Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - New Game Reviews and Impressions - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 58

Episode Date: February 26, 2016

We review and give impressions for all the latest games we have been playing, Street Fighter V doesn't have an Arcade Mode, we discuss how we handle video game sponsorship opportunities, and Kojima has been on a world tour of tech, but what is he up to? (Released to Patreon Supporters on 02.19.16) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? Welcome to first ever episode 58 of the kind of funny games cast. I had to look at my phone because I wasn't sure what episode was. You weren't here last week so you're totally off. Yeah, I don't even know. Anything could have changed. This show might not even be the same show anymore. I renamed it. What is it now?

Kevin the potato and his three best friends. Welcome to the first ever episode of Kevin and the potato and his three best friends. Yeah, I always said? Nailed it. I like that. Yeah. So what's the source of this Kevin potato thing? Is it the same potato thing?

The internet has the potato thing? Well, I started it and then they jumped on it. Got it. So I'm calling him a potato. Because he kind of looks like a potato sometimes. He kind of does. Like a sexy potato. Like a fingering potato.

My God. Fingerling potatoes are the bomb. Putting that out there right now. Pretty good. I love a good finger. Pretty good potato. Ladies and gentlemen, as always, I'm Tim Geddes. I'm joined by the coolest dudes in video games.

That's going to stick one day. I want everyone. I know, but I want like the people that aren't our people. I want like other people to think that you guys are the coolest dudes. Okay. You know, like the other dudes in video games. I want them to be like, oh, one day I want to be, What about the other doodettes in video games?

Well, they get their own scale. Okay. You can't be on that scale, right? Okay. Just in case the ego is getting in the way. You can't win that one. We'll see. Yeah.

All right. Yeah, I guess you're right. So, if you are not familiar, this is a show every week over here on YouTube. com slash kind of funny games. We talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. We also do with iTunes in SoundCloud. There's a problem with iTunes. I don't know why.

Really? Yeah, we should just start talking about this and all the shows. If you're subscribed to us, unsubscribe. and resubscribe. If things aren't coming up in your feet. Yeah. Don't know what's going on. I think it was an iTunes podcast thing

across all the boards. I'm seeing a lot of people saying this shit. So make sure you check that stuff out. Leave a review if you feel so inclined. And just say something, say something about us. You know, let us know how we're doing and all that stuff.

Are we allowed to talk about this shirt? We are. This is a very nice shirt. Where did this come from? This shirt came from insert coin clothing. Okay. This is not a plug, by the way. This is not an ad.

This is not planned. I like them. Well, sure. No, no. I'm just saying it wasn't a lot of it. By the way, we're watching you, but this sponsored in the sense that I was not sponsored, but I saw a bunch of clothing from them. Like, fuck, I like this shit. So I reached out to them. I was like, hey, like, I want some of your shit.

They're like, oh, we'll send it to you. And I'm like, they were super nice. This shirt's awesome. I like you too. Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty's my homie. So that's cool. I also got a rare shirt from them.

Oh, that's what I saw you wearing the yesterday. I didn't realize that was from them. That's over on the feature on the game of a Gragie show. Go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny to see that one. But anyways, yeah, insert coinclothing.com. Check them out. You'll probably like something they have over there. They sell that like Nathan Drake's scarf.

And like, there's a lot of license stuff. That's like actual game. The other one's the cool Diamond Dog's jacket, right? Yes. The Diamond or the PlayStation jacket. I got that one. Why haven't you won that yet? Because I'm waiting.

Does build up. Sorry. Anyways, more of the rigmaral. Patreon.com slash kind of funny games. You can get the show early and get exclusive episodes. I think that's the more cool thing. Only cost a dollar. This episode is going to be worth the dollar.

Yeah. I can tell you right now. Sure. I feel some good discussion coming on. I like it. Yeah. We've been playing a lot of video games recently. We have.

Let's start this one off right. Just like right now. Topic one. We're going to give a bunch of reviews and impressions of games we've been playing. So this is a mix of a topic of what are we playing right now with, you know, more substantial thoughts on games without having to give a full topic to the games. Because I feel like right now, especially with games we're talking about here, not all of us play at them or some are more Tim or more calling him or Greg. Right. We'll just kind of give mini reviews slash impressions.

You want to start this one off? Sure, how you doing? Good? Good, good to see you. My name's Greg. Lately, I've been playing, I started a Far Cry Primal last night, put about an hour and a half into it, maybe two.

Played the night before that. Episode 1 of Minecraft Story Mode, late to it on that one, but saw it on the thing and didn't want something. I wanted something that was going to end. I didn't want to jump in that night knowing Far Carri Primal is the next day and get into something that I wouldn't have time to actually done.

And then I also beat layers of fear this past, since we've last done this. Cool. Or whatever. Cool. So, I've enjoyed all of them. starting with Far Cry Primal only an hour half in right

I feel I'm waiting for it to get amazing you know what I mean it's more Far Cry it's Far Cry with a primal skin I feel like and I know that that sounds like a knock and I know they went out of their way in the event we went to say that's not what this is but it's what it feels like it is you know what I mean if that makes sense like I'm playing it and it's like

okay cool like the crafting system seems not necessarily deeper but it's laid out better I feel like or at least I know where I'm going in terms of like before it was like I don't know if I'm going to get to this and you had a drill down into menus, kind of everything's up there. Same thing with like the skills in terms of improving your character and doing this. I'm seeing it right on the thing there.

But the, you know, the HUD, the little radar, the map, it all looks like Far Cry. And it's the same idea of Far Cry and go here and take out these guys and light the bonfire to take that. And that's all great. It's all well and good. But like, I was talking about it to Nick today, right? And he was like, yeah, okay, cool. And he's like, are you going to beat it?

And I'm like, no, I'm not going to beat it. Like, you know what I mean? Like, this is a game I'm going to play for a while, I bet. But even tonight, I'm like, do I want to play that or do I want to play episode two of Minecraft story mode? You know what I mean? Like it's this Far Cry primal is checking the boxes of being, I'm a video game and you have all these question marks on the map. Don't you want to go investigate them? I'm like, I do. I do. I do want to make the bigger quiver for my arrows.

I really do. So I do have to go hunt down these dingoes or whatever. However that's this thing. And so that's all there. But for me in particular, and I wonder how much this will be for everybody else too. I, you know, I was talking about being this story horror and this different thing. Like, I don't feel a connection to these characters. You know what I mean?

Like, it is for me a hurdle that I, like, I'm reading everything. Not that I hate reading, but just because like, I'd rather hear my character talk. I wish they would have done. I think when we were at the event, I talked to you about like, are they going to transition at some point? You know how sometimes movies or cartoons or shows will do that where somebody speaking Russian and then like the camera swings around and they start speaking English. So it's like, it's established.

They're not speaking English. Yeah. But here you go. They're speaking English. So you can understand. It's not doing that. So it's like, okay, cool. Like the whole time, I'm like,

and also it's primal, of course, right? So it's like, what's his girl's name that I'm helping? Like, what's her deal? I got to go get a shaman or whatever. It's like, all right. You know what I mean? Like, that's fine. The idea of building out the community,

because you have to go, like, there's like side missions to go help, you know, whatever, wayward villagers or whatever. Then you can bring them back and put them in your village and build out your village and make it bigger. That seems cool. That seems like what's going to be different compared to Far Cry for the Far Cry as you know before,

but not having really. invested that into that yet and investigated i should say i don't know if that's going to be enough and i have such a bad taste in my mouth from fallout base building you know i'm not like jazzed to make a community i'd rather roam the countryside like you're already you're already running into like oh you don't have a grappling hook and i'm like oh grappling hooks gonna be dope to get yeah that's gonna be dope to get and shoot around here but it is far cry it is a video game it is go do all these things but even then it's like i think i think i piece this together i think you and i were talking about i was like i think i beat far cry four i saw both endings

I watched Stimer beat Far Cry 4. And then, so I played Far Cry 4, but never finished it, but watch her beat it. And then I did the ending where you just sit there for 15 minutes in the beginning of Far Cry 4. That was all well and good. But now that I'm playing this, it's almost making me like, hmm, it'd be cool little wingsuit and shooting stuff. Maybe I want to go back and play that instead of this. You know what I mean? But I'm going to give this more time.

But in traditional, I think, telltale fashion, I'd let this, you know, Minecraft slept on it a bit. Like, you know what I mean? I was trying to just wait for it all to be done, like to get to episode five, but episode five nowhere inside right now they say soon um i was like oh whatever i'll try it jumped in tried that it starts off like who are these what's happening and then i really got into the characters and the the play between them you know um this is their first one where they're really using like celebrity voice actors you know what i mean so there's like people in there other than i mean i mean i bunch of the other telltale people but pat and oswald you know what i mean is like this main

character of the game or whatever and so i like him i like where the story's going episode one did make me want to play episode two so i think tonight i might actually just play that instead of i saw that you tweeted yesterday you're like, oh, I'm happy to see that they did the same type of intro that you're doing. What do you mean by that? Tell's from the Borderlands when it started, you know, like, I feel like, you know, for as much shit as Telltale gets, they do evolve their product as they go, right? And Tells from the Borderland was the first one where it was like, I feel, we're going to give you this game that's lighthearted, fun. It's based around the story or whatever.

And we're going to present it to you like you'd expect a really good TV show or a really good movie. And so what Tells from Borderlands always did is that you'd start playing the episode. And then there'd be this like critical moment, like maybe 15, 30 minutes in the game or whatever, where an awesome song would come in to set the mood of what the game's going to be. And then it would be like slow motion, funny. Like the words and the gearbox logos or gearbox are coming in and falling in like, you know, you're tumbling through the sky or doing this thing. And it was like, it was like this great breather all of a sudden after this short little appetizer introduction of like,

now we're getting into like, this is what you're playing. Here's this awesome intro. you know, to establish what's happening. And it was different for every episode because it wasn't like, you know, the Sopranos opening that always is the same clip, right? It was this thing in the world

of what's happening in the story. And so I wasn't sure if they, if that was something they were doing four tales on the borderlands or if they were going to expand it to other things and they have it in this game too. So like you started off and like, yeah, you're, you know, you're, in episode one,

you know, tumbling through the air. This is coming in. Creepers are there. Spiders are there. So the layers of fear. Well, I'm not done with story mode. The thing about story mode that I find interesting though is when I'm playing it,

it makes me really want to stop and play Minecraft, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Like, I'm enjoying the story part of it. And I think maybe now it's different based on the fact that I've beaten the episode, I'm even more. But in the beginning, for sure, when I was playing, like, you know, they're in the Minecraft world or whatever,

and they were going to a build competition and stuff. And I was like, hmm, I should probably start Minecraft on PlayStation 4. Because I've been playing on Vita forever. And that's fine, but, like, it's limited. You know what I mean? I think that's hampered my excitement to go back to it, just because it's a smaller world, whereas PlayStation 4 worlds are crazier and better builds.

and, you know, caverns. Better minds. You don't know what I'm talking about. Better minds, better crafts. Better crafts indeed. And then, yeah,

layers of fear. Layers of fear we did the sponsor, let's play that's up over there. And when we went and played that at the haunted mansion, which you can go watch on YouTube.

com, that's kind of funny games. It was fun because we were all being goons to each other and stupid, but it was like a relay thing. And Colin went first. So when I went in there and sat down to play layers of fear, no idea what the fuck's happening.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm playing it. And it's just like, all right, collect this, do that. This guy's talking is, is this a random dude? I don't know. You know what I mean? And so last week when I got my code and sat down to actually play it, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how actually interesting the story is. And when you start in that thing, you're like, oh, the voice is me and I'm this character and this has happened to my wife and I had this daughter and like, how

does this all play into each other? And you're picking up notes and reading about this story of like, oh, like, this is actually really, really interesting. And it's another, you know, game similar to Minecraft story mode, right? Where like even tonight, like I'd like to play something that has an end. So I'm done with it, and I feel like I've completed a chapter

and I put it away. Like layers of fear, you know, six chapters, you can beat it in a night. I think I spaced out of her two just started late. But it's the same thing of like I go through, I explore, and I, you know, it's conquerable.

And then when it's done, I feel like I've accomplished something and I, if I want to go back and jump back in and do this thing, I could. You know what I mean? I want to get the whole story out of it. But it was fascinating.

It was an interesting story. It runs like shit on PlayStation 4. it has scares. You know what I mean? When I was playing it out, for me it is like that. All right, PT didn't happen,

but this is like similar to it and it's going to give you the same kind of spooks and scares and stuff. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. You know what I mean? And when I dug about it, you know,

as I'm playing it, it occurred to me that like, this is my preferred haunted house. Like, you know what I mean? Like on Halloween when you go to the haunted house and the guys in the mask jump out and stuff. It's like,

that thing I'm like, oh, that was funny. How but like, it wasn't great. You know, I don't know. It never really gets me that much. Whereas this one, it's like, you know, you do something and you turn a corner and you're like, it's a dead end. I'm like, I got to turn it around.

And the world's going to be completely different now. And something you're trying to get, you still get scared because you don't know what's going to be there. Because in the video game world, literally anything can happen. Yeah, exactly. Whereas in the haunted house, it's just some fucking broke-ass college kid with a mask. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as it sounds like you guys did. You played the whole thing, but I don't even want to. I got, I played most of it.

I think most of it. Yeah. And it just, I don't know. felt like it wasn't what it was trying to be overall. Like it wasn't PT. And like I really enjoyed PT and I enjoyed the story of PT and like figuring out little things. This to me kind of just felt like it was trying to just get all the big scare moments out.

And it's like I, it felt like kind of just adding all the different things that we've seen from the horror games over the last couple years into one just thing. And just like here's this moment. Here's this moment. And it like almost becomes predictable of where the scares are going to be. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And I think the greatest defense, though, is that the game, while it was designed, just kind of like, you know, let you explore these areas and feel like you're, you know, getting the story and all this from the atmosphere and the environment. It was tunneling you to get to this next moment, get to this next moment. And I feel like the game didn't do a good job of making sure those moments were optimized to be seen by the player. Like, I feel like there's multiple times where I'm there and I know when I turn around something to be there, but I turn around and I wasn't exactly facing where the scare

happen. Sure. You know, or even in Collins, let's play, there's a scene where you're walking down the hallway and think, like, the paintings start like coming off. And there's something, there's something a little bit off about it that I was like, that could have been scarier. Like, that could have actually been a surprise instead of, all right, this is going to happen. Like, I feel like it's really telegraphed and it just misses the mark in terms of the scares. And in terms of the gameplay, it's like, I mean, it is very simple. It is just like a walk around and do things. So it's like, it's, you know, whatever. That's all fine. But it's just because we've seen so many scary games in the last couple of years that are just, you're walking around something and things are just happening. Like, this kind of felt like a bad greatest hits album. That's kind of my thoughts on it. Interesting. No, I don't think you're wrong. Like I'm saying, I think it is telegraphed at times. And I do think it, you know, like I say it's like PT.

It's not PT. It doesn't have the presentational value of PT, right? Like, I think that like, you know, in terms of how it looks, how it runs, you know, the voice acting is. It's like, okay, like this clearly isn't a AAA game, but I enjoy it. Come on, you played it. Well, just real quick, I think it's just what I was saying about like the, there's acclimation of all the stuff in one. It's just like, all right, here's baby dolls. Oh, here's a big face.

Here's like scary paintings that do stuff. And it's like, man, it's real. And oh, here's like goo. There's the black goo. And it's like, if they just stuck to kind of maybe one aesthetic, I think I would enjoy it a lot more. Whereas this, it was just like so much different things. They're like horror. It's horror.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. To reiterate, we did have a sponsorship with them so you can take everything we say with a grain of salt if you want. But I think the game's quite clever. And I think it's actually really good. And you didn't like PT.

Yeah, PT was strange to me. I mean, this game's clearly very inspired by PT. I don't think it's like PT at all. But I think it's inspired by it. The game does a really nice job of rewarding exploration and rewarding being very thorough with the storytelling. and I actually find it quite engaging and captivating. I was playing it through all one night and I got distracted during the last chapter by a phone call,

so I never went back to it, but I will. I mean, I just have to finish the last six chapter, but so unless it falls off the cliff, I don't know that it's going to be any worse than what I think it is. But I do enjoy the rifling through shit and being rewarded for finding letters and newspaper clippings and stuff like that. And the story is really interesting about the struggling artist and his wife who gets into a terrible accident. And I don't want to spoil too much of it, but like you don't, you could really go through the game without knowing any of the context at all.

If you're just not, if you're not thorough, it reminds me of gone home in the sense that, it's not nearly as good as gone home, but it reminds me of gone home in the sense that the more you engage with the world around you, the more you get out of it. It's the exact opposite way I felt about Firewatch, where it was,

firewatch was just whatever. Like, the story was, like, kind of boring to me. It didn't really matter what was going on in the game. And there was no reason to really explore because the game didn't compel you to do so directly. And I think layers of fear does a really nice job of saying, like, you know, maybe try rifling through some of the ship because most of the time you're not going to,

find anything and you actually start to get frustrated after a while opening everything and like there's nothing there but then like you see a newspaper clipping or you see a photo or something and it gives you a little bit of context for what what this this gentleman's going through in the game so I think that it's quite clever it doesn't run well on PS4 but um but I like it's a lot like it's I think it's I don't know if I'd say it's great maybe it is but I think it's good I think it's very good if you're into the you know the more walking simulator a horror game and I actually think the horror is quite clever I because it's it's very uh um what's a good way of putting it?

It's like chapter by chapter based in the sense that like with the baby stuff, for instance, like that's all that whole chapter's about the kid. So like that's interesting to me. It's not like a, when we played it at the mansion, it did see like it seemed like it was the greatest hits of, you know, like,

of horror tropes or whatever. But like in context, it's, I don't really see it like that at all. And I don't find the game, the jump scares and stuff like I don't find any of them scary at all. Like I don't think that's what the game's about. And I don't think the game's about seeing everything that it wants you to see either in terms of like

the things flying off the wall or people creeping around you or whatever. I think it's more about the psychological horror of the house and this guy's like, this guy's like psychosis. So I think it's quite, I think it's quite good personally. I've been playing Saturday morning RPG a lot on Vita and it's, it's really good. What is that?

It's, it's an episodic. So these guys did a Kickstarter for this game sometime ago and they only raised $10,000. So it's a pretty low budget, turn-based role-playing game based on this kid named Marty who is like an 80s kid and and it's all these 80s tropes in the game. So it's five episodes. These episodes are like two hours long.

I'm on the fourth episode right now. And you just like you're in a high school, like an 80s high school or you're going through. It's just, it's very silly. And like the bad guys are like the GI Joe is basically a cobra. They're called the like the bad guys name is commander hood. And the transformers are in it.

And like there's all these like back to the future references and et cetera and so on. And so it's, but the gameplay is actually really solid. explained a little bit on PS I love you so I'm sorry if it's redundant for people that have listened to that show as well but you have a trapper keeper like a binder and it keeps you keep everything inside of it that you find so you find like stickers like scratch and sniff stickers or whatever and you can

like use five of them at a time before each battle to like raise your defense or like lower the hit points of an of a this sounds fucking awesome and but like they pop up on the Vita and you like scratch them like quickly and like you have five seconds to get them all and then like some of them pop up and you like know the status elements and stuff and then you get into the game and you find like these these these tools that you use. So you can like just punch and fight normally or charge yourself up to to do more damage, but you find like different items in the world that, um, you can use in battle

as well a certain amount of times per battle. So you can find like a basketball that if you like hit the enemy with it like it causes burn damage and you can find, um, uh, like a Simon game that like if you keep doing it in order like it causes like random status elements to the enemies or whatever and then you fail and it can cause like status elements to you basically. Um, so like there's there's all sorts of like different tools. The game's quite clever. It's it's somewhat difficult. Again, it's not pretty. It's not like over the top, whatever, but there's a lot of like funny references in it. And for people that grew up in the 80s

in the early 90s, I think that it will really resonate with them as well. And it's just, it's just quite silly and it's cheap. So it's on PS4 and Vita. You can play it on PC as well, I think. I've been spending quite a bit of time with that. And then I downloaded trails of Cold Steel finally, which is a role-playing game that people, that's going quite a bit of a claim on the Vita. It's also on PS3. But I only spent about an hour with it. It wasn't scratching

the itch that I wanted right now, but I am traveling right after the show. So I'm going to start jumping back into it and seeing if it resonates with me because I do you know I do see something interesting there but I just it just wasn't resonating with me in that way Saturday morning RPG on the other hand was like really scratching some itches for me

and really enjoy it I do highly recommend it it's the low times are a little slow in Vita but there's something like really quite quirky and clever and I think it's it's a lot of fun you said what is it episodic or is broken up Saturday morning RPG yeah like it's all in the same game but there's like five episodes how long are the episodes

roughly. Two hours or so. So, yeah, and then your stats carry over from one in the next or whatever, and, you know, it scores you based on how thorough you are and finding secrets and finding the stickers and the items or whatever, so you can go back and play them again. And there's like a battle mode and an endless mode

and so like that. So it's a pretty good game. I've definitely enjoyed it. Maybe my favorite game of the year so far when I really think about it. It sounds cool. Yeah, yeah, it's neat. I've been traveling a lot

because of Philadelphia, So there was a lot of flights and a lot of layovers, a lot of bullshit. I told you I wasn't going to bring my Vita. Yeah. Because I wanted to focus on Fire and Blum Fates. But I ended up bringing it. And one of the flights I played Fire and Blum Fates and Birthright, and one of them I play Digimon Storyy Cyber Sleuth.

And in between, I was just on my phone. I found this new mobile game that is awesome. And I want you to try it, Colin. Because this is one of those things where if it was on Vita, you'd be all fucking over it. It's called Tomb of the Mask. Wait. Tomb of the Mask.

And it's awesome. It reminds me it's like if Pac-Man and super meat boy Falked like this would be the result of it it's a really fast-paced thing where you know in Pac-man you kind of just you just choose the direction and he goes Imagine if that had the like kind of just like super fast just like about splashing against thing nature of super meat boy We're in this tower and you're just going up and there's like a right the bottom of the screen's rising like tetra style kind of to get you and just keeps going faster and faster And you're just collecting like little dots and coins and stuff But the game does a really good job of like rewarding you and making you want to keep leveling up and keep getting more points and stuff and every time you reach like a certain amount of

Little pellets or whatever you get like it you reach a new level and like the screen explodes with like you're not level five You're now level six and it's like I don't really know what it means but I want it you know it's like a perfect It's a perfect mobile game for me where it's like I keep finding myself laying in bed I'm like I'm level up three more levels like just you know Mashed it out so then I guess I'll keep going a little longer or like if I'm waiting in line for or something and it's one of the it's a good game for that um and it was perfect when i was just on my flight just like in between doing other stuff like i don't really want to invest in like an RPG right now so but right now i'm just gonna bang this out and it's pretty fun and i want to want to see what you have to say about it yeah i'll play it on your phone if you want um then there's a

firebomb fates what do you think oh i mean it's fire emblem is one of my favorite franchises i think overall and it's such a surprise to me because i obviously got into it only after smash brothers because it wasn't in America until then. Then I kind of went back and I've played all of the American games that have come out and like I love them so much. And this was the first time that a new one was coming out that I wasn't super, super stoked for. I never really liked the look of it. There's, and it was confusing to me that there's three games. So there's birth, right, conquest, and revelation. And it's the same, the beginning of the games are always the same for the first six chapters. And there's like the story branches and it does different things based on which family you choose.

And then Revelation is kind of like the true ending like version where you don't choose either side. You just kind of like do your own thing. You're playing the story. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting that they released it that way where it's two separate cards. So it's kind of like Pokemon red and blue. And I'm seeing a lot of places review the game as if it's the same game, which doesn't really make sense to me because it's more similar to Zelda Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages.

They're two very different games. They have similar, you know, things going on and same characters and stuff. But, like, it's a very totally different game. Once you reach a certain point. Or you can buy the special edition, which is the one I have that has all three on one cart. And that gives you the option to once you beat the game, once you beat birthright, you can start from chapter six. You don't need to replay, which is good.

And that was a worry I was going to have. I was like, I don't want to have to do that. Basically, the tutorial missions again. Yeah. So I'm happy you don't have to do that. I haven't beat any of them yet. I am 85% through birthright And they've made it really clear that birthright is the easier of the two games

And I wanted to you know kind of work my way up I think the proper way to play would be birthright conquest and that revelation And it's it's really it's really good you know I the reasons I was trepidious about is I don't really like like the designs of the characters too much It has the two families one of them has a more European flair and one has a way more old school Japanese feel Where's all the other fire emblems Have been a bit more

Like anime style European vibe Sure you know And for all the reasons I wasn't excited about it Playing it I'm like oh I like that this is different Like I'm not just another guy with blue hair and a sword Like your main character has white hair and a sword Oh there you go No but it's but the main character isn't the kind of just warrior style

That you're used to having the firearm games She or he might like she turns into a dragon. So it's like the in Fire Unloothed characters that can like turn into animals and stuff. So it's, I like that there's just a kind of shift. It'd be the equivalent going back to Pokemon if they were to make a Pokemon game that you don't choose either a fire water or leaf starter, you know, like actually choosing different types and stuff.

And it's like I appreciate that they tried to at least shift this core gameplay element a little bit, enough that like it affects the storyline and the actual gameplay of it. instead of just having one character that you just have that just goes through and destroys everybody and is obviously stronger than everyone on your team yeah um i'm really enjoying it birthright i hear and from what i'm playing in the game it's it's way more straightforward than conquest is in terms of the mission objectives it is just kind of go through clear the map go through clear the map but even then it's interrupted with like kind of new twists on it that keep it interesting and i i always like and appreciate the fire emblem does that like they they understand when it is becoming just the

game over and over. Whereas conquest I hear has like every mission has a different like gimmick or twist to the mission that you need to think about. And one of those that's across all of them is because you turn into a dragon, there's these things called dragon veils, I think, where on the map there'll be squares that if you get on them, you can like use your dragon powers to change the landscape. So it's like if there's quicksand, you can like shoot fire at it. It like makes it hard.

So you can like walk over. You'd be able to move more spaces faster or whatever. But if you do that, it also affects the enemies. That means they can get to you quicker and stuff. And it's really cool. And it's one of those, it's a nice little twist that they added to the game in the same way that last year, or not last year's last game's Awakening added the partner system. Where it's like it's the same shit you know, but like it's a twist that really does kind of change the dynamics and flow of each match. And they also improved the partner system that they had an awakening where it's not overpowered.

like in Awakening you kind of partner up and just like wreck hell on everything now it is a bit more those two options there's more of an offensive or defensive based on whether you partner with them or just on a space next to them and I like that it opens up a lot of strategic like elements to the game that really make you think about all your characters in in a way that I normally just focus on a couple and I'm like I don't really care what happens to the rest of them having said that the story is similarly like lame and you know just kind of like here it's fairly generic and here's your emotional moments and it's really kind of like paint by numbers um awakening had the same issue like i kind of missed like fire emblem nine had such an awesome story like ike's game i love that and uh this is kind of just it's like all right i i get what's going on um and i think my biggest complaint about the game is that the the characters are all so similar looking and have such weird names and there's two families and like they throw you into this in a way that the other games don't where i'm like i don't know these characters and they're not different enough looking so that i can be like oh all right

that's the healer that i really like need this is the archer that i there's another a better one or this is the you know paladin whatever and so it's like there'll be certain characters where before i'd be like all right i know who my go-tos are now i'm like oh shit i just leveled up this person when i meant to level up this person i'm really excited to keep playing though and it's definitely it got me in its loop of like I'm addicted to it. I want to keep playing and I want to keep, I'm going to play through all three of the games. And I like that the really the three games and since I have it on one cart,

it's just a super long ass game. Yeah. Of gameplay that I love. That's awesome. That's cool. And there's also a new defense mode where like there's a castle. You have to build a fort and stuff. I hate that shit.

There's no game where I'm like, this is what I want to do. Yeah. So that's upsetting to me. But the mode in that's cool where instead of going off and trying to fight everyone you're defending. So it's one of those things where like there's people come from all angles and you need to make sure you don't die for 11 turns.

And that completely switches the way you think about the game. And I like it a lot. So I definitely recommend it. It adds to the 3DS's vast library in a way that was necessary over the last year. It's a meaty game. People have been looking forward to it. Yeah. It's really good.

And then yeah, the last one, Digimon Story, Cyber Sloo. Oh yeah. It's, you know, it's good. You know, I can understand people that are really into it. It's not for me because it is just, it's too long to be as generic as it is. And I feel like it takes too long to get me to the parts that I want. I'm a huge Digimon fan, like the show. And this game, it blows my mind that we're finally getting a Digimon game that like

looks similar and like, like, I'm like, oh, this gameplay is cool and it's good. Because I played Digimon World. The last Digimon game I played was Digimon World One on PlayStation 1. So I'm sure that they've gotten better since then because that one was. It's really weird and all you did was clean up poop. But... Hopefully they've gotten better. Digimon's always struggled with this thing where it started as Tomogachi.

Or before Tomogachi, there was Digimon. Where it's just like you have a monster and you kind of take care of it and feed it and all that stuff. And that's not the type of gameplay that I like. You know, I am more of a Pokemon guy. I like this whole thing. And this game, it's Pokemon. And I'm like, ooh, well, I didn't want it to be just Pokemon. Like, you're actually catching them and, like, they evolve.

And the whole thing about Digimon is the dig evolving thing is supposed to be like a status where they go up and then down And this is more like they're at that level and they stay there and it's like that's kind of kind of weird And it's the turn base thing. It's very simple and the biggest problem is it's easy and even when I'm like five hours six hours in It's like man this is still like I'm just rolling through enemies like with one or two attacks and I there's not even a chance of me Losing and I'm sure it gets harder but at the same time like I'm not sure it's ever even going to get difficult enough that it's going to be worth playing 40 hours for, you know, just for it to get

kind of difficult. Sure. Because, and it's not rewarding. Like, I don't feel the need to level up the characters and whatever, because I'm like, it's just generic is kind of the best way I can put it. Like, the music sounds really generic. The look of it's great. Like, it definitely looks nice. It's on Vita and PS4. I think I'd

prefer it on Vita. On PS4, it's a little like I'm playing on Vita, but I turn it on my PS4 just to see how it would look. Sure. And it, it's a little little sparse. Is it the exact same game? Yeah, exact same game.

This is a game that came out in Japan a year ago, two years ago, and people protested to get it to come here. So finally did. People are really enjoying, and I'm happy about that. But for me, it's just,

it's such, just, I'm going to make a JRP. Here's what it is. And as you're just walking around, it's very empty locations. The battle system, it's as primitive as a turn-based battle system can be.

and I want to play with fucking War Graham on. I don't really want to... Of course you do. We all do. And like that's so many hours into it that I can't even imagine how long I'd have to play to get to that stuff. And that doesn't make me want to keep playing. Yeah. But I get why people would like it because the story does seem, you know, like standard Digimon Fair and

characters obviously are the characters you know and love. So that's all cool. But it's not for me, but I get that it's for other people and I'm happy I put as much time into it as I did. So, good. There's that. Ladies and gentlemen, topic two of the day is

Street Fighter 5, but specifically removing features that people kind of assumed to be part of a franchise and then not having them in the new one. Like online play?

If you were to take out online play. Street Fighter 5 was broken when it came out. Well, that's broken, but that's different. Yeah, I know it was a joke. I made a joke and Tim didn't react.

It lacks an arcade mode. Uh-huh. So Street Fighter 5 is, comes out and does not have arcade mode, which most people think is blasphemy because it's like, that is... How you play Street Fighter? Yeah, exactly.

You know, like, that is the mode if you're not playing versus. And the internet is upset about this. They're upset a lot of things. They are. And I just kind of want to see what you guys had to say about this. Like, now, granted, the one thing is, like, there's not an actual arcade version of Street Fighter 5. So a lot of people are making the argument that it's like,

oh, well, there's no arcade version. I think that that's such a loose thing. Like, it's such a, just, they're just words. You know what I mean? Like you know what you want from arcade mode. There is a story mode, but it's not what you think. It is each character has one match that you play that has some weird story-based elements to it. But there's not a mode you play that you play through and fight each of the characters.

You go off the challenge ladder and it gets harder. And then you get some stupid ending that no one cares about because fighting games. Stories don't really make sense like that. Those are all awesome endings in DC versus Mortal Kombat. I'm sure that they were, right? I'm sure that they were. But Colin, I'm mostly interested in your thoughts on this because you're, you, I think, are the exact audience that would have an opinion on this because you're not really going

to play Street Fighter 5, but you know what Street Fighter means to you. And you seem like somebody would be like, how the hell do you not have this? Yeah, it's weird. I mean, when it, it makes you wonder what they were doing, like, for a long time. And I'm sure that there's a lot of character balance and the roster's quite expansive and there's some new characters and they have to get all that stuff right. But part of what I think people loved about Street Fighter 4 was, and I do play Street Fighter, not as competently as I once did,

but I love Street Fighter. I'm actually a huge fan of the series. And people like Street Fighter 4 because of its robustness. Like, there was a lot in that package that people enjoyed. And then they supported it, you know, with future iterations and then, you know, new characters and stuff like that. So it's weird to take a step backwards in something that seemed like it should have been a little more vaster

and a little bigger. Now, the gap between Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 3 and then Street Fighter 3 and Street Fighter 4 were way bigger than the gap between Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 5, which is a small gap. So you could imagine that they could use that as an excuse to say, like, well, we didn't have time to really massage a lot of the stuff that we have to get, like the things that we think are most important to the core audience, right,

which to them is probably versus mode in the online functionality of the game, and the cross-platform versions, because it is on PC as well as PS4. But I am curious that if the game has a story mode, which indicates that there is AI, competent AI programmed at various levels for all these characters, then how hard would it have been to spin it into something very no frills, very low budget in the main and just let people fly around a map and fight the enemies. Like that's like what's a little confusing to me is that all of the components, with the exception of some various basic aesthetic,

things like the map and very basic programming in terms of, you know, just looping these things together. Like this is, everything's there. All the ingredients are there. I don't understand how the game doesn't have that. Now I think they are going to support it. Well, there is a survival mode now,

which is, I mean, it is you fighting against the characters. It's just, it's just, yeah, the little tweaks. And really,

it's the name that, that's missing. there. There's not a one v1 player versus CPU mode without going into training mode and turning that on or playing survival mode which is different. No it is it is different. That's not the classic going to each person three rounds. Yeah it's it is strange to me because that's I mean that

you know I like playing street fighter against other people when I was young in the arcade and Street Fighter 2 Super Nintendo. If you wanted to play the broke ass Genesis version you can do that as well but the you know Street Fighter 3 had its audience but Street Fighter 4 really had there was renaissance with Street Fighter and that's what's so surprising to me is that Street Fighter 4 was really kind of dead when Street Fighter 4 kind of came around. Not dead, but maybe Long Dorman and no one really expected that it was going to be anything and it was something and people really enjoyed it.

So it's weird to see Street Fighter 5 being a stripped down version of the old game, even though there's a lot of promise here and a lot of future support. And I like some of the nice things, the pro-consumer things they're doing with the characters being free if you earn that in-game currency and stuff like that. But again, yeah, there's these different tweaks in these different modes, but that's the way I like to play. You know, I like the arcade mode of just not really knowing who you're going to fight next. not you don't fight you know well in the old games you would fight everyone but in a lot of

the you know street fighter alpha or three for instance which is like really maybe my favorite street fighter game um you don't know who you're gonna fight and uh i like those kinds of things and then it culminates with the boss fights and and everyone has like their own kind of story that's interlaced in there as well so i don't need like a plot i just need like and they have that with story mode i guess i just need uh more functionality in the game and we'll get it but it is weird well so what's interesting there so yeah street footer five is more of a platform than uh then uh then you know, just one of those games. They said they're not going to do Super Street Fighter 5.

There won't be ultra. There won't be any adjectives or anything. It's just you get this game. And over time, they'll be DLC. And in terms of characters, you can play in game to get them. And they're going to be adding more modes and stuff. Arcade mode is not on that list. Oh, really?

I thought it was. I mean, I'm 99% sure that it's not on the list. No one told me that I'm my assumption. That makes, that's strange because that was my assumption was that that was something that they would just, they would just stitch in and they ran out of time. But this makes me think like, is this something. We've talked about this many times. like with Halo they took out the split screen local co-op stuff and like is it something similar

to that where maybe they looked at the stats and they're like on arcade mode like you guys are upset about this but like nobody's using it nobody's using it yeah it's weird because it's possible because you know street fighter four was the first internet connected street fighter game per se I mean you can play street fighter three on a lot and so like that now but um so this was the first time that they were garnering like direct feedback from fans not just things not just surveys or just anecdotal evidence but actually like feedback on how people are playing the game but I'm not so sure really a fair assessment if that's the way they got their statistics because when you're getting your bearings at any fighting game, whether it's a king of fighters, whether it's guilty gear or whatever,

like people are going to play against the computer out of pure curiosity. And I think the longer you're going to see like an inverse correlation between the longer someone plays a game and the longer are fighting games on the market and the fewer amount of single player matches that are played because then it starts to become a more competitive mainstream game. And I don't mean mainstream in terms of like everyone's playing. I mean mainstream in terms of like the fighting community has their hands around us and they don't want to play against the computer anywhere. Now they want to play against each other. So I don't know if they're looking at stats like that, that that's necessarily fair. And I don't know if that's what Capcom's doing or not, but that doesn't

seem to make any sense to me based on the fact that like when you get this game at its embryonic state, when no one's played Street Fighter 5, no one's even played to some of these characters ever, you want to play against the computer. You want to train and stuff like that. And you can train and do all those kinds of things and play against static characters. But if that's what they're reading into it, I don't know that that's so fair. At a time when like people want more content in their games, it's weird to strip out the core single player component of Street Fighter 5. That said, it doesn't seem to be affecting the reviews that significantly because the game itself, apparently, from what I've heard and what I've talked to people about it, because I'm curious about it. The game's supposed to be exceptional.

So, like, that's one of the disappointing things about. No one doubted that the game was going to be great. It's just a matter of, you know, what can you do with it? And so funneling people into these, like, very limited single player modes or right online or right into a local match just doesn't seem to be the spirit of the game right now. But that's going to be the spirit of the game in six months. I just think it's interesting because it's just a different take. Like, just because it's not arcade mode. You're not doing that.

Like, the survival mode or whatever, you still can play against, like, computer characters. And I feel like a lot of people are getting upset just because it's not the exact same thing that they've had forever. You know, and I'm saying this is someone that isn't really a street fighter fan. And if I were to play, I'd want the arcade mode. So it's like, if I were to play, like, it would be kind of weird for me. But at the same time, it's like I could just make that happen. So you're saying in protest of no arcade mode, you're not going to play Street Fighter 5. That is actually word for word what I'm saying.

Yeah, you heard it here first on the kind of funny games guest. Yeah, I don't know. Like, it's possible, like you said, that they're reading the tea leaves, literally the digital tea leaves about the data they're getting on the way people play games. It's also possible that they were like, we can just, this survival mode, which I'm not, you know, trifled with in any sense. You know, they could be looking at this to me like, this is just a competent replacement for what we already had.

And they just assumed that that was what people wanted. And I'm sure they focused that's of the game and stuff. So I have, you know, this isn't a small indie release. This is a game that's been in development for a long. long time and it's got two very big companies behind it. So in Kafka and Sony. So I wouldn't be too worried about it. But I wouldn't also be surprised if like as far as I understand that maybe it's not arcade mode per se, but I know that they were, I know that Yoshinora Ono said at one point that that they were they were going to patch in significant story elements into the game. And so I'm

wondering if that is just the replacement for arcade mode. It's just a, you know, it's just a different name. It sounds like that's going to be more of the story mode that's in this game, which is actual story-based things. Like examples I saw when I was reading about it is that like Ken goes to like a party and it gets interrupted by people and like that there's one match that takes place based on that story. And I think that the expanded story mode is going to be more of that with like actual CG videos and stuff. Because right now it is just static images of like hand or just drawn images and text and stuff like in classic street flutter style. Yeah, I don't I mean I don't see that that's necessarily it just seems like a very transitional kind of thing. But the main thing's most important. important with Shoot Fighter 5 is if it's if it plays well and because then they can build on that foundation and from everything I've heard it plays yeah it sounds like really balanced and really good people like the new characters I like that the there is you know the eight classic characters four characters we haven't seen for a long time and four new characters with the promise of way more to come this sounds like they're making a lot of smart decisions overall with it I also like that

it's a platform I think this is something that we we talk about constantly from wanting from games and the fact that they're doing it is a really good step forward and also I think a lot of issues like there's a lot of online issues and stuff that happens with day one games I'm sure over time they'll fix all that doesn't excuse the problem no for sure not at all they had like two betas though it's like one yeah what were you doing I think that that's just you know there's I don't has any game ever launched that has flawlessly yeah online I don't know I don't think I can be wrong but I think that like destiny was fine and then call of duty was has is typically fine yeah I think so destiny destiny had issues it wasn't like it wasn't like Diablo issues though that's the

thing. It's like, where do you rig it? You know what I mean? Yeah, and that's true. But my point is, it's like they're working on and that stuff will be fixed. But I think that we're seeing these games like Destiny that when it came out, people had issues with the lack of content. You know, and then over time they added it and now no one has issues with that shit. And I think Street Fighter, it's

weird that that is now going to be a franchise that's seen that way. I wonder where the game's going to be in a year, you know, and how much value it's going to be to buy a game. Because now Destiny is worth so much more than it was there at launch. And then we look at other games. We talk about like Grand Tourism would be a great one. and other stuff like that.

But it's like, what other games could, could even have that, that type of, you know, platforms? Platform. I mean,

I saw with every sports game. Yeah. Every sports game could be that easily. And then you get the, you get a literal roster update, but then you also get the engine, you know, patch that's two gigabytes or whatever,

right, that comes in and changes this and puts the new physics in and does this kind of thing. That's always an easy one. But, I mean, that goes from real sports. Like,

we're talking about NHL, we're talking about Madden to WWE, like WWE should totally be a platform. If they're not going to change it, which they're clearly not going to. They refuse to just give us the no mercy engine with better graphics,

which is what everybody wants, but whatever. Yeah. And then the other thing is like trying to think of like if there was games that mean a bit more to us than Street Fighter does. Like what are, what are the,

some modes or stuff that like are so iconic to the thing that we don't really even need at this point. You know, I don't have any off the top of my head, but it's like, because I'm trying to think of what the equivalent is to like something that I really care about of like if that just wasn't there.

Yeah. You know, it would be like Halo multiplayer, right? I mean, I guess that's true. Yeah, I mean, if they like cut out Call of Duty single player game games, they'd be bummed, you know. They don't, they won't do that because a lot of people play it. But yeah, I mean, there's things that are fundamental to games

and the way we look at specific series and specific franchises and the individual games within. So I understand why people are upset about this, even if it's more, even if it's overblown as many problems are. And I don't know whether it is or isn't because I'm just not familiar enough with the problems in the game. But it seems to me like it's something that can be solved once the core foundation. If the core foundation is solid,

This would have been way more tragic if it was bare and the game sucked. Yeah. Or if it had a lot of content, the game sucked. I mean, like, which way do you want to have it? It's not to say you have to have it one way or the other, but at least it's this way and not the other way. Yeah, very true. Topic three. Oh, I thought you're saying, giving me the whole time.

I was giving you three. I was helping out. I was giving you visual aid for somebody watching at home. This one comes from the kind of funny forums. Boy, Deuce says, hey guys, this question is about promoting video games. You guys do a great job and are able to reach a wide audience of gamers. lately I've noticed that Greg has been talking about how excited he is for the division after finally giving the beta a shot He's also mentioned in a few episodes how we'll be playing it online

Having played the beta and heard many online commentators talk about how content weak it is currently And I agree with them Now I understand that everybody's taste are unique and to each their own I also understand the kind of funny is a business and money needs to be made so no hate from me I also noticed him subtly positioning the coke bottle so the label faces the camera Was he said he has an LOL after that Was just wondering question is Greg getting paid to promote the division by saying he'll be playing on online repeatedly or otherwise.

It's all perfectly legal after all. I thought this was a cool jumping off point, especially given that we did one of our first video game sponsorships in a long time. Sure, the layers of fear of thing. And I just kind of wanted to talk about like our thoughts on the whole thing and just get everyone

out there on the same page. Sure, we haven't talked about it a long time. We talked about how we're going to handle ethics and sponsorships and stuff when we started kind of funny, but we didn't do it. As we said from the get-go, if we're doing sponsorships right, you'll never know. yes I'm being paid by the division

and placed no no no no no the whole point is we'll be up front about everything we do and so no I'm not being paid to talk about the division at all his point he's got it a little bit wrong I played the division beta for like 40 minutes got in it was exactly what I wanted and I got out you know what I mean my excitement

around the division first off is that it's third person action which is my jam XP popping off when I kill people and the promise that I know Kevin's gonna play maybe I got to play a little bit with Colin Fredo's gonna be playing I bet I can get Nick on board me and Mitch were talking last night about having a standing like Monday date like it's going to be and Scott Lowe is going to be playing it's like I'm going to be playing it's it's going to be, it's

it's the first game that I've seen from the outside coming multiplayer that I'm like I like I like the gameplay. It's not space like destiny which is a turn off for me and I know that's dumb but it's not space like destiny and it's like my friends are going to be playing it. So it's like I'm already invested in the fact that it looks like I'll be able to play through and gear up and get better and get XP and then it's going to be that Scott pops on and I can go help his mission or you know Christine and I keep talking about playing together right. that chances are since knock on wood we'll have it before she will,

it will be early, that I'll be advanced to be able to come back and help out on her missions to go through or maybe a role of different character or whatever. Not paid. Haven't played that much. So he's talking about it being content light.

I don't know anything about that. That's not, I don't know that. That's not a complaint I'm hearing from my friends who have, like, you know, Scott played dozens of hours, right? And it's like, I don't know. He's never said,

it felt great and he loved it and he can't wait for the real thing. So it's like, that's all I need to know from my trusted peers, right? So yeah, not paid for the division to clear it all up. But in terms of sponsorships, the idea has been, you know, when they do come up that we tell our audience about them, we never hide from that. We're not ashamed of it.

You know what I mean? And the fact that we'll never do something or a sponsorship that does jeopardize our relationship with you. We'll never do something that we're going to look at me like, that's fishy. That's weird. Why do they do that? A great example for us I always talk about is the order, right? We did that order sponsorship or integration or whatever you want to call it, where Colin and I did like a rewind theater kind of thing on the website for the order. talked about the hidden things and brought you up to speed if you didn't know any of the history

about the order. Then three days later we put up our review discussion and we were like, this game's not that great. And that was the point is that we were being sponsored around content that wasn't a review, that wasn't an opinion. It wasn't like we were, the review, us going through and looking at the,

you know, the actual order website wasn't us saying this game's good or bad, buy or don't buy, good or bad, you know, or seven point nine or zero. You know what I mean? And it's the same thing,

even with the layers of fear thing we just did, right? That was us doing a let's play of layers of fear, but it's really more about us getting fucked with a haunted house and fucking with each other and being stupid. Yeah. Talking a spirit guy. I mean, and even then, it's like there was no, never a point where there are like, you know, say these things about this game or whatever.

And we could have totally hated it. We could have like been making fun of it as we were playing. And like, that's, that's the way that cookie crumbles. And that's the, we go in being us. And like they paid for that opportunity. That's what they wanted. And the thing about it, we keep saying they and that, you know, the developers issued us the challenge is what we say in the video, right?

Even though the description says we're sponsored or whatever. The interesting thing about is we never had direct content with the developers at later's of fear, right? Contact, yeah. I'm sorry, I said content. Yeah. Contact of the developers behind it, right? It was through layer media, which is, you know, our friends and stuff who are also in the video production business who got this opportunity and then hired us to come be the guys because they like our content, right? So it's that weird thing of like, no, everybody's been awesome about it. And when you talk about it, you know what I mean? Like we've taken your feedback in terms of like, well, you say in the video that they issued you challenge, but you don't say specifically it's sponsored. And it's like, sure, we put in the description. Colin's been great on every show we do saying, you know, hey, this is what we think of layers of fear, but take over the grain of salt. Exactly. It's all very interesting to think about. I come from a totally different world than you guys do because you guys were the journalist side of IGN

where I was the business production side of IGN. And it's like, I don't think that any of us disagree on this because it is, there is ethics. There is a clear right and wrong with a lot of stuff. And then there's stuff that's not so clear. But to me, the clear thing is you can't buy opinions. That is when shit gets bad. Yeah, we're never going to do something or say something where it's like, all right, we want to hire you to play this game, but you're not allowed to say if you like it or don't like it.

That's the big thing if you're, and I was talked about before with this Final Fantasy event where I was like, sure, we'll do it. Colin talks shit about Final Fantasy every chance he gets. I don't, I respect it, but I don't play it. So I can't say anything. And Tim's gonna be the fan. And that was the thing with like,

you know, I can't tell you much about the event. But even when we're talking about like, I'm not gonna, I told them straight up. If I play it and don't like it, I'm not gonna be like, well,

that's just great. What a funny. You know what I mean? Like, no. Yeah, no. And it gets really kind of complicated because, you know, people start feeling really entitled to,

you know, just being known when there's a commercial in front of them. And it's like what's really interesting is there's so many rules that people don't know about. And there's so many rules that no one even knows because they keep adapting and keep changing. Like with the FTC doing all of its stuff in terms of advertisement, the rules on the internet, there is rules. They are constantly being redefined. And what one group tells you is totally wrong than what another group tells you. And each establishment kind of just needs to come up with its rules and be transparent. I think that's what we have going for us

is we're so transparent with the audience. Like we tell you guys, like you're never going to not know if something's sponsored. Like, and if it's ever not clear, if someone asks, you'll get the answer immediately.

If it's ever not clear that it's sponsored, we failed. Yeah, that's the point. Exactly. And like, so that, whether it's something in the description,

whether it is, you know, audio in the video, which I think we're adding to video two, right, or whatever, to make sure that it's crystal clear for everyone there. Like,

we live and die by authenticity. That's the whole reason kind of funny works is because you out there care enough about our opinions. for a sexy face, no offense to him. You're not coming here for exclusive gameplay, usually. You know what I mean?

Like, the bread and butter of us is us talking to you about video games and you going, I respect their opinions. Yeah. So the moment I'm like, let me tell you why I love the division. BTW, this is brought to you by the, well, fuck me. You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense then. Yeah.

And that's the other thing there is it's like, you know, these opportunities, we look at them is like a chance to do something cool that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Sure. Like, we would have never done a let's play. Like, would we have played layers of fear? not for sure. Maybe, you know, horror games are great let's plays. It would have been on green screen and it would have been in a normal let's play.

That was my favorite. Like all the comments are like, these production values. And it's like, there you go. Like you see it already, right? The fact that like when we can be part of something that isn't opinion based and it's

going to be a sponsorship, we can give you something different, right? Because layers, layer media, which isn't related to layers of fear, but confusing to someone just getting on, has amazing cameras and a drone and all these other things that we don't have.

We have Kevin. Yeah, he's good though He's great, I love him But like if I was to say Kevin Give me a drone boom shot on that right now He'd pick it up and slam it to the wall And then drop it on the ground And then he trip over the cord

Yeah, it's really it's a case by case thing And I think something that I want to make clear To the people out there is I do a lot of the businessy Like sponsorship deal stuff Right And we never do something without having a discussion about it You know, especially if it Whenever it starts to get to the point of like an ethics question

Of like where do we draw the line I'll talk to you guys. I'll bring you sometimes separately just to get your different opinions and be like, you know, is this all right? Like what, what do you feel about this? What's the messaging need to be on this?

Do we need to say brought to you by? Do we need to clearly define it and like all this stuff? And we'll go back and we'll tell them. And if they're like, no, then we're like, all right, we're not doing that then.

You know, it's like they play by our rules once it comes to a certain point. Or we just say no. Yeah. You know, and it's like we can pass because we're in that position where we, we're not begging for money to these people. You know what I mean?

It's like we're, to us and we're being like, oh, does this make sense for us? Can we do this? And also the other question is, can we make it make sense if it doesn't make sense? And I think that's the thing is like, you can't buy our opinion, but it's like, is there anything you like about this game? It's like, I don't know, let us see. Let us find out. And then we can go from there and like, and, you know, with the, I think the orders are perfect examples. It doesn't really love that game. But it's like, you guys did a video that's just doing a time about the history of it and like all the, the finding the secrets and stuff. That stuff is interesting. That stuff is cool. And it is doing

a service to somebody, someone's interested in that content. And it's not like that stuff is being affected by getting paid. You know what I mean? Or getting money for the content. And I think that is really kind of the bottom line. And also it's like, is it cool? Is it fun stuff? Is it something that we want to promote? Because product we're proud of. Yeah. It's like if this was, I can't really think of an example off the top of my head. But like the horror, like us going on a mansion in ghost hunting, I was sold instantly. Like that's awesome. But if it was something that we didn't want to do because we didn't think it would make great content. Even if it's funny, we wouldn't necessarily do it.

You know what I mean? Like, we would have to have that conversation. Does this fit our brand? Like, I personally think this is one of the kind of funniest videos we've ever done. Sure. You know, like this is what I want to be doing is us being dumb shits, playing games and having fun and whatever. There wasn't a single moment that we were doing that that I was actually thinking about,

like, is this a good game? Oh, sure. Yeah. You know what we're playing? You know what we're making content, you know? Yeah. What do you think, Colin? I mean, I, about the video itself, I agree.

I think it's a great video, but came out better than I thought it was. And I think that, I think it's obvious that it's sponsored. That said, like, even without any of the text, like, it's obvious that this isn't something we did by ourselves just based on everything we've ever done. But that said, we can't make assumptions like that, and it's not right to make assumptions like that, which is why I've, you know, I always try to be clear. When the order came out, we did the same thing, and with this game, we're doing the same thing where I was actually unlike the order, which I knew I probably wasn't going to like very much.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game. But I do want people to know that like, well, you know, we did get money for this video about this game. So I really do authentically like the game. But if you don't want to believe me, I understand that. And you should know that this certain set of circumstances exist. And I don't. And I'm allowed to say that. Right.

No, exactly. They're going to take all the money back. No. But that's all of that said. I do understand the heightened skepticism around what's going on on the internet with advertising and stuff like that. And so I think people have every right to be skeptical. People have every right to ask their questions. we have to be better, not just us,

but I think everyone in terms of like, you know, highlighting when things are sponsored because, you know, there is a lot of shady shit going on out there. I'm proud to say that I've never been a part of it, but you don't know that. And like I understand.

And I understand that. But I think most people trust us and most people get what we're all about. And we wouldn't do something that, that would compromise our ethical standing with you guys and our, and I would, you know, I think you guys know me as,

you know, well enough to know that I wouldn't do something that I thought compromised. my right and ability to say whatever the fuck it is I want to say. So we wouldn't we wouldn't put ourselves in those kinds of positions. But again, I get it. I mean, you see shady shit going on all the time, especially on YouTube. So, um, speaking of that, like kind of the, the seed of all of this was that there was a comment. There was like, hey guys, like, you should make it a little more clear that it's sponsored because a machine.

Oh, the machine or whatever. So there's an article. I want to read a bit about it. And then we can discuss it a bit. This is from Wired. It says, Machinima has settled this from last year. Machinima has settled with the Federal Trade Commission after. an investigation into undisclosed paid endorsements, the FTC said today.

Earlier this year, the FTC issued a complaint against Machinima, saying that it had failed to disclose financial incentives regarding video content uploaded by its members' channels in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Microsoft, through an outside agency, paid machinima to produce positive videos about the Xbox One gaming machine, and many of the YouTube stars who accepted the deal failed to properly disclose that they were producing paid, sponsored content, not independent analysis. The incident in question happened in late 2013 following the launch of the Xbox One, According to the FTC's complaint, a number of YouTube channels, they name a couple, were commissioned by Machinima to produce videos featuring the Xbox One launch title, Rise Center of Rome, in a way that showcased Microsoft in a positive light.

The failures to disclose here, the failures to disclose here, appear to be isolated incidents that occurred in spite of and not in the absence of policies and procedures designed to prevent such lapses, the FTC says. And it all ended with just like a slap on the wrist. There was no fines. There was no anything. It was just like, hey, you can't do this. what's wrong about all that well i mean the fact that these individual people aren't doing it i think the fact that like the uh the intent is hidden

you know the intent there was i'm gonna show i'm gonna make a video showing you rye son of rome is good like right when we make videos about games like you know you just did one with nick about far cry the intent there is to put out us playing this game and hopefully it's funny it's not to say i'm gonna show far cry and it's best light i'm gonna take Far Cry out at its knees, right? It's, I'm going to see what this game is. Yeah, and just, not to interrupt you, but the game crashed. Far Cry crashed during the, uh, yeah, Far Cry crashed during our let's play.

And that's in the let's play. I mean, like we're going to talk about that in the let's play. It's probably cut out the me rebooting because it's boring. But we talk about it crashing. It's not like we were like, well, oh, sure. You know, it's high. We're jumping ahead now to show you something a little bit different. We got the game early, too.

So it's not like, you know, those, the thing that's important is that there's, there's, it's, I don't find it common at all. And I don't even know if I can think of a time when like you get access to a game early, at least when we were doing editorial and we were doing this kind of stuff. And everyone's like, well, you got to be positive. You know, like nothing. I don't, I just cannot recall a situation. I'm trying to think what was the game. There was a game with reviews where there was a hell of blue that if it was that if you game was, if you're going to score the game above whatever, you could publish it.

But if you went below, then you'd hold it this embargo. Yeah. That's the one thing. And I can't even name the exact game. That's, yeah. And people, they got eaten alive for it. Yeah. So it's just, I just, I think that people have to understand that there.

there's this idea that there's like some collusion going on and maybe there is. I don't know anything about that. I don't think there is really. With publisher X and YouTube channel Y, whatever, I just don't think that's happening because publishers are not stupid and they know what's going on and they know that like they're just going to turn the people off that play their games from ever playing their games if they put these like restrictions on that are maybe not even legal

and at a very least unsavory. So people have to look at it in a more bird's eye view that like there's a symbiotic relationship between the publishers and the developers and the press and the media and all that kind of stuff for sure because they make the games and we play the games and that's good for them if we like the game

and maybe bad for them if they don't like the game but it's like it's kind of a natural marketplace you know like I don't really see it as like something that's really being the invisible hand like kind of works there like good games rise to the top bad games don't really get sent out because they know we're gonna fucking destroy them

so like it's and sometimes good games we don't like and sometimes bad games we do so it all works out but I just think that like there's a little much there's on one hand like I said earlier that it's understandable with what has gone on over years past going way back to canaan lynch and all that kind of stuff the game spot um which was almost 10 years ago now uh but then going all the way forward to today with you know stuff like what happened with machinama and the fdc getting involved and people just kind of being skeptical of things i understand that but at the same time it's very conspirator it's it's like way over the top in terms of like like the conspiracy theories

people really think are happening when people think you know when we read i gym people were buying review scores or that never happened you know like like that like that literally never happened so like i don't I don't, so like I want to say that as well. Like I understand your fears, but I'm also telling you as someone who's been in this industry a lot longer than many people in the industry, you know, that that, like this kind of conspiracy laden shit, at least at the top level that we were at, at the sites we were at and the things we worked at just didn't happen like that. You know, so people have to like just kind of look at it through a lens of less skepticism,

but always remain healthily skeptical. Exactly. Exactly. There's a difference there between a healthy skepticism and over the top. Definitely. So breaking down this thing for me, I think there's a couple interesting things to look at. Is Microsoft buying this wrong? You know, then you go down to that and it's like, all right, then there's the machinimal layer of they are technically the managers of,

and they're the ones that are issuing these contracts to these content creators. Are they wrong for issuing the contracts and not making it clear that they need to make this stuff? Like, that's what they need to do. You need to say it's brought to you by, you need to say this or that. Then it gets to the content creators. And it's like, we're in an interesting world now where it's, It's like, you're right. It is ethically wrong and like IGN and GameSpot, whatever they can do this.

What are these people aren't critics? You know, what are these people are making content? They're just making entertaining content. Is it wrong to pay someone to make entertaining content that is favorably talking about someone else's product? And that's where the FTC gets involved because there are rules around that. Right. Right. Because it's an advertisement.

That's the different. When you're passing it off as a product that isn't an ad, that's the problem. Yes. And so it really comes down to this thing of you are actually making an advertisement, which is different than. making, then reviewing something and how that affects the review and stuff, right? So it gets complicated. And what's interesting is that it's machinima that I think is the issue there because machinema is the thing that need.

And again, now they're better now. Like they got the slap on the wrist and whatever. Right, right. This is years ago. Yeah. But machinema is the one at fault. They're the buffer. They're supposed to push back on Microsoft.

They're supposed to push back. Or. And they're also supposed to make it clear to the content creators that you're allowed to do what you're doing. Legally, you're allowed to. But in order for it to be legal You need to have the fine print somewhere You see this on commercials There's the fine print that'll say whatever is necessary for it to be said

And we do that we live by that Like we like there is documents and legal things on every contract that we signed That's like we are legally required to put X, Y or Z in the description or in the video or here or there or whatever in order to be fine And it's like that it's not on us You know like that's on whoever we're signing that contract with it's on us to be be cool with our audience and to make sure our audience knows what's up. A perfect example is for this layers of fear thing we're talking about

putting the intro tag on the beginning to say this is sponsored by brought to you by whatever layers of fear. We don't need to do that. Like legally we don't need to do that and actually that's the type of shit that we should charge layers of fear more for that because that's giving them more bang for the buck. Every time

you mention that we're sponsored by them on your on the other podcast and should technically we should be not should be could be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, but we don't care because to us, it's not about that money when it comes to there. We want to do right by them. We want to do right by the audience. And the audience was on the episode one.

Like it could have, maybe it should have been in there. They're like, oh, I sure, why not? Good point. We'll think about that in the future and it definitely do it case by case. BTW. Kevin, remind me to record that after this. Oh yeah. We're supposed to do that before this, but nobody do. But I just think it's, it's funny to look at it all because, I mean, Microsoft, you know, shady

or not, whatever, they're making commercials. Like, that's all they're doing. So it's like, personally from a business perspective, them asking people, to make advertisements that are favoring their thing. There's nothing ethically wrong about that at all. That's the point. They're literally paying content creators to make commercials for them. To make content.

Yeah. Paying off reviews and paying off stuff. Yes, that is shady. That is weird. That is whatever. That's not what this is. That's a totally different thing. And like,

you're talking about that with IGN and stuff. And like, that doesn't happen. Because that is wrong. I think there's also a level of self policing that's required. I agree with you. Like Microsoft, I'm not sure in that particular story,

not knowing like everything about it, then probably doing anything. wrong. They're trying to manipulate the market. And that's what businesses kind of do. That's what commercials are. Yeah. You're not going to watch a commercial that's like, it's all right. Machinima, I think should have pushed back. That's what I always really respected about, you know, a lot of our experiences with

salespeople in the past where they really do try to protect. And many times the editorial like consistency of a product to be like, well, what you want is not acceptable. So we're just not going to do it. We'll leave the money on the table. We don't want it. And that was really up to Michinima to do that. And there was another layer where you either care about your your ethical standards or not. If you're

a YouTuber or doing whatever you do, a content creator. there is an onus on the people at the very bottom as well to, to say no to those things. We would have said no to that as well. I mean, it reminds me of, um, if I don't have editorial freedom to say and do what I want and anything we do,

I'm not doing it. And, and, and I think we're all, we're all very similar minded. With that reminds me, I think more recently there was a Star Trek MMO or something that, that came out and,

oh, right, this third party party, Kataka or Polygon wrote about it? Yeah, this third party PR agency wanted people to like, write about, or do videos about it.

And know, like you have to say this and use this. and maybe we suggest that you say that it's fun for the fan, like whatever it is. And I'm like, if someone's saying, you can shove that directly in your asshole because I'm not,

I'm not doing that, you know, and like, I don't think we would even get pitches like that because. No, they want to give it to that. But like the fact that PR, they know we don't like surgery.

But again, like, I don't know that PR was necessarily wrong to do that because they're trying again to manipulate something for the benefit of their products. That's how they make their money. It is up to the other side to say like, no,

like we don't do that in the set of standard. And I think that, you know, talking about the onus of the people on the bottom, like, you know, I developed a very close relationship with insomnia at games.

I know a lot of people there, and I'm actually close personal friends with Marcus Smith and with Drew Murray, who are the guy, like the co-creative directors of resistance and Sunset Overdrive. Kevin, I'm real tight with Ted Price,

rode an elevator with him. Yeah. And, you know, I'm on a first-name basis with many people over there. I've been, you know, I've seen many times. And I,

a long time ago, no one even asked you to, I'm like, I'm like, I'm not, I'm not, like, I think I can 100, percent be honest about the game. And actually when we gave resistance, I remember we gave resistance

three and nine, they asked us like, what would you give resistance three? I'm like a nine. But not knowing the score and they're like, well, that's what we're giving it. I'm like, so there you go. But, you know, I knew that like optically you cross across a line where it's like, I know in my heart that I can look at this objectively, but I understand why you think that I couldn't. And so at some point you have to just be like, that's not even a hill worth dying on at all. Even though I know what's in my heart, I'll just remove myself from the equation completely. So I didn't deal with insomniac at all until sunset overdrive preview cycle,

um, in which I had, you know, some things I liked about and some things I didn't like about it, but it was a preview. It was not a review. I would have never put myself in a critical position to, to,

to do that when I was a critic. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is like you have to, you have to, people have to be smart enough on themselves as individuals to know when they should remove themselves. Not because they're necessarily doing anything wrong because I don't think I was doing anything wrong at all by developing my friendships, but by the,

the knowledge that if I were looking at someone with a relationship like that, talking about something like that, I might be like, hmm, there's something. I know he's honest, but you should probably recuse yourself anyway. And it's like when a Supreme Court justice recuses him or herself because they have a vested interest in this thing. Like they could probably look at things objectively.

That's what they do. Their judges, but there's still the question on if it was ever, ever happening. So I think that there's another layer below that. Well, I think that's them making their judgment on the whole situation. Like, what's the best, you know, foot forward? And I think that we do that all the time. And I think that's why we are where we're at is because we're open with everybody and they're open with us. And like we have that conversation.

And it's like, all right, cool. Well, every single thing we think about going forward. There's not a single thing that happens when shit goes on where we're not like, hmm, how do we feel about this? What should we do next time? And then just is part of next time's whole planning process, execution process, everything. Yeah. You know, my closing thoughts, I guess, on this, I agree that if we're doing something that's

sponsored, you'll probably know it in the first millisecond. You know what I mean? Because I'm super uncomfortable not making that clear, which is why when I talk about layers of fear, when we talked about the order back in the day. I always tried to make that clear. And it wasn't so difficult with the order because I fucking didn't like the game at all.

That was bad. So that would have been an ironic payoff, wouldn't have. But with Philators of Fear, we have to be a little more clear because I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the game. So people are going to know, but we would never put ourselves in precarious or unsavory positions like that.

I just know we wouldn't. So you guys either trust us with that or don't, but we should always be open and honest about those things as well. Amen. To be clear, Microsoft paid you not to like the order, right? Yes. to be clear. And also,

Resistance 3, available on PlayStation 3. By the way, it's your fault that we didn't get another one. I like how Kevin threw that up on the wall. He's like, straight enough. Topic four,

as always. I'm gonna be fine. I'm gonna be fine. I might have to bail out midway through this, by the way. I'm sorry. Okay, cool. We have to get on a play.

Topic four, as always, brought to you by the Kind of Funny forums. Go to kind of funny.com slash gamescast topic. leave a topic you want us to discuss in the show. I would really, really, really, really appreciate it if you tried to pretend you're on Twitter and like, keep them short.

Because I'm getting some messages. And today I chose a couple paragraphs. It's a paragraph day. Is that how you feel about that great? Yeah. But I would appreciate just short, concise, let's do it because then I want to do boring. I want to fit more of them into an episode.

All right. We started off right with my boy Johnny Casey with Kojima on his world. tour and hanging out with his buddy Norman Reyes in search of new technology. Yes. How badass is that? What do you think is going on with Silent Hills? Silent Hills is dead. Yeah. The new

Guillermo del Toro Hideo Kajima and Norman Reyes horror project is alive and well. Do you think so? Yeah. That is awesome. And it's great to see all this stuff. I love seeing the whole Twitter adventure go down. Like Hideo Tube, when's that collab happening? We've got to make it go down. Oh yeah.

So, I'm really excited about it all. I hope that's what it ends up being. I'm very stoked because next week I got to notice today that my Cojima Productions care package is shipping, the one I bought with all the cup and the shirt and the shock glass. I'm stoked. Yeah.

How do you feel like, what do you think Norman Reas feels right now about all this? He posts it on Instagram? He's probably just, he's a... Norm Redis, you know what I mean? He's not a live wire. He seems like he's got like... I mean, great actor, don't get me wrong.

I've talked to the man. You can see it on Kind of Funny.com, but it's just like... I'm sure he's happy. I don't know. I would love to talk to him about what it all means to him. Yeah. Games and Kajima and all this other stuff. Well, the fact that he

posted it on his Instagram was the most interesting thing to me. Sure. There's the Kojima Productions logo. It's like that seems like an off character thing just based off the limited shit that I know about the guy. It's not a shit. Norman Reyes do that kind of shit. Norris does just stir the pot. I follow WWW big bald head on Instagram. Let me tell you. I know all about it.

What do you think called? I think you guys are wrong. I don't think he's doing a game with a horror game and I don't think it's going to involve Norman Read us. I think that they expose themselves to credible litigious action by Konami if they do anything like that. Bring it they say. I don't think it'll be their first game out the game. I think it could be, I don't think it'd be the first one either.

Well, but then the game's going to come out in 2025 or something like that. Like it's so, which is possible. But we're way ahead. Let's see how like the first game does. No, I don't, I think they might be doing a horror game, but I don't think it would involve anyone that was involved in the old game because I just, I don't think that Sony would be that stupid because I do think that it exposes them to incredible amount of like bleed over

from a previous project that a previous company with a previous publisher at a previous engine with previous four knowledge of what was going on. And that doesn't seem like a smart move. I just don't know that Sony would want to get in bed with for a PlayStation 4 exclusive. That is a horror game. I just don't know that that's smart. Like we were all excited about PT and we were all excited about Silent Hills and that made sense for Konami. But if Sony's going to get Kojima, then they better get a metal gear out of him. And I'm not saying like a literal metal gear. And I'm not saying like it has to be like ground zeros or or fan of pain or anything like that. But like get like a get what. what he does best out of him in a way that affects most sales for PlayStation 4 consoles.

And obviously it'll be on PC as well. So I just don't, you know, horror games aren't part of the zeitgeist anymore. They used to be, but they're not. And maybe, maybe. I think they are more so than they used to be. Well, no, I think like 96, 97, 98, 2001, 2002, like with Silent Hill, Silent Hills. I mean, outlaws and amnesia and slender and all that. I think they're more popular.

Redsieville 4 sold more than all those games combined. I guess that's the point I'm trying. I guess that's the kind of point I'm trying to make. I love Outlast. I'm not saying that there's not a place for them. I'm just saying like, if you count PC sales, are you sure?

I'm pretty sure, yeah. I mean, like, think about Resident Evil. Think about the Zika. Well, maybe you're a little young, but like,

like, Resident Evil, but like, I know, I know, I know, was like. But I mean, like, just like looking at the, like, with what PewDie Pye has done with that stuff

and all the, I was going to say, I feel like they've been in the up thing. And I was like, oh shit, here's somebody who's going to put a lot of stuff like make this a real thing and i think again you're just jumping to the conclusion i don't think it's the first game out the gate i don't think it needs to be sony's game but i think that you see them all collaborate again on a horror game down the line

maybe but that's so far away it's like that's i don't know i just i just don't think that's a smart use of him you know i don't i don't i wasn't so sure it was a smart use of him to do silent hills like i just i don't know like his his i mean he's done zone of the enders and other things but, like, he's about the cinematic quality of this, like, weird, he does weird shit. I don't, I don't, I just... Sounds perfect for a horror game. I don't know. I don't know that.

I think horror is full of tropes and, and even playing PT, which I thought was clever, we played it together, and it was fine. I enjoyed quite a bit. I just, I don't know. My personal opinion on is that he, he's so much more clever than that. You know, like, I just don't know. I don't know. If I was Sony, I wouldn't be like, do exactly what you were going to do with Konami. You know, why I was like...

But again, it doesn't have to be the Sony game. Yeah, but what are you saying? It doesn't have to be the Sony game. The Sony game, I don't understand what you're saying. So you're saying, like, hypothetically, in 10 years, he's going to build a horror game? I mean, why can't he be, like, in Afune and work on multiple things? Why can't there be multiple games they're working on? I don't think that's what's going to happen.

His production company signed a deal with Sony to make a game. So I don't think it's going to, in a Funne is totally different. It's like concept is a farm, basically, that works on a bunch of different games, and he doesn't really seem to work on any of them. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't see it that way. I think that he's going to be very hands-on, just like he's always done.

But we'll see. I don't know. If that's what people want, I hope I'm wrong. I don't really give a flying fuck what he does, to be honest with you. Like, I think that the story about it is way more interesting than the game. Of course. Yeah. Liquid Snake 1 says, hello, long-time listener, first-time suggestion.

Both Greg and Colin have slightly discussed this topic as far as the company's financials are concerned, but my topic is more personal. I've been working at GameSpot, GameStop, for over two years now, and I want to make a career out of it. I love games, but I have no desire to make a really, right about them, but I love the sale industry and how I can help other gamers play great games. I've done many jobs being my mid-20s and have also served in the Marines. After all these jobs, I know this is my passion and what I want to do. My fear is that digital age will eventually ruin GameStop and will not be able to work in this

part of the industry. Do you believe there always be a place for these jobs? Any comments will help. I just want feedback from professionals as no one I know personally knows the video game industry nearly as much as I do. Sorry, this is so long. Hashtag column is right. No, I mean, that job is not long for this world, obviously.

I mean, I don't know, I don't know how long it's going to take. Substantial part of our audience has a significant problem with me talking, especially on PSI, I love you about the digital revolution. And there are a lot of things, stop gaps that are going to stop it from happening very immediately, including internet, yeah, bandwidth and internet infrastructure and stuff like that. But like, I've often talked about people like what, what, what, what, what we even really need wired internet in five years? And, like, what will, what will the future complexion of all this look like? And then hard drive space and just the ability to get games on the, you know,

whenever you want them. It's a similar movement about what's happening with paperback and hardcover books to Kindle, for instance. Like, Kendall is going to kill those. Like, there's always going to be

a small market for them. And I think books are 10 times more likely to exist in 50 years than, in, you know, physical form than a game. But the thing about him is that if you,

the thing that he might not be looking at is if he likes selling games and he likes doing all that stuff, there's, you can work at a publisher. You can work at a developer and be a marketing guy. Exactly.

You can be like, on the sales teams of these games. game, you know, these, you know, go to Sony, for instance, and they, they have to, they have salespeople. They have marketers. They have, like, people that are like, getting into the integrity of how, how do we get people to like this game or make this game? What about this game is most salient and all that kind of stuff? So, you know, he worked, he was in the Marines. Thank you for your service. You can, if you, you might have a college degree, you might not use that service to get your

college degree. If you can, using the GI Bill and, like, and get involved on the publisher side. And I think that, that's always going to be safe. There's always, even though games are going to be published physically forever. Games will always be published. Yeah. I mean the other thing too is games will always be sold digitally or sold period like whether there's digital or physical and it's like I feel like there's there's going to be some somewhere he can work that's selling them. I think GameStop will exist in some form even if it's like a digital distribution thing that requires jobs like people work in those things so if you work up your way like he's talking about going up he's not talking about just being a sales like a normal um associate or whatever yeah associate it's like he's not about moving on

up like that's I think that will be around I don't think games. Stop's just gonna go away. It might change exactly what it is or whatever, yeah. But it's like, that's like steam. You know what I mean like steam exists that's steam sells games. You could work there and you know that could be a job people need to work there for it to be a thing. So I think there will always be jobs in doing that type of stuff. It will be a different job than what you're doing right now. Yeah, don't be pessimistic about it. I mean, just think to be optimistic about it because the opportunities will just be different. But if you like selling games, you like talking about games, you like talking to games of people,

I think you're going to have a job, a secure job for a very long time. Glorious G1-2-3 says, Hey, buddz, while I primarily roll with Xbox, I'm super interested in PlayStation, still even after buying a 1 and not a PS4. my co-worker is trying to persuade me to buy PS4 to play Doom and all the Sony Hotness this year. I have the money, but I don't know if I should get another console when I can get the same game on my

primary platform. Thoughts and advice. Don't do it. If you want to play Doom, I don't know why you would buy PS4. That was what he said, right? Yeah, I don't know. And all the other Sony hotness. Yeah, I mean, on Shard it's coming out on Horizon. I mean, maybe the last Guardian,

maybe some other shit I don't know about. But there's nothing, I'll say this again. There is nothing wrong with being evangelical and loyal to a console. Like, I don't buy the fanboy argument, I don't, I mean, as long as you're not a logical and irrational about it, there's nothing wrong with being like, I have an Xbox and I play Xbox games. There's only so much time in the day and there's nothing wrong with the PlayStation Nintendo, if that's what you want to do. If Doom's the game that he's bringing up, then there's absolutely no reason to buy a PlayStation

for unless he's interested in like a series of exclusive titles, right? So, but I don't, I just don't buy the argument that like to be a real gamer, you have to have everything. I just don't buy that at all. I don't think it makes you less of a gamer to have one console and to be passionate about that one console and play games on that one console. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. We've already got past the tipping point, where there's too many games to play. So yeah, you shouldn't feel bad to have one console

and that's what you play on. If he's looking at PlayStation 4's lineup and all the exclusives and those are what he wants, then yeah, buy it. I have them both and I rarely use my Xbox. Not because I hate Xbox just because for the majority of things I want to play and get trophies, right? But when that Xbox exclusive comes around,

I put on the Xbox and play it, and I bought it knowing that's what it was going to be for and I'm fine with that decision. I think I've read the question a little bit differently. I think that if you have the money, like go for it. If you want to play the games with your friends, if your friend has a PlayStation 4,

I think that's a worthy investment because then you get to play the multiple player games in that ecosystem and stuff. It's something you see with Alfredo all the time where it's like he was Xbox 360, but then his group of people was split between the PS4 and Xbox one. And I think that if you have the financial means to do it,

you should have both. And you know, you play these games with these people. You play those games with those people and kind of just make those decisions that way. Because I mean, if those are the type of games you play or games with friends, then yeah, it's totally worth it.

Yeah, but he has to ask himself, yeah, I get that. And I come up from a different perspective because I just don't care about playing with other people. Like, that's just not how I play games. But the Doom thing, was to me is like, all right, so if you're going to buy Doom and get it for $60 on your Xbox 1, you already own it and play with people, maybe you don't know or a friend or two

that has an Xbox 1 or you have a $400 investment, is that really worth it? Unless you're really going to get a lot more out of $400 than just Doom if you're going to play all the future of multiplayer exclusives. I just don't want people to ever think that they have to go all in on all this stuff because I always said that like my least favorite generation, even though I loved GameCube so much was I had a GameCube and Xbox and a PS2 and hundreds of games for like across all those libraries had a fucking ass and amount of game Q games especially and

it was the least satisfying least focused gaming years of my entire life because I was like well I got money now and I got to play everything and I'm like this is I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing half the time buying like half these games I don't even open them you know like because I feel like I have to I feel like to be a gamer I have to go to a store

every week and buy this and have this console and it's just like just focus on what makes you happy and if it makes you happy and you can get a lot out of all these consoles and do that but never feel like you have to do it to like prove something last question comes from our good friend Lou Turbo. Lou Turbo. What category of games is Nintendo lacking that you think would be great for a new IP?

Splatoon appears to have been a decent seller for Nintendo. This was their first attempt at an online multiplayer shooter. They were clearly late to the party, but it still seemed to work. I feel like an MMO could be cool, but the existing formula is stale would need a lot of work slash Nintendo Polish to feel different and fresh. No, Tim, you can't just say a Pokemon MMO. Feel free to discuss that, but that's too easy.

I agree, it is too easy. I also do agree that an MMO would be great. And you're right. I mean, Nintendo will add a twist. I don't know what it is, but to make it special in the same way they did with Splatoon. I don't think that they relate to the party

on the first version shooter thing. It's totally different. Like, it's a different party almost, you know? A Mario party somewhere. Is Spletoon really an FPS? Or shooter, whatever. It's a third person shooter.

Yeah, it's third person. Because I was going to say, the first person shooter, I'm right, right? You're right. You're right. First person. I mean, so this was an old debate

at IGN with me and Mark Ryan specifically, I thought he was completely dead wrong about it, which was is Metroid aid, he used to call it an adventure game. And I was like, it's a fucking first person shooter, you know? And... Metro Prime. Metro Prime, yeah. And I was like, but the funny thing about

what Retro did with those games is that those games, even though they didn't sell very well, I mean, people overestimate Metroid's importance in the Nintendo ecosystem, like, a lot, but I love Metroid, and those games are great. And I wonder, even though it's so on Nintendo, they did something with a Nintendo IP that was brilliant. And I think that maybe

first person shooters aren't going anywhere. I agree that the first thing came to my mind was Pokemon MMO, of course. But if he doesn't want that answer, I would say like a first person shooter, like something gritty and hardcore, like, you know, the conduit on Wii or whatever was not a Nintendo game that was a high voltage game, I think, but

I think that was who did it, but right? I don't remember. But it was different. And like, it attracted like the smaller, they did a sequel because it sold well enough, but it attracted this audience where they're like, oh, like, I don't expect to find this here. Kind of like Mad World? Yeah, exactly.

the original platinum game. So to me, it's, it's, you know, I like, you know, we expect the quirky platformers and the side scrollers and the fucking cart racers and the fighting game and all that kind of stuff. But where's the first person shooter? You know, like, I'd like to see them do that. And like a new, maybe not Metroid,

but something just new and different. Something doesn't mean. Well, Metroid, Metroid's the like first per, or one player, first person shooter. Like, I guess Splatoon kind of is their answer to what a first person shooter multiplayer game would be, even though it's not first person.

Like it's still like a multiplayer shooter game But yeah I mean I would like to see what an actual Multiplayer based like a more of a Call of Duty style first person shooter game could look like For the system yeah from the ground up yeah exactly But otherwise man I mean I feel like Nintendo really is well represented in terms of the genres and in terms of Having something for every single thing that's totally a twist on what everyone else does That's why I love them that's that's why there is that Nintendo polish to all the stuff that they do, whether it's Fire Emblems strategy thing or it's Mario Carts Racing or

it's whatever. It's always more like fun. It's just the more fun, lighthearted, you know, version of it's the Disney version. And I love that shit. It's always fun. That's that what they succeed at. You sit down, you play them, you're going to have a good time. Yeah. No matter what genre it is like RPGs. Like they have the Mario RPGs and all that stuff. It's gold. The genre they're lacking is a console golf game featuring Mario and dry button. That's a very specific. You're just saying, I haven't seen one of those in a long time. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been the first ever episode 58 of the Kind of Funny Games cast. The last one ever, too, as well.

Thank you for joining me. I'm Tim Geddes. That's Greg Miller. That's Colin Moriarty. Kevin's somewhere out there doing some stuff talking to Scarpino. Being a potato. Until next time. I love you.

Taters up.