Speaker 1: Hey everybody, It's Friday, are you second twenty twenty four.
Welcome to the Giant BombCast Revengeance powered by n ZXT.
I'm your host, Jana Choa, joined by Skipper of this
Dang Ship Turbo Shawn Sean McDow Jan.
Speaker 2: It's the Sean and Jan Show, the Jan Shaunshaw. I
don't know who gets from billing here, but I'm very
excited to do a one.
Speaker 1: We can't have an ampersand is this thing?
Speaker 2: We can't have an ampersand as I just learned, Yeah,
trying to get this show going here.
Speaker 1: Oh man, everyone else is out on assignment. Jeff grubb
en doing a well well well deserved day off. Oh
and how else is he going to spend the day
off the other than hang out with Mikey and Dan reichert.
Speaker 2: Yes, the most calm vacation a person can take is
hanging out with those two. Right.
Speaker 1: Uh, Sean, We're gonna get you out to an event
one of these days, because you need to warn someday.
I swear it. Jannifesting works everyone as well as Chanceling people.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I thought it was a myth.
Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, there's certain people we don't hear from anymore.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, y'all wonder where they went.
Speaker 1: And there is a certain childlike glee and energy that
pops up whenever the three of those dudes are around
each other.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely yeah, because I mean Grub and Mike have
known each other all a long time and people didn't know,
like going back to like early ish Internet days, like
you know, like the two thousands, that's how long they've
known each other. And then they started working together in
the twenty tens for like the precursor to Games B.
And then yeah, they worked together Games B forever now,
and now they work together on personal stuff in here
a giant bomb.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's uh, I admire it. And the thing
is with Dan, Dan is such a friendly, amicable guy
with any and everyone he meets, like, just picks it
up immediately, good to good to chat, good to gab
with for forever. Yeah, that's right. I canceled Shitley, that's.
Speaker 2: Right, banished to the shadow realm, banished.
Speaker 1: To the shadow room until I panically need her for
a miscellaneous stream. But anyway, Sean, it was not funny
that uh grubbed took today off because there were some
breaking breaking news as soon as I woke up. Unfortunately,
and I feel really terrible for the homies across the
industry because game Stop has decided to completely completely shut
down Game Informer as an entity, so that is the
web operations, the videos, the website, as well as the
print magazine. And I feel really terrible about this because
not only you know, do I have friends that work
at Game Informer, and there have been some very awesome
people in my life, Dan Reker for example, and and
Chase Striker.
Speaker 2: To a Game Informer intrinsically, and you know, I've seen
all this news like sort of initially filtered through our
boy Alex van Aken over there and like saying like
this is how shit's going down, and it's it's wild,
like just seeing them like pull the ruut from under them,
you know, like seeing them talk about how they're just
like locked out of the site in seemingly every way.
Now it's just like, nope, pack it up, y'all, y'all
are out of here. I know that that's so fucked up.
Speaker 1: And h you know, this this week hasn't been especially
kind to the industry as a whole. Now, we had
the Bungee layoffs earlier this week, and it just it's
it's especially sore Sean, whenever I see it in games media,
because I feel like, for folks that don't know, we
don't hate each other. Most of us are acquaintances, if
not friends, if not good friends with each other, and
we want to see each other succeed because you know,
I believe in diversity in all definitions of the word,
but especially when it comes to points of view. And
you know, games media pushes the industry forward in a
way where you know there there's a space to be
critical and to to like call people out, are bad
people out? You know, like if there was no grubs
of the world, would we have a Nintendo jail? But
would we have would we properly be calling out the
people that should be called out? And also, like people
like different things, Sean, you and I may have very
similar tastes, but like our tastes wildly vary. Then someone
like Dan. You know, Dan is more of a dewey
type of gamer and not a very talky type of
gamer like you and I will will sit through the
cut scenes, sit through the visual novels. But like that
is we need both of those perspectives right, and we
need more than both of those perspectives to like really
figure out the landscape of video games. And it's yeah,
yeah it stinks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I mean, it's something that maybe people are
tired of hearing from me. But it's why I always
do try to, you know, sort of see the perspectives
are people when they are talking about game and why
I do my you know, I try not to make
a big deal of it because you know, if a
game sucks, like and everybody knows, like, hey, we have
a show for that, Like we know when something's like
really bad. But the reason that Internet discourse nowadays is
just like, oh something's less than an eight out of ten,
it's the worst thing on earth. It's like, no, something
can just not be for you. It's okay to just
like not like something and not be awful and have
like you said, with having different points of view and
having people from all across the world working on these
different sites, working for these different outlets, having their point
of view bringing that to the table, and being able
to say like I am an RPG person, I am
a visual NOLL person, but also I am a live
service person, I am a mobile game person. Like that's
all really cool, and it feels like that's just shrinking
and shrinking as these companies who don't know how to
manage really talented teams keep just downsizing and trying to
cut corners, cut costs, and seemingly from what people are
figuring out about some of this, maybe some AI you know,
glints in executives' eyes and all of this, and it's
just really messed up that people's lives are being affected
by this. It's it's incredibly messed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The especially damning part, uh bring up AI is
that apparently the farewell letter that was tweeted out yeah
game and former account has since been found out to
be to have used chat GBT or some other AI.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I think that's like, you know, an
allegedly allegedly situation. But yeah, it looks like just from
the structure that first of all, we know, we know
no one on staff ROD, so where did it come from?
And seems like, yeah, they probably just AI generated and.
Speaker 1: Not definitively true, you know, allegedly allegedly will sprinkle those in.
Speaker 2: But still either way, the fact that like you know,
like you can't even get one of the staff members
to like say it for you is just like saying
f off and see you later.
Speaker 1: And like there's there's a lot of like a words
being thrown around about like the rug pulled under them,
and he does feel like it, and which is especially
upsetting because you know, the Game Informer had that like
massive massive membership relaunch delio earlier. Was it this year, Sean, Yeah,
it was like months ago.
Speaker 2: I remember grubb Head. I think he had Marcus Stewart
on GMM. By the way, also, I have had the
pleasure of working with Marcus. He was on episode Jeopardy
a while back. Great guy. Just he had him on
talking about that and everything, and it seemed like they
were like really optimistic about the future of a Game
Informer and like they were like, yeah, you know, we're
we're being a little more independent in all this. We're
gonna have a little more control. Obviously we're still under
the parent company, but you know, like having a little
more say there, and they seemed happy, and that's I'm
probably gonna keep repeating myself here, but yeah, it's messed up.
It's fucked up. I hate to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when I think about like Game Informer as
like an entity, it just felt like a pillar in
this like games media landscape which is quickly quickly shrinking,
and I can't help but feel I guess, levels of
like survivor's guilt, but also just like fear, you know,
of of of how things are over here, because it's
like you never know, you never know the present company
being excluded someone else can swoop in, because that's always
a possibility, especially with like how the how some companies
have been run. Right Yeah, Sean, I I especially wanted
to get your your view on this because you're only
a couple of years younger than me, but I'm curious
to see or hear about how print media with games
was for you because for me personally, and we were
chatting about this prior to the show starting, I think
we have similar backgrounds where like money was a little
bit tight, so video game magazines were kind of like exploratory,
kind of like an escape to experience as much of
video games as we could because we couldn't play them
or rent them or buy any of the games.
Speaker 2: Right Yeah, well yeah, to say it was tight is
an understatement. For me, it was very much I was
the kid who and I know other people have done this,
even Grub. We've talked about it a little bit, like yeah,
he was like, yeah, I did that back in the
nineties too, like Nintendo Power and stuff, but like popping
your ass down in front of the magazine rack while
your parents are doing shopping at the grocery store to
like read a little bit of the magazine because they weren't.
You didn't. It wasn't in the budget to buy that
five dollars magazine even that week, but you know, if
you could read it for a little bit while everyone's
doing shopping and the eventually I did get a subscription
or two here and there. Nintendo Power had a deal
whereas like twenty dollars a year. That was easy to like,
you know, sew with my mom. But gaming magazines were
how I experienced video games for a large portion of
my life. I was saying that I received well game
Boy Advance from my grandparents a few years after it
came out for a Christmas one year, and that was
my entry into owning video games. But even then it
was a basically birthday and Christmas kind of thing for
actually buying it, Like you know, we buy you the
new Pokemon for Christmas, and that's like that's it. That's
what we can afford for like the year, and if
I could find some spare change, maybe I could get
something from the used game store. But yeah, reading Nintendo Power,
EGM and Game Informer, all these different magazines are how
I took in gaming news, even just imagining them. And
just like you know, I would go to the demo
station and Walmart or whatever. That was like the arcade
for me for my generation was going to those freaking
kiosks with my friends and then yeah, we would like
rate a magazine, pick them up, bring those home, whatever
we could do where we could do so. So seeing
sort of the you know, the last team carrying the
torch for that era of games media seeing them go
away is just like, it's really sad. It's impressive that
they managed to keep it going for this.
Speaker 1: Long, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, very very similar stories
on my My mom's favorite joke when she would go
shopping is that she would drop me off to the babysitter,
and the babysitter would be the magazine video game magazine
rack at the Barnes and Noble nearby. And I can't
tell you the number of times I'd like fawn over
a game or like flip through pages and then like
look at the next magazine. It'd always be a rotation
of like oh PM for me Official PlayStation Magazine, Game
Informer and EGM and Game Pro as well. Yeah, I
think there were like a couple other ones that like
didn't last too long. Unfortunately, you know, may have read
some tips and tricks, may have brought the notebook with me.
Speaker 2: Yeh tricks you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Game Fan and Game Now, one of the would
have an annual or least seasonal video game female character
swimsuit issue. Yes, kind of riffing off of us. Irustrated
And let me tell you, my mom would try her
darnedest to buy me magazines, but what she would do
is she'd quickly flip through them. I got in trouble
for even trying to bring that up to buy.
Speaker 2: You weren't gonna get that one. You weren't gonna sneak
that into the cart. She just trying.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The justification that would get my mom to sometimes
buy me in oh PM was because of the demo discs.
As we know we've seen on Demo Derby, most if
not all magazine issues came with a demo disc and
those were my bread and butter Sean, all those like
powered me through in between like birthdays and other holidays
where like family would give me some type of money'd
be glorious in between Blockbuster rentals.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely same here because like it was wild
that you would get with just like a six dollar magazine.
I think they were usually a little bit higher than
in official Xbox magazine, but just the fact that you
would get a disc that you could pop in, you
get the magazine, the magazine was good, and then you
would get a disc they could pop in. Play all
these teams where yeah, like eventually because I had to
like hop from system a system. So you know, it's like, oh,
you want the GameCube. We can't buy a GameCube outright,
even if it's used, you know, thirty forty bucks. But
if you trade in the game Boy, you get the GameCube.
So I just That's how I've played basically every system
ever is by you know, just trading it in and
then plus ten bucks or whatever and swapping system system
And PS two was one that I had for longer
than probably any other because I get those demo discs.
I played PS one games. PS one demo discs and
all that stuff, and you know, go to the library
rent all that stuff too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Man, Yeah, One of the things I definitely worry
about with game and former closing is like you know,
those those deeper interviews and just like general game discovery
because Sehn, as we both know, wading through the trenches
of Steam is a gargantuan task when you're trying to
find something new I find like the next big thing.
And Twitter has been on fire for what feels like
years now, that like finding something a new game on
Twitter that isn't just like a fake ad for a
fake game feels especially hard. And I know that, like
you know, TikTok helps with discoverability, Twitch definitely helps with discoverability,
but like having that like I don't know, I think
if iration definitely.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing with you know, the three sixties
store shutting down Earth I was talking about, like Xbox Live, Arcade,
XBLA was awesome because you had these handpicked games that
they were like, we know these are good and they
may not be what you normally played, but gil my chance,
Gilma try, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I'm definitely gonna miss that, And
I hope that there's still some space for that. I
know that there's like there are websites doing their darnest,
like indie websites out there, smaller sites doing hours and
hours of unpaid work to try and you know, inform
the masses and help the masses and help game devs,
game publishers and all that jazz. But yeah, I would
I would like for our peers or acquaintances and our
friends to not be in jeopardy all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's yeah, not to keep getting depressing, but it
is wild to think of how many of my games
media friends and acquaintances that made in the past year
and a half or so now are not games media
people anymore because their job went up in a puff
of smoke and they haven't been able to find new
work or made. They're freelancing here and there. And it's
just I get what you mean, a little bit of
the survivor's guilt a little bit and just feeling like
that there should be room for everybody in all of this,
you know, and the fact that executives have decided that
there isn't. It's just sucks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, rough week across the board on both sides of
the fence, and frankly, at this point, I think we
should just tear the fence down and use them to
form picket signs against the powers that be above us.
Speaker 2: All I will say shout outs to the people who
are making it work independently. Like I look all the
time at Minmex and what they're doing, and like, you know,
I think Handsome was smart with that obviously kind of
funny before them, way before them, like basically setting the
template for the rest of us where if you want
to seek out independent, if you want to venture out
on your own, like that is the way to do it.
You know, you start your Patreon, you get your name
out there, like you push your name if you already
have one, and just try to get everyone on board.
And I really appreciate seeing those people move on to
that kind of thing and you know, find see see
that their place in the industry is sort of being continued,
just in a different way. And yeah, obviously nex Flanders
Chess pointed out, just says seeing seeing the homies, like
you know, go on to their next thing and have
it be successful. Obviously not everyone can do that, but
you know, maybe we uh, maybe more people start doing that.
And I hope that they can find success in that too,
because it seems like corporates games media is a dangerous
thing right now, all across the board. So yeah, he
wis access and you wish and not wishing the best
for them obviously.
Speaker 1: And not not to glaze our dear co workers too much,
but like you know, I definitely appreciate the hustle and
the grind that like Grub and Minati have had over
the years, especially with like their own independent stuff that
you were intimately tied with, Sean.
Speaker 2: Yes, now I'm just over there working with them a
whole bunch of stuff and like, yeah, let me tell
you as someone who literally works with them nearly every
day just and Jeff really is one of the hardest
working people I've ever seen, you know, full time dad,
full time employee, just making everything work, and it's wild.
It's a grind, it's a hustle. But just the fact
that yeah, we can have smaller things like that or
bigger things like you know, the kind of funnies and
the min Maxes is really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And folks, don't worry, we will we will try
our darndice to have some, if not as many of
the folks that were affected by the game and four layoffs,
if not several game and former alumni on a bomb
cast coming up, just you know, wax poetically about the
good times or what the future holds for them till
then again, I am sending the best of vibes. All
of us here are sending the best of vibes to
our comrades of a Game Informer because dang Jesus Christ,
Game Stop fucking sucks. They just sell funk o pops now, Sean,
I don't know if you've been to one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy how Game Stop went from being dunking on
the three sixties store closing saying, oh, which bet you
wish you bought physical games now, which, by the way,
tone deaf because you can still redownload your games. But
second of all, the fact that games Stop would try
to dunk on anybody as hilarious and now it's led
us to this where, yeah, they don't as a company
give a shit about human lives.
Speaker 1: I think what would be a fun bcr perhaps next
week would be best Game Informer magazine covers.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, because that's that's like what they've been known for.
A lot of magazines had really good. Nintendo Power eventually
moved towards that, like just the logo and the art,
and eventually it was just the art for subscribers and then, yeah,
Game Informer has been really good about that too, especially
like with the sort of revival we were talking about,
emphasizing that they've had such incredible art.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, not necessarily the actual cover story itself, but
the cover of the magazine. Yes, just what you see
what draws your attention when you go buy the store
shehelf or now digital storefront. You know, God, because I've sean,
I've got to imagine that even like our more casual
gaming friends have an issue at least one issue of
Game Informer.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, flowing around somewhere. Yeah, Like I was looking
at my stack over there, because I you know, I
pull those out sometimes when I while I show them
off on the show, and I couldn't find any other
game of for us. I know they're flowing around in
a box somewhere because I have boxes of my old
magazine somewhere. I'll see if I can find them. Hopefully
they didn't get lost in a move like what I
was at college or whatever. But yeah, we'll see what happens,
because I definitely treasure some of those old memories.
Speaker 1: All right, Sean, So actually, do you have any games
that you would like to talk about?
Speaker 2: I do you know what I can like go bullet
point here, because mostly what I've been playing is I've
been getting caught up on Final Fantasy fourteen because you know,
Dawn Trail is out. Everyone's been talking about it. I'm
speaking a game for homies. All the Nasty boys are
talking about Don Trail, and I can't get off my feet.
So I'm like, I need to get caught up on this.
Mike won't shut up, but either so I'm still an
end Walker, though I'm quite a ways away from it,
but hey.
Speaker 1: Further than I am Bud.
Speaker 2: That's true, Jan, It's so good. It's so good. It
can't emphasize this enough because I see people misunderstand. You
can play Final Fantasy fourteen as a single player Finally Fantasy.
That's how I've done. I've literally never done a raid
outside of just you know, the story mode stuff, so
you can absolutely just play as an RPG. I highly
recommend it. So I've been getting caught up on that.
It's sort of a game I associate with the summer,
so this usually is why I do my catchup. I
don't play it throughout the year and everything. I've been
playing more the Marvel Rivals Alpha Beta or other.
Speaker 1: Oh surprising, actually.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm an overwatched guy, used to be at least,
and so you know, now here with like like I
was mentioning on the BombCast, I think being able to
say this is just the good Overwatch that I can
now present to my friends when it comes out and say, hey,
remember the good old times. And I keep going back
to it because you know, I found my mane in Rocket.
You know, I like being the healer who can also
deal damage. And I've been winning left and right, you know,
helping my team. So it's just fun. It's a good time.
Speaker 1: I've yet to check out the beta. Maybe I can
convince you all to play with me.
Speaker 2: That's right, you didn't play with us.
Speaker 1: They dragged me to Comic Con show.
Speaker 2: See when does it a room. I'm trying to think
of when it ends. It might be like Monday. Maybe
doesn't work out, but yeah, we were talking about getting
you in for a few games, so if we can,
that would be really sick. I did want to surprise
you with one, though, Jan, I've been holding off on
this until literally this moment where I was like, okay,
there's like a moment where me and Jan need to
talk about something. I'm gonna drop this on him. He's
not gonna see it coming. He's gonna be right. So
another bit of unfortunate news is that a romhacking dot
is also closing down. Yeah, a lot of fan translations
and fan tweaks like you see sometimes like colorizations of
Game Boy games into DX games. That's where a lot
of that stuff has been posted. And so that's closing
down for personal reasons related to the owner. But something
that I started earlier in summer, I haven't finished, but
I started because of the fan translation. I don't think
I it's actually hosted on ram haacking. I think it
was hosted elsewhere, but sort of you know, all in
this vein here, Jan, I've ever heard of Rockman EXE,
Phantom of Network, and Legend of Network, No, I thought,
so these are mega man bound network games Jen has
not heard of because they were made for mobile phones,
you know, just like old school dumb foam feature phones
in Japan in the mid two thousands. This is a
incredib preservation project that has been happening where people are
trying to get like feature phones, Like we had bad
cell phones in the two thousands here in the US.
That's like yeah, like nochias that could run Snake. For
the most part, they had like simple three D games
on their phones. Over in Japan, like there's like a
Mega Man Legends sequel that is only on phones and
stuff like this. So a lot of these games are
getting preserved, and they have managed to preserve Phantom of
Network and it's sequel Legend of Network, which are games
that continue the Battle Network story. They like take place
between us like three and four and then five and
six or something like that, and they are just Battle
Network games, but you know, we never got to play them,
and so they've been preserved from those old phones because
they managed to find people who still had them sent
around a drawer, you know, on one of those old
crappy phones, and Fan translated them as well. So I've
been playing those a little bit. I played them a
little bit earlier in summer, and then I've been coming
back to some here and there. I found out a
way to get the You need to use a Java
emulator jan to run these things because that's what those
phones ran. I've been playing them on my steam deck
because there's like a whole guide of how I get
the anulayer on your steam deck, matha, bumps and every
So it's impressive because you know, like these phones could
do GBA style games, and it is. Yeah, like the
animations aren't quite there and everything like that. They're a
little simpler, but just mellork.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking at a video now of what I
assume maybe is just someone recording off of their phone
in the hub world or reallyst navigating in the map
is more isometric than to an angle and it normally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the land segments, it's sort of like the
switch from like Persona three to Persona three portable, where
you know, the like daytime over world segments have been
simplified to a menu. But then when you're in the
Dungeony area, so like for these games, the a cyber
world is Mega Man. You're just running around with Mega
Man like you won the GBA games. Graphics again slightly simpler,
but again to the battles, it's just battle network battles.
And yeah, it's been These projects are really cool and
why you know again, shouts rom haacking dot and that
a little sat sye that one go the you know,
moders and everything. We'll move on to something else eventually,
but so sad to see that, psycho. But seeing stuff
like this and yeah that man. I love revisiting these
old games that we never got through fan translations. It's
so cool.
Speaker 1: God, I had no idea this existed. This is so
freaking cool, dude. Yeah right, yeah, I actually don't mind
the land sequences just being relegated to a menu, because.
Speaker 2: Right, and that's like where if you need to cut
corners to fit down to like, you know, a Java
phone download in the two thousands, that's that's where you
like cut it down right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of those later games had a little bit
too much walking around as land for my taste.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you remember, like if you didn't know where to go,
you would eventually just start running around spamming the rbund
to try and check in.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm h just like I'm just gonna try and
jack in everywhere. Just let me jack in already, please.
Oh oh I'm not. I'm calmly asking please, is what
it is. I'm not demanding anything, respectfully. Sean did you
ever get into the Mega Man Battle Network competitive scene
that was kind of like homebrewed.
Speaker 2: No, And it's because I washed a match and I'm like,
I know what all these things do. I don't know
if I have the execution to do them. Yeah, Like
you see a Competitive Bowl Network match, because they still
like doing that in Japan and now with like a
homebrew net code that they have like GGPO basically put
into some of these ambulators, I can do online matches
with the old games emulated and chat. Like if you
know Ball Network at all, you know, it's like a
card based action RPG where you're like tossing a tax
back and forth, but just to see like constantly they do,
you know, moves instantaneously because they just like it's crazy,
it's wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think people are emulating. It's either Battle Network.
I want to say it's five.
Speaker 2: They do six they do because because they see it
as like the most balanced.
Speaker 1: Oh fair, fair fair. Yeah. But yeah, watching Competitive Battle
Network is exactly as Sean says, it's kind of when
you go from like hobbyists to watching professionals play and like, yeah,
oh okay, I'm just gonna continue sitting over there, It's
like if you don't understand Marvel versus Capcom or you like,
remember when you first started understanding Marvel versus Capcom at
high level seeing all the flashy crap happound screen, You're.
Speaker 2: Like, what is going on here? Like you may even
know what the moves are doing, but you don't understand
how they ended up doing them. Yeah, it's it's crazy
stuff to see those people in action.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit complicado to set up if you
were not well versed with uh, you know, going into
your router and figuring out your IP and all that jazz.
But uh, you know, if that is that is something
you want to partake in. They have a very active
and very helpful discord community, yet a specific discord.
Speaker 2: I think because the the Legacy Collection does have online
I believe you can get matches with people in six online,
like specifically it's either switch or PC I believe, where
like they have a small community or like everyone who
wants to do that already owns it, so you can
like ask them that they want to do on there
instead or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, we'll dig this. Sean. What about we
take quick breaking break and then we're just going to
recap everything that's going on in the Giant Bomb Fantasy
Critic league.
Speaker 2: Sounds good to me, all right fitted the black.
Speaker 1: Wow, what a RESTful break that was, Sean, I feel
like a new person.
Speaker 2: We took a forty eight hour break in Wow.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. This is what happens when they
just let the producers do whatever, because it's like, well,
we press all the buttons on the website.
Speaker 2: Did you see that tweet from Mike last night where
he's like, I'm playing Dark Souls until a game as
Mornings you mentioned say game as Decides and name the
wrong show that also wasn't happening today. So Jeff was like, boy,
you got a long stream coming, buddy.
Speaker 1: Very very long stream. So we've we've we did a
stream where we did a Serpentine draft. Sean, you are
the league manager here, yes, for a Giant Bomb using
Fantasy Critic. For folks that are semi familiar with fantasy football,
this follows a similar thing, except instead of drafting players,
we were drafting releases that are coming out this year
prior to them coming out, and then the score that
we receive is based off of how they review out
in the world.
Speaker 2: On Open Creeks specifically now moved to I believe they
use a open credit card there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so pretty much everyone on the GB staff is competing.
We have Grubbed, Mike, Dan, Tam Turbo, Sean, myself, back
of Art, Nikki, and Lucy. So there are nine spots.
I want to say nine spots. Yes, I listed nine people,
so that means there're nine spots. And you've definitely heard
us talk about the Fantasy critic since we've drafted on
various Giant Bomb programming, and I kind of just wanted
to give folks an update on what the standings are
and refresh everyone's memory as to what games everyone has
claimed because you.
Speaker 2: Keep hearing you know, we'll say it in passing like
back will be like, I can't believe you grab that game,
Like I wanted to get that for my team.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm guilty of this because I keep losing some
bids and not staying on top of them. But a
couple of us have a full now if I am
looking at this right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is it just Mike or does Grub?
Speaker 1: Mike, Dan and Grub all have a full roster of games. Okay,
gotcha Okay, so we'll start with the current standings, and
this is still projected as of right now. Uh, ninth place,
we have Lucy James Games eight, who has negative points.
Speaker 2: I would like to point.
Speaker 1: Out, oh oh yes, actually I just saw that part.
Speaker 2: Let's see the yeah, the difference. VENO, Lucy's in ninth
with negative three points six points. And who's next up?
Speaker 1: In eighth place? We have Nikki with thirty two point
ninety three points.
Speaker 2: Spin of a delta there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's like the opposite of a bell curve.
And then in seventh place we have Jeff Backlar thirty eight.
Speaker 2: What was the name of each of these leagues? By way,
we have Lucy James Games with Lucy James publishes games,
Nicky's Good Video Games g m M, and then Jerff's
Important Collective.
Speaker 1: Then sixth place we have okay, this iset whatever. Sixth
place we have myself with cut the Check Games thirty
eight point forty two. Sean, you are in fifth place,
but projected third. We're just I'll just look at the
actual points here.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it was my was my Polish name.
Speaker 1: Lucky Low Puney Feet Incorporated.
Speaker 2: I just really want to flip what you're saying that,
thank you, Jam.
Speaker 1: No problem, Bud. In fourth place we with forty three
point forty six points. We have Tam with grow Up.
Speaker 2: TAM's had passed me recently or this happened a while ago.
Speaker 1: Hasn't drafted anything, so I think.
Speaker 2: That tell okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think TAM's going with the I'm not going
to check this model and let everyone else fumble.
Speaker 2: The back well for a couple of people that might
be working.
Speaker 1: Uh. And then in third we have Dan Record Records
Market forty three points in number. In second place Mike
and I with Critical Path Publishing, and currently in first
Jeff Grub with Grubb one out games How sixty two
point oh three points.
Speaker 2: So, as you can see, Grub, Mike, and Dan are
definitely the ones who are really competing here. I'm for
the reker, I'm in the middle of back I'm trying
they keep out bidding me. Someone somewhere always out busy,
and that's how me, Grubb and Mike have been doing
Fantasy correct for a few years now with our you know,
personal community, and so this is what always happens to me.
I'm like, I'm gonna put a good healthy bid on
it because we have one hundred dollars to spend as
we choose to draft games throughout the year for our team, uh,
you know, to get more points. And I'm like, you know,
thirty dollars even forty dollars for these big games, that'll
be enough. But no, y'all wild y'all putting like Dan
puts seventy dollars on a game one time. I think, well,
for Astrobot, he like bet almost everything Unastrobot, which that's
gonna pay off?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah that yeah, yeah, yeah, it's wild wild out here.
I can't compete.
Speaker 1: I'm especially mad at Jeff Backlar because I put a
smooth fifty one dollars on Thank goodness, you're here thinking
like no one's gonna no, it's gonna outbid me here.
Speaker 2: Yep, I think I put forty on that one.
Speaker 1: That this guy sneak said like that, how much did
he does he spend?
Speaker 2: Okay, Jan, I know no one else on our team
is listening to this, So between you and me, you
always gotta do one over what you want to do,
Like you want to do fifty bucks, you need to
do fifty one because someone else is also going to
think fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, let's see. Uh shall we go through
the game that everyone has?
Speaker 2: Uh? Sure? Yeah? Why not?
Speaker 1: Some of these have yet to come out, so b
be forewarned, so there are still potential for points. I'll
read TAM's if you want to grab Dan's sure, I
mean like alternate, Yeah, well alternate. So for grow up games.
So far, the games that have released and have reviews
are Tech and Eight Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons,
Parentheses remake, and Hell Divers two very good pickup. Sean
Tam is still waiting on Male Gear Solid Delta Snake
Eater and Dragon Ball Zero Sparking zero with a counterpick
against you. Yes, Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War remake,
Parentheses unannounced.
Speaker 2: Yes, I because everything we heard was that game is
coming out this year, and I would like to point out,
based on the way things are going and the Nintendo
announcements we've had some I've actually dropped that game because
I am no longer confidence coming out. So but the well, yeah,
but the way it works with the counterpicks is though
that Tam still gets the counterpicks. So yeah, if anyone
doesn't know what the counterpicks. Are you miss our explanation
on the initial episode. Uh, obviously the picks you know
that should be self explanatory. You need to pick the
games that score the best to get the most points
on the grading system. Counter Picking is something that they
do to like balance it out where you need to
really think about which games will underperform, so games that
will get seventy points or under seventy points on Open Critic.
And so you can also counterpick something that you don't
think will release. And so Tam was like, this game
doesn't exist, I'm I'm counterpicking this. This is not coming out,
and so that that's why he picked that one. And
if it does not release, he doesn't gain points because
it's not underperforming. But he will break even. He will
get zero points, so he won't be gaining a he
also won't be losing any Next up here is uh, yeah, Dan,
what he currently has dance lineup is nuts. He might
win this whole thing. He has Final Fantasy seven Rebirth,
which netted him because if you score above ninety you
get bonus points. So Final Fantasy seven Reburse ninety three
on OPENCRIC has him with twenty five points off of
that one game alone, strong start. He also has a
Princess Peach Showtime a few points there and a thousand
Door thousand Year Door remake also get them decent amount.
But then he also has a good lineup in well,
first of all, earth Blake probably not coming out, so
maybe not a great pick there. But frost Punk two
got an Astrobot, which is gonna pop off riffed of
the necro Dancer. He just barely beat me on this
one because this is free points, may not ten points
for three points. He got black Ops six, he got
UFO fifty, and the game that he doesn't even know exists,
Anton Blast, which is that Warrior Land. Like that's gonna
get him some points too. And then he counterpicked Metro
Prime four Beyond because he thought it would do poorly,
but because he was like, that's not coming out this year,
and he's right, so he's breaking you on that one
for his Countramot.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think Dan may may be able to like
run away with it, depending on because of not only
Astrobot and Black Ops six. Frost Punk Okay, you.
Speaker 2: Think that's gonna be like Grebsay's selection bias. You think
people who want to review, that game will review and
they will think it's very good. Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1: I'll get the next two Seawan since the second one
is my own list, Jeff Backlar with important collective. Jeff
doing pretty well with the games that he has that
are out. He has send you a Saga, hell Blade,
two Ultros, Harold Hallibit and thank Goodness you're here, Thank
goodness you're here, being the highest scoring critics scoring for Jeff, I.
Speaker 2: Only sell around eighty six. Okay, I don't feel as bad,
but still that's sixteen points, so good amount of points there.
Speaker 1: Rounding out back Lar's roster is Stalker two, Heart of Chernobyl.
Speaker 2: Risky.
Speaker 1: I feel like that would have been a good counterpick
looking at it now, Baby Steps, which I'm not sure
is gonna come out this year. Same and then Black
Myth Wukong.
Speaker 2: And that one that one's probably gonna do okay as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that the selection bias, like we just
mentioned my factor in there or my factor against it,
like super fans may be like this is poo poo. Yeah,
and then Jeff's counterpick is against me with Silent Heel
to remake.
Speaker 2: I could see it. Yeah, because we don't know for
sure when that game's coming out, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we keep like I gotta imagine we're
going to see more of.
Speaker 2: It soon, right, Yeah, No, feeling great about that one.
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling great with some of my picks were
looking at him now with cut the check games we
have myself, a bunch of my picks have been out
leading the pack is like a dragon Infinite Wealth. Loser
of the pack though, is Skull and Bones negative score?
Speaker 2: Yeah, score fifty nine. We got negative ten, but in
portant to note that Infinite Wealth did break into ninety,
so you did get bonus points there or oh no,
you didn't quite get both points there, but yeah, twenty points,
which is very good.
Speaker 1: I also have Grand Blue Fantasy Relink, which I do
want to circle back and check out with you, Sean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we keep like mentioning in passing we really should.
I keep hearing good things about it, even like people
circling back saying, hey, don't don't sleep on this one,
so maybe do this for the random stream one day
or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I have Stellar Blade and Kales of Keinzarazao.
I thought Tails of Kinzaraza would be better received.
Speaker 2: Ah, We were talking about this last night, actually, Migro
and Mike. We thought, because it came out too close
to Prince of Persia, it may be like paintings on
a slightly negative light.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking as well, Like
that that makes sense unfortunately. And then my two games
that have yet to be released Silent Hill two remake
based off the trailers I still don't know how to
feel shot, and then Visions of Mana, and then my
counterpick is against Lucy James with Hollow Night Silk Song, which.
Speaker 2: That was maybe risky pick. That's like when I counterpicked
Tears of the Kingdom the other year, where I was like, look,
if this comes out as planned, i am screwed. But
I'm really confident this is game push. And so yeah,
with Silk Song early in the year ago gone either way.
But yeah, it really seems like that's not coming out,
so you're probably safe there.
Speaker 1: When is the other possibility of its shadow dropping at
a big thing, Like, there's probably just two more instances, right,
I mean.
Speaker 2: It could be as ley as the game awards, honestly.
Speaker 1: Fay, Yeah, that's that's the When does this fantasy critic
cut off?
Speaker 2: I believe it was until the end of the calendar year. Okay, okay,
coo cool cool cool, Okay, So i'll I can't take
the next two here then, since you did too, So
I am, of course the manager of Lucky Lapani Feet, Inc.
And leading the pack here they heard the other metaphor
for animals, we have Unicorn Overlord is my definitely my
ace in the hole right now. That got eighty eight points,
So eighty eight as a score, so I got eighteen points.
My other releases so far, though not as great. Pennies
Big Breakaway, Nintendo World Championships, As Edition, and Zendless Zone
Zero all scored in the seventies, so I got some
points on the board from each, but not nearly as
many as I wanted.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, no, no, sorry, go ahead, that's wild
for Pennies Big Breakaway Surprisely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that one was just it wasn't quite
I like it. It's not quite what people want though,
because they were expecting just Sonic Adventure, and it is
it was much different than that. They really made a
new thing with it. I think it just in jail
with a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: And then the other like release that I have is
actually my counterpick of Lucy James with foam stars. That's
why she has negative points. Is oh, Starry scored sixty,
so since it was ten under the seventy point threshold,
I got ten points off of that one. So I'm not,
you know, doing great for points right now, but I
got bangers still coming out. I did manage to get
Metaphor Refontasio. That's points, dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's points. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I also got Dragon Quest three HD two D remake.
That's points right there. I'll tell you what Leja Zelda
Echoes of Wisdom. That's points minimum in the eighties, absolutely
like yeah, and then I think this will just be
solid points Lego Horizon Adventures and yeah. I also got
my other counterpick because I would like to remind you
and everyone else y'all need to get your second counterpick
sometime in the next month or you will lose points.
And my second car pick is the next Mario Cards,
which there's.
Speaker 1: No way, no way, no, no, no possible way this year.
Speaker 2: No, no, absolutely not. Yeah. So it's like who I'm
trying to like, remember, who the hell you? Okay, you know,
we'll get to that list later. So I'm doing okay
right now, and I think I might be picking up
a lot of Steam here in the next couple of months.
Speaker 1: Sean, you got two empty spots here. You have anything
you're eyeing or thinking about.
Speaker 2: I was eyeing a game that Grubs stole from me,
and then I was eyeing Thank goodness you're here, and
I was like, okay, those will be the two. And
I didn't get out of one, so I still got Yeah,
I still got some space on my team, which means
I do sell money or work with so maybe I
do end up picking those up and it you know,
maybe something will get shadow dropped or like you know,
shadow announced or something, so we could still bid on
it before it releases. That would be really good. And
then Mikey his Critical Path publishing, so he has two
really strong picks in Persona three reload which got eighteen
points and Brand Anniversary Edition, which got nineteen points. He
also has points on the board from Eiden Chronicle one
hundred Heroes that one kind of flopped a little bit,
so only a few points, super Monkey Ball, Banana Rumbull,
same thing. And then SteamWorld Heist two is just released,
so that's one that is settling. But he'll get a
round twelve points for that one. And then he also
counterpicks Skull and Bones, which did not do well, so
that that scored fifty nine, so we because of rounding,
I guess he got ten points off of that. Maybe
you know, get max of ten off counterpicks I actually
don't know. Yet to be released. He has Star Wars
Outlaws which I remember that and avowed, and India Jones
in a great circle, all good picks. He spent all
of his money on those days, basically not looking right now.
Indiana Jones, we'll see what happens there, and then Star
Wars Outlaws seeming like solid but maybe if he so,
we'll see how those work out for him. But he
also has Mino the Hollower, the Plucky's Squire, and that
would be it Rodnao's team. So Mike has a lot
of points on the board. His yet to be released games.
We'll see if they even come out this year, I
don't know. But you also managed to get a new
three D Mario game as his counterpick. That's very safe,
so he'll probably be okay, you know, breaking even on
that one because that's probably not gonna release all right.
Speaker 1: Final three here of the Giant Bomb Fantasy Critic. I'll
take Grubs with grubbling out Games. Grub is on the
board hits Heater, which I can't freaking believe he got right.
Speaker 2: I hate that we, like all forgot about this game
while it was eligible.
Speaker 1: Like with the Heist of the Century Ladies and Gentlemen,
Jeff Grubb has picked Bilatro or Alatroe ninety one points,
getting him or ninety one critics score ranking, giving him
twenty three points. Additionally, grubbed for a dollar.
Speaker 2: You got that for one dollar dollar, just snuck it
in there.
Speaker 1: Grub also grabbed Dragon's Dogma two, which you know had
a lot of steam at the beginning of this year. Yeah,
as well as Kunisugami Path of the Goddess. And I'm
not familiar with this one. Sean Banishers Ghosts of New Eden.
I damn not familiar with this either. Actually, I don't
know why this feels like it is a no. I'm
looking at the box art now, still don't know what
this is.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've seen this inny events, but yeah, I just yeah,
I didn't realize this released.
Speaker 1: Okay, sure, all right, and then sure not Sean Grubs
games that have yet to release, so there's no reviews
just yet. Metal Slug Tactics solid pickup. Yes, Mario and
Luigi Brothership beat me out on by only like five bucks, which, oh,
that would have been such a good addition to my team.
That's that's a strong pick. He also has Towerborn, which
we'll see more of very very soon, Skate Story, which
I'm curious about. Microsoft Flight Simulator twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: That's a Grub pick. He picked the original one, I
believe in the first year we did this, and it
did very well for him because you know, people just
the selection bias. Again, the people who want to love
that game reviewed it and loved it. So I think
he's gonna get mad points off that one.
Speaker 1: And then his last pick here Dragon Aged the Veilguard.
We'll see what happens there. We'll see what happens there.
I think it may look good for Grub ultimately, but
I don't want him to loss.
Speaker 2: He's leading right now in points and he has solid
releases upcoming, so we'll see how that shakes out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we still have a couple of big events
coming out for the rest of the year, Sean, So
you and I and some other folks if they remember
how to log in, have have some time to gain
some points. Do you want to take Lucy's.
Speaker 2: I why don't you take a Lucy's I watched the
last one?
Speaker 1: Oh you will? Okay, all right, all right? With Lucy
James published publishes games. Lucy only has two titles that
have charted so far, one of those being oh, I
should mention Grubbs Counterpick Power World.
Speaker 2: Right, which we had to do some finaggling to like
even get that on the board because it's an early
access game and everything. But yeah, it looks like just
no points have been signed, as I might have to
give him that one point.
Speaker 1: Lucy's games that have come out are still Wakes the Deep,
netting her seven points. Sure, I'm surprised that I've heard
positive buzz around that, but maybe not enough people have
checked it out. And then the most surprising Sean giving
Lucy negative ten points his Foam Stars.
Speaker 2: I remember when we were doing the draft and like
I was holding it in because I was the only
one who I played the beta, and when she picked
film Stars, I'm like, okay, cool, nobody color picked this.
This is free points for me. And I came around
to me. I was like, Lucy, I'm sorry, you made
a dumb on this one.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, sorry to all the phoami's out there. Lucy's
counterpick is Dragon ball Z Sparking Zero. I feel like
that game might hit.
Speaker 2: Oh no, dam was absolutely right to clown and I
are for this one. When she picked that, he was
just like you fool, because yeah no, the Budokai people
are gonna get nuts over that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So sorry, Lucy, Yeah sorry dog. The other Lucy's
remaining titles that have yet to be released Hollow Night,
Silk Song, which may never see the light of day.
M hm, Rise of the Golden Idol.
Speaker 2: That one, that one will hit.
Speaker 1: That one, it's gonna be good points. This Assassin's Creed Shadows.
I feel like it's going to be an interesting I
feel like.
Speaker 2: People are optimistic, so I think that's like a solid
points that will probably be somewhere in the like eighty
to eighty five range. So I think that's just like
three modest amount points.
Speaker 1: And her last two titles are The Altars and Phoenix Springs.
Speaker 2: Alters A L T. E.
Speaker 1: R S.
Speaker 2: That's the like clones on a spaceship game.
Speaker 1: That's right, a bunch of yawns, not Jans yawns.
Speaker 2: Yes, Phoenix Springs.
Speaker 1: What is Phoenix Springs.
Speaker 2: I actually don't know that one by name either Springs game.
Uh yeah, I don't know if I've ever seen this
game before. O is a very artistic game.
Speaker 1: To one of those. Okay, and rounding out the final
member of the roster, Sean, you would do the honors.
Speaker 2: Good video games t M, and they have nothing but
good games here. First of all, you know crez do
Ea Sports College Football twenty five said twelve points on
the board because it scored eighty two. Uh, kind of
goes downhill from there. We got another Crabs Treasure netting
eight points, Riise La Ronan netting seven, Mario versus Dokey
Kong remake was six, oh boy. And then we have
pell World, So that's that's where seventy one. So they
would get one point, Rebel get next point one point.
That's how that would work out. Uh, they picked the
next Mario Kart for some reason. Uh, Nikki, I'm sorry,
you're getting zero points on that one. And then Pokemon
Legends z A, which this is this is a while
because they didn't pick z A. They picked next Pokemon
legends like as like hail Mary when we initially drafted
and they got the game because that got announced, but
no points because it come out next year. And then
their only counterpick is earth Blade, which that that's probably
a break even one because I'll see that one coming
out this year. So not looking amazing for Nicki's team.
But I just some wild picks down there that I
want to go over.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, lots of shots in the dark.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so much paid off a little bit, but
some which are not. Nick You should log in and
maybe do some clean up.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I just well, I mean, Lucy's in
the negatives, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I did.
Speaker 1: I want to keeping it for you.
Speaker 2: This is kind of fumbling a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nicki still has ninety eight dollars, so Nicki has
some money.
Speaker 2: Around exactly, so they can turn this around. Definitely. Well,
we'll see what happens, and.
Speaker 1: Folks, that does it for the recap on a fantasy critic.
If you want to have your own fantasy critic for
video games, go I don't know, go make friends. I'm
not gonna set this up for you.
Speaker 2: There's playing communities out there. There are, I believe there
is a community run Giant Bomb when they you know,
obviously it's closed now because we're mid year, but yeah,
find whatever community you're in, they probably have one going
on throughout the years, like so many outlets do it nowadays,
cause it's just fun. You know, it's just dumb fun.
I think, like to just you know, really think hard
about these things and then try to like cheer on
your favorite games throughout the year, like, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy it because even going through the unannounced
or the games that have yet to come out and
get scored Sean has got me excited for the rest
of the year because you know, I thought like, oh,
we're done with games, right, We're done. Cool, It's like
there's still a bunch of games coming.
Speaker 2: Out, some solid games at that some of those are
looking real good. So yeah, God's still it's freaking August.
Like I can't believe there'sh Jesus Christian. You'res going by
too fast.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna on some stuff. Oh that's right now, Okay,
I've too.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can. Right now. I think
it's bidding closes Thursday night Nuts.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, uh bid process in processes in one day. Well,
well we'll see.
Speaker 2: We'll see. May do that on like Monday or something.
Speaker 1: All right, a note to myself, bid on the games
and remember the games folks. That about does it for
Giant pomcast revengeance Sean, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2: Oh it is a pleasure, Jane, and I hope that
people enjoyed that are a little one on one convo here.
I think we card some good topics. Hopefully people had
follow the fancy Craig stuff too. I think this was
a good show.
Speaker 1: It's a lovely little chat. You know. Sometimes we are
people talking over each other, goofing and gabbing. Sometimes you
just need something gapping.
Speaker 2: We got to just hang out for once, you know.
This is nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so intimate.
Speaker 2: You know the reason people love the intimacy in the
live chat exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mike, Mike hasn't said a single word, and I'm offended.
I hope he is a little rude. It's a little
it's a little rude. It's a little rude. Not gonna lie,
just hawking his duck dynasty around, you know. Yeah, change
one letter in there. It becomes a little little hr nightmare.
Speaker 2: All right. Thanks for listening, everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week for another fun week of
giant bomb programming. Folks, get ready pack your bags. Some
of us will be seeing you at packs West. I'm
pretty sure. I'm like ninety percent sure. And then more
adventures to be seen. Just got to book some tikies
and we'll be there. A group of us will be there.
He's been shown, I've been jammed, and you at home
have been lovely. Go treat yourself to a good bucket
of chicken today, and if you're a vegetarian or vegan,
buy a bucket of chicken for a friend. They'll appreciate that,
they will fall in love with you.
Speaker 2: Is okay? Can vegetarians do that?
Speaker 1: They can buy chickens has Composi the fa