Episode 597: WARDOGS Looks Incredible... Then They Got Banned On Twitch

WARDOGS ran its first ever gameplay livestream this week and it went about as well as you'd expect from a studio full of guys in their late twenties: the alpha codes were a QR-code disaster, the stream started two hours late, and it ended with a Twitch ban for throwing a sex toy across the room. And yet — the actual gameplay looked incredible. We break down everything we saw: the enormous map, the three-team control zone loop, the destructible environments, the buy menu, and why Bulkhead's 60 FPS performance floor and "gamers first, devs second" attitude has us more hyped for this game than anything else on the calendar. Plus: is a monthly subscription for better servers and anti-cheat a genuinely good idea or the start of a slippery slope? Then it's Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, which just opened its first free crossplay playtest on the new Đắk Tô Airfield map — the performance is fixed, the hit reg is fixed, and the map is a massive upgrade over that awful jungle one. And Battlefield 6 Season 4 finally brought naval warfare, Tsuru Reef, and a Top Gun crossover that people are somehow mad about. We close with what we've actually been playing — Overwatch ranked, Stellaris Nomads, a lot of Tarkov, and one MMO Raz will absolutely keep playing despite telling you not to touch it. Jake's out here getting one-tapped in Tarkov. Raz is defending a game he just called a pile of dog shit. Business as usual. 0:00 - Intro 1:40 - Patreon + Welcome To The New Gold Patrons 3:21 - Patreon Hangouts Are Back In August 4:40 - WARDOGS Ran Its First Gameplay Livestream 5:42 - QR Code Chaos, A Flying Dildo, And A Twitch Ban 6:52 - The Gameplay Though? Actually Incredible 10:56 - This Map Might Be Too Big 13:37 - Why A Huge Map Makes Your Life Matter 15:24 - The Buy Menu vs. Tarkov's Nightmare Menu 16:14 - WARDOGS Isn't Really A New Genre 18:38 - Flight Of The Valkyries In A Helicopter 19:35 - Three Teams, Base Building, And What We Didn't See 21:46 - The Devs Are Just A Bunch Of Bros (And That's Good) 23:58 - Shock Collars And Shots At Hasan 25:27 - The Performance Dev Vlog: 60 FPS Is The Floor 29:44 - Gamers First, Devs Second 30:39 - 650,000 Wishlists vs. 5,000 Expected Players 36:28 - Joe Brammer's Monthly Subscription Idea 41:39 - What Will WARDOGS Actually Cost? 46:55 - Reddit Hates The Subscription Idea 49:44 - BF6 Isn't Unpopular Because Of Microtransactions 53:17 - The Alpha Isn't Until August 7th And That's Annoying 56:50 - Hell Let Loose: Vietnam Got Pushed Back 58:08 - Dak To Airfield First Impressions 1:00:08 - Napalm Strikes And Viet Cong Tunnels 1:01:57 - Why The First Beta Was A Disaster 1:04:39 - If Every Map Is Jungle, This Game Is DOA 1:08:02 - Free Crossplay Weekend, Ends Monday 1:09:40 - Will WARDOGS Have Controller Support? 1:11:55 - Battlefield 6 Season 4: Naval Warfare Finally 1:13:00 - Tsuru Reef Is Big, Bright, And Actually Fun 1:14:57 - The Bloom In This Game Is Infuriating 1:16:41 - Driving The New Warship 1:17:21 - Wake Island And The Top Gun Crossover 1:20:39 - RedSec Added Bots. Obviously. 1:21:02 - Aircraft Carrier Facts Nobody Asked For 1:23:13 - WARDOGS Is The Only Thing That Matters 1:25:11 - What We've Been Playing: Climbing Out Of Bronze 1:26:30 - Stellaris Nomads 1:27:52 - Do NOT Play Star Wars: The Old Republic 1:29:14 - Jake's Tarkov Problem 1:30:57 - Seasonal Character, Wipes, And Cheaters 1:33:39 - Why It's Been A Slow Few Months For Games 1:36:17 - If You Play Shooters, You Have To Play Tarkov 1:37:20 - Star Wars Zero Company (No Co-Op, Sadly) 1:38:25 - Outro + Patreon Hangouts 1:39:30 - Oh, And Black Ops 7 SBMM News _Note: timestamps may be slightly misaligned on podcast apps (but not on YouTube) due to dynamic ads._ The podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, and ad-free & early access versions - as well as bonus episodes - are available to all of our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot) supporters. We stream the podcast live on our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast) every Saturday morning at ~9 o'clock Pacific Time. We typically start the stream 30 minutes early to answer viewer questions, banter, and chat. Links for everything are below. Thanks for checking us out! 🔹Streaming schedule (Pacific time): 🔸Saturday ~9 AM: Gaming news and stories of the week 🔹The Dropshot: 🔸Website: https://www.thedropshot.com 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDropshotPod 🔸Discord: https://discord.gg/B4Nsarq 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thedropshotpodcast 🔸Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedropshot 🔸Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=YVR98VF4S945G 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropshotpodcast/ 🔸TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedropshotpodcast 🔹Razinon: 🔸Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/razinon 🔸Twitter: https://twitter.com/razinon 🔸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razinonttv 🔹Jakedown: 🔸Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jakedown_ 🔸YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakedown #TheDropshot #GamingPodcast #PodcastClips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices