8 Bits

Did I ever think I would producer 100 episodes of my news show? No, never.

Am I glad I did? Very yes.

Time for some news.

WAHOO!

YIPPEE!

MAMMA MIA!

And other assorted Mario noises.

Elden Ring stands as my favorite game of 2022 and going back to the Lands Between for another adventure sound incredibly fun. I'm excited to see what lies in the shadow of the erdtree.

Few fighting games do single player modes like Mortal Kombat. I have never been the biggest MK fan, but after playing through the single player campaign alongside a friend in college, Mortal Kombat X sold me on the series story and lore. MK11 further dug me in with all the cinematics and engrossing story. It's campy and ridiculous, but its a good kind of campy and ridiculous. Go play Mortal Kombat.

Oh, and news!

More games should end in a way where, if the original version is going away, then the game can be preserved by fans for years to come. I'm a big proponent for preservation and, considering how lots of games seem to be ending recently, it's nice that companies are putting in the effort for their work to exist well into the future.

Oh yeah, and news.

The first ever video game song to receive a Grammy was the song Baba Yetu composed by Christopher Tin as the theme for Civilization 4 on 2011, though that was before there was an official category for video game music. I'm glad to see who gets nominated next year. Because of the Grammy cut-off window being the end of September, Bear McCreary received his nomination for Call of Duty, but I expect to see another for God of War next year.

Oh, and news!

I hope to never see bad superhero movie tie-ins ever again.

Oh, and news!

I really don't think there needs to be any more Uncharted. Too often now are companies focused on producing more and more from an IP until returns diminish and not when it is a suitable time to end. Uncharted 4 is one of the most fitting endings to a series I've ever played and I would not want to see any more from that world unless there is a spectacularly compelling reason to go back, like an Uncharted Kart racer. Where is Unkarted?

Oh, and news!

I don't play enough racing games. I put a few dozen hours into Forza every once in a while, but I do miss a good simulation racing experience like the mainline Forza Motorsport games. I grew up playing Gran Turismo, but Forza spoke to me more starting with 2. Needless to say, I'm excited for the new Forza game.

Oh yeah, and news!

I'm a big fan of open source. Stuff being open and available for everyone to freely use and build off of is a cool thing, especially empowering people to create without the motivation of money. I like that.

Oh yeah, and news!

A 10-year-old with 25 years of experience sounds like what entry-level jobs want you to have on your resume.

Oh, and news!

This year we are joined by writer at VideoGameUtopia and host of the Player's Club podcast Emmett Watkins Jr. to talk about eight - and a lot more - of our favorite games that came out this year!

THIS IS THE LAST NORMAL EPISODE OF THE YEAR!

Stay tuned for the second annual Non-Denominational Holiday Special next week!

If there's any star to come from The Game Awards 2022, it was the absolute king of woodwinds and flutes Pedro Eustache during the final GOTY orchestral medley. The dude absolutely rocking the flute parts for the music of Xenoblade 3? The guy headbanging through the whole thing? Yeah, that dude is a legend. You can hear his performances in the music for films like Dune, Interstellar, The Lion King, and most Pixar movies from the last decade.

Oh yeah, and news, but really, flute guy Pedro Eustache is great.

Nintendo has effectively placed their very large, money making foot in their mouth for the sake of their brand and control regarding the Smash World Tour and could lead to large ramifications for their esports aspirations with other titles such as Splatoon 3. Also, get the military out of games. 

If someone tweets in a forest, and no servers are up to hear it, does it still make a sound?

Oh, and we're off next week because of Thanksgiving in the US. If Twitter does go down, perhaps the turkey will make a tweet.

Remember when Starfield was supposed to come out today?

IKEA is the perfect place for a horror game. Each visit feels ever so slightly unsettling. The gray voids between these supposedly lived in spaces triggers a feeling of discomfort in me, like the uncanny valley feeling. Perhaps its that same feeling from witnessing liminal spaces, the spooky voids of purportedly lived in spaces that feel very un-lived in. And when it comes to survival in an IKEA, catch me in the food court smacking down Swedish meatballs and lingonberries.

Oh yeah, and news!

The trailer for Silent Hill F is one of the most effective trailers I've seen in a long time. The atmosphere, the vibes, the imagery, the mushrooms, all very scary. I'm not even particularly into horror games but just the trailer has sold me on the game. Mushrooms in horror games - SO big right now.

Oh yeah, and news!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer outdid any expectations I had of what the movie would look like. In one shot, there's a little stream near Mario and it's full of Cheap Cheaps! All the little details are there. Despite the reception around them, none of the criticisms around Illumination's other films have to do with the animation. The animation is always absolutely stunning, particularly water. I'm excited to see the rest of the cast as well as get a better idea of what the film will actually be about.

Oh yeah, and news!

Whatever the exact opposite of joy and creativity is, it can be found in the WalMetaverse.

And news.

I don't normally report on leaks, but this GTA 6 one is arguably one of the biggest leaks to come from any game ever. One of my favorite things to come from the leak was the outpouring of support from other developers showing early forms of their games as early as Gray Box. Gray Box is when there aren't any art assets to apply to the level geometry, so you're literally playing through a bunch of gray boxes. Getting little peaks behind the curtain of game development, when the developer actually means to, is always a pleasure.

Oh yeah, and gaming news!

The first time I heard of Tokyo Game Show, I thought it was like an actual game show, where various developers would compete to see who had the best game. That was how the show's Game of the Year was decided - by having various developers compete in game show competitions and antics to see who was the best. I was only slightly disappointed to find out it was just a trade show.

Oh yeah, and news!

This episode was delayed from its usual Friday upload to get the biggest updates from D23 and Ubisoft! Hopefully the extra news gets you through the extra two days of waiting!

Go back and listen to the PAX West 2022 special. It's good! or at least of equal quality to the usual 8 Bits episode!

Now, news!

When you think of a video game alcohol, what comes to mind? Is it something like shot of gin poured into a can of Mountain Dew Gamer Fuel? Perhaps an alcoholic version of the old Final Fantasy energy drink? Whatever you thought a video game alcohol might be, the official The Last of Us whisky is definitely not it.

Oh yeah, and a whole bunch of indie games! And a TV show! All things I tried at PAX West 2022.

Real friends are going to be decided by who gets let on to Game Pass Friends and Family subscription.

I'll be at PAX West 2022 checking out all sorts of neat indie games and whatever cool stuff happens to be there. I'll see if I can record a special to post to the channel in two weeks once all is said and done!

Now, news!

Dang, maybe the real treasure was the stuff we enjoyed along the way before it was bought up by another mega corporation.

Or maybe it was news, like the news in this show!

That's it. I'm gonna go pro in the one fighting game I'm good at: the 1992 Street Fighter 2 Tiger Electronics handheld. Watch out for me at EVO next year!

Oh yeah, and news.

So cloud gaming is pretty great. I frequently turn to Xbox Game Streaming when I'm avoiding my responsibilities at work or killing time between meetings, but mostly the former. There's some genres of games that the services work very nicely with, like card-based games or turn-based strategy. Heck, even games like Halo work significantly better than I could have ever imagined. However, when I'm at work, I'm connected to an absolutely god-tier gigabit network with an enterprise-grade Wifi 6e router above me. None of these games, even the card-based ones, work particularly well on my bus commute to and from the office. The internet may be great around the world, which is where I think Logitech is likely targeting with their Streaming Console, but the thing is not going to take off in the US. And if I'm wrong, I will record an episode dressed as public domain Winnie the Pooh.

Oh, and here's the news.

VRChat was the metaverse before it was cool. 

There is no extent to the amount of money companies can drain from gamers. All that's needed is new ways to do it!

I'm coming off of the one of the worst colds I've ever had because of (circumstances that get you censored to all hell if you so much as type out the name of the thing on various platforms) so excuse the audio this week if I sound congested - I am, still.

After a week of watching GamesDoneQuick, I've been doing nothing but playing games quickly. Neon White dropped at just the right time. The game constantly asks to be played faster and faster and, oh boy, did it grab me real hard. I've gotten an Ace on every level I've played so far and I think I might actually try to 100% the game. It's the first time I've actively sought to play, effectively, a platformer on PC. There's some tricks I've landed that I am sure I would not have been able to get if I played on Switch.

Go play Neon White. It's really good.

Oh, and here's the news.

I don't think about it very often, but the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series was really foundational to me early in my gaming career. It was pure gaming bliss in the 3D age, which wasn't as popular in the 3D era outside of Sega arcade ports like Crazy Taxi. It's partially why I still love pure games like arcadey mobile games. Not everything needs to have some groundbreaking story to it as long it's fun, and oh boy, Tony Hawk is fun. 

At some point with a franchise you have so many entries that you completely forgo numbers and just start adding colons and subtitles. Assassin's Creed hit that point a long time ago, to the point that they are now completely skipping numbers and just doing all of them. 1, 2, subtitles, 3, 4, subtitles, every single number ever (infinity.) Do you think there will be another one after Infinity? Or will Ubisoft change the name after the leak last year. I'm banking on Assassin's Creed: Monetization. 

It's here! Every June, thousands of gamers across the globe tune into their video platform of choice to watch hours of marketing presented as some sort of capitalistic holiday. This year, with the cartel of industry leaders putting their own show to pasture, only one man could crawl out of the rubble, Mountain Dew cans, and mountains of Doritos Dust to bring gamers the marketing menagerie they crave, and his name is Geoff Keighley. 

LeChonk better evolve into LeChungus or we riot.
Also, I completely forgot about it during the record, but there was a little indie game announced during the State of Play from Kowloon Nights that looked cool. Eternights is literally an indie Persona game. The guy who made it played Persona 5, played Persona 4 Golden, quit his job, and then made Eternights. It looks dope and I hope to get my hands on it whenever it comes out. Tweet @ me your favorite games from the State of Play.

Hell yeah, unions. 

One year sure goes by fast when you're having fun. This show is frequently one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I do on a weekly basis, and I'm thankful for everyone that actually tunes in to listen to my work. In this episode, we look back at the first year of this show and the last fiscal year of video games, as well as predict what the next year might have in store, too.

Do people remember LEGO Backlot? It was this really fun pseudo-sandbox adventure game hosted on the LEGO website on the earlier days of the internet. You were like a production assistant at the LEGO Studios sets making movies. It was a whole 3D adventure game all built in flash. Super fun. Go play it somewhere if you can. It probably isn't near as good as I remember it being, but still a worthwhile thing to note from the early internet.

Oh yeah, and news.

April Fools Day is literally one of my favorite days of the year. 

El Día de los Inocentes es, literalmente, uno de mis días favoritos del año.