This week Max is out on assignment and Akeem is filling in as host! We’re talking about Sony’s gamble on live-service games: with the cancellation of two unannounced titles, is it going well for them? Our review for Dynasty Warriors: Origins is in and we dive deep into the details with Jada. Plus the legendary Shuhei Yoshida’s thoughts on PlayStation’s live-service push. Beyond!

This week’s show is Akeem Lawanson, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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This week, we’re talking about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which is about.. Well, you can kind of figure it out from the name alone. Nick Maillet had a chance to go hands on, and shares some of the crazy stuff he encountered. The mainline Like a Dragon/Yakuza games are wacky enough under normal circumstances, but it sounds like Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is basically Like a Dragon: Blood Dragon in how overboard it’s willing to go. In other news Hideo Kojima sounds very tired, and Halo is probably coming to PlayStation 5 this holiday season, which is great for everyone. We also run down a few upcoming games that might not immediately be on your radar, including Date Everything, the sandbox dating sim in which you romance inanimate objects come to life, Hell is Us, a creepy looking third-person action game that’s taking some cues from the film Annihilation and the books it was based on, Baby Steps, which looks like open-world QWOP, or Mudrunner with a man instead of a truck, and Light No Fire, Hello Games’ fantasy-flavored follow-up to No Man’s Sky.

This week’s show is Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Nick Maillet, Nick Limon, and is produced by Jobert Atienza.

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Happy New Year! 2025 kicks off with a bunch of news out of CES, and it seems like Sony announced basically everything except games, from feature film adaptations of Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers 2 to a Ghost of Tsushima anime series to an immersive and probably weird-smelling experience in The Last of Us. Meanwhile, in the interest of not having a ton of game news to discuss, we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest games that’ll be celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2025, weighing in on how those game franchises are doing a decade later, and speculating on how they might get some recognition this year. The big one, obviously, is Bloodborne, which Sony seems to be teasing - or at least acknowledging - a bit more than usual. The Witcher 3 just got big a sequel reveal at The Game Awards, Fallout 4 was followed up by Fallout 76, but anyone who’s excited about the Prime Video series might be waiting around for a while for Fallout 5. Metal Gear Solid 5 may very well be the last proper Metal Gear game we ever get, but that could always change, but at least Hideo Kojima is cooking up a new tactical espionage game with Physint. Undertale is gradually getting a sequel with Deltarune, Rocket League and Rainbow Six Siege are alive and well, Until Dawn’s just got a remake and has a movie on the way, but Batman fans hoping for a conventional Arkham game haven’t gotten much love since Arkham Knight.

This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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It’s the holidays, which means spending time with loved ones, and probably getting into an argument with them too. So, we’re deciding on Beyond’s Top 10 PlayStation Games Ever, but we’re doing it in a stupid, convoluted way that will result in a list that no one, including us, agrees with entirely. Spoiler alert: this was an excuse to talk about some games we love for an hour. Hopefully we name at least one game you like, but if you don’t, don’t worry, it’s all made up and nothing we decide is legally binding or official in any capacity. We had fun making this episode, we hope you enjoy watching it! Happy holidays from all of us to all of you!

This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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We sure do have a lot more games to look forward to than we did a week ago, huh? The Game Awards had quite a few big reveals, especially for PlayStation fans thanks to Naughty Dog finally letting the equally poorly behaved cat out of the bag and showing off Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the first brand new IP since The Last of Us. Considering it’s been well over a decade since that was unveiled, it’s something to be excited about. A deep-space adventure set on distant planets is arguably more uncharted territory than the actual Uncharted games, which is awesome, plus it combines bubble-era anime and early 80s synthpop. Other major reveals include The Witcher 4, Team Ico mastermind Fumeto Ueda’s Project Robot, the Like a Dragon Team’s Project Century, and FromSoft’s multiplayer survival-centric spin on Elden Ring, Nightreign. As for our very own awards, we have the winner of IGN’s best PlayStation game of 2024, which probably won’t come as much of a surprise, and the winners of our very own Beyondcé awards. Finally, Jada shares her PlayStation wrapped stats, and odds are, she played more video games than you. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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#GOTYwatch

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Some of the last big games of 2024 have finally dropped, including the open-world dress-up game Infinity Nikki, which is currently a PS5 console exclusive, and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, which is currently Xbox console-exclusive, but which will be hitting PS5 next year. Both of these games are great in their own ways, and they’re each doing some new things that make them fun in ways we weren't expecting. Skydance’s Behemoth is also out for PSVR2, which promises Shadow of The Colossus-like monster fights. Meanwhile, Aliens: Dark Descent isn’t new, but it’s new to PlayStation Plus this month, and it’s an extremely nerve-racking survival horror spin on real-time strategy, and finally Entropy Survivors takes the Vampire Survivors formula but gives it a considerable visual bump, plus some cool physics-based power ups, plus a frog with a mech, which is pretty neat. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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Between Nintendo Switch’s impending successor, Valve’s Steam Deck and its ilk, and Phil Spencer casually announcing an Xbox handheld is in development, portable gaming is in the midst of a revival. If recent rumors are to be believed, Sony will soon be following suit. So, what can be learned not just from the success of current handheld devices, but also Sony’s previous ventures into the pocket-sized gaming space? The PlayStation Portable and PS Vita were both wonderful devices, but a variety of factors kept them from achieving the same success as Nintendo’s handhelds. Speaking of last-gen Sony, the PS5 has gotten some 30th anniversary themes, which allow the startup and system noises to be changed, but sadly, it’s just for a limited time. Will we see more themes for the PS5 menu anytime soon? It’s award season, so we’ve got some categories to announce for our own very special award show, The Beyondcés, and Jada’s got her work cut out for her with a mountain of games to Platinum before the year is through. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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Have you ever been asked by your family during the holidays what a Kingdom Hearts is or why Solid Snake is in fact, not a snake? This week we answer those questions and many more in this very special holiday episode of Podcast Beyond. We also talk about why younger gamers aren't familiar with Metal Gear Solid anymore, why Brian is glad he bought a bad Unicorn video game, Max's emails to his mom about his job and Kojima, and Jada's thoughts on this year in RPG's. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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Following the announcement of The Game Awards 2024 nominees for overall game of the year, the big debate right now is should Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion be eligible? Yes, it’s great, but Elden Ring won this award in 2022, and not only is Erdtree not playable without the base game, it requires a substantial amount of amount of legwork (and a big of eggwork) to even access. Aside from that there’s other Elden Ring rumblings, with talk about Sony acquiring FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa. Meanwhile, Capcom reports Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess underperformed due to lack of buzz, and Square Enix promises not to half-ass the Highwind airship in part 3 of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, whatever they decide to call it. We also got to play some upcoming games: Max previewed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (which is from the team behind the recently-released Tetris Forever, which we also discuss) and Jada checked out Dynasty Warriors Origins. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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00:00 - Intro

01:21 - Final Fantasy 7 Remake Pt 3 Info

12:15 - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Underperformed

14:09 - FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa acquisition rublings

29:09 - Max previewed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind

43:59 - Jada checked out Dynasty Warriors Origins

55:10 - Should DLC Be Game of the Year

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In a recent investor call, Sony’s finance and IR chief Sadahiko Hayakawa announced that we should expect a major first party single-player game release at least once a year from the 2025 fiscal year onward, which is awesome news! However, aside form Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Insomniac and Marvel’s Wolverine, that leaves lots of room for speculation about which of PlayStation’s numerous game studios will make an announcement next. There have been rumors and possibly in-game clues that Naughty Dog’s next project may be in the realm of fantasy, and things have been quiet over there since The Last of Us: Part I. Even quieter has been Bend Studio, whose last project was Days Gone, and quite a few days have gone by since that was released. Meanwhile, there’s also Santa Monica Studio, Housemarque, and Media Molecule, just to name a few. In other news, Sony patents a rewind button which probably sounds a lot cooler than it is, Akeem is getting weird in PSVR, and Jada reviewed LEGO Horizon Adventures, which sounds just fine. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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The PlayStation 5 Pro has finally arrived (or arrives very shortly) and we’ve got IGN’s reviewer Michael Higham joining us to break down how much of an improvement this mid-gen hardware refresh actually is, from enhanced performance modes to PSSR upscaling, Sony has definitely released a powerful machine, but it might not be enough of a leap to justify its pricetag. In other news, Wolverine’s creative director has left to oversee Perfect Dark instead, and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart’s game director and creative director are taking over the much-anticipated gamification of everyone’s favorite adamantium-plated Canadian. In lieu of any concrete information about Wolverine, we have a list of outlandish demands of features the game should include, as well as some beloved Marvel characters Beyond community suggested. Monster Hunter Wilds is shaping up to be a behemoth of a game, and Jada shared some of what got her the most excited during her time with the beta this weekend. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Michael Higham, and is produced by Nick Maillet.

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