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Sacred Symbols, Episode 129: Cardinal Misdirection

Cyberpunk 2077 isn't what it was promised to be. At least, that's the experience of countless gamers the world-over, as they grasp with playing CD Projekt's long-awaited RPG on, say, a PlayStation 4. The resulting fallout has engulfed our industry, and rightfully so, because what happened here was bound to occur eventually. In a fandom dominated by loud, boisterous voices excited for every last product and willing to devour anything the powers-that-be give them, we do here on this show what we always do: Sift through the nonsense and tell it exactly like it is. There's other (admittedly less important) news to wrap our minds around, too, including the possible discontinuation of PS4 Pro and the sudden acquisition of Codemasters by Electronic Arts. But really, it all comes back to a very broken role-playing game. Listener questions allow us to explore some off-the-beaten-path topics as always, however, including the use of the term 'PlayStation Studios', Mass Effect's future possibilities, realism in game design, and much more.

Timestamps:

0:00:17 - Intro.
0:05:35 - Colin has a revelation about The Callisto Protocol.
0:07:24 - May the zaniness continue...?
0:09:14 - Streaming on Consoles: Part II.
0:11:01 - Chore Talk.
0:16:56 - Revisiting Chris' comments on Pizza Hut.
0:18:09 - What have we been playing?
0:25:39 - Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 4 is a disaster.
1:06:50 - Is PlayStation 4 discontinued?
1:09:49 - EA outbids Take Two, buys Codemasters.
1:16:30 - Vin Diesel joins Studio Wildcard as Executive Producer.
1:18:18 - Keyword Studios buys High Voltage Software.
1:19:48 - Minor game announcements and release date information.
1:22:23 - This week's intriguing new releases.
1:24:36 - If Sony named their studios like Microsoft does, what would they be called?
1:28:09 - How does Sony navigate internal corporate politics and barriers?
1:31:03 - Equipment weight limits: A necessity or an annoyance?
1:37:51 - When given the choice, do we play as a male or a female?
1:40:30 - How will the new Mass Effect deal with Mass Effect 3's ending?
1:43:50 - A clarification on PlayStation Studios' new logo.

Sacred Symbols, Episode 129: Cardinal Misdirection

Comments

Perhaps. Perhaps you can bring unlimited inventory back in this RPG that you’re working on 😉

Yeah she's fine in Persona 5, she's just kind of growl-y in Cyberpunk

Cash

Aw man, I think Cherami Leigh is a great voice actress. She does a lot of characters I personally enjoy (Gaige from Borderlands 2 and Makoto Niijima from Persona 5)

Wyvborn

Well, that explains that. Sorry sons of bitches...lol

Not Sure

Interesting. I don't remember that.

Colin Moriarty

Bummer.

Colin Moriarty

I like silent male protagonists.

Colin Moriarty

I'm all Vikings-out for now.

Colin Moriarty

I don't stream in 4K, I don't think.

Colin Moriarty

Well it was obviously going to.

Colin Moriarty

I know, I do that in my bedroom. But I like using my console downstairs.

Colin Moriarty

Nah. They should have internal QA that can do this adequately, and there are plenty of external for-hire firms that do this professionally. We have to give a certain amount of leeway to these types of games, but this is pushing it to another level.

Colin Moriarty

Possibly, but really these are just lines of code. I mean, think of JRPG menus on the NES and SNES.

Colin Moriarty

I'm not really feeling it. Too much exposition.

Colin Moriarty

We love you very much.

Colin Moriarty

Managing your resources is certainly one way to approach it.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, it's not looking good for our friend the PS4 Pro.

Colin Moriarty

True enough.

Colin Moriarty

Using the controller makes it worth it to me.

Colin Moriarty

It would depend on your setup, no?

Colin Moriarty

Poor PS4. =(

Colin Moriarty

Indeed, that's the word.

Colin Moriarty

You would!

Colin Moriarty

It's gonna be interesting to watch this all unfurl.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks for listening. <3

Colin Moriarty

Soon.

Colin Moriarty

I've been hearing great things about Dirt 5.

Colin Moriarty

People are upset about everything, really. But it's certainly going to be a difference of culture and approach.

Colin Moriarty

Well, using the dishwasher is.

Colin Moriarty

Never forget it.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

I don't agree either. If it's available natively in those places, it's gotta run.

Colin Moriarty

Why didn't those sources say anything sooner? It's weird.

Colin Moriarty

?

Colin Moriarty

I'm pleased.

Colin Moriarty

=\

Colin Moriarty

We'll see how it works out! We'll never know what the other path could have led to...

Colin Moriarty

I'm glad to hear that. =)

Colin Moriarty

It's definitely some sort of fiasco, I'll say that.

Colin Moriarty

I think this name is much more clever, if you think of CDPR's logo...

Colin Moriarty

I hope you enjoy.

Colin Moriarty

*nods*

Colin Moriarty

!!!

Colin Moriarty

Are you insulting me?

Colin Moriarty

This is no doubt A 2020 Thing.

Colin Moriarty

And to you.

Colin Moriarty

The Cyberpunk last gen console situation reminds me exactly of what happened with Advanced Warfare on Xbox 360. Whereas Call of Duty Ghosts was developed cross gen, with next gen assets used for the 360 version and Xbox One version, the 360 version of Advanced Warfare was basically a port of the Xbox One version, using an even older COD engine. So those of us who bought the 360 version, which wasn't advertised at all as different, were greeted by not just worse graphics, but unfinished textures, jankier animations, or environmental elements removed completely. It was a definitive sign that they'd left last gen in the dirt but still were obligated to release a version of the game.

JusticeSoulTuna

I always pick female characters as a male, 99% of characters in games are male so if I have a choice I'll shake things up a bit. I regret doing so in Cyberpunk 2077 though because Female V's voice is so grating.

Cash

It's so funny I usually always pick male characters cause I usually feel as if it's an extension of myself but male Vs voice is terrible xD

Empty Symbol

I feel like the people who complain about buying XP in Assassins Creed have never played it. If you just progress naturally through it you never feel like you are behind. Granted it is pretty long but that to me just makes it more epic. Also Colin I feel like you might like Valhalla since you were a fan of The Last Kingdom. Its basically a Last Kingdom simulator.

Luke Silletta

I agree. I have a CX as well and it doesn't lag at all. Not to mention when using a PS5 you lose out on Dolby Vision with Netflix, Vudu, D+, ect.

David Taylor

Fyi. Disney+ on PS4/PS5 does not support 4k. This will properly be fixed by Disney next year, one would hope. I personally don't use my consoles for streaming, my SmartTV runs Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Twitch, HBO and other local streaming services perfectly. IMO no reason to boot up a console, that uses more power, when the TV does it perfectly and can be accessed directly from the tv menu.

Hoder Erroneus Jensen

There were absolutely pre release articles reporting that Cuberpunk was having issues on base consoles

Alexander Dean

Colin, you have an LG CX. You can use the remote as a wii mote to select whatever you want which is already loads easier than scrolling with the D pad. Also, your TV will save the cinematic style to your smart apps so whenever you want to watch something, it'll already be calibrated to movies and TV. Then when you turn on your ps5, it'll switch back over to game mode. Your TV is definitely not laggy. I have the same one and I can tell you streaming is 1000% better on the smart TV than the ps5. Try again! Lol

Tyler Cumerford

Just listened to the take about how CD Projekt has let everybody down by deceitfully releasing an unfinished game...Well, since nobody is seeming to bring this up, I just have to ask "Do developers now have to rely on a vast audience of testers to fix their massively buggy and glitchy games?" I'm not very technical, but I wonder if developers use some sort of AI to fix bugs and glitches when their game is being played by a few company wide testers, or in this case, needing a million wide tester audience with the public...

Not Sure

Over encumbrance might be a feature that is included because there are inherent limitations with the game engine. Having 300 guns in your inventory sounds like a good way to break a game, not to mention that scrolling through all of that on your pip boy would be a pain in the ass.

Hey mate. GTA V had frame rate issues on both PS3 and 360. Some people aren’t sensitive to things like this, and granted this was years ago, but watch any frame rate analysis and you’ll see it . You were probably too busy having fun to notice, and I think that just goes to show performance isn’t everything.

I hate to ask Colin but I have to know. You stopped talking about playing Ys VIII in the last few weeks so I’m assuming you gave up on it. Is this true?

Samuel Ashley

Everybody’s getting a gf and I’m over here looking at my next-gen consoles wondering why nobody loves me. 😅 I’ve gotten so used to watching everything on my phone that even when I can watch things on my tv, I choose not to. 😅 To Chris’ point: I’ve only ever played GTA V on Xbox 360 and I don’t recall frame-rate issues at all. Perfect Dark didn’t leak? Everybody’s known that’s what The Initiative was doing for years. 😄

NeO JD

Even with the patches, they’re still going to do DLC and multiplayer eventually so it’s not going anywhere.

NeO JD

To each their own with watching Netflix, etc on their ps5s. I just don't wanna work my ps5 harder then necessary, considering all the problems. Im also used to smart TV system, so I'm good.

Angel DeJesus

Pretty sure PS4 Pro is cancelled. Before PS5 came out they cost 399 which is now the price of a ps5 digital. They can't make the pro 299 because that's the price of a series s which is much more powerful. I doubt they would go lower, xbox also discontinued the one x and Xbox one all digital version.

Sumojoe118

Should've blocked it with a Mutumbo block instead of a Shaq block. Then you could do the Mutumbo finger wave!

Anthony J Sanchez

Netflix is great on my Samsung RU7100 Smart TV, and Crunchyroll is great on Roku (Smart) TVs (one tv has it built-in, one doesn't) at my girlfriend's place. Idk it just seems for me like a bunch of unnecessary steps to watch on PS4 (turn on tv and ps4, sign in to PS4, wait for PS4 to load homescreen and sign in to psn, go to media, select app) when it works fine on Smart TVs (turn on tv, select app). I watch Crunchyroll on my PS4 at home and it feels like a hassle compared to watching the same show (Hunter X Hunter) on Netflix due to the extra hoops I gotta go through to watch on a console. I will admit that the experience is usually at least marginally better and never worse on consoles and that there was a Roku Crunchyroll update that was atrocious for a month, but it's decent again.

Dylan Neves

I've been saying this. RDR2 is the most technically impressive game to date.

Liam Mcnulty

Chris is really overselling the pc version of Cyberpunk, it’s not great.

Dom posa

Also this is how you pronounce my last name: https://youtu.be/3831UJ4VZZs I can't really spell out the pronunciation in a way that makes sense, and both of you have pronounced it wrong on SS and SS+

Jon Barnett

Well you all saw it here first, I fucking called cyberpunk getting pulled from PSN days before it happened. And there are people getting their consoles bricked by this game, glad it got pulled.

Jon Barnett

Guys we must remember that Red Dead is a bigger and better looking game and runs fine on last gen consoles. No one should make excuses for CDPR

Elias Salcedo

Colin, I know Cyberpunk.2077 is a massive game but do you think by the time its fully fixed and next gen version comes out that this game will be lost in the wind or do you see a No man's sky repeat again? As always keep up the great content and happy Christmas and a new year

Zack Fair

I’ve been playing Cyberpunk on my Xbox One X only due to my PS4 legitimately dying on me. Even despite the game randomly crashing and just closing for no reason and the few graphical glitches I’ve still thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve played. Given some more time I really think the game will be fixed and run better in the coming months. I actually feel bad for CPR now with Sony pulling the game from their online store that’s going to hurt them I think.

Tony Zook

Well, on STADIA 2077 works as a charm. Also saved 500$ on a PS5...

I enjoy doing dishes for my gf...

Erk-Prime

Something that was discovered about cyberpunk was that the PC version was not even optimized for PC. A player discovered in the config file that the pc version was running as if on console and it was not using the computers GPU to the fullest extent. Overall a shit show to the fullest extent. I would not be surprised if there was a group of directors who hid shit as you said Col.

Kenneth Oms

What's the episode with Dustin that is supposed to have been released?

RD_21

Great show, thanks. The discussion on Cyberpunk was really interesting. Just on the point of digital pre orders, I think a lot of pre orders are to take advantage of the pre load feature. For example, if you buy a digital game after it’s released, you may have to wait a day or two until it’s fully downloaded. Especially a massive game like Cyberpunk.

JimmyTwoFace

I'm really happy for Codemasters on the acquisition I've recently started playing Dirt 5 and its really great, I'm hoping that they can continue to make great games. I've been thinking after experiencing more of the launch titles Bugsnax The Pathless etc, I've come around and now believe PS5 really does have the best launch games. Even games I I totally wasn’t interested in turned out to be much better than I expected.

Ryan Harvey

Wait, people are upset at EA instead of 2K? 2K is the company that put unskippable literal TV ads in NBA 2K21 and NBA 2K is the most egregious offender of microtransactions I've ever seen. Literally ever.

Drew Sleezer

See, washing dishes is fun!!

Jennifer Luviano

ONE LONG HOT DOG OMG almost barfed

Mitch Krassin

Happy Friday, everyone. In the words of Michael Scott, may god... guide you... in your quest.

Will Hahn

Isn't a previous episode already titled that?

I don't really agree that "people should of expected that Cyberpunk wouldn't run well on base PS4 and Xbone." I think Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Last Of Us 2 look just as good as Cyberpunk, and they run decent on base consoles. CDPK had to of known that the game wasn't ready on console. I'm glad I didn't buy it.

Miles Williams

Also note a lot of people on my friends list are popping trophy after trophy. I look to see what console they're playing on and it is PS4. Not sure if they're on a pro, but still worth mentioning

Alan Hardee

May need to skip out on this one. I'm so tired of the dialogue surrounding this game. I've been playing on the base PS4 a lot and have experienced maybe 3 crashes, dips in framerate during early sections of the game,, and minor graphical bugs. Nothing game breaking has happened. Really makes me question how bad the situation really is. I might be just lucky compared to others experiences, but I think a lot of people are actually chiming in with no first hand experience

Alan Hardee

Man that Bloomberg report is pretty damning of the CDPR management team. If it is true that multiple developers have stated that the game wasn't complete and playable or had gone golden when PR released those statements, this may go from a rocky launch to a legal battle, especially given they are in the EU and the Polish government is heavily invested in the studio. Don't know how it all went so wrong so fast.

Cameron O'Neill

“RPG”

John Bergquist

Dear God, I hope we never replace Chris

Alan Hardee

We do love the random segments.

lazer_josh

To Chris’ comment that there is crunch in everything... Chris have you ever had flan? No crunch. Whatsoever. 😜

Not to spread hate. Been a big fan of Colin since IGN days. Will stay a member just for Colin. But, can we find someone else for Chris Ray? Every time he has input it’s almost like he doesn’t care about anything. Maybe it’s just this episode but it’s something I keep thinking every time he comes on. Would love to just even hear only Colin’s thoughts on everything 🤷‍♂️ not the end of the world. Keep up the great content

Much prefer EA getting Codemasters than Take 2. NBA2K may be a great basketball game but they try to get more money out of you at every stop during the experience, whereas the EA sports games keep it strictly to the Ultimate Team mode. F1 will probably be there.

Stephen Forgione

I'm excited for this episode

Jeshua Anderson

I am so sad that a game by CDPR is the one that has had this impact. It is warranted and the game is a mess. The golden goose has had a slip up and gamers have rightfully voiced their dissapointment which has also impacted Sony refunding the game and removing it from the store. Again, I hope that this is a change for the better in regards of Sony when it comes to customer service. This game has made me appreciate the likes of GTA and RDR2. There are many things in those games I took for granted and also I hope the same energy is used for other games that deserve this kind of backlash. Whether it games that are unfinished at launch, pay to win mechanics, lootboxes and misinformation before release.

The Lizard King

My experience on PC has been really good as well. No glitches beyond what I'd expect from an open world (characters occasionally clipping through solid objects). Unfortunately it feels like people are buying in just as blindly to the hate as they did to the hype.

JEECE

Missed opportunity... shoulda been called "Cyberpunked" lol

DirtyIncomeTax

I thought you'd call this episode Cyberbunk for sure.

LaFlex

They really want and pulled it off the store! This is wild 😂 to be honest I’m playing on a Series X & the game is incredible. Minor glitches here & there with only one hard freeze in my 20 Hours of playtime thus far. It’s crazy how there’s such a wide discrepancy in experiences. Can’t think of anything like this ever happening

Remington James

This gonna be good.

Mitch Orobko

I hope everyone remembers Chris saying months ago that no one should expect Cyberpunk to run well on base last gen systems. #Chriswasright

JEECE

Yo what? I been so damn busy at work I didn't even realize it was Friday. I thought it was Thursday LET'S GOOOOOOO

Carlos Fregoso

Boas Festas 🎊 a todos!

Marco Maluf

Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Cyberpunk! It’s been a wild launch week. I cherished CDPR as a top tier dev and love The Witcher series; it’s a shame to see them fall from grace. What a bookend for 2020 lol...

Andrew Duda

Seasons Greetings friends

leaf lettuce


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