Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Xbox Cloud Gaming Review 2024 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Parris has been playing Xbox via his Amazon Fire, so let's talk about Xbox Cloud Gaming in 2024! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - TotS: Kinda Funny’s Xbox Cloud Gaming Review For 2024 and Preview of Cloud Gaming on Amazon Fire TV - Superchats - Dad Gamers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'll tell you what's going on. Audio's up. Now the audio is back. Yo, what the heck is going on everybody? Run the whole thing again. Run it. Run the same. Give me a second.

We're on YouTube. It's a whole thing. He's got to make a new YouTube. It's a thing. No, I just do the intro again. Yo, what's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the kind of funny games cast for Monday, July 8th, 2024.

I'm one of your show host, Snowbike, Mike. And today I'm joined by two awesome gaming dads, Mr. Paris Lilly and Greg Miller. Boys, welcome back from a fun July 4th holiday weekend. Of course, welcome back audience. It's a nice Monday to see you all. Greg, before you even speak, I'm going to give you three options to kick off today's show with Paris Lilly.

One, we can talk about NCAA college football 2024 because I'm not saying NCAA. It's got nothing to do with anymore. Ball it up and throw it out. I've noticed that a lot of show hosts here on Kind of Funny Games Daily haven't spoken about all the awesome news that we've gotten over the past couple of weeks. Top 10 toughest places to play. play top 25 NCAA team. You want to talk about the top nine offense,

University of Missouri? Saying I know that M-I-Z. Z-O-U that a lot of people haven't been talking about it in this office. And it seems like maybe it's just a lack of Mike, Greg, and Paris to talk about that. Two, we could talk about, of course, money in the bank.

A lot of conversation around that. Tiffy time, y'all. Or number three, Greg Miller, everybody wants to know what the heck you're playing on set right now. because it's very important to the audience and today's episode. Well, I'm playing the cloud right now, all right? We're going to have a big thing.

We're going to talk about the cloud. We're going to talk about the Amazon Firestick Paris has been using and all that, so I was over here running around Starfield and stuff. But we'll save all that for later, all right? Number three, gone. Money in the bank, we'll go backward. I'm going to go backwards. Okay, run it back, run it back.

Money in the bank? Come on now. Predictable, of course. Have we all been saying? Seampunk was going to show up, ruin it? Of course, they were. Of course. Tiffy time, great.

you know, in my heart of hearts, it's just being favoritism. I love Chelsea Green. Yeah, of course. She's a friend. I can talk to her. I can actually DM her and she responds, right? So it would have been a rad to see her win,

but she had an amazing bump. And, of course, Tiffy's amazing. So I'm down for Tiffy time. You know, the continuing saga of just WW, to get out of it, I'm excited for Raw tonight of having Dom and Live team up against Ray and Zelina. That's pretty cool. That'll be a fun one to see what they do with that,

as they continue to evolve that. Of course, yeah. Money to make was fun. You know, a lot of people are calling out a lot of botches in there. A lot of the Damian priest not kicking out at three. I was like, you know what I mean?

But like overall is a package. We had fun out there, right? Number one, you want to talk about just the fact that whenever there's a second, just of downtime, Paris Lilly. I'm thinking about being out there on Faroe Field. I'm thinking about hitting it. I'm thinking about little pitch,

little catch. Get out there and go. I was watching the NCAA. Got in my head now. College football, been putting out the videos. They had the Michigan game, Michigan, Texas game played both ways today. I was watching that on YouTube, having fun of that. The problem is we got this point, Dexter, blessing Eddie O.

Jr. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. He's over here building the show every day. He doesn't understand what football fans like you and me want, all right? We want to know about it. All I want is a conversation about is the toughest place to play Kyle Field out in Texas A&M. Is it?

Yeah, Pear's shook his head. Absolutely not, right? Paris, no way. Paris was the toughest list. Oh, were you waiting for me to follow up on that? Oh, yeah. You're in the middle of that rant. Well, I'm biased, so I'm always going to say it's dope Campbell Stadium in

Tallahassee, Florida. That's just me. He is very biased. I mean, Michigan, come on. I mean, the big house, of course, big house actually not cracking the top ten. Towers places to play for college football 2025. Of course, you do have the swamp hitting the top 10. I am surprised at Tiger Stadium.

Number three, LSU is not number one. One of the dopest places to play in Death Valley on a lovely Saturday, Friday night football game. Come on now. And you're not going to get them number one? I'm prepared to cry when I see the Faroe Field, the Mizzou Stadium. When we see it when the zoo gets out there.

I want to see what's going on out there Memorial Stadium. You're Missouri Tigers. Number nine. Number nine top rated offense in the game right now. I saw that. I'm like, we're obviously going to be a lock for the top 25 in this game. No. The defense's so bad, they say.

The defense is special team so bad. You do not crack the top 25, Greg. Outrageous. Kansas does. You know, who else doesn't crack the top 25? Paris Lillian, his FSU, Seminoles, not on the list at all. It, you know, we got screwed in real life. Like, this is literally like a wrestling angle at this point. You screw us out of the college playoffs.

and then you disrespect us coming into the game for the new season and don't even have us in the top 25. I'll fix it. I'll fix it in Dynasty mode. I'm not worried about it. Dynasty deep dive looking really awesome. Sites and sounds running with Ralphie, the Colorado Buffalo.

It's going to be a whole lot of fun. But we'll be talking about college football and more later on because that game comes out next week. Next week. Let's go. Let's get me a copy. Get me a review code. We're tailgating.

We are tailgating for the Missou Buffalo game that we're going to do here Paris drive up. Paris drive up. Get up here, Paris. You got a car that drives itself, go Bipo, boom, San Francisco, lay back and wake up here. Depending on the day. Wait, what day are you going to do this? On launch day? Here's the thing. Well, yeah, right now,

so this is full disclosure behind the curtain. We don't have codes. We don't have a review code. So we don't know when we get them, if there's a different embargo for streaming. So if there was, whenever we can, we will. So right now, no review codes would be launched, your early access launch on Tuesday. If it's

A week for tomorrow What is that I'm bad on dates A week from tomorrow So what the 16th Give him a date Sure Yeah

Literally the only day I can't come up Okay you come up on the 17th And it's And it's a good thing That I'll tell you offline But on the 16 That's something I have to do

All right guys Well of course Let's look forward to today's show Of course Today's kind of funny games cast Is a review of Xbox Cloud Gaming in 2024 with Greg Parris and myself

and also an awesome preview from one pair slowly who has jumped in to the next opportunity and way to play Xbox Cloud Gaming. But we'll talk about that in just a moment, of course, this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in the video game

world live on YouTube, Twitch, and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership available on Patreon and on YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch them as we record them live and of course get your daily exclusive show

The Gregway Of course Paris Lilly took over last week's Gregway as well So you can check out Paris with a fun One-on-One-One Gregway as well I appreciate I sent Paris a lovely little you did great We're proud to work with you, got no response Not one fucking was back. He's very busy I swore I did

I sent a hard emoji Yes I did Of course for a chance to be part of the show you can submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube superchats as we go. I'll pull them and read them during the time to keep these guys going. And of course, some housekeeping. You're hard at the message. It's not the same as a response.

He reacted to it. That's the new thing. You don't type back to anyone on text messages. You just react to their message. You call it good enough is right. Slack. Who's looking at slack reaction? That's a slap in the face is right.

Harris, he's being a baby. I know. I literally, I literally give a heartfelt message. on that Greg way about how much I love everybody. You know what this man, Mr. Monopoly ever here said? Oh, they can't afford to pay me full time. That's why I'm not coming. Fucking throw me in the company under the bus.

You know what I mean? Oh, they're poor as hell. They can't do anything. That is not what I said. Wow. Of course, some housekeeping news for you. Kind of funny games is an 11 person, small business. That's all about live talk shows.

Today, we've already gotten Roger and Tim talking about Horizon Zero Don. Netflix show being canceled on Kind of Funny Games Daily available on YouTube, Twitch, and on podcast services. And of course, after today's Kind of Funny Games cast, you'll have myself and Nick playing Angerfoot before release on July 11th. We've hooked up with our friends over at Devolver just to give away codes to all of you. So guess what? We got a bunch of Devolver digital video game codes to give away.

So if you're tuning in on Twitch and on YouTube, you could possibly win a free game. And of course, if you're a kind of funny member, today's Gregway is how, Greg Miller deals with haters on the internet. You got a lot of haters? No, I mean, yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, no, I know how much people hate me. Don't worry about. They hate you, too.

They hate all of us. They hate Paris. That's what I'm talking about. But as I say in the video, right? Because, oh, they love Kevin can do no wrong. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Benny who writes in over, not my Benny, a different bet.

My two and a half year old than writer, Benny writes in over there and asks the question because he's got a YouTube channel. Okay. He got one of his videos into the algorithm of the bad people and the bad people are there being mean to him. Smokes. Okay. And I say the same thing I'd say, fuck them.

But you can hear more thoughts about it over there. And you can get the kind of funny podcast later this afternoon or tomorrow on YouTube and on podcast services around the globe. Thanks for making our dreams a reality, Patreon producers for the month, Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twining. Today, we're brought to you by Shady Ray's and A Better Paradise, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's start the show with topic of the show. Tots, Tots, Tots, Tots, Tots, Toss, Toss. This will be today's kind of funny

X cloud gaming review for 2024 and a preview of cloud gaming on Amazon Fire TV. Of course, don't forget. You can super chat with your thoughts and opinions of Xbox cloud gaming in 2024 via the superchats on YouTube. We'll be checking in

with that throughout the show. But some quick details, Paris got to preview Xbox Cloud Gaming on Amazon Fire TV just this past week. So he's going to tell us about that. Paris, is this a preview or a because I watched your little Twitter video there, great job. And you, like, you've

been playing an entire week on it. Yeah, this is like really a review. Throw these pretty stuff out the week. Okay. We're getting a kind of funny score from Paris. Back to you, Mike. Uh, in June, Xbox announced a collaboration with Amazon to bring Xbox cloud gaming to over 25 countries via

the Amazon Fire Stick 4K max and the Fire Stick 4K coming in July. All players will need is a FireStick, uh, fire TV stick. a Bluetooth-enabled wireless controller and Xbox GamePath's Ultimate Membership. Download the Xbox app and play. So Paris Lilley, you've been jumping in.

Give me the review. Did they nail it coming and teaming up with Amazon? I think they mostly nailed it. How do I want to approach it? So I've been using this for pretty much a solid week and played a variety of games across GamePass. As far as the actual UI and everything of cloud gaming, this is nothing new. They haven't changed anything. If you have a Samsung TV, if you've been using it on a PC browser, the UI is exactly the same.

There's no difference there. It's just that now they have the Xbox app available on the Amazon Fire TV, like you said, on the 4K version and on the 4K max version of it. This was my first experience not using a mobile device where I was wireless. So that was kind of where I was most curious how this would perform. And it worked pretty well. And I even said on my own channel, the biggest thing is getting used to the latency. You can't get around it. There just is latency when you play these games.

And if you're used to playing, obviously, locally and then immediately jumping in the cloud gaming, you're really going to notice it. I found that after I played for probably about day two, I essentially compensated for the latency and I was able to just play games as I normally would. Starfield was one. I played a lot. I played a lot of Fallout 76. I actually played Cyclenots 2 probably the most.

I just went in and played that almost from start to finish. I just pulled up an old save. Enjoyable. Played Death Store, played Halo Infinite, played Wolfenstein, things like that. Went back and played Ghost Recon Wildlands for like no reason. And I was jumping in there. Yeah. And like I said, it was good.

But my biggest takeaway, and this was just be for the fact that I've used G-Force now, I've used Amazon Luna. Even Samsung's gaming hub, there's games on there that you can cloud stream as well. Xbox cloud gaming is probably has the biggest latency. It just does. Really? Yeah, in my opinion, I found myself on G-Force now. There's less latency. When I've used Luna, there's been less latency compared to Xbox Cloud gaming. My suggestion would be is take a page from what Stadia was doing,

where they had Wi-Fi direct controllers. that would help with latency. Even when you jump in on this fire stick, they warn you about, because I don't have Wi-Fi 6 at home. They warned me to make sure I'm using a 5-GHz connection because that helps with it. And if my television supported a game mode to use that as well,

and it did. So I did that. But even with that, I still notice it. Like Starfield was where I noticed it the most where it just felt very floaty at first. But once I kind of compensated for that and got used to it, like I said,

it was enjoyable to play. But it is not going to replace local gaming. It just isn't. And I don't think anyone should have that expectation going in with this. It's a nice supplement. It's something to have gaming on another device in the home. It's a way to get people that normally don't play games to make it more ease of use because you simply go into the fire stick, fire stick settings, fire TV settings and enable Bluetooth and you can pair your controller with them like 30 seconds. And then just hit that Xbox app and just start playing, which by the way, that Xbox app is available now to the public. You can download. it right now on the fire tv and check it out for yourself but um yeah after a week of just playing

that i like i said probably by day two day three i mean it was it was an acceptable gaming experience i would say score wise on the kind of funny scale i'd probably get an eight out of 10 overall there's there's still work to do because there's the other thing with xbox cloud gaming um that they need to improve upon again geforce now is probably their biggest competitor when it comes to this they don't have 4k gaming so you would would want to get 4K gaming, not to mention that Gforce now obviously is leveraging Nvidia, I think like a 4090 or 4080 GPU equivalent in the cloud. So when you play games on there, you're able to take advantage of DLSS and other things. So you're getting superior performance

and visuals from a gaming standpoint when you use G4S now compared to cloud gaming because Xbox cloud gaming is 1080p 60 if the game supports it. But like I said, the latency is probably the biggest thing they need to resolve and then, you know, go to the visuals beyond that. So there's still work to do. But for someone that wants a nice option to jump in and, and test out cloud gaming, I think Xbox, there's so many acronyves, Xbox Cloud Gaming, you know, is a nice supplement to that. Is it no longer XCloud? No, we've moved on to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Interesting, interesting. So Paris, I've got a little questions for you. Okay. Sure. So you're giving it an age. Is that specifically the fire version of it,

or is that just everything you've used with cloud gaming for Xbox? I would say overall. Okay. Because I feel that the fire TV experience is identical to using it on other ones. The only difference is you can only do wireless. You can't have it hardwired. But even as a wireless experience, the latency on it was similar to what I've done on other devices as well.

And then my next question for you is you talk about other devices. Are you, I, for everything, I talk about today when I talk about Xbox Cloud Gaming. I've been calling XCloud. I didn't realize we changed the title. I'm going to talk about using a backbone and an iPhone, right? Are you familiar with using that kind of setup of some kind? Yeah, that was my first experience with it. When they originally came out with it, I was using, I think it was the razor controller on an Android phone. So yeah, my thing is I wonder so much of this is always eye of the beholder. And this comes from somebody who talks about, you know, the PlayStation Portal so much.

The PlayStation portal is now the dominant way I use my PlayStation 5 because every night I'm playing PlayStation 5 and usually I at least start on the couch with Jen up there. And oftentimes like last night she's like, I want to go to bed and read. Will you come with me? Like fine, yeah, bring the portal in there and keep playing Diablo, right? Getting close to that platinum. But that's a conversation for another story. The wall's green. My thing is always though, I always talk up what a great time I'm having with the portal and how great the quality is and yet to yet.

And then Tim will be like, well, I have X, Y, and Z problem. It's running better on my Steam deck OLED and how I'm doing this. that I'm like, oh, interesting that there's all these different things. You talk about the latency being noticeable for you. Are we talking about milliseconds or legitimate? Because you talk in your review that's up on your channel and then what you've talked about here, you talk about like, oh, you had to adjust to it and all this stuff. Is it like that floaty for you that it is like move, move?

It is. And that's where it comes in. It is milliseconds in that I'm used to a certain, all right, if I'm playing Star-Four. I know how the aiming works in it, right? Now it feels slightly off. Halo Infinite, again, trying to play multiplayer on that, it feels slightly off. So you have to almost slightly anticipate your next move before you do it with the controller,

whereas it would feel more natural, obviously playing locally because that's just the way that you've always played. And like I said, when I just dedicated myself over a couple of day period, this is how I'm playing, I compensated for it. I got used to it. And then it was fine. But you will see a difference the first time when someone goes from playing local to playing cloud, you're going to see the difference. And it's interesting you brought up the portal because that was kind of my issue with the portal when I reviewed that as well.

I could tell the difference in latency compared to what I was doing when I was playing natively on my PlayStation 5 as well. Like I said, ironically enough, Stadia probably got it the best as far as latency goes, where it felt it was in that 95 percentile of one to one compared to play. playing locally, but they also had a controller that you could connect directly, wirelessly to the cloud servers. And I think that that helps as well. But kind of going back to my score real quick, there was three things that I took off of that. It was the latency, number one, the fact that you're limited to 1080p. And you can only use Game Pass other than Fortnite.

They've still not provided an option that the other digital games that I own, I can cloudstream those. If they're not on Game Pass, if I'm not subscribed to Game Pass, you can't take advantage of them. Yeah, that's one for me. When we talk about Xbox cloud gaming, I appreciate that it is Game Pass and I can jump into that, use my Game Pass ultimate, but there's that level of, okay, well, I have thousands of dollars invested into this ecosystem. When will I get my opportunity to play those games that I bought that are just kind of floating in between that are only on my console or PC, when will it come to cloud? And it doesn't really seem like we have that answer yet, Paris. We've just been kind of floating around talking about it, but we've still

never made that jump yet. Yeah, agreed. And I even said it when I did my review on the channel, but I think we'll eventually get there to like I say this magical 95 percentile. But you know, as internet speeds increase, as they build that infrastructure, as they figure out smarter ways to reduce latency, you know, with these games, it'll be more viable. And I think them providing this as this isn't the only option you have, which is was Stadia's fault, but a nice, hey, this is an option. If my kids are on the main TV, and already playing a console game, I can hop on. Like you talk about a lot, Greg, you hop on a portal, you know, and it'll sit there and play on the couch. So I think there is a future for cloud gaming for sure. And I think it will be the way that they're going to attract more people to get into to playing games.

But it's not 100% there just yet. I think there's still some more time in the oven, so to speak, that they're going to need. And then I'm not just saying that on the Xbox front. I think that's anyone that's trying to do cloud gaming right now. But I do think when I think about the leaders in cloud streaming, it's not Xbox right now. They have work to do on that. And I know they're using the Series X consoles, you know, to be able to play. And I know there's some back-end stuff on the logistics of that.

And maybe once they go into next gen, there's some things that they can do to get it to 4K, you know, consistent 60 frames, reduce latency and even more. But I don't think it's going to be there in the next couple years. talking about the Amazon fire stick because that's what Paris got to jump in. You brought up no direct connect for your internet. It goes Wi-Fi only on that one. I know you've jumped on the Samsung TVs before. We've gotten to see that.

You and I. Is that similar? I mean, of course, the UI is, but like, did you feel a big difference not being able to direct connect and just going over Wi-Fi? Was it close enough? See, Samsung Gaming Hub is actually a great test case for this because G-Force now is on there. Luna is on there and Xbox and G4s Now. They're all on there.

And I've used all of them on there with the same exact controller connected over Bluetooth. And you can tell the difference in latency between three. Absolutely. And that's where I say cloud gaming lags behind. Xbox cloud gaming lags behind in that compared to Gforce now and even Luna. So there's something they're going to have to do in their back in to improve that because now I'm on a wired connection, gig connection, using the same controller across the same three services and there is a difference. So there's definitely something there that they're going to need

to improve. That's interesting. Yeah, because me and Paris during Summer Game Fest, they had the Samsung booth there. Yeah. And it was the first time I ever got to use it. I actually, and it was smooth, right? And it was, that's what I'm going to say. It was very smooth. And I put it through the test on Fortnite. I mean, I was cranking soggy 90s. I was going up left, right, sent. I was trying to freak this machine out. And it actually stayed up with me. And I was very surprised because as someone who owns a Samsung TV, I always see it pop up the Samsung Gaming Hub, but I never touch it, right? Because I'm directing. I have my console plugged into the TV. I never thought, oh, let's try this, see what's going on. And so I looked at him at the

booth. I said, prove to me why I should be caring about this. Show me what's up. And they sat me down and I got to play right next to Paris. And I was really impressed with the Samsung Gaming Hub playing Cloud Gaming. I didn't think it would keep up. And it actually surprisingly, to me, Paris, latency was almost a non-factor. I was. I was a non-factor. I was I didn't think it was that bad. And of course, you know, they tell you, hey, it's not direct connected. We're using, you know, Jeff Keely's Wi-Fi. And, you know, I'll take them out their word.

He's charging you a 15 cents a minute. It ran really well on that Samsung gaming app. I'm really surprised. And here's something I did do during all this testing because, like you said, I have the Samsung TV here as well. So an interesting fact that some people may or may not know, G-Force now you can play Xbox games, but they're PC game pass games. Wow.

Just the console game pass games. So Starfield is a great example. example of this playing or even fallout 76 i can play those at 4k and it and it the latency on there is noticeable compared to doing it on the same exact device doing it through cloud gaming which again it's only at 1080p but the latency there is a difference where it played better on gforce now than it did on xbox cloud gaming so you know and i know i sound like almost like i'm being super negative here but i just want to i think you're being super detailed yeah yeah i'm just trying to be crystal clear of the that people will see between the services, I do think the advantage that Xbox would have in that scenario is you're already subscribed to Game Pass, you just play it. You don't have to pay an extra fee. Whereas, Gforce Now, there's a fee that you're going to have to pay to be able to play these games on there. But that alone just shows me the potential of what Xbox Cloud Gaming could be just by looking at Gforce Now and playing the same exact Xbox games through that service compared to the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

You know, it's interesting. We talk about options, right? And I think that's what I look at this with pairs talking about Amazon fire stick, right? It's like more options. We kind of talked about it on the Xcast before we slowed that down was, hey, like, let's look at a streaming puck or when does it become an app on every TV? Yeah. And they've been slow rolling that out to Samsung.

And it's nice to see on Amazon. So I'm pretty pleased to see more get it. And I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we really flip the switch and go everywhere. But Greg, you've been playing a lot of cloud gaming. And I want to know your thoughts. You bring up the place. station portal and what you do with remote play, but now you actually go on the cloud and really push it. What do you think about that?

You know, it's a fascinating question, and it's a use case varies and et cetera and et cetera and et cetera. For me, not talking about Amazon since I haven't used it, just talking about the cloud via me using a backbone as much as I do. Like, again, I love everything Paris just said, and I loved how detailed he is. It reminds me of when Tim and I talk on a show and Tim gets super into the specs and the Dolby and the whatever. And I'm like, that's great. For me, as just I would say, maybe as close to being a mainstream gamer and not being a tech person at all, for me, Xbox cloud gaming is a nine out of ten. It is legitimately amazing. Like, I am amazed every time I boot it up. And it was the idea that like I have so many different use

cases, I guess session cases more than use cases, right? Because for me, cloud gaming has been Starfield. And it has been Starfield since I was obsessed with Starfield the first time. And then when I came back and was re-obsessed, because, you know, obviously if I'm upstairs with Jen, I'm not using the PlayStation Portal for it. I'm going to use my backbone and I'm going to jump in there. And to the latency that does exist in any of these, for me, the latency in Starfield isn't not noticeable, but it only is noticeable for me really when I go from, oh, I'm putting down the Xbox controller downstairs on the TV and on the Xbox Series X and on the Xbox Series X and go. going upstairs and picking it up.

Like I, when I saw Paris's video today and you called out Starfield and you mentioned the latency you felt there and felt ink floaty, I was like, damn, I was playing last night on the backbone to get my feet underneath me again on my conversation. And again, I was legitimately amazed at how well it ran. And so then I watched Paris's video this morning at the office, jump back in, went in, ran out of my shotgun, and I was making the headshot and making the body shot and jumping when I want. And it's like, I am just dumb enough probably.

And you know me. I'm not the clicking heads nitro rifle over here. a right eye. I'm just Greg who loves a good RPG and loves a good story. So I'm not even it for the twitchy gameplay of that. I was like, damn, I don't feel it. And it almost reminds me a fucking shallow hal, right? When Jason Alexander tells Jack Black that, uh, Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't look like Gwyneth Paltrow, right? He's like, why would you do that? Why would you say that? If Wonder Woman, if you saw Wonder Woman, why would you, it's the same thing here where I'd rather not know that, you know, that idea of it. And it's, my other huge example is

Fort's a Horizon five where Fortsa Horizon added in that universal power. two weeks ago, a month ago, whatever it was with the DeLorean. And I was like, oh, you bet your ass. I'm going to play for the first time ever a Forsa game. And I went and I got the DeLorean and I put it in there. And I went downstairs and I turned down my Xbox. I was like, shit, you weren't plugged in. All right, download Forsa and I went back upstairs.

Then I was like, well, you know what? Put it up the cloud. Jumped right in. I've only played Forsa through the cloud. And so I don't know the minutes a second or what you know what I mean? But it's like, it has been amazing in terms of shit, this feels great. and I'm really enjoying this game. And I can't believe I didn't know that this.

I didn't realize it was a burnout and this isn't a forts of preview or review. But it's like, wow, this is just a fun car game in a way I didn't know I wanted that fun car game. And then, of course, the crazy future we live in now, crazy life I live in now. And there's so much to talk about just in general on this topic. Maybe we get to, maybe we don't. But this weekend of little baby Benny, two and a half years old going, I want to play for it's a horizon again. I want to be the Bronco. That's what he likes to do in this game, right?

And you've seen it on the Gamescast last week, two weeks ago when he came in and we had a, I was doing Luigi's Mansion review and he sat next to me and played for it's a horizon on the thing. Again, I was like, ooh, how is it going to work on the cloud here in the office? You know what I mean? Like I haven't done a lot of cloud stuff here in the recent time of a work. Great. Ben played. It was fantastic.

Blessing switched the cars. Like, I trick myself all the time of like, oh, right, I'm on the cloud. Like, I'm not, I'm not remote playing it. I'm also not holding a Vita or a handheld or a DS or a D.S or whatever. whatever, the Xbox handheld, which I am so ready for if they make one. Let's go, Phil. Let's make it. Let's make an Xbox handheld.

But I get tricked all the time of like, oh, right, this is a cloud experience. Now, of course, I see it more on remote play personally, where there's a stutter or an artifacting of the image or something. And when I say more, I mean, for me at home on the portal, once every third session. Like last night, I actually had cloud hiccup, but it was because I went from playing Starfield. in the living room, like next to one of the Wi-Fi meshes all the way into the kitchen to make Gen T. And then it started like, artifact, I'm like, all right, well, I'm getting really far from the internet. And it's pinging around, right? Anyways, back to the start from this weekend, though, again, of like, the amazing time you live in.

When I look at this device and I can't believe as a fucking handheld purist, somebody who loves his handheld gaming machines, right? Like, Ben wanted to play Forts the Horizon. I was like, do you want to go downstairs? Because that's where the giant TV is. and the thing, and he's like, no, I want to play her here. Prop pillows up in his lap, give him the, my phone and the backbone, and he's playing Forza. And so what did I do?

Grab my portal, started that, played Diablo next to him, right? And there's this little, like, I'm playing games while my son, and it's right there, and we're both streaming through the internet, but it's not failing and it's not collapsing, and it's not, like, back in the day of your dad picking up the phone and fucking up what you were doing on America Online. Like, I am still, that is still me for cloud gaming, where it's like, I, I, can't believe it. And I might be lucking out because again, my games aren't, I need a Twitch shooter. I need to be perfect here. I need to go do that. My game is Starfield right now via this,

right? Ben is obsessed with Little Kitty Big City. He's been playing that on Jen Switch. But again, there was he started it up on. I was, he was already on this. I was like, oh, we'll start a new game on the class. That's working great. Forts is working great. Like I am amazed. I saw when Paris was talking about giving it an eight. I saw people over in our live chat being like, I'd give it a out of 10 this that and the other's habit for me and I'm not trying to take away from your experience with it but for me as somebody who's jumping in there and what my experience has been with it I am constantly in awe that it works and it works as well as it does where I literally go ahead please oh no no I'm just going to jump in and say you you make the great point about that

and that's how I've tried to approach this where I do feel like I'm being super nitpicky but you always have to look at this from the lowest common denominator of use case right there's so many variables that come into cloud gaming that you have to take for account for your start with your television that can cause latency right then obviously your internet connection itself the Wi-Fi your distance from wherever this data center is that you're connected from the ping times there's there's all these different variables that you have to account so while one person's use case might be amazing 100% the next ones could be completely awful and i think like it was i keep going back to the portal because i remember people giving me a lot of shit but what i was saying about it

What did you fucking say about it? Because I had a lot of latency on it, right? Fuck you, Paris. I know, see? But people were telling me, oh, you need to upgrade your Wi-Fi. You need to do this. People are, that's not realistic. People are going to do that.

I go, look, my Wi-Fi works great if I'm watching Netflix or I'm doing this or doing that. So to tell someone they need to completely upgrade their entire home internet system, you know, for cloud streaming is not a realistic proposition for the average consumer. Like you said, most people, this is probably going to be completely enjoyable. They're going to have a great time with it, no problem. But you are going to have people because like Fortnite, you can play on this for free, right? So you're going to have people that might try to be competitive playing on cloud

gaming and you have to take into account for that. They're not going to have the experience that they want or you're going to have people that are very nitpicky about how their game controls. And it's slightly off because you're streaming it over to cloud. That's going to be a use case for them. Right. So that's how I see it. So I think the scores would be across the board just depending on the individual and what their setup looks like in their home.

100% Paris. Yeah, none of that's ever lost on me again, that we're in San Francisco. I pay for whatever great internet, you know, gigabit, whatever the hell it is. I couldn't tell you if I'm Wi-Fi, 5, 6, whatever. I know when I paid somebody an exorbitant amount of money to put in cables, it was the cat six or seven or whatever, the highest cables I could get in the goddamn place where, like, I'm with you of like, I get it. And so somebody being like, it's a five out of ten for me,

or it's this. And like, somebody went through, I'm sorry, I didn't get your name was like, wait till Greg tries Luna. You need to fucking wake up. We've done a lot of Luda streams here.

And I always talk about how amazed I am with Luna and how much I like Luna. And when I was like, man, New World's added controller support. I'm going to play that on Luda. And then I was like, it's not on Luna. I'm like,

what the fuck Amazon? Similar to last night when I was up there, playing on Xbox Cloud, having a great time. And I was like, all right, Starfield runs exactly how I remembered, flawlessly,

Game of the year last year. We'll be a game of the year this year. It's got a chance, people. Why don't I jump into Diablo 4? Search, search. Okay, I'll jump back in. It's not, I've never jumped in. Did it?

Click the search bar. I put it my motherfucker. Diablo 4 isn't on the game pass? And I googled and it's like, because of the deal they had with Ubisoft or whatever, with Adactivision, they can't fucking. Ah, fuck. Yeah, I want to give some props to what we've seen,

the growth of Xbox Cloud Gaming on the UI side. I know me in Paris have always talked about, you know, being able to jump in. I mean, people have brought it up right. The cloud saves. How simple it is that it just snaps from my console to PC. Now being on the cloud. I'm having saves from 2007 playing oblivion. All of a sudden that's snapping and following me.

That's amazing. But the UI has grown so much where now you can join party chats. You can see your friend list. You're looking at achievements on the cloud side on just my phone and my little handheld to now on the PC side. where you can also do mouse and keyboard on games, Paris. They didn't even have that at the beginning. It's grown a lot where when I click on it, I'm always impressed of,

oh, you're really taking the time to make this feel like a console experience, and it's getting closer and closer every day. I was wow today by jumping in and being able to see all that. To jump in and just iterate that point, I know Paris, I see you want to jump in too, but just especially coming from being the PlayStation guy, right? I've covered PlayStation my entire career. I don't, I come for the Xbox exclusive here or there.

You're nailing it. of like when it is like it's pinging and it's sinking and it's doing and I turn it off downstairs and I come back upstairs and I ping the cloud and it's there. I redeem the Forza DLC code I got on the dot com. And this might all sound like, yeah, trust me, PlayStation has not always been like this. Like it's better now. It's better than ever. But there are still days where it's like, oh shit, which save is they want me to sing?

And this thing just fucking gets it. And again, Xbox has an ecosystem where I've made this comment before and I mean it of like, if the handheld turns out to be true, like that is a game changer for me on where I want to play third party stuff. The idea that it is just like, cool, it's on the cloud. If I only have my phone,

it's on the handheld if I want to go or bring that upstairs or do it. It's overheat. Like, it's fucking insane. Yeah, it's all. Sorry, Paris. Do you want to jump back in when we were talking about it.

No, I mean, you're pretty much nailing what I was going to chime in on. It's, it's the synergy of what they've done with their services across these multiple platforms to where I can hop from my Amazon Firestick to my PC, to my console in the family room,

to the one in the kids room, hop on my mobile device, browser, like, and it all just works. And it works almost seamlessly in that way. And I think of anything, that is the big advantage

that Xbox as a whole has, that having cloud gaming as just a piece of that puzzle is really ideal. So you can literally just pick up and play wherever you want. And this is like, for me,

one of the reasons I'm actually going to get a fire stick is that Ben usually is hanging out in his playroom, which is upstairs, there's a TV above the fireplace. Pop that in there, so he doesn't have to dominate my phone and also playing the smallest thing

and have the worst posture of all time for this two-year-old, right? Toss it up there, and again, if it's the same theoretically because of I'm on the same Wi-Fi structure, that's good enough for what he's doing or what I'd ever want to do of tossing Starfield up there or something. I like that a lot. Let's jump into the YouTube's

Super chats. We have one coming in from Nightlife for Paris. Big user here for the XCloud. Have you had some of my best games of for Honor and Halo. Could it be a data center latency-driven problem? Mike Parris and Greg, you are the goats. Pairs, what do you think it is with the data centers and your proximity to them?

Do you think people will see issues like that? I think that's a real possibility. Now I'm very close to Los Angeles, so I'm sure I'm pretty close to it. And I've not looked on the Xbox side, so I don't know what my ping looks like, but I know what the G-Force now servers. I have a pretty reasonable ping, so that should be ideal as far as latency goes. But this goes back into what I was saying before. There's so many variables that goes into cloud gaming that all it takes is one thing to go wrong in that chain that could degrade your experience.

So you never know what the issue could be. And I'll say again, the example that I take playing on a hardwired Samsung TV using the Xbox app compared to G-Force now, compared to Luna, compared to just the native games that you can get through the gaming hub, the, the latent. was more noticeable on Xbox compared to the rest. So that tells me it's something outside of my house versus something that's inside my house because like I said, it was better on

services on the same exact device. Question for both of you, I think more for how Paris seems to play and getting moved around the house so much like me. Do you ever remote play with your Xbox? Because I've had it set up previously and then whatever it happened, it fell apart between, you know, my very long

long stretches of not playing Xbox. And that's what I was like, oh, I don't want to go downstairs and do it. I'll try cloud. And then I've never looked back because I've had such a great experience with it. Do you, is, do you remote play ever, Paris? It's been a very long time before cloud gaming ever really became

a big thing for Xbox. I used to do it back in the day. I'm running to Lentup. I do it with PlayStation. That's what I do it with probably similar to your use case. But no, with Xbox I really haven't because I think ideally I've been trying to really just test out this whole cloud gaming thing to where I don't have to be dependent on the console, you know, to be able

to remote play something. Yeah, I never remote play. I mean, maybe next week when NCAA football comes out and I want to play that anywhere. And unfortunately, it's not on cloud gaming. Then maybe I'll be remote playing. But no, I am not someone that when I go out and I'm looking to ping my Xbox at home and somehow play, I usually just try to enjoy the vacation and go forth. But ever since cloud gaming has come out, I've enjoyed being able to turn on my phone and see

that I would like them to condense the three different apps that I have for Xbox on the phone. If we could also say like some improvement, I got three different apps, Phil. I hit the Xbox thing and it's like you want a remote app. I got fuck clouds on the other half. Help me out. Bro, let's get this all together here. I do have to circle back to the whole remote play thing. Actually something that

I do do from time to time, I remote play steam from my PC to the Apple TV out in my family room. And you can do it on the Steam deck as well. When you got to have that mind sweeper fix, you know? Yeah. And it works. It works pretty well. But I will ask the final question before we move on into our ad break is, you know,

Paris, after your review here, it is positive for me to see them branching out and going to different, you know, brands in different companies to work with them. But it still doesn't feel like cloud gaming in 2024 is the way. And we've talked about this on the Xcast of when does it make that leap. Are we in an age now where cloud gaming is a way to play? This is it. It still feels very additive from what you've said. Of course, the ecosystem and all that.

But it doesn't feel like people are going to make this their main way to play. Is that true for 2024? Yeah. In my personal opinion, I don't think you'll see people go, well, hey, I'll just pick up a fire stick and subscribe to Game Pass. And that's the only way I'm going to interact with these games. We're probably closer to 2030, in my opinion. I just think the infrastructure is not mature enough yet to truly support it for everything that I was just talking about before as far as all the different variables that you'll have.

All right. Greg, what do you think? Will there ever be a time where you think cloud gaming is the only way you'll play one day? No, I doubt it. I think no matter what we're doing and how it's going, your best experience would be local, right? Even now when I'm upstairs playing, right, it is still always a lifeboat. It's not like last night when Jen was like, but you're coming to bed with me. And she laughed at me. And I literally said, Mike, if I'm lying out, I'm like, listen, eventually we're getting

college football and you're saying goodbye to me. So until that game's here, yeah, I will, hang out with you and play a remote play. But I want it on the giant screen. I want it in 4K. I wanted all these things. Now, you know, fire it to stick, the app on the TV. Are we moving to a place where theoretically that could happen? Yeah, but like, you know, there's always going to be this yes, but where are we ever going to figure out the internet in this country to make it great everywhere and not have to worry about centers and pangs and this like, yeah, probably. And so it's hard to look into that future without it, but I still feel like there'll be something to a local machine that would give you that high quality experience. Maybe it would swing the other way,

though, where that is the boutique experience. And there is, hey, yeah, you can get whatever game system library is the one that's dominant through your TV, through the app on your phone. The connectivity and the ecosystem is really where it's at, where it's not so much about, like, is one going to take over in terms of the cloud or the streaming? I think it's more of the fact that I want my games wherever we are. We're going to. excited to try once human tomorrow, right? And I got infinitely more excited than, of course, Christ's falling. When I saw that, oh, my God, wait, this is on, this is going to be on the phone too.

So I don't need to be playing on PC all the time. And it's like, yes, eventually, maybe. You know, it comes out this week on PC. Who knows when we're getting a mobile version? But it's like, that's the thing where I want to be able just to go and whatever experience I'm at when I have that 10 minutes, that 20, that hour, playing the one that best fits the device. Yeah, it's funny. We always talk about the future me and Paris and Gary back on the Xcast of,

where we don't know what 10 years will look like. And, you know, I don't think if you could rewind 10 years, I don't think people would be saying, oh, I'm just streaming Netflix and all these movies to my phone all the time. Sure. Now we don't buy games physically. I'm on digitally. So it is hard to say what could be in the next 10 years.

But I do see us in a future in the next 20, 30 years one day, where we do move away from having the console and everything is just beamed and streamed. I think we will get to that one day. And that's just how it's going to be. But until then, we'll keep playing games on the console, Paris. Yeah, I was just going to add to that. I think cloud gaming, and again, this is going back to infrastructure building up, it's going to be more ideal in global locations where console gaming isn't as practical, but everybody has a mobile phone, right?

Everybody has a cellular connection. And if they can figure that out to make that more accessible to people and obviously more affordable to people in those areas, that's where I think you'll see get more people adopted into gaming via cloud streaming. but we'll see. It's been a good conversation about a review of Xbox Cloud Gaming in 2024. Check out your Amazon Fire Sticks right now where you can get that app like Paris said on two different versions of that fire stick. Go look that up. Guys, we're going to hear a word from our sponsors. And then guess what?

We're going to have a fun conversation about being dads and playing games with your family. Sarah Bondrode. Sarah Bonn wrote in. Sarah Bonner, I didn't want to talk to you. This episode is brought to you by Shady Ray's. Get ready for the season ahead with quality. Shades built to last. Our friends over at Shady Ray's have you covered with premium, polarized shades that won't

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to make sure you never miss an episode. Welcome back, everyone. Of course, I wanted to segue into a fun topic with two gaming dads. Gary, I still miss you and I love you. But, Greg, you get to fill in for Gary Witta today. And, you know, last week you posted a really fun one. You and your son shared an awesome gaming moment. You beat your first level of Mario together.

I thought that was really cute. And you kind of wanted to have a conversation. Of course, Paris has his family. They've had gaming moments. I've had great gaming moments with my mother. So I wanted to talk about, you know, gaming moments with the family and more specifically your kid. Sure.

Yeah. You know, I, what I was talking about with gaming and kids and all these different things, right, is that before I even met Jen, I'm fairly certain. Maybe, actually, maybe we had already been married. I forget. but like Jen's what turned me around and having kids, right? First date she mentioned it. I was like, yes, and the whole thing.

And it was that, maybe it was Destiny 2's launch. Donald Mustard, formerly of Epic Games, formerly of Fortnite and all that, had posted on Instagram or on Twitter that him and the boys were so excited that in the basement they had quad flat screens on the TV and one was running college football on Saturday and the other three was running Destiny and they were playing it. And I was like, I cannot, that is an amazing thing that I can't wait to one day get to. And we haven't had like a plan for introducing Ben to video games. Like that hasn't been thing.

Again, Ben, you know, my son, he's two and a half years old. So it hasn't been like, oh, we're going to wait till this age or do this thing and blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, throughout these two years, I've shown him a game here or there or whatever. And, you know, he originally got super into Hot Wheels on Leach 2, where he loves his hot wheel. So it was like, well, look, some of your hot wheels are in this game. And that game is great because you can turn on every one of the assists where all I have to do is hit R2. And then it will go. And he maneuvers it a bit.

And he can screw it up as he often did and get him off. But it's like that he was happy doing that for a long time. And then when I showed him Forza, that's when he really wanted to play. And there's no assists there. So I would drive him out of the starting, you know, like festival area just into the open world and then let him go. and forts again being like this sounds goofy probably but such an easy control scheme

compared to hot wheels because hot wheels has turbo and it has the you know checks left and right and stuff like this being you move them with this which you already knew you know you R2 is gas which he picked up on and then L2 is reverse which he picks up on because of course

the kind of funny crew bought him that Jeep for his birthday yes yes yes so he knows that little he drives that thing by himself now where he shifts he knows when he needs a shift it to reverse and reverse and go. So he once he did that with Forza, it was like, holy shit. Like, wait a second. Like, he's actually playing Forza. And he can, when he wants to do a donut,

he does a donut. And when he wants to avoid stuff and smash stuff and he sees the sandstorm and he drives, goes into the sandstorm and then tells me he's in the sandstorm. It's amazing, right? But that had been happening. And so then it became like, well, shit, like, what else could we do with this? And he wanted to play a different video game, but he didn't know what he wanted. And I was like, you want to play Mario? Because when Mario Wonder

originally dropped, I was home that day from work taking care of him. And so we went into the basement and he watched me play like two levels. And I have videos of him going like, wahoo. Like I kept doing it. And then he started mimicking me. But he never showed like it. He didn't understand what really was happening, I think.

So when this seed started to sprout this past week, weekend, it was like, okay. And like, I'm like, well, how am I going to do this? And like, I, of course, defaulted to go get a pro control. I'm like, no, wait. He's a baby. So I went over to the switch and popped off the joycons and turned them to the side. and, you know, started them as player one and two, gave it to him and logged him in his Mario.

And then, yeah, you saw a video for our close friends. That was him going and being able to move Mario and pick that up and then jump and then learn to jump. And then, yeah, we went through the entire level and got to the flagpole, right? And then it's like, you say his first, he's completed now dozens, right? Because we just keep going and playing. And like, don't be wrong. Like, he's still two and a half. So there are like the underwater levels.

this, I mean, I'm asking him to speak Greek. I'm like, tap, tap, tap, tap. And he's like just tapping A2 slowly, right? So he's not rising or whatever. So I have to do that for him. And we quickly defaulted to the stuff we'd already done to redo and just run because he's not worried about getting these wonder seeds

like I am. But yeah, it was this amazing thing of like, wow, we're already here. And again, you know, I'm shocked every day by how much more of a person he is and what he learned from the previous day and how, you know, what, like all these things. And again, the power wheel he's driving, the fact that now he can just drive the power wheel is insane.

And then the fact that he can understand forts is insane. So it's all these different pieces, but now suddenly be playing games with him. It's like, wow, that's such a crazy feeling, Mike. I bet, Greg. I can't comprehend it because, you know, with my children, I've just put him in front of the TV screen. We've been watching one piece. We've been playing games since just day one. You know, it's like that.

But, yeah, Paris, I think of memories with my. mom, but really for me back in the day, we didn't have games on the phone. It wasn't relevant like that. So it's like we kind of slow started with the arcade and then cousin Peter came over with the Sega one day and we all kind of looked at each other like, whoa, what is this Aladdin video game? And then Grandma getting us a PlayStation 1 for Christmas a long time ago. And that's how it kind of steamrolled. But it is wild to think about like people are going to have moments like that with you, Greg, where we're on the couch now and we can just kind of start playing out of nowhere. I almost shot you at Tex-Paris because I remember how you had been stumbling.

for the Xbox family plan or whatever. And it was like that, I wanted an update on all of that because I was like, do I need to create Ben an Xbox live account that way I can go play for it with him? And I was like, that might be a bit far because,

again, he's just going to want to spin and I'm going to get the itch to go do a race or whatever. You know, because even in Mario sometimes. I'm like, all right, come here.

Ben. All right, you're a ghost now. Come to me. I got to touch you. I got to touch you. But that day is coming, though.

You will 100% do that. That's what, since you bring up the family plan, And that's why I want it because I'm in a house where four of us game and we play and the gymnastics that I have to pull off to make that happen sometimes. You know what I mean? Like to the point now, my oldest daughter, I just, she just has her own subscription and account and everything that she does. But my son, you know, I play that dance of kind of, you know, managing the back and forth. And my middle daughter or my youngest daughter, I should say, she, she's been leaning more into playing on Nintendo stuff.

Like, ironically enough, you bring up all these stories, she picked up Zelda on her own without me suggesting it, saying it, anything, and really started diving into that on her own. And then she has her Fortnite crew, but she just does that, you know, playing off of the switch as well. But it's, it's interesting to see, you know, you only have been, but when you have multiple kids and to see the things that they will gravitate towards and what they enjoy, I think my son just, obviously, we're the only two guys in the house. He just kind of gravitates to the things that I play.

But watching my oldest daughter, and you know, I've talked to this on X-Cast before, Mike, where giving her game pass and just seeing all the different things that she's just discovered on her own has always been fascinating to me. And even her in her early days, she started off on Minecraft.

That was kind of her big thing that really got her into gaming. But it was, it's been fascinating to see what has been the thing that gets them into gaming. And I've never truly just tried to push it on. on them. They just obviously see me all the time and discover it on their own. But it's, you'll, you'll have some stories, Greg, for sure. It'll, it'll be interesting to see Ben as it gets older, what, what he jumped into. It's a fascinating discussion. Because it was, I remember when Diablo 4 first launched and Jen was obsessed with it. And I'm obsessed with it. We're

going down every night after putting Ben to sleep. And I forget at what point, how many weeks in, where I was just like, do you understand that it's like, what was it, nine years or seven years, 10 years? I forget what it was from Diablo three to four. And I'm like, so theoretically, The Diablo five drops Beto play with us. You know what I mean? Like there's a reality where we're grinding

as a family down here. I was like, that's amazing. That's exactly what I want. Yeah, Paris brings up the interest of his kids and all the differences. I find it so cool and fascinating of,

man, I'd love to have the Xbox GamePass family app, almost like Netflix where it's like, let me click on mom's account. What are you interested in a mom? Like, oh, what's my little brother playing? Oh,

I want to see that because, yeah, it is cool to see what they gravitate towards and what's going on. Parris, do you have any gaming memories with the kids like that where it is their first level ever and you're guiding them through them together well you know and i've talked about this before it is just fresh in my head but it's just my son

with destiny you know um that would probably be the main where where he went from just sitting in the chair off just watching me to hey can i try it and giving him the controller and kind of walking him through and then the next thing i know i'm buying him his own console and we're raiding together and do all his other crazy stuff. But even, I would say even with my, my youngest, like I just mentioned the Zelda stuff, it was kind of her discovering that and then me just being the voice in the background, do this, press that, try this, try that. And watching her learn how to actually play that game to the point where it was like, can you leave me alone so I can play? I was like, all right, sorry, I'm out of here. You know what I mean? It's, it's a cool thing. It's a cool feeling to see

your kids go from not understanding how to play a video game to then mastering it to the point where they just want you to get the F out of the room and leave them alone. Trust me, Greg, that'll be the best feeling ever when Ben tells you to leave him alone.

Oh, no, I'm stoked about that. Yeah, then you know you won. Well, and that was the thing with this where it's like, you know, again, we're very conscious of screen time. Like, if you're a parent out there and you're thinking we're horrible people,

like, there have been, this is an experiment and there was, like, we noticed, like, we started, had to have a conversation when he didn't want to eat that day. It's like, all right, maybe we don't do, because he's usually the cartoons in the morning.

And then it's been the thing of it. It used to be like a treat where he'd be eating in front of the TV. And he started doing it more. And then we started going back the other way. And it was an uphill swing to be like, all right, no, you got to understand the relationship of what you're doing here. And so, like, there was a moment where I needed to go help Jen in the kitchen.

So I did walk away. And he got to play on forts of by himself for, you know, five minutes or 10 minutes or whatever it was. And it was like, wow, this is so crazy to look out of my kitchen. into the living room and see him playing games, right? And me wanting to be there playing games. And usually that's where I am as well. So, like, this mix of it and what it will become.

And I think that's another thing that's so fascinating for it is that to look back. And again, I'm way ahead of myself in terms of what Ben will be into, right? Like, already he is a sports obsessed kid. He is a car obsessed kid. He loves the Ford Bronco. To the point that yesterday, Mike, for cartoons, we watched a 15,000, minute review of Ford Bronco. Sick.

By like basically like the Ryan McCaffrey is to Tesla. This guy is to the Ford Bronco or whatever. So like he was making jokes in there and Ben's just like in it. And then we saw like five different Broncos walking into the near. Anyways, I digress. He's into cars. He's into baseball.

He's into sports. He's like I don't know where he'll be. But it's like I know that how I'm supporting and playing with Mario is how I want to do all of that. Right. Where it's like I remember and this is no shade at my parents whatsoever because video games were such a different thing. and, of course, we're brand new to them, right? I remember how much I wanted them to play games with me.

And I remember how you'd have to be like, Mom, please play. And she's like, okay. And then she got, what am I doing? How do I do it? What? I remember, like, I still have, you were talking about vivid memories. I, of course, had a Sega master system because I always make the wrong choice. And I remember when one of my dad's friends from work, another, you know, big burly

construction worker came over for, I'm sure beers and a barbecue, but for me, it was just dad's friends coming to dinner. And I remember when I was playing the, Sega Master System knockoff duck hunt. So not Duck Hunt, but the one that was the Sega Master System version with the blaster. He came through the room and like

got on the floor and like I vividly remember him with the gun playing and my parents like watching him play with me and like, but he wasn't like playing with me. He was playing. I was like so fucking impressed that an adult was playing games better than me. You know what I mean? Like trying to game the system

like how close to the TV do I need to be and all this stuff? I was like, that's awesome. So now to jump and it's like when Ben's like, asking like he's putting me out can I play video games like yeah hell yeah we can play video games let's go and like last night you know which we occasionally do movie night

where it is like usually TV is maybe a maybe an hour in the morning then at five maybe 30 minutes while Jen and I or I make dinner or whatever it's going to be and then sometimes we'll do a movie night this it's been a holiday weekend of course so he had his first viewing of the aristocrats

cats the rist of cats a Disney flick from the 70s I'm not super versed Jen was. Great songs in there, I'll tell you right now. Little racist, but they put a warning in the beginning of it.

Like most Disney films, I'm sure from back. I don't watch many of you. I watch more of the Pixar variety, but whatever. The next two nights later when we did another movie night, it was like, let's watch a new movie.

And we went through the Disney library, and I'm like, what about this one? What about that one? No, no. And I was like, and it was like, after a weekend of Mario, I was like, what about the Super Mario movie? And he's like,

so we put that on. It's running the background before, and he never really connected with it. This time he was dialed in. Yeah. I sent another video to Tim of him just like dialed in watching this. And is that movie a little too scary for a two and a half year old? Maybe.

Maybe. You know, now that he's actually watching it, dry bones a bit terrifying. What are they doing to Luigi? I'm like, he's going to be fine. Mario's going to save him. It's fine. But it was like, it's a very awesome to, I think, be as interested in his interests. And of course, our jobs allow us to constantly be a kid.

And so I'm super excited to see what that turns into as he finds his own passions. Yeah, that's what's exciting whenever I talk with you too. And of course, Gary, is you guys are the next generation of parents with these kids where you've played the games. You can now guide them. I think of my mom and dad, right, where it's like, oh, no, we never had video games. And mom really tried her best, right? Like I brought up the story on the X-Cast where she stayed up all night playing Gauntlet Legend, 64 with us, which I'll never forget. When we played Laura Croft Tomb Raider, we built that bond of,

I would get stuck and she would call the helpline and stay on hold for minutes, hours, just to have somebody tell us, oh, to find the idol, you got to go past the Tigers and take a hard left, right? Like, mom did a lot for me and my gaming from setting up the internet for wow, waiting in line to get the Xbox 360 for me and my little brother. It was a lot of fun moments, but we never had the, hey, I'm with you all the time. Let me be your guide or let's play together. I never looked at my mom and said, hey, sit down and play this.

and I think she's always supported me on that. The one thing she didn't support, though, because it did happen in WWE Money in the Bank. I want to bring this up, of course. Me and Jackson never got along well with WWE video games, and we actually had cable television and all wrestling removed because Jackson did strangle me with an N64 chord once, just like CM Punk did to Drew McIntyre,

because I was cheating and I wouldn't let him stand up off of the mat, and I would just spam X in front of him and punch him. And Jackson did wrap that cord around my neck and we quickly never got to watch wrestling. All cable TV was taken for all the formative years. So, yeah, I'll never forget that. And you know what? Mom acted swiftly and decisively on that one. So I'll give it to her.

Wrestling's the big one, man, where I just don't know when I'm able to. Because even now, like, Ben still hits. Yeah, he's a toddler. He's a two and a half year old, right? So, like, sometimes the emotions or whatever. Or he just, he thinks he's playing. And it's like, no, no. So it's like his favorite game that only dad plays is tortilla?

which is where dad lays on the ground with a pillow on his belly, and then Ben yells, Tortilla and jumps on me. Where he learned Tortilla, I don't know. It just was one day he wanted to play Tortilla. I'm like, what is Tortilla? Maybe he made it up on the spot. So it is like, I don't know when I get to introduce him to wrestling.

I will continue to introduce moves, and we'll go from there. So when you guys talk about introducing games now, right, is it just, oh, he's fascinated by cars. Hey, let me show you Hot Wheels. Oh, you like Mario. Let's play a Mario game. game. How is this going to go for you, Greg? That's my plan. And I think it's,

it's what's approachable for him. Again, right, Forza, the racing, no, the open world driving. Yeah, of course, that's great. Hot wheels, all these assists, it's great. Mario with me, okay, and not to mention Mario not insulting it, you know, from point A to point B, usually pretty basic, right? There's

things that make it crazier. It's more like we're watching Mario the movie last night and they got to the cars, which he, of course, now, again, he's seen this in the background, but now he's like locked in, he's like, it's Mario, and it's cars. And I was like, Ben,

do you know there's a game called Mario Kart where all you do, and his eyes got big and it's like, that one I'm like, then in my head, I'm like,

you know, unlike your parents who didn't understand. I'm like, all right, so if I put him in baby park, that would work. I'm like,

you know, you can't be anything with shortcuts. It can't be anything you can fall off. Rainbow Road, you know what can I put at 50 Cc, put him here and I'm like,

okay, that might work. That might be fun for him. It's like trying to, it's like what we've all been built for and usually with our friends, right, of like, oh, it is, but it's like you're a Somalié for wine, right? But for video games of like,

he shows a little bit of interest in that. Like, okay, what could we do with that that would make it? But trying to think on a toddler level, a child level, let alone the fact of like, I mean, it's crazy to think about now, right? But it's like he's playing in like the first time he gets the fireflower. You know what I mean? Like, wow, okay, so now you hit this button

and you can throw fireballs. He's like doing it. I'm like, all right. And then we're watching the movie and they're in the fireflower field. Do you remember that flower? he's like, yeah, I'm like, fuck, this is weird. Come on, how cool. Paris, Greg, it's been a great episode.

Of course, I love getting to talk about awesome special gaming moments with your kids and family. And, of course, the progression of Xbox and Xbox Cloud Gaming. It is exciting to see them come to new platforms with the Amazon Fire Stick. Of course, let us know in the comments down below. If you're jumping in on the Fire Stick, what you think so far. We got an awesome review from Paris. We got to talk about cloud gaming in 2024 with Greg and myself. and we want to thank each and every one of you

for tuning in to another episode of The Kind of Funny Gamescasts. We're kicking off the week after a fun holiday break. We're back in full swing and we're playing more games and hanging out talking games with all of you. After this, right now, if you're watching live on Twitch,

you can stay on Twitch because me and Nick are going to take over and we're going to play an early build of Angerfoot, which releases on July 11th. We have free Devolver Digital Game Codes to give away to all of you throughout the stream. And of course, if you're watching on YouTube, there will be a brand new link.

So click over there. can give you a free game code. And then, of course, if you're a Patreon member or a YouTube kind of funny games member, you can watch the kind of funny podcast later this afternoon, live as we recorded, ads free. But if you're not, guess what? You're going to have to catch it on podcast services or everything else tomorrow. Until then, ladies and gentlemen, we'll see you on the stream in just a couple of minutes. Goodbye, everyone.