Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Super Mario Run Review and Too Many Open World Games - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 102

Episode Date: January 13, 2017

We review Super Mario Run, questions if there are too many open world games, the quality of PlayStation Plus, and gaming in 2017.(Released to Patreon Supporters 01.06.16) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? Welcome to the first ever episode 102 of the kind of funny games cast and the first ever episode recorded in 2007. Whoa. As always, I'm Team Geddy's joined by the coolest dudes in video games, Colin Moriarty and Greg Miller. How are you guys doing? Good. This feels, this feels weird. What's being back to the back of the table? Yeah.

Talking at this level. Did you know that water will boil at 102 degrees? Oh shit. This episode's about to get spicy. Is that what you? That's how things are. All right, cool. When they're hot and spicy.

Got it. Well, I mean, it's just water. It's just hot water. I know, but like to spice up your life. That water will boil at that temperature because it's true. You know it's true,

everybody. I'm not saying it's the first point it would boil at, but I'm saying that one oh two. That shit is spomet. You're talking about Celsius. I'm just talking about a fair night. 102 degrees. It's up there.

It's going. No. It's bubbling. No, not even close. It doesn't even close. 60. It's not.

No, 69. Haven't you ever find it funny that your blood is so close to boiling? That's what happens when you get a fever, Colin. Normally you're at 98 degrees. Got to go back to school. Exactly. Got to send you back. How are you calling?

It's like Billy Madison. I'm fine. Thank you. I feel like we haven't spoken a long time. No, I'm good. I'm rested and I'm ready to, I'm raring to go. Can't you tell? Oh, I can tell you.

Coles only got one speed, too. Rairs. As the time this episode goes live, Colin was right, is now a show that exists publicly for the masses for everybody. Thank you. Very proud of our boy. Thank you very much. Colin Moriarty, doing God's work.

It's been an adventure. You know, when I was editing the first episode, which is about Switch, and why I'm positive about it, but three things that I think they need to tackle, including its lack of power, which I don't think is a problem in other things. It's funny how I'm becoming more comfortable in premiere. And yesterday, I edited the entire video yesterday from like right before dinner to like midnight because I was just bored. And it's kind of nice to like find these problems and then like kind of just sit and stare at

the screen for like half an hour and then I actually fixed them. And they're not even and they're not even like major problems. So for some reason everything was importing from old projects at 67% size. And usually you can hit like set the frame whatever and it were, you know, scale the frame whatever and it works fine. But it wasn't working. And then I realized you just had to manually go in and fix the ratio like the numbers of yourself.

And I was like, well, I don't understand that because that never happened to me before. but it's a it's a maddening kind of program, but it's nice to overcome those problems. I'm actually quite proud of myself that I've learned it because it is a little daunting, but I hope everyone likes the show and keep your feedback coming, and we will tailor the show to you.

Yeah, so far, so good. People on Patreon seem to have loved it. Let us know what you think of this first episode. There are many more to come as a weekly show every Thursday, 9 a.m. But this show is available early on Patreon and patreon.com slash kind of funny games. You can get it early every Friday,

or you can get it the next week late on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. People in the comments have been asking, if you can get it earlier late, when do you get it on time? You can't. That's the thing about this show. There's just weird. Well, no, the day-by-day pop-out topics, that would be on time. I guess that's true. And then because that's how it is, yeah.

We're like a fully functioning service here. Yeah. You know, it's like you want it, whatever you want. Here's my question for both of them. What is it? Have you ever had a fever so bad they put you in a tub ice? A tub of ice? Yeah.

I've been in cold, cold baths. Before the fever or just like you got done working out? During the fever. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Cold bath. Yeah. Never happened. I always thought it would happen to me one day. Because I remember a girl in school this happened. She was, she had a fever so bad. She was hot as well,

but she had a fever so bad. They had to put her in a tub ice. Uh-huh. I was like, oh, this is a pretty normal occurrence. I figured. She came back.

She was ugly. In my. There was a lot of weird things like that. Like the whole baking soda and like, you know, tomato juice, bads and all that shit. Like people...

Baking soda tomato juice. I don't know that one. I mean, I know tomato juice if you got sprayed by a skull. Kids did weird shit with baking soda or parents did weird shit with baking soda? My parents did oatmeal. Yeah, if you have like poison oak.

Poison Ivy. Yeah, I mean, also... I used to take oatmeal bags all the time. You get poison ivy. Oh, okay. I was just like that thought that was a weird column thing. This is everybody games cast

each and every week. We talk about video games all things we love about them and all that stuff. It's been a while since we've been able to talk about video games together. What have we've been playing over the break?

Man, uh, over the break, uh, did telltale, uh, the Walking Dead episodes one and two for season three. Spoiler free thoughts. I'm positive on it. I talk a little bit on PS, I love you, so I wouldn't go too much into it. I'm excited to get to a point where we can't have a spoiler, talk about it. I really, I thought it was kind of lame when they announced it. I didn't want to play as this new character. I wanted to be Clem.

Uh, I actually really do like being this person because now the, the, you know, the baggage of Clem is off me where I'm like, all right, cool. No, this guy seems like a dick. I'm making all these choices like based on what. but I actually, I'm doing in that moment rather than, well, how does this affect this? And wait, I've been doing this a long time and I don't want, I'm just a little girl too. And how do I just play that game? It's interesting. It's like a role playing thing now where I'm playing a little bit differently because I am this guy.

And I'm like, well, fuck you. I don't care. I don't care that your family, you're a dick, whatever. And a really good cliffhanger for episode two. I did a lot of hue on the Vita. It's a puzzle game we had over. You know what I mean? The one with the color base stuff.

Really interesting, really fun. Put a lot of time into it. But I'm at the end now. And now the puzzles are getting kind of like slamming my head in a wall. Maybe I was just tired on my flight. But I was like, I might walk away from it now. But I really enjoyed it. I do recommend it.

The other one I did was Shanti, half genie hero. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it came through. And I was like, all right, cool.

Anything we get Vita-wise, I put on my Vita and pop it in. And this one I played for a while and was like, oh, man, this is actually good. I actually really enjoy this. I'm excited to play more of it when we go to Australia on my Vita. Oh, cool.

When we go there, because I'll still have it around by then. And then as a teaser for next week's games cast, I think, playing Yakuza Zero right now and playing Gravity Rush 2 right now. I can't talk about either of those. Awesome. What about you call? I, towards the beginning of the vacation, I finally platinum hitman go, which is a fantastic game on Vita. Really enjoyed that.

Then Platinum, Laracroft Go on Vita, which is an abomination of a port. But an amazing game. I actually didn't even think the game was nearly as good as Hitman Go. It's way. But the Vita port sucks. just absolute trash. The load times are terrible. The controls are terrible.

The frame rate's terrible. Controls, I never problem. What are the control problems? I mean, I tweet about a lot of people were having similar problems. The game is angled in such a way and the nubs are so small that, you know,

the analog nubs are so small that things are like moving in weird ways. I died a bunch of times accidentally because of that and then you have to wait, you know, 30 fucking seconds for the game to load this very graphically intensive game

back onto the Vita. So that was really obnoxious, but I saw it through in platinum. I've been for some reason anyway. And then I spent the lion's share my time over vacation with Tomb Raider, rise of the Tomb Raider. I spent about 30 hours, probably a little bit more than that.

With it, I was really, really, really intensely into it when I got back from Mexico, right before Christmas for about a week. And still haven't been beginning yet. I'm kind of right at the very end, and I've kind of backed off, and I'm trying to collect everything because I'd like the 100% the game. I think it's really fantastic. Last week we did our, or last episode, I guess, we recorded for this. we did the top 10 games or individual games

and Rise of Tomb Raider would supplant something on that list for me. I think it's really, really, really great. And as I said on Twitter and on PSI Love you, it's best when it's not trying to be uncharted and I think that it does a lot of cool things that are not uncharted, even though the game is very similar to Uncharted and very inspired by Uncharted,

just like Uncharted was very inspired by old Tomb Raider games. So it's kind of like an endless cycle between those two franchises. When will they fuck already? I would like for them to have sex. I'm sure there's a porn parody out there. But for me, I think it's just, I think it's the perfect size for a game. I think the maps are just big enough.

There's just enough to do in them. The secret tombs are really cool and to go through. And I'm not very good at puzzles in games. So I feel very rewarded when I figure one of these things out. And it takes me some time because I'm a little stupid. So yeah, that's what I've been spending my most time with. And then I booted up a couple other games, but I did. I booted up this game Dex on Vita, but it wasn't really for me.

It's a side scrolling, very blade runner-like role-playing game ran like trash on Vita. So I just deleted it. And then I started playing Call of, Duty, modern warfare remastered, and then just didn't feel like I was in the mood for a shooter. Because between, you know, I literally played Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and Call of Duty, infant warfare back to back to back. So I was, I started playing it. I was going through like the intro sequence.

I didn't play it in a long time. And I was like, I'll come back to it. I'm sure it's very good. I heard Raven did a great job on it. So that will go back to it. The next game on the list is going to be Far Cry Primal, I think. I have, which I played for about 10 hours, maybe a little less when it came out. but that's the next game on the docket.

So what does that mean in terms of the list, though? I don't care about and Yakuza. And Yakuza. I don't care about it. What does it mean that it's on the list? You're going to platinum it? You're just going to beat it? No, I'd like to get through it.

I was actually talking to Brian Altono not too long ago, and he platinum. Primal and he's not really one-two platinum games. So that showed me that he really enjoyed it. And also that platinum can't be that demanding because I don't think he wouldn't necessarily go out of his way to do something like that. That's not the kind of gamer he is. So that's how I spent my time, a lot of gaming. Also, a lot of TV show. watching and reading.

Tim, what are you been playing? And shout out to Man in the Highcast. Well, the game, the game that I want to talk about is Super Mario Run. Oh. See, I was on a plane, so I couldn't play it. It's a sad thing. But you got, you were playing it. We were in a wait for, see Rogue One. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did that.

I did that old time. Everyone in the theater playing it. Because it was like, that was the weekend that it came out. I think it was like the day, wasn't it? That's why we were all playing. Oh, maybe. Yeah. But it was. If he came out on a Thursday, that's what happened. Came out worldwide. iOS devices. And people seemed be really liking it. The people that weren't going to like in the first place don't. And it does have issues. But what are your kind of impressions of it as a game? I mean, I, I'm surprised. As a game, it's fun. It's not for me really. I've played the,

the first, you know, worlds. I bought it. I was like, all right, cool. Like, Nintendo, we always talk about it. And somebody who's doing and making a quality game deserves your money. And I'll jump in and try it and spend money. And I did. And I think I'm, uh, halfway through the second world or whatever. And it's just it does, it's one of those where number one, it just doesn't. I'm like, okay, cool. Like this isn't the Mario I want. And this isn't me knocking the game. I'm just setting up why I'm not into it. Not the more I want.

And then just the fact of like, yeah, the pink coins, this is going back and trying to collect that stuff, is just not for me either. I think it does really cool stuff in terms of I like the, every time, you know, my only friend down there, I think, you know, I don't know if you ever accepted my friend request. I did. Okay.

Then Jen's just way better than you at it. Because every time I go to a level, Jen scores there, which I think it's really cool. I'm like, oh, man, like, there is you chasing people. And I see people tweeting back and forth about it and them going to get all the coins and doing all these different things. I like that it's got its hooks in people.

But yeah, it's just like one of those things of like, all right, cool. Like this is fun and all right. And as you get later, it gets harder and there's more and more stuff going on there. But it's just like, all right. Well, I'll wait for Switch. Switch is right around the corner. Oh, yeah. And I'll have my poor Memorial.

There you go. Colin, you play it at all? No, I haven't. I can't even update my phone. So yeah. It's because you're using the caveman iPhone. iPhone 5S that has been updated in 18 months. So tell me all.

I have enough room to update it. So tell me all about it. You've beaten it. You're all in. You're all in. I think I got all the pink coins, but I haven't got all the black ones. And there's another color, but I didn't get those yet. But I did beat all the levels.

And to me, it's like that this is what a Mario game should be on a phone. Yeah. Because I do think that when you start talking about like a classic Mario game, it's like nobody wants that. Nobody, like you need the tactile control. There's no real buttons. Yeah. I've been saying this for a long time that this game, since it was announced, looks like the Rayman, Jungle Fever and Jungle Beat and Fiesta Run or whatever.

games that came out years ago. And those are amazing games. Those are some of my favorite mobile games of all time. And I think it's because they didn't think about, all right, how do we make a Rayman game on the phone? They were like, how do we make a fun mobile game that has Rayman as a character? Because the UB. Art engine is beautiful. So it's like, seeing it on the screen this small. It really, it's a sight to see, really. So that really impressed me. And seeing Mario, I'm like, all right, it's flipping it from horizontal to vertical, which means that you're not getting as much landscape and like seeing what's coming up, which is totally different for a Mario game. True.

You're used to being able to see, you know, what's. And that dramatically changes it, right? Before this, I jumped into play a little bit more. And it was that thing of like, all right, cool. I'm dead because I didn't know it was coming. And then I get a little bit further and I died again. And then I get a little bit, like, on my last life, I got there. And then it was like the final, almost.

I didn't realize it, almost the final jump. And I just missed it. And I could see the flagpole, but I was dead. And so it's like, no. And so for me, when I first played it, it felt weird because I was like, like, Mario's so much more acrobatic than he usually is. Sure. He's vaulting and the way he's jumping. The animations are like, holy shit.

Like, in a lot of ways, this is more advanced than the 2D Mario games that we get. But it's like it doesn't play more advanced. But then as you keep going, after the first world, it really opens up in terms more complicated in terms of the level design and the gimmicks that they throw in. in to stop you, like the pause, and if you jump, then you go the other way and all that type of stuff. I think it's really good. And it's classic Nintendo Mario design,

where it's like, we're gonna introduce this thing, you're gonna learn how to do it, and then we're gonna throw that with another challenge on top of it that's really gonna feel like there's a nice sense of a curve when it comes to the difficulty and the sense of accomplishment that you have playing it. And that was the thing with me in Super Mario Run

is that I played it, you know, when you're sitting there getting ready for Rogue One or whatever, and I enjoyed it enough. But I was like, all right, cool, it's kind of basic. And then playing, even today, playing through a little bit more to be just refreshed on this. It's like, oh, right, yeah. Okay, the World II's getting more difficult. They're tossing different stuff in.

And I'm not trying to beat the dead horse. It's just like, man, what a dumb decision to make it online only. Because I would play this on the plane. And that's the whole reason I didn't play it. It's because I was in Canada for a week where I didn't, you know, I was just hotspot to hotspot to hot spot. I couldn't connect all the time and screw around. And so then to be on these planes like I was going, New Orleans, going to Canada.

I would have tried and done more and actually committed a bit more to it, but then it didn't work because I went with Hugh. Yeah, I mean, I was kind of being a little bit of an apologist for that about a month ago and when it was first announced and stuff. And I was like, well, a lot of, you know, mobile games do that. And so whatever, just it is what it is when it comes to the AAA space of mobile. But now that I'm playing it, it's like, I'm totally flipping on that. And I agree with you. Or it's like, I don't understand why they made the decision because it seems like it's entirely for all the weird social side of it and the mind Nintendo stuff. And that stuff seems like it be so easy to store.

All right, cool. And next time I get online when I do land from a plane, all my scores get uploaded and I can go back and I can see you or Jen and see how they do these levels. Like, why make it so obtuse that I just can't do it at all? And to me, like, that stuff is what I'm like, like, why does Nintendo insist on having this second part of the game all the time where it's like there's all this shit that nobody cares about?

Like nobody cares about the building the kingdom because there's nothing that it does. It doesn't add anything to anything. Just have some like sticker system where it's like trophies where like you do different things. You get achievements. Is this the other pipe? I've only done the tour or one. I don't know anything about building a king.

Yeah. So there's like the tour, which is the game. And then there's like the tow rally thing, which is just like a stupid version of the game where you like race against a ghost essentially. And then the mushroom kingdom builder, I don't know what it's called where you kind of build your own kingdom. And it's like it's just so, well, we have a touchscreen. So what are we going to put on it? I remember it's like when a Mario 64 came out on the DS and then had all the mini games. And it was just like, why?

This is so unnecessary. It's like, make the damn game. And I feel like it does a disservice to the game here because that is the reason that the stuff needs to be online. And it's like, well, this is a game that's designed like many of the great mobile games, whether it's things like Jetpack Joyride or Pagel or the one with the water and the crocodile. You know what I'm talking about? The down the drain out of water. Something like that.

You guys don't want to talk about. Mobile games have a system where it's like, it's a challenge. You've got to get through it, but you can three star it. I mean, the Hitman goes similar. It's like that sense of progression, right? And Mario has it too. But instead of the stars and level, there's the different coins you can get, the different routes you can get.

And I feel like that is awesome. They did a great job with all that. But then adding all this other stuff pulls that back from being perfect. So it's like, it's a good step in the right direction. Does it need to cost $10 compared to $3? Absolutely not. I think it's good that they charge that much. I think that it's not going to hurt them in the long run.

I think that it's going to get more people to start thinking mobile games as real experiences, even if this game isn't worth more than Rayman Fiesta Run. Sure. And also for them to start building this Nintendo mobile portfolio, right? So their next Nintendo game they can charge for, they understand. And people are like, well, there's quality and they're learning and they're doing this. Not to mention that I do feel like Super Mario Run, and you would probably know better than me in terms of what they've talked about. I feel like when we complain about this and talk about that, there's going to be updates to this.

I don't, I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility and probability that they're going to come out and be like, all right, it's not online anymore. We figure out a way for this not to happen and store your stats locally and then go and put it all up. Is it a crocodile game? Where's my water? This is just a crocodile. Now he's just in a bathtub. He's doing some stuff. He should be concerned about the water.

He needs that water. Or angry birds. Any of those type of games. Because then there's those are the ones that the mobile games that I stand by and I think are great games. Then there's the other side that are the cash cow. that are the free-to-play microtransaction bullshit ones that give mobile games such a bad name. Sure. And luckily Mario doesn't do that stuff, but then it's funny because like so much of the criticism now is that Mario Run is not a major success financially and all that stuff.

It's like, well, it's because they didn't nickel and dime on this dumb bullshit, but it is a huge success compared to the quality game. So it's definitely success right at getting us hardcore people to actually care about a mobile game. and pick it up and be at all interested in it. You're like, this is one of those ones where I can't remember the last like, I mean, everyone was talking about this, right?

And I guess Pokemon Go, would be the last time I saw our influence, our echo chamber, our Twitter list be everybody talking about these coins and doing all these different things. Brian Altono tweeting about like all around IG in that, in the office that day, all you heard it was coin sounds and people playing it.

I mean, and that's awesome. And I think the other side of that is that this is the type of game that's getting a lot of people that are familiar with Nintendo to actually play a Nintendo game. Gia played this shit. Gia is still playing. this shit. And it's weird. I'll just see her like sitting there playing. I'm like, this is

super random and I would have never expected it. But there's something about Mario that's like, oh, okay, even though it's the same game that we've already gotten a million times on mobile, it's like now all of a sudden it makes sense. It's Mario and it's one hand it so she can hold the glass of wine and the other one. Exactly. Exactly. She's really good at it. She's, I mean, she's not really good. It's not a lie. But you could have just left. Why did you do that? She just keeps it. Like she just like, and I'm trying to tell her how to wall jump. No, that's not going over a while. Lord fucking help me. The girl cannot wall jump. I can just see Because she's, oh.

Ninja Guide. So a big compliment I want to give the game is it reminds me a lot of Sonic 3 and Knuckles in the sense that it is very tier-based. Because there's so much verticality to it, it really is kind of like Sonic 3 and Knuckles or Star Fox 64 in the sense that there's the tiers of if you go high, it's harder. If you go mid, it's medium. And if you go low, it's easy. And I think that there's a, it's brilliant level design when you add the coins to kind of guide

that path and to be able to see each level has three different levels in it in addition to the kind of challenges on top of it would you say that this is them taking some MOBA influences because they have the lanes? No. Of course as Colin knows as an undefeated e-sports champion.

You got the three lanes there. There are three lanes, but those lanes, there's no difficulty difference between the lanes. Really? It's not the way it was explained to me when, of course, we were playing the best one ever Infinite Crisis.

I don't know what I mean? I don't know. Yeah, just like it. Anyway, I like it a lot. And another thing that I've been saying a lot is that my favorite games are platformers and rhythm games. So there's something about this that kind of melds those two together. There's a rhythm to, right?

In a really cool way that I'm like I'm totally down with. And I feel like Rayman does a way better job of it. Did you play Riband Origins and Legends? The one, yeah, the ones that came on consoles and Vita. Vita and Wii, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Those are great games. Yeah.

So you know the levels where there's the music playing. You're kind of like jumping or whatever. The Rayman mobile games were kind of inspired by that. So it is just like very simple button presses. But like they add on to it. And there's like this really nice growth of, they eventually add a punch button so you can jump and punch. And it just becomes this like rhythm platform thing.

And I feel like Mario kind of did a good job of taking that rhythm, but then also adding gameplay to it and having the pause blocks and the going to different directions and stuff and really trying to think about stuff. And adding a bunch of nice fun, like, throwbacks and stuff. Like, when you go, there's certain levels where if you cross the right side of the screen, you warp back to the left, and it reminds me to Super Mario 2. Like, or even the original Mario Bros. And just old, or Pac-Man, things like that.

So it's like, there's a really good game design in this. And it is really fun. I just think that there's too much bloating bullshit around it to, like, make it something that is super incredible? Must have. Yeah. Yeah. But is it worth $10? I can't say, yeah?

Once they add updates and stuff, maybe. I think that this would have been an amazing $3 game. It's a good $10 game. Gotcha. In terms of sales and shit, so Gordon Wall Street Journal, Mario Run had grossed $30 million in revenue since the 15th of December. Evidently, he was downloaded 90 million times, though only 3 million of those purchased the full game at 99.

That's a conversion rate of 3.4%. A notable decrease is the game's launch day when roughly 10% of users were buying the full title. These figures, all pretty good, are nowhere close to breaking Pokemon Go's record of burning 200 million and 32 days. But again, different type of games. It's cash up front. Yeah, cash up front versus microtransaction shit. So we'll see.

I'm interested in what they do next. But I think that it's, it was a very important and good move for them going into the switch to get Nintendo back in a positive light in people's minds like the mainstream people's minds. And also now everyone has Nintendo accounts, whether or not I'm complaining about it. Like millions of people have accounts that didn't. for. So pretty cool. Once they see how easy it is that their Nintendo accounts link between all their systems and all their all their e-shop games. I hope. I hope. Don't fuck a switch. We got the switch announcement eight days, which means I don't know when this goes live.

This goes live Monday and you'll fly out when it's Thursday. Yeah. I'm fucking excited. Yeah. Are you fucking excited? Yeah, I'm very excited. This is going to be super interested. Yeah, I can't wait. See if they fuck it up. Please don't. I don't think they're going to. I don't think so either. I think this I don't feel good. I feel super good about it, actually. They're making all the right moves to touch me in all the right places. Do you think they come on in the same day as Mass Effect? Are they going to try to swerve around it? Does that matter anything? Where's that? Where's that? Where's that? If Mass Effect comes out the same day of Switch, that's bad for Mass Effect, not switch.

The the, the, the, the, the, the, the, one switch, though. Oh! No! No! No! It's not. It's not on Switch. Yeah, I think Nintendo is making a lot of smart moves. I was, I was very heart in to see the 3% conversion rate simply because, you know, conventional wisdom on mobile says, you know, that Nintendo would have made more money, as we saw with Neantic in the Pokemon company with Pokemon Go had they made it free to play.

And people were saying that it wasn't nearly this meteoric success in the time given. But I would argue that Pokemon Go requires much more maintenance and upkeep. It's not saying Mario, this new Mario game is necessarily a static product. But it is not this geolocated, constantly adding new shit to it, constantly having to deal with server problems and people kind of coming on and all these kinds of things. I would say that Nintendo is probably very pleased with the amount of money they made the net profit that they made on the game. And that, everyone also forgets to meet Tomo. And between these three games, they're just experimenting with different things. The mobile market, as I've argued many times, has really destroyed expectations for what video games should cost.

And there are certain companies that are trying to buck that trend. I think we saw that a little bit with our friends that chair, but we saw that more notably, I think, with Square Enix. And now we're seeing it with Nintendo where people are saying, like, well, a premium game should be worth a premium amount. of money. And my biggest takeaway was all of the kind of gathered tweets and Facebook messages that people were circulating when the game came out about how people couldn't believe that the game was $10 or whatever. And it's like, you have to just shake these people up and make them understand that the race to the bottom has been very destructive and that you cannot have games of quality on a mobile platform for no money. And so I think Nintendo is doing good work that is

stewarding a new way to look at games on mobile platforms that will be to the benefit and help of other publishers and developers moving forward. The more of them get that get involved, and the more of them that dare charge more money and maybe eat a little bit of shit at the beginning in order to set the new precedent for the ecosystem I think is very positive. And it's really cool that Nintendo is doing that, and I wouldn't have expected a couple years ago

than Nintendo would be the one, like the phalanx basically. Remember phalanx on Super Nintendo? The game? Yeah, it was the real person on the box, right? Yeah, the old guy with banjo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. How can I forget?

That was that a Natsume game? Look that up for me, won't you, Kevin? P-H-A-L-A-N-X on SNES. I want to say that was a N-Sume game, or maybe even an N-X game. A-N-X. Falunx. We're just going to wait for Kevin to figure that out.

Kevin's on, don't worry. Big Kev-D-D-D-K-D-K-D-K-O-W-W-W-K-G. It was Nat-Sum-Mayer-W-W-W-W-W-W-N-E-K-K-G. Because that's what made it even weird. Yeah, this is a... I knew that this was one of these weird fucking companies. Do you remember this, Greg? Oh, yeah.

I mean, I know the Boxer and never played the game, obviously, to have an into Super Nintendo. What the fuck were they thinking with that? I remember the box are for sure. This is like one of those classic boxes. Yeah. As soon as you said they got the banjo, I knew what you're talking about. Yeah.

All right. Second topic of the day. Topic two. This comes from best friend out there, Mark Tremblay. Hey Mark says, When will developers stop trying to mirror Grand Theft Auto? Now, this topic's piggybacking off of a Jim Sterling video, the latest episode of the Jimquisition that went up.

Big empty sandboxes. Colin watched it. I thought it was an interesting thing to disson. discuss. I watched it as well. Did you? I watch it. We all watched it. We did our home. You should watch it very very informative video. I thought he did a really good job with it. He was like what seven minutes long? Something like that? 13 minutes. We'll wait. We'll wait 13 minutes for it. I was gonna say it's never been a gym acquisition. That's seven minutes long. I'm thinking of the way the column was right. Um, I wish I could edit that long and make it a half an

hour. His point was that there is a trend and this trend's been going on a very long time of every game needing to be open world. And it's this race to have bigger and bigger and and bigger maps, but they have less and less and less things to do. Really went in on Ubisoft because every Ubisoft game is Assassin's Creed in a different location at this point. And I just kind of want to see what you guys think about this. I mean, it's a, it's not, it's a problem. It is a thing.

It's, you know, he brings up a lot of great examples when he talks about it in terms of what is going on with open worlds and what's going on in there. I think it's painted with a broad bush a little bit. I think watch talks, because the one that really strikes me that he brings up is side quests. He talks about the fact that remember when side quests were side quests, but they sold storylines. Look at the witcher. He's like, look at the witcher. That's a real game with real side quests. And I think there's plenty of them. He, you know, he brings up infamous and how the original infamous was. All right, climb up this building, blow this shit off the side of it and then

get to the top and you do that like 20 times. And it's one of the knocks I had against even a second son or whatever by the time. You get the, that at mashup of this awesome living, breathing open world and then having to go to where there's a giant camera and an arrow point it down. I think watchdogs, too, is a good example, though. Their side quests were really good. their psychists were, hey, there's characters and there's things here. It isn't just something to go do. But it is a problem and it is an interesting thing. But the fact of the matter is it's almost to an extent I think of, it's where when

Colin gets really riled up about telltale games and I start talking about, well, the problem, you know, that they're always the same. They're just the same thing over and over again. And I'm like, I understand that, but it's like a network of television where I don't think most people watch every show on that network. They are picking and choosing. so it's not as obvious. It isn't beating them over the head.

It isn't driving them crazy. Like it might drive someone in our industry crazy of seeing Game of Thrones and Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead and Batman and Borderlands and all these different things if you're just doing some of them. I think it's similar here where I play a lot of these open world games. I love open world games.

I never want to be like, how big is the map? Tell me about, like, people flipped out when Watch Dogs 2 was like, oh, this is supposed to be San Francisco. I'm like, who the fuck cares? It's fun. It's a good representation boiled down video game version. I think it is part of that though of the problem of stepping back and looking at the entire games industry, but not thinking as a consumer who is only investing in a few of those worlds.

And I do, I mean, there is a huge point to it of just like, he brings up like, but when was the last time you had a side quest or a side story that really resonated with you and you remember it? And he's talking about like elder scrolls and infamous and just doing these same things over and over. I'm like, that's a really great point of I do remember there being games that I played where I did something on the side. I was like, man, that was powerful. I mean, Witcher is the example of it, right?

That all of the fucking Witcher side quests are super flushed out and super amazing. But it is interesting and where does that fall? But if the consumer, you know, especially for giving Ubisoft so much of the business in it, talking about the fact of like they've openly said that that's what they're doing and this is where they're going. And they're doing that because Ubisoft is great at reading the tea leaves and saying, we're going to keep making Assassin's Creed until you stop buying Assassin's Creed. Oh, you guys are stopped, you've stopped buying Assassin's Creed. We're going to give it a little bit of time and we'll come back.

But right now it is that thing of they're able to put out these games that satisfy audiences. for the most part, watchdog is critically well received, not, you know, selling like hotcakes or anything. Uh, and it's an interesting model for them to figure out.

But I think that's part of it is that I think you can look at Ubisoft as open world churn. They're putting out so many different things, but I think they're putting out so many different things and not necessarily speaking to the same gamer every time. I played far cry primal for a bit. I was like, all right,

well, I'm done. I'm not mad that far cry primals open world and, you know, has a million different things going on and they're speaking another language. And it is just go clear out this camp and take over this thing and do that thing. I'm like, all right,

It's not for me. So I'm not mad that that's what that game is. But I'm super stoked that Wildlands is similar to that of going and take this guy and do that thing. Yeah. You know, for me it goes way, way back. I mean, Grand Theft Auto 3 is kind of the originator of this in terms of that's what people would give credit for creating the whole sandbox genre, right?

And that was such an amazing experience. And then immediately everyone started copying that. And I remember Need for Speed Underground. One, I loved it. The Need for Speed Underground 2 came out. And it's like, open world. And it's like, oh, you can go explode city. You have to go get your missions places.

And I was like, I don't like this. Like, I don't want to do this. Just like, I just want to get to the race. I don't want to have to drive to get to a race. And in a world that's like super boring and not, not interesting at all. And I think things just kept going that direction. And I was just like, I remember it was a point where I'm like, man, games are just going in a way that I don't like. And I think things have just kept doing that.

I don't like open world games at all. It's because they're way too big. And the only one recently that I've really fell in love with was Metal Gear Solid 5. Yeah. And I feel like that did a good job of reward. And even though I was doing the same thing over and over, it was a good loop of adding different challenges and what I was doing was fun. You know, it's not just go to a tower and blow it up. It's like there was always something about it that I'm like I'm really invested in this even if it wasn't for story reasons.

But I think that is my biggest problem is like so many people gave Final Fantasy 13 shit for being too linear. I liked the linearity of it. I didn't like the story of it. If it was a linear story that was awesome, then I would. have been totally in. Like, I don't like just having this world. Like Final Fantasy 15 does have a lot of side quests that are awesome. And I'm like, man, you did a great job.

And that has so much that I'm like, feed the cat. This is weird and distracting from the what's supposed to be a story. Yeah. No, yeah. And I think you, I mean, you bring up a great point there. And I think it is, you know, that we have only ourselves to blame where we were all complacent as I think the word linear became a negative. You say, you say in a review this game is linear.

I remember how many times in my closing comments or the breakdown box at old school IGN it being like stories all right but it's super the game super linear and it became that that was the trigger word for being uncharted is a super linear game but it's awesome because the story's awesome and you're you're going and jim brings that up in his video right and the fact of like linearity's fine if you're telling an awesome story and i think he breaks a great example of where he's like you know i've shit on the other scrolls but how many times can i'm actually i'm sorry he's praised all the scrolls but to get bringing down like it's always weird that it's the end of the world everything's about to end but i'll go do this weird side quest and find these chickens or do whatever

And like there is that point to it of like where do you draw the line between suspension of disbelief or wanting just to be linear or wanting to be I mean the right the driving games are a great example of that of where it was like you know the original drivers or whatever where it was just go you're doing your mission all right cool here's a cut scene or just a text on a screen to get you to your next thing of this is what you're doing here and it wasn't the bullshit of like all right well drive over there to see what's happening. Yeah it's it's weird like filler and I think that Grant Thubato actually did a

really good job I forgot which one they added this in but when they added the the taxi cab so that you can kind like fast travel. The fast travel, it's like, this is genius. You're cutting out the bullshit. You're letting me play

this open world game in a linear fashion. That's awesome. I feel like it's the, when people do the opposite things, like taking the linear game and spreading it out so much, where I'm like,

ah, man, like I don't want to play a game for 20 hours that I could have played for three hours and had a better experience. Sure. And this is walking a fine line, but I know the best friends follow me on everything. Not talking about Yakuza Zero,

talking about the Yakuza's zero, talking about the ycuses i reviewed for igon you know three and four and that zombie one or whatever it was that was always my thing about it where you'd watch a trailer for yakuza and it would make such a big deal out of baseball and hostess clubs and all this different stuff and then when i'd review them the story would be over so quick and i'd be like what the fuck that stuff was all just tacked on rooms to go into in the in your you know your red light district of running over and going to do that but there was i was you never got motivated to go do it it wasn't like here's why you should be doing this unless you're trying to be a completionist and get all the trophies you're doing

whatever. And so you could just run through those games and never even know that existed, which I was found was super weird of like, well, why even bother putting it in there? Why have me wander around? Why not just jump me to the next thing? I mean, I think a lot of that goes back to the early Grand The Auto three world games because they had that sense of like, it wasn't what can I do. It's what can't I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you can't push the limits of like, wait a minute, I could be a taxi driver or wait a minute, I can deliver pizzas. And it's like, It was kind of just fun and novel that you could

not go out and shoot the hooker. Oh, sure, yeah. You could be the cop. You could just go do sweet jumps and like, however you wanted to play the game, that was the fun of it. But then as we kind of like, the novelty of that wore off,

it was like, all right, well, you know, now we're just going to have a million collectibles. Even brings up in his video about the hidden packages in Grands of Donna. Like, those are great. We don't need. And he showed the map of like some of UiSov. Yeah, it was just like,

so much shit. I'm like, holy crap. Like it looked, I thought it was a joke. I thought that it was like a fake image he made. I'm like, oh, damn,

this is real. Yeah. So, but then, see, that's the thing where I, I, I don't waver on it.

It's a great point. Look at all this nonsense in there, right? But there's something to it in the fact that, you know, I got the platinum in Assassin's Creed too and I loved it or whatever. And then as the further Assassin's Creed went on, I didn't need to go get every feather.

And I didn't, you know, I didn't need to chase down the pirate shanties or whatever in Assassin's Creed black flag. But then Washhawks came around and I was like, I enjoy this gameplay in this world so much that, yeah, I want to do all that. I think it is that argument of you can ignore that if you want and not have to exist in that longer and not have to do it. And like, you know, the first open world as a game like Watchdogs is if I want to just do story mission after story mission and keep that narrative going of Marcus's journey, I can do that. I can do that and not worry about going off on this side quest or doing the driver missions.

But when I go do the driver missions, I find, like, because they have like, you know, the Uber app in there that you can drive for. every one of those Uber apps has a little story. I'm trying to get this guy to his delivery. This woman needs to get to the beach for whatever the fuck of reason was. I forgot a barbecue or something. But they've gone far enough to record dialogue and give you a little blurb and explain what's this guy, you know, is a movie star and you're trying to. I'm like, okay, cool.

You're not just telling me to go take guy X. It's not like a shitty crazy taxi. You're going far enough to say, here's something happening. Don't hit on crazy taxi. They need that pizza hut. I love crazy taxi. I would die for another great crazy taxi. So,

uh, I think that what you're saying, saying has a lot to do with just the world itself and how interesting it is to you. And I think that back when with Grand Lived Auto, that was like, oh, this is New York. And it was still like a Disneyland version of New York. And I feel like as games got bigger and bigger, it's like if you're not invested in the world that you're in, then you just, you don't care. I think Melodyersault five is an example of that where I'm like, all right, cool, I'm just in

the desert. I can't tell this from that. Like, it is just a desert, you know. But then playing watchdogs, it's like there is that sense of familiarity to where I'm like, oh, man, I'm interested in this. And I like it because they did a good job making a micro version of what San Francisco is, but on a huge level. You know, it's like the Tony Hux Pro Skater games did a good job of making a super Disneyland version where it's just like, here's the highlights of San Francisco or Chicago or, you know, wherever the hell that they are. But it's when you're playing these games that are in like fake worlds or whatever, they need to really be fleshed out worlds that matter to you or else why would you care, you know?

And I think that like GTA 5 playing through, like going through San Andreas, it's like on spying. Just like how detailed everything is and how much is going on. And it's a little daunting too where it's like I don't want to do all this stuff. I don't got time. But you didn't have to. I know. And that's the beauty of video games. What do you think, Call?

I have a lot of thoughts on this because open worlds are old in gaming. And I felt like even, I mean, Zelda's an open world game. Metroid is a partitioned open world game You know Zelda 2 Castlevania 2 I mean these are open world games Just from another era and what I wonder about like Grand Theft Auto 3 being I agree with you was really the one 2001 when everyone was like this is what we want to do But I still felt like there was a restraint shown there I don't feel like

I don't I there were a lot of open world games on PS2 But they were not to the extent where I feel like Maybe it's because the middle ground has eroded or whatever but that I didn't seem like everywhere you look there was an open world game like everywhere I mean maybe I'm just mis-remembering the PS2 era, but I don't think so. Like, there were open-world games, and there were a lot of copies of what Grand The Thothoto did, like, very literally. I mean, the Godfather and the Scarface game and all this random-ass shit. But I feel like we've gotten, it's like through the looking glass now where the amount of open worlds in gaming today really does remind you that video, the video game industry is a business. And that these people, the bean counters and the heads of these publishers and the heads of the developers and the heads of the developers and the heads of the development.

are looking at these games and seeing that are doing really well and are saying like, well, we can do something like this too. And I actually think it really started with Grand Theft Auto 4, and I really think it started with Fallout 3. I think those were the two games where, and maybe even oblivion. You might even say oblivion and Grand Theft Auto 4 in that order. And at that point, when you make an open world game, when you make a big game, it takes time. It can take three years, the minimum, four years, five years. And so, yeah, Fallout 3 comes out in 2008. your game entrance production in 2009, you're looking at 2013,

maybe when your game comes out, 2014, it's a reaction to a trend in gaming that then has kind of just fed itself. And I have no problem with open worlds. I think open worlds are interesting and they can be fun and they can be dynamic, but I do have a problem with open worlds for the sake of being open world.

And I have a problem with, we also talk about the order 1886 as a game. We criticize a very linear game, but we criticize it rightfully so in the fact that I think Ready at Dawn focused too much on the engine. So when it was time to make the game, they really didn't make a game.

They had a very beautiful high fidelity engine with a five-hour campaign that was like really a throwaway kind of thing. And I'm starting to feel that way with the open worlds that I'm encountering too. A great example of that is Mafia 3. Mafia 3 is a massive, interesting world that is empty and devoid of any reason for you to explore

it because they spent so much time clearly making the world that they did not spend any time populating it. And I saw it was Patrick or Jason Schreier or one of those guys saying like, this was a game that needed a year more time because they just, there's nothing here to do. And so I played Mafia 3 extensively for like almost 30 hours, and I couldn't play it in works.

I'm like, this is so redundant and fucking boring. You know, it's just boring. If there's one word for that game, it's boring. What I've really become interested in in years past, really since PS4 launched, is the idea of partitioned open worlds. And what I mean by that is the one that comes to mine originally, and I know this game isn't popular with a lot of people,

but I really liked it a lot, was Killzone Shadowfall, which is a PS4, for launch game, a shooter. Killzone used to be a very gray and drab, quarter type-based brown shooter. And I thought Killzone was wildly overrated on PS3 and on PS2. I think the fucking one on PS2 is terrible.

But the Killzone Shadowfall and Mercenary 2 in its own way on Vita, they explored different ideas, not only different color palettes that made the game more visually appealing, but the idea that this game takes place in a certain order and it's bringing on a story, the map isn't as wide open as something in Fallout,

but you can do things in different ways. and there's a little bit of a way to explore. I'm brought to that forest level in the beginning of Killzone Shadowfall where it's like, there's like four or five different things on this map. You can do whatever you want. You have a little bit of space.

It's probably a couple miles maybe in the game. It's not this massive thing. They're not trying to get you lost. They're trying to tell you like, you have a little bit of choice here. It reminds me a little bit about Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4s and Far Cry Primal's fortresses where you're trying to like kind of get in them.

You can kind of approach them in different ways. The end result is the same, but it's like how you did it. That's what's fun. And then you see that kind of stuff in Mass Effect. of Duty Infinite Warfare, I thought was really cool because what I called it was a pseudo-open world with a solar system map where you're doing things in different order and you can kind of go about

maps in kind of certain ways, but it's basically bringing one of a story and it's very linear. And so I think marrying the two ideas is actually going to be the salvation of it because for every Witcher 3, and I agree, Witcher 3 and I think dying lights another example of these beautiful vast open worlds that are not only full of interesting things to do and interesting people and interesting side quests and some sort of purpose, but there's a lot of environmental storytelling. There's a lot of Witcher 3 is really a great example. in my mind of, you know, I walked through that world

and I'm like, wow, like a battle happened here. There's nothing even happening here, but there's bodies and horse corpses and staffs in the ground, weapons stream everywhere. And you just kind of walk through and you're like, they're not even trying to make a quest here. They're literally, you're literally just walking through this portion of the map and it tells you a story itself

because CD Project had the unique aspect that's lost in gaming right now in publishing and developing, which is time. And if you're gonna make an open world, you need time, you need the massage things, which is why I'm so confident that cyber cyberpunk is going to be such a great game when they finally get around to releasing it. But for every one of those games, for every one of those dying lights,

for every unique open world like Mad Max, which I think was beautiful and haunting in its vacantness, which I think was intentional, you have games like Mafia and you have these other open worlds that are just not interesting and not intriguing. And so I think I'm with Jim where I get a little bit, I get a little bit of a drop in my stomach when I see Ubisoft basically making an open world out of everything. We were even kidding around about how, like, steep in its own way is a strange kind of like open-worldly, open-map kind of game. And I'm like, not everything needs to be this way.

And unfortunately, there's a rubber band effect with everything in any market and the gaming industry especially. This is going to blow up on itself spectacularly. People are starting to finally realize that they miss linearity and that, like, there's a place for it. That's some of the great games of all time, like Super Mario World. It's non-linear in that, like, sometimes you can go to this stage or this stage. Sometimes you go to the Star World to find a secret exit.

But it's like point A to point B, and that's fun. And that's what we like, too. So I guess what I'm saying is there's a place for the, the witchers and there's a place for the dying lights, but we have too many of them. And there's a stark comparison between the ones that are done right and the ones that are done wrong. Yeah, I mean, the ones that are done right. And from, jumping off of what you're talking about, exists in two different planes if they do it right. It's the storytelling aspect of it. All right, great, there's this.

There's, I'm into this thing. I like it. But then it's what you're talking about, because Jim, you know, brings up the far cry of taking over another village, doing all the stuff as a negative. But it is, and I can't find it. I can't remember talking about the story on Collinreg Live within the last three months. of, I think it was Ubisoft talking about how basically the water cooler moments of the fact that, yeah, you're taking on another fucking village or whatever, but like Metal Gear, like, you know, when I hack something in watchdogs, or I go into fight somebody else, it's about how I did it.

And me making my own narrative out of that. And the narrative there not being how great the story is or like, because you brought a fall of three. I fucking remember going underneath the fucking White House, right, in finding the president who thought, or the robot, I thought he was Jefferson. And I'm like, what a fucking amazing side quest that was. Suddenly then, that's the narrative. narrative there, whereas over here the narrative is how the gameplay melds with the world. And I make my own thing of, all right, I'm going to knock all these guys out. When he gets distracted, I'll go do that. Or a way to hack and I'll use this.

Exactly, exactly. Right. But I'd argue that the, I'd argue that what you're talking about, the more like water cooler moments that they would call. I don't think anyone's like gathering around a water cooler at an office talking about how they beat a far cry. That's why it's not what they call that. I'm just trying to break it down to what we can all understand. But like, to me, it's like, that's ephemeral.

Like, that's not meaningful. Like, I like that kind of stuff. I fucking love far cry. And because that's a. certain itch that's being scratched. And I also think Far Cry has a powerful narrative. I think that there's an interesting story there to be had as well. And the world to the right size and the gun plays so good and stuff.

That's a unique kind of game. But to me, I feel as if there's going to be, there's something more special when there's something more deliberate done. And the deliberate nature of storytelling is just more powerful than the, well, the just cause kind of like, fucking wreak havoc. And I'm like, no one fucking cares about Just Cause 3. And that's why people talk about, you know, the, witcher. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not arguing at all, but I think that they're both fun at the end of the day,

which is the issue where it is like what we're talking about. A just cause I played and I stopped after like not even an hour. I know Kevin put a gazillion hours into it because it clicked for him and didn't click for me. Didn't do any story missions. You just did crazy crap. I think that's the thing is I'm with you that there's going to be fun that resonates and we talk about and I talk about this Jefferson thing. But then there are going to be the thing where in the moment like there's that far cry, uh, let's play I did for three or four with Brian Altano back at IGN. where we went in in like that fucking tiger raced out at us but i already thrown a grenade and we're like oh fuck and i try to blow but it blows up and he tumbles back and like that's a

moment i was like holy shit that's awesome and those games those games are littered with those moments and yeah i don't bring them up as much as i bring up gone home or as much as i bring up you know infamous historian trish and all this different stuff like there's a difference there but i do think that they're both fun and that's the interesting what kind of fun do you want to have i just think there's a danger in uniformity and i think that's what we're seeing we're seeing we were just talking about with mobile gaming there was a danger in the uniform nature of the race to the bottom, the uniformity of the way you extract money from a consumer, the uniform nature

of the micro-transaction. It goes beyond the way a game's made. It goes to the way we interact with the game. And I think uniformity in genres and uniformity in presentation is super destructive and fucking boring. And that's, and I think, so I think that my hope is that people are seeing

the benefits of open worlds, the fact that there can be vast, massive, non-linear open worlds, and there's a place for those. But that's not all we need. You're not wrong. And unlike the PS2 era when I felt like there was just way too, there was actually just way more games on PS2 than there are now. But so there's that as well.

But unlike that moment where I felt like even the open worlds that were somehow good or the nonlinear games that were somehow interesting, they were kind of few and far between, I hope that the glut of games and the fact that these games aren't performing very well, a lot of them will make publishers open their eyes to the fact that, yes, there's something special about your open world game, but give it to us every few years. We don't need it every year.

You're right on the money there. And I think that that's exciting. exciting. Like we were talking about Final Fantasy 13 might be a place in time kind of thing because 13 came out at a time when the zeitgeist was all about open worlds to a degree that I think is even outpaced right now because now we have the indie revolution and more mobile gaming and stuff like that where people had a visceral, including me, a visceral reaction to Final Fantasy 13, not only because Final Fantasy had a heritage of being nonlinear and open world as most role playing games are in their own way, but because of the other games we're playing that that often paint the way you look at everything else that's going on around you. I think an interesting thing with that is back in the maybe decade and a half ago, RPG's size in hours was all they ever talked about. Like you'd read the regm and it's like, this game is 100 hours long. This game is 150 hours long.

This game is endless. Like that was kind of the selling point. Now in the last five, 10 years has been how big is the map? How big is Red Dead's map compared to the last Red Dead? How big is it compared to San Andreas? How big, whatever. And it just keeps going like that. And I think it's interesting to think about how we went from RPG.

being the how long is it to now every game having RPG elements I think it kind of the size exploded and then just RPG isn't really I mean it's a thing but like it's kind of hard to name an RPG now that's just an RPG it's easier to name games with RPG elements I think that with open world games it's getting harder and harder to name oh this is an open world game it's more oh this every game has elements of open world and I think that in the next three years we're going to get to a point where it's much more so that I concur and I hope so I mean we talked about rise of the two remade before which I think is a great example of what I'm looking for.

It felt manageable because of its partition nature and there are deep systems and medigames in the in the game which I think are awesome. You're learning languages and you're discovering relics and reading documents and and you know going through tombs and and what I think it's really

interesting but it all felt manageable. Like I think Rise of the Tomb Raider represents to me the perfect presentation of a game and the perfect size of a game and maybe it's a reaction but I'm 32 years old and we're all getting older. I don't fucking time to spend 50 hours with the game anymore. I have no desire to do that. Like there might be a game or two a year at most where I'm going to be like, I'm really going to sink like an infinite amount of time and it's to see it all the way through

into the very end to the grade. It's like there's other things people want to do. And, and, uh, I agree with you. The, the, it has segued from hours to, to size, even though they're kind of indistinguishable with each other. And I, and I used to fall victim to that often as a kid. I'm not even falling victim. That's what I liked as a kid. I felt like I was, you know, when I picked up Xeno gears, when I picked up, um, you know, whatever it is, uh, threads of fade or whatever the fuck it is on PS1. It's like, well, you want to know how big these games are because they're expensive when you're a child and you want to spend time with them

and then you get that overwhelming sadness when the game's over because you spend so much time with it as well. But as I've gotten older, and I think a lot of our viewers and listeners can agree, is I would rather a tight eight or 10 hour campaign any day of the week now. Like a game that I can really experience and see all of as opposed to having to wade through all the bullshit

like I tried to do with Mafia 3 just to see what the game had to offer because it's just fucking boring. That's why Virginia resonated with me much more than Mafia 3. They both told compelling stories. It's just that Virginia cut the shit. And there's something to be said about that.

And I wish that there was a rubber band effect in that way, too. We see it a lot, still this visceral. Three-fourths home is only 45 minutes, but three-fourths home is fucking awesome. You know, and that doesn't mean that the 50-hour epic can't exist alongside it. I just don't want us to have a very whitewashed kind of, like, single-minded kind of industry that we're seeing.

And we're seeing that in a lot of different ways. And it distresses me, which is why I'm still continue to be excited. about more independent games because they're doing well that's the point right and that's what you're talking about it I mean when you talk about video games as a business you do talk about triple a game development and the fact of they have to be thinking four years out so they have to make decisions based on the fact and it's why everything for a while is going with the moba it's got moba tendencies moba influences and then as we all soured on that so quickly people battleborne starts dialing it

back no it's not a moba it's not a mobile but free to play you know i mean lawbreakers isn't free to play anymore jaffy's game isn't free to play they see what's happening with it and you'll continue to see that but it will be the independent games that are the ones that i think think that are continuing to deliver that. All right, cool. We are a linear experience. We are three-fourths home and you play through it this way and maybe make a couple different choices, but you get there in the end.

And that's the point. And that's why the ecosystem is good. But I do think it's something what you're talking about before where with the middle ground, middling 7.0 games falling away and they're not being that, you know, double a single a game development anymore. That's why it's so much more obvious. I think to call trends and see them and start getting tired of them. It's just like imagine walking into a bookstore.

and all you saw was George Martin books. It's like, fuck. You know, like there's a place for you, George Martin. There's a place for your epics and your fucking rambling nonsense. Are you talking about George Railroad Martin? George Railroad Martin. That's right. But there's also a place for R.L. Stein.

There's a place for R.L. Stein. Give me some goosebumps. There's a place for poetry and there's a place for novellas and there's a place. So like, we should embrace that kind of diversity. And gamers shouldn't necessarily tether themselves of just one or two genres that elongate their experiences in order to have this arbitrary thing of like bang for your buck or whatever. When like the bang for your buck might have been in that novella that you could have read overnight

or that short Ray Bradbury story that it might have been more rewarding than the fucking hours and hours and hours you poured into this other thing. You might have enjoyed the techno, Dan Brown book more than you enjoyed Tolkien. You know, and that's okay. So, I don't know. Maybe enjoy that Batman book about taking down the job monsters, huh? Why do you always bring that? Reading.

Book it. Book it, son. Book it. All right. next topic. I want to talk about PlayStation Plus and Xbox games with gold. The free games. The free games that you get.

Yeah, free games. So I, to prepare with this topic, I went to Google and I typed in Xbox games with gold just to see what they're officially saying about it. And it literally says free games and there's an asterisk next to it. I'm like, that's fucking hilarious. So yeah, you pay for the online service either PS Plus or Xbox Gold and then Xbox Live gold and you get free games every month. two games on Xbox,

random amount of games on PlayStation. Two per platform. Two per platform. Yeah. Less random than I thought. But you get the crossplay sometimes. It gets confused. I participate in this at all.

I have PlayStation Plus. I never like really get those games. You guys active users. Sure. Well, I mean, the problem with Colin and I is that we're so embedded in the community. Usually when these games come around, we've played them.

We already have them. We already, you know, have them through hook or crook. So it's never been as big a deal, PlayStation Plus as I think it would have been to us as consumers. For a long time, when it first started, Colin I did an article at IG,

and we'd update every month with, is it worth it? And this is what we paid for the year subscription and then add up all the different avatars or backgrounds or games we'd get and take down with it or discounts we'd spend and stuff. And it was like, what,

in the first four months, it easily outpaced it. Yeah, I mean, I was somewhat proud of the fact that back in the day in 2010 or whatever it was. Like, we were really the first people that were like, PlayStation Plus is great. It seems like a good idea.

People fucking, fucking, from people I don't remember. People hated PlayStation Plus. They hated it. And I remember I was being like, but why? Like, why do you hate it? No one's putting a gun to you.

It's totally optional and it has all these like interesting things you can do. And this was before it was mandatory for online. It's mandatory. Hey, hey. I keep going. So I, you know, I've always been of the mind that it's been quite the value even though they up to $10 over to $60. Like I, I think this is, to me, the whole PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold kind of

argument honestly is like, and I feel this deep inside me. And I think that it's true is it's just something for people to bitch about. And like I, I just don't get how you could look at a list of games where even when you're getting six games, seven games, eight games, whatever it is a month, and you can't find two or three a year that you thought was worth it, that would just pay for that subscription? Like, that's insane. Not including the discounts on games that you were going to buy anyway, you know, whether it's a, they don't do summer of arcade anymore, right? But when then they got the PlayStation deals where you buy them and you get the discounts of it.

Like, spring fever. There's an, I think that the what, people get so hung up on what, because this, we're going, we're driving at the fact that people have been outraged lately, right? And it's getting worse and all this different stuff. Uh, there's so many little things that I don't I think people remember that they saved $7 on this game that they bought or this during the sale they were able to finagle this or get early access to something. Or that they sent their saves to the cloud and their PS4 died. Or, you know, like, like, there's all of these interesting things where I'm like, the games, yeah, I mean, I look at the games every month and I'm like, some of the times, but I'm both

Xbox on a PS4. I'm like, these games suck, you know? But you can't win them all. And there are plenty of great games that have been downloadable on there, too. I mean, think about Rocket League as an example. of that. Rocket League was big specifically because of its PlayStation Plus and it was a huge gambit that they, that, you know, at Synax

that they did, I know because I had conversations with them before they did it. You know, and it was the thing that they were thinking deeply about if it was worth doing or not. I really feel like the stigma around PlayStation Plus has reached a new height because of PlayStation 4's inclusion of having

to have it to play online and that games online connectivity is somewhat ubiquitous now, whether it's leaderboards or whether you're actively playing online and in active multiplayer or you're ghosting or whatever it happens to be, that like this is hard to do without PlayStation Plus,

but it really is just a $60 investment. And I've said it before, and it's not to be snarky or snide, but if a $60 investment to get free games, cloud saves, automatic updates, and play online is too much free, you probably shouldn't be playing video games.

Like, you probably should save your money and spend it elsewhere. It's really one game, one AAA game bought at release that you don't get or something like that. in exchange for a litany of games across all these platforms that you could just bank forever.

And as long as you keep paying, you're going to have access to them on PS3, on PS4, on Vita, on Xbox 360 on Xbox 1. And so I never really quite understood the argument for it. And so I totally think it's ridiculous that people are so upset about it. But I understand the ups and downs of it. And I'm sure it's not easy for Sony to acquire these games. We don't really understand the nature by which they, I've heard stories anecdotally off the record that I'm not going to talk about here about how it goes. but the fact of the matter is that I really feel like it's been a net benefit, that it's been an interesting program,

that it's proliferated, interesting games that people otherwise wouldn't play. That's the big part. It puts money in the developer's pockets that otherwise aren't going to be selling their games because no one's going to care about them. And I think that there's a lot of positive there that people overlook because they want to be negative about this one thing. I understand people's, and especially within the history where there has been a big AAA game on there or something,

you're like, oh man, this is what it should be. This is what it should be. The problem is, I think you look past it's so much that it's a way to get people to play games they wouldn't have played before that are cool. Right. Look at them like flame over jumped off the list. And I remember how much you were playing flame over and you were enjoying flame over. And then to see like gone home on there or something where I is a game we all talk about, but maybe you didn't want to invest it in that time.

Or contrast on PlayStation 4. Exactly. I never played that. Exactly. Because it was free. And there's, so there's these things that get tossed in there where it's like, I understand that you want it to be that Mass Effect is a PlayStation. Your Mass Effect Adromeda is the PlayStation plus game.

game of, you know, for March. That's not going to happen, sadly. Maybe wait on a line promoting Mass Effect and Dramida 2 or whatever the hell are going to call it. There's games in here that are setting things up and doing these different marketing things, but also getting you something you wouldn't play before and getting you something that is out there. And so I think it's when you talk about a PlayStation Plus lineup or an Xbox, it's the same thing. It's, I go back to when Adam Boyes was talking to us after PSX last year. Well, I guess now what? 2015. PSX 2015. And he was saying like, they build these things in the conferences and they try to have, they understand they're talking to millions of people.

They're trying to have one or two or three announcements in there that ever, for every person. So you're excited about crash and I'm excited about, now I'm talking about this one, pat upon. You know what I mean? Like there's these things where we're all finding our touchstones. And I think that's what this is where there's,

yeah, there are times where I come through and I look at the PlayStation Plus. I'm like, no, no, I remember that game doing really poorly and this isn't cool and I don't want any of this and I bounce. But then there are times where I run into something. I'm like, oh yeah, first off, I want that game or like last guy's in there.

Yes, I want you to fucking play last guy. Years later. Yeah, I think that, you know, I was just reading, Tim had printed out the list of PlayStation Plus free games across all the platforms for 2016. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, okay, like even if 20% of these games are up your alley, like, isn't that a nice win for $60? I mean, it's like, there are a lot of games on here that are great. Yeah. There are great games on this list. Totally.

Or games that, you know, Grim Fandango is on here. Hell Divers is on here. Nom Nom Galaxy, Persona 4, Arena, Ultimax. The last guy, like you said, Super Starlink HD, which is one of PS3's best games. Costum Quest 2? Costume quest to NBA 2K 16s on there. Color Guardians is on here, which I actually downloaded last month

because everybody keeps telling me I should play Color Guardians. Like there's things on there that you get to miss. And when I went through and compiled this, I put the Metacritic scores on there. Metacritic sucks. I'm not saying it's the end all be all.

But to put all the metacritics on there and it averages out to about 73, 74%. 73 average and like looking at it, like the question of is PlayStation Plus getting worse? Like doesn't look like it. At least from the Metacritic point of view of like these numbers like there, A lot of the more recent ones are in 80s every once in a while.

There's a 60 something. The thing I think when people think it's getting worse is when they look further back, right? Because when you go back and you look at like the original run of PlayStation Plus, you're seeing immediately, wipe out HD, siphon filter, more siphon filter. You're seeing the games that I think people have a soft spot for where they were okay with getting older shit because it was a big name or that made it seem like that was justifying it. Where it is now you're getting flame over and last guy and people are like, well, those aren't the games I want.

It's like, okay. But like you can't always get little big planet sackboys priest's historic moves. I forgot about thinking. How can you forget? So, yeah, I think it's, you know, could it, could it be better? Sure. But this is an additive kind of feature of PlayStation Plus. And it's not, you know, with the PS4, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

people need to pay this, this feed again online with PS4. And I understand people don't want to just throw their money away, but it's, it's a little, it's a little intentionally ignorant to, to walk around acting like you don't get anything for the $60. And that you don't get plenty of bang for your buck for your $60 because you do. If you're, if your, if your argument is like the network's fidelity isn't very good or if you are, that's, that's a fine. argument, but just based only on the, yeah, we're talking about the

freebies, like I just, and then you add in the automatic updates, and you add in the cloud saving, which I think is fucking awesome. And maybe we just like it more because we have multiple consoles and so like that. Maybe that's not something a lot of people use. And it just kind of gives you peace of mind as well. I was going to say when their systems die, though. But to me, I'm like, I just don't understand $60. Like it's literally $60. And this is not a cheap hobby. We all are used to spending money. So $60 is really you're, you're inhibited by a $60 purchase. That's getting you all this free shit, basically. that you're technically paying for, that's not free, then video game might not be for you.

You know? Yeah, it's interesting because on the kind of funny Facebook group, there's a, like, this is all, every time, every month, and it's come back. There's a huge discussion on what people think. And it's so funny to go back to what Adam Boyce is saying, I'm a little something for everybody. Anytime someone's complaining, somebody's like, I love it. Yeah.

And that's the thing is, I feel like I'm usually middle of the road on every one of them because I own a few of them or whatever. I'm just like, oh, that seems like a good month. And then it is that there are the people who fucking like it and really like it and and maybe even love it and the people who hate it. And like you're never, you can't make everyone happy because it's so broad. There's no way. I mean, even if it was, all right, we're giving everyone persona.

They'd be like, I don't care about JRP's. Yep. Why didn't they get, why didn't they give me mass effects? Like, all right, guys. Yeah, yeah, it's complicated. And this isn't so much about the free games, but I think, I want to give a shout to Sony for doing a really good job with digital sales. And I think PlayStation Plus has a lot to do with that.

There's so many times I'm on PSN. There's like, sales, there's always like event sales happening. And I'm like, why don't other people do it this way? You know, I mean, like, Steam does. Steam does it obviously really well. Steam, Steam's the best. But, like, Xbox doesn't do that. Like, Nintendo doesn't have, like,

Nintendo focused sales and stuff. Every once in a while, they will, but it's usually as an apology because they fuck something up. Yeah. But on PlayStation, it's like, I really think they're doing a good job of getting me interested in things that I wouldn't necessarily be interested.

And, like, there's been multiple times where the PlayStation Plus sale price, like, there's a sale going on on PSN, and then the PlayStation price discount you get on top of that sale, I'm like, oh, fuck, worth it. Right over break, somebody had hit me up of like they got like three of the games we had been talking about this year for like $7.60. Because it's like that, what you're talking about, where you compile all that together.

But those are the hidden benefits, right? The benefits people think of are the instant game collection and why the fuck is there an odd world on here? I don't care about odd world. I want to play something like, well, next week, next year, or next month, they'll be something different. Yeah, any closing words? No, my argument would be that it's, you know, you, you,

The old adage is you spend money to make money. We know that from owning a business, but I would also put forth that you spend money early to save money later. And I think that it's like a gamble because you don't know what you're going to buy. If you're going to buy 10 games a year or something like that, maybe none of your games are discounted. But if you're a chronic purchaser of games and if you also wait and you don't care about being, you know, quote unquote, in the conversation,

which is a term I hate, about a game and you're willing to wait or whatever, then PlayStation Plus is almost certainly going to pay dividends for you if you're patient and you buy a lot of games because if you're going to spend, if you're going to be in these flash sales often and buy a game or two in every flash sale, that is usually discounted and then discounted even more significantly and severely for PlayStation Plus, and certainly you're going to make your money back. And if you count the cloud saving as worth $10 and you count the automatic updates is worth $5,

the online play is worth $10 or everything. And then it removes $25 from the $60. And suddenly you're not really even spending that much money to grab a few freebies. If there's one game every other month that you like, then you're making your money back. Like it's just, it's just basic math. And so I never really quite understood the very, you know, negative nature. of some commentators around this. Like you said, it's not everyone,

but some people around this, I think the negativity is a little over, over the top. The final topic of the day, as always brought to you by you. You can go to kindofwony.com slash gamescast topic to leave your topic just like Brian Artist Jackson did. Brian Artist Jackson. How would you like gaming to improve in 2017? Ponder that.

Well, I think what EA just did today as we're recording this with a release date for Mass Effect being announced, literally two and a half months or so before the game comes out, I think is a great example. What we've been talking about, keeping your cards closer to your vest until you're ready to say something about, giving people something really be really excited about in a finite amount of time with something that's imminent. I think is a really cool thing. We've seen that, you know, in sporadically, we've also seen the opposite with what Rock started with Red Dead Red Dead Redemption, too. So that's one way I'd like to see gaming improve is to publishes take your time, developers take

your time, and when there's something to say, say it definitively. And say it, close to when you're ready to actually show something. I don't like these long lead times and I hope we continue you to learn from that. Give up on the, and this isn't just Mario. Give up on this always online bullshit. Like you even watch stocks too where I got to connect to the server and log in all that stuff in the beginning and then you're going to put trophies in there where you're

forced me to play with the people and do all the shit. Like let's focus on single player. Let's just let me have the experience I want and keep going that way. For me, I just, I hope there's less delays. I think that 2016 might have been the end of that era of all of these games getting delayed constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. There will always be delays for the rest of time. Sure. But I hope and I expect 2017 will not have as many. You think people are going to keep their mouths shut a bit better? Yeah. And it's like going back to what Colin was saying, I think that like those are

things that go hand in hand. And I think that in 2017, hopefully a lot of games. Like I was wrong thinking that Horizon was going to get delayed by the end of 2016. So I hope that that stays true. Yeah. I hope the switch is awesome. George Barrett says, do you guys have any gaming New Year's resolutions? I want to play more games. I feel like that's such an easy thing to say. Sure. I'm probably not going to be able to stick to it as much as I'd like to.

But I have fun playing games. I think that's an easy thing to say, but it's like, you know, it's easy to get caught up and work, especially when you're with what we're doing and like to not remember that I like just playing the games to play the games and not just to talk about the games. And the few times I've been able to play things recently. I'm like, fuck, man.

Like, I loved Last. You miss it. I love Fall Fantasy 15. Like, why don't I do this more? I think the one, for Game Over Gregory Show, I did the topic where I went through all the movies I watched. I want to keep a better track of everything I play this year. Because I feel like, you know, we were doing, when we were doing game of the year stuff

and rounding up. And like, I look at my trophies, which is pretty great. But then I almost forgot. And not that I played quantum break or whatever. And not that I was going to put that on my list. But I had fun with it. And it's a game that I'm like, all right, I played that. And like, that speaks to.

I guess the narrative of it that I don't remember. I was like, oh shit, I don't even remember playing that this year. But we play so much in a year that by the end you get to you're like, what did I play that wasn't on here? I know I've played Seam games. What if I played over there? I don't know. Well, also a year used to mean something different in games because of how things were

released where it's like you only needed to pay attention to August to December. Yeah. And it was like, what happened in the last couple months? You can remember that. But like super hot. That was the rest. Like what the hell? Like there's so many of these games that I'm like, man, I would have sworn that was

way longer ago. but that's just how time works. I mean, last year, 2016, I played an absurd amount of games. I couldn't believe how many games I played. And what I'd like to do is the volume isn't so important as time spent. And so I'd like to continue to just play the games that spoke to me. I think that this 2016 was a very good year for games. I think some people were pretty critical about it.

I thought it was a really great year. And so I want to continue to pay heed to the games that speak to me and continue to find time to spend with those games. Because I really did a nice job with that in 2016 of balancing all that kind of stuff. because games are certainly a balancing act. And when I am playing them, especially as an adult. And when I went back and looked at my trophies for our game of the year list, I was shocked by how much I played. And I want to continue to find the time to do that.

And also, because I think it's also important to balance out the other things you're interested in and not be overwhelmed with that kind of stuff. So it's a scheduling issue. But there's a lot of great games coming out this year or games that I'm excited about. I mean, we're going to get Resident Evil 7 and I'm going to get Tales of Brasaria, which I'm super excited about. We're going to move right into the horizon and then we're going to move right into mass effect. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in the first quarter.

Reson Evil, man. I always forget. It's super close. The 24th. Holy crap. 20 days. Really, really excited about that. We might get at any moment.

I should reach out and see. Oh, man. Reach out into touch faith. Justin Pruitt says. Pruitt. And his Twitter name is L.P. Fanatic 4Ev. I love that. Lincoln Park.

Yeah. What do you think will be the biggest takeaway from the year? What will 2017 be remembered for? I hope more than anything It will be remembered as the year The Nintendo comes back That's a great point I hope that it's just

Nintendo just fucking takes it by the horns Brakes that motherfucker's neck And it's just like I'm fucking back And Reggie just comes out And he's just like It's like oh you doggy Kong It's like no I'm fucking Reggie

My body's goddamn ready And everyone was the horns Did you break the year's neck? What? Oh my God That's visceral Man I wouldn't expect that from Reggie Seems like such a nice guy

Yeah I agree I think this is you're gonna remember What whatever Nintendo know, did. You know, as I said, as I said in, as I said in, Colin was right, not that I'm, not that I'm spoilt. Because you, you guys probably already seen if you're going to watch it, but about the switch is that expectations are what's really important. Switch expectations, as I call them in the video. And I feel like, I feel like the expectation, we just need to

narrow the expectation down. If we, if, if Switch tells, sells twice as much as we, you, three times as much as we you, that's a massive success. And I'm not saying in the year, I'm saying lifetime, like, switch is still going to be a niche device, which is not going to outsell PS4. You know, like, so just keep. your expectations in check, focus on the positive in terms of the games and the quality, so what, it's 720 or whatever, apparently are going to be on the handle, however, are the games good or the game's fun? They can nail the price, if they can nail the price, if they can nail the messaging, if they

can get all the bad news out of the way, if the battery lights, good, et cetera, and so on, then I think Nintendo's going to have a very successful time with this thing. But again, context is everything. Even 3DS, which seems like a runaway success, is sold a small fraction of what DS of what DS sold because things are changing. And I also think that one of the interesting underlying things that we're going to find out with the Switch is that if the Switch does well, I think Sony in particular is paying attention to this. And I do not think we have seen the last of a Sony handheld if Switch does well. And I stand by that.

Like, Sony is not going to let Nintendo have this uncontested market share if this thing is big. And they're always R&Ding. They're always, I'm sure, testing and thinking and trying new things. And so I think that that's going to be an underlying story that might be told in years to come if the Switch is successful. And I'm really pulling for Nintendo. I really, I think a healthy Nintendo is going to be good. And an independent Nintendo is going to be good for the game industry. Sony, Sony can, they should watch what Reggie does to 2017.

With this whole thing? They should be careful. Oh, you don't want, you don't want, okay, don't have the horns come near. The Sony horns come in there. That Vita. It's about to get fucking got. I see, I don't think it's going to get as much as this is the evolution. This is the Nintendo.

They saw, Nintendo saw the Vita. And they said, you're close, Sony. We can perfect this. And I really, I said it in my game. stop video that I made when I was talking about what I'm hoping for and expecting for the switch. And I think that there's a great opportunity for Nintendo to do what the Vita should have been, which is have great indie games, have a lot of games just coming out, but also have solid first party games. And that's where the Vita lacked. And I think putting

Nintendo games on there when it is Nintendo just focusing on one library instead of the Wii and 3DS. It's like, man, it's very exciting times to be a Nintendo fan, which is awesome to say because it's been like 10 years. But this time like you're, well, I see even that you guys always get excited for your directs, even back in the day you get excited

for the E3 press conferences. And we were always sitting on the sidelines like, don't do it. They're going to hurt you again. They're going to break your heart. And they did over and over again. This is the first time in a while you have legitimate reason to be excited.

Well, they ain't gonna fuck you dirty. I only halfway agree with that. Because there was a lot of times where it's like when you are expecting, they're going to do this crazy thing absolutely perfectly. Then you're going to get disappointed.

But I do think the Nintendo it'll look really good. good job of when it came to games. Smash. Don't even wrong. They're smash. Things are amazing. They're directs when it was like press conference directs where they're

talking about a whole bunch of stuff. That's when you're going to get disappointed. But when it was like, we're doing a direct just about Mario Kart or we're doing a direct just about Mario 3D world or just about bayoneta or just about smash pros. That's when it's like you're going to get excited. And I feel like they did a great job of giving me reasons to be excited because that's the thing that they, no matter what and they've done wrong in the last 10 years, they did the games right. And I think that they also did a really good job hyping those games and

keeping me excited for those games. I wasn't excited for their business plan. But now for the first time, I am. And it's like they have not fucked up. And you keep saying about the bad news coming and like, we're getting closer and closer to their not being bad news. And like everyone, of course, is going to find something to be upset about. But personally, I think we're in the clear. Let's get it. Joy, Noel says, obviously, the most, important gaming news of the day. Pokemon Snap finally on the Wii U virtual console. Pokemon Snap is this.

I'm going to get a lot of shit for this. It kind of sucks. It kind of really sucks. I love it as what it is and I have fond nostalgic memories of it. But like, man, it's, you don't like taking photos?

It's always got to be about shooting and fucking with you, huh? Yeah, shooting, you can't even selfie. If I, nobody knew what a selfie was back then. No one knew what a selfie was back then. They should.

You didn't do that shit with your windup camera. You didn't know what you're getting. I didn't. I did selfies. But again, close. I mean, there's still not at the Pokemon Snap time.

Think about that. I was in high school in Michael Brian's basement. You must have been fucking what, fifth grade. I was in third grade. I remember going to Blockbuster. And the Pokemon Snap, they had these little kiosks where you could take your

Pokemon Stadium cartridge and plug it into the Blockbuster kiosk. And there was a photo mode in Pokemon Stadium. And you can, upload your photos from either Pokemon Snap or Pokemon Stadium and then print them off on little actual pictures. Very smart.

It's like, Blockbuster was a weird place. Agreed. Yeah. But I miss it. Once I wanted to pick, I figured, well, shit. I wanted to pick up some rate at our movie there. And it was me and my friends and we were under 17. But like, we were able to use their phone to call my mom who then got in and

she's like, yeah, they can have it. And he's like, all right. I'm like, that could have been any adult. Yeah. Could have called a pizza shop. Begged him. Just say yes to whatever this man's about to say. Nathan Evans says,

Greg and Collins said they wouldn't be shocked. of Mass Effect came out spring 2018. What are their thoughts now? I, I did. No, none of you were here, but I was working this morning from the office. And then when it popped up, I was like, whoa. Like, whoa, all right, cool. Look at the balls on you. Yeah. I was wrong. I totally, I did not think you had a shot at this spring. I kept saying that I thought for sure it wasn't going to come out this spring. But here we are with a March real release date. And I'm like, damn, good for you. I say so much shit that I don't remember half of it. I don't remember ever saying that. So I'm just, I, that could have been something I said, but I don't remember saying that mass fact

could come out next year. I think, no, no, no, not that it would. I think the conversation was me saying something's wrong with that game. You saying I can see saying I can see that. And I think it was the conversation that was you saying you could see it coming this soon or you could see it coming out as far as next spring. This wouldn't be shocked. So it's not saying. Yeah, I don't think this wasn't a common prediction. I certainly when I went on Twitter this morning, I certainly didn't expect to see a release day.

And I'm super hard by that. Now people are saying that the game's going to get delayed. And I'm like, I don't know about that because I know that I know that I know that Inquisition got a six week delay. But why would you announce the date two months before and then I really feel like this was them. like making sure that they were ready to go. And I think that they're ready to go. I think that that is the date. And I feel like that that was the date that was leaked by Dark Horse like months ago.

But I don't have to look into that. Final question comes from kind of soup, Stephen. I want a review of Altered Beast, aka the best game ever made. How many tweets have you guys gotten about Altered Beast? Because I've gotten a fucking shit time. Some girl or guy was just like, I busted out laughing and then started crying when you guys said my favorite, my first game, Altered Beast was horrible. Altered Beast is the worst game.

Go fucking play. it right now in any of the Sega Genesis collections. It's terrible. You're spitting fur balls of people. It's awful. It's a garbage game. I remember when it came out to PS3, we got codes or something, and I downloaded it and I used the guide to get as many trophies as possible. The game is fucking atrocious. It is an atrocious, bad, terrible.

Terrible visuals, controls like garbage. There's nothing redeeming about Altered Beast. I don't know what else to say about it. I encourage everyone to play Altered Beast, specifically just so you know what a bad game is. And then you can judge everything based on Altered Beast. Because the only other game I can think of off the top of my head that's even remotely that bad is that game Amy on PS3. Like there are games that are not fun.

There are games that are, well, they're bad games. And then there's like fucking trash. And that fucking trash isn't, isn't that common really in the console space. It's not. An altered beast, man, is fucking garbage. Garbage. I couldn't believe when I was a kid playing that game. That was their original packing, right?

That was their big ticket thing. And then they were like, it started fucking tanking. They got to get Sonic out. Sonic came, saved the day. Yeah, Sonic came out. It took two years for Sonic. like my post genesis.

People forget Genesis came out in 89. You know? So it's not like and then Genesis I did not know that like that was also I came out in 89

but uh I didn't realize that Genesis came out until like the revival period. Yeah Genesis Genesis had like it wasn't even a soft launch they tried and they failed

and then they tried again and it worked. It's really unprecedented. Yeah I was going to say just had to go fast. Ladies and gentlemen this has been the kind of fun of games.

Guys thank you very much for joining us. Until next time. I love you.