¶ GameStop Changes and Future of Sales
Howdy , it's Sean . Here Today is an older episode we recorded about the PS2 game . Mark of Cree had such a fun time strolling down memory lane with that game I decided to pick it up off the PlayStation Store and see how it held up . Stay tuned to the end of the episode for my thoughts on it .
And here's the episode Video games , a subject near and dear to our hearts and that we love talking about and you love hearing us talk about , and if you don't enjoy us , then please seek help . There might be something horribly wrong with you . Today we have a beloved game from our past that we want to talk about , games that we love so much .
We need to share them with the entire world . And first up , nate , what's a game you would like to share ?
My game today is Mark of Cree . I actually love that game . Just before I started recording I realized that it was 20 years ago actually 21 , because it was 2002 when it came out and on the PS2 , I love that game so much .
That game is so enough to drink now , if it could .
It is . Well , let me do a little side note on talking about video games and stuff . Yesterday we were out in Frankfurt and we went to the GameStop there . It was actually GameStop . I used to manage . I ran that GameStop for a couple of years and at Donomy I didn't run that GameStop in 10 years . It's been 10 years ago . I'm like , oh man .
In your mind it's about three years ago .
Yeah , and so I went in there , just like , okay , let me see how it looks . Let me see what the store looks like . It really has been like 10 years since I've been in there , because that wasn't even the last store I ran . The last store I ran was in the city of man now . But yeah , I ran that store for a year or so . It was a decent sized store .
Did I go in there ? It is . Of course it looks different . Duh , things change . But when I was there , they had the same carpeting . You know how they put a little tile block carpet ? They had that same tile block carpet for , I mean , it's always been the same for years .
It's been there for like maybe decades , and now it's like this white kind of laminate floor and it used to be . Now , here I am . I might sound like a person to play by MTV , but I'm going to do it anyway . I went in there and it used to be video games . It's called GameStop . They sold video games .
It was mainly video games and you had a small section that had maybe a couple toys and trinkets or whatever . It is the opposite . Now you walk in there I mean it's mainly . I mean honestly , it was like walking to a sun coast . Remember those Hot topic ? Almost yeah , sun coast music . Well hot topics were clothes .
They sold clothes too , but they sold all these figurines . They sold all these Funko pops . They were selling Funko pops and t-shirts , they were selling a scooter , what , yeah , and they're . Of course , the setups were all nicer . Again , it's been 10 years , I get it .
You know , I was kind of jealous because our old , the old stuff we used to have , are a lot crappier . But then again , when I worked there , the PS5 was out and nor was the Xbox One , you know . Nor was the Switch , nope , switch . I think the Switch was about to come out , like when the Switch is coming out .
When I yeah , I think the Switch is about five years old now .
No , okay , I take it back . Nope Switch wasn't out yet , it was still the Wii . So , oh , wii U , that's what it was . It was the Wii U and so it just it really kind of bummed me out , man , like going into a GameStop nowadays it's just not , you know , it's not what it was . And again , I know MTV doesn't play music videos anymore .
I get it , but it's just . You think of a place called GameStop they would still have ? No , I also do understand . I get it because the market's changed .
Digital games probably cut into their profits quite a bit .
Absolutely .
And it's funny , you can't trade in a digital game .
It's funny too , because when I remember having a talk with my district manager , it was about a year before I left and he goes where do you see yourself five years from now ? You know that stupid question . Yeah , yeah , he's trying to see you know , gauge , like , what's my interest in the company ?
And at the time I actually had like I was wanting to move up . I go , I want to become a district manager Because you know I don't when I go into a business . My well , it used to be this way . My current job . I don't want to move up , I don't want to be here but like it in GameStop .
I actually wanted to grow in the company and go from a store manager to a district manager , to possibly a regional manager From a little GameStop leading up to a GameStop boss . Yeah , and of course it was because of the money I didn't , you know . Ultimately , I even GameStop .
It's not like when you're eight years old . You're starry . I'm looking at GameStop . You're like someday someday . I will work there and run a place .
I'll tell you what , though . We're going to GameStop Now this is true to my district . I've talked to people who work in other districts . They enjoy their job a lot more . I even that job , my God dude . To date the most stressful job I've ever had , because they were just on their . Their boot was on my neck every F and day about .
Make sure you sell used . Don't do this pre-orders . Sell the manual .
Here's a list of games that you have to push . And then we'll be like we're not seeing enough pre-orders out of this game . What's the deal Exactly ?
And then even scheduling they would give me and this is not exaggeration , dude , I'm not exaggerating . There were times they gave me nine hours I would get .
Well , they would give me more than that , like once I actually gave my , I was salary , but once you gave , once I gave my assistant manager his hours , which was usually about 30 , I had nine hours to distribute between six or seven employees . Oh , that's nothing . I mean , that's two shifts If two three hours , sorry , it's three three hour shifts and I would .
The rest of it was just me and you know my assistant manager . So I can . That's not even considering the third key . So it was just madness .
And then you got to figure out how to entice employees with sexual little hours .
Right and well . The enticement was oh , you can check out games , but it's like they want money , you know . Sure , the game thing is fine , but they , they want to get paid .
Of course they do . Yeah , you can't send your landlord some video games back . Hey , borrow these for a month .
So , anyway , my , my assistant manager goes where do you see yourself in five years ? And I remember going I don't know how game stops can be doing in five years . This is probably the wrong answer , but he did not want to hear this . It was truthful , though it was truthful .
I go , with digital sales on the rise , like I was actually starting to buy my games digitally because I didn't have to . I worked in a GameStop and I still bought my games digitally because it was just easier . And I go , I don't know how well game stop will be doing , and boy was that pressure .
¶ GameStop Trade-Ins and Customer Service Issues
Like I tell you what man like after I left a few years later , was the five years market . It was already , like you know , game stops were crashing .
Yeah , when they were talking about how they're shutting down about a third of them , or one yeah .
And , unfortunately , the store I was managing . It was actually , I guess , good thing that was gone , because they ended up hiring one manager to manage two different stores . So they were just managing the store I had and they were managing a store that was like 15 miles away and they had to go back and forth and they were just they were just raking .
This poor manager owned coals , just because you know it was a job and I mean I was getting , you know , just go ahead , and people had the current . I was going to get paid like 35 a year sorry when I left I was . When I left , I was getting 36 a year and I was working between 60 to 70 hours a week .
Okay , so instead you're , so you're being close to like 25 when you're working hours and I mean it costs so much , probably here Then also like we're trying to raise kids and all stuff it just , and I work at nights , weekends , holidays , I'm so , and if somebody ever calls , in sick , you got to show up and cover it .
Oh yeah , I mean , there was like no exaggeration . There was one week where I worked every day for at least five hours , and some of those days I was there for 12 hours . It's just .
And not making overtime either as a bummer , because at least some of those jobs , if you get shafted like that , like if I got to work a bunch of hours I could at least get overtime , so I can sit there on , you know , hour 48 and be like , well , at least I'm going to have a good paycheck .
But when you don't even have that to look forward to it's just awful , yes , and so anyway , like F GameStop , seriously yeah , and also after I saw , like what they gave for trade ins on certain things and how they tend to screw over customers . if they could , oh yeah , I mean because they would legitimately be angry , the people who come in .
They spent $60 a video game . They want to trade it in . They've only had it for a couple of weeks but unfortunately for these people , a bunch of other people traded them for them . So now I actually have two games .
There's got to be like a huge run on use games , like about a week or two after they come out , when everybody beats them at the same time . Right , I got to get this in and trade it in while their value is still high .
Because , like when games first came out , you could go almost like 30 bucks trading back on it or something , but then after like the first week , it plummeted to 10 or less .
Yeah , they would come in with this game and like , hey , I want to trade this in . I'm like , okay , we'll give you $15 for it . And they're like , and that's trading credit . If they want cash , it was less , oh yeah . Seven bucks Legitimately angry and I would just be like , yeah , you know , I would sympathize with them , but like there's nothing I can do .
And they'd be like , well , especially when people would buy it , they'll buy a game in a lot of times , use games . They would do this too . They'll buy a game and they would beat it within like two days and they would try to return it . I'm like , no , you can't return this , you have to trade it in Now . Then that's what the sticky part is .
If they came in and said , oh , they already had this game , I want to return it , we can return it . But if they were coming in and they were stupid enough to say the words we've already beaten this . Yeah , I can't take the game out . Yeah , you're screwed .
You got always had a story for stuff like that . We're like oh yeah , my grandma bought me this and it turns out blah , blah , blah or something , or come up with you know an excuse on why I'm returning it that I didn't obviously play it . I already had a copy .
I had one lady sheet no joke , like we could return policy was the back of the receipt .
She scoured that receipt trying to find some way out of it and I'm like , look , lady , that was written by lawyers , you know , and while I agree , like that , your game bought man , your kid bought manhunt and he bought a new and he beat it a day and now he's dissatisfied with his money back . Yeah , sorry .
There's a manhunt on the Wii , I'm guessing .
Yeah , it was manhunt on the . Wii . He beat it in a day and he came back wanting to return it .
And of course it does also , like you know , here is we're kind of rural Kentucky , so these are rough rednecks and so I'm not exactly fear from my life , but I'm also not exact , you know they're , I don't know like that my bias is creeping through about you know back . Yeah .
You never know when oh Bubba Gump's going to be hanging outside by the car , yeah .
And she sat there and like they literally stood in front of my register for almost 10 minutes trying to like , read through the back of their seat and argue with me . And I'm like you bought a brand new game , you played it and you beat it .
That's not my fault , you should have rented that , you should have gone to rent it and then you've been done , but you're not . By this spot . It's also like I was annoyed , so by God they were not , I was not giving their money back . I go .
If you want your back , you go to corporate and corporate might , just to get you out of the hair , give you money back .
Yeah , if you scream loud enough for corporate , they might give you something to shut up and go away .
Oh , dude , that absolutely , that will 100% work . I mean a lot of places if you scream loud enough . I'm just not willing to go through that regular role , like for a lot of stuff . I'm just I mean for because the way I treat is politeness , is free and you actually get a lot further being polite .
Being polite and nice and even funny , you'll actually get a lot more . But , that being said , if you're mean , cruel and loud , you will actually get more . So not only like just to get rid of you . They'll dread you coming in .
You're not going to have a good experience going forward , but you're going to get what you want if you're mean and I know that because I've been told for several occasions where my district manager had to come down and say apologize and give them what they want , even though I was in the right and they were being assholes , but I still had to apologize and give
them what they wanted . Oh , I hated that .
So glad .
I'm not retail anymore , so glad I'm not retail .
Oh , I hear you on that . Dealing with the public is one of the hardest jobs you can ever do at times , depending on who you have to deal with Absolutely .
I told all my daughters like you're gonna work something , like you are working with the public , you're your first job , first few jobs . You must work in the public like deal with the general public , so you understand what it's like out there .
And you know what's like with that poor person working at the line at Kroger's who's getting yelled at . You can empathize with them a little bit yeah . Or not yell at them yourself , because you know what it's like .
Every so often , though , like I'll get upset about something , and my family , my wife and daughters , treat me like being a chad or a carrot or whatever a male carrot . I'm like no , I have a legitimate gripe here . They did something that you know . It's pissed me off and I'm not being unreasonable here .
They legitimately did something wrong and it needs to be fixed , and they're just like oh daddy , just let it go .
I'm like well , the thing is they're just so not used to you being that way . Then , when they see that it confuses and frightens them and they don't know how to handle it , I guess , I don't know . So they handle it by being sarcastic .
Yes , anyway , speaking of anger , mark of Cree , mark of Cree .
Rao did indeed have some anger issues . He had good reasons for that too . You know people he knows being killed and whatnot .
And see , that's the thing . Like you know , we were talking about the games and I'm glad I told you my game before because you went out there and got some info on it , because I just remember playing the game and I remember how I made me feel and I just loved .
You know you load that game up and it was Disney , you know you had the cutscenes especially , and those cutscenes were amazing the way they were all drawn in . It would start with like basically a blank screen and they would draw in the entire cutscene slowly .
Yeah , and the character designs were very Disney and just the way the look , feel and everything about the environment and the characters , even the bad guys , were all Disney , until you actually start fighting . And when you start fighting , man , that's like you did some brutal , twisted things to the enemy while you were playing .
Grab a guy and stick him to the wall with your spear , just slowly shank him through the back .
Well , it was especially to stick with the wall , like you grab and stick in the wall and then you would look around Like anybody see that and the fighting . I actually liked the fighting system on there , but I think when we talked about this earlier like you're all right , it really didn't eat stealthy .
If you wanted to beat that game , stealth was the way to go . You could . You know , it's like those games where I hit man , it's like oh yeah , they say , oh no , you can beat the game . If you go all gums blazing , it's just gonna be harder . Like it's not harder , it's near impossible . Oh , I'm not saying it can't be done .
I mean there's still might be listening right now that like , well , I did that . Well , good for you . I couldn't know and I played those games and I started blasting everything , like I ended up getting killed .
Because it was one of those games too . It was very early on in the life of third person action games and fighting large groups of people wasn't exactly hammered out that well like it was in , like Batman is nowadays . I don't know if you remember , but you'd use the right stick and this little like red line would swing out .
You'd use that to select everybody that you'd fight . So you'd use the right stick and you like vroom , vroom and select everybody and they get little X's and squares and circles above their head .
But that also worked really well too , because , you're right , they hadn't hammered out the details yet .
However , once you did the vroom , vroom and got everyone , got like a button , designated them , you could fight three guys all at once by hitting like okay , trial , you took the guy in front of you , you square , you took the left , or that camera button , layoffs , circle right , square , left , try , yeah . So you could like attack boom , boom , boom .
You actually do really good at holding three people off .
Yeah , for the most part . The one problem I didn't like is you couldn't really adjust the camera much in it for those fights . I mean , you could tilt it like I think it was like maybe 15 degrees either way , but there was like no spin the camera around to look at things , and that kind of made things a little more difficult .
I mean it did .
And also another thing to oh shit listen to that time out .
Yeah , I now know the question that Sages used to ask back in the day . You know they would gather all the kids together in the old Sage would slowly hobble up and he would , just , you know , get his hands in the cane and he like , okay , children , can anyone tell me what happens when you put two eggs in the thing to hard boil them ?
They completely forget they're there Until the smell hits you from several rooms away and the plastic burning from that egg timer , the answer being one egg will explode like a hand grenade and it found shells literally across the room on the windowsill and the plastic egg timer is now melted to the pan .
Yeah , and there's one shell that's like one egg actually still was in the pan . No water in there whatsoever , it's all evaporated and has broken apart and the egg shell is burning . I just I was .
¶ Egg Explosion and Video Game Memories
I don't think I've ever heard or seen an egg shell burn before . Oh my .
God Dude , it's like , I'm just like to see you're talking . I'm smelling you know , I'm having a little . Hey eggs that smells kinda good . Somebody's cooking . No , I just smelled burning . I'm like , why am I smelling burning ? And then it hit me Fuck yeah , I mean , I'll clean up later , because I recorded .
I think your words are like well , that's weird , I wonder . I'll just ignore it for now .
Oh my God , dude . There is , like I came , there's eggs . That one egg exploded , it is everywhere Like a fortune's one egg . So it's not covered , but there's like .
Look at how the kids are gonna be like choked a shell like stuck into the wall , like ninja throwing stars . I mean I went to go lift the windows .
It's across the room . It's probably like 10 feet away , no , probably 20 feet away . I went to go lift the windows and there was an egg shell on the window sill . I'm like , wow , how did that ? That must have exploded . And , of course , maybe you have the earphones . I didn't hear it , but wow .
Oh , just see , I'm surprised you didn't hear it . But yeah , the headphones and talking .
So , yeah , I now know what happens when you hard boil eggs and then forget completely about them .
You're about to point where the water all boils out the eggs explode .
Oh dude , I can't believe that happened . I started it and then we started doing this . I'm not even high , I'm totally sober , and I just forgot about it .
I get picture now , like right before you start recording . You're like putting the eggs on the cooking . You're like , huh wonder when Sean wants to record . Oh , now , okay , I'll go do something . Dee , dee , dee dee . Well , I thought I remember .
Time passes . I didn't even set a timer . I should have set like a timer or something I just like . Oh , just you know .
Yeah , you should have set a timer . Who's foolish to assume you'd remember ?
Oh , totally stupid .
Literally , you probably could have been staying there staring at the eggs and forgot about them at one point .
Yeah , anyway , what were you talking about ? That ? Totally just like that , made everything else leave my brain .
Violence . It was exploding everywhere , much like a row's anger at the enemy . Exactly .
Oh man , so yeah , it was signed the buttons to each enemy so you actually can hold off . I remember doing fairly well with that Cause . There were several times where , like , stealth was all well and good , but sometimes you were just you could , you had to fight .
Oh yeah , you had to fight . And also it had that thing too , where if you're too close to a wall or a tree , you're sort of bounce off it or get stuck in it . That's why it did happen .
Yeah .
Yeah , some people really hated that . I thought it was kind of neat . And also thing too was is , if you had your sort of sticking stuff , switch to a spear . That's what the game was telling you . I mean , yeah , I mean it also just Also , it's realistic . Try hitting a sort of wall with the sword and see what happens .
It was all realistic . I mean . It really did kind of give you a feeling like , okay , I need to be smart about this , because I can't just walk in those rooms and swing my shit around like an asshole . I need to actually like pay attention to where I am and what's happening .
Yeah , it was almost like survival action in a slight way , cause I don't remember if you could really heal in that game or not . You must have been able to .
I think so I'm not sure if it was like a heal or if it was just like one of those overtime things Like okay , I wouldn't hit right , I get that combat . My in my life comes back a little bit .
And one thing that I forgot until I was doing research . That really made this game cool , especially the battles . Remember it had dynamic music , so as your health went down , the enemies got more plentiful . Like the drums would pick up their rhythm and get louder and the entire orchestra starts swelling while you're fighting . That's , that's familiar , yeah , yeah .
You don't really remember that .
Well , it got pretty intense towards you , because usually the last thing you'd hear is just people banging on bongos right before you die . Yeah , you know , yeah , yeah , I do .
I'll tell you what , though . Like I , as much as I love that game in my memory , I just I didn't like the second one .
I tried to play it , I just same here the mark of rise of Kasai .
I don't know , I don't know , I don't know , I don't know about it , but no , I did not like it and I think . I think what may have happened is happened to both of us .
So we played Mark of Kree and , as you mentioned there , it was it kind of like in its infancy it was really good for what it was when it was Exactly by the time the second came out .
More , things have surpassed it .
Right , like you now . You kind of got a taste like oh you know , this is also how it can go in , like this oh yeah , this , you know you , as interesting as that was , you know , I think it was like too , it just some of the magic was just lost .
It was like going from Doom one to Quake and then back to Doom two , almost where you're just like oh , I've played better versions of this now ?
Yeah , it it's just , or even like um . Goldeneye yeah , I tried to play GoldenEye the other day and it's just . You know , I'm , first of all , I'm not very good . At first motion she was not really playing that much . I'm not a big first person shooter fan .
I like to get on there a little bit and run around and shoot things , but I am not good and so I don't have the effort to get get good at a first person shooter game anymore . Not going to do those . No scope 360s yeah , I just I don't care .
You know I , when I play now , because my time to play so few , um , when I play a game I don't have the time to really again get good . I , I want to get on there and enjoy myself .
I don't feel like I'm experiencing the story experience the yeah .
So I I put on easy when I play a game . I'm one of those people . I'm one of those people who always play on normal , or if I was feeling a little squirrelly , I put on hard . But I mean , even now , like my kind of mindless game I go to is Ghost Isshima and I'll play .
I've already I'm already a new game plus , so not only do I have all the equipment not all of it but I have most of the equipment . I'm slowly kind of getting the extra stuff and all of those , all my equipment . I do have our maxed out , except for the new game plus .
As an additional level , you raise it and that's kind of that takes a lot of saving . So I'm not going to be playing the game . I'm not going to be playing the game . I'm not going to be playing the armor , but even still , I'm in the opening part of the game . I'm opening .
I've just now got to the second part of the island and so I'm still fighting like peasants with sticks , yeah every every so long I'm running up with this little sickle and you're like , yeah , I mean I find Mongols . I'm definitely , there's definitely still some Mongols around and like they're starting to get a little more difficult , but I still do .
You know , I'm covered head to toe and blood and I'm carrying the scalps of all your friends .
Yeah , I mean there's . There's like , the grim Reaper behind me is like jerking off to the things I'm doing and like why you really shouldn't be here .
The river's just following you around , Lady . This guy's put my kids through college , yeah right , so just hide .
You know I'm not going to look for you If you're not around here . I but I will tell you this If I do slaughter all your brethren and you do finally decide to kill them , I will kill .
I'm going to hunt you down Like I'm going to follow you or shoot you the arrow , like I don't let people go unless , like something happens where I get stuck on , you know , a tree or you're , so stupid happens You're going to let them run until they're tired and then kill them while they're worn out . Yeah , I'm , I'm not . They're not getting away , I am .
I'm going to end their lives , so maybe you don't have today , maybe not tomorrow , thirty years in the future , it is granddaughter's time to be a killer
¶ Voice Acting and Cultural Appropriation
. I am a patient killer Effort so patient .
Look the family's sobbing in the in the ceremony . What did he do ? Oh , he tried to rub me once , but he reformed . He's now a monk .
I don't care . Oh , he does . This Works with underprivileged children and the starving . He is a wonderful man He'd be like .
well , you know he looked at me funny about 15 years ago he was like I'm going to be with the arrow before he took off .
No one does that . He was even very regretting about shooting that arrow Me and apologize while doing it , but still , mm , mm . I tell you he didn't want to attack me .
He had to , but he has sent me several letters appealing for my for my forgiveness .
I explained the whole situation out . I won't hear none of it , partly because I can't , never .
I'm really , you know I'm . I'm glad I brought Mark Kree . I really loved the , the gameplay and playing it . I just , you know , and I brag about the people I was just I mean , I'm now sitting here like what else did I outside ? Just the real feeling I got playing that . I love the animation style . I love the violence .
I love one thing that did too , is it very much had a strong samurai jack vibe to it .
It did .
Didn't it ?
It was the story of it , the flow of the strong , badass , silent type , and I feel like the the narrator was also the narrator was a big part of it . Yeah , wasn't the guy fromI feel like it was the dude from Conan .
Was it the same guy , the narrator ? Are we talking about the narrator for uh Kree or for ?
Samurai Jack .
Conan .
Conan oh yeah , the kind of like the narrator going oh , here's here's .
You know , raw , he's gonna murder a bunch of people . Yeah , I don't know if it's the same guy .
It does kind of sound like him , yeah . So , whether it was him or not , it they . It sounded like that guy . I'm not gonna say it was , because I don't know . Um , and I kind of I tried to look at the voice actors beforehand and I think it is like I look at the voice actors and I'm like I don't know who these people are .
You know Rao , the giant Maori warrior . He was voiced by the first game ever . Yeah , uh , this is the first video game to feature a Maori in it . Oh , huh , yeah , I wasn't unaware of that 2002 first game that had Maori in it . And apparently the Maori community wasn't overly thrilled with this .
Uh , first of all , they kind of saw it as a sign of , you know , cultural appropriation . Is it coming ? But they also really wish that Sony had asked them , or the studio had asked them , for some input , because one of the weapons you get in that game is called a Mali , so he uses it completely wrong in the game .
Oh , really , yeah , which I guess understandably , kind of offended some of the uh , indigenous Maori's . So , yeah , they weren't like pissed at the game , but they're kind of like . You know , you could have came and talked to us about this beforehand . Who would have helped you out ?
Because you know all the tattoos in there are Maori , the whole , uh , look of it , the culture a lot of culture cues .
Well , I'm looking at the guy who played the uh the narrator , and , like he did a lot of uh voice work for stuff , I mean the only thing that really jumps out at me is he played , uh Jun Sato from the Rebels uh , which I'm still watching , so I haven't seen all that . I mean , I know what happens , I I've seen clips . I'm not .
There's no spoiling Rebels for me . I mean , I'll be spoiling Rebels for anybody . I mean , if you've seen Star Wars , you know where it goes . What else did he play ?
Several characters and avatar he played , keon Young , was the most famous character in the world .
He's the most famous face . That's why I'm trying to see if you need a live action stuff and I'm just , I'm seeing mainly this voice actor work . He was a young emperor and samurai , jack Yep . So there's that . Oh , whatever I like , I recognize him .
I could have swore he was in like an actual , like his he himself played in TV , but I guess I just recognize him from other stuff .
Yeah yeah , he's got a few live action stuff . He's got a lot of voice stuff . He was in Will and Grace , indiana Jones and the emperor's tomb .
She , I guess , was an animation thing . Oh , I mean , yeah , I mean good on him .
I mean , I have mad respect for voice actors really .
Oh , I love him for living . I used to not , I mean , I'm not going to say I like shadow voice actor , like oh , whatever Voice actor is me . I know I've no point was ever like that , but just I guess in my head I was kind of thought like you know , you're quote , quote real actors . And then you know , you know you're in the big screen .
You're in the big screen , you know there's a sense . Going to animation school , um , I have mad respect for voice actors now .
I mean , it is a lot of actual actor .
Actors can't do voice acting , you'd be surprised I believe it .
Yeah , I mean , if some actors are you for one of the Lord of the Rings games , I was listening to a voice actor and I think it's Rob Paulson , but they actually got the actor who played Gimli to come in do a bunch of lines .
For the Lord of the time , they had to have Rob Paulson come in to redo all the lines , every last one , just because , like nothing was usable .
Yeah , I mean it is .
And also , too , what should become a good voice actor . You show up in everything . Rob Paulson is probably in a third to a half of everything we've ever listened to , same with Jim Cummings and a few others .
I've heard big things about that Gimli actor too , like John Reese , davis or Davies , whatever , I don't know . I've heard good and bad things about him . I definitely know the recording . One of the more famous stories At least him , his Gimli , was . You know he was playing Gimli and then the people he'd be fighting going look , you know , don't hit us .
It's okay if you do , but try not to . And he would go through and like on purpose at every single one . You know just yeah , and it's just you want to get it do . He's his old man , dressed as a dwarf . He's around a wacky people and you know he was miserable on that makeup .
Mm , hmm .
Yeah , I remember that , seeing that clip of after the last day of shooting they held a big ceremony where he burned his face .
Yeah , the prosthetics , which part of me is like , okay , I get symbolically , but I hope that was the real one , because , come on , man , that's , you have a piece of history Like you have those prosthetics Poggana didn't take it home with me unless you do hate it that much , I guess , because even if you , did .
even even if it was like that I have permanent scars because of this , this stuff , and like I will have nightmares . The rest of my life is wearing this makeup , I'm still going to keep it because you're an effing Lord the Rings . You know like sell it , you can eat commercial pocket in like several hundred thousand dollars for that stuff .
I auction it off for charity . Do the nice thing , I guess . Ha Nope , going to keep it mounted on the wall . I mean , I'm going to make them look at it and possibly make them put it on .
I know I sound like an asshole thing , I like that , but you know what I guess cause you know , yeah , charity , yeah .
Oh I guess I just waste the money anyways on commercials for the Superbowl , which not really wrong .
On that , Well , I guess I just go I would tell charity . I think , yes , I believe in charity , I believe in giving my time and stuff like that . But I guess , because of the financial area I'm in , I like people like oh , can you gave him , like , no , I actually need , please give me .
Like I need , I need money , I built a bag , oh , yeah , in your current situation , no , don't give anybody anything , but if you're John Rice Davies who has you know , money , yeah , I mean , and he's been around for forever .
He actually first time I saw him Well , okay , technically , first time I saw him was in Indiana Jones , but the first time I actually really paid attention to him was on that stupid ass TV show Sliders . Oh , I remember that .
That was kind of a good show from whatever it was .
You know I say stupid ass , but to be honest it was actually pretty enjoyable .
Yeah , I mean it kind of was stupid ass . In a sense it was sort of low budget , is kitsky kind of kitsky . Well , it was a sci-fi show .
I mean there was a lot of sci-fi showers . I mean my to this day I'll fight anybody who says the show's bad and I legitimately get upset Whatever I wife makes my wife's make some of it because she's not into sci-fi stuff . Like she thinks all sci-fi stuff is ridiculous .
I mean she like Star Wars she tolerates and like star Trek to a point I guess , but like by a large , like the sci-fi stuff she just thinks it's silly .
So , that's the more into Star Trek than Star Wars .
Well , she was like her parents used to watch the next generation back in the day , so she has , like she can tolerate it , but that's just not her thing . You know sci-fi , sci-fi and fantasy has never really been her thing . I've definitely had her watch things like she loved Andor . She loved the hell out of Andor , but because it was a dramatic story .
Yes , the sci-fi setting almost took a second plate back towards the actual story that you could have , like , warped around the scenarios and made it medieval or modern day or anything , and still had it work .
It could have been modern day , like it's just spaceships . It was cars , like you know . When you first killed those people , it was in like New York , and then he went back home to Chicago and it they you know they call a timeless story . Yeah , so it's . You know that she loved Andor .
But those but shows like you know , sliders or Farscape , the entire like the , the sci-fi part is the show . She starts getting kind of like whatever , but Farscape , that's a show I'll kill anybody Like . Farscape was amazing . I love that . That was every episode of banger . No , of course not . That's stupid .
There there were absolutely episodes of Farscape that I was like okay , this is dumb , but I mean any show that features the Jim Henson creature workshop is okay by yes , I mean , that's one of those things .
If I see , if , like they got Jim Henson puppets , then they can't be that bad .
I mean , I know this stuff , Farscape show , although I do want to talk about it one day . I would actually like like to talk about Farscape because , god , I love that show . I have to , but you ever see that .
Actually , no , I haven't .
I've been wanting to , but it is mean it was , they did that show dirty and then they find they gave it kind of a a appropriate ending because they you know little bit of spoilers .
So they go you know several seasons I think they had four seasons and it was really good , like they actually the characters were invested in the last episode , the very end of the last episode of the final season . They didn't know . As a final season they killed the main character , the main characters love interest , they killed them .
In fact they disintegrate them and that's the end of the episode and of course they're going to pick it up the next season . That doesn't come , yeah . But then the network doesn't pick it up , and and so what happened was there was the Farscape people had such an outcry of like fury and fan . It was like yo kind of like what they did with the .
Snyder cut .
Yeah , I guess . Well , the Snyder cut .
That's kind of a bad example .
But it is , but I think it . Oh no , that was still DVD shows . Anyway , it's happened before . I'm totally blanking , I know .
The Guy Revival maybe yeah .
I was thinking about the family of the guy . I thought that was more about money , because the DVD sales did it . Whatever . You know what Anybody listening , pick one . I made that one . Yeah , and they came out of the four episode movie , so it was a four hour movie . So they broke one of four episodes .
So it's kind of like they still call it a mini series , which that's what it really was . They they build it as a movie and they split up with two halves , so like two to our movies , and they really did wrap it all up . No , they did . They was it in a nice little bow and was there no complaints ? No , no , of course .
Yeah , but for what they had to work with for what ?
for the time they were given , for they did the best they could and they really did Like they really did kind of tire thing up to .
At least you didn't feel as gypped , especially as you could tell they put effort to making one of the fans . I'll be satisfied .
Yeah , I mean it was satisfied enough .
Yeah so it's as best you could do in four hours .
Yeah , exactly so
¶ Farscape Farsight and the Mark of Cree Discussion
good God . How do we even get here ?
We've just been talking about all sorts of things . Now we're Farscape Farsight . Farscape Farsight , you know , has Farsight the , your bird sidekick in Mark of Cree . You remember him ? Yeah , she had a bird that you could actually send out to scout things and look and mark people . That .
And that was actually really good .
That was really helpful , especially with the stealth aspect of it , you know knowing that you can sit around the corner and be like oh , there's five guys here all facing the wrong way .
And that is the thing about , like even the Hitman games and stealth , like you have , that you know . If without that 3D view , even Batman , if you will go , you know another title , if without that kind of acknowledgement of where the enemies were , you know the game is a lot harder .
Yeah , and I wouldn't even say not as fun because , sorry , like , oh , no , realistic , they can play another game .
And what ?
do you think of the Hitman ?
Okay , I guess the bird sidekick was also the narrator for the show or the game , was it Yep ?
I guess it was .
And he was like and my master , yeah , he's like giving the rundown , he's like and now I follow my master continuously as his faithful sidekick , kuzu , something along those lines .
It was me the whole time .
Ha , ha , ha ha ha , and I also like the fact that they had a pretty legit bad guy in this game too . The Necromancer is known as the dark one .
Yeah , it was basically just going around kidnapping people and flaying the skin off of them , because I don't remember but the mark of Cree was all these different birthmarks that like five different families had , and the birthmark was on their skin and apparently you had , like , bring the skins all together to complete the mark .
So this dark one was just going around flaying the skin off of everybody . Well , there you go , yeah , and there's also one kind of cool mission . I like it sometimes when the good guys fail and they're like , hey , this child's about to get sacrificed by the dark one , you need to go save him .
So you take your mission , you go all the way out there and you confront the dark one , but you fail . You actually don't manage to save the kid . The kid gets killed and the bad guy gets the mark .
And then you're like , uh-oh , this might have been trapped and you head back home and while you're doing , while you're failing at that mission , the bad guy had your entire family wiped out in town .
Well , I forgot about this game .
Yeah , that makes a little plan again , like I really would have , and also remember the one dude too , with a hook for a hand and an eye patch , and every once in a while you'd be like , I bet you , I know how you lost that eye Right .
Yeah .
You used to a hook hand . You know you got itchy eye and next thing you know , haha .
I had to pick my nose and look at this .
I went on there and about 40 minutes you can watch all the cut scenes from the game . A little bit less than that . That's where I picked up some of this info from .
Yeah , I mean I really missed that game . The more I think about because I again there were a whole reason about this game up was just like I had a emotional , visceral attachment to how I played that game but the more we talk about I'm really glad you did research on it because I realized I forgot a lot about that game .
And also when you're fighting , the dude twirled a sword a lot . Remember you'd be like slash , slash and you'd like twist , twirled it around in his hand like a baton , kind of then slash , slash , slash again .
Yeah , Because I mean the whole fighting system was a was so unique and so good yeah .
Yeah , for the time it was like nothing we'd ever experienced , really far as I know .
And then back . I remember the main boss is hard . I mean it took me a while to beat him .
It was one of those boss battles that I kind of hate , where the boss shows up , you hit him twice , then he jumps up on his throne and like 50 waves of generic baddies come at you and then you beat them all and then the bad guy jumps down . You get to get two more wax in and then he jumps back up on his throne . You know those .
Well , and the thing I hate about those is like and then if you , if you lose , they're like ha , ha , you could never beat the power of me , like you didn't do anything . Yeah , you called more people , yeah , you called other people here . This says more about you than me .
Ha , I mean not just this game , any of the games , or hell , even like movies or cartoons , or when you have a big boss who hides behind 25 people and you're like it doesn't prove how tough .
the boss is that just no good . He isn't hiring day laborers .
Yeah , it proves you're a dick Like you can't . You're not more powerful . Your weakness will know . Dude , come on like , come down here . Yeah , I mean I get it . If it's like Lex Luthor facing Superman , I mean , okay , sure , you know , lex Luthor is not about to like do fisticuffs against the Kryptonian .
But if you're like , if you're a fighter and you have some guys trying to challenge you and you're like , let me prove how badass I am , go fight my minions , yeah , right , only after he slaughters all 100 of you , then will I gain the amount and you're all nice , and tired and worn out , yeah .
He crawls into the door bleeding and sweaty and gassy over breath . Watch how I kick his ass . Look how strong I am .
But before that , I'm going to bring out the children and families of all these hundreds of people you murdered before this fight . I'm going to use emotional damage on you . Yes , Daddy , you want to kill my daddy , I want you to explain to each of these children why you killed their father . Then we will fight .
He's just like because they were bitches . Well , there you go . That's why I killed you , daddy . No , go my orphans , kill him . My army of orphans .
Wow , they were orphans , but now they are with the combined power of a thousand orphans , and they all just like form together to the giant , formless blob that turns into a giant orphan .
Like that would like the baby orphan like the babies on invaders to him .
Yes , exactly like that . Oh , one thing I do remember about this game that it was a small niggle , but it was a niggle nonetheless . Um , the triangle button was what you used to talk to people and back out of menus , not X in circle .
So if you want to like run up and talk to somebody , you had to push triangle , which , I mean , not really a big deal , but still kind of odd when the world where you used to pushing square or X .
Well , at least it wasn't like read their redemption . It's like , okay , I'm going to talk to this person . Bam , damn it , ha yes .
Why'd you go and shoot my buddy ? I didn't mean to , I just pushed the wrong button Like that's crazy Talk , stranger .
Why did you kill the whole town ? Well , you see , I went to go talk to the sheriff and I accidentally shot him in the face , and then someone saw me do that side to kill that person . And then they saw someone else . Let me do that . So I did that person and just imagine a snowball going down yeah . That's basically what happens .
That's why , that's why Arizona is the void of life now .
Ha , and that's why we're the only two people left in the basin now . So Mark and Craig did actually get really , really good reviews . We're talking , like you know , 85s and 90s all across the board . Unfortunately , it didn't sell that great Only 460,000 sales total , is that ?
Well , I was like is that true ? I guess it is .
Well , for comparison , San Andreas Grand Theft Auto , San Andreas came out around the same time and that sold 1.2 million copies .
A day for a while . Okay , that's not fair , that's not fair , that's like . That's like like , oh you know , fucking , star Wars came at the same time as the Bridges and the Madison County and the . Bridges and the Madison County . Oh , like they didn't do very well , like well yeah .
Well , I'm not saying it's because of those sales , I'm just saying it's a comparison . Yeah , because I don't think there's a lot of crossover between Grand Theft Auto and Mark and Craig people .
Well , also Bridges and the Madison County . I'm pretty sure they came out the same time as Star Wars , but still just really good .
Maybe the book might have Maybe .
Oh .
Yeah .
But I'm told a random ass movie . That was the first we popped it , but yeah .
I mean , that's the one where we got to see Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep go at it , wasn't it ?
Yeah , I think it was . I haven't seen it . I haven't seen either .
I just remember that being the thing back Old people getting it on .
Yeah , it's what those movies were like . Oh , I should watch this , and I never will .
I mean , I get it .
I mean I get it .
I mean , I get it . I'm just saying about building bridges . You know well , clint Eastwood , wanderground , last the Jackson Bridge , that's the North Hampton Bridge .
We have four bridges in Madison County . It's like talking about shrimp on with it A forced like a shrimp , or there's shrimp Anyway , but Mark , mark or Cree , like I get it . You know , I understand , you know , because you have Grand Theft Auto , sanchez , first of all . It's you know , it's like it's going to sell .
I mean hell , look at Grand Theft Auto Five , they're still selling it . You know they're coming out of new iterations . Oh my god , yeah , and they need to come out . It's just like Skyrim . It's like , come on , we , we all love GTA 5 . We all love Skyrim . Can we move on now ? Grand Theft Auto .
Five also is still a lot of times in the top selling games every month too . And you want to know why . The online mode , those shark bucks that you used to buy stuff in Grand Theft Auto , yeah , the thing is , you know you can get like way more shark bucks for your , for your money , if you just buy like the boxed version of the game .
Oh really Like a re-release of Grand Theft Auto Five . Like four million shark bucks in this , which is far cheaper buying the you know $30 remake to get your four million shark bucks than is that's the best , yeah . So people are just like screw , I'll just buy the game again . So that's one reason you see the sales so high for it year after year .
People just buy it for the digital currency , like I . I
¶ Discussion on Grand Theft Auto Games
just never . I played a little bit of them . Um , I didn't like them and so I . Gta three is the first one I really played through . I loved it . I beat it . I cheated because it was really hard , but I loved it , yeah . And then I played Vice City . That would I beat legitimately I love Vice City .
That was my favorite of them all so far , absolutely . I think a lot of it has to do with the soundtrack , though that's you know . I mean , you're driving along and the cops are chasing you with the military and everything got in the bugles video killed the cops . They're like I'm just doing it , I'm just doing it .
Just having a good old time running over people . There's been more than one time where , like my car's on fire , I'm a five stars and I'm desperately trying to live just long enough to make this song . Yeah , yeah , oh my god , my roommate walked in once while I was doing that , like I was I was . That was exactly what happened .
I was on fire , I'm driving and I just wouldn't make it , and I'm standing up singing because I'm like I don't even care .
I'm like dude , I'm like a religious experience singing to the game .
He's just like it was . It was amazing , dude . I'm like , yes , this is awesome , Um , but then you know , uh , san Andreas , I love San Andreas . I mean it didn't make me nearly as joyful , as you know , by sitting there , especially with the music , but I really mean that that game was huge .
I see , I remember I like San Andreas , but I remember when it first came out for somebody and I kind of remember everybody being like well , this is the game . I remember people were sold a ton but I remember people doing more complaining than liking it . But nowadays people are like , oh , it's the greatest of the of the Grand .
Theft Auto's ? I don't know I think kind of a 180 on the opinion over the deck . Well , I think also had to do with like , at least around where you were living , it's a lot more people had more affinity to her , like you know . Florida 80s versus . Like the 90s thug .
Yeah , right , yeah , if you grew up in Oakland you'd be definitely more for , uh , san Andreas .
I , I really did . I mean I haven't said , my city is still my favorite , but I still I love San .
Andreas . The thing I like about San Andreas , too , is it had like those RPG stat building mechanics where , if you just like rode a bike forever , you'd like gain bike riding stats , or if you drove , you'd gain your driving stats up , or if you ate a lot , you got fat and you could run as far .
I mean , yeah , they were just kind of add a little thing Plus , that way , if you're just running around doing nothing , hey , at least you're watching some little bar go up .
And I mean , let's be real , San or GTA series have never been like a shark on San Andreas and certain things like okay , I'm gonna have a jet pack flying around .
Yeah , yeah , probably trying to keep up with Saints Row on those a little .
Yeah and I will say , though the map . I thought the map was a little too big . I mean , I feel like I'm saying some kind of like a blasphemy here , but just like .
I kind of went that way about Grand Theft Auto , I think it's five as well . Where it's just like , yeah , there's a , well , I get to drive for 15 minutes to the other side of the map .
Yeah , there are definitely times where I'm just like , oh , come on , I'm gonna go from point to point B and I run over like 20 pedestrians .
You know , and then you get almost to the mission place and then the cops start chasing yeah .
The cops are chasing after you and you're like then you get away from them and you're right back on the other side of the map and like uh huh , yeah , they're definitely , I definitely might by complaints , especially with the size of the of the cities . Um , and yeah , gta 5 , same way . That's actually what the reason why I stopped playing it was .
Well , I stopped playing it because they were forcing me to be characters . I didn't know . Yeah , and they , but they maybe be him . It's fine , I'm just trying to get through it . But I'm in the middle of nowhere , in the desert , somewhere .
I , I just want to get back to the city and I just , I just can't seem to do it because I keep keeps on happening where I'm just like I'm done .
I don't . I don't every time you take few steps . Your phone , excuse me , your phone rings and they're like hey , you want to go bowling ?
with me , and you're like that .
I'm not a four .
That did that a lot , but now we skipped one and I'm like I'm the best favorite . One like Vice City definitely is my favorite , but my second favorite was GTA 4 . I loved that game . I mean I like the character like Nicobelac was amazing . You know he was now , of course , there .
It also like didn't make sense , you know , like here he is , like oh , I'm such a tragic character because I have this backstory .
I've done all these horrible things , but now I've come to America to to live a better , decent life I've been living in America after running through a mall and killing 50 people and then like , oh yeah , by the way , do you have any bullets ? Because I wasted .
All my bullets are gone because I killed 30 people as I did a drive by , but I promise you I'm going to start being good tomorrow .
This is the last mass killing I do tomorrow .
I showed up on my date with , like you know , there were small intestines clogging up my like my engine was so full . I we were like I'm going to cover blood and guts , give me a minute , and like while she's standing there waiting .
You run over there kick you . Fucking yeah , pull your corpse out of windshield it's like half in and out of it .
Grab another car , throw him on the ground , shoot him to the face , drive around , go okay , I'm waiting for a date now .
What card do you want me to steal ? For our date oh don't worry , they're so good , I'll just drag them out and beat them senseless , let me tell you how I'm trying to turn over a new leaf . Oh yeah , all this stuff , all this killing and car theft you're seeing right now oh , this is the thing .
I'm doing much better . This is old me . This was five minutes ago Me , not now Me . What ? Why can't you ?
let go of the past . The blood is still fresh all over you , but that's in the past Catchy .
Well , can't you look past the ?
past , but it was my husband you killed and that's why we're on a date now .
That's why I'm helping you heal from this Back to Mark Curry , like I'm trying to . I also know how much more to say about it . You know I really loved it . I wish , I wish people would go out and try it , but they're not going to , and I understand why . You know , because it's just it's it's too far back , it's it 2002 . That was 20 years ago .
Gaming has moved significantly since then , not just in graphics but also in gameplay , and specifically in gameplay that has been . It's gotten better . Yeah , it was great for back then . It's not great now . So I I totally respect why , so this game called so other games could run Right Now .
I mean I really wish they would make it either another Mark of Crea , like an update Mark of Crea , or if they would make a new game with like similar , similar feel , you know , like another really cartoony visual with a super bloody gameplay . That's like a real action and all these other elements .
You know it especially feel like Conan , you know , because I , when people ask me that game back the day , I was like , oh , it's like Disney , conan or , I'm sorry , disney released a movie about Conan but they didn't like take away any of the blood .
So after doing this episode I noticed you can get this on the PSN store for $15 and decided to say , hey , what the heck , let's give it a shot . Didn't make it through the whole game , maybe about two thirds of the way through . I got three of the four weapons , so I'm going to suit two thirds , three quarters of the way through .
Then I bought a PS5 and forgot to upload my PS4 saves to the cloud , so kind of lost those and didn't really feel like starting all over again from the beginning . What does it hold up ? Well , actually pretty good overall . It actually was about in line with what I remember it being . The action was pretty good . I enjoyed the combat .
I loved the stealth kills , as usual . In fact , the whole stealth in the game was a lot better than I remember . For that matter . It kind of goes from an action game at the beginning to more of a hardcore stealth by the end , or at least some of the levels I did .
Especially there's this one level where it's kind of like a big spiral going down Non-stop stealth , really , really good , excellent level design . You could actually look around , see where everybody was , use your crow to scout ahead . Very , very good . I'm here with any Splinter Cell or Metal Gear level I've ever done as far as stealth , very , very nice .
The characters in the animation Really really good too . The characters , at least the main ones you talked to in the game Outquest . They did remind me a lot of Disney characters or Don Bluth characters . They all had little short bits but they were very memorable . Good lines , good voice actors . Really enjoyed the characters in the game .
I did talk the music up a lot in the game , talking about how hey Juno Reactor did lots of thundering drums . Juno got really excited and the more he fought , the harder the battle and the longer it went on that the music would match it , build a tempo . It kind of does that . Not nearly as much as I thought it would .
Still good music , it's effective , but I remember being a little bit better . And we also talked about the traditional Maori fighting staff and how the Maori people were not a big fan of it because you didn't use it right in the game . I can see why they didn't like it , because it seemed kind of pointless . I used it for a few moments . It was great .
For groups it didn't seem that great . Back to the sword right away . Kind of disappointed . I will say the bow is amazing . Great bow mechanics , all sorts of fun . Especially the bow stealth kills . Get to shoot somebody in the head , watch them scream , run around , be like oh no , got shot in the face .
And if there's somebody standing next to them they just watch the whole thing and be like huh . Another dude got shot in the face in the arrow randomly . That's odd , seems to happen a lot . Should I be concerned ? Yeah , whatever . And they just go back to their whole little standing guard and just wait for you to shoot them with an arrow too .
Maybe they don't like their jobs , maybe that's the whole deal . I do kind of wish there was more variety of enemies . I mean , they do upgrade enemies after a while , but a lot of times it's basically hey , here's your two , maybe three different enemies for this entire level and deal with them over and over and over again .
So wish there was a little more variety in that area . And one thing I noticed I didn't get there , but I did have flashback to what the last boss is , and it's my absolute most hated way to do a last boss where the last boss sits up on their throne and you got to deal with wave after wave of henchmen until they hop down .
You get one hit in , then they go back up on their throne and then wave after wave after wave of henchmen over and over again ad nauseam . I hate that style of bosses , and I think most people do too . It just feels like they didn't have a good boss system set up and they're just like , well , we could make a cool boss , but that takes a lot of effort .
We got a deadline , so , overall , I enjoyed the
¶ Review of Mark of Kri
game . For a little bit , I played it . Was it worth $15 ? And that's kind of iffy . I don't know if it's worth $15 unless you got a real interest in it . However , I did look at a price tracker and it does go as low as $750 . That's not a bad price . You get several hours of enjoyment for $7.50 . That case I would go for it .
But some of the best parts were the characters and the cutscenes and the kills , and you could probably just YouTube those really easily , or maybe buy the game , maybe buy it at full price .
That way , maybe they'll realize there's some interest in it and they'll remake it , make a whole new remake , hd remaster , a whole nine yards , which it'd be neat if they did that . I really don't think they should , though , because I really don't think anybody's gonna buy that game if they do it . Sad , but it's the truth . Anyways , there's my review .
I enjoyed my time with the game . It was good . Should you play it ? Probably not . I'm anchoring for an old school PS2 game that's kinda hard , with some good stealth that you probably never played before . Go for it . This is Sean for Off To Off Topic . And uh , yeah , now here's that Indian Jiggle we have .