#338 | Naughty Dog Derangement Syndrome

The holidays draw ever-nearer, making this our final recording of 2024. (Fear not, though: As tradition dictates, episodes will continue uninterrupted throughout the break, and indeed, everything is already in the can!) Not surprisingly, the news is a little light this time of year, though there are some interesting tidbits to pick up on. For starters, we take a look at two titles shown at The Game Awards that we skipped over last week, in the form of Crimson Desert and Midnight Murder Club, the latter a second party, Sony-published offering. We also delve into Mark Cerny's recent PS5 Pro technical presentation, wade through the (now rectified) drama surrounding Helldivers 2's exciting Killzone crossover, analyze whether the upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus has the potential to be the true next Mass Effect, and more. But at the end of our show, we replace our typical six questions about random topics with six questions about something more than 50 of you wrote in about on the most recent thread. The topic at hand is obviously Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog's upcoming PS5 exclusive. So many wrote in, in fact, that it felt disingenuous to ignore all of the noise. So instead, let's dive way deeper. What should PlayStation's next move be when it comes to rolling out this new product? Could the game flop on the market, either outright or by Naughty Dog's lofty standards? Do the masses suffer from some combination of Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann Derangement Syndrome? And what does all of this insanity mean for The Last of Us: Part III... if anything at all? Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:20:37 - Tri Breaker is out now! 0:33:46 - What gives us the right? 0:36:50 - Changes for LSM in 2025 0:46:09 - Gooning over the landlady 0:54:01 - Jurassic: The Hunted 0:56:00 - Chis = Smeargle 1:01:47 - New Astro Bot level 1:06:54 - Game Awards clarifications 1:15:28 - new Mark Cerny ASMR video 1:20:12 - Helldivers 2 x Killzone is real 1:31:18 - Exodus could be the next Mass Effect? 1:40:09 - Secret Level renewed 1:46:05 - Please don't make FF7 NSFW mods 1:49:06 - More Tales of remasters are coming 1:52:33 - What We're Playing 2:09:50 - Sony has bought an additional 8% of Kadokawa 2:21:18 - Circana November data 2:30:44 - Will Intergalactic flop due to the early reaction? 2:40:36 - Naughty Dog derangement 2:55:24 - Neil Druckmann derangement 3:11:16 - What will Sony's strategy be around the game? 3:20:41 - PlayStation and female characters 3:27:16 - When will we get The Last of Us Part 3? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices