Speaker 1: I got gluten the worst I've ever been glutened in
Speaker 1: Miami when I asked for gluten free pizza and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this pizza looks really good, is it? Are you sure
Speaker 1: it's gluten free? And I made sure and they're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: gluten free.
Speaker 2: Ate the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I've never been sicker, like projectile vomit that new job,
Speaker 1: meeting new boss in an uber with him and had
Speaker 1: to excuse myself after meeting him for the first time
Speaker 1: to go just give me once.
Speaker 2: I I'll be right there. You go yack my guts out.
Speaker 2: Oh so they just straight up live.
Speaker 1: Then, yeah, Oh that is no, there's no way they
Speaker 1: didn't lie.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, unless they made it on the same surface and
Speaker 1: then put like flower on the dough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like they were not thinking and they're like, oh
Speaker 2: it's gluten free and then they just like plopped it right,
Speaker 2: yeah right, regular flower is or they didn't care. Yeah,
Speaker 2: either way, that's terrible, bad news, bad news. Wow, Hey, Ron,
Speaker 2: welcome to Games About After Dark, episode two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty one. What a cold open. Yeah, I'll see how
Speaker 2: much of that I keep it. That was a fun conversation.
Speaker 2: I'm John Luke your host as always, and I'm joined
Speaker 2: by the lovely Jacob McCourt. Hello. Hey, how's it going good?
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. You're moving, we're moving. Yes. So
Speaker 2: for those who don't know, Jacob, you are a moderator, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Spot Discord. Do you moderate Giant Bomb as well? You
Speaker 2: can hop on that.
Speaker 1: No, but there's there are some connected others like over
Speaker 1: Maria doesn't both yeah, okay, and so we also speak
Speaker 1: as well. So no, been a game Spot Discord moderator
Speaker 1: for as long as the discord has existed.
Speaker 2: Great, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you so much for keeping
Speaker 2: that that thing going. Of course. Yeah, it means a lot.
Speaker 2: I know, it's it's uh, we need to talk about
Speaker 2: that discord at some point, I think because it's it's
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's just it's just kind of been
Speaker 2: floating for a while. It's a cool place for cool people.
Speaker 1: But but I think, yeah, there could be a renaissance.
Speaker 2: Who knows, it could be. We'll have to figure that out.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you also do video game trivia, yeah, which
Speaker 2: you've you did one for us at the end of
Speaker 2: last year. If you haven't listened to that episode, you should.
Speaker 2: It's pretty good. But you also do it at packs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you were at PA. I was did you do one
Speaker 2: at pas? I did?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I did it twice actually, so for the
Speaker 1: first time did it in a bar, which is wild.
Speaker 1: So I had like sixty people out for that, which
Speaker 1: was wild. And I couldn't believe it, which is which
Speaker 1: is rat because I'm not, you know, from Seattle. So
Speaker 1: to be the guy who's just sort of air dropping
Speaker 1: in and hoping for the best.
Speaker 2: It shared really well.
Speaker 1: But then we did it uh at the con on
Speaker 1: the first day of the con and had like a
Speaker 1: lovely group of folks as a part of it, and
Speaker 1: the energy is just wild and wacky. There were costumes
Speaker 1: this time, that's great, but the one from last west
Speaker 1: is on Giant Bamba. Folks want to watch that and
Speaker 1: that has uh that has Lucy and Jake on it.
Speaker 2: Oh good, good, Yes, yes, I remember they were very
Speaker 2: didn't like wasn't there like a Kingdom Heart's question that
Speaker 2: Lucy Wift or something there was.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I saw her right after the panel
Speaker 1: and it was another video game voice acting question that
Speaker 1: sort of ended the panel. And so this time around
Speaker 1: the question last year it was about Kingdom Hearts and
Speaker 1: this time I'll have to pull up the question at
Speaker 1: some point. But it was another question and I saw
Speaker 1: her send it to her and she said and again
Speaker 1: she did the same thing where it was an obvious
Speaker 1: answer for her and she like guess the wrong thing.
Speaker 2: And then immediately it was like, oh no, no, actually
Speaker 2: it's this person, but I'll pull it up. But she
Speaker 2: did the same thing and it was it was glorious.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Yeah, oh, Lucy, I haven't seen her in
Speaker 2: a hot minute, m because she was she went right
Speaker 2: from Games Calm to the Packs and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was there any like overlap between those two or no.
Speaker 2: I think she like stayed in London a little bit
Speaker 2: to catch up a family and then immediately went to
Speaker 2: Seattle and so like, I haven't seen her at all
Speaker 2: since then.
Speaker 1: I think she needs to to stay and rest.
Speaker 2: Probably right, yes, her aunt him. Yeah, they travel a
Speaker 2: lot and hopefully they'll get some good.
Speaker 1: The final question was I'll ask you the final question
Speaker 1: Ken packs West. This Hollywood actor played a villain for
Speaker 1: the first time in their career when they played Admiral
Speaker 1: Sallin Kotch in Call of Duty Infinite Warfare named the actor.
Speaker 2: Is Kevin Spacey. So it is not Kevin Spacey because
Speaker 2: I haven't That's that's the one. I haven't played. Switch Warfare.
Speaker 2: It was Infinite Worfa. Oh no, no, no, because Advanced Warfare
Speaker 2: is Kevin Spacey Infinite Warfare, and.
Speaker 1: I felt kind of bad, like setting a Kevin Spacey trap.
Speaker 2: Also, yeah you do. I realized that afterwards, and I
Speaker 2: was like, has Kevin Spacey ever been in another video game?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I think that's his only video.
Speaker 2: Probably okay for the best. Okay, Infinite Warfare, though, give
Speaker 2: you another chance, because I know that games. God, it's
Speaker 2: not the main guy, because the main guy's voice is
Speaker 2: like I think he's like the voice of Eric or
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you who it's not. So Lucy first guessed
Speaker 1: Dominic Monaghan. Dominic Monahan is not Kit Harrington.
Speaker 2: It is what a forgettable villain. I do want to
Speaker 2: play that game. That game's surprisingly good. That's not press
Speaker 2: F to Pay Respects is a No. That was Advanced Warfare.
Speaker 2: That's the Space one. That's the Space one is press
Speaker 2: AF because you you like, come home and your brother
Speaker 2: has died or something. That's the only I remember about
Speaker 2: that game is like press after pay respects and Kevin
Speaker 2: Spacey's in it. Yeah. No, Infinite Warfare is the like
Speaker 2: full on Space one. It's got like chip combat and
Speaker 2: zero gravity fights and there's like a robot companion. It's
Speaker 2: it's pretty solid. Everybody's in space suits two And that
Speaker 2: was the one that everyone hates did too, like it
Speaker 2: had like it had a do you remember this had
Speaker 2: It had the the most dislikes of any YouTube video
Speaker 2: at the time. No, yes, because people were just over
Speaker 2: like the space stuff with Call of Duty. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: looking back on it, it's like really novel and like
Speaker 2: almost cute, like how angry people were about what You
Speaker 2: look back on and you're like that was a really
Speaker 2: whatever game like that. That game didn't really do anything offensive.
Speaker 2: It didn't do anything, I mean, you know for Call
Speaker 2: of Duty right, Like it was just but it was
Speaker 2: just in space and people were over it to the
Speaker 2: point where it became the most disliked trailer of all time.
Speaker 2: While on YouTube, there's like crazy to think about because
Speaker 2: it's so whatever. Now you're like, yeah, I think it's fine.
Speaker 1: Truly, there's an era of Call of Dutys that I
Speaker 1: just I can't tell you anything about them.
Speaker 2: So McTavish, is is that a dude from the Call
Speaker 2: of Duty? Oh yeah, Warfare too? Baby? Yeah? Yeah? Does
Speaker 2: he die and then come back? He spoilers maybe spoiler alert.
Speaker 2: He dies in the original Modern Warfare three. It was
Speaker 2: like a big moment high school me was like, no,
Speaker 2: my boy, soap. And then he's in the Modern Warfare
Speaker 2: a reboot trilogy. He should also have been two for that.
Speaker 2: I don't know what happens to him in three because
Speaker 2: I played like three missions of three and then was said,
Speaker 2: this is awful and like stop playing it.
Speaker 1: And Price is the other dude, right, yeah, Prices in
Speaker 1: all of them.
Speaker 2: It's a Call of Duty minute from folks who don't
Speaker 2: I mean, do you play a lot of Call of Duties?
Speaker 2: I actually played most of the Call of Duties. I
Speaker 2: did play the Black Ops four Beta or six beta.
Speaker 2: Jesus not four? Is that the one from this year?
Speaker 2: Just the one coming out this year. I played the
Speaker 2: beta over the weekend with Jake Decker. I actually really
Speaker 2: liked it. I hear the movements kind of thing's really fun. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because it has this like omni directional movement and you're
Speaker 2: like well what does that mean? So it basically means
Speaker 2: you can sprint in any direct including backwards, which is
Speaker 2: very smiled, and you can dive and slide in any direction,
Speaker 2: including backwards or to the side. It's a little cumbersome
Speaker 2: to get a handle on, especially on mouse and keyboard,
Speaker 2: Like my fingers were doing a lot of aerobics to
Speaker 2: make that work. But it was like, maybe I should
Speaker 2: rebind these keys. But once you kind of get the
Speaker 2: the rhythm of it and how to do it, you're
Speaker 2: just doing like the dumbest shit where you're just like
Speaker 2: jumping off of building's cost you're sliding everywhere. I remember
Speaker 2: like walking through a hallway and like two dudes just
Speaker 2: like Max Pain style like dived out of the quarter
Speaker 2: and both just like pump me full of lead. And
Speaker 2: I couldn't even like it was so funny. It was
Speaker 2: just like it was incredible. So that at the at
Speaker 2: its court, it's call of duty, yep, But just that
Speaker 2: little tweak gave me a lot of fun at least
Speaker 2: for that one day. We'll see how it goes from there.
Speaker 1: There's that in the human Shield stuff is sort of
Speaker 1: new where you can whisper sweet nothings into.
Speaker 2: Yours the area. Yeah, I didn't get to experience that
Speaker 2: a little bit, uh unfortunately, but that seemed very very fun.
Speaker 2: I did watch, uh, Jake and and and Matt Paget
Speaker 2: who we were playing with, grab some people and just
Speaker 2: murder a bunch and yelling in the mics at them.
Speaker 2: And we're like, hopefully they heard that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, And are those like the two new
Speaker 1: hot things?
Speaker 2: And yeah, those seem to be the biggest hot things
Speaker 2: about it. I mean, otherwise I was like, yep, these
Speaker 2: Call of Duty weapons, the progression seems largely the same
Speaker 2: to my knowledge. I still hate that UI. The like
Speaker 2: the menu. I don't know if you've played inside the
Speaker 2: game itself, like in the main menu, in the main menu,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've We've complained about this before
Speaker 2: on the podcast. Call of Duty menus continue to be
Speaker 2: one of the worst UI in video game existence, and
Speaker 2: it's doubly bad on PC because on PC they don't
Speaker 2: have Call of Duty games as a separate application anymore.
Speaker 2: They put them all in one application, Call of Duty HQ.
Speaker 2: In theory, you're like, okay, that makes sense, but it
Speaker 2: just becomes this awful men where I had to download
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty gigs to play a beta woof
Speaker 2: just the beta, huh. I said, like, don't install anything else,
Speaker 2: and it was like, that'll be one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: gigs and I'll be like, wow, that's ridiculous. And then
Speaker 2: it's like, okay, you have to load into call GDHQ
Speaker 2: and when I load in, it throws like five different
Speaker 2: battle pass menus shorters have it optimized, so it's also
Speaker 2: running out like five francs a second. So I like
Speaker 2: sit there and I'm just like okay, and I wait
Speaker 2: for the and then it's like beta and it goes great. Actually, no,
Speaker 2: first it says there's an update, restart your game, So
Speaker 2: you click that, the whole application closes loads back up,
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh my god. And then you go,
Speaker 2: I want to play the beta now, yeah, click on
Speaker 2: the beta and it says, great, we got to close
Speaker 2: this and open up a new application for the beta specifically, oh,
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, what couldn't you have just
Speaker 2: done that in the first place. And then the first
Speaker 2: time it loaded, it said, oh, there's an error. We
Speaker 2: need to close this whole thing. So I had to
Speaker 2: do it all again and then it works. My free
Speaker 2: member was in the game and I was like, well,
Speaker 2: why did. I didn't need to go through any of
Speaker 2: that other nonsense to just get to the game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My frame of reference is Fortnite, and especially now with
Speaker 1: the new modes in Fortnite.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's turned into like it looks like a YouTube channel,
Speaker 2: the worst YouTube channel imaginable. It's YouTube kids, but bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you've seen YouTube kids, yes, like UI, that's
Speaker 1: that's good.
Speaker 2: UI. Yeah. But but even then, like the thumbnail style,
Speaker 2: it's all like you know, you that exact font that's
Speaker 2: usually just a Fortnite font that you can like, Like
Speaker 2: all of the game modes look like YouTube thumbs in Fortnite.
Speaker 2: It's terrible. It's really bad. It's for the kids.
Speaker 1: They're used to YouTube, so just give them the YouTube.
Speaker 2: But I know, and I was like, I just want
Speaker 2: to try the Lego mode. I don't need any of
Speaker 2: this other credity. The Lego modes are right, the legomodes, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's it's pretty, it's pretty decent. There was no Fortnite
Speaker 2: at packs West though, Wow. Crazy? Uh huh is that
Speaker 2: a thing normally a pack i'n't been a packs on
Speaker 2: a few years.
Speaker 1: Sadly, many years ago there was Fortnite Minigolf. We're talking
Speaker 1: like five years ago, like pre pandemic they had for
Speaker 1: a mini golf.
Speaker 2: Does that did that take them a huge amount of space?
Speaker 2: Was that? Was it? The most annoying thing at the
Speaker 2: on the floor I was those kinds.
Speaker 1: Of that packs because I think that was twenty I
Speaker 1: think that was Wes nineteen, but it took up a
Speaker 1: wild amount of space in one of the buildings.
Speaker 2: My favorite thing about packs is I went to packs
Speaker 2: for a very long time, was always, uh there would
Speaker 2: just be this like one booth that was like the
Speaker 2: booth that was like the annoying booth, you know, for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, Like I remember the uh there was the
Speaker 2: Firefall booth yep, which just would be the booth that
Speaker 2: just kept showing up every year. And I remember like
Speaker 2: no one knew what that game was, but it would
Speaker 2: only show up at packs, and everyone's like, I think
Speaker 2: this is a game that only exists to be on
Speaker 2: pat packs as like, and it's not never going to
Speaker 2: come out. Yes, I don't even did that game ever
Speaker 2: come out. I don't even know idea there's merch for it.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, crazy that can exist. Did that game ever exist?
Speaker 2: As far as I'm concerned, it existed purely to be
Speaker 2: a like Packs show flor thing. League of Legends Yeah,
Speaker 2: was oh worse. Yeah, every year because they would do concerts, yep,
Speaker 2: they would do shoutcasting, they'd be given out free code,
Speaker 2: so it would always be like people just swarming that
Speaker 2: year COS players everywhere. And then I remember eventually they
Speaker 2: were like, we're not going to Packs anymore because we
Speaker 2: have our own convention or whatever. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank the Lord, I don't have to deal with these
Speaker 2: freaking League of Legends players. And I was good friends
Speaker 2: with some Legal Legends players all the time, but I
Speaker 2: was like, sorry, but like y'all are annoying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think I hugged a LCS trophy
Speaker 1: at the last East right by the Packs arena that
Speaker 1: is always incredibly loud and you feel bad. So Rooster
Speaker 1: was one of the demos that is right was right
Speaker 1: near the packs arena. Yeah, and it's so loud and
Speaker 1: there's tons of traffics, and I just felt so bad,
Speaker 1: being like they're here for the ES Sports. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: your beautiful game, Rooster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that you're in the worst place in the whole conventions.
Speaker 2: It sucks. Yeah. I remember Mega sixty four was next
Speaker 2: to the League of Legends booth one year, and they
Speaker 2: were they were taken with a good grain of salt,
Speaker 2: being who they are, But yeah, that was always It.
Speaker 1: Was Dunkin Donuts at East because they had a very
Speaker 1: large donuts. Dunkin Donuts had a very large Boston uh
Speaker 1: huh uh huh. They had a large booth that essentially
Speaker 1: just had a camera pointing down when you would walk
Speaker 1: into the booth, and so almost like the kiss cam
Speaker 1: at an arena. Stuff would go on the screen where
Speaker 1: you could like, you know, hug your friend or make
Speaker 1: faces at the big.
Speaker 2: Screen where you're like a recipe for disaster, and.
Speaker 1: Then they would hand you a five dollars Duncan card.
Speaker 1: And that's why people would go by. I mean, it
Speaker 1: seems like a fair exchange. Yeah, okay, five dollars to
Speaker 1: make funny faces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why not? You know, I'm sure there was a uh,
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's like a Duncan in that convention you
Speaker 2: could just go to after there's one right outside the
Speaker 2: back of the convention's effect. See, that's just that's synergy. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 2: someone got a raise for that. That brilliant marketing strategy.
Speaker 1: Don't I don't think there was like a largely offensive
Speaker 1: booth this time. I'm thinking of West on the floor. No,
Speaker 1: there wasn't really a big offensive, dunkin donut sized booth
Speaker 1: at this one.
Speaker 2: A lot of good. I feel like packs is back.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard that from folks, but
Speaker 2: no back, man. That makes me really want to go,
Speaker 2: because again, I went from pretty consistently every year I
Speaker 2: went to a PAX, whether it's Easter, I go to
Speaker 2: West from I want to say, twenty eleven all the
Speaker 2: way until like twenty nineteen. It's like nine years straight.
Speaker 2: It felt like a pretty good run. And then the
Speaker 2: pandemic happened yep, and then I like haven't gone since yep,
Speaker 2: and I would really love to go to another one.
Speaker 2: That would be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I think this is This was my eleventh, so we've
Speaker 1: probably been to the same amount of them.
Speaker 2: Okay, I think I've been to.
Speaker 1: Maybe four or five South, four souths when South was
Speaker 1: a thing, oh yeah, and then unnplugged, and probably the
Speaker 1: same amount of West and East.
Speaker 2: But it just you know, we've probably crossed paths like
Speaker 2: ships in the Niama. We probably have. We're probably both
Speaker 2: at a giant bomb panel. I'm sure street passing in
Speaker 2: the line God is the best? Is that still going
Speaker 2: there is? Uh?
Speaker 1: Is it Zion that still does sort of a panel or.
Speaker 2: A meetup that's just designed to street pass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everyone gets in a room and they
Speaker 1: just street path pass with each other. That sounds great,
Speaker 1: But the number of three DS is has definitely decreased.
Speaker 1: I did not bring my three DS to a pack
Speaker 1: SA that I went to East and West this year
Speaker 1: did not bring us a three DS.
Speaker 2: That is a thing that I think Nintendo needs to
Speaker 2: really bring to the Switch to a great is some
Speaker 2: sort of you know friend. Like I've said this many times,
Speaker 2: I love the Switch. I think that's the best games
Speaker 2: like of it, Like as a pure library, it's like
Speaker 2: one of Nintendo's best. It's like it's like crazy how
Speaker 2: many good games are on that thing. The actual console
Speaker 2: is like so rizless, like there's no thing to it,
Speaker 2: Like the UI is so boring. Yeah, there's no music
Speaker 2: in any of it, like at all. There's no fun
Speaker 2: little sound effects except for the The only good sound
Speaker 2: effect is when you pull up your friends list, it
Speaker 2: goes boom boop, boo boop, and see, I don't even
Speaker 2: I don't even about it. You don't even pu up
Speaker 2: your friends often to see that that's the only sound
Speaker 2: effect in that system that's interesting at all. And then
Speaker 2: it's like, I need music, I need a fun you
Speaker 2: why and you need to put a street pass style thing,
Speaker 2: something that's like a may I passed someone who also
Speaker 2: had one, and I got a puzzle piece or something.
Speaker 1: Also, that shop is probably the worst shop just from
Speaker 1: a pure optimization standpoint, like how it runs out runs
Speaker 1: everyone's like garbo.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's saying something because there's been some pretty
Speaker 2: bad ones over the years, but it's definitely the worst
Speaker 2: current one.
Speaker 1: And the amount of shovel wear on that thing.
Speaker 2: Nintendo's definitely open the flood gates. Yeah, we're just like whatever.
Speaker 1: And I don't even think there's a search algorithm there.
Speaker 1: It is basically you can search from when was it
Speaker 1: released or you can do a It does have.
Speaker 2: An actual search bar. I have found that half the
Speaker 2: time it doesn't work. I would like search a thing
Speaker 2: and they're like, I don't know what you're talking about
Speaker 2: it and I'm like, I know it exists, it came out today,
Speaker 2: you tweeted about it. I'm trying to buy it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's married under twenty puzzle games or slide shuffle
Speaker 2: anime girl games. Yep. Hopefully they fix it for the
Speaker 2: switch to flee.
Speaker 1: They do.
Speaker 2: I think that would be because I think there's a
Speaker 2: lot of speculation about the switch and how they're gonna
Speaker 2: make it different from the current one switch to whatever
Speaker 2: they end up calling it, And I think I think
Speaker 2: the form factor is pretty good, So I think it's like,
Speaker 2: make the experience of it more fun, make the presentation
Speaker 2: like wow, Nintendo. I think people are excited for that
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
Speaker 1: There was a long time where I thought they were
Speaker 1: gonna get weird with backwards compatibility, m because they're always weird.
Speaker 2: With back But I don't know. Lately, hearing some of
Speaker 2: the scut about it, I'm maybe a little more hopeful. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think they kind of know that that might really
Speaker 2: bite them. That would not people would be mad about
Speaker 2: that because of how much people love their Yeah, there's switches.
Speaker 1: I think about the WEU way more than an average
Speaker 1: human being. Sure from multiple dimensions, and one of them
Speaker 1: is you have a successful console in the Wii. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you name it the Wiu. But then your
Speaker 1: marketing is so confused. Folks are like, wait, is it
Speaker 1: just the tablet? Do I just buy the tablet?
Speaker 2: See? I think Nintendo is terrified re peedia situation. You
Speaker 2: can tell they're just like, oh god, we can't do
Speaker 2: that again. But also they're like, but the switch is
Speaker 2: really popular, so we can't just call it the switch. You. Yeah,
Speaker 2: can't do that again.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that Bowser is yelling on every conference call
Speaker 1: he's on, being like, please, don't do the Wei again.
Speaker 2: Don't do this. Yeah, oh my gosh, Yeah, maybe what
Speaker 2: else did you see it? Packs? What'd you do? I
Speaker 2: played a lot of video games. There are a lot.
Speaker 1: There were a few bangers there, a few big bangers.
Speaker 1: Nintendo was there, and for the first time at East
Speaker 1: they had just a photo op for Scarlet and Violet
Speaker 1: because it sort of came together really quickly on the
Speaker 1: show floor outside of Nintendo line. It was weird, but
Speaker 1: no sorry. Nintendo Live was last West. At least they
Speaker 1: just had a last minute photo op, whereas this time
Speaker 1: they were showing off the new Legend Zelda game. The
Speaker 1: line was the line was very long before it, I
Speaker 1: can imagine, and Astrobot was there, So I did get
Speaker 1: hands on a little bit with Astrobot.
Speaker 2: I can talk about Astrobot, can you. Let's talk about Astrobot.
Speaker 2: So the embargo lifted today as a recording. Hell, I'd
Speaker 2: beaten that game. I played over the weekend. Tell me more.
Speaker 2: It's so good. Yeah, it is delightful.
Speaker 1: I saw the crash Bandicoot clips and said, oh, I
Speaker 1: must play this.
Speaker 2: Video game of media. Yeah, I so. I I've never
Speaker 2: played the VR Astrobot, but I did play play Room,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was just the most phenomenal thing.
Speaker 2: I like, legitimately and ironically think it's one of the
Speaker 2: best things on the PS five you can play. I
Speaker 2: agree with you, except now there's a better thing, and
Speaker 2: it's called Astropod and it's generational. Uh what do you
Speaker 2: mean it?
Speaker 1: You know, some folks on the internet have said that,
Speaker 1: you know, they're comparing it to Nintendo style platformers like
Speaker 1: Super Mario Odyssey or Galaxy That good.
Speaker 2: Yes, I would. I would say it does hit that
Speaker 2: bar of quality, you know, like it is a it
Speaker 2: feels Nintendo like in its in its like execution and
Speaker 2: it's just like, wow, this is just like everything about it.
Speaker 2: It's like so tight and so like well crafted in
Speaker 2: that very Nintendoy way that I feel like it's rare
Speaker 2: to see from studios outside of Nintendo. And then it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: that's what happens when you just like let them cook,
Speaker 2: you know, and make a make a good thing. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's interesting because there's like two elements to Astrobot. There's
Speaker 2: the Astrobot part and then there's all the PlayStation nostalgia
Speaker 2: branding stuff on top. I don't mind the PlayStation nostalgia
Speaker 2: branding you. I feel like in my in theory, I
Speaker 2: feel like i'd hate it because I normally do hate
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. I think it does it just
Speaker 2: well enough where it's more like, oh, this is kind
Speaker 2: of fun and peaceful. There's a few things where I
Speaker 2: won't spoil what they are, but they do have these
Speaker 2: hero levels that are like levels specifically themed after a
Speaker 2: Nintendo game, and they're cool and if you like that
Speaker 2: specific property, you're gonna be really into it. There's about
Speaker 2: five of them. Three of them I would say are
Speaker 2: exactly what you probably These are for Sony characters. Sony franchises,
Speaker 2: think big franchise. So three of them are exactly what
Speaker 2: you probably think that a rap of the rapper go
Speaker 2: on exactly yep. Name the other two? Oh god?
Speaker 1: Uh guitar ro man, isn't. I just think of PSP
Speaker 1: games a lot.
Speaker 2: We know, we know what they are. Yeah, we know,
Speaker 2: they're exactly you know what they are. And if you
Speaker 2: like those games, cool, they're fun, they're they're very faithful
Speaker 2: and trash panic. Yeah, you nailed it. Wow. Tokyo Jungle.
Speaker 2: And that's the third one. Thank you, thank you. I'm
Speaker 2: here all day. Although I will say there is actually
Speaker 2: a Tokyo Jungle. Get out of here. It's a Tokyo jungle.
Speaker 2: Uh no, is there a small dog? Yes? Okay, it's
Speaker 2: it's the Pommes spoilers sing, I spoil one, I spoil one.
Speaker 2: It's really good. There's even man Okay, we'll get back
Speaker 2: to some of that in steah. But i'd say, those
Speaker 2: three ones what you expect, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: it's fine, but there are two that I didn't expect. Actually,
Speaker 2: do pull more from the the you know, like oh okay,
Speaker 2: like hey, that one's cool, and like I really didn't
Speaker 2: expect you to reference that one. So that's awesome. If anything,
Speaker 2: I wish they did more of that, like just really
Speaker 2: double down. But I get it. I get that they
Speaker 2: have to represent like the big current ones, but those
Speaker 2: are just small parts of the game and the majority
Speaker 2: of the game is just Astrobot being astrobought and honestly,
Speaker 2: like remove all the PlayStation stuff does not change my
Speaker 2: feelings on this game totally stands alone. You know, just
Speaker 2: incredibly tight platforming. Astrobot is absolutely adorable. Every level is
Speaker 2: just full of whimsy and delight. And Mark Delaney talks
Speaker 2: about the slot in his review where you gave him
Speaker 2: nine and then's check that out GameSpot dot com or
Speaker 2: YouTube dot com, slash games where I cut the video
Speaker 2: review Hey ay plug. There is so much variety into
Speaker 2: the mechanics where they do that thing where they'll they'll
Speaker 2: introduce a new ability or a new concept and in
Speaker 2: most games you'd think, Okay, they're gonna repeat this. They
Speaker 2: do the Nintendo throw it away. They'll they'll have it
Speaker 2: appear just enough and then throw it away. Here's another thing,
Speaker 2: or or they'll like throw it away and they'll bring
Speaker 2: it back like way later, so you like so you
Speaker 2: never get bored of anything, you know, Like some of
Speaker 2: my favorite levels, I'd be like, Wow, that was a
Speaker 2: really cool level. Never showed up again. They don't repeat
Speaker 2: that level at all, and I was like, Wow, that's crazy,
Speaker 2: like like that was so cool and you could have
Speaker 2: totally made five more levels of that, but they didn't.
Speaker 2: So it feels like, I don't know, there's just like
Speaker 2: this unbridled creativity and this sort of I don't know,
Speaker 2: like I'm I'm shocked they were able to do that
Speaker 2: because I feel like that just goes against every rhythm
Speaker 2: of like, well, we got to maximize this and iterate
Speaker 2: on this, and they just had either the ideas or
Speaker 2: the ability or the money or what to just constantly
Speaker 2: keep it surprising. So I mean I beat the whole
Speaker 2: thing in one day.
Speaker 1: Wow, Well I was going to structurally ask that. I
Speaker 1: think there's an overworld and then you go into levels. Yes,
Speaker 1: what's the structure like in it?
Speaker 2: So there's five galaxies plus a galaxy of like bonus
Speaker 2: levels six technically, and then each one has like four
Speaker 2: levels and then Boss level, and then there's a couple
Speaker 2: of hidden mini small levels that we can unlock. So
Speaker 2: very Mario Galaxy is in that structure, and then each
Speaker 2: the actual levels themselves kind of very where some are
Speaker 2: you know, they're all like five minutes long. They're super short.
Speaker 2: You can speed through them very quick, but a lot
Speaker 2: of them you want to kind of sit there, take
Speaker 2: your time, explore, find all your little astrobots, find the secrets.
Speaker 2: You know. Some will be a much more straightforward path.
Speaker 2: Some will kind of have this little almost like mini
Speaker 2: hub area where it's like I'm gonna walk around and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna interact with this and interact with that and
Speaker 2: do that. So you get this fun mix of like
Speaker 2: typical kind of like curated platforming, and then you get
Speaker 2: a little bit of that astrobot's playroom, like this is
Speaker 2: just a little playground. I have to like interact with
Speaker 2: things and you know, punch stuff and see what moves
Speaker 2: around and everything is just moving all the time, Like
Speaker 2: there's animals everywhere and everything's bouncing and they all have
Speaker 2: faces and it's like and.
Speaker 1: Some of the astrobots to collect are sony characters and
Speaker 1: you can put them in almost like a little case
Speaker 1: that is a dual sense controller.
Speaker 2: Is that is that where they go? Yeah? Yeah, So
Speaker 2: they'll like fly into your dual sense. That's charming, and
Speaker 2: then you can like flip them and move them around,
Speaker 2: and then you go back to what's called the crash site,
Speaker 2: which is your I guess kind of hub area, and
Speaker 2: that is where they will all live, and then you
Speaker 2: can go around and and they'll just be like doing
Speaker 2: their little thing. It almost has this like three D
Speaker 2: museum kind of vibe the way Asterbom's playroom had. And
Speaker 2: then there's like the Gotcha Machine, which was also in
Speaker 2: that game, and you can get a little collectibles for them.
Speaker 1: Because you collect coins throughout the world that exact powers
Speaker 1: at Gotcha Pond.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, so like for example, I'll use the example
Speaker 2: that Mark used in his review where you can get
Speaker 2: like Nathan Drake cool as an astrobot and he'll just
Speaker 2: kind of sit there and be like, hey, I'm Nathan Drake,
Speaker 2: but I'm a little astrobot. But if you collect his
Speaker 2: his a little like Gotcha item, it is a couch
Speaker 2: with like a TV, and then he's like playing a
Speaker 2: little game. And then when you go back to him,
Speaker 2: now he's like sitting there and he's playing it, and
Speaker 2: if you like punch him he'll like react and do
Speaker 2: like a little animation, and every character has one of those.
Speaker 2: It's so cute and wonderful.
Speaker 1: That just makes me want to go back and play
Speaker 1: the VR game once, because I do plan on playing
Speaker 1: it because it comes out as of recording.
Speaker 2: It comes out today.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this, Yep, I am excited to
Speaker 1: dive in, but I might go play the VR game afterwards,
Speaker 1: because I did play Astro's Playroom like you adored it, yeah,
Speaker 1: but didn't play the VR. And I do have a
Speaker 1: PSBR one somewhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have some, We have them in the office.
Speaker 2: I should make you borrow and play it because yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel like I should.
Speaker 1: And probably not backwards compatible because isn't VR one and
Speaker 1: VR two weird?
Speaker 2: Yeah you think you think Sony would have been like,
Speaker 2: should port that game to the PSVR two? Yeah? Whatever,
Speaker 2: especially before this very popular thing comes Uh, maybe it'll
Speaker 2: help our thing that we haven't been promoting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the reviews on it are wild. I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm so pleased that everyone.
Speaker 2: Is loving it. Yeah, It's like I said, it's just
Speaker 2: absolute delight. It's hard not to grin just the whole
Speaker 2: time you're playing it and have a good time, especially
Speaker 2: if you're into that kind of like I guess if
Speaker 2: you're maybe someone who's like, I'm not really in a platformer,
Speaker 2: it's like, maybe Mario doesn't really do much for you,
Speaker 2: Like it's not if you kind of know that, like, hey,
Speaker 2: this might not be your thing, but if you like
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and if you're like if you
Speaker 2: think about like the feelings and the vibes that you
Speaker 2: get from when you play a new three D Mario
Speaker 2: and how it's just like, oh, I just feel like
Speaker 2: a kid, or I feel like I'm just having a
Speaker 2: good time, and it's just like it gives you that
Speaker 2: same vibes, but with PlayStation, which I think is awesome
Speaker 2: because PlayStation hasn't really had that yep, not minute.
Speaker 1: I'm a thirty five year old man and I just
Speaker 1: played Super Mario Otity for the first time in the
Speaker 1: last year, and I was giddy like a child when
Speaker 1: I was playing some of some of those levels.
Speaker 2: So I think you'll absolutely feel the same way playing
Speaker 2: And if you have any nostalgia for Sony or just
Speaker 2: video games associated with PlayStation, you will you'll find one
Speaker 2: of those little Astrobot references and you'll just be like,
Speaker 2: I know that.
Speaker 1: And such a wild contrast to think that the Concord
Speaker 1: stuff happened in the same.
Speaker 2: Week that we put out Astrobot. Yeah not we collective we. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's probably a good idea that there is not a
Speaker 2: Concord reference in Asboto.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although Concord, if I'm not mistaken, is in that
Speaker 1: final level.
Speaker 2: Programs just secret level. It's the prime videos, the new
Speaker 2: prime video thing from the Love, Death and Robots people, Yes,
Speaker 2: which is a cool concept. I'm actually really into that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's a bummer. That's gonna be real awkward
Speaker 2: when that that episode comes out. Yeah, if it even does.
Speaker 1: My thought was Concord has to come out in version
Speaker 1: two because of that deal they have on that program.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I genuinely don't know. I don't even know, man, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that that happened. When did that happened?
Speaker 1: Like that happened in the last in the last week. Yeah, gosh,
Speaker 1: that feels like a lifetime ago.
Speaker 2: And I think that happened literally like yesterday or two
Speaker 2: days ago. That news was wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, folks were still getting physical copies of the game
Speaker 1: and it is now being discontinued. Taken offline, I believe
Speaker 1: on Friday, Friday or Saturday Saturdaylatday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I was very tempted to
Speaker 2: order a physical copy just for the Lulls kind of
Speaker 2: because I was like, wouldn't it be really funny if
Speaker 2: the only physical PlayStation five game I owned on my
Speaker 2: shelf was Concord. That would be so funny, that would
Speaker 2: be very funny. But I but then I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: And then by the time I was like maybe I'll
Speaker 2: actually look, it was already like you couldn't buy it
Speaker 2: on Amazon or anything, and people were trying to like
Speaker 2: upcharge it and sell it, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's gross, Like I don't want that. Yeah, be part
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: They're gonna put it in the museum or throw it
Speaker 1: in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, put it next to lawbreakers, you know, radical heights.
Speaker 1: I don't know name other should should have been well,
Speaker 1: I mean that one should have probably been free to play.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Concord such a weird case study.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel so bad for the development. Yeah, so genuinely,
Speaker 2: like I you know, I think because I think people
Speaker 2: are like very unequivocally just making fun of that game,
Speaker 2: and not to say that there aren't things that you
Speaker 2: can definitely be like, wow, look at the way Sony
Speaker 2: like company messed it up. But I do think a
Speaker 2: lot of it ends up very unfairly attacking the devs
Speaker 2: who were just doing their job and trying to make
Speaker 2: a cool thing with what they had, and a lot
Speaker 2: of assumptions about like them that I think is just
Speaker 2: very mean spirit and not Okay.
Speaker 1: I agree, you have to make you know, folks who
Speaker 1: were probably in the driver's seat for this call would
Speaker 1: have made the call to start working on this game five.
Speaker 2: Four or five years ago.
Speaker 1: Sure, right, so industry shift changes and folks don't like
Speaker 1: hero shooters. But then also, while to see Valves Hero
Speaker 1: Shooter almost at the same time, it's not even out
Speaker 1: yet and has Deadlock and has hundreds of thousands of players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that's an interesting case where I mean,
Speaker 2: for one, that game structurally is obviously so different. It's
Speaker 2: trying to be more kind of mobile ish, but really
Speaker 2: it's Deadlock is doing something very different, and where I
Speaker 2: think Concord just felt from the get go very stale
Speaker 2: and very like, oh twenty sixteen, this is Battle Born. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 2: battle Borns are real good comparison. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 2: I think I have a physical copy of that? Wow?
Speaker 2: Did they do? I think? Think so? I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: check later. Okay, there you go. Yeah, you can put
Speaker 2: it next to Conk on your shelf. Put it in
Speaker 2: the Smithsonian. I guess the Smithsonian. Oh man, your box
Speaker 2: is fine. There's they got Borderlands. They do. They've been
Speaker 2: cranking on those. Have you watched the film? No, I
Speaker 2: need to watch it. It's on It's on streaming now, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I can just watch it. Do I have to
Speaker 2: pay for it still? Or can I just Is it
Speaker 2: like to be your people?
Speaker 1: I would imagine it would be a seven six or
Speaker 1: seven dollar rental.
Speaker 2: At this time. I don't know. That might even be
Speaker 2: too much of a stretcher. I'm gonna be honest. I
Speaker 2: because I did watch I watched the Five Nights of
Speaker 2: Freddy's movie because it was like free on Peacock and
Speaker 2: that was hot garbage last year. But I did. It
Speaker 2: was better than I thought it was gonna be, though,
Speaker 2: but just just barely, like really wasn't It still was
Speaker 2: not not great at all? Like there were elements bro
Speaker 2: I was like, well, what tronics actually look pretty good,
Speaker 2: and like that looks good. But then I like, tonally,
Speaker 2: I think I had no idea what I wanted to
Speaker 2: do and it was not coherent, and.
Speaker 1: I think I had the Matthew Lillard Lillard goggles on
Speaker 1: where I was like, I sort of excused it of
Speaker 1: it since sure because Matthew Lillard, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and Matthew Lillard did kind of put his all
Speaker 2: into it in a like, you know, like Jim Carrey
Speaker 2: robotic kind of way. So it's like, you know what, like,
Speaker 2: all right, props to him, but you're full ass into this,
Speaker 2: thank you. But he wasn't in it enough. He was
Speaker 2: just in in in the beginning. In the end. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it was kind of a spoilers first half and
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, spoiler's first and alph I mean also,
Speaker 2: if you watch that trollery you knew anything about the
Speaker 2: story of those games, you were like, I know who
Speaker 2: he is. Yeah, this is so obvious. Duh uh. But
Speaker 2: my wife really does want to watch Borlands because she
Speaker 2: she's a hater, y certified hater. She loves to watch
Speaker 2: things to hate on them. Yeah, and so she's like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna watch it, right, And I was like, I
Speaker 2: don't want to do that. She's like, we're gonna watch it,
Speaker 2: like I'm morbidly curious about it as well. She also
Speaker 2: likes Borderlands. She's like a Borderland games. Yeah, she's a
Speaker 2: Borderlands defender. She's one of those I like Borderlands and
Speaker 2: I don't care if what you all say kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Is Jack black Claptrap in that?
Speaker 1: Yes, man, he's getting all the video game movies. Because
Speaker 1: the trailer for Minecraft Drop God, I thought that like
Speaker 1: terrible too, Yeah, really bad.
Speaker 2: He's in that too. Yeah. Nice Steve. Yeah, she's like
Speaker 2: some version of Steve or something. I don't know. Did
Speaker 2: you watch that trailer? I did? Yeah, what do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't even know if they looked at the source
Speaker 1: material apart from looking at what the characters look like
Speaker 1: and what the world looked like.
Speaker 2: But did they play the video game? I don't know,
Speaker 2: because I mean the world even the problem with it
Speaker 2: is that it looks like, uh, it looks like the
Speaker 2: movie CG equivalent of when you apply like overly realistic
Speaker 2: detailed check textures on like a PS one game where
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, this looks horrifying, Like those pigs look terrible.
Speaker 2: They I'm going to see those in my nightmares kind
Speaker 2: of like thing. So there's that, and then there's the
Speaker 2: fact that you're like, okay, well, all the real actors
Speaker 2: are just clearly on a green screen the whole movie.
Speaker 2: So I immediately like, don't feel any like, I don't
Speaker 2: feel like they're connecting to what they are in at all.
Speaker 2: Everything feels horribly disjointed. And also pet peeve of mine,
Speaker 2: I hate isakai genre. You know, I don't like's genre.
Speaker 2: For those who don't know, means guy is a Japanese term.
Speaker 2: It's essentially a it is people from the real world
Speaker 2: who get transported to another world. So in in Japanese anime,
Speaker 2: isaki is a very popular right now, things like sort
Speaker 2: are online or you know, there's a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 2: Isakai also exists a lot in uh American cinema. There's
Speaker 2: the jaman Jack Black with Jack Black Jack Black King
Speaker 2: of I think we can call it ye Jack like that.
Speaker 2: That's an isakai. Uh this movie, it's an isakai like
Speaker 2: And and I realized, like, I actually don't really like
Speaker 2: those stories because I want a story about that fantastical
Speaker 2: world YEP with people that live in that world and
Speaker 2: take that world seriously. And whenever you do it in
Speaker 2: Isakai story where you take people from the real world
Speaker 2: and you put them in that world, they treat that
Speaker 2: world very flippantly and they and they're they're just like, oh,
Speaker 2: what's this. It's like it's for spoken. It's the first
Speaker 2: spoken problem. It's like, I'm just a girl from Brooklyn
Speaker 2: and now I'm in this magical world. Whoa And everyone's
Speaker 2: like this is obnoxious, and it's like, yes, I agree.
Speaker 1: Which is probably why folks appreciate and respect Persona so much.
Speaker 2: Right, is was would Persona?
Speaker 1: I say this as a person who's not played it
Speaker 1: Persona game, but I assume that they're sort of being
Speaker 1: transported into a mythical world.
Speaker 2: I mean yes and no ooh, that's a question. I
Speaker 2: would say it's eat sakai ish. But the difference is
Speaker 2: is that it's more that the world that they're the
Speaker 2: world is still related to their current world. Like in
Speaker 2: Persona they go to like the metaverse and like, but
Speaker 2: but the metaverse is like, it's not an alternate world.
Speaker 2: It's like a different part of our world. It's like
Speaker 2: it's like a different space Dimon world. Oh yes, because Digimon,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say is aniakai okay, I would not go
Speaker 2: out Digimon as ankai because it still is our world,
Speaker 2: and the those worlds interact with each other like things
Speaker 2: they do in persona affect the real world, and they
Speaker 2: they they got it are connected. Where I would say.
Speaker 2: The thing with an Kai is it's completely different. It's
Speaker 2: a it's it's an unconnected universe, okay, has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with you know.
Speaker 1: So I when I saw the Minecraft trailer, all I
Speaker 1: thought of, to your point of upres scary textures was
Speaker 1: Cube of wore playing it on Dolphin.
Speaker 2: That's all I thought. Oh sure, yeah, yeah, my mind
Speaker 2: went to a weird place there. Yeah. Or remember that
Speaker 2: here's a Ward two Tech demo with the meat Cube.
Speaker 2: I do, Yeah, I do. Yeah, that's kind of what
Speaker 2: it looks like, the meat Cube. Yeah. I don't want
Speaker 2: to that's it's very high res cube of meat and
Speaker 2: it doesn't look natural. And Jason Momo is your lead.
Speaker 2: It's just a lot of strangth. We love Jason Momo,
Speaker 2: we stand in that man. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I'm like, why is he the lead of the Minecraft movie?
Speaker 2: Because they couldn't get the Rock Fair Jumanji. Yes, Oh man,
Speaker 2: they really just make one movie over and over again,
Speaker 2: don't they? Yeah? Man, have you paid attention to kids movies?
Speaker 2: Clearly I haven't. Four decades. I clearly I have.
Speaker 1: There's a formula there is, so is Sonic three then
Speaker 1: gonna follow that that formula.
Speaker 2: Is like the weird one that kind of like actually
Speaker 2: transcends it a little bit because I feel like each
Speaker 2: movie because the first movie I think is okay, agreed,
Speaker 2: and the second movie I do think is better for
Speaker 2: kids four kids. But here's the thing. I think as
Speaker 2: those movies get on, they start to lean more into
Speaker 2: the sonicisms of this and less into the because the
Speaker 2: first movie, I think where it falls apart is the
Speaker 2: parts that are very like kids movie, where it's like,
Speaker 2: here's the all the human characters, here's the references to
Speaker 2: Olive Garden and like all this, like the pop music
Speaker 2: and all this stuff that you're like, okay, like I
Speaker 2: get it, this kid's movie. But then it's like, I know,
Speaker 2: you're getting like more sonic with it. And then like
Speaker 2: the third one where it's like, oh they just got
Speaker 2: shadow and like you know everyone, it's like are the
Speaker 2: human characters. They're in it, but they're probably hopefully not
Speaker 2: gonna get much screen time, who knows. But I feel
Speaker 2: like they're understanding, like, oh, we know what the Sonic
Speaker 2: freaks want, and we're gonna give it.
Speaker 1: The want Metal Sonic punching Shadow of the Hedgehog. Yes, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: exactly they want. They want that girl to get shot
Speaker 1: with a gun, and they're gonna stand up and they're
Speaker 1: gonna cheer for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They want Sonic to kiss a human girl? Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh wow. Do you think they'll ever Now, I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: we get to the part where they will try to
Speaker 2: adapt Sonic O six.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like they'll wink a nod to it.
Speaker 1: Live and Learn will come on Shadow or Knuckles and
Speaker 1: Sonic will do the super saying thing and we'll live
Speaker 1: and learn.
Speaker 2: Which one is that? From? Which ones Live and Learn? Actually?
Speaker 2: From Sonic Adventure to Battle? Is that battle? Yeah? Have
Speaker 2: they done escape from the City yet? In I can't remember.
Speaker 2: I don't think they have. Well, they could do that
Speaker 2: because that's Adventure too. Sonic was on a snowboard though
Speaker 2: in the second one I believe, Okay, did they play
Speaker 2: it there? I couldn't they might again? Yeah? Right in
Speaker 2: if you think they played the you could tell us
Speaker 2: what's the podcast? Email GameSpot no after dark GameSpot dot com.
Speaker 1: Please write and say right and let us know. You'll
Speaker 1: know nothing about Sonic the movies?
Speaker 2: Yes, please?
Speaker 1: Do we want your thesis about Sonic One and Sonic
Speaker 1: too the movies.
Speaker 2: Probably correct that we don't know anything. But Rus the Bat?
Speaker 2: Do you think she'll show up at any point? Oh man,
Speaker 2: there's so many characters? Yeah? And who do you get
Speaker 2: to play Rouge the Bat?
Speaker 1: Because Rouge the Bat in two thousand and six would
Speaker 1: have been voiced by Ali Larder if you remember, like
Speaker 1: Ali Lurer from from Heroes, She's the perfect voice.
Speaker 2: For Rouge the Bat. But you get Pink is Pink
Speaker 2: Rouge the Bat singer Pink? Because I'm trying to think
Speaker 2: because they've been they've definitely been leaning more into the whole.
Speaker 2: They had a lot of success with Eater s Elba
Speaker 2: and then he said we gotta go bigger. Yep, we
Speaker 2: got we got a shadow And you're like, okay, that's fine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: who do you get for Rouge? They haven't done Amy either. Actually,
Speaker 2: now that I think about it, we haven't got Amy,
Speaker 2: we haven't got.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many I need chaotics in the Yeah,
Speaker 1: who would play Rouge the Bat because in my mind,
Speaker 1: you need sort of a gruff voice. You need something
Speaker 1: that sounds like the person has smoked.
Speaker 2: Yes, fatal who smoked a lot? Yes? Charlie sure? Or Uma? Okay? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm yeah. Is it with Thurman doing anything? Not sure?
Speaker 2: Why not? Yeah? Get her in, call her up? Yeah?
Speaker 2: All right, that'd be great.
Speaker 1: Is that the only big because I feel like story
Speaker 1: Kitchen is essentially taking all the I P there's a
Speaker 1: Dredge movie coming out as you as you probably know.
Speaker 2: That's Yeah, there's some weird ones that I was like, oh, okay, like,
Speaker 2: you know, cool game and and like, uh what is
Speaker 2: that game that? Uh? It was the Max Pain like game.
Speaker 1: I heard that's Getting Scaffold Yeah, and it's la Keith
Speaker 1: Stanfield is playing the main character of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I was like, okay, like that could actually
Speaker 2: be good. But I was like, what a weird poll. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like that game's cool, but you know, m hmm.
Speaker 1: Salivan Nelson at Strange Gaffold builds cool worlds. Yes, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've played Clickholding yet, I've.
Speaker 2: Been meaning to. Yeah, that game looks I've not played.
Speaker 2: It's half an hour. I've not played it yet.
Speaker 1: For those who have not seen it, it is a
Speaker 1: strange man in a hotel room in the dark with
Speaker 1: a mask on, and then you just click one of
Speaker 1: those number counters a whole bunch and then stuff happens
Speaker 1: the video game.
Speaker 2: Wow, that sounds great. Yeah. Also incredible name. Yeah, top tier.
Speaker 2: I definitely can't.
Speaker 1: I don't read it right, Yeah, I mean their names
Speaker 1: four games. I Am Your Beast is coming out imminently,
Speaker 1: which is another strange caffold that's coming out in the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, mm hmm. Man, is there anything you're
Speaker 2: looking forward to game the rest of the year, because
Speaker 2: we're in the thick of it.
Speaker 1: We are, we are in the thick of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: apart from Astrobot. I got really excited today with the
Speaker 1: Bilatro mobile announcement. Okay, I was like, oh no, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna play blatchrowhere, including the toilet.
Speaker 2: I'm one of the few people that has not fully
Speaker 2: gotten onto the Blockchrow train. I bought it on PC
Speaker 2: load up on my Steam deck. I tried to play it. Yep.
Speaker 2: I think my mindset wasn't there, so I just I
Speaker 2: don't want to like trying to understand like card games
Speaker 2: and board games type of rules. It's like very difficult
Speaker 2: for me. And I thought. I was like, man, I
Speaker 2: don't want to I can't figure this out right now.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try it later. And I like quit it
Speaker 2: out midtatorial because I just let it back up. I
Speaker 2: loaded back up, the tutorial does not pop up again.
Speaker 2: Oh no, So now I don't know how to play
Speaker 2: that game. No, And I was like, should I look
Speaker 2: up a video or something?
Speaker 1: And I was like, there are tons of strat videos
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 2: But I kind of screwed myself because I don't. I
Speaker 2: just like, I don't know how to play that game,
Speaker 2: so now I don't come back to it up on
Speaker 2: my phone.
Speaker 1: There are some folks that have been like I don't
Speaker 1: fully understand this game, and there's a weird I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe not now that it's the most popular game.
Speaker 2: I'm being facetious, but like that it's.
Speaker 1: Very popular, but there was this weird thing of like
Speaker 1: I don't understand gambling. I don't want to play bare
Speaker 1: then you.
Speaker 2: Have to scream with them and be like, it's actually
Speaker 2: not about gambling, It's not about at all. No, that's
Speaker 2: just the scoring mechanism for your addiction to balatro. I
Speaker 2: feel like I would like it, Like I'm not trying
Speaker 2: to be like a blatro. It's more just the weird
Speaker 2: situation I put myself in. I was like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: too late.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm probably most excited for like Microsoft's first
Speaker 1: party Indiana Jones is still this year.
Speaker 2: Right it is? It's like December ninth, which I'm not
Speaker 2: feeling good about that date. I mean, so I think
Speaker 2: the average person doesn't have to care about this because
Speaker 2: they're like it's fine, Like I'll play it on Christmas
Speaker 2: and it'll be great, right, perfect. This is a I'm
Speaker 2: a games journalist who works for a company that has
Speaker 2: game of the Year, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, when's the cutoff? What date is the cutoff?
Speaker 2: The cutoff is usually like the last week of November.
Speaker 2: Oh god. And we've had weird situations where we've had
Speaker 2: to come back. And I think we mentioned this last
Speaker 2: on the podcast, Like Halo Infinite was a one where
Speaker 2: it was like Jordan's the only one who's played it.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Jordan. Jordan's like, it's real good,
Speaker 2: we should put it on the list. We're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: Jordan's you know, like you have to kind of trust
Speaker 2: the word of.
Speaker 1: Like have a weird single player multiplayer where one came
Speaker 1: before the.
Speaker 2: Other multiplayer came out first. So that was a weird
Speaker 2: one where everyone there had played the multiplayer, but Jordan
Speaker 2: was the only one who had played the campaign, And
Speaker 2: to be fair, I think everyone liked the multiplayer enough
Speaker 2: that we all wanted it to be on the list
Speaker 2: just for the multiplayer. And then Jordan's like, I also
Speaker 2: think the campaign's good. We're like sold. But that was
Speaker 2: a weird one. I think Smash Brothers also was a
Speaker 2: December weird Oh yeah, and Ultimate Yes, yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 2: was one. Although we a good amount of us played
Speaker 2: it because one of us who got the code just
Speaker 2: like set it up on the TV. Everyone played it
Speaker 2: all the time, constantly. We played so much of that
Speaker 2: game in an office. But yeah, games like that, it's
Speaker 2: always either a you know, if it misses the cutoff,
Speaker 2: what we say is it's eligible for the next year,
Speaker 2: but you always forget about it. But then it always
Speaker 2: gets forgotten. Yeah, you know when it's kind of a bummer.
Speaker 2: That's the Game Awards has that same problem, sure, where
Speaker 2: the eligibility is probably November thirtieth because you have to
Speaker 2: cut off somewhere. Yeah, on that game, Like, the only
Speaker 2: way it wouldn't get forgotten is if it was like
Speaker 2: Elder Ring levels of incredible, right, right, And you're probably
Speaker 2: playing it weeks before it comes out anyway, Sure, so
Speaker 2: you know that it's very good exactly.
Speaker 1: Apart from Astrobot, very excited about Mario and Luigi. The
Speaker 1: new one that's coming out over the holidays. I still
Speaker 1: don't really know who is making it because Alpha Dream
Speaker 1: is no longer a studio that exists. I don't know
Speaker 1: what team is working on it. But if it has
Speaker 1: the same charm as other Mario RPGs, I'm sure it
Speaker 1: will be rad. And then beyond that, it's really just
Speaker 1: playing the backlog.
Speaker 2: It is. I've not played Children of the Sun yet.
Speaker 2: That's a great one. You can do that one in
Speaker 2: one setting. Great Sick seems a perfect pop it on
Speaker 2: on the evening. It's like psychedelic Hitman or psychedelic Sniper Elite, right,
Speaker 2: that's the vibe Okay, it's it's wonderfully weird and gnarly
Speaker 2: and and I love that game. Yeah, that's real good,
Speaker 2: it works great on scenebeck as well.
Speaker 1: Good, Yeah, I have that, and I have Yellow Taxi
Speaker 1: Go Room loaded up on my heard of this one. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the pitch for that one is take Super Mario
Speaker 1: sixty four and Crazy Taxi and smash them together.
Speaker 2: Okay, sold me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, that one came out and sort of I
Speaker 1: don't know, say under the radar, but I think it's
Speaker 1: PC only, and so.
Speaker 2: That's why, folks, Okay, it would crush on switch. But
Speaker 2: there is a character in the game called Morio who
Speaker 2: is a parody of Mario, which is why it's probably
Speaker 2: not unintendedly interesting. What are you most excited for Stalker two?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm a huge fan of the original Stalker games.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to that Euro jank. It's gonna be good.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely picking up on PC because I expect one.
Speaker 2: I expect that game and probably be pretty buggy because
Speaker 2: that's coming in a hot It's kind of the vibe
Speaker 2: I get. And I'm gonna mod the heck and you
Speaker 2: know the mods are gonna be wild for that one,
Speaker 2: So definitely looking forward to that. I think that's gonna
Speaker 2: be great. I am also looking forward to oh what
Speaker 2: is it? There was? There was another one that I
Speaker 2: was like, old, a dragon Age dragon Age. So I
Speaker 2: mentioned a few times on the podcast. I've been playing
Speaker 2: dragon Age Origins. I finally beat it this weekend. Technically,
Speaker 2: my wife played it. She had never played a dragon
Speaker 2: Age before, but really like Boulder Skate three last year,
Speaker 2: and that was kind of her her on ramp to
Speaker 2: this one. Yes, and and like that was her full
Speaker 2: like intro to like, hey, I actually like RPGs and
Speaker 2: I like fantasy. And I was like hell yeah, rubbing
Speaker 2: my hands. So I was like, you should try dragon Age.
Speaker 2: She loved it, super into it, thought the world building
Speaker 2: was fantastic. Like, replaying that game reminded me, have you
Speaker 2: ever played Original dragon No?
Speaker 1: I have, and I've been thinking about it. So I
Speaker 1: played through all the mass EVEVECT games. Okay, but I
Speaker 1: think the next huge RPG, you know, I said earlier,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna play I played a persona game. Persona
Speaker 1: for Golden is probably the next big RBGI player, but
Speaker 1: Origins is.
Speaker 2: On the leaps too. Okay, if you do play it, yeah,
Speaker 2: how do you play it in twenty twenty four? So
Speaker 2: I tried playing it on PC. Unfortunately, it's got some
Speaker 2: issues on PC that kind of prevent it. The big
Speaker 2: thing is there was like a memory that came as
Speaker 2: a memory leak. Oh no, that never got patched. You
Speaker 2: had to turn off every thirty minutes, yes, and you
Speaker 2: have to like set it to low so it doesn't
Speaker 2: crash and then reload it back up. And then the
Speaker 2: longer you play, the shorter it takes before it keeps crashing.
Speaker 2: So what I ended up doing instead because it was
Speaker 2: like this is gonna be I barely have the patience
Speaker 2: for this, and my wife will absolutely this is this
Speaker 2: is the easiest way to make her not like this game.
Speaker 2: You threw spaghetti in the PC. We threw some spaghetti
Speaker 2: and the PC and that just like sewed it all up.
Speaker 2: The no more leaks. We bought on Xbox because it's
Speaker 2: backwards compatible. Okay, so if you have an Xbox, you
Speaker 2: know you can you can just play it on that.
Speaker 2: It does cost more. Unfortunately, if you want to buy
Speaker 2: all the DLC, which is kind of a bummer, it's
Speaker 2: like there there's no game of the edition for that
Speaker 2: there was, but it was a disc only, so if
Speaker 2: you buy it, you know digitally, you have to buy
Speaker 2: it all piecemeal still, which like really sucks.
Speaker 1: And can you even buy Didn't they shut down the.
Speaker 2: Three sixty store as well? No, well, they shut down
Speaker 2: the store on three sixty, but any games backwards compatible
Speaker 2: on a modern Xbox can still be bopped, so you
Speaker 2: can still buy three sixty games that you can play
Speaker 2: on your modern Xbox, So you can do that and
Speaker 2: it will. It does have built in frame rate boost,
Speaker 2: so it plays sixty yeah, is awesome. It doesn't have
Speaker 2: a resolution boost, so it kind of looks real crunchy,
Speaker 2: And I would say that game visually does not hold
Speaker 2: up the best because it's kind of rough looking and
Speaker 2: the controls are pretty okay. The combat of that game
Speaker 2: is fun, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea.
Speaker 2: I would say, if you're not feeling it, just put
Speaker 2: it down to easy and you can kind of just
Speaker 2: grind through most of that game. You're really there for
Speaker 2: the story and the characters in the world. That stuff
Speaker 2: holds up so incredibly well, like the world building and
Speaker 2: just the level of thought that buyer were put into
Speaker 2: that universe. It's like it even fifteen years later, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 2: this holds up like just so well, like just like
Speaker 2: every little detail they thought of of, like this world
Speaker 2: and not just like the continent you're like the country
Speaker 2: you're on and it's relationship with other countries and like
Speaker 2: you're a grey Warden and like the history of the
Speaker 2: grey Wardens and what they do and like all this
Speaker 2: and that, and then like she was like, wow, this
Speaker 2: reminds me of like it's like Witcher levels of just
Speaker 2: like the thought and the care and the attention to
Speaker 2: these little elements that you don't even necessarily come into
Speaker 2: play but are just there to make the world feel
Speaker 2: real holds up so well.
Speaker 1: I want buy Away to win so much for vil Guard.
Speaker 1: I don't think there is there is a triple A
Speaker 1: studio this Q four that I'm cheering for.
Speaker 2: Now than them. I agree that I want them to
Speaker 2: have a win. Yeah, because there was a time where
Speaker 2: I would unequivocally say, bar where is my favorite studio
Speaker 2: all time? And they've they've been letting me down recently.
Speaker 2: And did you play Anthem? I did? I did play Anthem.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there was world building in that one. No, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean there was. I don't think it was told
Speaker 2: in a way that was I didn't retain any of it.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was interesting. I don't. I couldn't
Speaker 2: tell you anything about the world building. Like dragon Age,
Speaker 2: it's not just like because it's not enough to just
Speaker 2: say we have lore. It has to actually be told
Speaker 2: in the context of it needs to be like engaging
Speaker 2: and like make sense and relate back to you. And
Speaker 2: I don't remember any of that stuff in Anthem. I
Speaker 2: just remember, man, the flying around with the robot suits
Speaker 2: was kind of cool. Yeah, the Tony Stark park, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the Iron Man part it was nice. And that's about it. Uh.
Speaker 2: And then I really didn't like Andromeda. I thought that
Speaker 2: game was huge displint.
Speaker 1: I was literally gonna say, like the Matt the world
Speaker 1: building in one to three was really fantastic, and again
Speaker 1: taking it out of the codec and just you know,
Speaker 1: talking to folks with your side missions, yeah, learning about them.
Speaker 1: If Dragon Age is anything like the original Mass spect trilogy.
Speaker 2: That definitely is. Yes, if that's if you're looking for
Speaker 2: that vibe, because playing it gave me that, like, man,
Speaker 2: this this reminds me so much of like night Stale
Speaker 2: Republic One, the original. It has that spirit, has that
Speaker 2: buyoware vibe to it. So if you have a love
Speaker 2: for those games, like go play Dragon Age Origians.
Speaker 1: It keeps moving up my list of when am I
Speaker 1: going to play this video game?
Speaker 2: It's it's a wonderful time. She loved it. We're going
Speaker 2: to play the expansion Awakening next. We're just taking a
Speaker 2: small break and then we're going to play two, and
Speaker 2: then we're going to play Inquisition leading up to Vilguard.
Speaker 2: Gotta hope that game is good. Also, you're running out
Speaker 2: of time. Isn't it coming out in like seven weeks
Speaker 2: right Halloween? So to be fair, we probably won't make that.
Speaker 2: That's okay. I'll probably play my own playthrough with my
Speaker 2: my save, and then when we're done, we'll have we'll
Speaker 2: do a second play through with her. What was your
Speaker 2: play through? Time wise? Like thinking about investment, I'm like,
Speaker 2: can I so again, we played on easy, so we
Speaker 2: were able to kind of like cruise through most of
Speaker 2: the fights.
Speaker 1: Yep, fifty hours okay to beat the game. I put
Speaker 1: seventy in a rebirth this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did fifty and that was doing all the DLCs,
Speaker 2: not counting the expansion, like okay, like all the DLCs
Speaker 2: that you can do within the base game, which are
Speaker 2: to be very short. That yeah, if you played on
Speaker 2: normal with the actual because that game was combat is
Speaker 2: actually quite difficult. I remember my original playthrough took me
Speaker 2: like ninety hours. It's a long ass game because that
Speaker 2: games combat it's pretty brutal. But I would really just
Speaker 2: recommend playing on easy and just flying through it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I think you've moved up this game. It
Speaker 1: is on my pile of shame. You've moved it up.
Speaker 2: It's good. There's some great man. Some of the characters
Speaker 2: in that game are so so good. Who's the is
Speaker 2: the bull Man? What's their name? That's the Iron Bowl?
Speaker 2: The Iron Bowl? Yes, everyone talks about the Iron Bowl.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Freddy Princh Junior. He's in the third one,
Speaker 2: so not not the first one, but the first one.
Speaker 2: Is Morgan, she's the iconic witch lady from the series It.
Speaker 2: Scott Alistair, he's great. Sten. They're pretty much all great
Speaker 2: except for Agron. Agron sucks. But what does Agron suck?
Speaker 2: Because Agron is is He's so He's a dwarf character
Speaker 2: whose whole character is uh, he's constantly drunk, and he's
Speaker 2: constantly making sexual advances of oh no, and just being
Speaker 2: a rude, gross boy. Okay, and that's the whole character.
Speaker 2: And I don't you're not the game isn't saying isn't
Speaker 2: this guy cool? Actually the game knows he's a loser. Yep.
Speaker 2: But that's kind of it. Okay, Like you're just like, Okay, hey,
Speaker 2: here's a guy. He sucks, and I'm like, great.
Speaker 1: You have me have fun drunk, and then you said
Speaker 1: the second thing and I was like, no, no, thanks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's like they don't go they keep
Speaker 2: it light enough, it's not like yeah, but it's it's
Speaker 2: still like I don't like you. And then you're like
Speaker 2: and the game's like, yeah, isn't he the worst? I'm like, cool,
Speaker 2: is he gonna do something with that? And they're like
Speaker 2: not really, he's just gonna continue to be the worst,
Speaker 2: And you're like, great, well, then I'll never use him
Speaker 2: and I don't want to talk to him. Party characters
Speaker 2: A party character, yes, And unfortunately he's one of the
Speaker 2: only party characters that is also in the expansion, like
Speaker 2: like they they want you to play with him. I
Speaker 2: don't get it. Someone there was really championing Augrin. He's
Speaker 2: voiced by Steve Blum too, who actually does a job,
Speaker 2: and really it's a good voice. He doesn't he does
Speaker 2: a really good performance as a loser, But what does
Speaker 2: a loser sound like? I'm putting you on the spot
Speaker 2: for an impression. I'm I'm'm not gonna even try that.
Speaker 2: My voice cannot hit that kind of industry as a
Speaker 2: as a Steve Blum. But yeah, I mean the expansion
Speaker 2: has like some great new characters in it that are awesome.
Speaker 2: And then and also they're like, and we put Augron
Speaker 2: back in. I'm like, why why you could have put anyone?
Speaker 2: There must be one fan somewhere somewhere there is an
Speaker 2: Augron fan. They're furiously typing an email right now. Yeah,
Speaker 2: after dark it came from.
Speaker 1: Man, someone's gonna look at the inbox in a few
Speaker 1: weeks and be like, what the hell are you are
Speaker 1: y'all doing?
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's probably my big one. Okay, I'm very
Speaker 2: excited for Yeah, I'm I'm I'm really hoping that one's good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there is no studio. I'm cheering for more, I know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it'd be nice I'd like to win this year because
Speaker 2: it's it's been kind of rougher game devs. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if my heart could take it. If
Speaker 2: if Byre were also, uh, you know, something happens to them.
Speaker 1: For a long time, I was like, what is Eya
Speaker 1: besides FIFA print money machine and they don't feel that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Dice hasn't made a game since twenty forty two and nineteen.
Speaker 2: I think it's been a long time for them as well.
Speaker 2: They have they're winning off Frostbite, I'm sure right. Uh,
Speaker 2: Apex Legends still trucking along. A lot of people are
Speaker 2: very unhappy because they've been doing some weird monetization stuff
Speaker 2: with that that's gross or whatever. I just know people
Speaker 2: are mad about it. Yeah, sure that sounds right.
Speaker 1: But there and there are no real EA originals lately.
Speaker 1: I think the last one would have been Hazes Light
Speaker 1: last game Tails of CANCERA oh, that would have been
Speaker 1: an EA original.
Speaker 2: Was original, was very good, and unfortunately I don't think
Speaker 2: that game did Super Bowl because they had to lay off, yeah,
Speaker 2: a bunch of people on their team, which really sucks
Speaker 2: because I thought that game was really cool and I
Speaker 2: hope that team can bounce back because man, a surgeon studios. Yes,
Speaker 2: that was like such an amazing first effort for a studio,
Speaker 2: and I was like, man, they could really build on
Speaker 2: this and like the next game could just like knock
Speaker 2: it out of the park. So I hope they get
Speaker 2: the chance to do that. I'm really rooting for them too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is the Haze light game? That's not a
Speaker 1: way out? The one with the two folks who become
Speaker 1: toys or become Oh it takes to thank you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: it takes two, yes, of course, right, I mean, look.
Speaker 2: I said that, but it's a it's a good video
Speaker 2: but it is a good video game. Was it the
Speaker 2: best video game of that year?
Speaker 1: I don't think it was, really think it was, but
Speaker 1: definitely in the in the should be in the top five.
Speaker 2: Sure yeah, yes, yeah, very much a contender, But the
Speaker 2: best video game of that year? I don't think it was. No,
Speaker 2: what was? What? What else was that year? Though? What
Speaker 2: year was that? Twenty two? Twenty two? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: look on twenty two. It's weird. I have like a
Speaker 2: very good memory for video game. Like you could like
Speaker 2: name a video game and I'd be like nine two
Speaker 2: ninety eight, or whatever. But the last couple of years
Speaker 2: have been a weird blur, probably because of the pandemic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, that would have not that that had been.
Speaker 1: Pre No, twenty two was the elden Ring year, so
Speaker 1: that might have actually been twenty one.
Speaker 2: Sould have been twenty one now because yeah, yeah, twenty
Speaker 2: two was elden Ring year. So twenty one was Death Loop.
Speaker 2: It was Psychoonot's two that was the best game of
Speaker 2: that year. I wholeheardly agree with you. It was Psychodots
Speaker 2: two that was the best game. Yeah, here's here is
Speaker 2: the list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was it takes two to one death Loop,
Speaker 1: as you said, Metroid Dread, Psychonots two, Rift Apart, Resident
Speaker 1: Evil Village where where.
Speaker 2: The six titles? Yeah it was. It was Psychoonats too.
Speaker 2: That was the best game of the year. It was Yeah,
Speaker 2: such a good game. What a game?
Speaker 1: Have you watched the final episode of the two player
Speaker 1: Productions documentary?
Speaker 2: Now? I have not, but I did order that Blu
Speaker 2: ray box.
Speaker 1: So did I, and I was like, I don't need this.
Speaker 2: I don't need it. I absolutely don't need it, but
Speaker 2: I feel obligated to have it.
Speaker 1: I had a group chat with like two friends that
Speaker 1: are big fans of that documentary as well, and we
Speaker 1: were all like, ah, we don't need.
Speaker 2: This, but like what if it was just on the.
Speaker 1: Shelf, Yeah, we could be like, look it next to
Speaker 1: our you know, double fine art book. And then I
Speaker 1: said I don't need it. And then later that day
Speaker 1: I just bought it.
Speaker 2: I just bought it, and I was like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: I feel like it's someone who works in the games media,
Speaker 2: who has made a couple of video game docs. It's
Speaker 2: like I gotta I gotta support my fellows.
Speaker 1: Because nothing will like it shouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2: It's unbeatable. Honestly, it's like why even try, you know,
Speaker 2: when they like that, you can't even I mean, there's
Speaker 2: many reasons to try and stories in that. But I
Speaker 2: was like, Wow, they did it. They did the thing
Speaker 2: that like is a once in a lifetime project, Like
Speaker 2: how do you? I don't even know.
Speaker 1: Part of me wants them to win because I think
Speaker 1: the Emmys are coming up, so part of me went,
Speaker 1: can we nominated? I don't know because how the eligibility works,
Speaker 1: but either I was struck by this should win an Emmy,
Speaker 1: This should win, should give it a bath to can
Speaker 1: we give it something? So it is a report documentary,
Speaker 1: not a video game documentary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's just a great Yes, it's like the
Speaker 2: level of depth and and like attention, like is it's
Speaker 2: not just like, oh, they were there the whole time
Speaker 2: and it's long. It's like it's also good and compelling
Speaker 2: and interesting and and and that that length like really
Speaker 2: brings something to the understanding of like the people and
Speaker 2: the game development process in a way that you really
Speaker 2: can't get from just like, uh, you know, hey, we
Speaker 2: talked to them for like a few days. It's just
Speaker 2: not possible, right like.
Speaker 1: And it ends and flows and you see again, I
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: The pandemic happens in it. Like there's so many acquisition happens. Yes,
Speaker 2: and you get oh my god, like.
Speaker 1: The Matt Booty meeting incredible, Oh my god, that I
Speaker 1: can't believe it made it into the final.
Speaker 2: It really is a microcosm of like everything that could
Speaker 2: possibly happen to like a game, you know, with the
Speaker 2: exception of it like getting like a shut down or
Speaker 2: like right like, but yeah, it's it's incredible. It really
Speaker 2: it deserves I think it deserves more attention outside the
Speaker 2: sphere of just like game enthusiasts and and I agree,
Speaker 2: it's like that should be on like Netflix or something.
Speaker 1: And beyond having some low lows, there are some beautiful
Speaker 1: moments in it of you know, people starting families and
Speaker 1: then even Tim realizing that some of the employees that
Speaker 1: have been there for very long time have equity and
Speaker 1: then him going, hey, guys, it turns out you have
Speaker 1: equity and you're gonna get money from this acquisition, which
Speaker 1: is just so beautiful when it happens.
Speaker 2: I uh, yeah, yeah, the part where one of the
Speaker 2: people working on the dock except like yeah, participating the
Speaker 2: game jam and then their concept is in the game
Speaker 2: I think, so, yeah, Like that's awesome, like like somebody twists?
Speaker 2: Where's kiln oh Man? Yeah, if you haven't seen that
Speaker 2: and you like docs, you really should go look it up.
Speaker 2: What's the name of it? It's like, uh, psychotic psychoticsy.
Speaker 2: You can it's all up on YouTube. You don't need
Speaker 2: to go pay two hundred dollars for a I mean
Speaker 2: there is a limited amount, so you probably can't anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but wasn't LRG that was? Who did that? Was that?
Speaker 2: I am a bit put that one out. I think
Speaker 2: it might be.
Speaker 1: I am a bit yeah, yeah, because I know they're
Speaker 1: sort of connected with DAA the dev's yea, yeah, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I think it was them, not not uh Limited Run
Speaker 1: doing some cool stuff too. They got that Alan Wake physical.
Speaker 2: I ended up getting.
Speaker 1: So they were at packs and had the normal booth
Speaker 1: and you know they're they're I believe they're doing game
Speaker 1: publishing too.
Speaker 2: They have the Johnson Gun from uh do you know
Speaker 2: about this? I from Shouts of the Damned. They have
Speaker 2: a full scale replica of of the Big Boner. I
Speaker 2: don't think. I don't think I saw it there. Man,
Speaker 2: what a shame.
Speaker 1: I ended up getting Rocket Knight Adventure resparked, okay there
Speaker 1: because I have not touched Rocket Knight in a very
Speaker 1: long time and it has I believe three titles on
Speaker 1: it and uh but no, they always have a really
Speaker 1: compelling lineup and they had a couple of games. So
Speaker 1: they're publishing the rug Racks game, so they had that on.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm is that out yet? I'm very it's.
Speaker 1: Out on the tenth or eleventh, I believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to I want to take it and
Speaker 2: uh have you heard about this? How? Because it got
Speaker 2: co op right, yes, but if I'm correct, this is
Speaker 2: the one that also like has the like sness ness mode. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you can just take the ROM out of the
Speaker 2: file and you can just put that into your emulators
Speaker 2: or in my case, my ever Drive cartridge. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I could just play it on my CRT and I
Speaker 2: really wanted That's why.
Speaker 1: Well, weren't they going to produce an yes cartridges or
Speaker 1: maybe or maybe I'm just imagining that.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a thing they would do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that one was out. They have a game
Speaker 1: called Ghosts that they were demoing, which is a first
Speaker 1: person horror game that the demo is very short, but
Speaker 1: at one point, like bodies are just piling on top
Speaker 1: of you. But it it parodies Night Traps. So it's
Speaker 1: you're you're watching a bunch of FMV characters in the
Speaker 1: world and you're.
Speaker 2: Pressing buttons to change between cameras and then just wild
Speaker 2: hit starts happening, where a bunch of mannequins will fall
Speaker 2: on you, or you'll start hallucinating.
Speaker 1: Or you'll go outside of the production you know, create
Speaker 1: that you're in and oops, you're in a mythical world.
Speaker 1: This it was, it was wild. It was one of
Speaker 1: the wildest thing things I played when I was at West.
Speaker 2: Even the demo.
Speaker 1: The demo was really short to it, just a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. The Rugrats demo is also a couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: but it it got it told me exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: I was like, Yes, I'm gonna play that video game.
Speaker 2: Oh that sounds lovely, man, That's my thing I miss
Speaker 2: about packs the most, the little the Indian area. Yeah,
Speaker 2: little tiny games. You're like, oh, when is that coming out?
Speaker 2: And then it doesn't come out for another ten years
Speaker 2: or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the highlights was seeing I don't know if
Speaker 1: you follow like East Bread, I think that's how you
Speaker 1: say Estpread games. They published Valhalla, a published World of
Speaker 1: Horror and they have a fantastic track, and they're publishing
Speaker 1: Demon School. Oh and so at West they had two
Speaker 1: more games. So they had Love Eternal and they had
Speaker 1: Ever Deep Aura Ever Deep Aurorra is like a game
Speaker 1: Boy Color SteamWorld dig but it's got big gibli vibes
Speaker 1: to it, both in graphics and in sound.
Speaker 2: Okay coming next year.
Speaker 1: And then they also had a So Love Eternal was
Speaker 1: if do you remember VVVVV back in the day that game,
Speaker 1: So it's a gravity game, but then also it's a
Speaker 1: psychological horror game on.
Speaker 2: Top of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, so it's finding stuff like that at
Speaker 1: West That is the best part. The other one that
Speaker 1: I found didn't know anything about it beforehand, was called
Speaker 1: tether Geist.
Speaker 2: I think is the name of it. But essentially it
Speaker 2: is a like hardcore platform or where you're a character
Speaker 2: who can separate their spirit from your body and you
Speaker 2: use that the ghost part is tethered to you, and
Speaker 2: you'll essentially use the ghost to go through walls or
Speaker 2: spikes or obstacles. Oh that sounds really Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That one has a demo and Steam if you want
Speaker 1: to try it, But and that one has no date.
Speaker 1: But it's stuff like that you just find out on
Speaker 1: the floor and you're.
Speaker 2: Like, give it to me immediately, I need it now. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But what's cool now is that you get you kind
Speaker 2: of get an online version of that with things like Steam,
Speaker 2: Next Fest and stuff like that. So I feel like
Speaker 2: where it used to be only places like packs would
Speaker 2: be the opportunity to experience that, there is at least
Speaker 2: now a way for other people to do that without
Speaker 2: having to like I have to go to Seattle, or
Speaker 2: I have to go to Boston or whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean, a good friend of mine got COVID for
Speaker 1: East and canceled his trip. And again they have those
Speaker 1: third party events to Steam now and they have an
Speaker 1: official East and an official West one and it'll say,
Speaker 1: here are all the demos that were on the floor.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's rad. I think it only runs.
Speaker 1: During packs, that makes sense, but you can you know,
Speaker 1: Steam is not the you can't find games on Steam.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not as bad as Nintendo, but sometimes it's
Speaker 1: hard to find those events when there's sort of a marque.
Speaker 2: Event going on on Steam. Yeah, but I was.
Speaker 1: Still able to find it in the web browser and
Speaker 1: it just shows you, Hey, here's everything that was on
Speaker 1: the floor. You're the demos that were on the floor.
Speaker 1: Here were the packs exclusive. Yeah, it's it's rad. Oh
Speaker 1: that's so cool man. Yeah, wow, that's great.
Speaker 2: So you can go to packs, going to pack.
Speaker 1: You cannot smell the smells and it's still play the games.
Speaker 2: I want to put it that way. That sounds that
Speaker 2: sounds kind of nice. Yeah, but you don't want to
Speaker 2: smell the smells. Ah, you know what I think I've
Speaker 2: you smelled enough smell, smelled enough smells smelliest gaming event
Speaker 2: you've ever been to. Oh god, strying to put you
Speaker 2: on the spot on the spot smelliest smell smelling probably
Speaker 2: a PAX, But I can't like recall. The thing is,
Speaker 2: I can't recall like a specific They all meld into
Speaker 2: one smell of like just like horrible, putrid, like awfulness,
Speaker 2: like Kurt experienced that games calm. Apparently you have in
Speaker 2: the last episode to hear about that. So yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2: I guess we're probably just like a packs or something.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Most to be fair, I feel like
Speaker 2: I try and avoid the really bad ones, someones that
Speaker 2: are just like, oh, I know this is gonna be yep. Rough.
Speaker 1: It seems like Summer game Fest now has very pleasant smells,
Speaker 1: just from seeing what it looks like now, well, this is.
Speaker 2: Probably very pleasant, yes, because our games Fest is a
Speaker 2: small event that's just for the industry, like people who
Speaker 2: work there, people were there to do a job, and
Speaker 2: ideally people who are also adults that know how to shower, right,
Speaker 2: So it's like there's like enough thresholds of like barriers
Speaker 2: to entry. That's like you're probably someone who like takes
Speaker 2: care of their hygiene if you're here, which is nice.
Speaker 2: I agree, Pack or not packs. Summer game Fest is
Speaker 2: maybe my favorite. Like I have to work their event
Speaker 2: because it's actually like I feel like I could do
Speaker 2: my job. But it's a very different vibe, you know
Speaker 2: than a PAX or something. Yeah, because them bodies are
Speaker 2: getting thrown into the convention her and sometimes she's smelly.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but yeah, Jacob, this has been lovely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for having me, Thank you for being
Speaker 1: here as you is this the last podcast that will
Speaker 1: ever happen in this room?
Speaker 2: It is actually the last podcast. Hell, we're gonna be
Speaker 2: tearing apart this like right after.
Speaker 1: Will there be podcasts after this one?
Speaker 2: You know what? That is a question I was literally
Speaker 2: thinking about while we were talking. Oh boy, So let's
Speaker 2: let's let me break it down for you folks. What's
Speaker 2: going to be happening Next week is a normal week,
Speaker 2: but we're going to be packing up the studio, so
Speaker 2: we can't do a podcast here. So if we do
Speaker 2: do a podcast would have to be remote. The week
Speaker 2: after that, I have a work trip, so does Jake.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be doing a thing, so they're probably Chris
Speaker 2: secret can't talk about it very exciting, So there won't
Speaker 2: be a podcast that a week unless I do something
Speaker 2: really weird and out of pocket and like we record
Speaker 2: a podcast like on trip or something, which would be
Speaker 2: kind of maybe stupid and silly. Maybe we'll do that.
Speaker 2: I don't know. These are all ideas floating in my head. No, no,
Speaker 2: this is concrete, and don't take any of those gospel
Speaker 2: we'll get back. I immediately have to go to a
Speaker 2: wedding the next week. Oh no, definitely won't be a
Speaker 2: podcast that week. So we're already like one podcast. Definitely
Speaker 2: not to probably not so at this point, the whole
Speaker 2: month of September is like completely like probably not gonna happen.
Speaker 2: We move into our new office the first of October
Speaker 2: as when we get the keys, however, nothing will be
Speaker 2: set up there. There will be no internet, there will
Speaker 2: be building they'll be putting in the internet that first week,
Speaker 2: so we probably won't be able to do anything in
Speaker 2: that office that week, and then they're going to be
Speaker 2: working on our studio during the month of October, so
Speaker 2: we won't be able to out. What I would say
Speaker 2: is as far as a proper studio podcast where hey,
Speaker 2: like shocker, we are actually gonna start doing this live
Speaker 2: again on camera. That's gonna be don't expect that until
Speaker 2: like the end of October, because they have to build
Speaker 2: the studio and then I need to like set up
Speaker 2: the equipment and I need to test it and like
Speaker 2: there's so many things I have to get done. So
Speaker 2: don't expect any of that for at least two months.
Speaker 2: Whether or not there will be any episodes of this podcast,
Speaker 2: I would like to try and at least get something
Speaker 2: out so that there's not a complete lull for two
Speaker 2: months straight. They're gonna be a little ridiculous. But bear
Speaker 2: with me because I cannot promise you anything. We're trying
Speaker 2: our best. We're trying our best. You're trying your best.
Speaker 2: I'm saying word, I'm like, I'm just gonna leave it.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, you're just going home. You don't have to
Speaker 2: do anything. Yeah, I finally get to go home. It's great. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm happy for you. All right. Well, Jacob, thank you
Speaker 2: very much for coming on the episode, for having me.
Speaker 2: Where can people find you they want to take it out?
Speaker 1: You can find me on the Twitter machine. I won't
Speaker 1: call it the other thing. Uh, you can find me
Speaker 1: at Jacob McCourt j A c O B M C
Speaker 1: c O U R T. And that's where everything I
Speaker 1: do will be.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I host a couple of podcasts, I write words about
Speaker 1: video games, and then do video game trivia at any
Speaker 1: convention that'll have me.
Speaker 2: So maybe you'll have to be on it in a future. Pah,
Speaker 2: I'd love to gotta go to a packs. You gotta
Speaker 2: do it. Sounds like you have a reason though, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: I I have to go. You're welcome it. Thank you
Speaker 2: all right, everybody, Thank you so much for listening, and
Speaker 2: we will see you all next time.