The NPCs - Video Game Commentary, Video Game News, And More!

#Overwatch2 #MetaQuestPro #SteamDeck In this week's news roundup: Ubisoft's Project U is shown off (kinda) in a (now taken down) leaked developer video, Todd Howard takes your Q&A on Starfield and shares some new details regarding dialog and traits, Meta announces the Quest Pro and it ain't cheap, Phil Spencer yet again teases everyone with a supposed look at Xbox's Project Keystone streaming...

On today's episode: In the days of old (and yes, we do mean old), the only way to get your hands on a video game early was to play at one of several kiosks at Walmart, K-Mart, or Target OR purchase a video game magazine that had a demo disk attached to it. Now with both the demo disk gone and the majority of kiosks all but history, the industry has found new ways to adapt to bring early peeks at g...

#Stadia #Cyberpunk2077 #Overwatch2 In this week's news: Google will be shutting down Stadia in January of next year, and it's offering refunds on both hardware and software purchased since launch. Also, Sega is bringing one of it's arcade games to the blockchain, Cyberpunk 2077 has had a round of success over the last few weeks reaching 20 million in sales thanks to support from the new anime on N...

#PSVR2 #SteamDeck #NintendoDirect Hoo boy, it's been a crazy week in the gaming news universe! Here's what happened: Sony confirms the PSVR2 will not be backwards compatible with it's predecessors' games, a developer at Valve shows off some of the bootable(?!?) prototypes of the Steam Deck at the Asian launch event, and of course the meat of this week's news: The PlayStation State of Play, the Nin...

#Arcade #BandaiNamco #Arcade1Up In this week’s episode of Discuss, we take a look at the resurgence of a beloved form of video game entertainment and what its revival means for gamers and non-gamers alike. I’m of course talking about the Arcade! While the Arcades in the US had begun to drift into the murky depths that imprison Blockbuster and Radio Shack, it doesn’t mean they went away for good. T...

#PlayStation #CallofDuty #Cyberpunk2077 In this week's news roundup: PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan is not happy about the terms set by Xbox for Call of Duty on the PlayStation, Cyberpunk 2077 gets it's first DLC and will be skipping the last-gen hardware all together, the next Battlefield game (sorry 2042) will get a mainline campaign headed up by a former Halo co-creator, the newer & lighter PS5 g...

#GamePass #AssassinsCreed #HaloInfinite #PS5 #SteamDeck In this week's news roundup: Microsoft announces a new Game Pass tier, dubbed Game Pass Friends & Family where you and 4 other family members (or friends) can take advantage of Game Pass Ultimate for a price much lower than buying individual accounts. Also, Assassin's Creed Mirage is the next named title in the Assassin's Creed universe b...

#EmbracerGroup #DiabloIV #Fallout In this week's news roundup: Embracer Group has gone on another buying spree and picked up the IP for Lord of The Rings media along with several other game companies. Plus, the Fallout TV series sets have been shown off in leaked images, Blizzard confirms no pay-to-win mechanics in Diablo IV, Sony could very well be adding a PlayStation-branded launcher to PC, and...

#VR #OculusQuest #HTCVive #Meta  On today's episode: We aren’t strangers to the world of VR. TV and movies have taken us to places in virtual reality that truly seem like a world within a world - a world free from restrictions where you could do anything you want in the virtual space. And of course games aren’t new to VR, either. Gaming juggernauts of the 90s made attempts to capitalize on vi...

#SquareEnix #Pokemon #DiabloImmortal In this week's news: Square Enix has indicated it wants to diversify itself and sell stakes in it's subsidiaries due to rising game development costs. Also, Xbox Series S is getting a memory bump so devs and players have a better in-game experience, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet get a Direct and new details on regions and Pokemon (like one that ferments things a...

#gta6 #oculusquest2 #roblox In this week's news roundup: Bloomberg reports on GTA 6 and it's return to Vice City! Also, Meta plans to bump the Quest 2 price up $100 per model on August 1st, Sony shows off some more PSVR2 goodness, Backbone is bringing a Playstation-themed mobile controller to market, and Roblox is dropping the 'Oof' sound. Plus, this week's Quest Markers include Steam support for...

On today's episode: The allure of cosmetics, boosts, and customizations have always been a way to hold onto a gamers attention hoping for that one drop. That one rare skin that makes you look like Darth Vader, or maybe the butterfly knife that displays the logo of your favorite eSports team - there’s always a hook to keep you playing those games. But the C-suite executives in these gaming companie...

#Ubisoft #godofwarragnarok #apexlegends In this week's news: Ubisoft is pulling the plug on some online services for some classic games, including one they just had on sale during the Steam Summer Sale (gasp!)! Also, Rockstar addresses Red Dead Online's lack of new content, God of War: Ragnarok collector's editions go on sale then get scalped immediately, Respawn is supposedly working on a single-...

On today's episode: Let’s make this as easy as possible: nostalgia and retro are everywhere! From the rise of the Pop Vinyls covering each category known to entertainment, to T-Shirts sporting logos and designs from a bygone era, and even some forms of entertainment from our childhoods being made available for us to relive the days of yore. This happens to include video games, of course! A portabl...

#roevwade #sonic3andknuckles #diabloimmortal In this week's news roundup: Kyle & Travis start off discussing the recent decision surrounding Roe Vs. Wade by the Supreme Court and how they and the video game industry have responded to it. Also, Xbox Series consoles outsold the Playstation 5 in Japan, but will that momentum last? And, we also learn that Sonic 3 did have Michael Jackson tracks wi...

#Overwatch2 #DiabloImmortal #FinalFantasy7 In this week's news roundup: Overwatch 2 launch details have been revealed, including news on when it'll launch, how the F2P model will work, and more! Also, Diablo Immortal made $24M in just a few weeks of launch?!? Plus, we talk about Final Fantasy 7 and Crisis Core announcements, Amazon's Prime Day giveaway of 30+ PC games, and 343 stirring up a mess o...

It's The NPCs 3 Year Anniversary Episode! Join Kyle & Travis as they reminisce about the last 3 years of making content together, including how things started, things evolved, and where things have led up to since episode 1 was published on SoundCloud on June 8th, 2019. Also, as a throwback to the days of yore, The NPCs give it a go with a Whadaya' Playin' in Pt. 2 of this episode, where they...

#XboxGamePass #PlayStationPlus #Streaming On today's episode: The days of handhelds have come and gone, thanks to the success of the Nintendo Switch and its hybrid console approach, as well as the deluge of smartphones that grace nearly everyone’s pockets. With handhelds now a thing of the past AND we can all be sure that the present console shortage isn’t helping in any way, developers and publis...

On today's episode: Remember when you bought a PC game in the 90s, and to fully install the game you needed to input a 16-character code? Ahh, to be in a time like that again. However, in our effort to access games faster, developers did away with pre-packaged codes and either made it so the access was embedded into the disk, was a part of the computer or console… or stood up a server that the gam...

On today's episode: The open world genre - a mainstay and staple of modern video games that lets you take more control of your experience than the tried and true linear progression system. Our ability to explore is only hampered by the enemies and mobs that litter the different regions, and whether we’re brave (or high level enough) to push through the chaos. While a majority of open world games p...

#SquareEnix #Xbox #Fortnite In the news: Embracer Group snags Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal from Square Enix West for $300M, Xbox has an intermittent outage throughout the weekend that even affected offline play, and is that something to be concerned about with the upcoming Xbox Streaming Stick? Also, a modder turns a toddler toy into a fully working controller - and plays Elden Ring, and Ep...

#Overwatch2 #ActivisionBlizzard #DisneyDreamlightValley In the news: Sony blocks PlayStation Plus subscription stacking in advance of it's upcoming revamp to the service, but is what they're doing potentially illegal? Also, Activision-Blizzard shareholders vote yes on merging with Microsoft, Overwatch 2's beta launch breaks Overwatch's previous Twitch streaming records, Disney drops their own take...

On today's episode: It seems like only yesterday that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds launched, and with it a wave - nay, a tsunami - of change that is still with us to this day. 100 players depart from a cargo plane, hover bus, drop ship, helicopter, or some other type of flying object and split across a massive map in hopes of finding the right weapons and gear and making it to the center of the z...

In this week's news roundup: 343 shares the roadmap for Halo Infinite Seasons 2 and 3, including when we'll see campaign co-op and Forge. Also, Call of Duty is going to be promoting (for some strange reason) Godzilla vs. Kong in Warzone starting in May, and the handhelds of yore including the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance are rumored to be on their way to Nintendo Switch Online! F...

On today's episode: We’re not shy to admit that we’ve given our fair share of criticism about games in past episodes. When a feature, modification, or change is promised -or- implemented in a well known game series, and it changes the core experience, we’re there to talk about it and what its potential impact might mean for the game - and games like it - going forward. However, as games continue t...