Speaker 1: On this week's episode, game Spot Australia joins us to
Speaker 1: talk about the new consoles and Watchdog's Legion. Hello and
Speaker 1: welcome to episode sixty five of Game Spot after Dark.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Jake Decker, and joining me this week
Speaker 1: is Callie Plaguey. Hello, Edmund Tran that's me and Jess McDonald.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: It is a bittersweet episode to say the least ed,
Speaker 1: and Jess, this is your last week at GameSpot. We
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure we got you both in GameSpot
Speaker 1: after Dark. There are a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: discord reaching out with support and whatnot, so I wanted
Speaker 1: to get you guys on for one last discussion about games,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a big one. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: got the PS five and Xbox Series X we can
Speaker 1: talk about. However, we can't talk about much. So I
Speaker 1: thank you for all your questions you sent me, but
Speaker 1: like ninety percent of them we can't answer. But with
Speaker 1: that said, how are y'all doing?
Speaker 3: Oh, you know, pretty good despite other things happening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's been exciting.
Speaker 3: It's been exciting to actually touch new consoles and like
Speaker 3: play next gen games to sham with con stick around
Speaker 3: for the real deal, but it's exciting.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, I mean we can always, like, have you back
Speaker 2: on as a guest. We do have guests on this show,
Speaker 2: so sure, I feel like that's not totally I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe I'm speaking at a turn here. I'm just saying
Speaker 2: that's possible.
Speaker 1: It's entirely possible. But anyway, normally we would start to
Speaker 1: show off with the Christian Dale, Ohio segment, except I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure both of you have already done it. However,
Speaker 1: it's been a while for Jess in particular, because I
Speaker 1: think you did it like episode two is sixty three
Speaker 1: episodes ago, if my math is right. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been a while. So with that in mind, do you
Speaker 1: want to remind the people who you are, Jess that
Speaker 1: they forgotten?
Speaker 5: But I'm Jess as referenced. Yeah, I am, and have
Speaker 5: been and soon will not be a host and producer GameSpot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I've been with GameSpot for like nine years, doing a
Speaker 5: bunch of different jobs and different roles, and it's a blast.
Speaker 5: It's the best place ever. You guys are amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and I play all kinds of video games. I'm excited
Speaker 5: for the consoles. I haven't touched either of the next
Speaker 5: gen consoles yet, so I'm not your expert on that front.
Speaker 5: But get back to me on launch day and I
Speaker 5: and I will have my PlayStation at least.
Speaker 1: So you haven't played some balders Gate though, right. I
Speaker 1: know you're a big CRPG person. Yeah, what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that? So far?
Speaker 2: I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 5: It's interesting because one of the main complaints I saw
Speaker 5: is that like someone saying they wouldn't recommend it on Steam,
Speaker 5: and that is just Divinity three, Divinity Original Scene three.
Speaker 4: That's fine, That's okay, ten game right there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if it's it is more of the same. But
Speaker 5: I think that's probably something that I played Bold Skate
Speaker 5: when I was very very young. The earlier games, uh,
Speaker 5: not all the way through, but I think that's something
Speaker 5: that would bother Purest more than it bothers me. I
Speaker 5: think Divinity Originals Into is probably the best RPG of
Speaker 5: this generation. Uh so, more of that is great. The
Speaker 5: dice roll stuff is interesting. I'm a saved scum person,
Speaker 5: are you guys? Save scum people are in you, like,
Speaker 5: let's just keep going live without choices people.
Speaker 4: I don't say that. I am, but I actually am.
Speaker 5: Okay, I was gonna say ed, because you've definitely told
Speaker 5: me you like not. You just got to keep going
Speaker 5: perman death all the way. You just got to live
Speaker 5: with your choices, all right. Maybe we're all save scum
Speaker 5: people behind closed doors.
Speaker 2: I already have to live with my choices in real life.
Speaker 2: It told me to do that in a video game.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure everything is perfect. I am
Speaker 2: right there with Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I was unfortunately playing it on a live Twitch stream,
Speaker 5: and I just didn't want to be judged by one
Speaker 5: hundred people. So I was like, I guess I should
Speaker 5: keep going and pretend that I'm not Save.
Speaker 4: Of the Earth.
Speaker 1: But the shame of refloading the save exactly?
Speaker 3: Oh man, Yeah, this is what's in this what's missing
Speaker 3: in the in bould Escape three?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because it's Alli access, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Don't I don't actually know. I've played two hours. I
Speaker 5: don't know how much of the game it is. Do
Speaker 5: you guys know, Jake, you've played a bit of it, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we played a bit in co op. I think
Speaker 1: it's like supposed to be like twenty hours long or so,
Speaker 1: which is pretty decently length. But it seems like it's
Speaker 1: just like maybe the first act of a game.
Speaker 2: I still owe the Discord a screenshot of my character
Speaker 2: who looks like Kim Kardashian. Oh my accident. It was
Speaker 2: not on purpose, dude.
Speaker 5: The characters are beautiful, Like I lost my shait. My god,
Speaker 5: my character's girlfriend is oh my gosh. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 5: you get done making your character and then it's like, okay,
Speaker 5: now make the character that your character is into.
Speaker 2: And I was like, what nice little twist.
Speaker 3: So all the races in this because I played this
Speaker 3: for like maybe half an hour and like all that
Speaker 3: was in Character Creator, but it just seems like all
Speaker 3: the races are basically just humanoid and just like half human,
Speaker 3: half elf, half devil thing, and like guess, I guess
Speaker 3: the devil thing was like the most out there species
Speaker 3: or race. Is there more to come? You know, like
Speaker 3: are their gnomes and dwarves and stuff.
Speaker 2: There is a dwarf.
Speaker 5: I think it's a I think it might have a
Speaker 5: different and halfling halfling halfway. Yeah, but there's about seven,
Speaker 5: which is pretty good. The character Creator is really extensive,
Speaker 5: and also it's just nice because like I remember back
Speaker 5: playing Old Eldest Grolls games, and there was just no
Speaker 5: way to have a good looking character like they were
Speaker 5: all like uglysin Oh my God.
Speaker 2: There was just no way.
Speaker 5: So it's nice to play an RPG where you're just like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm cool.
Speaker 2: The meta game of any character creator is making the
Speaker 2: hardest part character. Yeah, I'm really proud of my bloodborn character.
Speaker 2: Who is I think the hottest possible bloodborn character? You
Speaker 2: can make it? She's not saying a whole lot.
Speaker 3: The Doc Soule's character created is a notoriously bad for
Speaker 3: trying to make good looking characters.
Speaker 4: Someone looks so pale and like deathly.
Speaker 1: Your next challenge, Kelli should be Elder Scrolls four because
Speaker 1: all the characters look like they swallowed bees or something.
Speaker 2: I will make it. I will do my best to
Speaker 2: make it hot. I think that's a series. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know Monster Factories. It's the opposite of Monster Factory.
Speaker 2: Is my hitch?
Speaker 1: So I tune in for that. I watch that anyway.
Speaker 1: And do you want to refresh the people on who
Speaker 1: you are?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Hello, I am Edmund Tran and I have been a
Speaker 3: game spot for twelve whole years working in Australia in
Speaker 3: various roles as well I set off as a video
Speaker 3: producer and kind of did a lot of video for
Speaker 3: about half my time, and then became an editor and
Speaker 3: did a lot of writing, And yeah, that's basically me,
Speaker 3: and I guess I've been doing a lot of reviews
Speaker 3: lately and all that kind of stuff, and so you
Speaker 3: may have seen me write some of you some reviews
Speaker 3: of your favorite games or your least favorite games.
Speaker 1: Games that you scored low.
Speaker 2: Just for Fallout seventy.
Speaker 3: Six, that's yeah, let's not forget Shadow of the Tomb
Speaker 3: rate right. Yeah, still, I'm I get hold onto that score.
Speaker 3: I think that was an accurate score, and looking in retrospect,
Speaker 3: like of the three two DA games, that was the
Speaker 3: right thing to score it.
Speaker 1: I think, did you give it?
Speaker 4: I gave it a six.
Speaker 2: I always tell people you'll regret if you're on the fence.
Speaker 2: You'll regret the higher score more often than you'll regret
Speaker 2: the lower score. I only regret one score that wasn't
Speaker 2: high enough, and that Started Valley. That's the only score.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that wasn't high enough. But I started, I
Speaker 2: gave Started like an eight point four or something. At IgM,
Speaker 2: I'm like, nah, nine point.
Speaker 3: Eight, baby, My only score, regret was into the breach.
Speaker 3: I regret that I didn't make that at ten. So good,
Speaker 3: so good. And the more you play, the more, yeah,
Speaker 3: the more it reveals itself to be just like an
Speaker 3: intricately designed piece of Yeah, it's a strategy game that
Speaker 3: is just perfect to play again and again and again,
Speaker 3: and it's just yeah, big regrets.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I really don't know how I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: my job without you, Ed. I'm just gonna say that
Speaker 2: really quickly. I'm not gonna harp on it too much,
Speaker 2: but Ed has been absolutely instrumental in games past review coverage.
Speaker 2: If you don't know, if you don't like look at
Speaker 2: the byline when you re reviews. Ed has done basically
Speaker 2: everything ever And we even had a Game of the
Speaker 2: Year discussion where we were like, we have to wait
Speaker 2: until Ed's awake because he reviewed like eight of the
Speaker 2: ten games on this list we're talking about.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you'll be fine. There are no games coming out.
Speaker 2: There's still more games games aren't Jess has also reviewed
Speaker 2: a lot of games, So just from a reviews editor perspective,
Speaker 2: you guys know your games, and also I love you.
Speaker 2: I love you too. What it's worth to be hugely sappy.
Speaker 5: I would not have reviewed anything if it wasn't for you, Kelly,
Speaker 5: Like just like having internal like support and someone to
Speaker 5: be like, no, you can do this, you are capable
Speaker 5: of it, like you're the best anyway, you both are.
Speaker 4: You're all right.
Speaker 2: It was so premature for this episode, but I just
Speaker 2: had to say it.
Speaker 5: No, I love it.
Speaker 1: I do have a question ed It's a little off
Speaker 1: topic here, but you you said you were a producer
Speaker 1: and now an editor. Have you ever called yourself a predator?
Speaker 1: I've seen some people do this. This isn't like I've
Speaker 1: seen people in like LinkedIn have like predator who says this.
Speaker 2: I thought you were doing an arrested development, like an analysis.
Speaker 1: I know it's bad, but like, I don't know many
Speaker 1: producer editors, so people linked I think one time I
Speaker 1: saw it on LinkedIn and someone to describe themselves as presis.
Speaker 2: It's like when people are like, I'm a social media ninja.
Speaker 1: I actually know who it is, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to say it on the podcast. But anyway, it's a
Speaker 1: big week. There were quite a few games out and
Speaker 1: coming out. Uh, but Callie, do you want to start
Speaker 1: what have you been playing.
Speaker 2: Sure, I just wanted to say that, for the first
Speaker 2: time since I got the game, I missed a day
Speaker 2: in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Oh no, it's because I've
Speaker 2: been playing Persona five Royal and it is the only
Speaker 2: game I care about ever. Yes, I I just really
Speaker 2: needed to take a second to say that I am
Speaker 2: absolutely kicking myself for not playing it sooner, and it
Speaker 2: is my game of the year so far. I'm not
Speaker 2: even like a third of the way and I'm already like,
Speaker 2: this is the this is the best, this is the
Speaker 2: absolute best. I regret waiting's so I'm so mad that
Speaker 2: I waited this long. I don't know what's wrong with me.
Speaker 4: I forgot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I've tried.
Speaker 1: I really.
Speaker 2: I think the secret sauce was being humble and playing
Speaker 2: with the English voiceover because I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: play on the Japanese voiceover because I hate how they
Speaker 2: say saccamado like that, and and then Jake was like,
Speaker 2: why don't you play with English? English is good? The
Speaker 2: English is good, and there's so much read Koto. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but uh, there's so much reading and so much to
Speaker 2: take in. In the first like ten hours of that like
Speaker 2: tutorial period that I think the first couple of times
Speaker 2: I tried to play the game, playing it in Japanese
Speaker 2: really hampered my ability to get through that. And I
Speaker 2: definitely like, I'm already at the point where I like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to replay this with the Japanese voiceover just
Speaker 2: to strengthen because I want to practice Japanese. But I
Speaker 2: am absolutely obsessed with it, and it caused me to
Speaker 2: not play Animal Crusting New Horizons, which says.
Speaker 4: Everything, is this your first time through it?
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, this isn't a bad time to start playing it.
Speaker 1: I don't think because Persona Royal came out or Persona
Speaker 1: five Royal came out this year, so it's not like
Speaker 1: you're playing Persona five from twenty seventeen or whenever it
Speaker 1: came out, it at least has some like relevancy, and
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like Persona five Royal could
Speaker 1: be a Game of the Year contender, you know, definitely
Speaker 1: there are many people on the staff who would say
Speaker 1: that for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I haven't touched it because I went through
Speaker 3: the original, But Jess, you've played both now, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, Royal's really different. It's really really Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: because the news stuff isn't just like tacked on at
Speaker 5: the end. Because I'm a person who doesn't play DLC
Speaker 5: that comes out like a year or two after the
Speaker 5: original game because I'm done with it. But this is
Speaker 5: there's so many new mechanics and the two new characters
Speaker 5: and new story elements that are all woven in that
Speaker 5: it's like playing enough of a new game. I guess
Speaker 5: it's like a director's cut of a favorite movie. It's
Speaker 5: just like there's enough extra all the way through that
Speaker 5: you don't feel especially having played the first one right
Speaker 5: after it came out. It's been a while anyway, God,
Speaker 5: I loved replaying that game. I had such a good time.
Speaker 5: It's who do you like so far?
Speaker 2: Cali? I really like Timmy is the goth doctor. I
Speaker 2: just I just like her whole vibe. And I I
Speaker 2: have a soft spot for On because I feel like
Speaker 2: I just feel for her so much, and I gives
Speaker 2: that because nobody ever says their best girl is On
Speaker 2: and I feel bad for her because she's she's nice.
Speaker 2: I have met Makoda and I but I'm like kind
Speaker 2: of like in the early stages of her thing. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, nobody likes you enough. I'm sorry, but
Speaker 2: your whole thing is that people were mean to you
Speaker 2: because they thought you were a slut, So I want
Speaker 2: to be nicer to you. But yeah, I'm I'm very much,
Speaker 2: very much into it. And yeah, like from what I
Speaker 2: know about what's new, I think, like you know, I
Speaker 2: haven't I haven't really played I've played some of the original,
Speaker 2: so it just seems like a natural extension of the
Speaker 2: mechanics that were there, Like they just like they don't
Speaker 2: feel like superfluous, if that makes sense. Like especially the
Speaker 2: baton pass mechanic I think is so smart and works
Speaker 2: so well with what the game is and what the
Speaker 2: themes are. Yeah, I'm just like I I started a
Speaker 2: one hundred hour game right when the new consoles were launching.
Speaker 2: That's on me, but I don't regret it at all.
Speaker 2: And Jake's read it. I actually can justify it to
Speaker 2: myself because we you got to play the games that
Speaker 2: came out this year, and we did give it tense.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it'll make intend for Shure.
Speaker 3: Far Out Fantasy came out this year, that's wild it
Speaker 3: that game too.
Speaker 1: I need to play that one anyway. I kind of
Speaker 1: messed this up a little bit because I didn't see
Speaker 1: you put balled. There's gate three on what you've been playing, Jess,
Speaker 1: So I asked you questions about it during your intro.
Speaker 1: But is there anything you'd like to add about Balter's Gate?
Speaker 2: I can just keep talking about Persona.
Speaker 5: You know. Persona five is the first JPG I ever plaied.
Speaker 2: I've never played JPGs.
Speaker 4: Did I miss four at one point? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I tried, but I couldn't get into it because I
Speaker 5: thought it was way too grindy And it's way less
Speaker 5: grindy than a Persona four.
Speaker 1: Try Persona four on PC because you can like mess
Speaker 1: with the settings so much to get rid of the
Speaker 1: grind entirely. Like I've played the beginning of Persona four
Speaker 1: a couple of times, but I decided to on PC
Speaker 1: and just crank the XP up, crank the money up,
Speaker 1: so I just sprint through the dungeons and that is it,
Speaker 1: and then it's all just chatting with people.
Speaker 2: Okay. I mean I was going to say, I don't
Speaker 2: know how you would ever go back in time to
Speaker 2: play a JRPG after Persona five, Like, like, I feel
Speaker 2: like I wouldn't be able to recommend you one that
Speaker 2: would be like that would get its hooks in you
Speaker 2: more like I would really struggle. But I think yeah,
Speaker 2: Jake's solution with before g on is it Golden that's
Speaker 2: on PC.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of like Square Enix games including
Speaker 3: those options too, which you know, make them a lot
Speaker 3: more playable in this modern day and age.
Speaker 4: Which is nice. It's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Well. Speaking of JRPG's house, Watchdogs ed.
Speaker 4: You can make it a JPG if you know you can't.
Speaker 2: I heard there's CaCrO cass players.
Speaker 3: Oh really, I'm not encountered on yet. Alisander sent me
Speaker 3: a bunch of footage up the crazy people that he
Speaker 3: got recruited into his squad, and I have not encountered
Speaker 3: any of those people.
Speaker 4: Yet, really yet. Yeah, Watchdogs is really good.
Speaker 3: I'm only like maybe ten to fifteen hours in so far,
Speaker 3: and I played a bunch of previews, so I've mostly
Speaker 3: just been retreading that ground. But I quite like it
Speaker 3: so far. Like I am really enjoying the players. Anyone
Speaker 3: mechanic where you can just pick up anyone off the
Speaker 3: street and recruit them, And I got really addicted in
Speaker 3: the first few hours to like scouring the streets of London,
Speaker 3: trying to put together the perfect crew. And so I
Speaker 3: was all my time doing that, just walking down like
Speaker 3: looking at everyone's traits and stuff, and you know, I
Speaker 3: talk to them and like listen to their voice, and.
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't really like your voice that much.
Speaker 3: Sorry, you have good skills, but I don't really want
Speaker 3: to hear you for like twenty hours.
Speaker 4: And so it's that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard someone refer to it as like a
Speaker 3: civilization style one more turn kind of thing, like you
Speaker 3: just see one more person, one more person, you try
Speaker 3: and get their mission and try and recruit them, and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: so I like that part.
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: I did start charging through the story a little bit,
Speaker 3: and then in doing so seeing sort of the limitations
Speaker 3: of that players anyone mechanic, because I feel like, you know,
Speaker 3: a person will come with a set of skills. They
Speaker 3: might have one skill or four skills, but that'll be
Speaker 3: it for the game basically.
Speaker 4: And while like you can do most things with most people.
Speaker 3: So for example, if you have a hacker character and
Speaker 3: you have or you have an assassin character, or you
Speaker 3: have you know, a character that relies on drones or whatever,
Speaker 3: they can all kind of go through missions the same way.
Speaker 3: They can all do stealth, they can all do gunplay,
Speaker 3: they can all do melee combat. Really well, it's just
Speaker 3: varying degrees of where they might excel even further, and
Speaker 3: so that kind of just feels a little bit samey
Speaker 3: after a while, when if you're not just purely role
Speaker 3: playing in your head, like mechanically it is the same
Speaker 3: and I can't. Yeah, knowing that I'm just the beginning
Speaker 3: of the story and knowing that I'll have a lot
Speaker 3: more story missions to go yet makes me realize that
Speaker 3: there isn't much progression with these characters. I just can
Speaker 3: collect more, but each one doesn't really evolve when it's
Speaker 3: in their own unique way, which is both a blessing
Speaker 3: and a curse, because you know, having everyone be capable
Speaker 3: is good. In the previous stages, I talked a lot
Speaker 3: about how there are some certain characters with some negative traits,
Speaker 3: certain people who have a specific yeah, they have de
Speaker 3: buffs basically like some might die permanently, some move slower,
Speaker 3: some can't do this, some can't do that, And I
Speaker 3: think with those kind of characters might make it a
Speaker 3: lot more interesting because you need to actually cater your
Speaker 3: play style in a particular way. You're kind of forced
Speaker 3: to do that. And perma death as well. You can
Speaker 3: just set a like a like a universal perman death
Speaker 3: option on when you start the game, and I think
Speaker 3: that would make the game a lot more interesting too.
Speaker 4: You you definitely like play a lot.
Speaker 3: More carefully as you do with perman death, and I
Speaker 3: think you'd really cherish those characters a little bit more.
Speaker 4: Like Yeah, but so far pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been playing it too, and speaking of saves coming,
Speaker 1: I've been playing on Permia death and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe character died and I just had all to four
Speaker 1: and they were back. I have similar feelings as that though.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy the fact that you can play as
Speaker 1: any character. I think that's really neat, and they do
Speaker 1: some really cool things with that, especially with like the
Speaker 1: deep profiling, how you can kind of track their history
Speaker 1: with dead sec and basically look at their schedules see
Speaker 1: what they do. And there's there's and like stories coming
Speaker 1: out about how if you if someone's spouse dies or
Speaker 1: something like that, then they might visit the graveyard or
Speaker 1: something to or they might visit their grave or something
Speaker 1: like that, and those details are super cool. But the
Speaker 1: story so far hasn't grabbed me, and I think it's
Speaker 1: for the reasons that you kind of mentioned too. It's
Speaker 1: just there's no centralized protagonist, so it just kind of feels.
Speaker 1: It feels imprecise.
Speaker 3: I guess there's only so much you can get emotionally
Speaker 3: invested in a story when it has to cater to
Speaker 3: so many different options.
Speaker 1: I guess totally.
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, but yeah, having those options in building
Speaker 3: the team that you want, the team that, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: of all different racists, shapes and sizes is really great.
Speaker 3: I just wish they could they could go a bit
Speaker 3: further with it, but that obviously takes a.
Speaker 4: Lot of work.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Alessandro definitely had a similar take. He wrote our
Speaker 2: review and like, but there was one example from his
Speaker 2: review that I wanted to mention because it was just
Speaker 2: super interesting. Is that he went to recruit a character
Speaker 2: and found out that at some point earlier in his game,
Speaker 2: a different character who was playing as had hit that
Speaker 2: person with a car, so they hate Dad's sick. And
Speaker 2: I thought that was really cool and interesting and that
Speaker 2: kind of thing I think would like that kind of emergent.
Speaker 2: He described it as like elements of immersive sims in
Speaker 2: that game are really like where it shines, so I'm
Speaker 2: definitely interested in it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it is directed by Clint Hawking, who did
Speaker 1: Splinter Cell in Far Cry Too, which especially Far Cry
Speaker 1: Too was like, I don't know, an early Triple A
Speaker 1: example of an immersive sim shooter. So it's not that
Speaker 1: surprising that Watchdog's Legion is doing this too, which I'm
Speaker 1: which is why I'm super interested in this game. I
Speaker 1: will say another thing that really stood out about this
Speaker 1: game is that this seems like the first Ubisoft game
Speaker 1: that actually tries to make a stance on things going
Speaker 1: on in the world, rather than just, to quote Alessandra again,
Speaker 1: using it as window dressing, which I have been kind
Speaker 1: of impressed by some of It's a little heavy, just
Speaker 1: because it's obvious, Like there's stuff about how authoritarian leaders
Speaker 1: like basically claim the media's fake news and then swoop
Speaker 1: in and take power because of that, and it's just like, hmm,
Speaker 1: that sounds very familiar. I wonder, I wonder where this
Speaker 1: comes from. Uh, but I do find that interesting because
Speaker 1: you'd be suffer for so long has been like banging
Speaker 1: on that drum, like oh no, our games are apolitical.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna talk about any of that stuff, but
Speaker 1: Watchdogs seems to hit that stuff really hard, which is interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it is good that you'd be soft
Speaker 3: actually made this like real world London. Like it's not
Speaker 3: like a fake it's not like a fake altered reality London.
Speaker 3: It's not like a far criest ale America that's this
Speaker 3: little isolated pocket. It's like actually London and sort of
Speaker 3: extrapolating the current events and how they might evolve with
Speaker 3: a time is that's.
Speaker 4: A that's a pretty it's a good move.
Speaker 3: It's a I'm glad that go against their against unpolitical
Speaker 3: thing because this is the most definitely political and I'm
Speaker 3: not sure how much of a hand of the team
Speaker 3: themselves had.
Speaker 4: A role in that.
Speaker 3: It's a good way forward, though I think a lot
Speaker 3: of a lot of the writing out there sort of
Speaker 3: notes that it is that they can only say so
Speaker 3: much because they are limited by being an Ubisoft game.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a game where you'll have to you know,
Speaker 3: raid out posts and do that kind of stuff. There's
Speaker 3: only so much you can do with that formula to
Speaker 3: to sort of support your message of you know, collective action.
Speaker 3: And rising up and so on and so forth, and
Speaker 3: I yeah, I do share a lot of the sentiment
Speaker 3: out there that wishes there was more actually more teamwork
Speaker 3: in this game, because even though you are collecting a
Speaker 3: lot of people, you are doing a lot of these
Speaker 3: missions solo. And it's like I was saying before, everyone
Speaker 3: can kind of do everything, and there isn't a sense
Speaker 3: of characters supporting each other with their own skills. I
Speaker 3: think I think I read this in Austin Walker's article
Speaker 3: on VI, which is really good, and yeah, like not
Speaker 3: having a way to sort of embody that collective action
Speaker 3: in the in terms of the gameplaying mechanics, it feels
Speaker 3: like a missed opportunity, but hopefully something that can come
Speaker 3: out once you know, someone who isn't behold into the
Speaker 3: Ubisoft Open World mold can do.
Speaker 4: Something like this. You know, we'll see. I think it's
Speaker 4: a good, good step forward, especially for Triple A games,
Speaker 4: you know that in that kind of sector needs to
Speaker 4: take baby steps.
Speaker 1: The premise itself seems like an indie like, it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like something from a Triple A game, Like you
Speaker 1: can play as any character any of these dumb looking NPCs.
Speaker 1: You can be other than watch Dogs. I've also played
Speaker 1: ghost Runner. It came out the other day, and that
Speaker 1: game is real good. It looks great on PC two
Speaker 1: with ray tracing and max settings and all that it.
Speaker 1: I think Blessing tweeted it's basically Katana zero but in
Speaker 1: uh but three D, and I'd say that pretty much
Speaker 1: hits the nail on the head. But the music is good,
Speaker 1: the action is good. It's it's very difficult, lots of
Speaker 1: like try retry sort of like quick reloads because you're
Speaker 1: gonna die a lot.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing it described as cyberpunk Mirror's Edge, which just
Speaker 2: to give people an idea of like kind of what
Speaker 2: it if you don't know it goes to more lethal.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, it looks great on gifts on Twitter.
Speaker 3: It seems like a lot like Titanfall. Titanfall had Katana
Speaker 3: is basically a lot of wall running.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of wall running, a lot of like
Speaker 1: jumping around. You can like slow down time and like
Speaker 1: dodge mid air, which is really cool. And there's a
Speaker 1: blink ability that like pretty much plays like Blink from
Speaker 1: uh Dishonored, except anyone in your line of sight just
Speaker 1: gets eviscerated. By your sword.
Speaker 4: That's pretty cool. So it's like an injin basically.
Speaker 1: Basically it's cyberpunk ninjes Sin.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so what's the structure like is it like a
Speaker 3: stage based game or is it like trials.
Speaker 1: Or Yeah, so it is stage based and that like
Speaker 1: when you finish an area, you get greeted with like
Speaker 1: a little scoreboard with your time, how many times you died,
Speaker 1: but usually there's like a there's like a that kind
Speaker 1: of has a through line through it, so when you
Speaker 1: finish the stage, you see the score thing, but then
Speaker 1: it just kind of loads you right into the next area.
Speaker 1: They don't feel disconnected. It just you know, in between areas,
Speaker 1: it's like here's your score, which normally would bug me,
Speaker 1: but considering this is a game all about being very
Speaker 1: quick and very careful and very stylish, stylish, I'm totally
Speaker 1: cool with that. And immediately, like after I did the
Speaker 1: first couple missions, I went back and started replaying them
Speaker 1: because it's like, Okay, now I've kind of got my
Speaker 1: reflexes down, I know what I'm doing, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to try to do this better and better and better.
Speaker 4: Cool, you're playing on PC.
Speaker 3: I'm playing on PC. Yeah, it feels like this kind
Speaker 3: of game might be a bit trickier on a controller.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I normally I like to play games with
Speaker 1: the controller on my PC because I'm a filthy casual.
Speaker 1: But with this game, I started up and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't don't think I want to do a controller,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I can't imagine playing this on a controller.
Speaker 1: I also saw that some people were saying that it
Speaker 1: doesn't look too great on PS four. I haven't played
Speaker 1: on PS four. I haven't even seen footage of PS four.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true or not, but I
Speaker 1: can say that it is like stunning on PC.
Speaker 4: As most things are, as most things are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, if your PC can handle it. I had
Speaker 1: to cap the frame rate because it was chugging a
Speaker 1: little bit with my twenty eighty TI, which I was like,
Speaker 1: come on, don't do this to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have a nine seventy.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, this game might struggle a little bit.
Speaker 1: You could run it though.
Speaker 5: Oh actually that reminds me. I also started Amnesia Rebirth,
Speaker 5: so that's.
Speaker 2: The other game.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I only played an hour because I played
Speaker 5: it till I got too scared, had to turn it
Speaker 5: off and it was night time. You get it. It's
Speaker 5: exactly the same same as it very long as you
Speaker 5: got so far, except uhborn matches, so that's different. And
Speaker 5: matches are sometimes in like containers, so you pick up
Speaker 5: because it's always been really intense with the physics, like
Speaker 5: you could always pick up all like all kinds of
Speaker 5: crap and then turn it around and then put it
Speaker 5: back down because it's nothing to actually do with anything.
Speaker 5: But now you can like smash jars and then you
Speaker 5: might find like one match inside, which are essential. Otherwise
Speaker 5: you go crazy and see scary things.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna try and tough it out. I believe
Speaker 2: in you.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: I was scared to play forasmophobiaan i am, but I
Speaker 2: have overcome that, so maybe I can overcome my apprehension
Speaker 2: about amnesia.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a god.
Speaker 2: They do such a good job though.
Speaker 5: Like it's still got like all of the power at
Speaker 5: just horror storytelling that Dark Scent did and Penumbra before that.
Speaker 5: They just really know what they're doing with just building
Speaker 5: like a narrative that they force you to watch because
Speaker 5: they just mess up your screen and like have the
Speaker 5: vo run over it. And yeah, and the immersive sort
Speaker 5: of things that just randomly happen to you.
Speaker 2: You just scare yourself.
Speaker 5: Though it's so smart with it doesn't need to throw
Speaker 5: zombies at you or do anything like that. Most of
Speaker 5: the time you'll be the most scared. It's just that
Speaker 5: you happen to be in the dark and you think
Speaker 5: you saw something. It's like not when something is in
Speaker 5: front of you growling. That is like the not scary part.
Speaker 5: They've just always been really clever at developing those kinds
Speaker 5: of games, and it's still really good so far.
Speaker 1: Well, anyway, with that, we should probably talk about these
Speaker 1: new consoles. I think between all of us here, we
Speaker 1: should have an Xbox Series X and a PS five. Kelly,
Speaker 1: I know you got a PS five. I have an
Speaker 1: Xbox Series X ED. You have an Xbox Series S,
Speaker 1: Xbox Series X and PS five.
Speaker 3: I played at PS five at Sony's Officers. I don't
Speaker 3: actually have one physically, okay, but yeah, I'm winning basically.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Consoles huh yeah, So we can't actually talk about a
Speaker 1: whole lot. We can only talk about the box itself.
Speaker 1: We can't go into UI games, how they run, et cetera.
Speaker 1: We do have a lot of coverage of the Xbox
Speaker 1: Series X up in particular for the preview event, So
Speaker 1: if you're curious about low time and whatnot, you can
Speaker 1: check out some of those videos on game Spot. But
Speaker 1: for the retail units, we can't talk about a whole
Speaker 1: lot however, ed you can't talk about Astrobot, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, a PlayStation game, Yeah, astro Bot which Astro's Playroom rather,
Speaker 3: which is the sort of packing game for the PlayStation
Speaker 3: five is. It's an Astrobot game. So it's sort of
Speaker 3: like your three D platformer Mario style, like really really
Speaker 3: well designed gameplay flow. It's it's a game that keeps you,
Speaker 3: keeps you in it, like it keeps you moving forward
Speaker 3: and interacting with different mechanics and doing fun things all
Speaker 3: the time. It's very very charming. But this one is
Speaker 3: designed specifically as a showcase for the dual Sense controller,
Speaker 3: and what a showcase it is.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you had told me that I would
Speaker 3: get excited about a PS five controller and it's HD
Speaker 3: rumble like analog, I would not have believed you.
Speaker 4: But it is.
Speaker 3: It's it's really impressive, Like it's it's crazy how much
Speaker 3: subtlety and sort of all the different kind of sensations
Speaker 3: that it can communicate via your hands. So I guess
Speaker 3: one of the initial things, like even just simply running
Speaker 3: around at different surfaces will have a different sensation coming
Speaker 3: through coming through your hands, and it feels fun to
Speaker 3: just skid around on ice or like trudge in the
Speaker 3: sand or like swim in the water and all that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff. But yeah, no, it's really good. So
Speaker 3: basically what I can talk about is sort of the
Speaker 3: first stage, which is Cooling Springs, and there's a lot
Speaker 3: of footage of that out there, and that sort of
Speaker 3: takes you through. Yeah, it's set inside a PS five
Speaker 3: and so you'll go into like the SSD land and
Speaker 3: like Cooling spring this is the fan land, which is
Speaker 3: which is kind of neat, And actually this whole thing
Speaker 3: is sort of a an homage to PlayStation history, so
Speaker 3: like a lot of the collectibles you'll find in the
Speaker 3: world are like bits and pieces from PlayStation PlayStations sort
Speaker 3: of product lineup over the past twenty five so like
Speaker 3: a pocket station or like weird things like that.
Speaker 4: And that's that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: But anyway, in Cooling Springs, it's like a beach beachy
Speaker 3: slash icy area, and you'll be doing a lot of
Speaker 3: like swimming and like the pulling of like little cables
Speaker 3: on the ground.
Speaker 4: But the standout bit was a bit where you get
Speaker 4: into a frog suit. You jump into a frog suit,
Speaker 4: use the touch pad to.
Speaker 3: Zip it up, and then you it then turns into
Speaker 3: a two D side scrolling sort of like a like
Speaker 3: a like a like a springing game where you control
Speaker 3: a frog by making it jump, and to do that
Speaker 3: you press and hold the triggers. And the thing with
Speaker 3: the dual sense is that those triggers can provide resistance,
Speaker 3: and so as you're pushing down on the swing, you
Speaker 3: can feel the control of fighting you as you sort
Speaker 3: of build that kinetic energy and then release it. And
Speaker 3: so you're using the motion of the dual sense to
Speaker 3: try and angle the angle of your jumps and then
Speaker 3: adjust the strength to suit and make tricky jumps from
Speaker 3: moving platforms and get coins to get up and that
Speaker 3: kind of good stuff. And you know, being an ash
Speaker 3: of by game, it's it's really easy to breeze through,
Speaker 3: but you want to explore and find all the bits
Speaker 3: and pieces, which which I didn't really do. I actually
Speaker 3: played through the demo twice and on the second time
Speaker 3: doing the frog thing, I could feel my fingers like
Speaker 3: physically getting tired from like having to fight these bloody
Speaker 3: triggers like for you know, twenty minutes. So it's it's
Speaker 3: really impressive. And I've been told that you can adjust
Speaker 3: the the strength of them universally, so if you, you know,
Speaker 3: don't have as much strength in your fingers, you can
Speaker 3: take that down.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that's that. It's very impressive.
Speaker 3: And just things like walking into a wind tunnel and
Speaker 3: like like feeling the controller like fight you. It's it's crazy,
Speaker 3: It's and just not something I ever thought I would
Speaker 3: be impressed by. And yeah, this this feels like a
Speaker 3: next gen thing, Like it feels like something I couldn't
Speaker 3: get on the Jewel Shock and not even on the
Speaker 3: switches HD rumble Like this is this feels way way
Speaker 3: more fleshed out version of that. And I really hope
Speaker 3: that third parties like actually make use of it. It
Speaker 3: sounds like some of them are, because there's some talk
Speaker 3: of the developers of death Loop using the triggers to
Speaker 3: like sort of replicate the experience of a gun jamming
Speaker 3: on you, and that would be really cool. And if
Speaker 3: that all that self follows through after launch, like play
Speaker 3: Attition will be like a really good place to play
Speaker 3: a lot of these games just to see what they
Speaker 3: do with it.
Speaker 2: Astro's playroom seems kind of like from this initial look
Speaker 2: that we're talking about, the Cooling Springs area seems kind
Speaker 2: of like a proof of concept that we sports was
Speaker 2: where it's just like, here's actually the potential of why
Speaker 2: this is fun and why this is interesting and why
Speaker 2: like it should be utilized, and hearing you talk about it,
Speaker 2: it just makes me like really want to play a
Speaker 2: lot more, just because I haven't had the time to
Speaker 2: really check out the PS five and the the depth
Speaker 2: that I want to unfortunately, and tonight was going to
Speaker 2: be my big night where I like broke it out
Speaker 2: and like I actually sat down and played and some
Speaker 2: just really really excited hearing you talk about it, because
Speaker 2: I am not usually the I'm really not the person
Speaker 2: that's like I care so much about four K it's
Speaker 2: gonna look so good, Like my eyes don't really work
Speaker 2: great anyway, so I like don't care. But the controller
Speaker 2: sensations and how that can affect gameplay is definitely very
Speaker 2: interesting to me and not something that you know at
Speaker 2: first blush I was super interested in. But yeah, just
Speaker 2: hearing you talk about it gets me very excited.
Speaker 1: Well, Kelly, since you have opened the PS five, you've
Speaker 1: looked at it, do you have any preliminary thoughts on
Speaker 1: the look of the box?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I thought it was going to be stark white.
Speaker 2: It's not. I that's the first thing. The first thing
Speaker 2: that I noticed was that there is kind of gray,
Speaker 2: like it's a lightish gray, and I from every press
Speaker 2: photo even from the box, like the box it comes in,
Speaker 2: I thought it was going to be like stark white
Speaker 2: and it is not. Also, the detail on the controller
Speaker 2: that it's all like x's and o's and squares and
Speaker 2: triangles on the underside of the controller is very cute.
Speaker 2: I would not have noticed if we hadn't posted a
Speaker 2: tweet about that, But I thought that was cool. And
Speaker 2: it is so incredibly heavy. I thought standing up it
Speaker 2: would be easy to knock over, especially like if you
Speaker 2: have like a cat or something that's like gonna fuck
Speaker 2: with you. But like it's very very heavy and pretty
Speaker 2: pretty sturdy. Those are my like big takeaways. I'm kind
Speaker 2: of nervous that the controller is going to get gross
Speaker 2: really quickly, not that I'm like eating cheetahs and playing games.
Speaker 2: That's a really good point.
Speaker 5: But like if you had like a makeup on your hands,
Speaker 5: like anyone who uses fake tan and stuff, that's gonna
Speaker 5: get messed up.
Speaker 4: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even just sweat I build up like all those
Speaker 3: little like rivets, it will trap that stuff and it
Speaker 3: will start to look gross. So you will need to
Speaker 3: get like a nail brosh or something and just like
Speaker 3: scrub your control. Every once in a while, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a white mouse form my PC, and
Speaker 1: I regret getting a white mass from my when I
Speaker 1: saw the all white, like like, I know everyone wants
Speaker 1: a black PS five and I'm there, but like I
Speaker 1: didn't think i'd carry that much until I really thought
Speaker 1: about it. And it's like, yeah, it's gonna get dirty
Speaker 1: real fast. And it's like another reason why I was
Speaker 1: more interested in the Series X over the Series S
Speaker 1: is because it's not white, and I don't need to
Speaker 1: worry about the control turning a brownish white color after
Speaker 1: after you know, a couple of years of use. Because
Speaker 1: like this Xbox One controller I've here, I've been using
Speaker 1: for years and it is kind of gross, but it
Speaker 1: would I'm sure would look a lot grosser if it
Speaker 1: was white. Yeah, hey, but maybe I'd get rid of
Speaker 1: it sooner. Maybe that's the plan used by New and Sports.
Speaker 2: The capitalism angle. No it, yeah, like the weird yellowing
Speaker 2: of not black electronics is not my favorite feature of
Speaker 2: those colors. For sure. Yes, that was my main worry.
Speaker 2: But I was honestly very surprised at the color I
Speaker 2: did not. I like it. It's like a just a very
Speaker 2: very light gray. I'm probably the only person that cares
Speaker 2: about that, because I think most people care if it's
Speaker 2: either white or black. They're not like, oh, it's light
Speaker 2: gray my favorite. But I sat there and looked at
Speaker 2: it for a while, and I was like, are my
Speaker 2: eyes okay? Should I change the lighting? I took it
Speaker 2: to a different room. I like held up a piece
Speaker 2: of paper next to it, just to like verify for myself. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I really, I went through like the five stages of
Speaker 2: grief trying to figure out what color it was.
Speaker 1: I had to white balance your eyes? Yeah, what about
Speaker 1: like fingerprints? Do you see a lot of fingerprints on
Speaker 1: the box? Though I'm touching it.
Speaker 3: The white panels are I think they should be okay?
Speaker 3: But the black bit in the middle is a dust magnet. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: Oh really, it will be a finger I think it
Speaker 3: will be a fingerprint magnet if you touch that area,
Speaker 3: and I think they want you to touch that area,
Speaker 3: but you probably will because you don't plug a us
Speaker 3: BA stuff into it.
Speaker 2: You can take the panels off, but I wouldn't because
Speaker 2: they are very fingerprint dust resistant kind of material for sure.
Speaker 3: So I think I gotta say the porte sort of
Speaker 3: location on the front of the p S five, it's
Speaker 3: just it's just a little bit weird. It's just like
Speaker 3: in the middle, you know, it's like there's it doesn't
Speaker 3: seem like there's been a lot of thought into like
Speaker 3: the stylings of that, but maybe there has been. It's
Speaker 3: just you're just looking at a behemoth of a console
Speaker 3: and there's just like a USB port right in the
Speaker 3: middle of it staring at you like a tiny eye.
Speaker 1: Which probably talk a little bit about the Xbox Series
Speaker 1: X and S as well. Unfortunately I don't have a
Speaker 1: Series S, but I see one back there in your
Speaker 1: in your background, Ed.
Speaker 4: I thought this was an audio only podcast.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: We like to narrate for the audience an old timey
Speaker 2: radio show.
Speaker 1: Basically Ed's pulling and Phil Spencer here where he's got
Speaker 1: consoles hidden behind him in places.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Whereas the PS five was like when I first
Speaker 3: saw it, I was like, damn, that thing is big,
Speaker 3: Like it's bigger than I even thought. The S is
Speaker 3: like wow, that's actually smaller than I thought, and it's
Speaker 3: it's really cool, like you hold in one hand.
Speaker 4: It's light.
Speaker 3: I think it's like two kilos, which is like I
Speaker 3: don't know how many pounds that is. That's like one
Speaker 3: and a half pounds or something like that.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I was like, I don't know how much.
Speaker 5: Oh no, it's like yeah, four pounds.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of pounds. It's a lot smaller than
Speaker 3: you think it is. It's it's very sleek. It's like, honestly,
Speaker 3: it's just a white box and it's very bright white
Speaker 3: compared to the p's five, and it's it's just really
Speaker 3: striking like that. Like my wife saw it, it's like wow,
Speaker 3: they actually make nice looking consoles now. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this Yeah, if I wasn't like into like games, I
Speaker 3: didn't have to like buy all these consoles, like this
Speaker 3: would be the only one I would consider like putting
Speaker 3: in my house. Yeah, and it's really small. It's really
Speaker 3: cool neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really adorable.
Speaker 5: I don't have one, but my housemate Eddie mackew has one,
Speaker 5: and it's like I was like, this is so cute,
Speaker 5: which is a really weird way to describe a console,
Speaker 5: but it's adorable.
Speaker 2: It's so small, it's so cute. I agree with you,
Speaker 2: And I would like if I isn't gonna be getting
Speaker 2: a variety of consoles like that would be the one
Speaker 2: I would choose, just from an aesthetic perspective, just because
Speaker 2: it's like, it's just nice and neat. It goes with
Speaker 2: everything we were talking about white technology. But I do
Speaker 2: like the look of it despite that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's just hope it doesn't yellow.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, then we also have the Series X, which once
Speaker 1: again we can't say too much about other than how
Speaker 1: it looks and whatnot, which I'm sure people are very
Speaker 1: familiar with the size of this console what it looks like,
Speaker 1: because once again that was sent out early for preview.
Speaker 1: GameSpot has videos on the size of this box. But
Speaker 1: having held it for the first time, you know, the
Speaker 1: other day, pretty much, I was pretty impressed. Like it
Speaker 1: is heavy, but it feels very compact if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Like it. It feels like it is about as big
Speaker 1: or is about as small as it could possibly be
Speaker 1: with everything in there, which is something I really like.
Speaker 1: I really like the design of it, these sort of
Speaker 1: just obelisk fridge like shape. I really like. I know
Speaker 1: people like to meme on it, but I think it's great.
Speaker 3: You have to use two hands to pick it up.
Speaker 3: You can't do it one handed, which is the only
Speaker 3: bumba for me. Like as it's the measure of it,
Speaker 3: it needs a GameCube panel on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would like that's an accessory someone should miss.
Speaker 2: Is that, Like, is this a portability concern or just
Speaker 2: like an overall like this is your metric for a
Speaker 2: good size for a piece of technology.
Speaker 4: Just a portability concern.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, when you're moving stuff, you want
Speaker 3: to have one in each hand, you know, make the
Speaker 3: most most efficient use of your time and going back
Speaker 3: and forth too many times. But the Xbox can pick
Speaker 3: it up, the two hands gonna move it safely because
Speaker 3: otherwi is gonna drop it.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to your land party that we're
Speaker 2: totally allowed to have right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say it does seem to attract thumb
Speaker 1: prints or fingerprints and whatnot more than I expected considering
Speaker 1: its map. It's not super bad. But as I was
Speaker 1: moving it around and stuff, I did, you know, like
Speaker 1: shown in a certain way, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm already getting fingerprints on that. I want to get
Speaker 1: rid of that if I can.
Speaker 2: I just gleaned this from the box, so correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. But is the D pad so more
Speaker 2: similar to the Xbox Elite controllers D pad where it's
Speaker 2: like eight directional instead of a four directional.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of like a hybrid, isn't It's it's
Speaker 3: called the circular pad, but it has the four directional
Speaker 3: protrusions to make more precise movements on the full way,
Speaker 3: which I which quite like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that too. That's the attachment I have
Speaker 2: on my Elite controller because I'm I am a true
Speaker 2: gamer and I purchased that for my own youth and
Speaker 2: uh I So when I saw that on the box,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this looks exactly the same except
Speaker 2: for my fancy attachment on my elak controller. But it's
Speaker 2: part of the regular, not elite version. And that's all
Speaker 2: I noticed so far, aside from the part it looks
Speaker 2: like a computer tower, and I have no opinion on
Speaker 2: that whatsoever. I'm not the kind of person who's gonna
Speaker 2: get worked up about that and be like it looks
Speaker 2: like a fridge, Do not care.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the box itself was pretty cool, like it opens
Speaker 3: up and then the yeah, it's wrapped like a Christmas
Speaker 3: present too, and around it is power your Dreams, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, wow, Xbox, I can't wait to power my dreams.
Speaker 1: Shut this into my head while I sleep.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say you could tell her all star
Speaker 2: for social interactions that that made me emotional, like, oh,
Speaker 2: power your dreams, thank you? Like, oh no, God.
Speaker 1: Well, we do have some questions that we're going to
Speaker 1: get to that people submitted on discord. But before we
Speaker 1: do that, there's one more piece of news that is
Speaker 1: worth talking about. I don't know how much we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about it, just because we've talked about a
Speaker 1: very similar piece of news about three times now in
Speaker 1: this podcast. But Cyberpunk got delayed again. It's coming out
Speaker 1: December tenth now. Originally was supposed to be November nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Before that, I was supposed to be September seventh, and
Speaker 1: before that it was supposed to be PAP for sixteenth.
Speaker 4: It's crazy. I cannot wait.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go to a shop and buy a
Speaker 3: physical copy of Cyberpunk, unhook my console on the internet,
Speaker 3: and play the one point zero version.
Speaker 4: I want to see how bad it is.
Speaker 1: That's actually that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Because, yeah, it went gold a while ago, a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. Even until the day before they delayed,
Speaker 1: they were telling people on Twitter that yes, it's not
Speaker 1: getting delayed again. It got delayed because they are trying
Speaker 1: to optimize the game for many different consoles, which sounds
Speaker 1: like a big task to accomplish if you think about it, right,
Speaker 1: because the Witcher launched on three platforms, PC, PS four,
Speaker 1: Xbox one, but this thing is launching for PlayStation four,
Speaker 1: PlayStation four, Pro, PlayStation five, Xbox one, Xbox one, x
Speaker 1: Xbox Series, x Xbox Series, s PC and like it's
Speaker 1: a long Yeah, thanks for reminding me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, that's what they said in their post,
Speaker 2: right that, like it was really just for those final tweaks.
Speaker 2: It they even addressed in that post, like because the
Speaker 2: big question is, like, really three weeks is that going
Speaker 2: to get you what you need, and they were like,
Speaker 2: we realized that that doesn't sound like a lot of time,
Speaker 2: but it is, so we'll see again.
Speaker 4: It is when no one can go home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, thiks surprise to all developers.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I personally was very relieved by this news because
Speaker 2: it was going to be a lot of extra work
Speaker 2: to get that done on top of you know, the
Speaker 2: hardware reviews that were doing for the next gen consoles
Speaker 2: and the launch titles. So just from a purely like
Speaker 2: work standpoint being a reviews editor, it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank god, one list thing to worry about right now.
Speaker 2: But obviously I am more concerned for I hope this
Speaker 2: doesn't mean like you're working eighty eight hours a week
Speaker 2: to do this final push. But we've talked a lot
Speaker 2: about that topic, so we don't want to talk about
Speaker 2: it anymore. Really.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how much more there is
Speaker 1: to add about this apart from what they've said, what
Speaker 1: we've said before. I mean, I'm disappointed, but like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's three weeks. I'll survive. Don't message developers
Speaker 1: about how angry you are, because that's messed up. And
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of that on Twitter. I know
Speaker 1: no one listening to this podcast would do that, but
Speaker 1: tell your friends who might do that not to do that,
Speaker 1: because that's real fucked up. They already have to work
Speaker 1: a lot. They're putting their heart and soul into this game,
Speaker 1: so just relax. It'll come so we'll be able to
Speaker 1: play it.
Speaker 3: In twenty seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Anyway, we'll be back with some listener questions about those boxes.
Speaker 1: And we are back with listener questions. If you have
Speaker 1: any questions, you can email us at after Dark podcast
Speaker 1: at GameSpot dot com, or you can join our discord
Speaker 1: by dming myself and we will get you right in there.
Speaker 1: Questions this week are all from discord because earlier today
Speaker 1: I put out a message saying, hey, if you have
Speaker 1: any Series X or PS five questions, let me know.
Speaker 1: I can't answer a lot of them, but here are
Speaker 1: the ones we can answer, which may not be the
Speaker 1: most exciting ones, but here we go anyway. The first
Speaker 1: one is from garyless Gambit CALLI do you want to
Speaker 1: read this one?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: Just like opening a new game case and getting that
Speaker 2: fresh plastic smell. Does the Xbox series S and or
Speaker 2: X and PS five have that good plastic smell, you know,
Speaker 2: Garyless Gambit. I must admit I did not smell it.
Speaker 2: I did all the other senses were covered. I didn't
Speaker 2: take the time to smell it. No, I did not.
Speaker 2: I did not thought that good plastic taste. I'm very
Speaker 2: glad you caught that. No. I did not taste it either.
Speaker 1: But I smelled the Xbox when I opened it. It
Speaker 1: smelled like new tech smell. I was like, Oh, this
Speaker 1: is good, this.
Speaker 3: Is There's no the Xbox doesn't have any film to
Speaker 3: peel off the which is very disappointing.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you're right. I didn't even think about that,
Speaker 1: not even like on the button, you know, because you
Speaker 1: know how sometimes.
Speaker 2: Like on the h you love that good new tech film.
Speaker 2: But film no, oh did.
Speaker 1: I mean? The film industry stopped doing it a while.
Speaker 4: Ago, so it's more environmentally friendly.
Speaker 2: So sure, I was going to say the At least
Speaker 2: from what I could tell, the PS five packaging was
Speaker 2: particularly like geared towards sustainability. That is, the the vibe
Speaker 2: that you get from like the feel of the materials.
Speaker 2: It's hard to explain it just like feels compostable. That
Speaker 2: it's not helpful that's not scientific at all.
Speaker 1: But yes, yeah, I mean I will say that the package,
Speaker 1: and we talked about a little bit, but like opening
Speaker 1: up the box, it was very well packaged, like it
Speaker 1: had its a little spot where it kind of was
Speaker 1: elevated a little bit and you can just pull it
Speaker 1: out and unwrap it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there isn't that thing of pulling out like different
Speaker 3: hunks of cardboard to get to what you need. Like
Speaker 3: everything is there, the corporals there, and behind it there's
Speaker 3: like a little like can t like box package that
Speaker 3: you can just flip open and grab your controller and very.
Speaker 4: Accessible, very easy to rebox too. Definitely, you know for
Speaker 4: some reason.
Speaker 1: You'd have to do that if you whether or not
Speaker 1: you want to move it or you bought it and
Speaker 1: you want to sell it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like probably worth keeping the boxes this summer round, you're.
Speaker 2: Doing that like Christmas eve thing where you install the
Speaker 2: firmware software updates for your kid or whatever for the recipient,
Speaker 2: then you repackage it. I think that's the PS five
Speaker 2: packaging was the hunks of cardboard for sure.
Speaker 1: Next question here is from Bob Jones nineteen eighty question
Speaker 1: can both consoles be easily placed on their sides with
Speaker 1: the Xbox Series X. Yeah, you can just I don't know,
Speaker 1: make sure you got the it's lined up with the
Speaker 1: rubber feet and you can just move it however you'd like.
Speaker 2: The PS five, you have to. Yeah, there's instructions for
Speaker 2: like different ways to orient the base, and like you
Speaker 2: can't just you're not supposed to prop it up either
Speaker 2: on its side or standing up without the base. And
Speaker 2: it was a little It wasn't confusing, it was just
Speaker 2: a little tricky because you have to like rotate it
Speaker 2: a certain way and there's a secret compartment compartment with
Speaker 2: a screw in it, and then you have to rotate
Speaker 2: it the correct way for if you want the PS
Speaker 2: five standing up, and if you want it on its side,
Speaker 2: you then have to rotate it a different way. And
Speaker 2: so it was. It was one of those like some
Speaker 2: assembly required things and I had to get a screwdriver
Speaker 2: from my dad to get the base installed. But I
Speaker 2: would probably say put it on it's it's a standing up.
Speaker 2: Put it on it standing up, make it stand up,
Speaker 2: because that that just seems more natural. The side one
Speaker 2: just to me doesn't feel as as good. There's just
Speaker 2: something off about the vibe of it to me.
Speaker 1: Next one from Carbon how how ugly really is the PS.
Speaker 2: Five it is? You know it's it's not horrible. I
Speaker 2: really didn't. I would talked about how much I disliked
Speaker 2: the PS five a lot. I think when we first
Speaker 2: saw its appearance, it does kind of look like a
Speaker 2: an ultra modern skyscraper in a way. I saw a
Speaker 2: tweet saying it looked like gentrification, which I thought was
Speaker 2: very funnyer But honestly, I really like the like gray
Speaker 2: color of it, and I don't hate it. It's not
Speaker 2: my favorite that the it's no series S. Let's just
Speaker 2: say that, all right.
Speaker 1: Last question, here's from Jacob McCourt. What are they must
Speaker 1: have key accessories that we should have ready for the
Speaker 1: PS five and Xbox one X sorry, Xbox Series X
Speaker 1: and Xbox Series S. I mean as for the Xbox,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this is one of the first
Speaker 1: Xboxes that doesn't come with like a crappy headset. It
Speaker 1: just doesn't have a headset. So if you if you
Speaker 1: plan on playing online, make sure you've got a headset. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously it's got a regular what is it, three point
Speaker 1: five millimeter headphone jacks, So if you already have one
Speaker 1: of those your set, but if you want to like
Speaker 1: upgrade your headset for these new consoles, that's something I
Speaker 1: would consider. And then the other big thing for the
Speaker 1: xboxes too are the little storage expansion cards, because the
Speaker 1: Series X has one terror byte which ends up around
Speaker 1: eight hundred I think Michael said in his preview, and
Speaker 1: then the Series S has five hundred and twelve gigabytes,
Speaker 1: which that one in particular probably needs that storage expansion card.
Speaker 4: You get a play in Charge kit.
Speaker 3: They you got double A batteries again, so once those
Speaker 3: run out, you'll need to buy more batteries, which is
Speaker 3: very environmentally unfriendly.
Speaker 4: So you got to play in Charge kit.
Speaker 1: That's a good one too. That's a really good one.
Speaker 2: For the PS five, they have a headset, although the
Speaker 2: like three D audio I think works with any headset,
Speaker 2: so you don't need to get that branded one probably,
Speaker 2: you know. The Dual Sense obviously is like similar to
Speaker 2: the dual Shock, and that it charges if you don't
Speaker 2: like keeping it plugged into the PS five. The PS
Speaker 2: five is far away from where you're sitting, a charging
Speaker 2: doc is probably useful. I would say I found that
Speaker 2: was like one thing I never got for my PS
Speaker 2: four that I always like, really like. That was always
Speaker 2: on my list and I just never got around to it,
Speaker 2: and then it was like, oh, the PS five is
Speaker 2: coming out, it's too late now, but I have one
Speaker 2: for the PS five, and I would say that's a
Speaker 2: handy thing, so you don't have to like sit around
Speaker 2: really close to the TV if you want to keep
Speaker 2: playing or wait for the controller to charge.
Speaker 1: And before we close out, one last thing I want
Speaker 1: to remind people of is GameSpot Extra Life. GameSpot staff
Speaker 1: will be doing our annual seventy two hour stream of
Speaker 1: PLZA starting November twentieth at twelve pm Pacific. We'll be
Speaker 1: streaming with various members of the game Spot staff and
Speaker 1: friends to help raise money for UCSF Benny Off Children's Hospital.
Speaker 1: You can check out our extra Life page at tiny
Speaker 1: dot cc slash gs Extra Life twenty twenty. We'll be
Speaker 1: updating it with more details such as schedule closer to
Speaker 1: the event. You can also stream with us as well
Speaker 1: if you'd like to join our stream team, and you
Speaker 1: can do that by by going to tiny dot, cc
Speaker 1: slash gs Extra Life team and we'll update people in
Speaker 1: the discord and whatnot, so if you want to catch
Speaker 1: some community streams, head over there and we'll make sure
Speaker 1: to promo those. But yeah, that's been episode sixty five
Speaker 1: of GameSpot After Dark. Thank you all so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for joining me this week. Kelli,
Speaker 1: where can people find you and what are you working on?
Speaker 6: You can find me on Twitter at inky dojico I
Speaker 6: n k y d o j I kkoh, and I
Speaker 6: will be working on a ton of next gen coverage,
Speaker 6: mostly reviews, so be sure to read game Spot reviews.
Speaker 2: As always, That's what I say every week.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and.
Speaker 4: Ed you can find me on Twitter at Edmund Tran.
Speaker 3: Don't know what's coming up after this week, but I'll
Speaker 3: still be talking about games on Twitter like a regular person.
Speaker 5: And Jess, you can find me on Twitter where I'm
Speaker 5: at Jess McDonald. I also am twitch streaming again, and
Speaker 5: I posted a video to YouTube in the first time
Speaker 5: in two years, for which I was roasted, which is
Speaker 5: fair enough. But yeah, I'm in and around. I don't
Speaker 5: know where I'm going to be in a few weeks,
Speaker 5: but keep an eye out because.
Speaker 2: There'll be something. Yeah, thanks for having us. We'll miss
Speaker 2: you so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to miss working with both of you
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 3: It's a shame we couldn't have one final E three
Speaker 3: this year, but oh well in our hearts and minds
Speaker 3: and now E three instead.
Speaker 5: So honestly, like this group of people is so amazing,
Speaker 5: Like locally, every iteration of the Games Australian office has
Speaker 5: been great. When I joined, we were seven and at
Speaker 5: this point where three with our little borrowed American who
Speaker 5: will be going home at the end of the year,
Speaker 5: and it's just been fantastic. It's just the best group
Speaker 5: of people, the most talented group of people like across
Speaker 5: the world. And yeah, I mean we've had a lot
Speaker 5: of good times. We've had a lot of drinks, we've
Speaker 5: had a lot of crazy tgs's that were really good
Speaker 5: three times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, TGS was definitely a regular highlight when that happened.
Speaker 3: I remember my first TGS when Ricardo Torres was still editor,
Speaker 3: and that was just an eye open experience to hang
Speaker 3: with the GameSpot Live team and like Ryan McDonald and
Speaker 3: all those guys and just felt like a trial by
Speaker 3: fire because those guys worked so hard and they played
Speaker 3: really hard as well, and I just enjoyed having getting
Speaker 3: to do that traveling and meeting a bunch of new
Speaker 3: people through the ages, through the decade, and yeah, there
Speaker 3: hasn't been a dud in the bunch. Everyone against Spot
Speaker 3: is wonderful and it's been a dream, and it's been
Speaker 3: a dream for it's been.
Speaker 4: A really long dream.
Speaker 3: And I'm really lucky that I got to do that
Speaker 3: for like twelve years.
Speaker 4: So yeah, grateful if nothing else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna give yourself a little bit of a
Speaker 1: break ed after twelve year.
Speaker 3: Look, new consoles just came out, dude, Like it's like,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to stop playing games just because I
Speaker 3: don't work for games anymore, but I will. I will
Speaker 3: enjoy the freedom to play more of what I want
Speaker 3: rather than what I need to play. So finally gonna
Speaker 3: go to that back catalog maybe, but probably not.
Speaker 1: Well, play more into the breach.
Speaker 5: It'll be such a different relationship with games if we
Speaker 5: don't end up back in some kind of games media.
Speaker 5: It's just it's been so long of like not having
Speaker 5: that guilt. When I go back and play Heroes three
Speaker 5: four months of the year again, we'll just be like, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 4: All right, good times, good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah we did good.
Speaker 3: The soon