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--
Ubisoft listened.
My split fiction review: https://youtu.be/hajChij56Xo
--
#thisweekinvideogames #Assassinscreed #monsterhunter
--
If you want to check out Expelled! (or any other game I profile in the 'Put This On Your Radar segment) you can find a link to it on my Steam Curator page:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28625128-Skill-Up-Curates.../
--
News collation and run-sheet by Edmond T.
Written and voiced by Ralph P.
Edited by Stuart K and Austin B.
--
You can find all the Skill Up reviews, previews and episodes of This Week in Videogames over on Spotify (where you can listen ad-free if you're a Spotify premium subscriber): https://open.spotify.com/show/2w3Injyqj2VoxOxQg6ESbl?si=c1fd44e1ff9a442b
If you want to check out the Friends Per Second Podcast, you can find all the links to it here:
https://linktr.ee/friendspersecond
--
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video. If you'd like to support the channel even more, the best way is through my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/skillupyt
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Grab 12% off any SteelSeries peripheral by using offer code SKILLUP at checkout: https://steelseries.pbj2.net/c/2446303/1266556/2390
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skillupyt/?hl=en
--
Ubisoft listened.
My split fiction review: https://youtu.be/hajChij56Xo
--
#thisweekinvideogames #Assassinscreed #monsterhunter
--
If you want to check out Expelled! (or any other game I profile in the 'Put This On Your Radar segment) you can find a link to it on my Steam Curator page:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28625128-Skill-Up-Curates.../
--
News collation and run-sheet by Edmond T.
Written and voiced by Ralph P.
Edited by Stuart K and Austin B.
--
You can find all the Skill Up reviews, previews and episodes of This Week in Videogames over on Spotify (where you can listen ad-free if you're a Spotify premium subscriber): https://open.spotify.com/show/2w3Injyqj2VoxOxQg6ESbl?si=c1fd44e1ff9a442b
If you want to check out the Friends Per Second Podcast, you can find all the links to it here:
https://linktr.ee/friendspersecond
--
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video. If you'd like to support the channel even more, the best way is through my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/skillupyt
--
Grab 12% off any SteelSeries peripheral by using offer code SKILLUP at checkout: https://steelseries.pbj2.net/c/2446303/1266556/2390
--
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Category
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GamingTranscript
00:00Spring cleaning is the perfect chance to hit the reset button on your grooming routine. Manscaped's
00:04beard and balls bundle has you covered from cheek to cheeks, clearing out the overgrowth winter left
00:08behind. Because nothing says fresh start like a sharp beard and, more importantly, a properly
00:13landscaped lawn. Join over 12 million men worldwide who trust Manscaped and use offer code SKILLUP
00:18for 20% off plus free shipping at manscaped.com forward slash skillup. Gamers, welcome to March.
00:25It's a lot less crazy than February, but it's still pretty wild. No, that is not a Monster
00:28Hunter Wilds reference, but maybe it is since we'll have plenty to say on that in this episode.
00:32No, it's just a matter of fact that March is a lot more chill than February was, and I personally
00:36am looking forward to some downtime while I catch up on some backlog and play through some games
00:39that aren't 100 hours long. Then again, Assassin's Creed Shadows is dropping this month, and if
00:43that's anything like Valhalla, that game's gonna be like 800 hours long, or 6.8 years for
00:47completionists. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. And you know how I know I'm kidding? It's because Ubisoft
00:52have officially confirmed that Assassin's Creed Shadows' main campaign experience is gonna be
00:56about 30-40 hours long. Hell yeah, we did it boys, we complained enough, and they listened.
01:02Here's a detail. In an interview with Independent Genki,
01:05AC Shadows game director Jonathan Dumont confirmed that the main story would be 30-40 hours long,
01:10and that completionists should be expecting to spend 80 or more hours with the game. That is a
01:14stark contrast to Valhalla, where a beeline playthrough was around 60 hours, and your
01:19average playthrough was closer to 80. By that metric alone, Shadows' main story experience
01:24is roughly half the size that Valhalla was. At some point, maybe a decade ago, news like that
01:29would have been met with some disappointment. People wanted their games to stretch out
01:32infinitely, and robust game length was proudly touted as a major selling point in marketing
01:36cycles. These days, it's very different, and while some get really turned on by hearing that Kingdom
01:41Come Deliverance 2 is at least 100 hours long, just as many people are turned off by that fact
01:45because they don't have room for that in their lives. Specific to Assassin's Creed, I think the
01:49discourse about game length is a little different, because most people do enjoy this formula on some
01:53level, it's just that they don't enjoy 80 hours of it. It's one of the things that made Ghost of
01:58Tsushima so great, it felt like it was just the right length, never overstaying its welcome.
02:02The reveal comes at a tricky time for Ubisoft, as Assassin's Creed Shadows has officially leaked,
02:06in the sense that multiple copies of the game are out in the world, multiple people have been
02:10hosting streams and uploading gameplay, and spoilers are certainly out there. Ubisoft is
02:14doing their best to stem the bleeding, issuing copyright takedowns across various platforms,
02:18and fair enough, leaks like this are never a good thing for the developers who worked for years to
02:21craft an experience for players, so Ubisoft is certainly well within their rights to protect the
02:25surprises they have in store for AC fans. Ubisoft did publicly respond to the leak too, and here's
02:29what they had to say, quote, Leaks are unfortunate and can diminish the excitement for players. We
02:33kindly ask you to not spoil the experience for others. Thank you to our community for already
02:37taking steps to protect everyone from spoilers. Stay in the shadows, avoid the spoilers, and keep
02:42an eye on our channel for more official surprises in the coming weeks. March 20th will be here soon.
02:46And indeed it will, not long to wait now. Switching gears now to some PlayStation news,
02:50and things aren't looking too great for the PSVR 2 headset. Obviously that's nothing new,
02:54since it was back in March 2024 that Bloomberg first reported that Sony had ceased production
02:59of the headset after manufacturing over 2 million units. Sony have only said that the PSVR 2 sold
03:04through 600,000 units in its first few weeks on the market, but haven't offered any updated sales
03:09since then. After that of course, Sony closed London Studio and made headcount reductions at
03:13Firesprite Games, two studios that specialise in VR titles. Since then, Sony has largely been
03:18reliant on third-party VR offerings, with none of their flagship first-party studios working on
03:23PSVR 2 offerings, at least as far as we know. Last year Sony released an adapter allowing you
03:27to use the PSVR 2 on a PC, but this had its limits, since there are a number of features
03:31built into that headset that only the PS5 could make use of. Still, it was a really high-quality
03:36VR headset at a reasonable price, that's now a significantly more reasonable price thanks to
03:41this price drop. It's now $400 down from $550 just a few days ago. That's a pretty substantial price
03:47drop in an era when video game consoles and GPUs are getting more expensive, not less.
03:51Sony didn't specify why they were discounting the headset so steeply, but it certainly doesn't
03:54suggest that the product is in high demand. The Metaquest 3 headset is still the undisputed
03:58market leader in the category, offering a pretty fantastic standalone VR experience for
04:03cheaper than what the PSVR 2 was priced at. This price drop does bring the two headsets in line,
04:08but it's still a pretty tough sell to recommend buying a PSVR 2 given how little development
04:12support it seems to be getting. Speaking of price drops, here's a big one. Sony has just
04:16announced their March PS Plus Essentials lineup, that's the tier that every PS Plus subscriber has
04:21access to, and headlining this month is Dragon Age The Veilguard. If you're doing a double take
04:27on the release date on this thing, you are not alone. Yes, Dragon Age The Veilguard did release
04:31in October of last year, and yes, that is like 4 months ago. For a premium AAA game from a studio
04:36like Bioware and a publisher like EA to hit the subscription circuit in just 4 months,
04:41that is diabolically bad. For comparisons sake, Suicide Squad was the other high profile flop of
04:462024, and it lasted 11 months before eventually hitting the subscription circuit. Veilguard did
04:51it in 4. And seeing the chatter around this, I definitely saw people legitimately angry about
04:55this in a way that I haven't quite seen before. People felt really hoodwinked or ripped off in
04:59the sense that they paid a premium for a new release product, thinking that price point
05:03would be the only way to play the game for some time. For EA to essentially give the game away
05:07just 4 months later is going to naturally affect people's willingness to pony up the dough the
05:11next time a big release rolls around. I guess an interesting question to ask is does EA have
05:15a responsibility to respect the money those day 1 consumers slap down by holding off on a move
05:20like this? Or is it just business, and products get discounted all the time for various reasons
05:25and consumers really shouldn't complain about it one way or the other? Personally, I feel like you
05:28need some grace period, like I dunno, 6 months at least? Ideally more. I get that this is all
05:34dollars and cents at the end of the day, but a move like this really pisses people off and I
05:38certainly get why. Regardless, Dragon Age The Veilguard is a divisive title. Obviously I didn't
05:42like it much, but a bunch of other critics did, and the game still sits at a 63 mix on Steam,
05:47so more people liked it than not, and if you've been curious to see what all the hubbub has been
05:51about but didn't want to slap down the $70 asking price, then boy is this your lucky day.
05:55One game that has certainly not had any problems in the money making department is Monster Hunter
05:59Wilds. We knew this sucker would be big, but I don't think anyone expected just how big it would
06:03end up being. Within the first few hours of going live, the game amassed over 1 million concurrent
06:07players on Steam, making it one of the most successful game launches of all time. That
06:11number climbed over the weekend to hit 1.3 million concurrent players, making it the 5th most
06:16concurrently played game in the history of Steam. Capcom were out the gate quickly with sales data
06:20over 1 million units in the first 8 hours, but it turns out there were a lot more hours left in the
06:24week, and by the time the weekend was over, Monster Hunter Wilds had sold through 8 million units.
06:29That's a lot of cheesy naan cookouts. More on that later.
06:32So with these sorts of numbers on Steam, I bet you're expecting some pretty high
06:35Steam review scores huh? Providing definitive proof that publishers don't bother with PC
06:40optimisation because it has no bearing on sales, Monster Hunter Wilds has been hovering at around
06:4450-60% mixed on Steam with over 70,000 reviews counted. There are some substantive complaints
06:50about things like pacing, difficulty and storytelling, but by far and away the biggest
06:54complaint is PC performance. Unless you are rocking a top of the line PC, this game runs like
06:59me after an all-you-can-eat ribs night, not very well and prone to crashing. Here's my favourite
07:04Steam user review from SgtWalkerRhymes quote Very impressive game. You can cook a well-done
07:09steak on your GPU while you play it, and the hot blast of air from your PC fans truly make you feel
07:14like you are in the desert. Keep a bag of sand by your desk and periodically toss handfuls into the
07:19air to really complete the experience end quote. Ever reliable digital foundry went as far as to
07:23say they can't recommend the game on PC unless you've got a really high-end rig, as myriad
07:28issues with the PC port will likely take Capcom a fair amount of time to work through, if indeed
07:32they ever do, because let's be real, it's not like every major publisher puts in the post-launch
07:36work to truly fix a busted launch product, looking at you Jedi Survivor. The good news is that
07:40performance is a much better story on the consoles in the sense that it's a lot more consistent,
07:44so if you are planning on picking this up then console may be the place to do it. Always sad
07:48when you have a $2000 PC sitting there, but due to a bad port the $500 console does a better job
07:53of it. There was one other sticking point that reared its head in the Monster Hunter Wilds launch
07:57discourse, and it was the in-game spending, something that always, always pops up whenever
08:02Capcom launches a game. I remember the Red Orbs drama for Devil May Cry 5, I remember the weapon
08:07tickets for RE4 Remake, I remember the fast travel stuff in Dragon's Dogma, and here in Monster
08:12Hunter Wilds the ability to redesign your hunters physical appearance is locked behind a paywall.
08:16You can do it once for free, but then after that you need to pay Capcom money for the pleasure of
08:20doing so. And that's always the thing that gets me about Capcom's approach to in-game spending,
08:24they're always trying to monetise the dumbest bullshit that just shouldn't be monetised,
08:28but even when it is, it's designed in such a way that there's no way Capcom's making
08:32much money from this stuff. It could be that management are like, we must have some in-game
08:36spending stuff and Capcom's wily game designers offer up some auxiliary aspect of the game as
08:40sacrifice so that the games core systems can remain protected. I dunno, if that's the case,
08:44god bless you anonymous Capcom designer, you are the shield against which the enemy breaks,
08:48but if this is all just headcanon and Capcom simply have no idea what they're doing here,
08:52then I guess that works too. A quick lightning round to finish off,
08:55NetEase is going into competition with... itself. It's once again publishing Overwatch 2 in China.
09:00NetEase used to publish the entire suite of Blizzard games until a falling out with old
09:03mate Bobby Kotick that saw that deal collapse. It was re-struck after Microsoft acquired Activision,
09:08and since then games like World of Warcraft and Hearthstone have already been brought back online
09:12in China. Now it's Overwatch 2's turn, but it's kind of awkward given that NetEase has just
09:16launched Marvel Rivals, which is basically just Overwatch, with Marvel thirst traps instead of
09:20original IP thirst traps. NetEase spoke of their hopes for Overwatch 2 saying quote,
09:24The aim is to revitalize the product and reach new highs. Both Marvel Rivals and
09:28Overwatch are excellent superhero shooters, and the market is large enough to accommodate both
09:32games. NetEase will strive to meet the diverse demands of their respective player communities,
09:36end quote. I guess we'll find out if they're right soon enough.
09:38More bad news for Warner Brothers shareholders, as if they hadn't had enough of that already.
09:42Their gaming profit is down 29% year on year. That result is no doubt due to the bumper earnings
09:46that Hogwarts Legacy delivered for Warner Brothers since its launch, and it's hard to compete with
09:50those numbers if you aren't releasing new games, or if you are releasing them but then immediately
09:54cancelling them, like Multiverses. During the earnings call, Warner Brothers Games boss said
09:57more of what they've been saying the past two weeks, quote, Just two years ago, our games team
10:01broke through with Hogwarts Legacy and created a completely new gaming franchise that was the best
10:05selling game of the year, a result that only three other franchises in the last 15 years have
10:10achieved. That gives us confidence that with our refocused strategy, we can get back to producing
10:14high quality games built for long term consumer engagement, which we expect to propel our games
10:18division back to profit in 2025 and emerge as a more significant contributor to growth in the
10:22years ahead, end quote. So yeah, as you can see, their strategy basically boils down to, we'll just
10:25find another IP as popular as Harry Potter. Let me know how that goes, Warner Brothers.
10:29Good Guy EA strikes again. Ew, did I just say that? Yes, I did, and it hurts me just as much
10:34as it hurts you, but you gotta give them credit where it's due. I mean, this week they're releasing
10:38Split Fiction, and it doesn't get more wholesome or consumer friendly than that. The other thing
10:42they're releasing is the source code for several Command and Conquer games, including the original,
10:46Red Alert, Renegade, and Generals. This basically means that developers can get in there and do all
10:50sorts of modding, preservation, and revivification work that they couldn't do before. Plus, most of
10:54the classic Command and Conquer games are getting Steam Workshop support, making it super easy to
10:59install and update mods. See? Good Guy EA. Sorry, nearly lost my lunch there. I'm good, let's keep
11:05going. Turning now to Labor news, and Sony are doing more layoffs. Kotaku is reporting that
11:10Sony has affected a number of layoffs at PlayStation-owned Studio Visual Arts, a San
11:14Diego studio that provides art and technical support to first-party PlayStation titles,
11:18and recently worked on The Last of Us Remasters. A number of staff from the studio have posted on
11:22LinkedIn, but so far we don't have any confirmed numbers and Sony have not issued any official
11:26statement on the matter. Something similar seems to be happening at PlayStation Studios Malaysia,
11:30also a support studio who have worked on The Last of Us Remasters. One employee there has posted to
11:34LinkedIn saying that there are a number of staff that were let go. Again, no official comment from
11:38Sony on this one either. Visions of Mana co-director Kenji Ozawa left the studio just days before
11:43NetEase closed it down, and now he's opening his own studio. Studio Oika shipped Visions of Mana
11:47to a strong critical reception, but NetEase closed them down the same week the game released.
11:51Ozawa says this new outfit is designed to quote protect creators end quote. After experiencing
11:55first-hand what bad management looks like, he says they'll work on smaller games before
11:59eventually scaling up to PC and console releases. Hey, remember before when I was like Good Guy EA?
12:04Well, now we're getting back to some more familiar territory, the one where we get to dump on them
12:07for their bullshit. The entire French voice acting cast of Apex Legends is refusing to sign an
12:12employment agreement, saying that EA asked them to sign a new agreement that allowed their work to
12:16train generative AI. The whole cast unanimously rejected this agreement on those grounds,
12:21and one Pascal Chemin wrote publicly on the matter quote. We are asked to give up our expertise to
12:25train the generative AI that will replace us tomorrow. We are asked to agree to what we
12:29specifically fight against. We are asked to shoot ourselves in the foot. We are asked to support AI
12:35end quote. Great to see voice actors pushing back against this bullshit because AI is absolutely
12:39ruinous to a voice actor's livelihood. Unless that sort of unified industrial action becomes
12:43commonplace, we're all going to be listening to robots instead of real people in our games in the
12:46not-too-distant future. So what got announced or delayed this week? Well, now the insanity of
12:50February is done, the floodgates have well and truly opened for developers and publishers to
12:53shout about their upcoming wares, and it all starts with Pokemon news. That's right, Pokemon
12:58Presents showcase happened last week. A lot of rapid fire updates about the dozens of Pokemon
13:03mobile games you've probably never even heard of, except for maybe that card one obviously.
13:06One of the big announcements was Pokemon Champions, a new game for Switch, iOS and Android
13:11that focuses solely on the battle system of the core games and provides an online ecosystem for
13:16competitive multiplayer between Switch and mobile games. This one is for the really hardcore Pokemon
13:20nerds, people who probably don't watch this channel anymore after all the shit I've said
13:24about Pokemon. It links up with Pokemon's home app so you'll be able to transfer the Pokemon you've
13:28been grinding out in Scarlet, Violet and Pokemon Go. The second big thing in the Pokemon Presents
13:32was the gameplay reveal for Pokemon Legends ZA on Switch, which is now slated for late 2025.
13:38This one keeps the real-time Pokemon catching thing that everyone loved in Pokemon Legends
13:42Arceus, but also finally introduces real-time Pokemon battles as well. It's set in a big city
13:48inspired by Paris, and yes you can parkour across the rooftops just like in Assassin's Creed Unity,
13:52and it basically seems like the big evolution of the series that people have been waiting for,
13:56except for the visuals. These draw distances definitely take me back to like Morrowind on
14:01the original Xbox days. Someone please convince the Pokemon company to hire the Xenoblade Chronicles
14:06team to help them out here, because with the kind of cash they're making they can certainly afford
14:10it. Or maybe they should hire the guy who made PUBG, because check out what he's working on now.
14:14Brendan Green aka PlayerUnknown announced his new game last week, and it's a single-player open
14:18world survival game featuring impressive-looking open world wilderness that's procedurally
14:22generated. It's got no zombies, no monsters, no tutorials, no quests, no nothing, just you
14:27versus nature and the landscape as you try to make your way to some far-off weather station.
14:31It's called Prologue Go Way Back, and it's supposedly only the first of a three-game project
14:35from Green, who ultimately hopes to build out a huge MMO sandbox. No date for this one yet,
14:40but it will come to Steam Early Access when it does. Another Early Access title that seems a
14:43lot less lonely than that one is Midnight Murder Club. The multiplayer team shooter set in a pitch
14:48black mansion, this one comes from Velen Studios who developed the now-defunct dodgeball game Knockout
14:52City, and it's being published by PlayStation on PC and PS5. Honestly it's got a pretty strong hook,
14:57each person has a flashlight and a revolver, and proximity chat is always enabled, so while you
15:02need to use these things to find your way around, they also give away your location. This one's got
15:06a release date of March 13th now, and they've also announced that if you buy in, you'll get
15:10five guest passes to share around. They said that the focus for them is just being as generous as
15:15possible, that is very cool. Hey remember Metro? Did you know the developers behind that one
15:19actually split into two separate studios at one point? Anyway, one of them 4A Games Ukraine has
15:23rebranded itself as Reburn, and they've just announced their first game La Quimera. It uses
15:28the Metro engine, and we assume it's a similar sort of narrative-heavy first-person shooter,
15:32but this one is a futuristic sci-fi game set in a dystopian Latin America. I'm guessing we can
15:36expect exoskeletons, pulse rifles, and a bunch of stuff you would never find in a Metro game,
15:41and supposedly a three-player co-op game as well. No date for this one yet, and it's only been
15:45announced for PC thus far. Hey remember Metroid Dread? Sick game. Anyway, the developers that
15:50made that are a Spanish outfit called Mercury Steam, who also did the 3D Castlevania games a
15:54little while back. They've finally gone and made a game based on their own original IP,
15:58and it's called Blades of Fire. It's a third-person action combat game which looks a lot like those
16:02Castlevania games they did, but the big hook here is that you need to forge your own weapons with
16:06a bunch of considerations like shape, size, and cutting power affecting your advantages in battle.
16:11It sounds like a really intricate combat system that takes account of weapon properties,
16:14which includes limb targeting and armour penetration. Could be pretty interesting,
16:17this one is due out on May 22nd for PC, PS5, and the Epic Games Store.
16:21Moving on to some Microsoft news now, sort of, and Playground Games have just announced a release
16:25date for Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation, 29th of April for that one, but guess what? You can pay
16:31for early access to this game that has already been out for like 4 years. What the hell are we
16:37doing Microsoft? I don't even know what to say to that, let's just move on. Some VR news now,
16:42Devolver Digital have announced Gorn 2, which is a sequel to the over-the-top gladiator combat game
16:47made by Freelives of Broforce and Angerfoot fame. It's due out sometime this year for
16:51Metaquest, PCVR, and PCVR2. Good news for the 80s kids, they're bringing back Terminator,
16:55in 2D form this time. Studio Canal is getting loose with their Terminator license, and I'm all
17:00about it. Terminator 2 HD No Fate is a modern retro 16-bit game from an outfit called Bitmap
17:06Bureau, which I guess kind of reimagines what a good movie tie-in for this game might have
17:09looked like. You play 3 characters with different styles of combat, Sarah Connor, John Connor,
17:13and the T-800. And yes, the T-800 wears no clothes in some of the stages, that's fantastic.
17:18Multiple endings, nice pixel art, hope it's good, out on all platforms on September 5th.
17:22Here's one for the detective game lovers, Rise of the Golden Idol has announced its first piece
17:26of epilogue DLC, The Sins of New Wells. The date for this one was actually hidden behind a trail
17:31of clues when they announced this one on social media, but we cracked the case, and we can
17:35exclusively tell you that this is out right now on all platforms, you're welcome. And finally,
17:39after leaking in basically every shape and form, Activision finally announced Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
17:453 and 4 on the week of the 4th of March. I bet they thought they were being pretty clever with
17:49that date, but jokes on them, it didn't work for anyone else outside of North America. Anyway,
17:53you'll remember that the Tony Hawk 1 and 2 remake was a huge hit, but Activision in all their
17:58infinite wisdom decided to merge Vicarious Visions into Blizzard and get them working on Diablo.
18:03Now, Iron Galaxy has taken over the reins, and they're best known for Killer Instinct,
18:06but they've been helping out a bunch of other studios on their work for some time,
18:09which also includes porting the last Tony Hawk game to PC, July 11th release date for the 3
18:15plus 4 bundle. There's also a bunch of Doom themed stuff, if you pony up a bit of extra dough,
18:19which includes a Doom skate park, a playable Doom guy skater who can grind on a chainsaw,
18:24and a playable Revenant who, and this is very important, can pull out a trumpet and do the
18:29doot thing. Very clever marketing there, you're not gonna lie, I love it.
18:32One delay announcement this week, and it's for the very cool looking platforming game Bionic Bay
18:35from Kepler Interactive. This is the one with a bunch of physics and swapping mechanics,
18:39it was originally slated for March, but it's been pushed back a month until 17th of April.
18:42And finally, a small handful of cancellations this week, but ones almost no one would have noticed
18:47were it not for games journo Dominic Tyreson flagging them on Blue Sky. Turns out 4 of
18:52Insomniac's big budget VR games have been pulled from the Oculus Rift store. Now,
18:56prior to them getting acquired by Playstation, Insomniac was doing a bunch of different stuff,
18:59including Sunset Overdrive and a pretty solid foray into VR blockbusters. Stormland,
19:04Edge of Nowhere, Feral Rites and The Unspoken. Now those 4 games are gone. The timing is
19:09interesting though, given the recent leadership changes at the studio with Ted Price leaving,
19:13as well as the price drop of the PSVR 2 headset. These games were originally published by Oculus
19:17Studios, so they may be changing hands before they pop up again, perhaps on additional platforms,
19:22but that's just speculation for now. No word from Insomniac or Oculus about what the deal is,
19:26so we'll keep an ear out. Alright, so what came out last week?
19:28Silly question obviously, Monster Hunter Wilds came out. Now we've already talked a lot about
19:33its various issues and successes, but what do the critics think about this one? Over on Open
19:37Critic, it's sitting at a mighty 89, and though it briefly overtook Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 as
19:41the highest rated game of 2025, they are now sitting neck and neck, along with Keep Driving,
19:45which we featured on the Radar segment a few weeks back. A lot of the pre-release reviews
19:49for this one talked about how the game has lost some of its charm due to the streamlining Capcom
19:53has applied to it, but that doesn't seem to have changed the fact that the core loop of
19:56smacking monsters with a big sword is still as satisfying as ever. Here's PC Gamer who gave this
20:01one a more modest score of 85 out of 100. Quote, Wilds is an action game in a class without
20:06contenders. It's the new height for haymaker hammerblows and the pounding drumbeat of gunlance
20:11blasts. For watching a trio of your seeker arrows spear a flying wyvern out of the sky,
20:15sending it plummeting down to earth as your cheering teammates kick their raptor mounts
20:19into a charge. Wilds signals a new era for Monster Hunter, one that pairs down everything that stands
20:23in the way of diving into battle with creatures ten times your size. It's an impressive reinvention,
20:28but Monster Hunter has carved a little bit more of itself away than I would have liked.
20:32Alright moving right along now from the exciting world of Monster Hunting
20:35to Golf. That's right, PGA TOUR 2K25. It's got a strong 82 on OpenCritic. Here's what IGN had to
20:44say when they gave it 8 out of 10. Quote, With substantial changes to how it looks and plays,
20:49PGA TOUR 2K25 feels like a...
20:52...
20:55Whoa sorry what? Sorry I fell asleep. I was thinking about golf. Anyway,
20:59that's a game you can play if you want.
21:01Two Point Museum time and it looks like the team have knocked it out of the park once again. Good
21:05job to SEGA for letting them cook. This one sitting at a strong 83 on OpenCritic. Here's
21:08IGN again with a very enthusiastic 9 out of 10. Quote, Two Point Museum is a rewarding,
21:13deep, challenging, and highly entertaining tycoon game that demonstrates Two Point Studios have
21:17really hit its groove with this third iteration of the idea. The variety of different exhibits
21:21to unlock and level up, the thrill of discovering new expedition maps, and the array of clever and
21:26easy-to-use management tools make designing and running a museum joyful and consistently rewarding.
21:30I've sunk more than 40 hours into it already and I could easily see that doubling without
21:34running out of stuff to do. Call the curator, they're really going to want to take a look at
21:38this. End quote. A quick check in on the tactical brawl at Knights in Tight Spaces,
21:41the sequel to Fights in Tight Spaces. This one has landed at a strong 77 on OpenCritic,
21:46with the broad consensus being that it continues the great formula of its predecessor
21:49and adds a lot more on top. But maybe that's not what's really needed. Eurogamer gave it 3 out of
21:535 stars and said, quote, Knights in Tight Spaces expands on every part of the Fights in Tight
21:57Spaces template, but an abundance of new ideas swamps the clarity the original had. End quote.
22:02Finally, let's check in on that calm in San Diego reboot. It's sitting at a strong 76 on
22:06OpenCritic. Lots of reviews from critics who are finding this kids game a bit too easy,
22:10but Shaxx News is one of the more positive ones, 8 out of 10 saying, quote, It's not much of a
22:13challenge in terms of knowing things, but it does use historical and geographical education as a
22:18backdrop for a fun, mystery-solving loop that tests your deduction skills just as much as your
22:22ability to soak up facts. End quote. If you're curious about this one, just remember it's a
22:26freebie with your Netflix subscription, so check it out. Alright, so what's coming out this week?
22:29Not a bad week honestly, plenty of stuff to get your hands on if you're not already completely
22:34consumed by Monster Hunter. Thursday is kicking off with Split Fiction, which is of course the
22:37latest co-op action adventure game from Joseph Farris and Hazelight Studios, following up from
22:41the wildly successful It Takes Two. This one involves two writers who got sucked into a
22:45machine that has brought their fantasy and sci-fi worlds to life, and that honestly is a
22:49very convenient way to introduce a pile of different levels without worrying about them
22:53being too disjointed from a story point of view. I just wrapped this one up myself, link to my
22:57review below the like button, and I had an absolutely fantastic time playing through this
23:01one. The writing of the characters aren't the best, but it makes up for it with some absolutely
23:05unforgettable gameplay sequences, especially the finale, oh my god, this finale, we're gonna be
23:10talking about this for years to come, it is that good. If you have a BFF you play games with,
23:14and this is kind of a no-brainer, even if you don't have any friends, then you should make a
23:17friend just so you can play this game. And other reasons too, I guess, that makes sense. This one
23:22is out now on all platforms bar Switch. Also out on March 6th is Frag Punk, a new
23:26fast-paced competitive multiplayer shooter from Band Guitar Studios, who are owned by NetEase.
23:29The shtick here is that this one's got 100 different card power-ups you can choose from,
23:34which all act like old-school cheat codes, stuff like big heads, changing gravity,
23:38adding and taking away stuff from the level, a bunch of other stuff. As people my age would
23:42tell you, sometimes the best multiplayer games were the ones where you could activate cheat codes
23:46and make things wildly unbalanced, but also wildly funny, so here's hoping Frag Punk
23:50captures some of that energy. Last one for the week is Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster,
23:54which was Konami's re-release of its critically acclaimed RPGs from the PlayStation era,
23:58which were much loved, but very hard to get your hands on due to a limited production run in the
24:02west. The big hook was that you had over 100 fully fleshed-out party members you could slowly recruit
24:06to your army, which sounds insane even by today's standards. Anyway, they've been given what is
24:10hopefully a good modern refresh and release to all platforms as part of the series' 25th
24:14anniversary, and what's more, Konami also announced a brand new Suikoden game this week, and yes,
24:19it's a mobile game, a free-to-play mobile game, and people say that modern gaming sucks,
24:24but sometimes it's hard to argue. Flipping over to next week, Annapurna is launching
24:28WandaStop on Tuesday the 11th of March. This is the new game from Davey Rendon of the Stanley
24:32Parable fame, and at first glance it looks like a cosy game where you simply manage a tea shop in
24:36the middle of a nice forest, which is, you know, very relaxed, very nice. There's a bit more to it
24:40though, your character is a former tournament fighter who's going through a rut and is having
24:44to adjust to their forced sabbatical. Knowing the kind of game Rendon is known for, I think
24:48it's justified in suspecting that there might be something more down the line here, but we'll have
24:51to wait until next week to find out more. On the same Tuesday, Team Ninja's Rise of the
24:55Ronin is coming to PC after a year on PS5. I didn't really love this one when it first came
24:59out, but critics seemed to like it well enough. Toei Tecmo have never actually announced any
25:03sales numbers for this one, only that it surpassed the pace of Nioh at launch, but either way,
25:08they're probably hoping for a bigger splash on PC once people can finally mod Thomas the
25:11Tank Engine into 16th century Japan. And finally for this week, let's put this on your radar.
25:28This is Expelled. We covered this one briefly when it was first announced,
25:32but after getting a chance to play it, we think it's worth spotlighting a little more.
25:35This one is a looping, branching narrative game set on the last day of term in a girls
25:39private boarding school. Everyone's favourite student has been pushed out of a window and you
25:43are the prime suspect. You have to spend the next 8 hours snooping around, finding out who the true
25:47culprit is, convincing someone to back up your alibi with either friendship or blackmail,
25:51framing someone by planting evidence, or just attending class and quietly waiting for your
25:56ultimate fate. Like any good time loop game, it involves a lot of failure, a lot of gradual
26:00knowledge collection, which will ultimately culminate in mastering over time and space and
26:04social manipulation like Bill Murray and Groundhog Day. This comes from a small UK indie studio,
26:08Inkle, who have been punching out a bunch of interesting experiments in branching and
26:12emerging narrative games, and winning awards for it too. If the girls private school scenario isn't
26:16quite your jam, they made a murder mystery game in the same style, set on a cruise liner called
26:20Overboard, and have also made everything from fantasy tactics to space archaeology adventures,
26:25all with complex, flexible narratives. If you want to check out Expelled, I'll leave a link to it
26:29over on our Steam Curator page, which also has links to all of the other Put This In Your
26:32Radar stuff we've recently covered. I'll leave a link to all of that below the like button.
26:35Sort of free stuff time now, and on the Epic Games Store you can still grab Majors of Mysteriala for
26:39some spell slinging action, but get ready for next week's offering because it's a good one.
26:43Them's Fighting Herds is an indie 2D fighting game that started its life as a My Little Pony
26:48fan game called Fighting is Magic, which got some good traction in the competitive scene,
26:52but after Hasbro saw it and they were like, hell no, they actually ditched the pony designs and
26:57came up with original characters, and get this, the creator of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic
27:03actually reached out to them to help design the original characters. Throw away those pony
27:07prejudices though, because this is a good one, a strong 82 on Open Critic at the time of its
27:11release and a very positive reception on Steam, well, well worth that free price tag over on the
27:15Epic Games Store. The Sony PS Plus Essentials lineup has been released, as we said it does
27:20include Dragon Age The Veil Guard, but in addition to that is Sonic Colours Ultimate, which I'm told
27:24is okay as far as Sonic games go, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Cowabunga Collection,
27:29which bundles together all the Konami developed beat-em-up games from the early 90s, worth having
27:33a round for a quick bash with your mates. Some good stuff coming to Xbox Game Pass this month
27:37as well, and by good stuff I mean roguelite games, so I hope you like those. The roguelike deck
27:40builder Monster Train is the first one for the month, Devolver just announced a sequel for this
27:44one so that probably explains it. Enter the Gungeon also drops on March 11th, another all-timer from
27:48Devolver, and that'll be followed up a couple of hours later by Mullet Mad Jack, this is the
27:52breakneck FPS with heavy 90s anime aesthetics, we featured this one on our show a little while
27:57back and it's absolutely worth checking out. And finally, 33 Immortals will be getting a
28:01day and date release in early access on March 18th, this is the new one from Yoten and Spiritfarer
28:06Devs, which is a 33 player co-op action roguelite. Man I had a hard enough time trying to schedule
28:12with one friend to play Spliff Fiction together, so I can absolutely understand why they're throwing
28:16this one on Game Pass for any and everyone to jump on it. For a feel-good story for the week,
28:19it feels right to return to the world of Monster Hunter, I mean when there's 8 million people
28:23involved you just know that at least a few of them are getting up to more than bashing monsters over
28:26the head with a bagpipe. And indeed they are, because cooking has long been a part of the
28:30Monster Hunter experience, but it's been elevated to new heights in Wilds thanks to the unfathomable
28:35level of detail in each of the food related cutscenes. You've all heard of food porn before,
28:39but this shit is like that steak scene from the Matrix, you know it's fake but you're still gonna
28:43sell out your friends and family to eat it anyway. This one scene in particular has really struck a
28:47chord in Japan, it depicts a sort of naan bread covered in cheesy sauce, and for whatever reason
28:52this gave the Japanese a real craving for cheese naan. As reported by Automaton, Japanese social
28:58media has been awash with people declaring their cheese naan craving, with one Japan-based Nepalese
29:04restaurant tweeting quote, The cheese naan is too popular. Even though I had a lot of cheese,
29:09I started to run out, so I had to go to the supermarket to buy more. Thank you, Monster
29:14Hunter end quote. And with that I'm off to get myself some cheese naan, because we have no
29:17shortage of that here in Australia, and then I'm gonna go play some actual Monster Hunter,
29:21because why not. I'm working on a few previews at the moment while we wait for some review codes to
29:24roll in, but Austin's gonna be checking out Frag Punk next week, so do look forward to that.
29:27Otherwise we hope you enjoyed yourself this episode, and if you did, the like button is
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