Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Pokemon Go Has Taken Over - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 77(Soundcloud)

Episode Date: July 22, 2016

Greg reviews Song of the Deep, Pokemon Go has taken over, Evolve gets a second chance, and the VR games we are most excited for. (Released to Patreon Supporters 07.15.16) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kind of Funny is going to San Diego Comic-Con. We're doing a meet and greet at polite provisions. I'm hosting panels for DeSX, Tomb Raider, Call of Duty, and more, and best of all, Kevin won't be there. Get all the details at kindof-funny.com slash SDCC. Are you fine with that? I just need a third thing, and we don't have a third thing to promote, so I just keep making the joke that you're not there.

I love you. You know that. What's up, guys. Welcome to the first ever episode 77 of the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddies. joined by the coolest dudes in video games Colin Moriarty and Greg Miller Hi Portilla's there

He's there chilling chilling as always Chopin on a Chompin on the little pink pig Cat The pink cat Yeah It's one of the Lola toys he just took That toy actually Lola got that toy

From someone in a hotel lobby Huh So that toy's been making the rounds Is the R Kelly Toes a slut Damn son Toy just doesn't care man Just goes wherever

In everybody's mouth Mm-hmm That's my favorite Slut-shaming the toy. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games cast every week we talk about cat toys

and video games. Technically it's a dog toy that looks like a cat. I meant like cat toys. Okay. It's a toy that is a cat. Okay, sure. It's a dog toy.

You got me. You nailed me. You nailed me. And also great. So you're telling me that this thing will fuck whoever the fuck it wants to. No, we can be played with by a cat.

Getting people's mouths. Oh, no. No cat would play with this toy. Cats play with that toys. No way. You don't know shit, Greg. It's true. Anyways, we talk about video games a lot.

You can find it here on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or you can go to Patreon.com slash kind of funny games and get the show early for some reason, along with a lot of other goodies. Yeah. And things like that, of that nature. Q&As, Q&As, fan mails. Uh-huh. What else is there? What do we do? Just go look at the page. Can you go look at the page? Please. We spend a lot of time on the page. Thank you. It's a good page. I actually am a big fan of the page, but I don't want to clean it up. Okay. It needs some. There's a lot of things you want to do. Of course there is. A lot of things is not going to happen. Never. Yeah. Never.

You know, it is going to happen. What's that? A review of Song of the Deep by the one and only Gregorius Miller. Ladies and gentlemen, I love Song of the Deep. Caught me off guard. Here, I also want to lead with still haven't beaten Song of the Deep because it's way longer than I thought it was going to be. But I'll walk you through it.

Song of the Deep for me is hitting on something I didn't know I was missing. Saturday I woke up, I wanted to play something. I thought I was going to play Oxen Free. I was like, I'm going to platinum Oxen Free this weekend. We haven't been home in so long. We've been to so many conventions in a row. I was like, I'm going to play a console game. and I'd like to get some trophies.

And I saw Oxifrey. I was like, I wanted to give that another shot. I jumped in, played a little bit of Oxifree again. It just doesn't work for me. I've tried, I've given it a few shots.

I played through it on Xbox or I guess Steam. It's a fine game. I wasn't in love with other people. I still like parts of it. So I closed it, went back to the media bar or whatever and saw Song of the Deep chill in there and I was like,

I legitimately didn't know anything about Song of the Deep. I clicked on it. I mean, I knew it was Insomnix game. I remember when they were teasing the reveal. They put out the little trailer or whatever, but it wasn't even a trailer. It was just like the reveal of it being an underwater game.

Clicked on the Sondon, the Deep, got into it and immediately fell in love with it. Because it, what I didn't realize I was looking for was something I talked about a lot with unfinished swan of gaming comfort food. Like that, I was talking about, I think in my review of unfinished swan for IGN, I talk about it's like a cup of cocoa and a blanket. Like it's one of those things like you want to hunker down with it and just spend it. And part of that I think is the fact that in unfinished swan, someone's telling you a story like very clearly.

you know what I mean. They're talking about the boy. They're doing all these different things. And Song of the Deep is the same way where it's like this is Marin, her and her father, her father's a fisherman. They live out here. She, you know, waits up from every night and one night he doesn't come back. So she, and like all this is happening in like storybook pages. Like really, really not intricate art, but storybook art. Like what I would expect out of that. Same color palette, same everything else. And so then you get into the game and the game is as beautiful as that, more beautiful than that. Like that's setting in the tone for what your color palette's going to be and how the game's going to be. but then the levels themselves incredibly beautiful the soundtrack

the you know instrumentals that are going behind it awesome beautiful too and then you have this really really great narration from this Irish woman that I and I again I would beat it

maybe at the end it turns out to be her mother go my shell lelly oh my shell lella oh Danny O'Dwire it's Amy Gills oh it's a big twist

yeah but it was totally hit this nerve I didn't know we always talk about you know games scratching itches that we didn't know we're there or whatever and it totally got me and sitting there and playing it and being in love with everything that was happening and it's a you know if you don't know it's a metrovania game you're in this little submarine submersible

going through looking for your father you can zoom out and see how huge the map is any time you're obviously running into plenty of stuff we're like clearly this is a door or a barrier that i can't get through with my current weapons so i know that at some point i'll come back and you're going and there's like little crevices to go in and you're like okay am i going to be able to shrink the ship or something else. It turns out of the ship eventually when you get this other thing. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a beautiful game. It is a

game that's speaking to me on a storybook level, which I really appreciate. And something I was talking about, because the, you know, reviews I saw, I didn't, I didn't read any reviews beforehand, started playing it, and after like that first day with it Saturday, I jumped out to just look at scores and saw that it's getting like sevens and sixes. I understand that. I would,

I mean, I, I would be, you know, high sevens or whatever, maybe an eight, if I was still having to worry about that kind of crap, but I don't, thank goodness. So I understand that why I'd be getting that. Because for me, in the good way, it's very much a game, if that makes sense. You're playing it and there is, I don't feel like there is this bigger message. It isn't pushing technology in a different way. It's like, here's a fun Metroidvania game for you to play that theoretically should

take you a weekend, probably or two days, right? I spent all Saturday playing, jumped in on Sunday, did a couple hours, did a couple hours Monday night, or maybe an hour Monday night. So I still feel like I have, I think I estimated yesterday when we were talking about like four hours left, if I'm guessing, which I don't know, but based on trophies and bosses that are still out there and stuff like that. I think it's a really well put together package. It's a really interesting, fun world. There's, you know, like I'm, I'm playing on normal. There's a harder level, but I'm not getting to this point where I'm feeling like I'm pissed off at enemies.

They're putting me in a room where it's like gauntlet and maybe I'll dive and then I come back and kill everything. You know, it's like, cool. The weapons are there. Upgrades are attainable. like it's one of those you know Metro Advanios are all about you know finding your new items weapons or you know abilities and then maxing them out through your skill trees

and stuff like that same thing here with taking the gold you found and buying from the shrimp man or whatever the upgrade you need and it's fun like it's super it's simple and it's a game and I think just the way I'm describing it you know now what this thing is but there's something

about it there's something special to it you're not talking about mechanics though so how does the game how does the game play and what do you so you're in a submersible Yeah, you're in a little submarine that you go. And then you fire rockets with it and stuff like that? Eventually, yeah. Your first basic thing is that you have a little hook shot basically, that you can shoot out,

that you can use to grab things to interact and pull levers. And certain times there'll be ones to pull levers to open doors and then release and then try to get over there and get out. So it's like from the basic level, yeah, it's the little grappling hook kind of thing that you're using that you can shoot into enemies and attack them that way and then flank them and do it again. You can upgrade that and make it more powerful,

make all these different things. then yes, you get torpedoes at one point, and then you can upgrade them to have dual torpedoes for one shot. Then you get this like, you get an ice blast that can freeze enemies or like you can use it in puzzles, because there's puzzles too, too, obviously, where you can, when you freeze these like,

like, I guess what do they call them warheads if you want or bombs, I guess minds. Once you freeze them, they can then can like, they become buoyant and so you can use them and move them around and blow stuff up like that. Yeah, there's a thermal detonation one, stuff like that. you have a boost to swim faster, which then comes, because there's other times where it's like, you gotta try to fight the current,

but you can't, but you can see that you need to at some point. So it's, it's interesting. Every Metroidvania, I think my favorite part is learning the mechanics and seeing things like, oh, how am I going to do that?

So the first time, it's like, all right, cool, I can boost this far. And now that I've upgraded my grappling hook, I can grab that thing and then, you know, pull myself around and swing over there. And there's all that. And then eventually they start tossing.

And the only, the downside to the game, I feel like, is they put in some, you're having this great time, you're in the submersible, everything's really cool. Then they put in some of those like light puzzles, like, you know what I mean? Like, all you have to get this laser up here. So to do that, you need to like move all these mirrors and bounce light around.

No, no, not the old mirror laser puzzle. They're not hard. You know what I mean? Again, it's a, it's a simple game. And I don't mean that as a, you know, a way to track from it. Sometimes I was over-complicating it. But when I first got in this room and I have like two sets of red, two sets of blue, two sets of green that I'm trying to bounce all around all these mirrors.

I was like, this isn't what I loved about this game. This isn't where I wanted to be. But I got out of it fast enough to keep going. And the other thing is that it is long. I do feel I was looking for, when I started it, I'm like, I'm going to beat this in a day. And then when I didn't, I was like, okay, I'm going to go over to Nix, watch UFC.

I'll beat it tomorrow. And then I got in for a little bit. I was like, man, there's still more. It's not overstaying. It's welcome, but I think I was trying to power through it. Not power through, but I wanted to get through it like I did unfinished Swan, where it was like a sitting and I was over it. This has more lasting power, but that only agitates me more in the fact

why doesn't have a platinum trophy? Like, why is this not being treated like a real game? If it's on disc, it is long. It is a fleshed out Metroid-Vy game. When I saw that, we talked about that in PSI-Love you, I think. You weren't there, I guess,

but we did talk about it. Then we talked about it on Colin and Greg, I think, as well. But I talked about it on PSI-I-Love you that this game has no platinum trophy, which is really fucking annoying. Actually, like, to me, like, it's not bizarre or anything, it's obnoxious.

Yeah, like the game this long, this deep, a Metroidvania game has 10 trophies or something like that. I know it's not important. It's a lot of people, but a lot of people it is important. And I thought that was a, it's not a turnoff.

I want to play the game. I've had, the only reason I haven't played is I haven't really been here, but I was on vacation, but, um, so I've been playing Vita,

but, um, that sucks. Yeah, totally. Like, like, there's collectibles and upgrades.

It's like, there's a million different ways you're going to flesh this out. And that's the thing for now that I'm in, the fact that it didn't have a platinum and I started off and I'm like, oh, it has, it's ringing like unfinished swan. I'm expecting that kind of experience.

And now that I'm more, Oh, geez, God, I don't know, eight hours in, we'll say, maybe. You know what I mean? I'd have to go look at a game clock or whatever, seven, eight hours in. It's like, this is a full-fledged game. Like, so why isn't it being treated like that? And yeah, why is it that I'm going to upgrade all my things for a silver or whatever when it should be that I'm going through and getting it.

How does the upgrade system work? Because one of the complaints I've seen in reviews of the game was that the upgrade system, I don't mind this kind of upgrade system, but I guess some people do is that, like, you have to kind of pick and choose the upgrades you have to use. But eventually you are so experienced that you can just fill out the entire tree, which to me is fine. but a lot of people, or like one review in particular I read, really had a problem with that,

that it wasn't as thoughtful as it seemed. In the beginning, in other words, you have to make your choices and then. I mean, that's how I always do it, right? Like, for me,

looking at an upgrade tree, it's always like, well, there's a trophy attached to it and how does that work? So for me, it was, I put everything into the hook shot,

or the grappling hook. I was using it so much. And then when I got torpedoes, I started putting everything into torpedoes and ignoring some of the other stuff. And then now that I'm, yeah, I'm making more money.

Because what you do is you go through, you beat the enemies, they drop gold or silver coins. Your map when you pull out, which I really love, I know some people want it. Like Axi and Verge has so many hidden secrets and it's, you don't, you have to lead your one or two markers for it. And it's kind of like, oh, man, I saw this. I don't never know how to get to it. This one, once you explore the map and fill it out, you see every treasure chest, you see

every door, you know, like. So it's like shadow complex. Exactly. You know everything's there. So for me, it's totally that carrot on the end of the stick of keeping me motivated where where it's like, all right, cool. I've, you know, I got the three gems to do this and now I need to go over there to do that. and I could take this really direct route, but I haven't been back up there and forever, so let's go.

So you go through there and you're getting like gold or silver fish statues or pearls or stuff that give you more and more coins. What with some of the touch, you're not a huge Metroidvania fan, right? So you've not played like a vast array of these games. Correct. Yeah, yeah. So but for the touchstones that you have played, how big is the map compared to say Symphony in the Night or Shadow Complex or the games you have played? Well, so, I mean, if we're talking about, I've played Symphony the Night, but that was a long time ago. And then more recently, Axiom Verge.

The Axiom Verge is huge. So is it, it's not. It's not that big I assume out. You could look at it and be like, oh my God, it seems like it's huge, but you move so quickly through it. It's not, again, I don't mean to insult it or anything. It's not Baby's first Metroidvania, but it is like a dumb down. It is a simple Metroidvania.

You can wrap your head around this. It suggests that that is the entry. It could be an entry point. Yeah, but I like that. And that's why it's working for me. And I totally, and that's why I think having not even read the reviews, just seeing the scores, I get where they're coming from, that this isn't. But this is very much one of those games we would always talk about it.

IGN, right, of Explore the Scale. Where, yeah, Not everything needs to be at eight or a nine or a ten, but like this game for me is is hitting on something. You know what I mean? I don't want every game to be like this, but this is a kind of game I was missing and didn't know I was missing, where I do want there to be like I'm someone's reading me a story

and I'm just participating in it. What's the price point for it? Great question. I think it's 1999. Yeah. Okay, cool. And so what's the deal with the, with the GameStop?

So this is the GameStop publishing label, right? Game Trust. Yeah, game trust, where they've partnered now with certain developers like Insomniac or whatever to put out games that way and try to, I think it's, you know, it's GameStop trying to future proof a bit, right? So that if the stores do go away, they have other arms and other revenue streams. And so this is, this was their first one, right? They made this is their first.

Ready at dawn, they're doing one with them as well, with the guys that made the order. Yeah. So the game is available only at retail in GameStop stores, but you can buy it digitally on downloadable services where it is available. So PSI and Xbox Live. I think it might be Steam game as well. Not sure about that. It seems cool.

Yeah. Insomniac is a studio. I'm very close to. So I, it's certainly a game I want to play. I like to try to play everything that you put out. Like I told you, it's not an urgent to me. I have I AMSITU. Oh, sure, sure, sure. What I was telling you on calling Greg Live, I think still rings true is, you know, on PS I Love You a few weeks ago, we did the thing where one of the kid was like, you guys get

to make a game, but you have to assign these developers, these different parts. And I think it was, I always forget it. He put down fun or entertainment or entertaining gameplay. And my pick for that was Insomniac. And this is like the whole, not, not, I hadn't played this game yet. This is like the reason why, though. It's like an insomniac game, you know you're going to sit, whether it's sunset overdrive, whether it's this, whether it's a resistance, you're going to sit down and have a great

time with it. It's going to be rewarding a ratchet and clank. It's going to feel like, cool, I'm making progress and I'm having a great time doing it. And that's exactly what's happening here, which is interesting because I really feel the last time I was in a mood and sat down with a game and loved it was Ratched and Clank, which was the same thing where I woke up on a weekend. I was like, I'm finally ready to play this game and played it for a day. And I was like, this is awesome. This is exactly what I want. Did you beat a Ori? No, I never beat. Oh, okay. Because this game, it seems kind of similar to that. See, the thing about Ori though, right? And this is even what I'm,

I got from demos and talking to you about it was like Stimer about it at the time was like how the difficulty spike where you got frustrated like fuck this you know what I mean you got mad at the game I've never had that this is 100% like a chill experience and that's what when I talk about the soundtrack being so good and I talk about the voiceover being so good I think it's just maybe it's you know as our lives are so hectic and they've been so crazy lately uh maybe that's what just it's calm it's soothing and it's this and it's when when I do die it's not like man there's no way to get around. I'm never going to figure this out or get past. It's like, no, I did something wrong. You know what I mean? Like the few of the puzzles with the, you know, you make the mind

float and then you have to move it around. But if it touches this, you know, they just like, because there's like air pockets pushing things around. There's some really clever design puzzles in there. Not impossible to be. You see them. You can figure it out pretty much. But I like that. I do. I like the idea of, you know, I leave a room and I see something as I go and I see something down there, like, whether it be an object that I know I need to go put in this clamshell mouth or whatever. And it's like, oh, that's how that connects. And I come back and do it away rather than like some games where it's like I've beat my head against the wall for 30 minutes trying to figure out what's here I must not have it yet or maybe I do and I just don't understand but I'll go away

and figure it out like I'm I feel like what song the deep's really great at is presenting you with these little challenges that you can you can conquer and feel good about it and then move on to the next thing or understand that I don't have what I need here like it's clear that I still you know in my play through right now I still have these glass walls which are like one of the final barriers these like I don't even have their glass whatever they like like green tubes or whatever and I don't have whatever I need to break them. And so every time I see it, I'm like, okay, cool, I know I'm not ready for that. Whereas before when it was like the lava wall, I was like, eventually I'll figure that out.

Or again, when I was like, I know there's a, I'm going to get small or something's going to get small to go through there to make it work. There's a few things that turn me off about the way you're describing it, though. Just in the sense that, I mean, and I don't know for sure. I'm not played it myself. Am I interpret it differently. It sounds easy, which is a turnoff. Now, there are examples of easy Metroidvania games that are fun. I think actually Shadow Complex is a great example.

That game is fucking easy as hell. And it's just fun because of the war. It's a satisfying game to play. It's just a good game. So that might be nullified by, you know, the nature of the game as well. The trophy thing obviously turns me off as well. But that's kind of an ancillary and not important thing. It's not going to stop me from playing the game.

But yeah, it seems like it's easy, which is fine. I like the idea of an entry point, though, for the genre. Because when you think about, and I don't know if that's the way they're pitching it, you might just be good at the game for, you know, or whatever. But when I think about the Metroid vaney games, that's a genre I explain. readily. The easiest one I can think of recently was the fuck was it. Not Shinobi. The one that Capcom release. Why can't I think of it? The

Ninja one. Strider. Oh, Strider. That one was, so Strider, there was a Metroidvania Strider game like two or three years ago. Right around when PS4 came out. That was a really easy game, but it was also really satisfying as well. Just this good genre and explore, like, similar to like how Pokemon is a nice, and a traditional Pokemon is a nice gateway to role-playing games for gamers. Like, I can't think of a a way to say like this genre is really great, but you should play Super Metroid or the original Metro, which is fucking really hard or something like that. Or simply the night, which is, I think, very obtuse to a lot of people. You can miss half the game and never know. Um, that's where I think

or he comes into play for me. I think or is a good, but or he's hard. Well, it gets, it has its hard moments. I wouldn't say it's hard overall. I mean, I played one of those spots. We played, yeah, when you played that one of you played that one of the demo, but that was like, and I was super deep into the game. I mean, you can do it, but it's, I'm like, this is actually like, shocky car, which is actually one of the torn-ons for that game for me. I was like, great. Yeah, that was one of the few moments that are that difficult. But I think that overall is a good entry point into getting into all those types of games. Y'all nerd should play Symphony the Night, though, out there.

If you don't know what Metroidvania is or just not familiar with the genre. It's good. That's Simpity the night is one of the great games of all time and easily the best Metroid gaming game, I think. So good play. Super Metroid, obviously a great place to jump in as well. Although I think Super Metroid a little cumbersome. I didn't like it. It's a little overrated.

I mean, it's, it's not overrated. We talked about this in the past. Right? Like there's a problem with 16 bit games generally that follow a style of old 8-bit games. And that's the, this, the resolution, or not the resolution, but like we're playing in 4-3 still. But everything's bigger. So like nothing. And it's, and sometimes even zoomed in because you have like these better looking pixel graphics. So Sam's just way too big in that game.

That was like, that's like, super Metroid? Yeah. Think about. Metroid 2. Think about, well, that's a man's even worse on Metroid 2 on Game Boy, but think about the perspective of the original Metroid and then think about Super Metroid. and there's just less room to work. I don't think it's in the way. That was a huge problem of me, even when I first put it.

Comparing this to Super Metroid to Axi and Verge and then putting Song of the Deep in there, one of the reasons I think maybe it is easier or it's a, you know, more appealing to me and the fact is that you're not moving because when I, with the Super Metro, or I'm sorry, for the Castlevania games we're talking about right now, I immediately started thinking about stiff controls. You know what I mean? Of the D-PAD and the direction in that. And even Axi-Virge is better at it, but I still always,

had that problem where I'm trying to aim on an angle and it doesn't. Whereas with Song of the Deep being on the sticks or whatever and being your underwater, you can totally strafe around and do stuff. And I feel like I'm in the control, I'm in, I can control what's happening in a battle much better than I can. Axi and virgin, which I loved and played the shit out of Unvita on our trips. Like, great game, really enjoyable. I still felt most of the time like, man, this is going to be hard to get through.

These guys, they're in control. I feel as Marin and I'm in control the battlefield when I'm in there. because I do get to do the idea of shoot these jellyfish first or whatever then go after this fish who's thrown his bombs or get far enough away so I can see their incoming attacks and strife around him get around. Is it a dual stick thing?

Yeah, so you're controlling moving that way, yeah. Well, you're aiming or whatever moving. Yeah, yeah. No, that makes a lot more sense. Because yeah, like the controls, specifically with the diagonals are a little bit hard on it. Yeah, exactly. Any of the games, I think that's a problem even with like shadow complex.

Yeah. And I think this is a bit forgiving maybe with hitboxes or stuff like that. It's when you're shooting projectiles like the hook or the missiles or whatever, you'll see a little, like, indicator on them go red, meaning that's who you're going to be shooting at.

That's what's going to happen. It's going to go that way. Any final closing thoughts? I think everyone should give it a shot. I mean, if what I've said sounds interesting, if anything I've said, sounds like I turn off, don't worry about it.

But, like, for me, super enjoyable game. Like, I really, really wasn't expecting anything from it. And I'm really, really in love with it. I can't wait to be it. I can't wait to sit down again and get a big chunk of time to sit there and play through and finish it. Like it on. Check it out.

Topic two, Pokemon Go again. Now here's the thing. Last week we talked about it, very little. It was in the topic of what are we playing now. And I was trying to play it, but the servers kept crashing and all that.

So I had very little experience with it. And that was the day that it came out. So it was not nearly the phenomenon that it is now. In the last week, it has taken over the entire world. It seems like every social feed, every newscast.

Right. Me and Kevin were at Raman, and we're seeing a, freaking crabby on ESPN. It's like, what the fuck's going on? This is such a weird world that we live in. It's been so crazy. It is fantastic.

Shout to Team Mystic. All the other teams, fuck y'all. Let's start. How much of it have you played? Because then I want to get to like what's happening in society and like what the hell's going on. But like, like, I have played as much as I could in my day to day. So the thing is it's like every.

Hmm? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite Pokemon. Yeah. Exactly. I'll turn it on every once in a while throughout the day.

But the problem is I'm either here or at my house. Right. So I'm getting a lot of the same things over and over. But that's fine because you level up that way and whatever. But the problem is I'm not mobile enough to be able to go to all the Pocus stops and refill my lures and all that shit. So I haven't been able to what? Sorry, sidebar. What is a lure?

Because everyone keeps talking about they're doing this and they're dropping lures. Grimecraft was doing a DJ party and drop. I'm like, I don't know what this means. Are you bringing Pokemon in or you tricking the trainers? No. So there's an item called incest. incest? No, not incest.

Incense. Incense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, incense. That's a different item. Incest is a different item. There's something wrong with that. Incense where you use it and then it lowers the Pokemon in to you, to your spot.

So you get 30 minutes of people coming there. And if multiple people are using the same spot, turns in this like crazy, you get multiplayer. Gotcha. Now I'm caught up. That's why there's like groups of people gathering at specific places. So I'll use that, but the problem is you go to the Pocostops to refill those. And I haven't been able to do that too much just because I'm working and doing all that stuff.

But, Um, every night I'll like flip it on and just, you know, catch a couple of piggies because why the fuck not? Um, and anytime, the, the thing is that whenever I'm out to dinner and stuff, that is when it's like most interesting to me because then you're a new spot. I'm in a new spot. So there's usually gyms and shit around there. Um, so I played a decent amount. The problem is the servers do still keep crashing on me. Right.

Um, and, uh, the game keeps glitching out and there's been multiple times where I've caught Pokemon and then it freezes. I'm like, God damn it. Um, so there's a little frustrating things like that. there's already been in a bug a bug fix update it fixed a lot of the stuff and their plan is to I think every two weeks release a new update to keep fixing this stuff it's not out worldwide yet so I think that they definitely understand what they have here and it's it's a phenomenon it's you know this is like this is one of those rare instances where it's overtaking everything in a way that not many things have since Pokemon launched in 98 in America you know and it's crazy to see like you were talking about Aaron playing it. Like, Gia taught me, she's like, should I download it? I feel like it, like, I don't want to be on the bandwagon. She was telling this whole conversation she had with her friend about both of them being like, I don't know if we should,

because whatever. Fake gamer girls. That's hilarious. That's like, that's even a conversation happening that Jesus thinking about downloading a Pokemon game. Yeah. Like the fuck. She should totally do it. But what's cool is, there's, I know so many people that are playing and that are addicted to it that are not gamers at all. And I think we all have those stories.

But my friend Kerr and his girlfriend, Shari, is obsessed with it more than he is and he loves it too. So they'll be out. Every morning I wake up and I just hear the freaking Pokemon theme music playing because they're in the other room booting the app up. I'm like, this is awesome because it's just getting people engaged. And it's like, I feel like so many core gamers are bitching that it's like, oh, there's no game here. And I got, I got bored in a minute. If you get bored in a minute, you're not doing it right.

Like, it's not about the gameplay. Like, the gameplay is very minimal. It's just collecting them. It is. And it's more about just using the app as you go about life. It's an ongoing kind of passive thing in a lot of ways that's only active. when you are thinking about it and want to go from there.

So it's like, for me, when I go out to dinner, that is the perfect time. It's just like, cool, I'm going to catch a motherfucking crabby because why the hell not? But what's weird is, I admittedly want more from this. You know, I want this to be more of a fleshed out thing. I want there to be badges and I want to be able to train and, like,

fight people in a more direct way instead of just the gym system they have. But I also understand that how dumbed down and simplified it is is why it's so appealing to people. and it's not a huge commitment it's not a big time exactly and and I the opposite of that though is it's obtuse as all hell

like when you first move it up you don't know what the hell you're doing it's really weird and what's interesting to me is I've learned more about this game from random motherfuckers on the street telling me what to do than anyone else really and that's insane yeah like I was at Buffalo Wild Wally's a couple nights ago and someone saw me with and he's like oh dude hey

you don't know you're doing this wrong you gotta make sure that when the circle's in the right place that's when you do it Oh shit. I did that. I'm like, cool. Didn't know that because the game does not tell you that at all. Yeah, that was a big takeaway for me was Aaron downloaded it when we were in Las Vegas. And she was like, I don't understand this. This is my art. Give me the phone. Like, like, you're like, dad stepping in. Yeah, I'll like, like, I'm playing games for 30 years. I'll teach you how to play.

I understand. Like, I'll read it. And I was like, I have no fucking idea. Like I like, and then I like, I like, I went. I'm like, do you throw it or you drag it? And then I was like, and I was like, and I was like, read it. And then I went online and I found a lot of the answers. and she started understanding it way more than I do now. But sort of my major takeaways is that it's obtuse, but I think it's intentionally obtuse because it makes you talk. Yeah, it enhances the social aspect of the game. I mean, here's the thing about this game to me is I've really marinated about it.

Is A, I started messing around with it on Aaron's phone. I have now one on my phone, but I mess around with on her phone and I get it. Like, I totally get it. I mean, I immediately got it. Yeah, I totally understand why this is fun for people. This would be fun for me. I'm not going down this road. I can barely find time to play the games I want to play.

I'm not going to fuck with this game. But, this is one of the examples we talk about with companies like Apple, right? Like the iPhone seems so obvious, but it's not. It's like, it took vision to like come for someone to be like, and frankly, like, the game isn't this, this technical behemoth. It's not like, there's nothing really radical about it. It just took vision to realize that like this is, this is pertinent.

This is exactly what Pokemon needed to do because we've been saying for years, like put Pokemon on iPhone. What did I mean by that? Put fucking Pokemon on iPhone. You know, why is Sun Moon not an iPhone? I mean, that was kind of my vision about what Pokemon on iPhone would be, which would still be huge. But not like this. And so, like, this takes the basic, more simple aspects and the inherently social aspects of Pokemon,

although I know they're going to put in, like, trading, like direct trading and all that kind of stuff, which I think was in the reveal. Well, they said that they're adding things, so that's in the reveal trailer, right? So like that, so like they're clearly working on that kind of stuff. And they did talk about that, I think. Wasn't it on Collin-Grig Live? Where he's like, yeah, they did say that. They're like, that's a fundamental aspect of the game and we're working on that.

I think it was basically. I'm sure, like, it's a fundamental aspect of Pokemon, but I don't think that they've announced that they've... I might be wrong about this, but I don't think that they've said that they're adding trading to this. I think they did, but... I'm going to look. I'm going to look.

Yeah, look. But, yeah, look up, like, a Neantic CEO interview for, like, two days ago. But, uh, I really respect the shit out of this game. Like, I do. Like, I'm not going to sit here and lie about it. Now, it's, like, ruining social media for me, but, like, so I ruin social media for people all the time with during football season and stuff. So I'm not saying anyone's doing anything wrong.

It's certainly keeping me off Twitter. because I'm like, I can't right now. I can't with this. But it's really appealing how many people are playing it, how much money they're making. They said early on they were making about $2 million a day. Which is a lot of money. They can do way better and they're going to do way better because the game is only out in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States and I think Japan.

Is it on Japan yet? I don't think it is. Okay, so not even in Japan. So those three territories. I mean, it's going to be bigger than anywhere in Japan than is anywhere else in the world, obviously per capita. And then you have Western Europe. You have Eastern Europe.

You have mainland Asia. You have Africa. you have the Middle East, you have like a bunch of places that like the game, South America, Central America, the game's going to be fucking huge. I'm going to be making way more than $2 million a day. That's, that's the thing about it is like these guys are going to be making hand over fist money. I wonder what Nintendo's agreement with, you know, with Pokemon company Nintendo and then the antics in terms of splitting the money. I'm sure it's very advantageous to Nintendo. So a lot of respect for them to to found this. There's ways for them to build on this to sustain it. That's my big question is, are they going to be able to sustain it? Because the game is shallow. So real quick timeout, trading is coming According to the business insider. I thought they announced that. Yeah, it broke recently.

So, um, but the thing about it is sustaining it to your point and like capitalizing on it, I think is the fact that they already are so great with the updates. You know what I always talk about how it is getting an update push through PlayStation or Xbox, all these hoops you have to jump through. The fact that every like I literally saw, I think Will Smith, uh, talk, not the, not Will Smith, like the actor Will Smith, Will Smith from test.com or formerly of test.com.

Talk about the Google account stuff, right? That it has all these permissions and on it. He's deleting it. He's unsinking it. And people were freaking out about that. And then they put out the update like, what, 12 hours later? Like, that's one of the, we're fixing that, dialing that back. Sorry.

People were, I was complaining because like, I downloaded that first night, played it out there with you guys. Like, all right, cool. I'll screw around here and there. I want to use it again the next day. And it was like, log back in with your Google account. I'm like, I don't remember which one I used. I'm not going to do it.

Yeah. And then they're like, we're dialing that out too. Like, they're listening. And I think it's going to be fascinating to see now that they're making so much money, how much money gets dumped back into it now. Like, all right, cool. like fuck this is a huge thing keep going make it better yeah and that was the thing about when they announced they're making two million dollars a day I'm like that's actually not that

impressive considering the like and I'm not saying that I wouldn't want my company to make two million dollars a day I'm saying we love it patron with the uh the penetration of this game is significant that's actually not a lot of money considering how many people are playing the game so I think that like once you scale it to like candy crush level or you scale it to uh clash of clans level those guys make way more than two million dollars a day and the and that's when that's when this is going to become like a massive phenomenon the thing knows games have the other mobile games that are huge have that this doesn't have

is gameplay and so is the hook of capturing Pokemon and trading them and then going to these gyms and going to all this kind of stuff is that going to be enough to sustain the game even as they clearly are going to add in all the rest of the Pokemon there's like got to be 100, 500 Pokemon missing or something like that from this game. Yeah, so like a lot.

So they can very cleverly just keep inserting those into the game but is that even going to be enough of a hook? Like I'm curious about the casual gamer. I'm curious because the casual gamer sustained this the hardcore gamer doesn't have the attention span to play this game the hardcore gamer doesn't

sustain King's fucking insane billion dollar model of you know like nor does the hardcore gamer dial in a game of war and all these kinds of games we're not the ones playing these games and we're not the ones playing this either

so like I think we are though we are right now but we're not going to be the difference though is this is not it's not something like Candy Crush or whatever that those are just like those are things that you need to be playing this is just something that's just happening

and it's you think about it more when you're out and when you're traveling or when you're walking your dog or whatever. And I think that as long as they keep giving more reasons to like more exciting events and stuff and I think that they're planning on that. That's what's going to keep people hooked. Like they're talking about doing the idea of sponsorship opportunities is insane with this. Like someone was looking through the code and they found that like McDonald's is probably going to be a sponsor thing. The idea that like if you go to the McDonald's, there's going to be something special there, that is the type of stuff where it's like, huh, I guess I'm close enough to McDonald's.

I'm going to go there. And I feel like they can make things exciting. If they're just dropping, yo, you can get a motherfucking ditto. The only way to get it is if on these days you go there, that's how they're going to get the hardcore people and the casuals. Because those are the people, the hardcore want them all. They want to catch them all. And they want to be able to have the best of everything.

And then the casuals are like, I'm close enough to McDonald's all this fucking go. Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. But I disagree that hardcore is the hardcore game is going to sustain this game. It's not. If they're going to go towards a hardcore Nintendo fan, this game's going to die. So like the, so they need to, they need to, they need to have a more clever hook than just catching the Pokemon and just trading them and just going to these gyms and stuff like that and like they have to and I think they yeah for now it

works the game's a week old so like so like so like we're expressing so we have our hardcore friends who are waking up at three in the morning because their phone buzzes that a Pikachu's outside right right now and it's the summer there's nothing to play like that's what I'm saying like this game in six months is not going to be a phenomenon in the hardcore gaming like community I don't think it's going to be a phenomenon with everyone so like yeah they need to figure out they need to figure out a way to um to figure that out that said like even if they don't, even if they added nothing to this game at all. It's got, it's going to clearly

have legs. And I've been really fascinated with the penetration of the game with with people like you said with Aaron and her cousin Kate who don't play games at all who are like really into it. She's bringing it up to me. She's like, we were, she was walking to Lola saying like we were looking for like poker stops and catching things in the park and something like that. I'm like, this is, this is fantastic. Like, just

because I'm glad she's having fun. She's been so exposed to games with me for the first time that she's like actually, now that she's ever going to become a gamer. That's not really not important to me at all that she does. But that like, she's appreciated. what these games are all about. And so even if this is our entry point in many ways to playing games, I think that's pretty cool. And again, I have an immense amount of respect for the way they made this game. I think it takes vision to make a game like this. I don't think it's as

obvious as, as they, there are there is another Pokemon game on mobile, right? And it's not like a deep Pokemon game or anything like that, a Pokemon shuffle, whatever the fuck you call it. And this made more money in, this has already made more money in a week than it made lifetime on that other, that other, that other app. So that's such a crowded space. You know, the race to the bottom on the phone is real. The iPhone and the Android and the Android and the Android platform is largely garbage for games. I mean, I don't think anyone would dispute that's fucking trash for games.

So to be able to have something that rises to the top like that and becomes more than a game that people but in an app that they open up and keep and keep passively going throughout the day, I think it's really cool. And what I'm interested to see is how they're able to translate this to people buying 3DSs and buying Pokemon Moon and Sun or whatever.

You got to do is make, have GameStop have a special thing. If you can only get whatever Pokemon it is, that GameStop during these days that Pokemon Sun and Moon come out. Yeah, I think it's I think so there's like I want to see I want to see this, it's going to take time but I want to see like actually a really long time probably need about six months for this

since the Pokemon games need to come out and then need to to gestate a little bit but what is the pickup rate are is well Aaron want to play Pokemon Moon and Sun you know like does she because a lot of these people out there playing the game don't even know what Pokemon really is like what the fundamental aspect of Pokemon is the idea of training the Pokemon and fighting them against each other and

wandering around a world and meeting people and going to gyms and gathering badges and all that kind of stuff. That is the fundamental aspect of Pokemon. This reminds me a lot of Pokemon Snap where it's like it actually is Pokemon Snap in a lot of ways where it's like it's just a mobile 21st century version of it

and I thought Pokemon Snap was was shallow but smart in its own way and so I think that this is the same way. So I'm I like it. I like it's cool. I picked it up and in two minutes I'm like yeah I get it like I can't down with this. You know like I like I like I The thing is that people think I'm hard on Nintendo, and I guess I am, but I love Pokemon.

Like I played every Pokemon game until like three years ago. I played all of them, you know, like every one of them. So it's not like I love those games. I collected them all at one time, you know, because I was a dork like you once. Huge loser. And that goes back to, you know, Pokemon Red. And so when I was seeing these familiar Pokemon and it was a great nostalgic touchstone for me as well.

Yeah. To see these familiar creatures and see someone that I love, like kind of get into it and like ask questions about it. I'm like, like, as a 31 year old man, I'm like, well, you know, she was saying she was like, she evolved the pigeon. I'm like, oh, Pidgeyota. Yeah. And she's like, just looked at me and I'm like, never mind.

Yeah. I feel like if this would have dropped at the beginning of convention season, I would be into it. But it's the fact of, and that, because I want to go back now that they fix the Google thing and log in once and be done with it. And then I'll play it. But it's like, it's similar thing. I'm just like, how many times I caught the mouse looking motherfucker out there in the living living room the first day, right?

I'm like, all right, cool. Now I got him. And I go. But the Poked Stop thing and playing for gyms and doing all this stuff That sounds interesting And like if I wouldn't

You know I mean like Grimecraft did that DJ thing last night I totally would have gone and hung out And done that too if I didn't have plans Like it's a cool thing And I like what's fascinating about it Is this societal impact on it And the stories you're hearing of yeah

People who there was this great one on Reddit Um Of this guy who was walking through the park late at night And this is right after all the shootings And like what A few days removed from the Dallas shooting And all this you know turmoil we have in our country

And he was walking through a park at like 3am because he couldn't sleep And he was catching Pokemon And he did this And these two black guys on a bench Were like, hey man And he was like He stopped and like looked at him like

If you want whatever Pokemon he's over here Like come on over there And then this brought a cop out Of a cop came by Because eventually people were like There's like a drug deal on the park And they explained to the cop And the cop and the cop downloaded it while he was there

It's like that's fucking awesome And then my cousin Who's you know a mother of two now Both high school boys or whatever Like freshman boys hit me up Just like what is Pokemon go Like why are all the kids out of the house doing this. They're running around the neighborhood in a giant

group playing this game. What is happening? That's awesome. That's fascinating. It's cool that's getting people to socialize, getting people outside the play, putting a new spin on video games and what video games can be. I think it's all positive, to be frank. I mean, which is surprising for me to say.

What I've appreciated is the review scores are all seems like where they should be too, where they're like, the game's not that great, but it's a cool experience. It's super fun. Like, people aren't like 10. You know what I mean? I'm doing it. I am super skeptical that the game has legs beyond a year. But we'll see. But we will see.

And even if it doesn't, they, they're going to make plenty of money on it. I don't think they gave a fuck. And their stock, the important thing that we left out is that I think it was on Friday or Monday. I mean, their stock went up like,

Nintendo stock went up 9% on Friday. And I think like another 13% or something on Monday, which was their biggest one day jump on one of those days since the Famicom launch. So. Yeah. It's pretty significant stuff. Yeah.

I don't think the conversion rate's going to be too high in terms of getting people from Pokemon Go to the core actual Pokemon games, but I also don't even think that's that bad. I think that they need to focus on what this is and building this and creating a new style of thing. I think Pokemon Go needs to be a separate thing from the Pokemon games.

Eventually one day they can interact with each other. I think that would be awesome, but I think Pokemon Go needs to be Pokemon Go, and that needs to, I hope that they keep continuing to evolve it and all that stuff and give it a whole bunch of new things. I like that the game for as simple as it is, the more you put into it,

the deeper it gets in terms of there's a lot of, lot more going on. It's like, all right, you're just catching these Pokemon. Okay, there's these gyms. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, there's three different teams. And there's all these meta storylines that kind of formed from that. Have you seen the shit talk? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, these teams. I don't understand most of it. Everybody hates the yellow

team. Which is weird. Which is really weird, because shout out to Zaptos. He my boy. But here's the problem with that is I obviously got to go Team Mystic because it's Articuno, which is blue. Of course. Right. Zaptos, the superior of legendary birds, but team Mystics where it's at. So the biggest problem with this game is I think that it needs to do more of that. It needs to have more things come where it's like there's choices you make that feel like

they're a part of something bigger than just repeatedly catching the same Pokemon over and over. But I think that they've wowed me. Once I saw that there was the teams, I'm like, man, that's really smart. And the teams kind of, you support your team to take over the gyms and you, it's a weird allegiance to it where you want them to keep succeeding to take over all the gyms in San Francisco. Cisco, you know? I have a question. How do you take over a gym? Because you don't fight each other, right? You do, you do. Okay. So you go to the gym and then there's someone that's holding down the gym. Whoever has it is whatever team member is holding it down. You go there and you challenge them and then it's like this like tapping game.

Oh, okay. But it's it's super basic and it really comes down to who's the higher level. And then what is a pokey stop? Pokey stops are just it's where you can go and get items and like lures? Yeah, the, the. And can you run out a ball? Somebody said, They ran out of balls. Yeah. When I was playing the first time, I never saw a number of balls. I was just throwing balls. If you hit the Pokeball on the bottom of the screen, it tells you all the items.

What happens if I run out of balls? Then you don't have any. You can't catch them. You need to go to Pococop, get more. Yeah, and you get them when you level up, too, I think. You get more. I mean, that's what everyone was saying. Yeah, when you get a lot of them.

When you catch Pokemon, you get them. You get them a lot, but then also Pocopts are everywhere. Okay. Like, there's one a couple blocks away, or a block away. Sure. Yeah, I love it. I don't know. This is an interesting game.

It's a very interesting game. It's cool to see a video game be a phenomenon like this for the general public. Very much. Yeah. Also, yeah, just talking to Aaron, I'm like, so she was telling me, she was like, oh, I'm like, have you evolved anything? She's like, I've evolved many Pokemon. I'm like, all right. Didn't know, didn't know that about you.

I love it. So. And then there's eggs that you get the eggs and you walk around just like in the games. And after a certain amount of steps, like they hatch and it's a random Pokemon. There's just so much little things where, uh, it's cool. You know, you have that. And you physically need to walk around. Eventually it pops open.

You get a lot of fucking duds that you didn't want. But then every once in a while it's like, oh, this is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It is funny, it's good. It's good. Yeah, good for them. And this is what Nintendo. Now, like, another question we can really go into this maybe next week is like what Nintendo can learn from this because I think it tells them a great deal about what they

need to do. Yeah. I just to abandon their hardware. Well, what's interesting too is when you look at the Wii and it's just like the Wii was a similar thing where they had this thing where all of a sudden all these people that don't play games and everybody's talking about this and then they didn't really do anything with it. So that's the big worry here is I hope that they don't repeat that fast.

but hopefully this is a different Nintendo and hopefully that they're realizing what they have and it does get really interesting that Nintendo seems to not have much to do with this. No, they don't. It is. It's totally Neantic and the Pokemon company which Nintendo only owns 30% of.

Yep. Yeah, that's the other thing is like Nintendo stocks going up and they have to have a they're making a lot of money but not all the money is going to them. Yeah. Certainly the lion's share probably but I think the most interesting thing about this though is the stats of how well it's doing where you're talking about the the stock going up and all that.

But in addition to that, it's the number one mobile game ever in terms of downloads and all that stuff. And in terms of daily active users and time spent in the app, rivaling, not even just games,

but apps, Twitter, Twitter, Instagram, all this stuff. It's about to eclipse Snapchat. Fuck you, Snapchat. Fuck you, Kevin. I think that's the big thing is like if people think $2 million

is a lot of money for this game to make a day, like just wait. Because like, as long as they can get these games out quickly in other regions, then they're going to be making way more than that. It's about to eclipse Google Maps

for the most used thing of Alphabet, which is Google's parent company, the map service, which is Google Maps. So more people are using the GPS map service in Pokemon Go than Google. Well, not yet, but soon. Yeah, yeah. More than Google Maps. That's fucking insane.

It's pretty remarkable. Pokemon, man. That's great. So great. I love this. Thank God. We got to win, guys. Fuck yeah.

All right. Topic three. We're doing something a little bit different today. Thanks to my boy, Stephen Insler. Patreon producer once again. We're going to do two topics of audience questions because there was a whole bunch whole bunch and they were good. They were good

some of them are all over the place. Some of them not so good but that's why I want to address that. Gotcha okay. All right. Black hard vinyl has a long one here. Hey guys, I want to talk about the relaunch of Evolve but in a broader sense because I know you guys didn't play the game. I adore the game for the record. What I want to discuss is how cool it is that we live in an age

of something that was previously impossible. Games getting a second chance. When a game flopped before, that was pretty much the end. Not that have all flopped, it sold pretty well. But player retention was not strong. And I think it's incredible that a game can now get a little more tender-loving care and hopefully come back. Greg will remember the Rocky start to David Breivik's Marvel Heroes game that has now become something of a hugely successful success and a lot of fun. I'm just happy we live in a time when that's possible.

What games would you like to see you get a second chance? Oh, wow. Well, I echo his point, yeah, that it's cool that you can come out and, like, you know, gazillion with Marvel Heroes, David Breivx left the studio. But when David was there, he'd go around and like, for a year two and be like, yep, the game wasn't that good last year. We've learned a lot. We've done a lot.

We've changed it and to the point you get now to where it's Marvel Heroes 2016 because they put a year now at the end every time to make it seem new. And they do. They care and they get in there and they listen to players and they make feedback. And it's similar to this Pokemon thing we're talking about where it's like, oh, fuck, we've screwed all this shit up and we're fixing it right now. Here's your fixes. It evolves.

It involves interesting. It reminds me of the Final Fantasy MMO that came out and nobody liked and then they relaunched and everybody likes it. I was going to say, yeah, like there's, there's been a few instances happening already. The pay to free to play thing happened with that Star Wars MMO, the old Republic. Same thing with DC Universe online. Yeah, with DC Universe online. So it's not unprecedented.

Final Fantasy 14 is a great example where the game was terrible. And then a realm were born came out and everyone loves it. So it's not totally unprecedented. But what was interesting to me about Evolve was that like why? Like I don't understand. Yeah, but Turtle Rock is like a great studio. These guys mean, these guys being left for dead. Like, why does 2K want them to work on Evolve again?

Like now I know. that Strauss-Zelnick, who's the CEO of Take 2, who owns 2K, came out and said, like, this Evolve, you know, when Evol came out, it's like one of our permanent franchises. And I think that they're trying to stay with that. And I mean, there are the permanent franchises where, like, Bioshock and Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto and all these kinds of games. So I'm like, well, I would have probably,

I think it would have been smarter to abandon Evolve and have them do something new and something exciting. And maybe not something not so contingent on asymmetric multiplayer, which seemed to be a turnoff for a lot of people, because that wasn't what Turtle Rock was really all. about with their games that were big. So there was more about like team play and stuff like that or playing by yourself. And so I think that I really think that we're seeing something, we're seeing a critical mass

of these kinds of games that require multiplayer communities. And I've been saying it for a long time where I'm like, you can't have all these games coming out. I do think you're going to see the same thing having with Titanfall too, where I think that like it's going to come out and people are going to be interested in it and there's going to be a sort of morbid curiosity about it and about its campaign. But I think when you're going up against battlefield and call of duty and all those games, like how can you possibly hope to succeed in that space?

and I think that Evolve going to free to play certainly spike the numbers on PC. The game is discounted on consoles right now as well so I don't know if they're going to bring that model over per se they did say they want to. Real quick. But I think it's a mistake for them to do this. To double back to why stick with Evolve I think is I think that there's bean counters somewhere in there that are thinking about how

much money they put into promotion, how much money they put in development, all these different things and there must be, we're so close to this being profitable or more successful or whatever that why not this team cares about this game, whether or not you know, the audience cared about it.

You know, the person writing in did and loved it a lot. I think that they see enough in it that they're like, all right, cool, we can make these changes. These, not simple by any means, but these little tweaks, these little changes to get people back in, to get people to try it to get people to get invested and not have to blow it up and wait another three years

for the engine for the new game and this, that and the other and all the assets to come together. I think there's probably a thing there where it's like, they feel they were close enough on the monetary side and close enough on the gameplay side that they can do this. I think it's, It's an interesting question of how much the game's press matters anymore.

Because that was always my conversation with David at Marvel Heroes, because he'd come by up in new every year or whatever, I was like, so how's it going though? And he's like, you know, nobody wants to know, once your game's out, right? And this is, you know, older, this is IGN removed. But once the game was out, when we were there, it was like, okay, cool. Now it's into the community and we're done with it. It was so hard to make the audience care about something because they were coming to IGN for we want to know what's new and hot and that you guys have the exclusive access to.

Once everybody has access to it, we don't. care, we go to like, like I was talking about brick inquire.com, we go to a specialized site. And so now that, yeah, if they go through and make all these changes, are they going to pour money back into, all right, cool, let's get a big promotional push. Let's get YouTubers playing. Let's get all these different things. Let's try to do a media tour. And if, would people care at that point? No, I don't think they would. And I think that the, and I don't think they do. I mean, that's the, that's the thing is, I just think this was weird. My theory is that they took a small sliver of Turtle Rock and did this. And the rest of the team's

working on something new. I, I just don't believe that the entire, like, you know, that they they have to have something else going. And what I really feel like is possible is that they are working on a real sequel and that this is going to be the gateway and that once the sequel is announced that then they can be like, well, you can play the old game for free here. And maybe the new game will be free to play as well. And you can kind of get like your shit going. I just think that there's just way too many of these games.

Because it's not necessarily the free to play model that's broken, although I think it is broken. It's the nature of these kinds of multiplayer versus single player games. You can't. These are investments. These are massive investments that are way bigger than the investment you would make into a 15-hour campaigner. You can't be an expert at every one of these multiplayer games. There's just too many of them. You can't be awesome at being the trapper and evolve and also

be graded at being ranged in Destiny and then also because you have to go through and run the, I mean, it's like when I see Alfredo tweeting about his streams, right, where it's like, he's jumping into play division and then whatever else. And I assume he's doing that because he knows he has to hit his dailies in division to keep that treadmill going so that whenever something big does happen on the expansion side, he's ready to go. Same thing with Destiny to extend. I just don't see him recently talking about that. Yeah. So that was a weird. That was weird, That's that thing. You're,

you know, you're into that universe, you're into that world. You know, the same thing of like, what is such a huge turnoff from me at DC Universe online now, right?

The fact of like, I'd love to play more DC Universe in, but I jump in and I'm three armor sets behind. And I look at how many, and I start calculating the hours it would take me to finish them all off to get my CR to get to the new raid. I'm like,

well, no, that's never going to happen. Like, it's not worth my time. Next question comes from Cozy Bear. Says, Hey, guys, I have a question about GameStop's future

as a video game publisher. This goes back to Song of the Deep. In the past several months, GameStop has announced that it would be publishing Insomnia Song in the Deep and more recently, ready at dawn's deformers. Both games seem like potentially high-quality experiences, and I'm happy GameStop identified them as such and picked them up. But with strong indie aesthetics to them, neither seemed like the kind of game that would be able to financially sustain GameStop in the all-digital future we're slowly but surely

approaching. Do these games indicate that GameStop will remain a publisher of small-scale video games going forward or side business to some other venture they have planned? Or is GameStop just testing the waters before it jumps in? funds a major AAA caliber title, they'll bring home the bacon for them. They're testing the water. Yeah, that's the big one.

Yeah, you figure you don't want to go out here and have this giant movie. Like, this is a big step for them. This is a big thing. They have a lot to learn. I'm sure as they go through this. And so, yeah, you don't want to come out and be like, great, we've gotten AAA Studio X

to come to do this thing with us and then not know what they're doing. And I think it's interesting with Song of the Deep of how, what lessons are they going to learn, right? Because Song in the Deep is critically, me right now being received, right? Mediocre being received. I like it a lot.

I'm sure there's other people like it a lot, but they put out a collector's edition, they put out a statue, and they put out a shirt, they put out a shirt, and they put out a key chain, they put out of fungo pop and all this different cool stuff

that matters to me, but suddenly did they totally overstretch on that, where it's like, we totally thought this game was going to be eights and nines, and it's not, and oh God,

do people care? Are they going to come in and buy this stuff? Yeah, I think that, I think they have to learn small and then you learn small and you put a small investment and then you lose small.

And you lose. And I think that they're, I don't think it would be beyond the realm of possibility that they lose big on this game within that realm, within that possibility. It's still going to be a small investment, though, because this game couldn't have been that much to make. I think it's smart for them to make these...

The thing about Insomniac and Ready at Dawn is that they're making indie-style games with small teams, but they're capable of making huge games. So the... And they both have made AAA games. So Insomnix made many AAA games. So it's smart to get the relationships going with these guys and see what that's all about.

And then at the game does well and everyone likes each other. If Ted Price likes the guys at game trust and all these guys of things. And then they're like, all right, let's scale up to a $50 million game. Because, you know, clearly, Song of the Deep couldn't have cost more than, you know, what, $5 million to make or something like that?

I don't know. It's just not like that it's not resistance. It's not ratchet. It's not one of these games that Insomniac typically makes. It's also interesting. I'm sorry to say it's also interesting with Intomniac's, well, it's interesting to see, like, who owns the IP and like what the relationship is there as well.

First question, I mean, think about it from, like, you're talking about a publisher, but think about it from a developer, right? Of like, Noddy Dog didn't come out of the gate making Uncharted. They made different games, smaller games than this. get on a roll, you know where you're going. They made a bunch of crappy crash games, and then they got to where they needed to be. But you understand.

I mean, like, you learn, you go and you grow. I mean, look at us. Like the videos we started making and now what we're trying to make

and we have an animated show and different stuff. We're moving to studio. Like, it's all about that learning. Yeah. Definitely. Next question comes from CM14.

Says, hi guys. What do you think of the Final Fantasy 15 theory that Luna is Genova? The shadows of the weapons from seven. The theory that they are connected sounds so cool. Emerald Weapons is in the Kingsglave trailer. I can't wait.

for Fun Fantasy 15. Here's my thing about this. I remember when 102 came out and then there was a whole bunch of there was a character, there was Shinra and all this and it was like, does it link to 7? I love that stuff. That's great. I loved that the Final Fantasy Tactics, Fan Fantasy 12 takes place in the same world.

Fon Fentzis. 13, obviously the whole universe of 13, the diamond or not diamond, whatever. Crystal. Crystal, yeah. The whole crystal Decudeum, whatever the fuck. That's just cool. With this, I mean, obviously we got Fon Fantasy 7, remake coming out eventually.

So I think that it could be smart to link them. But at the same time, I think that it's just going to be fan theory stuff. And I don't think it's going to be more official in any sense. But it's cool. I don't think Luna is Genova. That sounds dumb to me. I also think it's a bad

idea of cross-lore between games as well, like between the universes. It's like 10 and 10-2, obviously connected. Right? But like, because they're 10 and 10-2 or 13 trilogy is connected. Yeah, but 10-2 links to 7. And very lightweight. if you like with this character like there's a character that's talks about shinra and blah blah blah yeah but that's that's that's stupid like like because the cool thing the the strength of final

fantasy to me is like keeping them all separate so people can jump in similar what we're talking about in the conversation with persona it's why it's like annoying that there's magic attack armor and this and stuff it's like why like like but why like magic like armor served the purpose in that world so like how is their magic tech armor and final fantasy 15 doesn't make any sense you know like so like that kind of should actually bothers me because I'm like well just leave just leave it alone like why we have to go back and ruin everything you know Like these things stand along. Seven doesn't need any help.

You know, Six doesn't need any help. Just leave them alone and let 15 stand on its own or not. But I don't like that. Like I like fan servicey shit. Yeah, that's why you have Mughals for and chocobos. Yeah.

And, and like, summons and so like that, that kind of connect Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy. It's the same thing with Dragon Quest with slimes and all this kind of stuff. But they're,

and they do have arcs. I mean, those games are paired in threes, but, um, I don't know. I like the idea of 15 being, and 15 to me looks so fucking,

like, I don't know what the fuck it looks like, but I don't want it to touch anything I like until I know what's good and then that's fine. As an outsider, I mean, the fact that there's magic tech armor in there doesn't have to be a reference to it's connected in the universe, right? It's just the fact that it's like as a comic fan when they reboot stuff or there's a different thing and there's somebody's named this or whatever. It doesn't mean that that's the same character from before. It could just be sure. And final fancy has that with Sid and all those guys. I mean, there's a Sid in every game, right?

Like there's, they've already had that, but and those characters aren't Sid in four isn't Sid in seven. and they're totally different characters. They're both engineers, but, um, or I guess have engineering minds or whatever. Um, but to me,

I, I don't know. It, I don't like this like retroactive. Like we have to have fan service like in every fucking aspect and like, MagiTech Armor and Six is, is a product of like of, of,

of, Gestel and all those guys like summoning espers and like stealing their power and like that armor and the power of those armor exists because of a very specific reason. I know it's a nerdy thing like that I would get hung up on. But, um, but,

but I just feel like, okay, so now you're just putting it in here. So like I can't my... Because I call my app, I'm like, MagicTech Armor. That's cool, but like, what is the connection to Gestal and Kefka and all this shit? I'm like, there is none. So why is this here?

Yeah, I love it. I love it. I don't like it. I'm more subtle. Chuck says, hey, kind of funny, I grew up a big fan of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 during the PS2 era. Dork. Jumped over to Xbox after PS3 was too expensive. One of my major reservations was not being able to play

Kingdom Hearts 3. Imagine my surprise when years later, Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced for Xbox one. Now here's my issue slash question. It's been years since I've played any of the games in the series and all the releases are PlayStation exclusive. What are your thoughts on releasing a sequel on a system that has never been home to any of the previous games of the series? Smart. I mean,

Sony's been, the Sony's gotten that with Mass Effect and stuff like that too. So, I mean, we get Mass Effect one eventually on PS3, but it was actually after 3 came out. I think it's fine. I think it's smart. I'm actually shocked that the Kingdom Hearts collections, 1.5, 2.5, all that stuff is not on Xbox 360 or Xbox 1. I don't get that.

I feel like they're working on it. I mean, if I had to guess, since it's only on, they release the HD 1 and 2 on PS3. It's not yet on PS4. I have a feeling that once they're ready with that full collection that has 2.8 and it has everything. It'll be on PS4 and X marks 1.

Yeah, I mean, it's weird though, because I mean, Square NX is Japanese. They want to hit the Japanese market, which doesn't give a flying fuck about Xbox. So I get all of that. They're doing the same thing. They did the same thing with Final Fantasy 10

and they did the same thing with Final Fantasy 12. So it's like, I'm actually, confused for my Xbox brethren where I'm like I don't I don't get it I don't know like it's not like you guys aren't getting like all the other big square releases so I don't understand it's a little weird you know like but Square is playing this game clearly with everyone where they're like well Tomb Raider is on Xbox it'll come on the PS3 later or PS4 later and well this is on this is on this is on the Japanese games are on PS4 and you're not going to get them and it's like I don't know I think it's a little confused I was an Xbox game where I'd be very frustrated with the Japanese Arm of Square in X because they're not getting anything you know but they are going to get Kingdom Hearts they are going to get Final Fantasy 15 so you're going to get the games that are You know, the marquee titles. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's confusing.

I think it's weird. If I was, if I was a publisher, I put my shut on everything. You know, and I said that, I said that, I think on,

we're talking on PSI Love You when I did with Altano where I was like, if I were, I would go so, like we were talking about Capcom specifically and I was like, if I were Capcom, I'd release everything that I have in my catalog and everything.

I would, I would pay a ton of money to certify, put trophies and chiefs and everything. I'd be like, everything is coming out. Fucking Street Fighter 2049 is coming to fucking Xbox Xbox 360. You know, Breath of Fire 2 is coming Xbox 360

and Xbox 1. Like, I just do it all. I just leave it there, just like a virtual console thing. I mean, you would assume you'd make a lot of money over time, but maybe, you know what? The fact that they're not doing it, maybe they aren't, maybe they don't see the internet. I just think it's ambitious. I just think it's more complicated than it's worth. These are big corporations want to make big amounts of money. So it's like,

yeah, we're going to make a few hundred thousand dollars on each of these games. Like, who cares? Yeah. And I think that's probably their mentality. Yeah. Beto says, hey guys, love your show. Do you think the new Xbox consoles code named Scorpio because it will be released between Octobo October 23rd and November 21st, 2017. Is this a common theory around your circles?

Because it seems rather obvious. I'd never heard that. I never thought of that theory. It makes sense. I never heard that or thought about it. I don't think that that's the case. But I think that it could be a nice coincidence. And they can play it.

If Microsoft's cognizant of that, and I'm sure they are, they read everything, then I think that they can probably play that up. Allie Polo says, hey, guys, what happened to cheat codes? And why did they exist in the first place? I always thought the developers put them in so they can access levels

and weapons, etc. or while showcasing the game to press? No, because there's debug modes in game. So if you play a game on a test kit or a debug kit, so this is like closer to the whole. Like we have PS4s and PS3s that play debug software, which is like software that's not done. They play it on burn discs usually.

And or you can play it on a dongle or whatever. And it's basically a way to access the games. And like you'll notice that, all right, so I played Horizon on a debug PS4. And the guy wanted to reset and put me somewhere else. And so, like, the code, like, developers put, like, different code or different input codes into their controllers to have access

different menus or do different things. And I think you press, like, the touch pad or something, like, 10 times. And then it brings up, like, you know, like a menu and you're allowed to, like, manipulate anything you want in the game. And that's basically how the developers manipulate their game when they're playing it around. They're like, okay, I want this guy at, they're always, I forget the name of it, the system that a lot of gamer,

a lot of developers use where they're constantly funneling new versions of the game into, so they always have the new version of the game, whatever. Anyway, they can say, like, these guys put new textures over here, and so I'm just going to lift my character up and put him over there in the world and they do that with a debug menu. So that's not why Cheecodes were in the game. No, the old days, yeah, and I mean,

for PlayStation 3, a lot of it was on the debug, hit both R3 and L3 at the same time, and that would bring up it and you can go through there and set, yeah, true values to this or move it to night and day or do this room. Cheecoes, I think fell away, right, because did people really use them? I feel like there's definitely games where, yeah,

I mean, I remember GTA 2 on PS1, we'd sit there and put in code so that, all right, cool, we're going to restart, and everybody's going to have the rocket launcher, how much damage can you do and do all this kind of stuff. But I feel like for the most part that was probably a waste of time. Now more than...

And things are harder to do now. It would be the other thing. Like big head mode isn't as easy as it used to be in a 16-bit NBA jam to put in. They have to go through and render and do all these different things and make sure the game fucking runs like that. And as you see that these games

that get put out and can barely run, like what's the point of going through to do that? Yeah, I think it was a matter of replay value and keeping your, like, you know, also nullifying your ability to like move on in the next game. You spend a lot of money in these games. It was way more expensive back in the day.

So I think it was smart for them to do that. But I also think Greg's point is great. Like this is a QA nightmare. You know, like QA could be in quality assurance. If you can break the game in a million different ways, then you have to QA all that kind of stuff. And it's not easy. It's a fucking probably actually super obnoxious.

And these guys look at this and like, they have data now. Since the PS3 and XXX360 area, like as long as the publishers and developers put, you know, the appropriate things into the game, like they have data on everything, like that you've ever done. Even if you're playing a single player game,

if you play at Biocshack Infinite, which has no online at all, they know how long you played it. They know the weapons you use. They know what you prefer to do. And they have heat maps of where people go on the maps and they can learn from all those things. I mean, that's the way the games are developed now.

And they probably look at this stuff. And they're like, well, no one really does this kind of stuff in the early PS3 games. So they don't put it in the later PS3 games. And now you don't see it at all anymore. So but I think a lot of it has to do with QA. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that like it's just like it's just like these little things.

You just need a little thing to fuck everything up. Yeah. I think that also just games are bigger now in general. And I think that there's more to do and there's more being put into the games that you're supposed to do. And there's so much side quests and so much the open world and all that stuff that back in the day, it was about replay value. And it was about playing Tony Hark's Pro Skater and using the cheat codes because it made the game different. It made the game fun. You can play in a different way.

I remember Sonic the Hedgehog, you can do the debug mode and all that stuff. And it was fun to mess around with the game that you've beaten 100 times. But now you can do it in a different way. So I miss Cheekodes, but I also don't think that they have a place in modern games at all. I don't think that they're going to work. In certain things like when NBA Jam came back, yeah, cool, that should have Sheikos because that makes sense. Sure. But I can't even imagine how Cheetos would fit into a call of duty.

Yeah, and then it breaks it, and then it breaks it for other people. Are you playing it on, like, the thing that I never really used Cheetos any care much. Tony Hawk was a good example of like Chicos that were actually fun to use. And there's other examples like Justin Bailey and Metroid and stuff like that. But or things like the Chris Houlehand Room and Link to the Past and stuff like that, like these little kind of workarounds. but actually game genie was like the only thing I really love to love done it. Because Game Genie broke the shit out of the games.

I mean, those weren't Cheetos. That was like break, literally breaking the game. You can't do that kind of stuff anymore either. They had stuff like, you know, Game Shark and stuff like that. But again, like you can't.

Game Genie was awesome. Game Genie was awesome. That was a glube product for people that don't know. I don't know if Glob exists anymore. And that was like a thing like where you came with these books and you can buy more books. And like there was like you just put in these like, this sequence of letters and numbers.

And then it would be like, here's infinite lives and Zelda. changes the color like palette or like it does all these things and I'm like this is fucking fantastic I love that shit and then Nintendo sued them I think and it was like all sorts of drama with them yeah anyway

so topic for today of the kind of funny games cast as always brought to you by Patreon thank you very much to all our beautiful Patreon supporters of the $20 thank you that was nice yeah that's like that Milo or whatever

no is that with it no 16th 16th chappel man I'm fucking pallas for that one not as bad not as bad as me thinking that was Venus to my mother. Stephen Carell says, what games are you guys most excited to play on VR?

You Valkyry, homie. I mean, at launch of PlayStation VR, it's Res for me. Res Infinite. When I played that at PSX last year, man, that was the first time I put on, the unit took it off and I was like, that was a game that felt like a real game that didn't feel like an experience.

That felt like something I would sit down and play hours of, maybe not all at once. For me, it's Star Wars. for sure. Even if it is an experience, that's what I want. Oh, the Thai fighter stuff? Yeah, they're not ready to make the full game thing yet. That's fine. I just want

that experience. I mean, it's, there's nothing like that. That's so cool. And I remember when I heard that they were going to make Space Mountain into hyperspace Mountain at Disneyland. I was so excited because it's like, I love that ride, but adding Star Wars music to things makes things better. You know what I mean?

And I think that there's something very, very unique about the feel of what Star Wars is. And when you add that to VR. It's like, all right, cool. There's going to be a whole bunch of VR experiences of me flying around in a cockpit. But an X-wing cockpit, a Thai fighter cockpit, that's different. That's something where I'm like, yep. Living the dream.

I mean, that's the equivalent earlier time on Pokemon Go, where it's like Neantik put out Ingress years ago, no one gave a shit. Like the people that liked it liked it. But like overall, that's not going to, you know, change the mobile game or anything. You had Pokemon to it. And all of a sudden, it's like, huh, this makes sense. And I totally understand. And I think that with Star Wars, it's the same thing where that is that, that touchstone, where everybody that experienced that is going to be like, holy shit. And I can't wait to see what they do with it.

Yeah, I think Eve Algary is most exciting. I mean, for the games that are announced, I think Eve Alcary in that, and I want to see Reds and Evil. I want to play a Comic Con. I'm excited. Yeah. Tim, do you want to play the Comic Con with me? I already played it. I'm good.

It's going to be, this is the, oh, okay. You'd make that happen? No. It's not a thing. It is really scary. Street at Street Sweeper says Good name. Good name. Will VR bring about the return of the murder simulator argument in politics and news about games? Yes. But the argument is, did it ever go away? I think

politics just got lazy. They maybe noticed that nobody was listening to that argument. Yeah, when you put on VR and you are now holding the gun and somebody puts out a, it won't be on PlayStation VR, but when somebody puts out a download where you are killing cops or whatever, and like, yeah, that's going to be an issue. And people are going to put that out. And people are going to put that out it'll be like hatred will be like that right of when you have your hatred game that's in VR and the guns in your hand someone will make a big deal about it but hopefully they'll be level-headed people there to us always be like well we've always had light gun shooters is it really any different like granted this game's rewarding you for one thing but

it's one one way that they're taking this art this direction this game whatever yeah i think when the VR first kind of goes really mainstream with PlayStation i think that we're going to get obviously a lot of news coverage from it from every angle because everyone's going to be talking about it and i think that that will be one of the the perspectives people take, but I do think that overall there's going to be a lot more positive angles that... Oh, shivered and really like focused on. And I think that it's going to be a...

I don't think it's going to be any different than it has been because people are always going to have issues with violence. Wouldn't any form of media. So I think that VR's just going to be a new way for people to be mad. Yeah, first it'll all be about the tech, but then yeah, somebody will get their hands on it and make this game. That's weird. Yeah.

Matt Wenny says, why is Nintendo being so slow in revealing the NX? Like, just get to it already. Fans are sick of waiting. There's zero monetary gain to keep waiting, in my opinion. I respectfully disagree with you. I think that there's no reason to talk about it until it's absolutely ready to be talked about. And if the plan is March, I think wait as late as possible because you're just going to get drowned out in the entire holiday run of everything. I think we're so close to E3 and there's still Comic-Con.

There's still conventions where announcements get made. I think that they need to wait until later in the year. maybe even a September I think October you could push it to but October games start coming out so that might be not the best time because you need to think about it they're competing for

the IGN placement you know what I mean how long is IG going to keep talking about an X when it comes out you look at right now IGN I guarantee you there's five stories about Pokemon Go and tomorrow it'll be five new stories and whatever they're owning that right now in October in November

you need to think about those places being taken up by Call of Duty reviews and Coll duty strategy videos and Collie duty this and that repeat that with Titanfall and Battlefield and this and then blah blah blah you go down the line it's like they're competing for space then when you get on a more mainstream level

it's obviously going to be talked about but there needs to be those follow-up conversations there needs to be more articles than just this thing happened and when you start competing with the reviews and all the other stuff of all the big blockbuster titles I think that's a bad idea so I think September is when they need to strike early October

over at the latest. Do their own event, really own it, own the message, own everything, and go from there. Word. Word. Yeah, they need to own that moment. Franklin Seismore says, hey Franklin. How did the quality of voice acting get to where it is today?

You take it more seriously? More room to run the audio, more intent on storytelling. I mean, you have to directing games, like directing cutscenes directing it like a movie. Yeah. I mean, you remember even like voice acting was compressed and there which wasn't a lot of room dedicate to it back in the day as well. So I think I just came to, it just became important.

The more important storytelling became and the more of the high fidelity of the audio became a touchstone of these storytelling games and these narrative driven experiences. I think that that was just a natural evolution of that. I think when people started calling it out too and talking about it and that was a pro or it was a con. You know what I mean? How many games did you play that were like these are great? These cutscenes are awful. Yeah. This voice acting was terrible. And people saw that. Developers saw that and publisher saw that and started putting a premium on that as they saw the fact of, you know, oh shit. People are talking nonstop about Metal Gear Solid because they love these characters and they love the way it played out whether you know what I mean How can you look at Vulcan Raven and not love his voice? It's true. It's very true Yeah, it's it's funny to look back at voice acting in games and you look at things like Resident Evil obviously was Yeah, but it was such a joke, but it was also such a big deal because it was novel and as bad as it was it was still like oh man Right there's there's voices in this this is this is crazy this is Oh man, it's like watching a movie right up you're playing it you know what I mean like that's that's

started that conversation. And that's, I mean, why I bring up the Metal Gear Touchstone of like, that was for me, like, such a, holy shit, this is where we're going as an industry in that movie in that game got so much critical acclaim for it. And now, yeah, you go back and watch and it's like, blurry faces moving around. They're all overacting and stuff. But at the time, you're like, shit, this is amazing. A step in the right direction, which is kind of where we're at now. Like, I think other success stories are like Star Fox 64, which is different, you know, but like that did give that game so much character. And the most memorable thing about that game is the, the voice acting and the characters and that stuff.

And then obviously Final Fantasy 10 to first Final Fantasy to have voice acting. When people think back on it now, like that is one of the... The laughing scene. The laughing scene is one of the most talked about things about that game, you know, because it was awkward and bad. But that's just because... But no one knew any better. Exactly. That's just in relation to the other things and what we have now, it's horrible, you know.

But back then it was like, huh, it was novel. But yeah, now things are in a really good place, so I'm happy about that. Connor Jettin says Quick first response to come to your head Clear your heads everybody Is the most underrated game of this generation So far Donkey Kong country

Tropical Freeze Mad Max Song of the Deep I don't know I mean that's what cleared my head This one's just because it's on my mind We've talked about at this show There you go All right

That's your answer If I come to do That makes sense Thomas I just don't walk around Grinding with an axe to grind About this game was underrated I don't either

But like And I don't want I use the term We all use the term underrated, overrated, all that kind of stuff. It doesn't know. Like, what does it really mean? But there are certain games where I'm like, I can't believe this. Like, people don't understand this game.

And Mad Max is one of those games. Oh, my, I just can't believe it. You know, like, that game's awesome. Thomas Parker says, why is that games industry so secretive compared to the movie industry? I was having a fascinating conversation about this with someone recently, a friend of mine in the industry. And he was asking the same question. And he's a big deal in the industry. And he and I were hanging out.

Ken Levine. And he asked the same question. He was just like, I don't get it. He was telling me stories about, you know, the way they do in movies and all this kind of stuff and how different it is there. Like, there are no secrets in movies, like the movie industry is there's no secrets. Things are gestating for years and people are just open about it. And people are like, this guy's writing this now and this guy. Everyone, even if it's a secret outside, like everyone in the industry knows.

And that's the same thing in the gaming industry. There are, there are secrets, but there are a lot of secrets we know as well. So I don't understand it either. I think it's stupid. But I think it allows, on the other hand, people to really make a pop when you're not. is made because movies are different than games and there's um you know so it's just it's run a little bit differently the thing that the thing that the thing that we're talking about you're talking about the announcement of games when like spider man like when insomniacs working on spider man forever and quietly

yeah well they i mean they'd only been working on it for a little while actually at that point but like the a greater example is like we're going to get red dead dead dead dead red dead three and and again i want to be clear because everyone's like it's red dead dead dead two no it's red dead dead red dead red dead three if it's red dead redemption right but it's not going to be red dead redemption too so so So it's, I still think it's be like Red Dead Revolution or something like that. Why would they do that? Why would they make Red Dead Red Dead too?

I hope they don't do that. I'm not arguing. That would be so dumb. The only reason would be name recognition, whatever, it calls it Red Dead. So anything you put it after Red Dead Dead's, but God, I hope that.

I hope they don't do that. I'll be so stupid. But they can call it fucking shit sandwich. If it's a good game, I don't care. Red Dead shit sandwich. No, they literally just call it shit sandwich and I'll still play. But, but like, so like, that game is going to clearly be announced.

The game's been in development for years. Why don't we know about it? Like, what is the big deal? But on the other hand, it's like, well, you got a big pop out of it. But the, but the, the example is like, no one does that with movies. Like, no one does that with movies at all, you know? Like, not only is it not possible probably because it's like, there's not a lot of secrecy. Like, even with Star Wars, like, episode seven, it's like, well, we didn't know much about

episode seven things were leaking wherever. But we knew episode seven was in production forever. They announced that they were going to make it before they even made the game. Like, oh, it is totally different. And that's a really good point. And I don't, I don't quite know all of the reasons why that is. Is it because I think the argument might be made that it's because it'll take longer. Not all the time.

Don't get me wrong. But I think the fact is, this goes back to what you're talking about, why you're not mad, but why you're like, why is Kajima out there talking about his game? We're going to get sick of hearing about it. It's still 2019,

2020 before you're going to play this game. Like, that's, I would think the reason, right? Because it's, for when a movie's been gestating forever, like Ghostbusters 3

and now this Ghostbusters reboot, it's like, at some point people are like, I'm sick of hearing about this fucking thing. Make the movie or get it out or do whatever. I think games suffer from that too, but games inherently take longer to produce. And that's why I think when you're seeing the short and schedule now,

like we're talking about like with Fallout or even when it is. Like we release this game and then nine months later it'll be out. Maybe a year later it'll be out. That's more like a movie thing. Like you know what I mean? When you see the first images of like Tom Holland's Spider-Man, it's like, well, cool. I'm seeing this right now of him taking a selfie and doing all this different stuff.

And literally in one, now less than one year I will see this movie. So it's like it's not really burning. Like where the hell? Oh man. It's not three years of seeing him do stuff with the suit and plan on it. I understand the argument and like or just like the comparison. but at the same time, I don't hate it. Like, I like it. I like, I don't, I, if it could be the same with movies, I think it would

be awesome, but the movies are just made differently. I don't understand the movie industry. So, but I do understand the game industry. And I think that it's, I think that it's, uh, you know, I think it's cool. I think it's good for games that, that they're not announced early. I think it was, like, I think it was great for Fallout 4 that it was announced the way it was. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's going to be great dead when that games. I mean, you know, shit sandwich. Shit sandwich. Shit sandwich. Shit sandwich. Rockstar, rock star, rock star, rock star San Diego presents. Shish sandwich. Ladies and gentlemen, that's been the kind of funny games cast.

Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Lovely gentlemen for joining me. Thank you, Kevin, for being there. Big Kev. Until next time, I love you.