Beyond

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is officially real. Can you believe it?! Ubisoft has unveiled the AC Black Flag remake after weeks of leaks, and we're breaking down the full gameplay showcase: what's been remade, what's gone, and what big questions we still need answered before we get our hands on the open-world pirate game. We're also deep in PlayStation leak territory: the Spider-Man face model seems to be teasing Insomniac's next Spider-Man game (or a Venom spinoff?), and Sony Santa Monica's next God of War project is reportedly starring Deborah Ann Woll as Faye, pulling in deities from Chinese, Japanese, and potentially Mayan mythology. Will Marvel’s The Owl appear in either game? We hope not! Then there's Saros. Housemarque's PS5-exclusive cinematic roguelite shooter has gotten its share of reviews, and IGN's 7/10 puts it on the lower end of the critical consensus. We've all played it. The gunplay, the movement, the progression through Carcosa's biomes, all great. But its build variety leaves something to be desired compared to what we love about roguelites. That's got us dissecting what makes games like Vampire Survivors, Balatro, Dead Cells, and Spelunky work so well, and what Saros leaves on the table. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 01:02 - Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is officially real 20:44 - Whole Lotta PlayStation Leaks 28:48 - The BEST Spider-Man Villain 32:24 - Saros - A Solid Shooter That Roguelite Fans Will Likely Rogue-love 01:03:39 - Vampire Survivors, Balatro, and More! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, and Brian Altano and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, maybe! So far, we’ve had Return to Silent Hill, Iron Lung and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which were varying degrees of successful depending who you ask, but still to come we’ve got the Johnny Cage-forward Mortal Kombat II, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, the totally bonkers Street Fighter movie. And, hey, if this isn’t this year, it’s not like video game movie adaptations are slowing down: 2027 has The Legend of Zelda, Helldivers and Sonic The Hedgehog and A Minecraft Movie sequels. 2028, meanwhile, will finally see Call of Duty make its way to the big screen, but more interesting to us is A24’s Elden Ring film. Alex Garland has given us some of our favorite genre media of recent years, between Ex Machinia, Annihilation, Men, Devs, Civil War, and of course, 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later. How will he handle a cinematic tour of The Lands Between? Hard to say, but Nick Offerman, Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Ben Whishaw and Jonathan Pryce will be there, so we’re certainly intrigued. Beyond! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Bloodborne animated feature film is in the works from Sony Pictures and Jacksepticeye, which is a better Bloodborne-related announcement than… no Bloodborne announcement. In any case, we’re stoked no matter what, but we have a lot of questions: what will this movie look like, or sound like? How will it tackle FromSoftware’s infamously dense lore and approach to storytelling in a linear narrative? In other news, Mouse: P.I. For Hire and Pragmata are both out this week, offering extremely different ways to shoot stuff. Mouse is at its best when it leans into throwback slapstick boomer-shooter gameplay, but underwhelms when it veers into detective adventure territory. Meanwhile, Pragmata seems like another banger for Capcom, with great visuals and presentation, but most importantly, really gratifying gameplay that feels good, from combat to basic movement.  00:00 - Intro 00:31 - Jada is BACK! 01:04 - Scan yourself into a PlayStation game...sort of 04:31 - Bloodborne’s Getting a Movie, We Have Some Questions 27:01 - Our Thoughts on Mouse: P.I. For Hire 37:59 - Our Thoughts on Pragmata 55:27 - Poll Results and IGN Live This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, and Brian Altano. It was produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Max and Brian are joined by the legendary Goichi Suda, AKA SUDA51, and James Mountain from Grasshopper Manufacture, who’ll be translating! SUDA 51 is the director, designer, writer, and producer behind a ton of memeorable and often times weird (but in the best way possible) games such as No More Heroes, Killer is Dead, and recently Romeo is a Dead Man. We ask him all about the creative process of Romeo is a Dead Man, the direction he would take Grand Theft Auto in, his favorite games across all generations and much more. This is a fun one. Beyond! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once again, Sony has raised the price of PlayStation hardware, with a PS5 base model selling for $150 more than its 2020 launch price. The PS5 Pro, which had a hefty pricetag to begin with, is now 899.99. Usually, at this point in a console’s life-cycle, hardware is at least half the price it was at launch, but the PS5 has increased by almost a third. So, what does this mean for PlayStation 6? It’s supposedly still a ways off, and really, we can’t argue with that, but it makes us wonder if these current gen prices will come down, or if they’re just paving the way for a $1000+ next-gen console. In other absurd financial news, Sony and Honda’s PlayStation-enabled Afeela electric car has been officially scrapped ahead of its planned release later this year, and Capcom publicly audits the Resident Evil 4 Merchant’s business dealings, which don’t really seem like they’re panning out. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 00:23 - Sony has raised the price of PlayStation hardware 16:44 - Sony & Honda Just Ain't Afeelin' It Anymore 40:14 - The RE4 Merchant Needs A Financial Audit 46:05 - Brian Went to Japan 53:31 - Final Thoughts This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NOTE: due to some technical issues, this week’s episode is audio only. After almost 20 years, Sony is reportedly retiring The PlayStation Network’s name and logo. What they’ll call it now is anyone’s guess, but it’s as good an excuse as any to take a look back at the 2011 debacle that led to Sony getting hacked, millions of users having their data compromised, and the PSN being taken offline for almost a month. In other news, Valve made a weird change to Counter Strike 2 that not everyone’s wild about, which has us thinking about how much games are a moving target, from Crimson Desert’s rapid post-launch updates to Fornite’s gradual transformation since its early access days, before it was even a battle royale. Some games we’ve been playing include Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s shiny new PS5 upgrade, Romeo is a Dead Man, Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties, and High on Life 2.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nintendo merged its handhelds and consoles into one device with the Switch, Microsoft loosened the definition of an Xbox to include mobile devices, smart TVs and PCs, and Valve is about to bring PC gaming into the console space with the Steam Machine. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Project Helix is bridging the gap the other direction, bringing the next-gen Xbox into PC territory instead. In the middle of all this, Sony seems like the only console manufacturer that’s just focused on making consoles the old fashioned way. Will this continue with the PlayStation 6? We’ll have to wait and see. In other news, Sony showed off some upgraded PSSR tech for the PS5 Pro, which subtly improves the graphics of certain games. We’ll happily take that over NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 AI-powered video game makeover technology, which attempts to make games more realistic, but seems to pave over their original appearance. Leon and Grace were already very pretty, this was not necessary. Maybe AI can be used to make that big spider in Resident Evil Requiem less scary? We weigh in on the arachnophobia factor of one of the game’s creepiest crawliest boss fights. It also turns out that theres a Yakuza Live-Action Miniseries Debuting on IGN! Cool. Finally: Leprechauns, mythical nuisance, or just a legendary pest? We have thoughts. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - A Very Important Discussion 04:50 - AI Upscaling in Games Needs to Scale it Back 10:25 - Nvidia DLSS 5 Doesn't Look That Great... 25:29 - Is PlayStation The Only “Normal” Console Left? 40:16 - Resident Evil Requiem has a Scary Spider 51:09 - Yakuza Live-Action Miniseries Debuts on IGN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week there’s plenty to talk about in the world of PlayStation: our first look at live-action Kratos and Atreus in Prime Video’s God of War series, as well as rumors of Sony Santa Monica developing a spin-off that follows their late wife/mother Faye. Meanwhile, the most obvious thing in the world seemed like a Bloodborne remake from the now-defunct Bluepoint Studios, and the reason we didn’t get one is frustrating - as is the news that no version of Bloodborne will likely ever come to PC, following Sony’s move back toward console exclusivity for all first-party single player games. Multiplayer’s fine, though, and Nick has some thoughts about his time with Marathon ahead of its cross-platform launch - but most importantly, the biggest question: how much does it cost to steal Leon S. Kennedy’s look, and how much are they paying him to be able to afford it all? We have some questions. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 01:03 - Here’s How Much it Costs To Be Leon Kennedy 16:10 - Prime Video’s God of War Series Makes an Interesting First Impression 25:40 - New God of War Game Rumors 30:03 - A Bloodborne Remake Was Pitched... What Happened? 36:09 - Sony Has Reportedly Returned to Console Exclusivity 50:28 - Nicks Thoughts on Marathon 59:43 - Last Weeks Poll Results 01:13 - IGN Finds This weeks episode was hosted by Max Scoville, Brian Altano, and Nick Maillet. It was produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Resident Evil Requiem is almost here, and we’ve finished it. Well, one of us has - and as someone who’s been with the series since day one, Brian Altano has some strong feelings on the matter he’s eager to share. How does it compare to previous attempts to mix horror and action? Does it feel like a sequel to Village, Resident Evil 4, or something else entirely? How does it balance being a legacy sequel while also the start of something new? We discuss all this while steering clear of spoilers, as well as our thoughts on Reanimal, and the release date for Wolverine, which we’re so excited for we can’t read numbers anymore. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Resident Evil Requiem Is One Hell of a Resident Evil 13:15 - Is Grace another Ethan? 20:53 - Which RE game should you play before RE9? 28:46 - Leon Drives A Porsche 32:02 - This Weeks Poll 34:10 - Our Thoughts on Reanimal 42:43 - Wolverine Has A Release Date 44:45 - An IMPORTANT Update On Alfred Chicken 46:51 - Last Weeks Poll Results This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano. It was produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, this sucks: Sony has closed Bluepoint, the semi-recently acquired studio behind some of the best remakes of PlayStation games to date, like Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, plus a slew of remasters and ports like the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, as well as bringing Gravity Rush from Vita to PS4. The last project we heard the studio was working on was a God of War live-service project, which seemed like the wrong fit, and even more so after the announcement that a remake of God of War’s original Greek trilogy is, in fact, in development. That remake is still a mystery, aside from a logo reveal and some tidbits of information from Kratos’ voice actor Christopher Judge (who is not in the remake.) Despite a complete lack of information, plenty of debate has sprung up around whether or not this eventual God of War Remake should include the sex minigames. A straight remake would be remiss to not include them, and a reboot would be likely need to retool them a bit. We’ll have to wait and see. Anyway, we also talk about Alfred Chicken, because it’s Friday and we’re a little loopy. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - If Remakes Are The Safest Bet, Why Close The Studio That Does Great Remakes? 31:14 - God of War 50:22 - Poll Results 52:22 - They Should Make an Alfred Chicken Reboot 52:53 - The Alfred Chicken Hotline 54:25 - More Poll Results 55:55 - Bubsy 3D This weeks show was hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano. It was Produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices