Home Artists Posts Import Register

Content

For your viewing pleasure.

Timestamp to skip ads:
0:00:43

0:30:51

Files

I'm Gonna Learn You My Philosophy | Sacred Symbols, Episode 253

In a recent interview, Hermen Hulst -- the head of PlayStation's first party studios -- spoke extensively about Sony's plans with its vaunted 10 in-development games-as-a-service. Through his words, we can begin to formulate a vision of a future where PlayStation first and second party games are both of the expected and unexpected variety, a marked change from a brand known first-and-foremost for marquee single player experiences. And in the wake of Xbox's disastrous launch of Redfall and the obviously-plateauing numbers of GamePass, a conversation about the very philosophy of PlayStation seems as timely as ever. We also take the time this week to go over the trailers for the Gran Turismo movie and Twisted Metal TV show, celebrate some recent Square Enix sales successes, discuss the continued destruction of games media, touch on new PS5 Pro rumors, and more. Listener inquiries round things out, per usual, on topics like reviews taking into account the technical performance of a game, Sony's dearth of WRPG heft, players' toxic relationship with publishers, and Colin's increasingly dramatic southern man voice. Watch An Evening with Last Stand II now: https://www.patreon.com/posts/evening-with-ii-80483739 MERCH: https://laststandmedia.store Follow the hosts on Twitter! Colin: https://twitter.com/longislandviper Chris: https://twitter.com/ChrisRGun Dustin: https://twitter.com/DustinCanFly A new episode of Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast launches each Friday morning. To receive instant access, as well as other perks, please support the show on Patreon at http://patreon.com/LastStandMedia Get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D and 5 travel packs for free at https://www.athleticgreens.com/sacred Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:25:09 - The Southern Gentlemen is too fast 0:30:52 - LSM brings coworkers together 0:32:36 - Marinate/Marinade that chicken 0:35:53 - Do we like building models? 0:47:01 - Recycle grass clippings? 0:50:47 - Physical games have a place 0:53:57 - A correction correction 0:55:16 - What do we think of the Twisted Metal and Gran Turismo trailers? 1:15:37 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster sells two million copies 1:26:46 - Final Fantasy XVI is banned in Saudi Arabia 1:38:01 - Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage imminent? 1:42:18 - What’s Respawn doing? 1:48:30 - A DualSense has been used by a doctor for a sensitive operation 2:00:26 - Waypoint has closed 2:06:25 - What do we think about Kotaku posting Zelda leaks? 2:13:06 - What have we been playing? 2:40:44- PlayStation 5 Pro may be coming in 2024 3:02:14 - Herman Hulst talks about PlayStation Studios games-as-a-service strategy 3:23:55 - Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 can now be upgraded to the PS5 version for a fee 3:28:45 - Is the gaming subscription model sustainable? 3:57:54 - Should reviews factor in the product’s technical issues at launch? 4:09:49 - Are gamers in a toxic relationship with developers? 4:16:53 - Will the Big 3 look toward multimedia more to grow their footprint? 4:18:06 - What are some of our favorite video game soundtracks? 4:20:51 - Will Sony ever have a first party RPG studio?

Comments

Donato Ciarlo

Who can I speak to about getting Colin and others on my podcast as guests ? Next week I have David Jaffe but would love to get Colin and others on the weeks following.

Kenny C

Brilliant image

Johannes

Damn, now I wanna know what that big interview will be. Don't tease me like that, Colin! Hoping for Shu.

Cun

"Thank you for writing in"

KevinFausch

I think Colin misunderstood Phil when he said good games won't solve their problem. After watching the full interview, he was inferring that good games alone won't make mass amounts of PlayStation fans suddenly switch to Xbox, so their plan is to make good games and reach more players by going to PC, cloud, and mobile. He wasn't saying that Xbox doesn't need good games.

Cun

"Ruminating" is just thinking deeply. But "Rumination", for whatever reason, has a different definition. Rumination involves repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences. The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions.

Walker Simmons

Phil Spencer's comment on games confused me. Sure I wouldn't suddenly sell my PS5 but if Xbox was consistently putting out must play quality games I'd definitely buy a series x or subscribe to PC gamepass. Wasn't the 360 outselling PS3 until Sony started finally putting out amazing games? Seems like a defeatist attitude if he's content being in 3rd place forever then go for it

JP

On the whole grass clippings conversation: When grass clippings are bagged, you have a large amount of clippings in a bag that is generating heat; and if that bag is broke open inside a trash truck or a compost bin, the gases produced by the grass clippings are exposed to oxygen, causing the material to ignite and catch fire (spontaneously combust).

Anonymous

Yeah his comments make sense in the context of the question he was asked (and the existence of persistent console libraries). Although, he could have worded it better and ended his answer by stating "... and all that said we still need to make great games because XYZ". People in general need to do a better job taking in context and gleaming what message people are actually trying to get across. Obviously Phil thinks great games will only help his business. He was just defending the Xbox multi-device strategy and poorly worded a part of his statement.

Tommy Masters

Thanks for bringing up my RPG question. You rock guys. You're the best PlayStation podcast out there. Keep doing what you're doing.

KevinFausch

He definitely should have clarified that at the end. When you take in the entire interview, you can see he is very much focused on making great games. And you are correct in that he was defending their push to PC and cloud.

Michael Miller

I honestly think Chris would dig Persona 5

Michael Thew

The end fight of MGS 4 is the most MGS thing ever

Noah Friscopp

This game has the highest highs and lowest lows, that whole end sequence is hype as hell.

Cun

Colin did you just say "fi-fis" instead of "feelings"? Is this the same Colin who hates Stelly? Who are you and what've you done with Colin?

Michael Thew

I don’t remember to much being 10ish years since I got down with that game but I will always remember that ending. Prolly for the best though for how iffy people are toward that game

Michael Thew

I had no problem buying a console that has killer games. Ive owned every console from Nintendo, Xbox and PS since their conception besides this past Xbox iteration. Shit I owned Xbox consoles just to play Gears, so my bar isn’t even that high. Not saying Gears is bad, I loved it, but it wasn’t even their biggest banger. I got the next xbox motto “Xbox, where victims play”

iain mcmanus

colin has jumped on chris twice in the last two weeks about yawning lmao. please yawn next week chris we need colin to rage

Anonymous

I think the paper Mario games or bug fables might suit Chris for jrpgs. The combat has an active rhythm element to them so your input affects the final amount of damage you do, keeping you engaged in the fight. Thanks for reading my question - I don't think reviews should completely abandon all technical commentary, just that the guys point gave me pause on what a review should be. Cheers

Michael Thew

Damn, I heard your thoughts on Phil Spenser interview, so I watched Kyle Bosman vid on it to kinda see some of what Phil said. First thought is he sounded like he wanted to get fired and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. Second, dude can’t talk about his product like that. PlayStation and Kaz’s apology for the psn outage was very well done and he was as embarrassed and ashamed as Phil was. But you can’t air your dirty laundry publicly, internally go for it and heads should roll, but telling your fan base and xbox podcasters that we are never going to be #1 and quality games don’t matter is unacceptable.. I hope they can right this ship. Halo, Gears, Ninja Gaiden, Kotor and Fable are some of my fondest memories of gaming and they were all on xbox. I’d much rather pay for things like an add-on modem, batteries or have to buy a couple 360s because of the RRoD and have great games, rather then Gamepass and this dumpster fire they got going on now. It was an insightful episode this week, take it easy CCD

Joe West

I gotta totally disagree with Chris and I guess Colin too in that, yawning is very rude especially to someone’s face/while they’re talking to you. He makes the argument that sneezing is the same thing but you’re not going to sneeze in someone’s face. You’re going to turn the other way and say “excuse me”. Did no one really teach Chris manners?

DDTJOESTAR

I’m here for the Yawn discourse. It’s not rude. If we’re all adults and being honest about “bless you’s” and sneezes, realistically you have to expect people to yawn. People get tired, we all have experienced it and yawned during conversation, try not to take it so personally that someone else needs a nap more than they think they do. 😂

Matthew Cooper

I have never been as down on the Xbox brand as I am right now. Redfall is just so much worse than it should have been. There is a nugget of a good idea there, but it's completely wasted. I was pretty excited for Xbox at the start of this generation, but it seems like their operation is just a mess. Starfield absolutely has to be a hit; though I'm looking forward to Hellblade 2 more, which after this much time, I'm expecting to be a 20 hour experience with TLoU 2 levels of polish. And the idea that reviews shouldn't mention the technical performance of a game is dumb. For some games, really good visuals and/or high and stable framerates need to be mentioned and applauded. Poor visuals and performance need to be brought up because they affect the overall enjoyment of the game. How much so is up to the individual, but it needs to be factored in. As someone who really cares about the technical performance of games, I'm always going to check out Digital Foundry. I really can't even enjoy some kinds of games, like first person shooters, unless they are 60 frames. Most people aren't that particular and that's fine, but performance needs to be mentioned.

Anonymous

As a fellow cannabis smoker and lover of gardening growing my own marijuana from seed to harvest was so gratifying. Nothing quite like firing up a spliff of some great bud that you nurtured and brought to fruition. Also not sure if you’d really enjoy it or not but a great diorama building YouTube channel to check out is Boylei Hobby Time, he’s always making unique and interesting scenes. Cheers and have a great weekend.

Christopher Heeley

This is probably asking too much, but if you really want to get the complete Metal Gear experience Dustin, play Metal Gear 2 (the original MSX game) that's in the HD collection within MGS3 You can Skip Metal Gear as it has maybe like 10min of story tops. (check a youtube recap) But Metal Gear 2 is a full-on Kojima Metal Gear game, with all the story, bosses and classic MGS stuff (with some parts which are super important to the overall story!!) Everyone skips it, but man it's really a key part of the series. Perfect time to play it is upon completing MGS V

Dontmindthecat

Hopefully any PS5 pro would allow 60fps with quality mode level visuals. I was a PS4 pro owner and I loved it. That's where I played GOW Ragnarok as well as Horizon Forbidden West and it was a great experience. Then I bought a PS5 and revisited these titles at 60fps. I now fear our inevitable future of UE5 games that will only run at 30fps. If the Matrix demo was any true indication, we're looking at 1080p upscaled to 1440p at 30fps in the near future. Maybe its 540p upscaled to hit 60fps, I can't imagine that will look great on my 4k TV. I already find myself constantly switching between performance and quality to see what compromises are being made regarding raytracing and the like. I would love to buy a PS5 Pro. That being said I don't think Hogwarts legacy, or any recent release is any indication of the potential of the PS5. I mean Bully ran rough on the 360 and then GTA5 came along and showed what was possible with that generation. Especially considering it's also a cross gen game.

Anonymous

MSX MGS2 is mind blowing in how close a NES-style game fully realized what we got in Metal Gear Solid.

Stinkling

As someone on the spectrum its clear Chris Chan had parental guardians that just did everything wrong on how to deal with it. That obviously doesnt excuse his sick behaviour with his mother in the end, but its sad to see someone suffering so much from something thats very easy to treat and nurture and live with. And colin couldnt have said it better, he really didnt deserve the bullying he got, and it was from a massive community on the internet too, just awful all around to anyone that participated in that, and the dog thing was a step beyond too far.

Luke Silletta

I'm so excited for Assassins Creed. They are my guilty pleasure game series. Like Colin with Far Cry.

Raul Hernandez

MGS4 is one of the best, there are two type of Metal Gear Solid fans, those that know that MGS4 is great and those who are extremely wrong. You guys are judging it from a 2023 perspective. It was making miracles in PS3 in 2007-08.

Colton McKinney

Redfall is closer to an Xbox game than Starfield and I’m not even trying to be a dick console war person. Starfield has been in development since at least 2015 if not longer than that. Redfall didn’t take anywhere close to that long to make. Either way, I think Colin was/is right that Xbox has never really proven to have the ability to manage their studios well so why would we expect any different?

Pyo

Most stores in the arabs countries don't care if there is gay stuff, a lot of stores there sell it normally. You just basically can't buy of their digital ps store, but that is also easy fixed with a new acc. My friend got last of us 2 collectors edition in Dubai LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO

Phil Walker

I nearly had a stroke during the Roger Moore mix up. From the director of Bowling for Colombine to the bass player of Pink Floyd. Jesus fucking christ

Retlaw

Great episode!

Cole Minder

Yea the grass clipping conversation confused me last week. As long as you mow often enough there’s no issue. If there is just mow back over the yard

Mike D

What do you think about gaming sites/youtube channels continuing to milk Redfall for content (7 things you need to know, tips, guides, performance, firearms expert reacts... etc) despite giving the game awful reviews. I've seen this happen a few times, most notably fallout 76. I think if a game is bad and your told to stay away from it, they need to drop all content plans and stop giving it attention, move on and focus on something that does deserve the spotlight. Doesn't it add to algorithm for that title?

Jorge Sosa

I don't think PlayStation will ever go subscription. That seems like it's a Sony thing. They don't have a subscription service for their TV shows and movies. Instead they have Netflix, Disney, and others paying them to have Sony movies on their respective services

Wesali1996

Completely agree with Chris about JRPGs. I don't think I've ever successfully completed one. I was also really into Yakuza Like A Dragon but hit the same grind wall. Usually I get 10-15 hours in and I'm loving the story, then I check Howlongtobeat.com and it says I have 50 hours left. No thanks!

The Funky Monk

I can't speak for everyone, but I love it when you guys go over games media as a whole. While everyone else just quickly makes mention over solidarity, you guys actually analyze how the situation got so untenable that outlets would go out of business. Just love the breadth of subjects you guys cover. And of course, keep up the fire.

Mike D

Pretty sure Geno Samuel is Scandanavian possibly. Also, thanks for putting me onto this Chris Chan documentary, I feel myself slipping into insanity after 12 episodes.

Saint947

Jesus Christ, I have never laughed at this podcast as hard as I did when Colin tried on his southern twang for size in this episode— That shit was P R I M E

Germanos

I feel both Dustin and Chris went too apologetic for Xbox and Phil in this podcast. Especially, when talking about Redfall not being an MS Studios game - what the hell? So, the marketing campaigns and 20 minute deep dives advertised by Phil personally are what? Nothing? And if you want to answer Colin's questions about meaningful game releases, please don't use a botched statistic as Metacritic, but look at the game nominated for GOTY at the Game Awards in the last 5-10 years. And btw. (this annoys me the most), as a team lead and a person who leads software development squad: PHIL DID NOT TAKE OWNERSHIP! Saying "we should be more hands on" means "the team is so crap, they cannot do shit without us looking". I would never say that. NEVER. As a team lead and someone who leads, you own the responsibility over the problem by saying "I failed the team, so they couldn't do their best". Of course, if that is true, and not that the team really is crap as hell, but it is Arkane, so we know they can deliver greatness.

Surge!

Our foremost lead on anime isn't up to snuff on Gundam?! Welp, Dustin... I think that trade is nearing soon, good luck with your future. J/K, Love the show.

Dennis Fox

Just a quick input, I'm playing on ps5, and play ps3 as well as played my vita(it died), all the time after changing my psn name with no issues.

Keith Huntington

after y'all's discussion a few episodes back on chris chan i dove into the series. i'm. ow on episode 46. i tried to get my wife to watch one segment and she just uncomfortably up and left the room shortly in. 😂😂😂😂 great recommendation nonetheless!

Keith Huntington

my favorite part of christory is the fact that majority of his early youtube videos were made exclusive by using an eyetoy and his ps3. i didn't even know that was possible to make just long form full screen videos like that. it's wild.

Keith Huntington

colin. i have to recommend, if you aren't, you *have* to be following along with the cwcki. it's mind blowing the amount of cross referencing you can do from the documentary to the cwcki. and when new characters come in, you can get more in-depth information on them. (sonichu.com/cwcki) the cwcki is very robustly metatagged as well. so say for instance i type i a song title, it will bring up a list of instances that song comes up in reference to pivotal moments of christory. or restaurants. or what have you. invaluable source of information. :)

Keith Huntington

i thought the trailer for gt looked dope, but am i the only person who saw a great similarity of that to 'days of thunder?' it seemed like a very closely mirrored story to me anyway.

Keith Huntington

after the horizon burning shores blatant spoiler, i blocked kotaku on all social media. zelda is the 3rd flagrant major spoiler they've done, this year. they need to go out of business. it's one thing to report on unannounced titles, but to spoil story beats before a game is even released, (or the day of) is disgusting.

Keith Huntington

i know this isn't what you were referring to, but if we're just talking in objective terms of quality, forza horizon 5 is insanely good. personally, i give it a perfect 10 out of 10 score. that was basically the only game i was playing in nov of 2021, and i couldnt find a single flaw within. the production per square inch is off the chart. sure, it's not a narrative driven adventure game, but the graphics, audio, controls, gameplay, etc are, from my perspective, without any noticeable flaws.

Jon Hutto

Concerning the grass clippings, if you store your clipped grass in trash bags or trash bins for a certain amount of time, the decomposing grass generates a lot of heat that could cause the grass to spontaneously combust. I've never seen it happen myself but I have heard plenty of tales of it happening. Just Google grass spontaneously combusting and you can find much more information.

Saint947

Sacred Symbols and a dismissive “Ahhh I don’t know”, name a more iconic duo.

Keith Huntington

conversely, id also gave halo infinite a 9/10 easily as well, because i rolled credits on the campaign, then uninstalled the game. so without interacting with multiplayer, the story, the map access, the gunplay, and such was obscenely good for me anyway. i walked away with nothing but positivity. so on a pve standpoint, i'd put halo infinite up there with god of war ragnarok. i personally enjoyed halo more, but to each their own.