Up next in 10
If you thought we were going to talk about something other than changes coming to WoW in Midnight this week, you must be new, so hi, welcome to the podcast. The UI changes, specifically the changes that make it harder for us to change our own UI, was front and center. The hosts talked about the accessibility issues this could present, but personally I just think Friz Quadrata is ugly and would prefer my fonts sans their serifs. One slightly more important, both valid, and both currently a much tougher proposition.
This week we had writer Liz Patt as our guest host, so it was a Diablorama, with the D4 PTR hitting servers. As discussed last week we are somewhat uncertain, to put it diplomatically, about the changes coming. From potion charges to seasonal journey changes -- including the names -- everything seems much more catered to a harder core than our squishy middles would prefer. We were glad Liz was on hand to not only relate her PTR experience, but explain everything in a way that us non-Diablites can understand.
Plus, there's a new Steam sale and our wallets are yet again groaning -- this time with terror? Happy Halloween!
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hello everybody and welcome to the Blizzard Watch podcast. I'm Matt. I am hosting uh we have our recurring duo of
0:18
almost always here uh Joe Perez and Liz Harper, the EIC of the site. And we have
0:23
a special guest, Liz Pat, which means that of course we're gonna constantly have to try to qualify which Liz we're
0:29
talking to. I'm really glad that Matt Low has never done this show. No, like seriously, I'm so glad Matt Low
0:36
hasn't done the show because I would be just losing my mind. Um, wait.
0:41
Talk about he's still alive. This is a joke. Hope he's still alive. This is a joke cuz if he's listening, you haven't said hi to me in years,
0:48
Matt. I see you. Or I don't see you. And that's the problem. Anyway, you don't see it.
0:55
Oh god. Anyway, Brawers Guild coming back in WoW uh patch 11.2.7.
1:01
I have not gotten to play it. So, has anybody who has gotten to play it in here or just anybody wants to talk about
1:07
the ball brawers guild coming back? All I know is that I'm very happy that whoever wrote this this article the uh
1:14
gave it a really weird bloody title. at least the one of the sources that we uh
1:19
confirmed with. Did before we get into it, did did anybody play like through
1:25
Brawlers Guild 1.0 or or whatever when it was or 2.0 when it was I have not very briefly.
1:32
Yeah, I I went in and got murdered really hard by a couple of fights and then thought, you know, yeah, that was
1:38
why am I doing this? That was kind of that was kind of my thing. If I get smashed by a few bosses,
1:43
it's like, uh, this is exhausting. Hey, I'm going to do something else. Yeah, like I felt like the intro fights
1:48
were a little tuned a little high. Like not that they were impossible, but um I had to go blood DK on one of them. Then
1:56
I felt like if I have to go tank spec to get through this solo content, I I don't feel like that's good.
2:03
Of course, one thing is I think Blizzard has had a lot more practice at doing
2:08
solo content and balancing for solo content than they used to. you know, we have uh delves, which, you know, they
2:18
have had their own weird balance issues, but we have gotten to a point where I feel like they're they're working out.
2:25
You know, it's less uh less wonky, even though Bran is really dedicated to
2:32
pulling more trash than you want. He just he's so dedicated. That's just how somebody with a gun in a
2:38
raid work. I mean, I I lost track of the amount of time. I still remember hunters
2:44
you casting uh the the thing that makes the thero you instead of the hunter. Um
2:49
I still remember them casting that, shooting a bunch of stuff and just immediately going, "Why did you do that?" Like, it's funny. It's funny that
2:56
I have to catch 17 things before they kill the healers. It's really funny. Um,
3:01
but yeah, I think they were right about them having more experience, but I also think I don't think it was that they
3:07
were doing a bad job on design or that they didn't understand how to do solo content so much as it's actually harder
3:15
for some players like me to to to wrap our heads around the idea that we're
3:21
actually responsible for our own lives and have to keep ourselves from dying like, you know, because I was really
3:29
very used to getting healed um due to the whole primarily tanking every expansion. Uh that's one of the things
3:36
about soloing now. Now that I've haven't tanked in a couple of expansions, um soloing now I'm a lot more careful. I I
3:43
actually do I don't just stand there and hit buttons until I'm dead. Uh so
3:48
there's at least that. And I feel like I'm a different player than I was last time the brawler skill
3:53
was was in. Like I'm doing I because I am doing content like delves. I'm doing
3:58
like tier 11 delves to get all of my crests every week and it's like I'm used
4:04
to taking those challenging bosses uh on my own. So, I'm playing in a different
4:09
way than I used to. So, maybe this will hit me in a different way than it used to and not be frustrating, but be a
4:14
challenge I can overcome. We're going to see when it comes out later this year, though.
4:20
The idea that it's been on hiatus as long as it has, I did not realize. Yeah,
4:25
it it feels like uh so so it feels like uh BFA has been around or was just
4:33
around like you know three weeks ago maybe four. Um I don't I don't know how
4:40
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we we'll call it
4:45
five weeks. Um I don't know how it was that long ago. I will say I love the uh
4:53
the boss lineup that they've got here. I mean to uh to Joe's call out of the the
5:00
source material title Gorp Amal Jarx's construct the quacken
5:08
like the these are these are and even a a reference to plunderstorm which some
5:14
people might be like nope I'm out. Uh like these are good. I I like the I
5:19
don't I still don't know if I'll do it, but I like it. Yeah. And I'm all for more.
5:25
I'm just hoping at no point Yeah. I'm hoping at no point does Jared Leo play any of these characters. Um fingers
5:30
crossed. Yes. He ruined Tron for me. I I think the biggest problem with the
5:36
Brawlers Guild coming in patch 11.2.7 is that it's coming at the same time as housing early access.
5:44
Where? How am I going to find time to do anything else when I am busy collecting
5:49
every piece of decor in the game and bankrupting myself? And the third boss is a chair. And if you
5:55
beat him in the Ballers Guild, you get you get the chair. That's a lie. I don't know that that, you know, but
6:01
I mean I it feels like you're getting decor rewards from almost every type of content in the game. So I would not be
6:08
surprised to find, you know, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I may need to make
6:15
time for it. If it's a unique whether I enjoy it. Yeah, absolutely. If it's a unique piece
6:20
of furniture, you know, like a a special armwire just just from Brawlers. Mhm.
6:26
No, it's a folding chair. That's what it'll be. Maybe a Give me a Crocco a crocololisk skin rug off the boss from the first uh
6:33
first Brawlers Guild. What was it? Bruce talking about Yeah, I don't remember his
6:38
name, but I remember the crocalisk. I just remember it was a reference to Jaws. But anyway, or
6:44
yeah, Bruce is the name of the robot. Yeah, Robot Sharks, everybody. But yeah, Brawler Brawlers Guild coming
6:50
pretty I'm again excited for more single player content. Uh but we got some other stuff to cover, so we should probably
6:56
move on a little bit, right? Uh no, we should just keep talking with this. Uh Midnight Beta forever. Forever. Yeah, Midnight Beta is
7:03
launching soon according to Holly Langdale who uh Longdale Holly Longdale is like she's like the Grand High Poo
7:10
off WoW now, right? Yes. I don't think that's I don't think that's her official title, but
7:16
essentially Yes. Yeah. Uh and um we're saying November
7:21
17th according to this, which makes sense to me because the alpha test hasn't done all of its phases yet, has it? Uh no it hasn't. We're expecting at
7:28
least one more phase on the alpha and uh we we will see how that goes, but I
7:34
certainly don't expect it any sooner. I I'd be surprised. I'd be surprised. Uh Liz, I think you were the one who was
7:40
writing about the uh uh the when the midnight alpha would come out. Do you
7:46
have Do you have anything to say about this estimate? Um like so many of my other estimates,
7:52
it's math-based. uh because the last couple alpha and of course you know the alpha date is not
7:58
always publicized quite as broadly as I think it was this time around. Um but
8:06
you know the last couple alphas have been in the well we we'll call it roughly like 46 to 60day range. So,
8:17
um I I correct me if I'm wrong, Liz, but I believe the servers have been unavailable for at least a a few days
8:24
for the few who are in there testing it right now from team Blizzard watch. Is
8:30
that correct? So, the servers have been down all day uh for about a day as we're recording this.
8:37
The servers have been down all day Tuesday. And um for the when the alpha
8:42
came up, there were three different realms you could roll on. And all week there have only been there's only been
8:48
one available and two have been offline. So I don't know what's going on over there. Something housing has also been
8:54
offline for a week. So it's just it's a weird place. It's like you log on to the alpha and what am I even supposed to
9:00
test here? Housing isn't available. Exactly. And I feel like phase four I
9:05
feel like phase four just started and you have one of your three testing
9:10
servers available. Like so I'm hoping phase 5 doesn't kick off until at least
9:16
next week. Uh it would be weird of it to happen tomorrow. Usually Blizzard does roll out new alpha
9:24
patches on Wednesdays. And uh I just mentioned it's currently Tuesday as we're recording this. So, I would not be
9:31
surprised if there's a patch rolling out in the next 24 hours. And sort of the plan was, you know, week one was going
9:38
to be Everongwood zone and, you know, they were going one zone every week and
9:44
week five was going to be everything, all the zones available to play around. So, there's got to be another phase and
9:52
housing has to come back at some point. So, I I would not be surprised if a patch is rolling out. It's just uh
9:59
Tuesday is odd timing for an alpha patch. It is. So yeah.
10:05
Yeah. You expect that on Wednesday so they can be really sure that we won't be able to talk about it.
10:11
So assuming they stick to their that that schedule of like, okay, we actually need to give them time to test phase 4
10:18
um and have a patch coming out to to maybe for some housing stuff based off of the recent PTR. um you know and phase
10:27
5 isn't starting until say next Wednesday uh which would be the beginning of November then a couple
10:34
weeks would give them time to wrap up the alpha testing phase before
10:40
unleashing an unknown amount of people into the beta because you know it's
10:45
usually rolled out access but again we have pre-orders of the you know the
10:51
highest edition tier um will have access. So that it's always
10:57
kind of an organizational nightmare. And I'm hoping the 17th is correct, but if
11:03
if Holly came online tomorrow and said, "Just kidding, it's going to be the 10th
11:09
or uh the 8th." Well, I don't think I think the 8th is the weekend, but I'm I
11:15
would not be surprised if that date shifts a little based on the average is kind of what I'm getting at.
11:21
I mean, it makes sense. They've they've done that kind of thing before in previous uh I want to say they did it
11:27
exactly in uh oh which in the um I remember from the battle for Azeroth one
11:32
that they they actually did a lot of weird jiggering around uh especially when that that troll swamp
11:39
zone like that that ended up being a real like they kept having to come down and go back up. So we'll see. Go ahead
11:45
Liz. I'm sorry. Uh, and the other thing is Holly said soon, and we we know what
11:51
soon means to Blizzard. It could be anything from next week to uh January. I
11:57
would I would presume closer in January, but it's a Blizzard soon can
12:04
be a broad range of dates. Well, I mean, it's interesting to think about if this if they do go to beta on
12:11
the 17th, they're then going to have to deal with American Thanksgiving. Uh, and then the entire, you know, December
12:18
holiday nightmare, which I mean they've done before, but it still is something to consider. Like they might if they if
12:24
they think they're going to need more time, they might want to push it out in November and then just just get more
12:30
serious about it once January rolls around. I I mean, I don't Go ahead, Liz.
12:35
If they wait until January, I mean, this expansion is likely coming out in February, so it might make sense to
12:42
I didn't mean to wait for January. Yeah. Well, it it might make more sense to launch it before Thanksgiving and
12:50
then you're collecting feedback with everyone who has a chance to play between Thanksgiving and Christmas and
12:57
you can get to work on those things. I mean, any development over a holiday period is really tough, but the longer
13:04
it's available in beta testing, the more data and feedback you can collect from
13:10
players who are testing it out, which I think is probably a positive. Are we thinking February? Is that our current
13:15
thought for when we think midnight's coming out? Roughly. Yeah. Because uh I believe uh
13:21
Legion Remix comes to an end mid January, early to mid and
13:28
I think the presumption is that it'll it'll kind of roll a few weeks later
13:33
into pre- patch. And uh a February release would also kind of follow the
13:38
big release every two months thing that Blizzard has been doing. So, it's likely in that range,
13:44
right? Uh Joe, you have anything you want to say about it before we move on? Nope. Okay. Uh this one's about whether or not
13:51
WoW is coming to consoles. Uh do you mind if I just read this bit, Liz?
13:56
Okay, go for it. There's there's a lot of buzz that Blizzard's pairing deown classes in Midnight is part of a plan to bring it
14:03
to consoles. and new reports indicate that the future Xbox will be a full-scale Windows box with a console
14:10
overlay, making it easier to bring any Windows game to the platform. The second part, uh, I know that's what it's going
14:16
to be cuz, yeah, it's been all over the place. Uh, I don't I I do have to remind
14:22
people of this exact same thing was being said back in uh, Warlords of Dan or when they paired down class
14:28
abilities. Yep. Sure was. And also switched things and everyone's like, "Oh, yeah, they're going to bring it to consoles." And then they didn't
14:34
bring it to consoles. So, of course, the other thing is go on Joe. I was going to say I also don't
14:40
necessarily know that it's going to be consoles in the traditional sense. Um,
14:46
Microsoft Microsoft seems to be all in on this handheld support recently with
14:52
the partnering with the with uh Asus for the ROG Liix, which just released at a
14:58
ridiculous price point, but still released uh and can play a ton of games that, you know, all require a uh, you
15:07
know, controller, but it runs a version of Windows 11 on it. Um, and there's a
15:13
stripped down version of Windows 11 that's being made very specific for handhelds. And so a lot of the thought
15:20
is that maybe not necessarily that's the reason things are getting paired down.
15:25
Um, rip wrestle shaman. Um, it's it's that there is a lot of bloat in a lot of
15:32
the classes and there is definitely a need for pairing things down, but that the two are not mutually
15:38
exclusive. wanting to get like your game library into the handheld market is a
15:46
big thing right now. And the UI that they just released or on the Asus ROGX
15:53
Ally um is going to be available for other handhelds as well. They're going to make it available so that if you have
15:59
a Steam Deck or an MSI Claw or any of the other ones that are out there, if
16:04
it's a Windowsbased device or a Linux- based device, you can load it on here, right? And then they're eventually going
16:10
to probably be working on something that works with Android because the Android handheld market is massive at this. Um,
16:16
like they're just in my opinion, if WoW winds up on one of those, it's not
16:22
because they pair down things. It's just because they're trying to make all of the games library available on those
16:29
handhelds, right? And I mean, they've come a long way on that already. So, it's that that paired down version. Um
16:36
cuz I do have I after much uh back and forth with some of our colleagues, in
16:43
fact, uh I do have one of those handhelds and uh it I have only tried
16:50
running WOW on it once after hooking up a keyboard and mouse, not not
16:58
trying to rely on a a translation layer to get those things converted to the
17:05
button. buttons uh baked in uh the controller buttons I should say. And I
17:11
mean for for someone who started like you guys in original vanilla playing on,
17:18
you know, the hardware that was out in original vanilla, there are there have been much worse WoW experiences. I
17:25
didn't do that much in it, but um this, you know, the hardware is very and and
17:32
guess what guys, these all have SSDs. So, yeah, I mean, they're all M2 drives.
17:39
The thing about SSDs is they do have their problems. But uh I I was just thinking about that you and when you
17:44
said that uh when I was trying to tank uh Tempest Keep the Eye and I had to
17:51
basically point my camera at the floor and not look at any of the effects going
17:56
on around me because there was a lot happening in that raid. There's like floating swinging axes and other like
18:02
various legendary weapons that were coming out and Chaos kept casting massive blowup spells and I was playing
18:08
it on an the the like chhatruse Mac. You the big the the huge RNGy type thing. It
18:16
was it was fruit. So yeah, the video card was literally trying to set the computer on fire. Um,
18:25
so yeah, I I where you start warming your house with the uh the fan output. Yes. Like I literally opened the window in in
18:32
December in at the time Seattle. Seattle December isn't like like arctic, but
18:37
it's not warm either, man. It's like it's like 30° out, 30 fah for for our
18:43
Canadian friends like myself. Um, so yeah, it's I can see what what you're
18:48
saying about I think Joe's right that they might just be trying to get it unhandled and not the pairing has
18:54
nothing to do with it. Um, because I mean to a certain degree when when
19:00
Diablo Immortal came out I I really had my doubts about that game being playable on a on a portable device and it was uh
19:08
it worked fine. It's incredible. It plays so smoothly.
19:14
Yeah. So, I will I will point out that was also, you know, developed in partnership with a a veteran mobile app developer, but um
19:24
you know, not to put on my tinfoil hat, but to kind of put on my tinfoil hat, they also did just rework the spell
19:30
density settings. You know, what, like one minor patch ago? Mhm.
19:36
um that that would contribute to performance on a on a smaller, slimmer
19:43
device. Yeah. I mean, plus I I do think to a certain degree, uh it would be cool to
19:50
be able to play WoW on a on a a little handheld console or tablet or what have you, just because, you know, if I ever
19:57
have to go out in public transit again, I want something really effective to block the world away from me. Uh cuz
20:04
yeah, it's headphones aren't cutting it anymore cuz people will come right up to your face and start talking to you
20:10
whether or not you can hear them. Uh so yeah, I'm I'm down for that. Go ahead, make make it make put it on a portable
20:17
console. That'd be great. However, uh we've talked about that for a bit. So now let's talk about add-ons and stuff
20:23
happening. Joe and Liz P, I think you guys are probably going to be our best people to talk about this. um Elve
20:30
developer. Um the development for Elui, if you don't know Elui, it's a it's a UI
20:36
mod for World of Warcraft. I've used it in the past. Uh apparently they're done developing and they're not going to do
20:42
anything for it unless they make changes to the API. Can you explain this uh
20:48
either or both of you? Because I know I can't. Joe, are you following that conversation previously? Because I do remember some
20:54
of the bits of it. Well, it it feels like I mean Blizzard has locked down a
20:59
lot of the API and what the LVUI developers have said is that basically
21:05
to recreate the unit frames, they would be clunkier, they would
21:12
perform worse, and they would have fewer features than they do now just because of the way the API is structured now.
21:20
So, go ahead, Liz. Keep going. Like, there's more. Um, I I mean that's that's just the thing.
21:26
Blizzard has locked down so much it makes it very difficult for developers to port add-ons to Midnight. And in some
21:33
cases, we saw this same thing with weak oras. I mean, technically you could port
21:38
weak oras to midnight and have a weakas, but it would have so much less functionality and it would be so much
21:45
work to port it. And um, I am in the alpha. I have been playing around a lot with the cooldown manager and it's still
21:53
it is not a full weak or replacement. It is closer than it was, but there are
21:58
things it does not do. There are a lot of things you can't do with it that you could do with weak horrors. And I'm not talking about, oh, weak or could play
22:05
the game for you. Weak or could give you all sorts of things that were that that Blizzard doesn't want you to have e as
22:12
easily accessible. I mean, just kind of basic things like setting up if you want to set up a timer for a cool down or a
22:18
timer for a buff, you can only do that for abilities that Blizzard has decided to allow you access to. You can't do
22:25
that. So, there are still abilities that I would track and buffs I would track
22:31
and buffs I would track in different ways that Blizzard allows that I could do with weak oras that I can't do with
22:36
the cooldown manager. But we cororas would be so less featureful that it's just it's not worth the huge amount of
22:43
time that it would take to port it. Yeah. You So, there's a lot at play here and and I'm probably going to oped here
22:49
for a minute, so I apologize in advance. Uh hopefully y'all don't get tired of hearing me rant about this a little bit.
22:54
I see both sides of the coin. And I'm saying this as somebody who I just
23:00
downed mythic. Uh I can't remember the real name for them. Lumathar. uh we make
23:06
nicknames for bosses, whatever. But I I've been doing this with another another guild um just for something to
23:11
do and because I really wanted to see like I want to get my kicks in now while I can. Uh and I say that because I don't
23:19
know what the future is going to be for the game depending on how they lock down the APIs. Um, and that boss is
23:26
impossible without weak auras. And literally weak auras plus method liquid
23:31
weak oras weak auras and liquid tools or method tools, excuse me, are the only
23:37
reason that you can coordinate on that boss without like being completely regimented and strict and like having no
23:45
chatter on comms whatsoever. It is a brutal encounter. And I understand I can
23:50
hear you at home, Joe, that's just mythic. I don't raid mythic. The problem is that developers start developing
23:58
content and encounters now with in mind that people are using tools like that.
24:04
And you can see that in boss designs that are maybe overly complicated or and
24:09
I mean how many times have you died to a mechanic in a boss fight and you know slammed your your your hand and you know
24:17
screamed that that's BS. It's not. It's just that at a high level, people are using add-ons to deal with that stuff
24:23
and they know that and so they're developing around. Pairing some of that stuff back I agree with. The things I
24:29
don't agree with is things like the basic UI. Now, while WoW's UI has made a
24:36
ton of improvements over the years, I'm going to say this and I say this with all the love and I understand how
24:41
difficult the development is. It base UI still sucks, right? you for people that
24:46
have visual issues that need to have certain information presented in certain ways, you cannot adjust it to
24:52
accommodate it. Maybe you are a class that only cares about your health bar, not a resource bar, and you need to have
24:58
it presented a different way. And again, it has gotten better, but it pales in comparison to what LVUI lets you do or
25:05
shadow unit frames or some of the other ones that are out there, right? Like even changing the font. The font.
25:13
Sorry. Go ahead, Liz. Yes. I just want to cut in for a minute as uh you know my eyes are not as good as they
25:20
were 20 years ago. Making the font bigger throughout the game is something
25:25
that is very important to me and it is something that the base Huey handles
25:30
very badly. Yeah. Still it's it's 2025. Yeah.
25:35
And I need add-ons to change the font and change the size of the font in Quest text.
25:41
Yeah. Especially in Quest text. It's really bad. And and and and on that same
25:46
line, and I'm going to go with this because you're going exactly where I was going to go, too, is you now you have
25:51
the disabilities portion of gamers. And there are a lot of WoW gamers that have
25:58
everyday disabilities that range a very wide gamut from color blindness to, you
26:05
know, manual dexterity to visual issues to cognitive issues. Uh but they still love playing the game. And straight up,
26:13
WoW's base UI and base game deals with precious little of that, right? Like
26:19
there are things that have gotten better, but I'll tell you one thing, like if you have trouble with visuals and visual clutter, getting rid of uh
26:27
GTFO and GTFO's functionality kills those those players abilities to play.
26:32
Getting rid of weak orers ability to tell you, you know, you're standing in something in a way that you can
26:38
understand. Usually an audio audible cue when you have eye issues makes it that much harder for people to go and the
26:43
base UI doesn't have anything for that right um meth in our our discord
26:48
actually asked like you know with all the add-on changes there are some that are made for the blind deaf and uh
26:53
people with dexterity issues etc that allow them to play the game and have fun
26:58
if the changes make those mods untenable unable to be updated or work at all could it be an unintentional ADA
27:04
violation and the answer is maybe right the like they may not be fully
27:10
incentivized to pay as much attention to that because if they hit the minimum requirements, they they can just move on
27:16
with their life. Um, but like it's not fair to the players that have spent 20
27:22
plus years in this game that are starting to have eye issues, that are starting to have arthritis or hand
27:29
issues or dexterity issues and are using add-ons as a way to continue to play the game we love and enjoy, right? Like
27:36
there are so little my little little minor things that you don't think of until they're gone. Like and and again
27:41
I'm going to rant a little bit about this. I've been using grid as a unit frame since the dawn of time since it's
27:47
been available. I only use it as a unit frame. The WoW in-game raid unit frame
27:53
still garbage, right? It's better, but it's awful. I can't adjust it the way I need to. I can't highlight things that I
27:59
want to. Like it doesn't give me what I want. I don't use it for like clickth through. I don't use it for auto spell
28:04
casting. I literally use it so I can see who's in the damn rake. And if that's
28:10
broken and I have to use the basic unit frames, probably not going to be healing anymore, right? Like it's it will
28:16
fundamentally change how players engage with the game. And I'm hoping hoping
28:22
that they start clawing back some of this and lightening some of those restrictions. Again, you want to block
28:28
weak oras from giving raid assignments through like method raid tools notes,
28:33
I'm on board with that. You want to break damage meters in the middle of combat, I'm on board with that. But let
28:39
me customize the visual of my add-on, like of my units and how the game looks and I my interface looks, please. Like,
28:47
that's how I that's that's how I interface with your game. and if you make me do it a very specific way that
28:52
isn't something that my brain can understand, I'm going to stop engaging with your game. And a lot of people are going to do the same thing. So, and to
28:59
go back to the root of it, add-on developers are mostly going on hold. They don't know what the API changes are
29:05
going to be. They don't know what midnight's going to look like when it comes to uh they don't know how it's going to look as the beta unrolls
29:10
unravels. They're going to be watching it, but what's the purpose in making add-ons during the beta when they
29:16
literally can't? and we're at the end of the expansion, the current expansion. There's really not incentive to keep
29:22
updating it because there really isn't any anything happening. So, LVI is not
29:28
unique in this. A lot of them are just not going to do development. And we've seen this before.
29:33
I think to a degree, the only reason that the EL uh LVI's changes are more
29:39
concerning is because it's not a heavy it's not like uh weak auras or other
29:45
programs, you know, that Yeah. This is a straightup UI mod and even even that is is having difficulty.
29:53
Go ahead, Liz. Yeah. No, no, to that point, it's it shows a lot because, you know, I I think
30:00
one of the first things um I saw online was why, you know, I thought these were
30:06
only, you know, for combat situations. Why is this impacted? Well, yeah, the the API changes
30:13
actually are what while they may be creating a black box around, you know,
30:20
information that you think is in one place, Blizzard developers,
30:25
code, it's it's it's actually going to impact
30:30
all these other dependencies. So to to this point to this example, LVUI their
30:36
their sticking point is actually a dependency on another product that they
30:42
then fold in. And so many other components are going to be like that
30:48
that I think I I I have no idea if something like Handyotes is in impacted
30:54
yet, for example. But um you know let's say there's something that handy notes
31:00
depends on in a similar API say like being able to draw on your map that then
31:08
has the box put around it. That's it. So how many people's dependencies are
31:13
really invisible? Yeah. Like how many people use WOW instant messenger to contain their their their private messages.
31:20
That's broken. like you cannot use it in midnight currently because it ties in
31:25
with like a weird portion of what happens that they put the black box around and yeah we don't know how long
31:32
it's going to take them to unbind it or if they're even going to right but I think it's going to be it's a if any of
31:39
you are developing Midnight and you're listening to this podcast one thank you but two please consider this in any
31:47
meetings you are bringing up if you haven't already of how many people rely on add-ons that do nothing but mess with
31:53
the UI specifically to accommodate their ability to play the game. Not in a way
32:00
of cheating or doing things automatically, but literally just to know what's going on because you're
32:06
going to potentially alienate a large portion of your player base because I think more players than you realize rely
32:12
on that to interact with your ancient UI. to be a little snarky. But speaking
32:18
of alienation, um I do want to cut in before we move on, which is that a ton of stuff is
32:25
locked down. It's a big problem for add-ons, as you have covered in depth, but Blizzard has commented that they do
32:31
want to allow add-ons, like to allow people with visual issues, to allow the blind, to continue playing the game.
32:38
They do want those to be able to work. uh currently no but they are it's on
32:44
their radar and they want to fix it. Will they fix it uh enough? I don't know.
32:50
Will issues with like Yeah, we we don't know yet. But I can tell you at least for things tools that
32:58
are helping the disabled, they want those to be able to work. And I I'm glad to hear that. I just want
33:03
them I just want to see it. Yeah, exactly. We want to see things as we're talking about we're talking
33:10
about a February release. Yeah. I mean that's not that far away. That's three months.
33:15
Yeah. Though I I will say, you know, maybe 15 minutes ago I said I don't think Blizzard is going to roll out a
33:21
new alpha build on a Tuesday. They just did. Is it a new build or is it
33:27
I talk about it very a little bit. This is a victory for us. Uh it's it's patch notes with a new
33:34
build. Uh, my client did update when I launched it, but the servers are still online. So, but yes, there is a new
33:41
alpha build for everyone to test throughout the week and maybe we'll have more to talk about about it next week.
33:47
Um, anything else on El UI or addons in general or we feel good to move? Yeah, let's move on.
33:52
Let me do uh Diablo I. I'm just looking at Liz Pat. Uh, Liz, please talk about
33:58
season 11, the patch 2.5.0 PTR, hence my snark. Um,
34:05
speaking of alienation, yes, it's me. Yeah. So, okay, the good news is good. I'm
34:12
using air quotes, friends. Um, there's not a lot of early play style changes,
34:19
you know, when when you're first getting your feet under you. Are you missing a little bit of power from the
34:28
uh 12 or so uh skill points you would have received? Yes. But it it it's
34:34
they've evened out the curve. So instead of having a big power spike at level one
34:41
and then hitting level 50 feeling like you're really slogging, um that's that's
34:47
more of an even even graph. Now, uh that said,
34:54
I I have some feelings about some of these changes. And I'm saying feelings very specifically because it's based on
35:02
my experience of them in the PTR. Uh I you I kind of hinted at this in my
35:12
my write up. Uh I don't understand why we've gone back to a a relative
35:20
rating for armor and resistances, especially after that's where the game
35:26
started. That's where they were at launch and they they tuned it to the you know the thousand and the percentages
35:33
and had torment impacting them and that gave you a target.
35:39
That target is is moving now. It's it's
35:45
variable and you have to dig to find that information. And I don't like that
35:52
from just a a a understanding standpoint because you're not checking that. You're
35:59
not checking your resistances menu in in front or menu items before every fight.
36:06
Yes, they've added toughness to give you kind of a a relative view. Great. that
36:12
that means next to nothing after a week of PTR. You know, I'm not going to know
36:19
that until I actually have fully experienced it through, you know,
36:25
playing a season. Um, and that really got me into the the
36:34
question of, you know, folks have asked, it's it's been over two years now and
36:42
we're still seeing major system revisions. It given it's a live service game. I understand that, Blizzard.
36:48
You've made that clear. But we're reworking core foundational things like
36:56
defenses. Some things felt great like uh the healing the healing potion changes. Uh
37:03
even just having four I didn't really feel impacted by it because other than
37:09
the fact that Yes. Yes, ma'am. Could Could you explain for people who haven't been keeping up what change is
37:15
there to healing? Okay. So, I wasn't sure how much of this came up. I apologize.
37:20
I mean, we we talked about some of this last week, but not everyone's gonna remember that, you know, for breakfast
37:26
this morning. I don't know. I don't I don't know what I had for lunch either. For context, um they've
37:33
rolled back the change rolled back with air quotes the changes to armor and
37:38
resistances to where they are now ratings based. Whereas previously the last, you know, more than a few seasons,
37:45
we've had percentages for resistances to target and then the the 1,000 cap in uh
37:53
the torment difficulties and heal. As part of that, uh, your healing potions
38:00
have had their bonus charges removed, completely take taken out of
38:07
the game for both eternal realm players and seasonal realm players. Seasonal realm players, this makes logical sense
38:15
because the renown system is also being pulled off of the seasonal servers. Uh
38:21
it was kind of a question mark for eternal eternal players cuz they were like, "Hey, we still have renown." But
38:26
no, it's it's fully capped at four. And then in addition to the healing potions
38:34
that you can pick up on the ground, whatever to regain charges, there is a
38:39
as of the PTR invisible 30 second timer in the background
38:45
recharging. If you played Diablo Immortal or uh if you played Diablo III,
38:52
this is going to be a familiar experience having that recharge. Although you still had a visual for it.
38:58
I think that's one of the open bugs from the PTR. Uh they've also changed some
39:03
underlying stats to help with that healing. And the I I'll I'll call it the
39:11
dubiously used fortify is also being
39:16
reworked to now uh basically provide a heal over time
39:22
pool that you acrew and then drain. So
39:27
all of these underlying systems That's weird because that's a that's a thing. Barbarians can get a talent that
39:33
does that right now. Exactly. They just took that and gave it to everybody and they're going to rework that talent
39:39
from barbarian. And so fortified talents are going to be renamed or not renamed,
39:46
I'm sorry, retool tipped um to reflect what fortify will do. Armor and
39:52
defensive. So, so thing, uh, talents, both skills and passives that, um,
40:00
impact, you know, your armor or your your elemental resistances, uh, which
40:05
we're also now adding physical resistance to the mix. Um, those are all all getting re Paragon points, the
40:11
paragon boards are getting like this is a big change, a big sweeping change.
40:19
And in my head, I maybe this is maybe this is odd to say, but in my head, I'm
40:26
wondering why are we doing this for yet another season? Because the original
40:32
rework to defenses was done through a season, pushed out through a season. So,
40:39
yeah, lots lots of question marks. Um, but the capstone dungeons are
40:47
interesting. Now, I'm going to give myself a second to drink water by throwing a question at you guys and
40:53
saying, when you when you think of capstone dungeons, especially in relation to Diablo I, what do you think
41:00
of? I mean, when Diablo I first launched, a capstone dungeon was something that you completed in order to
41:07
unlock higher tiers of difficulty, which I understand is no longer the case. I wish I kind of wish since they are going
41:15
to serve a completely different purpose, they had a completely different name so you could understand that this is a
41:21
different system. But uh also also games have too many names for
41:27
things in the first place. Six to one half dozen the other matter. Joe, do you have I just remember having to always like
41:35
not just for difficulty stuff, but um to some degree like you couldn't get certain quest lines completed until you
41:42
got a capstone done. You'd have to go to a capstone just to get past this part of the quest.
41:48
Um especially like there's that one in the like Temple of the Triune that just
41:55
was like the most nightmarish dungeon imaginable and you just had to do it. you didn't
42:00
have, you couldn't just, you know, hold off and do it later. You pretty much had to do it if you wanted to get further
42:06
on. It was just really painful. Uh that's kind of keep. But I know now they're completely changing that as
42:12
well. So they are in fact completely changing that because all five dungeons are brand
42:17
new. Like they it's not like they've modified existing dungeons. They are, as
42:24
as far as I was able to tell, like freshly added to the title. Um, and they
42:30
are not uh the same experience. Instead of even uh what you've experienced in
42:37
the nightmare dungeons, they're they're not so much like that. It's closer to
42:43
the experience of the pit or Kurass City. actually closer to Curist Under
42:49
City where you actually have a couple floors with
42:54
different objectives to traverse and complete. And it it's really interesting
43:00
because the, you know, the post 60 ones as as you get higher have bonus
43:05
objectives to them that give you materials but also make the experience harder until you complete the bonus
43:10
objective. Um, so I was really surprised at the size of
43:17
that because these are not just um, again, you know, for someone who's used to the original nightmare dungeons
43:24
at this point, they're not just these like kind of smaller tile. No, these are
43:30
beefy tile sets. Think like the Nantu nightmare dungeons from Vessel of
43:35
Hatred. Like they are big. And um one of the you know I'll call it
43:43
complaints that I think I saw floating around a lot is that not only are there they big but you know when you get to
43:50
the final boss that fight unless you're you know geared particularly and this
43:58
was more towards the uh level 30 and level 50 ones. Those fights are going to
44:03
take a while. They have some health pools with a capital HP. Uh
44:10
they're not difficult necessarily, but they're long. And I I find myself hoping
44:15
those get tuned. Uh it was interesting that, you know, they you know, in doing
44:21
this, they've managed to implement some of the the features and functionalities that they've gotten uh to to test drive,
44:30
like with Unders City, for example. um or with uh the chaos not chaos gosh I've
44:37
got chaos from the current season on the bl brain infernal compasses um they're
44:42
able to leverage like some of those mechanics now but it's still
44:50
it feels like a lot to especially given that completing these capstones
44:57
does not unlock um necessarily all of the skill points
45:02
are all of the paragonss where they live. Now, in these season rank bonus objectives, you literally just advance
45:10
co complete the main season rank reward and advance to the next season rank. Um,
45:17
you can still complete those bonus objectives. And to that point, the bonus
45:23
objectives are uh and this is the system that's kind of replacing the season
45:28
journey and renown now. Um, so like the season journey, those bonus objectives
45:34
are what we're used to completing. And instead of doing that to advance
45:39
forward, you're completing this capstone dungeon. The bonus objectives are still there. They're still, for the most part,
45:45
going to be completed in your normal gameplay loop, but they are
45:53
until you complete them, those skill points are still locked. like you can't you can't access them or you can't
45:59
access the Paragon points. That didn't feel super great initially. I'm not
46:04
going to lie. Um but you know, after experiencing the full like leveling slope, so to speak,
46:13
it it it made sense at least. Um to that point, uh the other part of you know
46:21
what the PTR is testing is kind of the seasonal mechanics. And so I did encounter
46:27
three of the four lesser evils. Uh Duriel remained hidden from me because
46:34
for the first time since they introduced them, I did not get a single baneful
46:39
heart from Hell Tide. So I couldn't summon him. Didn't feel good.
46:46
But uh Andariel is in Carass Unders City. Balile is in the pit. And Asidan
46:54
is both a world boss and a summonable. And those three fights were were really
47:01
interesting in their new contexts. Um especially Asmadan. Holy crap. I have a screenshot and it
47:09
still doesn't even really give you the scope. Uh, but you know, for those of you that actually played it, uh, the,
47:16
you know, the beta, the the PTRs or the open beta that they had for Diablo I,
47:22
it's that feeling you had when you first encountered a Shava, the world boss, a
47:28
Shava, the pestilent, and it zoomed out and you were this tiny little bug of a
47:34
player sprite next to a Shava. Now, picture that with Asthma. It is a
47:42
feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I have a question about the new season journey, which is
47:50
now season perks. Um, season rank. Season rank. Oh gosh, I'm never going to
47:55
get used to this. Um, so season rank, Blizzard said it was going to be
48:02
challenging. Is this something that is more challenging than the season journey which Blizzard has all has also recently
48:09
buffed to make more difficult over the past couple of seasons? Um, so overall
48:16
just if you want to complete the basic and in this sense it's going to never
48:21
have been easier to complete the seven chapters of the season rank as your
48:27
journey because you're I mean realistically it's seven. It's not even
48:32
seven dungeons. It's five dungeons and two pit tiers. That that's the unlock
48:39
for chapters six and seven by the way or pit tiers uh 60 and 75. Uh so in that
48:46
sense you know you have seven things to complete and not you know 50 to 60. I I
48:53
I don't actually remember what the number is. It's probably closer to you know 40 to 50. Um, but to get those
49:02
skill points, for example, and to get those paragon points, you're going to have to do more. And like I said, a lot
49:08
of those bonus objectives are in your gameplay loop. So, it's especially starting out, it's pretty normal. Like,
49:14
you actually log in. This might have been just for the PTR, but you log in and the first thing you do, which I
49:21
think is to get you kind of oriented with the season rank system, is claim claim a skill point from your
49:28
season rank. And so like you've already completed one bonus objective by claiming that skill point and then you
49:34
have a skill point to start out with unlike in Diablo II where you just had your little auto attack and you killed
49:41
the skeletons outside of uh neutristum and that was your skill up like so in
49:48
that sense lots easier. Uh, but you know, you're you're going to have to you
49:54
have to engage with the system. And I think that's what's going to irritate everyone because this season rank is
50:02
going to reset every season, which means you will be reearning those points every
50:09
season. That's going to get old fast. Yeah, that's I mean that's that's what
50:16
sounds kind of tiresome about it that we're it's more systems that sound more
50:21
complicated and more systems that are there to drive engagement rather than systems there to
50:29
have fun playing with the new system. Yeah, exactly. They drive they don't do it by being
50:34
engaging. They don't interest you. You just uh I have to do it again. And
50:39
there are still some questions that have to be answered by Blizz I think because you know we'll we'll have another
50:45
sanctuary sit down and receive an update to the uh PTR patch notes. Um because
50:52
there's some items that desperately need to be addressed like the fact that uh you know a certain percentage of the
50:59
time when you leverage the season endame system sanctification against a piece of
51:05
armor like a mythic unique it could wipe out the mythic an important mythic
51:12
unique aics and replace it with something like one rank to bone spear.
51:18
So that has to be addressed still. Okay. Um, before we move on to talking about other stuff, uh, Liz, do you mind giving
51:27
us the site news? Yeah. Yeah. I want to say a big thank you to all of our supporters and all of
51:33
our listeners, but particularly our supporters on Patreon because you guys are what keeps the site running. I want
51:40
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Thank you both so much. If you are out there listening and you are able to
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thank you for supporting us. So to everyone listening, to every supporter on Patreon, thank you so much.
54:17
Thank you, Liz. Um going to try to do at least a couple other games before we uh end the show. For one thing, I know that
54:23
uh Joe wanted to talk at least a little bit about Guild Wars. So, the latest Guild Wars uh expansion, I
54:30
know it's Guild Wars 2, right? Yeah, Guild Wars 2. Uh Guild Wars I expansion, it released today as we're recording
54:36
this October 28th. So, it's live. If you're listening to us live, it's live. And if you're listening to us a day or
54:42
two from now, it it's still live. Um they don't hopefully they don't go up
54:48
one day. That's all you get. Um, just real fast, can somebody tell us like
54:54
exactly what's in this expansion? At least enough for people to know what it is.
54:59
Uh, I don't want to spend too much time on it cuz I literally have not had a chance to play it because what, you
55:05
know, literally it released today and I kind of was hoping to do a deeper dive into it next week and hopefully
55:11
that's fine. You can always bring it up again. Yeah. Um, but I mean yeah, we can just say hey it's here so
55:16
grab it and play it. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean the short version is it's two new explorable maps, uh ton
55:23
of PVE activities, including a new raid encounter, which will is available at right now as of the launch. Uh as well
55:30
as updates to skimmer, uh the skimmer mount, uh return for elite specs, uh for
55:36
professions, so your chosen class gets even deeper, cooler stuff. Um, it is
55:43
more player housing with a really cool island that you get to to do, you know, basically make your little pirate cove
55:48
if you want or however you want it. Um, it's a very large and very expansive
55:55
update for their content. Um, and so it's going to be very it's going to be a
56:01
fun time. I'm looking forward to digging into it and I'm looking forward to geeking out about it with uh Christian
56:08
uh when we both get a chance to sit down and Okay. Uh I wanted one of the reasons I wanted to do that one first was because
56:14
it's good news of a game getting an expansion and new stuff whereas New World uh Eternum the MMO is not getting
56:22
that. Uh they got one more content update and then they're going to have
56:27
their servers be live throughout the year 2026. But no new content. And on
56:33
the I wanted to read this particular question and answer thing. Um and
56:39
they're a fact because this particular one is is is it's live. It's really something. Are you suns setting the
56:45
game? No, not at this time. While new worlds will not be receiving new content updates, servers will be live through
56:51
2026. Our focus has been on completing the season 10 Night Haven content update
56:57
and sharing it with our players, which is possibly the most vague way they
57:03
could have they not at this time. Yeah, that's that doesn't actually answer the question. Are you sunsetting the game?
57:09
It's a yes or no, guys. And you didn't you said no, but then you basically said yes.
57:14
Kind of kind of said yes at the same time. So, yeah, it's a really it's a really odd announcement, but it does uh
57:21
it does seem like we're certainly winding down, though. They do it does also sound like they have one big
57:26
content update to roll out before before the end of days. Yeah. And that's that's good. I'm I'm
57:34
happy for that. But it just they keep saying that we in the coming months we will provide more details. It's like um
57:40
okay. Uh they're going to provide more details on what to expect in the coming months. They've they've now been said
57:46
three times. Um they're going to provide a minimum of six months notice before making any changes that impact your
57:52
ability to play New Worlds of Tournament. Uh which okay, good. People will get to play it for a while because
58:00
as one question here, I just bought this game. Can I get a refund? Um it's like
58:05
no refunds are not available for Marco Fortune purchases. Sorry, different question. But, you know, they they're
58:11
like, "Please check with customer support for the platform when you purchase New World at Tournament for assistance." Uh, so it does seem like
58:18
they understand that doing this means some people are going to just stop playing. Um, yeah, I don't It's a very
58:25
weird announcement that doesn't it doesn't feel like I I don't know. It feels like they pushed this out the door
58:31
and then just went home. Um, so yeah. Uh, it's it's odd and it's not it's
58:36
certainly not happy. Um, as as I was told earlier when we were doing the pre-show, some if people are playing and
58:43
enjoying a game, it's a success and that's great. Unfortunately, and when it's live service and MMOs and so forth,
58:51
you don't get to keep playing and enjoying it. Yeah. Because they it doesn't work anymore.
58:57
Cuz believe me, if I could play City of Heroes/Villains right now, I' i'd be
59:03
doing it. I have the discs. I would be running them. I know I can in a different way, but I meant for the years
59:08
that it you couldn't. So, yeah, it was one of those things that you just for years I had the discs and I couldn't do
59:13
anything on them. Um, and to be honest, right now it's just I don't have time, but that's not Yeah, it's it's just very
59:20
it's a strange announcement. It's like, yeah, we're doing a big content patch and then nothing will ever happen again.
59:25
Oh, well, at least there's one more content patch. At least at least they're saying they're going to give people a year,
59:31
and that's that's a lot more than some games got. Uh quite frankly, some like
59:36
like um I want to say Northstar, but Wildstar. Wildstar they announced it was going away and then it was just gone.
59:43
Yeah. Comparatively. Uh how long did Joe I know you played it a bit. How long did Wildstar last from its announcement to
59:49
its actual shutdown? Uh I don't remember. I remember it released in 2014.
59:56
Um but I don't remember how long it ran. It wasn't long enough. So No. No. But yeah, regardless. So, that's
1:00:04
happening. And that's they got hit with the NC soft curse of the time. Yeah. Um, okay. Uh, do we need to make
1:00:10
Yeah, we'll go with the Steam sale, I guess. Um, Halloween season, there's a big spooky scary games uh sale on Steam,
1:00:18
and that's through November 3rd, which is cool. I I don't like it when things end on the holiday in question. You got to give me a little time. Um, but we
1:00:25
talked earlier on the pre-show about how there's almost always a a Steam sale. So, here you go. You've got more Steam
1:00:32
sales and you've and there's a link here to the tab where you can browse by demo.
1:00:38
So you've you've got no excuse to not buy that game about chickens being
1:00:43
policemen. Although I don't think it's a particularly Halloween game, but it is chickens that that I don't even know if that's on
1:00:50
sale. Matt, that's not really a horror game. No, I I you definitely didn't grow up on
1:00:56
a farm. I grew up on a farm. It absolutely is a horror game. Chickens are in nightmares.
1:01:01
Oh, I don't know. It's I'm definitely scared, but I mean, you know, for that
1:01:06
matter, Hollow Knight and Path of Exile, and that's a pretty good deal. I mean, those are good games. There's a lot of
1:01:12
games here, too, guys. The original is on sale for for a 66% off, guys, for
1:01:18
Hades. If you haven't played Hades yet, there you go. Yeah. Or P of the Lamb. Like, yes. Uh
1:01:25
certainly one I'm looking at is The Seance of Blake Manor, which is a a
1:01:30
atmospheric detective puzzle solving thing, which actually just released. And
1:01:35
uh it's it's 10% off, which isn't big, but this brand new release, I'm I'm happy with that.
1:01:40
Yeah. So, if you're, you know, getting in the Halloween spirit and you want to kill some stuff in a video game or what
1:01:45
have you, uh they got a lot on sales. Rogue Trader is on sale for 55% off. Yeah,
1:01:50
Rogue Trader is a really good game, guys. Seriously. Uh yeah, just uh hop on to Steam and look for the Steam Scream
1:01:59
sale, which is probably going to be a big banner at the top of the site. That's how it is right now.
1:02:05
Yeah. 13 bucks. This is all Canadian prices cuz I don't see the American ones, but 13 Canadian for Cult of the
1:02:11
Lamb. That's That's actually really good. That That's You should get that. Cult of the Lamb is really creepy, but
1:02:18
but quite good. Also just got a new expansion, I think, or a new or a DLC or an expansion. progress. Yeah, they announced it. It's
1:02:25
not I keep looking for it though because I'm so excited about it. Sometimes you see some cute cultist.
1:02:31
It's fine. Um I I fine, I'll mention it. Uh Outer Worlds 2 has a bonus consumerism flaw
1:02:37
that you can get for purchasing the $100 early access edition. It's like you you don't get to criticize capitalism while
1:02:44
doing a capitalism. Yeah, you do. Yeah, obviously you do. It's just my my
1:02:50
initial outrage is no, you can't. Then they're like, "Why can't we? How are you gonna stop us?" And I'm like, "I can't.
1:02:56
I can't." So, yeah. Go ahead. I mean, it's it's The Outer Worlds. They
1:03:02
Obsidian may be owned by Microsoft, but they are still stringent critics of the
1:03:07
capitalist system in which we live in their game takes place. Yeah. What's really funny to me is that
1:03:14
Joe was talking before about how games being developed while Microsoft was taking over the company. The original
1:03:19
Outerorlds is exactly that because they literally got bought by Microsoft just as they were finishing it.
1:03:24
Mhm. And Microsoft was like, "Okay, can we make this an exclusive?" And they're like, "No, we have contracts that say
1:03:30
it's going to go to, you know, other consoles. You you can't we can't do that. It would be illegal." So that's
1:03:36
why The Outer Worlds uh went to PlayStation. And the new the
1:03:42
new one is also going to PlayStation for the very simple fact that now Microsoft itself has kind of abandoned its idea of
1:03:48
trying to fight the console war. So well I'm happy to see it. I mean I' I'd like to you know I like seeing
1:03:55
Microsoft Yeah. Microsoft owns the Windows market and that's that's a lot of the market right there. So I am happy
1:04:03
it's coming out for PlayStation. I pre-ordered it on PlayStation so I am most content.
1:04:09
Yeah. I'm not gonna actually buy it because I get it free. I mean, I spend I spend like Oh, I spend $30 a
1:04:15
month on the on Game Pass. So, yeah, I'm definitely gonna get my money's worth. I I have decided with this game, this is
1:04:22
I've canceled my Game Pass subscription. I'm I think I'm done with the game subscriptions. I'm just I don't play
1:04:28
enough games to be worth spending an increasing amount of money on a subscription in which I don't own
1:04:34
something at the end of the day. So, I have canceled Game Pass. that money is going into buying games that I am going
1:04:40
to love and play forever. And uh I I'm feeling okay about that.
1:04:45
Last one here is uh I can't pronounce is this Sugoy? I I don't know how you pronounce it
1:04:52
because I've only seen it written. Uh Sugoy then uh awesome console showcase
1:04:58
which was today. Today? Yeah, today. Yeah. Yeah. Um I Sugoy you they better recognize these
1:05:06
people because their first gaming showcase was the game awards for games that can't afford the game awards except
1:05:13
in acronym format which that's even harder to pronounce. That's uh but they
1:05:19
this is what they're doing now is Sugoy and they've had several so showcases all of them are great indie showcases. This
1:05:27
one uh didn't have a lot of like new big world premiere kind of announcements, but it's a lot of indies that are coming
1:05:33
to consoles soon. A lot of them are ports from uh PC, so it's worth
1:05:39
watching. This is like this is like the showcase I look forward to most. It's the most It's the showcase that is most
1:05:46
likely to have strictly Lizcoded games like uh like Chicken Police. Any game where I can play a chicken detective or
1:05:53
a frog detective or a duck detective, any of those things. Uh, that's that's a very Liz game. It's just going to be a
1:05:59
Liz game. And then it also has games like Dark Webb streamer because that's a thing. We live in a weird timeline.
1:06:06
We do. We do. And here we are. Here we are. Okay, that covers pretty much all the uh
1:06:13
other game news that we have. Um, so yeah, I guess at this point, guys, we
1:06:18
are going to be saying goodbye. Um, this is the Blizzard Watch podcast. Thank you guys for being here with us and we'll be
1:06:25
back next week. [Music]