Absent Minded Podcast

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably already heard a thing or two about our biggest story this week regarding Gamestop. But this story is different from the times we've covered the failing retailer, instead we have a story of Reddit, memes and of course, STONKS. Also this week, Blizzard absorbs the studio behind the recent Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake and puts them on a Diablo II remake, the EU is coming after Nintendo over Joy-con drift, AMD says PS5 and Xbox Series S/X are going to be hard to find until the second half of the year, and IO Interactive is doubling their staff size to work on their James Bond game.

The World of Assassination trilogy draws to a close with the release of Hitman III from IO Interactive, but it goes out with a bang, bringing the entire trilogy under one roof and raising the bar of quality for cross-gen releases with its stellar PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X support. We've got a review roundup for the game but first, Ethan lays out his impressions of the newly released Resident Evil Village: Maiden demo and Travis gushes over his time with Coffee Talk and derides his time with Maneater. And as is tradition, the gang talks all about the NPD numbers for December 2020 and Switch's continued massive success, more bullshit coming out of CD Projekt Red, and what Sony's mysterious new San Diego studio might be up to.

EA's dark reign over the Star Wars franchise is finally coming to a close, restoring freedom to the stories told in a galaxy far, far away. This week, Lucasfilm Games announced itself as the new publishing brand overseeing Lucasfilm properties and that a new open-world Star Wars game was coming from Massive Entertainment and an Indiana Jones project is in the works at Machine Games. Chris Lingenfelter (@christof_lingen) guest hosts this week for the first time and adds a little flavor to our standard proceedings and things get a little spicy as we continue to cover CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 apology tour, the Trump administrations China import tariffs from 2018 finally catching up to the PC component market, and some speculation on what some new trademarks from Square-Enix might mean for Final Fantasy VII Remake's sequel.

The end of season one of Absent Minded Watches is upon us as we tackle the final obstacle in our way, Angry Birds 2, a perfectly average way to finish out a perfectly excellent show. The birds are back, the pigs are back, and we struggle to come up with any idea of how a second one of these was made, or how they'll inevitably make a third one someday. But first, we've gotta talk about Deadpool officially being announced as joining the MCU with it's third film, Drew's favorite streaming service finding new life as Quibi's properties are bought by Roku, Green Arrow & The Canaries has been cancelled at The CW before it even left the nest, and Sex and the City is coming back... again?

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2019 before talking about Sony ending production of most models of PlayStation 4 in Japan, the new projects in development at genDesign, Arkane Studios and Respawn Entertainment, and the leaked build of the cancelled Tomb Raider Anniversary game for PSP.

In this special episode of Absent Minded Podcast the crew drafts video games for their fantasy publishers on FantasyCritic.Games. It's like fantasy football but for super nerds like us! May the best publisher win!

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2018 before talking about our most anticipated games coming in 2021 and with Squadron 42 missing its beta window, Travis thinks this whole Star Citizen thing might be a ponzi scheme.

We've gotten through our last truly dreadful film this week with Dead Trigger, a paint-by-numbers zombie flick with every trope in the book. But who cares about that, it's after Christmas which means we get to talk about Wonder Woman 1984 and Pixar's Soul, which are much better movies. Also this week we talk about Tom Cruise ripping into crew members on the set of Mission Impossible 7 for breaking COVID-19 protocols, Netflix's announcement of a live action Yu Yu Hakusho series, and MGM offering itself for sale to the tune of $5 billion.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2017 before wishing a fond farewell to the creator of Microsoft's DirectX, trying to figure out how Among Us managed to become the most played video game of all time, the continuing cluster fuck that is Cyberpunk 2077 and 343 Industries sunsetting the Halo series on Xbox 360.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2016 before diving into the absolute mess that Cyberpunk 2077's launch (and unlaunch?) has been and the evolving review situation, PlayStation 5 becoming the biggest console launch of all time according to this month's NPD, and some very excited game release date announcements.

This is a very different episode of our show than what you'll usually hear, but one that Andrew wanted to share with our audience and one that we all felt was important. Andrew took a big step last month in his quest for self-improvement in mind and body by checking himself into New Hope Ranch rehabilitation facility for alcohol abuse, something he has struggled with for some time. He thought it was important to discuss his treatment, both as a way to decompress after those 30 days but also to provide context and experience to those that may also be suffering and in need of support.

If you or a loved one are seeking substance abuse treatment, please contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or find treatment options online at www.findtreatment.gov.

Andrew makes his triumphant return this week, which of course means the return of Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam! This week we decide our #1 game of 2015 before discussing the very interesting discourse surrounding the reviews and release of Cyberpunk 2077 along with Drew and Travis' very early impressions on PC and Xbox Series X. Does the game live up to the hype or has it buckled under the weight of its own sky high ambition? And of course, The Game Awards 2020 celebrated the best and brightest in the industry this week, and we cover all of the key reveals from that weird ass Ark 2 trailer with Vin Diesel to the next Mass Effect game.

As we roll into December and the dust begins to settle from another Black Friday, which we guess really wasn't so bad this year thanks to everyone's favorite deadly virus, the news cycle continues to slow while we move from Thanksgiving into Christmas. Which just means we have more time to talk about what we've been playing! Travis has much to say about Bugsnax and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, two single player titles that were easy enough to knock out from the already fast building "next gen" backlog. We're only three weeks in and he's already behind! Ethan reflects on the usefulness of PlayStation 5's Activities feature during his continuing adventures in Demon's Souls and we run down the reviews for Immortals Fenyx Rising and Twin Mirror before we dive into what little news there is this week. Xbox Series X|S turns out to be an emulation power house, leaked internal documents from Sony show that single player gaming is thriving and was a huge consideration when developing the biggest PlayStation 5 features, Genshin Impact continues to make crazy money on mobile, and Nintendo continues to dominate in software sales even while the PS5 surpasses it in hardware during its launch month.

As we barrel towards the finish line of season one, I guess that's what we're calling it, Travis and Ethan invite Tara back to discuss Tomb Raider, the 2018 reboot starring Alicia Vikander, and it does not go over well. It's an episode of reminiscence as we talk about the early days of Adult Swim and the G4 Holiday Reunion Special before Tara explains her... unique method of binge watching television, and Ethan admits to the world that he has an irrational hatred of Conan O'Brien.As we barrel towards the finish line of season one, I guess that's what we're calling it, Travis and Ethan invite Tara back to discuss Tomb Raider, the 2018 reboot starring Alicia Vikander, and it does not go over well. It's an episode of reminiscence as we talk about the early days of Adult Swim and the G4 Holiday Reunion Special before Tara explains her... unique method of binge watching television, and Ethan admits to the world that he has an irrational hatred of Conan O'Brien.

This week Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, a national holiday that we really can't believe hasn't been cancelled by Twitter yet, but its time will surely come. Ethan and Travis do what must be done, which is talk all about how they celebrated America's favorite day of eating before diving into what's really important in people's lives: video games. The dynamic duo review Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PlayStation 5 and Travis is forced to put Watch Dogs: Legion on hold while Ubisoft works to add a save feature... wait, that can't be right, can it? There's no save feature? Square-Enix officially offers a permanent work-from-home program for employees in Japan, Rockstar announces a standalone version of Red Dead Online, and CD Projekt swears to whatever deity they believe in that Cyberpunk 2077 is really releasing in December.

Absent Minded's PlayStation 5 coverage continues as we end week one with Sony's latest system and our impressions strengthen, between the system's user interface and stability and our time with its biggest launch exclusives, including the one and only Demon's Souls. The reviews are in for Bluepoint's latest remake and it appears they've knocked it out the park yet again in a truly special way. Hitman developer IO Interactive revealed their next project this week, Capcom's upcoming releases through 2024 are leaked to the public including some surprise titles, Assassin's Creed Valhalla breaks franchise records on its launch week and we talk about the nominees for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2020.

The day has finally arrived in which we tackle the final chapter of the incredibly lackluster saga of Resident Evil, and such a monumentally boring undertaking has required us to call in the ultimate schlock hype girl, the one and only Tara Conneally (@tallcanary), as our very first guest host. Are we all going to die down here? Let's hope not. But before that, Travis and Tara talk about digging into Apple TV+ content, we speculate on what's happening with Fantastic Beasts now that Johnny Depp has exited the third film, and discussing the moral question of whether there's anyone more deserving of 40,000 COVID-19 tests than the people forcing another Jurassic World film upon us.

The next generation of video game consoles has officially begun this week with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Travis and Ethan have the freshest of impressions on Sony and Microsoft's latest hardware. We also run down the reviews of the biggest launch titles of the week before talking about the Mass Effect remaster's official announcement, Square-Enix's big financial loss with Marvel's Avengers, and Phil Spencer's time playing Elden Ring, proving that it's a real game that exists somewhere.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2014 before discussing reviews of Xbox Series X|S, a new jailbreak for Oculus Quest 2 circumventing Facebook account requirements, major network hacks at Crytek, Ubisoft and Capcom, the crazy money Activision Blizzard is making from microtransactions, PSVR headset limitations on PS5 for Hitman 3 and No Man's Sky, and more.

Nothing is true and everything is permitted in Assassin's Creed, a solid action flick with a stellar cast of actors that actually tried their darnedest to make a good movie. And they pretty much did, and kept authentic to boot. We say goodbye to legendary actor Sean Connery this week before discussing the latest trailer for the final Evangelion film, Netflix taking a break from Mindhunter, the return of Jon Stewart, and NBC Universal's CEO promising Peacock won't end up like Quibi.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2013 before discussing the departure of Halo Infinite's project director, yet another delay for Cyberpunk 2077, AMD's recently announced Big Navi GPU lineup, the biggest announcements from Nintendo's Partner Showcase Direct, and more.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2012 before discussing Facebook's Head of VR doubling down on their ridiculous account requirements for the Oculus Quest 2, Phil Spencer's thoughts on releasing Bethesda titles on PlayStation, the media apps launching day one on PlayStation 5, unskippable advertisements in NBA 2K21 and more.

Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam officially begins this week as we decide our #1 game of 2011 before discussing the PlayStation 5 user interface reveal, how backwards compatibility will work with your PlayStation 4 games, the incoming PlayStation Store changes and how Facebook's account requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is leaving users with expensive paperweights.

This week Sony finally gave us a peak inside the PlayStation 5, revealing all of its secrets and giving an idea of why this thing is so darn huge! We go over all the things you need to know about this next gen behemoth before getting into the latest changes to the PlayStation trophy system, our thoughts on how Nintendo really could achieve 4K gaming with a Switch Pro, more Final Fantasy XVI news, a potential Dreamcast Mini in the future, and much more!

It's the return of the pretty decent video game movie this week as we watch The Angry Birds Movie! Now, I know what you're thinking, and I will say we say DECENT, okay. So relax. It's got a solid cast, some pretty good jokes and if you had to be forced to sit through this film in theaters for a small child you wouldn't have the worst time. Would it stand up to the 100s of additional viewings they'd force upon you? Probably not! COVID delay season continues as every movie gets scared after Tenet's lackluster domestic box office, moving every major film from the end of 2020 to 2021 and beyond. Superwoman becomes the next Arrowverse series to bite the dust, Sega wants to make a film franchise out of the Yakuza game series, The Boys is so popular Amazon is fast tracking a college-set spin-off series, and Bill & Ted Face the Music prove there is success to be had in the new normal of premium video-on-demand.

Long stretches of game development involving mandatory overtime, known as crunch, are unfortunately very common in the video games industry. It's a difficult topic to discuss as in some ways it almost seems like a necessary evil while the argument for its avoidance can be made just as strongly. Is it always a result of poor planning by project leads and managers or is it just a result of the unpredictable nature of creating such massive projects? After committing to a crunch-free development cycle for Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has this week enforced mandatory overtime for the six week sprint leading up to the release of the game in mid-November, and with it the discussion of this issue has opened up yet again. Reviewers across games media got access to working Xbox Series X hardware this week so we've been flooded with impressions of the soon to release console, Naoki Yoshida shares some updates on Final Fantasy XVI at Tokyo Game Show, Insomniac details all of the upgrades you'll see in Spider-Man: Remastered on PS5 in an attempt to earn that $20 price tag, and Apex Legends finally makes the jump to console and PC cross-play next week.

Microsoft dropped a megaton bomb on the games industry this week when it announced it was finalizing plans to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, complete with all of the development studios and intellectual property under them. Xbox is now your future home for Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and so much more, all for the tune of just $7.5 billion USD. Wowza. The rest of the news is fairly light as you might have guessed, who wants to get overshadowed by that after all? Sony apologizes on Twitter for its PS5 pre-order situation, the still allegedly in development Beyond Good & Evil 2's game director quits video games forever, retailers have pricing for your next gen Xbox expandable storage and it's pretty darn pricey, and Amazon is ready to throw its hat into the game streaming ring because well, why not?

Your friendly galactic Lombax gets his big screen debut in Ratchet & Clank and we promise you he's far more interesting in his games. In its effort to distill the franchise into lowest-common-denominator children's animation the film loses most of its personality, though there are a few glimmers of what makes these characters so great among the duds. We got some awesome new trailers this week for Dune and WandaVision, confirmation of where that crazy Nick Cage Tiger King series is ending up, Wonder Woman 1984 being delayed AGAIN, and official confirmation that Tom Cruise is headed to space!

It's finally officially, the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition is releasing this November at the competitive pricing we all hoped for, and that's just the beginning of all of the PlayStation 5 news we have this episode! Final Fantasy XVI opened up the PS5 Showcase this week and it's going to back its medieval fantasy roots, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls are confirmed PS5 launch titles, we got our first glimpse at the long leaked Harry Potter RPG and we can't wait to go to Hogwarts, and a bevy of other reveals and updates on what's coming this year and next. Besides all the PS5 news, which there is just a ton of to get through, we also discuss Nintendo's discontinuing of the 3DS, the weird decision to use emulation for Super Mario 3D All Stars, Ubisoft bringing Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell to VR, and so much more! It's a big episode people!

After having their hand forced by a leak of the system and its pricing, Microsoft finally unveiled the Xbox Series S, code-named Lockhart, that we've been talking about for nearly a year now. And it's exactly the box we thought. All of the new features and CPU grunt of the Xbox Series X, but with a GPU more targeted for 1080p and 1440p gaming. Microsoft even revealed the price for the X and S, at $499 and $299 respectively, putting Sony in an interesting position with PlayStation 5. But is it all sunshine and rainbows with this entry-level next gen system? The pros may very well outweigh the cons. Ubisoft streamed another one of their Forward events and it's safe to say it was less interesting than their first foray. CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3 is headed for next gen systems in a free update, 505 Games accidentally does "the impossible" and temporarily upgrades Control owners to the Ultimate Edition, more bad news for Gamestop and rumblings out of Bloomberg that Nintendo is closer to a 4K-ready Switch than we thought.

Hitman: Agent 47 had lots of pew pew guns and explosions that kept our attention but will surely be completely gone from our memories by the time we're done writing this episode description. It's fine, okay, there's just not much to say. I expected better from you Zachary Quinto! The news is light this week, so get ready to listen to the gang talk all about the premieres of HBO Max's Raised by Wolves and Amazon's The Boys season 2, more Lovecraft Country and Bill & Ted Face the Music.

Video games. When you read those two words, if Mario doesn't pop into your mind first, he's probably not too far behind. The Italian plumber in a red shirt and blue overalls is nearly synonymous with the entertainment medium we all love so dearly, and our boy is celebrating 35 years of running, jumping, and ground pounding in a big way. In a Super Mario Bros Anniversary Direct today, Nintendo announced a host of new and old games coming to Switch, some we had a pretty good idea about already, and others that made for terrific surprises. We of course catch you up on each announcement while also diving into NVIDIA's RTX 30 Series showcase, giving us a taste of what their juggernaut graphics cards are doing to usher in PC gaming's own "next generation". Drew's got super early impressions of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, Travis says The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel might be one of the best JRPGs he's ever played, and all three of us are just about done with Fall Guys (but it's been a good run!).

Sony began sending emails this week to PlayStation players deemed to have been worthy of the chance to pre-order a PlayStation 5 direct from the source, presumably in an effort to curb scalping and get more units into the hands of people that actually want them. But it's also a sign of just how limited production of the system may be, and how hard it may be to get one during its holiday season launch. DC Fandome went down last week and while much of the event focused on various movie and television updates, we also finally got reveals of Gotham Knights from WB Games Montreal and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from Rocksteady, but are these the games we've been hoping for? Ghost of Tsushima is getting a major multiplayer add-on for free this Fall, Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War gets revealed in a big way but has a fairly complicated next gen release structure, and we've got a recap of everything shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live.

Fast and Furious Presents: Need for Speed... it's not actually called that but it probably would have made more money if it had been! This movie has a hell of a cast made up of Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogeen Poots, Rami Malek, Michael Keaton, I mean, do we have to say more? You're sold on this already, aren't you?! We were and damn, this was actually a really fun watch full of amazing practical effects with some campy dialogue and a silly story but hey, it's video games baby! There's a lot of news this week as we cover the biggest reveals coming out of DC Fandome including the first look at Matt Reeve's The Batman (we stan Robert Pattinson in this house), confirmation that Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton would return as their respective Batman's in 2022's The Flash, a full trailer of Zack Snyder's Justice League, and that's just the DC news! Don't miss this one people.

Apple and Epic's war of attrition over the money spent on Fortnite v-bucks continues this week and Apple isn't afraid to burn down all the bridges as it announces that all of Epic's development accounts will be shut out from iOS and Mac on August 28th, including those operated by third party developers. Does your game run on Unreal Engine? Apple says you're just as at fault as Epic. Shady tactics and lawsuits between mega corporations aside... oh no, we're not done there just yet! Facebook announced that by October, you've gotta switch to a Facebook account to keep getting access to the latest features of your Oculus VR gear. Get ready to share the good stuff with advertising partners if you want to get in on the latest in VR tech from the company. Sony continues its trend of excellent post launch support for its first party offerings with the announcement that Ghost of Tsushima is getting a free cooperative multiplayer update this Fall, giving you even more reason to play samurai after liberating the island in its single player campaign. The next entry in the Call of Duty series is officially announced, more veteran devs leave Rockstar Games, and could Demon Souls on PlayStation 5 join Spider-Man: Miles Morales as a launch title?

With Microsoft's announcement this week that Xbox Series X would launch in November without Halo Infinite, which is delayed into 2021, yet another cloud of uncertainty appears as the company moves to launch its next generation console without a flagship first party game. What looked like a sleeping dragon at the beginning of the year now seems like something lesser, and it remains to be seen if Team Green repeats the mistakes of the launch of the Xbox One. Epic Games decided to go toe-to-toe with Apple this week as it moved to sue the hardware company over the removal of Fortnite from the Apple App Store after Epic updated the game to skirt the stores payment processing policies. Fall Guys does huge numbers on Steam, so huge it could fundamentally change publisher Devolver Digital going forward, Remedy's Control: Ultimate Edition is announced with an ugly next gen caveat for previous owners, Rocksteady is finally ready to talk about their Suicide Squad game at DC Fandome this month, and could some recent FCC filings for Sony's Dualsense controller point to an October launch for PlayStation 5?

It's time for Silent Hill: Revelation! Don't worry if you can't remember all of the details of the previous Silent Hill film, the writers didn't either! Nearly every major plot point is ignored this go around so feel free to sit back, relax, and not remember anything because nothing matters. Also! We talk about Disney's Mulan going to digital rental instead of the silver screen in the US, not one but two John Wick films coming down the pipe, the return of your favorite 90s cartoons to Hulu, and losing all hope that Tron 3 is going to be any good at all.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is the feel good hit of the summer on PS4 and PC, with millions of players (including us!) getting in on the game show action. We talk all about the goofy times we've had so far with this one, as well as some final thoughts on Ghost of Tsushima with Drew back in the game this week. There's a ton of news to go over too, with Halo: Infinite announcing it's multiplayer mode would be free-to-play, the announcement of Pikmin 3 Deluxe for Switch, Konami releasing some awful looking gaming PCs, and of course, a full breakdown of Sony's latest State of Play showcase.

Ghost of Tsushima released two weeks ago to critical and audience acclaim and Sucker Punch has been rewarded in kind as the title became the fastest selling original IP for PlayStation selling over 2.4 million units in just three days. Surprisingly though, the release is making some of the biggest waves in the country its story is based in, Japan, where it's doing unusually well among gamers that tend to spend more time on mobile devices than home consoles. Even esteemed Yakuza series director Toshihiro Nagoshi has nothing but nice things to say about the release, surprised only that a Western studio so successfully depicted the atmosphere of its era and setting. Travis and Ethan delve deeper into their time in Tsushima before following up on new information coming out after the Xbox Game Showcase last week, a milestone community achievement in Metal Gear Solid V, the return of G4, and the Nintendo "Gigaleak" the company suffered just days ago.

Alice is back... again... again. And this time it's terrible. Really, truly awful. It doesn't make any sense anymore, and that's with the understanding that it never really made any sense before. But it's so bad now. And we have one more to go. Just end it already. Paul W.S. Anderson you should be ashamed of yourself. Travis watched way too much since last episode and talks all about it, Ethan tries his best to describe the weird anime he's watching, and we've got more and more production delays due to COVID. Tom Cruise doesn't care though, Tom Cruise wants to shoot the first movie in space. Amazon wants to make more seasons of The Boys. And finally, Netflix is tossing all of their coins to The Witcher as they announce a limited series set in the universe.

Has anyone actually gotten into contact with Microsoft to let them know that they're launching a next generation console this year? The Xbox Games Showcase has come and gone, leaving pangs of what could have been, reopening wounds only recently shut after their last event in May. Outside of a "this is fine" reveal of Halo Infinite (that we found out after recording wasn't even running on Series X, but a PC!), a deeper peak at The Medium, an exciting looking DLC for The Outer Worlds, and a super psychedelic trailer for Psychonauts 2, of which the latter two are cross-platform, not much else left us excited about what's to come. This was a Game Pass Showcase, not a next gen showcase, and it shows. There's still some interesting announcements worth discussing as we recap the day's reveals, but it's starting to become painfully obvious that Xbox isn't interested in their new hardware, so why should we be?

Change is afoot at Ubisoft as three high level executives resign from the company amid a host of sexual harassment allegations, including Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoet, the man behind the formulaic open-world games the company has produced for nearly a decade. The same week Ubisoft streamed its Ubisoft Forward event, the first of many, detailing Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, as well as announcing Far Cry 6 with a gorgeous cinematic trailer. Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition would discontinue manufacturing as we near the release of Xbox Series X, and also announce Project xCloud's addition to their Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Sony makes a $250 million investment into Epic Games, Capcom reveals the vast majority of their game sales for 2020 are digital, and Geoff Keighley announces the first hands-on showcase of PlayStation 5's DualSense controller complete with gameplay.

Alice is back with a clone army and superpowers, finally ready to take down the evil Umbrella Corporation. Until she's not, because ya boi Wesker doesn't play around! Resident Evil: Afterlife finally sets up the shark and jumps right the hell over it, and it's a lot of fun. Clone High is getting a revival at MTV Studios, say whaaaaaaat? Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts of the upcoming live-action Metal Gear Solid wants to bring back Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter for an animated series, Tron 3 is looking more and more likely as rumors of Jared Leto and Daft Punk's attachment pick up, and Matt Reeves and Terrence Winter want to continue The Batman universe with a series on HBO Max.

Evo Online has been cancelled this week following the removal of Evo's CEO after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations that are only the latest in a massive number of victims coming forward within the fighting game community. Microsoft is apparently in talks to acquire Warner Bros. gaming division, including studios like Rocksteady and NetherRealm. Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed leaks, name a more iconic duo! And of course, we talk about The Last of Us Part 2 again this week as Ethan nears the end of his time with the game.

After years of speculation on when the shoe would drop, inflation may well have finally caught up with our industry as Take Two announces NBA 2K21 as the first next generation title to cost $70 for entry instead of the $60 we've all been paying for new games since 2005. Is the rising bill of sale justified or are publishers just making clear how much we've been paying for games already? Iron Man VR releases this week and reviews say it's... about what we all could have expected from a super hero VR joint. The United Kingdom's gambling committee finally makes its views on loot boxes clear, that open world Harry Potter RPG that leaked in 2018 might see the light of day next year, The Last of Us Part II reaches new heights for PlayStation first party sales, and Crysis Remastered leaks in such a bad way that the game has been delayed until further notice.

Jake Gyllenhaal signs up to make some of that sweet, sweet Disney money as Dastan, a street kid turned prince on a quest to protect a legendary dagger with time altering powers with the help of a vengeful princess. It's basically Pirates of the Carribean in the desert. You'll like it! AMC details its totally cool, totally safe plans for reopening its theaters next month, HBO Max gives us just a taste of the Justice League Snyder cut in a brand new clip, Tenet gets pushed back again, and unexpected pair of films take over the box office for Father's Day weekend.

This episode includes a 100% SPOILER FREE discussion of The Last of Us Part 2! Do not be scared to listen to this episode if you have not finished the game, at the time of recording Travis and Andrew had not either. We discuss the gameplay mechanics, design, and other high level thoughts on the game without delving into story details or structure in any way. Consider this our unfinished review!

But! Aside from the biggest game of the generation finally being in our hands, there's big news to discuss this week such as Microsoft unceremoniously shuttering Mixer in one month's time, another delay for Cyberpunk 2077 coupled with good news for prospective next gen console owners, a breakdown of what you didn't need to see from EA Play Live 2020, a true blue Crash Bandicoot sequel, and much more.

As Sony and Microsoft go toe to toe with each other in the form of next gen hype with console and game reveals, it looks like Xbox is setting up for a much bigger event than their 3rd party showcase that left us all wanting more. The rumors were kicked up a notch this week when a trusted industry leaker described the event as a "night of mic drops" and even hinted that the fabled Lockhart unit, already named by the gaming community as Xbox Series S, would finally be revealed. While this little console that could is not meant to compete directly with PlayStation 5, its existence in the marketplace and its supposed price point could make holiday shopping an even more intense battleground this year. Naughty Dog's highly anticipated The Last of Us Part 2 is finally in everyone's hands, and while we did not have a chance to play before recording this episode, we do have a review round-up for this PlayStation 4 swan song and some vibes to share before we get to dive in ourselves. We've also got more information on the heavy hitters of PlayStation's Future of Gaming event, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon: Forbidden West, info on a new Star Wars game that could be the Rogue Squadron revival of our dreams, word of yet another Riot Games exec being a total piece of shit, and a tip on how you can get The Witcher 3 on PC for free if you already own it on console.

Now, I know what you're thinking. No, that unfortunately is not Steven Seagal in the cover art for this episode. But don't worry, the movie we watched week is just as mediocre if it had been. Tekken follows Jin, a rebellious teenager fighting to survive in the slums of a world controlled by massive corporations that pit fighters against each other in the King of Iron Fist Tournament for a chance at a life of fame, wealth and leisure.

Ethan and Travis discuss the powerful Netflix documentary "13th", among other things we all watched these past weeks. The Last of Us on HBO gains another heavy hitter from the Chernobyl mini-series, Into the Spider-Verse 2 is confirmed to have begun production along with a change in tentative release date, AMC says you should totally not worry about the massive losses they've faced recently and assures you they will totally be back in action come July, and Travis swears he will see Tenet in theaters if he has to go in a hazmat suit.