CORE - A Heroes of The Storm podcast!

Let’s talk about the Xbox showcase today, as well as the dust up over CDProjekt Red and VR mods. Plus RE getting yet another remake, Highguard getting a freebie, Marathon maybe doing ok afterall, and Nintendo getting you guy another weird toy.  GAMES PLAYED: SCOTT Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster  Fire Emblem: Engage  Terra Pit JONI  Final Fantasy VII Remake BEAU  Elden Ring  Shinobi  Guild Wars Reforged  Pirate Yakuza  Heroes of the Storm  Peak Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott sits down with Warren Davis for a deep look at the creation of one of the great arcade games of all time, Q*Bert, as well as his direct impact on everything from the Joust seires to Mortal Kombat to Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Check out his book: ‘Creating Q*bert and Other Classic Video Arcade Games’! Some amazing insight in this episode with Warren, and we hope enjoy it!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where the heck is Highguard? Also, Kratos has been cast, RE:R got showcased today, Tomb Raider series gives us a look at Sophie Turner in the role, Ubisoft doing more Ubisoft things, we have an end date for New World, the end of Anthem this week, and more. We played Cozy Caravan, Marble's Marbles, Find my Buddy, OddCore, Trails in The Sky 1st Chap, FF VII remake, Yakuza Kiwami 2, FFI and IV, and a little Yakuza Pirates. Plus your emails and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

January Releases: Let's mostly focus on Animal Crossing and FFVII Remake for Switch 2, plus Code Vein 2 and Highguard. (yeah, we kinda forgot about Highguard too.) StarCraft Shooter coming to Blizzcon? It might be Blizzard’s third attempt at a SC shooter, reportedly an open-world project led by Dan Hay (Far Cry fame). Other stuff: Awesome Games Done Quick, a Starfield Star Wars conversion, and FF Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles hitting 1 million players. We discuss games we played this week, including PlippUp, Fallout 4/New Vegas, Trails in the Sky, The Séance of Blake Manor, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Voidigo and beating Powerwash Simulator 2.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for our anual personal and group awards for the games of the last year, and a few that are not. :) Join Scott Beau and Jon as they look back and forward and somehow up and down as well. Oh and this is the first time this gets called The osCORES. Big thx to Taz for the post art! Jump in! Full award notes: https://www.frogpants.com/corepicks2025  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diablo IV: Both Scott and Beau are back in for Season 11. Scott’s "Hot Take" is that the game is officially "very good now”, and he does not care who knows it. (Paladin to 46); Beau claims it’s the best season of "Diablo 3" yet. (lol) Scott: Revisiting Overload (on sale), playing Escape Room Simulator 2, and starting Banquet for Fools. Jon: Reached the new area in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and is impressed by the visuals. Beau: Mostly Jump Space outside of D4 play.  And a CRAP ton of your emails and texts for our last episode of 2025! POSSIBLE SPOILER POINTS 00:00:00.00 - 00:00:00.00 00:00:00.00 - 00:00:00.00 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get your ‘500+ Episodes’ mugs at Frogpants.shop now before its too late!. We recapped The Game Awards: Jon loved Resident Evil Requiem, Scott is into Total War Warhammer 40k, and Beau liked Gang of Dragon. We mostly bounced off Highguard. News: Steam Winter Sale is live. Fallout Season 2 has started. We discussed Netflix buying WB (details at core.show). Supervive is shutting down after 7 months. Played: Scott is on Path of Exile 2 and Mutant Football League 2. Jon is trying demos like Pragmata and back in FFXIV. Beau is on Witcher 3 and other sick-friendly games this week. Ozzfudd notes Scott can finish Far Cry 4 and 5 in minutes via secret endings. Just another Nick suggests Super Fantasy Kingdom. Email us at SHOW@CORE.SHOW!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 500! Finishing Dispatch, loving Split Fiction, playing Demeo DND, and the Hordes of Hel! Plus Shinobi is underrated, Divinity still has a lot of stuff on the ground, Witcher 3, and a LOT of prep for tonight’s Game Awards. (coming in a separate post.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Audio edition of our watch-a-long! Listen along with us! Video version will be up on CORE.SHOW shortly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🎉 500 EPISODE MUGS NOW AVAILABLE! Get yours reserved before we hit the limit! https://frogpants.shop  ⚠️ SPOILER POLICY CLARIFICATION Going forward: 1. We'll do our best not to offer major spoilers on narrative elements 2. We'll give ample warning to pause, skip ahead, or come back later 3. We'll front-load discussions with spoiler-free content - Scott will play BGM over spoiler sections for podcast listeners - Jon is doing YouTube chapters ASAP once the episode posts NOTE: This has never been a spoiler-free show, but we're making extra effort for those asking. You have personal responsibility to avoid spoilers if they matter to you. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎮 MAIN TOPIC THE FEW GAMES OF DECEMBER 2025 Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Octopath Traveler 0, Metroid Prime 4, Yakuza 0 Director's Cut, Terminator 2D: No Fate, & More. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📰 NEWS ROUNDUP 🐴 Indie Game "Horses" Keeps Getting Banned Banned from Steam, Epic, and now Humble. Still available on Itch.io and GOG. 🎬 Justin Lin to Direct Helldivers Movie The Fast & Furious director takes on the video game adaptation. 🐺 SO MUCH WITCHER - Witcher 4 NOT coming in 2026 - Witcher 5 and 6 also in the works - Witcher Remastered on the way 🔞 WickedWhims Has 300K Daily Logins Sims' biggest sex mod sees massive daily usage 🧛 Paradox Takes Blame for Bloodlines 2 Publisher says responsibility for poor sales lies fully with them, not developers ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎮 WHAT WE'VE BEEN PLAYING SCOTT ⚠️ Possible Spoilers: Did I finish Dispatch? Have to wait and see! Split Fiction - Incredible co-op game. Most FUN game this year! PowerWash Simulator 2 - Still the best CHORE CORE of 2025. JON CyberPunk 2077 - Done everything in base game, Phantom Liberty awaits Marvel Cosmic Invasion - Started and finished SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance - Sleeper hit! (Scott confirms) BEAU Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt continues Noobs Are Coming Jump Space Rocksmith 2014 - We're back Star Citizen - I forgot about it... sorry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott dropped a Patreon vs Core.show support comparison video—check it at Core.show for the breakdown. Also posted an article about RAM prices going absolutely bonkers right now. The advice? Wait it out. Don't be the person overpaying because you can't control yourself.  News Roundup:  WoW: Midnight Gets Real Jon brought the news: World of Warcraft's next expansion drops March 2nd, 2026. Mark your calendars, prepare your excuses for missing work. Half-Life 3 Copium Intensifies People—including "insiders"—still think HL3 is getting announced this year. Spoiler: It's not. It never is. Stop doing this to yourselves. CD Projekt Reality Check No Witcher 4 or Cyberpunk 2 at the Game Awards. Shocking absolutely no one. Cyberpunk 2077 hit 35 million copies sold, outpacing The Witcher 3's trajectory Cyberpunk 2 is still years away. Hang in there, chooms. GAMES PLAYED Scott's Games Dispatch Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault No Way Home Guild Wars 2 Milestone Jackbox Party Pack 11 Jon's Games Cyberpunk 2077? Beau's Games Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Finished Witcher 3 Total Chaos And LOTS MORE! Contact: show@core.show | Text: tenhams.com Links: Frogpants.com/core Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Main Topic: Game Awards Nominees. Megabonk dev withdraws "Best Debut Indie" nomination (made previous games). Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 breaks record with 12 nominations. Notable snubs: ARC Raiders, Dispatch, Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Other News Xbox Partners Showcase (Tides of Annihilation, Vampire Crawlers, Total Chaos) Epic/Unity partnership for Fortnite integration Krafton AI controversy re: Subnautica 2 bonuses Dispatch skill requirements discussion First live-action Zelda movie set photos Our Week in Gaming Shared: Dispatch progress (Beau completed, Jon restarted, Scott finished Episode 1) Beau: Claire Obscur Act 3, Slay the Spire boardgame, No Man's Sky Normandy unlock, Vampire Survivors VR Scott: Forestrike (standout), Shelldiver (incremental gem), Advance Wars binge, Moonlighter 2 purchased, Cleared Hot, Guild Wars 2 reinstalled Jon: Cyberpunk 2077 continues Fallout 4 pricing clarification from NickLandry - Anniversary Edition upgrade options explained, Xbox Play Anywhere support added. Links: Patreon.com/coreshow | CORE.show | frogpants.com/core New article on CORE.show: Vegas conversation about AI threats + why GoldenEye is the GOAT. CORE.show vs Patreon (frogpants.com/core) Episode 500 commemorative mug dropping at frogpants.shop this weekend! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Valve has three new hardware options for you, and we talk about them in detail today. Plus all the news and stuff you can stand, as well as a visit from Bobby for a nice little WoW update!  GAMES PLAYED SCOTT Tavern Keeper JON Dispatch CyberPunk 2077 BEAU Farthest Frontier Jump Space REPO ARC Raiders Vampire Survivors VR Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All the details on CORE.show, and what you can get from it! WoW is not coming to consoles, says game lead at Blizz. Fortnite has all the cartoon dads now. Rockstar doing some devious firings. Your Steam Deck can now download while asleep! Warhammer Survivors is HAPPENING! Blizzcon tickets go up tomorrow. Playstation Portal finally does cloud. The return of Nexeopardy! All the games of the week and loads more. SCOTT Hoop Land Mech Havoc Utopia Must Fall JON The Outer Worlds 2 Cyberpunk 2077 Dispatch BEAU ARC Raiders  Aliens: Dark Descent  Ball X Pit Dawn of War: Definitive Edition Jump Space Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nintendo wants you to feel like those happy pandemic times again with a big update to Animal Crossing on Switch 2. Also, all the games of November, the Amazon Games layoffs and the apparent shutter of New World. Civ 7 trying to fix things. Claire and Cloud together at last. All the games we played plus all the usual stuff Enjoy! SHARED PLAY THIS WEEK Slots & Daggers SCOTT Powerwash Simulator 2 Warside JON The Outer Worlds 2 Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Dispatch BEAU Aliens: Dark Descent Fellowship Jump Space Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does anyone make a definitive list of the best games? It’s impossible, but we talk about the latest attempt anyway. Plus, Remedy losing their CEO after Firebreak did so poorly, and Vampire Survivors adds DLC to DLC. We also field a load of your questions this week, along with the usual dork-athon, and the games we played to boot!  SHARED PLAY THIS WEEK Battlefield 6 SCOTT Superliminal (beat it!) Battle-Suit Aces Yet Another Zombie Survivors Geometry Survivor Dungeon Clawler Slots and Daggers JON Dispatch The Outer Worlds 2 Absolum It Has My Face BEAU Fellowship No Man’s Sky Ball X Pit Farthest Frontier Void Crew Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Early reviews for the Xbox handheld are out, and it is a mixed bag to say the least. Understanding Fearless Drafts. Glen Powell wants in on E33 movies. EA employees not happy about the sell out. Quantic Dream is making a….free to play MOBA? Yep. Also, all the games we played and loads more! GAMES PLAYED SCOTT Ball X Pit The Exit 8. Funguys Swarm Soulstone Survivors Silent Hill f JON Megabonk BEAU Battlefield 6 Hades 2 Pinball FX Star Trek Voyager Across The Unknown demo Cosmic Invasion demo Whiskerwood demo Skate Story demo Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Straight into Hades II gameplay talk! Covering the “rat boss,” progress paths, end-game challenges, and tarot upgrades, all leading up to some admittedly broad comparisons to ARPGs and roguelites. Design depth, storytelling, and character reactions, Greg Street’s studio troubles, praise for Megabonk. Not to mention the mess that the gamepass changes continue to be. Sackbird Studios has our hopes. Make your own VR headset at home and WAY MORE STUFF! SHARED PLAY THIS WEEK Hades 2 Megabonk SCOTT It Has My Face Soulstone Survivors Deep Rock Survivors JON Final Fantasy Tactics Remastered Ultra HD Power Extra Edition BEAU Void Crew Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott & Jon’s Horror Video Game Fun Time kicks off Friday with Silent Hill f, running each Friday this month. Main topic covers October’s big releases like Ghost of Yotei, Battlefield 6, Little Nightmares 3, Pokémon Legends Z-A, Ninja Gaiden 4, The Outer Worlds 2, Mina the Hollower and more. Other news: Microsoft hikes Game Pass, EA goes private, Fortnite pulls Peacemaker, Capcom coy on RE9. Dear Martha Gameshow returns with “Find the Flaw.” This week in play: Hades 2, CloverPit, Shipbreaker, Kaiju Cleanup, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Megabonk, Sonic Racing Crossworlds. GAMES PLAYED SHARED Hades 2 CloverPit SCOTT Hardspace: Shipbreaker Kaiju Cleanup (upcoming) JON Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Megabonk Sonic Racing Crossworlds BEAU Hades II all day all night! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy ten years to CORE! Plus, Beau reminds us about a Kojima credit card coming soon. Highlights from TGS like Kojima’s new horror game OD and Capcom announcements including C. Viper in SF6, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. PlayStation’s State of Play brought a bag of goodies: Saros, Zero Parades for Dead Spies, Flight Simulator 2024, a Deus Ex remaster, Mega Man in Sonic Racing, Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete, Code Vein 2, Let it Die: Inferno, Chronoscript, new Pulse speakers, and Wolverine. (Which looked REALLY good.) Plus all the usual fun times at CORE. SHARED PLAY THIS WEEK Scott and Jon both spent time in Megabonk, which is far better than its looks suggest. Sonic Racing CrossWorlds was played by Scott and Jon. Hades II saw time from all of us, with Beau having already played in Early Access and a bit more today. Borderlands 4 continued, mainly Beau. More No Man’s Sky, though not much new to report, Beau included. SCOTT Plenty of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. Three hours of Metal Gear Solid Delta — very Kojima. Tried the demo for Slots & Daggers, which will be a day-one buy. JON Fortnite remains a regular, especially the Blitz mode. BEAU Skate in Early Access. More Hollow Knight: Silksong. Some Heroes of the Storm, though waiting on the new patch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.