Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Video Game Backlogs and Reward Programs - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 04

Episode Date: January 23, 2015

After the announcement of a release date for Game of Thrones Ep. 2, we breakdown the different ways to play through Telltale's various series, some Sony Bend rumors came up that we wanted to look furthur into, Nintendo ends its' 6 year rewards program and we discuss what a great video game reward program might look like, and we all talk about our gaming backlogs that we will hopefully get to one day. (Released 01.23.15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the fourth episode. Oh my gosh. The kind of funny games cast. Calm Tim is back, Greg. Just for you. Thank you. Just kidding. I'm Tim Getty.

I'm here with Colin Moriarty and Greg Miller. The coolest dudes in video games. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. High five, dude. We just did an awesome Resident Evil stream. And that was fun. I liked watching that.

That was pretty good. A lot of people were annoyed. Yeah. I didn't remember what to do either, though. Like, every time you were like trying to do something, you're like, oh, what is this? I'm like, yeah, I don't know. It's been like, it's been like,

years since I played that game and how many hundreds of games have I played? And those games are obtuse. They are obtuse. Is a good way to put it for those old ones. Were you playing with the tank controls or are you doing? No, I was playing with the new controls. They were a little more, they were finicky, but it's a little better without the tank controls. You can play with the tank controls on the D-pad if you want.

But you shouldn't. But you shouldn't. You could, but I wouldn't recommend it. Yeah. Were you excited that they re-release this game? Yeah, I mean, I think the original Resident Evil is really fun. I liked it a lot on PS-1 and then the GameCube one, remake was great.

And this is just remake and widescreen with, you know, some little extra gloss on it and some new control scheme. But, yeah, it's cool. I would, they can learn a lot from Resident Evil and Resident Evil. So they did re-release Resonable 4 two years ago as well on PS3. I'm hoping they're examining these two games closely, along with Resident Evil Zero, which I think is super underrated, the GameCube game, to make Residentable 7, which hopefully won't suck.

Well, everybody talks about it now being, we were talking about in the chat, right, that this could be the reboot. Resonable 7 reboot the series, which would be great. Reson Neville was way too complicated and crazy. It doesn't make any goddamn sense now. A reboot would be nice. But I want...

Reboot? Yeah, don't think they won't make those jokes for you. It's gonna be good. Just like the remake. I liked the remake. I liked the remake was nice. You guys are crazy. Just get over.

Stop it. We get it. R.E.'s Resident Evil. Stop it. Stop shoving it and everything. But no, if they redo it and they get rid of typewriters and they make health systems that make sense and you don't control like a tank. And basically, they just give it to competent developers and don't do the same thing they've been doing forever.

It'd be great. Yeah. Before we get into this rigumeral role of explaining the show and all that stuff. Sure. Can we just keep talking about how much Resident Evil sucks? No. No, no, no, no. We're talking about these HD remakes and stuff.

Something I was talking about Colin a couple days ago was this Borderlands 2. Yeah. Collection coming to a... Borderlands 2 and Borderlands. The Pre-C.? Yeah. Coming to the next-gen-gen-consult. Yeah. Crazy-ass collector's edition that comes with an R.C.,

which is exciting. Yeah. I'm a fan of Claptrap. Me too. You're going to get it? No. They're probably all sold out of the... points. There's only 5,000 of them.

No, well, then no, we're not. So what upsets me about this, though, is it doesn't include the first Borderlands. Why does that upset you? Just because I'm a fan of, if it's a collector's edition, I want all of them in the collection. No, totally. You don't need it.

You don't need it. You don't need it. Why? Because Borderlands 1 was good, but Borderlands 2 was better than it in every way. So you don't even need to. That was the whole thing. Borderlands 1 to 2 was the great move on their part of, they gave you, this is PlayStation, obviously.

My PlayStation, fanboy, bye, speaking. That PlayStation put it up on PlayStation, Plus, Borderlands 1, like a month before Borderlands 2 came out. And so you got to get in there, get a taste, and then you play 2, and you're like, holy shit, this is better in every way than 1. There's no reason to go back to 1, I think, in any way, shape, or form. And then pre-sequel, of course, this will be, this is a game that most people looked over. We're like, oh, I already have a Xbox 1 and a PS4.

I don't want to go back and play something on last gen. That's why it's exciting to get it. Now, here's my thing, Greg. Sure. Whether or not I'm going to play it, I want it. I want it there. I want it part of the collection. It's wasted resources.

The games are taking, the games are, too big nowadays to do that. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's easy to sit there and be like, well, why didn't they toss this, that, and the other? It's just not that simple, especially when you're talking about something, you know. It makes sense. What you're saying makes sense. I still don't like. But you don't, you don't want the sense. You just want it. I just want it. I just want what if you, what if they just lied to you and said it was on there and then you never ever. If there was, honestly, if it was just a disc, like there was just like a CD in there. And they just put it in. Sharpie just said borderlands. I just never, I'd be okay with that,

just because it's, you know, it's, I mean, the thing that's most exciting is just that it's, it's the only way to get pre-sequel. You know what I mean? I didn't go back and play pre-squel because I was so, first off, just not enough time. Secondly, I did not want to put my PS3 back to you. So I wanted to keep playing PS4 stuff. I want to play Xbox One stuff. So to have that now there, great trophies. Let's go. I doubt I'll ever use Borderlands 2

anything. You know what I mean? Confirmed by Andrew Goldfarb today. Cross-save. Borderline 2? Yeah. So if I've been, so for all the people who played it extensively on PS3, then played it on their Vita, they can now bring that save back to PS4. Thank God. Keep it in the family. Yeah, Vita. It was

like virtually unplayable on Vita when I played it in in October I was like I'm gonna jump in really get into this game and I played on VAT I just like can't I can't do it yeah there's just no enemies that's the thing it worked for me but it wasn't it was like a very vacant kind of game it was a weird you know it's cool Sony listen to people put it on that you know gearbox it too people want a borderlands to unveda and it was cool that they tried to make that happen it was a good test you know case but the Vita can't handle that game properly and they you know they didn't have ragdoll physics in the game or or like corpses. this down. Why? Because it's like

super, super scaring your face. I like it, though. I don't. I like it. I'm speaking for all the female listeners out there who want to see it. I like it. Male, too. I guess female viewers. You're right. There's plenty of male viewers. I shouldn't have a big male fan base. I've seen. But the original borderline, I mean, it's not surprising it's on there. They have to spend assets to

port it over, and then you have to remember that there's server costs as well. Yeah, that's the other thing, too, that's a game that's so online intensive that, yeah. Yeah. So, shut up. See, here's the thing. You guys are all. You're not going to play Borderlands pre-sequo. But remember this guys. You guys are the coolest dudes in gaming. So you have all of your cool dude gaming

friends. And it's like, all right, you get that side of the thing. I'm one of those guys where I'm friends with you guys. And now because of that, I'm learning to be friends with these guys. But I'm more close to these guys. I'm friends with these guys watching and listening right now. So these aren't cool dude gamer dudes? They're cool. They're with me. Well, that's just us. We're the coolest. Yeah, no, exactly. The game developers and stuff, they are too. Confused. I don't know what I'm saying is. Are you going to play this? I'm one of the

guys in the comments section. No. There you go. See? But I want it on my shelf. No you don't. No one's going to know that Borderlands isn't in that case. It's on their shelf. No one's going to know. It's just going to say the handsome jack collection. I'm going to add it on the box. And they're going to make assumptions. And that's all you need. That's all. That's it. You're right, Colin. Yeah. See, Colin made me feel better. I mean, if you really wanted to get angry about it, you should be angry that it doesn't include the telltale games in which handsome Jack plays heavily into it. That is upsetting as well. So it's not even the complete handsome jack collection.

Now, Greg, you just gave me a great segue into the first topic. We called him reguways. Wait, you didn't do the rigumeral. I know, exactly. I'm just saying, which is the great, you know, the whole telltale thing we're going to talk about. But before that, I want to give you guys the rigmar roll of kind of funny games cast. This is... Sorry.

The dog's growling. Wow. He's angry. I don't think I've ever heard him growl like that. Oh, it's because it's funny. If you fuck with him. He sounds so much scarier than he looks or is. Well, that's the thing is that he doesn't know how to grow up.

growl like that when you go for a toy and he does this growl it's because when i used to do that and when i would take toys away from him i go brrhm so he just does what he's learned yeah so instinctually once in a while he'll growl at another animal and it doesn't sound anything like that yeah you know it sounds like a real growl this sounds like he's got indigestion oh man true story he once got babysat by damon's uh landlord they have kids they loved bertillo they wanted to babysit him i came to pick him up one day and like it was like one of those things were like you could tell 50 things were going wrong at once like she the The mom's on the phone.

The two kids are running around screaming. I'm like, what's happening? And the kids are, well, I'm trying to get this, like, horrible story that's happening to the family from the mom. The kids are, like, tugging on my sleeve. And I'm finally, I'm sorry. I'm like, yeah, what's up, guys? And they go, why does Pretello burp? And I go, what do you, what do you mean?

What do you mean? What do you mean? And like, when you squeeze his neck, why does he burp? And I'm like, what do you mean? And they went, we would grab him around his collar and he'd go, and I was like, oh, he wasn't burping. He was growling. He was giving you, he didn't like what you were doing. That's so weird. People are weird. All right, so guys, the rigamar roll, here it is.

The Kind of Funny Games cast is a weekly podcast about video games. It's like the Game Over Greggie show, but about video games. Right, finally. That hasn't sold you. I don't know what will. Oh my gosh. Monday through Thursday, you can get it on YouTube, broken up topic by topic. And then Friday, you can get the full episode, but you can get the full thing early over at kind of funny.com.

if you go to the Patreon section where it's patreon.com slash kind of funny games. Smooth cover. I saved myself. This is confusing, Greg. But there's a lot of places you can get it. You can also get it kind of funny. com for the audio version,

vimeo.com slash kind of funny for the video version. Or if you don't want to pay us at all, you can get it later on that next Friday over at iTunes, SoundCloud, and all those other places. Blueberry, whatever. Is it ripping?

Blueberries, I think. Yeah, it's B-L-U-B-R-R-Y. Okay. Some podcast service. People are like, when's it going to be on it? It's on it. So check it out. Rate us and stuff.

Plus day by day on YouTube. Yep. I started with that. Oh, did you? I missed that part. Sorry. And for the people that are talking about us on the YouTube, like we have different audiences. And it's something that's hard to address everyone's wants and needs because some people are getting it early.

Some people are getting the full thing later and some people get it broken up. Yeah. This show specifically is hard because it's about video game news a little bit. We go for big topics, but sometimes they spring from the news. Yeah. And unlike the Game of a Gregie show. which is just, we're just talking about whatever, whenever, and it doesn't matter when you listen to it.

This is a little more timely. Yeah. So people have been complaining, like, oh, we're getting their news two weeks late. The thing you guys need to realize is we're thinking about that. This show is evolving. We're learning from stuff. But the most important thing about this is it doesn't matter when the news happened.

It doesn't matter what you're name is. There's more our thoughts on the news and what it means for the industry and all that stuff. So even if stuff happened two weeks ago, it's still relevant. Yeah, and I think that I don't know how practical it is. We're recording on, you know, behind the curtain, Greg. where we're recording on Thursday the show will go up for our patrons or people that want to purchase it on Friday

and then everyone will start getting on a Monday it might make most sense for us to continue to do it on Thursday if we can because it gets as close to the threshold the event horizon really as we can possibly As close to the event horizon I think we just need I think

Like in other words we record Monday And put it up Friday And then people don't get it again until Monday That is late See but the thing is like I think last week We just made a misstep And the fourth topic was literally just Hey here's our news stories

And today our people are on the YouTube are like, this is really old. This is the first time it's been like an overwhelming like, hey, this isn't work. When it's, we're about to launch into topic-based topics, you know what I mean? Topic-based segments. Shut the fuck up. I won't take any more of your shit today. Stop it! I think that then will be fine.

Yeah. So this is going to be fun. It's an evolving show. And I definitely want your guys's suggestions. So let us know on Twitter at kind of funny vids. at Tim Getty's at Game Over Gregie and at No Taxation Let us know your ideas for the show

And if you have topic ideas and any of that We would love to hear them I think yeah I think we just have to record As I said as close to the event horizon as possible And maybe even structure the show And so that the most newsworthy Because we don't bury the lead

Typically but the most Yeah exactly The thing that requires timeliness The most goes in front Followed by the thing that would Is least timely at the end Even if we're burying the lead All right then

Don't you think? I mean that makes the most sense Topics number one Princess Diana died. She was being chased, but paparazzi. That happened literally 18 years ago. A long time ago. We're old.

All right. So, topic number one, which is slightly timely, today, the second episode of Telltale's Game of Thrones series was announced the release date. Right, right, right, right. They showed a trailer. They said next week, which is, or no, two weeks from now, February 3rd and 6th and shit, right? Exactly.

So we got the Xbox 1 and, no, no, okay. So the PC, Mac, PS3 and PS4 versions come out in February 3rd. then the Xbox 1 in 360 will get a day later on the 4th, and then Android and iOS will be getting it on February 5th. And then it keeps on about how it's continuing the story of the first one, obviously. Episode 2. It takes place between seasons 3 and seasons 5 of the show. It's a side thing, but there's a lot of characters in the trailer we saw John Snow.

Have you played episode 1? I did play episode 1. Okay. Episode 1 was my first telltale game ever. Yes. I enjoyed it. I was interested at how much people seem to love telltale games, because I was like, I like this lot.

lot, but like, you know, we were talking game of the year contenders for those Walking Dead. But Walking Dead's different. Yeah. I have not played it. All right. But it's interesting to me that the gameplay of that could qualify for Game of the Year, if it is similar enough to what I experienced in Game of Thrones. I did really enjoy it.

The story is really cool. And there is enough there that I was like, I like this. I wonder what different choices would have led me to and all that. And I get it. Yeah. But my question is, I know you two are big fans of, the style of gameplay at least, right? Yeah, I mean, I like, I like adventure games.

Yes. I'm a huge fan. Huh? I'm a huge fan. Yes, exactly. I know. Just laying it on the table for people who are getting there. So my question you is how to best enjoy a telltale game?

Because I want to play the Walking Dead games. Yeah. And I mean, at this point, you know, season one and two are in the can. So I could just play the entire seasons. Which I will be doing on Twitch.tv. Slash kind of funny games next week. Or by the time you hear this this week. Depending on when you get it.

Or if you're listening to this for free on Friday, I already. it. Mm-hmm. You're screwed. But is it best to wait and play the whole thing front to back, or is it best to play it as it's coming out? Okay. Colin and I can sound off on this, because we do it incredibly different.

Colin waits until they're all out. He can do it in one fell swoop and go. And I do them literally the night they're released, with the exception of board lands, which I didn't get to for a couple weeks or days or whatever, I forget. But usually, in Walking Dead specifically, and what would be, what I, I'm going to, let me talk about Walking Dead because I think that's the easiest one. For me, that is an instantaneously, I must consume it immediately because I feel like in the same way DC Comics and Missou and Superman are very much me, Walking Dead is very much me. You know what I mean? And with that in mind,

I want to be part of that conversation immediately. And for me, that's where Telltale games differentiate themselves from other video games, right? Where it's like, I haven't played, whatever. I didn't finish, I haven't finished transistor yet. And that's, not a big deal because for me it was the gameplay of transition which is really fun fun and i want to go back the story whatever that's cool it's i like the narration so on and so forth but telltale games are strictly story right and so for me telltale is episodic tv which means when i finish it i immediately want to talk to Mitch dire i want to hit up Mitch and i want to what it used to happen with walking dead is that when i was reviewing him he'd get the i'd play through him see every choice then i'd wait for

him to play it through on his main storyline then we'd go to go to coffee or we'd go into a room him and sit there and just talk about what happened and then when he reviewed him this last season around same thing i'd play through my canonical play through then we'd go in and i'd ask him all these questions about what happens if this happens and what did you do when bonnie said and that you know what i mean all these different things like that and just tear them apart and have them be part of this conversation and have what so many people do on message boards right where they get in there and get invested in these characters and talk about what anything's going to happen next and da da da da da da for me the walking dead telltale games are a story i care so much about that i want to be instant

instantaneous with everybody else so that I can have a conversation with everybody about it as it happens. I mean, that's for me part of the experience. And granted, like, it's different for me because, you know, like, not only was I reviewing season one, I would then go and do Talking Walking Dead or Walking, Talking Dead, whatever we call them on IGN, where me and Mitch would talk about them. And then this last time we were doing Playing Dead, so I was, like, interviewing the cast and the crew, and then Mitch, like, there's all these different things where I was even more motivated to be a figurehead, somebody who knew everything about this franchise and series as it went.

that for me is what a tell-tale game is. It is that experience and that story and being so caught up in it that all you want to do is think about it and talk about it. And when you were talking like playing Game of Thrones, like could this be a game of the year? For season one of the Walking Dead, it was so fresh and it was so different.

And they weren't, it's not apples to apples, I feel, because you know who lives and dies in Game of Thrones, right? And so now you're getting introduced these new characters and these new families and you're playing as a family that's not the TV show, right, or whatever but it's like okay cool so they could die at any moment and the fact that i'm jumping around so much means i'm not really getting in a rhythm of liking these people i'm just getting ready for them to roll over and do something right whereas walking dead season one is your lee you're

and this is this girl named clementine and all your your soul focus is to protect her and so to go through that and have those moments like i don't know what's going to happen here what do i respond that's where that gameplay and those emotions and everything else comes into play and makes it a different experience and I think what Game of Thrones is. So Colin, you take this a little differently. What's your approach? Yeah, I wait until everything's released, but there's a there's a, there's pros and cons to this approach.

You know, first of all, I think, I think we were talking about the game of the year kind of contention for the original Walker Dead season one. And that makes sense within the context of the time, that was 2012, right? 2011? And no, 2012. And it makes sense within the context of what telltale games were before that. Because you know if you didn't play

I only played a little bit of Jurassic Park with Greg but if you didn't play something like Jurassic Park or you didn't play something like Back to the Future or Sam and Max or Strong Bad. Yeah like the Walking Dead really was next level for them I mean the engine still sucked and and but like the storytelling was really good and it's an IP we care about and stuff so I think within the context of what Tell Tell did

with that particular series I think it made sense I think Journey was obviously the clear winner that year but and that kind of goes into what you're saying in terms of like you're alluding to which is like these games don't really play that well either. Journey wasn't really a game you played. It was much as an experience. And so they're similar games in that respect.

But I waited until all five episodes were out, and then I played them all in one day. I played them. It was actually over two days. It was like the afternoon before Thanksgiving that year and then Thanksgiving morning. I beat it. And then I played 400 days,

which is the interlude when it came out between the seasons. The con is that if you wait long enough, you stop caring. And that's basically what happened with Walking Dead Season 2, where I was like, I'll just wait. I'm excited. I want to play. at 400 days was interesting.

I was kind of unnecessary. Basically, cash in, but... 100% that it wasn't necessary. I don't think it was cash in. It was just like, hey, let's do something weird and different.

Try, I think it was definitely a lot more. I think it was definitely a caching. But the, the, and just to let me remind people like, oh, it's coming, you know, like,

we're doing something. That's true. But the nature of me waiting for season two meant that I, by the time season two episode five came out, I don't even care. Like, I still haven't played it because it's just,

it's another game on my backlog, and I think we'll talk about that later, but it's like, you know, I don't have time to even get to that anymore. So maybe it made more sense for me to play them one of the time. The thing is that telltale flies by the seat of their pants. It's as obvious as the day is long

that they really have no idea when their games are coming out until literally two weeks before they come out or a week sometimes. And we used to get emails and, like, you know, talk to people. Very soon. Like soon and then I got to nowhere. It's like it's ready.

It's because they're really like... Anytime you see them teasing a trailer, you are within two weeks of the game. And then when it's, like, today's trailer, I thought it would be that next week was going to be the week. And then they're like, no, it's two weeks. I'm like, all right, but that's totally tell tells Emma. That's still very close. Yeah, yeah.

So in other words, if it was like a kind of a more, like Resident Evil Revelations too is actually really brilliant because it's episodic. I think it's four episodes. And they're just doing it every week because the game's done. You know what I mean? And like, that's kind of what I wish they would do with the Walking Dead or with these other games is just be like, the game's done and now we're going to release them once a week or once every two weeks.

And if you at least had a cadence and it's like, okay, the rhythm is, you know, every 14 days, a new one comes out and then I'll play it as they come. but I don't want to play the game and then wait three months. I mean, literally the time between the episodes is totally random, and it's not consistent. So that's like what turned me off from playing them as they come out. What's interesting is I feel like it's true. What you're saying is totally true.

But the way they release games and the amount of games they're doing, which we've talked about before on a podcast, it makes them relevant all the time. You know what I mean? Outside of Beyond, when we're talking about PlayStation exclusives and we're talking about Uncharted or Naughty Dog all the time, even when we don't know what Noddy Dog. working on.

We're talking about them being a great developer, right? Tell Tell is always relevant in the conversation, which is fascinating in the way that all of a sudden they're doing it and it makes them, like I was talking about, not even so much developers, much a network. They are a network, like a TV network, right? They have so many different programs going on. Again, we're, you know, this elite gaming race, this master race of video gamers who need to play everything.

So, you know, we've talked before about, is this formula getting worn out, da, da, blah, that sure for us it is because we're like let's play everything but when you are somebody who just cares about game of thrones or just cares about walking dead or just cares about fable then it is like just this different thing to keep you talking and thinking about this and what's cool about that too is like once you get hooked into it then you you're kind of if you like it enough you're interested in going back like for example i'm just not a walking dead guy just never grabbed my attention and it's not something i haven't read the books i haven't watched the show it's just not my thing game of thrones got into the show started reading the books and now it's like the game like oh i got to give this a

try. Everyone loves Telltale. And I enjoy it a lot. And I'm very excited for the second one coming out. And I'm excited enough that I'm like, I want to play the Walking Dead games because everyone liked them. And like, that is enough for me. So the TV channel thing is kind of, it's a really good analogy. Anology there. Because when you watch a TV show, it's like you want to watch more TV shows. You watch one. There's the lead in show and then you can watch the show after that and all that stuff. And it's just like, I'm getting hooked on this telltale business. And telltale's cool too is because they are just a bunch of different franchises that we, everyone, knows that are mainstream franchises and they're making these games out of them, I feel like

their audience is so varied. Right. Every game has a specific audience. And I have a lot of friends that aren't gamers that know the Walking Dead game and do play it, whether it's on their iPhone or their Xbox or whatever. And that's the other thing for Telltale. As much as we talk about how shitty their engine is and how their games barely run and da-da-da-da-da-da.

It's like that because it's one of those lowest common denominator things, that the thing will run on anything. And that's how they get their games out to all these different people, all these different platforms. And maybe that's, you know, to their detriment. in terms of how it runs, but in terms of market impact and people knowing and money, they seem to be doing just fine. That was something that was shocking to me playing through the first episode.

I was like, there was a lot of issues, just technical issues with like how the game ran. And I was like, that's weird. Like, I'm playing this on a PS4 right now. But then I understand that it's like it has to play on 10 different systems. Right, right. So it's like it isn't optimized just for the one that I'm playing on. Yeah. Well, all right.

Is there? The one thing about you asked, the question was like, how do you play them? Yeah. I also want to point out that for me, how I play Telltale games, like literally how I play them is different than how I play most games. Where I want to walk in, I want it to be dark like I'm in a movie theater, and I usually want headphones. Other games I'll play, and I don't need all that stuff.

You know what I mean? But I want surround sound, and I have the speakers and stuff out there, but I don't want to ruin it for Colin or whoever else is home. Christine usually or somebody. So I'll come in here, I'll shut the door, and I'll put on headphones and have it be dark and play. You know what I mean? And that's like my main concern about how I'm going to run.

I think when I do, when I do, when I'm, I Twitch stream my first play-through of Game of Thrones, right? I'm going to have to ignore the chat. You know what I mean? Just not chat because I don't want anybody to ruin that experience for me, but I do want people to be part of if they want to watch it. I definitely want to stream mine too. That would be cool.

It could be different choices. We're both the purest ones. No, no, no. I don't think so. I'm going to get nasty. If getting nasty with Marjorie is an option, I'm definitely going to get that you know you won't. You'll remember that.

You're not going to get nasty with Marjorie. I love Marjorie. I know you do, but I'm telling you that's the thing and that's one of the detriments of, you know, bringing in established characters. Who's Marjorie? She... The best character in Game of Thrones, the one with the smirk. Yeah, I know exactly your talk.

She played Ambellin and the Tudors. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I love her. Oh, my God, I love her. She's very hot, man. She's really hot, yeah. But you won't get it on with her. A, don't tell me what I will or won't do in Telltale's Game of Thrones.

I'm just letting you know, that's not going to be an option, I bet. Well, I'm excited for it. And so earlier you were saying, you were saying that you don't want to wait that long between episodes and you were saying that in the whole thing you have to wait and see how all the characters are doing their thing and stuff for me with game of thrones it's like even though we don't know these characters that's what i like about game of thrones is even if they're not the starks or the lannisters how many characters or families have been introduced in the show that you're like i don't get a crap about these people the red priestess and all this i don't care about

you and now you do because now you know no no no i get that and i'm not i'm not trying to take away from that i think those feelings are coming but this is very similar to me like this is getting back to my own hangups about high fantasy or whatever, right? And just the fact that, like, I played through Game of Thrones episode one and I had enjoyed myself. But this, this is what I was driving earlier when I was talking about this, Walking Dead being a special situation. Played through Game of Thrones episode one, I could not, if you asked me right now to

write down the character's names and who they are, and I can't, I don't, I don't do that. I couldn't either, but I couldn't from the show. Yeah, it was true. And that's what I'm in, but this is my thing of, like, I think Game of Thrones might be, and I'm talking about them being a network and consuming them differently and enjoying them differently Game of Thrones for me

might be one that I would have enjoyed more if I just waited for everything to be out because in the same way I remember watching season one of Game of Thrones Sunday to Sunday and Christina and I dropped out we'd come back and every show would start and I'm just like I don't know who's this guy

what is this guy's connect I don't know blah blah and then we dropped out and then season two started and it was amazing and we went in marathoned and when you can watch everything back to back to back to back to make those connections to remember oh that's what this person did and da-da-da-da and see it play out in a quicker stance like I'm always talking about

like how the writers envision it when they write it they write this story and they keep it they think you're going to have the same hooks throughout and you lose those week to week that might be the difference for me in that game to make me care more about those characters but looking back of course it's like even with walking dead season one like the way I felt about Kenny in episode five isn't what I thought about on at introduction of episode one when I was yeah yeah yeah it was game of Thrones it's definitely an investment and that show took me like I had to watch the first episode like four times to even care. But then I started watching it and like every single character looks like Rob Stark.

You're like, all right. But then eventually you're like, oh, it's the Red Lady. Oh, there's like these nicknames that kind of come up. And you're like, all right. The Red Lady. Everyone's favorite. Yeah. And you get these things.

And I just hope that by the end of the Telltale Game of Thrones series that there is those nicknames you give some of these characters who are like, oh, it's that person, it's that person. This characters exist. And the fact that they make the whole world, it is the Game of Thrones TV world. And it feels like it. And because they have the voice actors and the likenesses and all that stuff, I love that because I feel like it,

I can almost treat the games as if they are just, it's another season of Game of Thrones. And I'm like, all right, I don't know these people, but I bet you I'm going to care about them eventually because I always do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. All right, guys.

Next up, we're going to talk about a little Sony Bend. Now, Colin, you know a lot about Sony Ben. I have a weird obsession with Sony Ben. Yes. So what happened? What happened today once my computer gets up. I like how you just pound on the mouse pad over and over again.

It's like it's, nothing works, so you just pound out it over and over again. There you go. Now you've got the red keys. You're all set. There we go. Tim doesn't understand computers.

I don't. He's adorable. All right. Type in your password. Have you ever used this computer before? Has that password, hold on. He's never used this computer, Colin. He's ever used a computer ever.

All right, so. On Reddit today, a former employee of Sony Bend. Claimed. Claimed. Claiming. Yes. Oh, yes.

Exactly. Allegedly. Then there was a threat on NeoGap here. Where someone said, will there be a new siphon filter? And he goes, ha. No. Don't hold your breath on that one. Source, I worked at Sony Ben for eight years.

John Garvin got burned out on siphon filter. He wanted to make something different. People seemed to ignore that Gabe Logan died at the end of Logan's shadow. Spoilers. You son of a bitch. Garvin literally killed off the main character. So he wouldn't have to make any more siphon filter games. Yeah, hold on, though.

I mean, in defense, as someone who reviewed this game and loved and played it back to front, I think I reviewed this one, or me or Jeff, but we both played it back to back. Like, it's not, it's not like a definitive, everyone's standing over his grave. Yeah. It's like, they walk out of the bar, they're like, their training unit or whatever, and Gabe shot, and then Leanne is over him screaming, Gabe! And then it like, it like fades the black, she's like, Gabe, Gay! Like, you know, like, oh, how definitive he's dead.

No, because that's, that's... It would seem more like a cliphanger. Exactly. And it says, plus despite all the praise, they didn't sell very low sales all around. Yeah, that makes sense. Sadly, sad but true. I mean, the PSP games. The PS1 one is it fine, but, um, yeah, but then that franchise.

Yeah, I mean, they kept, you know, I kept turning them around pretty quickly after that. I remember I had a demo of one of the PS1 games that came on a Pizza Hut demo disc, and I played that thing so much. And then there was a demo of the third game, I think it was, second or third game. And all it was was the opening part where you jump out of the plane with a parachute. And it was in, you land on the snowy mountain and you just go through that. that like a hundred times. Yeah.

I'll never know what the rest of that game looks like. Demodisks are awesome. Yeah. I miss those days. Something special. But anyway, so they're talking about no siphilter. Then he also talks about how they were going to make, like this company made the Vita uncharted game.

And they're talking about how they were, there was talks about making another one of those, maybe a infamous game on Vita. Oh, God. Colin, you have a little more insight into this. What do you have to say? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Sony Bend, I think is like one of the hidden gems kind of Sony studios in the sense that, yeah, they made cyber filters. They made, God, they made seven of them, I want to say?

Seven siphon filthians. In a row. And this goes back to when they were called Ida-Dick, I think. They weren't even Sony-Bent at that time before Sony bought them. And they're just in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, and they make games or whatever. And eventually they got off of siphon filter and they made, you know, we're forgetting that they made resistance retribution. Which was awesome. Yeah.

And that was obviously like another studio's game. and, you know, Insomniac made resistance, and resistance to attribution was kind of like a third person. What was the guy's name? James Grayson. James Grayson. And, you know, people... It was great, man. It was so much fun. Yeah, people really liked that game a lot.

A great third person shooter on the PSP. And then they made Uncharted Golden Abyss, and they did, again, a really nice job with someone else's story, in this case, naughty dog. So this particular rumor from the alleged ex-Bend employee is saying that, you know, they wanted to make another uncharted and then Naughty Dog didn't really want them to because they were afraid of franchise fatigue.

And that makes sense to me, I believe that. Uncharted Gold and the Biss sold exceptionally well. One of the best selling, if not the single bestselling game on Vita. Makes sense. Over a million. MPD confirmed to me a long time ago, I emailed them about a story, whatever, and they did confirm that Uncharted did over a million units.

But I'm not sure if that's worldwide. I'm not sure if that's only in the United States. I'm not sure if that's digital or retail. Who the hell knows? It's a lot of units for, you know, especially back when Vita was really, I mean, Vita's always been struggling, but when there was no, you know, very few Vitas.

So a lot of people bought uncharted. It's not surprising that Sony would want another one. What's more interesting is that Greg and I, and I think especially me, have been talking for a long time about how infamous needed a game on Vita. And then it made a lot of sense to put Infamous on Vita

and why isn't infamous on Vita. It doesn't make any sense. And especially with Cole and PlayStation All-Stars. That was our big scheme. That was our big scheme of why this is happening. Yeah, and they're still pushing him. And especially with Second Sun,

where Cole is literally, like. Spoilers. Yeah, spoilers. Yeah, spoilers about Second Son. if you haven't played it, like, Cole is literally nowhere to be found in that game, which was like really, really surprised to me because I was like, he's got to be, like, I waited until the end of that game. Like, he is definitely in this game.

He is the bad guy in this game. I was like a post-credit sequence of just like crackling lightning or whatever as he walks up on Delson's Spray painting. So it seems to me that they have like some, they had some weird mixed plans for Infamous that then come to fruition. And who knows what sucker is going to do with Infimis if it's going to continue or if another studio will do it. I mean, I'm kind of curious to see what's going to happen with that too.

but so it makes sense I believe everything he's saying I also believe that when you work at a studio like Bend that made their own game and made their own product like Siphon Filter for a really long time and then got well known as taking good care of other people's IP that eventually you kind of

to inspire your people you got to make something original again and it's probably for the health of the studio that they make their own game we've known that Ben has been working on a PS4 game for a long time and every Sony own studio is working on a PS4 game.

Say Shuehiyosha. Yoshita himself says that. So even studios like Bend or like Sony Cambridge or some other studios that you might expect to be working on Vita games or actually working on PS4 games. It's not to say that they're not also working on beating games.

And they probably aren't working on Vee games. Well, I think it is very safe to assume that Studio Japan is working on beauty games. Sure. But probably Gravity Days too and whatever also. So I don't know, man. It's interesting.

It's always interesting to hear something out of Ben because they are the quietest Sony studio and I think the most overlooked Sony studio. I would have expected that they would be much closer to showing their game than they are. Let's not forget that Golden Abyss went gold in... For the Japan and Japanese...

Yeah, in fall of 2011 and it was a launch game in Japan. I have the Japanese version, and it's just the English version. So they've not... They've not released a game for 12... It's been like three and a half years, like they should definitely be well on their way,

but it seems like they lost a lot of time in pre-production. I was going to say, How much do you think it was that, yeah, they were working on Uncharted Golden Abyss too, and then they're like, no. And then they started doing pre-production on Infamous, and then I was like, no. That seems like that, that, this, it, there's a lot of logic to what could easily be a bunch of bullshit. Yeah. Yeah, this is, Colin and I could sit here and spin a whole bunch of rumors on why something's happening at evolution.

You'd be like, oh, it kind of makes sense. I mean, but, but what he's saying makes sense in the sense that, I mean, maybe he just, maybe he's lying and just knows this, you know, knows the way developers work really well, but that, you know, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they. made and scrapped a bunch of demos for the uncharted sequel on Vita, well, you know, the sequel to Golden Abyss. That takes time and resources to make. And I know that they worked really intimately with Nauti Dogg and Amy Hennig at the time to make Golden Abyss. A lot of the resources and assets in that game come from Nottie Dog.

So, you know, that makes sense. The infamous thing makes sense. Sucker Punch kind of controls that. And if they're going to make an infamous game right around the time when Second Sun comes out, that's probably not a good look. That makes sense. This goes back to the thing we're talking about, franchise fatigue. right of like yeah get another golden abyss or whatever out and then it's like well no we have uncharted

four coming it needs to be a big deal there has to be a gap there well okay we'll get another we'll get an infamous out well no we're launching second sun there needs to be a gap there the biggest the biggest thing that he says in there is that they've lost they've had a lot of brain drain there and that doesn't make that doesn't surprise me either considering again you have to inspire your people to do their own IP it's probably not very fun to be a studio outside of naughty dog for instance and write an uncharted game and have to pass everything through them because they control that IP. So everything makes sense in there.

I just think we're closer than farther away from seeing what they're working on. Yeah. So this idea of franchise fatigue, do you think that every franchise can hit that? Or are there some games that can just come out whenever they want and it's fine? I think for me it comes down to, yes, everything can hit that, period. It depends on what you're selling. I think we see Call of Duty every year, right?

and people aren't it's maybe waning a bit yada yada but it's not tanking right it's not doing it's not doing guitar hero you know nose diver anything like that and that's because that's a franchise that's based on online and tight gameplay right it's not based on story and character in this right and that's when you start moving around these different you know from black ops to advance warfare whatever you start getting around different characters and different storyline the antithesis of that for me and i think a lot of gamers clearly by the numbers is rash and clank so many rationing clanks on PS2 and then they fucking kept coming on

PS3 and then by the time they realized something's wrong they're like well now we'll do all for one now we'll put them into different scenarios and different kind of games and people were like no stop you know what I mean and like they stopped and now they're reboot they're not rebooting but they're remastering you know one building it from the ground up

yeah yeah like that's an example of like for sure franchise fatigue right of like when you when your selling point is ratchet and clank not call of duty guns and whatever in this and futuristic warfare or old warfare or whatever yeah when it's just like it's based on two characters yeah that totally becomes a thing and i'm worried about that with not i think i think the worry for that with uncharted was real for three i think like we always talk

about right if three would have come out as two and two would have come out as three the same thing would have happened where people were like well man two so or three so much better than you know i mean like you compare whatever that whatever game would have filled the whole of three would have been like well it's not as good as two as the other one and so like now that we've had that uncharted four i think can easily supersede everything and be like this is the best uncharted blah blah but but even then it's like all right like how much how many more shenanigans can drake get into and us not get sick of them so do you think that with the vita game specifically the franchise fatigue can also hit when it's a console game versus a handheld game even if they're different games

yeah i think so i mean i i mean i would take a step for it then greg nothing is immune to franchise fatigue nothing and and it's not only franchise it's types like we talk about with with superhero movies and superhero TV shows and all this side, nothing is immune to, like hitting a saturation point. You can see it everywhere. Like saturation points are just being hit it everywhere. The thing is that companies won't stop until they hit it. It seems like Sony was trying to be smart enough to be like, we don't want to hit it.

Like, Uncharted is the most important thing we have, and we do not want to hit saturation point without uncharted because then we're going to be in a lot of trouble. Because that is our marquee title. That is our Halo, basically. And so you have to be smart with it. And I respect that. I mean, I think they know they could put an uncharted out on Vita, another Uncharted, sell a bunch of Vitas and a bunch of copies of the game, but they don't see that it's

worth it because it might affect on Charter 4's bottom line, a game that could sell 10 million copies. You know, so it's, it's, it's an interesting problem to have, but yeah, nothing is immune to, nothing is immune to that kind of stuff. Like you push, you shove something down anyone's throat as you're seeing with so much shit in nerd culture right now, and it's going to rubber band. It's inevitable. It happens. It's going to happen.

So it's smart that they manage it. I'd rather have too little than too much of a good thing. Exactly. Yeah. And you ask about, you know, is it still a thing from console to handheld? I think the problem you're always running into is the fact that inevitably there will be a large portion of gamers who assume that the handheld version is in fact worse. It's always going to be watered down. It is always this.

I stand by that Peace Walker is still the best Metal Gear, right? And I can give you a laundry list of reasons. But I still get laughed at every time I say it. Like, you know what I mean? It doesn't matter how much I back it up and how much I really believe that. It's still like, it's impossible. Metal Gear Solid 4 was a 10. And it's like, this is so much better than 4.

you know what I mean but like that's the that's the problem is like putting something on a handheld you're already bringing down the quality of the graphics this that and the other and people are already going to sit there and go well it's nowhere near as good as like you we always talk about with golden abyss right that that that game has sold incredibly well but it's still not talked about on that level when in fact it's better than drake's fortune you know what I mean like it's a better game than it does a lot of cool stuff that it doesn't get credit for it's by far better yeah and that's the same thing and I'm not trying to I'm not trying to take a shot at con because I usually do this in a joking fashion I still think resistance retrograde

is probably my favorite resistance. Resistance three, I think, is a better game probably overall, but I enjoy James Grayson and the focus, especially compared to the Nathan Hale games. You know what I mean? Like, for one, for my money, way better than the one and two, just because it was a good, the way it was based on the story and how much fun it was to experience, right? And just go through. But nobody, nobody talks about resistance retribution. Now, granted, nobody talked about resistance usually. But even when, I know, even when we do, what a big dog. Yeah. It isn't in the conversation. It'll come back one day. I feel it in my bones. I can feel it

That's a game that should be rebooted So do you think that the infamous Is on that same level of Uncharted Like obviously Uncharted is the halo of Sony But with the infamous Like can it have another Vita game Like should that have had another Vita game? Yeah that was weird

There's two IP, Sony One IP that make no sense That they weren't on Vita god of war And infamous And the fact that like neither of those games Came to Vita's confusing to me And I still don't believe it Like one of those has to come

It doesn't make any sense You know, infamous is certainly not, nothing's on the level of uncharted, except for Grand Tourismo in the Sony studio family of IP in terms of sales and prestige. And infamous, especially infamous, like there's room for infamous on Vita

to tell a story that gaps two and second son. And there's certainly room in the god of war war, even if they reboot it, to tell different stories with Cratos, even though Cratos is a boring character, in my opinion. So I was shocked, like I thought for sure Infamous would come to Vita. I was positive. Yeah, we talked about it all the time.

Like, I thought maybe it would be like a second party studio doing it, like double 11 or something. But I thought like, I didn't think sucker punch itself was going to make the game. But it is weird. It's it is very weird. But I, with again, with Cole's inclusion in All Stars, Infamous 2 did really well and was critically critical success. Infamous Second Sun sold really well. I think it was a way worse game than Infamous 2 and Infamous 1. Agreed.

They want that series to be something. I don't think that series is going to go away. I just think it's a matter of like who does the next one. but it is strange that infamous never came to Vita and I think that I can understand the argument with uncharted I do not understand the argument

with Infamous and I certainly don't understand the argument with God of War because God of War hasn't had a real release since 2010 you know so it's Ascension came out but no one you know

But see I wonder how much that was the problem Is it ascension came out and it was like oh like was that point of franchise fatigue Or it was right It was about to be Right like it was about to be like that All right

And the next one would be too much If it's not amazing I don't think we'll get another infamous game for quite a while. I think sucker punch is going to move in a different direction. I don't even think so anyone is going to hand the infamous off to somebody right away. I just think that that when you think about infamous, and I love infamous, you know that. I'm a huge fan, evidence, by the wall in the living room. That's all infamous crap.

Infamous, for the most part, has never had a home run game. There's games Colin and I love. A lot of people, the Second Sun did really well in reviews, right? But it's never been in Uncharted, right? And they've always, I think when, it's been brought up in interviews before. And they've said, like, we're happy to be naughty dogs, a little brother or whatever. It's like, nobody really wants to be the little brother. You know what I mean?

And I'm sure PlayStation doesn't want to keep investing money in a franchise that hasn't hit out of the park because eventually somebody's going to be like, why don't they keep making these? You know what are they? What is the story? And like, infamous second son really doesn't end in either ending for me, at least, on a note of like, I can't wait to see what happens next. It's like, Delson was a boring character. Yeah, exactly. And I think people know that.

He was no coal. He was no coal. I served with Cole McGrath, sir. And you serve. That was so frustrating, wasn't it, when Cole wasn't in that game? I was so annoyed. I was, I was authentically annoyed. I was really, I remember, like, because I beat it in Platon to before he even came out.

And I was, I was like, I can't fucking believe that Cole isn't in this game. He is nowhere in this game, you know? Yeah. Everyone's like, oh, there's a sign that references McGrath's Cafe or whatever the hell it is, or electronics. I'm like, how can you just, that character, how is that character not the bad guy in this game? I do not get it. Yeah. You know?

Yeah. That infuriated me. That said, first light, the arena combat was fucking awesome. It was really, really awesome. Because the combat in those games. Yeah. And the traversal is awesome. Yeah.

Moment to moment gameplay second one. But the game, I don't want to say I was disappointed. I think Infamous Second Sun was a great game. But compared to Infamous, especially Infamous 2, Infant 2 was so special. That was a special game. And Second Sun didn't, you know, with how much they hyped that game and it clear they got extra time to finish it too. it seemed like it was supposed to be a launch game.

Or a launch window game, which it was not. Depends on maybe they're using the Nintendo windows. Very loose, very loose, very loose term of window. Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know. So this Ben stuff, we'll see. We'll see. I'm excited to see what they...

I know that those guys have talent. They've shown it with other people's stuff. I want to see what they can do with their own ideas. I think we'll see that game this year. I don't think it'll be released this year, but I think we'll see it. Good. Cool. Next up, Club Nintendo is closing down.

Nintendo's going to have some sort of new rewards program. Right. starting January 20th, they're going to stop doing the whole accepting the codes for Oh, no. Where will you get your hats? It's going to be tough for us. It's going to be really tough for us, Nintendo fans. But now here's the thing.

I'm a huge Nintendo fan. Yeah. This club Nintendo stuff, I hit the platinum of the lead and all that stuff just because you buy the games. Yeah. It just naturally happens at a certain point. Sure. I've never gotten anything that I'm like, oh yeah.

Thanks, guys. I really wanted that. This made me more than. What have you gotten? Run me through the laundry list of things you've got. Honestly, it got to the point that I, I stopped even picking it. I just was like I this stuff doesn't interest me enough to to get it. Yeah. I got the playing cards. That was cool, you know, and that was the fun thing that everyone wanted.

You're like, I wanted those things. Then it's like, well, great. I have now had Nintendo playing cards that I could have just bought other different Nintendo playing cards and been fine for $3. You know, in Japan, there was a lot of really cool things. Like, I'm super into video game music and collecting CDs and stuff. So I remember they had the Mario Galaxy one and I think and two soundtracks. I'm like, that's awesome. And then it never came to a. America. Sure. Recently, I think the most recent thing I got was Smash Rose posters. Okay. They were, like, posters made when, as they were announcing all the new characters, there were three different ones with, like, just featuring the new characters.

And that's cool, but they're just posters, you know? And I guess it's one of the things that's like, well, what do I expect from this? Like, I'm just buying the game. They didn't they? And a Tanoi Tanoi Tau? I don't know. Just a hat? Someone's gotten a hat out of Club Nintendo, guaranteed.

Yes. But most of the time, it's just posters or just like little doodads that are, you get coins, right? that you can... Well, it's the coins that you can use for your shop, but it's, you know, ridiculous amounts to get nothing. And a lot of times you can only use them for certain stuff. And it's been interesting. It's one of those things where it's like,

I want it to be better, but I don't really have an answer to what I want from it. And they say that they are rebooting it. There was going to be something new. And it's interesting to me, because they've been doing this for quite a while. Six years, wasn't it? Six years, yeah.

Since I think the Wii was kind of the first time it, like, came into our beautiful world. But what do you guys, like, what would you want from a reward system? I mean, I always thought Club Nintendo is cool. I think, yeah, you're talking about all this stuff, like, oh, what do you want with this kind of crap or whatever? It's like, it's just, it's swag, right?

It's the same crap we get and we give a wet. And I call everything crap, just like I call everybody kids, right? Just like the same t-shirts and chotchkeys we get when we go to events in E3 and stuff, right? And really quickly, that stuff stops mattering because we get it all the time. But for a normal person and, you know, Joe Blow, Oklahoma or whatever, a city named after famous Joe Blow. it's a big deal right to get playing cards or to get a poster to get something that's way outside of your normal realm and it's nice to be recognized right like i like the idea of buying these games getting rewarded for it. It's always a big deal.

I mean, like, PlayStation does it on such a small thing of, right? I mean, you spend over $100 in this month or whatever, so you get an extra $10. Or when they'll send those emails out to people who Platinum games, like you're in the top, you're in the 1% who actually went and got the kills on platinum. Congratulations. Like gamers like being recognized. People like being recognized. So it's cool that like games you're going to buy no matter what are can get you stuff,

even if you don't cash him in or do anything with them. I like that idea, right? I wish more people did that. What would I want to see out of the program? Cooler things. Like, it should be that a free amoebo, you know, coins that aren't out of control, right, in terms of like, okay, you're getting money off or a percentage off, something in that. Exclusive items for your me and different puzzle pieces, stuff like that.

What about you call? I agree. I think Club Nintendo had it as right as anyone had it, I guess is what I'm saying. Because if people look at achievements and trophies, and they wonder, and I wonder, I'm like, well, we like to get the, you know, Greg and I like trophies on PlayStation. It's like, well, what is the real point of this, but beyond the point of just, you know, having them to show up digitally?

So I like the idea that Nintendo had this thing where you can buy a product and kind of register it and just get points for buying their products. It made a lot of sense. It makes you want to buy their products. So it works for them too. And then they just got to give you little shotchkes and shit like that. And I like the coin idea. People have been tweeting us a lot saying like 250 coins will get,

you Super Metroid, which is pertinent, because that's what we're doing for our first book club. A game of the month kind of book club thing. I'm kind of funny. But what I would really like to see is a combination of the two. Like, I want to see trophies, for instance, on the PlayStation platforms mean something. And I want to see Sony just include little sheets of paper with their first party games or whatever where it's like register this and you get some points and et cetera and so on. And then you can buy little chotchkes or get special in-game items or icons and stuff like that. They did that.

You remember the PlayStation Rewards program where they went through and did that where if you, it was just in beta, it was a test group or whatever,

but I, you know, through IGN, I had to buy a million things I was running the PlayStation channel. So I hit legendary status. Oh yeah, and then you got those icons. It gave you different icons

that would say legendary. Yeah, well, yeah, it just was one of those things I'm assuming that you look at the interaction with it and how much it really mattered and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It wasn't a big enough deal for them. But that's what I'm talking about.

Just like, a tip of the hat is all anybody's ever looking for, right, Twitch streams, right? Like our subs get the little kind of funny guy next to them. And that's a cool way to stand out and be like, hey, I'm part of something and I do something. And you know, what you guys are saying makes a lot of sense. And it's one of those things where I feel like if you did combine the two things, the idea of it, the idea of it, you have to buy it.

And then you get, you register this thing you bought. It's so cumbersome. You have to go. It is. There's a cereal cold. You put this in here. You have to make an email. You have to do all this.

I don't like that. I like the idea more. Like, if it was more achievements and trophies based, that's awesome. You have this game, play the game, and then we'll give you rewards. If you got coins based on what you did, even if it was just save file. You have a save file for this game on your system or whatever. If you got points for that, I think that's cool. Or even if you, like things you download and DLC and all that stuff.

I just don't like the idea that it's, at least with Club Nintendo, it's solely tied to you purchasing their products and then taking the extra five minutes to go to their website and put in a serial code. Something they're making this unintuitive. Yeah. It's Nintendo. So it's very, very. No surprise. Very unintuitive. But if it was something that was just like, you know, with the smartphone,

take a picture of the little QR code and then it's just done. Yeah. Or stuff like that. And the PlayStation reward thing, I remember that. And like those little, the legendary status and all that, that's great. I would have loved that on Nintendo stuff. Like, I want people to know how legit I am. Yeah.

I'm pretty legit. Yeah, it's funny on the other end of that is, and I remember laughing so hard when I figured, right before Wii came out when they were like, we have no achievement system. And I'm like, you got to be kidding me. You have to be absolutely kidding me. You know, I thought for sure that that was going to be,

something that was going to be cool and that if they really were bold they would have went back into all the virtual console games and gave them whatever you know, trophies wherever the hell they were gonna call them.

Because people, because people would, can you imagine. No, I couldn't imagine because I was really excited about when we, like when we, like,

September October or, you know, August September before Wii came up, I'm like, this is gonna do something cool and I'll go back and buy all that fucking shit. You know?

Like, just to, just to like. Go get, just to get the, just to get the, yeah, like, that'd be awesome,

you know, and they, like, it's funny they on one hand they get I guess what I'm saying is like on one hand Microsoft and Sony get like how to reward players in game with achievements and trophies and why they matter people that say they don't matter and they don't care

that's great a lot of people do like them and they're more than ever and on the other hand is Nintendo not understanding how to reward people in game and not how to like how to interconnect their games with something like trophies or achievements which was like a laughable mistake and I still can't believe that they like haven't patched that in yet but they do understand how to like reward their people

with tangible good So a combination of the two would be good. But there's something dangerous about tying monetary reward or something to achieve trophies and achievements because of how easily they can be glitched. This was the same reason why PSP never got trophies to begin with. Sony wanted a patch PSP trophies. And they were like, well, you guys can just break the shit out of the game. So why would we do that? And then it ruined it for everybody.

So they're cognizant of that kind of situation. And that's why the Nintendo system is cumbersome. You know what I mean? Because you have to buy it, open it, and it's a one-time use thing. It's not like something, yeah, you could just QR and pass to Kevin. He QRs it too. He would do that. He passes it to Frato and Frater, you know what a Nintendo game is.

Yes, we'd stop. Monsters. Yeah. He just want no shots. Yeah, it's a giant can of worms. But I like the idea of it being there. I like the idea of, you know, that option being there for people to belong. Like, you know, it worked the opposite on me, right, of where I buy two, three

Nintendo games a year, right? Maybe four, I guess. And so I'd open them up and see it. I'm like, this is too much work. I'm going to go register to go do this. Like, I'm never going to hit a status that matters. It's a point. think that I registered any of the previous.

See, this is something right now. I'm saying this. It's like I got so used to not doing it that I didn't register Smash Bros on the 3DS and the Wii U and I missed out on the Smash Bros soundtrack. I'm so mad about this because I wanted that. But I was like, I'll get to it. And then I never did. But again, why does it have to be so complicated? It's really not that complicated.

I am over exaggerating how complicated this is. But it's not as a step. It's definitely not as easy as I want it to be. Yeah, that's the whole thing. I mean, we talk about it because we exist on YouTube and the internet, right? and like you can see on your tweets when you're like, hey, check out this cool thing and you put a link in there.

You can see the number of people who are engaged enough to click on the link. And that's just going like this. And it's so few. So few people do it, let alone, open a thing, remember that you're opening it to play the game you just bought. You want to play.

To pop it in to come back. Yeah, it's just like, no, no, thanks, man. Now, son. But Nintendo did do good with the, they do these deals all the time. And PSN does this too, where it's like, you know, if you buy this game,

you get 50% off that game. And like they did recently, there was like a big sale where you buy some of the old Mario Bros. games and the rest of the series, you can get cheaper and stuff. And I love stuff like that. I wish that was tied into this reward system because obviously these are the people that are going to buy Super Mario Bros.

For the 15th time. Yeah. You know, it's, I would like it if Mario Bros. 2 and 3 came at a discount or something like that. Only if it was obvious that I had owned them previously and all that, stuff like that.

So I feel like that would be a big step for them. And it could help a lot. PlayStation 2. They're at the point now where they have these PS1 games, PS2 games, PS3 games, PlayStation Now, where if they can come up with something like that, that'd be awesome. Yeah, batch bundling. Like, right it's smart enough in there to see that you're, you know,

they call the Super Mario Pac or whatever. Some are all-stars, maybe. I think that's taken. I think that's happened. Maybe call it Super Smash Brothers. All-stars. Brothers. There you go.

All right, guys. Rounding out this episode, this beautiful, beautiful episode of the kind of funny game cast, games cast, is our. are gaming backlogs. Where are we at right now? There's a lot of games coming out.

We're in the beginning of the year, which means we got a lot to look forward to in 2015. Sure. Earlier we were talking about Game of Thrones episode two. I'm excited for that in the coming weeks. But, obviously, as people that have full-time jobs, even though we didn't expect things to be so full-time. Yeah.

We haven't had that much time to play video games. Besides the streaming and the let's-plays and all that. But we haven't had time to sit and just play through games and experience them the way we want to. Right. And a lot of the times, that's the thing. There's a big difference between performing a game and playing a game. A lot of people lie.

You're so bad at Smash Bros. It's like, hey, first off, I'm not claiming to be good at Smash Bros. But second off, it's harder to play games while talking to a camera, while talking to people. Right. Trying to create something that's entertaining. Creating entertainment and playing a game are two different things. Sure. And there is, you know, some common denominators between them.

But besides that, it's like, it's, sometimes I just want to play a game, specifically single player games. I just want to sit there. I just want to play it. I want to make my mistakes. And I don't want a couple thousand people judging me in the comments or telling me what to do and all that stuff. And half of them are wrong and all this shit. But sometimes I do want that. And so I go for that.

So I haven't had the time to sit and play a bunch of games that I wanted to play. What are you guys trying to make time for it? The best part about launching this business when we did January 5th is that we did it when there was honestly a quiet breath in gaming. Right? Where it was like, all right. we can do this right now and it's not going to completely, it's not like we're doing it during the run-up to Black Friday, where we're going to miss a million things and not have time for it.

I hope we were on better track so that we're going to be ready for, I mean, H1Z1, I still want to play, and I know it's a complete pile of garbage and everything, but I want to be a part of that, right? And it sucks that I haven't been able to be. So there's that, then it's, I mean, I'm looking for it now. I'm not even getting to your question. Oh, I guess H1Z1's in my pile.

But, like, we're still to the point of, like, the next things to worry about are, like, for me dying, Game of Thrones Order Like you know what I mean We're starting to hit into these games That got pushed blood-blown Isn't too far off either

Then when you look at that way But this January time frame Has been quiet enough to where it's like I'm not missing out I don't feel like I'm screwing myself over And so when I look back at my backlog My backlog is still It's still in a place of just like

Little things I don't there's not that much That I feel like I need to catch up on Like I need I still I keep talking about this right That I played so much transistor At preview events That when I finally got it

It wasn't striking the right chord, so I got three hours in or something and stopped. And now I got to restart that game and go, and I keep talking about doing that, right? But like, Dragon Age isn't a game that speaks to me. And I played an hour of it, maybe even less. And I was just like, totally get what's up, watch Christine play a lot, totally respect what they're doing. Not my game. I don't want to go back to it. Far Cry.

Played a ton of it leading, you know, we did so many lets plays at IGN with it. That by the time I got home and I started going into it, it's just like, it's Far Cry 3, which was amazing. And I know all the new stuff it has, which is amazing. but I don't want to go, I don't want to go play that. You know what I mean? I still need to beat Costum Quest. So so far it's Transitioning Costum Quest.

Costum Quest, I played on a stream in December because that was when I could finally get to it, and I still have a lot left in that little campaign too. But that's another game that doesn't stream well. It's a game that I wanted to sit there and laugh at the jokes and the no dialogue and enjoy myself. But it's not, my backlog doesn't feel as crazy as I think it sometimes gets.

It starts getting crazy when I look up there and I'm like, shit right. I do want to do for a throwback Thursday, death and return to Superman. I do want to play Ghostbusters on N. You know, you see all these cartridges that are games I played and beat when I was a kid, but, I mean,

are up there that I want to do for our content. And, like, balancing that with the Walking Deadstream, with our daily let's plays with the order, with Bloodborn, with Uncharted. Like, all the games are actually going to come out, the fucking Batman DLC that I still want to do. The Mr. Freeze stuff, you know what I mean? Like, there's all these little things out there that are like,

not even backlog, it's just many annoyances that I want to try to get quelled before we get to the heart of the season. And the season being this year. Yes. I mean, I don't even know where to begin. I mean, that's, the problem has gotten bad. It's gotten really bad because even before we left IGN, there's just no time. There's no time to play anything.

I think Transistors is a good example. I never played alien isolation. I never played Shadow Mortor. I never played Dragon Age. You know, I never got to screw out with Costum Quest. I never got to, you know, even Citizens Earth was a game that I really, you know, is a game I really want to sit down with and play now. Ironclad tactics is out now.

I want to be Resident Evil again. Eventually you just have to choose like 10% of this stuff and just be like, especially with Shadow and Mordor and Dragon Age, I actually really wanted to play. I like Western RPGs and I really wanted to play those games, but it's just not going to happen. You know, plus there's all this shit on Vita that comes out like every fucking week that like I really want to play.

You know, like I just download them and just never play them ever. Sween it in? I was so where Sween it in two? Where Sween it in two? I got Sweenit in two. I played 45 minutes. of it and then something happened and I totally never got back to it. And now I'm to the point of, do I restart that game?

Like, what is even happening? I know I'm cleaning tar off the ground. Why? What's happening? See, that's a worry I have about Majora's mask coming up. Yep. Where it's like, I know I'm going to want to play it. I'm super excited for it, but like, I'm worried that I'm just not going to.

That's my same. And then if I do, I'm going to play it for a little bit and then just be lost and not know where I am. That's my thing with Graham Fandango coming out is like I never played Grand Fangango and I know how special a game it is and how important it is to adventure games. and so like yeah I'm going to start it and play it and like I remember when I didn't like adventure games

because they were cumbersome and weird and how does this water bottle how does this water bottle interact with that light to turn on this to make them and I was like oh and like that's what's going to happen is I'm going to sit down with Grimm and play 15, 20 minutes up and get to that puzzle and be like

all right I got to stream something else I'll never get back to Destiny I want to be level 30 in Destiny which is not hard and I'm like level 25 because I get to do an hour of it and then I'm totally pulled away from it forever Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's a huge problem, especially as we get older.

And I can't even, I can't even fucking fathom how people with real responsibilities. Is that with a child? Having a kid to take care of and play games? I'm not saying we don't have responsibilities because we do. We have a business and it's busy working. It's hard on Portillo, obviously. But it's just, it's insane. Like, it sucks because I really feel a little bit of emptiness the last year or so in my own life

because I don't have time to sit and play. And it's really, you have to pick and choose, man. But like, the more, the more you put off the games, the further detached you become from the games and what they mean at the time, which is why I really have been saying for one time, I need to make time. I need to make time. There's just, like, it's got to come with the sake of something. And relationships are just free time or reading or whatever.

Like, it's got to come because, like you were saying, like, playing on a stream, like I was playing Resident Evil today, you know, it was just, we were just screwing around and having a good time and not really even caring about it. how he were doing. That's not how I really want to play Resident Evil. I want to turn the lights off and really get into it. That game's scary and atmospheric. And so I want to play in that respect.

It's just, it's funny when I look at my trophies. People say, like, what good are trophies if you don't care about them? At the very least, it chronicles what you've done, which is pretty cool. And when I look at my trophies going all the way back

to when they launched in 2008, man, I played a shit ton of games until this past year. I played, like, everything. And it wasn't just, like, dabbling. I was like, I was beating the shit out of these games. But that was during the time when, like, Cheryl was away, right?

Yeah, and that's a big part of it, right? Like, that's what, and this isn't our lamenting having loved ones, but it's, you know, like, we work all day doing this, right? And now, like, we're going to leave and I immediately have to edit this to get this up for Patreon. And then I immediately have to work on Orioration. And then in there, I have to cook dinner for Christine. And then I want to hang out with Christine. And then it's just like, so at what point am I legitimately going to stream H-1Z with that?

I'm not. I'm not. Unless I want to stay up till two in the morning and then be shit tomorrow for all the streams and crap we have to do. You know what I mean? And so, like, that's like, the sucky part of being an adult. and doing all these things. And not even owning this business, because when we had jobs before,

it was the same exact thing. It's just like trying to get in a rhythm. And I really feel like we're maybe next week going to hit our rhythm. We're close. Yeah, no, it's not bad. It's just these stupid trips that I keep taking and doing things with that.

Because they're happening. That's part of the rhythm. So for me, you know, I'm looking forward to not, there's not too many games coming out soon that I'm like, I need to play this Game of Thrones. I'm going to play. And this Ori in the Blind Forest, which we should check out YouTube.com slash

Kind of Funny Games. There's a React piece we did on that. We got to play a little bit of it. that and I'm going to make time to play that for sure now looking back at my back log it sunset overdrive that is a big thing that is a big missing part of my my backlog sorry that a game that I haven't even turned on that's a game that I know very little about but just watching it like this looks fun yeah looks like something I would enjoy a lot again I don't have a X well I do have an Xbox one but I it's in a box I'm trying like it it's a long story

I didn't it's a rigmar I did buy it I have it I'm trying to sell it it's a whole deal but I think at this point I might just open and just keep it because I'm like I'm want to play these games. Yeah. I don't have to borrow yours to play Ori or you play it. Yeah. It's rigumeral. God forbid you fucking make some content here. It's not. It's hard.

But, well, so that's the thing, though, is I have this problem where I'm addicted to old games. I've told you guys before. I essentially skipped out on the whole PS3 Xbox 360 generation. Like, I played a handful of games. I would probably say I beat a good 15 games, solid, straight through and all that. And that means I missed out on a lot. And again, I feel like I've played more games than.

just the normal person. Yeah. I've played a percentage of the games that you guys have played as professional, the coolest dudes in video games, right? But I missed out on so much stuff, specifically the Batman games. So we've talked about this. I need to play the Arkham games and actually sit through them. Because night looks great.

And I want to be a part of that conversation when we get there. The Bioshock games. I need to play. Oh, wow. Really? Yeah. See? And that's one that I'm like, wow.

But I have this problem where I love all. old games so much that I've just constantly wanting to go back and just play them because I love those experiences and like I'm like I'm going to play by Oshock I own all those games I just named I own all of them and I've started them and I'm like then I start them again I'm like

but then I look over and I'm like oh this Tony Hosh Pro Skater oh I wonder if it's still as good as I remember and I play it and I get stuck playing that I'm like I'll just play through these a couple levels or whatever and then I just I'm like all right cool now it's dinner time you know yeah and that keeps happening to me and especially now that we're doing these throwback Thursdays and stuff I'm gonna get addicted guys

This is going to be bad. And now that there's HD remixes and all this stuff, I'm like, well, shit. Now I have to play these. Now I have to play these. Because they're old and new. And a big example of that is Kingdom Hearts, where it's like, last time I played, like, I love Kingdom Hearts. Last time I played it, where Kingdom Hearts 2 was 2005, 2006, when it first came out, you know? And now that there's the HD collections, I'm like, well, I want to replay these.

But that's an investment. And that's a problem with these RPGs, Japanese or Western. It's like, how are we supposed to play all of them when they're all. 100 hours, you know? Yeah, that's 100% true. And it's like, especially when I want to play these old games. I want to play Kingdom Hearts 1. I want to play Kingdom Hearts 2.

Backlaw games are games I never played. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. It came out on PSP. I was so excited for it, but it came out so late in the console's run that I was like moving on to the next thing and doing other stuff and I never played it. Now it's on PS3, so I get to do that. But I'm like, well, if I do that, I want to play one and two first. I want to, you know, like build that back up.

And I'm like, oh, I also want to play Final Fantasy 10 and 102 because those came out. And I'm just like, I just get into this thing where it's like, It gets so daunting. So daunting that I'm like, oh, I'm just not going to do it. I'm just going to play Tiny Tune Adventures. Right. When the email was a lot out of control for kind of funny, yeah, it would be like there's too many emails, Nancy, I'm just going to read a book or I'm going to read a comic or I'm going to check

Twitter. You know what I mean? It's just like I got to try to find a way. You can't. Yeah, I think, I mean, out of the games you mentioned, I mean, I don't like Bioshoing Infinite. I think it's vastly overrated. I never beat it.

I was not into it. I thought it was like it was strange. It was very unbiosechalk to me. I don't know a lot of people agree with that. Some people don't agree with it, but it felt like a shooter, and Bioshock is not a shooter, first and foremost, in my opinion.

It's first person, and you shoot things, but it's not like... It wasn't like Call of Duty, which is what I felt like parts of Infinite were. But the original Bioshock? Oh, my God. That's the game that sucks out to be like,

you have to play that game. That game's fucking extraordinary. You know, that game is extraordinary. A very, very, very important game. So you should definitely play that. I'm done. I mean, I want to.

You should definitely make time to play that game. So, so, so good. I played the first hour of that game. I swear, probably five or six times. And like, I'm into it. I'm so into it.

It's just like, then I move on to the next thing. And again, then it gets hard because not only do I also want to play all these other games and they're huge investments and it's just like,

ah, then we have to make the content and do the entertainment thing. And I love that. And I almost, I actually, it's a fact, I love that more

than I love actually playing the games. And I love playing games. But there's something about like making content from games that is so much more exciting to me. So that's why I know these old games so well. So I stop and think about my, what's the best content I can make for these games that I know that I love? Instead of playing something new that I'm like, oh, I need to experience this and then kind of think about it that way. And it's just that's been really interesting working with you guys because I see you guys kind of as the opposite. Specifically you, Greg.

Colin, you know, you have a little bit more of the old school in you. But see, you're more of a historian when it comes to this stuff. Greg, you were more of the, like, I'm playing whatever's out, I'm current, I'm up to date on this stuff, and I do a little bit of everything really well. Yeah. I'm way more just like, I like to make content, and I like to think about this, and I like old things. So, my backlog is never ever going to catch up. That's okay. I'm okay.

It's not a terrible problem to have. It's just a problem of acceptance. I had that thing with when Black Flag came out. And I don't even like a set secret even at all. but I gave, you know, Assassin's Creed 2, you know, I gave Assassin's Creed 2 a chance a little bit. People yelled at me, Black, I mean, up chances. Then I platinumed it to prove that I played the game all the way through,

and I was like, I still hate this game. Oh, Colin. I still hate it, but there's my Platinum trophy. And then I played Assassin's Creed 3 because I was like, oh, this is fucking awesome. Look at the setting. And the setting was they nailed everything. The travestive Assassin's Creed, of course,

is they nail everything but the gameplay. And then when Black Flag came out, I was like, well, I'm going to give it another chance. People really seem to like it. It seems like maybe they fix some things. I'm not really sure that's really true. and that was the first time I was like I can't play this game

I don't have time and that was when I was like I just I wrote it off completely like I'm never playing Assassin's Creed ever again that was like one thing I just checked out my box so when the new one came out this year Unity or whatever

I don't give a shit you know like I'm not like that's not even on my radar anymore I don't care yeah that was the thing too of like yeah I was so satisfied with Black Flag that when Unity popped up and then Rogue

and they were like well you need this and then they go back and forth and everything I was just like I'm they're not even on my list of things to do you know what I mean like I've seen you play it. I understand that it's this. I understand that it's that.

I watched their video reviews. I read on it to make sure I was up to date on them. But then it was just like, yeah, that's not even something on my list. I don't feel like I need to play that anymore to experience what it is. So Assassin's Creed perfectly encapsulates every single thing that I just said about my problem with backlogs. When that game, when one came out and like people were kind of whatever about it, then two came out. And everyone's like, this is amazing. This is so good.

And everything about Assassin's Creed seems cool to me, the story and all that. But I, Prince of Persia, the trilogy. on PS2J. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. That is like one of my favorite game. Sansa time is awesome. Ever. I think all three are awesome. Santsa time is the best and it's, you know, it made it. But like,

Warrior Within. You know, it was a little a little on the angsty side, but still great game. The time travel was fun. And then two thrones, twin Thrones, whatever. I don't remember what it was. I love that. It was like super good and brought it back more to the first one. That franchise was so special to me that the idea

of playing Assassin's Creed too, I was like, I just want to replay Prince Terser because I loved that. And I was like, all right, you know what? I'm just not going to do it. And then they released the HD collection of Princes, so I did that instead. And then I just never got to Assassins. And I've, then again, I've replayed, I've played the first hour of Assassin's Creed too multiple times. But that's enough. Yeah. You've seen enough. That's one of those games where I know people get mad to man. It is what it is. You know, we all their own opinions, but I played that game all, I played that game as thoroughly as it can be played. The platinum

trophy proves it. And I, I, I, I finish that game and I'm like, what is everyone talking about? I was like, I'm like, what is everyone talking? I had a great time with it, but I mean, I understand. It's like, your taste. Every time you talk about the gameplay or whatever, I get yourself. Oh, my God. You know, I'm like, which is why, I mean, I don't think you're, you wouldn't like murder. We'll see.

I mean, I like Lord of the Rings, so I would want to see, you know, I'm a little tired of Lord of the Rings now. It's, it's too cool for school with everyone. Yeah, but Colin. Assassin's Creed to 3. I don't think there's anything you like more. Oh, I thought for, I thought for sure I was going to, I mean, I was, I was enamored with that game before I was like, this is, you know, yeah, this is. This is cool. I get down with this.

And I wish that the gameplay was as good as the setting. I never finished it. I can't play this game anymore. Like halfway through him, I can't do it. I can't play it. It's just too, why am I wasting my time?

I can't, I can't do it. So, but that was just an example of the, with black flag of the acceptance where I was like, I got to accept that I have to immediately write shit off without playing it. Like,

I can be excited about it. And maybe I have to be that way about a game like alien isolation or something. It's just like, De Evil Within is another great example. Like, I was really authentically excited about that game. McCami. you know, throwback, Resident Evil, real survival horror,

like we got out of Dead Space, which was, I think, still the last great survival horror game. And then, I don't know, and it came out, and I'm like, I don't know. It sucks. I wish I could just, for a month, not do anything but to catch up on these games, and that'd be fine. But then I probably wouldn't have a job or money and a relationship and, you know, a life.

No sausages. No sausages. Probably a lot of the top of that. Well, guys, what are your gaming backlogs? let us know in the comments or on Twitter or wherever you're watching this video. iTunes Review. I was going to say you're on a bus listening to it.

Tell the person next to you. They'll definitely enjoy it and make time for their games too. This has been episode four of the Kind of Funny Games cast. Let us know what your topics are for following episodes. Hit us up on Twitter

at Kind of Funny Vids, at Tim Getty's, at No Taxation, and at Game Over Greggie on the Twitters. Thank you. And until next week.