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. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ #GOTYwatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Join our Facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Check out our facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Check out our facebook group at - facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Call of Duty is here and we’re enjoying it! In fact IGN gave it great scores across the board so far with a 9 on the Campaign where you get to take pictures of Bill Clinton, and an 8 for the Multiplayer which feels pretty fun this year, Zombies hasn’t been scored yet but we talk about it a lot because Jada is having a great time with it full of Zombie raves, Bowling parties and other zany easter eggs that have been hidden in it. Jada also does her best to explain her early thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the lore behind it, and Nick Maillet steps in front of the camera to discuss his review of Life is Strange: Double Exposure which he also gave a 9! We also discuss the shutdown of Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi by Sony and the removal of the Resume Activity button on PS5. So Join Max, Jada, Akeem, and Nick as we dive into yet another week of excellent game releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s true! The remake of the 2011 game heaps on a ton of new content that makes it one of Jada’s favorite entries in the series to date, as indicated by her 9 out of 10 review score. How can SEGA and Team Sonic keep this momentum going with future games? Meanwhile, Insomniac is hard at work at something, but that something isn’t story DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and maybe that’s okay? At the very least, the wallcrawler’s last PS5 outing is coming to PC as well. Jada got hands on with LEGO Horizon Adventures, and says it’s more of a Horizon game than a LEGO game, Max is nuts for Squirrel With a Gun, Brian makes some noise about A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, and Akeem is cutting through the fog in Silent Hill with his newly unlocked chainsaw. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tis the season… No, the OTHER season. That’s right, it’s that time of year when everything is covered with bats and skeletons and fake cobwebs and other macabre and ghoulish decor. So, we took the opportunity to reach out to our listeners and have them share the stuff in video games that’s terrified, creeped out, haunted, startled, or otherwise scared the crap out of them. It’s an excuse to talk about some of our favorite games, from tried and true survival horror franchises like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dead Space, to older favorites like Condemned: Criminal Origins, Cold Fear and Alien: Isolation, to games that we don’t think of primarily as horror, but which definitely have one foot in there, like Bloodborne (of course) and BioShock. What game has scared you the most? Share your video game scary stories in the comments. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet.  Opera GX: IGN Edition brings the Internet’s number one destination for news, reviews, gameplay, trailers and more, into your browser: https://operagx.gg/IGN_Article Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wow! That episode title uses a lot of words to list just three games, but those three games are all some of this year’s most anticipated releases. We’ve all gotten to delve into Silent Hill 2’s long-awaited remake courtesy of Layers of Fear studio Bloober Team, Persona and Shin Megami Tensei developers ATLUS’ brand new JPRG, Metaphor Re:Fantazio, and Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which is basically the 4th entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series that fans have been asking for since 2005. Video games! You couldn’t find a more drastically different bunch of games, but they all have a whole lot to offer, whether you want to have the crap scared out of you, make the protagonist take a crap, or hear Chi-Chi talking crap about Super Saiyan hair. This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, and Akeem Lawanson. Opera GX: IGN Edition brings the Internet’s number one destination for news, reviews, gameplay, trailers and more, into your browser: https://operagx.gg/IGN_Article opera.com Opera GX | Gaming Browser Opera GX is the browser built specifically for gamers. Get unparalleled gaming and browsing features, packed in a powerful revolutionary browser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The limited edition 30th Anniversary PlayStation 5 hardware that was announced last week went up for pre-order, and statistically speaking, you probably weren’t able to get one. On top of maybe TOO limited quantities of the very cool retro-style versions of the PlayStation 5, PS5 Pro, PlayStation portal and both DualSense and DualSense Edge, the whole online pre-order system turned out to be something of a disaster. People waiting in queues for an hour or more, just to be told everything was out of stock. Or worse, being able to add stuff to their card, but blocked from purchase by technical problems. Considering how much of a mess the launch of this generation was thanks to scalpers, you’d think Sony would’ve handled this better. Actually they did, but only in Japan, where pre-orders of the highly sought-after special editions were limited to PSN account holders with more than 30 hours logged playing games, which presumably helped make things a bit more orderly. We also scratch our heads about the pricing of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which is only ten bucks for people who own the game on PS4, which mysteriously doubled in price overnight on the PlayStation Store. And like, we get it, but also: c’mon. In other news, Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ delay into next year puts in a literal Samurai Shodown with Ghost of Yotei, and that probably isn’t great for either game. We also reflect on how it’s going to be difficult to narrow down what this year’s game of the year will be. Despite a handful of really good games, there don’t seem to be any clear crowd-pleaser standouts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The latest PlayStation State of Play happened, and the Beyond crew broke down the biggest PS5 news and trailers from the event. There were various PlayStation 5 titles revealed, the biggest one showcased was Ghost of Yotei, which takes place in 1603 and is releasing in 2025. PlayStation is releasing various remasters, like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Lunar Remastered Collection. Sega is apparently bringing back the whole movie tie-in trope with a special DLC coming to Sonic X Shadow Generations coming in the form of Keanu Reeves voicing Shadow, a special level and movie-accurate skin, which will be included in the digital deluxe edition. And more games were shown off on the #PS5Pro, including FF7 Rebirth, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us Remastered, Jedi Survivor, Spider-Man 2, The Crew, Stellar Blade, Assassins Creed Snake Eater, Resident Evil Village, and many more. Listen in or watch as Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, Jada Griffin, and Nicolas Limon discuss all these and more in a very special #PlayStation State of Play #PS5 episode of BEYOND! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that the dust has settled on the PlayStation 5 Pro’s underwhelming reveal and overwhelming price tag, let’s actually discuss what it would take to get us seriously interested. Sure, Grand Theft Auto 6 at 4K 60FPS would be nice, but is it realistic? Will Rockstar save that for the inevitable PS6 version? We read some of the Beyond community’s thoughts on the matter. Speaking of PlayStation 6, we know basically nothing about the next generation of consoles, other than there will be one, and that it’ll feature an AMD chip, after Sony’s deal with Intel allegedly fell through. This would suggest backward compatibility, which is a blessing and a curse, considering the PS5 is still getting a lot of cross-gen games that also come to PS4. Meanwhile, they don’t make fall/holiday video game release lineups like they used to, and we wax nostalgic about a graphic showing all the amazing games that hit PlayStation 2 back in 2001… And maybe their timed exclusivity had more to do with the PS2 hitting the market a year before Xbox and GameCube than anything Sony was doing. Finally, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster rises from its grave looking better than the last time we saw it, but showing its age in other ways. Beyond is Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Jada Griffin and Akeem Lawanson. Check out our facebook group at - https://www.facebook.com/groups/podcastbeyond/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After months of leaks and rumors, Sony finally revealed the PlayStation 5’s mid-gen refresh, the PS5 Pro. The 8-minute technical presentation from Mark Cerny spent its first three minutes singing the base PS5’s praises, and then highlighted the “big three” improvements the new model boastsl: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI-driven upscaling. This new tech was showcased in a montage of side-by-side comparisons featuring some of the PS5’s most popular games, and while there’s some subtle but noticeable difference seeing how these games look running on new tech, nothing really blew us away… at least, until the price was announced. The PS5 Pro launches November 7th with an MSRP of $699 in the US, €799 in Europe. Bear in mind, the stand and the disc drive are sold separately, and the base PS5 isn’t getting any price cut that we’re aware of, which is usually what happens to consoles mid-generation. So many of the PS5’s games so far have been backwards compatible that it’s hard to justify a new console to begin with, let alone a more powerful one. We’re all riding high on Astro Bot, and while that game is gorgeous and technically impressive, at no point did it seem like more powerful hardware would improve the experience. As for what upcoming games can truly take advantage of the PS5 Pro, that remains to be seen. Grand Theft Auto 6 is obviously a big huge deal in 2025, and it’ll undoubtedly sell some PS5 Pros, but aside from Insomniac’s Wolverine game, so much of Sony’s first party lineup is still under wraps, which makes it hard to get excited about this thing, let alone justify spending money on it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astro Bot is finally here, and surprise! It’s awesome! Simon Cardy joins us to discuss his review of Team Asobi’s full-sized follow-up to Astro’s Playroom, which is a rock-solid 3D platformer jam-packed with references, easter eggs and playful nods to thirty years of PlayStation history. We do our best to avoid spoiling any of the fun surprises, but really, it’s impossible to spoil the best part of this game, which is just the unadulterated joy of playing it for yourself. Anyway, if that was all that was going on, it’d be a good week for Sony, but we just got word that Concord had such an underwhelming launch that Sony is pulling the plug indefinitely, taking the game offline, and offering full refunds to the people who did actually buy it. This is part of the ongoing issue across the industry of live-service games not being able to sustain themselves. What’s next for Concord, a free-to-play relaunch, or is it just gone for good? We’ll have to wait and see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re back to our normally scheduled Beyond program, and would you look at that! A few massive games came out for us to talk about. Star Wars Outlaws is full of high highs and low lows, and as much as we were hoping this would be Watch Dogs with Womp Rats or “Assassin’s Greedo,” its game design cherry picks mechanics from the Ubisoft’s stealthy open-world action adventure formula in odd ways. Still, zipping around that galaxy far, far away on a souped-up speeder bike with your alien Muppet sidekick is awesome when it clicks. Meanwhile, Mitchell reviewed Black Myth Wukong and thought it was great out of ten, but anyone thinking it’s a soulslike may want to adjust their expectations. Meanwhile, Concord may have launched with more of a bang than whimper, but Jada’s having a blast, which has us questioning the future of Sony’s latest live-service that’s been long in development. Oh yeah, and there’s some news too: the PS5 and a variety of accessories get a price hike in Japan, the Dualsense Edge now works on PC with the Accessories app, LEGO Horizon’s release date may have leaked, and Foamstars goes free-to-play. This week’s episode features Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Jada Griffin and Mitchell Saltzman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beyond and hello! Welcome to a very special gamescom edition of IGN’s weekly PlayStation show. This week, a whole bunch of the IGN team is in Germany covering the show, including Max, Brian, and our producer Nick, so putting together a regular Beyond episode was a little tricky. Instead, we’ve pulled together a bunch of our interviews about upcoming PlayStation games. We kick things off with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which we just learned is coming to PS5 next year. Then, Mouse: P.I. for Hire, which is sort of like if Cuphead was a first-person shooter about a rodent detective. To cap things off, we’ve got a trio of upcoming games based on some of our favorite movies that take place on barren, sandy desert planets: Starship Troopers: Extermination, Dune Awakening, and Star Wars Outlaws. We’ll be back with a normal episode next week, but we hope you enjoy some of what the team produced at Gamescom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices