The XboxCast

#GameFace! What is a Scottish Dress?

What games have we been playing? 
Lucky for you, we have a podcast for that! 
 
Kyle's been playing Persona 5 and tries to explain the story, the systems and the fact that the tutorial gives up around the 8-hour mark. Like a typical JRPG, the game fills up a lot of time with background tasks... Going to school, learning about things, hanging out with friends... It's quite a long process. 
 
Kyle and Simone are trying to get a hard achievement in Halo CE. Lee does not understand what the issue is. So Lee decides to put his mouth where him money is, and offer to carry the two to the achievement completetion. Can they do it? Does Lee even have this achievement? 
 
Lee's been playing Goat Simulator 3! And he was running around as a rhino with welly boots on. Now he's going around licking everyone to find out more about them. Not very hygenic, we must say. But the best thign about this game is that it "pays homage" to all the other games. Thats a polite way of saying rips off and makes fun of other games! 
 
And if you ever wondered about the background of Pentiment, well does Simone have you covered! From the setting to the history to everything around the game you could ever want. Does it make you want to play? Yes. Yes, it does. 
 
We're getting ready for our annual Game of The Year Awards show! And you're invited to contribute. How you ask? Just fill out this form with your answers and tell us all about your Games of The Year! Let's get HYPED! And you're welcome to jump into our Discord and chat about your nominations there too. 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: Microsoft’s Shooty Shooty Simulator

All the Xbox News this week. 
And it's all sales! It's almost like it's Black Friday... 
 
Phil "Awesome" Spencer has now reiterated for the 1,000th time that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation. There's not tricks here. CoD will stay multiplat if the Activision Blizzard deal goes through. And Xbox even went so far as to offer a 10-year deal with Sony. But Sony being Sony have said this is not good enough. 
 
Discord voice chat is now on Xbox! And it just works! Colour us super surprised. How did they get it to work so seamlessly? And why does it work so well? We are so confused that a new feature like this is not getting the attention it deserves. 
 
Did we mention that there are sales? We'll there are still sales. And you can save a lot of money at this time of year. Did you pick anything up during the sale? 
 
We're getting ready for our annual Game of The Year Awards show! And you're invited to contribute. How you ask? Just fill out this form with your answers and tell us all about your Games of The Year! Let's get HYPED! And you're welcome to jump into our Discord and chat about your nominations there too. 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: World Famous in New Zealand

We're world famous in New Zealand. 
Kinda. 
 
Welcome to the 'nice' episode of 2022. 
 
We have the Xbox Game Play Charts! How exciting! Who's on top, who dropped off, and where is Skyrim or GTA V? You'll never know unless you listen. 
Battlefield 2042 is coming to Game Pass with Season 3! Will that be enough to pull you away from COD? Or are you stuck Warfaring it up? 
 
Gungrave Gore is coming to Game Pass too! So many games coming to Game Pass. Our backlog is growing by the day. And we couldn't be happier. We're egar for more Japanese games to come to Xbox, and even eagerer for them on Game Pass. 
 
The Witcher 3 is finally getting the fabled Xbox Series Update. December 13th is the date, but don't hold your breath. It may come, it may not. Either way, a much prettier Geralt is coming your way. And looking more and more like Henry Cavill by the day. We cannot wait to see HD Man Buns! 
 
Remedy is making Control 2. But whats even more exciting is Max Payne and Max Payne 2 are getting remakes! Oh. My. Word! This is going to be amazing and we're only slightly excited. But we have Alan Wake 2 to get through before any of this comes to fruition. 
 
Have you sat down to rank the Halo games? 
Nows' your chance. Because we do it. Did we do a good job? 
 
We're looking for exciting people to help out with the intro. Do you have a voice? Can you say "Welcome to The XboxCast"? Then we may have a job for you! Lee has all the details so make sure you are either on our Discord or tweet at Lee. 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#GameFace! Yay! Then Fights.

Lee is going to shot some things in the face. 
And then go play some games. 
 
We have a product review for you! Did not expect that, did you? Lee has bought a Razer Kashi, and he's super excited to share his opinions of the device. It turns your phone (Android or iPhone) into an Xbox Switch. Perfect for XCloud! So, what are the pros and cons of having a portable Xbox in your pocket? Lee breaks it down for us. 
 
Kyle has finally jumped into The Ascent. Lee is busy dragging him through and he has thoughts! From how good the music is, to how bad he is at twin stick shooters. 
 
We all jumped into Battlefront 2! The whole XboxCast playing games together? Who would have thought! Just a pity there is no one else playing. It makes jumping into a game rather difficult. And here we though bot backfill would save us. Alas... 
 
Lee and Chillidawgs are in a competition to complete Grid Legends. Will they make it? Is Lee to far ahead in achievements? Or will podcasting take Lee out of the game long enough for Chillidawgs to catch up? 
 
All this, and more!
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes two seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: A Sponge of Some Sort

All the news is gone. 
We used it all up last week. We're sorry. 
 
It's a strange news week - there's not a lot going on. Is it because of the (unofficial) Game Awards? See, that's a call back to a joke we made on the last #GameFace! If you missed it, you'll just have to go back and listen to it. 
 
Atomic Heart is coming out and it looks awesome. Almost like a Bioshock spiritual successor. If you've not seen the trailer, do yourself a favour and watch it. Death Robots hanging around a whimsical Chernobl is all we ever wanted. 
 
Diablo IV is rumored to arrive in April 2023. And we are beyond excited. It looks like the Diablo we've always wanted. And we couldn't be happier! 
 
The EU Commission has gotten some money from Sony and that means they are now holding up the Activision Blizzard Microsoft deal. Giving themselves 90 days, they put out a statement that it just word salad, claiming that Microsoft is using Game Pass Cloud Streaming to push Windows. Because for some reason, Windows having an upper hand in somethings is a terrible idea.
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#GameFace! Game of Awards Show

Kyle is having an aneurism. 
Maybe he should have sat this one out? 
 
It's getting to that part of the year where we're thinking about our Game Awards show. It's different because of course it is. I mean, have you heard this podcast? Are you ready to have your votes counted? Because we're going to create a form for you to fill in with your answers! 
 
Simone has finished up A Plauge Tale: Innocence and loves everything about this game! Apart from the rat noises. Those are creepy. We don't like them. And they even continue when in photo mode. There's just no escaping from the squeak. 
 
Lee has a review for us! He's ben playing The Chant, and there's plants with faces! And he even has a duck thing. What is this duck thing? We're not so sure ourselves... So there's a cult and then you go into a cave to rescue a boy. Any more and we'll be giving away the story. You'll just have to play it.
 
Kyle and Simone are finally getting around to Halo 3 ODST and have thoughts. Is this really a Halo game, or is this something else? We can't decide. But the music is great and the main character is very sad. You never see his face, but his helmet does look quite sad. Trust us on this.
 
Want to hear more about Persona 5 Royal? Kyle is 5 hours in and its crazy as. The cat summons Zoro. Thats not a typo. It really happens. How long will he stick with this JRPG, since its about 130 hours long... 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: Please Don’t Use Up All the Newses

More news words means we're better right? 
 
We're feeling very newsy this week. Which is strange because we don't have much news. 
Kyle has gotten really excited about Anno 1800 coming to consoles. So excited in fact, we're recovering this news from last week! 
The Witcher is getting a remake. In Unreal Engine 5. Why? We offer some ideas about it. But still. Why? There are better games to remaster or remake. We're so confused. But that's pretty normal anyways. And could Halo move to UE5 too? There's been some rumors.... 
 
Xbox is having a sale! Get some games! Frostpunk is down to $20 AUD for the collectors edition. Bulder's Gate Enhanced Edition is $15. You have no excuse to add to your backlog now. 
 
We go over an Xbox dashboard concept, since Xbox seems hellbent on turning it into a giant GamePass advert. How disappointing... Make sure to check out this concept on YouTube! We love what is being done here. It's full of just the right info. What do you think a good Xbox dash looks like?
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#GameFace! No Death For Me

The semi-successful #TerrorGameToberFace is wrapping up. 
Now, we'll wait for next year's scary games. 
 
Lee is playing The Ascent with Cam and Keo, and in true achievement hunter fashion, they aren't caring about the story. Kyle's skin crawls at that way of life. Cut scenes are life. 
Simone played Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens and managed to finish the story! Good job! And there's a bunch of cut scenes at the end with easter eggs - in true Lego fashion. Some are really funny. Too bad the rest of the game has been a slog. 
All while Kyle is absorbed into the Dyson Sphere Program and is still urging everyone to play it. It's on PC Game Pass after all! Just do it. Play it. Build a factory! Become awesome!
 
If you joined us for #terrorTober, then tell us! You can join our Discord, or tweet at us. We're eager to hear what you've been playing. And how you found it. And if you'd recommend it. Can you tell we're eager to hear from you? 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: Goblin Up the Headlines

Lee's goblin up the news!
And it made him tired in the face. 
 
Halo is coming out with an update. The Winter Update. But it'll be November for us southerners... So not really winter?
Fallout 4 is getting an Xbox Series X update! Bug fixes, 4K60, creation club content... Oh my! And now Discord is getting even more integrated into Xbox. You can now join Discord channels from Xbox party chat. All we need is now streaming to Discord and things will be complete. 
 
Handhelds are taking over the market and are perfect for XCloud! Razer throws its hat into the ring and shows us their take on how a handheld should work. Logitech have a different idea for their handheld. And this is going to be a growing market as more and more of these get 5G. 
 
We went to #PAXAUS! And we were all together. In the same room! So we did what we did best, and recorded a podcast. You can listen to it, and find everything else about us, here! 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#GameFace! Deluxe, Like the Paint

#TerrorGameToberFace is still upon us. 
And The Blair Witch even allowed Lee and Simone to come out and play. 
 
Lee is firmly entrenched in Gotham Knights. To the point that we have almost his entire play through on our YouTube channel. Make sure to check it out if you're wanting to see what all the fuss is about. 
 
Kyle has some handy tips for all you Scorn players. And is making sure to not get too grossed out by adding some Overwatch 2 to the mix. 
Just for funsies, he started a new game. A PC game! Queue the shock and horror. But don't jump to conclusions just yet - this one is on GamePass for PC and is a factory building game. Are you ready for you next obsession? 
 
Simone is still playing A Plauge Tale, and has some quick facts for us! Who says we don't tech you anything? Because then they'll be lying. 
 
We went to #PAXAUS! And we were all together. In the same room! So we did what we did best, and recorded a podcast. You can listen to it, and find everything else about us, here! 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#NuNews: Cows Don’t Have Hands

Is the Xbox Series S a potato? Are you a potato? Or are we all potatoes? 
 
News happens, and we're here to cover it. We have many top tips of the week, but the one that will help you the most is that cows do not, in fact, have hands. We debunk this myth through our amazing detective skills. You can thank us later. 
 
Gotham Knights is blaming the Xbox Series S for the 30 FPS cap, but in all testing, it shows that the little beast is outperforming the PS5. Smells like an excuse to us. So we eagerly await the backpedal when they release the 'optimisation' patch. How will they spin that?
 
There's rumours about devs getting the mid-gen refresh consoles soon, and this gets us all excited. What could an Xbox Series X 'S' version look like? What will the performance be? Kyle has some ideas that he's really passionate about, but don't quote him on that. What would you like to see in the mid-gen refresh? More powa? Slimmer design? Maybe something else... Like VR support? 
 
Microsoft is battling the CDM in the UK for the right to buy Activision Blizzard. By now everyone would have heard about it. That doesn't stop us from diving into the leaked, or newly made public, info thats come out. Including Xbox install base, Game Pass revenue, and Sony's blocking rights. We go over all the info, take apart what it all means, and just get a heartly laugh at the corner Sony has painted itself into. 
 
Are you looking to get into streaming but don't know where to start? Lucky for you, we have a run down of the top 7 capture cards and what that means. But don't get lost. Join our friendly #Discord server where you'll find everyone eager to help you get started on your streaming journey today. 
 
We went to #PAXAUS! And we were all together. In the same room! So we did what we did best, and recorded a podcast. You can listen to it, and find everything else about us, here! 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. But if you feel like that's too easy, then please share it around - social media, word of mouth, sending the link to your family group chat - anything and everything helps us find more cool people. People like you. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter 

#GameFace! I Have a France

 
Welcome to #TerrorGameToberFace! 
 
October is halfway done, or practically over, depending on how you look at it. But that doesn't stop us from remembering #terrorTober is a thing. A thing we do every year. A thing we're doing this year! 
And we've been playing some creepy, scary, thrilling games to keep you entertained. 
 
Lee has played through Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and lucky for us, streamed the whole thing! It was on our Twitch channel, now it's on our YouTube channel. Want to play without wanting to play? We have you covered. Watch it now and give lee the creepy fuzzies. 
 
Simone is fending off rats in A Plague Tale: Innocence and gracing us with some amazing screenshots for Screenshot of the Week. How many rats are too many? And how does the game hold up after the Series X patch? Either way, you'll be scurrying back for more! 
 
While Scorn has Kyle in its very organic grip. Bones and flesh and lots of squelch. And a creature that is fused to a chair... If you're a fan of Alien, Prometheus or H.R. Giger, then Scorn is right up your alley.
 
But we didn't only play scary games. Oh no. We've been adventurous (naughty), and played other games too. What games exactly? Well, you'll just have to find out... Manical laugh! 
 
We went to #PAXAUS! And we were all together. In the same room! So we did what we did best, and recorded a podcast. You can listen to it, and find everything else about us, here! 
 
If you'd like to support the podcast, but don't know how, then just leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. It takes 2 seconds and helps in more ways than you can imagine. 
 
--
For everything about the podcast, check out our official website! 
Follow us on Twitter, find all our links on LinkTree and support us on Patreon. 
 
--
Your hosts are:
 
Kyle: XarCrius on Xbox and Twitter
Lee: Leehoward on Xbox and Twitter 
Simone: GymBeanNZ on Xbox and Twitter