Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - What Game WON'T Make Game Of The Year Top 10? - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

Tim and Greg have a nice one-on-one wine date. Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:05:00 - Fighting game question 00:30:30 - Do you feel like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have lived up to the promise of next gen? - Klein Felt 00:35:30 - As someone who is excited for Starfield but really hasn’t played any Bethesda game, what should I be playing right now to prepare? - Spencer Oswalt 00:36:26 - Ad 00:41:40 - Is Final Fantasy XVI the best Game of Thrones game we could've ever wanted? - DJRhys 00:43:17 - My husband and I placed a pizza bet today. (Final Fantasy 7 spoilers) I think FF7: Rebirth will end when Sephiroth kills Aerith. He thinks that no one will die or possibly a different party member instead, since the vast majority of people playing the game expect Aerith to die and might be adjusting their play style to account for that. What are your thoughts? - Chelsea 00:45:16 - In honor of Torgal, what do you think the BEST animal companions in the history of gaming are? - Hailey 00:45:50 - I haven't heard the Bois talk too much about the lack of RPG elements in FFXVI. I know everyone has been loving it but do you think at the end of the day it will rank low on the best of all time Final Fantasy rankings because of this?- Brewer Jack 00:54:14 - What is the ideal gamer session environment? - Barblehurgy 01:03:22 - It’s the end of the year and Barrett tells you a game no one expected somehow made it into the Kinda Funny top 10. What’s your guess for what that game is? - Michael M 01:12:28 - Is it time Xbox and PlayStation focus on developing a true handheld instead of the expected mid-cycle “Pro” models? - Liam 01:21:29 - Why not just get a backbone? - Cameron Kennedy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to a very special kind of funny games cast with me, Tim Getty's and the one and only game over Greg, Greg Miller. Hello, Tim. How are you? I'm doing good. This reminds me of the early days. I might be conflating separate events into one. Okay. But I remember a time in our early days. You're one of kind of funny, which at this point is almost a decade ago,

where me and you had to do a games cast and we turned it into a little wine date. Do you remember this? I remember the wine part of it. Yeah, we decided it's one-on-one. Let's have a little date. So we had wine in crackers. What the fuck? Where's the wine?

I don't know. That's a good question. When you go to the rigumor, I'm going to go get that bread and butter bottle of Pinot Noir. It's been out there forever. Oh, yeah. You got to prep me if that's a day. You don't remember this, though.

No? I don't want that to take away from the moment. Yes. All right. I wanted to know it was special for me in the moment. It's just when you've done this this long. Hey, I didn't think about it. I mean, it was out of my mind until I was thinking today.

I was like, oh, the two of us doing a games cast, why does this feel special? Like, why is this part a big deal? Well, anytime we get to do a one-on-one games cast, I appreciate that. It's good. Because it doesn't happen. And it is that idea that, like, I do, I am excited for this episode, period, full stop, because it's a one-on-one. I was excited recently I got to do one-on-one with Janet as well for peace. I love you, that we drank beer on and had a fun time.

And it was like, it had a different vibe. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, I'm with you that this rarely ever happens as a gamescast. It's rare that I feel I'm not at the wheel of a show When it's a one-on-one show, you know, because you can be like, oh, well, games daily. And it's like, that's a different thing, right? Like, then what this is going to be.

I guess that's what it is because I do games daily with you all the time. Yeah. That's one-on-one. That's fun. But it has a different vibe. This is a bit more free phone, whatever we want to talk about. And what we want to talk about. And what we want to talk about.

Y'all wrote in with some amazing questions. This might be the best run of reader mail that we've ever had. Like, I'm looking through this. I'm like, yo, this is going to be a banger episode. I feel it in my core, Greg. Yeah. It's going to be good. Okay.

And I hope that you feel it to out there. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com, we love and appreciate you so very much. But if watching's not your thing, you can listen to. So it's your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Games cast and we'll be right there for you. If you want to go above and beyond, patreon.com slash Kind of Funny is where you want to go, where you can get the show ad free and you can watch it live as we record it, just like. our Patreon producer Delaney Twining gets to do.

We appreciate you. So very, very much. Because of your support, you get so much bonus content out there. The episode's a kind of feudy. They remember blanks, the Gregways, so much great stuff. And you also get the show ad-free

so you won't have to hear the ad for shady rays that everyone else will have to listen to later. But it's been a good time here, kind of funny. We've been putting out a lot of really good stuff. Summer Game Fest is starting to come to a close. So it's nice now to just kind of be able to deal with the announcement being over for the most part

and move forward a little bit more into the future of the second half of the year of games, really. The second half of the year started seven days ago, Greg. Now, scary to think about. I don't give a shit about what you're talking about. Have you seen this? Uh-uh. When you open wine and they got

the top on, how do you open this? You could do the thing where you cut with a little blade around and pop the top off? Oh, is that? Yeah, so it's a screw top? No, no. This is a wine bottle with a cork in it, but I just straight up. I don't even deal with any of that. stuff. What do you just...

Oh, I don't do that. I just put the thing you straight in and... Whoa. What did you just do? You can pull them off. We were watching one of the fantastic movies in the before trilogy. Yeah.

And this happened and like literally like you understand how much my wife's French Canadian. You know how much wine she drinks. Yeah. We paused the movie and went upstairs or grabbed a bottle of wine. We're like that there's no way, right? And ever since then we do it and it's just a mind-boggling thing that you can just pull the paper off.

Just pull it straight off. What? I've been cutting through it my entire life. She's been cutting through it. retire life, you can just do that. That is fantastic. I also love the... What's the source of this bottle?

Oh, who knows? Yeah, it's here. I want to say, if I'm a betting man, and I might get the event wrong, but I think it might be a leftover bottle of wine from the studio launch. Wow. Because you know what'll happen is Joey'll go out

and she'll get a bunch of wine because she knows she wants wine. You know, is Andrew René's in town, yada, yada, and then we just have wine sitting around if you don't get to it. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, what's the...

the bouquet. It's pungent. Yeah. It's berryful, you know. Love this. Love this. This is going to be a good show, everybody. And I want to get right into the show, Greg,

because we have a lot of questions. I want to get to as many of them as we possibly can. Cheers to our date. Cheers to our little wine date. Part one. Part one. We have a dinner date tonight. Can't get too drunk because we're going on a real date with the girls later tonight.

That's bread. Not my favorite, but not bad. Not bad. At least it isn't acidic. Yeah. It's a little sweet in the front of the palate, but it's mellow, which I appreciate. Yeah.

Let's start with, I tried grouping some of these questions into fun little categories. Okay. So we're going to start with your favorite Greg Miller, fighting games. Oh, good. Okay. Perfect. It's going to be a great episode, everybody. Geo writes in.

Geo Corse? Just Geo. Okay. What would it take for you to play the Mortal Kombat one story? Greg Miller? Yes. I mean, I legitimately don't know what they could possibly do. Okay.

Because I just, you know, because this goes back to injustice, right? where it's a tie of story, but for injustice one, I was like, I gotta see this story, because I like the comic books, played through it, and then it would be that thing where eventually when the game got to where it was too hard,

I would just put it down, let it beat me twice, and the third time it would just stand there and let you beat it to death. And so then when Injustice 2 came out, I was like, oh, God, I guess I'll do this again. And I did the three or four fights,

and I was just like, I don't want to do this, I don't care enough to do this, and I stopped and never came back. Justice 2, man. And that's superheroes. I know, yeah. So question number two comes from Kevin.

What character would have you play a fighting game? Like a Ghostbuster and Street Fighter 6 or Dominic Toreto in Tech and 8? I like that for you and me. That's how they knew. For me personally, like, it just wouldn't work. Like, it just, it wouldn't work. They did the whole game for you with injustice. They did the entire game with Injustice.

I think Injustice might have found more success with me if there wasn't just an amazing comic from Tom Taylor. Because I felt the comic did enough where I know the story from the comic, right? So I didn't need to go. And it went so much further, both before and after with the comic, right? So there was no reason for me to do it, to play through it, to feel like I needed to get into that world and do all those things and stick around with it. And then just to drop a character in, it would be the same thing of whenever you take a character, I love that way and drop them into those kind of games, then immediately it's like, well, would they really do this? It's the same thing of like why in Fortnite I had to stop buying skins.

Because no matter what I bought or no matter what I earned, whether it be Superman, whether it be a Ghostbuster, whether it be Daredevil, where it be Batman, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm only ever using Captain America in Cretus. And really I'm only ever using Cap. Caps my main, that's what I wear. And it's because I need the head cannon of, all right, well, Cap would use an AK. He's running around using an AK. That makes sense to me.

It looks stupid that Superman's running around with an AK and he's not flying and he maybe doesn't have a cape on because he has different backbling. Like, I'm the guy, you know, that like growing up, while I would get the occasional variant, any toy I bought, I wanted just the straight up basic Superman, Batman, whoever. I don't need it to be deep freeze underwater. You know what I mean?

Like I hate that shit. I want it to look like the movie or the comic that I'm replicating what it is. And so for me, like just putting a character I love in a game isn't enough. I think of, you know, Jetpack Joyride, you know, from Halfbrick, of course, old school.

IGN and kind of funny friends, Half Brick as a studio, right? I'm not even sure we know anybody there anymore because I think they've all moved on. But when Jetpack Joyride did its Ghostbusters like crossover, it was like, oh, cool. And I was like, I really don't feel like going back for this. and doing all the stuff.

And it's come around a few times and I always think about it. I just don't do it. Like, I am lucky enough that in my life, I have so many passions that other people were passionate about

and have gone and made them become pop culture. It's not like it used to be where it was like, totally. Fuck, Subway, and this is a real story, Subway is doing Justice League merch

or whatever for their kid. Dad, I need you to take me to Subway and I need to get doubles of everything because it was like this shit might never happen again. You know what I mean? Total justice action figures. I'm going to buy two.

I'm going to keep one mint on card because holy shit. And now it's the thing. I'm just like, you can't throw a rock and not hit a superhero, a ghostbuster, or whatever. And that's amazing. And that's awesome. And I'm so happy to be here.

Wrestling. Yeah. Oh, yeah. For wrestling, a completely different story, right? Of like, there's just no reason. There's no,

it's so hard to motivate me to play something that I wouldn't want to already be playing. Yeah. I mean, they can't drop Pete Vankman and Genshin' impact and me be like, well, I got to go fucking way against you know? Yeah, yeah.

I can't wait to play the Mortal Kombat one story. What Nether Realm's done out there is like, honestly, I think some of the most impressive shit, period, in video games. Like, to upgrade what a fighting game story can be to that level is just such an accomplishment. And I'm not taking away from that. Oh, absolutely. Everything's different for different people, like, whatever. But like, for me...

I wish I enjoyed the moment I'm a gameplay of a fighting game to be like, this is what I want to go do. And I love it because I've always been a fan of the old school arcade mode. You just go through, maybe get a couple cut scenes or even. just still images explaining a nonsensical story, like all that type of stuff, right? Like, I'm a big fan of that I always have been, but games have progressed so much that that that's not really like that enticing. So Street Fighter 6 came out. I played through Chunley.

She's always been my main. Got that stuff. Very excited. I did it. Excited. It's still there. But I wish that there was another realm-esque story going on in terms of presentation, gameplay, all of it on Street Fighter.

And I can't wait for Mortal Kombat to do it because there's so much fun to be had. There's so much hype to be had. but it also gets you playing as different characters. Like I love the way that there is one narrative. You don't get to choose someone and go through. It's like you're kind of switching between people, but there's still choice. Like you still get to normally like choose between two or three different characters

going into each mission or chapter with the cutscenes in between. And the cutscenes because there's an actual narrative that's just one narrative. It's not, and it's like, what if Chun Li wins? What if Ryu wins? What if whatever wins? It's like, you know, way more. just like, here's the story of Mortal Kombat

1. I can't wait, especially with how bonkers it's been the last couple games. And that I appreciate the whole timeline folding in our itself and all the other stuff we've done with it, I love that. You know, my example of it would go, because again, we talk about fighting games, and this isn't a fighting game, but it kind of is, but it also speaks to what we're doing of like,

I still can't force myself to finish the showcases in WWE games. Because I love the interviews, to the footage, to your playing, and then out of the thing, but I can't stand in games. especially W.W.E. games, but I think it'll reply to a fighting game too, when it is, do this specific thing, do this specific thing, bounce off of this thing and make this happen.

Reverse one. And it's like, I hate that kind of shit because for me, in those kind of games, I want to step in the ring and it's what I want to do. It's my thing to make happen. And so that's why, like, I still never finished Rays. I never finished Johns. Like, I just haven't gone through to do them because at some point, it becomes the push and pull. And I'm always so cognizant of how much time I'm spending on something I'm not enjoying. Which is always funny because I am the trophy whore guy, who'll sit there for 30 minutes and play a not great game.

But the popping of the trophies is enjoyable. And again, whatever I'm doing in the game is enjoyable enough, even if it's just for a joke, even if it's just going to be to continue my horrible reputation online versus going in and be like, I've got to do this fucking match and I hate this one thing and he reverses the wrong way every time. I could turn the difficulty down, but then it's just brain dead.

What am I doing then? Why am I forcing myself to do this? Yeah, man. I get totally get what you're saying there the second question of what character would get you to play a fighting game I feel like those days are over for me like I feel like I know it's the most trite answer in the world

but Soul Calibur 2 with Wink right and each of the systems having their own that was Soul Calibre Darth Vader was that the same one I think that was four four or five whatever I mean I just shouted his answers out during remember blank yeah exactly

I don't know what I was saying I think one of them was four, one of them was five. But two was special because PlayStation GameCube and Xbox all had exclusive characters. So, Wink on GameCube, Spawn on Xbox, which is always weird. And then Hayachi from Tekin on the PlayStation side. And Soul Calibur and Tekin have always kind of had history anyway. There's a character Yoshimitsu that's in both games, which is cool. Yeah.

But Soul Calibur, too, I thought, was very, very. very important and special for fighting games because Soul Calibur 1 was so highly reviewed. Like, I don't know if you remember this, but Soul Calibur 1 was one of those like 10 out of 10 games at a time that not, we weren't getting tens every left and right. Sure, it feels like we are these days. Like, I remember in my mind knowing every single 10

that a video game magazine had ever given because it was like, there wasn't that many of them. Yeah, it was a handful. And even if I haven't played those games, that put them on a level of life. Of course. I'm missing out. And I was missing out on Soul Caliper because I never played in an arcades and I

didn't have a dreamcast. So Soul Calibur 2, I think, was not only an important moment for fighting games having like crossover characters and things like that, plus the exclusivity thing, making it a little extra fun, Nintendo playing nice giving link of all people. It's so cool. But so many people knew So Solacolibre 1 was the shit. So going into two, it was kind of this exciting big moment. And I feel like that is like a perfect storm that they've all been chasing since then. And it hasn't actually like culminated anything and I feel like we've got to a little Star's Battle Royal when Isaac Clark showed up. Oh well exactly but that's different. Smash

Brothers type things like where it's like or Marvel versus Capcom. Things like that. That are true crossover events I think are special for their own sense but like the Ninja Turtle showing up in injustice I think it was like things like that. Super cool but at this point it's kind of just expected. It's like

I'm more shocked at who isn't in Fortnite than who is at this point. Of course yeah. And I think that in the crossover world we live in like for the Memes, yes, I want to play as Dominic Torretto in any game. But, like, I don't think there's a character that I'm like, I'm going to play a fighting game I wouldn't have played otherwise because of characters in it at this point in time. I forget when that Fast and the Furious game came out that was no good. Crossroads.

Oh, yeah. I can't remember. I beat the hell out of it, Greg. Yeah. Was that canon? Is that canon? Is that canon? It is canon.

And I need to say, spoilers for Fast. They referenced it ever? Oh, yeah. Well, they don't reference it in the movies and stuff. But, like, my favorite bit of it. And this is the most, like, only I give a shit about this thing. About a third through the. game. You get a new car and it's like a question of like, where did you get this car or whatever?

It's revealed that it's the car that at the end of Too Fast, Too Furious, they drove off the dock into the water. Okay. It was retrieved from the water and remade to be a fancy looking new car. Fantastic. I love that. I love that. And I'm just like, that is the type of dumb lore that I appreciate that, you know, Vin Diesel cares, man, the mythology of the fast song. Yeah, of course. You know, horrible game though. Really, really, really bad game. Should have been fun. Should have been. It wasn't though. Story number, or question number two here. It's hard, right?

It's a game's daily setup. Grant Hetherington says, what's your favorite game that received bad to middling reviews? In recent time. Let's do a recent time because I feel like we've talked a lot about like that over the years.

Sure. Oh, man. You know what jumps off the page to me would be Avengers. Obviously, you know how much I loved Avengers. but even that's, I think, a loaded one, right, where the reviews, I remember actually being stunned that they were so positive.

I think I want to say at the time, you could Google, but Metacritic was like an 8. It was like something like that. It was getting a lot of eights based solely on the story. And then a lot of like, we'll see how the end game and see how this games as a service shit goes on later. But you all know the story, of course, that I really dug the gameplay.

I had a great crew with it, and we played the shit out of Avengers. We played the wheels off of Avengers, you know, for all its warts and all its things. And so it was always hard when people, just wanted to make it a punchline because there's plenty of reasons to make fun of it and stuff like that but there was something there was something really enjoyable there if you wanted to get into it and by no means was it as bad as like a Superman 64 or anything else if anything it's you know

it was a middling middle of the road there's millions of other things to play to get XP and do this but being sometimes disappointments worse than bad and i think that avengers is a great example of it right and so yeah it was that you know thing of even right now as i look down the line and we talk about superhero games here a lot because, of course, I'm the superhero guy. But as I look at your Gotham Knights and I look at Suicide Squad, it's like, damn, I give both of these up to have Avengers continue and have more content and do its thing, right? Because again, like, at least in Avengers, I was being an Avenger. And I know you can counter argue, they look like they were wearing a spute Halloween costumes. It was fun to be Captain America.

It felt good to be Captain America. The Civil War suit looks great. You know what I mean? There was a whole bunch of stuff they put in there that worked really well for it. Whereas, like, I don't want to be in Gotham Knights, this whiny Robin. In Suicide Squad, I don't want to be the Suicide Squad. I want to be fucking Superman. I don't want to kill Superman.

I want to be Gabe Logan. Yeah. What about you? I mean, my answer is another similar one that everyone's heard this a lot, including you, and it's a similar thing to Avengers, that it's not necessarily the reviews were bad. It's more the public reviews than the reception of it. But it's Pokemon, Scarlet, and Violet. Like, I think...

Oh, interesting. Often about how many problems. the game. Hasn't there plentiful? I was even talking today on games daily about the terrap rates, which are essentially the only existing reason to go back to the game at this point, um, are horrible. Like there's some of the worst implemented things I've ever seen in a video game. And it's because it, the feature doesn't work. And that sucks. A lot of that's true about, uh, scarlet and violet. The patches they've done, all the stuff to updates like, it helps, but like it does not fix. Um, having said all that, it's like when I really, we did the, there was that GQ top hundred

favorite games of all time list that bless and i broke down on shit list and um you know we there's always the conversation about best games of all time versus favorite games of all time like all of that and being honest to myself thinking for somebody that loves Pokemon as much as i do like i am bummed out that scarlet and violet are some of the best Pokemon games with so many warts and shit and because that they'll never be talked about as some of the best Pokemon games gotcha who cares at the end of the day. I don't know, but it bums me out. Like, because like, there's so much there where I'm like, in so many ways, this is my dream Pokemon game. It's also my nightmare in some ways. But it, there's still so much good there. There's still so much for Pokemon there.

Teeing up the franchise, though, to have the next one or the third one from now be the one where it's like it's got all the stuff you loved and the tech problems are fixed. I mean, and unfortunately, it feels like they're only going further and further down the path of that not being the future. Yeah. Future being more iterative and a couple steps forward, couple steps back, like the tech not hitting, like there's just too many factors at play with Pokemon when it comes to the cadence they have

to come out to support the cards and the toys and the games and the TV shows and everything at once from a marketing perspective for them to keep going and working. Yeah. That I don't think that that'll ever happen, which is a bummer, but there's just so much damn good in those games and I'm still playing it, man.

That's crazy. What's your hour clock on it? Probably like 120 or something like that. Can't wait for the DLC, but I also, I'm so scared, not even scared. I'm preparing for the reality of these DLCs coming out, having not fixed any of the technical problems. Yeah, that's not going to happen. And it's going to suck, man.

Like, people are just going to, like, hate on it for good reason. Sure. It just sucks for me who like, I really just want these to be good. Sure. You want a champion. Yeah. Because there's so much good. There's so, it's wrapped in, like, honestly, dog shit.

Like, it's really bad. Now, keep it in line with Nintendo here a little bit. Fluffy Cloud Gamer says, what's the launch lineup for the next Switch slash Nintendo console? And George writes in saying, "'Tures the Kingdom seems to be the Switch's Swan Song game. What do you think the system-seller game will be for the Switch's successor?

So those could be the same answer, or it could be different. You'll look at, I mean, let's look at Switch, right? Let's look at the Switch, everybody. 2017, Breath of the Wild launches. To this day, I would say the standout. on the Switch console, right? A couple mega winners in terms of sales, especially with, you look at Animal Crossing,

you look at any of the Pokemon, Mario Odyssey, like, doing great Mario Kart, obviously, not even a new one, absolutely dominating. Tuesday's the kingdom, we'll see. We don't know the final sales numbers.

You don't know where it ends up if it's going to eclipse, Breath of the Wild. I expect that it will. It will. When all said and done. Take it to the bank, everybody, it will. And that makes sense.

Yeah. Just the, like, the overwhelmingly positive reviews, anybody that bought Breath of the Wild is going to want Tears the Kingdom to some extent more Switches out there all of that, right? It's one of those, like, just to talk about like I think how crazy it is out there

for fucking Tears of the Kingdom. Jerica, of course, from JK Games podcast. She was on Games Daily a couple weeks ago. She put up a tweet today that was she was out in the wild saw a guy playing Switch. Did you see this? Saw a guy playing Switch.

Switch, walked over, and of course, he's playing Tears at the Kingdom. Struck up a conversation that was basically like, you know, that's awesome. You know, what else are you playing? And the guy's like, nothing. He's like, I bought this strictly because of all the videos I was seen of people having fun. I have no other, nothing else on Switch, nor do I expect to buy anything else on Switch. I mean, the amount of pictures that are going around on social media, even this week of the weekend playing two of the King number, like so many pop artists.

It's just they're just chilling the back of their cars. Playing Switch, they're playing tears. And like, they're not just starting it up. It's like they're in this. They have a lot of hearts. It's so cool. So yeah, there's something beautiful about the book ending seemingly of Breath of Wild Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch. Sorry, Laker said.

It's a fucking goddamn. There's always going to be some other stuff. But like, we don't know. Like tentatively, Metroid Prime 4 is still a switch game. I don't think it's going to be the case. I think Metro Prime 4 is going to happen. But I do think it's going to be on the next system. Well, I guess when I'm into backwards compatibility talk, but do you think it's,

It bridges it where it's like one of those? That's where it gets complicated. I don't, I think that the next switch will be backwards compatible. So, um, well, I don't know. I don't know. Like I, it's tough with Metroid in particular because Metroid's not Zelda in terms of sales. 100%. Having said that, Zelda wasn't Zelda until Breath of the Wild.

Like the Switch, like things changed here. So I don't know exactly where we're going with this. But I expect that we're not getting any super major. your switch game. I mean, the fact that we are getting Super Mario Wonder at the end of this year, like that, I mean, people want to write it off because it's 2D or whatever. Like, that's a major game. That is a AAA major video game. It is going to sell insanely well. So arguably, that might be the Swan Song as well. But Nintendo's just kind of crushing it when it comes to stuff. So it's like, I don't know. But what do you think the next switch is big game's going to be? So you mean,

Life to date, or do you mean launch lineup? So both, and like, is it going to be the same? Because I think it's interesting here with Zelda where it's like, all right, what's the launch lineup for the next switch? And then Tears seems to be the Switch's swan song. What do you think the system seller will be for the Switch's successor? Breath of the Wild is the system seller, was the launch game. And then Tears of the Kingdom being the swan song is also about to, I think, eclipse that. So it's like, the story is the Zelda duology.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do we get that again? Is it Zelda? Is it something new? Well, I think launch lineup you have to have a major Nintendo game, a major Nintendo IP, which at this point then looks at, all right, cool, is it going to be a 3D Mario? Is it going to be Odyssey 2 or whatever you want to call it? Or is it going to be Mario Kart, whatever you want to call that?

With all the courses and stuff going on for Mario Kart right now, that wouldn't be yet, right? Again, with the sales of Mario Kart, what is that meant to what they're, they've been working on and what they want to do. What is the fact that this new one could be backwards compatible? Compatible. What does that do to the whole thing? Yeah, yeah. So I guess I lean into it's going to be a Mario, that it would be a 3D Mario.

For lack of better term, Mario Odyssey 2. Yeah. Is what you'd launch with and come out that way, right? To have a major Nintendo IP ready to go at launch on the system. I don't think Metroid Prime is it, even though I think I'm with you of like getting along here. But again, if it's backwards compatible, then you don't have to worry about it, right? especially if this what i hope they call is the super nintendo switch if it is making your backwards compatible games look better run better faster whatever load faster right then who cares leave it how it is

and then take advantage of the insane lot the insane install base of the nintendo switch right now and then benefit from hey it's also there in it'll look better on your new system and stuff that way but i don't think that's really the move with metro like you're saying i don't think that i don't think it is where it needs to be, where Zelda had been beloved for so long, even though it wasn't making gigantic sales, it wasn't becoming this thing. It was that people knew Zelda and loved Zelda,

and you put Zelda into a brand new format slash genre for all intents and purposes, right? Okay, cool, that's the breakout. That's where you're going to go. To a hungry audience, too. I mean, I also, I always need to point this out. Not only was Zelda not ever, the biggest seller ever.

Neither was 3D Mario. Mario Odyssey was the breakthrough for 3D Mario. until that 2D Mario destroyed 3D Mario Which is so crazy to think about Because I would venture to guess And I know this will sound crazy But I would venture the guess That if you were to talk to people

They would They wouldn't say Mario Odyssey was a huge success They would think of it Not as a failure that's way to I'm painting with a broad brush I'm being binary But it's the fact that Mario Odyssey Wasn't game of the year

Understandably so right Because it's up against Breath of the Wild right, but that I think the fact that you didn't walk away from that going like, wow, this is the best Mario of all time. See, I don't know that I fully agree with that. I do think time has been cruel

to Mario Odyssey in some ways, but like, I do think that that is the people's answer. Like, I do think that Mario Odyssey is people's favorite Mario game for the most part. Like, I'm not saying like every single person and like it's not mine, but I do think Mario Odyssey is the most popular answer for the best

Mario game. But the way it's talked about is not the same as Breath of the Wild. So, like, you're right. Like, there is something there about it. And, like, at the, I mean, I think at the end of the day... You don't think people, and I granted, we're old, but you don't think people would shout out Mario 64. And that not, again, this isn't you and me objectively talking about quality of game, but

when you were like, the best 3D Mario is Odyssey. I mean, I... It always gets weird because I, we can't use words like everyone and no one and all that stuff. But I think the reality is that there's always going to be the conversation between Mario 3 and Mario World. Mario 64 is always going to be brought up. I feel like, and when you're talking quality,

I think Odyssey and Galaxy, and I think that at this point, Odyssey has eclipsed Galaxy. I think it's Odyssey. I think Odyssey is the answer. Here's another question for you. Do you think Galaxy has been lost to time in some ways as well? Yes.

That's one that gamers like us talk about. But again, I don't, to your point, I guess, it's the 2D Mario's people talk about and nostalgic about it. And Mario 64 for being something they'd never seen before. But I take it like conversation away. I didn't expect it.

It's also interesting because you know I'm not the Nintendo guy. So nobody's talking to me about Mario. I just feel like what I hear on a podcast or what it comes up all the time. I am the Nintendo guy. I am the Mario guy in particular when it comes to that stuff. So it's like I feel like there's bias that I have. But then I also have an awareness of just the general discourse about this. And I feel like as time goes on the, oh, Mario 3 is the best game ever made.

Like that conversation as we get older and older and new generations come in, that starts to subside a bit. So I feel like the 2D Mario games are beloved, but I don't think they're talked about the same when you're talking about what's the best game of all time? I don't think those are being brought up as often. And Mario 64, I think, like, is a generation's favorite game for sure. But I feel like compared to the advancements that Galaxy and Odyssey made, I just think that I, anybody that's actually being critical, about it would put them above 64. 64 still, I mean, it's my favorite of those, absolutely. Like, I,

Marge 64 is probably top five of my favorite games of all time. But it's not best. And I think that's always important to talk about. And when it comes to Galaxy being lost to time, like you're saying, I think that a lot of it just has to do with what consoles it's stuck on and all that. Sure. 3D All-Star is bringing

a galaxy, but not Galaxy 2. There's always been a debate of what's better, Galaxy 1, Galaxy Galaxy 2. I say Galaxy 2, but it's hard. I feel like between the two of them, there is like a perfect Mario game, but both of them have enough fluff and enough. Yeah. It's like whatever.

But Odyssey pushed it to a different echelon for more people than ever, selling more than ever, all that stuff. I think Odyssey is going to, in many years, be talked about in a very different way than it's being talked about now, just because I would love that. People that grew up with it and loved it.

And again, it's just a numbers game here. Like, we're just talking about the sheer amount of people that played it. So, sure. To pull the car over to the side of the road for a second, there was a tweet that busted me up.

the other day. It was, if Bowser stole my wife, I would, no matter how, if Bowser stole my wife, you wouldn't catch me saying, Wahoo,

no matter how much fun the jumps were. Damn. I was a kidnap my wife. Um, all right. Klein felt says, hi from Canada. Hi.

Nearly three years in, do you feel like the PS5 and Xbox series have lived up to the promise of next gen? No. Really? I think we're getting there.

I think it has been a, you know, the promise of next gen is everybody taking advantage of the bells and whistles and it being the thing. You know, I've been reviewing a number of games right now that are doing the whole, like, oh, well, it's a PS5 version and a PS4 version, da-da-da. And when I'm playing the PS5 version, I am like, what is with this load time? And don't I'm wrong, it's not like PS3 era load times or anything crazy, but it is long enough that I'm like, fuck, I got it. gotta load this?

Like, why is this, why is this game taking this long? You know what I mean? Like, you don't know, your insomniac first part, you know, first party games from insomniac,

from naughty dog, whatever. There's a whole bunch of stuff going on there. But in general, I still feel like this was an incremental move. I think,

you know what I mean? Like, for the majority of third party stuff you're seeing from other people, it's not like, I'm playing this and I can't fathom it running on a PlayStation 4.

I can fathom it running on PlayStation 4. I had a lesser resolution and no longer load time, da, da, but it's like, what is the promise? The promise was convenience.

The promise was ease of use and da-da-da-da. I guess that's happening. I love my PlayStation 5. I am cognizant of how fast it is to boot up an Xbox Series X, to boot up a PlayStation 5 to be into the game, past all the screens that are like, you know, don't try this at home and here's your copyright and all this jazz. That is quicker.

I am into it faster, but I don't think we're seeing people squeeze all the juice from it. This then gets into the whole conversation we've been having recently with the PlayStation 5 Slim. of okay, cool, well, if the slim is the slim and it's not the pro, are they doing a pro? Because Blessing's like, you know, by the time they would do a pro, aren't we getting close to launching a PlayStation 6? And if you're going to launch a PlayStation 6 or if you could launch something and put a six on it, wouldn't you do it and iterate on it and sell that thing?

And it's like, that's a compelling argument as well. But it's just the more classic conversation of is everybody getting everything out of these units. I don't feel they are. Yeah, I easily think that it's lived with the promise because to me the promise was convenience. I feel like when we start talking about the tech side of it all and like them saying like literally 8K is on the box of the PlayStation 5. Like that's just it is so stupid. Like that's just marketing bullshit. We know it's not going to hit it.

I feel like if you just are talking about it from that perspective, like looking back at any other generation, they also were having different but similar issues when it came to the promises. I mean, even look back to the PS4 at Xbox 1 of having to have the debates online. Oh, this is so this is 900p. It's not even 1080P. Like, are you kidding me? Like all that type of shit. I feel like those promises, that's all there of just like, that's best intentions and all that stuff.

And I wish that it was hitting that. Trust me, I love the tech shit. I want them to be hitting all that stuff. Yeah. I will say that from the promise of the convenience, I am extremely impressed with how both systems, but I mainly play on PS5, have kind of bettered their states since launch.

Like so many of these. things that didn't work, so much of the confusion. Once we got past that, the Xbox has smart delivery. What the fuck does Sony have? It has Switcher. And it has annoying ass things. The most annoying things with the dumbest way to explain it to people what's going on. And you have a PS4 version, PS5 version, there's trophy list for both. You could pop them only in this order, not in all that stuff. Now that we're past that. Now that we're like a couple years in and like all those problems are gone because that type of cross-gen game is just they aren't happening anymore and if they are as much and if they are there's an understanding now at least like

and that's the thing where it's like I feel like they haven't gone away it's just we're wise to it or which one am I downloading when I read the car we wise to it they presented it better and the teams are making it easier than ever and I go we're at a point now that it actually is convenient it whereas before it's like oh all you got to do is this and this and this and this and this and this and we're not there anymore yeah every once in a while if you're trying to do something that's cumbersome and complicated sure but I feel like I am often surprised at how things work the way I expect them to. I think, you know,

has it lived up to the promise of next gen was the question, right? And I feel like that's just loaded eye and beholder kind of stuff where the fact that we still have to choose between a performance and fidelity mode, right? Like, well, that does not feel like I have 8K to 1080 or whatever the fuck it is on the box, right? See, I would argue the other side of that, though, is that that is the promise is choice. Yeah, but I had the PlayStation 4 Pro. But I mean, but PS4 Pro is like, I think debatably more in this promise. Like that is more of like a, you're upgrading for a taste of the next gen experience.

I think the PS4 Pro to where right now is that lineage. And I hate it. I'm firmly at a point and I know this isn't going to be popular. I feel like console games should have one option and just fucking commit to it. And that's what it is. Because I feel like it's hurting these devs to have multiple options that are underserving both sides. where you are either pissing off the Andy Cortez's of the world

because your performance mode is not performance mode like the fact that there's been multiple games that have come out in the last couple months big AAA titles that run better in resolution mode than performance mode at launch is unacceptable

but it keeps happening and so it's like you're screwing over those people then for the people that don't give a shit you're making them feel some type of inadequate you're making them be like I don't know which one I should pick What's better? What am I losing out on? That's not good.

I feel like you need to just, that's for PC gaming, man. Like that's like, I really hate that part of the promise that they're delivering on is choice. And it's like, that's no bueno from me. Sure. Fair enough. Um, Spencer. Okay, I found the tweet, by the way. It was from Miss, Miss Jewel J.

If my girl got kidnapped by Bowser, I would not be yelling, Wahoo, no matter how exhilarating my jump was. Exilering. That's great. Before we do the next question, actually, let's take a word from our sponsors. Take on the sun with gear built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered for the warm weather ahead with premium polarized shades at an affordable price. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company that offers a world-class product that's just as good as any expensive pair that we've worn.

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Reagan, Jim, Jen and Gia. I've only been listening for half a year, but I love y'all's content. Here's my questions. I was going to take a selfie and send it to them, but they'll just think we're drinking coffee. Yeah, yeah.

As someone who's excited for Starfield, but really hasn't played any Bethesda game, What should I be playing right now to prepare? Nothing. Thanks for the amazing content you do. Keep up the good vibes, especially the ones that make fun of PC gamers. These fucks, you know what I mean?

Nothing. Don't play anything. Don't even bother. It'd be better to go in, I think, and have no expectations, because obviously Starfield set your expectations so high. But this is a conversation we've had about Fallout in particular. That Fallout 3 had so many moments, but the moment, right, of leaving the moment.

the vaults and just being like, I can go anywhere. I can do whatever I want. You know, let alone choices like Megatone and Yeti and yada. I think that since that moment in what Fallout 3 was, it's hard to recapture it. A lot of people would argue fall at New Vegas, of course, having the better story and a whole bunch of stuff. Fallout 4 being more modern and a whole bunch of cool stuff like that. I'm trying to get some wine? Get a coffee cup again in here, Keff.

Kevin's like we're pirates. and then of course 76 being a huge disaster I think there's something special to that first Bethesda open world you tackle that no matter what Fallout 4 wasn't going to be able

to recapture what Fallout 3 was to me right of like because I knew that like I could run into a fucking robot that thought he was the president and I'd have to do stuff like and I knew blah blah blah blah

Starfield is going to give hopefully me another taste of that because it is not even Elder Scrolls right where it's like Skyrim and then ESO and like, you know, you knew a bit the rules of those worlds. You knew what was going on there. Like, I know what a Bethesda game is.

I know how Bethesda Quest is structured. I know how VATS feels, and that's probably not applicable here. It is more about, okay, I don't know what a Starfield universe is going to feel like, right? What is this open universe going to feel like? What exactly will zero-g feel like? What's it going to feel like, of course, when, you know, we're doing the cool jumps and the cool gunnies and shooties and stuff like that?

like that's new to me but the idea of what it's going to be the core what i feel like the skeleton of is going to feel familiar and i wish i could erase my mind and go into that and be like cool this is just whatever it's going to be right kind of what hopefully have the experience that sunk no man's sky the positive way but the positive side of it right where we wanted no man's sky to be i can do it oh i can't do anything there's oh there's very limited shit to do here you know what i mean like they don't get the game now it's fantastic and there's yeah go get go play it if you haven't done that. But don't play that if you're going to go play Starfield. Yeah. I hope Starfield is, you know, we jump in and it is like I, you know, we've pulled

back the curtain for a second. We're talking about Starfield reviews over here who, you know, prioritizing who's going to review it, who's going to get codes, yada, yada, yada, I'm not going to be lead reviewer on it. And so I made a joke. And there was a part of me like, but what if I did it? I don't know if you remember, but I made a joke of talking to somebody about it. I'm like, I'm going to try to review the entire game without leaving the first playing it. Like I, and I was like, what if I, what if that's actually, is that, is that, is that, is that going to be possible that whatever the tutorial is once I'm out and I'm on a planet, can I just do 60 hours on that planet while everybody else goes and does everything?

And like what happens and would get boring? And yet, you're like, how long can I stay on that planet and feel satiated and that I'm doing something and getting, like, that's the kind of freedom and hope I have for this game? And is that way too much? Is that way impossible? Probably, because I mean, inevitably, you're going to get a quest. It's like, go to the fucking moon and get me a rock. You know what I mean?

Like stuff like that. Get me a moon. I need a moon rock or whatever. Like, that's the freedom I want. from that game. I don't know if I'll get it, but I think going in, your expectations are already through the roof, right? Like, you watch the Starfield

right, did I say roof, right? Because I mean, I made a really, I really tried to say roof. Did I say roof? Or did I say rough? It sounded right to me. Okay, great. You know how I say rough, everybody gets on my back. Oh, gotcha. Anyways. How do you say the animal that sounds like that

kind of, that's a dog-like creature? There's a dog that sounds like... W-O-L-L-F. Oh, well. wolf. Okay. Yeah. Some people call it wolves. That's weird. Always freaks me out. Always freaks me out. A lot of people. Yeah. I don't like that. I've met several, Tim. Anyways, expectations are already through the roof. And I think that if you, and I tried hard there, too.

If you're going to, if you've never played a Bethesda game, I would not now. I would not now. Yeah. I just don't think you need the comparisons. I don't think you need to have anything, quote unquote, spoiled. Like, I think you need to go in there and be like, oh, like, is hacking a terminal going to feel the same as hacking a terminal as there going to be as much, you know, emails and papers to find and read to put together the story and then what you're going to meet people and yet yada. I would just kick up your feet and get ready for September. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, especially for big games like that. Just prepare yourself, get hyped and get into it. Staying on the RPG thing, but moving over to the Final Fantasy side a little bit for a couple of these ones.

DJ Riss says is Final Fantasy 16 the best Game of Thrones game we could have ever wanted? I think the answer is resoutedly yes. seems like that's it. I obviously don't have an opinion, but it seems like that scene. It really is. And I love Game of Thrones deeply. And I should be. That's the song. Amazing songs, amazing songs. Amazing characters, like amazing story, bad ending, whatever, all that aside, it still stands. It's like, Game of Thrones, I think, is still my favorite story ever told. And a lot of that has to do with just the quality of the writing, the quality of the

writing of characters and the world and how all of those things interact with each other. Yeah. And Final Fantasy 16 does that. And does it in the exact same way Game of Thrones did where I'm like, these names are complicated. I'm never going to remember this. This map's too much. I don't know what the hell's going on. And then by the end of it, I'm like, oh, my God, somehow I know how all these characters

are connected and related. And I care deeply about all of them from the forefront people all the way down to side story number 27 of how these all plots I don't connect and all of it I am wowed and multiple times through playing I was like this was this is what it'd be like playing a game of thrones game yeah and like not just in like the similarity of like the all things I just said just in the sense of the epic scale of it all and thinking like what would a game of thrones video game be it's this and there's a lot of other elements too but like it's this um Next question is from Chelsea.

Is it still Final Fantasy related? Yes, it is. Okay. Do you miss the role playing part of it? We'll get to that in just a second. Chelsea says my husband and I placed a pizza bet today. Final Fantasy 7,

spoilers for anybody that doesn't want to be spoiled on the original Final Fantasy 7 here. I think Final Fantasy 7 rebirth will end when Sephiroth kills Eric. He thinks that no one will die or possibly a different party member instead, since the vast majority of people playing the game expect Arith to die

and might be adjusting their play style to account for that. What are your thoughts? I'm firmly in the camp that I, I'm with your, your husband here. They're killing somebody else? Yeah. I don't know if they're going to kill somebody else.

Okay. I don't think Ayrth dies. Okay. And if she does, I don't think it's going to be at the place or time she did in the first game. There will be a subverting of expectations, I think, on this. But I don't know what I think it's going to be.

I trust them, though. So far, they have proven to me that they are handling this with the most care they possibly can. can and they're having fun at the same time. And sometimes that fun and care can get you to places that I'm not in love with, especially with the team that we're talking about here. I've seen it happen before. Sure.

You know, with something that may or may not rhyme with Bingham Marts. Sure. Okay. Sure. Okay. I've heard of this game. But we'll see.

But anyways, yeah, I don't think they're right dies. I don't either. Yeah. I think it'd be awesome if Cloud, Dad. Cloud? I mean, then my boy, Zach, it's more screen time. So I'm okay with that. I've always had been.

Bingdom Hearts. Bingdom Marts. Bingham Marts, sorry. Yeah, thing. Oh, Thingdom. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, anytime I think of Kingdom Hearts now,

I think of when we were at Judges Week at Kingdom Hearts 3 when Jen cried me bawling because she thought Portillo broke his leg again when we were at Judge's Week. That was horrible. That was a hard, hard night. Yeah. Good day for me. Yeah, a great day for you. Bad night.

You know, it was fine in the end because he was fine. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he still died, but that was years later. Yeah. Yeah. God. Unrelated to his leg, he just died. You know what I mean? Well, technically I killed him. Brewerjack says... Euthanasia. You have to do it sometimes. You know what I mean?

And while we're on it, why can't you just euthanize a person in America? Let's segue from that, too. Haley, in honor of Torgle, who's the dog in Final Fantasy 15, what do you think the best animal companions in the history of gaming are? I mean, real talk? Torgle shot up the list from me. man. The first moment I laid eyes in that little guy, I'm like,

I'm like to like you. He's a really cute puppy. I play with that part. And just playing, the more and more you play through it, I'm just so happy with how, uh, integrated he is into the,

like, Final Fantasy 16 and like how much of a character he is. Yeah. Um, but yeah, Torgles, the homie and a half, Greg.

Yeah, I'm excited to do more with him and actually, actually play with him and meet him because I, you know, again, he saw him as a puppy and I knew he's cute. Whatever, but,

um, it's a great question. Of course, Portilla. a lot of games. I'll toss him out there. He was great. Guacamalee, right? Guacamalee, too. He was there with shirtless arachnumann. I like that quite a bit. Um, but a real answer, like, I was always into Shadow in Dead to Rights. Do you ever remember Dead to Rights? No. If you could get a video up, Kevin, of, uh, basically you were a cop or whatever and you had, I think he was a Husky. I think

Shadow was a Husky. And like, he was always with you and you could command him in certain games. I'm not even sure in every dead rights because there was many of them or whatever. But you were running around doing your thing, shoot and he could go fetch you ammo. He could go do this,

blah, blah, he could go attack stuff. In the same way, I like D-Dog from Metal Gear Solid 5, right? I thought that was a good one.

I know a lot of people would float dog meat out here from Fallout 3. It's worth tossing dog meat in. I never had him as a companion. I never did the stuff to have dog meat and keep him around.

Yeah, this was the remake or the whatever, retribution, I guess, the more recent one. Yes, there's the guy. Eventually he'll show

is dog shadow maybe unless this is like a cutscene there it says trailer there is look a shoutout yeah and that was the thing man you read you had this guy and you could he would go and kill for you look at there it is you take over a play as I'm at certain points too but he was a series

staple this was the I want to say this must spend the PS3 version I guess I remember reviewing it or at least playing it and there was always great stuff when he died shadow no yeah of course of course my answers are the most basic Tim answers ever but they have to go

to Mario and Pokemon obviously, but I was always obsessed with Yoshi. When I was little, there was just something about like Super Mario World, starting on Yoshi's house. Like, I just would fantasize about the lore of this Mario world. I don't know why, but like I was obsessed with the idea of Yoshi's Island. Like, what's the story there? And then when they came out with Mario World 2, Yoshi's Island, which was the first game

I ever beat, I was even more obsessed with it because it felt like it was just adding so much backstory to all this stuff. And so didn't it take away from Yoshi, though? not that there were so many other yoshees that were just different colors but they worked as a team dude and it was the green one was the one that started and finished it i love that shit that was great you tell me there's a blue yoshi out there great big fan of that shit i'm sure you were um you know what i don't think there was a blue one in uh in that but anyways um yoshi is always a shout out for me but like your partner Pokemon like i know it's like it's a weird thing to say like animal companions

but it's like there's nothing like your partner that you choose in a Pokemon game, but especially in the games that allow them to like trailer you, like starting in Pokemon Yellow where Pikachu would like follow you around. It's like, this is awesome. It just feels like you have your little dude with you. I'm a big fan of little dudes. Yeah, of course, yeah. That's why I have two little dudes.

I got two little dudes. Big fan of them. So now jumping back to Final Fantasy away from the pets here. Brewer Jack says, I haven't heard the boys talk too much about the lack of RPG elements in Final Fantasy 16. I know everyone's been loving it, but do you think at the end of the day it will rank low on the best of all time

Final Fantasy rankings because of this? So this is a crazy one, of course, but you know I haven't progressed really beyond the first three hours of this game, and I'm going to restart. So there are people listening who don't know Final Fantasy 16 at all. So like, is there no, there's XP, right?

And I'm applying it, but there's like no choice. Like what is it what, how is it not, like, why have the XP if there's nothing going on or is it just very light or what's happening? I mean, there's things going on. on and it's happening. It's just, we've talked about this so many times. RPG elements have intruded, invaded into other video games for so long now that I feel like it's, they're just kind of there. So like what is an RPG? What is a Final Fantasy? Like these are big questions

that I don't think have a specific answer. Like I feel like things have like grown and changed so much over time. But the, to me, the conversation of is Final Fantasy 16, a Final Fantasy is utterly ridiculous. This franchise changes all the time. Sure. What it is changes. I think entry to entry and not always is it that dramatic, but I feel like in the same way we look at Mario and it's like sure, the core Mario games are all platformers, but a 2D Mario, a 3D Mario and a Mario 3D Mario are all extremely different experiences and types. Final Fantasy now has, I think, five or six archetypes of what it could be. and this is just a new version of that that is the most action-centric

that we've seen before. But even on the turn-based side, going back, those turn-based games only got more and more action-centric as they went on with the active time battle, where they'd be like the bar that would fill, and so it's not just like chess where you're just sitting and waiting for someone to do something, but then Falun Fantasy 10 came along,

and it straight up was, if you put the controller down, nothing's going to happen. It's true turn-based. They change back and forth all the time. Font-Fancy 102, then took that and added active time battle back. So it was a little bit more active. And then you play a Final Fantasy 7 remake that is fairly actiony,

but at the same time, you're still slowing down time. You could bump around, yeah. Yeah, and like Final Fantasy 15 was the same thing. 16 is a pure on action RPG, way more similar to Kingdom Hearts, or the gameplay of Devil May Cry with the stylishness and the combo-driven things, but applied to a god of war tied.

um, RPG system and, and story and things like that. So people wouldn't call God of War an RPG. And I've seen a lot of people say that God of War has more RPG elements than Fawn Fantasy 16 does. And I do think there's an argument to be made that that's true. I don't think that in my opinion,

there's an argument of value to be made that that matters. Interesting. Like I think that FawnFesty16 is what it is and does so good at it. I think some of the RPG stuff they have gets in the way. I think the crafting system in the game is probably, the weakest part of the game to me. And that is the more traditional RPG stuff. Because just playing through,

like, you're still making choices for, like, your abilities and all that stuff. That just feels normalized now. That just feels like you're playing almost any game you expect a skill tree in. Skill trees are inherently, though, an RPG mechanic. Sure.

You get them saying? Yeah, totally. And the skill trees are, I think, deeply satisfying in Final Fantasy 16. And in the same way that in Jedi Survivor, and you get your skill trees. and there's a lot of different skills. There's like the force powers,

there's the different stances, there's all that, and you can build them out. If you want to try something else, you can take them back and redistribute whatever, but it costs you. You get the one free one

and then it costs you. Bon Fantasy doesn't cost you shit. You do as many times as you want, you can like redistribute it. And I think that's kind of like, not meeting in the middle, it's making a choice of what they want this game to be.

And they want this game to be a playground of you role playing. And I appreciate that. Like I feel like that's kind of more of like you are playing the role of who you want to be and that person can change over time. And I feel like that's backed up in the story and all that stuff as well. So I don't know. I feel like there's arguments being had about Final Fantasy 16 that like don't need to be had. But also, hey, people really care about certain things and they might be upset one way or another about this not being what they wanted from it, which I do totally understand as well.

And so yeah, do I think at the end of the day, it'll rank low on the best of all time lists? time will tell. I think that it'll be very high on many lists. I don't think it'll be at the top of every list. But I do think that 16 is going to make more of the greatest all-time Final Fantasy lists than anyone. I mean, since 10, I think, and I know, I'm going to get shit for saying that.

The amount of people that love 12, but the people that rock for 12, rock for it. And that will be number one on many lists as well. And I love 13. And I really enjoy 15. I wish I loved 15. I don't. And then 14, obviously, is a different story.

But the people that have 14 on the list, it's going to be number one. But I think 16 will be on more best-up lists than the other ones. What about 11? I love you so much, Keff. Love you so much. All right, moving on from Final Fantasy here. Barbel Hergey. Nice name.

What's the ideal gamer session environment? The setup that will enhance your experience 100% of the time. time. Headphones on, lights dimmed, got some family or friends around, gamer glasses on, etc. I imagine this has changed for both of you over the years. I don't know if it has. Nobody around. Fuck off. Don't talk to me. I'm trying to play a video game. I'm trying to listen the story. I'm trying to do whatever. Lights dimmed for sure. Giant TV, you know, the basement when I get down there either after putting Jen to bed or when we come down there to play Diablo or whatever, immediately on the dimmer switch, right? Like, I need some light, but not a lot of light.

Let's bring it down nice and low there. And then, yeah, I have a couch that can, you know, be a normal couch or it can fold off if you can put your feet up or whatever. Feet out is a dangerous game. That's when I start, I can start getting sleepy time real quick. You know what I mean? If my feet are up, if my feet are down, I feel more like I'm at a movie theater or I'm at, you know, doing something, especially during the work day, if I'm reviewing a game at home,

you'll never catch me feet up because it's got to be feet down. I feel like that's work. That's a work stance. But I would say couch, feet down. and then I pile up some pillows to have a little armrest over there. You know what I mean? Here's, if I'm lying, I'm dying. The real shit, all right?

When Jen got knocked up, right? And we were getting ready to bring little Benjamin Miller into the world. We did a baby leto chair. You know what I mean? I did a, it doesn't matter. There's a brand called Baby Letto. They do a chair that Andrea Renee was like, this one's dope. You guys should get it.

It has USB chargers in the side. So you can have your stuff charged. course it's got the buttons to put your feet up and lay out you can recline all the way back and stuff like that for feeding times i was like great immediately hit up baby let i was like yo you want to do a little social media posty post for this and they're like yeah sure i was like awesome okay cool got this thing and i i have never i don't think in my life regretted a sponsorship deal i guess for all intents and purposes more because i love the chair so fucking much that i i like i called it in my post like this is the best chair i've ever sat in and i

know that sounds like it's just because of the sponsor like here we are a year a year and a half two years later, right? And I'm like, no, there's nothing I'm more excited for than the day Ben's like, Dad, we can get the chair out of my room and I want to put a desk there or whatever. I'm like, sounds great, son, and I'm taking that chair downstairs and that's the gaming chair. That's going to be the dad chair because that chair is so fucking comfortable. That would be the perfect setup sitting there. And then again, feed only up after hours and whatever for sleepy time. But yeah, usually dim, lights dimmed, nobody around. There it is. I have it in blue. It's got the, it's got the charger inside. That's one right there. Or I guess blue gray.

whatever you want to call that right there. Huge fan. This is, again, I'm not, I, they, they sent it to me a long time ago. It's the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in, period, bar none anywhere. And I can't wait for it just to be mine. But there, yeah, it's got that little thing you charge two things in. I like that a lot. I've never charged anything.

And I don't think, you know what I mean? Like when it was, it's a great idea, but like when we were nursing, when Ben was nursing, it needed to be like, you know, middle of the night, I wasn't thinking about bringing the USB cable in there. Not enough voltage, Greg. That's my problem with those type of integrated things. But I'm also a baby when it comes to stuff. Yeah, you're.

If I know there are higher numbers out there, I need the thing with the higher numbers. That's my problem. But yeah, that's my setup was yours. Yeah, I mean, I'm an obnoxious, Greg. Well, you're in a theater. Yeah. And I, it has to be perfect. And I'm at a very lucky point in my life that it can be.

And it often is. And when I say often, I mean, it always is. There's a drop of light coming in this room. Yeah. It's pitch black. Every lights off. Just set the TV. Surround sound.

Boom and blasting. Got the sub subwoofer. Shaking in my chair. the only problem is when it gets too late i can't be doing that can't be doing that sure but guess what gregg what your boy came up with a solution got is it convenient no not at all but it's right and it's how god wanted things okay there's wireless headsets they're cool they're fine i get it they do the job in many cases uh-huh they don't for me all right nice ass pair headphones all right wired obviously i'm a problem with this though there's a wire that's a big problem you know what i mean

complications of like well once it's wired then it causes other problems with the sound system and all this stuff jumping to the end of my point here i'm enjoying i figured out a way where i have a splitter that splits from my receiver to my base sub setup that i have so i get to sit in my chair that is very similar to those i have one of the reclining uh whatever you want to call them like theater chairs but like the lazy boy type shit right so i like to pull the thing up. I'm with you. I don't like to be laying down. I can't be too much. That's too much. That's too much comfort. So I usually kind of sit like, you know, semi cross-legged on it. Pretty nice. Not 90 degree, but like I'm getting up there, getting some firm back support there.

Got to have that firm back support. Chilling multiple La Croy's at my side. All right. I got the multiple cup holders. Yeah. So I got at least two LaCroys here. Maybe a couple backups. You know what I mean? You got it. It's getting crazy. I have my little fan. I have a heater. Depending on the temperature. I always want it to be 69 degrees. Not just for the memes, because that's my favorite degree level, okay? Got to get that thing pumping. Going back to the headphones, though. I have it set up now.

It's not a convenient look. Gia doesn't like when I do this, but guess what? She's in bed when I do this. She's not there for it. You don't worry about her? Yeah, so nice 69 degrees going on, no matter what's going on, pitch black everywhere, a big old OLED screen I'm looking at. I got cables galore coming out from my receiver to me.

But what does that allow me, Greg? It allows me to wear very high quality audio file headphones. Boom, on my head, strapped to my noggin. But it also allows me to still get the bass shakers in my chair to do the boom, boom. So I'll be playing here, blasting shit in my headphones. My share is shaking away as I'm fucking shooting motherfuckers in Last of Us 2, all right? Nobody knows any. Please not Teddy was my husband.

I'm hearing it every which way. Shaking everywhere. Oh, it feels so fucking good. Yeah, that's when I am like, and living my best. life, Greg. Here's the one thing. Well, there's two things to go from here. And they're both about you and what I both long for from your setup.

And I'm so glad I don't have. Yes. And we'll start with what I'm so glad I don't have. And that's taste like you have. You know what I mean? The fact that I can be happy playing on my phone, I can be happy on my giant OLED TV. I can be happy on the soundbar.

I can be happy on the headset. I don't know what kind of headset I'm used. You know, the heck that I'm just happy to be playing a game. I can't thank the Lord. enough that I'm that dumb, but I'm just like, whatever, it's all the same. It's all great to me. I'm having a great time. You know what I mean? And then what I really do covet from your space is a bathroom right behind you. Because that is the deal breaker all the time for me of like, we want one down there, but that's years away because guess what? It's expensive doing

anything in the world. And it was that thing of there'll be so many times where I'm like, shit, I got to pee. But I'm like, I don't want to go upstairs now because I run the risk of if Jen wakes up, she thinks I'm coming to bed. And then if I go back down, I don't want her disappoint or even worse or be grumpy when I come to bed. So I'm like, I will just struggle through this. And the amount of, huh? He in the backyard. Dude, the amount of times I've thought about it, Kevin.

The amount of times I've thought about it, I'm like, should I just open the door and be outside? Who would know? No. In a world of nest cams outside and shit. Hey, they're my cams. Yeah, here. They're his cams. Well, there.

I mean, how much fun you're going to have showing that to Jen the next day. Sure. I mean, a couple of things there. You never know if Jen, what's, I don't want Jen to accidentally. uncover you. There'd be a horrifying moment of her realizing you're pissing in the backyard. You know what I mean? Well, the problem is she likes to garden so much.

I would get so much trouble for killing whatever plant on being on. Is that how that works? Yeah. He just kills? Yeah, sadly. Trust me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel for you, man. The bathroom is a game changer. Set me up again, Kevin. He just kills?

How do you think I euthanize Portilla? Jesus Christ. I'm sad. No. You don't get to go And then say I'm sad You just don't, Greg But anyways, yeah

I care a lot about all this stuff To a point that like it is It's bad Like it's just like If I'm not in the zone And everything's right Like I feel like I'm just not enjoying things the same And like I've done this to myself

It is an obsession But it also brings me so much joy Yeah Oh yeah yeah I'm sure When you fucking nail it You're crushing you're killing it Yeah 99% of the time It ain't nails

See here's the thing about you And that's what does it problem. That's why I'm so glad I have to deal with it. The amount of times I maybe not even start a game isn't the right word, but enjoy a game for a long period of time on the shitty screen I have at my desk or doing backbone stuff, like when I was reviewing Dead Island 2 or even Diablo stuff. And then when I go downstairs and I put it on the giant, I'm like, oh my God. Like I get that rush of endorphins right there. I'm like, oh, this looks so good. I mean, I got to let you know, dude. There has not been a time that I've turned on my TV and not

what a glorious TV we have. It's just so fucking nice, man. enough about that though enough about that let's see let's go to Michael M Michael M it's the end of the year and Barrett tells you a game

no one expected somehow made it onto the Kind of Funny Top 10 what's your guess for what that game is pretty good right I'm gonna go to Kindoffning.com slash KFleague 2023 because that'll be easier

than me spit on it Because here, you, we're saying made it on the list, period. Made it on the top 10. So what this means for everybody is that between me, Greg, Andy, blessing, Barrett, Janet, Paris. Andy? I don't know if he said Andy. I'm not sure.

You get the, they get the, they get it. Right? The same group we always have for any, oh, and Snowmike, Mike, anybody that's on the kind of funny, a host on kind of funny games or Barrett, who runs all the game shows, puts their top. 10 into a list for Barrett. Barrett then takes all those numbers, turns it into what are the overall top 10 for kind of funny.

And there's always weird surprises because of how we wait the points. Every game, if it's your number one, you get, gets 10 points, number 10 against one point. We just add it all up there. So a game that is high on a couple of people's lists could sneak in there in that top 10 to make it to the bottom side of it or in the case of something like, 2020, Imron rocked the vote and got Final Vance and Seventh remake to our number one. Redfall. I had to fall.

I'm not joking. Oh, I forgot what Redfall even was. Yeah, like that. You're like, I've never heard of this kid. Yeah. There sounds like a lot of promise behind it. That's wild. Here's,

the wine's been flowing. I've been listening and looking and doing all this different stuff, right? This isn't, this is where, for some reason, this is where I'm being called. I believe it could be a siren song. I think it's going to get a huge laugh out of you and be like, no way, because you think this is a guaranteed top 10. But I think this year is so competitive. Don't say it.

That I, right now, as I look through this list, because I can throw out something like, oh, well, like a dragon guy in the man who erased his name, right? Like, I don't expect that to be on our top 10 list. So, yeah, that's one there. I think it's a very competitive year. I wonder about high-fi-rush. Oh, you mother-fire.

I wonder if High-Fi Rush will make it. Because it's such a good, and it's not a, High-Fi Rush is a great game. I'm not talking shit. It's just that it is such a great year of games. Oh, yeah. That when you start looking through and you're like, what's going to be on,

like, you think about it, 10 games, right? Legend of Zelda. Locked. Again, who knows if it's good or bad? Spider-Man 2, you assume is a lock, right? This is just, I'm not, every, we're assuming here.

We're assuming. Star Wars Jedi Survivor. I also am questioning. Top 10, that'll make it. That'll make it fine. Diablo, Street Fighter, Starfield. That's six right there.

Dude, streetfighter's hard. Is Street Fighter going to be on anyone's, like, it's guaranteed on this list. You're a list now? I mean, I'm hoping to play more. If I don't have time, it won't. If I remove Street Fighter and put it. But it'd be just, even then, it's just me and Bless. Okay, so remove it and put Final Fantasy there.

But it's going to be high on Blessess. Six. Final Fantasy is there now. Okay, we got rid of Street Fighter. We put Final Fantasy. That's six games, meaning we have four slots that are up and running that could be anything. We haven't talked about either of the Mario games. Neither. I mean, Super Mario RPG remake or Wonder.

I don't think RPG will be on like that high. But you're saying Wonder will be. Wonder will be. Okay. So now we're down to three games left. You haven't mentioned Starfield. I did. Did you?

Yeah. I think, but I think we were arguing about, not arguing. I think you were just starting to go off to the races on the other thing. So then now we have three slots left, right, of like what's actually going to make it through there and do it. I mean, I think Mortal Kombat one has a better chance than Street Fighter. Yeah, I don't think it'll make it either. Although, see, this is interesting. I think that.

Mortal Kombat is going to have more people here playing than have ever played one before. Okay. And I can see it speaking loudly to Andy and Mike. Okay. Bless is going to have Street Fighter very high on his list, though. I imagine. Yeah. I'd be surprised if it was number two on his list.

Okay. Wow. Really? Well. I mean, I'm talking out of my ass here, but like... He's not here to defend himself. I think right now there's a race for that number two spot that I think is going to split all of our shit, that it might be like a 10-way tie.

I'm bringing down and leaving it at two now. I think Allenway two is going to be on this list. I mean, so now there's two slots available. Yeah. So then it's like, okay, cool. Like,

it's such a competitive year. It's a competitive year. How high are you going with high fire record? And that's the here's the thing. I think that when you look at how kind of funny does its game of the year. Yeah. There is the sheer fact of numbers make the world go around. They do.

The amount of people that actually played, the amount of times it makes. makes a list significantly boosts its chance to being. And it's you for sure. Bear it for sure. Yeah. I will say, High Fire Rush is dramatically falling down my list as the year goes on.

Because it's such a great year. It's such a great year. I fucking love High Fire Rush. But there was a point that it was a game of the year, but I feel like even that I knew. It's not going to maintain that. Because, like, high fire rush to me is a cult classic. I think that it's going to be the type of thing that when we get a sequel,

we're going to pop the fuck off for it's going to be so good. but like I think at the end of the day, high-fi rush to me is not a game of the year. Like, I don't think it's going to be in the game awards. No, I don't think it'll be in their top. There are seven or six or whatever it is.

Yeah. So I don't know where it's going to end up in mind, but like I'm hoping for top five. But I do think that's getting difficult because you didn't even talk about Resident Evil 4 or Armour Corps. Or Armour Corps six. Yeah. Resident Evil 4 I think is interesting where I think it's not going to really push,

move the needle for kind of funny. I don't think it'll end up on our list either, yeah. Yeah, and I think it's just, because I do think you're going to have time to go back and play it. My hope would be that, like, maybe when we get closer to Halloween and it's spooky yet, but then, wow, am I still playing Starfield? When do we get Spider-Man Code? When's Alan Wake going through? Alan Wake will feel the spooky thing, right?

And I'm always just more drawn to a new thing than an old thing. And I know that it's a remake, so it's not the same. Yeah. I mean, I still haven't beat Ari for a remake, but I'm definitely going to go back and finish it by the end of the year. It's impeccable. It's just, it's a remake. And it's a remake of an already good game. So it's like the points that I give RE2 for being so special.

And again, that's going to piss some people off. But I'm saying like, I love R2, the original, an idea. I love R.E.2 remake and execution. Resident Evil 4, come the fuck on, dude. So it's Resident Evil 4. It was great an execution and idea the first time. And it's even better now. Metroid Prime remastered, I think, is a weird one where I don't know how much people.

God, that was this year. Dude, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that throws some things off too. but Mike's an extra wild card as well. Yeah, because he's going to put Rocky City on there. Exactly. So it's going to throw something off.

I don't think that makes in the top 10. No, no, no, no. Yeah, it's, I feel like there's just too many games that I don't know that there's going to be a surprise in the top 10. I think there's going to be more surprises things didn't make the top 10. Okay. This year. Okay. What a year.

What a damn year, man. Because, yeah, like, hold on, let's think about this for some of the bigger titles. right like starfield yeah a lot of people are gonna play it but not everybody is janet gonna play starfield she is yeah she's not like waiting with baited breath she's not a bethesta fan girl but she's gonna play okay then looking at uh i mean all in way too i think has a chance to kind of like get into a lot of people's hands and minds so that could that could get in there man this is gonna be crazy dynamite ear and again we're you're looking past in india that might come in and steal somebody's heart and mind or oh speaking of indies it's not indy but

that kind of conversation Liza P. Yeah. Right? Where it's like, I think that that's not, that could be, if it delivers,

could be very high on Mike, Andy, and bless his list. Sure. Woo. Do you find her seems like it's got a lot of support across the board too

even though that's gonna be a different thing and like whatever, but that could be a lot of people's 10, even though I guess I want to get it on the board probably. But Cameron Kennedy says was Dead Space this year. It was,

man. And I, we're living in a year that I don't think Dead Space remake is going to make our top 10. That's fucking insane because that remake was incredible. Maybe the Clistow Protocol, the DLC that just dropped a little bit.

Potentially. Potentially. Not to mention cyberpunk DLC. Um. My second part wasn't a joke. Maybe that's going to be great. Who knows? Plucky Squire says Jordan D.

That is a game that a lot of eyes on could be amazing. Which one? The Plucky Squire. Oh, yes. Yes. Trying to end with some really good ones here. With the heat? Um.

As I say. We care a lot. Let's go with the Liam Cutt-Kelvins, saying with the Switch still enjoying record sales this month in Japan, is it time Xbox and PlayStation focused on developing a true handheld instead of the expected mid-cycle pro models? P.S., no, we don't count Project Q. We want that full fat Vita successor at last. What's hilarious is about this is that I think, who is this again? Michael? Liam. Liam, Michael.

Liam, Michael, I think what you miss is the fact that the switch isn't a true. true handheld. The switch is a console on the go. That's the, nobody, with all the respect, God rest of soul wants a Vita successor. I want the PlayStation 5 in the palm of my hands. I want to go to SummerSlam in a couple weeks, and I want to for five hours play everything on my PlayStation on my handheld PlayStation 5, which will eat the shit out of the battery and do all this different stuff and blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. The Steam deck's doing it. And there's a lot of concessions that are getting made and yada, yada, but the fact that the Steam deck can do it for the most part that in the fact you've seen the success with the switch like we're in this weird spot

where i feel PlayStation with project cue and remote play and then granted they're streaming there too but PlayStation with remote play and project cue and Xbox with remote play and more from them more importantly cloud you're in this weird spot where it's it could be a transition period where it could be the dedicated need for a dedicated handheld is dead like you can just take these things on the go via the cloud, via remote play, via the internet, and we don't have to worry about it. So does it make sense to invest?

The problem is even if we're in that transition, we're not there yet. I think everybody would be universally, be more excited if Project Q was a mini PlayStation 5 with whatever concessions it is, that before you leave, you have to beam one game to it. I know you're not beming it,

but I don't understand how it would be. But if it was, it's not the full PlayStation 5 experience, but you can locally play a PlayStation 5 game somehow on it and take it that way. Way more exciting than the remote played reality of the Project Q even though I'm excited for that.

I... Sorry, let me ask you a question about this. You're probably going to be given a Project Q from PlayStation. Correct. Would you buy a Project Q? I would want to see the price. Yeah. I'd want to see the price and I would... $300. No. $200. Not a chance. $199.99?

Yeah. That's it. I would wait for reviews on that. I would wait. I would wait for review. It wouldn't be a no-brainer. It wouldn't be a free order. It wouldn't be a thing. What? A couple questions here. Sure. 200 you're thinking. 300 to know. Is there something the 300? You'd be like, fuck it. I'll do it.

And also, $200. You're waiting for reviews. What are you waiting to hear? I want to know about latency. I want to know about screen quality. I want to know about battery life. I want to know what kind of conditions people are using it, what they're up down is, all those things. You know what I mean? Are you using it on a mesh network? Is it strictly off of this? Like, it's all of that that really gets me going like, okay, but like what's going on?

How does it compare to a Steam Deck, right? My Steam Deck remote plays better than my iPhone does. I am tech stupid. I don't know why that's the case. But so compare it to a Steam Deck. What's it like? What are you seeing? You know what I mean?

That's my hook on it or whatever. So with the Steam Deck side of things, like you have more experience with remote play than anyone else I know. So with the iPhone backbone, that you're a big supporter. Yeah. very quality product. That compared to now Steam Deck, are you ever using your backbone iPhone setup anymore? Or when you remote play,

are you exclusively using your SteamDet thing? And how often are you actually doing remote play these days? Remote play, what I've been saying and I stick with is between three and four times a week. Usually it'll be that, you know, this week I haven't because I've been, oh, well, Jen played Diablo with me last night.

There's been a couple other nights. I forget why what's been happening, but I've either been watching something with, oh, we've been watching the bear. So that's why it is. What it's been in the past, I come out in Jen's, binging, Gray's Anatomy still. And so I sit down next to her and I play it that way. And then it becomes what is around me. My backbone lives underneath the TV just in a pile, right, sitting up there.

So it's right there. Steam deck is usually downstairs charging, oftentimes dead because the battery is so bad. And so then it just becomes a convenience factor. And even though the steam deck is better, I find myself still drawn to the backbone more. I appreciate the backbone as a controller more than I appreciate the Steam Deck as a controller. I have found switching off as much as I have that I don't enjoy the sticks on the Steam Deck for playing games. You know what I mean? And I say playing games in a weird way because I'm usually remote playing on it.

I'm really not playing much natively on the Steam Deck. And so in that thing, I'm like, oh, I like the form factor more of the backbone, where it feels like a Vita. It feels like a handheld. Whereas the Steam Deck does feel like a big old block in my hand, Game Gear style, right? And I don't like the sticks on and stuff. so I will sacrifice quality for convenience because it's not that the backbone and again this isn't even that

this isn't a commentary on the quality of the backbone it's a commentary on my iPhone and how it's remote playing right of just like it's not that I'm losing connection it's just that a frame will stutter and it'll do that like weird moray thing with like where it blocks up for a second you know what I mean I just hit a pause and it comes back and I'm fine and I keep going whereas steam deck I haven't had that fact

but I feel like the steam deck isn't as screen isn't as bright and all that shit right because you know the steam deck is a worse screen than the iPhone, I would assume. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of reasons. Back to you being the expert on the tech as well.

But again, I think that that's an interesting thing of like just talking about where all this text is at. And like looking at this project Q, I'm extremely excited about it. Like I, the price, I would not buy it for $300. Like that's just insane. Like I'm most bummed that it's not an OLED screen. If it was OLED, if I, I'd consider it. And I know it'd be a bad choice, but I'd still consider it. Because like you said, the amount of times Gia is watching something that I'm watching,

but I don't need to really pay attention to. But like I could be playing games. Like that's why the switch is so important to me. Like I love that the switch is the answer to everything you're saying of like, it is just the experience on the go, whether the go is even still in the same room that my dock is. But the way that it all just works, like I'm obsessed with that. And the fact that the old head switch looks so goddamn good. I'm just really thrilled with all of that.

But the amount of times recently, like with where I'm in Final Fantasy 16, I mean, I've been talking about trying to platinum it and probably giving up on that because I don't want it to do new game plus. This project Q might actually give me like a new chance to be like, hey, fuck it. Like we're watching Real Housewives of the city I don't care about. I care about some of them. I hear you. I'm going to fucking do this thing right here.

And I like the Project Q besides not being an OLED is kind of the Tim Getty's stupid ass dream of what this is, which is just fucking give me half a control on both sides. That's the thing, right? Yeah, I like the dual sense to just make it feel like the dual sense, whatever. That's it. I want to know how big the screen is, and I know we know the dimensions, but I mean, I want to hold it, see it, right? Because that is the weight of it,

man. Exactly. That's a big problem I have, you talk about the convenience. Like, I've been going on my endless pilgrimage to figure out the ideal switch controllers. We still haven't found everybody. I don't think they exist. But the problem with that is as much as I want just full controllers, like half a controller on each side of a screen,

that's cumbersome. And that starts to get to that game gear thing you're talking about. That's why the Steam deck does not feel as good as just holding a pro controller or a real controller, whatever you want to call it. And you figure to jump back to the convenience stuff and stuff, if Project Q is stuff and stuff,

if Project Q is nailing it, right, it makes so much more sense for how I have everything set up. I'm like, cool, you just live upstairs in the bookcase with the USB C charger right there. Boom. Use case for that thing. It never has to go downstairs, whereas where I will take my steam deck down there occasionally, and that's where I charge it. And, you know, I've only ever done it on a big screen once. I have this to your thing with the cables.

Right now, I still have it all torn up where it's like there's a fucking mouse and keyboard down there in front of all the other consoles and sound bars because I needed to go in and hack it to get remote play working or no, to get a blizzard's client working so I can play Diablo on it and stuff like that. Yeah. But yeah, like for me, at 1.99, 99, 99, if I was outside and I wasn't getting a review unit, which I'm still hopeful in for and I put it in PSL of you today and I meant to tell Roger to break it out so I can tweet at PlayStation the why don't I give me the first hands on I'm new I care more about anybody else than this thing um I would at one and I'd talk myself into it I imagine 14999 foregone conclusion let's go 50 bucks more than the backbone but I'm getting a nice screen built in and it's all it's dedicated use and yada yada yada I that I can sell myself on no

problem so then to add on 50 bucks I'd probably like well just 50 bucks more you know I got this rebate from Amazon or this chase ultimate reward points or something of shit. They'd call in there and be like, you know, no big deal. I'll do it. Yeah. I mean, it's, for what we're being told, this thing should be $150. And it's not going to be, but like, goddamn. Like, anything more than that, it's like,

really tough sell. But I'm excited for it. Cameron Kennedy, to close out the show here saying, so why not just buy a backbone or another controller? And it's like, I, there's, to your point, it's like, using a phone for remote play is so close to being perfect. But like that's so close, I think,

is a wide enough gap that I'm looking for a dedicated remote play thing that, like, that being the focus of it, it works way better. So I want to come in before, because Cameron Kennedy's, before, he has a couple of things. I wouldn't even for a hundred bucks. I'll get, I'll get used. Oh, it'll get used less than a regular controller. It's less portable than a backbone. So why not just buy a backbone or another controller, really?

My answer to the longer part of the question, right, is the fact that what I've found with my backbone is that my backbone is not me in a hotel room playing a game. My backbone is me in my house sitting there playing a game. And again, yes, it's cool. I love remote play, period. I love it being on my phone. I love it having built in there, right? It still is that thing of being in the middle of a game and getting a text and then leaving the thing coming in. Okay, answer the text. Come back in. I got to restart remote play, bot back in. Well, why not use the iPad and then a controller connected to it. Well, then I've got an iPad in my lap and I'm buried in devices and doing all the, you know what I mean?

Like with what we're talking about with Project Q in remote playwright is the idea that sitting next to Jen playing Grey's Anatomy, I come out of putting Ben down, she's watching Greys. I pick it up off the shelf where it's been charging. I sit down and play. I get a text. I slide under the couch. I put it aside, do my thing. Turn it off, put it under the couch. Like, it's just convenience in that thing.

If I don't expect my project Q to come with me to SummerSlam or WrestleMania or whatever in the future. I don't know. I'm these big trips, right? That's always the classic. I'm going to play so many games on this thing and you never do. There was the one time where we went to Austin, not for the gauntlet, but when Lizzo's album dropped, we went there and did something together. I remember, and we ate at that pizza place. Remember, like, oh, yeah.

Three nights and nights. Yeah. I remember I packed my PS4 and played a lot of games. Oh, Florida. You're right. Full sale. I played a lot of division down there, right? And that was the rare time where it actually benefited.

I'm glad I brought this system. You can look back at me bringing a PS4 for Witcher 3, you know, no, not Destiny, whatever, a bunch of different things where I don't ever, there's no reason to bring this. I didn't put any of that time in there. And so it would be the same thing with Project Hugh. Project Hugh is going to be for my house,

being in the living room versus the den, or being in the den and not having use of the big TV, which only become more prevalent as Ben gets older, right? Like there's a bunch of things like that where it's going to go and that's why it's there for me. And it is the idea that I like the form factor of the backbone, but not necessarily the screen and not sharing it. So having a bigger thing, having a dedicated thing for me, it's better. Yeah. Like Cam's talking about iPads.

Yeah, I guess for me it's my iPad and this is Cameron, not my phone when I'm home. But home use makes more sense than portability. Yeah. And so that's why I'm like, I'm weirdly interested in this project Q just for my very specific use case. It's kind of like what you're telling about. So we'll see how it goes. But have you tried, because you have a fancy iPad, right? Oh, I didn't even remember.

I had the big one. And I forget which number it is. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while. Because there is like the top of the line iPad that's out nowadays that I think is the iPad Pro that has all the fan, the M2 chip and all that fancy stuff with the XDR, like all the really, really, really nice shit. I'd be very interested in how that handles remote play.

I mean, just to turn it around and talk again, be an event. evangelists for remote play in my experiences with it. The iPad I have that's old playing on PS4 remote play from the hotel room to play Concrete Genie, I was shocked. Playing there with, I had a dual shock. I was playing it there and I was like, I can't believe how well this is running. Let alone what it would be like now.

And also my dog Nick 96 says, didn't you bring the PS4 to Pax East for God of War? I sure did. That was another one too. That was amazing. But that was a very different thing as well where I was like, I'm on the God of War review. I have to go to Pax East and host these two panels.

So if I wasn't hosting the panels, I was in my hotel room drinking coffee and playing that game, which was amazing. And it was the closest I ever came to him breaking an embargo where I walked into a Paxis and a kid was like, Greg Miller, I'm like, hey, man, he's like, how's God of Warren? I was like, oh, I did the inhale where I was about to tell him. That's so funny, man. If anyone has any experience with the, like, the fancy iPad nowadays doing remote play on PS5, let me know because that's very, very potentially tempting to me. and the last story I want to end with is someone we knew once, the most insane game traveling story when Wind Waker HD came out on the Wii U.

I remember taking the Wii U on a plane. This is pre-Switch everybody, plugging it into the outlet on the plane, playing on the Wii U tablet. I didn't work ahead of their time. But let us know in the comments below what you'd be willing to do to play games in an opportune places.

So just we started to a conversation got sidetracked, which I appreciate and I love. But my one thing is like, you don't think, right, PlayStation. And I'm not going to include Xbox not because I'm a PlayStation guy just because I think it's not in their strategy. You don't think PlayStation's crazy enough to do a PS5 portable, right? A PS5 portable? Yeah, to do like a nomad situation where they actually are like, all right, kind, fine, we fucking saw it and you like Steam decks.

So here's a giant fucking handheld that's PS5. Oh, I think it's likely. Oh, fuck, yeah. I mean, really. I mean, and I think that Xbox is doing it as well. It's just partnering with other hardware developers like the Raj ally, right? Isn't that still cloud stuff? Yeah, yeah, but I, okay, sorry, sorry.

Yeah, I do think that that's the future. I don't think we're going to get something way more and more dedicated. That time. I'm going to break out this video and hit a PlayStation. Hit him up, everybody. But hit us up as well in those comments. Please compliment Andy Cortez. He's just such a nice guy.

He is. He's doing such good things. He's just sitting over there. What you munching on? He's eating some chicken, everybody. Let us know your favorite type of chicken. Just let us know anything, okay? I'm just looking for the engagement.

That sweet, sweet engagement. Guys, it helps down. We just leave a comment. You can just say Andy Chicken Chicken, Chicken. That's all I have to say. Comment for the algorithm, everybody. But he's eating the chicken with his hands. Anyways, I love you all.

Goodbye. Hey, ladies.