Defining Duke, Episode 49: Hellblade 2's Incredible Reveal + The Game Awards Fallout (Patreon)

In an episode chockful of time traveling, we breakdown all that transpired during the bemoaned Game Awards. It was advertisements galore, television, celebrities and movies aplenty, where you had a sneaking suspicion that Joel McHale was going to make a surprise return somewhere throughout. Despite all of this, we at least had games and many promising ones at that! Among those was the highly anticipated reveal of Hellblade 2's gameplay which many thought were pure cinematics. Indeed, Ninja Theory wowed the industry with their Unreal Engine 5 developed exclusive and there was plenty more to feast on beyond this reveal. Matty and Cog also dig into the latest "PlayStation Game Pass" and what a real challenge could mean for Microsoft moving forward in a space that was controlled only by them. That, plus Battlefield restructuring, an XBOX HANDHELD, more Activision shake-ups, and yes, even Halo Infinite updates.

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:05:27 - What will Cog’s nickname be?

0:07:33 - What we’ve been playing.

0:13:04 - Why is Xbox not attracting more positive discussion from a larger audience?

0:18:50 - Halo Infinite: Is the king back?

0:23:57 - Should Microsoft bring Xbox and Xbox 360 titles to PC?

0:28:57 - How do we protect our enjoyment of video games without getting too focused on the job?

0:39:01 - Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are good, actually.

0:43:50 - The Game Awards - General overview

1:00:02 - The Game Awards - Tunic

1:02:59 - The Game Awards - Planet of Lana

1:05:28 - The Game Awards - Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

1:13:52 - The Game Awards - Hellblade 2

1:21:21 - The Game Awards - Evil West

1:23:57 - The Game Awards - Star Wars Eclipse

1:28:26 - The Game Awards - Somerville

1:33:08 - The Game Awards - Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2

1:36:11 - The Game Awards - Final Fantasy VII Remake

1:39:19 - The Game Awards - Kojima

1:42:43 - The Game Awards - A Plague Tale Requiem

1:45:26 - The Game Awards - Crossfire X

1:52:55 - The Game Awards - Sonic Frontiers

1:58:02 - The Game Awards - Halo TV Show

2:00:33 - The Game Awards - The Matrix Awakens

2:08:18 - A breakdown of Halo Infinite’s development has been published.

2:21:43 - Sony is looking to fight against Game Pass with a subscription service.

2:36:50 - EA may be entirely shaking up the Battlefield franchise.

2:45:07 - A new handheld device is on its way.

2:52:30 - Activision continues its downward spiral.

3:00:50 - Halo Infinite’s multiplayer playlists are getting some tweaks.

3:07:20 - Game Pass pick of the week.

3:10:17 - What happened to all the talk about Xbox acquisitions?

3:20:02 - Who is the most well known game dev?

3:27:17 - Is Halo Infinite being fun and actually working enough to satisfy us?

3:33:05 - How did Cog go from VR hater to Oculus employee?

3:38:46 - If we could choose someone to do a voiceover for Halo AI - who would it be?