Giant Bombcast 12-14-2010

Hey everyone, it's Tuesday. It's December the fourteenth, it's twenty ten, and it's the Giant BombCast. I am Ryan Davis. I'm your host. I'm joined by Vinny Caravella. Hi, good afternoon, the beautiful Vinny Caravella. Yeah, he's not here today. You got the anguill? Can we just get any kind of Vinny Caravella also joining a special guest from Pop Cap Games, Jeff Green is in the house. Jeff, thank you for taking time out of your constant commused to seattle. Yeah, come on to come

on over the here taking it off this week. I'm taking off this week. It's like the first week I took off. That's nice. Nice, and I'm spending it with you. I was gonna say so, we were getting you as the check and we got you right before. You're about to start your your pop Cap your your new life with pop Cap and uh and now you are in it. We will talk about that, Shirley. First, let me introduce the rest of our team. Mister Jeff's oh god,

pull it together man shoemaker, mister Jeff Gerstman. I can match three as well. Uh, and it's a job for you really. See later I know where the money's at, Matching three apparently or Pegs. Brad shoemakers here. That's going, Brad, it's going pretty well excellent. We're gonna talk all of us about video games starting now. It's the year. Can we talk about too though we certainly, we certainly can. After last week, Vinnie check in I had any new developments, was just pouring out stuff because

he recently listened to our podcasts. We's got yeh, but but I have a I have a hidden agenda. Oh okay, is its a podcast? Just see it's Is it pegel for Rosetta Stone? No, no, no, I was just hearing you talk about Rosetta Stone last week made me remember that when I worked at Computer Gaming World and we would go to the Metre on and we would see the Rosetta guys there. I thought that was like

the saddest person in the world. I just thought that was such a sad job to happen the next Stone the dragon naturally speaking guys or no, no, he was just on his own. But it does seemed like it just the guy's job. It's like, I'm yeah, like what a random thing. I'm selling translation software in a mall. Do they have a storefront or is this like selling toy helicopters. It's a toy helicopters. The teacher, I speak Italian. I mean we go there for launch a couple times a

week and there'll never be anyone there. He can't serve the web, you know. He there's a computer right there, but he can't use it because he's got to be ready to make a say. That's that's kind of true of everything at the Metrion. No one's dying anything right while you're like, this is a weird place. Let's get out of here. Everything terrible. Everybody did leave. It's like a ghost town now. But I actually mighty into a target. All shit that you're right turning into a target. They're

putting a target in there. That that says it all back. Wait, so what's gonna happen to? What's it called? Is is that where the walk of game is? Is that what they call it? Over sh So my my theory though about the about the Rosetta Stone booth was I felt that that was some sort of like it was like the penalty box for bad Microsoft employees, Like you sucked up and it's like you got to wake the Rosetta stone, right, Jailard, you're going down? What I'm leaving? The

tribe? Oh the tribe? Is there anything? So have you run into any kind of Let me before I start making accusations about the culture at PopCap? How are things a PopCap? They're They're pretty awesome. Okay, I'm happy, good, I'm happy there. I am excellent. Yeah. I when I saw you guys last I had two choices basically for jobs, and they were both good, and one of them was back in the media, and it was really tempting. I mean, I wanted back in after my

last experienced things to say. I had things to say and I was angry about him. So, you know, I had to kind of be convinced by PopCap to come to PopCap. Yeah, and it ended up being kind of an offer. I couldn't refuse it. And I and I don't really just mean money. It was really the whole It was the whole thing, you know, the money and the benefits and the benefits right vision, Let's do this well. It was also the chance to like sort of keep going

with the sort of stuff I was trying to do at EA. And you know, I've been doing this kind of thing for a long time in my career, and the media job was really tempting, and it was a good one, and I think I would have been instantly comfortable, and then amy have felt a little bad about myself for like sort of taking what would have been sort of the easy way out. Like the PopCap job is definitely more challenging, like I'm trying to do things there that they haven't done before.

But the cool thing is like they're on board of it. So it's challenging and it's hard. I mean, you're already trying to ramp up. I've seen you've got you've got podcast designs, you're doing your your live video chat stuff. Yeah, I've been working. Actually, you've been helping me out.

You're you're bringing the media to them. You're saying, look, this is kind of you know, what we're trying to do is or what I'm trying to do is sort of, yeah, bring the audience straight to PopCap in a way that you know, they're not going to get the same kind of media coverage that that other big game companies are going to get, you know, or that Stone or Rosetta Stone. Hey, to be fair, we had no Rosetta Stone people. We have an actual pop cat employee here.

True, that's right. Maybe I should have gone to work for Rosetta. Yeah, it's like, well I can learn how to match three or Japanese three. It is, right. So I am gonna get a pop cap podcast going, and I'm excited about the podcast. It's I think I think that sort of has to be like everybody thinks that it rights itself. How about the cap cast just to mess people up, just just just to throw them off, So just pod cap Yeah, no, thank you, that's it, all right, thank you. If nothing, we are good

for stupid names. Yeah. And with that, like I'm you know, they're giving me a long lease just in in the in the concept of it. So it's not going to be as talking about the Jeweled every week. In fact, what I'm hoping more is that there's like a pretty lively developer community up in Seattle. Yeah, and I'm hoping to get a lot of those folks on you just sort of have like open talks about gaming and stuff going on in that area. So of course it's going to be PopCap focused

and there's gonna be stuff that we're gonna want to get across. But I'm really hoping to sort of have sort of a bigger dialogue going on, so you can ask David Ellis, like, what what PopCap game do you think Master Chief would like? What's your favorite podcast? You cats old enough to talk about Jesus? So yeah, so you know, I it was kind of like when PopCap was talking to me. It was kind of like, you know, the the new nice girlfriend trying to convince you after you were

with the like harsh abuseive girlfriend. You know things are going to be okay. You know, I understand you, Jeff. I won't be like that as I was a little but it was so bad. It's time for the healing to begin. Yeah, you know. And and so far they've they've been really kind about, you know, letting me just tweet whatever the hell I want to say and all that. I mean, we'll see how far I can push it before I get in trouble. You'll find a limit eventually.

I'm working on it, and I'm working on it every day. You have to find an eventure because then that's that lets you know, Okay,

every every kid needs its slimmits. You need. I am a parent, and they have to you know the kid has to find it like, okay, well this is this is the line that I will then push from here on half, Like if I keep calling them poop crap, I'm like, I'll see how long I could get away with that before and all your photoshops of AO rated plants versus zombies Like, okay, Jeff, that's the line. We're trying to expand the market here. People have no vision. People

are already making portographic knockoffs is but Jeweled. We're not getting sent off of it. Make these ones easier. You only got a match too. Come on, come on this when they match themselves hands free? Come on, okay, act Bejeweled. There you go. So yeah. So you know, my my feeling is, as a guy who covered this company for many years, was that they must be cool that you know, their games have

always been cool. I've always felt like there's been this sort of subversive sense of humor to them, and I my suspicion was it was probably going to be a good place to work because of it, and so far that has been born out, and you know, as I've been there, like one thing that I've noticed is, to continue my abusive girlfriend analogy is that when I got in there and you know, I made I've made a few mistakes or said the wrong thing that the wrong person because I didn't know them or

whatever, so you know, then there would be an email back to like, you know, next time, Jeff, maybe you should do this. And from my previous job, that usually meant I was in so much shit. I would sit down and this is a podcast, and I would write like in reply, like a nine hundred word apology like I'll never do anything. I'm sorry, like you know, I'll leave, I'll go home now, back to Berkeley if that would make you feel better, And and the

reply would always be like, yeah, it's all right, reacting. We were kind of already over it at a little drama queen there, yeah kind of. So it's like, wow, everybody's actually nice here, so excellent. Yeah, so I'm happy. Although that commute to Seattle, that's no joke, man, that's no joke. Howevery up there once a week or once a nuts every week so far. I took a week off, and

I took this week off, and I started in September. How we were able to get him here is he's not would be you'd be on a plan, I would be up there right now. I leave Monday nights and I get back Thursday night. So I'm in the office of podcast Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But then I'm at home in Berkeley Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. I mean, when you think it out and look at it that way, it's not that bad. Those fights aren't that long. It's an hour and a half. Yeah, yeah, it's not that big.

At the backing up the mind that drives. Yeah, my commute to to E was was hell. As you guys know on these otherways here, well, from from Yea, from Berkeley down to there. That's that's rough. Do you have like people you recognize now at the airport and kind of the the guy who checks the IDs to those sides those that guy recognized me because I'm always on the same flight. You know, it's Monday at the exact same time. He's got his shift, and so he's always right. He's

like, don't you are you always here? Yeah? So, as a freaking FID you have opinions about the cert current TSA situation. I don't think any of us want when was the last time any of us were on a plane packs for me creates right career for you. It's it's packs for you. Remember, it's kind of no big deal. No, honestly, I

mean I've been put through the scanner thing. I haven't not gotten the pat I keep trying to get the past, and it's like, please please pat me, you know, but let me let me know alive, any sort of human contact. Please. Someone touched me Mary twenty four years. But everyone just thinks, but I have gone through the machine thing. And if you don't think about the fact that like someone is looking at you naked, which is also kind of nice, it's really no big deal. You just

stand there for a second and then and then you're gone. You know, it's no big deal. I don't want to I don't want to dest but I will say that I my concerned to be for all of those TSA employees standing right next to the conscient machine that's constantly yeah radiation exactly, or even like the pilots, you have to go through it every day, just kind of like zip. So they say it's like, oh, it's like, you know, it's like a chest X ray. It's you know, it's

not that big day. But again, I don't I get those like every few years. Yeah, and even that one time it feels like what are they doing? And every time like I have to leave the room, give me that, and they give me that. I'm out of here. If all the hair falls out of your chest, they don't worry about it. He has to leave the room and I have to high from Superman. Clearly

something is going on, some bad thing is happening. But I have learned you guys, I'll see up in the air with Yes, I'm feeling like him now with the whole packing and going through the security like it's all bad efficiency, and I get completely annoyed by you know, you could see the like the families like like civilians like get out of I'm a commuter, now get the fuck out of the way, you know, coming the normals, normals weekend, I have to take my shoes off, that kind of thing,

like you always. So that's what it's like for me. Other than that. Fantastic Well, Jeff, A pleasure to have you here, as always to be here. Let's uh, let's let's talk to the rest of the crew here for a bit though, any Caravella, hey, buddy, well, we are in the midst for those for those listening we are in Actually, as you were listening to this, we are fighting right now. Yeah probably yeah, Well you're you to this podcast, we're recording another one.

There's another one that's happening, and we are so pissed at each other. Happened. I probably hate Brad. No, actually, I think me and you are gonna have to form a strategic alliance. No, because fuck strategic alliances for one thing, because they never last. This isn't a reality show where I'm gonna get like by coming later. You have your own agenda

and you stick to it. Our Game of the Year deliberations uh taking place over the course of this week, and we are we're gonna try and cram as much of it into eight one day so that I'm just gonna be the end of that whatever game you wants. Fine, Vinne's just gonna keep playing the games that Vine likes to play. See you can. God damn it

it, Jeff. It either goes that way. It either goes like fuck it, I don't care whatever, or it's the irrational fine like no, no, no, I'm not gonna let no years worth of just one kind of like gently related things. I'm gonna stick on this best graphics category, and I'm gonna hold my grounds so typical of you. Just wait until I start my StarCraft filibuster. Limbo, come out of your mouth one more time, everyone in this room, in this room for forty eight hours, I'm

gonna see if you're gonna filibuster, you have to stand. That's right, all right, it's the rules and the podium though, that's right, we should feel. Are you gonna game of the year overall game of the year StarCraft? I don't think that's your hands. I don't think that's a fight I can win in here. That shouldn't stop it from I mean, but I'm realistic though, you know, we've we've all, we've all. This is not our first rodeo. We've all done this enough times, you know.

Like, all right, realistically, I'm not gonna be able to sell these other cats on like games. So what's what's the game that I want that I think will win totally? Well's the one that you bring up kind of under your breath. Well, I'd vote for StarCraft, But like Jeff, Jeff, Jeff has already said he would support a vote for StarCraft two over a handful of other games. I will say this, like, but

I don't want this to become a Game of the Year podcast. With plenty of that, there's nothing that I would not be happy to say, Yes, that was the game of the year. Like, I feel like all of our kind of our top bids right now our game is like, yeah, that game was Like maybe that's not my favorite game, but I have my personal top ten lists, so that's where I get to vent that shit out. But yeah, usually by the time it gets there, they are

all spectacular games. It's like, yeah, these are all great. So it's it's just sort of like, well, which one is the greatest? The most greatest is tough? Which week which Vie? You and I spent some time this weekend try to figure out what's the most straightest Dorito's promotional game available on Xbox Live Arcades. Well, I'm throwing my hat into the ring of Crash Course Dorito's Crash Course. I second the votes. Yeah, anybody

else want to challenge carried all right? Where Yeah, it's not an actual category, just so we we spent some time with Dritos. If you're listening, if you'd like to sponsor the Giant Bond Game of the year feature sponsor was a little late sponsorship of some kinds. We're not that cheap. Don't sell us that. I will take the money, will buy our own God damn Toritos. Dude, what if it's a lot of Dritos. What if it's a lot of like the super small bags so we can make like a

ball pit out of them. Now I had I had a case of small bags of Cheetos. Don't ask me why, and shit, but somehow I came into those. And there's still one Rabba lunch lines maybe, okay, keep going. There's still one taped above my whall bathroom, just a sealed bag of chieves. Yeah. I forget why. I forget why I taped it up there. At the time, it was something totally we were hiding it. It was it was me and my roommate were hiding it in each

other each other's shoes and just sticking them in weird places. Yeah, but basically he was getting cheetoed. And then I think where it ended up is I just ended up haping it above the door to the bathroom. And it's been there for like a year, and you know, you're probably still good. Probably ladies coming, they stay at the house and then they say, like, what is wrong? Why? What is wrong with you people? But it's not the cheese. I don't know, come on, it's not

that. That's that's just one of many things. The stolen road cone that's in front of the bathroom door. Now, actually it's probably more noticeable than the cheetos. But you're you're effective warning your Las Vegas flyers. Uh door montage. He has a lot of bad stuff in my house. We Vinnie getting back on topic. So I think Dorito's crash course right, they're Friedo lay right, that is as products. Yeah, I'm holding out for the chili cheese. Friedo's games. So does Doritos have a lot of games?

They've done three of these so far. They didn't They did uh with Death of the Struction of Destruction, and that was the Monster Trucks Versus Dinosaurs game that came out, which which I recall it not being terrible but just being kind of like you crank through because it was two hundred really quick points and yeah, I forgot the points. There was no real reason to keep playing it. And then it's harms Way. Harm's Way is which kind of seems

like a real video game. Actually it does, but I don't care for it too much. We spent some time in there as well. I just don't like the handling on the car turrets versus monster trucks. Are there Doritos in the game? No, that one's the weird thing like that one way, especially they have a logo up front or something like that, and even that it's it's for strong. Yeah. So are they're doing some kind of competition where they put these two games out for free on the same day and

people are gonna be able to vote which one's better. And I think it's a real easy vote because harms Way is not so good and Dorito's Crash Course is pretty awesome. Yeah, so so Dre's Cat Crash Course for a free for a free game, I've paid a sensibly the promote tortilla chips. That one for five bucks, I would have said, yeah, this is this is totally fun. If you'd probably use some more levels, sure, sure, but be right. As a free product, it's like, yeah,

this is actually fun. It brings them and does and does not slam the branding uh down your throat the whole time. Now, what if it came out from some indie developer and it had nothing to do with Doritos. I

think some indie developer actually did the development work on it. So yeah, but it's it's all avatar based, so it's just your avatar and it's kind of just running through an obstacle course, you know, like a you know she's about or you know, one of those extreme physical kind of game show things and you just you know, run around and go from left to right and you're going for best time and it gets pretty tough. Uh just it handles well. I think what it is. This is really good animation on

Yeah, some of the best avatar animation I've seen. Eating chips, Yeah, no, chips get consumed opportunity. Uh yeah, it's it's you look at you like, why why are you doing this Doritos, Like well, it's like when Burger King did it. It's like, yeah, there's Burger King shit everywhere here, So I get it. But it definitely seems like they there was a game in development that they then picked up these two kids.

I think with the Harms way specifically, they actually solicit did a lot of the stuff was them soliciting ideas from people and then they took the best ideas and contracted developers to make them. I mean that was the like Dash of Destructions, the same deal, exactly what that was. But here we are talking about Doritos and their games. So maybe it's working. Like it's not a bad game. It's like it's it's like, I mean, it's

not up to the quality of either of these games. But I am reminded in moments of both Trials and Splosion Man while playing Crash Course you get that. Yes, the animations from Splosion Man, they're kind of like it's not as insane as either of them. I'm a chance it's not. It doesn't take it to those levels, but I am again I'm reminded. But they're fun. They were there be fun. We played four players. Better make

this your game of the year, just to like fun with game. It's a free one everybody can play, presented by Dorito even if it's not just the value is infinite because you can't divide, you've got the script, you've got your story. But yeah, we already no dollars. We made it through, but I feel like I will not play that game. Yeah, we hit our limits. We played through every level once and in multiplayer. Yeah, but yeah, it was free and then that and we played enough

harms way to get points. One was now when we actually got all the points in. That was easy. That was easy. You don't even need other people for this. It was so easy. You got you get points. We're looking at the credits and also making a lobby, which I was given it away. The other thing we played though together was a Need for Speed. We played a little Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. This how much additional need for Speed Hot Pursuit? Were you playing the Squeeze zero zero?

Yeah? I had a lot of need I know because as I was playing other things, I saw you, like one in the morning, Hey, we'll play some more Need for Speed. I have still playing this. I've been playing since like seven in the morning. That's yeah, I think it was. It was kind of like it was like noon or eleven for that match. Hey, yeah, we played earlier. I think I don't remember. Everything's a blurred out. Was that today? It was like yesterday?

Yeah? No, I'm not playing blur and playing Hot Pursuits. Uh So did that dude who was in our game party go out and actually buy the game and come back? Did you wind up playing with that we all abandoned him. I was still playing, but I don't have who was that. I have no idea who that was. Okay, I thought you no, wait, did Charlie knew? If Charlie somebody who was like just in our game party day, what do you guys do? It? Real fun? He was playing Black Ops. Yeah, he thought we were all gonna play

Black Ops with him when he joined the party. I think Charlie invited him at that point. Then he was like, oh, well, you guys were going for a half hour, I'm gonna go buy it. Like took like a thirty second sales pitch and he was like, all right, I'm gonna pick that game, pick it up. And then about ten minutes later and we were like everyone else was like even as like so like you guys will be around, like she'll playing like a half hour. Oh yeah.

To be fair, I was still playing it, but I didn't to be less fair, I just I got booted out of that game or something like that. You got you got dumped at some point for whatever reason. But yeah, that game is fantastic. God damn. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Jeff Green, have you played any of the hot Pursuits. I was just thinking I should have waited to Leviate until after I came out,

so I would have gotten my free copy. It's god, damn, you're free right, Like I don't want to keep saying this for because I was telling on Amazon right now. Yeah, it keeps getting cut down to thirty and thirty five dollars. I heard nothing good things about it, and I was to when when they were it was in beta and I saw it running and it looked great, and like a lot of people, I was a big fan of the first Top Pursuit, so it's I was and Criterion,

you know, yeah, you guys kind of do no wrong. Those guys really, I mean you look at what Need for Speed had been for the years prior to that. They really turned that whole series around because it was it was getting grim. Yeah, so when when that announcement came out, it just like felt right, you know, like the hopes were high and it's it sounds like they I was. I was, a little honestly, I was a little worried in that they were announcing it at E three

that year, then it was coming out later that year. Granted, I don't know, like what the actual development cycle was like how long it's it had been, but it seemed that seemed like quick turnaround, and I was afraid, like, I hope they're not just squeezing this out like Treterians, Like yeah, and we can do this in between the burnouts. No no, no, no we can no. No, it'll be good. No no no no no no, it'll be good. We could do this and

then just you know whatever. But I think the the end product spece for itself. Yeah, So a lot of fun and then a couple of other things right now on Amazon. So worth it, I think. I don't know, personally, I think so too. It's it's probably more fun when you have not only friends to play with, but people on your friends list. For all that automologue stuff is it is integral, it is absolutely yeah.

So if you don't have any of that, definitely a lot of the issues with the front end menu stuff become less of a big less of a deal when you have more friends playing. And even even when I do,

the big problem with it is just navigating menus and selecting racism. That stuff I've got I think like at at Max, i think I've got like fifteen people sixteen people and my friends that are playing, that have that have played, aren't necessarily actively uh And even then, like you start getting to point Brad, I know you're there because I see you on the same uh lap times where there's only like two people that have completed an event, so you

kind of get Yeah, you get to the point where it's like, okay, everyone's done this one and it's really fun and everyone can kind of compete, and then you keep going and keep going and keep going like all right, well, I don't want to just go up against you know, Dan from game in Foreigner and Brad again, so I'm just gonna skip it. So yeah, it's it's still as issues with we were. We were playing

straight kind of hot pursuit multiplayer and that that was real fun. Yeah, although that's really the only good thing I think in the multipla what's the one on one? It's intercepts, all right, Yeah, although it feels really weighted against the cop yeah, because the you just turn around every time.

Yeah you're not You're not actually like doing a lap on anything. It's just like in the single player, right, like I want every time I was a racer and lost every time I was a cop it just feels like the Racer. I've had to go both ways. I guess I just like the you know, the group dynamics you get when it's you know, four on four like that. It's fun. It's fun game. What else have you been? So then just kind of mopping up some of the end of year

stuff that I didn't make. Two Journey here my nervous den the BioShock two d LDLC think what you think? What you think? I thought it was. I thought it was great. I think you talked a big game about it, and it kind of was a little worried actually because another game that you finished maybe didn't deliver on much. Yeah, I know, but the DLC for BioShock to that little self contained piece of content was was great. Fantastic. Yeah, so well written. It's what would you say, two

three maybe four hours? Maybe four hours, but like it's just such a like expertly written and paste like self contained storyline. It's really nice and it's self contained. There are some things that you might want to have played BioShock two four, but they don't break in it. Yeah, they're kind of it's kind of like, you know, they're using a lot of the assets from BioShock two, like there are big sisters in it. So if you haven't played BioShock two, you don't even know, like where did this come

from? Yeah? Who are those people? But it did make me go it immediately started playing BioShock too. Uh and uh, I'm actually kind of enjoying. I only played a bit of it, but I don't know, I feel like I'm back in BioShock somehow. I've found myself in there. I'm gonna be really curious to see how history judges BioShock two, specifically, because I I think it's I have not finished it. I feel like history has already forgotten BioShock two, and it's gonna stay forgotten at this point.

You know, it just kind of came and went. But I wonder if that's just due to just current expectations of BioShock and of that franchise. I don't know, it's it seems like it's like it's it's a fine game that gets a certain short shrift. I think I'm not sure what happened there. Why that is well, I think I think at the time, definitely it was like I'm not ready for more BioShock right now, right, I don't or I just came out too soon. You don't want to go back to

to Rapture. It's like I've had the story there, right, Yeah, it looks a little too derivative, like like going in before I had played it, you know, it was very easy to get a very negative impression of what that game was going to be. And you know, there is a ton of stuff that is just like welcome back to BioShock, and uh, but I think at this point I'm just kind of like, well, I can go for some of that, and who knows if I'll make it

all the way through. I hope I do, but I might. Just I think when you look back on it, you know, looking back on it now from you know, when I reviewed it, it's I remember things like, oh man, it was like so linear, like the train map is literally justlike yes, yeah it is. It is incredibly linear. And it's the same style of gameplay. You know, they do a little bit of a better job of kind of balancing out the different powers and stuff.

So I think the combat is much better than the first game. But that's not necessarily why people remember the original bio Shock or or what people were looking for out of a sequel, so protection missions that's what they wanted. Yeah, yeah, there's kind of a lot of that stuff, which actually those are not hard. I just giving credit for that, like the the you know, for for as much time as you spend protecting uh things like like,

it's it's really not that difficult. I'm already actually kind of a little sick of those, like the protecting the little sisters and stuff like then you should totally not know. It's a lot of that you need because the l which is all self contained, like you don't bring any weapons or anything like, I never felt like I had to really do those. But I also feel like the upgrades are so worth it, like there's kind of no question.

I mean they're not They're not extremely difficult, And it does just seem like that game has been set up, like with the trap rivets and they yeah, like too, that was basically all I ever used, or the primary thing I used were the trap rivets for dealing with and it's like, well, obviously we have given you the tools to do all of that stuff. I just I don't know, like some of that stuff seems like it's happening a little too often for me, Like oh, here we go again.

All right, just kind of back it up and let's get into a big fight. But it's it's different for sure. And then they make you feel when you have the drill and you're all powered up, like you're mowing into guys pretty much. Never used the drill. Oh, I just thought it was useless. I powered it up. It's not bad. I don't. I don't like the jelly that comes out of everyone when you use it. It just looks awkward when you use this. I hate I hate the

dual wheel thing. I hate thinking about my dude running around looking like that, like with with one hand up and the other hand like with with the thing like he's some kind of like a magician, like every time he does something like this, Yeah, like every time he has to. Like so he's got like a giant, you know, machine gun on one hand and the other hand is just up like this, and he's got to reload his

plasmid in his hands. He pulled it back and pushes it forward. Uh. I just I can't help but thinking like third person mode, like, man, this must look really stupid, Like it looks okay now because I have two weapons. Yeah, but dude running around, Like if I had a mirror right now, I'd probably shoot myself. I don't know if you think about any first person shooter where it's like I'm a little gun point this around what's over there, and I'm holding it up high enough that it is

clear in my eyeline. So it's like, you know, he's holding like chest level to a dude, I'm at his crotch. Yeah. And also yeah, also you're two and a half feet time. Uh so all right, so my nervous then was was great and I think it was definitely worth the price. So is it is it just like I just have to play it because every time either of you have talked or anyone I've heard talk about

it and say that it's good refuses to get into any specifics. Slow build, I mean, you start off with a bunch of new characters you've never seen before, and they really slowly and methodically develop them and make them feel like real people. Like the writing is just is fantastic. But I mean, but it's it is to be clear like this is this is BioShock. This is as far as like tone and execution up picking up audios to kind of build this story and by the end of it. Uh, it is

a it is a great piece of short storytelling. Yeah, it's just it's just like it's this is some really good BioShock. I've seen it described on message boards. Is like this could be the first installment of like a Tales from Rapture, you know, yeah, put out like a collection of short stories like this would be. It's very nicely maybe it really really is. Yeah, just a short story okay, and really just a really really well told story. I want. I bought it and meaningful like ten bucks.

And like Brad said, you really don't have to have the history of its BioShock too to enjoy it. Well, I played Boo, so you'll doubly enjoy it or hate it, right, I mean yeah, it is like a full plot arc from start to finish. Also, it has an old arcade game and that you can play. Yeah, totally does it all my favorite nineteen forties arcade games. Yeah, it's sweet Underwater Arcade, Classic Robotron nineteen eighty four, sub Rock three D Machine down there. There's also there's

there's an audiologue that goes along with it. What are the guys talking about? Like, Hey, the engineers whipped up this thing, and what's what's the main dude from Rapture Andrew Ryan, Yeah, yeah. Aaron rand says we should shut this down because not pulling its weight. So they blow it up and then you play Minor nineteen forty nine. Er Oh Boy also played Undead Red Dead's DLC, another one that was getting your d on. Well. It was one of those things where like, you know, we're gonna

be talking about this stuff soon, let's right out. Also great, it's just not playing this stuff people aren't recommending. Let's say, so that one seems weird to me. I've heard only good things, but it seems so odd. It's what what makes it work? Like you played Redemption, loved it, Like that's got a very serious Western tone. Does this goes like as far as the tone goes, same setting, same characters, but this this basically does that, but does a zombie version of that, Like it

was a seventies horror movie. Okay, so this doesn't exist in the same year. This is like Twilight. It's it's bizarre because it does and it doesn't. Certain characters are alive that that might not be. Uh, there's certain characters coexist that might not otherwise. It doesn't start after the end. No, it's it's so weird because but but but you you would benefit from having finished the story, absolutely absolutely, But it's yeah, it's it's it's

a very weird expansion. Seems like a parody or something super to Yeah, it's got like real B movie sense of humor. It's really interesting, and it just seems like an odd move. It doesn't. It seemed like it was gonna it seemed like it was just gonna be like bad zombie shit, like just try out more zombie stuff because he's are hot right now, right right, it's not really smart, it's it's yeah. And the voice work is back again, like that voice work everybody, and and the it just

reminds you how great a character John Marson is. For like when he's encountering zombies, he still works. Yeah, and he's just like it's kind of semi serious dude encountering all this ridiculous attached like resigned to his face. He he, he observes and acknowledges that all of this is a ridiculous situation as it was in like the main story, like whenever insane show would happen, be like, well, well that happened, So I guess I'm just gonna

have to deal with it, sir. I think he's always very polite, do you see me, polite to the zombies, like I'm sorry, full of quips, repeat him like every time you kill and loud zombies. He's got some ridiculous one line that's so funny. That was my favorite rock Star game, like Bought by a mile. Yeah, it's quite good. It's quite good the original I mean, so it's not without the it's flaws. I think. I think there are some things in it that are reminded me

what I did not like about Red Dead. Not to mention or to mention briefly, this is some of the weird buggy things that happened in Red Dead, which were like just like literally riding my horse, one of those apocalyptic horses, uh, I think was war So it's on fire. There's something these dies, I don't know what it ourom under right up the hill and just died. Took, took, took pestilence the one of the other horses unhished and what riding literally spun the camera road right into a lake. That

was the end of that. You killed pestling meanwhile, like a second before that, like it's like, oh, you got pestilence, his powers, he can't die and like you haven't, so like some weird stuff. Also, the protecting the towns, the fact that they get overrun again, it's really annoying. So I'm just kind of trying to critical path and mainline my way through the stories. Uh I didn't. I didn't find this. I

had to go back maybe twice. But at a certain point I just got tired of the Like I just don't want to go and clear out another But it doesn't really actually impact anything if you let one of the towns get taken. So, oh it doesn't unless you want that achievement for having all the town saved at the same time. Yeah, it will impact that because if you take a town and you let it get taken back and you don't fight again fresh whatever, and even when that happens, you can still get the

achievements. Yeah, so do all the story and stranger missions. That's kind of what I'm doing right now. So the main game that I spent most of my time playing that I wanted to really make it through was Enslaved and Journey to the West. Very curious about that one, so was I? Yeah? Less so now he's finished. Really, yeah, did you play it? I didn't play it, No, because I've been waiting for like a price drop and to get more opinions. It's definitely actually yeah, I'm

waiting for five. It's by no means a terrible game. By no means, I'd say it's a it's a pretty damn good game. I say, a really good game. Yes, solid. Uh No, No, I'm saying it's okay. I'm saying that I like the game. You like Okay. No, I'm saying it's very it's a it's a game that was crafted. Hey, it's a real game. This is definitely a game. This it came in a box. There was a disc. Uh, it's a folded sheet of paper that was like a manual you can fight and jump.

I don't know, but I definitely did not. I did. It did not hook me in some ways that I think it has hooked other people down a little more. For me, it was the ending, wasn't it admitted? Yes, totally absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's more like perplexing. It just comes out of nowhere. It's not only that, it's the the story build up to there is kind of non it's not very engaging. So you're doing all these things waiting for the big payoff, right, and you're

like, all right, all right, we're gonna keep going. This is gonna end something messed up, hold up, something crazy? Yeah. Uh, and then you're like, what's and then the worst part was and this is again its games Okay, it's not terrible. Uh, you beat it, you beat this chapter, and then Phase of Black comes back up.

Epilogue, totally unplayable epilogue that lasts for a while, gives you the end of the story and then rolls credits, so like you're you're kind of just like it's kind of anticlimactic, and it feels like there should be another hour of it. Yeah. I don't know where more gameplay would fit in. I just feel like the events will follow the end of the gameplay are are baffling, and it's hard to talk about it because you totally spoil this ending,

which I don't mind spoiling really, but maybe some people would. So here's here's the weird. Goku rides away on his cloud and someone with a scouter says something like, what, No, I have a feeling that there is an issue of the the veracity of reality in this world anything like that. No, it's not the matrix or anything. Okay, it's I'm gonna disagree with that. Okay, the matrix. No, you are not in the matrix. There is plenty to be compared to you world there. There

is a very strong matrix connection to that game. Sure, but it's kind of irrelevant to the game, which is us because you get to the ending and they're like, check this out, by the way, and you're like, yeah, this is irrelevant to ninety percent of the shit we just did. I don't know if it's an issue with the source material because it's based on that you know, that old, old ancient Chinese tale which is essentially

I'm pretty sure the Matrix was not story whatever. The story is basically a red slave even soaking in it, attaching slaves at the bottom of your feet, draw the poisons out. Uh yeah, it's basically a road movie. It's like characters going from A to B to C trying to get somewhere. And then it sounds like the issue is just what is like sounding issues between B and C somewhere. Well, the issues is definitely d when you get the CF they got to the end of that journey and they're like shit when

we do that. We got to come up with an ending the Andy Serkus and the ending. The ending is let's get Andy Serkis in a room and put him in front of a camera and let him talk for trying to wrap this up for us, Andy don't have any just freestyle. We cut around. We got plenty of yards here. Uh So all of that being said, the character not as it were, The characters are are exceptional. The voice acting Andy Serkus deserves something for this because like it is, it is

is excellent voice work, which city deserves a circus. I think if the games had to be out by, was it like eleven twenty eight to be considered for the vgdas. Yeah, it's a shame because I don't know that it was considered. Well, it was considered and didn't make it well. I can played it at e three and thought it was not good. So that's yeah. So like it I thought, the acting and the characterization, the building of the characters is great. Uh what they were building towards kind

of sure crap. Uh you do kind of run into a brick wall there at the end. Actually, I mean, I'm enjoying this because it's letting me know, like, Okay, temper your expectations. Yeah, I know, like these parts will be good, I know what, you know, what to expect out of this, and it's a fun game to play, like, you know, not to worry about the end. It's not gonna like it seems. There are parts of it that remind me of and Charted

in the kind of the characters ligery, like this is fun. These characters are fun to me around and like this is a this is great banter and like great digue. Yeah, good dialogue, and then the gameplay some parts just remind me of and chart and be like I charted its way better than this. This is this is this is kind of clunky here. There's some weird animations. Dudes, Dudes are are hitting spots where that you're taking me

out of the game, like you're totally you're losing me. But from what I've seen though, like I just don't think anyone beats Ninja theory for characters they look not just for the way they look, but for the the animation and the and I know it's a lot of its stuff. So that's you

know, they're just using tech to get around the hand animated. There's one part of pig Pigsy who they do a lot of tight shots on their face and like you really can read the kind of emotional which which is pretty remarkable. It's tough. Yeah. At the same time, there are only three speaking roles except for well, well Andy Serkis does like there's like five, but Andy Serkis is like three of them. Yeah, Like there's there's a small economy of characters, but they get a ton of mileage out of it.

Do you think Andy Serkis should just start his own dev studio. Well, at one point I was like, you know, he's doing a really good job here. His accent is a little weird, but he's he's pulling it off because he's like this weird future Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah, it's like this accent, uh, and it's like, Okay, it's kind of weird, but he pulls it off. And and like I said that, there are things in it that are great. He screams when he needs to

screen, He yells at people when they're far away. Like that kind of stuff really plays well into the game, where like the worst part of any vo or kind of a thing to take you out of game is when dudes are talking normally and they're like miles apart kind of thing, or like hey, come over here or yeah, or like they're climbing a wall and they're just talking normally when they should be grunting or or doing you know, or you know, they're in a helicopter and they're just speaking it. Yeah,

you're speaking, not trying to yell over the rotors. So I feel like all that stuff is actually kind of captured in the game, where like they need to be quiet, they're quiet, and then when they're exerting themselves are actually talking, like they're huffling when you have an actor, Right, what am I doing now? If you're climbing a hill? Okay, imagine he also probably had to Actually he just wears the pantomime that he wears ping Pong

pong pong ball suit entirely now all the time. That's the only thing that was weird for me is I felt like maybe he was trying too hard, Like, and that's purely vinny because who's anti Serkus. He's the dude who played Gollum, So like that's the only I brought that to the table that is not Enslave. That is like all the behind the scenes documentary stuff of Lord of the Rings and like the kind of andwerkus shows he did that.

I mean, he's been attached to Ninja Theory. He did that for Heavenly So, but he was he was like their director and he did some like main acting parts for that. But it seems like he's just entrenched at a ninja theory. Yeah, he's got a couple of cars, is what you're saying. I just pull behind him, Mike though, that's right. He

kind of looks like that. So yeah, yeah, so I would recommend that game, but not in the context that I was being told, not by Brad, but buy a lot of people like this is my game of the year. Like I'm not saying I'm just not saying that from Enslaved. I was surprised. I heard the same thing with some people saying like this is one of the best games I've played a really long time. Yeah, those people are No, it's just an idiots, maybe freaking dopers. They

had a different experience than somebody. You're asked to try playing games for once, Why don't you also, the frame rate would just drop over. It's like it's like they've never seen a video game before and they just decide, oh, there's the post one I've seen one. Get out of my face with that, Oh so tune in for the quality. Could expect someone's smeared poop on the bottom of the nice work guy. Even they wrote StarCraft two on it. Oh man? So that was Yeah, that was me going

through my stack of a stack of things I needed to play. And I'm glad I did a lot of big winners there, and even with Enslave being not living up to the still, I actually want to ask both you and Brad, how do you guys feel about, you know, knowing that these guys are going to be doing the next Devil May Cry? Having seen this as as Ninja Theory's most recent game, Brad Shuemaker, like, am I

more interested in it? Yeah? Do you feel absolutely? I mean, I don't really care that much for Devil May Cry like that style of character action or whatever you want to call it, but like no one that these guys can bring these kinds of dramatic chops to it. At least want to see what they do with it. Sure was the alternative They're gonna ruin it.

No, I'm just wondering if there's anything specifically Devil May Cry has becomes about about what Enslave does that if they can, if they can do the characters as well as they do for everything else, that is a great thing for Devil My Cry because I feel like at this point that series is just making fun of itself, like it's I'm not a big Devil May Cry person, but those games seem like they went crazy. Mister Green, have you ever we are apparently the four of us just just I don't hate it,

but just like don't care for it one way games. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see old men who don't like It's never been my kind of game. But you know what, Bayonetta, I like to match three jewels a cup of coffee. Yeah, so that's pretty much. It jumped into World of Warcraft or a little bit. That game is old, that came out

a long time ago. Does it feel old now? I didn't when I first looked at it, Like when I first logged in and I was like, cool, I'm gonna subscribe and you know, get my month or whatever, and then I played it made its like level fifteen and the one sitting minutes I say, it was just play uh but yeah, man, some of it looks at old a lot. All of it looks pretty old, and they've done a lot. Part of the Cataclysm thing was that they were

going to redo. I think they have pushed the specs up, but I think that just might be some areas already larger, you know, and more taxing that way, not necessarily redoing all the graphics. And it's it's not necessarily the fidelity of the graphics. It's what they're trying to do now in

that engine. And it's there's weird things like that. That engine seemed like it was never like the first time I saw like flying mounts or some of those, Like it's just something about this looks like they didn't plan for this year in the original world. So it's all that suff It's like they have you controlling like mortars, like you know, aiming stuff, and like that

stuff just looks super weird. They have things like so when dudes blow up, they don't like miss or do anything where they just kind of jib into ribs and it's just like, oh, that's kind of weird. They have like a lot of stuff where you're just like hopping on the backs about the horses. So you're just like, you know, there's no animations for it, so you're just like, you know, like a pop, Yeah,

whoop? Did you did you play a Goblin? I was a wargan okay, because the Goblin Race has actually like a whole joust type quest at one point, just talking about this, yeah, where you're actually up in a you know, in a some kind of flying machine and you you're basically playing jobs there three D. Which does it work? Well? Yeah, I

mean it's problematic. I mean, of all the things I've done in this expansion so far and I'm actually really liking it, that kind of didn't work for me, so that Yeah, so there's a lot of I understand, yeah exactly. So there's a I appreciate that they're trying to put some different things in there, yeah, but it just feels to me like these are not things this was ever meant to do, Like like the driving controls.

There are things in the worgan quest too where you're like drive this thing around and you're like, oh god, this is this engine does not build for action of any kind. Yeah, for dice rolls, Yeah, and like running around and sitting down and dancing and like this is not there are no physics on this vehicle for dancing. How does the How does the Worgan Dance? I think he's kind of like a humans in the quick look it's how

does the Goblins Dance? I haven't seen it. They have kind of a goofy kind of you know, like you would expect a goblin dance act. It's actually real. It's based on a story. I saw that. I saw that. I saw that documentary How the Goblins Dance? Yeah, right, that kid's book. Several awards cap for the Goblins. Yeah, So it was weird and I played to the level fifteen and it's kind of crazy. They've changed so much stuff since I was in there in like nineteen oh

five. You know, things have changed incredibly and for the better, I suspect, but I don't know if I'm gonna renew. It's it's weird. Uh, there's a server for Giant Bomb. They've made a server for the guild people and stuff, so I might jump in there. Uh, always

more fun than play with friends. And I was well, especially like in a guild situation like that where you're like I have fifteen minutes to actually play this game, so I can rely on my guild mates, like get give me some cool shit so I can go and actually let's go do something cool. It definitely got to that point of like, oh no, this is I remember this. Go get me fifteen of those you know Fox tales, Like okay, great, now go get me ten of those teeth, Like

oh man, why didn't you tell me that before? Yeah, you just give me, give me like a grocery list of all the Fox parts that you need. Why doesn't everybody get together. We'll all talk about what you need for the next hour and a half and then we'll go fund and you can even come with me if you want. You know, everybody come, let's go and search it out. Just they do a lot of like having these change following you along. Yeah, yeah, there was no mix it

up that way. Why aren't they're just supermarkets with both parts? Yeah, because you know, clearly there's nothing Basically I switched to this weird Eve economy system where you just sell parts to a store and then other players can go buy I run the store auction house times ten. You should be able to well, not all quest items, not all Quest items, but certain the cases where you can just go like I'm just gonna go to the auction house

and buy five put these things. And I've done that for sure, but typically not the quest pelts. So so yeah, I spend a bunch of time in there, and uh, it's always easy to do that. It is looking much better than when I when I left it years ago, but it's still it's the World of Warcraft. If you if you were not into World of Warcraft, you probably I'm gonna go out and Limb probably will not be that into Cataclysm. I already have accounts for MMOs that I'm not playing.

I don't need to like start paying for another lifetime. Yeah, or if between Star Trek Online and Warhammer already, oh yeah, I know. I reinstalled my my Warhammer count so I can. So you can go to Gerstman Crypt more actively and die there and they're like, all right out, I could be more active in my not playing. Yeah. So so I will continue playing World of Warcraft for a bit and then I redecide on January fourteenth or whatever, hopefully before the thing clicks over in auto renews, because

there's no way to just do a month. You have to do the auto or new thing. That's it just it seems kind of crazy at this point to be paying the fifteen dollars prescription a month for a five year old game. Six year old six Yeah, they just had their six years. I don't know. I mean, if you've been playing all along and you got your friends there and stuff, you know, it's just like any well,

it's I mean, it becomes that social aspect of it. This is like, well, obviously I'm gonna keep playing this game with this group of friends, and we're gonna keep to going. I mean, it's it's only weird because you expect act like the like with tech with games specifically, you expect kind of diminishing, reducing prices as things move forward. But it's only as

crazy as people are willing to pay for it, you know. Like, I mean, I would expect them to at some point and release a full graphical update like a request style was it was EQ one that did that. I think I have to imagine that. Wow, at some points kind of

drag the whole game a few years further. They don't want to go too far because they want the game to be continued to be accessible for for everybody but one is still being played and that game was a fraction of the size of while right, So I mean, what's this game is gonna be around for like twenty years or something. Probably, Well, there's stuff is people are still playing Ultimate Online somewhere somewhere somewhere. They were bad. Their art

style is fantastic. Just baking bread Man, just forever, just bit so I'm doing bake and bread. The art sounds great and that carries World Warcraft really far. Yeah. I mean even when it came out, it wasn't cutting edge, but it was all like they yeah, yeah, and that stuff looks great and and that's real incentive to go and explore the world. Uh, and this does look better than anything has looked in the engine before. But you do start seeing like, oh man, that's like two polygons

or like you know that that crisis. Those wheels have you know, five sides on them, Like yes, yeah, I'm fully back in. You're investing. Yeah, And I was way out too. I mean I quit for like sixteen months. I counted the Well, let's just go to show how deep in you were before. They need to start making wow, like the DMV, Like if you go sign up and if you lit your your ship laps, they make you pay for all that. All right, we stored your character for you. It was all I had an eighty character and

I like forgot how to play him. It had been that long. Well they probably reset all your stuff. Well they had reset it the trees and resets. All your plugin stopped working and all that basically, so I had to like basically relearn the game. But but I got sucked back in by the expansion or you know, the patch that they had before the expansion sort of previewed the new areas, and now I have Cataclysm and they got me back. So it sounds like it sounds like you you were in fully,

took a break and then and now I'm in fully again. Yeah I got I'm trying to monitor it, but I totally least one of you guys before we recorded, Like I actually got up early this morning to play. I want to make some time. I mean, I'm working at home, but I but you know, I wanted to be you know, yeah, no, not at all. I just wanted to but I figure, like nine o'clock, I'm working at home, but nine is fair. I can start working at home at nine, so I got up at like six so I

can play well to archive free. How so, how far are you with your Goblin? Well, the Goblin is uh uh, it's like sixteen. But then I also haven't I replayed the Undai, which is not a new race. But what I but, you know, that was the appeal to me, is they redid all the old almost all the old zones. Yeah, and they did redid the whole all the quest lines. I mean it's like basically they built a brand new game inside the old world, which is what I think is so I just kind of want to go see Van Cleef

again. Like that's line is absolutely fantastic. The storytelling was was great. You know, there's like at least three cut scenes right in the middle of this quest line that you're pursuing, and uh and it's a really nicely told story. I mean, they do tell their their story well, and yeah, there's there you could definitely see where it's being pushed in terms of the tech. But I feel like they use what they've got like so smartly and

so creatively. I mean they really you know when you go like I could never go back to what World War Craff was now after playing Cataclysm because like the undead storyline is so it's so neat, like they really put you, you know, they do a good job of like, Okay, you're a character number one billion in in the Undead world, but yeah, we're going to give you thrall. You know, the orc work dude right next to you, and you're gonna be going around and doing stuff and yeah, sure

there's like forty other dudes like right also walking whatever bit. And by the time that that whole main storyline is done that you really feel like they kind of took you almost through a whole like a single player storyline at the point where they release you into the into the world at large. Well's it's what's interesting. I think we may have discussed this on this podcast in the past, but the idea that it's I think this this was something that that got

brought up back when the Matrix Online was was being shut down. But with Cataclysm, there is now you know, a significant, well remembered version of World of Warcraft that simply doesn't exist anymore, right, Like that's kind of crazy. It is crazy, Like they'll eventually put up like a pre patch server or something like that. I think other games have. You can't opt out of that. You're like owned, they killed that world, and I admire the Blizzard had, you know, kind of the balls to do that.

Well, I was thinking, I think it's what that game needed for sure. Everyone who's playing the game, you weren't. You don't want to do the same. Yeah, you've been through that stuff with eighteen characters already. Genius. Really, it really is. But it's but it's it is absolutely genius, but it's also complete, completely crazy. I think, like, hey, remember when we would go on that Van Cleef run. You can't do anymore. You can't do that anymore. I think they'll what game

still exists, but that part's been gutted. What I would imagine the best or easiest way for them to do it is some kind of like quest or mission or portal or something that's like time travel. Question. Yeah, like remember when like and you go back to like the zone before it was ruined, go back to Liberty City or like maybe maybe young you know, they he still doesn't talk. Van Cleef is a high level man, right,

he is a high level Yeah. They made that. Actually I don't know what level it is, do you know, Let's say he's like an eighty five or he could be. So that's the thing. There are no more defy us in that area. They're like generic bandits. Now it's going to preserve the quests or whatever. But like the defy us have moved on somewhere,

there are hold there, hold up somewhere. I remember when when years ago, when Chris Metzig was talking about how he wanted to figure out a way to change the world, like for real, you know, like that was a problem for him as a storyteller. It was like, well, oh, I don't doubt it. Every twenty minutes someone's saving the world and like, okay, wait for the reset. They approached that goal with the phasing stuff because basically give you a chance to like temporarily alter a little pieces

of it. You know. I don't feel like they get enough credit for the phasing stuff because it is it is like amazing how it works, in which you know, the world that you're in as a player is actually changing as you're going through these quest lines, and the other people who are on the same server in the same areas you aren't seeing the same thing as you if they're not as far in the quest line. It's kind of phenomenal how

they figured that out. And as somebody like I really appreciate like narrative and stuff in the games, and I'm kind of turned off on that stuff is not treated well, uh, the early stuff, and that even the worgan stuff has that in it where you're like, you have now changed this portion

of the world exactly. Like if they tell you to go set the town on fire, and then you go back to the quest giver when you come out, you know they've somehow reset it for you, you know, on on the client side, so that the town, the town is permanently on fire. You don't just sit there and watch it on fire. But I mean it's not like they can make dramatic changes because NBCs, nos steed need to like stand at the same place and anything that a player could interact with

probably it has to be in the same spot. So no, it does. Okay, Well, then isn't that a problem when you're trying to meet someone somewhere you say, meet me over by the this, and and they and for them it's somewhere else. Watch Internet Time Internet Time Problem Solved Stores twenty eleven. Catch It. That's that is a good point, But I know how that works. Good question. Magic. I did not realize that that's how like that because I haven't played Wow since they introduced phases. I

didn't realize that's how far that went. It's my understanding that you actually can't see players who are in a different version of oh, like the phase. It's kind of constant instance. It's like a like a world instance. Yeah, you're like in your own mini instance until you right with other people who are in that, with other people who are there at that same point. Yeah, weird. I guess I'm just gonna have to sign up and to play a whole bunch of over the holiday break. No, I know,

I'll see you guys later. Yeah, I mean, I'm playing it and I'm digging it, but I partly feel like this like humongous sense of dread, you know, I feel it getting deeper into you and you're just say, oh no, not again. I mean I actually leveled up the Sun Dead Guy to twenty, and then I realized I just wasn't happy with the race, so I did it again. You know, like that he's got along till your cash and that change the race if you want the fifteen bucks.

Yeah, it is you're right. Shit time is money, Jeff Green and anything else that you've been you've been playing or you don't. You don't have to, don't feel compelled to plug anything. We have the Bejeweled three now now quick, look, of course I've been playing that stuff. But I actually just finished Black Ops. I just finished single player. I just finished I just finished Blacks and I really liked it a lot. Uh, all the way through. We discussed the ending a little bit. There's there's

some kind of hokey stuff. Oh it's very hokey all the way through, hope, but but it goes for a specific style of hokey for most of it. With the conspiracy, Hey, Vinny, honey, ye, could you tell me about the numbers? Well, let me tell you about what happened years ago. We stop messing around and just telling me about the numbers. Well, let me tell you about what happened three years ago. Okay, Well, let's go actually tell me about the numbers. You won't believe

what happened to the story. Let me tell you about something that someone told me about World War two. Yeah, I mean, let me go into someone else's flashback. Let me go dam uh. Yeah it was all of that was ridiculous. Agreed, I don't hold up to scrutiny. But what I liked was it was it was just a roller coaster that I paid my money for. Ye I will go to the Call of Duty Black Ops Theme Park and you may now take me on this ride an hour in Vietnam.

Okay. I feel like the level of all the Call of Duty games are roller coasters. They are just like, here is your critical path, run down it, shoot dudes, and crazy things will happen. I feel like that there's a level of quality and a level of ridiculousness that in a lot of ways I feel like there didn't hit. I feel like in a lot of ways, the Call of Duty games have been better at maybe hiding the

scripting than than some other games. Maybe that's that's just you know, it's it's because you know, it's we wouldn't criticize like games like Medal of Honor for having like scripting that was like noticeably broken in some spots. This is like the scripting usually works. Yeah, but but I feel like, but I feel like every thing that I'm doing is still just in service of the scripting. Oh absolutely, It's just like go like push forward, I have

to either it's but it's always this. There's this combination with the pacing of those games where it's like I can't sit still as much as I want to, nor can I run through things as much as I want to, Like my my my desired speed is a faster or slower than doesn't work? Then how fast they want you to move through these levels. So you're either going

to hang back and run out of AMMO or run forward and die. I'm gonna hang back and get killed or run forward and get killed because that game, right, that game has a specific box of If you're outside of this box, you're dying. It as far as like your progress through the levels.

And it always drives me crazy with these games. Is it feels like, however many our tutorial they never stop telling you, you know, you get to a door open, I know by now, like but that's it's part of that whole, Like we're just gonna we're gonna take you through this

game all the way through. We're gonna hold your hand from beginning to add though sometimes it'll it'll spring things on you right when it's the first time they're introducing it, like the Blackbird stuff where it's like, oh, you need to do this to save these guys. Oh well you didn't save them's another dead You're right, right, you have to die first to learn how to do Yeah. Yeah, which was the barrels. Yeah, we discussed the barrels, which I didn't have. I didn't have any issues with. But

there's there's others. It's I think it's you know, parts of it are a fucking phenomenal looking game. I agree with Jo. I thought that game was fun all the way through. Just to me, it was like Saturday afternoon, you know, on a movie, you know, yeah, just action movie. Ye, Charlie Bronson. Just just enough cheese, just enough taking itself self seriously. Like, but I agree with Ryan, there's that

tonal shift in how seriously they want you to take it up. You know, at the very end of the game, it's just like that, where are we going? Don't know why? It's the America breakout right here. I can't. I can't. That's the problems unfurled. Yeah, the problem is I can't tell like when they're winking and nudging and when they're trying to

be serious with their stuff. Yeah, when the tongue is like are you do you guys just think this is badass, like legitimately, or you're like, oh man, this would be really funny if we threw this in here, like I it just I mean whatever that that whole game is very ridiculous, so I can't I can't find it didn't that way like I played it like this is this is ridiculous, and I'm enjoying it as a ridiculous game a lot. Jeff, can you tell me about the numbers? Let me

let me tell you about my high school. Okay, can you tell me about Alaskan accents? Because Sam Worthington cannot know. Uh, I don't know what else. I should have just talked like Sarah Palin the whole time. I enjoyed though that if nothing else, even if they weren't a hundred percent successful with it, the nature of the storyline and where they went with Black Ops just couldn't have and further from anything else Call of Duty has ever done,

which is refreshing and I really really really enjoyed that part. I like the whole It just felt very confident, like it just felt like a confident group of developers just saying we're just gonna do all this shit. You know, John F. Kennedy is gonna be by the way. Yeah, I like, I admired that. It's like, man, they just like got a big budget and they just went for it. Yeah yeah, yeah I

didn't. I didn't dislike it, but baffling anything else, mister Green, trying to think since our last day, she'd do it on your iPad? Dude. Yeah, I'm playing a lot of iPad games. I love that device. I gotta say, what's your what's your thing? Right now? Well, I got Infinity or Infinitely Infinity Blade, Infinity Blade, I keep saying it wrong, which looks freaking amazing. Yeah. Gameplay it's okay. It's a shot with the sword right right. It's better than Rage HD,

which was awesome. But as usual with it, it's like a tech demo always it's a tech demo with it a great, beautiful looking one. H. I don't know. I'm playing the same I pad games and everybody else's let let me turn you cats. I don't want jump turns here. But while we're on the topic, I was turned onto this game by Ali Moss and I am obsessed with it. It's called Wicki Hunt. It's like it's

like two bucks. It's for the iphunt Wick Hunt and it's fucking genius, right, Okay, So basically all they're doing is taking the Wikipedia database and the Kevin Bacon game and and structuring it into a game. They randomly pulls two pages from Wikipedia and says get from one to the other and as few clicks as possible. That'sntil we were totally going to do that for this website,

Like that was on the list of features. We were going to do it long someone already broke it out and use that that well, we can beat them too. We can make it part of the site feature and it's fucking fun. But the only thing that it's missing, honestly is a timer because you can too easily obsess over like like what is the perfect route,

like because it's it's trying to judge like the shortest route. But I feel what's more interesting is what's the shortest route in the shortest amount of time that you can come up with, Because if you have infinite time, you can just very specifically kind of route yourself through the Wikipedia database like think ahead of a couple yeah exactly, But where if it's just like you have to do

this quickly. I think it would it would flourish from that, but it doesn't do it competitively, Like does it give you and somebody else the same two pages and it's like who can do it in fewer steps? No, but it knows what the ideal is the game. The game knows what the right answer is for the fastest. So that's that's the metric that you're going up against. So it's just like, get from this person's personal appeal to

this person's personal appeal. It's it's get from this specific page to this specific page. So I'll pull one up just to give you an example. But it's a fascinating as hell. Is it hard to do on the phone, Like now you zoom in and all that stuff, and and it's it's using like mobile versions of the pages. So there we'll use random. There's random, and there's clicks to Jesus. So so the second page is always Jesus Christ. So you have to figure out how how many clicks from the random

page that you're starting on to Jesus. Is there some message going on there? Everything leads to Jesus, right, So we're starting off on Hebrew. We're starting off on the page well he was he was too. Uh. We're starting with the pages for Bruto Grassi, a Brazilian uh soccer player, of course, and we need to get to the band or Snatch, which is an alien species and Larry Niven's fictional Known Space universe. I'm always trying

to get that batch. I mean so like he was actually a dev and one click, so having to figure out like, okay, what would be then and in the page to add a link. So that's that is how how you can cheat it. He died for your sins every time, Jesus Christ, who Wilse died for my sins? Jesus? That was one other game I forgot to play. But I believe you guys have talked about this ad Nazi I think never stopped. Yeah, we'll keep talking about There's nothing

naughtious about pac Man. It's awesome, so good. I'm saying, that's gotta be you gotta be talking about that. And you gave me the year for something, maybe not overall game of the Year, because it's weird to give it to pac Man. It's on some lists, it's coming some sort of list that is an amazing version. I just you know, I get it's it brings me great joy to be able to in like not even a nostalgic wade, but people say, like, there's there's excitement in the world

of pac Man in twenty ten. Yeah, the pac Man is somehow fucking relevant. They can take those basic rules and flip it into something so crazy and it feels so modern along the way the yeah, I love the little bullet time thing that got going, Oh yeah, it's a little zoom and you're like, oh, I love that. It's kind of not really about

dying anymore. Like it's more just about like your score. Well, it's it's great because I feel like it really represents, like in in in micro, it represents, you know, the changes in the game industry and the way we approach games. It's not about like this really difficult situation you're trying to squeeze out of. It's like, all right, you are kick ass. It's just a question of now, how much more kick ass than everyone

else? Are you? Right? So it's you know, and it's it's interesting to see that stuff and the speed and just the production values and you know, it's very smartly taking notes from uh from Geometry Wars. It's beautiful. I don't have it for mething else to say about Pacman other than I love pac Man Fever. It's back. Oh that's right. I do have something else to say about pac Man Fever. I have it. Yeah.

Also, Buckner and garcias smash hit pac Man. The entire album is being made available on rock Band Network. Really, Yes, that's do the Defender. That's I think I'm going berserk. That's that song about mouse Trap. That's the whole album. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, hyper Space the song about asteroids. Did the Ghost get their own song or no? No, pac Man Fever was the only pac Man related cut. How quickly can you get from Buckner and Garcia to Jesus Christ? One click?

All right, pac Man Fever. Pac Man Fever such a good song. It could have only been written by Jesus Froggy's or yeah, Froggy's lament. That's a good one to a centipede. Centipedes, good do. The Donkey Kong Due is probably the best non pac Man Fever song on that whole album. Hyper Space. Are these different bands he performing? All? Yeah, it's all them The Defender, Uh huh, it's about Iraq mouse Trap also about ere mouse Traps, probably like the one song on that whole album that

doesn't fit because I remember mouse Trap. You know, it was a hell of an arcade game, but it is by no means a classic. Yeah, yeah, they totally just ran out mouse Traps. Mouse Traps good. I don't know, I like it going berserk YEP eight track eight track EP. Nice being brought to network finally so exciting. Sounds like they're running out

of song. I wonder it's left. Most of those songs had samples from the arcade machines in them, and I wonder if these are going to be remastered to not have that stuff, if there's like there's gonna end of the guys who are doing it, who are doing the remastering or the programming or whatever. Uh contacted me so I could ask them, Yeah, please do because if it doesn't have that, no longer interested really, really, really

really Jeff, what you've been playing Bayonetta? You see you also for for Game of the Year purposes, going back through some of the best ones. Yeah, how do you feel about Bayonetta? It came is awesome? Wow, Yeah, I go saying, you know, for someone who doesn't like Devil May Cry. It's really weird that that Bayonetta is so much better than

any of those games have ever been. I feel it is. I think that they have taken they took that style of game and just made it as crazy as they possibly could in terms of just like you know, you're the game opens with you standing on the face of a clock tower that is currently falling out of the sky while you're fighting angels that look like crazy deformed animals, and halos pop off with them like sonic rings that you then pick up

to buy more stuff. But I feel like the combat, you know, it rewards skillful play, and it's not as mashy as I always felt. Devil my Cry was. I was going back because I was thinking about all this stuff I was. I went back and reread my review for that, and I what I just reminded of, specifically is that it's not mashy. It's it's all about timing. Yeah, It's not about like how quickly can

I put in this button combo. It's all about I gotta time my hit to be just right to you know, dodge or perry this guy's attack and then get in there with which time and then start busting out the other combos. And you know, if you start using the kind of delayed attacks instead of instead of just hitting punch, punch, punch, kick, if you're eating punch, punch, punch, pause and then kick at a very specific time, and you start doing like why we're devastating attacks, So it actually

rewards you for not just hammering on buttons like a crazy person. Get way naked, and get way more naked, and that rips the giant st heel comes out of the sky. Yeah, she's got the hair sut on her feet and she I think, I think she's a great character for just as absurd as is the whole thing is from her, just like proportionally to every word that comes out of anyone's mouth for that entire game, to just like

all the great weird Sega references. I mean, right off the bat, they're playing Outrun music, you know, in a cut scene or something like that, just like one, and it just goes deeper and deeper and crazier from there into the whole second catalog. I completely forgot that there was just a straight up space that's awesome. Yeah, it's uh, it's it is how they should be making character action games from here on out basically. But they can't just keep doing. But they can't just keep doing. They can't

even do that a second time. But that's uh yeah maybe maybe you You might be right. I think they have to come up with some ways to change it up, maybe make a co op or something weird like that. Who knows. But but yeah, Bayonetta I think is a game that people should absolutely play because it is messed up, and you know, if you don't want to deal with old timing thing, they actually have much easier settings

on the difficulty where it'll just make a lot of stuff automatic. So if you just want to see something completely insane, it totally serves that purpose. It will hook you up. Yeah, it'll set you up with something completely They messed up but I don't even know. And that's the either even better part when you when you start playing it on very easy or something like, I don't even know how that happened, but it was. I'm going to

keep mashing on this until the game explodes. It's probably she might get all the way naked if I keep in it. I don't know faster. Yeah, Vanish has got the same thing. Yeah, Vang which has as as some of that same stuff. Look into that auto mode and that essentially does all the aiming for you. You just had to kind of generally move the guy in the right direction and pull the right trigger and it'll shoot everything.

I gotta, you know, give it up for Platinum. I feel like they had a you know, those games didn't necessarily get a ton of attention. I've ban it. I think probably got more than than Vanquish did just because of the time of year came out. But great year for Platinum. Man, those guys, good for them. It's good for them. Yeah, pretty much the two Bright spots on Sega's whole release list for the whole years, you know, Bright spots in Japan. Sure, yeah, yeah.

I think the way things have been, it's it's been. And both of those are games that are you know, it's we talk a lot or there has been some talk about the state of game development in Japan and and you know, their struggles to deal with the changing market and you know what have you. But those two games, and it seems like Platinum is one of the rare developers that understands not necessarily like got good or progressive game development.

They know how to make crazy Japanese games that I want. They know how to make, like they know how to how to evoke what I think of when I think, like, man, I want to really crazy Japanese games, Like, then here is what you want, is what we make. And I don't feel like I get that from a lot of the other stuff. That's it seems like Japan has instead, like everything else has just been like we're just reiterating on the same thing over or you know, or

worse. I feel like there you have too many Japanese developers that say that they're trying to trying to cater to the Western audience and then not nailing that either not knowing what that means so yeah, or kind of cribbing the wrong stuff from popular Western games, and you end up with the you know, you end up with stuff like Lost Planet two good Quantum Theory or quantum theory. You know, there's like games that just don't get it for and I

can't imagine that they're popular. Well Lost Planet may probably, but but quantum Theory. No one in Japan's playing quantum theory either, right, He's playing the games. Yeah, like Vank, which at its core is a very

serviceable cover based shooter. Yeah, yeah, works as that kind of yeah, but you know, come up with the rocket lags later, they come up with with interesting concepts to lay on top of it that that give it a completely different feel from anything else else out there, regardless of of where

the development's done, and and that stuff's really smart. I mean, you know, it's like it's like Inafune has been saying for a while when he keeps talking about how Japanese game development's dead, that's so much so that he had leave Capcom to do whatever the hell he's going to do now or something like that. It's it's you start looking around at some of the games that are coming out of there, it's like, oh, yeah, maybe he

was right all along. It seemed like crazy he talk when he first started saying it, But now you're yeah, maybe maybe how did this get out? How did no one like pop up and go like, dude, they don't make games like this. And here's why. I mean, Bayonetta has some of that, not the online stuff, but you can see a lot of traditional Japanese collectible and the kind of unlock and menu system and the currency stuff in it. But that game the thing I appreciated so much about that

game. Was like every time there was a look, like every time there was a decision to do something crazy, they said, no, think about make it crazier, and then they came back and they came back in there. You want to do that's rope, that's so silly. Turn it on its head and they like you flip it over and it's like literally turned the head upside down. Yeah, and then it's like, that's kind of crazy. What do you think about her? Over the weekend? You can make

this crazier? Like what if I added like a two more dragon heads? That's kind of cool? He why Heaven I have her earth there? And why why is it on solid ground? Yeah? Could we throw this building through space? Sure? I mean probably why is she standing? She should be like flying on a bullet like okay, great, like and that's how

like the level design process. Could she be more naked here? And it's funny, it's funny, I mean, like to think back, Uh, you know, people had conversations about how Bayonetta was sexist at the time, and you know, I guess like from like if you took a cursory glance at Bayonetta, I see why someone will say that, but that game is is equal opportunity, and it's it's insanity. It's not that it's sexist. It's not that it doesn't get women. It's that it doesn't get humanity.

And it's not trying to write you know, it's it's so far gone. That's all. The women are like super empowered and like two to a point where I think they are the they're Amazonian, for god's sake, like nine feet tall or yeah, they're they're they're gigantic. But they're all running the show. Are The women are running everything? The dudes are just like there's in this think about it? Yeah, like you think, yeah, you

think of like that is the least crazy games. Yeah, the azz the male characters in the game, they are like it's the it's the scumbag fuck ups and the shopkeepers. Yeah that's the best you get. Yeah, game's crazy. Jeff Gersman anything else. I also have been playing Vanquish, so it's been a lot of platinum. Yeah, what do you think of Vanquish? I like it. It's uh, it's it's really neat. It's really well done. It's not amazing, but it's it's a pretty serviceable, cool

kind of cover based shooter. They do some interesting different stuff with it that that you don't get out of you know, many other cover based third person shooters. But you know, it is it is pretty similar to to a lot of other stuff and in most of the ways that count. Yeah, so you know, hide behind stuff, except when you're hiding behind stuff, you can hit a button to make him smoke cigarettes. So you know, you also have rocket legs. Yeah, rocket legs. You can kind of

slide up the stuff and boost around and that's that's all pretty neat. But it's no Bayonetta if I'm picking my Platinum Games game of the year handily, but yeah, that's pretty much it. I you know, I tried to get into Red Dead again because I know we're gonna be talking about it, but it just doesn't do it doesn't it doesn't do anything. Just you just

your distaste for the Western is so profound that it's cloud judgment. I don't know, it's it's it's a lot of It's just like, go home tonight and finish Red so you could call your best your favorite game of the year, play this game under dress. I just I go home and play the whole Star fan in general. Usually yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't think every single game they've put out has been amazing, but I think I loved Grand Theft Auto four from like a storytelling perspective especially, I thought

I thought that they did an amazing job with that. But yeah, the Red Dead's just, you know, it's not a Western fan. I don't dislike Western games, you know, it's but it's not like there have been many good ones lately. It's you start and not not super huge on them, so you know, maybe it is just a style thing. But yeah, I just don't want it. I don't want to. You just don't. Also, you just don't like old stuff. New guns are better than

old guns. But it's one of the many things that's so amazing about that game. They made old guns feel awesome. Brad Shoemaker, what have you been playing? Thank Qushing And I agree with everything he said about those games. Banda is at It comes on a little strong, like mechanically. I don't know if you guys remember that or felt that way. How do you

like too much? Too soon? It's a little overwhelming with the like the number of like like you going to the menu and there's like six different books that you have to read from, and they don't explain what any of the information is that they're giving you. And then you're picking up like eight different kinds of collectibles that you're supposed to combine into like ten other kinds of idol.

I just didn't worry about that stuff until the game said like specifically, hey you can do this, you know right Well, that's when it's hitting me that, Like, man, I don't want to deal with that. I just want to keep like whipping stuff with my hair and jumping in the air. I don't remember the combination stuff too much. You could, I mean, you could do it. You know, there were items you could

buy. There were just like health recovery items and stuff like that. You also find things you can use to make those I never felt like I was spending a huge amount of time, Like some of the cut scenes are long, Like if you want to talk about that, that's the other thing. It's it's it's it's mechanically dense and too much yappen. Even though the apping is hilarious, I know, it's funny and bizarre and totally mind blowing, but the gameplay is really good and you want to do a lot of that.

Yeah, and you will. Okay, don't don't worry, so you'll get your fill. I know, I know there's a little bit of a lead up, but it sucks hearing this because I have to go out of this room after this podcast and go finalize my list. And it's okay, do you know what, Like, I'm writing that game off because I haven't seen enough of the game play because it's super There are plenty of games I like that list. Don't sweat it because that's that's your person. But this,

this seems like very easily be in the top ten. That is why we keep had you had you chosen at the time to make time for Bayonetta and play it, it would have been on your top ten. You made your choices. You fucked up months ago. You did really you do to fix this. Now there's there's only to get back in the diamond by playing.

There's always I'm not gonna get into StarCraft at all. Yeah, it's gonna happen Black Ops and Darksiders or a couple others that I wish I had played, But I guess, you know, I think Darksiders is going to be the game that everyone forgets to put on their lists. Was the first industry wide. It's gonna be too is fun. That is not making my list, but I was. I was. I was playing with that a lot because and again I was another one where I was like I had to

go back and look at it again because it had been so long. But this is why we include. I think that's the game that you guys all were crazy into that I'd just got the han because you didn't get into the like the kiting, like the toe thing, like when I never got that quite right. Once you can figure out the rhythm for using your parachute and

pulling yourself by the ground, you could get anywhere. If I hadn't played by on a commander, I would probably be better at that, approaching it like it's by a command, but upside down, like no, I have a theory that you didn't get a handle on the horse riding and red that in the same sense like you gotta psychoanalyze, like riding horses is kind of a pain in the in the ass in that game. From it's it's it's it's a unique system for handling that's to figure out like sort of the case

pressing the button. But once you get it down and you don't even think about it anymore. But it's kind of tedious. I remember thinking that stuff. I'm like, I wish I could just not press this button. And there was a lot of trucking back and forth. It would see Terry story. Yeah, for sure, it's you know, not without its flaws. Did I play anything else this? We played just a obscene amount of need for speed Hoppers suit. Yeah, a lot of that, just a disgusting

amount of that. That's a really good game. That's a fun one. It really is. I'm trying to think what else and I've played that, the Doritos games with you. Oh, I played. I played through a Grubbins on ice, the Costume Quest dlcut quick look for that up now it is. I guess I was expecting something, and you know, that's what I get for putting expectations on a double fine game. I was expecting something. It's more explicitly, no, no, I just it's not. It

wasn't. It's not an insult. It's meant that they do things the way they do things, and me saying like I want it to be this. Oh, it's not that I'm disappointed, Like that's not anything that sounds like a compliment. I was expecting a more traditional like holiday story. Like I thought the way that Costume Quest was hooked into Halloween, I thought like, oh, this is gonna be there, like this is how we hook into Christmas or something. It is incidental that that game takes place when it's snowing.

It's like you're doing Halloween stuff in the snow. Most of what I saw you weren't even in the snow. Well yeah, for one thing, you started off most of the game not in the snow. Uh. And another thing, you're I mean, you're in an alternate dimension. Oh so there is no Christmas or or anything, not even holidays, no quanza, there's no Christmas, Nona. How many clicks to Jesus? Yeah, seriously, I know I can. I'm gonna call a couple of people and they're

gonna be very upset about this. Jesus two hours, three hours talking like k L. I see, like there's some new costumes that are delightful. The Pirate was pretty cool. The Pirates pretty cool. You get some you get a giant eyeball and get a oh the giant eyeball is fantastic his his like super charged up attack, so Goodson's Quick three Arena Giant Eyeball has been so well represented. It's a I don't want a good month for Giant Eyeballs. I don't want to spoil it, but it's a it's an a great

little piece of business. You always you know what the insidious thing they did with that game? I do? They robbed you of your s rank, No, didn't. Well you got it again, they get it, Well, you got it back. Yeah, that's the thing. You have to go get the DLC if you want that. Oh yeah, yeah, I know, I I want God, it wasn't that hard either. As something insidious about adding achievements to games after they've been released, Actually, that's not

the insidious thing. The insidious thing is that that game contains the biggest in game advertisement for another game since ask me about Loom. They there is a game, there's a giant There's a room, a hidden room in uh Grubbins on Ice that is dedicated to promoting uh was stacking stacking right, the next downloadable sting adventure, speed stacking adventure, stacking cups. That's it. That's that's okay. But what's No, it's not actually like how dare they?

It's more of like it is in the ask me about loom style of being cheeky and and I have to imagine that that was deliberately in their minds when there's an unscuppable trailer for stacking at the beginning. Oh well, actually one of the achievements is finding that room and getting I'm getting Hay getting advertised too. So they do give you incentive to go and hunt down and find this place. Uh so I did that. I did the Toritos games. That's

what I played. That's what I've been playing. Let's talk about news, gentlemen. I understand there was well the vas having the Spike vga's were this weekend and Jeff Gersman as a as a judge on the Spikes, Judge, do you feel represented? Do you feel like you're how do you feel about the all your fault? What did you do? The only judge who was your favorite human female? It was the lady from Mass Effect too, Miranda's

Yeah, Miranda from Aspect two. That was mine. I don't know what anybody in this room know who I do not know what the winners were another Red Dead one of the year. Yeah, yes, uncharted three. Uh so yeah, what are you in the desert? Now? Is in the desert? Well, or at least that's their pitch. But the footage they show of the game, he's all over the place, just like any other yea, what is he going after? Do you remember? Is that idea?

Uh? No, Diamond, it's yeah, I don't know. Famous No, no, no, it's the Atlantic, the Atlantis of the Sands, which san Atlantis. Yeah, it's actually not, it's not. It's not far from Atlantis, is that right? Yeah, it's like right next to the street. It's right the street from the left. Yes, Atlantis is nearby. That's where freaking brainstorming session. It's Atlantis under the sands.

Big high fives around the wicked make it someone just running in with like a really old stead volume from Encyclopedia. Guys, I've got it some kind of some kind of miss called knife you could find there, Probably not, Jimmy, one of those up real quick like done where they'll be blue guys, guys, talismans. You know, we're thinking of going double on the oncs. The fewer tiaras. The tiaras didn't really focus well, but we all say that. We joke in Jess because we love I just want more ancient,

impossible machines, that's all. I like it when I walk into a thousands year old tune and press my hand up gently up against some surface and then suddenly like seven or eight and two, Yeah, the giant, huge statue that you had to climb up, and like, miss, why would you build this? Yeah? Why would you know? What? I was? Actually I was playing some I was playing some of the U the Romulus Cave missions in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Oh yeah, that's definitely stuff in there

there. I'm like, where there's stuff, where there's like active where there is some worker like sitting on a platform somewhere, But all that's surrounding this platform are these precarious fucking like jung jungle gym bars and stuff that someone has to like leap and backflip into him. Like how did this guy get up here? This guy's just trapped on this little tiny thing. Help me. He's like painting or a sandwich. Please, I've been up here for way

too long in this weird stone tower. It's even weirder when you're doing stuff like that as Desmond. Oh yeah, so it's just like that many hundreds of years older and it's like it still works. Oh yeah, yeah, that's that sequence there, but but it's it's extra that there's a guy sitting there. How'd you get? Yes, uncharted three. They're making another one of those, man, but also dated eleven. So how many games are we gonna get that are either eleven eleven eleven or eleven one eleven? So

far we've got one of each, but you know they'll bump anyway. Three just sounds good. Ten eleven eleven we got. Oh, you're asking how many you're gonna go for each date or how many? Like what's what's your what's your you think that's gonna be? Those are gonna be the dates? Which one is a Tuesday? They're both Tuesday. They really forget they can't be. I think the eleventh shipping off a Tuesday one way enough to not ship on a Tuesday, just to make their eleven one eleven anyway. Batman

Arkham City, who show off some some Hugo strange action there. I guess he'll be the the main villains or just a villain, because you know he'll be working for the fucking Joker. Have such a great menagerie of villains, you'll like took them all down, yeast. The last boss will be the Joker, even if even if it's like oh, Hugo Strains is running everything you find out at the end. No, I don't forget. The Joker was in the teaser they put out at the last time. It's going to

be the joke on a giant walking tank. You know, he'll be on Crazy Space on prior. Last year, oh eight, last year they had one. Arkham Asylum came out last year. Really, it's only been a year. Yeah, and of the year. What's that it was uncharted in Arkham first last year it was the big fight. So next year three, Yeah, that's right, hopefully hopefully start passed out that the day. Do you really go to the vj's last year, No, we went. They

went the year before that where they had Arkham Asylum trailers. They didn't third year Batman trailers. Barnard Bernard. Yeah, oh Dumbledore's team. I love it. I'm confused. Whatever. Yeah, Resistance three, which I didn't watch that one. That one they got Halo date September date. Yeah, they're they're out early in the fourth quarter. Well, I did watch that's the live action one. A lot of live action stuff at the start of it, and then the dude pulls out the gun, right, and then

it's all computer game. It's solved. There was a lot of stuff in this that I thought was a live action. There are parts of that Mass Effects trailer that I looked at that when I was looking at stills from it, I was like, why is there just a dude That screen grab you hold when you post a trailer looks like a fucking photograph. Guy, that's

amazing. I'm still there Day one. Mass Effect three. Uh. I'm a little surprised by the import being given Earth in Mass Effect three because I feel like, like, yes, humanity is obviously a big target and it's kind of been one of the big focuses of this universe, is humanity's role in the in the universe or whatever. I think they probably discovered that there's a four Runner artifact on Earth and then they have to go get it. I have to go to some glass. That's yeah, they're gonna glass Earth.

And also it's super weird that, like Big Band still exists in twenty one eighty three. Why wouldn't it. There's a much of old crap that exists now, it's not that far away. It's been around for a while. I bet the big ben will be around fifty bucks, fifty space bucks. Now I'm only gonna do it in fifty China bucks. The ones that are gonna be worth anything. I think the bigger thing is like, would you want to be in a giant tower when giant space ships are knocking everything

over? Looks amazing When they up and there's the huge force in their life, fucking Shepherd doesn't come where boone, I'm like, oh, that's awesome. It did make me so happy that that terminator thing never took off, because if they were giant terminator robots walking around one building, yeah, yeah, it would be the worst game that trailer will. Now, there's been all the talk about Mass Effect multiplayer game. Everyone thought that they were going

to announce some kind of weird offshoot game for a little bit there. I don't want them to do. Yeah, do you think this game has a multiplayer in it? I hope not. I think there, I bet it does. It should just be a part in the single player where it turns into multiplayer and that's it, and you play that for a bit and you

could just go like break jazz. Yeah, like you're you're playing single player, and then suddenly it's like we got a big ward fight, and like you can continue fighting that war or like move on with the story like later on and like integrate it into a narrative that plays, you know, exactly through that part. I just wish they could just say this is a single player series, and we don't need this box, We don't need this bullet point on the box, right, you know, I have the feeling that

that BioWare could, but also feeling that could. I also have the feeling that BioWare if they said, yeah, we we want to give it, we want to give them multiplayers shot, like that universe can support it. I frankly am shocked that we haven't seen more. Granted, like their their four ways into this have not been terribly successful, but I want to see more like non Shepherd stories like give me, give me some spinoff action. This is a huge that's a huge, terrific universe for you to to delve

into, and I feel like they have. They have spent just a huge amount of time and money in the first two games setting up their fiction and setting up this world and making you care like it's crazy, how involved, like all of the interspecies fiction is. It's It's in one of the only games I think I've ever played where I've sat down and read every fricking like because it's so good. It's so good. Yeah, just everyone hates everyone

else for some fucked up reason. There's not really a good guy. Everyone's kind of an asshole in one way or another. It's terrific. I mean, the spaces space dicks. That was the original time. Well, so we had this other idea of mass effects. You know, this phrase comes up. These two guys doctors Canadians since of humors warped. One guy's got

afore anything. But they said, they said, they're making I have to applaud their restraint for at no point just saying for z A right, Yeah, good, good on them, right, so raised the medic critic, Yeah right, by four points. I feel like all they needed to show up for that trailer and they didn't was just a car smashing against the wall here just but but like but like a Lamborghini RCI lago, like just something

crazy, super slow motion, just crunching into a wall. The whole trailer is a fixed angle on a wall and hear the increasing second fall, cut the logo, and then forty five seconds of menus. Yeah right, Decal editor. Yeah, Actually, I'm kind of surprised that that's the one thing I felt was missing from that trailers. That there was no like weird brand hijacking on any of the cars. There's no like pringles Can or Anime Girl like all the stuff that all the users have done with that. That decal

it over right that they did not do any of that. So some of that stuff looks straight out of that to Connect demo that we saw, and they have gone on to say that that there will be Connect support in the game for at least that car, like walk around the car, open the door, look at stuff view. But I wouldn't be surprised if if some of those mini games based on Connect end up in that game too. I don't think they're going to make a separate forts a Connect game at this point.

That'd be they shouldn't do that. Also, the Elder scrolls five sky rim it's low orbit basketball, and we'll see any rim job jokes that we want to get out. I was thinking of a couple as you were going through and yeah, this is the place. Really Now we're working on it later. Yeah, we've worked shopped those we got we got a while, We've got that comedy show coming up. We need to get our Skyrim material. Kind a good eight minute chunk on sky Rim. Don't feel pretty good

about. I mean, it's a trailer that shows nothing other than to say it's kind of cool. It's like eight dragons. Yeah, wait, wait, wait, dragons dragons, And I'm like, fucking dude, yeah, fucking dragons. You can't go the Carpathians telling you about it? You're telling me is the ah dragons? Basically, yeah, it's cool, like zero gameplay, but cool looking trailer. New engine, new Engines say. They say it's a new engine. Todd Howard said in an interview like three months

ago that they're building on the old engine. So I'm sitting here like scrutinizing their use of the phrase new engine, like that could be opened with a lot of interpretation. It's like newer version of game, new engine. We've it's all JavaScript, we've just made it documents. We're just using the latest version that we used for Epic Mickey. So if they just find a sky

rim vill Facebook Facebook game. That's that's the new engine. Just found a way to make this new engine five times is broken, I hope, like just stuff like everyone's head is upside down by the phone. We've made it so every companion you can walk up to does not respond to you the first ten times. This is by design, right, I'm excited for this game. Now you can through everything and just everything great, You're a wizard. I don't know. I also think it's you know, for for us old

school people. I think it's just like amazing how far Bethesda has come, yea, because they're like rock stars now in this industry. And the fact that they got to make an announce on this show. Everybody who's excited about it. I mean, I don't know how many you guys in the room remember like Dagger, which, how is this in the same company, Even even if they're mora win. Those games were nothing like mainstream. They were the deepest of nerds, yes they were. They were the hardest core of

PC nerds, and they never sold out. I don't even know how it happened. It's like the world came around to them. Yeah, it was oblivion. It was oblivion coming Out at the right time. On the three sixty, there were a lot of people that were just hungry for any kind of meaty game on that console. They're like, oh, we'll play this.

Oh wait, this game is amazing, right, the world discovered the Test and became a better place, and then and then they followed up with Fallout, which people were ready to Okay, this has guns in it. I'm in like that, but with gun Okay, right, except for those Fallout stalwarts that are somewhere still super pissed. I'm sure there right now, there's no upside down faces and Fallout two because you said this right, yeah,

Jeff again. SSX Deadly Descents. I don't believe it now. If that was a descent game, I'd be in mana Deadly Descent, Deadly Descents. There are multiple descents. I'm sorry, e a sports SSX Deadly Descents. That's a bit of a mouthful. Deadly Descents, tizing cream. I'm just waiting for the whole trailer is like, we gotta hear copters like drop off alicopter onto a very snowy mountain. So it's so they're playing up to

the whole try to kill yourself something like that. It looks it looks like they're playing up the We built this on the Call of Duty engine angle because there's a snowboard, there's there's like a the look of that game looks like it looks like a military game. Until there's snowboarding in the trailer. You're like, oh, they're they're in these big like military helicopters, and they're like the look of the game is like that. There's no dj Atomica,

there's no crazily colored brightly colored to anything. There's also no gameplay, so I don't even don't even know what what that game will look like. But this was not the direction I would I would expect them to or I would have expected them to go if they were going to bring it back as SSX, And I don't know if we'll see So somebody's told them to make black ops, but then they had to remind them it's actually a snowboarding franchise.

Tell me about the numbers on your lift ticket, bro, tell me about the numbers your lift tickets. Don't have two stone to read the numbers on my lips? Me the numbers on your lift ticket. Let me tell you about this. We went down. We were snowboarding in Vietnam. Put fortunate son on again. I can't not it's stuck that way. Prototype two also the biggest surprise anything crazy. I don't think it's that biggest. Really, there's an audible gas at the VTS was there? Not really? Really?

It wasn't my living just a h I just turned to my wife when time because I do that. Oh god, it's choking again, swallowing his own tongue. Honey, we need to get you better teeth. I uh, yeah, I don't know. I never thought they would follow up that game. I thought Pepe they usually winning and gutted radical Yet radicals developing this game? Yeah? Does it have a Is there a you know? Subtitle after? Nope? No, no, nothing they have. They have a slogan

for it, but it's not. What is it like Murder Your Maker? I think it is. So you're not playing as Alex Mercer. You're you're a guy who, yes Colin in twenty twelve. Right, You're you're you're playing as a guy who's also been infected with the same stuff, who is now chasing Alex Mercer. Right, I wish I remember your interests are the same, and you're gonna see up and then co op un locks. I

don't know. Do you remember how that game what wrapped up At the end you fought a giant monster on an aircraft carrier, Yes, and then you win. In this game, you play as the aircraft carrier starts out the araft carrier. He's just doing all the video. Yeah, I can't remember if they solved the problem of the virus. Alex Mercer just kind of like SLINKs off into the city with a hoodie on. Really so he fails and all the time he boss whatever that was, and then so he sort of

got back at the military doing stuff to him. He just made me realize I want to make a game and end it that way. You have to like slink off and everyone's like booing you, and then the credits roll. Great thing to do to a gamer, not even off. That's what I thought you were wrong the entire time. You're actually fighting the good guy. That's how my pretty much how my game of Fable three ended. So and

then it erases all the achievements. You mad, you know, fuck you, I'm going to propose you just you reached the level ninety nine of the Jeweled three and now it deletes itself. And then and then anytime you load it up, all of the zombies are just flipping you off. Thanks for your money, asshole. They have to buy the game again if you ever

want to play it. I was just thinking your life, how like the worst thing that could happen, And like all those zombie games, what if there's just a virus that made you think everybody was a zombie, so you think it's a zombie apocalypse. It just starts shooting everybody. Yeah, and then it turns out that you're just the messed up one. And if you're the messed up one, and these guys are all just chasing after you to

stop you, and you're like, keep coming, man. And then that virus spreads so more and more people think that the other people are zombies. Whoa I mean the like the villain who thinks she's the hero that was also descent, however, and then you've got a snowboard your way to Victoria. The hero the thinks it's a villain is you know, it's classic storytelling troupe and especially for for sci fi and fantasy, and it's kind of surprising that

it doesn't. You don't get more of that twist in games because it's the villain who thinks it's a hero. Yeah, I'm sorry, Yes, that's

you being that villain, right Yeah yeah yeah. Basically mean Prototype plays like kind of flirts with that idea a little bit for sure, But and I don't know, I thought there was some that is to me more than your Infamous or your Uncharted, that that is the game that needs a sequel, because that is a game that can materially be improved, uh like mechanically, Like there's so many things about it, Like, man, there's great potential

here. There are things about this that I really enjoyed. But you know, this, this, this and this all need to be better, and this is the opportunity to do something about that. I just trying to. I mean, they at least made its announcement splashy, so maybe they maybe they care about it enough to actually make it happen. I guess Activisions at a point where they don't not care about anything anything except for Cabella's and like

whatever they would have previously labeled his activision value. Yeah, but one last story here today before we move on to new releases. Announcing some retailers specific fatalities for Mortal Kombat. Now this is not you know, this trend is nothing the pre ordered bonus, the retailers specific pre ordered bonus. I've seen all that before. There's something about this about fate, about fatality. So what it is is they have three different programs set up with three different retailers,

and each one's a different character skin and a different fatality. So it's it's it's the Ninjas. So it's like Scorpion, Subzero, Reptile and you get the kind of the classic look and then their original fatality or one of their original fatalities. For Subser and Scorpion, those are easy. I don't know what they would do for Reptile. Which one is the which which reptile

fatality is the iconic reptile one is the tongue head Yeah? Probably Yeah, I think it's that the acid spit that looks No, it's probably the tongue subser head rip and the scorpion fire. Can you fucking imagine a world where you buy this game and you don't get the head rip and the breathing fire. Well, the only thing I mean, I actually think it's a good thing that they're coming up with new fatality is because every time they could they

switch to a new engine. The first thing that the MK team does is you'll see that skull breathe fire again. And so it's kind of nice that this guarantees that there will be two new fatalities for Scorpion in the game. So basically you'll be you're beginning a third for these characters. The problem is that they're kind of building this game as a pseudo reboot. You know, the storyline will take place kind of in the right place in the story,

but you know, they're using all these old characters. They're trying to make the game play more like the old games. This is stuff that just should just be in it because they're in a position where they need to get those old players back, and nickel and diming them on this stuff and basically preventing them from getting access to that stuff is not the right way to go about putting this game out there. They're already kind of getting into weird territory by

putting Credos into the game as a PS three exclusive character. I mean, at least he fits into the into the universe. Yeah, he's angry, and he kills everything, and and he has scored in spear basically right, so you know, not since the inclusion of quan Chi, haven't been so disappointed in the new Mortal game. So him. And then there's rumors that quan Chi is also going to Yeah a bunch of a bunch of files got

yanked off of their official website. That hasn't been confirmed. But but yeah, Quancy was done as DLC for the last game and never released, so you know, they got the models done, so why not use it? Make him the because then no one will pre order? Can you only have Quanchi fight creatos? Because they are basically the same character. The more modern looks of Quanci as they changed him, look less creatos like, okay,

but yes it should. Actually it's actually just be FMV footage of Richard di Visio, who played Kano and then went on to play quan Chi and the Mortal Kombat Mythologies, which you should look up the FMV for MK Mythologies and see him playing Quanchi if you want to see. There's the only good Quanchy stuff ever. Mythologies was the Subseri again has that side scrolling subzero game, and there was also Special Forces Forces, which under no circumstances or you to

play Special Forces. I remember watching you play Special Forces. It was like I was killing myself while playing a video game. Make that the pre order. It was pretty impressive. But you're right, I don't think that. I don't think you know, there's a lot of excitement here for this new Mortal Kombat, but they're kind of coming off of a bad stretch for MK. Well. Yeah, I mean, I think the last game they did

was great, but they are not as huge as they once were. Sales definitely tapered off for that series as they as they went on, and this is the game that they're finally recapturing a lot of those people, Like people are coming back to it and looking at this footage and looking at the game and going like, oh man, this this is the moral Kombat I remember. And they're starting to get those people excited again. They shouldn't do things

that they're acting against that they're acting like they've already had the success. This is you save this for Mortal Kombat ten. This is yeah, this is the game after once you're you've got everyone back on the hook and you're in you know, the grander game playing publics. Yeah, kind of start playing around with that stuff. But this, you know, it's it's a bit much. They're also doing two separate collectors editions. That's gonna come with you

know, Avatar stuff and I loves well, So there's two versions. They're spelling Collectors with a K. So there is that, Okay, is there a Game of the Year edition yet not? Yeah? Yeah, Tournament edition will come with what they're terming a portable fight stick, which I can't even fathom what that means, because last time I checked, every fight stick I've ever bought for a console can be brought some place. You know, those

little that to me says it's too small and jankie. You know, I don't know what are those those TV games that have like all of the NAMA with MK one built into it, that'd be all right portable. It's a portable arcade joystick, that'd be all right. Well, it's you know, it's a portable arcade Comma joystick, got it, yep, spelling Collectors with

a K. I'm gonna say it. It goes a long way. That's that will at least justify it. So we got the the Tron Evolution Collector's Edition Limited Edition for one thing, like, Okay, Trun's kind of a big deal, and they're making a go at it, and they want this to be a big thing. So at a certain point I get it. You know, you want to make your your big, fancy collector's edition.

But this thing's one hundred and thirty dollars. It's Halo helmet price, and what you get for that is a copy of the game, which yea in the middle of the road with the game like, it's not horrible, it's not the worst license game, but it's not, you know, it's the

story is the best part about it. I think I have having seen the Brad and I went and saw the movie, Yes you did, and uh, I think the story in the game is probably if they had taken the story from the game and told it as as as a flashy of a way as they you know, as the movie is, I think the game story would be better. As Jeff Bridge is in the game, his likeness is in the game, his voice is not. They gotta it seems like they

got a decent sound yeah exactly for him, none for him. But but either way, like not necessarily a game that that you would feel really warrants that one hundred and thirty dollars package, and for that you're getting the game a light cycle replica, which it's kind of all one piece. It looks you know, when you leave it in its plastic display case, you look at it and you go like yeah, but if you get too close to it, you're like, this is It's like it's like a melted shoe or

something like like re shaped into a light cycle and maybe it's that. And then a a ten dollars gift certificate kit to go see the movie, which as a three D movie, you will not be all see that. Yeah, unless you go, like if you're like under sixteen and go see a matinee, you might know to squeeze in. They were banking on some kind of like tron mania here for this thing. I guess. So there's so much merchandise out there, like Adidas did a bunch of clothing, Oakley did

sunglasses, it was snowboarding stuff. Zero last week, Oh shit? Really? Yeah? Does it? Does it taste like you were inside a computer? It tasted like tron tastes like tastes like bits, taste like blue. It was evil drinking evil tide coke. Zero dud did that movie. It is it. It's pretty good. It's it's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Yeah. Yeah, well I think you know, I went in expecting all the acting to be horrible and the three D but to be a nightmare, And I thought the acting was fine and the three D was pretty understated, like relatively subtle all told, and the story is good enough to keep you interested throughout a Bee action. Yeah yeah, the action, Yes, there's a lot of really cool actions. Sequences amazing, yeah, nothing commercial

visual, Yeah, yeah, it's it looks really great. It's always been Tron's biggest strength is, yeah, this looks and it doesn't It does not plod. The pace is much faster than the original movie, right, so it doesn't have that problem almost to a fault, where there's some stuff that feels really glossed over and and something. Well, but they actually so they

actually do a nice job. You know, for all the talk about all the linking games to movies now horrible that usually goes I feel like they actually did a pretty good job here, Like the stuff that ties back to the game, the stuff that they allude to in the movie that you can look at and go like, oh, they're referencing things that happened in the game. Not super key, you're not missing out if you didn't play the game too much. But having played the game, I was like, oh man,

wow, that's okay cool, that's that's pretty neat. That's for you. Yeah, yeah, and and vice versa. You know, there's there's scenes in the movie that take place. There's a scene in the movie that actually is also in the game, kind of scene from a slightly different perspective that I thought was was cool. So I guess good on them for putting all that stuff together in an interesting way. That's that's probably the hardest part of all that. So cool. All right, let's move on to some

new releases. Guys. Yes, how do you feel about that all these great new releases coming out this week? Surprise, there are no new releases. Double surprise, there are new releases coming out for Xbox Live Arcade this week? Right, Okay, I should? I should? I should preface this by saying that there are no new like physical boxed new releases this week. However, digital releases abound. This is a kubon for frozen peas you have over here. Yeah it is. You don't want to actually know what

I use as bag for. Oh, it's actually a bag of frozen peas. Jeff, what do you use the frozen P bag for? Say it's for frozen peas. Also, don't say it's for frozen p We're now all right, let's just move on. What the fuck do you want to now? Have to know? It's not pleasant. It doesn't involve me though, as long as some like old man Clost, as long as you're okay, as long as you're okay talking about it on the air, I don't want to make you comfortable. I was going to take my dog on a walk

before I came out over here. This was gonna bend. This was the bag for my dogs. Shit. But now this podcast is going on so long that you're just going to shit into it. Yeah, that's why I took the bag out of my pocket. No, I was wondering why my like pocket was bulging and you know, and then I remembered, Oh, it's the empty bag of peas in my At least it hasn't been used, Are you sorry? Asked now? Guys, No, I'm happy to know, totally totally happy. So this is this is the dog shit bag I've

here mystery you want to ziplock also to double up. I don't know where it came from. It's been it was. It was sitting on that chair when I came in, think about it. Xbox Libricide's releases this week include X Men Arcade Really yeah yeah, yeah that arcade game. Somebody. It's hotly anticipated, Like, there are a lot of people that view this game as an extremes as a very big classic in the in the brawler genre. I loved it. I sunk many a quarter into it when I was younger.

I just don't know if it if it holds up? Is it it is the six player version right, because there were two cabinets, there was a four player, and then between the six and the four, which I imagine will then affect like aspect ratio and screen. Yes, one was one win. One was Stretchy. That's also gonna be up for PlayStation Network Day earlier, Quake Arena Arcade. Oh finally interesting and play Quake Live, but pay for it and play it with an Xbox controller. Thanks, Yeah,

pretty much, that's pretty much it. Oh you know, I'm sure it'll be ok if you've never played Quick three before in any other form uh so fourth week in uh in Game Room Pack twelve. Yeah, we still have five games left in that pack. Okay, Oh man, Really, I don't know what's gonna I'm just saying these things. I don't know what's gonna happen. Hopefully this will be the week for food Fight. We've got We've got food Fight, We've got m I A, We've got sunsets, volleyball,

and war Lords. That's the four lords. War Lords. We'll see what they do. I bet they'll split it up. I bet you're right. I bet we'll get three games this week and two next, not that anyone cares. I care. I care, not that anyone that matters cares, Kevin, and then I'll probably the last five of Game Room. You think I wouldn't be surprised they finish out the year. And so you think that phantom Pack thirteen thing is just a fluke. I don't know. It

came up. It showed up as a thing I could download, but do they actually download it? So you know it's it's It's too bad because I feel like it's been a long time coming, like someone needed to come along and like make legalized emulation and and micro chance and make the stuff work and compete with maime in a legal, feel good kind of way. They didn't do it. They just never got the games. They never will get the

games. They never got the games that and even like with that specific and focused a a job like the emulation was fucked up, not often, not often often enough where it's like, come on, why is there new music in poo Yan? This is this is this thing. Why is there no music in poo Yam? This is this thing's entire job and it can't do that well. Plus, there's no music and po Yan. There is music in poo Yan. There's never been music and poo Yan. There's always been

music and poo Yan until now. Thanks Game Room, this is poo Yan de luxe. We were moved to the music. It's way better this way experience. It's all the new releases I've got, dude, guys, games are done coming out for twenty ten. Yeah, enjoy it. We made it, basking it. There's gonna be some more weirdo digital releases, but I don't have to go to the case. West is out the twenty seventh. Yes, that'll kind of be the probably the last thing of the year

confirmed to be a standalone XBLA game. Yes, you don't have to own that Rising two three sixty to buy that game. No, but it will be eight hundred points, so it'll be it'll be the ten dollars as opposed to be five dollar that Frank West deserves five dollars of his own. He takes that money and spends it on films. It's co op, hey, like Dead Rising two, but like real co op with two different characters, not just two. Chuck Green's weird, who could have thought? All right?

Whatever, I'm more excited, Like I played like two hours of Dead Rising two. I'm stoked, but I sh ranked case zero and I'm totally excited four and looking forward to play like that's as much Dead Rising as I want. It turns out there's a couple of hours in a small area, like the expansive world and the Giant, like all the other things that they bring into Dead Rising. I don't want to do that. Absolutely overrated in

gaming, the whole giant open world totally, I'm not kidding. Will give me a nice five hour experience at a decent price point, and I'll be on my way. There's something to be said for some self restraint in your game design, right, exactly like guns, Give me three and we're good match. It's matched. Three's three to five four three pistols they gave me when I every time you can't get back. If one of you guys could leave, then there'd be three giant bump I can match you. Or if

we could find a third person named Jeff. No, but yeah, but then won't you guys disappear? Shit, Maybe that's no good. That's right. We had we had three mats at one point we could yeah, two and a half. We murdered them a good point. Now they're all gone. Jeff Gerstman with the Nintendo download and this list is like as long as the whole list you just read, Nintendo is not messing around. We need we need to twenty eleven. We are running eleven. We are we're doing

something about this part of the show. Why don't you just start running it at double speed and I'll talk extra low. All right, I'll run a double speed. I'll start this week. I'll run a double double speed. If you talk like that in here the entire time, that's just gonna make it take twice. As this doesn't help anyone except for the listener. That's all I care about are the thousands of people listening. I don't care. I'm a ton of of your time. I waste line guy. Jan Games

one player, five hundred points. Demo version available for zero. We Pour is an award winning rhythm racing game with a dub steps soundtrack and a visual aesthetic that will confound your senses and rock your soul. I'm not even going to speed it up now. I've decided. Rhythm line and do your best to stay on the track as you race to the finish, tapping the button to the beat of the catchy soundtrack by Genre Superstars sixteen bit with fifteen levels

of intense musical racing. It's a game that has to be experienced to be believed, and much more that was we Wear. Also on we Wear Family Game from Icon Games Entertainment. One to four players, rated E for every one five hundred WEE points. Description. Colon Family Games is a collection of timeless pen and paper games for the whole family. Games include Squares Dots nine, Men's Morris Mill, Safe Cracker, match Sticks, Knots and Crosses, Tic Tac Toe four in a Row, Take That, Mister Match three,

Battle Fleet, Does It, Save It? And Hangman. Numerous rule sets at gay variations offer many ways to play. Up to four players can compete in tournament mode. There are also twenty special achievements to unlock Violin Paradise from key Stone Game Studio in all capital letters one to four players seven hundred week points. Violin Paradise is designed for up to four people to enjoy additional controllers

sold separately. Players can choose to be a conductor, violinist, violist, or cellist as they perform some of the most beautiful classical pieces in history. The game includes a micro orchestra, which helps players feel the enjoyment of a group performance. The game environment changes dynamically and can be enriched with more objects if you play successfully. All right, guys, are you ready for virtual console now? No Darius Twin for the Super Nintendo from Tito eight hundred we

points for countless millennia. The space tyrant Belzer and his cosmic marauders have terrorized as this wants peaceful galaxy, Sorry, Richard Belzer stars and Darius Twin Radity for everyone mild fantasy violence. No sector remains safe from these stellar mercenaries and

their evil Empire. The Galactic Federation has finally called on two of its Ace pilots and their sleek silver Hawk warships to do battle with Belzer's malicious Metal menaces and reclaimed their beloved planet Darreus. Climb into the pilot's seat for a solo mission against Belzer's forces, or engage the enemy with a fellow Federation pilot in a simultaneous two player team attack. The future of the galaxy depends on the

success of this perilous west. Nintendo dsiwear Little Red Riding Hoods Zombie Barbecue with cream flowing on waterfalls from Gammick Entertainment, Rated tea for blood and gore, crude humor, fantasy violence, mild suggestive themes, and mild language. Eight hundred Nintendo DSi points TM. They don't normally trademark the points, but for that one they did. Can you say Fairytale Land or will you let its

creatures live unhappily ever after? Little Red Riding Hoods Zombie Barbecue is a fun shooter in which you must advance by shooting down every living or dying creature in your path. Use the Great Arsenal of weapons at your disposal, to destroy hordes of savage zombies. Jam Space Pocket Studio. Now it says jam space here on the paper, you realize you're just reading it in like a monotone. Put it on the pizza. More than particularly like lower than anything.

It's a little bit lower. You're right that Please continue Jam Jam Space Pocket Studio. There's a space between jam and space, but not between pocket and studio. This is another banger from HB Studios. It is rated E for everyone five hundred ds I points. Jam Space Pocket Studio for the Nintendo DSi system puts the power of a recording studio in your pocket. You can gun pose tracks, jot down ideas, and be musical no matter where you are.

Choose from two modes. Quick Jam mode allows you to lay down tracks quickly and easily use natural instrument interfaces. This is a great mode if you've got a little melody and want to record and want to get it down quickly. Studio Mode gives you access to a full featured MIDI editor that lets you tweak and hold your compositions to a professional level. If you want to dig deep and really work on that masterpiece, this is the mode for you.

One more guys, I'm basking in it. These guys taking their phones Christmas songs. Yeah, engine software two hundred Nintendo DSi points. Do you want me to try this one way? Lower? Always get ready for a Christmas karaoke party where you are the star. Famous holiday tunes including Jingle Bells and Silent Night are waiting for you. Dressed up as Jolly Santa Claus, you enter a stage covered in snow and sing into the built in microphone on your

Nintendo DSi to create a magical Christmas mood. While singing, you'll receive feedback did you hit all the right notes and sing in time? Compare your high score with previous singers, or just sing to your holiday heart's content. That is all of the releases that Nintendo has released for this week. Guys, All right, thank you, Jeff. We're bringing back up to normal speeds,

so okay, we should always do it any double time. Actually that was like that was like yeah, that was that was super duper fast, so that we would have time for some emails. I'm dizzy after doing that. After doing that, the final Nintendo Downloads screed that we will ever do in this current format. What are you talking about, dude, last week,

we spent like twenty minutes on that segment. That's insane. We can't spend twenty minutes a week talking about fucking Nintendo downloads that we never play. Look, I don't know if you know this, but the Wei is still the worldwide has the largest installed base of any console. Bobcat at Janet bomb dot com the email address you send emails into for us to read emails on the air. Are you saying we need to start a separate podcast where we

talk about the Nintendo releases for a full hour. If you want to spearhead that for our twenty eleven projects, I'll put it on the taskboard. You know. I'll fight for you on it for sure. Just to get it out of here. Oh I lost I lost my things. I had everything here. First email comes in from Kevin and Wisconsin bomb Cast. Why does game Inform we get all the exclusive covers and stories about big games? Is game stop making some sweet retail deals in order to get game Form with the

exclusive rights to this stuff? You know, I don't know the machinations of it, but I think it has more. It's it's more about Game four is in all those game the numbers publishers in pursuit of the mythical reach. If they're the number seven magazine of any magazine, yeah, exactly where are you? You give it to the people with the most. It's the ones that are going to reach the most people that might not follow this on a

daily basis. So giving it to a website, even the biggest websites is still kind of a preaching to the choir, sort of move right game of former talenty here. You know, I asked Andy mcmair a point blank, because you know, it's like it's something we get asked a lot, like how does that stuff work? And he said, no, dude, it's it's us. We the whole magazine is us. And uh. And you know I started getting it just like we all do. For whatever fucking reason,

I didn't ask for it. And I've been reading the last few issues in you know, it's all right. It's not that they have a good stuff. You know, their covers have been awesome, Blaney, the whoever's doing their art and whoever's like directing that stuff. These Byshock Infinite covers are fucking amazing, right. I find the reviews to be pretty right on score wise, and riding wise. I mean, you know, in my magazine days, they were easily the magazine to hate because they were sort of like

the big bad guy. You know, they were owned by best Buy and I'm sorry games best Buy, right, that's the other guys, right, game Stop, And it just seemed unfair, you know, like like we had to fight for the readers and they're just giving them away to everybody, and those numbers counted in their cirque. So it's sort of easy to hate on Game of Former. But now that I'm away from the magazine business and I'm just reading it as a as a gamer trying to get those covers.

Yeah, but you'd no, I think it's a pretty good magazine, you know, given that they could coast, they could put you know, they could just write whatever. They could just put it into some you know words scrambler just put out onto the page. There you go. Dumb shits? Have you guys been? Maybe this is just me and the data that I've been seeking out out, but I feel like when I'm googling stuff lately, more and more often I'm ending up at the sort of like random like clearly

written either by a machine or by like someone in China. Isn't that stuff you mentioned a few weeks ago, Yeah, is broken, But it's it's the problem with search stuff as you have people just like robots turning or or

you know, they're their demand what's machines. Yeah. What's what's crazy though, is that you keep like you get to these articles and you look like, Okay, well, this is like the achievement guide for this one specific achievement that I was trying to find what's constantly like almost getting to the part where it will have some sort of information where it's constant like set up. Like many people have trouble getting this achievement because it's a hard achievement to get.

Also, like all the logic in statements and all of the sentences are completely circular likes because there's no actual content. Right, No, there is no actual but it's it's insane because you keep reading it and like I'm like and then the next line will be where the information is, and like, no, this is I have just spent like at five minutes reading is something that is truly empty, and yet they it's amazing how they make it seem

like content. It like it is devoid of user experience, there's nothing there too experience. There was a big, great story recently about a guy who sells eyeglasses, yeah, out in New York, and and his whole thing was was talking about like how he thrives on negative reviews of his business because all the links point back to his site. So his seo ends up being

huge for just about any kind of eyeglass stuff on the internet. But the story, Yeah, Google finally like respond and said like this shouldn't be happening, and they're trying to make changes to their algorithm to prevent people from doing this sort of stuff. And then they arrested. Yeah, then they ended

up arresting Well, he was literally threatening people. Yeah, he was like calling people up that were threatening with the turns, and then you know they would just get more and more mad and go online harder and harder and in more and more places and spread this guy's name around, which because it's in New York Times article, he was like bragging. Yeah, he was like, yeah, no, it works, it's great. It's a new business

model. He's like, Yeah, people call up and say I want to return something, He's like, I'll come to your house and kill you. It's it's and it's it's one of those things that you know, it's like the pages, like the ones you're talking about, are kind of how a lot of the Internet stuff is developing. It's stuff that it's it's it's born out of the same ideas that lead to people putting up top ten lists that have one entry on every page with a big picture, right, you know,

is is we're just there. They found a way that the Internet is broken game that ends up getting them more traffic. So they're going to try to build to that. And it's it's one of the things like not to like you should try that. It would be really easy to do it, you know, like we could probably double our you know, and we went out our way to not do it right, We could probably double our page view traffic overnight if we just but we love long pages. We love long

pages. Who doesn't. Yeah, to finish answering this Deed's question, it just in terms of like exclusives on Informer versus the web. Yeah, And that part of it is that game publishers still love the Presties, even in twenty ten of seeing their game on a magazine cover, and honestly like that, I don't mind it like, good on them. They they made the

deal, they got the business. The part that then annoys me is when they have their print exclusive that they put on their website and you know, we can't run a piece of contents because a deal made for a different medium. Yeah, that's always been the that that when when the the scene at Ziff Split happened and one Up started getting stuff like that is like, what the fuck? There are a lot of angry phone calls that came out of our camp on this ship. Has to stop what you're doing. Yeah,

because we are doing a little you know, victory dancing. Oh sure, if you had that to your advantage, absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's it's basically like the the as far as like actual, meaningful, big exclusive wals of new games. It is Game Informer, and it is Spike TV. It is it is Jeff Keeley, and it is Anti Mcamara. Those are the dudes old media. Yeah, because it reached you know, because of that reach factor, because it actually does reach people.

Like I said that, you know, you could go have something that appeared on the homepage of a game spot and IGN and it might reach more people in a day maybe, but all those people are gonna be so wired in that they're going to see that content anyway, So it's it's kind of pointless to to go with the big web only outlets. At the magazine has staying power. It sits on a stand for like thirty days. Yeah right,

Yeah, that was. That was a big thing too, and you and you saw like one up try to do it or they would like base a whole week of coverage around a game, Like any website is going to leave a story up for like two three days max, and it's gonna get you, And it was. It was. It was a very frustrating thing when you're writing for the biggest website in the world that has like a monthly number that is way bigger than any print magazine to look at that and go

like, what the fuck is going on? But it is straight up just the difference between preaching to the choir or preaching to people that are all coming in for a cheat code on one page and never seeing your homepage versus the magazine cover at the airport courses seeing the magazine at the airport. I was going to ask, because then we were staying like, yeah, it'll be on a news stand for thirty days. Fuck are there newsstands airports? I

guess so? Or more importantly, the game stops where everyone is getting their free subscription with with with purchase. Yes, New York has plenty of newsstands, like literally on the street, like dude selling cigarettes checked out, there's a huge news stand staring in the face as you walk out of the checkout. I guess. But that's not where Game in Former. No, not in this case. You're right. But yeah, so you're saying that it's

a game exclusives should be revealed on the cover of people. Sure, I know, I'm a sweep guy, so yeah, like how crazy is that? You know Jimmy found uncharted exclusive. That's well, he keeps doing that. He's been doing that year now. And Gavin it's it's I think you know, Jimmy Fallon is of their age group where he cares about it. And then his producer, Gavin Purcell used to be at G four, so he's interested in all this stuff and is wired into all that stuff too.

That guy, Yeah, I didn't know that, so you know, like he he cares about that stuff. They care about that stuff. They realize that that's something that no one's gonna do and I think it's it's awesome that they're doing it. Yeah, so they're getting tech stuff and game stuff like they had Connect on a couple of times. It's it's cool. I think it's way more awesome about that than than the Spike TV stuff. Jim he founds like way more mainstream obviously, yeah, way more, way more people.

It's on a network, it is not it is not it's not deep cable, right. Uh. You know they just need to, you know, eliminate his monologues and put more of that stuff than in the Jimmy Fowlan show Young Good to Go. Yeah, a lot of the bits on Fallon, I think I've been really good. His bits are great. Yeah. I think I think he's and I think he's finding and I think eighty miles is hilarious and he's like writes for that show, uh and is on it a bunch. So I just like, I don't think he could deliver the

topical monologues to save his life. I think he just needs to go for more with the like update whenever his strong like when he was doing Weekend and we can update on that's I never thought that was no, No, it wasn't his his his strongest I just whatever. His strongest point is cracking up. But I feel I feel like with that show, like with the video game stuff, it's been nothing but him being like, hey, you don't

want to be awesome? If I could get like Jeff Goldbloom and Bismarck Key out here to do a duet of just a friend, and I'll get it on too, basically, Like he's just like, what are all the things that I would think, like, like you know, sixteen year old me would think would be awesome. I'll play like the newest video games before they're out, all right, get those fuckers in here. Yeah, you know, let's let's get I'm gonna get the guy to play Zach Morris for real

here. You know. It's that's his whole thing. Anyways, there's the game and four perspective. Thank you, Jeff's yeah for providing the old man perspective. It's been a long fight, man, and we lost Next Evil come from landing. That's right, Andy Max sitting out there and fucking Minnesota. I'm happy to give it up. Yeah. That is he is. Yeah, and he was one of the first dudes I had met when I

started hanging out trade shows with no jobs. I was definitely thinking if I would never quit that job, I'd say, in that job forever if I was him. Well, now, yeah, now that he's gotten to you know, he ascended to to e I C. It's like, just run your empire. I think he owns all the Minnesota at this point, him and Prince pretty much just probably split it. So right down in the middle. Yeah, Landon Smith in Coleman, Alabama. Hey, bomb cast,

I'll keep this story short. A few weeks ago, my brother and I came into a sum of money and we decided to get a game with it. The original plan was to get Wow. We robbed a guy why he was bleeding on the street. We were like, let's go buy some murder simulators. Just keep it, just keeping it short. There's a much better story, alright, Just let you know, you know, a drug deal gone right. We rolled up some oregano and sold it to some dumb kids

as weedy sixty bucks. Next time we're at school, though, they're kicking our asses. My mom drinks a lot, so first is easy to get to the original plan was to get the Game of the Year Borderland's edition but at some point my brother suddenly decided he wanted Fable three instead. After days of trying to tell him there was nothing about Fable three to get excited for, we got it all the same. Now, not only is the game bad, but we are out sixty bucks and the game has caused a number

of arguments between us. This is like a screenplay. Is it's like the like the like the Local Kids version of like heists. Yeah, let's cast it right. It's like, you know, hold on, hold on. His name is Trey. You guys should make him apologize to me. Me. So we have so we have Landing and Tray, right, Trey being the brother that actually purchasing the games, I'm gonna assume these. So Michael land in an ice cube. That's how we cast us done. Uh,

you should just made a mistake, I think, dude. Come on, Trey, Yeah, give me the motherfucking Fable tray. You're not gonna come into that semi money again. So that's a bummer. Tell me about the numbers tray. When I found one hundred old bill on my lawn, I went and bought pac Man for the atar eight hundred story is so much better than the letter. Yeah, what do you mean you came into money and body game? Right, that's not a lot of money to come into,

so right, it's yeah, you know, well obviously there's there. There is fifty nine ninety nine plus sex. Obviously there is that story. Because somehow they're both and all those money. Yeah, they and they're both so both have some they both have some sort of claim to this sixty bucks. Like I was the lookout round that job, so I'm entitled to a cut of this cash. You stole the car with all the hands in and from

that homeless guy. What are we gonna do? I love that, like fighting back and forth like I would hope that went on for such a long time. There was a real small pushing that lady down in front of the coinstar machine. I will ret you out. I will ret you out if you get Fable. It looks really good. Though. We said we were getting Borderland's right, So we got we got it, Borderland's right, right, I got Fable? What did you do that? Sorry? I was

in there. I freaked out. The guy was like to watch he knew. The guy knew. Oh, Jean Luke from South Burlington, Vermont. There there are four lights. Next question, No, hey, BombCast. I was listening to the Tron Legacy soundtrack, which score is a delight? I have to I have to recommend it. Uh And I couldn't help but notice some similarities to the music in Mass Effect. Naturally, the line of thinking led me to the logical conclusion that Daft Punk should do the soundtrack for

Mass Effect. Three thoughts. I think that'd be pretty good. It would. They did a hell of a job. It's jealous and it's not to just be the guy who sits there and says like you should see the movie, but the score you fit into the movie even better, even better. It feels like listening to it, I'm like, Okay, I see the parts where this is a character theme, right, score, it's a score. It's definitely a score. You're not gonna do it like it's a daft

Punk album. There there's maybe one dance track. Three. There's a couple that are not necessarily dance tracks, but there are three tracks that have By this thinking, you're getting a daft Punk alt. Are you gonna be bummed out a little bit? Yeah? Bigger question here is what the hell is vangelis doing? Now? This should be doing mass efect. Yeah, Like, why is he not going out and finding this guy? Like that's what they've been aping the whole time. What is a Vangelius? Guys, Jesus

Vgelus zero, He's the same person. That's what we learned. Answer solved. Vangelis is just a stage name. Final email comes in from Nathan Calgary, Alberta. Understand that's in the great country of Canadathaniel. Nope, just Nathaniel. I just want to spill your just want to knock this drink off the table. Sure, punch in the nose. I'm gonna make you put your hand in the bag of peas. Oh not the pea bag. You are wrapping up your kid time in the kitchen. This is a scenario.

Yeah, no, I thought I was recording a podcast. I'll tell me about the numbers. Well, I'll tell you about this time I was in the kitchen wrapping up. Please continue. You are wrapping up your time in the kitchen and are heading out to the TV area, food and beverage in hand. You reach for the light and spill just the tiniest bit of drink on the floor. Do you dab up the spill with your sock? Or take the time to set everything down and deal with the problem properly. Vinty

caravellas a carpet or is it carpet carpet? Then yeah, fuck, I don't even dab it, just let it go a bit, right, yes, he said, he said, the tiniest bit, like and it's probably it's probably water, so not specified your drink. Yeah it's cranberry juice. That's a different story. My carpets are such a color of the for me, no matter what the sock, I'm not bending over sock feel like it's

quickly basically dab it up. Yeah, it's foot footwels tell you where, yeah, Jeff, Jeff, you are absolutely one percent in for sock. Yeah yeah, or I just ignore it because my my carpets, and yeah, they're they're pretty dark, like kind of gnarly. Yeah, you guys also a little light little light the place, Yeah, very very poorly lit. For what would I would definitely sock it. Oh yeah, yeah, like yeah, that's just not even a question, not even but yeah,

I'm definitely I'm definitely saying carpet. I'm just having water anyway, right, Yeah, probably if it's water. If it's water, I'll sock it if it's some sticky water chestnuts. You ever had an ant problem when you've got sticky sugary stuff out, I know what you're talking about. Clean this. Yeah, sock all the way, should clean up, especially that don't be disgusting. I know, I don't. I would sock ever all the time. Yeah, I'm one hundred percent sock sock. But then your foots all

sticky. Bit I'm not drinking. Yeah, if it's just a little bit of it, it's not gonna make your entire foot sticky. It doesn't have to be the time. I'm not drinking gum. What would be sorry? Go on? Also depends if manname was podcast Jeff Green, thanks for coming through. God. Damn, that was way too long. I blamed the super slowed down. This was your idea for listeners, water water everyone,

for Patrician Purduc what's up of God? Next week, let's just do it all talking like talking backwards, so we can just reverse the podcast to do it forwards. So look forward to that next week that Bobcast