Beyond

It’s been in the works for years, and delayed by several months, but Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally here, and it’s worth the wait. Y’know, assuming you like big huge open-world games, don’t mind when Assassin’s Creed games veer into RPG territory, and are interested in the feudal Japanese setting. We’re all having a blast, and while it doesn’t break the mold or color too far outside the lines of previous entries, specifically the one used to make Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla, it does a great job refining what worked best, creating a big huge playground for ninja and samurai mayhem that look absolutely stunning on the latest gaming hardware. The dual protagonists are endearing, and the different approaches to combat and exploration that Yasuke and Naoe’s playstyles allow for should help keep things fresh, even dozens of hours into the game. Now, the big question: what does this mean for 2025’s OTHER big huge open-world samurai game, Ghost of Yotei? Will it be a samurai showdown, or will a rising tide raise all ships? Either way, anyone who likes running around killing dudes with a katana and shuriken is eating good this year. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Mark Medina, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet, Beyond! is a part of Geek Media Podcast Network, an IGN Entertainment Brand. Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, we got some major news about The Last of Us. Unfortunately, that news amounted to Neil Druckmann saying “don’t bet on” a third game, and then the announcement of a limited edition The Last of Us Part 2 Dualsense controller. Though there’s a new season of the HBO series on the horizon, that’s got to be a bit of a drag for TLOU fans – but was there ever going to be a happy ending for this series, which basically takes place in a bad ending for humans, in general? In any case, this is par for the course for Naughty Dog, which has typically moved on from each franchise after a few games. Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter each got a trilogy and change, Uncharted stuck around for a fourth full installment, plus Lost Legacy, but considering the heavy subject matter and the amount of time the studio has spent on the series, maybe it’s time to move on to Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet? That’s what Naughty Dog’s up to right now, but what about the rest of PlayStation Studios? We know about a few upcoming projects like Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei and Housemarque’s Saros, but the bulk of Sony’s first party development studios have been radio silent for quite some time - not counting a few closures, and announcements of cancelled projects. Finally, it’s not quite first party, but Death Stranding 2: On The Beach got a big 10 minute trailer gameplay reveal music video thing, and it looks gorgeous, but has us wondering how on board we are for more of Kojima’s drawn out cutscenes interspersed with trips to deliver peoples’ mail. Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of this month’s Beyond Game Club, we’re revisiting Batman Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady’s debut game featuring the Dark Knight, which arrived in 2009 and laid the groundwork for Arkham City and Arkham Knight. As much as we adore the massive open-world Gotham City, in a lot of ways, Arkham Asylum is the perfect Batman game: a mix of action-packed combat and detective work in the form of puzzles and navigating the labyrinthine penitentiary for Gotham’s most twisted denizens. So, what went wrong? Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League swung for the fences in multiple directions at once and ultimately struck out, while Gotham Knights sent us back into Gotham, but not as the character we’d most like to play as. Is it so hard to make a good Batman game? Well, yes, it’s hard to make any game, good or otherwise, about anything, let alone a character with this much lore and history and reverence. But still, a Rocksteady take on Batman Beyond and/or the Arkham formula retooled in a Bruce Timm-style cel-shaded Gotham both seem like missed opportunities. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monster Hunter Wilds will soon be out in the wild, and this week we’re joined by IGN’s reviewer Tom Marks and resident Monster Hunter expert Case DeFrietas to talk about how the latest installment in Capcom’s most popular series pushing the franchise forward, discuss the numerous things it does right, but address one common complaint among reviewers, in that it’s too easy compared to the previous games. Plus, bad news just broke about WB Games, namely the closure of three studios, including Monolith, unfortunately putting an end to the long-awaited Wonder Woman project. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Casey DeFreitas, Tom Marks, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Beyond is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media network. Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’ve got some games to talk about, including Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the latest installment in the long-running organized crime series that’s a bit less organized than usual, namely because it ditches the criminal underworld for the high seas. It may feature plenty of familiar backdrops and a few familiar faces (like most games in the series) it keeps things fresh by getting creative. What can other publishers learn from RGG Studios’ scrappy re-purposing of existing environments and systems? We compare and contrast the Yakuza games’ reception to others, like certain semi-annualized Ubisoft franchises. Meanwhile, Jada played a bunch of Warriors: Abyss, the roguelike spin on Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Max gave himself food poisoning in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Brian’s looking forward to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In other news, a company called DevynPC is offering a way to make your PlayStation 5 look a little less like a funky spaceship and more like a stock image of a generic game console, if that’s your thing. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Tayo Oyekan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sony’s first PlayStation State of Play showcased almost thirty new games (or updates for existing games) but still left us feeling a bit disappointed. The reveal of Housemarque’s Saros, a PS5 remaster of Days Gone, and a long overdue release date for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater were highlights, along with some proper reveals of relative unknown projects like the fast-paced FPS Metal Eden, the Arthurian Soulslike/Shadow of the Colossus-like Tides of Annihilation and Mindseye, the cyberpunk action adventure project from Grand Theft Auto series veteran Leslie Benzies. Borderlands fans have a Borderlands 4 State of Play to look forward to. Devil May Cry fans are likely going to be kept busy by Lost Soul Aside. Anyone feeling stranded without Death Stranding 2: On The Beach might appreciate the creepy vibes of Hell is Us. If you puppets, there’s Lies of P: Overture DLC, if you like cephalapods, there’s the octopuzzle-platformer Darwin’s Paradox, if you like pretty ladies in fancy outfits, there’s a Stellar Blade and Nikke: Goddess of Victory crossover, and if you’ve ever wanted to shoot a cloud with a gun and make it turn into something less abstract, there’s Dreams of Another. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rumor has it, Sony’s doing a State of Play next week, which seems more likely than not based on the timing of previous years’ presentations, so we run down a list of predictions of what we expect to see. Ghost of Yotei seems like a safe bet, as does Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. Live-service is a bit of a touchy subject for PlayStation at the moment, but Bungie’s Marathon and Haven Interactive’s Fairgame$ are both in the works the last we heard. On the third-party front, Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta Triange: Snake Eater Remake has been aligning itself with Sony since the jump, and we expected it’d drop last fall, but there’s still no release date. Midnight Walk is that creeply-looking platformer that’s coming to PS5 and PSVR2 alike, and it’s expected sometime this year. And of course, there are a number of soulslike and soulslike-lookalikes including Where Winds Meet, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Hell is Us, Phantom Blade Zero, Ballad of Antara and The First Berzerker Khazan, and we reckon at least one of those will make an appearance. Anything’s possible, but we’re less convinced we’ll see anything from Housemarque, and Xbox has been putting more stuff on PlayStation, with the recent announcement of Forza Horizon 5 and Age of Empires 2 coming to PS5, but where will that get revealed? We have our reservations we’ll see anything related to Silent Hill Townnfall or Silent Hill F, and it seems too soon for Marvel’s Wolverine, Project Robot or more of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but we’d love to be wrong. And of course, a Bloodborne Remake or Remaster would be nice, but we’re not holding out breath. In other news Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is out this week and Max and special guest Ronnie Barrier have lots of good things to say about this open-world RPG that’s more often than not just as much a medieval life simulator, but for anybody after a fast-paced action game, this ain’t it.  If you want to help support IGN and Humble Bundle in providing support to those in need affected by the LA wildfires, you can donate here: https://promo.humblebundle.com/lafirerelief This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Ronny Barrier, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re taking a minute to talk about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which has a lot going for it, but also a lot working against it. Between Ubisoft’s financial woes, two delays, a bunch of other big games including but not limited to Ghost of Yotei, plenty of backlash online, and the fact that it’s yet another big open-world Assassin’s Creed game, it might not stick the landing. But hey, what’s wrong with yet another big open-world Assassin’s Creed game? We haven’t really gotten one of those since Valhalla in 2020, and it’s not like they’re putting out Far Cry games as quickly as they used to. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws were both technically big open-world Ubisoft games, but they didn’t quite scratch the same itch. Anyway, there are a bunch of big video game movies and TV shows coming out in 2025, like A Minecraft Movie and The Last of Us Season 2, plus some more later on, and then some that are supposedly in the works but which may never come out.This week, we’re taking a minute to talk about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which has a lot going for it, but also a lot working against it. Between Ubisoft’s financial woes, two delays, a bunch of other big games including but not limited to Ghost of Yotei, plenty of backlash online, and the fact that it’s yet another big open-world Assassin’s Creed game, it might not stick the landing. But hey, what’s wrong with yet another big open-world Assassin’s Creed game? We haven’t really gotten one of those since Valhalla in 2020, and it’s not like they’re putting out Far Cry games as quickly as they used to. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws were both technically big open-world Ubisoft games, but they didn’t quite scratch the same itch. Anyway, there are a bunch of big video game movies and TV shows coming out in 2025, like A Minecraft Movie and The Last of Us Season 2, plus some more later on, and then some that are supposedly in the works but which may never come out. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Mark Medina, Brian Altano, and is produced by Tayo Oyekan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Max is out on assignment and Akeem is filling in as host! We’re talking about Sony’s gamble on live-service games: with the cancellation of two unannounced titles, is it going well for them? Our review for Dynasty Warriors: Origins is in and we dive deep into the details with Jada. Plus the legendary Shuhei Yoshida’s thoughts on PlayStation’s live-service push. Beyond! This week’s show is Akeem Lawanson, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re talking about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which is about.. Well, you can kind of figure it out from the name alone. Nick Maillet had a chance to go hands on, and shares some of the crazy stuff he encountered. The mainline Like a Dragon/Yakuza games are wacky enough under normal circumstances, but it sounds like Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is basically Like a Dragon: Blood Dragon in how overboard it’s willing to go. In other news Hideo Kojima sounds very tired, and Halo is probably coming to PlayStation 5 this holiday season, which is great for everyone. We also run down a few upcoming games that might not immediately be on your radar, including Date Everything, the sandbox dating sim in which you romance inanimate objects come to life, Hell is Us, a creepy looking third-person action game that’s taking some cues from the film Annihilation and the books it was based on, Baby Steps, which looks like open-world QWOP, or Mudrunner with a man instead of a truck, and Light No Fire, Hello Games’ fantasy-flavored follow-up to No Man’s Sky. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Nick Maillet, Nick Limon, and is produced by Jobert Atienza. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year! 2025 kicks off with a bunch of news out of CES, and it seems like Sony announced basically everything except games, from feature film adaptations of Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers 2 to a Ghost of Tsushima anime series to an immersive and probably weird-smelling experience in The Last of Us. Meanwhile, in the interest of not having a ton of game news to discuss, we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest games that’ll be celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2025, weighing in on how those game franchises are doing a decade later, and speculating on how they might get some recognition this year. The big one, obviously, is Bloodborne, which Sony seems to be teasing - or at least acknowledging - a bit more than usual. The Witcher 3 just got big a sequel reveal at The Game Awards, Fallout 4 was followed up by Fallout 76, but anyone who’s excited about the Prime Video series might be waiting around for a while for Fallout 5. Metal Gear Solid 5 may very well be the last proper Metal Gear game we ever get, but that could always change, but at least Hideo Kojima is cooking up a new tactical espionage game with Physint. Undertale is gradually getting a sequel with Deltarune, Rocket League and Rainbow Six Siege are alive and well, Until Dawn’s just got a remake and has a movie on the way, but Batman fans hoping for a conventional Arkham game haven’t gotten much love since Arkham Knight. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the holidays, which means spending time with loved ones, and probably getting into an argument with them too. So, we’re deciding on Beyond’s Top 10 PlayStation Games Ever, but we’re doing it in a stupid, convoluted way that will result in a list that no one, including us, agrees with entirely. Spoiler alert: this was an excuse to talk about some games we love for an hour. Hopefully we name at least one game you like, but if you don’t, don’t worry, it’s all made up and nothing we decide is legally binding or official in any capacity. We had fun making this episode, we hope you enjoy watching it! Happy holidays from all of us to all of you! This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sure do have a lot more games to look forward to than we did a week ago, huh? The Game Awards had quite a few big reveals, especially for PlayStation fans thanks to Naughty Dog finally letting the equally poorly behaved cat out of the bag and showing off Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the first brand new IP since The Last of Us. Considering it’s been well over a decade since that was unveiled, it’s something to be excited about. A deep-space adventure set on distant planets is arguably more uncharted territory than the actual Uncharted games, which is awesome, plus it combines bubble-era anime and early 80s synthpop. Other major reveals include The Witcher 4, Team Ico mastermind Fumeto Ueda’s Project Robot, the Like a Dragon Team’s Project Century, and FromSoft’s multiplayer survival-centric spin on Elden Ring, Nightreign. As for our very own awards, we have the winner of IGN’s best PlayStation game of 2024, which probably won’t come as much of a surprise, and the winners of our very own Beyondcé awards. Finally, Jada shares her PlayStation wrapped stats, and odds are, she played more video games than you. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ #GOTYwatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the last big games of 2024 have finally dropped, including the open-world dress-up game Infinity Nikki, which is currently a PS5 console exclusive, and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, which is currently Xbox console-exclusive, but which will be hitting PS5 next year. Both of these games are great in their own ways, and they’re each doing some new things that make them fun in ways we weren't expecting. Skydance’s Behemoth is also out for PSVR2, which promises Shadow of The Colossus-like monster fights. Meanwhile, Aliens: Dark Descent isn’t new, but it’s new to PlayStation Plus this month, and it’s an extremely nerve-racking survival horror spin on real-time strategy, and finally Entropy Survivors takes the Vampire Survivors formula but gives it a considerable visual bump, plus some cool physics-based power ups, plus a frog with a mech, which is pretty neat. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between Nintendo Switch’s impending successor, Valve’s Steam Deck and its ilk, and Phil Spencer casually announcing an Xbox handheld is in development, portable gaming is in the midst of a revival. If recent rumors are to be believed, Sony will soon be following suit. So, what can be learned not just from the success of current handheld devices, but also Sony’s previous ventures into the pocket-sized gaming space? The PlayStation Portable and PS Vita were both wonderful devices, but a variety of factors kept them from achieving the same success as Nintendo’s handhelds. Speaking of last-gen Sony, the PS5 has gotten some 30th anniversary themes, which allow the startup and system noises to be changed, but sadly, it’s just for a limited time. Will we see more themes for the PS5 menu anytime soon? It’s award season, so we’ve got some categories to announce for our own very special award show, The Beyondcés, and Jada’s got her work cut out for her with a mountain of games to Platinum before the year is through. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever been asked by your family during the holidays what a Kingdom Hearts is or why Solid Snake is in fact, not a snake? This week we answer those questions and many more in this very special holiday episode of Podcast Beyond. We also talk about why younger gamers aren't familiar with Metal Gear Solid anymore, why Brian is glad he bought a bad Unicorn video game, Max's emails to his mom about his job and Kojima, and Jada's thoughts on this year in RPG's. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following the announcement of The Game Awards 2024 nominees for overall game of the year, the big debate right now is should Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion be eligible? Yes, it’s great, but Elden Ring won this award in 2022, and not only is Erdtree not playable without the base game, it requires a substantial amount of amount of legwork (and a big of eggwork) to even access. Aside from that there’s other Elden Ring rumblings, with talk about Sony acquiring FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa. Meanwhile, Capcom reports Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess underperformed due to lack of buzz, and Square Enix promises not to half-ass the Highwind airship in part 3 of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, whatever they decide to call it. We also got to play some upcoming games: Max previewed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (which is from the team behind the recently-released Tetris Forever, which we also discuss) and Jada checked out Dynasty Warriors Origins. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Check out our facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ 00:00 - Intro 01:21 - Final Fantasy 7 Remake Pt 3 Info 12:15 - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Underperformed 14:09 - FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa acquisition rublings 29:09 - Max previewed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind 43:59 - Jada checked out Dynasty Warriors Origins 55:10 - Should DLC Be Game of the Year Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a recent investor call, Sony’s finance and IR chief Sadahiko Hayakawa announced that we should expect a major first party single-player game release at least once a year from the 2025 fiscal year onward, which is awesome news! However, aside form Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Insomniac and Marvel’s Wolverine, that leaves lots of room for speculation about which of PlayStation’s numerous game studios will make an announcement next. There have been rumors and possibly in-game clues that Naughty Dog’s next project may be in the realm of fantasy, and things have been quiet over there since The Last of Us: Part I. Even quieter has been Bend Studio, whose last project was Days Gone, and quite a few days have gone by since that was released. Meanwhile, there’s also Santa Monica Studio, Housemarque, and Media Molecule, just to name a few. In other news, Sony patents a rewind button which probably sounds a lot cooler than it is, Akeem is getting weird in PSVR, and Jada reviewed LEGO Horizon Adventures, which sounds just fine. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Check out our facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The PlayStation 5 Pro has finally arrived (or arrives very shortly) and we’ve got IGN’s reviewer Michael Higham joining us to break down how much of an improvement this mid-gen hardware refresh actually is, from enhanced performance modes to PSSR upscaling, Sony has definitely released a powerful machine, but it might not be enough of a leap to justify its pricetag. In other news, Wolverine’s creative director has left to oversee Perfect Dark instead, and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart’s game director and creative director are taking over the much-anticipated gamification of everyone’s favorite adamantium-plated Canadian. In lieu of any concrete information about Wolverine, we have a list of outlandish demands of features the game should include, as well as some beloved Marvel characters Beyond community suggested. Monster Hunter Wilds is shaping up to be a behemoth of a game, and Jada shared some of what got her the most excited during her time with the beta this weekend. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Michael Higham, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Call of Duty is here and we’re enjoying it! In fact IGN gave it great scores across the board so far with a 9 on the Campaign where you get to take pictures of Bill Clinton, and an 8 for the Multiplayer which feels pretty fun this year, Zombies hasn’t been scored yet but we talk about it a lot because Jada is having a great time with it full of Zombie raves, Bowling parties and other zany easter eggs that have been hidden in it. Jada also does her best to explain her early thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the lore behind it, and Nick Maillet steps in front of the camera to discuss his review of Life is Strange: Double Exposure which he also gave a 9! We also discuss the shutdown of Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi by Sony and the removal of the Resume Activity button on PS5. So Join Max, Jada, Akeem, and Nick as we dive into yet another week of excellent game releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices