TGI 687 - Linux Experiments in College

Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull up a chair 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 Jocelyn, how's it going? Okay, pretty tired from the weekend, but overall Doing alright. How about you? Finally fully recovered? Or mostly c recovered? Maybe not fully. Not fully, you know. Yeah, you do sound better than last week.

The amount of people I it's weird. Like I I went into detail of what was going on and I think the biggest part that kinda throw people off is like The the shingles part of it. And I was a and I was back to work this week and I was having conversations with people. It's like, Oh, you were away, and I'm like, Yeah, I had shingles and then I had this and then I had that. And the amount of people is like You're not even forty yet. Like how did you Exactly. Shingles is an old man thing.

I felt like and I said like I know, I get it, like I was surprised too, but like I learned a few things in the last two weeks and one of those things is that shit happens and you just Ha ha ha. Sometimes it it happens and I there's no explanation. Um Uh you get to make a lot of roofing jokes. I did that with the with the kids. Uh they They didn't they didn't really get it or appreciate it, but like it was fun all the time.

So Yeah. Google is telling me that normally it only impacts people over fifty, so Old man Murphy over here. Look, maybe I just uh maybe the chicken pox I maybe didn't have it like as strong, but it was there. I don't know. The science behind it. No one said to me like Actually, I don't... No one said like you should be worried that you had shingles before you were forty. Uh that hasn't happened yet. No one should message me that I that

Hey, you should be worried. Yeah. You guys need to know as anxious as I am, Ryan is worse. Stop. You don't need to put that thought in his head. Yeah. All I know is that um uh I I had a few people say like, oh, if you get shingles when you're really old, like it can be it can be really, really bad.

And uh that's why there is a vaccine for it. And uh that was the second thing people told me is like, well, after a year, you can then go get the vaccine. And I and I think like, yes, I will be doing that because it's not fun. And if I can stop the fun from happening. Ha ha ha. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do that. It'll be it'll be fine. So um Plan. Yeah, just a lot of uh a few things happen. People tell you their horror stories, whether they know it from their grandparents or Relatives.

I'm not laughing at people's grandparents getting sick, just to be clear. I am laughing at you being in the same group with people who we know's grandparents. That is that is why I am laughing, is the old man Murphy of it all, not the sick grandparents. It's some some old man Murph stuff's happening and and it is interesting'cause I know last week we talked about uh I I'm pretty sure we talked about the Mario movie.

And um it there's there's a I might actually be seeing it again this weekend, so that'll be interesting. Uh not really anything to do with shingles. I'm just kind of moving on from that. But uh I guess uh Izzy got home from school and Uh she got invited to a birthday party and it's at it's at the theaters and they need a and they need a parent to go and and Ashley's like, Well, I don't wanna see it again.

And I'm like, Well, I I I I mean, you didn't like it, I liked it, I'll go see it again, it'll be fun. Uh, I've got a coupon so it kinda works out. And um yeah, but she was super stoked. She's like, I get to see the galaxy movie again. And I'm like, Oh, what do you mean? And it's like, Oh yep, that's uh

That's a birthday party this Saturday. So plenty of advanced notice, that's great. Uh but it'll be fun. It'll be fun. We get to see that movie again and uh uh see all that fun stuff and and yeah, it's it's it's been uh it's been a busy couple of weeks, but I'm I'm excited to Uh, talk about one of my adventures that I've uh I took on in the in the last two weeks and um and that was uh the year of the Linux desktop. It's it's starting, it's happening. I've I've made progress, so

I am very impressed because you've been talking about this for a while. So I the fact that progress has been made is huge. Yeah. Um, so like I have so I have two computers. I have an older PC that sort of acts as like a media, like a low media sort of Plex server thing, and then like

It's hooked up in the living room and it will do like some low end gaming. Like nothing crazy. Uh this this computer and it kinda I saw it as like an opportunity to sort of test it out.'Cause I had used Linux briefly in college, like you do, everybody experiments with Linux college. Everyone gives Linux the old college try. Especially if you're in programming, like it's kinda what you do. Yeah.

uh maybe uh other programs do it too. I don't know. But uh but yeah, like I I I would have been like maybe, you know, fifteen, sixteen years ago where I'd I'd sort of tested it out and and I mean back then if you were trying to do gaming You you didn't have Proton, you didn't have um the way steam works now, you had uh wine and bottles and just like constant

trying to get shit to work. And it was I remember pretty clearly like trying to get World of Warcraft to work. My my friend who is much more into Linux than than I was, the amount of hoops he had to jump through to get WoW to even run was kind of like You you you maybe should just stomach Windows.

Yeah. And for the most part that's that's shifted a lot, m mainly thanks to the fact that uh that Steam had has sort of you know pushed Linux forward with uh the Steam Deck and and being such a huge platform and basically building on the compatibility layer of of wine and building out Proton and And building that into Steam, uh, which has really helped a lot with sort of bringing this stuff forward.

And um so uh because this is a media PC and it's not solely video games, I went with uh Ubuntu, which is w the one I'm familiar with. It's it's a uh it's a it's a specific distro. It's it's kind of the one that's kind of recognized as like I guess one of the more Windows like versions of Linux. It's the version that I'm most familiar with as someone who's not familiar with Linux.

Yeah. I think a lot of people know of Ubuntu, they they seem to be one of the more popular ones and have kind of escaped sort of the the uh the the Linux ecosystem and and and are is known alongside a lot of other uh operating systems. And like I'm no stranger to going against the grain of like, you know, I remember again in college, like in programming, being like, I'm gonna buy a Mac and and I'm gonna use Mac for my like Everything that isn't Windows and that that got some

I got some eyebrows raised as well. I was like, Really? Like you're gonna buy a Mac and and in those days it wasn't where we're at now where Mac is is is kinda known as like and I'm I'm still using Mac to this day. It's what we record this podcast on. So I am used to kind of like staying away from Windows unless I absolutely need it for for video games. And I and I have used it for video games, but I do have these two PCs that can't upgrade to Windows eleven. And it was a decision of like

Do I buy a brand new computer if I wanna keep that going that route of playing PC games? Or do I find a way to salvage the hardware and and keep it Basically running uh Yeah, keep it running. Yeah. Yeah, so uh this PC that I have I purchased in August twenty eleven. I kinda I actually looked up the the order from a no longer functioning uh company. I think it was like NCIX or something. And I had purchased the computer there. It was built and and shipped over and

And I I've upgraded it here and there. I think it has like a ten seventy in it, which is like a graphics card from twenty I think twenty fifteen or so. So it's not like new hardware, but it can run some of the some of the Steam Deck like games and and just give them a little bit more oomph behind them to kind of like get them up to the 1080p sixty that I that I kinda like to hit. So it was a good experiment because if things really went wrong

I wasn't losing much. It's like okay, I can I can I can count this one. This is an experiment failed, it's fine. I still have the gaming PC that I normally use for game night. That's what I use it for. Um but it it it did not fail. It went well. I installed Ubuntu, I uh I only had to wipe one drive, uh the rest of the drives were kind of untouched, which was good. I didn't have to do a bunch of like Resetting up of stuff?

And uh the Discord was very helpful. I was able to sort of figure out there's a lot of differences of like like one of the big ones was in Windows, like mapping a network drive is as kind of simple as like just saying, Hey, map this network drive, but in Linux you have to

basically like make an addition to a text file and do it in a very specific way. So that was a learning curve, but I I did it and I and it works. And I think that's Sort of like the crux of this whole thing was like, okay, like solving a problem and getting something to work. was super enjoyable. It's kind of like that Dark Souls thing of people like Sounds very satisfying.

Yeah, like I beat a boss and it took me it took me three hours to get this, you know, network drive to mount properly, but I did it. And uh to some folks that m that will like sound like, you know, nails on chalkboard like I'd I just uh play my consoles or buy a new PC. Well then yeah, Windows exists for you guys. Easy peasy. But yeah, we wanna

You like figuring things out, then maybe give this a shot. So are you going you said you put it on the the twenty eleven low end PC. Are you going to do this on your like more recent, like your better one, the the game night one. Because that one also can't upgrade, right? So No, it can't. Um I I will. So the the difference there is like that's primarily a gaming PC and there's another distro that people point to called Besite.

And it is essentially a uh gaming focused distro distro of Linux that um really focuses in on giving you everything you need for video games, Steam, uh there's a game mode in there as well. uh all the proper drivers. That was an issue I had with this Ubuntu uh installation as I had to do some

There was some initial tinkering to like wrap my mind around how you install things, but then also making sure that because I have an NVIDIA card in both these machines, and Linux doesn't play super nice with NVIDIA. So there was some like Tinkering to get that working. Like the computer was fine. It booted after I installed Ubuntu, but like trying to get the games set up in a way that it would work, took a little bit of effort.

And I th and I will be interested to see like with Bazite if that portion of it is like cut out. It just kinda works. Like it installs all the stuff it needs. Uh cause Ubuntu is not a gaming distro. It is it is Linux. So you kinda have to like figure that stuff out. And if you have an AMD card, like n my understanding is like all of those hurdles are just not there because it's it's much better supported.

Uh so and and this is all still a learning experience for me, but I have had it running for a couple weeks. The game I'm gonna talk about tonight I played solely on the Linux machine. Uh and that's why I say Linux desktop, because I know I've had the Steam Deck, which is technically Linux as well. But uh I did play this one solely. on the Linux machine and it and it and it's worked really well. It's and the Steam Deck was good practice because it teaches you like how a Windows game

will run on Linux through like the Proton compatibility layer. The difference being is that the Steam Deck kind of does that automatically if it's a verified game. Uh but with uh Steam on Linux, And I'm s I'm assuming the mach uh Steam machine will do the same thing as the Steam Deck, it'll just automatically do it. But on Linux I had to like

tell I like Steam still manages it, but I had to tell Steam like, hey, like use this compatibility layer all the time on games that don't have Linux uh uh uh builds for the game. So there is a little bit of Sorting that out and um but once I did that it it it's been working fine. But I do know people listening to this conversation are like, Man, I would have just I would've just like Ha ha. Yeah.

And I get that. And as you said, like problem solving, if that's something that you really appreciate and you like learning new things, like I you don't have t this isn't a situation where you don't you don't have to dive in Completely. Like you you can just get it working and call it a day, which I could have d I could have done earlier, like If I just wanted to, I could have just installed uh the the Linux installation, Steam, told it to run in Proton.

Play the games that are suitable for the hardware and go. Like this is older hardware, this is a decade old computer. And Uh it's fifteen years old, Ryan. Yes. Fifteen years since twenty eleven. You you're not wrong. Yes, the while the machine is fifteen years old, some of the hardware is newer, like the video cards have been upgraded. Um but that being said, like, you know, putting Linux on an old computer doesn't make it like

any more powerful. It just it doesn't have to worry about Windows ten saying, hey, you're not secure, Windows eleven, you need it. Go buy a computer. Uh but it was it was a fun experience. It's it's been working it's been working well. I have not had to tinker uh with the gaming side of it uh at all. I haven't had to fix anything. Everything's working like

I uh I I've been I've been enjoying the experience. Now when am I gonna do it on the other PC? Like that I'm gonna give myself some time, but I will be doing Besite on the other computer, which is more of like a I'm imagining what people would recommend to folks who want to try to salvage old hardware without budgeting for a new PC. And they can just like Bazite is supposed to be the You know, install it. Solution.

Yeah, play Steam, forget about it. You're good. Don't worry about it. It is a gaming focus. It's more like the Steam Deck experience where it is like uh it has game mode and then it has desktop mode and you can just solely like treat it as like a Steam uh machine, I guess. But my my plan was always like if this didn't work and I I wanted to nope out of uh uh of of upgrading these computers to Linux was just to get the Steam Machine, no matter how much uh

Well I was gonna say yeah, we still don't have pricing on that, but I'm sure that it's coming soon ish. Um but yeah, we'll keep you guys up to I think that what didn't they drop some information about the controller? Yeah, there was uh as of this recording there was a unlisted video that got published that was a Steam. Right. unboxing which uh Uh probably I would imagine like either as a once you once folks at home hear this, uh, or shortly after we post it, Steam will have

done something with the controller. It sounds like they're it's imminent. Um and a controller would be less likely to be impact by all the stuff going on with with RAM and hard drives and all that. So uh maybe maybe they'll just launch the controller first.

Just to kinda get out uh out get it out there. I I don't know what their plan is, but I don't I don't think anybody should be You know, holding their breath at the steam machine or the steam frame is gonna be just whatever price is in your head, just add a couple of hundred, if not more, depending on how Yeah. Depending on what the price is in your head. Yeah, but Yeah. Well, we'll see. Hopefully I mean it's gotta be soon, right? It's gotta be soon.

Yeah. They said early twenty twenty six and they have sort of like kicked that deadline down the road a little bit by like addressing the room of what's going on, but uh I don't I don't know, like they can't wait they can't w wait forever. They've said twenty twenty six is the year is happening, so Yeah, and we're I was gonna say, yeah, we're almost in May and yeah, twenty twenty six is getting away from us already, so Yeah.

There's that. Well I'm glad that it worked out and I'm glad that it was uh an interesting fun learning experience for you and and you s so you said that you actually played some stuff on it and it worked. So so tell me about what you played this week on your new Linux desktop.

Yeah. So I um I got a review code for Replaced, which is this new sort of two point five action platformer game. And it's it's low end enough Well sorry, the the the specs required for it aren't high-end enough that you're gonna like need like top of the line computer. And it does run well on the Steam Deck. But it just it it was sort of like not hitting that that sixty frames that I was looking for. So I did install it on the on the Linux machine and

I will say that it it it runs really well. I I didn't I had didn't have any problems with it. I've I think I'm at the last level, like I'm just about to beat it. And we're not gonna talk spoilers, so I but I did play like I would say ninety percent of the game. And uh it's really it's really unique art style. Like it looks amazing. It's very unique. It's sort of like a it reminds me a lot of Fez, where it like combines Okay.

You know, 2D pixelated look with like 3D models and environments. And it's very stylized. And it takes on this like cyberpunk. noir feel where it's like very Blade Runner style like robots and and uh lights and neon and all that and and rain, of course, because you need rain in your cyberpunk adventure. Uh And the way it works is you play as a character named uh originally you're playing a character named Warren, and then some some things go down and you end up swapping with an AI named Reach.

and you are in the body of your creator and you you suddenly have to go on the run'cause you're being chased by the police and and uh adventure ensues. And you're trying to figure out like what's going on in this world as as you Find yourself in this human body and and you're sort of contemplating

that side of it. But uh story aside, like the it kind of breaks down like the gameplay is like th there's the combat, which you've probably seen in the trailer, where it's very Batman style where you have the the uh the yellow sort of uh squigglies flash above the head of the enemy and that's your cue to like parry. And then there's like a a s a short window where you can do a perfect parry to do more damage. And then there's the red attacks that you have to dodge.

And then you're using like your your normal abilities to do damage and there's like gadgets and stuff you unlock along the way. And they also have these like really cool flourishes you can do as you build up your um In Batman it's the combo meter, but in this like you're building up power for the weapon you have and then that will lead to some

very stylish uh and violent uh takedowns of of your enemies. So it's got that. The combat's very it matches the art style in it's very stylized and and uh action-packed. And then there's also like a lot of platforming, but I would say the platforming is it's more of like the satisfying platforming. It's not like the Damn it, I miss the pixel jump and and suddenly like I'm dead and I have to start all over. Like it's very generous in their checkpointing.

You will die. Like it'll happen. Sometimes you'll make a wrong move or you'll miss a jump. That's gonna happen. This isn't like easy mode, but I will say that it's it was never frustrating, which is kind of the bar. I'm looking for with a platformer. Like I want to have fun. I want to feel cool doing it. And this game is nothing but cool. It's all cool. Uh and and then and the platform but the platforming's like not

complex, but it is satisfying. So I really enjoyed that side of it too. So there's like A lot of platforming, a lot of combat. And then there's also like this adventure style puzzle solving where you're having to, you know, one example is like you're trying to unlock a safe and the safe

Okay, you gotta go to the computer to figure out like, okay, what's the combo? It's a voice activated safe. The combo is like I think the example was like sight sight sounds and smells and then you go around the the building and find all of these clues and there's like five clues but you only need to know three of them and you kinda like write it all down it's like okay like

This is a sight, this is a sound, this is a taste, this is a smell. It's like, okay, I gotta put it all together, chronological order, and you're trying to like solve the puzzle. And the and then you can you're you it's like an adventure style game where you're trying to solve the puzzle. And there's there's many examples of that. You're doing little side quests in like sort of the quieter moments where you're like collecting things for people.

Just from the trailer, it looked like there were some like stealth moments too. Yeah, there there is some moments where you are it's like there's a there are slower portions where you are making your way through um uh where you're avoiding detection. There are some insta-kill sort of moments where you're avoiding like uh Enemy gunships. Uh I I struggled with those a little bit. Like they are they are not the most fun part of the game, but they're still

Entertaining, especially once you learn the patterns. And I think that they they they sprinkle them in where they're not. They don't overstay their welcome and they don't feel like oh my gosh another stealth area. Yeah. Oh that's good.

It's it's very sparingly and when they do use them it narratively makes sense because, you know, you're one dude escaping uh a technological uh authoritative sort of you know force and it makes sense that like you're not gonna be able to fight your way out of everything. So there are some stealth moments that are really interesting. Um, and uh but yeah, like from a story perspective, I r I really did appreciate like it's a really well written story. There's no voice acting.

So you're reading all the text, but that but that was also fine. They do a lot of like the computer sounds as as the text flies. It's like Crossing it was Cyberpunk, I guess. You know? Yeah. So, uh, but it's really fun. I uh like I think I'm about twelve hours in and I'm almost done.

Uh, so so like I'm I'm pr probably nearing the end, probably like a thirteen to fifteen hour experience and and there's a lot of extra stuff you can engage with, like finding collectibles and doing the side quests and and stuff like Some of the side quests are puzzles. Like one of the side quests was like find six comic books that are scattered around the area. So like You know, nothing that's gonna Like yeah really Groundbreaking.

No, like nothing that's gonna send you like, oh my gosh, I gotta go find a hundred feathers or whatever. It's it's all manageable and it's all fun. And there really wasn't anything that kind of stuck out as like, oh, this it kind of brings the experience down. Like it's it's a really solid fifteen hour experience and I really do love mixing those games in like smaller experiences that I know I can enjoy my time with it. It's not gonna overstay its welcome and I don't have to like

budget two months to it. I can just kind of like know that I'm gonna be able to like enjoy the full experience. So Uh Replaced is is really cool. It is out on Steam, that's where I played it. But I think it's also out on Xbox as well and and maybe part of Game Pass, I believe. So Few options if you're looking to check this one out.

Yeah, it was definitely on my list of something that looked kinda cool. I can't even remember like when or from where. It could have been a a TikTok find or a one of the directs or whatever, but Yeah, it was on my list. So I was g I'm glad that you uh had s a chance to play it'cause I m I might actually give this one a try. Um I've just finished up House of Hickma, so

That's the one that I talked about last week. Uh update on collectibles. Once you finish the story, you can go back into all of the realms and and look for things that you've missed. So that's good. Um, the story's probably like five five to six hours, depending on how quickly you kind of work your way through the puzzles.

In the end, nothing was really like too taxing. The it's it's pretty much on rails in terms of like puzzle solving. Like they're they're quite um they might be difficult to execute sometimes, but they're always like

straightforward, I found. So it's like you're you're in a room, in an environment, you've only got so many things going on, so many tools. And so there's only so many different possible solutions, right? So Um In the end, like it it was um really visually stunning and in like a kind of culture that I'm not as familiar with, so that was really cool.

And there was a lot like every different area felt very unique and was like worth exploring. Like I really enjoyed running around in the world. Some of the movement was a little bit like janky kind of, but um overall, like I mean it was a really small team, small indie game, and uh yeah, it was really, really well written, I thought, and like

Very intelligently written, I'll put it that like it was never like dumbed down. It was like it expected you to kind of like come up to it instead of the other way around. And uh yeah, I I really liked it. It explored some like heavy heavy topics without like bringing you down or like getting too preachy, I guess. Like I thought they did a really good job of like navigating a fourteen year old girl dealing with grief. So yeah, I I really, really enjoyed it in the end. Um

And like I say, like visually it was very, very pretty. I really liked just moving around in the environment. So it's like Because I don't think that the the problems or the the platforming was particularly challenging, like it was fairly straightforward. Um, I would say it's like a step above like a narrative walking simulator basically. Um, there was some stuff to figure out, there were some jumps to make and things, but like it's it was very forgiving.

and and quite clear what you needed to do. So yeah. I I wouldn't necessarily say if you love puzzles or if you love platforming, this was challenging. Like it wasn't challenging. Um, but it was still very good. I I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's very pretty. So

Yeah. Go I still do d stand by recommend my recommendation. Like definitely go and check this one out. Again, it's only like five to six hours of gameplay, so at least um like to make it through the the narrative part, like Your mileage may vary based on, you know, collectibles and and how good you are at at platforming or finding things that are a little bit more hidden, but I found that like once I knew I should be looking for things, then um

I found the collectibles a whole lot easier. Although one of them, oh man, there was one in I think it was either the fourth or fifth level. And I was like, I can see the collectible. The collectible is right there, but I cannot get to it and I don't understand how.

Like stood there next to it jumping like ten times and I'm like, I just don't understand how I'm supposed to get up there So yeah, that one I'll have to go back and try to get. But yeah, House of Hickma, go and check it out. It's uh I'm playing it on Steam. I don't actually know if it's available anywhere else, but uh yeah, it's really good.

Yeah, it seems like another one of those that in similar to replaced is like, okay, like let's let's let's take a bit of a break from like the giant forty hour to a hundred hour, you know, triple A experiences and and find something like a little smaller, a little more bite sized, but still has like a unique

hook to it that uh that that reels you in and and I think that uh you need those games. You you need to, you know, put them in there in your rotation to kinda like I wouldn't necessarily like a palette cleanser, but just like to do something different.'Cause I think that's a really core component of like not only the show but like what makes the industry so interesting, uh, is that there's always something new to try and you don't have to just wait

for the next NHL game or Call of Duty or But if that's your thing, that's great too, right? Like I You know, that's awesome. Or the next WoW expansion. Like there's just so many different things you can be doing as opposed to just kind of sticking with the the tried and true or what you know and and uh, you know, trying new things. Especially when there's so many different genres, even new ones being invented, you know, every year. Like it's it's really

It's one of the best mediums to do it with, because like how often do do new new genres like just get invented? You know, just in the the span of this show, like you had battle royales, you had Card battlers that kinda like came into, you know, a b a big focus with Hearthstone. You had uh um Survivor likes uh Uh yeah, MOBAs. I don't want to say friend slot, but like you know friends That's what they call it. Yeah. So there's just, you know, it's it's really cool. And uh

And even then you see it in the AAA space too, like with uh Pregmata that that launched uh just this past week. I know we haven't played it, but we have some folks in the Discord that are really enjoying it. There's a demo for it, and that is a that is a very unique game, like

Is that the one where the where the collector's edition had or it was either the collector's edition or the media package? I don't I'm not sure, but it was like this shelf that like slid out of the box and that's all that it did. Oh I don't know. Oh, okay. I I saw that shared in the Discord. And I was like, that is the most ridiculous thing ever. It basically like unboxed it for you, but then like Had no

for their purpose. And I was like, that is the most over engineered, ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It might be because like uh the game's soul uh especially the demo. The demo's like fifteen minutes and it really gives you the the idea of the gameplay and that it is a it is a third person shooter.

But the a way you have you have to disable the shields of the enemies is through this like weird sort of hacking minigame where you're moving a tile across a a grid and then and then um the more The more uh uh vulnerabilities you you move over with your with your tile and then and then connect at the end, the more damage you can do.

So there's that interesting mechanic where you're like doing this little puzzle and then and then taking out the enemy and then, you know, rinse repeat. So if you're curious, the demo is really interesting. It's like fifteen minutes, it's on every platform. It's called uh

Pragmata. But it just it it goes to show that like even companies like the bigger companies like Capcom, they're making these unique experiences as well where they could just rest on what they know and be like, Well, we're gonna make Resident Evil ten and we're gonna make Street Fighter Seven and and they will make those games, but it is nice that they can, you know, try something new and and uh Pregmata's doing well sales wise, so

Uh and then you got I think Seros is the next one that that's that's gonna be interesting. That's the end of the month, right? Yeah, I mean not not a long wait. Like I think it's next week. I was gonna yeah, I was like, end of the month, which is next week. Yeah, yeah. So uh I like Housemark. Uh we both maybe not at the same level, but we both like Rao Cooley. So uh think yeah.

bit more of a fan than I I like him, don't get me wrong. But, you know, so it'll be fun. Uh it'll be really cool to see him s uh star in his own uh in his own game, so I'm excited about that. Is this the sh the puzzle shelf? This is yeah, so this is the press kit and it's literally just you push a button and then it like spits out the the box. Yeah. So dumb It's like a microwave. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Weird. Cảm ơn. Yeah. That's cool though.

So yeah, it is it is very cool. You know what else is cool? Patreon.com slash the gamers in. Yeah. Yeah. It's so cool'cause you can find our monthly host specials over there. So Ryan uh is gonna have something up in the next ten days or so. And then uh we've got our first of all, we've had our April game night and it was actually pretty fun. We we played um this past Friday, so the VOD is now available for patrons.

We completed four swords for the Game Boy Advance. Um, we played the the old school Nintendo stuff and actually got the stream working, which was cool. And I had never played four swords before. It's a it is a Zelda title. I'd never played it. I didn't realize it was first of all so short, but also like a roguelike. Yeah. I had no idea. I had no idea what that game was because I never had the Game Boy Advance. So it was a lot of fun and uh really cool to

get all the way to the end and and beat the game with the with the four of us in on game night. So yeah, if you want to go and check it out, the VOD, like I said, is now available for patrons. Uh and if you want to join the conversation, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. That brings us to the news, and uh we got a trailer for Street Fighter that like

Everyone in the comments seems super positive about. So I'm I'm a Mortal Kombat girly, not a street fighter. And so therefore I have no frame of reference for this at all. But it did look like a lot of stupid fun. Like it was just ridiculous and so nineties coded, which I think is what they were going for. Cause I think it's based in what ninety-three or something. So

Yeah, I know nothing about the game. I know nothing about anything. It seemed ridiculous. I feel like there's probably too many characters, but I don't know. Well I'm I'm gonna go see it. And we're getting Stripe Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in the same year, so I'm I'm excited for that. I could use some stupid turn my brain off fun.

I think Mortal Kombat's like an easier one to adapt because you can lean into the violence and sort of the gothic horror of it where you're like in another realm and there's monsters and fighting and and whatnot. Street Fighter's harder because like it is set in, you know, uh like a standard Earth and and there's just people who can shoot fireballs and I was gonna say there's still magic y things.

Yeah, there's magic. And I think that's what kind of leans into like the trailer being so silly. And uh I got the sense that they were playing with the idea of like this is us catching up with our Street Fighter folks after the tournaments had sort of like done their time. Like there was a I got the sense that there was like a reunion, like they have the nineties thing and they even like do a throwback of like I think it's Ken on MTV or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. And it like it looks like they're doing like this we gotta get the band back together to deal with whatever um Whatever the threat is. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what the guy's name is. I don't know all the characters very well, but the bad guy's name uh it's it's leaving me, but uh i it's played by uh I'm not gonna remember the guy the actor's name either, but um it it looks I I'm trying to remember the uh like there's a lot of stuff that's leaving. I know Ryo, I know Ken.

You know Chen Lee and uh Well you know way more than me then. Yeah, I guess. They oh Cami, everyone knows Cami or Kami or and then Guile, I I guess. It's all coming back to me. Not everybody. Not everyone, no. But it's like super over the top. Like they they have taken the character look and feel from the video game. And for some of those characters, like Canon Rio, they're just they're dressed up in

They're they're just it i it it looks it looks perfectly normal. Like they're gonna street fight, it's fine. But then you have characters like Kami who's wearing like a it's like a swimsuit type setup and then And and then you have like a um There's like mo literal monsters running around. So it's it's really interesting. One hair guy with the weird like Yeah, that's guile. Yeah. Yeah. So he's like an American soldier. He's like the American guy. Okay.

Uh Ken's uh Ken I think is also American, but um it it is like it looks like it's gonna be super over the top. They're leaning into everything from the game, like all the characters have like sort of game specific costumes and outfits, like they're not trying to shy away from the style of the characters in the games, which is a choice. Like I think that's what can really cause the project to struggle'cause like

Yeah. Is if they try to make it too realistic and not like true to the source material. Yeah, and I think that's where Mortal Kombat kinda get away from like Okay, yes, we're gonna give Jax metal arms in the sequel, but like we don't necessarily have to make

Scorpion and and Sub Zero and all those folks like look like pallet swap robot ninjas. We we can have some we can play around with it, right? Yeah. But but what they've done with Street Fighter is they've said nope Gyle's gonna have the weird haircut, he is gonna have the army boots, he's gonna be able to do flips for some reason, and It's just what we're doing.

That's what we're doing. And they and they lean into it, so I I applaud them. But yeah, it looks like it's it might be like a fun, bad kind of movie to watch. I don't know. So we'll see. Yeah, I mean I'll I'll probably watch it'cause it just looks absurd, but in a good way. So yeah, I mean I'm hoping slash assuming you don't have to have played the games to understand what's going on. They will do some universe building and bring me in, but

Look, they street fight. I think that's pretty much all you They fight in the streets, right? That's that's it. They fight in the streets and And it's a specific kind of tournament where they fight in the streets. It's it's very similar to Mortal Kombat, except like I don't think they fight to the death. I think they call it at y you just look you look like you need a break. I think that's the difference.

Between the two. Okay. Good to know. So there's no like finishing moves with people ripping skulls and spines out and things. No. Nothing like that? Oh. No. I I think uh I think you saw it a bit in the trailer, like there there are like some super moves that look very comical. I think there was one where uh Zangifief was doing something to Ken and it's like, I don't think he's supposed to walk away from that, but he does because it's a cartoon. Yeah.

So I don't know. We'll we'll we'll see. Like I think if you're I really think making a Street Fighter live action movie is is a very tough project to take on. And when we saw the teaser at the video game awards, I think both of our reactions were like, this looks Very stupid. It's because they had too many people. They had like eighteen people come out onto the stage and then it was all inside jokes and whatever, like

Nobody knew who was talking when or what they were introducing or why they were there. And it was so cringy. Yeah, well that's that's the video game awards. I think it's Yeah. They really n need to work on their their scripts and how they hand it to people who are make essentially making cameos on stage. Like that's what that one. Yes, but

I think this trailer does a a much better job at like leaning into the silliness and showcasing our characters. We don't know I don't think we kind of know like what's going on other than We got a street fight again. That's it that's essentially the plot. Yeah. Fighting in the streets, let's go. Which is basically the same thing that Splatoon Raiders is doing, right? I think so. Splatoon dudes fighting in the streets. Yeah. I think they're taking it to the islands. It looks like a expansion on

I think they called it the salmon run mode in Splatoon three. Oh. Okay. They did yeah, they did mention there were salmon dudes in as the bad guys, so that makes sense. Yeah. This is a game we knew of, uh and they actually posted a trailer to Nintendo today. today, uh, where this uh switch to exclusive single player Splatoon game uh really focused in on sort of doing these raids on these islands against uh the as you said, the salmon.

Bad guys and uh it'll be out in July. So this is uh the Nintendo summer game. And uh they announced the pricing for the digital version. So again, getting another example of what that pricing structure is going to look like. And it is uh$50 US,$70 Canadian, which is If this is a full price game, is twenty dollars cheaper Canadian'cause ninety no. Isn't it no it's a hundred. A hundred is A hundred. Yeah. Hundred thirty dollars.

If this is one of those games, again, it's so hard to tell because we don't have the physical pricing, because we've always only known the physical pricing, like the the actual price of these games. So I still think we're waiting for Fire Emblem to kind of see like what that looks like. But uh It is weird that they're they announced a digital price, but they're not giving us the physical price. They're doing the same thing.

Yeah. So then yeah, is so then that means physical wouldn't phys isn't physical ten dollars more? Is that what they said? I think yeah, like ten ten or fifteen US dollars more. Right. So I can't remember what they did with uh with Yoshi. I think it w Yoshi was fifty four. Again, it's also I know it was only a couple of weeks ago, but it it just se it's it's a very

Vary they call it variable pricing, like it's all over the place. Like no longer is it like MSRP is eighty dollars and every game is that for better or worse. And Nintendo's kind of looking at every game and like, I don't know. This one's fifty. This one's a hundred and ten. What? What are we doing here? This is as good as ours. What do you want to pay? Just don't make it too much. I don't know.

I mean this this game also feels like it is not uh it's like an experiment with the Splatoon franchise. Splatoon is primarily known as like this multiplayer shooter. with single player components, the difference here is that this is a single player Splatoon game. There's no multiplayer even though the m the what they showcase

is for the most part sort of a spin off of that four player co op mode, which was the salmon run in Splatoon Three. So Yeah, it just looks like there were like you had friends helping you basically, but they're just like they're bots. Yeah. Or they show up for specific reasons or weapons. Or yeah. Yeah, it it looks interesting. I mean, the trailer didn't like

Scream a lot of depth. Like there wasn't a lot of like details on what you're gonna be doing. It just looked like a Well, like a a match of Splatoon with some different enemies mixed in. Almost like a horde mode in some spots where it was just like Stand here and survive as waves come at you. Yeah. And that and that's what the salmon run was. It was it was a horrible Yeah. So Um yeah, like I think we're still waiting for the next big Switch 2 title. I think we had

the launch with with uh I wouldn't even say Mario Mario we talked about Mario Kart. Mario Kart was Mario Kart. Uh Donkey Kong Bonanza, I think, was the first big one. Then like six months later we got Metro Prime four and I and, you know I wouldn't say Mario Tennis or even the Yoshi game or this one is sort of in line with like that next big

Well yeah, we're looking for one of their big like tent pool ones, right? Like something like a Zelda or a Mario or a you know, like a a big first party let's go Nintendo game, right? Yeah. They haven't announced any of those. N nothing re like I would say Fire Emblem's getting close. Like it's getting closer. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I always like forget about Fire Emblem because it's not my jam. But yeah, you're right. That is definitely one of their one of their big ones.

And and no one would blame you for the f I mean, Fire Emblem is a franchise that is like It's come in waves. It's certainly enjoyed more fanfare because of uh the success of Three Houses. Well yeah, and this and the new one is a f for a direct follow-up to Three Houses, isn't it? Yeah, well it's either a direct follow-up or a prequel. We don't it hasn't really been spelled out, but it is really.

Directly related. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, which is uh you know unique to the franchise because for the most part each game is kind of its own thing, uh with with minor connections at best.

But uh but yeah, no like Fire Emblem will be the n uh like I think a a really good test for what this pricing structure will be. But I really think like uh waiting for the the the next Mario that's rumored to be, you know, in twenty twenty seven, that will be like a real a real understanding of what Nintendo considers to be like Like Mario Kart World was a interesting experiment, was like you know, is this worth one hundred and ten dollars Canadian? No. No, I agree. It's not.

I mean like it was a great Mario Kart, but I never understood even after playing it the whole world part of it. I was like I like the the um What did they the knockout ones where it was just like one continuous track? Like that was a really cool idea that I don't think they necessarily could have built without making it world because you just wouldn't have had that track connectivity, but That being said, like I never free roamed. Did you ever free roam? I mean to try it, but

Yeah, like it not as a yeah, not as an actual like way that you sit down and engage with the game. I think again, it was a lot of Nintendo gimmicks without maybe a lot of substance, like They tried to iterate on slash mess with something that just worked. Like everyone freaking loves Mario Kart if you're playing in the Nintendo universe. So like don't mess with it. Just give us more tracks. Yeah. More characters. Like more cards. Yeah.

They did that. They and they they but they as you said they like they're trying to do that. Just they tacked on other they're they tacked on slash tried other things that I don't think a lot of people necessarily engaged with. And I think it drove up the price. So they could have kept it simple and kept it cheaper, is my point. And I think that's uh and and Nintendo has employed some

interesting bundling and changes to try to address like, okay, like we think this is worth a hundred and ten. However, we'll give you a shot at like getting a discount by bundling it with the Switch too. Like I think the only reason I was Picking up Mario Kart World at launch is that I was able to bundle it with the console and I think save thirty bucks, bringing it down to a more appropriate price.

Yeah, I wouldn't have I I got I did the same thing. I got the console bundle and I would not have paid a hundred and ten for like a standalone Mario Kart. No, and it and and I think you're seeing that with their other pricing, with this digital pricing strategy. Like, look, we talked about it. There's definitely like Pros and cons and some unknowns.

with the world we're in right now, with the cost of hardware and the prices of consoles going up instead of going down after launch, the companies are trying to find ways to like, okay, how do we offer some sort of discount to remain competitive because we have to increase the price of our consoles so that we don't lose too much money. Uh and you're seeing that across the board. Like n I don't think Sony's doing it yet. They're

They're sort of like they're riding, you know, the number one high of like, yeah, we can charge full price for our games and increase the price of our consoles. But you're seeing Nintendo try to employ some Maybe not so great tactics that doesn't reward all players. I think the digital versus physical is a tough one, but like you're even seeing it from Microsoft where they tried to increase the price of video games and then like quickly walked it back.

uh before before people started paying the the higher price. But then there was news today about this Xbox Game Pass sort of price update. Where They increased the price to like thirty dollars American a month for Ultimate. And then I think today they they basically said, uh, we're gonna we're gonna cut it down, seven bucks a month off, twenty two ninety nine a month, and no call of duty At launch. Like you get Call of Duty at the Yeah.

Um I don't think this moves the needle for us in terms of like, yeah, Game Pass is suddenly like incredible value again. Oh yeah, no, I said that in the Discord today when, you know, this news broke and I was just like, There are so many issues with this company that saving seven dollars US a month is not worth

Me coming back. Like they're they would have to give me a year of Game Pass for free to get me back in that ecosystem. Like I just uh yeah, like after like all the issues that they have, all the people that they fired, the fact that you need support all the time because all their shit is broken.

But you can't get support because all they have between you and like help is an AI bot that doesn't ever actually answer the question and won't put you through to a person no matter how many times you ask. Yeah, they have they have so many issues with their quality of their products, with their, you know, employment practices and Yeah, I just there's no way I will be investing in Game Pass again. Like I would much, much rather go and pay.

for all these little'cause that was the big that was the big draw for me is like I got to try a whole bunch of games that I may not have tried otherwise and got to engage with a lot of stuff in the indie space again that I may not have otherwise. I'm like, you know what? I just want to go and pay those devs directly because they were also probably getting a really shit deal by being part of Game Pass, right?

So I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna pay them the, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty five, whatever dollars over on the Steam interface and then it goes to them and fuck Microsoft. So Yeah, they're they would have to radically change their business practices in order to get me back in this ecosystem. So yeah, seven bucks a month is not gonna cut it.

Yeah. Like they are directly attributing the increase to wanting Call of Duty day one in the service to the point like Yeah, like I maybe they have the data to back that up, but I'm like If this whole time Game Pass was going up because I was paying for COD. Um Can I could I just have opted out of COD like

Forever ago, because I don't think I ever, while I had Game Pass, downloaded and played a Call of Duty title. So but I think um Whirlwind was also saying that um making Call of Duty available on Game Pass was like part of their acquisition deal for ABK, so that's really interesting. I didn't know that you could just like opt out of like once a deal is done and money has been paid, you could just opt out of the terms of the deal. Uh I don't know.

I guess that's probably for the F F T C to figure out, but that seemed really odd to do that. Doing much these days to go after the There is that too. Do they even have any staff? Is the US government shut down again? I don't I can't even keep track. Some would argue they just never start a backup. Ha ha ha.

I I think like it's interesting to look at like Call of Duty. We knew Call of Duty was a big franchise and it's a big moneymaker, and the last Call of Duty did not like light the world on fire. I wouldn't say that's Game Pass's fault. Like Black Ops seven or whatever it was. Um Was it really Black Ops 7? I think so. I'm so disengaged. Like I remember like Black Ops when that one came out. I played the shit out of it and loved it. The fact that they're at Black Ops 7 now.

Yeah. Yep. Black Ops seven. Um Wow. I have missed so many. Well five, I guess. I played two. And then I stopped. I like it's interesting because like they're kind of pointing it to it as like, well the price increase was to make up for the fact that we included this big moneymaker as part of the subscription. Um and I agree with you, like, man, if if if

That's what you're pointing to is the price increase, like I would have rather them just kept it separate. Because there was no like There's no besides Microsoft owning ABK stuff, there was no expectation that a large multi-billion dollar franchise would be there day one. I think Call of Duty is a is a game that franchise that kind of exists

In its own tier for for better or worse. So, like, they could have just not done it. I don't think there was anything sort of tying Microsoft to be like, hey. this has to be day one in your game pass subscription. Like even from an acquisition standpoint, I think that the bigger sticking point for with the FTC was more about

not taking Call of Duty away from other platforms. That was the bigger thing. I think Sony um and well, really just PlayStation was saying like, hey, if you put this on Game Pass, that we're not super keen on that. So them removing Call of Duty from Game Pass, I think, actually gives them more stronger ground to say, like, no, we're being more fair. Uh it's equal playing field. Like you can't just access Call of Duty with a

a minor subscription, you have to buy it it day one, just like on PlayStation. I think that makes it a fairer playing field. Um, but but that being said, like I don't think this fixes all the problems. that we've had and I think some of the conversations in Discord like, you know, lean on what you were saying, like with AI and layoffs and all that. But also the fact that like It seems like they can't make up their mind. They keep flip flopping and changing like Well, we're going to...

Do this. It's like, well, we're gonna do that. We're gonna increase the price. We're gonna decrease it. And I do appreciate that they brought the price down. Like it's not it's very rare for them to like say, hey. You know, gamers, we heard you, and then actually do the thing that they heard, which is it was too expensive. I don't think they heard gamers. I think they looked at the money they were making and the number of people who weren't paying them anymore and went, Well shit.

Yeah, they had to do something. Yeah, like it's been a couple quarters now and they're like, Well, we're making less money than we were before, so therefore we're gonna have to walk this back. It wasn't that we told them anything. No one is listening to us. They put their AI bot out at the front of their company so they don't have to listen to us. Like literally no one has to listen to us. They don't want anything to do with us. They're only looking at their fucking profit charts.

And they're going, Oh, that went down. Oh, guess we're gonna have to find that money somewhere. How can we convince people to come back? And I don't think that like removing something from a service and charging the amount that you were charging like this time last year is going to be enough to entice people back. I think raising the price really pissed people off.

Raising the price pissed people off two or three times it to the point that they got really fed up and left. Like trying to get those people back, you're not gonna do it by walking back one price change and pulling COD out of the lineup. Like Yeah. Yeah. I would be shocked if there are a significant amount of people that go back to Game Pass at twenty three bucks a month instead of thirty. Like, and that's American.

I don't even know what it is Canadian now because that is insanity. I don't know if I'm not gonna I'm not paying yeah. I'm like I'm not paying forty five bucks a month to pay to for Game Pass. Like It was an amazing proposition and definitely worth the money when I was paying like$12.99 Canadian. Like I'm not paying$45 for that now. That's insanity. So the new price is twenty six dollars a month Canadian. So, you know, still exp very exp that's expensive. Like I think

Um, there was a moment for Game Pass where it was like, Yeah, I just subscribe for the year. It's such a great deal. And I think that was at the sub $20. I think it was like$15 a month. And that made sense considering what you were getting. But like they can't add. There's they've tried to add more value to the subscription by offering like Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft Games and EA.

But like there's not much more they can do. Uh they've tried making more Xbox games and they can't even do that. Like they're struggling to have these first party titles actually land and and make the subscription you know, do well and and I think Call of Duty was their experiment and it's it's not Game Pass's fault. It it was the f it was the fault of that Call of Duty just not

landing as well as uh as a as previous titles have. Like they admitted like this Call of Duty didn't live up to expectations uh of of the franchise. So It may not be our style of game. May we might have moved past it, but there's still a huge audience for Call of Duty, and I I think that audience didn't like it. Yeah. That's I think that's that's fair, so Yeah, I mean we'll see what happens, but uh yeah, I I can't see

this change driving a whole bunch of people back to to Game Pass. So I mean, if I'm wrong, absolutely let me know if if you think that this is enough to to go and resub to Game Pass if you canceled after the most recent price increase. And this is enough to bring you back. Let us know. Uh you can join the conversation at tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. You can also visit us on the web at gamersimpodcast.com or follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me, Jocelyn, at josplays.com.

Ryan is at RyanMurphy.ca and 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.