class system and a cast of likable characters make visions of Mana a winning comeback for the classic series all the same and a great game even if you haven't spent decades waiting for it end quote Star Wars Outlaws arrived this week but we actually covered the reviews for that one last week in the show tldr a pretty lumpy reception with plenty of spread in the scores resulting in a strong 77 on open critic since then I've actually uploaded my own review on the channel link below the like button a pretty rough comment section let me tell you a lot of people very down on Outlaws and yeah fair enough I get it as I said in my review the game is lited with problems particularly its call gameplay Loop and the way the narrative unfolds but for me there was just enough for all of it to come together especially in the final stretch of the game where everything is really firing on all cylinders it is a 7 out of 10 Ubisoft game but it's actually a lot more interesting than that throwaway label might indicate so if you're at all curious about this one check out a few reviews and maybe wait for it to go on sale during black Friday or whatever since Ubisoft are never shy about aggressively discounting their game shortly after release and finally bakaro was that one that edman put on your radar last week it's a spiritual successor to a classic NES game that proudly brought some of the craziness of Japan to the West well before tashi's Castle did so this one has landed really well actually a strong 81 on open critic CG magazine couldn't get enough of it scoring at a nine and saying quote bakaro may be one of the best games you play this year it's simple yet Nuance combat impeccable controls wide variety of gameplay and lighthearted story make it something Gamers of all all ages and skills can enjoy bakaro never slows down and it never stops being fun end quote the ones available right now exclusive to PC and switch so what's coming out this week absolutely huge week this week a lot that I personally am very pumped about I wish I had time for this one Age of Mythology retold a remaster of the classic RTS that I suck way too many hours into back in the day God I can't believe this released 22 years ago I don't even want to think about that anyway the reviews for this one have already dropped and it's sitting at a more than respectable 83 on open critic PC Gamer had a nice Rite up scoring at a 75 and saying quote retal is brave enough to play with the balance and the stat values of its source material and that makes for some naughty tactically fascinating skirmishes watching Hittites flanked by minotaurs lay Siege to the walls of Troy has been a genre highlight for me it could have been braver about the stylistic bits the way the gods and heroes are characterized visually and in motion but given realtime strategy tenuous spot in the current PC gaming Pantheon retold is an important if qualified win end quote this one is available exclusive to PC and Xbox it's also day one on game pass Fitness Boxing featuring hatsun Miku is an actual video game that exists I know I can't believe it either get fit while punching [ __ ] to the tune of the world's leading imaginary friend it's exclusive to switch I'm sure we'll get the VR release at some point in the future Ace Attorney investigations collection brings together two Ace Attorney spin-offs one of which was never actually released outside of Japan you play as miles Edgeworth a Sherlock Holmes ass name if ever there was one and it's a top down Adventure where you examine crime scenes before Prosecuting your case in court they're meant to be great games both and they arrive for all platforms on the 6th the most adorable release of the week award has got to go to astrobot which drops exclusively for the PS5 on the 6 you guys all know astrobot or at least you would if you have a PS5 since Astro's playroom got bundled with every PS5 for free and it was so good that everyone demanded a proper full scale release 4 years later and it's finally here the biggest astrobot adventure yet reviews for this one actually go up tomorrow night I should have my review up then or very soon after that I'm not allowed to say what I think about it now but I can tell you that I'm very excited to tell you what I think about it and I'm sure you can guess which way this review is going to go that'll be live on the channel sometime later this week so if you want to know the minute goes up be sure to subscribe and ding that notification Bell NBA 2K5 arrives for all platforms on the 6 it's a basketball game that is literally all I know about it and I'm not inclined to learn more especially not when Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 arrives 3 days later on all platforms by switch easily one of the most ambitious 40K games ever made I spent over 10 hours playing it across two different preview bills in the past and I've loved every single second of it you can go back and see those two preview vids on the channel if you'd like to learn more about it but it's not just a campaign experience to look forward to it's also a co-op shooter thing like left for dead or back for blood with unique classes and skill trees and weapon unlocks and cosmetic customization and tons more this is a game that wants to be played and replayed for dozens of hours and if the final experience is as good as what I played in those previews I expect I'll be doing just that incidentally reviews for this one go up about 2 hours after this video goes live honest truth is that I am just one guy and having come back from Gamescom and then reviewing Star Wars Outlaws and now reviewing astrobot there simply wasn't time to also do Space Marine 2 for the Embargo so that is next cab off the rank for me do look forward to my review going live sometime next week I'm your Beast is one we shouted out a few weeks back and I put this on your radar segment it's from the same team who put out El Paso elsewhere last year and clicked in earlier this year it's kind of like a firstperson Hotline Miami is it looks simple but fun it's exclusive to PC on the 10th toborn is one I've actually heard some great Buzz about this one was playable at Gamescom and everyone who got their hands had positive things to say it's a 2d Sid scroller from the team who made the excellent basaga games those were RPGs but this is much more akin to like golden a or whatever and it's meant to also be a live service game in that new content will be regularly rolling out I don't know I just really like the art style I really trust this team and I certainly trust all the people I've spoken to about it who had very positive takes it's actually being published by Xbox and it launches into Early Access on the 10th exclusive to PC for the moment and finally satisfactory is one of the highest rated games across all of steam 97% overwhelmingly positive with nearly 150,000 reviews counted and the game isn't even finished yet that all changes this week though when satisfactory launches into 1.0 on the 10th exclusive to PC this thing has been in Early Access for 5 years now with dozens of updates that have fashioned it into one of the most beloved automation games on the market a genre with some fairly stiff competition with stuff like factorio and shapes satisfactory has always stood out though thanks to its firstperson perspective as well as it smattering of exploration and combat to spice things up it's as popular as it is for a reasons so if you're one of those people that's deers clear of Early Access releases until they're fully baked then this one is now ready to take out of the oven enjoy hey put this on your [Music] radar ever arrive with your favorite artisan cheese seller to find they've just closed at Billy good entertainment we know a thing or two about running lit just ask our publisher but tardy time need not be a problem anymore with these top traversal tips from our new G parcel core what do you get when you combine the visuals and extreme sports parkour of jetset radio with the two wheed high Jinx of Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX and the pizza delivery side quest of Spider-Man on the original Xbox you get parcel core that's what from beautiful sunny Northern isand comes a game that dares to imagine what if the world had color in it sorry to my Northern Irish friends that was a low blow point is parle cor looks rad it's got that old school charm plenty of genre touch points Each of which warm the cockles of my heart and it seems to have about it a solid sense of humor which can never go astray while we wait for Sega to make their quadruple a live service Crazy Taxi sequel will happily settle for parcel core it's out today exclusive to PC and if you want to grab it I've left a link to it over on my steam curator page which also has links to all of the other put radar stuff I've recently covered I'll leave a link to all of that below the like button s a free stuff time now and it's the start of the month so it's on likee Donkey Kong well not literally of course though it would be nice if Nintendo were giving away Donkey Kong 64 and Tropical Freeze for for free kicking these off as always is epic who right now are giving away Wild Card football a deck builder spin on NFL that's meant to be a pretty good time one last minute addition that got past us last week was the Fallout classic collection comprising Fallout 1 2 and tactics that's all available right now but grab them quick because later this week they'll be replaced by the UK's number one reason for marriage breakdown football manager 2024 as well as Sniper Ghost Warrior contracts I've never played any of these sniper games but they keep making them so it's got to be something to them the ps+ central lineup for the month isn't much to run home about if you're a Harry Potter fan then quidditch Champions is a day one new release reviews aren't live for this one yet so no word on if it's good or not MLB the show is definitely good though and that's on there as is the excellent little nightmares 2 very well timed since little nightmares 3 will be dropping sometime next year Prime gaming is doing its middlee best to pump Prime the rings of power season 2 which just launched on Amazon Prime I hear it's better than the first season but God damn is that a low bar to clear right now Amazon Prime subscribers can get Lego Lord of the Rings Middle Earth shadow of Mordor and middleearth Shadow of war with the last one only being playable via Amazon Luna their Cloud streaming service that's certainly not all though Amazon's also giving away Borderlands 2 Loop hero industria DSX mankind divided and tons more honestly if you haven't logged in to check you're missing out on like I don't know over a 100 bucks worth of free stuff so yeah it's definitely worth logging in to take a look for our Feelgood story for the week I'm in a celebrating mood and the reason for that is simple after an agonizing 2 we wait the Borderlands film has finally arrived on Digital streaming platforms that's right no 6mon Cinema run for this bad boy it's the direct to VHS of the Modern Age and I for one I'm unironically excited that I'll finally be able to see this film from the comfort of my own home where no one can shush me for my noisy and excessive eye rolling I was not the only person happy to hear this news mind you a YouTuber by the name of I'm sad Alex wrote a song about it and when I say it I mean she wrote a song using all of the negative reviews on imtb and Rotten Tomato take a [Music] listen had a baby with the Son of the Mask Borderland would still be worse than that go take a nap go pet your cat go stare at a wall go on a shopping spree or take a dancing class go walk your pet fish but don't watch this when you could be else uh isn't that nice it's like they say when life gives you lemons make a song about all the bad reviews of the lemons or something I don't know anyway point is Alex said we could be doing anything else with our time and she's not wrong me for example I'm off to play me some Space Marine 2 been looking forward to that one for years now and I'm super pumped that today's the day I'll finally be playing it do keep an eye out for that Astro review going up very soon too and and also for the friends per second podcast over the weekend since we'll actually be interviewing a member of the astrobot development team about their Journey from a tech demo to one of the most beloved parts of Sony's first party IP portfolio really looking forward to that chat this video is a wrap though so don't forget to slap that like button nice and hard since that's what keeps the lights on around here and be sure to subscribe and dig the notification Bell if you'd like to stick around and do it all over again next week thanks for stopping by and a big thanks to this week's sponsor surf shark VPN it's actually never been more helpful to have a VPN for a bunch of reasons and that's why I'm very happy to have the support of this video sponsor surf shark VPN right now the internet is getting more and more carved up geographically with companies limiting which content you can access and which price points you can buy things at based on where you live Australia is a good example of this there's a bunch of streaming content we can't access on various streaming platforms because reasons but I don't have to worry about any of those limitations thanks to Surf shark with just a few clicks I can set my location to somewhere else in the world and I immediately get access to geolock streaming content or discounts on purchases made in other currencies there's also the security angle too since surfshark VPN encrypts your data making it safer to browse the internet surfshark even offer a complete Security package including stuff like antivirus and an anti-malware tool realtime reports if a company that has some of your personal data gets hacked and even a masked email generator that lets you create dummy emails when you want to sign up to something without handing over your actual email address best of all all of this is incredibly cheap I really recommend clicking the link below to see just how inexpensive it is to properly protect yourself online for real if this gives you access to just one Regional pricing discount that'll probably go a long way towards this paying for itself it's insane value given the freedom discounts and peace of mind and if you use offer code skillup at Surf shark.com skillup you can get an additional 4 months for free that's surf shark.com skillup using offer code skillup a checkout for four additional months free thanks surf shark for sponsoring the video and thank you for watching it [Music]