Video Gamers Podcast
Bungie's Big Reveal, Hades II Exclusivity, and Switch 2 Controller Drama - TWIG | Gaming Podcast
Thu, 17 Apr 2025
Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and John are breaking down another wild week in the world of video games! Bungie finally drops gameplay for Marathon, Hades II is confirmed as a timed exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2, and Star Wars: Zero Company—a turn-based tactics video game—will be shown off April 19th. Plus… Nintendo confirms no Hall Effect sticks for the new Joy-Cons and we’ve got feelings. All the gaming news you need, every week from the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the highlights from Bungie's gameplay reveal?
This is an AOE. Oh, my goodness. My attack. Is this Ryan's ultimate?
I'm going to ult. I'm going to ult. Oh, man. Guys, we've got some really, really exciting news to talk about. The marathon reveal. Oh, my goodness. The big one. Woo, that's a big one. I personally have a lot to say about that one, so we'll see what's going on there.
But before we get into all the news, you know, we've been doing this quick question thing from some of our listeners, our Epic supporters, and we do have another quick question. And I'm just going to start off by saying I freaking love this guy, dude. This guy, you know, he joined our Discord server a while back. He has been awesome. He stays up late to participate in our community nights.
And by late, I mean like really late, like 4 a.m. Or early. It depends on how you think about that. But this question comes in from Panzer Faust Ali. Amazing member of the community. We love you, Ali. And the question is, surely you have already talked about that, but I haven't heard it yet, I think. So my question would be, what was the first game you guys have ever played?
We have answered this, and our names aren't Shirley.
Good Naked Gun.
Four people.
They got the new Naked Gun movie coming out. Oh, I don't know how I feel about that. It's got Liam Neeson in it.
I feel even worse about that. Liam Neeson or Leslie Nielsen? No, he's dead. Yeah, exactly. Liam Neeson. It would be way better if they got him in it.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of Hades II's Switch 2 exclusivity?
Came in strong.
Thank you for all the laughs. And maybe I don't thank you for the countless additions to my gaming wish list. P.S. The indie gaming episodes are a 10 out of 10 addition. You guys are the best.
Yep. Silent golf clap for Ace. Well done. Good job, Ace, too.
i it's funny because you could tell how old like we're we're so backed up on these reviews that it's like lucy moon is talking about maybe not being a lurker you know and then john's with us now doing shows aces i'm used to being excluded from conversation it's just these are like two months old man we're a little behind we're sorry there's been a lot you know just you guys love us that's what the listeners the listeners have stepped up when we said hey man
Remember to leave us a review. They really did step up. And so now it's our turn to step up and get through some of these reviews also. OK, so one other thing that we need to talk about, guys, before we get into the news for this week is we did cover last week on last week's twig.
We covered the story that a drug dealer simulator was suing schedule one because they said, hey, this is copyright infringement. We make a drug dealing game. You can't make a drug dealing game. And so we covered that story. And normally we don't go back and say, oh, well, hey, that's what people were talking about.
But in this case, we did get something wrong, or we got actually a little bit news after that that broke that came from the actual developer of Drug Dealer Simulator 1 and 2 that said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I am not suing Schedule 1, guys. Like, I'm happy for these guys. They made a game. It's doing great. Please stop review bombing my game because that's what gamers were doing.
And he said, it's not me. I am not suing Schedule 1. So then the news came out that it is actually the publisher of Drug Dealer Simulator 1 and 2 that is not happy about Schedule 1. So it is the publisher that was looking into taking legal action against Schedule 1. The developer of Drug Dealer Simulator had nothing to do with that.
And the news has come out at this point that they're not actually actively being sued. They are just looking into a copyright infringement to see if maybe they might have a chance to sue schedule one in the meantime. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What controversy surrounds the new Joy-Cons?
General pitch for an extraction shooter. Escape from Tarkov is probably the most well-known one. But in that game, you basically... FPS plus what? FPS plus permanent gear loss if you die.
Oh, okay.
So if you go into a match, you go in with gear, and if somebody kills you, they can take all your gear and you lose it permanently. Okay. So that's kind of the gist. Very high stakes, very tense, very sweaty because people don't want to lose their hard-earned gear.
If you jump a dude that has some super high-end sniper rifle that's completely decked out, he's probably crying in the corner while you are rejoicing because you got this amazing weapon that you can then try to extract with. So the key is you don't get to keep the gear unless you actually go to an extraction point and leave the match before getting killed.
Hmm.
Usually when somebody is extracting, it alerts everybody on the map that, hey, somebody is trying to extract. And so that creates a lot of tension as well.
Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. I like the concept.
Now, you know, we've had some extraction shooters. There's Rainbow Six Siege. They had their new game, which I can't remember the name of it, but they were getting into the, hey, we're kind of turning Rainbow Six Siege into an extraction game. It's a side shoot. It's not changing the whole game itself.
Famously, a game that I have talked about an awful lot called The Cycle was an extraction game that I absolutely loved. Now, I will come out and say I absolutely despise Escape from Tarkov, so that type of game is not necessarily up my alley, but I absolutely loved The Cycle. So... We get this gameplay reveal for Marathon.
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Chapter 4: What was the first video game each host ever played?
I was actually concerned initially out of the gate that they were going to be leaning too heavy on that sort of clunky, mech-y, Spartan-y kind of look that they're known for with Halo. And I didn't feel like Destiny was that big of a departure. I think that there's a lot of cosmetic similarities. But I really liked it. I thought it looked very sleek and kind of elegant and stuff and something new.
So I don't know. My look was, even though now I probably won't be playing a lot of it unless it's for like a community gaming night, that it looked like a good game for its genre.
Okay. Ryan? That's fair. Okay. Okay. Don't you steal my thunder, Ryan. Hold on.
I saved myself for last for this on purpose.
I'm the bungee guy, though, because I played 17... A hundred hours of Destiny, so I have had my fair share of it. I just... I, personally, with the art style, I didn't like it. Okay. I did not like the look of it. I thought that it was kind of half-baked.
I thought that it was... They made it look like that, so they didn't have to spend as much time on it, and they could focus on some other things. Yeah, to me, it was not... Because I... Destiny came out in 2016, 17, something like that. It's been a while. A long time ago. And I thought it looked ten times better.
Destiny's a beautiful game.
It's a beautiful game. The one thing that I have hope for is if Bungie can do anything, it's shooter mechanics, crisp, clean...
uh uh fps action is what they can do i would say some of the best shooting ever any game oh yeah legitimately i mean halo halo redefined it yeah i think they've only refined they double down on destiny it is some of the most crisp shooting gameplay you will ever get in in a game and um i i don't know if i saw that translate into this uh trailer and the gameplay that we saw i hope it does
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Chapter 5: How does Marathon compare to Escape from Tarkov?
I will say that I thought the resolution looked kind of low, but maybe this was just in some of the videos that we saw. You bump up that to 4K, and you get that plasticky look to it, and I think that could actually look pretty good. But the art style, to me, is kind of mad. It's whatever, right? Yeah. But when you strip all that away, you're just left with a clone of Escape from Tarkov.
And this is what all the streamers talked about. All the people that got to play this game and get the preview, you know, and then they were saying, oh, I played Marathon for eight hours and here's my thoughts. Almost universally, they said, dude, the game's neat. It plays incredible. The gunplay is the bungee gunplay that you would expect. but I feel like I've played this game before.
And not only have I played this game before, but this is a sweaty, sweaty, super competitive, high-stakes game that generally tends to put a lot of people off, myself included, because it's not the kind of gameplay loop for me. I don't want to lose all of my stuff because some cracked-out dude sniped me from across the map, you know, and then now I lost all my gear.
I just got that!
Yeah, I mean, legitimately, I don't like that. I still...
Yeah, I'd be at like base build basically forever.
I mean, and so when I saw this, I just I think I literally screamed like, what are you doing? You have to be kidding me. Like, this is Bungie, dude. Where is your innovation? You're telling me we waited five to seven years for you to just copy Escape from Tarkov and make it look different?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, because I know there's fans of Escape from Tarkov, and they're saying, Josh, quit slamming Escape from Tarkov. It's a great game. It's a good game, man. It is a good game. And again, I think it scratches a very unique itch that a lot of people have. And I will say that Bungie, you know, there's classes in Marathon. So you can play six different classes. There's tanks.
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Chapter 6: What are the concerns about Marathon's gameplay mechanics?
I hope it's good. Again, a lot of people have said if they can take Escape from Tarkov and they can simplify it and make it more approachable for people, maybe they're onto something here. Because now you have a genre that is dominated by a game that most people don't like when they jump in and play it. And so if you can take that barrier of entry away, I think you could blow that genre wide open.
I just, by its nature, it is a competitive, difficult-to-stomach-when-somebody-kills-you genre, and there's no campaign. They do talk about story building, but you find these little things as you play, and it's like, I don't know about that either.
Jared, we're looking at you, buddy. Jared was a guest on the show from Bungie. He was one of the devs on it. Jared, come on, buddy. Help me, Jared.
Help me make sense of this, buddy. Get me hyped for this because I want to love this game, but I'm very, very concerned right now about this kind of angle that they're taking. Okay. that's my marathon rant, everybody. So, um, again, if this winds up being the cycle that I always wanted, I can't tell you how happy I would be, dude. And there is a chance that it winds up being that.
So we'll just, we'll leave it there. Okay. Take a breath, baby. On to better news.
Hades 2, guys.
Hades 2. We're getting Hades 2. Now, Hades 2 has been out in early access for a while. I have held off on playing Hades 2 because I love it so much that it's one of those games I say, hey, I'm not playing it until it's fully released. I want the full peak experience, boys. Same, same. But we did get some news that Hades 2 is going to be a timed exclusive for the Switch 2. Yes.
How does that make you feel? No, no, no. What is going on here, man? All right, John. As the Nintendo fan.
I love it. Frankly, the Nintendo Direct wasn't mind-blowing for me. There were some nice reveals and stuff, and they spent a lot of time talking about the hardware, which wasn't terribly interesting to me. But what I thought they needed were some really good
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Chapter 7: What do listeners think about the new gaming trends?
Does it release with the OG Switch 2, or is it just Switch 2? What do you mean? Just the original Switch as well, or is it only Switch 2? I don't know. That's a good question. I thought that I read that it was a Switch...
If it's backwards, like if it's on both platforms, then that's kind of a little bit less of an issue then because everybody in the world owns a Switch at this point. So is Hades... Okay, so John, on that vein...
We went from my wife was super, super excited for the Switch 2 to when I told her what the release lineup was, you're getting Donkey Kong, you're not getting Mario or Zelda, and she went, oh, well, I'm fine just waiting then. And it sounds like you kind of had the same reaction where it's like, give me that hot, hot title and then I'll spend my money on a Switch 2.
Is Hades 2 enough of a hot, hot title to get you to change your mind on the waiting part?
Assuming it is Switch 2 exclusive, definitely yes. Even if it's backwards compatible, still probably yes. I know there are going to be titles that come out for the Switch that I'm going to want at some point. You know, whatever the next 3D Mario is, is one of those. I love the Mario games. Um... it'll probably be a holiday 2025 release that they just haven't put out yet.
Nintendo, Nintendo announces their releases in a much shorter window, typically, which is nice. Yeah. Which I love. I love to. And so I have faith that, uh, I guess it'll depend on how many switches they're moving. Um,
or how available they are you know there's there's socio-political economic things happening right now that might chafe you know might choke that a bit but to in short yes i at the first hades was man it should be in my top 10 it's definitely like a top 12 or something it's tiptoeing around the top 10 and i love my switch i still play it all the time uh that that would be a mover for me certainly
So according to IGN, the Hades 2 will release on the Switch and the Switch 2.
Okay, that's what I have too.
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