Beyond

This week, we're talking about some extremely expensive big-ticket items in the world of game development. From Sony's recent financial earnings reporting a $765 million impairment loss (at least partially due to the underperformance of Destiny 2 and this year's Marathon launch) to SEGA's cancellation of its mysterious "Super Game" announced back in 2021, to reports of Grand Theft Auto 6's budget being over a billion dollars.

Not all games can be GTA 6, though, and we're skeptical about Sony's continued pursuit of AAA live-service projects, rather than dusting off a few tried-and-true games from the vaults to earn a few bucks off our nostalgia. After all, there's a long list of PS3 games we'd be eager to revisit on PS5 while we're waiting for whatever the next big first-party projects are.

Speaking of expensive things, we also unpack some other things that cost over a billion dollars, like the Burj Khalifa, Yankee Stadium, another Star Wars Trilogy, some Avatar movies, or an actual trip to space.

00:00 - Intro

00:40 - Games are Expensive

05:02 - Sony's recent financial earnings reporting a $765 million impairment loss

24:04 - JOIN THE DISCORD!

24:42 - Games are Very Expensive

25:54 - SEGA's cancellation of its mysterious "Super Game"

35:27 - PlayStation should invest into reviving classic games

38:03 - GTA 6’s Development Reportedly Cost $1.5 Billion, Here’s What Else That Can Buy

This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Jada Griffin, and is produced by Nick Maillet.
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This week, we’re talking about video game movies again! Specifically, Mortal Kombat 2, which we loved. Resident Evil’s trailer dropped last week, and the internet seems divided on it, but we’re willing to give it a fair shake given director Zach Cregger’s past work, and clear love of the franchise. We dig into what makes a good video game movie, reflecting on the past hits and misses, and looking ahead to a big one: A24’s Elden Ring movie, directed by Alex Garland. In other news, Vampire Crawlers has big sticky hooks and we can’t get enough of it, and Spell Brigade is better with a buddy.

00:00:00 - Intro & Mortal Kombat II Movie Discussion

00:18:51 - Resident Evil Movie Trailer Breakdown

00:46:20 - Vampire Crawlers, Spell Brigade, & Outro
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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.
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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.
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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
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