Speaker 1: You got me bed. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's
Speaker 1: do this for February twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. For
Speaker 1: the next hour or so, let me help you sort
Speaker 1: through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live
Speaker 1: with me Jeff Grub Today, it's time to Pokemon. Go
Speaker 1: back to bed because I got up too early to
Speaker 1: talk over that Pokemon Day Presents showcase. But first please
Speaker 1: join me and welcoming today's co host to Game Mess Mornings.
Speaker 1: It's Jan Oh Choa. Everybody, Jan, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: A little frazzled? Not gonna lie, grub Grain firing off
Speaker 2: on too many cylinders. I don't know how many wrinkles
Speaker 2: I have left, but we're not quite at smooth brain,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Right somewhere in between, which you know it helps to
Speaker 1: be in the that that butter zone there. You don't
Speaker 1: want to have full wrinkles and you don't want to
Speaker 1: have full smooth. But yeah, it's going on a lot
Speaker 1: of moving parts, a lot of moving pieces. I've made
Speaker 1: some choices in my life following my Blake Club escapades.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I decided to like just check out Dan and
Speaker 1: Mike's games that are coming up because we know what
Speaker 1: they are, and I beat both of them last night
Speaker 1: for you know, now, to be fair, I used Safe
Speaker 1: States and rewind on the steam deck, and I kind
Speaker 1: of had a good time, much better time to playing
Speaker 1: Blues Brothers two thousand, and that's for sure, grub.
Speaker 2: Since all the Blake Club pipes are headed through me now,
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm also inadvertently experiencing the blight and
Speaker 2: just seeing the rage in your eyes and the pure
Speaker 2: glee in those other two chuckleheads. I don't think it's right.
Speaker 2: I think maybe you should strike.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll probably pick it line and tell people not
Speaker 1: to cross here pretty soon. Blues Brother's two thousand, at
Speaker 1: least is interesting. I'll keep I'll keep going back to
Speaker 1: that point. They definitely they They are bad at picking games.
Speaker 1: They just are. They don't really think about it. Dan's
Speaker 1: bad influence on Mike. Mike is the bad influence on Dan.
Speaker 1: It just goes all the way to the bottom.
Speaker 2: See here's the problem is that Mike Minatti doesn't want
Speaker 2: to yes and all of us right. But if it's
Speaker 2: just him and Dan making a decision, Mike will get
Speaker 2: coerced or he will reach the bad butter zone with Dan.
Speaker 1: Right, the bad butter. You don't want to be bad
Speaker 1: A couple of bad butters.
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Blues Brothers two thousand might have been
Speaker 1: Mike's idea originally, but then Blightning Round comes around and
Speaker 1: uh but yeah, now it's good because previously it was
Speaker 1: too short. Too short was what they said.
Speaker 2: So, Brub, do you do you think they didn't do
Speaker 2: their homework and that they already decided on Blues Brothers
Speaker 2: two thousand for your real blight club shift and they
Speaker 2: didn't pick a shorter game in time?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I think, yes, exactly. I think the dog
Speaker 1: ate their home and they were left with this and
Speaker 1: this is the only like they had already sent this
Speaker 1: when they remembered, oh, it was supposed to be a
Speaker 1: short name. And now they are just working me at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 2: Great, I know I'm standing with you, Grub. I don't
Speaker 2: I think we should abolish music now?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, we need to do something, We need to
Speaker 1: do something. I I'll play in those games though. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see both of them, and I do have
Speaker 1: like a strategy because Dan's game could be very short
Speaker 1: unless unless we don't help him at all, which I
Speaker 1: will have to have a conversation with Mike about we'll
Speaker 1: have to stop.
Speaker 2: Him from how Well, here's what I'll do, since I'm
Speaker 2: producing them now, I'm just gonna mute him.
Speaker 1: Perfect. All right, we got it. We got a solution here, everybody,
Speaker 1: We're gonna make it happen. Thanks again for tuning in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna explain what we do here most weekdays, I
Speaker 1: Jeff Grub will help youse your gaming life back together.
Speaker 1: That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
Speaker 1: own original reporting. I'll take a quick break here again
Speaker 1: to say, hey, well, this is another one of those
Speaker 1: days we're testing out going all day day, but this
Speaker 1: time it'll be over on YouTube. Is that right, Jen? Yes? Correct? Hello,
Speaker 1: YouTube could be there not all day, but most of
Speaker 1: the day. Yeah, most of the day. We'll be going
Speaker 1: from this into something else, So definitely stick around if
Speaker 1: you're watching live on YouTube. It is the Game Spot buddies, right,
Speaker 1: They're gonna be messing around in the studio a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe the Game Spot homies will be doing
Speaker 2: some things in the stew I was supposed to join them,
Speaker 2: but my brain didn't let me leave the apartment today.
Speaker 1: No, that's fine. I would not want you to leave
Speaker 1: Pokemon happened For all these topics, I'll get the input
Speaker 1: of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
Speaker 1: If you are watching live on Twitch welcome. You can
Speaker 1: always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by
Speaker 1: searching for Games Mornings or find the rsso giant bomb
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also catch the show later with
Speaker 1: chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we
Speaker 1: have a lot to get into, so let's start the
Speaker 1: morning mess with everything we saw during the Pokemon Day
Speaker 1: Presents showcase. This comes from Kenneth Shepherd over at Kotaku.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Kenneth. It's that time of year when
Speaker 1: Pokemon fans get to have an early Christmas. It's Pokemon Day,
Speaker 1: which commemorates the anniversary of the launch of the original
Speaker 1: Pokemon Red and Green in Japan in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: Each year, the Pokemon Company puts on a live stream
Speaker 1: to talk about upcoming games, updates to current ones, and
Speaker 1: other projects within the franchise. Last year's was a little
Speaker 1: low key because it was the first year in a
Speaker 1: while that game Free didn't release a new RPG or DLC.
Speaker 1: But this year, the studio is releasing Pokemon Legends ZA,
Speaker 1: the second installment in the Legends sub series set in Kalos.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the only announcement, although things were still pretty quiet.
Speaker 1: If you want to watch the full live stream, it's available.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. All right, Pokemon Concierge. They have new
Speaker 1: episodes coming. I liked what I've seen of this show.
Speaker 1: The first series is also now free to watch on YouTube,
Speaker 1: at least for a few days, is what they're saying.
Speaker 1: Do you ever watch Concierge?
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely love Concierge. I folks know, I'm not a
Speaker 2: fan of claymation, but I am pro stop motion Kalos hallos.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, well I'm not. I'm just not gonna get
Speaker 1: that one, right, I don't care. Yeah that does even though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so stop motion, you know, especially a Gumby style, frightens you.
Speaker 1: But this one does this one work?
Speaker 2: Yes, this one works. Sorry, I started buffering as soon
Speaker 2: as you said Gumby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, didn't mean to actually scare you.
Speaker 2: I thought the first season of Pokemon Concierge was really
Speaker 2: well done. I think Nikki said this during the talkover earlier,
Speaker 2: but I would love to see it behind the scenes look,
Speaker 2: especially when it comes to making the miniatures for the Pokemon. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and also you know there's something quaint about stop motion,
Speaker 2: like an animated twee or that that is only attainable
Speaker 2: in that specific art form.
Speaker 1: Yep, they did show some like screen tests for some
Speaker 1: of the Pokemon that'll show up in Concierge going forward.
Speaker 1: That was cute to see. But yes, I would like
Speaker 1: to see even more of how that is made. That
Speaker 1: stuff has always been fascinating. I mean going back to
Speaker 1: Phil Tippet that did the go motion stuff for the
Speaker 1: stop motion and Empire Strikes Back, where like they had
Speaker 1: little motori motors inside the legs so they would move
Speaker 1: very slowly and do slow exposure so you would get
Speaker 1: the motion blur and the stop motion and it's like,
Speaker 1: what a what a brilliant thing that they did to
Speaker 1: make that stuff look great. Pokemon Go, the mobile capturing app,
Speaker 1: is hosting a series of new events over the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: A Unova Go I probably said that one wrong too.
Speaker 1: Unova Go a tour is taking place on March first
Speaker 1: and second, and will include uh, black and white Kurum Yeah,
Speaker 1: Tiram Raid Battles, Shiny mellow Etta, and Victimy. These names
Speaker 1: are insane, all right. We'll also be available during this time.
Speaker 1: How's Pokemon Go going?
Speaker 2: Pokemon Go personally, I kind of feel like this household
Speaker 2: has kind of hit a bit of a lull with it,
Speaker 2: primarily because something's they did the Wizard Unite thing grub
Speaker 2: where they've decided to add a bunch of systems to
Speaker 2: overcomplicate the game, and I feel like if you are
Speaker 2: that free to play player in Pokemon Go, you hit
Speaker 2: the ceiling very fast, and it is definitely a game
Speaker 2: that has transformed into a pay to win MMO and
Speaker 2: or mobile game where it's it is very difficult to
Speaker 2: get anything going good for folks that are still playing
Speaker 2: Pokemon Go. I was a little bit surprised to see
Speaker 2: some Pokemon Mango content based off of the Niantic news
Speaker 2: we reported on I believe last week of Niantic kind
Speaker 2: of wanting to offload all of their games to a
Speaker 2: third party company.
Speaker 1: Yep in Saudi Arabia yep. But I mean Pokemon Company
Speaker 1: will still be involved with that. I wonder how the
Speaker 1: Pokemon Company feels about Savvy coming in there and capturing that.
Speaker 1: I don't think we've heard from them about that in
Speaker 1: one way or the other, either from reporting from public statements.
Speaker 1: Probably wouldn't be any public statements yet because that's sensitive
Speaker 1: stuff when you're talking about acquisitions, all right, Pokemon Masters
Speaker 1: ex this is the one where like, oh, you get
Speaker 1: all the trainers, right, and that's the big part of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is like a mobile game. It's like three
Speaker 2: v three kind of, but you're right, you are kind
Speaker 2: of facing and collecting trainers. I'm surprised that this has
Speaker 2: been going on for like five plus years now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they always always always have updates about it
Speaker 1: during these Pokemon Days, so I was like not surprised
Speaker 1: to see it, was expecting it. And they are promising
Speaker 1: basically new stuff, more stuff coming to the Gotcha game
Speaker 1: on tomorrow, February twenty eighth. That'll be tomorrow. That's when
Speaker 1: you get May and then Brendan will follow on March second.
Speaker 1: Beware the coming of Brendan. On March second, Pokemon Cafe
Speaker 1: Remix a puzzle game. Pokemon Cafe Cafe Remixes getting an
Speaker 1: Apple based event on Friday. Hey Mike, he Mike, they're
Speaker 1: doing it for you. That's Friday, February twenty eighth, so
Speaker 1: again tomorrow, which will allow you to add either Appleton
Speaker 1: or Flapple to have them join your staff staff. Flapple
Speaker 1: is an incredible name. I really really like that.
Speaker 2: I do enjoy the Apple designed Pokemon from the two
Speaker 2: generations ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's spectacular that they have multiple Apple based Pokemon.
Speaker 1: Of course. The event also includes outfit packs for Sprigetito, Fuay, Coco,
Speaker 1: and Quaxley. That's got to be how you say all those? Right?
Speaker 1: That's that one. Actually, that felt good. I'm very proud
Speaker 1: of you, Thank you very much. Pokemon's Sleep dark Rye
Speaker 1: and Cressalia are coming to Pokemon Sleep. Not much as
Speaker 1: known about their appearance, but they're both known for being
Speaker 1: able to affect dreams and nightmares, so they're appropriate for
Speaker 1: a sleep app and saying those names makes me want
Speaker 1: to go to sleep. Crysalia Csalia. Okay, but.
Speaker 2: I already feel some type of way about the Pokemon
Speaker 2: one company monitoring my sleep and now they're threatening me
Speaker 2: with dark cry entering my dreams.
Speaker 1: That's what they're boost. Guy, he's bad news. Have you
Speaker 1: ever used Pokemon Sleep? Jan No?
Speaker 2: But when I went to Japan, uh, last year. I
Speaker 2: was very tempted because the nice Japanese man was like
Speaker 2: handed me like a brochure explaining Pokemon.
Speaker 1: Sleep Incredible Pokemon Unite. Three new Pokemon are coming to
Speaker 1: the mobile. This one. I'm gonna say it how Mike said,
Speaker 1: Sue kun Sua sua quen whatever on sway Kune Sweet
Speaker 1: Sue sway kuon sure, why not? Alo Alolan ride show?
Speaker 1: And how Creamy is how I'm gonna say that one. No,
Speaker 1: you got that one right, and it's really al Creamy
Speaker 1: all right whatever? Are all joining the roster in March,
Speaker 1: April and soon respectively. That's yeah April for the S
Speaker 1: one April or yeah, yeah March for the S one,
Speaker 1: April for Rchu, and soon for al Creamy. Also, a
Speaker 1: new mode called First to five hundred is coming, which
Speaker 1: requires either team to reach five hundred points through scoring goals.
Speaker 2: You're doing great, Grub, You're doing great, Hellolan. None of
Speaker 2: that's fine, that's fine, keep going.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be I'm just gonna love Al Creamy over here.
Speaker 1: Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, as previously League Pokemon Trading
Speaker 1: Card Game Pocket, is getting a new boost booster set
Speaker 1: called Triumphant Light. The Archaeus centric set will be added
Speaker 1: to the app tomorrow, February twentieth. A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: happening with Pokemon tomorrow, the Trading Card Game, the Shoot
Speaker 1: Card Game. Outside of the app, we also have some
Speaker 1: new Mega Evolution ex cards coming to the Standard Trading
Speaker 1: Card Game. How do you feel about Mega Lukario and
Speaker 1: Mega Gardivore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the art on the cards looks absolutely gorgeous. The
Speaker 2: part that I take a little bit issue with is
Speaker 2: that sometimes those physical cards still to this day grub
Speaker 2: can be very hard to get your hands on if
Speaker 2: you don't want to pay secondhand prices or resell prices
Speaker 2: on those bad boys. But cool to see Mega evolutions
Speaker 2: headed back to the TCG. I haven't played in a
Speaker 2: hot minute, so I've been kind of out of the loop.
Speaker 2: I would be very interested to see how this currently
Speaker 2: affects the meta, at least I was familiar with from
Speaker 2: like last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, people seem mostly to enjoy Mega evolutions
Speaker 1: in the games, so I'm sure this will be exciting
Speaker 1: and get people reasons to buy the cards, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure they're just aching for. They're not really any of
Speaker 1: those anymore.
Speaker 2: No, if you go to a costco, you go to
Speaker 2: a target, you go to any of these big box
Speaker 2: retail stores grub. They are still enforcing well, most of
Speaker 2: them are enforcing a like two boxes or two packs
Speaker 2: per not the little individual packs U right right, the
Speaker 2: box the box is per customer, and people are still
Speaker 2: trying to circumvent that rule by having a friend or
Speaker 2: a partner come up after them, like maybe ten minutes.
Speaker 1: Right, all right, then Pokemon Champions, did you see this?
Speaker 1: Jan Yeah, here we go. After some updates on some
Speaker 1: small events in Scarlett and Violet, we got into a
Speaker 1: brand new game called Pokemon Champions. The Switch and Mobile
Speaker 1: Games so it's Switch iOS and Android was only shown
Speaker 1: through a cinematic teaser, but it was described as a
Speaker 1: core style battle simulator outside of the typical RPG structure.
Speaker 1: It's being developed by Pokemon Works, a government institution apparently,
Speaker 1: and we'll let you connect to Pokemon Home to import
Speaker 1: your parties from mainline games if you don't have access
Speaker 1: to that or for whatever reason. There are select Pokemon
Speaker 1: available in Pokemon Champions. Pokemon Champions is Pokemon Stadium three
Speaker 1: by all measures. Basically, what are you thinking I.
Speaker 2: Need someone a game freak to cut me the fucking check,
Speaker 2: Jeff Greg, I mean that you've.
Speaker 1: Been pitching this one for a hot minute now, is
Speaker 1: I mean, did you take a look? I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: we It was a cinematic trailer. They were sharing mostly vibes,
Speaker 1: but they was kind of trying to say what it
Speaker 1: was going to be like, to play it, show off
Speaker 1: what it what it would feel like. Is this what
Speaker 1: you want?
Speaker 2: I think this is almost what I want. You know,
Speaker 2: they very sparse on the information, like you mentioned grub,
Speaker 2: but the fact that that they made like a whole
Speaker 2: little hype trailer and that the format of battling the
Speaker 2: Pokemon was two v two means to me that they
Speaker 2: are taking the VGC a little bit more seriously. Sean
Speaker 2: put posted about this on Blue Sky. But the fact
Speaker 2: that they may be separating battling from the core Pokemon
Speaker 2: games is enticing to me because that allows for some
Speaker 2: innovation and for some difference going on in like the
Speaker 2: mainline or the Legends games moving forward. But that they
Speaker 2: may make battling more streamlined. I know that that has
Speaker 2: been one of the hurdles even for me, is that
Speaker 2: I don't want to have to breed endless amounts of
Speaker 2: Pokemon get the right ivs. Scarlet and Violet definitely streamlined
Speaker 2: that process a little bit. But for the casual person
Speaker 2: trying to get in, I think this is going to
Speaker 2: be amazing, especially because this is going to be on mobile.
Speaker 2: They did show that there would be some connectivity to
Speaker 2: Pokemon Go, Pokemon Home, Scarlet and Violet, so I think
Speaker 2: it may still implement some of the breeding aspect, or
Speaker 2: at least getting specific Pokemon. The big deal for me, though,
Speaker 2: Grub is on top of the two V two they
Speaker 2: showed off terrestalizing. I think I said that wrong, rubbing
Speaker 2: off me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2: As well as mega evolutions. If they're going to get
Speaker 2: super crazy with it, let's throw a Dynama thing as well.
Speaker 2: But the fact that they're also bringing back mega evolutions
Speaker 2: into VGC along with terrestrializing it is going to be
Speaker 2: absolutely wild. I caught a little bit of uh the
Speaker 2: pretty much Lebron James of Pokemon VGC wolf Glick talking
Speaker 2: about this, and his reaction I think is very telling.
Speaker 2: He's like the one of the top top top Pokemon
Speaker 2: VGC players and if he thinks that this is going
Speaker 2: to be absolutely game changing to the world of competitive
Speaker 2: VGC Pokemon percent believe him.
Speaker 1: This is going to be terrible for me. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: do you get the sense that they will experiment in here,
Speaker 1: because I mean, you're talking about a bunch of things
Speaker 1: that didn't seem to wouldn't they couldn't fit or were
Speaker 1: afraid to put into the core battles in core Pokemon.
Speaker 2: I at least think that maybe they'll tighten up some
Speaker 2: of the animations, that they'll look less lazy, and then
Speaker 2: some of the risks that they may take. Is kind
Speaker 2: of going all in on VGC because it has kind
Speaker 2: of been like a stepchild to the side of this
Speaker 2: giant Pokemon craze, right, Like we've seen so much hype
Speaker 2: with the cards, with the mobile card app Pokemon Go,
Speaker 2: but VGC has been like a solid portion of the
Speaker 2: audience has kind of been I don't want to say ignored,
Speaker 2: but not attended to. And I also hope that this
Speaker 2: helps out with spinning up tournaments. It's very hard to
Speaker 2: It's very hard, if not possible at all, unless you
Speaker 2: are running an official Pokemon tournament to spectate and properly
Speaker 2: project a game to commentate over. If this has one
Speaker 2: of those modes that you can run a local tournament,
Speaker 2: you can have that spectator view, so you're not spoiling
Speaker 2: any potential moves. That'd be absolutely fantastic. I kind of
Speaker 2: want them to lean all the way in and go
Speaker 2: full VGC, go full esports on this, and then are
Speaker 2: you relieve that this is a separate app that they
Speaker 2: contend on its own instead of like putting this mode
Speaker 2: into the next big main Pokemon game. Yes, one hundrub uh.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I don't want to play another normal
Speaker 2: Pokemon game. Yeah, legend Za, which we'll get to in
Speaker 2: a second, I'm interested in that, But when it comes
Speaker 2: to the battling, I want to be able to pick
Speaker 2: the monds that I want on a team. Maybe ask
Speaker 2: some friends to breed some Pokemon for me or whatever.
Speaker 2: Maybe go through my existing list and try and get
Speaker 2: to it that way, because I'm curious as to how
Speaker 2: mobile players on phones will be able to acquire Pokemon
Speaker 2: if there is no exploration part of the game.
Speaker 1: Yep, ken higwind. It also reiterates that the disclaimers on
Speaker 1: the trailers said only select Pokemon can be used. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they said that until home can get involved.
Speaker 1: And I think at that point, I mean, who knows,
Speaker 1: it probably might still be a selection of the Pokemon
Speaker 1: you have at home, because they're gonna have to render
Speaker 1: these things in a champion but it's a Champion championship.
Speaker 1: But they're gonna want to do that eventually because they're
Speaker 1: gonna want to support this long term, so they'll get
Speaker 1: around to all of the Pokemon eventually, would be my guest. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see here. Pokemon Legends z A closed out the show.
Speaker 1: This is the switch one RPG that deviates from Legend
Speaker 1: Archaeus in that it takes place in modern day Callos Calos. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Calos rather than a historical setting. Your character
Speaker 1: will start their journey with either Chickorita, Toto dial or
Speaker 1: Tepig a Tapeig Tepig. Well, Luminos, this one I never
Speaker 1: knew how to say, Lumos. Luminos City is undergoing an
Speaker 1: urban development plan. There will be discrete wild areas where
Speaker 1: you can capture more Pokemon. Okay, now I get why
Speaker 1: they talked about the redevelopment plan because they want to
Speaker 1: have areas that are sort of untended by man so
Speaker 1: that Pokemon can just roam free in there. That may okay,
Speaker 1: so it's a narrative device, But does it seem like
Speaker 1: ZA will include the open zones of Archaeus. The game
Speaker 1: will launch on Switch in late twenty twenty five. Did
Speaker 1: you so, did you take a look at this? Because
Speaker 1: it looks like the combat here is real time kind
Speaker 1: of emulate, emulating what you get when you watch the anime.
Speaker 1: Uh it doesn't it.
Speaker 2: This kind of factored in a little bit into Legends Archaeus,
Speaker 2: where positionality mattered a little bit, but here definitely feels
Speaker 2: like it is going to matter more. My biggest takeaway
Speaker 2: from this ZA presentation is that the Onyx.
Speaker 1: In the game looked very small.
Speaker 2: Uh he looked like a teeny dude that was maybe
Speaker 2: like five five if that's weird. But anyway, I'm sure
Speaker 2: interested because I feel like Legends Archeus was able to
Speaker 2: hook in a bunch of lapsed Pokemon fans, and I
Speaker 2: feel like this is going to be able to kind
Speaker 2: of replicate that those feelings of watching the anime that
Speaker 2: that people had as kids of like, oh cool, I
Speaker 2: can walk around this living city, there are Pokemon and
Speaker 2: at least in these designated zones that I can catch
Speaker 2: and if I need to battle someone. It's it may
Speaker 2: or may not be a little bit more dynamic.
Speaker 1: It kind of.
Speaker 2: Reminded me of Zeno Blade Chronicles though, based off of
Speaker 2: the way that the Pokemon were looking and you were
Speaker 2: issuing commands, which I don't have a problem with.
Speaker 1: No that sounds I mean, I enjoyed Zina Blake Chronicles
Speaker 1: three the way. Yeah, that's the one I played, and
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the the way the combat work in that
Speaker 1: if it's similar with then you know, Kanehiwan again and
Speaker 1: chat points out Zeno Blade style cool downs. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that totally makes sense and works for me. I loved Archias.
Speaker 1: I always pointed that, you know, I didn't be or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but I played like fifteen hours of
Speaker 1: it twelve hours over that on a marathon stream and
Speaker 1: really really enjoyed myself. We have been looking forward to
Speaker 1: this with the hopes that it would kind of take
Speaker 1: the things that made that game fun and continue them.
Speaker 1: And you know, when the character threw a poke ball
Speaker 1: in real time at a Pokemon and captured it, I'm like, yep,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I really really liked Anarchias. I'm glad
Speaker 1: that's here. I'm set and then they showed this off.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I didn't even like consider that the
Speaker 1: Pokemon battles themselves could be vastly different than how they
Speaker 1: had been before. And that's interesting to me because I
Speaker 1: do like turn based. I want Pokemon battles to evolve
Speaker 1: like it seems like a lot of fans want as well.
Speaker 1: But I still want the core games, the traditional games,
Speaker 1: to be turn based. So we're gonna get both. It
Speaker 1: sounds like, so this is this is a very neat
Speaker 1: pathway that the Pokemon Company and game Freak are blazing
Speaker 1: for themselves with this opportunity to have these two different
Speaker 1: pillars going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a it's a good strategy, grub.
Speaker 2: I think I'm kind of still surprised that they stuck
Speaker 2: with the format that they were rolling with for Sword
Speaker 2: and Shield and Scarlet and Violet after something like Let's
Speaker 2: Go Pikachu and Let's Go Evy was such a runaway
Speaker 2: success for them, and I mean, hey, the mainline Pokemon
Speaker 2: games are always going to be a success, but in
Speaker 2: terms of format, I thought they would have deviated a
Speaker 2: little bit. And I'm happy to see that the Legend series,
Speaker 2: or like the Legends format is gonna be a thing
Speaker 2: moving on. I would love to see other previous generations
Speaker 2: get adapted to that.
Speaker 1: Yep. And then finally, like as at points out in Chat,
Speaker 1: here looks you know, Switch one game might even be
Speaker 1: overstating it. It looks simple, it looks rough. I think
Speaker 1: it does look like you take a three DS game
Speaker 1: and you make it HD kind of looks like that.
Speaker 1: They have this city that you're in that is very bland,
Speaker 1: and it seems like they made a lot of choices
Speaker 1: to ensure that their technology wouldn't get dragged down and
Speaker 1: have terrible, terrible performance. But that means you get not
Speaker 1: a lot of detail in the world. I don't know,
Speaker 1: doesn't really bother me. I what I come to these
Speaker 1: games for is, hey, is the Pokemon cute? I'm looking
Speaker 1: at Pokemon. That design is very cute, and they did
Speaker 1: a good job of representing it in this three D game.
Speaker 1: They're doing that, and so I'm gonna be good. But
Speaker 1: I don't blame anyone if we're looking at this and
Speaker 1: being like, what is going on? But it's that's game freak.
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's game freak.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of surprised we didn't see any discernible news
Speaker 2: when it comes to the switch to coming out. Everything
Speaker 2: when they mentioned the switch was just the original current switch.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious to see, you know, will all these
Speaker 2: existing Pokemon titles be ported over, will they just run
Speaker 2: backwards compatible? Will there be a switch to version of ZA?
Speaker 2: And I'm just curious to see what will happen with
Speaker 2: Pokemon and the switch to I know that there was
Speaker 2: a little bit of disappointment across the internet when it
Speaker 2: comes to Pokemon, there always is that there wasn't any
Speaker 2: reveal of the tenth generation. I feel like they would
Speaker 2: be saving that for the switch to for next year
Speaker 2: when they hit thirty years.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, now, we've had two Pokemon Day presentations
Speaker 1: in a row that have been relatively low key, So
Speaker 1: I think that getting your hopes up for more to
Speaker 1: happen next year when it's the thirtieth anniversary and switch
Speaker 1: to U is here in earnest. I got some completely
Speaker 1: fair expectation as far as like switch to getting mentioned
Speaker 1: during this thing goes. Yeah, it seems like one of
Speaker 1: those things are Pokemon Company game freak. Traditionally don't rush
Speaker 1: ahead to the next platform, especially not before it's out.
Speaker 1: They they know where their bread is buttered. And it's
Speaker 1: families buying consoles, and families continue to buy consoles for
Speaker 1: their kids. Uh, and that that means like last gen
Speaker 1: consoles as new hardware comes out a little bit longer
Speaker 1: than other uh, other groups of people who play games,
Speaker 1: and so they're they're happy to continue to like tell
Speaker 1: people buy a switch for this game. You know, it's affordable,
Speaker 1: and our game will be very exciting for your kids,
Speaker 1: so just do that. And that that's that strategy was
Speaker 1: very evident in this Pokemon Day presentation, so I'm not
Speaker 1: surprised that they didn't mention it. And then also they
Speaker 1: probably you know, Intendo's like we're gonna handle that. So
Speaker 1: you guys all just chill at that, you know, switch
Speaker 1: to Direct that's happening in April. Second, they very well
Speaker 1: could give us information about what's going on with ZA
Speaker 1: for switch to in that moment, so we'll see. Uh.
Speaker 2: And I may be outing myself here, Grub and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, throwing the stone at the glasshouse within the glasshouse.
Speaker 2: Whatever the metaphor is the Pokemon at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, Grub, it's a kid's game.
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and the thing, there's
Speaker 1: always new kids, and so they always just send them
Speaker 1: selling to those new kids. And when everyone else sticks around,
Speaker 1: they definitely love that because that is what has made
Speaker 1: it the most valuable property. But the way they're able
Speaker 1: to do that is enticing those new generations, a new
Speaker 1: generation of kids each time that they crop up. So yep,
Speaker 1: I think they will continue down that path for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back
Speaker 1: and we'll get to the rest of the headlines, including
Speaker 1: a little bit more information about what happened to Wonder
Speaker 1: Woman over there at Model with Productions before everything got
Speaker 1: shut down and closed and everyone got laid off. All right,
Speaker 1: That canceled Wonder Woman game was gorgeous and expansive, says
Speaker 1: comic writer who consulted on it. This is from Tom
Speaker 1: Ivan at VGC, a long term consultant on Warner's recently
Speaker 1: canceled Wonder Woman game, has shared some details about what
Speaker 1: the title might have offered had it seen the light
Speaker 1: of day. Announced in twenty twenty one, but reportedly still
Speaker 1: years away from release after being rebooted twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: the game had been in development at Middle Earth Shadow
Speaker 1: of Mordor and Shadow of War studio Monolith Productions. However,
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, parent company Warner Brothers announced that it was
Speaker 1: closing Monolith alongside two other internal studios player first games
Speaker 1: in WB San Diego and scrapping Wonder Woman. Reacting to
Speaker 1: the news in a Twitter thread, veteran comic book writer
Speaker 1: Gail Simone, who has penned many issues of Wonder Woman
Speaker 1: and served as a long term consultant on the canceled title,
Speaker 1: said the game was gorgeous and expansive. She also wrote
Speaker 1: it was beautiful to look at. I am not going
Speaker 1: to give details for a number of reasons, but every
Speaker 1: effort was made to make this not just a great game,
Speaker 1: but a great a great Wonder Woman game, a showpiece, epic,
Speaker 1: and all that was because of the team. Everyone who
Speaker 1: worked on it brought their a game programmers, artists, designers,
Speaker 1: everyone don't I don't know that I ever worked with
Speaker 1: a team that cared more about making sure the end
Speaker 1: product was perfect. Yeah. I believe her. Of course she's
Speaker 1: not going to go out there and trash talk the game,
Speaker 1: but she also didn't have to come out there and
Speaker 1: say anything. Gail has always striked me as a straight shooter,
Speaker 1: so I think she's shooting here, and this feels like
Speaker 1: a situation where you want to speak on behalf of
Speaker 1: all these people that did all this work that will
Speaker 1: never see the light of day.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Unfortunately, I do feel for Gail here because
Speaker 2: she's probably seen her peers go through a lot of
Speaker 2: this with WB.
Speaker 1: Right, with WB.
Speaker 2: Finishing projects, starting projects, finishing projects, shelving projects, or just
Speaker 2: punting on them entirely. It does have to be frustrating,
Speaker 2: especially from a comic book author's perspective, especially she didn't
Speaker 2: have to come out and say anything, and folks are
Speaker 2: chiming in in chat that Gail Simone is responsible for,
Speaker 2: like the quintessential wonder Woman run. I'm not super familiar
Speaker 2: with Wonder Woman's comic book run, but Gail Simone has
Speaker 2: written a boat load of fantastic comics, prolific.
Speaker 1: It's a bummer.
Speaker 2: It's well documented at this point, Greb, how you and
Speaker 2: I feel about the second Wonder Woman movie. But there
Speaker 2: were aspects of that first one that I enjoyed. A
Speaker 2: lot of people fell in love with that character all
Speaker 2: over again because of these Snyder movies, So it kind
Speaker 2: of not necessarily a slam dunk, but it felt like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is this is another pillar we can bet on
Speaker 2: when it for d C and DC in terms of
Speaker 2: video games, very far few in between if it's not
Speaker 2: an Arkham game, and even those aren't guarantees at this point.
Speaker 1: YEP, definitely hits. Everything is a question mark at WB. Now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a shame, as a shame how this went down.
Speaker 1: For as much as it was predictable that WB would
Speaker 1: have crashed and burned one of these studios or a
Speaker 1: handful of these studios, as this case may be, it's
Speaker 1: still very troublesome that a studio like Monolith Productions can
Speaker 1: have that history and a corporation looking at this asset
Speaker 1: that they have and go no, thank you, we'd rather not.
Speaker 1: It just speaks to a sickness at the heart of
Speaker 1: the video game industry. And I would have really liked
Speaker 1: to have seen this game. It's a shame we won't
Speaker 1: get a chance to see it. All right. Speaking of
Speaker 1: that Wonder Woman game, one of the big hallmark features
Speaker 1: of it was going to be the Nemesis system, but
Speaker 1: this might have been one of its achilles heels. Popular
Speaker 1: Nemesis system wasn't coming together in the canceled Wonder Woman game.
Speaker 1: This is from Jordan Midler at VGC. Monolith was struggling
Speaker 1: to implement the fan favorite and patented a Nemesis system
Speaker 1: in the now canceled Wonder Woman game. It's claimed, according
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg's Jason Schreyer, speaking on the Kind of Funny
Speaker 1: Games Daily podcast, the game, which was canceled alongside the
Speaker 1: closure of its developer, Monolith, faced multiple setbacks during development.
Speaker 1: It's also claimed that the most recent version of the game,
Speaker 1: being worked on before the studio was closed, would have
Speaker 1: eliminated the Nemesis system and instead been more of a
Speaker 1: traditional action adventure game akin to God of War. Following
Speaker 1: the success of its two Lord of the Rings games,
Speaker 1: the studio is working on a new IP that would
Speaker 1: have expanded on the Nemesis system's procedural narrative. During this time,
Speaker 1: it's kind of clear to people at Warner Brothers that
Speaker 1: this game is not going to happen, because people at
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers are not interested in new IP, said Schreier.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, the original IP was canceled by
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, which caused the entire leadership team at the
Speaker 1: studio to quit. That summer, the studio began working on
Speaker 1: Wonder Woman. The game would be announced later that year
Speaker 1: at the Game Awards with a short trailer showing off
Speaker 1: the character model. Warner Brothers decides it's not interested in
Speaker 1: new ip and decides they Monolith are going to work
Speaker 1: or going to make a Wonder Woman game. Shreier said
Speaker 1: the game was rebooted around the beginning of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: switching directors and completely changing the direction of the game.
Speaker 1: The main thing that was rebooted they were playing around
Speaker 1: with the idea, the idea that this or this idea
Speaker 1: that Wonder Woman would befriend people. It was the Nemesis
Speaker 1: system in reverse where they would become your allies, and
Speaker 1: it was it wasn't coming together, or the idea wasn't
Speaker 1: coming together. A Trier said. They rebooted it to be
Speaker 1: more of a God of War style traditional action game.
Speaker 1: By then it was kind of too late though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there was that aspect in one of those
Speaker 1: Shadow of War Shadow of Mortar games where you could
Speaker 1: kind of get the orcs under your thrall right, and
Speaker 1: that you could like have them join up with you.
Speaker 1: I vaguely remember. It's been a long time since I've
Speaker 1: played those games, and I did not play much of
Speaker 1: War because I was turned off by the micro transactions
Speaker 1: at the time, something I know that they've addressed and
Speaker 1: gotten rid of. But yeah, boy they do. This does
Speaker 1: feel like a little bit of a ball and chain
Speaker 1: around this studio where it's like they are known for
Speaker 1: the Nemesis system, now, so make a game with the
Speaker 1: Nemesis system. And everyone was asking for that, including me,
Speaker 1: but I never considered that, like, oh, well, what if
Speaker 1: it just isn't working for the idea that they want
Speaker 1: to do, Like when you say Wonder Woman, but it's
Speaker 1: like God of War twenty eighteen, I kind of go, oh, yeah, duh,
Speaker 1: that's actually probably what it should have been from the beginning.
Speaker 1: That's like an easy thing to just map one thing
Speaker 1: onto the other and you do your version of that.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's not as good as God of War
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, probably wouldn't be, but it would probably be
Speaker 1: very successful and a big hit with people who are
Speaker 1: into Wonder Woman, into DC, into that lore, and maybe
Speaker 1: that should have been the first idea rather than how
Speaker 1: can we make something with the Nemesis system. Cause, yeah,
Speaker 1: for as much as I do love that that idea,
Speaker 1: I don't think you needed to ham fist it into
Speaker 1: here if it wasn't going to work, right. Yeah, it.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent grub because the inverse of the Nemesis
Speaker 2: system just sounds like friendship. Yeah, and it just sounds
Speaker 2: like the social ink system from Persona Games. And hey,
Speaker 2: even that twist could be fine. It doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be like major mechanic in the game. It could just
Speaker 2: be like, oh, hey, I'm cool with this Amazonian lady,
Speaker 2: and now she gives me a potion if I need
Speaker 2: it something close to that. It just feels like Monolith
Speaker 2: has kind of been stuck in that position where with
Speaker 2: the Vall and chain grub of like yo WB patented
Speaker 2: the Nemesis system for y'all, y'all gotta use it. And
Speaker 2: the reality is, for as cool as the Nemesis system
Speaker 2: is Slash was, it doesn't need to be in every
Speaker 2: single game.
Speaker 1: No, And you know, I'm sure we got it in
Speaker 1: two of their games kind of back to back, and
Speaker 1: it has like popped up in other forms elsewhere in
Speaker 1: ways that like don't look exactly like the patented version
Speaker 1: of it that Monolith owns. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the thing you want from games is is novelty and
Speaker 1: something new and in an evolution of the Nemesis System
Speaker 1: or something completely out of feel that we weren't even
Speaker 1: expecting or didn't know we wanted. I think that's that's
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that really works for games. And
Speaker 1: it's been ten years since we had the Nemesis System.
Speaker 1: It's been longer than that, it's been eleven years now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, at a certain point, you kind of can't
Speaker 1: hold a whole studio to this one idea and say
Speaker 1: keep doing that. You got to let them figure out
Speaker 1: what this game needed to be. Sounds like they did
Speaker 1: figure that out, but far too late. And then that's
Speaker 1: that's the real sad story here. Absolutely. We talked about
Speaker 1: it yesterday on the show. Nemesis System still under a
Speaker 1: patent for another ten ten nine ten years. Basically, it
Speaker 1: will it will lapse in maybe, you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a little bit longer than I think it's gonna lap.
Speaker 1: It laps in twenty thirty six, So yeah, I I
Speaker 1: you know, I don't expect many other studios to want
Speaker 1: to like try to like license that. I don't think
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers would even have the wherewithal or the bandwidth
Speaker 1: to like have lawyers ready to go to draw up
Speaker 1: those kinds of contracts. So either Warner Brothers sits on
Speaker 1: it doesn't do anything, or they sit on it and
Speaker 1: they or they give it away for free, which seems unlikely, right,
Speaker 1: And that does happen with patentson software all the time
Speaker 1: in other industries, but gaming companies are just so secretive
Speaker 1: and kind of shitty that I wouldn't expect that to happen.
Speaker 2: I think the Nemesis system would do great in a
Speaker 2: dating game. Yeah, absolutely, someone They come back ready to
Speaker 2: gaslight you. They know your normal moves, they know how
Speaker 2: you flirt.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: They're going to make sure you don't go on another date.
Speaker 1: Bright you have a bad breakup and they come back
Speaker 1: with their with their battle damage, their traumatic scars, and
Speaker 1: you don't see it visually, but it's like under the surface, man,
Speaker 1: we're cooking, all right. So let's keep moving here. Xbox
Speaker 1: Boss teases unannounced games and reacts to switch to reveal.
Speaker 1: This is from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot. It's no secret
Speaker 1: that Xbox has a lot of games coming in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five, but what we've heard about so far doesn't
Speaker 1: represent everything the company is working on. Xbox Game Studio
Speaker 1: boss Craig Duncan said in an interview that Microsoft has
Speaker 1: plenty of games still to be announced. Asked about what
Speaker 1: he's been, what he's playing now and looking forward to,
Speaker 1: Duncan said on the Xbox Podcast that he spends a
Speaker 1: lot of time playing Microsoft's own games, including unannounced games.
Speaker 1: We've got a bunch of stuff we haven't announced, so
Speaker 1: obviously I spend a bunch of time with that. He said.
Speaker 1: Microsoft has more games coming to PS five this year
Speaker 1: than Sony does, at least so far, including Indiana Jones
Speaker 1: in the Great Circle, Doom, The Doom, The Dark Ages,
Speaker 1: Age of Empires two, Definitive Edition, Age of Mythology Retold
Speaker 1: the Outer Wilds two, and Injugating four. I bet you
Speaker 1: can add a vowed to that list. That'll be on
Speaker 1: PS five board the before the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Will be my guess. As for when any future Xbox
Speaker 1: games could be revealed, It's expected Microsoft will hold it
Speaker 1: holiday showcase of some kind this June, and that could
Speaker 1: be when we learn about upcoming Xbox games. On one
Speaker 1: Xbox title Slate over twenty twenty five. Fable was recently
Speaker 1: delayed to twenty twenty six and could come to PS five.
Speaker 1: I think that's the game that was got delayed, and
Speaker 1: they moved up Outer Worlds to to this year to
Speaker 1: kind of fill in that gap. They're kind of shifted
Speaker 1: those things around. Uh interesting that. It's interesting though, because
Speaker 1: Outer World's two from Obsidian, just like a Vowed which
Speaker 1: just came out, So they're gonna have two games this year,
Speaker 1: but jan they might announce a third game. I'm here,
Speaker 1: I think one of the unannounced games could be Grounded too.
Speaker 1: I think they're I think they're gonna work on that.
Speaker 1: That sounds like that's gonna happen here relatively soon. Could
Speaker 1: go into early access this year, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if people kept up with Grounded one.
Speaker 1: That game got into a really, really strong state by
Speaker 1: this point. It is a very fun game. So I'm
Speaker 1: I bet that team was just like, yeah, let's go
Speaker 1: make Grounded two. And I bet I think Microsoft was
Speaker 1: probably happy to let them do that. So yeah, Obsidian
Speaker 1: continues to cook for them. Anything else that you would
Speaker 1: like hope to hear or see from Microsoft.
Speaker 2: Uh we we we talked continuously grab about them re
Speaker 2: releasing the Master Chief Clubs in ODST. I can't think
Speaker 2: of too many other Microsoft specific franchises off the top
Speaker 2: of my head, but I guess it's good to see
Speaker 2: them making games and putting out games because they were
Speaker 2: in kind of not I don't want to say a rut,
Speaker 2: but it was a very slow period because the last,
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, one of the last big Microsoft releases
Speaker 2: that pops up in my head is Redfall, and I
Speaker 2: don't think they want that.
Speaker 1: They don't want you thinking about red Fall. That is correct,
Speaker 1: too bad? Phil, Yeah, I mean I just when I
Speaker 1: think about Xbox in their game output, for me, it's
Speaker 1: like a ten twelve. I mean, it really goes back
Speaker 1: to all the way to Xbox three sixty. You get
Speaker 1: to Xbox one, there's the launch, which is pretty respectable
Speaker 1: for the Xbox One, and then it just falls off
Speaker 1: a cliff because I think that they were so shook
Speaker 1: by the way things went down with them launching the
Speaker 1: Xbox one and what's his name who I can't even
Speaker 1: remember now, who was telling people, will you have a
Speaker 1: product for you? It's the Xbox three sixty like they
Speaker 1: got really dinged up by that. And I think they
Speaker 1: were like, let's just stand back and think about the
Speaker 1: games we're even making. We're gonna make a bunch of
Speaker 1: expensive games, put them out on Xbox exclusively, and and
Speaker 1: for what when people are playing thousands of hours of Destiny,
Speaker 1: we could see right here, we have their data they're
Speaker 1: playing all this time in Destiny. Let's just kind of
Speaker 1: glom onto those, try to make some of those ourselves,
Speaker 1: make some smaller stuff. And I think they just lost
Speaker 1: faith in making games themselves a little bit. And for
Speaker 1: as much as Phil has talked about kind of curing
Speaker 1: that with Game Pass for a long time, it took
Speaker 1: a really long time to feel like they got on
Speaker 1: the other side of that. But I think it's hard
Speaker 1: to argue that they're not there now. I don't think
Speaker 1: every game is going to be as good as Indiana
Speaker 1: Jones and Avowed, But if most of the games they
Speaker 1: put out are as good as Indiana Jones and Avowed,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be very happy. I think both of those
Speaker 1: are just solid video game ass video games, you know,
Speaker 1: b plus as both of them, And I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: to me, that is what a big publisher. I want
Speaker 1: you spending your time and money doing that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Not everything needs to be the you know, game of
Speaker 1: the generation that you take seven to eight years to make.
Speaker 1: Let these studios kind of cook in a bunch of
Speaker 1: different genres and they're doing that. So yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: happy with them.
Speaker 2: I really hope that Microsoft does learn some lessons from Avowed,
Speaker 2: because I've loved pretty much all of my time with it.
Speaker 2: The only thing tearing me away is just other games
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just so many other games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do hope that they take lessons away from
Speaker 2: that in terms of the scale of games. Does not
Speaker 2: have to be a triple A God of War style blockbuster.
Speaker 2: It can be a paar down experience. I do see
Speaker 2: folks popping off in chat about the possibility. I'd love
Speaker 2: a new Banjo Greb.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I believe that that rumor from a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago that they were greenlighting that project. I don't
Speaker 1: know who be making it. I mean, I suppose that
Speaker 1: that actually could have been the Toyster Bob project, because
Speaker 1: we found out Iron Galaxy was working on Tony Hawk,
Speaker 1: so maybe that wasn't Toyster Bob. And maybe Toyster Bob,
Speaker 1: who is very good at three D platformers, got to
Speaker 1: make a banjo game or is in the process of
Speaker 1: making a banjo game. I would love it, love it
Speaker 1: if that were the case. I'm trying to like. No,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that, weren't there rumors that they were going
Speaker 1: to do that and that fell through when they were
Speaker 1: still over at Activision. Now they're under Now they're in
Speaker 1: a contract situation because they were under Microsoft. Microsoft let
Speaker 1: them go and then immediately put them under contract. It's confusing.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: They're also not the only studio that could do it.
Speaker 1: But the problem is there's not a ton of studios
Speaker 1: out there available to make a Bansho Kazooi game. I
Speaker 1: would love that, though I was playing some Bancho Kazooi
Speaker 1: last night. Nice.
Speaker 2: Also, with Sony's success with Astrobot, I could see Microsoft
Speaker 2: wanting to get the gear spinning on some type of
Speaker 2: platform or.
Speaker 1: Yeah soon, So hey, blink's bay.
Speaker 2: Don't don't blinkx yep, don't blinks or you might miss it.
Speaker 1: Uh blinks. That is just like, Hey, let's ape astrobot.
Speaker 1: I think that would be really fun. That would be
Speaker 1: really a really powerful move. Let's Blinks is our astrobot,
Speaker 1: this dumb ass cat. I would love that. Here's his
Speaker 1: vacuum cleaner. All the power ups are vacuum based. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was like, oh, there's master Chief, there's the arbiter.
Speaker 1: Blinx just sucks him off, say high master Chief and
Speaker 1: hal I was gonna call him Halo. Master Chief just
Speaker 1: was like, who the fuck is this cat and just
Speaker 1: punts him away. Uh oh, that actually would be a
Speaker 1: good move, is make it like Astrobot or Blinks is
Speaker 1: going to meet all the other characters. But everyone really
Speaker 1: has no respect for Blinks, like he's BoJack Horseman like
Speaker 1: or something like that. I think I'd be very good. Please,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get to the rest of these headlines.
Speaker 1: Let's see new Nintendo switch to doc surface. This is
Speaker 1: from Nintendo Everything. A new set of images have supposedly
Speaker 1: emerged that give us another look at the Nintendo switch
Speaker 1: to two doc. It's rounder, it's a dock. There's not
Speaker 1: much to this jan it's a rounder switch doc and
Speaker 1: sure we're getting to look at it. There might be
Speaker 1: like some like more ports on it. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: some images here. I think that. Uh it's yeah, God,
Speaker 1: I'm just like it. They need to just give us
Speaker 1: that April second thing. Maybe it just jumped forward in
Speaker 1: time because this is where we're at with this thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe this thing has like a little port there on
Speaker 1: the side. Because these are three D renders. Again, you know,
Speaker 1: I said this is the these are images of it.
Speaker 1: They're renders, And again I guess this could be fake,
Speaker 1: but it does seem like these line up with everything
Speaker 1: we've seen so far. They probably are, and they're so
Speaker 1: boring that would be a really dumb thing to fake it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, how are you feeling about the switch to DOC?
Speaker 1: Jan I mean, I do like the rounded corners. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like nice.
Speaker 2: The rounded corners are slightly more inviting. There's more events
Speaker 2: on the dock, at least from these leaks that we're
Speaker 2: we're looking at here. Yeah, I have no other input
Speaker 2: on this scrip. I don't know how you can spice
Speaker 2: up the switch to DOC because I barely use the
Speaker 2: DOC as is.
Speaker 1: It's I'm sorry. Someone and Chad just made a reference
Speaker 1: to an old Ricky Gervais HBO comedy special interview that
Speaker 1: he did with Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louis c
Speaker 1: k and you could. I always could tell that he
Speaker 1: just did that because he wanted to meet those guys
Speaker 1: because he had like an HBO deal. So he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna do a show where I interview those guys.
Speaker 1: And it's a low joke. So it got got by
Speaker 1: the auto mod and it's very distracting to me because
Speaker 1: I find it very funny. But yeah, April second can't
Speaker 1: come soon enough. I just want them to give me
Speaker 1: this whole thing and uh, let me get all the
Speaker 1: details so we could stop being so obsessed with this.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll say, jan I'm glad that it really
Speaker 1: is just switch again. I'm glad the doc looks like
Speaker 1: it's gonna work the way the Switch one doc work
Speaker 1: it was. It's exactly what I wanted to do. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to put it in. It's gonna
Speaker 1: go to the TV, don't have to think about it,
Speaker 1: no extra steps. It's going to be just as simple
Speaker 1: as last time. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe have have
Speaker 1: like a cool antenna on it, yeah an be cool?
Speaker 1: Yeah sure? Why not? All right? Last couple of stories here,
Speaker 1: last handful of stories. Sony is permanently reducing the price
Speaker 1: of the PSVR two starting in March. Let's see here,
Speaker 1: the price for the base PSVR two model, which comes
Speaker 1: with the headset, controller and headphones, has been reduced to
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars and four hundred pounds. This is a
Speaker 1: notable reduction from the current price of five hundred and
Speaker 1: forty five and twenty nine pounds. The PlayStation VR two
Speaker 1: Horizon called the Mountain Bundle, which includes all the content
Speaker 1: from the base set, including a code for the VR
Speaker 1: Horizon game, will also cost four hundred dollars four hundred
Speaker 1: pounds and four hundred and fifty euro. So I say,
Speaker 1: I bet they just get rid of that base model.
Speaker 1: They only stock the called Mountain Bundle once they sell
Speaker 1: out of those other ones, because they're the same price,
Speaker 1: so there's no reason not to get the one that
Speaker 1: comes with the game. Right. Is this price more in
Speaker 1: line with what you need so that you'll buy a
Speaker 1: PSVR two? Janicholla grub What a what a fun question? Huh?
Speaker 1: Whether or not I want to go buy the p
Speaker 1: keep your toes? Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think I'm interested in buying the piz
Speaker 2: ver two, even if it is reduced in price. I'm sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's not enough. There's just not enough there.
Speaker 1: Cruff. It's yeah, and it's it's too late. There's not
Speaker 1: enough there. There's clearly no support even the ability to
Speaker 1: connect it to the PC. Uh, it is a downgraded experience.
Speaker 1: You don't get all of the functionality. I bet the
Speaker 1: community has worked on that stuff, but I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: not interested in like going through the hassle of setting
Speaker 1: that up when I could just use the valve index
Speaker 1: or the much more convenient Mediquest three streaming to my
Speaker 1: PC over Wi Fi six, which is continued to work flawlessly.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, and that price is still you know,
Speaker 1: not even fully in line with the Quest three pricing.
Speaker 1: I think the Quest three is still a little bit
Speaker 1: more affordable than that. If it's not, it's the exact
Speaker 1: same price that that clearly is going to help this thing.
Speaker 1: A lot of people already have PS fives, so we're
Speaker 1: not really talking about that. Well you got to get
Speaker 1: a PS five as well. A lot of people considering
Speaker 1: this would already have a PS five. But even then,
Speaker 1: this this feels like I smell blood. Where Oh they
Speaker 1: dropped the price you know once? What if they dropped
Speaker 1: what if they what if we had second price drop
Speaker 1: if we got down to maybe like two ninety nine,
Speaker 1: what if Black Friday it was one ninety nine, and
Speaker 1: then we start talking about maybe I get this thing
Speaker 1: to play a couple of things maybe at that point.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah for me, Greb, Like I have tried the
Speaker 2: PSVR two. It is a very comfortable headset. I just
Speaker 2: don't like being wired in anymore. After Yeah, checking out
Speaker 2: the Metaquest three. Yeah, I don't even know for one
Speaker 2: ninety nine Grove if that'd be enticing enough, just because
Speaker 2: I don't know what else I'd play on it. Besides
Speaker 2: you're right, Horizon Climbing game Beat Saber, I have already
Speaker 2: somewhere else.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing is with the PC one, and
Speaker 1: again you can connect this to your PC, so if
Speaker 1: you want to do that, go to town. But with
Speaker 1: the ones I already have four PC. There are weird
Speaker 1: things popping up all the time from community developers. In fact,
Speaker 1: I just saw one yesterday that sounds so interesting. It's
Speaker 1: a VR drug dealing simulator where you kind of just
Speaker 1: stand in an alley and till drugs and like it's
Speaker 1: like you have to like really deal with like the
Speaker 1: police and buying low and selling high and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and it looks really impressive. It's made by some nineteen
Speaker 1: year old kid who's in school. He's like, I've been
Speaker 1: just doing this as a passion project for the last year.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, give me fucking Drug Wars for the
Speaker 1: the for VR. I love it on TI eighty three
Speaker 1: now I could just live it. It's like, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: that stuff is not going to be on PSVR two
Speaker 1: ever on PlayStation five. So I'm good with what I have,
Speaker 1: And I don't have a lot of faith in institutional
Speaker 1: developers and publishers to continue fleshing out this space, and
Speaker 1: therefore I'm going to go with the stuff that's going
Speaker 1: to be easier to work with my PC.
Speaker 2: All right, I I was just practicing how to sell drugs?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean who among us? Right? YEA classic core
Speaker 1: game Fear rushed to Gog's preservation program after Monoliths shutdown.
Speaker 1: This is from Georgiang at GameSpot. Gog has announced that
Speaker 1: it is adding Fear to its preservation program next month
Speaker 1: after the game's developer, Monolith Production was monoth Productions was
Speaker 1: shut down yesterday. The version being added to is the
Speaker 1: Platinum one, which includes the base game and both expansions.
Speaker 1: It's on sale right now on Gog for one dollar.
Speaker 1: While Fear was already planned to be added to the
Speaker 1: Preservation program, Gog decided to accelerate the process. Monolith productions
Speaker 1: as given players some of the most unforgettable experiences, blending
Speaker 1: groundbreaking gameplay with rich storytelling. God said in a statement
Speaker 1: on Twitter, to honor their legacy, We're proud to announce
Speaker 1: that Fear Platinum will be joining the GOG Preservation Program. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, god, this goes back to that previous story.
Speaker 1: I should have just put this right after all that
Speaker 1: stuff talking about Monolith where it's like, hey, yeah, they
Speaker 1: were kind of railroaded into thinking about using the Nemesis
Speaker 1: system that you know, this is the studio that revolutionized
Speaker 1: AI enemy AI in games with Fear, and then they
Speaker 1: didn't like just keep going down that path, or if
Speaker 1: they did, they they evolved that into what we saw
Speaker 1: with the Nemesis system. It's like, yeah, you got to
Speaker 1: let them just cook on their own to kind of
Speaker 1: come up with new ideas because clearly they've done that
Speaker 1: many times before. I don't know, clearly a lot of
Speaker 1: the leadership left, so maybe they didn't have faith in
Speaker 1: them to do that anymore. But I'm glad that Fear
Speaker 1: is being preserved.
Speaker 2: Yes, I've never checked out the Fear series because I
Speaker 2: was too fearful as a child. But I do love
Speaker 2: game preservation grub. I do love games being able to
Speaker 2: still be played sold on different places. I would maybe
Speaker 2: I'll circle back to Fear. Maybe Fear would be a
Speaker 2: good punishment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Fear is a that's a good idea for a punishment. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's It's the kind of thing that does
Speaker 1: still hold up today. It's got a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: aspects of it that are worth talking about and considering.
Speaker 1: I would like to see that quite a bit. Uh, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see here. Eight but Do wants you to fall
Speaker 1: in love with its latest controller. That's from Les Jouvenet
Speaker 1: at Polygon. The eight bid Dough Ultimate wireless controller quickly
Speaker 1: established itself as a very good one. They've announced the
Speaker 1: eight bit Ultimate Dough or eight biit Dough Ultimate two,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know it was coming. But you could
Speaker 1: buy this thing now for sixty dollars on Amazon and
Speaker 1: it will ship like this weekend, I think in purple,
Speaker 1: white or black they've got some new features here. It
Speaker 1: distinguishes itself from its predecessor aesthetically, or it doesn't distinguish
Speaker 1: itself aesthetically, retaining the same Xbox style button layout with
Speaker 1: offset analog sticks. However, a closer inspection reveals that eight
Speaker 1: bit dough has included a pair of two smaller trigger positions.
Speaker 1: Trigger's position slightly under the two shoulder buttons. So now
Speaker 1: that has an R four and an L L four
Speaker 1: right there on the back, kind of nestled behind the
Speaker 1: R three, R one and the OL one. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's like we've got three buttons up there now. Of
Speaker 1: course I'm worried about am I going to accidentally press that?
Speaker 1: But I don't accidentally press like L two when I'm
Speaker 1: trying to press L one. So yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: This is interesting at the very least. I love the
Speaker 1: Ultimate so much that I just want to see how
Speaker 1: else this thing is improved. And really I just kind
Speaker 1: of want to have it because I'm like, I really
Speaker 1: like the Ultimate. I want to reward them and get
Speaker 1: this thing as well. So yeah, I'm gonna check this out.
Speaker 1: I already ordered mine.
Speaker 2: I love the addition of an additional button by the triggers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm all for it. It could be a good
Speaker 1: grenade button. It Also, it goes like kind of like
Speaker 1: the way I use the shoulder buttons with one and
Speaker 1: with just the index finger, I kind of rest it
Speaker 1: between the bumper and the trigger and I just roll
Speaker 1: it back and forth to hit one or the other.
Speaker 1: And now this would be like right where the tip
Speaker 1: of the finger is so I can roll and then
Speaker 1: when it's time to hit the R four or L four,
Speaker 1: I can just tap it with the tip. And that
Speaker 1: sounds like a good use of that real estate.
Speaker 2: I'm all for it, Grog. We should be adding more buttons.
Speaker 2: Let's add a let's add another stick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, third stick, h third leg, just basically in sixty
Speaker 1: four controller all over again. I'll take it.
Speaker 2: Lucy James didn't grow up with an N sixty four,
Speaker 2: and when we were setting up for her next Star
Speaker 2: Players shoot, I handed her to the N sixty four
Speaker 2: controller and she.
Speaker 1: Was like, I don't know how to hold this what?
Speaker 2: And then I told her the proper way to hold
Speaker 2: it is that I learned a couple of years ago
Speaker 2: to put one hand on the middle so you can
Speaker 2: use the analog stick.
Speaker 1: She was like, are you joking me? I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: This is it. You're talking this out and it just
Speaker 1: absolutely caused my tummy to flip over thinking about Blues
Speaker 1: Brothers asking me to hit the L button while using
Speaker 1: the control of the way you're supposed to, meaning the
Speaker 1: L button is way the fuck over there. What a
Speaker 1: dumb game. God Ah, that's really that really got me.
Speaker 1: I was like, this, this game's, you know, may be
Speaker 1: a little bit unfairly maligned in some ways, it clearly
Speaker 1: is a bad game. I got to that point and
Speaker 1: it's just this game can go to hell real quick.
Speaker 1: Sean and Chat points out that he has the ape
Speaker 1: It Dough Ultimate two C, which is like they're they're
Speaker 1: cheaper version of the of the Ultimate or the more
Speaker 1: affordable one, and it has these buttons on as well,
Speaker 1: the third shoulder button. He says he likes that it's
Speaker 1: way more handy than back paddles, and that's my that
Speaker 1: I imagine that as well, like these will probably be
Speaker 1: easier for me to just work into the way I
Speaker 1: already use controller than trying to get the middle and
Speaker 1: ring finger to working ways that I'm just not used to.
Speaker 1: Although I have grown accustomed to back paddles at this
Speaker 1: point when I need them, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So jeing his way through stories.
Speaker 1: That's that's how I do it. Everybody, uh that does it.
Speaker 1: For the headlines, We've got poll questions, and let me
Speaker 1: bring that up because I don't have it there. There
Speaker 1: we go, all right, the poll question from yesterday, do
Speaker 1: you have a handheld gaming PC, like let's say, the
Speaker 1: steam Deck or the Asus Roger Ally, et cetera. Let's
Speaker 1: see here. Forty four percent said yes, fifty six percent
Speaker 1: said no. That's like pretty impressive response a number because
Speaker 1: we did a story yesterday saying that this whole category
Speaker 1: since Steam Deck came out three years ago, has sold
Speaker 1: a total of about six million units in that range
Speaker 1: according to one firm that tracks this data based on
Speaker 1: point of sales data. So a lot of those people
Speaker 1: are in this audience. You know, six million nowhere close
Speaker 1: to the number of people playing games, but if you
Speaker 1: are in two games, it does seem like handheld PC
Speaker 1: is a massive growing space for you. So forty four
Speaker 1: percent of our audience do in fact have these things,
Speaker 1: And that makes sense to me. This is it fits
Speaker 1: so well with the way that I want to play
Speaker 1: these traditional style games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, based off of reading the comment here, grub folks
Speaker 2: are saying they don't have a steam Deck or an
Speaker 2: asist Roger primarily because money's tight. Yes, the form factor
Speaker 2: when it comes to gaming. As someone that like grew
Speaker 2: up with handhelds like my whole life, maybe my wrists
Speaker 2: have been molded and mutated in a certain way to
Speaker 2: just like cock and lock into place to property them
Speaker 2: cock lock and drop it, just like the song from
Speaker 2: the early Audies. But it feels like it seems like
Speaker 2: that there are a lot of people that just don't
Speaker 2: like handheld gaming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think like I definitely recognized that
Speaker 1: when the Switch came out, because I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I love this thing. It's a handheld console that totally
Speaker 1: still just a home console, but I'm gonna bring it
Speaker 1: up to my face and play it just like I
Speaker 1: always did with my game Boy, my game Boy Color
Speaker 1: and my game Boy Advance and my DS and my
Speaker 1: three US and I love all of those and this
Speaker 1: is like in that lineage. And I would talk to
Speaker 1: people like I've never taken it off the dock. It
Speaker 1: is always on my TV, and I'm just like, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about but some people just for them,
Speaker 1: gaming is the TV and there's just in my life
Speaker 1: there's just been always been too many people in the
Speaker 1: household for me to ever feel comfortable being like I'm
Speaker 1: taking over the whole TV to play games and or alternatively,
Speaker 1: I'm going in the basement by myself, screw you all,
Speaker 1: to go play games. I just never feel comfortable doing
Speaker 1: that really, So having the handheld has been a miracle
Speaker 1: for me. But I get that that's that's not everybody.
Speaker 1: A lot of people do have their dedicated space or
Speaker 1: live alone and can justify that much more easily than
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Like part of my theory as to why
Speaker 2: folks have yet to maybe pick up a steam Deck
Speaker 2: or an asist roger is that there is the assumption
Speaker 2: grub that it is still super complicated to get into
Speaker 2: PC gaming. Maybe folks don't want to dive into that
Speaker 2: too much. I wonder if steam Deck they wouldn't do
Speaker 2: this because they kind of got in trouble when they
Speaker 2: were they had promoted that. Was it the DS emulator
Speaker 2: or the Nintendo Switch emulator Citra or something.
Speaker 1: It was Simu, I think it was the WU emulatory
Speaker 1: or was ru Jinx, the switch emulator, one of the
Speaker 1: one or the other.
Speaker 2: I can't remember what one of those because I feel
Speaker 2: like I have a lot of normy friends that would
Speaker 2: absolutely eat up a Steam deck aces Roger if they
Speaker 2: were able to advertise. Yo, all your own stuff, your
Speaker 2: PS one stuff, your PS two stuff, maybe some PS
Speaker 2: three stuff.
Speaker 1: It's all on here, baby, yep, and it is all
Speaker 1: on there. It's all online. It's uh. That's how I
Speaker 1: beat both of Dance and Mike's upcoming Blake Club Blightning
Speaker 1: Round Games. Was just on that Steam deck last night,
Speaker 1: just hanging around. Yep. I'm a good time with that,
Speaker 1: all right. We got a new pole question. It is
Speaker 1: have you ever used a controller from eight bit dough?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 1: Have you ever bought a controller from a bit dough?
Speaker 1: Let's make it that and your options are yes or no.
Speaker 1: We'll get the results of that on game Miss Mornings
Speaker 1: here on Giant Bomb tomorrow. One more episode this week.
Speaker 1: Speaking to Giant Bomb, we have plenty of stuff going on. Voicemail.
Speaker 1: Dunk Truck will be happening with us later today. If
Speaker 1: you are watching Live again, YouTube will continue on with
Speaker 1: the team at GameSpot beginning to mess around with how
Speaker 1: they are going to integrate into the schedule. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be some people hanging out in the studio by you know,
Speaker 1: at least last time I checked again, these things could change.
Speaker 1: Everything is changing on the fly. But yeah, hang out
Speaker 1: with those boys. They're gonna have a good time. What
Speaker 1: else we have tomorrow? We will have a BCR where
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Monster Hunter. We will have
Speaker 1: a UPF where we will play Monster Hunter. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have all that coming to you tomorrow. Anything
Speaker 1: else I'm forgetting. Jen uh No, I think that is
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: If you are watching on Twitch and on the Giant
Speaker 2: Bomb website, stay tuned. Everything will update on on our end,
Speaker 2: no worries. Yeah, I'm very excited for the future of
Speaker 2: things once we iron out some more kings grub.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and that's really the process that we're
Speaker 1: in right now is just actually discovering which kinks need
Speaker 1: to be honed out. We're not kink shaming here, We're
Speaker 1: not king shaming. We are kink ironing though. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been fun to see how it works.
Speaker 1: It's also been a lot of work. It's been stressful
Speaker 1: and a headache because it's like, oh, I'm doing some
Speaker 1: things that's creating a lot of work for other people.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, like people i've barely interacted with
Speaker 1: jin and I'm like, I, okay, I'm supposed to go
Speaker 1: tell them to do this and this and this and that.
Speaker 1: All right, I guess h but Weet, We're getting used
Speaker 1: to that and we'll see how it all goes here
Speaker 1: pretty soon at the very least. You know, yesterday was
Speaker 1: a good example of it. We went from twelve to
Speaker 1: five NonStop, and I really enjoyed it. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot more stuff like that, so look forward
Speaker 1: to it, all right, Jana Choa, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for hanging out with me today and talk about video games. Man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's the only way to start a Thursday grub.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening, Thank you all for watching.
Speaker 1: You are the best audience in gaming. Until next time,
Speaker 1: have a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.