In-Game Chat
Summary: In-Game Chat is a weekly radio show and podcast that covers video gaming and the games industry. We play games of every type on nearly every platform. We review what games we can and conduct interviews with talent, technicians, and management from the creative side of gaming whenever we\'re able. We offer strong opinions and we\'re suckers for hype, but we check facts, ask questions and we\'re wrong a lot. We broadcast live every Saturday from the heart of the American south, and we\'re pretty sure we don\'t have accents.
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Stop me if youâve heard this one before. Ubisoft recently showed more of Skull & Bones. Itâs their very-late-to-the-party grasp on one of the best parts of a previous Assassinâs Creed game – being a Pirate. Thing is, they showed this to us 5 years ago, or at least announced it. Most of the news we got after that showing 5 years ago wasâ¦nothing. Most considered it dead. I think we may have gotten reports of it being completely scrapped and then starting over. Who knows? This week they finally showed us more of the game. I donât think itâs bad. I donât really have anything to compare it to from what we were shown years ago, but something feels off about it. Maybe that 5 years was enough to come down from the hype or something. Maybe Sea Of Thieves scratched that itch (even with the very short amount of time I put into it). But somethingâ¦isnât there. If you go back even further, Ubisoft sort of did something like this before but in reverse. WatchDogs had an amazing teaser reveal at E3. Then we got delay after delay with nothing really to show for it. When it finally did show back up many many more months later (maybe it was a year, I canât remember), the game had drastically changed just from the appearance. Gameplay had been tweaked a bit from what was shown and, in general, it was going backwards rather than forwards in all manners of development. Iâm not passing judgment yet on Skull & Bones. Thereâs apparently more video of gameplay out there that I have yet to watch and likely more to be revealed later on too, so Iâll give it more time. Iâm anxious to see more and I really want to like it, but itâs not there yet for me. Speaking of being anxious to see more, Ubisoft itâs been 3,238 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Itâs been tough for a lot of people these past few days. And itâs only the beginning of just how tough it is going to get. This little show seems awfully trivial given the way of the world right now. We hope youâre okay.
Too much is not enough⦠I remember when I was younger I had it in my mind that more was better. If the movie trailer was longer it was great cause you saw more of the movie you wanted to see. If the TV program was longer you got more of the show you wanted to see. If this company’s E3 presentation was scheduled for 2 hours instead of 90 minutes then you got more games to see. What I didnât notice then but do now, is that the longer your show is, and weâre strictly speaking of video game reveals and stuff here, the more Iâm going to forget than remember. Thereâs probably some study about memory retention and how it all works in the process of marketing but the more they showed this past week, the more I forgot. And to be clear, you can have a 90 minute presentation and show a good chunk of maybe 7 games or so, and Iâd be fine with that. I can probably hold onto about 7 titles. But as it stands with Microsoft, I can tell you maybe 3. Possibly 4, I guess, but the shows of other studios and publishers start to mix in and I canât remember what I saw where. Devolver Digital was, I think, maybe 45 minutes. I can tell you almost ALL of their reveals. This isnât an argument for or against the old E3 to come back or to keep it the way it was this year. Nothing like that. E3 or not, I like the idea of companies doing their own presentations and scattering them across the months. The State Of Plays that Sony does is a good example of this. As are the Nintendo Directs. They usually have a focus and they keep it concise with usually about a 30 minute runtime and you see maybe 5 to 7 titles. It works, and Iâm usually pretty good at remembering what was shown. Like that one time Ubisoft showed off Splinter Cell Blacklist. Yeah, itâs been 3,224 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Life moves pretty fast⦠This whole Summer Games Fest and Not-E3 thing has kind of surprised me. Well, itâs mostly me, I think. It seems to have come and gone with very little fanfare that I can tell. But, again, maybe thatâs me just not paying attention. But it feels like the hype train was little more than a hype trolley, I suppose. Iâm not sure, but it feels like there was very little leading up to this (it came kind of out of the blue for me thinking it would be later in the summer or AFTER the Microsoft thing), and there was also very little to come after it. This isnât a call for E3 to return, even though I know it will. Justâ¦something felt off about it this year. Lack of leaks, lack of big reveals and more just giving us extra information of things we already knew were coming. Itâs not a disappointment, really, because I had no expectations, but what we got seemsâ¦slim. Small. Nothing has built up hype. That isnât to say we didnât get some looks at some interesting titles. There were a ton of games thrown at us over the course of a few days with more to come, and what Iâve seen so far is some great stuff. Most of that comes from the indie side of things with the smaller games showing off some big swing for the fences type of innovation or creativity. Iâve seen quite a large number of puzzle games and platformers along with a whole slew of life sims (Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing type games) that have all caught my eye. Not so much with the AAA titles. Yes, they look good and are sparking my interests but youâre not showing me much of the game it seems, and by that I mean actual gameplay. Weâll likely be back here again next weekend saying more of the same depending on how next week (and specifically today, Sunday, goes with the Microsoft presentation). I guess the good thing about not having an E3 means it doesnât contain itself within a few days of one single week in June. Now, we have all summer for ANYTHING to pop up. Companies can do their own thing whenever they want. In that way, itâs almost always E3. E3 or not, weâll still be disappointed becauseâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,217 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
We all have our styles we like when it comes to many different things such as movies, music, entertainment of all kinds, really. And itâs the same with video games. Racing, Puzzles, and adventure type games are my thing. Fighting games, shmups, Souls styles are in RJâs wheelhouse. Iâve never come away from a Final Fantasy game trailer with excitement or interest. They arenât my style. And thereâs 16 of those things (or will come next year). But here I am after seeing the trailer for the 16th game in the series and Iâm extremely excited to see more. But Iâm skeptical. Final Fantasy was never a genre or series or whatever that Iâve ever been interested in. Itâs never taken hold. Iâve tried a few in the past but those only interested me because there was nothing else at the time, or everyone else was enjoying it so I gave it a try, but yeah – nothing ever stuck. However, this is the first time Iâve looked at one of their trailers and had interest for more. And having watched it again during this episode, Iâm still cautious. I need to see more. Gameplay mostly because I canât tell whatâs gameplay and what isnât from the trailer but itâs got me hooked. I need more. I understand it might throw me off this hype train or suddenly kill my interests butâ¦thatâs kind of what Iâm aiming for. If this is genuine, then I need to see as much as I can to make sure, warts and all. So Iâll be looking out for more media of that game. And thereâs plenty of time for that to happen since we have a release of âSummer 2023â according to the trailer from this past week. Want to know what IS NOT coming out in the âSummer 2023â…Ubisoft, itâs been 3,210 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Wish in one hand⦠It sucks to know there were TWO opportunities to get something you wanted from a developer, and from both you end up getting nothing you were hoping for. Itâs early as hell to pass judgment, I suppose, but Gotham Knights isnât pulling me in so far and Suicide Squad has been off my radar since the first showing (and subsequent showings havenât helped). Both games come from studios that did previous Batman games and both studios are working on DC/Batman properties but NOT the way they previously did. I mean, Iâm all for new things because maybe it gives us something else thatâs great, but both games looked to have missed that mark for me. Watching both of them and all Iâm left thinking is that at least ONE of these studios could have given us just another Batman game. Itâs a tough call. Developers are a creative bunch and working on the same thing everytime a new project comes their way has to get boring after a while. As soon as you finish the first game, you come back to work ready to work on the second and then third and forever how long it goes. Which is why Iâm also fine when another studio comes in to work on that second or third game in the series while the main team works on new stuff. I suppose I should just be grateful that Rocksteady, who did three Batman games back to back to back, didnât come back to work and Warner Bros. said to get to work on the next Batman. Cause that would have been an easy rut to get into from them and it was making WB the money, so kudos to them for being able to break the chain (even though theyâre still stuck doing DC character games). Regardless of what we get in the future, I think a return to the Batman style games will be a lot shorter than the 3,196 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
If I had 300 million dollars… Weâre only 4 months into the year (working on our 5th) and studios are getting bought and sold A LOT. Maybe this goes on a lot and itâs not as big a deal or itâs smaller companies that it happens to, but this year has been a bit different with the big names buying the big names. Sony and Bungie. Microsoft and Activision. And the thing about these acquisitions are the price tags. Itâs in the billions. Lots of billions. Then Square Enix sells off 3 development studios with a pretty big caliber of franchises under their belts (also thrown into the sale as well) and itâs 300 million! Do you know just how many opening titles Iâve come up with for this post on this premise alone. Nearly 300 million. Because in a corporate world of billions being thrown around, this 300 million price tag is the sale of the century. As interesting as that price tag is, itâs more interesting to me that something great may come of this. Square wasnât doing anyone any favors with how they looked at success. We never could figure it out ourselves but they made 3 Tomb Raider games while feeling like the first one was a failure. How we ever got 2 more (great games, by the way) with another on the way, Iâll never know. But now that franchise and others are in the hands of a different company. Who might actually do something with their properties. And one of those, my friends, is the Legacy Of Kain series. 300 million for a new Legacy Of Kain? Sold. Somebody buy Ubisoft, itâs been 3,182 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
I still miss the blade UI. Sometimes nostalgia gets me. Most times, actually, but that depends on the subject. Gaming almost always works, though. Be it through rose tinted glasses or a scowl of regret, I have memories of things being not as bad as I remember them and others that make me wonder why I was so drawn to it to begin with. The subject this time was the old Xbox Live Arcade. It was a different time then and we waited with anticipation of what would hit the Arcade shelf next. Weâd get rumors of a remaster or just some old game being ported to the Arcade and we were there for it. In the early days of the program there wasnât a single one of you there that didnât play UNO for hours. And then again when the webcam came into play. Then it was poker and 1 Vs 100 and old arcade classics or sequels to them. Not to mention a few board games that were ported to the arcade and became weeknight traditions in some circles. We couldnât wait to shell out the $15 or so most of those titles cost back then. Today I donât think weâd consider paying $5 to enjoy them. Canât put a price on nostalgia though, right? In any case, weâve moved on to wondering what old game we played back in the day will be offered to us free through Gamepass or, now, PS Plus Premium Plus Plus Extreme (the other topic idea I had for this post). Meanwhileâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,175 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Did you just double-dip? I recently picked up the three Rocksteady developed Batman games for the Xbox. Hey, WB, Arkham Origins could use a remaster release or something. Itâs a good title amongst the three and well worth being included in the âtrilogyâ (which wouldnât make it a trilogy, I know). Anyway, it brought to mind the subject of double dipping. Weâve talked about it before. Either itâs just a game you want to revisit and need to get it on the current console you may have (my reason for these Batman games) or maybe itâs just to show support (all the Burnout copies I own on all systems). Depending on your collection of games, it may be hard to figure out what you have and what you donât. But, not only that, WHERE you may have it also. Is it on PC or console? And if itâs on console then which one and which version of that one. In looking at these Batman games I remembered I never actually owned them on an Xbox system (unless it was included in the free games with gold thing). I picked them up on PS3 for some exclusive content and just stuck with that system through the games. So, hereâs my question to you in this post: is there an app, website, etc, that can help keep track of your gaming library? Iâd imagine something where you can log into all of your gaming accounts and it can pull from there on what you have played at least so youâd know, at one point, you played that game on that system. If there isnât one, there should be. And just make it easy on us. Some of us are drowning in game titles from over the years (thanks mainly to Steam sales, and free games from the console side of things). Meanwhileâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,168 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
In The Not Too Distant Future.. I used to love speculating on what might be coming out in the future as far as video games are concerned. It was fun to think about what might be shown during E3 presentations or any of these Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft streams that only tell you WHEN they take place but not what theyâll show you. I kinda stopped that a long time ago, however. Now, if they give hints or something, sure, that part is fun. But just being vague or what not, I donât really think about it that much. Even for this show, Iâll come across a headline saying something like âSonyâs scheduled a stream for X date.â Well, okay then. I may let you know thatâs happening but usually Iâll just wait until it does to talk about it. More information to work with at that point really and you arenât throwing rumors out there to the audience. Then you have things like the Nvidia leak we talk about near the end of this episode. Someone has already done the speculation for you in this case. And thatâs fun to think about and now even more fun considering some of those things have actually come to pass in the recent months (and just last week in the case of Kingdom Hearts 4). Most of the time things like this just feel like fan service. Take a game and put a number at the end of it (or the word âRemasteredâ). There you go, a rumor is born. None of it means much of anything though until itâs announced and thatâs usually where I point my attention. Announce it, and then weâll talk. Otherwise, weâre just disappointing ourselves wondering when weâll get the next Splinter Cell (oddly enough NOT on the Nvidia leak, by the way). Which brings me toâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,161 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Fifteen bucks, little man⦠I can remember a time well over a decade ago when paying a subscription to play a game wasnât too far fetched. I guess they still exist now? Iâm not sure. Seems most died out or went free-to-play and offered other ways of making money rather than paying something monthly. Still, playing World Of Warcraft or City Of Heroes was a monthly fee. For one game. And I paid it willingly without issue. Like it wasâ¦reasonable. I have monthly fees now that cover so much more than a single game. Game Pass sort of broke that mold, but we were still doing it with places like GameFly and some other sub services that offered a few games a month. It may still be around for MMO type of games like the ones I mentioned earlier but you just donât see it anymore, really. That I know of. I could be wrong and thereâs a whole world of subscription games. But Iâm willing to bet thereâs less of them now than there were a decade ago. Having said that, here comes Zen Studios with a subscription plan forâ¦pinball. I never thought I would see something like this come to pinball. A subscription model. For pinball. And itâs $15 a month. I mean, I know it lets you play all their tables for $15 a month, but thatâs absurd. I have a ton of their tables and Iâve played them a lot, but thereâs this whole âbridge too farâ thing, and I think I found it. And I get youâre paying that to play ALL of those tables so maybe it doesnât break down to $15 for one game, but Iâve owned most of the tables on previous versions and only had to pay once for that. Now, theyâre moving to a different storefront (itâs a stretch to say âplatformâ here) and tables will not transfer. Youâve gotta buy them all over again. ORâ¦pay a monthly fee to play them all. They knew this would happen and I guess came up with the subscription plan as a way to say âHey, you donât have to rebuy them, just pay this a month and you get all of them!â Theyâve also changed how you buy the tables as well and itâs a mess. Theyâre catching the right kind of flack for this and I hate to see it happen because Iâm a big fan of theirs. But bad business is bad business and I hope they eventually find a way to fix this for their customers and fans alike. Meanwhileâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,154 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Welcome to PlayStation Plus Plus Premium Elite Ultimate (or Monkey See Monkey Do). At first I wasnât sold on this PlayStation Plus restructuring. Reading through it during this episode made me raise an eyebrow on that middle tier. I mean 400 games, I think, is worth the extra $40. HOWEVER, if they really wanted to be bold, they could have just kept the price as is and added it into the regular subscription. I think a timeline exists where Sony actually does that, but not currently where we are now. Obviously the comparisons to Game Pass are numerous. The differences are well highlighted. You wonât get first party titles to play on day one. We donât yet know the expanse of the library, but depending on the tier you choose, it can be anywhere from 400 to maybe 600 games. Thereâs little difference there, by the way, until you start looking at pricing. To start with, I canât even find a yearly subscription model for Game Pass Ultimate. Looking around it seems to be $180 a year, though with sales and discounts and stacking 3-Month subs, you can do it cheaper than that. Still, that’s $60 more than whatâs on offer from Sony at their highest tier. If you go monthly, itâs $15 for Microsoft and $18 for Sony. Both of these will get you access to A LOT of games and both will allow streaming/downloading on PC. But only one will get you day one titles (Microsoft) and only one gives you access to EA Play (Microsoft). Thereâs a lot of other little bonuses you get going with Game Pass so the value seems to edge out Sony here. If you only play on PlayStation, putting in for the mid to upper tier doesnât seem like too bad a deal. And thereâs plenty of room to grow here for Sony with everything else they have their hand in (music, movies, television), so we could see additions to the plan with movie streaming or subscriptions to other networks. Butâ¦thatâs just speculation. Weâll know more in the months to come and the official rollout is in June. Meanwhileâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,147 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Itâs like McDuckâs Money Binâ¦for games. Just a note that we wonât have a show next weekend, but weâll return on April 2nd. We talk a lot about video games. Be them new, old, classic, vintage. We also bring up board games from time to time – like this episode for instance – and weâll mention pinball on occasion. Thereâs a wealth of games to be had out there in whatever form you may desire. And some of them might even be free, or really cheap. We try to let you know when the free and cheap ones come up. The Epic Games Store on PC gives out a free game every week. Amazon, if youâre a prime member, gives out games every month. Thereâs Playstation Plus, and Games With Gold on Xbox and Gamepass will likely be our future if our video entertainment path is any indication. Thereâs Humble Bundle that offers a lot of games for very little (And you can decide how much of what you spend goes to charity, the developers, or the storefront). Speaking of charity, youâve also got the big ones like the one for Ukraine we mentioned that raised millions because for $10 you got like 1000 games. That one ended but another has come up with 170 items for only $40 (I can probably pick 3 or less games in that bundle that would regularly cost that amount so itâs a great deal). The whole point here is that if you like games, of almost ANY type, something is out there for you and probably doesnât require all that much for you to enjoy it (Vampire Survivors is the best $3 Iâve spent on a game ever). And in a lot of cases with these big bundle things, youâre helping others in a charity. Gaming for good, as it were. You will likely build a backlog the likes of which you may never escape. And thatâs really not a bad problem to have. Maybe one day Iâll have another Splinter Cell in my backlogâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,133 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
Fair warning for those about to listen, there might be a spoiler or two for the first Hellblade at the beginning of this episode. Also, thereâs vagueness around some possible spoiler stuff for Guardians Of The Galaxy as well – not the ending, mind you, but just a section of the game. The reason Iâm throwing out that warning is because we talk about some video game tropes. Two, specifically, and I donât want to throw them out here because maybe youâre trying to avoid ANY kind of spoilers for either of those games. Having said that, however, itâs going to make it a little difficult to write about here, but Iâll try. â¦10 minutes later⦠Okay, so thatâs pretty difficult. Anyway, sometimes tropes work. Sometimes building a mechanic that strays away from the usual gamer mentality (and I donât mean that in a general sense but more in the habits of how we play and have played games) can be a good thing. We brought up examples from Eternal Darkness, X-Men on the Genesis, and Metal Gear Solid 2. There are elements of these games that play with the player. Itâs really very creative. One that isnât creative, and this isnât a spoiler for any game at all, is the one where you start the game completely upgraded and then at the end of the level itâs all taken away. You spend the rest of the game getting back to that point only to enjoy it for maybe not even a level before the game ends. I hate that trope. And underwater levels. And time trials. Thereâs more to it, but you get the idea. Iâm curious what video game trope annoys you the most. Or maybe thereâs one you absolutely love. Let us know. As long as we all agree to hate escort missions. Another trope I canât stand is when game companies NEVER do anything with good propertiesâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,126 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).
To Play Or Not To Play Elden Ring still tempts me. And I donât completely know why. Thereâs no FOMO there. Itâs all very self contained andâ¦singular, in a way. Itâs something that can be played now or years from now and you likely wonât be spoiled on content or story or, really, anything at all. The hesitation comes from the history of the studio. I guess itâs a gut vs. impulse feeling. The impulse is to get it right now and start playing it. The gut feeling is that Iâve never enjoyed the kind of game Elden Ring is – just simply based on the studio that made it. They have a typeâ¦as it were. They invented a genre. One known for brutal difficulty and constant trial and error. I have briefly given their previous outings a try. Once with Dark/Demon Souls and then again with Bloodborne. None of these have ever stuck with me. But then you watch reviews of Elden Ring and read peopleâs impressions and it really wants to pull you in again. But I think I can wait it out. Something will come along to take its place in the zeitgeist. Something else will lure my attention, but I wonât forget. Because at the right price of entry (for me), temptation will come calling again. And I will give in to it. Maybe to be fooled once more, or maybe to be surprised by how well I take to it. Either way, Iâll eventually play the game. Also eventually, I may play another Splinter Cellâ¦Ubisoft, itâs been 3,119 days since the last Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, or VR exclusive).