Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at you First, I'm your host,
Deil Muss, and I have with me the Wind and Waves.
Taylor Field. How are you doing tonight, my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm doing very very well. Happy to be here. It's
been a long time since I've been just on side
Quest with you. I think it was like the draft,
all four of us, but just one on one.
Speaker 1: Right, because I guess you came back to do the
draft even though you were kind of on pat leave
at that time. And then I guess you've been back
for a few weeks now, but it just so happened
that I had other people lined up for Travis for
some resident evil stuff, a Lotti, this kind of thing
and that thing. So it's good to have you back,
for sure.
Speaker 2: It's good to be back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So today's episode is gonna be fun. We're gonna
talk about the next generation of both Pokemon and Xbox
funnily enough, two things kind of happening, similar announcement dates
for these two things, and some games playing of course.
But before that, I have a fun little topic for Taylor.
I'm curious to throw at him here. I'll get to
some plugs later, but we can just jump right into it. Taylor.
I was, you know, looking around mosying around looking for
any sort of news, fun news topics, and I discovered
a Game Informer recently released a ranking of the Assassin's
Creed series. So I wanted to get your opinion on
this and see if you think they nailed it or
if they fucked it up. So that's that's what I
want to do for you here.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just gonna say, Assassin' Queed two's got to
be number one on the list.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, we're gonna start from the bottom of the
What do you think is that the bottom? I think
there's fifteen things. Close your eyes for one second. Okay, yeah,
there's fifteen games on this list. I don't know if
that includes like, well, there's not really a big spin
off something like the two d ones. I don't think
they have those in here. There's fifteen games, though? Is
there fifteen mainline games at this point?
Speaker 2: There? Pull up a list here so I know how
many there are? Over fourteen main titles.
Speaker 1: Exactly fifty the classic over fourteen. The answer is fifteen, because.
Speaker 2: I mean spinoff ones. You've got like three, four, five, six,
seven spinoff games maybe eight?
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, this is just the mainline series then yes, okay,
that makes sense. So off the top of your head,
what do you think? And of course this is not
your ranking, this is what you think. I guess this
is this is this is not just one person, this
is the staff of Game Informer, I guess collectively. So
who do you think, which game rather do you think
would be bottom of the pack. Is there kind of
a consensus worst Assassin's Creed in the series?
Speaker 2: Oh, if I had to say the worst, I think
it could. I think it could. It's either Syndicator unity.
I think it could be unity. I think it had
so much hate.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's find out Assassin's Free three Liberation.
Speaker 2: Oh well, fuck me, I didn't know what that was
going to be in there too?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 2: This is what is that came out? That came out
on the Vita. So that was a spin off one
of the main game, Assassin's Creed, and then it it
brought over into Steam and then like and then they
kind of maine a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Is it just a port and it's just a bad port?
Or or does it have like is it like a
different trunk cas it's.
Speaker 2: It's it's its own story. I'd say it's it's like
a port of Assassin's Creed three, but they they gave
it its own story, its own character and everything like that.
I can't remember the girl's name that you play as
in there, but okay, that's what that is.
Speaker 1: Okay. So is this weird to include on a ranking
in your opinion or is it?
Speaker 2: Like? Yeah, I guess I think it's fair. I think
it's earned it. It's keep yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then I guess number fourteen you're still gonna
go with unity your syndicate.
Speaker 2: Probably, Yeah, I'll go fourteen unity.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's find out number fourteen? Is that three?
Speaker 2: I'm shocked?
Speaker 1: Really is just the base game?
Speaker 2: That's the full base screen?
Speaker 1: That bad? I know people like like two more, but
I didn't think it was that.
Speaker 2: No. I don't think three is is outside of top ten.
I don't think three belongs there. That's mumbo jumbo.
Speaker 1: Is it a snowy environment? In three?
Speaker 2: It's all seasons?
Speaker 1: Oh cool?
Speaker 2: Huh. This is when they really got into their whole
Anvil game engine with just the mechanics of how things went.
Whatever that means.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, So again, you're gonna keep predicting Unity
in Syndicate until they show up.
Speaker 2: It's got to be Unity next. I'm thirteen.
Speaker 1: They have Mirage?
Speaker 2: Are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1: Kind of seems surprising to me. I feel like people
really like Mirage.
Speaker 2: Who's making this list? Who's the game before? Staff? Well? Who?
Speaker 1: I actually? You know, I heard a lot of them
talk on podcasts and stuff, and I genuinely think they're
they know what they're talking about and outrageous. I use
their calendar to find out what's coming out. So maybe
I'll have to look for a new source. Maybe I
shouldn't trust game.
Speaker 2: I get the Mirage had a very small map, but
that game was a total It was touching base on
everything that Assassin's Creed kind of started as that foundation.
I do not think that this deserves to be here,
because after Odyssey and oh gosh, Valhalla, you're telling me
Mirage is below those? Get out of here.
Speaker 1: So do you think would you put where? Would you
put three in Mirage?
Speaker 2: I would put Mirage probably at least top five?
Speaker 1: Whoa top five?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a I feel like it took the
feeling and the aesthetic and the vibes of the original
Assassin's Creed but modernized with its reason. I would because
you're getting Parkour gay mechanics, which is awesome. The movement
was so fluid and seamless, and then you're getting all
that originality of Assassin's Creed. So a modern Assassin's Creed
title like this and that smaller scale, it was just
it was perfect. So I'd put like, Mirage is definitely
in my top five.
Speaker 1: I'd say, interesting, Okay, let's move along then, and now
we have so unity and syndicate. Still not this knocked
off the list.
Speaker 2: This surprises me a little bit, but I can kind
of see it. I'm not even that hot on Revelations.
I think the only place that has in its hypeness
is its conclusion to the Etsio trilogy, and I guess
Desmond's story.
Speaker 1: Apparently it's got a tower defense minigame. Was that fun?
I like tower defense?
Speaker 2: It was it was okay, yeah, the troops coming through
and you're like setting up your towers and whatnot. That
was it was fun that they incorporated something like that.
Speaker 1: The article says it's terrible and interferes with the enjoyment
of the rest of the game.
Speaker 2: Okay, these people need to calm down. They were completely off.
Speaker 1: This is the best thing ever. This is the worst
thing ever. I feel like that.
Speaker 2: I do not remember the tower defense being forced. I
remember it was just something that was accessible that you
could do, and I think I did it once and
that was it. I was able to move on.
Speaker 1: Okay, number eleven, we have Rogue.
Speaker 2: I can see this. A lot of people aren't really
familiar with Rogue, and Rogue is again another one that
felt like a port of three because how did that work?
You Some oftenn't want to leave people behind on previous gens,
so they dropped Assassin's Creed Unity on Xbox one and
then they dropped Assassin's Creed Rogue on three sixty, so
you got two new, brand new games. And yeah, so
Rogue Rogue was a lot of fun because you got
to play as a Templar, so an assassin that turned
into a templar. So it was a pretty good story.
And that's like it's the prequel. It leads right into
Assassin's Creed Unity.
Speaker 1: Interesting skipping to the top before we get there, is it?
Is it Assassine Creed two at number one and then
is Black Flag number two in the series or is
there something else that's.
Speaker 2: It's either gonna number Number one is definitely a C two,
and then number two is either going to be Black Flag,
Brotherhood or of the first Assassin's Creed. But I think
it's gonna be Black Flagger or Brotherhood, one of those two.
Speaker 1: And then you think, kind of like Odyssey in Valhalla
maybe right below that they're gonna be about to get
to get in unity because they haven't bopped up yet.
Speaker 2: I would think, so, yeah, Odysty and Valhalla are going
to be stupidly high, and Origins will be in here somewhere.
Speaker 1: Okay, So where are we at? Number ten? Is unity?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Unity off the board? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I put this, Yeah, I mean I put I put
this a little bit higher because the introduction of four
player co op into one like session was a fantastic experience.
I remember running around the rooftops with my friends and
we were doing like a mission to go and like
assassinate the target. It was absolutely so much fun, and
this was a game changer. No other Assassin's Creed has
this ability and accustomizing your assassin. It was a full
customization mode from the cowl to the chest pieces, the robes,
the gaulllets, everything. It was just really great. But the
no face glitch and stuff like that really freaked people out.
Speaker 1: So a disaster at launch. According to Yes, yes, I
gotta say this screenshot though, like I want to play this,
like this looks this setting looks great.
Speaker 2: Oh, fantastic game, great game.
Speaker 1: All right. Number nine we have the original Assassin's.
Speaker 2: Creed higher than I thought, but you know that's that's
fair ball. Yeah, it has it's not bad. I don't
know if it's aged the greatest, but it does still
hold up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And number eight is where we have shadows. Oh,
I kind of forgot about we're probably about shadows too new.
Speaker 2: I thought that'd be a little higher, but I think
a lot of people were. There was excitement. It's transitioned
into uh not hypeness anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it kind of it vanished pretty quick.
Actually went back into the shadows.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool, Yes it did. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: Number seven is where we have origins.
Speaker 2: Okay, that seems about right.
Speaker 1: Okay, we still haven't seen uh syndicate, would you pretty
to be at the bottom.
Speaker 2: I was more inclined that unity would kind of be
up there. I thought Syndicate because a lot of people
weren't too hot on Syndicate. But I'm happy with where
it's going here, all right.
Speaker 1: Number six, we've got Valhalla.
Speaker 2: It's too high, man, I can't.
Speaker 1: I thought it'd be too low. Like, I know you
don't like that game, but I feel like most fans
really maybe not most two Maybe it's not Assassin's Creed fans.
I love it, but I feel like other people like
it because it's more open world, the sky rimy kind
of game.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, pretty much?
Speaker 1: Okay, And then what do you think is number five?
What do we have left? We have revelations to Black
Flag Brotherhood, and what have I not said, m Odyssey.
Speaker 2: I guess no, because yeah, they said revelations, so brother
we had revelations already. Yeah, it's like eleven, I think.
Speaker 1: So Odyssey, we haven't seen.
Speaker 2: Brother kit Black Flag Brotherhood two, so.
Speaker 1: We have Okay, So Syndicate's probably number five?
Speaker 2: Would you say, mmm, it's gonna be I'm gonna go
I think all my gut feelings have been wrong, so
I'm gonna say it's Brotherhood.
Speaker 1: Brotherhood's next number five is Assassin's Creed two.
Speaker 2: Get that fuck out. This is invalid. This, this is invalid, invalid.
Speaker 1: I don't know this series, but that seems really weird.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure if you were to go on Metacritic,
Assassin's Creed Too is the highest rated Assassin's Creed. Like
that's that's the be all and all of games that
at CEO character was like, I remember that was a
Game of the Year contender, which it lost to Dishonored.
I believe in that Game of the Year that was
back during the Spike Game of the Year of the awards.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I mean Dishonored didn't come out in two
thousand and nine, so I don't think that quite lines up.
Speaker 2: But no, it was definitely a Dishonored or maybe maybe
maybe it could have been a Bout of Shock. Maybe
I can't remember, but I know that, like this is
this is the Bee's knees of Assassin's Creed games. The
fact that they were putting it at this right.
Speaker 1: Kind of crazy. This is gonna have like Odyssey at
number one. That's the vibe.
Speaker 2: I know, we're we're we're closing off, closing ship. See
a number one.
Speaker 1: I'd take brother the black flag I was gonna say.
Speaker 2: Black Flag at number one. I could definitely see that,
and I mean my bias pick would be Brotherhood at
number one. But all right, let's see what four is
gonna be? Something ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Black Flag.
Speaker 2: That's not fair, that's not right, Like, yeah, what you.
Speaker 1: Thought would be kind of maybe one and two are
down here at four and five.
Speaker 2: Two should definitely be higher than Black Flag, but black
Flag easily should i'd say be top three. That game
was a fantastic story. This the naval combat and the
open ocean and everything with the whale hunting and just
the assassin's story. It was such a change of pace
what they did. So I just can't believe this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to, you know, make you
so aggravated tonight. I thought this would be a fun time,
but it turns out to be a bit of torture
for you, unfortunately. Let's find out number three here is.
Speaker 2: Odyssey absolutely unacceptable. There's no way Odyssey trump's over Assassin's
Creed two and Black Flag That is a complete hocus pocus.
Speaker 1: So is Syndicate and Brotherhood that we haven't seen yet.
Speaker 2: Right the yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: Number two we have syndicate, which means number one is Brotherhood.
Speaker 2: Okay, now, Brotherhood is definitely I'm pretty sure. I said
in the past my favorite Assassin's Creed game I love too.
I think two is amazing with Brotherhood. Just look at
that picture with Brotherhood. You get that seal back and
you get your assassins that you get to have fight
with you too. That was like, do you get you
can call them into combat so they're fighting with you.
Speaker 1: I definitely want these people backing me up.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah. So I think Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
was a wonderful story. I remember the trailer came out
and it was just the bees and these syndicate being here.
I would have liked it, not as number two still
in this higher realm, but it does not beat Assassin's
Creed two by any means, or does it beat Black Flag.
That's that's bonkers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta say this list seems pretty whack to me.
I'm not gonna lie as someone who's not as nearly
as invested. What would you give this ranking? On a
scale of one to ten.
Speaker 2: Scale one to ten, I give it an easy one,
being the bo one. I give it one point because
of where Brotherhood is at number one. I respect that.
That's that's a very biased pick, i'd say, But some
of these, no, this is not I just disagree with
many of these. Yes here where was Origins?
Speaker 1: By the way, origins?
Speaker 2: Okn that was number seven?
Speaker 1: Okay, kind of right under val how.
Speaker 2: Yeah, brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal.
Speaker 1: Well, nice try game Informer. You've failed this time, but
maybe next time you'll get it right. Let's roll right
into games. We've been playing? Uh, Taylor taken Away? What
have you been playing? Because I think for me only
you know Resne will Roque in which I beat and
we did that review. Me and Travis haven't played a
little bit more Spider Man. But still I'm waiting on
my Spider Man thoughts. Still I finished that game, which
is taking a long time. But yeah, what are you well?
Speaker 2: I have been deep diving into Pokemon fire red Switch. Yes,
this is one that I didn't I didn't play it
back in the game boy days because that was the
time when I was playing Sapphire. So the two kind
of I believe they weren't released the same year, but
they were released within a close proximity because you can
trade between the two games, So I remember my cousin
had fire Red, I had Sapphire, and so we were
trading and battling with each other to add more to
our poked x's and whatnot. So that was that was
a lot of fun. But yeah, the game is so
far an absolute delight. I don't know if I've ever
fully played through like the Canto Region Adventure, because I
had Pokemon Blue back in the day for Game Boy Color,
but the save didn't work, so I'd always get like
one save and then it would crap out. After Westart
what else was there? Though? After that it was just
Sapphire and then Heart Gold. Heart Gold was fun, So
I guess that's actually not I have to prodact my
statement of not having a Canto Adventure because Heart Gold
and sil Silver you go through the Joto Region all
that Gen two stuff, and then after you complete the
league you get to travel to Canto and do the
whole Canto region, which was super cool. It was very cool. Yeah.
So and when you get there, all the gyms and
all the trainers are higher levels, like the seventy level
to eighty level range. So by the time you get
your Pokemon up to fifty sixty beating Jodo and you
get to Canto, It's like, okay, this is like the
next tier. It's like the harder dungeons and Zelda kind
of yeah. So that was a good time. So that's
probably my only play through with Canto, and I played
all the other ones in different regions, but going through
it here has been a lot of fun. This has
been the odd time too. Or I pass the controller
of Madison and I'll tend to the kids or do something,
and then she'll do some of the battles. But we've
done the fourth gym now out of eight, and what
my team consists of Garrettos, War Turtle, Growl Lith, Pikachu, God,
what's the other one that I got? What am I forgetting? Oh? Pigeoto,
Jesus Criky, yeah, Pigioto. And then I've got Paras in
there too because I need my cutboy cut those trees
out of the way for me. But as soon as
I got Magic Carp, I was like, Okay, we're gonna
get this guy leveled up pretty quick. And he's nice.
I mean so far. My my roster that I mainly
use with Pikachu, War Turtle, giry Dose and Pigeota are
all around like the thirty thirty two level, but Pigeota
is my main my main guy. Once he gets to Pigeot,
I'm just I'm gonna be riding that high for as
long as I can. Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was really excited to see that those were
coming to Switch Online. I didn't catch that they were out. Now,
that's that's pretty awesome, because yeah, that's definitely an era
of Pokemon I've not played. I mean, I have not
played a ton of the series, and I've always kind
of been a little disappointed with the availability of Pokemon
games on Switch Online service. Like they have a lot
of the spinoffs. They have your stadiums and coliseums, they
have the original snap which are all cool things and
great things to have on there, but in terms of
like the mainline titles, there's really not a lot on there,
and I think part a lot of those were on
like you know DS or three DS and things like that,
which obviously those are not gonna make it onto the
the Switch as as things are, but I yeah, I'm
really happy to see these ones on there because I
haven't played these games before, and it seems like a
good way to play the OG games, but in just
a more like a lot more quality of life, better graphics,
more actually having like the color graphics and stuff. So
I'm starting to check this out at some point.
Speaker 2: Playing on the TV is it's really nice. It's it's beautiful,
but it's definitely like it's squared off. This has been
a few times where I've just been playing on handheld
on my switch screen and it's like, this is just gorgeous.
Oh my god, it's beautiful. But I'm really happy with
a couple of the things that they've done. So and
of course i haven't beaten the league, but we're in
the the Game Boy version. Uh you get the events
tickets to get I think it was the Oxis, Lugia,
and ho and so now they've just added those and
once you beat the league, you get the tickets to
go get those three legendaries, which is really nice. And
then the people were looking into it and found that
there was some stuff for Pokemon, Ruby and Sapphire in there,
so people are speculating that we're gonna we're gonna get
those next on the Switch.
Speaker 1: They have like that full on remakeup. They released a
couple of years back. Yeah, Alpha would take sales aways
and they wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 2: But I mean, those haven't I haven't even seen those
available in the store anymore. And I've got Alpha Sapphire.
I love that it's got so much extra like Doda
heads in there. But if they drop an original Pokemon
Sapphire on the store, I'm going to be playing that
for sure. That would be so much fun. But I'm
just very very happy, And this is a big, big
kicker for me, was the fact that they are putting
Pokemon Bank or sorry, poke One Home connections to tie
in with the Pokemon Fire Red Leaf Green. I think
that's so wonderful, these last games being able to you know,
carry over your characters. So I'm a big advocate for
doing that because, as I said, Pokemon Sapphire is what
I played back in the day. That was where I
was getting my jam and I got all my guys,
my Kyogar, my favorite Pride and Joy Kyogar, and a
whole bunch of my other guys like my Septile and whatnot.
That I poured it over from game Boy onto the
DS and then into the Nintendo three DS and then
so forth and so forth, and I mean these are
guys that I've played with on the GameCube and what
not to like, it's just it's the ultimate what is
it called Tamagotchi's It's like the ultimate Tamagatchi just carrying
these pets with you. I've had him since two thousand
and five. I mean that's like, what are we to
twenty one years? No frickin' way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how does that work? Is? And this is probably
a really stupid question, but just how out of Pokemon
like do you have? Is there a website? Is it
like an app on your phone? Is it both? Like
how do you kind of move these things around between?
Speaker 2: So? Yeah, before it was definitely I mean it was apps,
and a lot of the apps you can't get anymore,
like the Pokemon Bank you can't download on your DS anymore.
But if you have it downloaded, then you've got it downloaded.
But I mean the main thing, like I don't know
if you can see it, but you got the app
Pokemon Home on there, which is nice. And I was
kind of leery about the whole idea of putting my
Pokemon in here, but I wanted to keep them concurrent,
and so I've been able to put some of them
into Scarlett, I think is the one that I have.
And so it's cool to have your og two D
Pokemon and just to transfer them over into the three
D aspect and you can see them and this modern style,
like it's just it's weird. I don't know how. My
my brain can't comprehend it almost. It's just it's crazy
to kind of interpret that. Let's see, why do I
have that there? But I mean you can see maybe
you can see kind of.
Speaker 1: Your roster of guys like snap or not. Sorry go,
can you just scroll through all you guys?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's it, Like this this guy I transferred
from Pokemon Ghost. So that's the cool thing too. Pokemon
Go Pokemon can be transferred into here and then I
think you can put them into like the main game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really cool. That's pretty miraculous, I guess. I
mean it's all really think. They just kind of have
the same stats. They don't change. But you'd think that
like even balance wise, it would be really hard to
balance from you know, twenty year old games to now.
Speaker 2: But oh, for sure, it just works like and it's
nice too, because I mean, there's my ray Quasa and
if you scroll down then it says, oh, first met
in the Holen region twenty eleven. That's when I met him.
But that's cool, that's that twenty eleven isn't as far
back as it is when I got him. Twenty eleven
is when it started. Actually, I think dating it when
I transferred it to the game, So I would have
transferred that over to the DS version, I'm pretty sure,
and then it would have started to because from the
DS to Game Boy, I'm pretty sure it was. It
was it was game to game because you you migrate them,
and then after that it was putting them into the
Pokemon Bank, which was an app on the DS, and
so then you could put another Pokemon games and just
be like moving them around off of one handheld, whereas
before you always needed too and so now it's just yeah,
it's all on your phone, so it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. I Yeah, like I said, I'm excited
to jump into those fire right or leaf Green? What
which version should I do? Is there like a certain
what's the big deal between the two differences?
Speaker 2: Ah? What it always comes down the Pokemon exclusives, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I should just look at that list
to make sure I picked the right one.
Speaker 2: But that's that's exactly it. And I'm glad because I
think Growleth oh I did, Growth was not okay. So
leaf Green includes san Shrew, Volpis, Bell Sprout, Slow Pokes,
starr U, Magmar, and Pincer, and then fire Red has Ekins, Audish, Growleth, Side,
duck Shelder, Cyther, and Electopus. So for me, the big.
Speaker 1: Kickers, that's tough.
Speaker 2: That is tough, both of those Growth and Cyther. Grawleath
is one of my favorites, one of my favorites, but
Cyther is another guy I'm hunting for from my team,
at least until I get h I figure out getting
an Alcazam, because you got to do the trades, right, Cadabra,
a choke graveler, uh, and the fourth not gas Hunter.
You got to trade those four dudes to get them
evolved through trades.
Speaker 1: So oh interesting, just like back in.
Speaker 2: The olden days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, God, so many extra steps to get mm hmm exciting.
Anything else in the what we've been playing section you
wanted to highlight.
Speaker 2: This is more like a month than a half to
two months ago. But I think I'm just gonna shut
it out just for the heck of it. Because me
and Travis did try out less trials and we did
the tried some of the new stuff. We didn't get
around the trying against the new DLC with the Evil
Lady Chick in there, which I want to try. But
what we did do was we did the trials where
you got to invade other people's trials and that was
so much fun. It was really cool. So there's a
group of people that are doing their thing like we
were doing, playing the game, trying to do their missions,
and then you know how those copycats come out and
you can't tell if it's a person or not. So
you play as those and you get a limited timeframe
of like two minutes in the round. Then you got
to go and leave and then come back after you recharge.
So you go in there and you have a different
set of perks, a different set of fighting things and
tools at your disposal, but you got to pretend. It's
so much fun. You got to pretend to be one
of them, and then you got to kill them. And
so your teammates can watch the cameras and guide you'd like, Oh,
there's a player over here as a player here, and
it's an absolute hell of a time. Me and Travis
had a lot of fun with it. Nice.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, I'm I didn't realize that was an
update that was at it. I thought it was just
more villains and stuff.
Speaker 2: So that's it. They made some change, big strides in that
game for DLC so far.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, let's uh, let's definitely plan a session
to play play some more of that soon. I want
to get back in there back and do some trials.
But how about with that we take our first break
for anyone who you know here for more pokemon chat.
We will go get right back to Pokemon in a minute.
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to our first ad break and we'll be right back. Okay,
we are back, and we're gonna go right back to
the realm of Pokemon because there was a Pokemon Presents.
This is a couple of weeks ago now, but I
had to wait. You know, I would not subject Travis
to talk about the next generation of Pokemon. But that's
why I got you here, Taylor. So we already talked
about the fire red leaf green thing that was part
of the Pokemon Presents. Of course, the big thing is
the next generation. Was there anything else from that present
though that stood out to you? Anything noteworthy?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. I mean the Champions has me really
really excited. I think that's probably the only so take
out the Gym League's the elite for the traveling around
the catching Pokemon. We're talking just battles, trainer battles only,
so we're dealing with handheld and on switch, which is
really really awesome. And now it looks like not all
Pokemon are going to be available to bring in. But
the big factory is okay. Like I was talking about
earlier with Sapphire, my dudes that I have in the
og there that are sitting in my Pokemon home, I
can bring them into Champions and I can use them
in my team, and I can fight with So that's
basically so that's.
Speaker 1: Kind of just like it's almost is that like almost
like a live service version of Pokemon if you just
want to do battles, that's kind of the place to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that looks like it's it's going to be the
place to place to be. Yeah, so I think that
it comes out soon. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, so already it doesn't already exist. If you want
to just battle, now, is there like a different game that.
Speaker 2: You would do? You can just battle in the main game, Like,
that's just Yeah. So Football Champions has coming out Switch
in April twenty twenty six. Uh yeah, so that's perfect.
Oh my goodness, it's exciting.
Speaker 1: Uh and okay, I guess we can jump into winds
and wind and waves wins, wind and Waves. I guess
sure that makes the most sense. The next generation? Which generation?
Are we on?
Speaker 2: A ten?
Speaker 1: Eleven?
Speaker 2: I want to say we're eleven, gents, ten? Uh no,
we're at ten. Now we're at ten.
Speaker 1: Down to ten. That's a big deal. Double just finally, yes,
this is a this is a game coming out of course,
two games I guess coming out next year twenty twenty seven.
Switch to only, and I feel like that my one
of my first impressions here. So many times whenever I
see a Pokemon trailer, I'm like, man, this game looks
like ass or it has an horrendous frame rate. I
still have the Patriot producers up. I actualized horrendous frame rate.
It just looks bad, looks old, looks like they just
you know, are cranking it out and it's still gonna
sell a bunch of copies. They don't need to make
it look good. But I think I was blown away
by how good this game looks. And it looked like
a lot of in engine stuff too. Frame rate looked
pretty solid, which you know, even with YouTube compression sometimes
that just janks things out. But this actually looked pretty good.
The water and like going underwater and stuff. Everything looked gorgeous.
The environments. I was like, damn, I was impressed. And
you know, it's not like it's like Horizon zero down
levels of visual fidelity or something, but you know, as
far as like a Nintendo game switch game, you know,
I was. I was pretty impressed. I think it looked
really good just straight up visually and in terms of
like just the frame rate. Now, of course this is
like the earliest teaser trailer, so I'm sure when we're
getting more trailers in the future, maybe some things will
not look so good around the edges. But it sounds
like they're really pushing the Switch to to its limits,
I gets or maybe not, maybe that's not quite true,
but at least they're not being held back by what
the Switch one was in terms of performance and stuff
like we saw with Scarlet and Violet, even though that
was years after the Switch originally came out. So yeah,
that was my That was my first impression is that
I was quite impressed, which is a rare thing for Pokemon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I was really really shocked because the
first thing I was looking at, sorry, Madison was doing
something I was not expecting the beefs. The first thing
I was looking at was how's this grass and this
foliage the tree is gonna look because the last one,
Scarlet and Violet, it was just garbage. That was I
was running around that that region. I was thinking, man,
this grass looks terrible. It's so two dimensional, which is
weird in a three dimensional game at this at this point,
so I was hoping for better and I feel like
we got it in this trailer, because in this what
they showed is the way the world looks beautiful, going
under the water, above the water and just seeing all this,
the the landscape and everything. It looks like this is
actually something that I've been I've been waiting for in
a Pokemon game, and I haven't really looked at Legends
too much, I know, z A, I haven't really looked
at any gameplay to necessarily see what it looks like.
I'm assuming it's probably much better than Scarlet and Violet,
but uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess in terms of like just grass,
there's not a lot of grass in the game.
Speaker 2: So now you're going, that's right. Yeah. But other than that,
I am I really am looking forward to to this game,
and I think my excitement is already there a lot
higher than it was for Scarlet and Violet. When I
play Scarlet and Violet, I feel overwhelmed. And it's funny
because when I when I compare that to fire Red
Fire Red, it's just like I'm just I'm craving it.
I want to go play it right now, Like every
time I have a little bit of spare time to
just hop on there and play it and just keep
doing the game, like, it's so much fun and it's
such a different feeling than playing Scarlet and Violet. Scarlet
and Violet doesn't have that for me, and it's weird
because it's the same thing. It's just separated by generations,
and obviously one's a little bit more visually appealing fire
Red than the other. But yeah, it's I'm hoping that
and so far, I feel it a little bit ignited
inside of me that this new one, win in Waves
is gonna be kind of establishing that foundation to kind
of get me excited and want to pull me in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I feel like mechanically, it's hard to
know too much about what's new or fresher. And I'm
sure there's gonna be a new like mega evolution equivalent thing.
There's always something like that. It low informs all these
crazy things in these new games. We don't really know
that many details at this point, but like the actual
gameplay is going to look like we don't even really
know if it's going to be the more led type,
like not so much turn based, or if this is
gonna be the classic turn I assume it's gonna be
more turn based and they'll keep the Legends thing as
like a separate like spin off series now where that's
more like real time stuff. But we don't really know
for sure. We see like one shot or two of
the trainer catching a Pokemon or something, but like we
don't really know for sure. But yeah, in terms of
the setting, I love it, kind of like a tropical
island and all that kind of stuff, And I feel
like going underwater, Like, is there another Pokemon game where
you like, you're always on water, You're always swimming around
getting water types, but I feel like you don't really
go underwater very often. So that seemed like a new
kind of thing, Like, I I, is there another game
where you can go under underwater, get put on some
scoopy gear and.
Speaker 2: Just crap you. So in Pokemon Sapphire you could learn
the HM dive and so you can actually go underwater
and explore caverns and do underwater things and whatnot. So
there is definitely a three D.
Speaker 1: Game like this.
Speaker 2: Ah, I don't recall. I don't think I've s seen it. No,
that's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the only thing I can think of is in
New Pokemon Snap, there's obviously some water levels where you're
like and you're under submerged going around doing your stuff.
But obviously that's a very different kind of thing. So
are you excited uh for that? And like, I guess
the wind's part too, Like do you think are we
going to go into like some sky island stuff too?
Is it gonna be kind of like Zelda in that way?
Like what is the The waves make sense if we're
going underwater and doing stuff, but what does the wind?
Where's the wind come into it?
Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, I mean it's funny you mentioned Zelda because
I feel like wind way here was just screaming when
I was looking at this game a little bit, just
the ocean and and all that kind of stuff. So no,
where does the wind come into this? Gosh, I think
you're just if you're like.
Speaker 1: A glider, you can fly around the island probably or
something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or I think like legends archs, I think.
Speaker 2: Right, I don't know, but I know when you look.
Speaker 1: At you know, not pterodactyls, whatever, aerodactyls, whatever's going on
in that game.
Speaker 2: When you look at the two hms that you got,
you got Surf and you got Fly and those are
two like gen one HM moves along with cut and
Strength and whatnot. But I mean cut and Strength, you
can't make a game off of that. You can make
a game off of Fly, and you can make a
game off of Surf. So when you look at this
and you just got a lot more ocean exploration with
you know, your surf hm, and you got the ability
to get on your Pokemon and fly in the sky
with Fly, like, I think that's that's pretty cool. I
also think that this game is maybe trying to challenge
certain things in regards to Power World and what it's
presenting in itself. And maybe I'm just reading rifle they're
gonna go full military and hear weaponized. No. I just
think that there's certain things that Power World kind of
introduced that might have put Nintendo game Freak on their
toes a little bit. So I think they probably are
gonna they're sprucing up a little bit of the mechanics
in this game a little bit more to kind of
get people pumped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I feel like the locomotion seems to
be a focus of a lot of the recent games,
Like I do remember that being a thing in Archaus
where you could ride creatures, some of them flying, other
ones just like you know, cruise around on an Arc
nine or whatever. And then I feel like, you know,
obviously in Scarlet and Violet, that's where that was like
the motorbike Pokemon.
Speaker 2: Right where you can.
Speaker 1: Which was goofy, but like that was you know, a
key selling feature of like the locomotion of the game.
And so I feel like, yeah, adding something to make
just cruising ound on the water or flying around that
seems like the next natural step in terms of the
locomotion side of things. So it seems like a good
a good way to go. We've got we saw a
lot of familiar faces, of course from all the generations,
a lot of familiar Pokemon. I think the only three
new ones we have are the starters, Is that right?
Did you see any other new guys in there?
Speaker 2: No, those three starters were the only ones that I
saw that were new.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we got Brout Brout Brout probably it's like
a grass owl type. We've got Palm Bond, who's like
a fire Chihuahua looking thing. We got Gequa, who's like
a water salamander. I feel like you're you're a growl
with guy, So are you gonna go for palmbom thing
is it's like another fire dog thing.
Speaker 2: Uh? Well, here, I I've got a I'm not going
palm bomb. I've got a problem though with these starters.
Speaker 1: So I feel like we've seen all of these Pokemon before.
That was my first impression because I feel like was
pretty much just like Greninja and Brout, Like, isn't there
already a grass Owl?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, you got him right here, grass Owl.
Speaker 1: And he's a very similar name too.
Speaker 2: Yes, Rowlet. And then we've got Fennekin. So we've got
a fire I mean more like a fox versus a dog.
Speaker 1: A starter.
Speaker 2: These are starters. Yeah, and then obviously Somble, which I'd
relate much more to Gequa, because I mean it's a
water lizard, right, I mean yeah, I thought.
Speaker 1: Ge to me looked a little bit more. What what is
Greninja's first form?
Speaker 2: Uh, Froaky the frog Froky.
Speaker 1: I guess he doesn't really look like Froky, but he
looks more like Grening.
Speaker 2: E Yes he does. Yeah. So I mean I'm.
Speaker 1: Pretty uninspired for the starters, I will say, but yeah,
at this point, Pokemon, we recycle a lot of ideas,
but these ones didn't really excite me personally.
Speaker 2: No, I mean everyone's freaking out about pombon a lot
in what way A good way or bad way? A
good way, a good way. Personally, I think the Angry
the Angry Birds Bird. I'm kind of enjoying it. But
I I think Gekua might be my go to, and
I don't often go with water starters. With fire Red,
I went with Squirtle because I wanted to do something
very different my heart. I wanted to do Charmander and
I I've done grass types a few times because I
did Treaco, I did Snivey I did. I've done Rollt
I can't remember the other guy's name, A turt Twig
I've done. I've done a few. I've done a few
water types. Aside from Frokie, I've never really focused on
so but this Gequa seems to be kind of like
up my alley one of my friends that was talking
about how palm bond that that Maine on the dog
is just going to be a giant shield of some
kind in its final form.
Speaker 1: I guess it does kind of look like the sword
and shield like the shield.
Speaker 2: Yes absolutely name by the way, Oh, like zach Za
Khana or something like that I can't I can't remember.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I I I feel like I'm normally a
grass type kind of guy, rarely fire type. But I
think when I did Emerald, I think I went with
the fire guy there recently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tor Chik, Yeah, yeah, I think I went.
Speaker 1: Which was kind of against type for me, but I'm like,
I want to switch it up here, like the same
reason why you kind of want with Squirtle. And then
I didn't played the last generation Scarlet Violet, but Solble
was only of the starters that I liked at all,
and so second generation in a row where I'm like, Okay, Gekua,
you know, not the most inspired design by any means,
but uh, the one that called out to me the
most because Brout is too roality like that, I'm that's
the least kind of creative one. I think, so kind
of unexciting for me there, But Gekquo was maybe the
most interesting looking one, So I think I would go.
I don't know if i'll get this game this generation,
to be honest, maybe ten years from now, but I
feel like if I were to get any go with
any of them, i'd probably go Gekua water Salamander. Yeah,
that's I can't really picture I'm turning into anything other
than just looking like gre Ninja, which you know I
do love gre Ninja, so that works out well.
Speaker 2: This is a good little picture here showing all the starters. Actually,
oh yeah, and Ralet doesn't even feel like two generations ago.
I keep I forget about, like I think grout Grokey
is the monkey's name, and then I can't remember the
hat's name there, goodness me, wasn't it like.
Speaker 1: Uh, I don't know, I can't remember either. Fire ones
have the most variety for the most part.
Speaker 2: They do. I mean, yeah, because you got the chicken,
you got the monkey, the pig, the fox, the cat,
the bunny, the little dinosaur not the dog, and then
the lizard and then oh what is uh A lot
of a.
Speaker 1: Lot of salamondary looking things for the water types.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I never like Mudkip that much. Wow, Septile
and blaze kin Man. Blaze Kin was just so sick.
It was one of my favorite Gen two.
Speaker 1: They were cooking. I love the designs of all three
Gentoo they were they.
Speaker 2: Just look so different from the rest.
Speaker 1: Always like the fire hair has always been the most
frantic look ever.
Speaker 2: He's the only one with the closed eyes too of
everyone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and then I've always always loved
turt Wig, always thought he was great. Generation after that,
I think it is a bunch of snoozers and the
generation and the generation after that, and then I think
I think they were kind of cooking there. They were
grooky or grooky whatever his name is.
Speaker 2: Did you ever see gren Ninja's like extra his fourth form?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, but I want to.
Speaker 2: So this is it's not meg evolution, but this is
when him and Ash would sink and he just looks
so fucking sick. The sure king goes on his back
and then he gets like the red mark on his head.
Speaker 1: That is pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's just which is beautiful, beautiful Ashes Greninja.
Speaker 1: Just that's sweet because is a starter, like yeah, begins
as a starter.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, yeah?
Speaker 1: Uh yeah? Those so those are those are the three
we didn't see any other newbies. So yeah, if you
had to pick today, which one would you pick? If
you had the game right now, get going with water
as well.
Speaker 2: Going with water, then second twould be the bird, third
would be the dog.
Speaker 1: I'm and which version when wind or wave without obviously
seeing which Pokemon are actually going. Would you go right off?
Speaker 2: I'm going wave, wave right off the hop you're more
wave guy. Yeah hmm.
Speaker 1: I feel like that is a bit more fun. But
we still don't really know what the wind really means.
Speaker 2: I think no idea. I mean, wave could include ten,
like you could have Rick Quasi flying around for all
I know, and the Oxus everything in the sky like
you know what I'm there. But I mean, if they
throw a kyogar and wave, that's just going to steal
the deal even more. Put a kyogar in there, please please,
I beg you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why not? Uh? What were my other notes? I
mean I already kind of mentioned the visuals, but I
thought the lighting was really great in here as well.
I feel like I'm used to Pokemon games not really
having lighting. It's just like one static light source and
everything kind of as like the exact same shade to it.
But I thought it looked quite nice. And yeah, we
don't really know too much else. I did see apparently
there's something I was looking I was reading this article
on Polygon. I think it was I was speculating that
like there's I think there's been like ten type fusions.
You know, there's always like maybe you're like rock and
water or something. A pokemon have like two types. There's
like ten or so type combinations that have never happened.
I think one of them is fairy fire, and so
they're theorizing maybe maybe that's what the starter could be.
I don't know if I really get the fairy vibe
from what we saw here, but I guess that's one
of the things that needs to get knocked off the list.
Speaker 2: Of comb as fairy that this is like maybe like
a hair brain scheme, like maybe this could be finally
time we get.
Speaker 1: A fire fairy.
Speaker 2: Ah.
Speaker 1: I don't really see it personally, but who knows. They
always have quite the blow.
Speaker 2: Up in their second Oh okay, I was so finnekin.
I thought that's the firefox. It's obviously it's a fire
type starter. I thought that that was a fairy type
as well, but it solely a fire type. But it's
final move has like it's it it can do psychic
moves because it's final move it has like a wand
that's a fire stick, like a stick on fire, I guess,
and I always thought that that was.
Speaker 1: Is it officially a fire psychic type or final psychic moves.
Speaker 2: Its final form is fire psych That's cool.
Speaker 1: I like that combination.
Speaker 2: Let me just firm that. Yeah, fire psychic so neat
neat neat.
Speaker 1: I think one of the other ones is that like
a bunch of normal normal and like other types hasn't
happened yet, which is like, why do we even have
normal type anymore?
Speaker 2: No? No, that's the that's the ratitats and okay.
Speaker 1: Well don't don't eradicate the fuck I hate that guy
is the best? Did that ever get a third form?
Speaker 2: Is there?
Speaker 1: Has there ever been a third rat?
Speaker 2: D rat? You got the Galerian versions? You ever seen those? Oh?
Speaker 1: God, Galerian eradicate?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: I have not seen that? What is what is Galerian again?
What game is that from?
Speaker 2: Oh? My god, I have no idea. I can't remember.
I'm gonna guess it might be. So here you got
the Galerian rata mustache, and then here's the radicate.
Speaker 1: God, the first Yeah I don't like radicated fan.
Speaker 2: Oh what do you got? Because you got the Galerian
we I love?
Speaker 1: I love the bong bong.
Speaker 2: Rip is the best Galerian rappi dash, which is super
unicorny I love it.
Speaker 1: The far fat I love the far Fetch is the best, and.
Speaker 2: The legendary birds I really like those that are cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't like the guy in the ball him right?
What's that guy called again?
Speaker 2: Uh? Obstagoon? I think I love him. He's so cool.
He looks like he's mischievous. Uh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Brout, Palm Bond or Gequa's evolution
one of them will be a playable fighter in the
next Smash Bros.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say no. I think there'll be trophies. Wow, Okay, yeah,
I think I think you'll get Pokemon Trainer with those
three types. Ah, then you'll get Because.
Speaker 1: The generation has had a fighter represented, but in ciner
Roar was in there for Ultimate, So I think I
guess Scarlett and Violet hasn't had the opportunity to really
have a character in there. Wait, does Sort and Shield
and ciner or is he before that? I'm really quizzing
you on your Pokemon dolargh.
Speaker 2: He's a sword and Shield starter, I'm sure. No, he's
not Grooky Score Bunny and Sobble of the Sword and
Shield Starter.
Speaker 1: Wow. So the whole Switch generation didn't really have any
smash character representation. That's kind of crazy. So I guess
there's a lot of options they could go for. They
don't have to necessarily go to the most recent one,
that's right, but you know they'll have one. They always
have a new Pokemon as a playable character.
Speaker 2: And I think so that starter score Bunny. I think
his third form, cinder Ace, could be the one that
could get the martial arts Rabbit.
Speaker 1: Looks like penny Wise or something good looking. I don't
like that design at all. Zero to ten.
Speaker 2: It's like a striker's character.
Speaker 1: Cool. Any other Pokemon thoughts.
Speaker 2: Oh, I can't think so. No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a that was a good discussion. And
and then we can close it out with a little
bit of Xbox. So before we talk about the new
hardware announcement that we got, just scrolling back a couple
of weeks of when the Phil Spencer Sarabahn announcement happened.
Since you're a big Xbox guy, wondering if you have
any thoughts you wanted to share on them leaving or
the new person in their position joining, any any thoughts
on just the leadership changes over their own Xbox.
Speaker 2: It's I feel like it's a long time coming. This
has been something that we've been kind of sitting on
for a while that Phil Spencer just has not been
cooking as well as he should be. So yeah, I
mean they say resignation, but how we know really what
it's like on the intern like the internal side of things,
where maybe he's getting a lot of backlash, maybe people
are asking him to step down and yeah, instead of firing,
we're just going to change the words to retire and
stuff like that. Yeah. So I just think that these
individuals that are stepping down, I think it's a OK.
And I think it's it's a good thing because Xbox
was not heading in a very great direction and if
it's not going the right way, then you gotta look
at the leadership.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, for me, it always really comes back
to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. That was just such a
awful move for the company I think overall, and just
like it happened so many years ago now, it feels
like but just the fallout of it has been you know,
years worth of kind of catching up and all that.
So we'll see what happens with this new new leadership.
But one thing we can kind of more tangibly look
at is that Xbox has announced Project Helix, which is
the kind of I guess code name of their next
generation of hardware. Release date, we don't really know. There's
I think they roughly said like twenty twenty seven, but
I think also PlayStation said that, but like it's kind
of get kicked down the road just because of chip
shortages and stuff right now, Like I doubt they're gonna
launch this console next year. That seems a bit too soon,
but it is kind of what we've heard in recent times,
which is that they you know, they've been hint that
their next generation hardware is gonna be extremely high end,
a premium also therefore meaning very expensive, and you know,
maybe just going for a different market than the switch
market or even the PlayStation market, going for a higher
end mark striking at the PC side of things. So
we'll see what happens there. But really that was the
biggest thing they said here is that the next generation
is it is a console, but it is gonna have
full PC game access on it. So that's kind of
the biggest change is and now you have all these
PC games in there, it sounds like it's gonna be
like obviously it's gonna run on Windows or whatever, but
it's gonna have access to like Steam and I guess
Epic Game Store, any other storefronts you could imagine, so
you can play games, you know, hopefully val like Steam
is integrated. Well, we covered a rumor about that happening
like a year two ago at this point, that the
Xxbox is gonna have like Steam integration, which, like who
knows how integrated it's gonna be now because Steam is
coming out with their own actual like thing with the
Steam Machine, So we'll see what happens there. But yeah,
you know, as I've said, like we kind of were
hinted at this earlier that it was going to be
a premium, high end kind of thing. Obviously, the confirmation
of PC games here. What are your thoughts overall on
Project Helix and just the next generation of Xbox? Excited?
Not excited? Where you at?
Speaker 2: I'm pretty freaking excited. I mean, it's I feel like
it's kind of hard to believe that the Xbox is
so many years old now, because I remember I remember
queuing up for it and everything back in twenty and twenty.
I guess, so six year old console. Holy smokes, but
I am excited. I am I'm not going to be
when I look at that price tag, but I just
I do have an affinity and that sweet spot for
trying to pick up a new console. And I remember
when that switched To was coming out and I wasn't
telling myself I was going to get it. But then
when it was like two days before, the day before,
I was like, I gotta get it. The hype was there,
the excitement was there. I was like, this is just
how often do you get to experience like a new
console release? And it is. It is a magical, exciting feeling,
and in a slight degree, maybe not as exciting as older.
Speaker 1: Consolession returns for me at this point, like I have
the switched To and it was like, all right, this
is a switch to. But yeah, but I'm just old
and jaded and starting.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm hoping the Xbox, this Project Helix will
do for me. I mean the idea of it playing
PC games that gets me.
Speaker 1: Pret pretty good PC game library. I feel like, so
that's that's a big plus for you.
Speaker 2: I do. I've got a fair few titles on on
the Steam and so even the Epic Games Store, I
got a whole bunch of titles on there, Oh my god,
because I'm they were just putting.
Speaker 1: Up all the free stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they were playing some crazy good games in
there for free. So I mean, the thing that gets
me excited is if I did I didn't want to
start over like Prider Hunting Grounds. I played The Living
Daylights on PC on the Epic Game Store and and
I'm super high rank all this stuff unlocked. I did
not want to have to restart it when they dropped
on Xbox. So now with Project Helix, it's like, Okay,
this is great. I can just log into my Epic
Games front and then just put on Pread or Hunting Grounds,
just play it and I get all my stuff back
and I don't have to worry about any And most
games are cross they're cross play. Not a thing is
cross progression, which is fine. But if I can just
log in on my main console with another account, then boom,
cross play it up and we're good to go. Let's
have some fun.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I'm I'm much less excited for this, mostly
because of just what happened three or four months ago,
when Xbox drastically increased the cost of game Pass, and
then I unsubscribed to that at that point haven't jumped
back on it. I plan to, you know, when like
Fable comes out or something, I'll jump in subscribe for
a month, but I haven't jumped back in yet. And
just because of how crazy expensive this console is going
to be, mixed with how crazy expensive the monthly subscription
is to the main feature of why I would want
the next Xbox in the first place. I think this
is gonna be a pass for me. I think the
Series X is probably the last Xbox I'll ever own. Like,
maybe I'll get if they keep doing the handheld stuff.
Maybe I'll get one of those down the road if
they keep making it better and get the price just
right and it has that level of power, like because
I could see that being something I would want, you know,
alongside of Switch potentially. But yeah, I don't think I'll
get another Xbox home console, at least with the way
things are going now or looking right now. I would
definitely need them to do a huge price drop on
game Pass to make that affordable thing I want to
be in the ecosystem for. And I don't know, I
feel like for years to come. Still, I will still
have access to like I think it'll be a while
before we get an exclusive game on the Helix. I
feel like the series X will probably run most things
for a few years yet, So yeah, I mean, even
if this is a couple of years away, I don't
I really have zero excitement for Xbox as a whole
right now. I haven't. I've barely even turned that thing on.
I guess I played Residuevil six on there, but since
the price increased, a game passing unsubscribed back in November,
I don't think I've like booted up my Xbox at all.
It's just collecting dust now unfortunately, which is which is
a bummer. But I got a few years of really
good game and for really good value there, so you know,
still remember those times fondly. But now I'm kind of
just mostly playing things on PlayStation or PC or something
or switch to still, so yeah, I don't know. We'll
see what happens here. This is kind of unex you know,
nothing was really unexpected here. I think the PC game
like full integration makes a lot of sense for how
the company has been going the last few year, especially
with all their games being kind of cross between PC
and console now it can. This probably helps a lot
with developments, since they're making this thing even closer to
a PC. I assume it makes that development process of
like it's really not even making it for two separate platforms. Now,
you just make it for PC and then we'll run
on this. So that seems pretty smart in terms of
the pipeline of getting games out of the door and
making games more affordable, and hopefully therefore making sure that
Xbox keeps their employees rather than firing everyone after they
release a game. We one can hope. Where do you
think this is gonna fall price with the Steam Machine?
I would assume it's going to be higher, But also
Xbox is making consoles forever, Steam not so much in
that space, so who knows how the prices can get there.
But yeah, where do you think this is gonna compare
to the Steam Machine?
Speaker 2: The Steam Machine is? Is there an official price on that?
Speaker 1: I don't think we have an official price on that yet.
It is supposed to be coming out this year.
Speaker 2: Still, apparently, I'm gonna say the Steam Machine is probably
fifteen hundred bucks because I feel like Steam is a
fifteen bucks. I feel like you'd be fifteen hundred bucks. Yeah, no, American,
fIF American, I think so. I think, okay, it'll be
between a thousand two.
Speaker 1: We're gonna sell like seven of those. But it's that expensive,
I know.
Speaker 2: I think with the amount of hardware that they have
access to creates A, they need to pump the prices up.
You've got a lot of things, you know, in the
world right now, economically speaking, prices are going up for
a lot of things happening all over the place, lots
of causes. So I think that's again gonna drive the
cost up for something like this, And so that's why
I think fifteen hundred is probably like a safer bet.
But its terms like with the Xbox. I mean, the
Xbox was at least nine to ninety nine. I was
seeing some reports, So I'm not sure where that'll kind
of line. I think it'll be close, but I think
it's gonna come under the steam.
Speaker 1: Box interesting, okay, I I think I'm on the other
side of this. I think they might because they already
have the series X, which I imagine will be supported
for years to come, and I don't think they're gonna
got d of the series S anytime. Soon either, even
though it's like much weaker. I think they want the
different price point options and so I could easily see
them supporting those for a while, even though they're not
really selling that well. So maybe they'll discontinue them soon anyway,
Who knows, but I feel like they want that. They
want like the super cheap option with the Series S,
which is just like, you know, a flimsy piece of
hardware at this point, a Series X, which is like,
you know, in that range, and then this is will
be the super high end, and so I think it's
going to go pretty high up there. And so I'm
assuming that something like a Steam Machine is going to
fall in between a Series X and the Xbox Project
Helix thing. So I feel like I feel that Valve
is going to go a bit lower. Also the fact
that it's coming out this year and this Xbox might
not come out till next year the year after, so
you think that hardware stuff like the prices are just
going to maybe go up even more. I think so
that might be part of it too, but who knows.
Maybe maybe Valve releases different skews like they did with
the Steam Deck had different skews as well, which mostly
I think was like screen, screen and storage. But you know,
I'm sure once again, when you factor those things in there,
I'm sure there'll be a version of Helix that has like,
you know, thirty two gigs of hardware space, so you
can not even download one game. But it's like a
bit cheaper than the version that has the terror byte
and all that. So options, options, options, all that sort
of stuff. But yeah, I feel like i've This is
also kind of reminded me how little I've heard anyone
talk about the Xbox Ally. It took me even a
second road it was called there for a second, which
I feel like is not a great sign. But I
don't think I know a single person in the real
world who has one of those, or even probably I
don't even know if I have a single friend who
would know what an Xbox Ally is, other than like
people who are doing video game podcasts.
Speaker 2: When I think, hanheld, I'm just going to steam Deck,
to be honest, that's where my mind goes.
Speaker 1: Switch and switch and seam Deck. Xbox not even in
the competition, So I don't know. I I don't think
this is gonna be I don't think this is gonna
go well for them, I think it's gonna be really expensive.
I think it's gonna sell horribly, and I just don't
know it's I mean, I guess you know a lot
of maybe maybe they're just going out for the whales.
They're going out for the whale market of gamers, which is,
you know, a viable business for a lot of like
Marvel Snap, you know, all they care about is the whales,
and that's how they make their business. They don't make
it off of everyone pitching it a little bit. They
make it from a few people spending a fuck ton
of money. And so maybe that's what Xbox is going
for here, like, hey, we're not gonna sell as many copies,
but the consoles twice expensive as our last one, and
the monthly refference now over twice what it was as
you know, a few years ago. So maybe that's where
they get. Yet, you know, they need less people in
the door because it's just so expensive for the people
who are actually paying for it. So we'll see, maybe
that's their strategy, which you know, if the case, if
that's the case, it's gonna be less popular than ever,
but maybe they can still make the profits work. Well,
we'll see what happens there. But I think really just
you know, since this is so close to a PC,
just get a regular PC. You know. That's why they
don't bother getting the Xbox One. That's gonna be limited
in many ways over what an actual PC can do.
So but I guess you know, that's kind of been
the case for Xbox even in this generation. Here, I
am still enjoying my series X or at least I
was until till the recent price price jumps. But yeah,
that's that's really all there is for this for now.
There isn't a ton of details at the moment. Any
predictions you want to make on any other thoughts you
had on Project Helix on this day here.
Speaker 2: Uh, whenever that drops, I think it's gonna drop with uh, well,
it'll drop with the new Halo game, Halo Combat Remastered
or reimagined, right, I imagine that'll probably be good timing
new Xbox console. Is that I thought that was? Is
it twenty twenty six or maybe it does it twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Six in a couple of months or something. I might
have made that up.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Let me look Klo combat, Reimagine Combat. Oh,
that's the way not reimagine Campaign Evolved, Campaign Evolved. Yeah,
especially schedule for twenty twenty six release. Okay, you're right.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I thought it was so soon.
I might be wrong about that.
Speaker 2: But cool. I mean my other predictions, I mean, maybe
a Years of War game something maybe stated to K
three that would be kind of nice. But I think
these games.
Speaker 1: Hopefully this freaking helix.
Speaker 2: I would hope so good God, I hope.
Speaker 1: You get a good trade in value on the Series X,
because there's really no reason a keeper Series X. Right,
you'd probably bump that boy up, trade it in.
Speaker 2: I would trade it in, yeah, I mean, there's definitely
no reason to keep it.
Speaker 1: There's not really any reason to keep an old Xbox.
Speaker 2: No. And that's what I've done every every generation up,
I've traded in. Uh So there's usually a great spirit
about a month where I have no Xbox because when
I had the Xbox One, I traded that in for
the Slim. And I had the Slim, I traded my
Slim in for Oh I don't even remember. I can't
remember so many models.
Speaker 1: But I usually x Slim. Yeah. Was it the Xbox
one X that was the thing that existed, Xbox.
Speaker 2: One x oh yeah baby, I did have one of those. Yeah,
and then the Xbox One and the Xbox one.
Speaker 1: Do you think that the next because obviously Helix is
just like a code name, do you think it's gonna
have a better or worse naming scheme than they've had
the last couple of generations.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be Xbox seven to twenty. I'm still
dying on that hill from twenty ten. Let's make it happen.
I'm down with the blue LEDs.
Speaker 1: That would get me super hyped. All right, Taya, this
is a fun episode. Thank you for joining me, Thank
you everybody for listening. We'll be back next week, of course,
says we always are. Have a good rest of your week.
We'll see again next time. Bye bye,