Videogame Roundtable

This one and a three-quarters hour podcast talks about the silly awards show known as The Game Awards (formerly Spike TV's Game Awards). Let us know what you thought of the Awards show, the nominees and the winners.

This week comments on the crapshow that is going on with most of the third party publishers. That, and some updates to games that people really care about. The news includes:
Bethesda shows another brief tease of Starfield
Kotick reportedly says he'll consider leaving if he can't fix Activision Blizzard's culture problems
Minecraft 1.18 'Caves and Cliffs Update' Part Two is officially available on all platforms
Let us know what you think.

This is the second attempt at Episode 464, as the previous episode had bad audio, and was boring to boot. This week's episode features a lot of questionable content, as well as a Dark Souls Gaming Flashback. The news includes:
Surprise Halo Infinite multiplayer launch buckles Steam servers
Grand Theft Auto Trilogy back on PC after Rockstar removes 'unintentionally included' files
Microsoft adds 76 more games to Xbox backwards compatibility
Nintendo explains why there is no virtual console on Switch
Let us know what you think.

This week's episode features a Gaming Flashback of Bastion, Supergiant Games' first title, and a proto-version of 2020's Hades. The discussion includes around their other two games as well, Transistor and Pyre. They also discuss how far Ubisoft is falling, and Jonah tries to convince the others how cool a metaverse would be for games. The news of the week includes:
Ubisoft announces plans to develop Play-To-Earn, Blockchain and NFT Games
Sega and Microsoft explore strategic alliance
Microsoft is planning 3D metaverse apps
Let us know what you think.

What's with the title? Stick to the end of the episode to find out. Meanwhile, this week was fairly slow and it was tough finding things to talk about -- Minecraft has been in the news a lot lately.
Microsoft is 'definitely not done' acquiring studios
Company sells new PS5 plate design
Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition are coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC
Let us know what you think.

This week, Jonah, Scott and TJ have a huge debate over which franchises are the core ones for Nintendo. Mario and Zelda are the easy first two, but who is the third? Scott is also invested in what will be the next major Minecraft addition. There's also a Gaming Flashback, looking at a minor roleplaying game from 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which has no relevance in 2021.
Nintendo Switch developers say they already have 4K dev kits
Dragon Age 4 is heading to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC only
Bloodlines 2 came close to being cancelled completely
Mobs announced for fan vote ahead of Minecraft Live
Let us know what you think the third major Nintendo franchise is.

The hottest new MMO is out, New World, and it's been dominating the news this week, along with other MMOs.
New World bots flood fishing spots, so players bring boars to kill them
Offline version of MMO Dragon Quest 10 hits Japan in February
Metroid Prime 3 developer reveals scrapped open world plans
Sora revealed as the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter
Wasteland 3's final DLC is out now
Let us know what you think.

The new mic used for the episode has improved the audio by a factor of 1,000. In fact, Episode 625's audio is so bad, it'll take a lot of effort to make it even bearable, so it won't be published for a while. In the meantime, the new Amazon MMO New World has made a giant splash, but is it worth dipping your toes in, especially since it costs $40 to buy? Meanwhile, the frustrations T.J. has as a PlayStation 5 owner come to the fore. This week's news includes:
New World goes live in North America
343 makes Halo Infinite's next multiplayer preview available to everyone on Xbox
Civilization 6 modder has brought back upgradeable throne rooms and palaces
Sony: Still many PS5 features to add
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