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What a week! Our jam-packed episode of Sacred Symbols covers all of the announcements from both Sony's State of Play presentation, as well as Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest showcase. And let's just say, there's a ton to get through. State of Play's 25 game roster included a fresh, expanded look at Wolverine, the reveal of Firesprite's long-rumored Until Dawn 2, and the confirmation of a brand new God of War game in the form of Laufey (plus a ton of third-party stuff, including Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant, Phantom Blade 0, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and more). Geoff's show went even harder, with a full 53 games displayed, including the culmination of the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga in the form of Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, the always-assumed Resident Evil: Code Veronica remake en route in 2027, two new Cuphead titles, the Stellar Blade sequel Blood Rain, and so on. We have other news this week, too -- MMORPG Horizon: Steel Frontiers has been delayed, California's legislature is going after developers and publishers who delist games, Fable has been delayed until next year, and so on -- but really, the meat of the show is all about these E3-like pressers. Even the questions at the end! So buckle up for one long episode of Sacred Symbols.

Timestamps:0:00:00 - Intro

0:08:09 - Another Sacred statistic

0:19:59 - dishonored brokers

0:26:24 - "the podcast I listen to"

0:34:27 - State of Play rundown

3:12:55 - Was State of Play underwhelming?

3:25:13 - Economic realities of originality

3:37:27 - Stagnant first party

3:44:25 - Studios stuck on IPs

3:50:39 - Less attractive female characters?

4:00:40 - September is looking rough

4:08:39 - Summer Game Fest rundown

5:26:13 - Sony removes more shovelware

5:31:48 - Horizon: Steel Frontiers delayed

5:33:14 - Amazon and 007 First Light

5:40:50 - Toy Story Retro Roundup

5:50:18 - New CA bill for game preservation

6:02:53 - Fallout 76 coming to PS5

6:03:43 - Fable delayed

6:04:11 - Gravity Circuit 2 announced

6:04:57 - May 2026 PSN top downloads

6:06:59 - What We're Playing (Pragmata, Saros, Mina the Hollower, 007: First Light)

Files

Comments

Jordan Falduto

DUSTY BOY COMING THROUGH FOR THE NIGHT OWLS!!

Denim Dan

Thanks Dustin for cranking this one out 🤔🙂🫡😫

Luke Gavin

6 and a half hours! I’m set for the rest of my Saturday

Perfectly Straight Rainbow

“Pick it up now brother help another pick it up” I see your reference Colin 👀

Judah Bailey

311 was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Final Fantasy title, I’m so glad you went for that episode name

trephiroth

Dustin burning the midnight oil. Give this man a raise!

JL

Holy shit 6 and a half hours let’s gooooooo

Kenyatta Major

Great for the 6 hours I have left for my night shift

Josef Barker

It ain't night time for me Saturday afternoon 😅

Joshua Brown

Starting work and seeing there’s a 6 hour podcast waiting for me. Thanks guys!

NUTSO JIMBO

Longer than my worm. Nice.

Gareth H

6 hours! This will keep me entertained for my day of Gym and then house chores!

Deemac

Man the conversation about female characters not being hot enough is so exhausting, and it's so often brought up in bad faith. Yes, as the guys say there's something there in some cases (as was brought up with MJ), but it's taken too far by some people. The Aloy stuff is overblown tbh, and I really don't get this discussion about Faye and Deborah Ann Woll, which has really been a bad faith argument this week. Honestly when the game was up and running, I think Faye looked just fine and greatly resembles her actress. As Chris was saying, the comparisons that have been going around this week were of Deborah Ann Woll in full hair and makeup treatment on a red carpet - and Faye midgasp after she wakes up from literally *just dying*.... I really don't know how anyone could compare these images and try to act like they're objectively asking a question. Also Deborah Ann Woll is in her early 40s now - still a beautiful woman but everyone ages of course - and I've seen some comparisons to Faye of the actress when she was in her 20s in True Blood lol. As I say, these are not arguments in good faith I dunno it just sucks as you know this will be a conversation online in certain circles each time this game shows up and releases, which is a shame as the game looks cool and the setting is really interesting. But that talking point won't go away

ChaosZwei+5

Dustin we love you ❤️

DIS-Bee

I don't go well on toast, promise

Ryan

I don’t think the discussion is worth not having, but I will say it’s funny to see people posting gifs of DAW from like 10+ years ago lol I mean the people that are obsessed with this are Asmongold watching losers but it does appear that SONY in particular has a weird thing going on with their female mocap models. Too many otherwise unrelated examples of it.

Jordan campos

6 hour non lubed sacred symbols jack off session coming up

The Corn Rocket

Best landlord ever installed a central air unit in my apartment right before my wife and I had our first baby. Absolute legend.

AL022

There's room for both in a healthy gaming ecosystem. Luckily Tomb Raider reboot and Stellar Blade are good counter offerings to show they both can co-exist. People just like to cry

AL022

😮😮😮

we are all dogs locked in god's hot car

Shout out Dustin, "Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't exist." Thank you for being the voice of reason during my question read, I await the day Colin comes around.

Jordan campos

I’m only 2 hours in and still hard

Vanzant

Colin’s joke about Dustin’s relationship to Japan never gets old.

ChaosZwei+5

That remake of rayman pisses me off a beautiful hand drawn game that won't ever age visually is the most pointless kind of remake

Michael Thew

During the Wolverine conversation the boys were a bit harsh on him. Logan is top 3 and at least top 5 superhero movie of all time. He had his own trilogy of movies and somehow he’s boring. His rouge galley is also stacked. I love you guys and your opinion is just as valid as mine, but I just needed to back my boy, he’s in my top 3 superheroes. Superman #1, then Batman and Wolverine tied for second. Great episode, take it easy dudes

Daddy T

To be fair it was Hugh Jackmans wonderful performance as Logan that really brought that character to life

Michael Thew

Fair enough, but the comics that those movies came from are also pretty good, bub

Addison117

Thinking PlayStation should just continue with the same brooding seriousness is crazy. XBOX games may not be the best games but at least there is variety

Beef Burka

I gained some respect for John from Digital Foundry a while ago when he kind of told off the "well it works fine for me" crowd.

SL

Wolverine, character wise, is basically just Dirty Harry or Clint Eastwoods The Man With No Name with powers. He’s enduring because that character archetype is enduring. Personally speaking, I found Wolverine more interesting in the comics before his memory returned. The great tension of the character was that he could heal from almost anything physical, but could never heal himself emotionally. I like the idea of a Wolverine game set in a pre-Xmen universe, but a pre-Xmen Wolverine that actually likes any future Xmen members yet or cares about mutants as a whole feels wrong. Logan would have to be dragged into a fight to protect mutants, not eager and enthusiastic to help. We’ll see how they set it up.

JustOkJeremy

Just a note: RuneScape is coming to Xbox same day I’m not sure why it wasn’t made clear until a day later. Like the weird Persona Xbox stuff.

Daddy T

I haven’t read much comics in my life to be honest but I’d love to give Old Man Logan a read someday

Addison117

Maybe why they are showing control resonent so mush is because no one bought Alan wake 2 since it never came to steam.

Zachary Beach

Not gonna be popular here but… You lost your gf so you could use people on the spectrum as an insult? Ok Jared.

Cloud

"It's predictable because it's well written" is probably the most insane take I've ever heard Chris say on this show and that's saying something

Cloud

I love it when Dustin cranks it out

DIS-Bee

Open wide I'm bringing my wasp friends

Link

I’m sorry but i’ve never lost a damage deposit in my life. If you didn’t cause any damage to the apartment, then you’re entitled to it.

Nick

More God of War from Santa Monica was the most disappointing gaming news in a long time

Christopher Ricetopher

Note to Colin: the Dualsense is cheap garbage that we pay a PREMIUM for. Just like everything else. Please wake up here.

Avery Illies

Is this the longest episode ever?

Chris T.

Last Of Us 2 is definitely more violent than Wolverine.

Ray

Can't wait for the new Tomb Raider. Who cares if artists use AI tools. As long as the outcome is good. Just my two cents.

Jaymin Ligsay

I’m extremely excited for God of War Laufey. Still nothing comes close to Santa Monica

Jaymin Ligsay

I feel like the desire for something new ties directly to how long games are taking. Santa Monica is on a pretty consistent run releasing a game every 4-5 years. Naughty dog is creating a new game and it’s nowhere to be seen in 6 years

The Big Bong

What a packed and lengthy episode! 😄 What are your thoughts on having a dedicated SS+/State of Play/SGF/Xbox Showcase episode? On one hand, it would give everyone a full week to digest all the news and announcements. On the other hand, the regular weekly episode could stay a bit shorter (and maybe be less exhausting for all of you). This special SS+ episode could also be released earlier than Saturday — perhaps on the Wednesday after all the showcases have wrapped up. Would love to hear your thoughts!

LordScottrick

MJ and Peter were just awful changes in my opinion. I think Faye looks absolutely fine and fitting considering she’s in the afterlife. I do think they could have done a better job with Jean Grey. I don’t necessarily think they should have made her super attractive, but she does look older than I thought she would look, which is especially weird if the game takes place not long after she first met Logan. I’d think she would be in her mid 20s or early 30s and she looks 40 or older perhaps? I don’t know. I’ll enjoy it regardless.

LordScottrick

I do think they could have picked a better name than God of War: Laufey (maybe God of War: Afterlife or God of War: Realm of the Dead or something similar) but we do have at least one generally well received game with Series: Character Name format: Spider-Man: Miles Morales

PairOfShuse

People saying the character in Stellar Blade looks “too young” clearly have never seen Asian women. There are millions of Asian women in their 30s that look just as youthful as Evie. Hence why her face and body models are all women in their mid to late 20s and early 30s. Then again, people were even saying if you thought Eve from the first game was attractive that you were a pedophile. Which is utterly wild. As I said, people have never seen Asian women before. Honestly it comes across as either ignorant or racist by alot of people (and I rarely throw that word around). The conversation about attractive female characters is exhausting because people aren’t consistent. Even in this podcast, the talk of Jean in X-men was handwaved and then discussion about Laura Croft being hot went the other way. Hard disagree about male characters having this done to them. Pretty much every male character who is based on an actor looks exactly like them. This whole acting like it’s mutual or not just western developers doing this is disingenuous. Eastern devs have zero issue with this and even some western devs (Baldurs gate etc) I do agree with Chris though about real actors taking you out of it. I’ve been beating that drum for a long time myself.

PairOfShuse

That being said - These shows this June have been great so far. Summer games fest blew the state of play out of the water IMO. One of the best showcases in recent memory. Already so many games to play and this is going to add so many. Thank god I’m not interested in GTA 6. All these other games looks infinitely more interesting and unique

VanB-Boy 4 life

Colin, for the love of all that is holy, replay Alan Wake 2!! You’d love it; it frustrates me that you never went back. Go back, get that platinum, and play the DLC. Then come back and thank me.

Austin Evans

I am so mixed on the state of play. On one hand I’ve been asking this entire generation for more Sony first party games and they definitely delivered on that showing three of them. Unfortunately, I’m just not a big fan of God of war or Marvel, so the state of play was just a dull meh for me. But I totally understand if people taught this was the best state of all time if you are a big Marvel or God of war fan. I am not invested in the series by find the discourse around GOW to be exhausting, someone who played God of war, but wasn’t in love with it I feel like make a game with fae is much more interesting than making a game with Atreus. It’s silly not to like a game just because it’s a woman, I simply don’t care about it just because I’m tired of GOW but I know I’m in the minority.

Walk Forward Cutscene

I’m sick of hearing anti-AI rants if you’re just going to buy Legacy of Atlantis on Day 1 anyway.

Yet

AI is just a tool if they are reiterating on it , like using a calculator for math

ChaosZwei+5

And will only get funnier the more annoyed Dustin gets at it

ChaosZwei+5

Can't believe he's just gonna play it it's not even a new game it's a remake lost a lot of respect for Chris this episode. I'm the biggest lies of p fan but if they don't properly deal with the ai drama at their company I'm not playing that sequel. Just don't play the new game it's not that hard.

KYisLife

Dave the Diver is excellent but took a few hours to get me hooked

Nick

Dustin, building a game in assembly is absolutely a flex. It’s what’s called a low-level programming language. It’s the closest you can get to writing code in binary 1s and 0s

Nick

And the reason you would do that is for speed and performance.

pbsandwich_

yeah, writing that in as if it was a flex was certainly a choice lol

Mark ?️

Biggleswade is a town between Oxford and Cambridge

TheWubbz

Great pod! Most FGC content creators play on PC from what I’ve seen

Notorious Meat Leaker

Dustin you just blew my mind with that Ore No Ryouri callback! I was thinking about that game last week and how I could possibly go about finding it. You have done me a great service.

Walk Forward Cutscene

Especially when there’s an existing remake and remaster of the first game already available on modern platforms

Glen Yelenovic

Jean Grey is certainly fuckable, I just think she looks exactly like the main character in Control.

NinjaDC

Sony 1st party absolutely can make games under $200 million. Both Ghost games were under $100m, and so was Ratchet & Clank and Astrobot.

Joseph Sorisho

Colin is so wrong about the controller quality issue that it almost seems hes being ignorant on purpose

Glen Yelenovic

I’m excited to play as Faye, I would not be excited at all to play as Atreus.

Glen Yelenovic

They are a different kind of violent. TLOU is grounded and seems realistic. Wolverine is over the top almost to the point of comedy. It’s almost like the Walking Dead to Kill Bill Vol 1

Dick Whiskey

They have zero interest in anything comic book related, so I wouldn't take their opinion serious at all

The Big Bong

For my part, the new God of War looks really good! Sure, the name, the slightly long gameplay reveal, and a few other things could have been better, but come on! Since when can't we just enjoy games for what they are? A lot of people immediately focus on the negatives and forget that Santa Monica Studio is a top-tier developer that has delivered some truly milestone games over the years with best in class gameplay! From my perspective, I'm very excited about the new game and the direction it's taking. I'm more than ready to kick the asses of some gods from all kinds of mythologies—that sounds absolutely awesome!

Terry Atkinson

Agreed. It was my GOTY that year. I recently replayed it again to check out the PSSR upgrade on it. Stunning

Michael Hebert

Bummer that Chris was under the weather for the back chunk of the show, I was interested in hearing his opinion. Oh well, at least dustin will be off the shows for a bit here soon.

Stephen

The R1 button on my Anniversary PS Portal stopped working. I was very disappointed. It was going to cost $80 or $100 to fix - don’t remember - so I bought a new one instead. I shit you not, the new black Portal’s R1 didn’t work out of the box. I exchanged it for the white version and that one has been fine since then. Quality has gone way down.

Xemphanis

Fighting games are huge on PC and most pro player hate playing on PlayStation. They complain about it a lot.

Bailey Callis

Every single episode we gotta get on our high horses and whine about how much people complain about everything. This is happening in every medium and industry now, and whining about whining is just as tiring.

The Big Bong

true! colin's recently taking about 70% of the runtime of the conversations and mostly of it is his opinion about whining. How about to streamline the Podcast and getting more positive and topicbased

Bailey Callis

Chris and Dustin do it just as much to be fair haha

The Incredible Shulk

Gravity Circuitry was a great game. Glad to see we’re getting a second one

Robbie (DatLie)

Great show as always. Overall, the game shows this week were mostly boring. I did enjoy the New God of War and Wolverine games. I think Colin is wrong in that I’d rather see Sony studios continue to do the same kind of stuff then new. I love what they make as of right now. I know you enjoy Intergalactic Colin, and it does look cool, but if it’s anything close to challenging combat, then I’ll skip. Most of what I saw at these shows was the same kinds of games, horror games, and souls games. I know that stuff sells, but for gods sake I’m tired of seeing it. Like you Colin, I’m an enthusiast who buys hundreds of games a year. Most of this does not appeal to me. We both spend money and time on mostly different products I guess. I mostly enjoy heavy narratives, light combat, and overall chill experiences. Exactly why I studio like Capcom I just find mediocre. I did play Pragmata but I gave it a 3/5. You just have to assume people buy games, just not what you always want and I’m ok with that. I know it’s not for me, and I’ll just skip the controls, Capcoms, souls games, and buy other things.

Marco Maluf

GOW game without Kratos is like a hamburger without the meat….

Marco Maluf

I paid the equivalent of TWO dollars for the tmr 2.0 on aliexpress…. sony is just going back to the arrogant ps3 day, and I hope the get what they deserve

Kevin Cooper

This isn't a soapbox rant, but the use of the word Retard is really no different from Colin's Playstation hack -- It's not a problem until it happens to you. I'm sure the frequent usage of the word on these podcasts would change pretty quick if Dustin's child had a disability... and if it didn't change, I'm sure Holly wouldn't be too happy about it.

Trapgunner

Colin’s solicitation situation reminded me of a few summers ago when I had a pretty infuriating situation. I live in a small apartment building and my doorbell sounded which upset my dog. I go downstairs to see a guy soliciting then I said no thank you annoyed and watched as I went back in to my building seeing him ring the bell for the next apt in the building.

Gooch Gobbler

man I hated coding in assembly. lunatic behavior

Aaron Barnes

I didn't even look at the time when I started listening to this one, 4hrs in and I thought I'd check out the comments then saw this and realized it's a long one even by Sacred Symbols standards. I wish my other regular podcasts would not stop themselves short because they've "gone long" after they hit 1hr

Napynap

At the intro, I immediately thought of the AKG C414, the legendary condensor microphone.