It's the Internet. You're busy, let's do this. Welcome to the Game
Mess Decides Podcast. This is the podcast where we decide everything about the world
of games, so you never have to think for yourself. I'm your host
Jeff Grubb. With me is Mike Manati. In today's episode, we have
GTA six falling behind schedule, Gearbox getting sold again, and a white all
digital Xbox because who gives a fuck? We got plenty to talk about.
Actually, there's a whole bunch of news. We'll get through it actually relatively
quickly, and if you want to talk about it more, you let us
know with a super chat or something. But first, Mike, how are
you doing? Doing good? I'm excited. Our game today is we're going
to do the mount rushmore of Capcom games, inspired by the recent release of
Dragon's Dogma two. I think that's going to be fun. So I am
looking forward to that me too. Yeah, that was a good idea,
Mike. Yeah, yeah, genius, that's what I was trying to say.
That's saying here. It's a yeah, that'll be a lot of fun.
We'll get to that in the second half of the show. But yeah,
I mean, hey, we are pretty well removed from packs now it
does feel like a long time ago. And yeah, I'm like, oh,
I never really got a chance to recover because we worked all through the
weekend. So looking forward to this weekend. Yeah, you're right, it
has been kind of NonStop. I got tortured in it Imri machine yesterday.
I'm definitely looking forward to taking some time to relax a bit. Yeah,
it's the plan. I'll take some time to relax, play some games,
get ready for the eclipse because that's happening in the following basically, the following
weekend will happen on the Monday after that. Clips related super chat later,
Okay, fun. Yeah, So we're gonna make a big grocery run.
Apparently, like the city is like warning everybody in town how crazy it's gonna
be. I don't know, we'll see wow wow. Else now you all
come crawling to cleveland'll come crawling to Avon, Ohio. Apparently. Yeah,
it's uh, it's gonna be wild out there, but we're gonna get ready
for it. And then I'm going to play a bunch of more Dragons Dogma
too, because that's a funny video game. Very stupid idea stuck in my
head. I can't get rid of it. No one steal this. But
I think if I ever had to make a fictional world, I think it
would just be a world where Ohio is the only land mass in the world
and it's just Ohio, it's planet Ohio. I don't know what it would
be beyond that. You're a You're worried someone's gonna steal this. Yeah,
oops, all Ohio? Perhaps call it? All right? Well that's pretty
good. I like that. I like that. I could probably be like
an earthbound or something. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I think
that's a good idea. Thank you, spiritual successor to this one of your
jokes. That's just the I actually think it's a good idea, So thank
you. I agree it sounds fair. I'll tell you what. I tell
you what. The big plot chwist the post credit scene is that Arguina pops
up from the water plating seeds. Oh man, never saw it coming.
All right, hey, before we get into this show, let's tell you
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I did see. I did see Carlos at Pax at the bar that we
were hanging out with and we were busy. I walked past him like,
Okay, I'm gonna find him and tell him and say hi and see if
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Say he doesn't want you to use amoy fused, don't ask him? Well
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We can't record Clumbros tonight because I forgot to watch it, So there you
go. Excuse, don't worry. Pretty good next week, Big topics.
Super tired, I'm also tired. Yes, yeah, exactly, Let's let's
sleep instead. Big topics plenty to talk about. Let's start here. GTA
six may fall behind schedule. I mean, yeah, it's GTA. It's
twenty twenty four. All games are falling behind schedule. When they're that big,
it's going to be the biggest goddamn game ever made. When it comes
out, they're going to take more time, and they think they than they
originally thought they were going to take. This part of this is apparently rock
Star management wants people to return to the office full time, and people are
like, I might quit instead, and so that's causing some tension as well.
Wouldn't that be more disruptive? Would it changing the way everyone's been working
be a disruption? I don't understand how that's that is the argument that the
people who are being disrupted are making. They're saying exactly that, So yeah,
I would think so. But you know, whatever this whether they're the
whether they're in the office, whether they're working remote, whether it's hybrid,
whether they do with what they're doing now, whether they change it, no
matter what, this game is going to be so big and so complicated that
it's going to require extra time. It's already sort of slipped out of what
they originally thought based on their previous guidance numbers for their fiscal year coming up.
So now it's like, okay, it's not going to be any time
before, you know, April twenty twenty five, and now that like that
seems unlikely and they are looking at the possibility of twenty twenty six. What
else is there to say other than they're going to take the time they need
because this game can't be messed up when it launches, right, No,
it cannot. Yeah, that would be that would be so rough for all
of take top, it'd be kind of rough for the gaming industry. You're
humid as it is that we depend so much on this one game for growth
we do. So, yeah, you absolutely can't risk a like mediocre launch
on this one. It has to come out maybe firing on all cylinders right
away. Some publishers question why they support Xbox as sales flatline in Europe.
This is something that Chris Dring was hearing from publishers when he was at GDC,
and it seemed like mostly it was the publishers that focus on Europe or
have big games that do well in Europe on other platforms. They were like,
hey, we have PC, we have PS five, these things are
doing great, and then these games aren't selling on Xbox, so why do
we even bother? That was the sentiment. I mean, another thing where
it's like, yeah, that sounds right to me now these days, A
part of that's just got to be people aren't excited to use their Xbox just
because there haven't been great exclusives. Right to me, it seems it's that
simple. But I don't know, is there something else going on? I
mean that's part of it. I don't know. Xbox has been in a
weird place for a while now. Phil Spencer did that interview Pauly Gone a
bit ago, kind of bemoaning the lack of growth, and you know,
it was kind of a pessimistic tone from Phil Spencer again, so it's kind
of like, man, what is going on over there? Was it was
gay? I'm asking a citizen the lean question. I really don't know.
I think maybe the answer probably is no. But was game Pass a mistake?
Did this ultimately hurt Xbox in some way? I don't know, because
what was the alternative too, Because like they could have gone out and got
a bunch more exclusives by paying money and like paying to keep other games off
of other platforms. But when they did that, that was a huge thing.
That was a huge deal, and people hated that. When they did
that with tomb Raider, that backfired on them. And I don't I didn't
see that changing, like, oh, they just kept doing that, things
would have got better. It's like, no, they would have always been.
There have been a lot of players on PC and PlayStation that resented Microsoft
for doing that. So I don't. They were kind of in a rock
in a hard place where I don't think there was some great answer, and
I think game Pass was at least an idea that could have disrupted the industry.
It just feels like it's going to take a lot longer for that to
do what it's supposed to do if it ever will, which doesn't seem like
a guarantee. I guess that was another thing Drings said is like Microsoft is
a less a little bit less emphasizing of game Pass right now. It's like,
well, then, what the hell, what's the wrong Guess that was
kind of the whole thing, right right. I think they've looked and seem
like it can only grow so much on console, and it's say, okay,
so we'll grow it elsewhere. Well, yeah, it's growing fast on
PC because there's a lot less people using it on PC, people like that's
a steam based platform. But then okay, then where does it grow next?
Yeah, on phones, maybe on TVs. Maybe that doesn't seem like
it's really going to catch on though for quite some time. So yeah,
I think they're looking at the numbers and be like, this thing is going
to be stuck around at most forty millions tobscribers and getting over that hump of
getting it to like a point where it can grow fast from that point is
a challenge that they have yet to figure out how to solve. So yeah,
uh, maybe they couldn't have predicted that. So in that then I
think in that light, maybe game Pass wasn't the best idea, but I
again, I don't know what the alternative. They had to take a swing,
and it obviously seemed like a good swing, and like it is a
like, you know, to be clear, game Past is great, It's
good. I think everyone else game Pass like said, but has it helped
Xbox's business? I mean, because we see where everybody is with streaming,
right, everybody pivoted to streaming, and it doesn't seem like it solved many
problems over on the entertainment side. And I guess you know a lot that
is carrying over a bit on the gaming side as well, at least when
it pertains to Xbox and game Pass. It definitely is not some silver bullet.
I think. I told you you've learned from all these different companies trying
this. You know, some are doing better than others. It sounds it
seems like, you know, Disney Plus that is growing. It's growing a
faster enough that it's it's shareholders are pretty happy with it. Things like that.
But yeah, I think that that being the answer to all their problems.
And once you have one of these that has a certain number of subscribers,
it's like, Okay, well that's that. Now we've solved our problems.
It's like, now, clearly that's not how it's gonna work. You
know, I was gonna let's hit through some of these I have, like
some like a bigger, like meta conversation I want to have with you in
the news. I think, so just let's there's an all white, all
digital Xbox. They are. It's kind of something that we've had rumored for
a while now, but it's actually gonna happen. It seems like it's gonna
happen this summer based on the leaks, and then they might have some other
hardware surprises later this year. I you know, I'm not gonna get shell
out for what is already the Xbox Series X that I have exactly the same
thing, just because it's all digital. Even if it has more storage,
that's not really necessary for me. I actually I wonder, like, what
is the point of this thing, because apparently they're gonna also lower the price
on it, which of course they have to because it's not it has fewer
features, right, doesn't have a drive. I don't know, this just
seems especially unexciting to me. I don't know, what do you think?
Yeah, Like, I mean, is the point here to phase out the
Series S, which would be a little bit surprising because really, I'm not
gonna bes right, this is gonna be like four to fifty problems. So
yeah, I guess I just don't know if, like the inswer of Microsoft
problems is a third tier uh with this thing? So, I mean it's
kind of like a fourth tier, right because they also have that Xbox Series
S with more storage. Oh right, right, you're right, yeah,
so's Yeah, it's getting a little confusing already. I don't know, like
new hardware, so weird. There were reports about what the Plastation five pro
being shown to developers at Games Common, like maybe the prevailing fought from them
was what is this? What's the point of this? Yes, exactly,
So that's uh right, We're in a weird situation with a lot of this
stuff where I think developers are kind of looking around being like, huh,
I don't know if we need this. And and then I think for the
Xbox Series X All Digital Edition, I don't know how they position that in
the market. I think that's where I'm at. I get kind of where
the PS five pro fits, where it's Hey, it's more powerful, and
so we get charge more for it, and the freaks out there that like
buy anything we put out are gonna want that. I don't know, the
same doesn't necessarily necessarily apply to something that's like we're removing the disk drive and
otherwise it's the same thing, even if it has more storage. I don't
think the freaks show up for something like that, you know, and I
count myself among the freaks there. It's a term of endearmor No, I
don't. It definitely doesn't seem like it's sort of something that anyone who already
has an Xbox Series xally. I guess it's got to be for neither adopters,
which should be clear is what they need. They need more new adopters
of the Xbox Series ecosystem. So I guess I get it from that sense.
We have to have some kind of new SKW that's maybe going to peel
to more people, and I don't know. Maybe I don't know the thing
about being like the all digital version is that all that really means is that
you're losing a feature and it's a bit cheaper. It's not necessarily an exciting
thing, right, right, compromise really, and it's a compromise a lot
of people are happy to make because like, yeah, I don't want to
I'm not buying physical media anymore anyway, so that's fine. But again,
it's not something that's going to really get people running through the aisles. Yeah,
and I suppose it's like it looks shiny and new on store shelves over
the holidays, but I don't know how much that moves the needle these days.
Toys for Bob, that game that they're making with Microsoft after leaving Microsoft
and getting their independence, turns out it is very likely spirro. Oh and
the Canadian guy a which I think is his name is a YouTuber who does
a lot of spiral and crash content, got this information said they're they're referring
to it as Spiro for Fantastic. That's I haven't heard this. That is
exactly what they should do, Toys Bob. You would feel that way.
That's how I feel as well. If you're going to do something that's in
existing property that you know isn't I don't think they could have done Banjo Kazuo.
They probably have someone else working on that. This is where they should
be working Spiral for is a great idea, all right. They did the
Spiral rematrol Gy that was fantastic, and then they did an incredible job of
Crash for. They may be even better suited for Spiral for. It's Spiro's
fun because Spiral is always a bit more of the open one. It's closer
to Ma Mario sixty four than Crash is. For sure. I think that
a modern spiral game could absolutely kill. And I've been saying this, What
I think what Xbox needs is more games that appeal to, like, you
know, not only a younger audience, but can appeal to a younger audience.
So I think that's a home run to me, that is. I
think that's the smartest thing Xbox has done a while. I still find it
a whole weird how they got to sell twice for Bob and then contract them
to do this. I don't know why they're not just doing this as an
Xbox studio, but whatever. That's That's the other new trend now is everybody
just selling off their studios, which is fantastic. Yeah, I mean,
speaking of that, I have this like industry shakeups like run Down here Take
two now owns Gearbox Relic buys its way out of Sega. Nintendo ended the
contracts of a bunch of testers in a way apparently primarily due to not having
a lot of new games coming out to test in the first place. Okay,
I mean we'll start, like, you know, start with like take
To buying Gearbox. That's yeah. Another thing where it's like, okay,
with all things kind of shaking out in the industry, that's another one.
It's like that Embracers looking to sell Gearbox take To can't afford Gearbox to go
someplace where that would cause trouble for them to put out more Borderlands games.
Of course, they just shelled out the four hundred and sixty million dollars in
stock to pick them up so they can keep making border Lands games. And
making Borderlands games is what they've confirmed they're doing. They're making a sequel,
likely Borderlands for a tiny team is Wonderland is also apparently on the on like
the docket for them to do. Those games have been doing better and better.
Despite it's like I think they're in that situation where people in our like
sphere talk about them a little bit less. A little bit less I think
with the general audience there like very they're more popular than ever, so then
returning to that makes a ton of sense, and Take to just can't afford
not to have that available to them. So yeah, not surprised that happened.
Yeah, no, it makes a ton of sense. I think it's
gonna be good for Take two and for Gearbox. Did you see like the
key art image of Take two, like they had like, yeah, a
picture for a borders, but also of Duke Nukem. I'm like, really,
are you you really gonna evoke Duke? I yes, Gearbox sounds Duke
Nukem right now. And I think Grandy Pictuck's proud of Duke Nukem. Yeah,
I think it's proud of owning Duke Nukem. I think that if a
new Duke Nukem game came out, no matter what direction it went in,
it would start a cultural like is it either like just really make a Duke
Nukem game and that's gonna be a problem, or they make like like the
kind of like self Aware's gonna be a problem to some people. So it's
just not let's just not touch that character act Duke Dukam as a BoJack Horseman
video game sort of thing would be fantastic, right, But you're right,
like people would like what he's he has feelings now, like I were saying,
guy of Duke Nukem to like only care about tits and shooting pigs.
Look, I didn't play the video game, but I saw the guys feelings
about how what he did before was bad and that's not the one I played,
So yeah, that would be the whole thing. Baby worked on this.
It just, you know, this whole thing just really weirds me out.
And I know that you know, exacts don't know what's going on,
but they just see it. So suddenly shift from a few years ago where
it was just bye bye bye, acquire flag flire, immediately sell sell or
clothes, Like gosh, it's terrifying. It's terrifying that these people are in
charge and they cannot, you know, see further than the next quarter.
And that's just where we're at. That's why we are here. Yeah,
Okay, So a couple other headlines. Developers also don't know why they need
PS five pro. We talked a little bit about that. Yes, Marvel
Rivals we got confirmed. Yeah, and at Ease is making their own Overwatch
sixty six again a third person, I don't know, Marvel heroes like the
Marvel five person. You know what, part of part of like super fatigue
is really just that I see these characters and I have a hard time feeling
things anymore. Yeah, And in most cases sometimes that's different, like you
know, like like X Men ninety seven the right presentation, like yeah,
that actually looks interesting, but another like another masshup thing and here we go.
I mean, let's be clear, if this game would have hit in
twenty fifteen, sure like they would have hit like a year after Overwatch,
Like when that what was that seventeen twenty sixteen? Okay, so like what
was the we got that one from the team that made that God mobile game,
Palatin Palate Palate Paladins. Right, if instead of Paladins we would have
got this game at that time, I think this would have done pretty well.
Now it just feels like so outdated on both what it's copying in terms
of the games gameplay style and the Marvel heroes being sort of out of fashion
for the moment. I don't know, it's very easy to be negative,
it's very easy to be dismissive of this game. I'll play it, we'll
see. If it's fun, I might play it some more. I'm just
not buzzing for it in any real way. No, you know, I'm
that eas for you to play. That makes me skeptical and in a lot
of ways. So I think we'll see, like because there's a you know,
there's a part of me that miss is Overwatch for sure, But I
just don't know some like I really don't know some other companies just gonna come
and make their own overall Watch. I don't know. So many weird accidents
had to happen for Overwatch to be what it was that I think it's pretty
hard to just replicate that. In the end. The game looks and the
game looks pretty like the Marvels. The character designs that are cool. So
yeah, the character designs look better than like something out of the Marbles Avengers
game from Square for sure. Yeah, Like the characters look like they were
actually designed by artists. And I think, you know, iron Man doing
an attack just like Pharah, you know what, I thought that looked pretty
cool? Sure? Why not like that? Like there were some deeper pools
and that's my Some charactersn't even Reckonie And I'm like, oh, these actually
look cool. I would like to learn more about them. So right,
sure, if you have a lady Black this that could step on all of
us at once. So finally not Dan, So you know, I'll give
it a shot, but it is it's hard to I'm not I would have
bet on it, right. And then the one I want to talk about
before we talk about the kind of this bigger story, Resident Evil nine could
be Open World. I am at a point where Capcom kind of gets a
chance to do what they want. I brought this up when we first talked
about it. I think Dan said something similar when I brought up on the
BombCast. Resident Evil changes up. You know, every handful of games they
change up the formula, and that has only benefited the series. I think
the switch from three to four was right. I think the switch from six
to seven was well, was very much needed at that point. So you
know, we got seven eight in that style and then going to nine and
having to be open World. I also think, hey, that's you're not
waiting for the next one to kind of be dominant diminishing returns kind of similar
to what happened with God of War, Right, They're gonna go out God
War twenty eighteen, then Ragnarok, and it's like, we're not gonna do
a third one that's gonna be People be like, ah, yeah, but
it's more of the same and that's really bad. This time. It's like,
no, we're just gonna change things up again. Here we are there.
They have Residuval nine. They have the reach for the Moon engine that
can do open world now that we've seen with Dragons Dogma obviously needs some improvements,
but they can do it. So that's what they're gonna do with Residubal
nine. I am, I think pretty excited for this, Mike. I
don't blame anyone who is a traditional as a residuebal fan for being maybe hesitant.
They also making the The Master Hunter, whiles that that game is all
right, but that one just makes perfect sense to me, right, that's
like this the most obvious thing in the world. Of course, hard to
open world with all the like the franchises, right and apparently so, yes,
that's a good point. Bring that up though, it's like they do
these things in threes as well. Internally, that's what Dus Gollum, the
person who broke this rumor said. So when they started making Drags and Dragons
Dogma two. Part of that was like, Okay, that's gonna be open
world, and then the part of that technology will go into Monster Hunter a
Wild and then also Resident Evil nine, and those would be the three games
that we make in this style, and then from there we could break it
off and do like three more Resident Evil games or two more RESI receival games
based on that. But yes, that's what they're doing. I mean some
of the words like what, okay, what do we mean by open world
here, because like you know, like Resident Evil eight is kind of a
hub and spoke thing where it's to me it means more than that, and
to me that means something much closer to Dragon I mean Dragons Dogma two.
I think it's going to be open world, but in the way the Dragons
Dogma two is open world. Yes, I think that's what they're trying to
say. I would almost like it more if it was like a city open
world thing, but I think that's a great idea too. Of course,
I think you're probably right. You know again, Yeah, I'll see what
it is. I think I'm good with the main series doing that. Look,
we're still going to get these remakes that are going to be these more
like super polish, more linear things that might be more my style in the
long run. But I guess I'm curious to see what the take here is.
But absolutely I'm glad they're not doing another Resident Evil Village. I liked
Village. I think that that kind of already ran through those ideas pretty well.
Yeah, we'll see again. It's Capcom. They're on a heater kind
of let them I'm gonna let them cook, is where I'm at with Capcom
these days. Then cook with FMB. Let them cook with FMB. That's
right, full meat video, all right. So, like remember, like
in twenty twelve and twenty eleven, we were to talk about like, oh
my god, consoles are dead, and it's it's because of mobile games and
we're gonna go like free to play and then and that's only one's gonna play
and it's gonna just and developers are only going to focus on that because it's
such a big return on their investment and we're worried about all these things,
and people were freaking out and uh, and it felt like it was kind
of the end of the world. And the consoles came out and they did.
Fine, does part of you feel like, man, a lot of
those concerns that people had back then about like the slippery slope arguments, like
we're kind of there in a lot of ways with with you know, Oh,
there's five games that people spend sixty percent of their total playtime on,
Like sixty percent of all the games that are being played in a day are
spent on these five games. And how do like, I don't know,
are we gonna be in this rut for a long time or do you think
there's a chance that we bounce out of it relatively quickly? Are we sort
of at the end of gaming as we know? It might not to be
you know, controversial, that's like the I mean, that's definitely like the
big fear, like the worscust scenario. I like to hope not, you
know, I think there are a lot of challenges because so much of it
is just people following one step and not thinking it out. Like everybody like,
well, we all need to make a big live service game. So
everybody like bakes a bunch and then some of them hit. Then those few
that hit now take up like you said, like sixty percent of all gaming,
and you know, well, we have to support these games forever.
Well, okay, but obviously these people are going to be less inclined to
buy new games, right Did anybody think about that? And it seems like
the ANSWER's sort of no. So I think what's scaring me even more is
the conversion of kind of younger and younger audiences. And that goes a bit
back to the mobile thing. Are our kids these days when they turn you
know, twelve or thirteen, are as many of them asking to kind of
you know, upgrade to big home consoles like they used to? Or are
they just like, what are you talking about? I could already play all
the games I want to on my iPad or on my home computer or on
my phone. So that's the thing that's maybe worrying me the most. There's
a bunch of different challenges right now. And the fact that there's challenges aren't
new, aren't isn't like this this whole problem. I'm worried about the industry's
current capabilities to rise to those challenges. Yeah, it's because the industry has
always been, you know, questionably risk averse, like they've always been.
It's always been my Hey, when there is headwinds we buckle down and we
get maybe we do like stop making those kinds of games because we're afraid that
they're not going to do well. And at this point, it feels like
if they were to look at the data in front of them, you could
see how some of these companies decide well, making new games at all is
kind of risky and maybe we shouldn't be doing that at all. It's okay,
how can that be the answer. But it's because that you spelled it
out and that interview with Phil Spencer. You know, one of the things
he said is gen Z is guiding how they're deciding what they're going to do,
and it's like that's the reason they want to put Xbox games everywhere.
It's because what you said, they expect the game to be in front of
them where they're at, and if it's not there, it's not like,
well then I got to go get the platform to play that. It's just
dead to them. They don't even consider it as something they're going to do
because it's gonna It's like, hey, I have TikTok on my phone,
I have Rowblocks on my phone, I have Minecraft, I have Call of
Duty, I got Fortnite I have all these things right here, and I
can go from game to game to game, apt apt app and hang out
with my friends the entire time, seamlessly. And if you are not part
of that that sort of flow, you are not even like in their consideration.
So that's why Microsoft's well, we have to be there. That's where
we need to We need to insert ourselves into that market. And okay,
yeah, but there's also no guarantee that you're gonna, like, you're gonna
be able to bring new stuff to them. They are they already. Here's
what I'm worried about. It's like sports. At a certain point, we
just stopped getting new sports. There was golf, baseball, soccer, hockey,
football, And if you try to put out a new sport today,
if you're not pickoball like the first new sport in like fifty years that anyone's
given a shit about, and it's like that's only old people and like the
people who have bad hips, you're fucked. And it's like, is that
where video games are? Because right now that's where it feels like video games
are this very moment. And I've always been hopeful that games have been able
to constantly innovate, and that's been their strength. But maybe that's just been
a byproduct of it being a young industry. I remember where it used to
feel like it'd be so fresh to get a new ip. Now, even
just getting a sequel, a new release of some kind feels fresh genera Wow,
are you kidding me? That's feasting right. It's like, oh wow,
it's not just a new season of Fortnite or a new anime collapse with
some other free service game. Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's
for a long time. I think the normal state of video games was that
it always changes, like it's always got a year from now, everyone's going
to feel different and the hot thing is going to be so much different than
what it was what was hot two years ago. And that's why, like
in the shooter genre, we went from GoldenEye to to Counterstrike to Halo to
Call of Duty to Fortnite to PUBG to all these different things just bang bang
extraction shooters, and eventually one of them just gets big enough that even like,
okay, well yeah, extraction shooters came by, and Fortnite's now still
just even bigger than it's ever been. And it's like, is Fortnite just
going to keep getting bigger and swallowing up the possibility space for something new to
come along. Where I'm standing right now, it feels that way. I
hope in three years we look back and we remember this conversation and we go
remember how worried we were, where we were a bunch of dumb bitches for
thinking that the games weren't going to bounce back. But as where it stands
right now, I'm more concerned than I have been in a very long time.
Right, I know, I already seeing cause the chat I'm surging it
more like, Wow, you guys be so pessimistic, it's so negative,
right, Probably, I hope, so, I hope, so yeah,
I don't know, things just seem things. Like I said, there are
a lot of different challenges happening right now. In so far, the solutions
that I am seeing from leadership of just either laying people off or selling off
studios, making fewer games, you know, doing this and that, though
they don't seem great, it doesn't seem like it's setting us up for the
future. And again, like the things that we are depending on are like
one big game like Thotal six. Well, okay, that's gonna come out
and then like, what do we do next year, because nobody's gonna be
like, well, that's okay, Grathathal six came out, that'll hold us
for the next eight years. Of course not so then what right, it's
all I gotta make that money for one of the companies anyways, right,
Yes, I mean it's gonna go to the you know, to xbox,
the places where they give sword and steam, but generally it's it's not gonna
exactly get spread all over the entire industry like Pixie does, right, and
uh, you know, GTA six comes along, makes a lot of money,
and they don't put out a new GTA for at least ten years after
that. I'm of the opinion they won't put out a new GTA like at
least fifteen years after that. Like that's what we're looking at, Like,
that's what we're looking down the barrel if they've already been about that long since
GTA five to now, right, and that it might take that much longer
for it to come out, might be fifteen years by the time it's all
said and done between GTA five and GTA And okay, so yeah, GA
six might come out and make a ton of money. But that's not some
answer to what we're talking about here. The answer might it continues to be
and this is what we always say when we have these conversations or conversations along
these lines, that it will be the independent games stepping up more and more
and more. But that's like, that's not the video game industry. That's
like the like, and you know, I think that's where I'm like,
that's where I'm at. The video game industry as we know it is just
kind of fizzling out, and it's and it's going to leave the remains that
will be picked apart by a bunch of people who do this because they have
a lot of great artistic ideas and they want to make games because they have
these ideas and they have to get them out there. And thankfully they do
have some platforms where they can succeed, but most independent games do not.
The vast majority of it is like ninety eight percent go out and they do
nothing and the two percent breakthrough, and you know, and I feel like
that's not going to last forever either if there isn't this robust, wider industry
sort of inspiring all this, all these ideas it's very easy to be pessimistic
right now. I guess is where again I'm saying, like more chat like
I don't know, like, oh I does Why do you think everything has
to really on GT six? It's not what I think, It's not what
Jeff thinks. I agree, there are tons of great video games coming out,
but the way that the system is set up, and Phil Spencer said
this in the interview with Polygon is the only thing that matters is growth.
And Phil's bart saying there isn't growth right now, and there wasn't growth in
a year last year where we had one of the best slates of video games
ever. So what changes? And I guess, like that's what I'm curious
with people who maybe think we're being pessimistic. And I hope so, like,
does it just grow again suddenly? Because is there something on the horizon
that is really shifting all of this? I would love to, I guess
understand what the big turning points? You know, sometimes the market is actually
just like that. Sometimes it really does just shift anyways, And I hope
So, I guess there's no there's no harm in being cautious about this and
being a little bit worried about it exactly. I think we're just trying to
like hash it out. You know. I've gone back and forth on like
my my, you know, on the pessimism optimism meter, and it's like,
you know, just a little bit of like a downside right now.
When I'm like really looking at all these numbers, I think, I you
know, Matt Pisktel put out his thing where it's like this year is going
to be down about two percent to ten percent at the worst case scenario,
and that's a pretty big drop, you know, year to year. But
you know, we're not going to have stuff like Zelda, We're not gonna
have stuff like that Harry Potter game. So yeah, it's a tough comparison.
The thing that really does get me though, is the sixty percent of
playtime spent on five different games. That's where it's like, if we are
in that stagnation where this the black hole sucks in everything, I don't know
how big companies can continue to justify investment in new games. And they are
they were already afraid of investing in new games because they were risky, risky
even before this was the case that was happening in like twenty fourteen and fifteen
and sixteen, before stuff like Fortnite was really taken off, even before GTA
Online was the behemoth that it slowly became over those years, they were hesitant.
I mean Xbox, I think was notorious for this at that time,
where they're just say, hey, we are afraid to make new games because
we see how much time you guys are spending on destiny. But hey,
yeah, it's we're going to try this game pass thing and see if that
works. So now that we are living in the world where that worst case
scenario of can you put out something and get attention it has come true.
I just think that these big companies are going to kind of go running.
And you know, I don't think video games are ever going to go away,
of course not. I just wonder just how much could it change.
May maybe it's not going to change much at all. And I see someone
else saying, oh, we need we don't need growth, it needs to
building your revenue. We should just needs to build your revenue. But again,
like with this system where investors are involved, the only thing investors want
to see ninety nine percent of time is growth, and if there isn't,
they're going to lose stock value. When they lose stock value, they are
going to lay people off and cancel projects. Yeah. I mean, you
know, Sony PlayStation's been growing, they have been growing fast enough. Ye
Like that's and they have delay people off, right, and so like they
lay people off because they weren't growing fast enough. Yes, ideally we could
be in a world where it's just hey, you made as much money as
last year, We'll employ the same number of last year. We'll take care
of our employees. We don't live in that system. So that's that's where,
Yeah, that informs a lot of these concerns because we know what these
companies believe that they need to do to keep their shareholders happy. And that's
we know that they're capable of panicking in major ways. And so I'm foreseeing
that a little bit. I you know, I think we get to twenty
twenty five, people will probably take a breath. The Nintendo console will get
announced, GTA will probably get a release date, a real release date,
and then people start looking around be like, okay, now we can start
planning. You know, we got to put our game out around GTA whatever.
We do have a bunch of games in the works because we do make
some games to make a lot of money. We're Sony're Microsoft, We're
in that situation. And you know, if Tenda puts out a console and
it sells great again, I'm going to feel pretty good myself. But just
where it is today, if I was trying to advise one of these companies,
I would hope I could find an argument to say, make more games
and that's the solution. But it feels more challenging than ever to say that
because there is no guarantee you're going to be able to get that attention that
you need with Fortnite and all these games sucking up all the oxygen in the
room. So yeah, we'll keep an eye on it. We'll this conversation
will keep ongoing, especially throughout this year when there will be fewer and fewer
games released. Except you know what, I'll reiterate, keep here in Dragon
Ages coming out this year. So if you're looking for something in the second
half of the year, like oh, there's nothing coming out, that's something,
get excited about that. I guess, so some good news to pend
to the bottom of that. All right, let's take a quick break.
When we get back. We will make make some decisions, including the mount
rushmore of Capcom games. Read from super chats, Baby, that's right right
after this, and we're back, Mike. I think we got a handful
of super chats. Thanks for everyone that sent those in a lot of very
generous super chats tonight. Yes, thank you so much everybody. Uh.
First one, here's from rodu Peragle to ghanas he says had a recent windfall
and thought i'd share the joy with my favorite dynamic duo. Question. What
video game industry personality would make a good Colombo murderer? Signed your Columbo at
arms, Octo H. Peter Malinu would make a great Columbo murderer. I
think he'd be thinking he'd be able to out think Colombo, and he would
get kind of nervous and make it over complicated. I think that would be
a very interesting one because it's guy. It's gotta be somebody with money.
Oh yeah, right, Randy Pichford is a great one. Yeah, that
would be fit. Yeah, because the Magician angle. I never haven't seen
the Magician episode of Colombo yet. That is one. I think I did
watch that before. That was a good one. Dan wants to be to
know that he took some kind of test at somebody under the giant Bomb reddit
pitting Super and Tone versus four games. Then yeah, I'm shocked that st
four to one for him. What do you want you making me report this
dead? Hey? Dan? Tell him to save that because we're gonna talk
about on BCR tomorrow over it's goleen to go over it. We'rea I'm shouted
you didn't pick any of the j RPGs. It's so for people to wondering,
and it's a like side by side comparison like choosing in sixty four game
or Super Nintendo game and it's like Mario sixty four or Super Mario World,
and it does that for a bunch of different like challenges, a bunch of
different comparisons. And uh, I think it's like twenty four on there.
Do you know who made that joyse Joys? Yeah? Did So we're going
to talk about that on BCR tomorrow. I think maybe we'll say we'll even
get it. Look, Dan, I'm saying it's when I saw this list,
is like, oh, there's more good games of sixty four than I
thought. So there is that? Does that make you happy? That makes
me happy? There? And I was just like I hate in sixty four
cats. Dan's got an opinion? What am I supposed to do about that?
I like why at sixty four get practicing that Jetson's NYES game day.
We're getting speed ring that Apparently, Kelly, I was excited when you guys
started talking about that. Yeagar are zero with their first super tests. Hello,
Beefy Banner boys. My brother and I are driving to Cleveland to check
out this totally clips on eight, our first time in Cleveland. Any tips
on what to check out and where to eat? Down town to the flats?
Yeah, the flats are back the flats. It's kind of a fun
section of bars and restaurants right to where the river there meets Lake Eerie.
There's very nice seafood restaurant there called Lindy's, an awesome brewery and restaurant called
Collision Bend. Right there, there's a Margarite Hill On East fourth Street,
closer to like mid downtown, not too far from Progressive Field and where the
Cavs play. There's a Michael Simon's barbecue restaurant Maybels. I like that a
lot. And across from that is another good brewery and restaurant called butcher in
the brewer. They have an albino stout that is fantastic. The biggest brewery
in the area and it's also a good restaurant. Is a Great Lakes Brewery
that's over on the west side. You have to cross the bridge from downtown.
It really get there nice there. I loves Great Lakes Brewery and that
is right by a cool barcade called sixteen Bit with a bunch of free play
machines and a lot of fun cocktails and drinks on tap and like pin bowling,
lots of fun stuff. So also, uh on the west side,
very good ice cream place called Mitchell's the very good. So I think I
think west Side where Great Lakes and sixteen Bit are and then the flats.
Those are kind of my favorite Cleveland spots. Joe, and you know,
if you look for like Torsie things that are fun to do, you know,
go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of Oh yeah, yeah,
definitely. Yeah. Mike's right, that's the stuff I would have said,
because he's the one that showing me around. So yes, agreed,
on's fine quick. Dan's asking if I'm gonna come tailgate with with them in
Philadelphia Damn, I'm gonna try to plan it. It would have to be
on Saturday. It's gonna be tough because that weekend. I didn't realize that
was the weekend of the eclipse or leading into the eclipse. Because it's gonna
be a nightmare in town. So getting back into town, I'm worried about
that. But I'm like, maybe Amtrak's probably be nightmare. But I'm much
i'd get a train backed from Philadelphia around that time. That might be nice
because then I could just watch WrestleMania on my phone as I'm coming back.
So I'm gonna look into it. Or you cannot go all the way to
Philadelphia just to hang on a parking garage or whatever and you can watch WrestleMania
with me. I know, I know, But Jason Fideli's because he talks
about all this food they're gonna make and for the tailgate. Okay, listen,
try to ruin your plan. No, No, it's just it sounded
so fun like they're going, you know, it's tailgating in Philly too.
It's like a thing. But I don't know, we'll see it's probably not
gonna work out. Now they'll like start thinking about how difficult that would be,
so we'll see. Uh. Next one here is from Ali Miracle says,
had a good interview for an Eternal Position today and it went really well.
I want to share the joy and I'm napping because it's been a long
week things for all you do boys, Yes, boobs or Pauger's thank you,
Ali merrickle appreciate. Thank you, Alan Merrick your luck on that glad
that went well for you. The n tidd Wolf says, I have successfully
crimed my three DS. Yes, they've mostly been playing DS games. But
I'm curious what else I can do in this thing. And he must need
applications. Age Shop, get the age Shop. You have the age Shop.
You're good. That's just what gets you everything. Hate Shop is the
E Shop. But I thought h might have dood for something else. Oh
no, okay, well now I understand why you might think that, but
no, it just means I think it means hat Shop. Yeah, there
you go, and it has all. It's basically that has every game that
was on the E Shop. So you can just do yeah. Oh,
Greg says, so aside from DLC's like for Elder Ring and Final Fantasy fourteen
or releases. What releases are you most interested in for the rest of twenty
twenty four? A Jeff is a Ridge Racer coming out this year? Fuck?
No, okay, well not that, but I am excited for Indiana
Jones in the Great Circle. I have good hopes for that. Star Wars
Outlaws. I hope it's still also this year. I supposed to be this
year, right, I think, so I may better be. I have
it on my fantasy critics if I hope that would be really nice. I
you know, God, as soon as it slows down Jedi Survivor, I'm
going back to that people. People have been going back to that in the
last couple of weeks and everyone's like, you don't let this rules, And
I'm like, yeah, I bet, I bet, I'm gonna love that
game. So yeah, Meana, the Halloware also hopefully comes out this year
that that would be nice. Spectroid Prime four that comes out, that will
help my help my fantasy draft. Yeah, but that'd be next year with
a switch to yeah, probably Sledge. Rhinhold says, what's up Dogs,
Hello, Youth, Todday first, Super TEDDERO. I never get to catch
these live, so I figured since the Stars have a line. I drop
a super check to thank you for all you guys do. Keep up the
good fight. Thank you so much. Sludge really appreciate it. Thank you.
Sledge ryd Hold, I really like that name. Andy Ford Prez with
their fifth super chat, says, do you guys see companies increasing investments in
smaller games, especially after all the acquisitions? Expected more news about that.
Also, Mikey, you have to show Penny or you look like a psychopath.
I already showed Penny on the dumb truck. She's I just saw a
sack of potatoes. I think he might be going insane. Everybody, Yeah,
they should be investing in smaller games. Actually, had a really nice
conversation at PEX East with with her Major Nelson, who's an advisor for a
publisher called Midwest Games. Right now, they have lots of fun games.
The one I really liked was called Duck Paradox. It's a roguelike where you're
it's like you have to like shoot these ducks. You have to kind of
navigate these like stages and stuff. But the gimmick is that it's like a
twinsic shooter, but when you shoot a bullet, it will bounce off the
walls forever until it hits an enemy or you basically, so if your aim
as bad, you kind of create your own bullet. Hell's the gimmick there?
Oh that's really neat. Yeah, there's been. And I absolutely think
that these bigger publishers need be doing more small games, like had that half
measure right where they were doing things like Untangled or whatever, like you know
what, the things that got them freaking It takes too right, and it
takes you made all this money and like you know, these things are doing
well and then we don't really say much more of it for some reason.
Well we do. They did it again with the this is the this is
the problem with it. The other one was Immortals of Avium. Yeah,
but it's not that's is that a small game? How small is that?
Right? It was the it was the same like EA Partners thing, But
I guess it wasn't all that small. And the good thing with small games
is if they do really well, you could make a sequel that's bigger.
You could do it then like it's so you know a few years in a
few years, yeah, and a few years, right, and so it's
like why not take a lot of smaller risks, and if people respond to
one of them, make it bigger. You know what, He's going to
be really big. Hades two and Haunted Chocolates here, those are gonna be
big games, massive out you know, Spoon Heaven gonna be huge. Yes,
yes, of course if that comes out this year. I'll be looking
forward to that. But it's it's insane that I'm not confident that game's coming
up. Yeah, we're supposed to come out last year, so yeah,
come no longer ago than that. Oh boy, all right, more super
chats one more here? Oh ya? Assuming mechs is very happy to see
Foma nine representation in FOM Fancy fourteen for the Dontro expansion and a possible remake
on the horizon, I need more people to appreciate Boom boomer got how I
say this? Boom Machians How we ever read that? Oneians Michians right?
People find nine? Yes? Yeah, I did even talk about this in
the news because we had so much, like so many different headlines. Yeh,
Final Fantasy nine. Probably we talked. I kind of forced it into
an attend OBOU this week, so we talked about it there. But boy,
I sure hope that that is happening either way, though, we are
getting found Fancy nine stuff in Fan Fantacy fourteen, so that alone is exciting.
Final Fantasy nine rules it is the best. Hey, today's was Keendum
Hearts the Anniversary, by the way, so don't say anything about kiendam Hearts.
Just one at least I know why you like to hurt me. All
right, thank you for reading those super chats, Mike. Thank you everybody
who sent those in. We will get to the rest of them if you
send it anymore before the end of the show, so feel free to do
that. If there's something that we miss that you want to talk about,
that's the best way to get us to talk about it. But first,
let's take another break. When we come back, we will do that Mount
Rushmore of Capcom games. And we're back and it's time to do the Mount
Rushmore of Capcom Games. Mike, this was your idea. I thought it
was a pretty good one. I'm brady to hop in there. We're gonna
do this in honor of Dragon's Dogma two coming out. Dragons Dogma two probably
not gonna make it too sad to put it on the Mount Rushmore. That's
just how it works, all right. I really like that game. Yeah,
I mel like a lot. I mean, it's great to do this
with Capcom because I think Capcom, like aside from Nintendo, is like one
of the greatest gaming developer sashon publishers ever. This an incredible library over a
very long time, generations and generations, right, basically going back to almost
the point of gaming being relevant. They kind of start out in the Arcade
and they really hit their stride in that NES era, being kind of again
aside from Nintendo, the company putting out the most high quality games on that
system. Right, they are synonymous with gaming alongside those other companies in a
really strong way for me, And it was synonymous like the nes Yes,
and then the thing with Capcom is they just kept up every generation. They
were right there making some of the best games every generation since then. And
in ways it's like, you know, over time, it took me a
while like to be like, oh man, Monster Hunter was this huge thing
in Japan and then became a huge thing everywhere. So they just they yeah,
they kept going and kept trying new things and it usually worked. Not
everything worked. They definitely had some like periods where it's like, hey,
we're making Bionic or yeah buying the Commando, Well we're gonna make the three
D one or whatever, and so yeah, that stuff didn't work. But
Capcom every generation has a game that stood out, usually multiple games. There's
some obvious ones here. We'll probably get to those. Is there one that
you think is like a fun one to start with where you want to go
first? I kind of want to almost start chronologically, because I do think
again, they hit their STrenD that NES era. They were like, you
know, I think it's Capcom Konami, Nintendo in terms of people just making
a ton of great games on that system, right, And to me,
the one that sort of stands out the most, even though I'm more of
a Mega Man three guy, I think Mega Man two is kind of the
Capcom nes game. Yeah, the first Mega Man and it's good. It's
a little fucking some places. And then this team, even though they you
know, weren't really allowed to unless they did it sort of in their spare
time, they put all this passion into this sequel. They released Mega Man
two and it's just an all timer, right, just even though it visually
looks so identical, plays so much better all time great soundtrack, just such
a fun and whimsical and tough but in a really rewarding way kind of game.
It is maybe the most capcom game to me still in a lot of
ways. And meganism and mascot. There's gotta be some Mega Man love.
Oh you know, I mean, listen, Mega Man's making this list.
That's there's no question to me there, I yes, and I think Mega
Man two is the right one. It is. It's iconic. It's iconic,
and it stands out among any S games. It's something where you immediately
look at it and it gives off good vibes and good memories and you know,
great music, all that stuff. Whenever you tell somebody to make an
n yes sprite of a character, they will just kind of trace over the
Mega Man sprite exactly, Yes, right away, Yes killed it. I'm
curious, like you would have started chronologically other other any S games that you
think have a good chance of making the list. I'm probably not, just
because it does get so incredibly crowded, Like there's a part of me that
would be like Man duc tails, You're so good and as like an adaptation,
and again, just the soundtrack, what incredible, incredible stuff there.
But I think probably the next one I would go to again as kind of
chronological thinking, has to be street Fighter two. Street Fighter two would be
the one that, yes, if we're going in that, Yes, street
Fighter two is another one where there's just no chance it doesn't make the list.
It is like potentially on the Mount Rushmore of video games two. They
were quote unquote fighting games before this, but this really invented the genre.
And I talk about Mega Mid two is like the substantial improvement of over Mega
Man one. Like street Fighter one may as will not exist, Yes,
but we've talked about this before, the biggest gap between a sequel and its
predecessor. But in any genre, in any form of art, ever,
it is the biggest gap. You're right, it might as well not exist,
and it kind of doesn't. Street Fighter one kind of doesn't exist.
Street Fighter two, however, is the template for an entire genre going forward
for the rest of time. Yeah, there's no way street Fighter two doesn't
make this. It is the thing. It was a cultural event. It
got everyone into arcades. It defined arcade culture in a lot of ways.
It was gonna be. It wasn't just at arcades, it was at seven
elevens and roller rinks. It was everywhere. Yeah, Street Fighter two is
definitely the next one I would have gone to. Now. This is actually
a little before strat Fared too, and I don't think it's a game,
ye I Knight, Sure Iver makes it, but Final Fight should not be
discounted. Again, there were beat them ups before Final Fight. They were
very much in that double dragon mold. Final Fight invented that very familiar beat
them up format I think we are all familiar with. Yet that kind of
leads into basically the Turtles games and Streets of Rays, right, you know,
there were maybe even more Final Fight knockoffs and Street Fighter two knockoffs in
the arcades for a while. You kind of can't underestimate how important Final Fight
was. The difference is that that important sort of land after a while.
The beatam of genre, although it's having a researchers right now, did kind
of go away in Final Fight itself has sort of lost relevancy and is now
kind of just background dressing for Street Fighter again. Yeah, I mean we
could definitely keep there. That's like the big arcade game from that time for
them as well. I would you know if we're going chronologically still, though,
I think I go to Super Nintendo and there's some there's some great capcom
games. But I'm like already looking at the list getting pretty crowded, and
I don't know how many of those actually make the cut for me. But
what do you think? Yeah, I think Street Fight two almost kind of
make that. Yeah, or I mean, if it wasn't Mega Man two,
megah X might like the Megama recitation Megman X is fantastic, it's incredible.
I think Magna two kind of speaks for that whole series, and we
are going to have that converse is a bunch of times, because I mean
I think we go to What's Next here and Resident Evil Resivil two? Yeah,
it like these are games that both could make the list, and it's
like, man, do they even do even those two make it? When
we get to Resent Evil four, I'm at least gonna put them both here
for consideration. But if you had to choose one Resident Evil or Resident Evil
two, which one would you go with? I think I picked the original.
I know Residevil two is mostly an sat A better game, it probably
is, but it's close enough to me. I think you just give it
to that first game again invented a genre, and again like very early on,
like you know, that's an early PlayStation game, and Capcom immediately had
a huge hit early on when a lot of people were still trying to figure
this whole three D gaming thing out, and they made something that was a
ton of fun and just incredibly memorable and immediately attracted a dozen copycats. Yeah,
and that's it, you know, a very popular franchise right out of
the gate, and they've been able to make it more popular over time.
But it really does start with the first game being sort of you know they
did. What they did was tree Fighter. They invented a genre basically.
Yeah, Alone in the Dark was there, but Lone the Dark did not
start a genre for a reason, Resident Evil did. Yeah, any other
games from this generation for Capcom you would want to include? Uh, I
mean there's a lot of good games. There's a lot of Guests, of
course, there's a lot of good games. There's a lot of good games
in the Super Nintendo and any S generation for sure. Yeah, I guess
I'm already starting to think about Monster Hunter at this point. Yes, Monster
Hunter is the one that's like gonna be looming large, you know, I
mean, do we do you want to have the Residual four conversation right now?
Then? Yeah, that's rough because like boy, that could also be
on there, and there's a lot of other great capt On games from that
era. My problem is, like, I don't know if I could if
we have two Resident Eval games on there, And it's difficult because Resivul one
is incredibly important, but so is Resident Evil four, right, and in
pretty different ways. Yeah, and in different ways for sure. Gosh,
that's difficult. It's I mean, I'm gonna so I got rid of Resident
Evil two with Resuble one, and I'm gonna leave Resuble four up there.
But yeah, so that for audio listeners that has this at Mega Man two
Street Fight or two Final Fight, a Residuable and Resuble four. So we
are already at five games. One of those is not gonna make it.
I think at the end of the day, it's gonna be very tough for
two Resident Evils to make it because if so, we're in we're in this
generation now. Since we're talking about Resuble four, you know, there's Monster
Hunter getting ready to happen. Devil May Cry is happening. Devil May Cry
uh oh, call me big deal. I know we're not the biggest hands.
Big deal. A bit before this, like, the one other fighting
game that I do think needs to be considered is Marvel versus Capcom two versus
Capcom two. Yes, Scott, right, man, it's just gosh,
it's funny because it's like basically the fifth entry in the Versus series. But
they just went so ridiculous with that. I mean that X Men cartoon right
now, x Men ninety seven. There's so much like they're saying, Marvelvus
go to influence in that this is still a game people think about constantly.
I freaking loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. It was somehow
like a lot in in so many ways. There's so many characters, so
much going on, but also really accessible actually right, Yeah, Like it's
overwhelming when you first approach it, definitely, but they don't they make it
fun to learn it. Yeah, and this is a little I gave me.
It's just incredible. It's like right, very so details. Yes,
it's one of those games people are still playing to this day because of that
very reason. Yeah. Yeah, but I go ahead, I was gonna
say it, like again, Monster Hunter continues to large party where we start
talking about these other games, and I'm like, I don't know how we
get through this without putting Monster Hunter on there. Which one I think it
would be? World or my Thing. I think that's when when I would
put to you know, maybe that's like westernism for me, but like,
man, it really broke through here finally, is because I think they kind
of smooth out some of the reference edges. I think the presentation was a
lot better. Master Hunter World just felt important, as you can say as
a back lar would say, yeah, okay, So I mean for me,
uh, I'm like, anything we add is gonna have a hard time
breaking through what we have right now. So do you want to just start
throwing stuff out or we can keep going chronologically if you want. Why don't
we not throw anything out yet? Maybe we should see what frendos are saying.
Oh yeah, great idea. That's a good idea. Okay, let
me get that set up. Yeah yeah, And there's like and I can't
immediately think of some other things. I know, I'm like a little not
as huge on Double May Cry as some people say, but like you know
that that also kind of evented as a genre with like that certain style of
character action game that is still actually going pretty strong these days. For sure,
there's some that I think are are fun games, like uh like that
Rising where I'm like, well, look at everything else we got here?
H Phoenix, right, man, I forgot I have a Phoenix right,
yeah, finished camp. No, that's great, but you know, man,
gosh, I want to put like a statue of Phoenix right next to
them out Rushmore because it is right, so it's got its niche it is,
but it is like one of the best diiches in all of video games.
Man, I love Phoenix right, all right, we have the podcast
producers chiming in. Let's start here with Turbo Sean who drops a Marvel.
Yeah, Marvel versus Capcom? I believe, right? Is that what this
is? That's just for the thread. It's just fun. Sorry, listen.
It was a picture of a bunch of fighting game characters. I figured
you'd want to chime in. I'm like, I'm like, actually, I
didn't see I guess technically they are all fighting game characters because this is a
Polico. This there's mister yeah for some reason, Jesus Christ moving on.
Yeah, I kind of just saw her all right, Moving on Alamera Servesa,
Crystal says Capcom versus S and K two. Yeah, like all these
verses, I think it's where we're gonna be. The versus games are gonna
be represented by one. Yeah, this one does rip though I was playing
this like a year or so the GameCube version. God, this game is
very good. It is a it is a very different flavor from Marves's Capcom
and it's a ton of fun. Love it. Nick Turbo says Resident Evil
four. Yep, gonna it's gonna be weird if we have this list.
It doesn't have versingable four on it. But who knows where we're gonna The
bench j C says Ghost Trick Phantom Detective Man. We played through this for
the Game Club not too long ago, and maybe the least negative Game Club
episode ever so in terms of very few people had anything bad to say about
the game. It is just delightful. I need to play it. Think
that happen. Jamie H. Christmas Eve says The Game Boy Color Classic,
The Legends alda Oracle of Seasons. It's very good. That's definitely the Probably
the even though they're very similar, Seasons is better than Ages I think those
people agree. Casual said, Dead Rising God, yeah, I like that
game. You know, the one I played the best was Dead Rising three
because it was an Xbox One launch game, and it was actually a very
good launch game. It's a good game. Yeah, there were some actually
some surprise of the good Xbox One launch games. I even like Rise Launch.
Yeah. Uh. Ebo Janis said Mega Man two. Look at that.
I looked at this box so much as a kid in this car.
Lookrack, I love it looks like it's Doctor Light for some reason, hiding
behind crash band, which doesn't make any sense. But uh yeah, gonna
pants them. I think you're right. Uh. Klaus Raynor says Okami,
Yeah, drawing circles is hard, though, Yeah, I mean listen,
I struggled with drawing the line. Two time champ Beef Hammers's Marvel versus Capcom
two with artwork that looks pretty much indistinguishable from what Sean posted. But no
was good man. Jill was. Jill Valentine is so good in this game.
I love she is, like that she has that ultimate where just like
a t u Ethin or whatever, just like sponsor, the ground starts slashing
away. So good. So good. I love the way this game.
Last year, speaking of Gill Valentine, last year, somebody discovered like an
infinite that nobody discovered until like last year. So I remember that that was
crazy. Here's what I here's what I want in the next receival. I
want Joe to have her beret again. Okay, you like that beret.
He likes the beret Rasberry but Ray Bob Boat Bob Bob Trow says Monster Hunter
World, And that's definitely under consideration as we stand here today. Uh B
three ben to seven says Monster Hunter Freedom to look, man, we were
America. You good. I'm sorry. Freedom United, I think is better.
Well, it's the same. It's just freedom and United is like the
expansion version of it. Right, that's and that's like how you know the
Pokemon games would have a third game, the Monster Hunter games would always have
the expansion version basically how that worked? Yeah, okay, rebirth the rebirth
Wolf five, says Phoenix right, Ace Attorney, This is yeah, this
does feel like what would be your number five? Right, Mike? Yeah?
Like in terms of like games, I like you would be up there,
but like sure and that Mount Rushmore ness, I don't know if the
places, but it's so good though. God I love Phoenix right. Uh's
joy Z says Steel Battalion. Uh is that really Capcom? I guess that
was that was Capcom. In fact, YEP walked by the Steel Battalion room
at Pax East and we didn't go inside Oude, but we did go to
the Classic Gaming room and played Powerstone two, which is still a banger.
Another Mike one every round. Don't worry. Thank you for telling everybody.
Yeah, no problem, this was true. H Teriaki Blues says Devil May
Cry three Dante's Awakening. Yeah, that's the best of them. I think
most people say people like five a lot. Also, now I'm more of
a DMC. Devil May Cry guy always be clothing slash Corgy says Boulder punching
the game, which is a five? Right, it says five? This
is yeah, the famous ending of five, which takes place in a volcano
and you fight against Wescer and he's going, it's a pretty cool five.
Yeah. Yeah, and punching the boulder actually is fun. Yeah, this
is great. This game is not as about as people make it look.
Sometimes not too many people think the game is bad. It is a lot
they think it's I don't think it's a lesser U it's a less resid than
like four. Yeah, sure, but overall, I don't think it's like
lesser. I would still put it in the bottom half of Resident Evils because
there's a lot of very good resume games. But it's a good game.
Yeah, and that's kind of how I feel. Hot Evil Queen ed Eden
says Dragons Dogma two, Well, we will revisit this in ten years and
we'll see. I have fun watching you play Dragons Dogma two on Giant bum
today, that's for sure. Yes, there are gonna be some memories from
that game that people are probably gonna have for the rest of their lives when
it comes to like video game memories. So that makes it a strong candidate
some day. Uh. Screaming Madden says Mega Man two artwork there box art
is cred especially that big fish enemy from Bubble Man stage just looking like some
kind of horror monster from the Deep Dead it. Tommy Pencil says Monster Hunter
for Ultimate this was the best one I played before playing World. This one
was pretty good. Alex says, I think this is a Monster Hunter reference
guess it looks like a pickle. It looks like a pickle with spikes on
its face and red stripes slung its back. It looks like a monster hunter
villain. I love that you call them. Yeah, well you know monsters.
Uh flo Tron says Lost Planet Extreme condition. Listen, there's part of
me that desperately wants to go back to that era of Capcom games and play
all of them. Last Planet and Dark Void and all that bullshit. We
should only play Lost Planet three, the one people didn't like. Sure,
I'm down Freedom mcleberty Ball says Resident Evil four the remix specifically, though,
remake. Sure the four best Capcom games. I think absolutely this goes on
here. Holy crap, it's good, Doctor Ryan says Chippendale Rescue Rangers.
Yeah, I played this game so much as a kitchen the rest Rangers too
very much. A big banger. Also, uh input name here says The
Misadventures of Tron Bond super fun. All the Legends games in general are are
great. I like this is one of my favorite rental games. Actually,
so it's kind of not quite a minigame collection, but almost kind of like
that. It wasn't like a full blown thing like in Mega Man Legends,
but there's a lot of good stuff. Should have bought it so you could
sell it later. Wait One's Legends too, Mike. Yeah, I've been
thinking about it a bunch lately, Sean. I want to get to that,
hopefully at some point this year. But now I want to get like
an actual copy of it. Right, since I got this good, good
summer tape, I think a great summer game, Yeah, Adam GC,
says Disney's Laddin for the Super Nintendo. Gross. It's not a bad game,
of course, not of course, uh Leah by nature, says Okami.
But also since it's relevant and I'm working on this, says this.
Okay, yes, street Fighter too. Yes, she's working on it.
That's her doing this cross stitching. Whoa, really, that's amazing, I'm
working on this. Look at that. That's awesome. That's incredible. Wow,
great work, La, This is awesome. I want to learn how
to cross stitch. Beautiful, Zoob, says a beautiful Joe. Surprisingly,
So, what's your favorite of the Capcom five that isn't resonable for Oh,
it means Joe. I mean I finally beat the game for the first time
last year. Of the year before, and it's still very good, tons
of fun. Still feels incredibly unique even now. Oh yeah, you could
this game dropped today on like Steam. It would be like a hit there
for sure. Uh. Chaos Buckero says the Legend of Zelda the Minish cap
a good guy. I know it's not for you, but man, I
do love this game. I think it's got some of the neater of the
top down Zelda Dungeons has really fun items in a great final boss fight.
It's fun stuff. Hammond of Texas. If I can get my save off
this older, older computer, I'll continue playing it. Hamon of Texas says,
nineteen forty two. This is like yeah, first cap one of the
first cap on his This is from early arcade days. Yes, no,
they did this. This game rules, ye. Dave Ryker in Chaces Minus
Cap is a nine point two five and links Wakening isn't eight at best.
Yeah, but Dan Reicherd is a maniac and that's wrong. Links Awakening is
unassailable. Mister Bowler says Phoenix right Ace Attorney. I think Miles Edworth rules.
What a good what a good character. Adam Jus says Resident Evil too.
This is the remake again, and that is that's a good game.
I played through both routes of that during a Halloween time. It was a
fantastic Halloween game. I mean, this was kind of of the game that
really cement Rezie will Seven a bit, But this was the game that really
cemented Capcom's Streaked that is still going of just being very good. They are
on an absolute heater right now and this was a big part of it.
Mex says Phoenix right Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations. This is the third one.
Is is the best one. This is a kind of the finale of
the original trilogy storyline. Incredible stuff, incredible Do you like it because of
the judge? I see no, no, no, she only appears on
a flashback. That's ah, don't worry about her and her insane uh business.
Casual cleavage says Disney's Ducktails. The moon theme is an mount rushmore video
games songs. God, that sign might be. It came on the other
day when I was just listening to music and I was just like, yeah,
this this is incredible stuff, just fantastic. Yeah, gosh, I
need that Disney Afternoon collection on Switch so bad. Just just a failure,
a dereliction of duty by John Drake over there. Yeah, I agree,
Weisman says a super Puzzle Fighter to Turbo HD Remix. I'd be kind of
surprised I find out recently how much people like puzzle Fighter. It was ever
a big thing for me, and I think that's more of a me thing
than anything else. Yeah, I remember it being I remember reading about it
more than playing At EGM. It like took over their offices, and I
remember like every issue they'd be like, you know, we had to struggle
to get the deadline because we were playing this all month, and like Jesus,
all right, well, I wish I could play that with somebody.
Uh. Clink says Dragon's Dogma, the first one darker Risen. It's aware.
I never played the first one, and I kind of feel like I
lost my chance forever. I know, I tried, and I just couldn't
get into it. Lenny Cool Dick Dever says Mega man X Mike. Every
time I try to make a Manx, I don't think I get it.
I think I need you to like sit down with me and tell me why
it's cool. Yeah, I hope you, but yeah, because it seems
like a game you should It seems like a game I should like. Yes,
it's one we're doing kind of a boss warner a sort of specific ways
important, like you definitely need to go to Chilpenguin first. Okay, yeah,
I'll help you out through some mega man xing for sure. Brad Fish
says Ynoyd. I HADYD and I loved you. That's that's incredible. I
want to go. I want to play all those the mascot games too Cool
Spot and Ronald McDonald and Ship Big Tony the Final Fantasy Guy says street Fighter
too, which you listen, you got no problems, there's odd Oh yes,
so this is the one I had. This is the this is the
copy I had, so I remember to start well. Uh Riz Racer's Mean
Bean Machine says Resident Evil the game Cube remake. I almost don't consider this
because this is like it's almost kind of started an era of remakes of what
that means and how high you can shoot for that this game is still gorgeous.
It's incredible. What what a fantastic remake? We could do a mount
rushmore capcom remakes, who honestly could? And really the god they've been defining
what remakes have been from basically the beginning. That's capt I'm really good at
making video games. Turn turns out are dominal crossing, trying to cause me
to go cross that here? Put the Street Fighters swim Suit Special collection with
Chun Lee on here. I think, yeah, you should be up there,
I think us, says Mega Man eleven a big Mega Man eleven fan.
Here, Where does eleven fit in your Mega Man ring? Everybody's back
Magne eleven is very good? Yeah, it's not Mount rushmore worthy. It's
like, you know, excuse yeah, no, no, So all the
I'm supposed to be looking are they? Were they making another one of those
specials? Help a yes already guys, guys, this was driving me crazy.
I was trying to do a joke with this. Isn't there a picture
flowing out there somewhere of Tam reading a hardcover copy of that? That's a
crowd. I don't know. That sounds familiar. That's not supposed. If
anyone listening without letting him know that I'm looking for it, can find me
that picture and send him my way, I'll be eternally grateful. Hell yeah,
all right, Uh, Octo says give it up for Ace Attorney Cinematic
Universe. Oh that's a fun group picture. I like that. Spliff of
Blazynski drops Mega Man zero Z No, Jeff, just Mega Man zero.
Well there's a big Z behind it though, right, it's an asthetic.
It's just okay, so it's Mega Man Z zero. You're embarrassing me.
Crotchman Boomer Hidden Zoomer says The Little Mermaid slash Dark Wing Duck. I never
played that much of The Little Mermaid Dark Wing Duck rules. It's it's it's
basically like a Mega Man game with a few differences, but it's very good
at being that. Uh Bugadillo says god Hand, God what a good game.
Never played Godhand actually got I think I when I first got my Steam
deck, Godhands one of those games. I was like, oh, just
see I can get this running. And I played way more of it than
I ever intended to. It's it rules. Fud Sex says Powerstone. Yeah,
give me back to me two, probably all day long, but it's
very good. You should they should make another Powerstone. What's going on?
Yeah? I know, I know they should, or at least like remaster
the first two. Give us that PSPY Isaac Clark says Breath of Fire four.
I played through Breath of Fire four on my Vita. I did enjoy
it. The art is very good, very good pixel art. I don't
know if it's like one of my favorite ps one jerejees, but it's a
good time. Wong Gifts says to a Dragon's Doguay darker Risen like a Dylan
infinite wealth, it says, lost Planet, extreme condition. Cry Orisis says
the Monster Hunder. You know, we've been going for a while and there
actually haven't been that many repeats. People that Capcom goes deep. Capcom goes
deep, but it means a lot of different things to different people. Yes,
then so Chi said Monster hun the World and Vision forty nine says Resident
Evil seven bio Biohazard seven. Yeah, I'm too cowardly to play this one.
Yeah, I was for a long time. When I had to review
Residual Village, I just watched a long play of it because I knew Village
was a direct sequel to this, So I see it all and it is
very impressive in this game. Obviously did a lot to turn Resident Evil around
after six was a bit of a disaster and they made a lot of smart
decisions here. So yeah, very good game, very important game, and
one I will build up the courage to play someday. Uh suck Atash says
Resident. Evil seven. Vander Lyle says Capcom versus S and K two Marketingmacky
barb Spackle says Dead Rising, right, wait, no, yes, yes,
that's yeah Wars. You know, yeah, he covers, Yes,
he covers War as you know. J. D. Camp says Age of
Booty. That's the period of the teacher. That's a real good pature disposable
content, says flip Nick. Ultimate Pinball a Capcom classic. It's a really
good game. You just you thought about a couple of weeks ago when we
played it Mike together on giant bomb dot com. That's the Triple Paddle game
is buried in there. That's that's a mini game in Flipnick. Oh oh
oh, okay, Yes, we did not play the actual Flipnick part of
what you just played. Triple Paddle. Yeah, Mitsurugi says Resident before we
addition that that was my favorite way to play the original Resident for a long
time. That version rules. Adam says Phoenix right, Matt out in the
rare Wilds, says Street Fighter three Third Strike. It's it's weird to leave
that game off. That's actually yeah, Range, but it's just like the
importance of may being out there, like you know, like the game wasn't
some giant hit. It got caught up on very much so and like in
the fighting and community it is so important. But again, we have four
slots here and Street Fighter two has to be one of them. The third
check over it any day, like you know, prefer preferentially. But sound
all right, I want I'm curious to see you guess what game this is?
Uh? This, oh, this is a Mega man because I sneeze,
sorry but I said it. Yeah, this is actually one of the
zeros. I'm not sure exactly which one even myself, but yeah, or
Z zero as you like to say zero. Yeah, there you go.
This is a character for Magma zero double zero. All right, Impanada Eater
says Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom. Three. Yeah. I saw some other people
say three on Twitter when I just said we were doing this, you know
that, Like I'm not, I'm like slightly downish on three just because two
is like kind of my everything. Three is still obviously very good and still
thought of very fondly. It's it is a lot of people's fighting game that
is like the one for them. Michael Riley says, Resident Evil four for
the GameCube. Z Yark says, that's Mega Man Legends. I was gonna
say, this is Mega Man Legends the game for you. Oh wow,
let's go. I've never played Mega Man Legends. Legends was great. Like
I I finally played through all of but just a couple of years ago,
and I was actually like, the controls, Yeah, they are places one
controls, you know, I can get over that pretty quick. Like the
charm and the ascetics of the game hold up very well. A lot to
like in that game. Cast Coder says Mega Man powered Up. I mean
I like powered up. I'm not a big fan of the like super big
head chibi style of the game, but hey, it's Mega Man. It's
fun. Ed says, which it's got to be seven. Look at what
happened to this person's balls? Yeah, they are got a condition there on
your balls? So that's that balls Mike. Oh no, is that his
dick? No, that's the other thing. That's that his sister. There
you go, what a game team? Now, breath of Fire. Yeah,
from Fire one. I haven't played, even though it's on NSL.
I guess I could try it some time. Christian says Marvel versus Capcom two.
That's what I said, true, Yeah, yes, every all the
artwork for Marvel versus Capcom two end game, out of game, just the
best, just the best ship. Yeah, and it took so long for
Fighting you to like match the size of this roster. I take it.
Gosh, I don't know I saw one best character select screen in the world.
Oh God, do you say the word character select screen? I think
of that grid. I'm gonna take it. If we could all chip in
to buy like a minute on the sphere, this is what I put the
character on the sphere. Yes, did I see that? Uh? That
dog paid to put Alpha Protocol on Times Square like today? Did they really?
That's hilarious? Maybe I missed Rengratulations to Matthew. Uh, Turbo Sean
says super street Fighter to Turbo. Uh, that's probably the one I played
the most. Actually, right, you know if you want to say that's
too, I guess, but to me, you just say street Fighter too.
I think people know that's okay. Well, we can get away with
a lot more by just saying Street Fighter too. All right, Well,
in that case, that is what we have so far, Mikey. Any
of the suggestions that you want to add, Oh, there's a bunch I
want to add, like Phoenix right, Third Strike, the Resident Evil one
remake, even though there's always so many Resident Evils to consider, uh gosh,
so many. I know it's easily looking for. Yeah, I think
we probably have the right shortlist to work off of. Though, Yeah,
Crisis, some people in Chad are, but you know, a blot of
people talk about Doc Crisis. Nobody's brave enough to make that there one game
right exactly. And that's that's where Dyno Crisis just is. It's overshadowed.
Yeah, I like Dino Crisis. I want I want not made it.
All right, So that means our short list is Mega Man two, Street
Fighter to Final Fight, Resident Evils one and four, Marvel versus Capcom two,
and Monster Hunter World. It's gonna be tough, Mike. I don't
think Final Fights stands a chance. No, I don't think so. Again,
like it deserves credit, it's a bit forgotten these days, but it
really did also create a genre, and it also kind of also kind of
kept street Fighter going. A bit that came up between street Fighter one and
two. It was almost called street Fighter two, which is funny. I
am moving Mega Man two and street Fighter two up absolute locks as absolute locks
as the mount rushmore Capcom games, because of course they are. And then
of course the Resident Evil game is going to be up there as well.
Is it Resuvable one and Resuable four? Should we just put up Resuable one?
I think I'm kind of with you at the end of the day with
resubal one. Listen, if we put up Recival four and not Resuable one,
I would also be okay with that. If I am choosing one of
the other, I think I also go with Residuable one. I think we
go with one. There's no four without one in this case. Resume one,
right, is also incredible. They're both incredibly important. They're also both
incredibly good. Maybe four is better, sure, but yeah, one one
did so much for gaming and it's still fun. I played through all of
the original one for the first time just a couple of years ago, and
I still had a great time with it. Like that leaves us one spot
for Marvel versus Capcom two or Monster Hunter World. Probably not gonna put Recivol
four up there as well, right, trust me, My heart again would
be Mars's Kaklon two, which is one of my favorite games ever. It's
monster. It's gotta be Monster Hunter World, right, It's got to be
Monster. If you put Monster Hunter World up there, and then you look
at the four games we have, like that really doesn't cast cast relate Capcom
very well? Yes, yeah, that's a good point as well. I
see what you did that because Capcom is capsule computer. Oh I didn't mean
that. That's funny, encapsulate comp companies games. How How did you also,
like when you were a kid see a Paula thirteen and then they said
the words like Capcom because that's like what they call you know, the people
on the radio, And we're like what, yeah, I mean my brain
definitely did that. But I'm like, well, I assume that's gotta meaning.
So it's capsule command right, because that, yes, that's what it
actually stands for. Incredible. I had to like go figure that out right
away after that movie. I'm like, what are they talking about there?
All right? So we have Mega Man two, Street Butter two, Receival,
and Monster Hunter World up there. How do you feel about the order?
The order doesn't matter. I for'm al much work right, Oh that's
right, Yeah, it's rights Moutrushmore. True. Okay, that's right,
all right, I could just delete these numbers even God, that's nice.
Okay, Hey, yeah that's right. Okay, So Mike read our Mount
Rushmore while I post this online. Yeah, are about Rushmoar of Capcom games
is Mega Man two, Resident, Resident Evil Street Better two and Monster Hunter
World. That's why I like it, Mount Rushmoors. We don't have to
order them. Job's done, all right, I posted. People can yell
at us, and they should. They should, but I think they're going
to be wrong. I think you should realize that. Yeah. So Capcom
just has a cornercopia of amazing games to pick from. This is probably the
most This is probably the most abceptible mon Rochemore you have ever done. Thank
you, Christian. I appreciate it. When we set out, I was
like, in my head, this is pretty much what it looked like.
I think I might have had Rescuing Will four in there instead of one.
But yes, this this looks right. Okay, that does it for the
Mount Rushmore. I think we're gonna take one more quick break, then we'll
talk about what we've been playing right after this. For me, it's been
a Capcom game and we are back and Mike, what have you been playing?
I haven't played that Dragon Song but two. Yeah, just still fell
pretty early in it, maybe like five ish hours. Definitely am enjoying it,
maybe like a little bit of like, ah, I'm not like super
in love with it yet, I almost like was the most in love with
it watching you play it today, just because things got so whack that listen,
I play, I play these games like a jackass, and I think
you kind of need to bring some of that energy to it. Maybe I
do. Yeah, Well, I mean I think that's I do think that's
part of this game is that I like a lot of people set up and
they play RPGs in the way that they play RPGs, And I think you
go to this game thinking it's an RPG, so I'm gonna play it that
way, and it's much more of a sandbox adventure game than it is even
an RPG, So you kind of have to go with the flow a little
bit and just try some stuff. Now, I think I lucked out by
picking the Thief class a really really fun location in the game, and like
it like starts off fun, and then the first upgrades you're getting for that
character make it even better really fast. And then I think I had some
really good pawns that have some really excellent abilities that make the battles look fun.
So, like, you know, wild Rose was just shooting fire constantly,
and I was getting into that ass and doing some cool attacks, and
Dark Mitch just yelling over the side doing whatever he's doing. It's it's like
it immediately turns into a good time, and then we'll just like try stuff
like let's just jump on the griffin and see what happens. He's got way
too much health and then suddenly we're flying over the ocean and and then what
happened happened. And so every time I play it, I like it more
and more. I think I also like it that it's one of these games
that's kind of you know, it's pretty common since the front software days have
kind of taken over of we're just gonna have our systems and we'll explain them,
but we're not going to really help you understand them all that deeply.
You kind of need either mess around with them or ask somebody. There's no
law against that. And so I'm playing it online. I'm asking you,
I'm asking you know, Jan and Dan, I'm asking chat. I'm getting
feedback and that kind of like creates this fun loop where it's like, let's
try this so we can figure that out. Oh, I got to go
talk to the innkeeper to put my stuff away. Yeah, it's a really
basic thing, but now I know how to use it, and I'm using
it all the time now, So I think I have it. A systems
heavy game like this, and one that is pretty confident in its systems and
kind of letting you just go out there and mess around with that stuff.
It's my kind of thing. I really enjoy it, and I think they
I think they nail it for the most part. So I've really been enjoying
it. I'm like very I'm technically very early on still. I probably have
played for about five hours now, but it doesn't feel like I've really scratched
the surface. I am doing many of the early quests that everyone talks about,
the you know, the calling the monsters. Everyone talks about that one.
I haven't even gone and done the one where it's like, hey,
go get these weapons that someone stole, so you can open up these other
vocations haven't even done that yet, so I'm still very early. I want
to see, like how the story opens up if it does. But part
of me is like, part of me is like, even if the story
doesn't turn into much, I'm already having these fun little tales that I can
tell of my own and misadventures with these characters, and so I'm very happy
with it. Yeah, I mean, I do love that that it does
kind of feel like you have a full adventuring party, which is something that
these kind of more open world RPGs maybe lacks sometimes, right, they can
kind of be very solitary affairs and firs. Sometimes like that works too,
Like the game is charm like it does in a Skyrim, a Witcher or
an outer Ring. But I do like that I do have these people.
Hey, maybe they're talking too much, but whatever, it's kind of fun,
and I do like how they do do things like they'll say, hey,
look, I know where a treasure chest is. Do you want to
follow me? You can push the button and then they'll start leading you there,
or you know, you could do things like throwing at me off a
cliff and then they'll be like, oh, that's neat, and then they'll
start doing that just like some kind of learning system going on there. Again,
like the game doesn't really explain that. You can kind of like discover
it. I'm like, okay, like now I'm curious, like how far
is that kind of thing to go? Yeah, it makes me want to
try even more things and keep these pawns around. I like. I like
playing these games often solo, even you know, apart from the AI companions,
because a lot of times I am doing stuff like picking up pigs and
throwing them stuff that is I don't need my NPCs around me questioning the morality
of what my character's doing because I am playing like a jackass, and that
the game reminded me that I'm doing that is less fun for me here.
It's just like, hey, you're throwing shit, I'm gonna throw shit on
That like encourages me to keep trying stuff to see what the NPCs are going
to learn, And then on top of that, it just kind of creates
these wild scenarios. So yeah, I am also having a good time just
like watching other people play or seeing the clips online and seeing what's possible,
and that also makes me want to go in there myself. But I think
for people that are going and expecting it to be one thing or that,
you know, they just want a game to maybe be more buttoned up in
a lot of ways, because that's you know, they were, you know,
I spend a lot of money on this game entertain me or whatever.
I think that's a perfectly valid thing. And I don't know how good of
a game this is at that. I don't know if it's gonna have some
epic tale that like it raptures people with characters that are worth caring about.
My suspicion is it's probably actually not very good at that kind of stuff.
And so I think if people are going in expecting that because of the way
this game presents itself, I bet it's going to be maybe disappointing to that
crowd. And I again, I don't blame them. I do think it's
an ugly game like performance stuff. Even aside, I don't really like the
game looks. It's very like dirty medieval fantasy. Really, it really looks
like back when you know, people lived in towns and castles and huts and
stuff. I'm like, all right. Yeah, I'm like, I'm not
on that side of the spectrum, but I get what you're saying. I
I like the way it looks for the most part. I don't. You're
a dirty, filthy guy. Yeah, I'm wearing crocs right now, so
I say exactly. I think it's okay how they were looks. It looks
okay. I really like the design of the of the or more and that
kind of stuff that it looks cool, especially like the most the most expensive
stuff that you can barely like afford, because everything is like super expensive in
this game for some reason. So I really like that that those designs.
I kind of like the things are expensive. There's too many of these games
where I just buy whatever the fuck I want because I haven't yet I agree
all the times. Yeah, even a person of three reload. I have
that problem. I have like all the money I could ever possibly need,
but doing not much right. I want the economy to be a system as
well, and it only works that way if there are things I can't afford.
They do talk early on about like pay attention to the prices because some
things are worth more in other areas. You could like make a lot of
money by buying and selling, and God, I think for me a personal
mount rushmore of video game mechanics is the arbitrage selling in sid Meier's Pirates.
I think about that all the time and how I want that in games.
They say that in this game. I have not experienced that myself yet,
but who knows. Maybe i'll play it more and that'll be something that actually
does pop up more frequently. I would like that if that were the case.
And at the very least, what you said about things being more expensive,
so they at least it makes me think about that. That's a good
sign. But you know, I think I like the way the enemies look.
I think I like the look design of the goblins, and the griffin
looks fantastic. They all animate very well. I think the like the movement
of the of the creatures is very good. So I don't think it's like
ugly in that it's like low effort. I think it's just that aesthetic is
going to be either your thing or not. I think for a lot of
people, like eventually I come to like some town like oh I wasn't expecting
something like this, or if it's going to be you know, no,
I got to a town that I think might be you know, kind of
looked a little bit more like Greece or something like that. I could,
I think you might be into that be a forum, a good forum.
Yeah. It's like it was like building built into a mountain side sort of
thing. Yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting. But yeah, I
need to play a lot more of it. And that's what I intend to
do. This is my game right now, not if I go back to
Rebirth. I'll go back to Rebirth after this. At this point, that's
where I'm at, so you know, uh, and then other than that,
you know, we were at packs, so not a lot of time
to play other things. Kind of been just like help my kids play some
games here and there. That's where I've been at. How about you anything
else? If I started Warhammer forty K bolt Gun for the Game Club and
I was really enjoying it, my only problem with it is that, like
it's apparently a ten hour game and I've been playing I've played it for like
three hours. I'm kind of like really like, I'm not like I'm a
third away through this. You know, it's a boomer shooter. It's great,
I don't know, right, but how much. Four and a half
hours is kind of where I expect exactly, so we'll see. I'm a
little worried that it's gonna feel kind of stretched thin there, but I do
really like it's very pretty game. It's very fun. It's funny because you
know, it looks like Quake, but it kind of feels like, you
know, the Doom remake in terms of the pacing and stuff like that.
Sure, that makes sense. That's probably like where a lot of those boomer
shooters are going to go, because updating the mechanics a little bit probably wouldn't
hurt. I did, I did, forgot. I did spend some time
with that South Park snow Day game seems pretty bad. Yeah, yeah,
I got a code. I got a code for you if you want to
play with us on UPF tomorrow. Yeah. Actually, remind me to start
installing that when we're done here. Okay, I'll send that over to you.
If I haven't already, I might have already done. So that's I
love how everyone's new jerk reaction is like, well, they must have done
this without Like Matt and Trey. It's like now they were on board,
Like I think based on watching that show a while ago, I think Matt
and Trait just have questionable video gamecased. I think that's just the case well
because like they were so famously upset at like those sixty four era games,
and I think maybe a little too saying we played a Chef's Love Shack,
that's what ongo and that's the game. I'm always feeling like it's so terrible
and I'm like, it's kind of silly and fun. I don't know whatever.
Yeah, uh so it is. It's a shooter. I guess hero
based, class based. I suppose a Marvel Rivals, Like it's a Marvel
Rivals, Like, yeah, it's got a single player campaign sort of thing
that you play. Uh that is I guess four hours long. I didn't
play much of that. I was like kind of waiting for the online sessions
and then I haven't done that yet, but I played through a little bit
like the tutorial and just kind of got an idea of how it felt,
and it's it's I don't know, it feels very basic. It feels fan
made in a lot of ways, insubstantial, and you know, the humor
is part of me. It was just assuming that this is, like,
hey, the South Park humor is not for me anymore, which when I
watched the show is how I feel about most episodes these days. So it's
like, yeah, it's just that. But I think also it might just
be poorly written. And you know, while Matt and Treyr they're doing the
voices, it's not like an inspired performance or something like that. I don't
know. I don't know who this is for. It feels like them being
like, we should make another game. Those RPGs take a long time.
This will be easier, and it definitely comes across that way where it's like
a less effort went into this game. But we'll play it on the site
tomorrow. We're gonna play it on Giant Bob tomorrow. Everybody's so tuning for
that. I don't know how long we're going to play because I want to
play some other shit too, but yeah, thank you for your sacrifice.
Absolutely. I did also play that Outcast game, the nineteen ninety release,
nineteen ninety nine release, like one of the first open world games that the
new one came out, right, Dan talked about that on the bomb Cast,
and I'm curious about that. I'm going to play that. But then
I was like, I was like trying to remember outcasts because I was like,
is that the Fox one? And they called it the Vauxhel Engine.
I still don't know what that means, but I'm I need to figure out
more. So I saw the Digital Founder did a sponsored video about it,
and I watched that and it just looks so weird. It's like the character's
got this like slow trot animation where he kind of hops side to side as
he runs forward and he's got to like explore this whole open world, and
I don't know, it just looked really weird. So I got it up
and around on my PC. You can get the one point one version on
Steam that they were re released into twenty fourteen, and it's it is a
very strange thing. I kind of had a hard time understanding what I was
supposed to be doing, but that's maybe what you should expect from maybe the
first open world game on computers. Ever. All right, That's that does
it for me, though, Mike, anything else? No, I got
some more super chats here. Let's hit those and then we'll get out of
here. Mikey Oleari says, just a PSA tonight for chat. If you
have Team Mobile, you can get a free or of MLB TV right now,
Baseball fans rise up. Yeah, Opening Day, I'll get mine a
T mobile. I have to see if I'm actually able to watch The Guardians
on TV this year. I haven't been able to forever because Bally Sports whatever
just refuse to make a deal with anybody, and they keep saying we're developing
our own app, and then they don't. Amazon bought Bally Sports, so
I would hope maybe Prime can get some of that stuff. I would hope.
So I'm gonna google that after this and see if I'm gonna actually be
able to watch like Opening Day and stuff. That would be nice. Uh.
Steven S says, who would you hot dog guys to turn into your
bionic command arm? What? Who would you hot dog guys to turn it
to your bio commander? All right, I'll just say it. I've been
thinking about her now, Chung Lee. I would do Joseph Lieberman the ten.
Derek says, there's zero chance that makes it, but please at least
say the words Ace Attorney, so I can trick myself to think it has
a chance. It had a chance. I love Ace Attorney so much.
Gosh, that's a special game. I have my pillow back. There's here.
I'll go through my camera jection. There you go see. I like
it. Attorney, It's okay. I'm one of you. Andrew. Andrew
on Twitter says, all your rush wars are so questionable. Good thing you
guys put on a good show. This one seems like the most unassailable we've
ever done. Andrew, I'm sorry, I know. I was like like,
oh, I understand, like you're gonna have your favorites, but how
can you like, look, how can you look these for it and be
like that's bullshit? Yeah? Uh yeah, go any other super chats Yeah
yeah, yeah from h oh Greug. I prefer magamunt x over too.
But Jeff just turned sixty seventh last week, so I can see to getting
on set. Wait till you find out how old George Washington is. Uh,
you know, at this point, the dage difference between Mega Man two
and Mega Men X isn't all that much. No, it's basically one year.
Basically, it's not much. Mus Spreaksy says, you guys have infected
my brain. This is the first super chet. I was talking to my
mom about a new show. I said, it's like Columbros. Keep up
the good word. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate that moves.
Chris Pratt says, I remember back in Yeah, Chris Son, I
remember back, Chris, I'm talking to this. I remember back in nineteen
eighty six when I was in the arcade stopping uh coups. That's how you
know of one of you. BRB gotta eat with my babe Mia Moto.
Chris Son's so cool. Chris sounds so cool. I I do think about
that story he told about doing laundry and seeing the Mario Arcade machine, like
man if I have corners, Oh boy, when I play a video game.
But Chris, it's okay, we get it. You're a hired actor.
One day I'm gonna play that. See he said something, I'm all
like playing the character Mario when he was looking at that. Oh is that
what he meant? That's what he meant him was crazy? Oh boy,
Chris sounds the best. Are we allowed to say? Song? Because I
was talking as in my Focacy sixteen interview, I wanted to talk with the
composer to and you know I was talking to oh P Japanese, So I
said, soaking Son I was like, I should my understanding, it's just
like saying mister mister min what I assumed that's all that is, Yes,
you're not You're not allowed to say Soka chan like that would be or soca
soaking coun would be way too much offensive because he's not younger than you,
Chris Press. That's Chan is the young one. Se is like younger,
cuter, which one boys too? Yeah, what's Coon? Then I thought
coon? Was that is like your home like people your age they kind of
like, yeah, something like the hierarchy are lovers? Did you do coon
for lovers? That would be weird. It would be it would be like
if I was talking about you, Mike in the in the in the context
of Giant Bomb, I could call you like Mike Ko. Okay, you
know we're like on the same Chris Press that we can call him Chris Chan.
So that's okay. So I think I was I was playing like a
dragon infinite wealth, and I think it confused me because he when he was
talking to the girl, he called her what's her name? Chan? But
she is younger and she is cuter, so that definition now makes sense.
Yeah, it's like you you usually would use it for a girl, but
it's like it's it's also or yeah, also it's like someone right he did?
Yeah. I think the reason I thought that it was actually the guy
that turns out to be whatever. I'm not gonna spoil again, but he's
like, hey, you called me chan or like we're already friends. So
I assumed that meant friends, but maybe he was because that character is also
younger. It is Japanese. Japanese is very gendered, so like those terms
usually applied to just one gender, but they technically can't be. It's more
of like a what you would normally do, yeah, call like a female
student kun sometimes like all the time, yeah, yeah, all right,
well shit, okay we earned something new every day. Here you go.
But yeah, the thing is you could say son. Yeah so uh in
shoguin they say sama. Is that like a super respectful is my understanding?
The biggest Yeah, this is a very very respectfully. Wait is like a
person you almost like revere, ok, and if you're like like if if
and if they are, it would be like very sarcastic. It feels like
your homie called them sama. Yes, all right, good to know,
mikey uh, do we get any other super chats. Are we good?
No grub Sama, I don't think that was sarcastic. Well in that case,
let's hit the music, get us out of here. Mike, you
what do you got going on? A seisters dude? I guess I think
I'm doing something in my family for that. But I would like to play
some more Dragons Pagma Victims. Doing a lot with Persona three and that game
is very very good still, so continuing to kind of get to the end
game that once I beat that, then I will have a new nighttime game,
and there's options there. I probably will play more while you'll go first,
but then maybe do Unicorn Overlord or Infinite Wealth one of those. A
lot of games to play. Yeah, anything you're like the next big release
you're looking forward to after Dragon's Dogma. I'm trying to think, like I
don't like, like, I know Stellar Blade has a Dumbo coming out,
but like I don't know when that is. I don't know how excited I
am for that. I'm gonna that's another I'm gonna play that. I'm bombed
on UPF tomorrow. I'm gonna play that demo. Yeah, I always did
think like after Dragonslaw at too, at least for me. I think it
slows down a bit at least until like you know, like the summer,
you're gonna get the I'll get the Outer Ring deal c and then the final
Fantasy fourteen expansion like back to back, so that'll keep you busy, but
maybe till then I finally have a little bit of a break. Here,
we'll see. I got some smaller games I'm looking forward to, like that
Children of the Sun is coming out April ninth. I'll play that. I'll
maybe make back of our play that. Harold Hell the game is interested and
I'll watch him play or something. Is iout in Chronicle Monicles one hundred Heroes?
Is that finally coming out? It's coming out this year April twenty third.
It's April twenty third. Gosh really yeah, maybe it'll be bad and
I want to have to play it. Yeah, it's hell Conerzal is April
twenty third, and Other Crabs Treasure is April twenty fifth. Yeah. I
mean it's like games like that where it's like, yeah, yeah, I'm
gonna check them out, especially if they're good. But I don't know.
Oh, Hell Blake two is May twenty first. That's I'm not that I
always forgot. I always I always assumed that was going to be a fall
game. So when it wasn't, I was like, I had a lot
of kids ever about that game being like some big fall game and think we
already dollars still and it's coming out like eight hours. I was like,
oh, okay, the system shocks coming to everything else. May twenty first,
that I want to go and play more than I actually remember that.
It'll be something I played this summer because I'm I'm right there with you,
Mario the thousand year Door twenty excite for that. Actually, I am any
excited for that. All right, everybody, thanks for watching. Catch you
next time. Thank you so much. June eighteenth, Bloody Manti, Mike
mana litch, don't battle me. Most people are beating it right now,
all right, so we just got to it, all right, I am
ready. Let's make it happen. Okay, all right, all right,
cool. Let's look. You saw a video of p and yeah, no
were we delayed the release of Don Trail a week, so a week you
had to play, so you he delayed for him? Yeah, you're right,
he wants to play the elder Ring Philadelphia, all right, an elden
Ring final Fantasy fourteen crossover that was so cool. Return Saturday and then return
on Saturday night. Fine trains. I think am track goes through Philadelphia.
That would make sense. Yeah, oh man, it's problem makes sense.
Problem it takes the train takes a long time, so I probably should just
drive. I just don't want to drive, for it's a long drive.
Pennsylvania is a stupid long state. Pennsylvania should be like a third the size
that it is. You really hate the idea of the night with Mike that
much? I just I did. Jason Vanelli came on Game this morning's talked
up the kalgating. The food sounds so good. I'm probably end up gonna
end up going to MIC's. That's probably the right thing to do. Is
it Pennsylvania really shaped because of racism? Like the other states? Most states
are like the other for the United States. Yeah, our counties, our
county, our voting districts are very weirdly shaped because of racism. You might
be thinking of that, although I guess I don't really. Yeah, what
are the borders of the states. I suppose they're probably also shaped that way.
For reasons I'm not remembering. Fuck well, I don't know which state
of the Virginia West Virginia. Definitely, yes, yeah, one say it
was like, yeah, we give you these huge piece of land so we
can like keep our slaves or something like that. Okay, yes, totally,
yes, yes, Oklahoma shaped the way it is because of racism.
Fun. Yeah. Also jerry mandering, that's that, yeah right, that
is the counties and the voting tricks. Yes, wild stuff. You know.
It's called that because there was a guy who named Gary. Yeah really,
are you just with me because I believe no, No, it's like,
yeah, it's a guy who like drew the map. There was something
Gary is Everyone called it. What what is this? It looked like a
summer, like some kind of Gary mander. Everyone laughed, And now we
still called jerry mandering. Now, yes, said Outbridge, Jerry. Fair
enough. There, if I get on a train at at two am,
i can get there by three pm. That seems kind of late. It
seems like a really long time just to eat some food in a parking.
Look, it's a really long time just to avoid going to your house.
Wow, Mike, I'm probably coupled over, is what? It looks like
alright, good, all right, I think we are Yeah, I think
we're good. I'll bring it back in. Do you have you have the
tread ready? But no, give me a second. It's full time,
good job, full time's gay? Okay, Jerry, So just the guy
you got to kill if you go back in time, Yeah, then you
fix your country. Yes, sure, sure, No other racist person would
have had that. Ye no, yeah, that'll never know that. He
was the only one we found the racist. Everybody racist the Seed of Evil
Dance and Mount Rushmore capcom games. I don't think that one quite fits,
he says Mario golfing. I gotta I got a feeling he's listening to our
podcast while playing Mario sitting that whiff, which not a bad idea. Yeah,
a Nintendo game, and maybe like canis get there? We'll get there.
It will get shift confused. I'm not confused by it. It's just
worse than freaking. I'm always confused. That's not why I don't like confused.
When I played Links Awakening, I love that game. Different from the
well, I know I don't have to put up with this ship visual de
sign. This Links Awakening is the second worst Links awakening is the second worst.
Oh my god, I forgot to get access to that. We just
feel like what we got, yes, all right, here we got.
Let's go, all right, finish cop okay, let's get back into it,
all right, let's not