Dragon's Dogma 2 MTX woes and Overwatch 2 cancels remaining PVE | This Week in Videogames 

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Helldivers 2 picked up the PvE playerbase that Overwatch 2 left crippled on the floor.

Hey Skill-Up, maybe you won't even see this comment, but I just wanted to let you know that almost 5 years after the game's launch and seeing your channel, last year I got my first actual good gaming PC and because of your love for the game I finished Outer Wilds and Echoes of the Eye and just wanted to thank you. The most beautiful game ever

On this week's episode of, "All platforms - bar the switch"

As a PlayStation user, I am worried about the floundering of XBox hardware. Lack of competition breeds complacency.

When Yoshi-P said Elden Ring everyone in the audience inmediately said "My man!" what a legend and he even gave us 1 week to enjoy that dlc.

“Overwatch 2 cancels remaining PVE” If you thought it couldn’t get any worse for that game, it got even worse

BG3 isn't my game... at all. But thanks to Larion being who they and their CEO just being a decent human... I bought it for full price anyway. What an absolute gentleman and scholar.

It's weird seeing Xbox being the black sheep instead of devs ignoring PC.

Lets face it, Larian have earned a license to print money for their next game! Good luck to them!

As an old man who remembers the dial up tone, I really appreciate mentioning Riven. Riven is the grandparent of Outer Wilds so, dont sleep on it SkillUp

As someone who's been laid off in the industry, it is the dream to work for a studio with a boss like Larian.

Can we talk about how Stardew now has almost 3x the Steam player count of Suicide Squad?

Doesn’t surprise me that Larian isn’t providing further support for BG3. Hasbro laid off basically everyone Larian worked with to collaborate on BG3, so it may feel pretty much like scorched earth for them to stick with the franchise.

6:21 The locked-down nature of the Steam Deck? The Steam Deck is the least locked-down console in existence. From hardware and repairability to its software.

Swen makes a really good point when he says, "don't lose the institutional knowledge" by firing and rehiring. This is much bigger I think than people give credit for. Larian was able to put out a game like Baldur's Gate because of the experience of the studio, of the people who work in the studio and who have been there for all the projects that have led up to BG3. BG3 would not have been possible if they had been cycling in new hires over the last few game releases.

That YoshiP bit had me cracking up, what a legend

6:30. There's no lockdown of the Steam Deck at all. You can install different launchers and play games that are not sold on Steam. It's a PC, you can do whatever you want with it.

That Sims movie better have someone drowning in a pool that mysteriously lost its stairs.

You interviewed Ken Levine and then proceeded to hit us with the "*Would you kindly* hit that like button" I'll do it but I'm not happy about it

I was dozing off, about to fall asleep, half dreaming already and not paying full attention then I heard "Bloodborne II" and got jolted awake because my already dreaming brain thought Larian was going to work on Bloodborne II lol

Larian studios is how studios should approach how they manage their company and its good to see them take a stand. Time will tell how well that works out though, which i hope it does.

WotC will butcher BG4. I'm calling.

Microsoft making two different versions of the xbox really shot itself in the foot.

Do you remember when MKX sold in game currency that allowed you to do a fatality without doing the hard input??

"I tell you one [game] that doesn't [have all my save files] right now -- it's driving me crazy -- is Fallout 76." Imagine wanting to play that game one more than one device let alone wanting to play it at all...

these days i have no idea how anyone is willing to make an 80 dollar purchase without waiting at least a few weeks for reviews by non-corporate reviewers. how many times do you need to get burned?

Honestly, it's great that Larian is moving on, I think BG3 ended great and not everything should be milked until it's done.

12:40 -Good video but I feel the DD2 situation wasn't painted entirely fair. Regarding people "defending" the MTX situation around DD2. At least, from what I've seen, it's not as much about defending the MTX practices themselves as it is about pushing back against misinformation. It's gotten better, but the first few days of release the misinformation surrounding DD2 was crazy on reddit, youtube, twitter, steam, etc. I saw so many people claiming that the only way to fast travel was through MTX, or that editing your character required mtx. Or that this somehow ruined Capcom's streak of good games (despite them doing this exact mtx situation in Monster Hunter, RE4, and DMC as you mentioned). The conversation surrounding the game was immediately poisoned and I think a lot of people felt the need to correct a lot of the misinformation that was spreading like wildfire. It's not about "defending" Capcom/microtransactions, it's about setting the record straight against all of the kneejerk reactions. I'm all for calling out bad practices and I don't like MTX, but the blind screeching that was going on at release was nonsense and an overreaction. I think the performance issues is a way more important issue than the MTX ever was.

From ShillUp to 1MillUp... happy for you and the whole crew!

Swen Vincke is pronounced “Sven Vinka” just for future reference.

My exact same thoughts on the mtx in DD2. It's ignorable but does stain the product.

I'm a firm believer that Baldur's Gate 3 just doesn't need DLC, whatsoever. It is an incredibly dense and immersive experience. One playthrough for me was sixty hours, and I enjoyed every one of them. Hats of to Larian for creating a masterpiece in gaming.

It’s nice to see Austin let his assistant make a video. Good to hear a different voice every now and then.

Weekly gaming news in a nice compact format. I’m so glad I discovered this channel. 🎉🎉🎉

VG247: "One of the best games of the generation" Also VG247: "4 out of 5 stars"

Tbh, I'd take everything Ken Levine promises with a grain of salt. The dude tends to overpromise and underdeliver. I'm super interested in Judas, but better to wait until the finished product. Learned my lesson with Infinite.

All of corporate America operates on a quarterly budget mentality. I worked in electronics manufacturing for 25 years and watched them hire and fire over and over. The way to become immune to being laid off is by finding the worst, most hated job in your work group and becoming the expert at that job.

Aaaaa that "would you kindly" at the end...well played sir. Loved the FPS podcast this week

I love these videos you and the team put together, keeping up with everything going on with my passion is important

"I give you 1 week!" His optimism of my gaming skill is unwarranted. 1 week would be pushing it for a normal From game. This is Elden Ring. For some of us, we're not going to be done by September.

Dragons Dogma exploration is definitely good. There are times when it will be night, I will have only 25% of my life, my pawns as well. We are just running through the woods trying to find a campfire. It def gives you a feeling that you never really get anymore.

The dragons dogma crowd who are aggressively attacking people criticising the microtransactions is just surreal. It's like a cult.

37:00 Naoki Yoshida 😌 You just gotta love the man

To add to the xbox discourse. My brother is now looking at getting a PC because he has been left behind by everyone. We are playing things like helldivers 2, battlebit remasted, lethal company, and even have bought monster hunter on PC to play it there instead. There just isn't a great reason to stay on Xbox when some of the best multiplayer experiences are elsewhere, and outside of Nintendo exclusives the almost all of the best single player games are all available there too (Bloodborne when?).

The problem with only delivering to one console, you're asking for a monopoly. Do what you want now, but it's only going to hurt you in the future when Sony's current track record is increases. When the increase hits the ceiling for the consumer on game price, the next would be percentage cut from digital sales from developers and publishers.

Rise of the Ronin is an underrated gem, the user score is 8.6 on metacritic. It has top tier combat that is levels above Ghost of Tsushima. It is peak samurai RPG action.

Thanks Ralph, entertaining as always!

Horizon Forbidden West for the PC was released as well. Loving every minute of it so far.

Microtransactions suck ass, never purchased one and never will but the ammount of misinformation going on on Twitter/Reddit in the past week around DD2 has been outrageous, from people claiming you must pay to edit your character (the item is dirt cheap with the in-game currency) to claiming they purposefully removed teleports to sell them to you when you can purchase only one as DLC and it doesn't increase your cap, meaning that if you already found 10 in the game, your DLC purchase was worthless.

Deep cut reference to "would you kindly" while earlier in the piece extolling your love for Bioshock!

So glad that you finally hit 1M, bro. Been with you since 300k. Your voice has always been authentic and extremely logical. The added clout is both much deserved and gives you the pull to voice your excellent opinions.

8:20 this is exactly why creative businesses should not be publicly traded

Thank you for speaking against mtx in DD2. As everybody said, yes those things can be obtained in the game. No need to spend money. But it is absolutely discusting to sell them in 70eur game. What everybody tend to NOT mention is that majority of those things will be obtained in greater number later in the game. Wanna change your character? Out of wakestones? Don´t have enough RC for new pawns? And don´t get me started with that one character slot. There are purposfully made inconveniences and Capcom is selling solution. No matter how good the game is, this is awful.

Great episode as always!

Hey SkillUp, you forgot to mention Bears in Space was done by some of your fellow Aussies, the studio is based in Ipswitch QLD.

I've said since it's announcements that the series S was a bad idea. I thought it would be the thing that would hold this generation back, but that's probably due more to cross generation support unfortunately.

“ThIs DuDe MaDe BiOsHoCk.” No. His TEAM made Bioshock.

SMTV: Vengence is also changing it's release date because of the Elden Ring DLC (They were both announced and planned to be released on the same day). SMTVV is now releasing a week earlier.

Excited for Stellar Blade. Its a very rare kind of game nowadays.

Having lunch while watching mah boy. Thanks ChillUp!

19:05 I thought the whole deal with Epic Games Publishing is that they were fully fronting the development costs (effectively removing all financial risk for the developers) and that developers would get additional royalties if those costs were recouped? So how did Remedy lose any money on Alan Wake 2 then?

Congrats on your success! I see you finally hit the 1 mil mark.

god i love forgetting theres gonna be a weekly show out

DD2 is so good. I do hate that they have the MTX ish. But my gawd. What an epic adventure it’s been so far ❤

"Would you kindly", a nice tie-back to the Ken Levine mention at the start of the episode.

24:22 LOL I read that as "FIRMWOOD" :D

I said the moment it was announced that the Series S was gonna hinder console gaming as a whole.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a masterpiece. Its just a shame that the people who made it cant spend the time to make it run optimally. Thank the suits at Capcom and their shareholders for that.

Amazing news on the Rebirth review coming this weekend.

Swen Vincke is my role model as a CEO of my own company. That guy gets it and I love his style.

Capcom knew the game was CPU limited, and still chucked denuvo on it, a DRM PoS that makes a game cpu limited. Clap clap.

I personally think Gamepass is on fire right now. As an American baseballer, the MLB day 1 drop last week was awesome, and thats console exclusive. Ever since finishing the great exclusives over on PS5, Xbox has become my bread and butter with the great stream of games coming to Gamepass. Just my 2 cents!

Planet zoo on consoles also happened this week. Its a big thing for the zoo strategy sim enthusiasts :)

What's surprising is Stasis Bone Totem just released on console today with almost no advertisement.Such an awesome game.

12:30 Thank you for saying that. I was already losing hope when certain major gaming accounts on X started gaslighting the gaming community for questioning the microtransactions. People like you in the gaming community really keeps my hopes alive for a world without microtransactions in single player RPGs

22:20 What the **ck is the point of a Sims movie?! So... it's just a family drama then?

My respect for you just grew a few levels with that Ghost of Tsushima zinger. I feel like especially among the online gaming community that game is beloved, and it’s very rare to see criticism of it (very brave of you 😂). Don’t get me wrong, it’s a gorgeous and well-made game and I was initially wowed by it early on, but its quest design, exploration and overall gameplay structure just felt like open-world Assasin’s Creed (which I’m not a big fan of).

37:14 I blacked out for a second there. When I came to, I saw that the like button was clicked.

When MS said that Xbox game would be on PC Day 1, that help me to decide not to bother with a console. I put the money for an Xbox console into a new PC build. Still have my One X out for the games I have on that and back-compact games.

I definitly feel austins comment about lord of the rings in dragons dogma. I definitely had a bumpy start with it and quite a few frustrations. But im in NG+ with all my vocations unlocked and having a great time exploring. I could stop pausing my adventure to look at archer elf with his cool evlen clothes (thanks to warfarer), my husbands badass sorcerer with he big feathered witch hat and cloak. And my pawns warrior sword and cool outfit. It felt right out a classic fantasy. Really not disappointed with my time with it.

God bless you too Skill Up, have a great week!

Nobody is defending MTX in DD2...but it's unfortunate that genuinely exciting concepts in DD2 are not being talked about because of inconsequential MTX and are even being looked at as problems created to sell these MTX Capcom really dropped the ball on this one. They could have had a game changer in the tired space of open world RPG games

Ralph addressing the Microtransactions stuff in DD2 in this video is the only thing that keeps me sane. Some days I think we just gave up against MTX.

You son of a beach. You got me with the would you kindly, bringing it back to the beginning of the video and forcing me to give you a like. Well done.

thank you

Honestly may go out and buy Baulder's Gate 3 just because of that speech, even though it will take me 10 years to complete it.

I think Microsoft should stay in the console hardware space simply for no other reason than - competition is good. If Sony doesn't have a direct competitor, who knows what that could open the door to

Spot fucking on about the MTX in DD2. Nothing else even needs to be said, you covered everything in such a short time. Solid as usual

Another release worth mentioning is the Nixxes PC port of Horizon Forbidden West. Not a new game, but contrary to the trend of terrible PC optimization, this port is actually super solid and stable. Nixxes know what they're doing when it comes optimization of PC ports and it's good to see that they're continuing that track record.

All hail Sven Vinke. BG3 is the only $60 dollars game I bought full price since... Mass Effect Andromeda. Haven't played it yet though, but it's a company worth supporting. Don't turn into CDPR please.

"Would you kindly press that like button" hits specially hard since you just interviewed Ken Levine.

Art of Rally is legit one of my GOAT games. Interested to see what Funselektor will do with Golden Lap

12:46 this whole rant needs to be said louder! 👏

I have used my XBox One for 10 years as a media device. Never really played games on it.

The most important info I got from this is the fact that Sony can delete games from players hard drives, and it was just mentioned in passing. Is this something that they’ve always been able to do????????

Baldur's gate isnt my kind of game but damn im happy as hell this company is winniing everything. The Ceo deserves all the praise for doing right by gamers and his employees. I'll keep rooting for this company every step of the way.

I'm glad Larian are doing something else to be honest and I really look forward to seeing what that is.

The mtx in Drago's Dogma 2 just flat out should not exist. Full stop, they are pointless and make the game look worse. But I think everyone is blowing them way out of proportion. They function as the equivalent of the red orbs you can buy in DMC5 or the gold tickets in RE4R, as in, if you buy these, you are a moron that wants to play a worse version of the game. Nothing is blocked off from you in Dragon's Dogma, nothing is restricted and they don't interfere with the gameplay. If Capcom really were as greedy as folks say, why aren't they just flat out selling the actual fast travel item; ferrystones (which cost like 10k gold). You can only buy fast travel DESTINATIONS and even then, they limit you in how many you can buy, it's not infinite. These also existed in DD1, and in basically every big Capcom game since 2018. You can buy Deluxe cheat armor in Monster Hunter World, RE2/3/8 sell "unlock everything cheats" so your first run can be with an infinite rocket launcher or the lightsaber in 8. Re4 has the tickets and DMC4/5 sold red & blue orbs. And there's a bunch of useless avatar mtx costumes for SF6 that are grossly overpriced. Anyone unconvinced, please just watch someone play for 2 hours and see that the mtx in DD2 are as pointless as every other mtx Capcom has been pushing in their big games for almost a decade. Yes, they should not exist, yes they make the game look awful, but they absolutely should not deter you from at least trying the game and seeing if you like it. It's also a weird double standard since Infinite Wealth just came out and sells 2 extra classes, costumes, cheat Sujimon, a bunch of materials for Dodonko Island, exp boosters, crafting materials, songs and New Game Plus as DLC. And that's sitting at Very Positive on steam rn. And Lucy was recommended highly on the podcast and a bunch of youtubers did sponsorships for it.

I selfishly pray Larians next game is Sci-Fi or even Americana. That team makes such superb games in a genre I don't even like yet I keep coming back to DOS 2 and BG3