Gamer Chronicles

Bluffs, Bullets, and GPUs: Gaming's Wild Start to 2025

• Aden • Episode 10

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Episode Description:
Happy New Year! 2025 is here, and wow, has it come in swinging. This week, I kick things off with a chaotic update on how my dog almost broke me (financially and emotionally), before diving into the wild world of gaming. From wildfires disrupting major game studios to Ubisoft delaying Assassin's Creed Shadows again (shocker), Nvidia's mind-blowing RTX 50-series GPUs, and a delightfully twisted game called Liar's Bar—we’ve got a lot to unpack. Buckle up—it’s going to be a ride!

Episode Breakdown:

Intro – Happy New Year... Kinda

  • A chaotic start to 2025: My dog’s near-death experience and emergency surgery.
  • Welcome to Gamer Chronicles: The podcast where pixels tell stories and gamers become legends.

LA Wildfires Disrupt the Gaming Industry

  • Wildfires force Riot Games and others to adapt.
  • The human and industry impact of the devastation.
  • Riot and Activision’s responses—one sincere, one... well, it’s Activision.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Delayed Again

  • Ubisoft announces a second delay, pushing the release to March 20, 2025.
  • My unfiltered thoughts on delays, excuses, and Ubisoft’s recent struggles.

Nvidia’s RTX 50-Series GPUs: Overpowered and Overpriced?

  • Breaking down the 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, and 5070 cards.
  • DLSS 4: A game-changer or just another caveat?
  • Who should upgrade and who should wait.

Liar’s Bar: A Twisted Game of Bluffs and Bullets

  • A game of nerve, strategy, and paranoia that might just ruin friendships.
  • Gameplay breakdown: Russian roulette with anthropomorphic animals.
  • Why this dark, repugnant game is oddly addictive.

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Well, welcome to this week's episode, everybody. Happy New Year. I hope 2025 has been treating you better than it has been treating me so far because mine's been an absolute shit show. So picture this on RN. Towards the end of December, my dog decided to kick off the year by nearly dying. She had a nasty womb infection and next thing I know, I'm rushing her into the emergency surgery. 

So while everyone else was sipping champagne and lying about their resolutions. I was in the vet's office watching my bank account flatline as they rinsed me. And when I say rinsed, I mean like two and a half thousand pounds. But, hey, she's okay now, and that's what matters. Maybe because it's 2025 and it's going to throw punches that it's hitting fucking hard. But anyway, enough about me. Welcome to Gamer Chronicles, the podcast where pixels tell stories and gamers become legends. Today we've got some wild shit to talk about wildfires messing with game studios, a twisted card game that's basically furry Russian roulette and a Nvidia dropping GPU so powerful they could probably run Crysis on Mars. Because buckle up. It's going to be a ride. 

 ------ LA Fire ------  1:52

Well, let's start with the news. So as most of you all, probably all of you have seen the terrible wildfires in Los Angeles. And of course, our thoughts go out with everyone who's who's lost their homes. And, you know, especially those lost loved ones. But the recent wildfires in Los Angeles have had a profound impact on the gaming industry, leading to significant disruption and highlighting the community's resilience So Riot Games, headquartered in Santa monica, has closed its offices to all but critical functions through at least the end of the week due to the ongoing wildfires. 

Although their office is not in an evacuation zone, the Pacific Palisades fire has spread to 17,000 acres, causing over 100,000 people to evacuate. The fires have resulted currently in at least ten deaths and the destruction or damage of more than 2000 structures. So riot game supports remote work and encourages employees to prioritise safety and family. CEO Dillon emphasized the importance of community support and pledged Riot's commitment to aiding Los Angeles once the danger has passed. 

Activision Blizzard as well, with its offices near the effective area. Um, and they haven't closed the office, but they have said employee safety and well-being is our top priority. That's just not talk about Activision because this is quite a bad situation. And knowing Activision well well, let's not go there. and of course, you know, it's not just the game studios. It's affected. It's affected. Well, well over 100,000 people. So yeah, it's pretty bad. 

 ------ Assassins Creed Shadow Delay ------  3:35

Anyway, moving on to lighthearted stuff. Ubisoft. Yeah, here we go. Well, guess what these bastards have done. Now they have announced a second delay for Assassin's Creed Shadows. So are they really fucked it now? Now reschedule for the release on March 20th, 

2025. This decision aims to provide the development team with additional time to incorporate player feedback gathering over the past three months, ensuring a high quality, engaging experiences at launch. This game's going to be fucking shit. the game had an initial launch date of November 2024 and then was postponed to Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2025 to allow further polishing. And this latest delay reflects Ubisoft's renowned focus on gameplay quality and delivering a seamless day. One experience. I don't know about that. That's what they said, but that's bullshit. In a statement, Ubisoft emphasized their commitment to the Assassin's Creed community. This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the players feedback gathered over the past three months and help create the best conditions for launch by continuing to engage closely with the increasingly positive Assassin's Creed community. I don't think anyone's fucking positive when it comes to this. This delay comes amid a challenging period for Ubisoft, marked by underperforming sales of recent titles like Star Wars Outlaws and the Discontinuation of Live Service Shooter Xdefiant. The company is actively exploring strategic options to maximize of high value for stakeholders, including potential partnerships or sales. So let's wait and see. The game is not going to be good, although I hope I am wrong. I hope it's amazing. But they delayed it already. If they had just said much in the beginning, everyone would have been fine with that. Bu then you delay again means ah and using player feedback as an excuse one month will make a big difference for it's going to. It might end up being a whole cyberpunk 2077 launch as before. 

 ------ NVIDEA Announces the 50 series GPU ------  5:44

And for a final bit of news and this is a long one. Nvidia has officially unveiled its RTX 50 series graphics cards, introducing four new models, which they always do. The 5090 starts at a staggering $2,000 or £1,700. That's not a direct conversion as well. The cards here are fucking more expensive but has 32 gigabytes of GDDR7 memory and with a total power of 

575 watts and a PSU of 1000 watts is recommended. That is a fucking lot of power. RTX 5080 at 999 and this card looks fucking massive. If you've seen the photos of it, it looks huge. So the 5080 has got half the GDDR7 memory and the claim it delivers twice the performance of the RTX. 4080 and requires 360 watts of power with a PSU of 850 watts recommended 

5070. So I've got the 4070ti and it doesn't look like it's much more power, which is good. And this is priced at $749 and again, 16 gigabytes of GDDR7. So that's a bit more than my 12 in my card. So it would be a good upgrade. Recommended power again 300 watt and 750 watt PSU and finally the RTX 5070 which comes in at 

$549, has 12 gigabytes of GDDR7 requires 250 watts and a recommended PSU of 650 watts, and Nvidia claims that the 5070 will deliver performance comparable to the RTX 4090. Of course, there's a catch. This is only true when using DLSS 4 and frame generation It. It's so stupid, isn't it? How they can get up and say, you know these kind of things in terms of raw power, particularly in games that don't support DLSS.The  RTX 4090 still outshines the 5070. And you have to remember that not all games are optimized to utilize dlss or frame generation and some that are don't do it properly. So take that how you want. There's always a caveat with these cards that they have to try and justify. 

So you had DLSS and then DLSS and frame generation, that was the next big step. And now with the 5070, you've still got DLSS and frame generation. So it's better. 

But I think you have to wait if you have like a 20 series card or a 30 series card, definitely bump yourself to a 50 series card. But if you go 40 series card, wait till the 60 series, because the jump is just not just not worth it at the moment and usually never is. And the cards. So the 5090 releases first on the 30th of January 2025, 5070, an RTX, 5070, they launch in February of 2025. There is nothing on the horizon about a 5060 yet, please make sure you do your due diligence on these cards because they are a lot of money. They require hefty power supplies and you have to remember the connectors are different on these as well. And we all remember the catching fire of the 4090, don't we? 

 ------ Liars Bar ------  9:51

Right now, let's talk about a game that I started playing recently 

and. It's a simple game, but it's great. And it is Liar's Bar, a game of bluffs, bullets and banter. Now, trigger warning here, I will give one. The game does depict suicide, so if you're sensitive about that, I have told you just don't listen any further. 

let's just rip the Band-Aid off. Liars bar is a messed up, morally questionable, darkest hell game that might just become your next guilty pleasure. So the first thing you see after booting it up is a warning that basically screams, This game is fucked up. Don't say we didn't warn you. And they're not kidding. This isn't your average card game. It's a bloody Russian roulette simulator wrapped in cartoon animal chaos. And of course, there's also tobacco use because blowing your brains out isn't edgy enough. So the game's published by Curve Animation and still in early access on Steam for $6.99 or I paid because it was on sale £4. 40. So for the price, it's actually really good because simple game, great price. Jump in jump out whenever you want. And Liar's Bar takes the classic horror of Russian roulette and says, But what if we made it fun? So the game throws you into a grimy bar with a bunch of anthropomorphic animals where you play bluff heavy card games like Liar's Deck or dice based death matches, all while the ever present threat of a bullet in the chamber looms large. 

 ------ Gameplay Liars Bar ------  11:45

So here's how it works. In Liar's Deck, you play with a deck of 20 cards queens, kings, aces, and a couple of jokers. So you've got to bluff your way through hands, laying down cards, face down, and hoping the next sucker doesn't call your bullshit. But if they do, and you're lying, it's trigger pulling time. So if you're telling the truth, though, they have to play Russian roulette instead. And each pull the trigger ups the stakes until (gun shot) some poor bastard ends up with their brains on the wall. Fun for the whole family, right? And it the the game is quite mean because they can either fuck you up on the first bullet. So pull the trigger on the first bullet. You can die sometimes. You can make it all the way to the sixth bullet. And there's no way of knowing is so randomized that basically you get really nervous. Now you are four players to begin with, and it makes it a lot easier when you're four. But if you get down to two players, this is where it gets real because the game will auto call your bluff if you drop all the cards down. So you have to also think strategically. So if I drop, let's say Three Kings down and I've dropped three Kings down and those are all my cards, the other player will automatically call me a liar and then we'll have to play Russian roulette that's what makes the game even more fun, is you can talk trash during the game, provoke people, stir up paranoia. And I love playing on the American server because they talk the most trash and it's a lot of fun. I love playing with the Americans in this game and it's great and I've had a lot of fun and it's just a bit of fun, bit of banter, that's all great. So you stir up a bit of paranoia, throw shade, or just outright mock your opponents while the is trying to figure out if you're lying through your teeth. For example, today 

animal look me directly in the eyes and ask me, Are you lying? And I went, No. And he called me a liar and I wasn't lying. And then you can go. Well, I wasn't lying, I told you. 

And then you can also tell them, Go ahead, call my bluff. I dare you. 

 ------ Visuals Liars Bar ------  13:57

So the game's art style is appropriately gritty. The bar is a dive complete with graffiti, a busted bathroom, an NPC's like a pipe smoking bear, a bartender who is basically BoJack Horseman and a drunk chicken who might have been in Chicken Little if Disney had gone off the rails. The death animations, the bloody but quick. But what is more disturbing is probably the yellowing of the eyes after they've shot themselves in the head and are lying on the table. It's not Mortal Kombat level gore, but enough to make you think, Yep, that's disturbing. And the use of anthropomorphic animals is genius too. it softens the horror just enough to make it digestible. If these were human characters, the game would be banned in about 5 seconds flat. But because it's cartoon animals, it somehow feels okay unless you're into furries and then it's otherwise, then it might be a bit disturbing for you. 

 ------ Summary Liars Bar ------  14:52

Look, Lions Bar is definitely not for the faint of heart. This is the kind of game where you might laugh one second and feel like a horrible person the next. It's dark or repungent and absolutely in bad taste. But It's also a hell of a ride. It's a game of nerve strategy and just enough luck to make you sweat. Whether you win or lose, one thing's for sure You'll never trust your friends again. 

 ------ Outro ------  15:15

Well, that's it for this week's Game Chronicles. So, from wildfires shaking up the industry to Nvidia's dropping GPUs, that could power the next matrix. And of course, the absolute mind melt. That is Liar's Bar. We've covered a lot. So thanks for sticking around and letting me rant about my dogs. Near-death experience and the chaos of 2025 so far. Remember, this is the podcast where pixels tell stories and gamers become legends. If you enjoyed today's chaos, don't forget to subscribe or leave a review, or even just yell about it on Twitter or X or whatever it's going to be called tomorrow. Until next time, keep your head in the game. Your bluff strong for the love of everything. Holy. Don't play Russian roulette with the GPU all your friends. Catch you next week.