Game Mess Mornings 08/28/23

You'll be luck don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's
do this for August twenty eight to twenty twenty three. For the next hour
or so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game
Mess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grub Today rock Star loses another big game and
the game's industry is growing in the United States. But first please join me
and welcoming today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's lex Lutty. Everybody,
Lexie. How are you doing? So tired? Jeff? Jeff,
I'm so tired. I'm okay. It's it's wild out there, I tell
you. I so like every minute of this weekend was either doing like stuff
I have to do around the house, feed the kids, bow the lawn.
I'm traveling soon, so I gotta get stuff done like with that in
mind, or playing games for work and there's a lot. I got like
three games sort of prepped and ready to go for quick looks, and now
I got to take the kid to a speech later today, so I'm like,
when am I gonna do that? And we'll figure it out after this.
Having some issues with some games and stuff like that, it'll be a
whole thing. So yeah, it's it's it's been busy, but you've been
traveling and all these games are coming out. I'm like, yeah, I'm
like, listen, I'm looking forward to packs, but this is the most
messed up week and the packs could have ever happened. Is the week that
Starfield comes out. I've just fucking given up on playing games at the moment.
I'm just like, I'll just play some like fucking Kirby. I'll keep
chipping away. Yes, And because I just gave up on like trying the
seam deck, I love it. That travel case is fucking huge and I'm
not putting that into a bag. But yeah, I was at Games Calm
and I'm going to like, I'm starting college up next week, so I
have to move again to move back for college. And yeah, I think
my roommate had access to mccore for review. They only got like two days
early, so they were trying to play it on like an air plane and
ship on their seam deck and that didn't seem like a great idea. But
yeah, I think it's just impossible to stay up with any of the games
at the moment and just hope that there will be enough of a lull towards
winter, maybe, I say hopefully, But then I think about the stuff
that I saw at Games Calm, and I'm like, no, I want
to play all the ship that's coming out in winter. Yep, yep,
it's gonna be again non stop. In fact, I think reviews dropped this
morning for Sea if Stars. Maybe we'll take a look and that I played
a little bit of that game. I've been so busy, I've only had
enough time to play a little bit. I think Jams played a little bit
more. But he's also playing a ton of stuff. So we'll see.
We'll see what we could talk about. We'll see when we can do stuff
with that game. But what I've played of it, I really like.
I think it's pretty good. It looks really good. Yeah, we've got
plenty to get in too, But let's explain what we do here first.
Most week days, I Jeff Grebill, help piece your game in life back
together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert
who will make me look smart. If you were watching live on Twitch,
welcome you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for
Games Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can
also catch the show later with chapters in timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube,
all right, we jump into the news please. Yes, I need to
thank you for having for doing Game Mess last week, because walking around the
show floor and having something to listen to so that I could distract myself from
the thongs of people, it allowed me to elevate to a higher plane.
Just you and Jan and MA five and I can't remember who else was on
last week, but it was very, very nice. And the other thing
I wanted to talk about because it came up a bit, and it was
the conversation on the ground at Gamescom was safety at these events. Oh sure,
And I think it's something that's like worth actually given a little bit of
time too. Yeah, please, yeah, because I mean, I mean,
obviously a lot of this is going to be spurred from guy GTA six,
guy going up on stage and yelling about that game during Opening Night Live
and this has that'd been the second time something's like that happened like that to
Jeff Keiley. And if you can get to Jeff Keeley, you can get
to any of us. Yeah, And I think something that I said on
Twitter and I sam by it, like, I think Jeff does a great
job with those shows. He puts all our work in. But if you've
been working on making these shows, he's hired to make these shows. He's
hired to run these shows. He's an event organizer. Now he's our journalist.
He's an event organizer. Oh yeah, And if you get hired to
do that, you don't just get hired to do the fun stuff. You
don't just get hired to meet the directors, to talk to people that you
like and hang out with cool people. You also have to go, hey,
I don't own this, you know thing, but what is our security
like because we are selling tickets to the public, and are we actually going
to look at who's coming in and also are we going to you know,
check their bags? Definitely the first day of games calm me personally, I
just walked in an hour early. I mean, like, let's be real,
Like, how many people are at games Camp that I think they remember
this year was three hundred and fifty thousand people. Yeah, and there's not
really a security force on Earth that can check that many people, and I
do agree with you, but I also definitely feel that the security that was
there, maybe this year more than last year, felt lax. In certain
ways. It's good when you get to the business area and there's pure like
it's people from the actual companies checking who's coming in to see the games because
they know their ship. But when it's the people that the clone Messa has
hired out, and like, I'm not holding anything against them, They're just
doing their job, but like they have so many people to get through that
it's just like the came point where like my bags weren't checked several times going
in, other people had their bags checked by having the sides tapped of them,
and then they were just like let through. And I definitely was like
I had a moment went where I was like, if we were to do
like an E three again and they tried to open it up to the public
and this was the style of security, I would not feel safe going.
And the other thing that came up a lot towards the end of the show
was that for the despite these the industry coming a long way, it is
still dangerous to be Minwosi person, a person of color of a queer woman,
any kind of woman in the industry at these events, and by Sunday
I had heard stories of people being harassed at booths, people having awkward encounters
in the business area, which it just is not fucking arm And I heard
stories of develop of a searching person in a business area giving out two a
journalists about a review at their website for being for being too low and which
is some real fucking good old day shish. And even back in the good
old days, that feels like that rarely happened. It's like, man,
it's just bad form all around. And that wound up the worst thing that
I heard during the event. And I won't going to too many data.
I had my wallet's stolen, but that was more of a median an idiot
problem. But those stories of people getting roofied parties and then waking up events,
Yeah, And the fact that we are still doing this at every event
and we've gone into the point where we're just like this just happens. And
the fact that someone can wake up by the side of an extremely deep river
in the middle of like the niche towards the morning, by a taxi driver
and not know what happened to them and then they have to go in and
work in the show floor the next day. That's fucked. Yeah, I
think the industry needs to have a proper conversation about how we actually keep ourselves
safe because you can't send developers, you can't send pressed, you can't send
people to work at these shows for work like with their too, work with
it to do your jobs right, and how it be straight up dangerous in
places, and we all just accepted yep, and this is uh, we've
heard stories like this out of GDC and then it definitely happened at like E
three, and it's it's one of those things where it's it does require active
engagement from people worried, like making an effort on these things, because otherwise
it's like as soon as you're like, well we solve that problem, they'll
like it'll come back, and it'll usually come roaring back. So uh yeah,
I think you're never going to stamp out every problem, but you need
to be making every effort and it needs to be at top of mind because
that's when that at least when people know that you're doing something about it,
it might mitigate some of these attempts to make these events nightmares for someone else.
Yes, and we had we had not been talking about it leaning up
to something like games Com, and you hope like, okay, well let's
start talking about what happened, what did happen, and so that next year
that if they don't address it, that there's no excuse anymore. There's absolutely
always use. We always talk about it after these events we never talked about
before. We never say, hey, you know, here are some you
see a couple of threads going around, but you don't see them get shared
that widely of like hey, if you see me and you're feeling distressed or
you're in a bad spot, come come up and talk to me and I'll
help you out. We do see things like that, but we see so
little of it before, and we don't see it on the company side of
them talking to their developers before they send them out and they're like, hey,
if something happens to you, you can come to our hat and talk
to us about it, which is what HATR should be there to do,
and to protect those people. We know that they're obviously they're protect the company,
but if the company is sending their employees, it should be in their
interest to protect their people. And I think this is something that we just
need to talk about before these events rather than after, because people go to
these events, they get excited they saw having fallen. IM that's when bad
shit happens. Yeah, and we see that even just like having the conversation.
People could be like, you know, just like what good is talk?
But you uh, we have these conversations about like, hey, Jeff
Kelly didn't have a lot of people on a lot of women on stage during
Summer game Fest, and it definitely wasn't perfect at opening that live, but
you could tell that he heard that criticism and made some attempts to do to
do something about it. The next time around, it still wasn't great,
but it was much better. And I think that, you know, and
all that comes from just like talking about it, which is inherently criticism,
which is what we're trying to do here. And I think, yeah,
I think it's worth continuing to have that conversation. Uh. And and maybe
like we're right asking these questions directly to these organizations as we go into them,
and maybe we'll ask packs what they're doing this year. All right,
let's thanks for bringing that up, Lexi. I appreciate it all right.
Let yeah, no problem. Yeah. I mean we go in there and
seeing it firsthand and hearing those stories, I'm glad you were able to that.
Here, Okay, we have a lot to get into, so let's
start the morning mess with. Rockstar Games has lost its vice president of writing.
This comes from my Nintendo news. Rockstar Games, the developers behind the
beloved Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, has lost yet another writer,
Vice President of Writing Michael Unsworth has left the studio. According to his
LinkedIn profile, This is now the second of three writers who worked on the
critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption two who have left the company. Rockstar Games previously
lost Dan Houser. Dan Houser not Dan Houser, who was the lead writer
for for a number of classic rock Star games. Michael Unsworth has worked on
games like Grand Theft Auto four, A bunch of the DLC, Chinatown Wars,
Midnight Club, Red Dead, Redemptions, Max Pain three, La Nawar
Redd, Red Dead Online, just contributed a lot and was now vice president
of writing. This is I think part of this the shift of what's going
on over at rock Star where the people that made rock Star originally have a
sort of run out of run like they run out of like a highway over
there, underneath Take two and underneath uh you know, yeah rock star itself
to like make their careers make sense. At a certain point, you can
only move up so high in an organization, like we created a title called
VP vising exactly very real position that makes a lot of sense when you think
about it, exactly right, Yes, uh, it is definitely one of
those like, hey man, we know, we know you gotta what you
want to keep moving up. We'll just make something up for you and throw
you a bone. So yeah, like at a certain point, like that's
just not going to work anymore. There's nowhere else for you to go.
You gotta start your own thing. Go to a different studio that might make
you an actual like C suite level executive or something like you know, chief
creative officer. Oh so kind of a made up thing, but that that
that's still like, you know, above what a vice president would be.
And I think a lot of these guys just felt stifled and now they're looking
to go, you know, stretch their legs somewhere else. And that's normal.
That happens in the games industry. But what do you think it means
for the future of rock Star. Yeah, I think I was. I'm
not surprised that there was a lot of like doomer sentiment around this on Twitter,
where people were like, oh, they've lost another one, like it's
obviously fucked whatever. I think that this is the type of progression that we
actually want in the industry. We want senior people to leave and start new
things so that more junior people who have also been there for like ten years
can actually take the lead rains on these projects and then say like, no,
this is what we're doing. And also the stories that we've heard from
Mark Star recently, like or the Skull but is like, hey, it's
quite a different studio to what it was five ten years ago. It's a
lot more buffoned up. They took on board a lot of the criticism.
They gosh, I'm not sure if there's still problems. The probably still is,
but I'm sure if you grew up or if you spent your entire career
working in a place that was one type of culture and then it goes to
or structured culture and a different culture, there is definitely a pound of you
that's like, well, like this wasn't what I was doing. I may
as well get out now, or even like, hey, the type of
writing that I was doing, like, it's not the type of writing they
want anymore. And you saw that with g G five when it re released
on the new consoles, they removed some of the extremely offensive depictions of trans
people Inish because they were like, hey, this was dry cushing satirical comedy.
In twenty thirteen, it wasn't. But now people will share up a
carll us out for this. And I think maybe there's a part where,
if you're a writer, you're like, well, maybe I've just like near
go try doing my writing stuff somewhere else and do it somewhere where those ideas
will either get through, or maybe I start with a wholly new idea instead
of just trying to like find the remaining crumbs of modern political statirical comedy that
I haven't already tackled. Let someone else from a new perspective and try to
tackle it themselves. Yeah, I mean, I think it's all those factors,
right, all that pressure of having to follow up Grand Theft Auto five
and four and three and all those games with a new Great Theft Auto that
is just a satirical and makes sense in twenty twenty three a proposition that is
already nearly impossible to imagine pulling that has someone pulling that off. And then
then you're right, like, it's like, well, if they do pull
it off, do they still kind of go to those same wells that they
always went to, which I would expect that they, like the same creative
team probably would and that stuff. You're right, probably, I think within
rock Star even that stuff's probably like, hey, this is played out like
even if it's you know, yeah, we're hurting people's feelings a lot of
times, but if we're gonna be like, well, comedy hurts people's feelings,
and we're gonna be that that way about it, even doing that,
a lot of these jokes just aren't that funny anymore. And I can imagine
that conversation being like, hey, I wrote one of the best selling games
of all time. I don't will have to listen to anybody else, or
I feel like I shouldn't have to argue to get my jokes through, Like
you were saying, I think, yeah, that could be the kind of
thing where hey, I'm gonna go I could go do my own thing.
I have enough money, I have enough sway, there's enough money out there.
It's always a culmination of factors. It's never like usually it's never just
one thing. If it's someone who has a position that is clearly quite high
up and they're probably doing quite well for themselves, there's usually probably quite a
bit of things that are pushing them out and also pulling them out at the
same time, like reasons why they would go somewhere else and do something else.
And I mean and then the fandom, right, I mean, the
fantom seems rabid rabbit I should say rabbits, the raving and the rabbits.
Yeah, they are just losing their mind out there on multiple shows, screaming
GTA six in front of Jeff Kealey and rushing stages and say, oh man,
it's not worth all this. It's just granted that bottom guys, I've
had this conversation with people a bunch of this weekend. But like, you
could not pay me enough to be a community manager at a big company.
Yeah, especially rock Star, Yeah, rock Star Activity, Asian Bungee,
any of those. I like, blizzards, just the amount of imagine logging
on every day. Jeff and having to like try to explain things to those
people who are just going to yell at you no matter what and have to
be polite all the time. It's like that image of Daisy and Smash Bros.
It's like, don't you ever just want to lose your shit? That's
what I imagine they're like constantly, Yes, definitely, now ask for like
what someone like Michael Wansworth couldn't end up dealing. He's probably going to start
his own thing or or join another team. But I mean there again,
there's enough money out there that he could just go bill the Rocket Boys very
nearby, yes exactly, Yeah, that he couldn't go work with them,
and they're hiring They are definitely hiring up yep. So we'll see. But
like all these all these big names from rock Star that are leaving aren't going
to go somewhere else start their own thing, work with one of these other
teams that have already started their own thing, and they'll kind of keep doing
that work somewhere else and then they can like kind of start fresh without the
expectations attached to Grand Theft Auto and leave that problem over to Take two and
they'll be happy to do that I think all right, the US video game
industry gets back to growth. This comes from Matt Piscatella at Sirkana. The
decade has been a turbulent one for the US video game industry. It began
with the surge in players engagement and dollars from people wanting to stay connected to
family and friends through the pandemic. This was followed by similar declines across all
measures, with a return to spending on experiences, which happened to come along
with new hardware, console supply constraints, and numerous game delays thrown in for
good measure. Today, however, the supply of new generation hardware has improved
and stabilized, Blockbuster games are being released, and player engagement patterns have settled
into into a new normal. This has allowed the market to settle after months
of wild swings both higher and lower. Below or some of the factors that
are influencing the market today and we will be worth following closely moving forward.
Sir Kana expects the US video game market to finish twenty twenty three having delivered
three percent growth, reaching fifty eight point three billion dollars in the United States.
Hardware did much of the heavy lifting and getting the market back to growth.
Over the past twelve months, sales of new hardware products contributed seven billion
dollars of the fifty seven billion in total video games spending in the US market
over the past twelve months. That's nineteen percent higher than the same period a
year ago. On a trended basis, the fifty seven billion dollars in spending
over the past twelve months is one percent higher than a year ago and thirteen
percent above the pre and early pandemic twelve month period ended in July twenty twenty.
Right, the things are back on track. You know. Here's the
thing. So we were in the pandemic and the word then was people staying
at home. They have a bunch of money, and they're spending that money
where they can because they can't spend it anywhere else, and where they can
is video games. They are they're getting video game system and there buying a
lot of video games. And then this will evaporate, this sort of surge
will evaporate after the pandemic. And and you know, there was always like
a push back to that, like even during the time, it was like,
well, you know, buying a hardware it's a big investment. Those
people are probably going to keep buying games. But the question was like,
okay, we will we still see like a continuation in the acquisition of new
hardware, and you know, with the new generation kind of starting up at
the same time, it's like, well, this might work out well where
a lot of these people are now just considered considering themselves gamers. They're they're
very excited about games. Yeah, they might keep upgrading and drawing other people
in. And it seems like that's what's happened in the United States is that
much of the momentum that was gained during the pandemic has remained, not all
of it, but it's it's not like some huge drop off anymore. Like
it dropped a little bit from coming out of like twenty twenty one into twenty
twenty two, and now it's settled into this this state of like, okay,
back to like three percent growth, which is probably sustainable for the industry.
Do you in politics makes a lot more sense if you consider every single
year there's more and more gamers. Yes, exactly, every day there's another
gamer. That's the biggest issue that we have right now as a society.
Do you feel like a difference in like the mainstream popularity of gaming before the
pandemic to now, or is it just like one of those like slow things
that's hard to notice when you're looking at it every day. This is actually
a super good question because while I was in Cologne, I met up with
a friend of mine from school that, like I knew in Ireland, and
he wasn't a gamer, not at all, like loved languages, lived in
the gail truck for a while, just loved being offline, totally offline.
And I met up with him and his boyfriend and over the pandemic they got
way into games and they were talking to me about Games Calm and they've been
living in Clone for years now, and they straight up we're going to Games
Calm for the first time this year because they were like, we've gotten so
into video games over the last while, we'd like to They only have a
switch. But like they love Bayonesha, they love the Sims. They love
stuff like Catamari Damas say, like they love games that aren't you know,
they love big games like the Sims. They love games that break through into
the popular culture. But they're also buying and spending money unlike games that we
would consider gamer games, like relatively less mainstream games, and they love it
where they really like or they recognize the Atlas logo. I had on a
bag that I had been given and I was like, oh, I didn't
think you'd like know that like Atlas was part of saying, You're like,
okay, that's cool, but like, you know, I do think that
there's definitely a bit of people who are getting casually into games are getting more
litera in games, and people who are more litera in games are also more
influential. People are becoming more literati in games and suddenly games. I think
Roland Farrell did their piece about Elon Musk and they wrote about how you know,
people were basically saying, like, hey, knowing the cultural video games
is now a big part of knowing the culture in general, because it does
affect the culture in general. And I think that that is a very keen
observation because it is games were popular for a long time, but they weren't
popular in a way that would be small talk at the office. They were
popular in the way that like you'd go home and you'd play them and you
wouldn't get you wouldn't talk about them at work the next day, whereas now
people will talk about elder ring or around the office cooler, you know.
And I do think that there's definitely that turn. But then you also have
the case where in some countries, like an Island, where we no longer
have a dedicated video game retailer, it feels more disperate than it was.
It feels more like all that stuff only happens online now, and so we're
in a weird spot with that stuff. People want to buy more game stuff,
and they want to talk about more game stuff, and more of that
is going online. And I think you can as when a lot of conversations
went online during the pandemic. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is
very much so up for debate because the type of, you know, conversations
we have online are very different to the types of conversations we have in person.
Yeah, And I think for a lot of these people that are more
casual and aren't part of these conversations, they are still like part of that
that overall conversation, but it's happening for them on Instagram, it's happening for
them on TikTok, and they're like getting little tidbits of these games and that
and that way, like these like Bolter Skate three and elder Ring couldn't or
Zelda couldn't feel more mainstream because they are like fueling these huge content sites that
like just keep people engaged in these things over and over and over again.
Ben Affleck was at that Valiant thing and he was talking about like how they
nerved to character I was like, God, damn it. I love you,
Ben Affleck. It's such a tragedy. I love you of the tragedy,
Ben Affleck. I absolutely do. My meme folder on my computer is
just tible Ben Affleck. That doesn't only have been Affleck in it, but
it's got a lot of been aff. It represents the olaf that he absolutely
represents the aura. All right. Let's see, despite supply constraints early in
the generation, each consoles comparing well to prior hardware releases on a comparative basis,
PlayStation five is now trending five percent above PlayStation four, something that was
not doing like for years because of the supply constraint, and now it's just
shooting past the PS four and it's eighty seven percent ahead of the PlayStation three
in time aligned units sold life to date well, Xbox Series trails Xbox One
by ten percent, yet leads Xbox three sixty by six percent. While that
decide that that's that feels like it should be flipped. It should be Yeah,
but like the Xbox One sold faster than the Xbox three sixty, that's
I know, it's hard for me to rock that. I imagine everyone else
it's like it doesn't seem right, but Xbox One did relatively well all things
considered for what it was. Okay, So I when I had Fill on
the couch at Summer Game Fest, and I kind of like talking about like
hardware seeming like get the console hardware, seeming like, oh, you know,
it's stuttering, it's sputtering for Xbox and it's like, you know,
yeah, well we're growing, you know, game Pass fastest on PC.
And and he's definitely talked multiple times before and since about how it is not
all about selling the hardware for them. Do you think that's a chicken and
egg situation where it's like, well, the hardware is not selling, or
it is. It's it's doing faster than the Xbox through sixty. It's fine,
this is probably okay. This is like within the realm of acceptability for
them, But I think they would want to be ahead of the Xbox One.
I think they like the Xbox Series consoles are definitely better than the Xbox
One consoles. In my opinion, they should be selling better. So do
you think, like if if we were in a world where they were,
you know, a healthy amount ahead of the Xbox One the Xbox Series consoles,
do you think their conversation or their tone would change a little bit and
how they talk about hardware sales. Yeah, I definitely think the if they
were selling more consoles, that'd be more open to a half step console because
if they're selling more consoles, they have more people who will be interested in
upgrading a console. And if they're selling more consoles, they also will have
like more space on retailer store shelves. I walked into a game stop in
Clone, and about fifty percent of it was Funco pops, about forty percent
of it was like fucking PS four games, then about five and five percent
was Switch and Xbox And like that's very anecdotal, but you see where you
see it visibly when you go into physical locations that they just don't have the
mind space that they want did or the mind share that they once had.
And yeah, I think things would be very different for Xbox if PS five
hadn't become a trending item, if it hadn't become a dead stop item.
Yeah. Yeah, And I think weirdly enough, the PlayStation five being extremely
hard to get was one of the best things happened to them this generation.
And because suddenly it meant that a lot of people who just liked collecting shit,
and a lot of people got into collecting shit over the pandemic, I
say, pointing out all those fucking assholes on the backshelf. And yeah,
but like suddenly you had a item that was worth more than just its cost.
It was worth the blagging rights of having ish and that's something that's quite
powerful in economics. I mean yes, And like again, especially during the
pandemic and when the things were so hard to come by, like you aren't
just getting the item and you aren't just having the bragging rights so that those
are huge, but you're like, this is access to this is defense against
fomo because now I can be on part of the conversations when any game is
coming out, and like, I don't think a lot of people were even
thinking any one particular game. There probably was one or two games they wanted
to play. They were certainly happy that the game, happy that they're the
games that they were playing before on PS four, We're running better on PS
five, but mostly just like, hey, we we trust the PlayStation first
party games, and uh, and I don't want to like be in a
situation where one of those games comes out and I'm going to miss out,
So I'm gonna do everything I can to get that and Xbox just just has
completely missed out on all of those factors through these first couple of years.
Starfield feels like the first real opportunity for that to change. I would be
I'm very interested to see how much sales go up absolutely through this holiday,
Like what does sales for Xbox look like through this holiday? It's like,
man, be uh, I bet they wish they can get that game run
at sixty frames per second on console. I don't think it's gonna affect sales
all that much, but they really wish they had thoughts of for December,
Yes, like really like, I bet they wish they had a second punch
to follow this out this year. It turns out this year, I think,
but I think it's uh, I want to say November, but now
I'm just guessing because I I can't even think. I can't think past this
week, so I check. I think they will, but it's like October
October, that's right, Fortunay is October okay, in which case then they
do have a little strong one two punch, Yes, and that game will
be a graphic show graphics showcase on on the Xbox no matter what. You
know. At the same time, you know, we get hung up on
these things, and I do. I certainly do. You'll never over analyze
anything in the industry, never would. Uh. It's they they do seem
like they are looking past the console. I just like selling these games on
on steams of selling obviously game past subscriptions, whether that's on PC or console.
That does seem to be like the thing that they're focused on. I
just don't know how big of an audience they're going to be able to reach
for that if they aren't also rapidly growing the console base. I know,
I know, like he says, it's growing fastest on PC, and of
course it is, because everyone who's got an Xbox is going to have it
already, so the people like, you're still able to convince people on PC.
I totally get why that's happening, but it's like, okay, well,
once you've sort of saturated the people who are likely to do on a
PC, now, are you able to like grow to this next level to
make this all makes sense? And I don't know, Yeah, yeah.
Do you think we've seen a lot of like launchers closed down or like fold
into Steam. Do you think they reach a point whether the line stops going
up on the X on the Microsoft Store and they go, Okay, we're
not going to get anyone else to come start using the Microsoft Store and using
game Pass through the Microsoft Store. What if we start selling game Pass on
Steam? Do you think they get to that point? I think they do
probably yeah. I think Valve would be like, yeah, we could do
that, no problem, and I think Microsoft would would be willing to do
it at some point. Right now. It's like, you know, they
own Windows, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to reach people with game
Pass on PC using Windows machines like directly, it's just so bad. It's
so bad compared to all the other stores, and it's kind of unacceptable that
it's so bad because they have so much money and they have the experience and
they know what makes a good store, Like the Xbox like store on their
consoles is very easy to use going through game Pass on your console. It's
quite easy to use going through it on your PC. It's just like,
oh, this feels like I'm trying to play a console emulation on a PC.
Like, why doesn't this feel gush? Yeah, there's so on checks.
It's like, why would Valves say no problem? And then they say
no problem to E A Plus And really what they said was what happened there?
And again this is this is my reporting here, So this is a
EA or I think actually Valve went to EA's like, hey, what can
we do to get APEX Legends on Steam? And EA was like, hey,
what can we do to get E A Plus on Steam? And they're
like, well, let's just do both things and make it that like that'll
be a swap season. We'll be happy and both sides will be happy.
That's kind of all it took to get Valve to like agree to that.
I imagine Microsoft and Valve's strong relationship, which is it is pretty strong,
Like you know, Microsoft says, hey, Valve will sign of things,
say we'll put Call of Duty on your ship for ten years. Games like,
no, we trust you, We're good. We don't. We don't
believe in that sort of thing. We just want to be a cool place
that people want to put their stuff out on. And Gabe Nielsen's Phil spens
and knives at Christmas one. I know he does. He does. So
I think like that sort of thinking would be like, Okay, well,
yeah, if someone let's put another subscription service on Steam, We're not going
to be afraid of that, but like that's just another thing that's going to
keep our market dynamic and keep us putting pushing us forward. So I think
I think that would be okay with it. All right, let's move along
here. Microsoft access game Pass free trial ahead of Starfield launch. This is
from Claire Jackson at Kotaku. It's no secret that game Pass is an exceptionally
great deal for Xbox and PC gamers. Ten bucks a month gets you access
to more games than you could ever possibly hope to finish in a month,
and like many online gaming services, Microsoft offered ways of trying to service.
For trying the service at a lower cost, that's no longer the case.
It would seem as the company appears to have pulled trial offers it just ahead
of one of the most highly anticipated game launches in recent years, Starfield.
Microsoft not only offers different tiers or game Pass, but it used to offer
a very simple way to try out the service for one dollar. It would
let you dive into the massive download library for a month if you were a
first time user. But back in early August, when Microsoft hiked the price
of its most expensive game Pass Ultimate service to seventeen dollars, and the company
reduced the free trial to just fourteen days, And now at the end of
August, it would seem that there's no way to try out the service for
any reduced amount or any amount of time you got to pay full price.
This is I think it kind of speaks to the topic we were just discussing,
where it's like, Okay, are do they feel the pressure to make
moves like this to ensure like when they have a big beat like Starfield,
it has the maximum amount of impact for something like game Pass, And to
me, everything they've done sounds like yes they are. It is very important
to them that when they have a hit it funnels things in the direction they
want things to go, which is game pass. Is that you read this,
Yeah, Jesse in the chat mentions that they tend to take away this
deal before a big game comes out. And I don't think this has become
a story for previous big games because they just haven't been as big owner as
anticipated. Definite Boy. If they bring back the free trial a month after
this comes out, or the one dollar trial a month after this comes out,
there's going to be some people who will be quite annoyed about it and
be quite vocal about it because everyone's talking about Starfield and suddenly any story that
you can hook into that ash will become somewhat relevant. And I definitely like
this was the end game. This was always the endgame was eventually we move
prices up and eventually we like actually start making money on this thing. At
some point, your streaming service has to become profitable. And you look at
the movies and TV industry and they never figured that out, and now that's
causing a lot of problems for a lot of people. They never figured out
the oh, we're getting a bunch of money brought into us by investors to
keep us a flowash, but we still aren't making a profish on our own,
and so I think Microsoft has realized, like, Okay, at some
point we need to like turn this into a sustainable business, not just a
big business. And I think that makes sense. I don't think this feels
good. I don't think anyone comes away being like, oh, what a
good move Microsoft, I feel great about this, nice job. And yeah,
I think that you know, irannically enough, this is probably what like
the CMA and what everyone was weren't warning everyone about. They were like,
hey, this is gonna become a problem, where like it feels like this
is the only place you can get your games on Xbox. It feels like
the only way to get your games is two game paths because it feels like
the best value, but also it's tying you in for what upwards of one
hundred and fifty dollars a year now, which is like a lot of money.
Some people don't spend that much money on video games every year already,
like some people just by indie games. People just buy Madden and Call of
Duty, and that still wouldn't get you over the one hundred and fifty dollar
mark. Like suddenly, game Pass has become more expensive than four Socian people
for very select demographics and then simply buying the games. But yeah, I
think this was bound happen. Yeah. I think that's why it's imperative and
why you always hear when Microsoft talks about this, like they still give people
all the options. So it's like, you know, they could point too,
and I think I think they're right to. We're like, hey,
the game pass doesn't make sense for you. You should just be buying the
games, and we're not taking that away from you. You could buy the
games and uh, and that's still is where they make the most. The
most of their money for people buying their games, is what they say,
Like, that's the bulk of the money for for Xbox and for the gaming
division at Microsoft is actually people spending seventy dollars or sixty hours on a game
whatever. It is. So yeah, and you know, at a certain
point, it's like, oh, how entitled are we to a one a
one dollar trial. It's thinking, Okay, I feel that way because it
was on the table for so long or you know, free last couple of
years. Even if it's on and off, it's like most of the time
it was there now it's now it's gone. It's like, Okay, that's
a little bit frustrating, but you know, the service is fifteen dollars per
month for Ultimate, ten dollars a month for just the console version or the
PC version. I think that much. I think like, as long as
it's still a good service, people will be pretty happy about it. And
right now it's still a good service. I'm not paying for it at the
moment just because I'm not using my Xbox. I'm playing other things because there's
so many fucking other games. But yeah, I think they'll come a time
where I'm like, okay, su Feel's out, Forces out, ce Stars
will be honest, and what else is coming out this year that's coming to
it? Like, you know, I might want to go Yeah, I
might want to go back to Exopinal. There'll probably be a time around December
where I'm like, Okay, I have some free time, I'm off college.
I'll just dip in and try a bunch of these games. And I
might not even sign up for the you know, you can't sign up for
the year, but I might just sign up for a month and then cancel
it. Yeah, And that's they do make it easy to can't, so
they are not afraid of that. That's so, that's something. It's but
obviously they're counting on a lot of people not canceling, which of course I
think many people won't, but it is, it is a possibility, and
if people want to be aggressive about like dipping in for a month, dipping
back out waiting for the next game, they have that optional available to them
all right. Sega and Atlas will stream a special broadcast from Tokyo Game Show.
This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. Sega and Atlas will host a
special broadcast from the Tokyo Game Show next month. The stream will be part
of a Sega New a monthly broadcast that's held on the official Sega Japan YouTube
channel. According to Sega, the special TGS broadcast will tell players all about
the newest titles from Sega and Atlas. The broadcast will take place on September
twenty one at seven pm Japan time. While no further details have been given,
Sega and that was currently have a number of games in development that are
likely to feature during the stream. Sonic Superstars A set for release on October
seventeenth, so it may appear during the presentation, so two could Yaku to
spin off like a Dragon guide in The Man Who Raised His Name, which
follows a month later on November ninth. Sega also has the likes has Like
a Dragon Infinite Wealth planned for earlier to early twenty twenty four, so fans
may get more information on that. Beyond that, Atlas has a Persona five
Tactica coming, Persona three, Persona three Reload which is also coming, and
Metaphor Refontasio, which is coming next year. Do you expect I mean,
that's a lot of stuff already, so I'm not expecting too much more beyond
those games that we already know about. But I mean, people of course
are going to start talking about Persona sixth. I don't think. I think
it feels like it's not time for them. And the big Sega for me,
had the best showing at Games Calm as a company. Here they had
Persona five Tactica, which I really enjoyed. Persona three Reload looks properly fucking
incredible, and I think the main thing is seeing that art style at six
cfps not being tied to the PS three like Perisona five was. It just
looks so good. Damn good in motion like a dragon guide in looks really
fucking fun. I have a preview of that going up hopefully later today.
You should also check out my roommate Scott McCrae over at the Mirror. He
interviewed the studio head and I'm pretty sure that's going up soon. And then
they also had Total War, which people seemed really in. Oh yeah,
what is it? They do Total War? They do Total War? Yes
that's right, Yeah, yeah, looked really good. Sonic Superstars, which
people who I know who like Sonic thought was good. And the person I
sent to the Sonic SuperStar's appointment when maybe I don't like Sonic anymore, and
I was like yes, uh. And then they also had Hyenas, which
I played about an hour and a half of because my demo kept like my
headphones for the demo kept on breaking, which was very funny. And they
heard that I was doing a preview, so like, no, we have
to get you into a proper game. So I played a bunch of that
and I really like playing Hyenas, but I don't know if there's any place
for it. Ish right, like it's the same. I wrote a preview
for it last year and my preview was like, this seems interesting. Will
it be able to compete with Hunt, Showdown and Tarkov? And a year
later that question is way fucking like harder because those things are way more ingrained
now and it plays really fun, but like, I'm not sure if it
will be able to break through. And they have a load of ship to
show. They have so much stuff to show, even just from the stuff
that they've already announced, And I think the thing that people haven't quite got
yet is that Persona three reload for them is a new Persona game, and
it is that much of a remake the way that they are doing trailer.
It finally clicked through that last trailer, was like, oh, this is
like a big deal Persona release. Yeah. The three D environments, the
way you move around the world, the way you interact with it, the
level of detail inish, it does feel it feels like one of the it's
the closest, you know, the way that we've gotten the HD two D
versions of like older games. It feels like the closest thing that we have
gotten into that for a PS two era game where they're like, okay,
the work constraints on the PS two. Still what if we just like completely
moved away from them and modernized it for modern consoles. And I was really
really impressed by it, and the combat feels really good, and yeah,
I think that game will be really interesting. We were talking before the show
and they also sent us out a press packet with info on the games.
Apparently Persona has now passed seventeen million units sold. You have to imagine most
of those are four and five and then the spinoffs, so it seems like
that franchise is getting bigger exponentially. And yeah, I think Sega has a
really good showing. And I've always said that, I've said this for a
while now. I think Sega might be one of my favorite publish even though
I fucking hate Sonic, which is so stupid. Yeah, oh yeah,
yeah, Jeff, I love the Knuckles. Uh to be fair it,
Driss Elder like, well yeah, yeah, but yeah, like like a
Dragon is in a really good place where I write about this a bit in
my preview, that's going up laisure. It finally feels like it's starting to
stop being the Accusa franchise, Like they made that break a while ago.
But the way that like a Dragon guide and hooks into the Judgment games,
the way it hooks into Seven, the way it brings in side characters and
a lot of older characters. It feels like it's going beyond the Okay,
this is just about Keau story and the Tojo Klan and the Only Alliance,
and we're going into Hey, this is a bigger world of life in Japan
and the underworld of Japan, beyond just crime. And I think that's what
they wanted to be. They don't want it to just be tied to the
Yeah, basically, which someone was saying to me, like, oh,
do they have do they have like a Yakuza cafe in Japan? I was
like, I don't think that would go down. Well, I don't think
you could do that in the current state. Maybe they'll do a like a
Dragon cafe at some point, but I don't think you could set up a
Yakuza cafe in Japan. Might be difficult to pull it out. Also,
the licensing fees for the accusa, their IP rights, they're such sticklers about
that stuff. You don't want to deal with that anymore. Uh, yeah,
say good figuring stuff out they really, I mean they had their PC
stuff figured out for a while seeing them kind of get everything else under control
and start making good decisions with Atlas Games. That's weird. It's weird to
see them doing this. I remember like a year ago on the show where
like Sega is just completely lost. Atlas still don't make good decisions, where
like you can tell it's one of their marketshing things where they're like, we
have an announcement next week some perfume and everyone's like, oh okay, and
then you can don't want it Sega because Sega will be like, Okay,
this is what we're going to show you. Yes, and people know what
they're going to get. Yep. Alright, let's see here, Let's keep
moving. Two thousand and seven. Running Gun Classic Alien Hominid HD is coming
to most modern platforms. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. Alien Homedid
HD will be coming to most modern platforms. Developer That Behemoth has announced.
The classic running gun game was originally released on entertainment website new Grounds as a
flash game back in two thousand and two, before being ported to the t
PS two, Xbox and GameCube in two thousand and four and the Game Boy
Advance in two thousand and six. I think it's one of the GameCube games
I actually have back in that closet over there. An HD version was then
released on Xbox three sixty and two thousand and seven, and this version is
still the only way to play it on modern systems to date via Xbox backwards
compatibility. In a blog post, the Behemoths stated that it planned to remedy
this by releasing Alien Homedid HD on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One,
Switch, and Steam. The game will be released later this year alongside
Alien Homad Invasion in all new reimagination of Alien HOMEDID with new gameplay and new
mechanics. This has planned for release on Xbox One, Switch and PC.
I loved Alien Hamad. I wondered if, like, does anyone even like
remember this game anymore? Let's say, did you have you ever played Alien
HAMEDD or was it before your time? I knew Alien Haminated through osmosis,
a bunch of people sort of talking about, like, you know, this
weird thing that was on the internet, and then they put it onto video
game consoles, and I was like, that's fucking wild, and I was
way into. I didn't play cash Castle Crashes, but I played so much
Battle Block when I was younger, and I loved battle Block a bunch.
I played it on a PC that like could not run games at all,
but it could run battle Block line. And I think the Behemoth in a
weird spot. The last shipped game was Pit People in twenty eighteen, and
I know they said pretty openly that game didn't do the numbers that they wanted
it to do. And yeah, it feels like they did their Castle Crashes
HD and now they're doing the HD version of this. I'm assuming they just
want to get money coming into the company, but I agree. They haven't
announced anything new yet, so I don't know. I love the Behemith,
I love what they do, but also they do feel like a company that's
kind of still in that two thousand eight ear. They have never really broken
out of their legacy shadow of their first two titles. Yeah, and I
mean I think going back and going to ground and saying we're gonna rerelease those
games and get some money coming in is a perfectly fine strategy. Be are
right love to do something else after this, but hey, if they go
back and they make more Castle Crashers in the Alien Hominid Games I'll be happy.
Also, Christian wants me to stop saying hominid, so I'm just gonna
go Hamidently they are working on a new alien hominid game as well. Aw,
that's so, I think that's what I think. That's what this is,
the Alien Hominid Invasion. Uh, it's coming out like around the same
time as this. Basically, so they got Yeah, that's gonna be a
reimagination of the entire franchise it sets, so we'll see Star Wars Outlaws won't
be tied down by the fate of the Galaxy. This is from Alex Alex
Hopley at Game Reactor. There's one thing that's annoying about Star Wars stories.
It's that some of them can try and make you believe that you'll be saving
the galaxy, only to have little to know real implications for the wider story.
Star Wars The Force Unleashed is a great example of a story that showed
us incredibly cool characters, only for them to be killed off because they didn't
exist in Cannon. However, Star Wars Outlaws is looking to avoid this problem
by removing the game's narrative from any ties to the fate of the wider galaxy.
Speaking to Game informer narrative director Navid Kavari said Kay's dream is to land
a score that will allow her to live life free and find her place in
the galaxy. This is especially true after a heist goes wrong and she unexpectedly
becomes one of the galaxies most wanted my necessities, she'll step into the underworld
and take on jobs with criminal syndicates with the aim to pull off one of
the greatest heights the heists the galaxy has seen. This is where I kind
of want these Star Wars side stories to be at Alexei, where in all
my indoor homies, yes, exactly right and anders one word like it's like
that one's definitely like still it matters greatly to the overall story, but they're
telling it from a completely new angle. They're telling it from a personal angle,
and that's a really refreshing thing to see characters in a level of detail
that you don't usually get to see in sows exactly. And then so if
you are going to be working on something where it's like, hey, which
side of things should we go on? Should we try to matter to the
greater story or should we try to be a personal story. I think most
of the time you're gonna be safer off going with a personal story. It's
just there are some risks of that. I think the problem with one of
the problems with Solo, and not necessarily for me, but I think for
the wider audience was it didn't feel like it mattered to the ongoing Star Wars
narrative that people felt invested in, so they're like, I don't even need
to go see that. But at the end, like if the game is
good here, I think people won't care. They're like, no, this
this makes perfect sense. There's all this whole universe to explore. It does
remind me of like the Han Solo books, the old Han Han Solo books,
where it's like before he was on solo in the movies, here's what
he was doing, and it was like, we're still like high stakes for
all these things. He pulled off, some heists, he had like a
lot of adventures, but it's like it wasn't like he was part of the
rebellion before you actually joined the rebellion. So it's like high stakes in like
a personal sense too. You can have different types of the high stakes.
Doesn't need to be will a planet explode? The high stakes? Will can
literally just be, Hey, will I get to live like a nice quiet
life in this really shitty galaxy? Yep. And it's like and I think
it's uh yeah, I think it's like a non games says, isn't that
just? And or it's like no again, and or is directly related to
like the people that are affecting events in and or are affecting events in Clone
Wars and stuff like that, and all those politics interact with one another.
And it sounds what they're saying here with Kay is that she is going to
be doing her own thing and you're probably not going to be running into the
rebellion and stuff like that. So yeah, I again, I think that's
probably the right answer. I'm looking forward to this game. It's it seems
like, uh, it seems like the big Star Wars game that people have
been looking for since like thirteen thirteen, who first got announced, they never
came out. The large shadow of that game cart is that the unbelievably incomprehensible,
incomprehensively large shadow that that game cast doesn't make any sense, but yet
we always reference it. So here we go. Maybe we'll be done reference.
After we get Star Wars Outlaws Classic First Verston shooter, The Darkness may
be remastered. According to studio ceo. This comes from Matt Schoemer at a
dual Shockers The Darkness, a horror themed first first and shooter that was first
released sixteen years ago, maybe getting a revival if a tweat from the CEO
of One Development Studio is to be believed. Stephen Kick is CEO of Nightdive
Studios, a US based developer best known for reviving games that have fallen under
the category of abandonedware, a general term that tends to refer to software that
is not considered viable and has not been actively in use by its creators or
an intellectual property owners. Late on Saturday, Kick responded to a post on
Twitter from one gamer who expressed a to play The Darkness without booting up his
PlayStation three. It was hopeful someone would remaster the game and port it to
PC. It's on the list, kicks response reads. Nightdive has not made
any official announcements on its website regarding a remaster of the Darkness. However,
the last set of updates on its new page is filled with recent announcements about
other games and studios working, and to remaster to Rock three, Shadow of
Oblivion, Star Wars Dark Forces, which made their respective debuts in twenty nineteen
ninety five. This feels like the kind of like there are enough of these
kinds of games out there, the Nightdive eventually gets to all of them.
Darkness like the most modern thing. Yes, this does feel like the most
modern one, but also not so modern that this is weird. I think
they would still end up doing this, right. Yeah. The extent of
my knowledge with the Darkness is an old Danny o'doy escape from Mount Stupid Game
Spot episode where he drilled the name Jackiesticado into my head as the guy who
joined the loading screen talks about kicking a fucking dog and that's all I remember
about it and all so you can watch like black and white movies in it
that they weren't license, But it seems like a fucking cool game and everyone
loves it, so why not let's go back to it. You could like
go on a date, right and watch the black and white movie. Yeah,
I think you could just stay in your apartment. I'm the opening.
I'm like watch an entire movie if you wanted, right. I think they
had a couple of movies in there. I always want to like stream,
Oh yeah, I want to like stream. Yeah yeah, I think you
could watch a whole movie, yes, you, because I always want to
stream games. They have that in there and just like just sit there and
like watch the movie together with everybody because it's like, hey, it's in
the game. We could stream this. Well oh yeah, I won't bring
that game up never mind. Yeah. Uh, he's no longer part of
that studio. I think he's probably still I would say, doesn't uh.
Sparks of Hope director Tases returned to Glory for Rayman and secret DLC message just
comes from Chris Pinwell at Destructoit. Rayman fans are over the moon after the
announcement that the limbless hero will be featured in the next Mario plus rab Sparks
of Hope DLC. However, there might be more to look forward to the
game's director, David Solani Soliani teased a return to Glory for their French platform
and mascot Wednesday. He also confirmed there will be a secret message if you
finish the DLC with a one completion rate. There's the prospects of the first
Rayman game since twenty thirteen might come to fruition. According to fan community leader
It's Sail Drake from Rayman Together Sparks of Hope. Director David Soliani sent a
message to the characters fan base just before the launch of the Phantom Show DLC.
I hope that all the community and all Rayman players support us as much
as possible, because I'm on a mission. My mission is to be able
to bring Raymand back to the glory he deserves. Do you think, Lexie,
that this is him hinting that there is something already happening, or do
you think this is him trying to drum up support so that this DLC does
well enough that he can justify a pitch to make something Rayman going forward.
Honestly, I just hope they keep on letting David Soliani make his games,
because there's nothing else like it at Ubisoft by quite a large margin, and
it seems like it doesn't cost them that much money to make those games,
and maybe if they like actually marketed them in a reasonable way and then just
kind of like put them out in the busiest month of the year for them
to get like destroyed by everything else. I think David Soliani is the type
of guy who would love to work on a Raymond game, mainly because we
allow him to work with some more composers that he likes, which I think
is like the favorite thing in the world. But yeah, I'm sure he
would. He seems like someone who has good ideas for classic franchises because he
looked at Mario and he went, well, what can we do with this?
And he and his team, I should say, they looked at Marion
and they said, well, what's something holy new that we can do with
this? And I think bringing Raymond Raymond. Yeah, but bringing Raymond back
into the spotlight through Mario was a really good idea if probly hasn't worked as
well because that game didn't sell as well as they wanted. But I still
think that, like you know, I would like to see more weird,
old platformers that haven't gotten to see the light of day in a while to
get some love again from talented developers. So why not, Yep? I
would. I would really appreciate this. I could go for a new Rayman.
I think if they're gonna, if they're gonna make a Rayman, I
hope they make it a three D platformer, but I wouldn't. I would
not say no to under one of those U b arts sort of two D
side scrolling once they did a couple of years ago. I'm probably like a
decade ago now. I think it is a decade ago. Now. Those
are very good as well. The last one came out on the WU first,
so it's been quite a while. Jesus Christ, all right, I
have the poll from last week. Let's get to it right now. What
do you think Sony is doing with Days Gone? If seven percent say it's
making a game and a movie, five percent say it's making a game but
no movie, nineteen percent say it's making a movie but no game, and
say nine percent nice say it's not making anything related to Day's Gone. That's
where I put my vote as well. I think i'd be I would be
excited at this point to be wrong about that, just for them to come
and be like, no, Day's Gone is our next big thing. We're
pushing that the way we've been pushing Horizon. I would love to see that.
I don't think they are, though, but we'll see Day's Gone feels
like the yellow Stone of video games. Yes, like a game for dad's
and people who like the idea of prestige stuff but don't like good prestige.
Yes, give me my trashy prestige, which Yellowstone definitely is. But I
tried watching Yellowstone and I'm like, I'm a dad, this should be for
me. I love I love Kevin Costner. Are you kidding me? Kevin
cost is basically my president. I love that he was Superman's dad. Yeah,
okay, And I was like, I'll watch that movie because he's Superman's
dad. That's how much of a Kevin Coster fan I am. I know
it doesn't make sense. I never said it would, but I'll try.
Why that show and it's just so god damn dumb. It's so dumb.
Every it's nothing matters, and everything happens, everything happens in that in that
show, and none of it matters. I did remember the moment. I'm
sure I've told the story before, the moment I stopped watching. It's just
like everything's going wrong with these people. And then the lady who's like a
teacher like, goes to a job and some one of the students punches her
and she gets knocked into a coma and They're like why, Like what's like
what precipitated that? Like what was going on in their lives that put her
in such a danger? No, No, it was just a random act
of random event. And there's like five of those every episode. It's in
stuff like honestly, the guy who created Sicaio and woche Hella high Water,
those are like two of my favorite movies. And he realized like, oh,
I can just like keep doing the same thing over and over and over
and over and no one will call me out on it, like make uns
of money. Yes, yes, yeah, you made a fantastic movie with
Ben Foster and Chris Pine being extremely hamish. I'm you can do whatever you
want now if you want to, if you want to a show where a
lot happens and it's like it's just cool. Twenty four? Can I recommend
twenty four? Snap that neck? It was good stuff, all right?
I got what's that? Twenty four? Check? I finished season two and
I've not started season three yet because I've been working on video games instead.
But again that that second season ended with a huge killing spree from our boy
Jack Bauer, and the last time I enacted it, I pulled my headphones
out and completely crashed discords. I'll be careful, but just him like grab
that neck and run up the wall and snapping and in addition to like shooting
a bunch of people, which is great. Uh, it was. It
was very exciting, very well done. Yeah, and I didn't play a
little bit of twenty four the game, which I think I don't know if
it's up on the site yet. Did we get that out yet? We'll
get that up sim okay, was so cool. I wish it was real.
In my heart. Twenty four has always been real, Alexi. Before
we get to these to this pole question, why don't you tell people where
they could find you what you got going on? Yeah, so I've loads
of stuff going on. I'll have like five pieces going up on Track News,
Son five, Son of three, Warhammer or Space Moving two and Specific
Drive and something else I'm forgetting right now. I have a like a dragon
guide in going up on push Square, and you will be able to find
my work in upcoming play magazines. And I'm still learning start Menu, which
is a great place to get started in the games industry. Contact us at
hello at start menu dot co dot UK. I'm a bit behind on emails
I know some people who are watching the show did reach out, and I
will get back to people. And also the last thing I wanted to say,
I needed to make sure that Mike knew that my friendship with you and
him is over. And Tam and Lucy my best friends now. Yeah,
and we respect that. And it's purely because they managed to survive like three
hundred thousand people in Clone, and ye haven't you haven't proven yourselves worth.
I understand that. Yeah, once you do prove yourself worthy, like I
might, I might talk to you again. But until then, like I'm
I don't don't think I would survive. Pretty sure, I would melt three
hundred thousand people. I'd just look at that and I would just I would
turn into a puddle, and that would be the end of Jeffrey. All
Right, we got a new new poll question going up. Will you try
Saints Row and PlayStation Plus? A story we didn't get to but it's coming
to PlayStation Plus. Uh And and I'm like, oh, is this going
to be a chance for people to have maybe reassess this game. Yes,
no, I've already played it. Are your options? We'll discuss that on
the show tomorrow. Uh. Well, I'm sorry. On Wednesday or then
though on giant bomb dot com we got the Giant BombCast tomorrow. We will
have some some quick looks going up this week. We have the Starfield coverage
starting on August thirty, Fie when the thirty first, when that embargo goes
up, a whole bunch of other things that are happening. Then we're traveling
the packs. It's a busy, busy week, so uh give you give
your voice some slack, so I try to make it all organized, to
make it all makes sense in my brain. All right, Lexie, thank
you so much for spending today talking with me about video games. You know
I appreciate it. We're gonna talk about video games. I just wanted to
talk more about like yellow sound. Thank you for talking with me about yellow
stuck. I here's how busy I am. I am. On Sunday,
I started the Animal's Book and a book on tape, and I only listened
to it while doing like stuff around the house, and by like mid day
i'd finished it. Like it's like it's like three and a half hours,
but it's like that was just three and a half hours of just doing shit
before I could even get to playing games. So I've listened to the Animorph's
book, A book one jan Whenever you're ready, I'm ready. You just
look out. I got, I got. I don't know if I have
plenty of say, but I got something to say. So much time for
another podcast? T exactly, we should just tack on like a five minute
podcast the end of something else, and just like that could be the Animals
podcast. Jannimorphs, all right, thanks for watching, everybody. You're the
best audience in gaming. We're gonna get out here. Until next time,
have a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.