Beyond

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Sony's PlayStation State of Play Was Packed With Surprises For The PS5 - Beyond 834 Feb 01, 2024

Show notes

The first PlayStation State of Play of 2024 is the topic of discussion in this episode of BEYOND! Akeem, Max, Brian and Jada break down what we saw, from titles like Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Silent Hill: The Short Message, Silent Hill 2 Remake, Judas from the creator of BioShock, Metro Awakening VR for PSVR2, the PSVR 2 title, Legendary Tales, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin from Team Ninja, Until Dawn, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a new action espionage game by Kojima, and so much more in this episode of BEYOND! #PS5 #StateofPlay

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is SO Good - Beyond 833 Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

The entire Beyond crew is finally back together again and this time, we talk about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and how much of a breath of fresh air it is. As if the year hasn't already gotten off to a good start, we also find that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is exactly what we're looking for in a quality Metroidvania and we tell you why it's worth diving into. We also dip into more Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's plans for the future and what exactly is the deal with Dragon's Dogma 2's lack of fast travel. Join Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, and Brian Altano in this jam packed episode!

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Metal Gear Solid: All The Bosses, Ranked - Beyond 832 Jan 17, 2024

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Metal Gear Solid has no shortage of memorable boss fights, but which boss is the best boss of all? Is it The Boss, or is that too obvious? This week, your regularly scheduled PlayStation discussion takes a back seat in favor of something much more esoteric and absurd, so if you’re not a Metal Gear fan, you may want to sit this one out. Join tactical espionage fanboys Max Scoville, Nick Limon and Nick Maillet as they debate this hallowed series’ iconic rogue’s gallery using the newly revamped Face-Offs function on IGN.com. Our esteemed judges will be reaching decisions by weighing a variety of extremely scientific criteria, such as how cool each boss looks, how many weird ways they can be killed, and most importantly, the age-old playground debate of who would beat whom in a fight. From infamous showdowns like Psycho Mantis and Metal Gear Rex to absurd encounters like Fatman and The Pain, this series has plenty of great bad guys, many of whom become recurring characters between games, like Revolver Ocelot, Vamp, and Liquid Snake (in one form or another) so there’s a lot to talk about, and if nothing else, this’ll help Kojima fans pass another hour or so until we get more news on Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta Triangle: Snake Eater, Death Stranding 2, and Overdose.

Check out the Metal Gear Solid boss face-off right here: https://www.ign.com/faceoffs-new/face-off-best-metal-gear-solid-bosses

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Who’d Win in a Fight, Leon S. Kennedy or Joel McLastofus? - Beyond 831 Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

SPOILER WARNING! We absolutely spoil stuff that happens in The Last of Us Parts 1 and 2, so if you haven’t played either of those games… Go do that before watching/listening to this week’s show. Anyway, in addition to fiercely debating the seemingly simple hypothetical question of who’d win in a fight, Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil, or Joel Miller from The Last of Us. Speaking of The Last of Us, the HBO series has found Season 2’s Abby Anderson in Kaitlyn Dever, and we also got a faint glimpse of the Gravity Rush movie, plus non-updates on Prime Video’s God of War series and Netflix’s live-action Horizon prequel show. Meanwhile, Sony and Honda showed off some new features of the AFEELA electric vehicle, which can be driven with a DualSense controller. Ya know, on stage at CES 2024 for tech demo purposes, but also later this year when the EV comes to Gran Turismo 7. Speaking of first-party PlayStation studios games, there aren’t man first-party exclusives coming out in 2024 that we’re aware of, but there are still a bunch of huge third-party PS5 console exclusives, and we’re gonna be eating good for the next few months at least. Finally, Jada flexes about the mountain of Platinum Trophies she racked up in the final weeks, days, and hours of 2023.

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We Beat 2023, Let's Start New Year+ - Beyond 830 Jan 02, 2024

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Happy New Year! In this week’s Beyond, which we pre-recorded two weeks ago, we discuss how there’s a ton of potential for A24 and Kojima Productions’ upcoming Death Stranding live-action feature film adaptation to capture a lot of the game’s best qualities while leaving out some of the stuff that turned people off of playing it. In other news, we take a look back at Sony’s 2023, and discuss what PlayStation did right, and what left us scratching (or shaking) our heads in confusion and dismay. Aside from Insomniac and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the most exciting stuff happening on or around PlayStation this year was either third-party, multi-platform, or not a game at all. PlayStation Productions’ big push into movies and TV was a lot more exciting than PlayStation Studios’ offerings, which is especially frustrating when you factor in that Sony basically shipped a new console this year with the PlayStation VR2. It’s a cool high-tech hat, but even its most staunch defenders have to admit that the company that made it isn’t doing much to support it these days (or really at any point this year.)

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The Last of Us Online & The Live Service Problem - Beyond 829 Dec 20, 2023

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The Last of Us Online is officially not happening, according to a disappointing but unsurprising announcement from Naughty Dog. We reflect on how this call is ultimately probably for the best, but still a bummer, and one that is symptomatic of a larger problem in how big and ambitious multiplayer games have become since The Last of Us’ original Factions mode was released. In other news: Insomniac announced that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is getting some much-requested updates next year and the gang’s all been playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A Far Cry game reskinned to look like Avatar seemed like the easiest win possible, but it either plays it too safe, or doesn’t get creative enough, depending who you’re asking.

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The Best PlayStation Game of 2023 Goes To... | Beyond 828 Dec 13, 2023

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There were a ton of incredible games to play on PlayStation in 2023, so join us as we highlight a few of our favorites from this massive year. In March, Resident Evil 4 Remake was one of the first games of the year we really got excited about, and it’s only gotten more updates since launch. Star Wars Jedi Survivor continued Cal Kestis’ journey and harkened back to some classics Lucasarts adventures while also forging its own path - and unfortunately, battling some rough technical issues at launch. Street Fighter 6 proved that Capcom still knew how to let players have a great time, and Final Fantasy XVI showed that the team behind FF14 could jam just as much epic fantasy into a single player experience. Baldur’s Gate 3 captured the fun of an analog pen-and-paper game of Dungeons & Dragons, and the hearts of both die-hard RPG nerds and first-time adventurers alike. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was yet another astounding technical feat from the team at Insomniac and Alan Wake 2 is just a flat out amazing example of games as a narrative and artistic medium, while also being fun and scary as hell. Really, this year had so many great games, what was your favorite?

Also! Hot on the heels of last week’s GTA 6 trailer leak and subsequent reveal, this week we’ve got some more substantial news to talk about - though it’s not exactly fun. For starters, the ESA has officially pulled the plug on E3, which has been on varying degrees of life support for a while now. It’s not a huge surprise but it’s still a major loss for the games industry. Meanwhile, hackers breached Insomniac Games and allegedly stole a bunch of data, including info on the upcoming Wolverine PS5 game, as well as a bunch of developers’ personal information, which isn’t a very nice thing to do.

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GTA 6 Is On Track To Be The Biggest Game In History - Beyond 827 Dec 06, 2023

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You’ve probably heard by now that Grand Theft Auto VI has been revealed, first unofficially (again) and then officially, by way of an incredibly slick trailer courtesy of Rockstar Games. It’s been a decade and change since GTA V was first released, so hype is understandably through the roof, but it’s worth discussing exactly HOW monumental the excitement around this trailer is. In under 24 hours, its views on YouTube alone eclipsed the combined lifetime views of trailers Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - and it’s very possible the reveal trailer for GTA 6 will have gotten more views in a day than GTA 5 got in twelve years. Considering the last game was the fastest-selling entertainment of all time, raking in a billion dollars just a few days after it launched, it’s safe to assume that GTA VI will be a milestone event when it drops in 2025. In a world where Rockstar didn’t have anything to announce this week, The Game Awards would’ve been what everyone was talking about. There’ll still be plenty to see, and hopefully some surprises, but it’s hard to even imagine an announcement that would come close to one-upping a sequel to one of the most popular games ever that’s been under wraps for ten solid years. Anyway, Tom Marks joins us to discuss a game that’ll be playable (well, it already is, mostly) very soon, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PS5 - specifically, the all new roguelike mode, No Return. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to take the roguelike world by storm, but it sounds like a phenomenal way to get a little more mileage out of Naughty Dog’s subtly complex combat system, and maybe unlock a few new shirts for Ellie and Abbie along the way. Finally, we have the winners for last week’s first annual Beyondcé awards. Did Bluey win “Bluest Video Game Character of 2023?” Yes, yes she did. But it was a three way tie with two other blue people/animals.

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The GOTY Categories Nobody Else Is Doing - Beyond 826 Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

This week on Beyond, we unpack the long-rumored official reveal of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, which might cost a few extra bucks, but seems to actually have more going for it than good looks. The roguelike “No Return” mode looks like a blast for anyone who enjoys the tense brutal combat, while the new guitar free play mode will likely be fun for, well, people who liked playing guitar in the PS4 version. Meanwhile, getting developer commentary on cut content and lost levels is a neat peek behind the curtain, and over on the Spider-Man 2 front, Tony Todd continues to make public statements that may or may not tease what Insomniac has planned. Anyway, the real meat of this episode is our first annual Beyond Game Of The Year Awards That Nobody Else Is Doing, AKA “The Beyondcés” (unless that’s a legal minefield in which case we’re sorry.)

Like all awards shows, this is all completely meaningless and made-up, but in this case, especially so - but, it’s an excuse to reflect back on some of the little details from our favorite games of the year, and some general absurdity from 2023’s big wet blue greasy smorgasbord of video games, many of which had sand in them. Like all good awards shows, Baldur’s Gate 3 is nominated for almost every category, but we’re also taking time to celebrate Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 for reasons the fighting game community couldn’t care less about and reflect on whether or not Spider-Man 2’s slime made up for its lackluster puddle graphics last gen? Is Gollum’s hair a liquid? Is grease a liquid? And hey, how about those Star Wars Jedi Survivor chickens? We go into all of this, and more, but we’d love your input as well, dear listener/viewer/reader! Hop on over to our poll and make your voice heard. If our nominations suck, throw some of your own into the proverbial hat and we’ll announce the winners next week.

Cast your vote with this legally binding Google Form!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1e-wue5y021mMtugwPedAMBRL5ZyiR_4d3wtD5zf-8z8/viewform?edit_requested=true#responses

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What’s The Best PlayStation Controller, Ever? | Beyond 825 Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

In honor of the PlayStation Portal, the latest addition to Sony’s ever-growing menagerie of bizarre ways to play games, we decided to hold a little tournament to pick the one true best controller. Y’know, from the dozen arbitrarily selected contestants that were randomly pitted against one another in a confusingly designed bracket. How does the DualShock 4 stack up against the original non-DualShock PS1 controller? How does that yogurt covered pretzel-lookin’ PlayStation VR Aim zapper fare against the PlayStation Portal, a brand new device that none of us have physically touched? What about that whackadoo prototype PS3 controller that looked like a banana or a boomerang? We had fun debating all of these things, so hopefully you enjoy listening. This week’s Beyond features Max Scoville, Brian Altano and Jada Griffin.

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