TGI 680 - Magic Love Glasses

Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pulpit here next to the fire. It looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host, Jocelyn, and joining me as always is my co-host Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello. So if you hear any odd sounds, it's me staring at everyday household objects, shooting laser hearts at them to I wonder what my microphone if I if I

stare at it long enough, what will happen? I mean we'll see over the course of this podcast, I guess. I mean it would probably be a good conversationalist. Oh. Yes, that's true. Just reminded me of the uh I've been playing Date Everything, which we talked about last week and we're gonna talk about uh this week or return to a little more in depth, yeah. Yeah, and um there are everyday objects in the game that you bring to life that are that are that try to be personifications of their

what they are. And as you mentioned, a microphone would be a good conversationalist. Uh, but I I I think I realized not realized I I don't know what do they call it when you bring them to life? Like you just bring them to life, I guess, with your with your date theaters. Uh the diary, which I thought was really interesting, because the diary is like just this.

mess of memories and emotions. Oh yeah. Oh man. It was uh very interesting. Memories and emotions and yeah, like and this is what I mean. Like I think the the story writing and date everything is actually really good. And they... It seems silly on the surface, but then because they are like personifications of their objects, there's actually some pretty like deep stories that you can get into. Have you gotten into the attic yet?

Yes. Yes I did. Okay. Yeah, because there's one character in the attic that you're just like, holy fuck. Is it the safe? No, no. Okay. I don't know if I want to tell you if you haven't already found her, but Is it the blue orb? Yes. Yeah. Yes, I did that. And uh I I think I've managed to so for for those who who may not remember, Date Everything is like this part puzzle, part dating sim where you get these

magic glasses that will bring everyday household objects to life. And the whole point of the game is to bring them to life, talk to them, and then date them. uh be friends with them, love them. Uh I haven't hated anybody yet, although like I found a few that I could see Hating. Yeah, I I got one I got a hate um ending with one by accident. Oh yes.

Yeah. I was like all the way at the end of their story. And then I thought that I was like giving them like a jokey ha ha answer. And then um immediately he was like I hate you! How dare why would you say that to me? And there's no like JK winky face.

In the game. So yeah. But then later on there's like a mechanic that allows you to take a hate ending and make it like a friend ending instead. You cannot take a hate ending to a love ending because they like I think very rightly so, where like that is like you can't go all the way back to the beginning and like redo it'cause they're like, you have perfect knowledge and that's taking advantage and

We're not a game about giving someone a candy to take advantage of them because that's real slippery slope and sketchy. So I actually really appreciated that you couldn't go from like a hate to a love with the mechanic that they built in the game, that you could just basically like fix a hate ending. Um But yeah, I was like whoopsie doodles.

And I never do this, so it didn't even occur to me, but you d I definitely could have just like reloaded my save from the beginning of that day. And I just didn't do that and then totally regretted it because by the time I thought to do that, I was like a week later and I'm like, I'm not redoing. Seven days of conversations.

just for this one ending. So yeah, if you do get a character to that hates you, there is a way to fix it later on. Um can't get him to love ya. And that's that's fair. I I feel like Because it's a game that has a hundred dateable objects, uh outside of if you have the DLC edition, I did get the lavish edition edition, it was what was on sale. and those additions offer some

some interesting uh well, additions. Um But I'll say this, like because there's a hundred plus databalls and when you interact with all of them, they all have their individual stories, they're all fully voiced, they interact with each other occasionally depending on the story. I think if you know of a voice actor they're in this game and like I'll be surprised if someone plays this and doesn't recognize at least one voice because there's many. Yeah.

There's a lot. Yeah. Like the main Skylar is Felicia Day, although it doesn't it doesn't sound like her. I didn't realize. But they have all the like once you unlock them, it shows you in like their bio who they're voiced by, which I thought was really cool. So instead of like having like the credits, it's like in your like journal, basically. So I thought that was a really cool way to acknowledge the the very good acting work that was done in this game.

Yes. Yeah. The voice acting's really well done and I and again it starts with really solid writing as well. And um I th I felt like the puzzle aspect of it was

Obviously, sometimes it's like, that's a chair. I'm going to look at the chair and turn it into a person and have a conversation. But sometimes to find specific databalls, like you have to know how to unlock them and that can be you entering a specific room or uh performing a specific task, even talking and completing a a story for another datable will bring additional characters in.

Time of day can matter too. Um so there might be some things that so yeah, like every day you have like your five interactions that you can have. And so like the The clock is is chang I think it like three hours go by every time. So it's like nine AM noon. three, six, and nine. And so like your day ends at midnight. And uh so like the timing of talking to people can change how they react to you, can change who's available. Like some

Data bulls are only available first thing in the morning. Some are only available like very last thing at night. Like, yeah. Timing can matter for sure. Yep. Like the chair. will put on a show, like do a little uh improv session and th but they're only available from Tuesday to Sunday and outside of that they won't talk to you. They'll be like, Hey, come back, I'm just prepping for a show.

Uh so there's there's stuff like that that you pick up as you go and there's no penalty or time limit. So for example, if you like accidentally So if you complete or a story or get it to a a certain point with a character and then you try to talk to them again, they'll just like give you an option to say, hey I'll give you a hug. Like that's one of them because you've already progressed the story. And it's like, all right, I'll take a hug and and then that's that's a a point off my day.

But there's no punishment for that. Like you can just kind of there's so many characters interact with that if you feel like, Oh, I missed my chance to speak to um Uh there's another one that's like time sensitive that will only talk to you in the evening. I'm trying to remember what it was. Um It might have been the bartender maybe? Yes. Yeah, the bartender was one of them.

Um yeah. But but yeah, th there's there are characters that are specific to time slots. Uh one of the characters in the attic you could you can only talk to once you've exhausted all your hearts for the day.

And uh so you you can kind of like work your way around. It's like, okay, like I have a couple extra hearts, like let's let's see what this does. And you can kinda get a hint at what you what you're interacting with by Um, taking the glasses off and and hitting the X button and that'll kinda say like this is a box or you know.

This is the fireplace. Gives you a little more context to I mean, uh obviously you know when you're looking at a fireplace or a box, but sometimes it depends on what's in the box that would trigger a different databall. Like if it's a box of mishmash of Holiday's character that uh that her her story is about her burning herself out because she works too much. And and that's kind of the interesting part is like some databalls like

their story is intertwined with what they are or what what their p personification is doing. Other times it's like, no, that's just a wrapping toilet. So It doesn't need to make sense. For all of them. You know, and but the safe is like a dominatrix and that story is just going through the weirdest A dominatrix uh

situations, I guess. Not that I, you know, know of many, but like know a lot of them and you know what makes a dominatrix situation. Well, what is it? We've all seen that Quentin Tarantino movie and there's a Dominatrix in that one. And then there's like I remember very clearly there's a CSI episode.

So like that's my two There is, yes. There was a very prominent uh dominatrix in CSI in multiple episodes. She was a recurring character. All right. Well, you remember the multiple episodes? I remember that one. Th I think I only remember the one. So at least I'm in I'm in good company here. But like I've never heard of Well, I don't know if I wanna spoil it because they're pretty they're pretty hilarious. Like this game is a comic.

While it does deal sometimes with serious subjects. There's some heavy topics. Yeah. Exactly. Serious subject matter in there, but for the most part, I would say it's all dealt with from a comedic angle. Like that's their go to is comedy. And but you're right, it deals with some heavy stuff. and their content aware system when I left it on like I didn't I didn't need it on. I didn't felt feel like I needed it on, but I I left it on just to kind of see what it would do. And it doesn't like just

omit the content. When content comes in, Skylar, the main character will or the main narrator will pop in and say, Hey, this is gonna deal with XYZ. Are you cool with that or do you wanna skip it? And you're always given that option When you first meet that character. So for example like the the hamper

that is constantly fighting with the dirty laundry. Like the content aware system will come in. It's like, hey, this is an unhealthy relationship. There's gonna be a lot of fighting. Are you cool with that? And I'm like, sure. Let the drama ensue. And sure enough, drama happened. So it's uh it's it's a very interesting game. I love the balance. Uh I do really like

funny like comedic games. I like a game that can try that is trying to be funny and I think there are moments that are funny in this game. It's really well written. All the voice acting is Uh superb. And I also like the idea of like the puzzle of finding all the characters.

Mm-hmm. I've found like seventy-five of them. That's pretty good. But like to think of where the other twenty five would be is kind of like uh is interesting because I feel like I feel like I've interacted with every type of object, you know. I'm like I'm wondering I'm trying to think of like the more obscure ones that I found and I'm like, I wonder if Ryan wants hints. I I'm not opposed to hints. I feel like I have you know, use some hints here and there. There is a in game

system that will track hints that are given to you. Uh it's the rumors app. Spelled R O O M E R. Uh and anytime a new character is Yeah, of course it is very punny. Uh anytime a new character is mentioned or alluded to, it adds a little hint in there. So Yeah. I've got some things to go in and and take a look at. And I think you can go and ask. Um I think you can ask your phone for more rumors. Oh yes, you can interact with your phone. There's also the magnifying glass. Who's sort of like a

Nancy Drew. Yeah. Detective. Detective E, yeah. Um okay, so uh have you I think this is one of the ones I found pretty early on, so you probably have, but the have you ever interacted with the shadows? Yes, I did. Shadow Lord. Okay. Yes. Yeah, Shadow Lord. I was like, I found him pretty early, so he's probably not all that hidden really. I think I probably clicked on him by accident. Um what other uh the vent? Okay, like I've talked to the vent accidentally.

And he's like, This isn't the time or place and I'm like, Oh, sorry bad So I don't know. Maybe he was busy. Yeah. Do invent things. Uh yeah, I mean like without actually like looking, it it's hard to say. But some of them some of them are really, really hidden. Some of them like I say, are so like time or day uh dependent that like you could miss them and then they won't come up again for another week. So Yeah.

And some of them are part of like unlocking more parts of the house and yeah. I don't know if you've unlocked all the all the house parts yet. I think I did. I went I went into the to the basement style area and then I did get into the attic. Although funny enough, like I don't know if it's a different house style, but like attic to me is like not a room on the same level.

Yeah. I kept thinking like, okay, I know there's an addict because I had read somewhere that the addict wasn't available in the demo when I was like looking up stuff on the game. But then I'm like, well there's this locked door. That can't be the attic. This is just another room. Like to me, like an unfinished attic isn't like a spare bedroom.

It's always like the classic I kept looking at the roof trying to see if there was like a pull string or something. And then I thought, Well, that's not it's clearly not there. And then I thought of the attic that I had in the house growing up was just like this

loose piece of drywall that you'd push up and over and the and the attic was just this hole in the closet. So I like went into the closet as I'm looking up. It's like, okay, no No hole in the closet here and then the house I'm in now has like this little weird wood panel that you can push open and And that's the attic, but not like a not a proper door. Yeah. Yeah. I know we're gonna get comments, people are like, Well, an attic is it's not I don't know. I just That's not what I'm used to.

It's okay. Okay. You'll get through this. I believe in you. Yeah. This is the Final Fantasy character sleeping with their shoes on all over again. I'm sorry, everybody. You definitely are hyper focused on this one really weird detail. I d I don't know. I don't know. I've never experienced it. Hollywood has taught me that attics are scary and usually up above stuff. Okay? Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. I I thought that we would open the door and it would be stairs as well, for sure. Ah, see?

But there's some great stories in the attic. Yes. The attic has some of my my favorite characters. Yeah. Yeah. Really cool stuff. So no, it's uh it's a really fun game. It's been um like an interesting addition to like the host special that I'm working on and like this is very much like using romance as a mechanic and and dating characters and and all the characters you interact with all have a unique storyline and mechanic

for progressing the storyline. Sometimes you just have to talk to them. Um what was a another one was like a game console, but it resets every time you talk to her. So you have to like know her phrase that she kn she when she hears it she knows that you're best friends already. Yeah. I think. It's something like that. So, you know, there's there's safe words throughout the game, honestly. I've I've encountered like three or four characters that are like my safe word. What's our safe word?

Like the chair has one for improv. Yeah. And and again, like there as you said, there are a lot of dialogue options that you can choose from. And it doesn't have like the classic bioware icons next to them, so it can be kind of hard to tell. And you're right, a lot of characters. Don't appreciate sarcasm and I find it so hard not to pick the sarcastic answer. Um but yeah, sarcasm usually leads to they just think you're being mean, which, you know upsetti spaghetti. Exactly.

And man, that chair was not happy. So uh we got past it though. We got past it.

Uh but no, it's it's an interesting it's a very it's a fun and interesting game. It's different from like a lot of the stuff we Um we play and talk about on the show and I know we've talked about it previously, but um it's uh it's very interesting and the way the things you can interact with I think part of the puzzle stuff that's so interesting is like you have to kind of think you have to think way outside the box for finding some of the databalls and uh

Like y yeah, I don't know I don't wanna spoil them, but like some of them are some of them you kinda have to look at a guide and be like, Oh, I never would have thought to do that. But it's really cool that they built it into the game. So yeah, it's it's neat and uh I don't think it's still on sale, but

Uh it's totally worth picking up if you um enjoy these type of experiences. Like I said, fully voice acted. You don't have to you only have to read your lines. Uh everything else is voice acted, which is is very helpful. Although I wish there was an auto

progress on the dialogue. Uh that's my one thing I'm not a fan of is I want to be able to just say like, hey, just progress your dialogue. I don't need to hit A every time you're done talking. I I get that makes you like perse you know uh uh uh with the game, but um yeah, I much prefer like an auto advanced on that stuff.'Cause I want to hear it all. Ya, but I don't know.

It's it's a small small little thing. It's not a deal breaker. Still a very fun game. Uh it looks like it is not currently on sale on Steam, so it's forty five Canadian and the DLC is ten fifty. So Sixty buck. No math.

That's exactly fifty-five dollars. Yeah, for for everything for the DLC. And like you say, it did just come off of a sale because it was on sale for Valentine's Day, so it'll go back on sale again. I I wouldn't pick it up now full price. Although like Again, I it's worth it, I think, like the voice acting and the like it's very well thought out and uh yeah, it's it's a very well put together game. Um, but yeah, I would at this point I'd wait for a sale.

But definitely still recommend it. It was really fun, even if you're not normally into like dating sim puzzly games. Like it's still there's a lot of really good, cool stuff in here. So check it out. Uh the other thing we checked out was we played Rebo again for game night.

And uh there was a new shotgun monster that was like super intense and uh really, really cool, but also very scary. Yeah. I knew there was a monsters update because every time I load up Steam uh and and on like on the T V in the living room and Caden sees it, he's like, What's that game? It looks like the story bots from Netflix and there's like robots. What's repo?

I'm like, oh well that's like five nights at Freddy's, but you're like repossessing stuff and and then I had to explain repossess it was a whole thing. But anyways I was like, let's just watch the trailer and they have like a live action trailer for this monster update they did and and he's seen Five Nights of Freddy's so like this stuff isn't gonna scare him. I would not let uh Abby or Izzy see it because they would get scared. But Caden he can handle it.

So he's watching it and uh it's like a live action thing and it's showing all the monsters, all these new monsters they've added. So like I knew there was an update, but I wasn't prepared when we started to play it because of course the game throws like all new monsters at us. Like I don't think we saw any monsters in our playthrough that were present previously. The duck.

Oh yes, they're gonna be a good one. Yeah. And and because we knew how to deal with him. And the big and the big floaty skull. Um Oh was he in there too? Oh yeah, yeah. He he does the he does the the teeth thing that they do in the Walking Dead sometimes where the zombies like you know, uh chomp their teeth and make a really unsettling sound. Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. When when he's floating around yeah, yeah, he does.

I feel like there yeah, there were a couple that we had seen before, but definitely a lot of new ones too. Um and it was a ton of fun. Um I've I've really, really enjoyed both repo and peak. And I know we talked about this in our game of the year episode. six or eight episodes ago. But um yeah, I think that those type of games I I don't think they deserve the like slop title'cause

They're really uh they draw me in. Um, and they're difficult, like they're challenging, and uh it's so much fun to play with friends and the proximity chat and stuff. So I very, very, very much enjoyed playing both Repo and Peak. We haven't played uh Peak for a while, but uh yeah, Repo

was so much fun to get back into. And I feel like they're they're solid entries into the game night rotation. Yes, for sure. And you guys can actually watch them now. Mm-hmm. You're over on patreon.com slash the gamers in. So if you want to support the show

There's VODs now. Uh I think all all the tech seemed to work really good. We had uh quite a few people watching live. The lives on game night are available to everybody, and then the VODs after the fact are available to patrons. And I thought the Patreon streaming system

for what it is, for like a very proof of concept like first run at it, it worked really well. We didn't have any connection issues, everything, the stream was steady and yeah, I thought it went really well. Yeah. No, I I was uh And and I know like there's a lot of options for how we could do it, but I really do think like feeding it into an existing system that makes it super simple to just

post it and a you know, add some text and post it and and people can watch it.'Cause I know not everybody can be there Friday Friday evenings and Now that we have a solid VOD system that of course if there's feedback, certainly send it in. But now that we have a solid VOD system for the patrons. they uh can vote for stuff they wanna watch after the fact. Those VODs, um, as far as I know, will stay on Patreon. We don't have like a

hard limit that we have to get rid of them. I don't think that they kick us off. I think we have a limit of hours we can stream in a month, but I don't think that the Yeah, I don't think there's a limit on the VODs we can post. So'cause tons of people use Patreon for posting video, right? So

It would be kinda silly if they limited the amount you could post. It's a monthly limit for VODs and it's like a hundred hours. So we're we're not Yeah, we won't we're not gonna get anywhere near that. We might get ten, but I mean, even if we did all of extra life. I don't even think we'd hit we would definitely not hit a hundred hours in a month. Uh not. So it no, it it works. I think it works well. It's a lot of fun. Um the repo

uh playthrough I think went mostly well. But yeah, there's the new monster with the shotgun, which is definitely, most definitely attracted to sound. Like you can walk You can probably, you know, creep I think people were creeping past it and we're fine. But if you made even a peep, he like quickly turns, makes a sound like one of those um old school fox hunters. With their with their shotguns and then he just he fires immediately and he's got range. So quickly. Yeah.

Oh man. Uh I think there was a classic moment where he he had started to walk away and I'm like, okay, I think we're clear and as soon as I went into the hallway Yeah, that was like right at the beginning of the night. That was so good.'Cause Josh had even said, I'm gonna laugh so hard if Ryan gets shot right now and then you're like, Okay, we're clear. Boom. Yeah.

Yeah. So you gotta be quiet. And I know trying to get me to be quiet is not the easiest thing to do, especially when we're playing video games. But uh And Ryan kept dying and couldn't understand why. I'm like, It's because the monsters can hear you. Oh, I understood. They can hear you they can hear you. Yeah. I think I think there were many moments like that, but uh the

The roulette monster was super creepy. Yeah, that actually that made me scream. Yes. Uh'cause it it was like silent moving up on me and I didn't even know it was in the room and then it like grabs your attention. Um, and you can't look away. And it just it scared the shit out of me because I think I was also the only one left. So

Well that's brutal. Yeah. Yeah. It it certainly uh it certainly scared me too when it when it snuck up on me'cause as you said, it silently sort of walks around and you kinda have to keep an eye out for it'cause you can't hear it. But yeah, that game was a lot of fun. Uh and I like it's I don't know if I would call it like scary, but it has jump scares like Once you see the monsters and you kinda know it's if you get separated from the group, I find it to be very atmospherically creepy.

True. Because then like you're all by yourself, you don't know where the monsters are, you don't know where your friends are. You have an idea maybe of where the objectives are, but it's like you're just totally, completely on your own with things that are trying to explode you. Yeah. And then not knowing

You're so used to playing video games on Discord that you just are constantly hearing your y your fellow players on your team. But then because you're using proximity voice chat in game When you no longer hear somebody, you're like, oh, you know you're alone. Yeah, and you don't really necessarily want to call out because if you call out, then you don't know who's gonna come, right? So I do think that there's definitely a kind of creepy, scary horror factor to the game, um, that

you know, maybe doesn't get enough credit when you've got a really big group, right? So but we were playing just with with three of us and It made it, I think, extra creepy and and made me wanna like stick together as a group and you know, careful as we explore. But uh yeah, it was a lot of fun. So again, game nights are once a month on the third Friday of the month. We are streaming them now over at patreon.com slash the gamers in.

Which is where you should go if you wanna support the show, like our February patron did, Cora. Thank you so much. for the support of the Gamers Inn. The VODs are now also posted over on Patreon. Uh Ryan's got the host special this month, gonna be going up in the next few days. And uh as we talked about in the Date Everything conversation, Ryan is gonna be focusing on romance in video games. He keeps getting handed these themes by just Total random

luck. It's every other month. Yeah. But is it yeah, but there's like a big holiday every other month, apparently. So apparently. Yeah. We'll have to break the cycle and and uh I'll have to do two in a row. You'll have to do two in a row. Maybe we'll maybe we'll do a joint one And then and then we can reset uh and you can have J or uh

February, April. And and to my credit, I did I think I've come up with my April one without uh uh well I guess I did use the holiday to to a certain extent. Uh but uh but yeah, it wasn't as clear cut as romance or Christmas or Halloween. Halloween. Halloween was a big one. That was Uh What did I did I do scary games? What did I do for Halloween? You did. Oh man, it's scary games. And then at one point you did a backlog. Yes. But yeah, you've done uh yeah.

But it's fine. It's fine. I mean, it's all entertaining and you guys seem to be enjoying it. So again, thank you so much for supporting us and uh I'm glad that everyone seems to be enjoying the extra content. The next game night will be Friday, March 20th. That'll be at 8 30 PM Eastern. Uh like I said, VODs are or sorry, stream is live over on Patreon. VODs are gonna be available for to patrons after and we will get a poll up in the kind of week before.

game night to see what you guys want us to play. Uh best way to keep up with everything with the show and the conversations going on around it is to head over to Discord, which is tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. That brings us to the news this week. Ah I can't believe you are making me lead with this, but Kristen Bell has been cast as Amy Rose in Sonic the Hedgehog Four because of course there's four of them. I really, really like Kristen Bell though, so Yeah.

Yeah. This is Idris Elba, the voice with Knuckles all over again, right? Yeah, I know. They keep casting these amazing voice actors and I'm just like, God damn it, you're gonna make me watch Sonic, aren't you? And now I can upset all of the frozen fans by saying Kristen Bell, the voice actress behind Amy Rose, of course, because what other example is there? Uh but I I agree with you. The fact that this is the fourth Sonic movie is is kinda crazy. Like I agree with you because

Rewind six years ago, and if you had said there's gonna be four of these movies, I'm like, Okay, buddy, let's see how the first one does. Did you see that thing's tea of yourself much in the first trailer? Like, come on. Uh yeah. But You know, we're gonna have the second Mario movie in the

Uh in a month. Yeah, that I was gonna say that's soonish, isn't it? It is soon. Yeah. I I just feel like that one's different because it's animated and it's illumination and they just they know how to print money. But like live action mixed with CG characters, it's just such a recipe for disaster that there are four of these is

Well, I was gonna say, and the fact that we're on four now just is like, okay, how many more Sonic stories can you possibly have to tell? And this is not me just being a salty I hate Sonic fan. This is like this is like, no, legitimately. Like once you get to the point where you're on like X movie.

four, the only ones that are flawless the whole way through are Fast and the Furious and I will fight you. So like normally franchises really start to go downhill once they hit like four, five, whatever. So Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I know you guys expect Sonicate from me, but my point is I don't know how much uh how many how many like what the legs of this franchise are. past, you know, the original first three.

Well, I what they've done with this is that they've introduced a new mainline character in each of these films. And uh you know, they they did They did Tails and Knuckles in the second one. They did Shadow in the third one. Some would argue that Amy is kind of get near the end of recognizable non Sonic the Hedgehog characters where it's just not Sonic, it's his friends. Is Robotnik still the uh the villain or have they'cause I thought Jim Carrey was like, I'm out.

Uh yeah, he he said he was out after two. He came back for three. I mean Not to spoil it or anything, but at the end of well, at the end of all of them, he does like a video game death, you know, like He he dies, essentially in all of them at the end of the films. But it's it's cartoon death where he like, oh, the body was never recovered. I think that's literally a line they utter at the end of the first. So um yes, Doctor Robotnik will be back because this is a video game movie and they

They play up to that trope of like the bad guy always comes back. Um but I think after Amy, like you kind of And I think they're also introducing the the metal sonics, um, from Sonic C D, which are robot sonics. So I don't know what they do after that. Like do they do

They start to like dip into like the Sonic Racing side characters like the Crocodile and Big the Cat and people will fight me on Big the Cat. I I feel like they I feel like some people think Big the Cat could Carry Sonic the Hedgehog five, but I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. But uh I think that's where I kind of I see the writing on the wall is like like you said, like how much more do they have here? And I I think the answer is

Let's let's see how they do with Amy. Yeah, and I don't think they necessarily have to introduce a new character in every single movie. Like if you've got a cast of characters that works, just fucking use them. But that's You know that's j my opinion. But I mean, like, yeah. They don't necessarily have to introduce new ones if they've got a good story to tell with the ones that they have. So I mean, who knows? Maybe Amy will be the last introduction and it'll be like

four five six with the whole crew, another, you know, story arc. Who knows? But yeah, that's happening. So hooray, Sonic fans. Congratulations. Yeah. Uh some not so great news out of Sony. They're shutting down Blue Point, which were um the studio, the developers working on the Demon Souls remake. Uh, which is kind of unfortunate. W I mean, obviously it's unfortunate. Closing studios bad. Um, but I like in terms of what they were actually working on.

Like Demon Souls is very much the like kind of start of like from and what everybody kind of talked about the precursor to Dark Souls that you know, obviously was super duper ridiculously popular.

Um, and so this is one that I'm like, you know what? I I might have actually played this remake as kind of like an entry to their stuff, right? So It's it's it's really unfortunate that uh some the studio working on some remakes of some really iconic games is like any time any of those studios are shuttered, it's really too bad because

There are a lot of really good games from, you know, fifteen, twenty years ago that really could use some some remake love. And uh yeah, so th it's it's unfortunate from both the IP perspective and the the staff perspective. Yeah, uh this is probably another example where I know there's some rumblings going around of like what this actually is, but at the end of the day, when a studio is purchased and then doesn't output a game since being you know purchased.

I think that's a that's a management issue, like e either at the studio or either at the at the uh the publisher level. But I really do think Sony has struggled with some of their acquisitions and whether they just don't know how to give the team a proper project or support them in what they're trying to work on.

But when the last title you've released, which is well received with this Demon Souls remake, and you have a studio that has specialized in remake, And you have a back cot catalog of games that that as you said could could use with uh well, we just saw Sony Santa Monica is remaking the God of War trilogy. So seems really odd to cut your remake studio when you're making

a remake of a trilogy. It's just it to me, outsider looking in, it just really kinda sounds like a like poor business decisions where you're purchasing a studio to l have them languish for five years and then cut them loose and fire everybody. And they they publicly had stated that Blue Point was working on like a a g a live service game, which again

was a management decision from Sony to do more live service games and then when they started to fail, they cut. Can you hear the eye roll through the microphone right now? Because yeah, like Yeah, exactly. We have this studio that is very like technically precise and sound and so good at remaking and remastering things. Let's make a live service game. Fucking idiots.

Yeah, it writes itself. Honestly. Like it's just Who makes who makes these decisions? Like sometimes it's just like, what are you even doing? And that's where I struggle with and we have another story later on where you see some shifts, you know, uh higher up in these big publishers, these big console manufacturers. And I think that's where, look, Nintendo is not perfect. They just re-released a GBA game for twenty bucks a pop US.

And you have to purchase the language versions separately. Like they are Not immune. They make their own terrible decisions. But Nintendo makes doesn't doesn't usually make these mistakes, doesn't do this kind of stuff. They they very rarely purchase studios. They do not close studios. Uh and if they do, it's very rare. They're not perfect.

and actually rare would probably be a good example of their biggest fumble, which is selling to Microsoft. But um that but I I I really do feel like Playstation and Xbox have really struggled with this idea that like, oh, to be successful is to throw money around and purchase studios. And I think PlayStation has had the hardest go with It everyone's looking at Bungie now. Marathon's gonna be launching in a couple months, I think.

And they're gonna be watching that. It's the n you know, watch the headlines is gonna be like, is this the next high guard? Is this the next mm mm, you know, I can't even remember what was it, Concorde. Concorde. And and that's gonna be high profile. Like if it fails, I mean Bungie they might cut Bungie loose. I don't know. Destiny, I feel like is still profitable, so maybe they've got

They've got something there, but I did not see this coming because I really did enjoy a lot of Blue Point's work. I think they did a fantastic job on the Uncharted, you know, remaster that came out on PS4. So yeah, and I know that Demon Souls remake was very well received. Yeah. It's really uh it's just it's really too bad. Yeah. Some little bit of good news uh in that Discord has decided that they are going to delay their age verification plans.

to the second half of twenty twenty six. So it was supposed to happen like imminently, and they were like, Whoa, there's so much more blowback here than we were expecting. So uh they are delaying their plans, but th that doesn't mean that they won't do it. So Yeah. It's still coming, just they're trying to get their shit together and get us on board. Yeah. I mean I I feel like I feel like yes, of course like we talked about this last week. The idea of

age verification and scanning your ID like it does not sit well with a lot of folks. Like I really do not want to upload my my ID to anything. Yeah. Um but, you know, they they you know, kudos to them in in this post. They did kind of write out the long version of the we hear you. Um they have they have delayed to the second half of twenty twenty six where they don't legally have to there are locations where they still legally have to do this because i there's legislation legislation there.

Um but they do say, they do reiterate, 90 plus percent of users will never see an age verification pop up. That's according to that. We'll see. We we did say this last week. We'll see if that is true in practice. Who knows if that'll be the case or not? Yeah. But they do say that they are gonna be working on other options.

And I think this just goes to show that when they announced it, as you said, they announced it last week. I don't know why companies do this, but they were it weren't expecting that much feedback. Yeah. They got it. They heard folks, and they've now not only delayed it by six months, but they've addressed Or at least tried to address a lot of the concerns. They've written them out. Whether that's a perfect response, I'm not gonna say it's perfect.

Um, but it's a step in the right direction.'Cause I think this is what you kinda wanna see. Because the op the opposite that could happen is like Now we're doing this and it's happening in March. Like you see some companies do that. Like Meta does that a lot with their with their technology. So Yeah, I do understand and I do understand that a lot of these changes are being um forced or pushed or whatever, like however you want to word it.

by legislation changes in a lot of countries and that they the world is rapidly changing. The world is attempting to figure out how to protect Children and teens in an online social media space, right? So I understand the like force behind it, I guess, but I I really, really do think that what is needed is like more moderation, more filters, more cat even just to like flag conversations or servers or whatever.

to someone at Discord to then go look at it and be like, oh, this isn't good. Like there have been so many stories about horrible, awful things that have happened to teens from like people doing wanting to inflict real harm on other people and taking advantage of minors and, you know, people who don't know any better and vulnerable communities. that like there's gotta be a better way that isn't just like

Promise us that you're not a teenager, right? Like or upload your ID or whatever. Like there needs to be so many more tools available. And so much more oversight that we just don't have in these spaces right now because of the straight up volume. Like you can't like moderate and remove things from these platforms as quickly as the content is being created. Right. So I think it just it it's definitely a challenge. It's a challenge across the tech industry. And I don't think age verification

does what they think it's going to do. Right. Not to mention that like Teens especially, maybe not kids, but teens especially will find a way around it. Like, that is what they do. That is what we did. That is, you know, like. Yeah, it's it's always going to happen. So uh I don't know. No, that's fair. They say they don't that they don't want to know who we are as users.

And that, you know, oh, trust us, we're a tech company, like we're not storing your data, we don't care who you are, this isn't about getting rid of anonymity, but we've just Like the tech industry as a whole has not earned the benefit of the doubt. If anything. what we've seen lately in the last year or two is like tech companies doing really awful things with our data and and providing our data to other entities that we didn't necessarily

sign on for or didn't realize we were signed signing on for. So, you know, you've seen people pull out of a lot of different companies. Like Ring is the one that comes to mind like off the top of my head. Um, but there's definitely a lot of examples out there where consumers have been like, Oh, I don't want to be involved in that company and like I'm getting rid of all my, you know, ex company's tech, but Yeah, I don't know. There's there's just a lot of issues.

around content available on the internet. And I don't think that just to straight up upload your ID or scan your face is really like the the solution. Not to mention like Oh my god. I don't want to get into the whole AI conversation, but it's like if you're scanning faces, we know you're gonna be trying to read them with AI, and AI is total shit at understanding even what's a person and what's not. So like I mean, there's so many ways to spoof uh sp like a face cam and photos and whatever.

And it does such a poor job. I was listening to um one of the one of the true crime pro podcasts that I listened to and one of the hosts was like, I tried to make a faux a a post on our Facebook page. and it got like the we need to verify your human thing and she sent in like a photo of herself. And like t attached it to the Facebook page that she's had for years and years and years, like her personal Facebook page. And it rejected her and told her she was a robot and there was no like

Appeal and it just like deleted her entire Facebook and the and like the podcast page. And they're like, So we're just done with the Facebook platform. And I was like, That's legit. It's just like, you know, these platforms, the the verification tools that they're using on the back end. If you get past all the privacy stuff, also just don't seem to fucking work. So, you know, you've just got.

Issues compounding on top of issues, compounding on top of issues. And I cannot believe to go back to your point, Ryan, that Discord wasn't prepared for the amount of like feedback they were going to get. No, I It's you it's it's true. Like I think the issue with a lot of these platforms as they get bigger is moderation Teams don't scale with users. Uh we saw that with Facebook. We've seen it with YouTube. Uh YouTube, Roblox, um now with Discord.

And Instagram? Instagram Well, I guess Instagram, Facebook, same I mean m Meta cut their Meta X, they all cut their, you know, safety and moderation teams. Like you know, they they really do feel like AI can solve that problem and and you know, I think there is a part of AI that can help with that, but really you do need At some point you you need to

the ability to hand this over to a human to to make a decision on content. Because that example where like that is a fear. Like just having AI come in and like, you know what, you're right. this is XYZ and we need to ban it with y you know, no further um No f no further say from the user. Like I really do feel like there needs to be a way to get a human and depending on what team you're dealing with. You're gonna struggle. To get a human being.

Like and it w wasn't the last straw. There were many, many straws that came together at the same time. But one of the things that pissed me off the most about Microsoft was my inability to get past their AI. to get to an actual person, even after I had been working with a tech for hours. Right. And even after that tech had given me a link as to how to like a link and a like a case number to get back to them when we got disconnected. And I couldn't get through Microsoft's fucking AI bubble.

to actually like get back to the person inside. Like it was such a broken system. And no mat until I actually talked to it about bill, I was like, this is about billing. This is about money. And then the AI was like, I'm not allowed to handle that. Boop boop beep. You need a person. I'm like, I do like thank you, finally. I've been telling you I need a person for forty five minutes. You need another trigger word.

Exactly. Well, that's the thing. It's like it's such a broken system and doesn't solve anything and costs them a customer. Like, I'm not buying the next Xbox. I haven't had Game Pass since. Like I don't want to associate with that company because it pissed me off so bad. And it's gonna get to that point where they're going to start losing money. And I really hope they do.

Yeah, the tools are tools don't work. That was the overall point of that rant. Is like, yeah, the tools don't work. You need people. And and this is the thing I like, look. Technology companies, there the I truly believe that there is a scale of trust. It's not just if you get X. amount of users or uh you're this big a company, you immediately can't be trusted.

I I don't think that's the case. Where I kind of see it is like it's a sliding scale. Like, you know, uh Google and uh Meta and X, like they're kind of on the high end of like I don't really Trust you guys. I mean Google may be a little low meta and X definitely at the top. But like Discord still in my mind and maybe I'm naive, but Discord's still in that era of like

they can still they can still do this right. And I I do think that this post is a step in the right direction. And the post even says this, like words Don't matter, actions do. Trust is earned through actions. They're gonna work towards doing the stuff they say they're gonna do. Adding additional verification methods including what we talked about, which is credit card verification, in the sense that you pay for nitro, you have a credit card, you're likely not a teenager.

you know, it's it's age assurance, not verification, right? Like they just wanna kind of like be able to guesstimate and know, like, okay, like you're not a teenager. And I do get the idea that yes, like proving You're you're not under you're not a teen or whatever, or you're an adult. Like, doesn't change the fact that bad stuff is still gonna happen on the platform and moderation teams is still the best way to do it. And I don't think they make any mention to that.

in this huge post. It's really just about the age of showing up stuff. But Discord has, you know, done a lot of work to showcase their you know, safety teams and stuff and and they do have a transparency report and all that. But I like, I think that's uh it's kinda weird that government focuses on this age verification thing when I feel like they should really focus on like, hey, holding, you know, these companies accountable to be like What's what's your moderation team versus

Users, you know. Yeah, that's where the lobbyist comes in, right? Like as soon as the government tries to say you have to have X number, like a like one moderator per X number of users. Then the companies come in and say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's overstepping too much. Like But this is fine. You know, send us your IDs.

Yeah, well exactly, exactly. So yeah. Anyways, that's a that's a whole other conversation. But the point is that Discord has uh put up a post, not necessarily an apology post, but an an explanatory post. about what's going on with uh the age verification stuff and they have delayed it until uh the second half of this year. So when we get more information, we will update you guys uh finally tonight. We have word that Phil Spencer retired. Yay! And also Sarah Bond.

gone. Um for a long time it seemed like she would be the one to kinda step into his shoes when he did walk away. That's not the case and That no one at Xbox slash Microsoft seemed particularly put out about that. Like she just kind of left. I think she got fired because, like, or at least If she decided to step away, then nobody told her team because she was still putting out like

looking for feedback polls and shit on her social media like hours before she was no longer with the company. So that seems like fired to me. But uh Yeah, she's she's gone now, so they've got an AI. Or an ex AI um executive. Yeah, not not an actual AI. They didn't replace Spencer with an AI. She's an AI executive. Yeah. Like a copilot. You know? Yeah.

They've added copilot to everything? They just gave over Xbox to copilot. I thought that like I saw the headline quickly when the when it got when this was announced and I'm like, oh I mean that that could make sense to me. Like Microsoft has put been putting copilot and everything. Why not Have it try to run a department. Run a wing of the company. Yeah, why not? Um look, Phil Spencer retiring is not like a bombshell. Like I think he from an American perspective

Being with one company for thirty-eight years is more than the average. I feel like you hit Like it when you get to that level, like thirty is is ki like I th I think when Reggie Fizumi retired, that was like, Oh my, like that's that's quite quite early. Like he had only been He only been with Nintendo for a certain amount of years, but like he had only been in that sort of business for like sometimes when they retire they're going on to their next basically career, which is writing books and

consulting. So for him it it made sense that Phil would retire pretty soon. I mean, being with the company for that long. But the Sarah Bond stuff is, as you said, interesting. Like I mean, I I nev I didn't get the sense she was fired. I got the sense that sh i she got wind of where this is going. And uh she was like, Well, I want no part of this. I I think she left.

Abruptly. Interesting. That's kind of where we're uh like look, either one, this is all speculation. We don't know if you're I was gonna say, yeah, neither neither one has been confirmed, right? Like Yeah, I've been I've been away from the news for a couple of days, so like it's very possible that I missed it, but I didn't think that they had actually confirmed one way or the other.

No they haven't. She she She's given like statements that very much seem like a you know, parting of ways doesn't sound like fire doesn't sound like abruptly left, but the way things went down, it very much does seem like She has abruptly left the company. Yeah. So she's no longer there. And this new CEO is uh Asha Sharma and she is from I can't remember what the specific title was, but she she had worked with uh the AI Microsoft team, whether she was a uh I can't remember what it was.

But she's definitely from their AI team. One thing that I did see um recently in the last couple days, again, like I say, I I haven't really been paying much attention to the news. Um, but In the last couple of days I did see like a statement from them because the concern when this was first announced, which was on Friday, I wanna say.

um was basically that the that they're putting an AI exec in charge of Microsoft gaming and that is going to mean that AI is going to be taking over all of Microsoft gaming development. And so with that being the community concern and the very vocal concern, I think a lot of people were like, This is a terrible decision. Not necessarily on Sarah Bond's behalf saying like she should get to stay, but just being like

this doesn't bode well for, you know, AI to be in charge or an AI exec to be in charge of uh Microsoft gaming. And so they like put out a statement basically saying Don't worry, we're not putting um we're not putting AI, we're not replacing devs with AI, we're not putting AI in your games, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And I'm just like, you know what? I don't actually know if that's like a good thing for Microsoft gaming or like a sign that.

It's kind of coming to an end. Like they all of the public statements are like recommitting to gaming and bringing Xbox back and like all this like rah-rah bullshit corporate stuff. But like If you have, if you're Microsoft, right? Because again, like Microsoft is so much more than a gaming company. You're Microsoft. You make office, you make windows, you make everything, right? And you are shoving Copilot.

Down everyone's throat at every opportunity. And then you come out and say, oh, don't worry, like AI is not going to touch gaming. It's like, Is that because you're like gonna get rid of your gaming division, gonna shutter your gaming division, like you don't care about your gaming division? Like it just really seems like

They're putting AI everywhere else. They're using AI for everything else. But if it's not going to be anywhere near gaming, it seems like Microsoft doesn't believe in the product. Am I am I like totally reading this backwards and upside down or like I don't know, especially when you put an AI exec in charge and then say AI is not going to be involved at all. Like that to me is like a huge red flag.

I feel like they're gonna just throw the new head of Microsoft Gaming. So Asha Sharma, I think they're just gonna throw her under the bus. She's gonna be the like, oh look, it failed and they're just gonna close it. Well, that's certainly been an opinion thrown around, I think that uh there was a opinion piece put out there where they were arguing that yes, like this is essentially, you know, as much as we gave Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond a hard time about the recent decisions with Xbox.

They were champions of video games. Uh they really cared about video games, um and and sh and showed that. Well, I mean, like like I said, recently it's it is very hard to say that with a straight face with all the layoffs and everything, but previous to that. they did their best to showcase that they uh they were big fans of video games. At least wanted to keep Xbox around. I think the recent stuff is i is more the

i i is the fallout of acquisitions and also like the state of Microsoft as a as a larger company. Um and and forcing the Xbox team to to make decisions they might not normally make, but I I think you're there's there's an ap there's opinions out there where this this could be like yes, like okay, like That th this is uh

Phil's retiring. Let's get someone new in here. Uh, who do we got? Okay, uh president of Microsoft's core AI product. Put them in as in as the CEO of Microsoft Gaming. You're right, it's a weird move like to go from What is a recent development in the last five years, like I'm I'm a s I'm assuming here, but like th the way Microsoft's been pushing AI, like AI's been around for a long time, but I feel like this is a

This is a a person coming in who's been working not on video games and then coming in to be the the CEO when very you look at all the other companies, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox with Phil Spencer. They are video game CEOs. That they play video games, they love video games. Like I think that's Oh yeah, she was asking for um recommendations of what game she should play. On social media on the weekend. And I was just like, oh my God. Like, and and I don't need you to be like,

a world champion winning League of Legends player or something. Like I don't need you to have that level of gamer cred, but I need you to be at least a little bit familiar with the industry, a little bit familiar with the community, like and have some interest in the product you're trying to to sell. Right. Like I again, I don't need you to be way into everything or like an amazing, ridiculous, competitive player, professional player, like anything like that, but just some awareness of

what you're stepping into. I don't know. It just that r really rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, it's fine to ask for recommendations, but I like I think that there are But it came off as I've never touched a video game in my life. What do you guys think I should do? And I'm just like Yeah. Well that's fair. Uh again, it's just it's more of these like

You know, individually, I think all of these little like flag like red little red flags don't necessarily spell disaster for Microsoft gaming. But I'm just like seeing this kind of like pattern that like you've got um a new head who is not in touch with like gaming at all. And what she is in touch with, what she is an expert in, is AI, which is supposed to be the next up and coming tech.

And you're shoving AI into every other product you make and yet still like I don't know, it just all together. makes me feel really like I don't even want to say upset because fike fuck Microsoft, but like it just it to me, the writings like on the wall. It might be an invisible ink, but like it's there. I think this is really, I don't know. I think this is like the beginning, the beginning of the end, right? Like.

Yeah, we could look back at this moment and be like, Jocelyn was right. That tell me that that Microsoft is getting ready to like wind this down. Um, and that because they spent sixty nine billion dollars. In the Activision Blizzard acquisition, they're probably like We should give it a little bit more time because we have to try to at least like recoup our costs a little bit. And, you know, like we maybe we see things start to get closed and shuttered and pieced off and sold. I don't know, but

Yeah. Like That acquisition only went through a couple of years ago and doesn't seem to have been the return on investment that Microsoft maybe thought it was gonna be. That's a really, really big chunk of money. Right. So Yeah, I think that like that might have truly been the beginning of the end, but I think this um Phil Spencer's replacement is doesn't bode well for Microsoft gaming, in my opinion. I could be totally wrong. Maybe I'm totally wrong. Maybe she'll turn it around, but

This feels like a fall guy, not a new direction to me. Yeah. Well this also could be, you know, going back to that old school style of running, you know, a video game company where the CEO is no longer What? important and front front of m mind, it's the developers. Like we could go back to that. I know Phil Spencer was a very big wear, you know, fancy t-shirts under his suit jacket to announce games type of CEO. But maybe we go back to that where it's like the CEO is just, you know

Someone using Copilot in the background to write their emails and the developers are the ones front and center talking about their games. Like we Yeah. The the dream, I guess. Yeah, the dream. I mean, as you said, we're not Invested in Microsoft as much as we were, you know, six years ago. But I really going back to that, like. scale of trust, like talking about Discord and looking at that post and be like, okay. Th this this could work. Show us. Do it. Action what you're talking about.

when I read this wall of text, I don't I don't have that trust. Like on the scale of not trusting you Microsoft up there and and look like We don't have to we we don't have to buy the next Xbox. We don't have to subscribe to Game Pass. We can wait for them to show that they've they can do better. Um It's been been a while since we've been uh Game Pass subscribers. Uh so it hasn't happened yet. But like we also know the next Xbox is not going to be

the same as what the Series X was when it launched in twenty twenty. So We have to see what that does. And I and I think even those changes uh that they're proposing for the next console will be risky.

And I thought the same thing as you said about this new CEO is I thought like this this is their last try. And if it doesn't work, they can point to it and be like, well, console hardware is not worth it. You know, we'll just publish games for the studios we own, like Beth they're not gonna shut down Bethesda, they're not gonna shut down Activision Blizzard, but they will continue to publish those games and and make Call of Duty money.

Yeah you know they just might not have a box that they make s money off of anymore. That's I don't think that's it their business. Uh after the next console, I think they're They're likely to. Um well we'll see what it is, but I really do think like alongside your notes, I think that the next box that they release will be the thing they can point to to get out of the hardware business because it it won't It won't succeed. So it won't perform. Yeah. We'll see.

And uh yeah, if you guys want to let us know your thoughts about all of the news stories or anything we played this week, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord to join the conversation. You can also visit us on the web at gamersinpodcast.com or follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me, Jocelyn at josplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. Also be sure to check out our TGI Community Starter Pack at tiny.cc slash TGI Starter Pack.

Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn and remember, tune in next week. Bye everybody. Bye everyone.