Game Mess Mornings 11/03/23

Bad. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for November third,
twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so, let me help
you sort through the world of gaming. On Games Morning's Live with Me Jeff
Grab, today, Bungie talks about losing trust and super Mario rpgg sonic he
Head Chunk Donkey Hunkry. But first, please join me and welcome today's cost
the Games Morning. It's tomorrow, say hard, best food. Damn.
How are you doing Bud? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. How
you know It's Friday is Gregs Day, so you know I always do.
You know what we say, Jeff Grab, Dregs Day, best day,
That's what we say. So we're gonna try and bring the heat and we're
gonna enjoy a good old Friday, Dregs Day. That's right. We're gonna
get through this. Didn't n in one Ninja get into Ninja gat in three.
That's a very important video to me. We were talking about before we
get started. Uh, yeah, that's that's that's the good stuff. People
don't know what that video is. Yeah, that's right, we know what
that video is. That's not a man, that's no way can we do
like a live view? Yea, yeah, let's just can we just what's
watch it? Now? Let me give me a yeah, it'll just take
me like people know, there's no way I'm gonna play it and they're gonna
be like, oh this, oh yeah yeah, Channel James. Did I
break this or did you break this? I think I broke it? Let
me tell let me see here, you know, no, update day.
We're gonna do update day everybody. That's good. What time is it in
Japan? All right, let's go to update Boston? Overbeat makes you just
want to oh yeah, all right, there we go there that everyone sit
down. Yeah, it's time for a giant bomb viewing of update date.
Yeah, buckle in all right. Oh crooked View, crooked oppose it,
croocket Crooked View did something, has done something that I also, Lucy did
the same thing, and I will I will talk about this afterwards. He's
written the words I reckon, I reckon, and I have some very sad
news for it for you. All right, let's go all right, yeah,
let me okay, let's let's do this all right here it is everybody,
Well, I fix this camera? Yeah, update date? What bathrooms?
Update date for the WE Shopping Channel. It's funny because normally they it's
like eleven time. What time does your fan turn that up? What kind
of music is that? Like? A boss? And Nova beat makes you
really want to just can you? Can you turn up the sound on it?
Yes? You know what we should do. We should write We should
write a song for you're hearing it just fine? Right titles of games?
I right, I write it because everybody knows about WE Shopping Channel and everybody
loves to shop on it every Wednesday. So we will do is write a
theme song for the WE Shopping Channel. Watch this, Watch watch us,
watch us. You can sing to the titles of the Super Mario RPG,
Super Mario three, Mega Man Neo, Turf Masters, break in start you
know what I mean, Jared? Like every start you say, the LuSE
of the Let me let me try one. Let me try super Mario r
p G, Sonic, The Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, three Dentures, Vent
Loads, Kings Night Dig, Don't you man? Food? Are this move
right? Nevermen earl and panic on Funko Try Pennsylvania, Fatal Theory, Ninja
judging my road comment, Razor basing lasers, bases Loaded make Up to road
com Cybernator, Rolling Thunder, Dynastic, he Roub Zero, I get it,
you remembers and Donkey Kong, Junior Man, Ninja Gaiden one, Ninja
Gaiden, Chicken, and D three three. She was using, all right,
you got okay, now you know? Now you know the chat?
How dare you not? No, I'm actually upset with some of you,
So I can't remember who it was. I said it was a cricket view
said, I reckon, I reckon. Sadly, it's not I reckon,
I reckon, which Lucy said the same thing. It's a little bit problematic.
Oh, yeah, it's a little bit problematic. Yes, this is
from fifteen years ago. Yeah, he's doing an impression of an Asian person.
He is. I like it, Yeah, I right it, right
it. I remember telling Lucy that and just the sadness in her eyes.
I was like, oh no, I should have kept that to myself.
Yeah, it's it's like one of the things I wish I could get the
you know, the other F word, the the edit that takes that out
of all my movies I like from the eighties, I was watching Master Squad,
we Dossary see Zick right, we in this community. It's I riker,
Yes, yes, I Riker's so we do it? Yeah, all
right, perfect? I like it and I rikered all right? Damn.
And how's your week, Ben? Yeh? Yeah, how you feel about
everything? It's but we're good with games? Are we caught up? Are
we are we feeling behind it? Anything? Right? I am? I
am struggling. I am struggling. I am like most of the way through
all To most of the way through Allen Wei to which I'm hoping I'm going
to finish this weekend. I got a good chunk all the way through it
anyway for my for the review verification, but I just haven't had the time
to like wrap it up. I've got a bunch of games that I still
want to play, including like Thirsty Suits just came out. Yeah that was
Yeah, we want to play that. I need to finish Coon. I
want to finish Chance of Scenaria. I still haven't finished finished Lives of p
There's a bunch of other things that have been going on. I also like
this week. I last week actually, I got ready to start streaming again.
Since moving to my new place, I haven't done a single stream and
I was like, all right, I'm back, baby. So I started
it all up, and then for for for some reasons, I had to
not be very available on the internet right now. So I decided I should
wait and and and until like people are less on my ass about certain things.
And then yeah, so that happened, and then oh man, there's
still so many other games to play. I still haven't finished boorders Gate three,
but I feel like that's going to be a long term project. Mario
Wonder. I played a decent chunk of I need to play more of so
much stuff. It's a lot of stuff, and I've been trying as well.
I was. I was at in l A last week inland here,
which is a show that Gerard puts on charity event, and it was incredible.
Have you guys heard of robo Dunk? Dan Ryker is in this chat.
I know it, Dan robo Dunk. Get it. It's NBA Jam.
It's NBA Jam with Robots is out now. It's out now, and
it is unbelievable. It is so much fun. All right, we played
it, and we played it. I think when I first started it,
I was like, oh no, this is how is is going to be?
And is it gonna, am I going to get a board off?
This played that straight hour, just laughing my sides, okay, And it
is it is that same it is. It's two and two NBA jam and
you play different robots. They look like little Lego robots. They each have
different like classes and abilities and and you just basic stuff pass, shoot and
and like you you hold down the jump button. The longer you hold it
down, the more flashy the dunk is. If you hold it down for
four bars, you jump into space and then do a dunk and then in
between like half so you you kind of put in new modules into your robot
to give them powers like oh I can like I can check them further,
or like I can use a you could. There's also a pardy system where
someone who tries to knock you down, you could you hit at the right
time you parry. It is system makes it is genuinely it is so good
and it has like a element to it as well with like progression. It
is a fantastic like it's one of the games that came out of that show,
being like, I am, I cannot play this more games should have
a jump into Yeah, they're like Dolphin Olympics. I remember playing that forever
ago and getting that dolphin to go into space was so much fun. Yeah,
more games should have exactly that. The I don't think it has online
play right now. We can do that play together on Steam though, Yeah,
I guess so. I'm also like, I don't know if you guys
are somehow, you know, getting together bad idea. Let's go all right,
that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm getting this game right away.
All right, let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I,
Jeff Greb, will help piece your gaming 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 are watching live on twitch welcome. You can always listen
to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or
find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show
later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello Hello YouTube. All right,
we have a lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with
Bungee sort of wrapping up their week with one more apology. They tell about
Destiny fans. We know we have lost a lot of your trust amid layoffs
and delays. Bungie throwing up plasma grenade at his feet another time, just
self owns left and right here. This is from Michael mcorder at Polygon,
in the wake of layoffs at Bungee and reports of an impending delay to Destiny
to expansion the final shape and in place of its usual this week in Destiny
update, the studio instead posted a sober contrite message from the development team that
acknowledges player player's dissatisfaction with the game. In its note, Bungee addressed the
layoffs at the studio, saying we've parted ways with people we respect and admire.
About one hundred Bungee workers were laid off this week after Destiny two player
counts plummeted by nearly half, according to a report from Bloomberg. While Bungee
doesn't directly confirm reports of a four month delay for Destiny two's next expansion,
the statement certainly implies it. We want to acknowledge the feedback and concerns you
have about Lightfall, Bungie said, referring to the most recent and coolly received
sixth expansion for Destiny two and recent seasons, as well as your response is
to the reveal of the First Shape. We know we have lost a lot
of your trust. Destiny needs to surprise the delight. We haven't done this
enough, and that's going to change. As part of its path forward,
Bungie said, it needs to make the Final Shape an unforgettable Destiny experience on
par with beloved Destiny expansions for Sake and the Witch King, which Queen blah
blah blah blah blah blah, I understand this, and I do too.
I kind of like, here's the thing that I really dislike, yes in
in in statements like this, the the apologies should be squarely focused on the
people that were let go, yes okay, and how they were treated.
I really dislike it when companies are like, we know that our game needs
to be better because you're not. You're speaking now to consumers, and you
kind of use that to cover for the fact that you should be talking to
the people you just did dirty like you you like. It feels really disingenuous
to be like, we know Destiny should be I don't give a fuck about
Destiny right now. I do not care what destiny is like right now,
I do care about those people that you just dumped, and like, I
feel like you shouldn't be out here talking about We're gonna make the the traveler
have a care voice the next time. I promise I don't care. Ye,
No, I personally know your shit. I know there some destiny freaks
out there that are like, yeah, this is all we want to get
what we hear about. But like, how insulting is it to have like
to be let go and then have a statement from the studio being talking shit
about the work that you were doing. See, like this stuff wasn't good
enough. We get it, we know, we understand. It kind of
creates this implication that those people were let go because the content that we produced
was bad, which is a really shitty way to cover for yourself when you
know that it's probably not the content that was the cause of this. There
are other factors in place. I don't know what it was, but in
this world of corporate America, where games are like studios are overreaching constantly,
I'm willing to bet a certain amount that it probably wasn't the quality of the
game that resulted in this. It's probably some business decisions overreach wherever it may
be that resulted in some way to you know, the necessity to get rid
of people to a degree. But like that isn't something that you put your
hand. No no ceo or corporation ever comes up and be like, listen,
we spent too much money on this side of the thing. Now we're
paying for it. They always do this, like, ah, the game
was, you know, not up to par, and we get it.
It said, no, stop trying to blame the people that you just let
go Like that is very it's a very shitty way of offloading blame onto other
people. And it happens so much in the video game industry and I really
dislike it's it's so shy, like you don't need to put a statement out
to don't put a statement out and try and like assuage gamers because we're not
buying it. Like it's just such a shitty weight of throwing the people that
you just kicked out under the bus. That fucking sucks. You know what
they should be saying, We're sorry, we fucked up. We did X,
Y and Z with our decisions. And sometimes these creative decisions are out
of these people's hands as well. They could. They could probably turn and
be like, we knew that was gonna suck. We know we tried to
say that, we that was going to say that wasn't gonna work. They
always know, yeah, and then people push it through for one reason or
another, like you should be apologizing to them, not to us. Yep,
that the decisions of executives put the team in this position. And I'm
sure this because they always do know. Whenever we talk to developers there,
they're like, yeah, man, you said exactly all the stuff we've been
saying for literally years when you're with your criticisms, we know better than anybody
they know, and so they were definitely saying it internally. And then they
get ignored for meeting deadlines for whatever financial reasons, and then those decisions fall
squarely on executives. And then but the you know, the when the acts
comes down and someone has to pay for those poor decisions or for those mistakes,
it's not the executives. It's it's a cycle repeating itself over and over
and over again this year especially, but for the history of video games.
Yeah, they said, we want to acknowledge the feedback and concerns you have
about Lightful. I don't have any feedbacks up concerns about Lightful. I do
have some feedback and concerns about what the senior executives led to, what they
were doing, why did this happen? I also would like to know,
like what sacrifices have those senior executives made, because we know, like the
rank and file for better for lack of a better term, are paying the
price for this now. But what have you, as like a studio leader
now given up to make up for these bad decisions and the quality of light
Fall. You never hear about that, like probably nothing, right, Like
I know obviously Pete passes ones on Twitter, popping off being like I'm so
sorry about this, and everyone's like, what did you lose about my field
and take a pay cut? Did you lose anything? Like what's going on?
We would have done that, we would have heard, but he didn't
say about that. He didn't say shit about that, like if that is
a pr moment for him, like I took a X amount of pay cut
to try and you know help as well and X y Z and you can
be like, okay, cool. At least we know that someone else is
taking the leadership is stepping up to take some of the blame. And maybe
they are and for ways that we don't know, but like we acknowledge your
feedback and concerns about life, well I ain't got none of that. I
got feedback and concerns about your staff is what I have the developers that are
on your team, because you are making it a hard place to be man.
Live service games are in a situation where they need to be so much
to so many people, and I think when it comes down to it,
the morale on the staff spreads out into being the morale of the community,
and everyone needs to be feeling pretty good about the game for it to have
the momentum. It needs to just maintain a certain level, let alone grow.
And I think these companies ignore that so frequently with like, hey,
if your team isn't feeling good and confident and supported and secure working on this
project, the community gaming community is going to honing in on that. Know
that that's what's happening, and then and then it's gonna make it's gonna poison
the well of your entire game that you need to be surviving for years and
years and years and now you're you're digging a deeper hole for yourself. So
just from a selfish like business point of view, I think these companies just
are so short shortsighted with these decisions to be like, hey, we see
tough times ahead. We're in tough times right now, let's hit the panic
button and cut a bunch of people. It's just cut staff. It's like,
man, I think you would be so much better served if you can
take some of that new Sony money and and just try to weather the storm
a little bit better and and talk it up with your community and explain that
things are are at a low point and try to try to say, hey,
here's what we're going to work on. That would be seen as a
strength. They would respect it. And I think no respect for Bungie right
now. No no, And someone at Bungi will say like you're being naive,
Like we have to make these decisions otherwise the hit is much harder and
the studio, you know, more people have to be let go. But
it's like you just announce marathon. You know who wanted that? Shiit No
one, Yeah, that's who wanted that. Especially as an extraction shooter.
It's like they're having to convince people that we want that, and like,
what is the faith now in you? If you're not able to do your
you know, your crown, if you're not have your like your shining jewel
destiny to make it like pop off, why should And you just laid off
a bunch of people and you did it in the ship. You wait,
why should we give a shit about Marathon? Why? I mean the Sony
acquisition. Internally, A bunch of the people that were working there did see
that as Hey, we know that the game is is not having enough players,
but we're feeling pretty secure because Sony did just acquire us. So that's
why most of them were shocked when these uh yeah, when these layffs went
through, does it shock you? Do? You are you? Like,
what is Sony's strategy here? I feel I don't, Well, isn't Wasn't
there some like report about Sony had no involvement in this entirely? Yeah,
they said it was Pete Parson's decision, not Sony's decision. But Pete Parsons
is a Sony employee. Yeah, he has to report into Big Sony's yeh,
Like it is in a way the thing that like probably not a great
time to plug it. But like today's episode of spot On is about this
exact topic. So Lucy and I were like discussing it yesterday and like we're
trying to write the notes and figuring it out on that kind of stuff.
And I think the thing that we kept talking about was like, it's not
safe for anyone out here, like traditionals or like most people. You'd ask
them and you'd be like, oh, once I get under the umbrella of
a major corporation, I'm probably quite safe. Right, I'm less like I'm
part of a big machine that's got a lot of money, and I should
be okay. Like Sony, you'd expect people to be. You know,
Sony acquires Budsy, Sony's got crazy money. They sell consoles, not as
much as they used to. You know, consoles are kind of you are
there, kind of sales have normalized and but like a digital sales and Sony's
a big company, et cetera, et cetera, so you should be okay.
Same with Epic. Epic had had layoffs this year. Epic is making
Fortnite money. They're making money. They have more money than some nation states,
which is crazy. Like you you joined that company, and you're probably
like, I'm all right, you know, and I don't think i'll be
hit by layoff. But in this industry, somehow you are even less safe
when you join these companies because the disposability of you is much higher. It's
actually the opposite way. When you work out like a small team, you
scale to operate at that size and you kind of like everyone is essential.
If you're part of that team, you have a role to play and it's
important. Whereas at these big companies is like they're really nearly like they're just
doing things that beyond their means in you know, shooting the shots that make
no sense and hoping like they're exactly they're going to do NFT artworks or some
bullshit like that, and then before you know it, you're like, oh,
I just got cut because some executive thought this would be a good idea,
idea, and now I don't have healthcare anymore. Yeah. I think
it is important to look at what's happening with a lot of studios, with
Bungee included through the lens of reverberations coming out of the pandemic stell, these
companies are making a lot of money in the pandemic and then, like you
said, a lot of moonshots, a lot of big bets that. Yeah,
they were just like, well, listen, yeah, we we know
the pandemic high tide is not going to last forever. We realized that.
And it's like, it doesn't feel like they really realized that, but they
probably did to some extent. But they're like, well, we can't just
be like, well, squirrel away all this money. The way that we're
going to survive this is to be optimistic and make big bets on a bunch
of different things. And it turns out, as always, that's a really
risky thing, and these guys that actually don't know what they're doing and don't
know where to put that money. And for for Sony, it definitely was
a bunch of live service stuff. For Epic, it was every bad idea
anyone whispered into Tim Sweeney's ear that was just ever sing like you got to
got that worm tongue, just hey, fucking NFT's the metaversel blah blah blah,
okay wow uh and so and then here we are a couple years later,
we'd say, okay, well, has the rubber met the road?
Yes? What's happening with any of these things? Nothing? No, all
of it's bad. All of it's bad, all of it's not working.
Uh. You could have maybe stuck your core competencies. Uh, when you
did stick to your core competency, Epic publishing a fucking video game from Remedy
that worked out pretty well. Could have done a lot more of that,
these other big bets where you sort of worked yourself into a shoot about we
can make the future happen. We're that powerful. It's like, I mean
over Epic at least, so you you borrowed a bunch of ideas and put
them into your engine that you owned, and then that turned into a gold
mine, and it's like good for you, like that, Sure, yeah,
whatever you want, applause for that. Yeah, that's cool, But
don't pretend like you're the company that's making the future happen on all these turns.
And then for Sony, it's just they are in such a tough position
at PlayStation where they need to find out what their other pillar is gonna be.
They have two pillars, and that is Big Trip, a blockbuster games
and a really strong PlayStation network service that has a pretty good subscriber base,
and these things make a lot of money, but they are pretty much tapped
out. They aren't growing at some alarming rate. They are kind of just
making as much money as they can and everyone understands they're gonna make about that
much money. And then the rest of Sony is just dwindling. And so
this is there's a strong PlayStation that needs to get bigger to hold the rest
of the boat up. And it's and so they do make these bets and
there live services, live service is it and now here we are we know
that's not really going to be the answer. And it's just like, oh,
it feels like it's gonna get worse before it gets better when they when
they have to actually figure out what is going to happen with all these acquisitions
and all of these these bets that they have made. So and but and
then who's gonna pay for it? Not the executives. Yeah, Jim Ryan,
he's out, man, he's dipping, he's gonna be gone, He's
done. Yeah, Yeah, that's that's the West Pop. The executives are
like childing, big chillin. They're fine, that'll be okay. Like even
the ones that take a hit are still probably better off than all of us
combined, and you, like an executive could leave and be like, I'm
want to sell up your studios. Fine, yep, all right, uh
let's move along here. Super Mario RPG indicted me. Super Mario RPG preview
round up. It's faithful and fresh, according to a bunch of previews.
This comes from Isaiah Colbert at Kotaku. Super Mario RPG, the remake of
squaring Enix's nineteen ninety six two D Pixel Art Classic, will be out on
Nintendo Switch on November seventeenth. Man, that's two weeks away. The charming
looking turn based game sees Mario Peach joined forces with a dastardly bowser and a
whole bunch of others. Destructory's called it a faithful remake with subtle improvements.
That's not to say that the only alterations are quality of life related. There
are also cute visual touches that, while seemingly small at a glance, added
a lot to my experience. Mario and his companions now have fun, little
idle animations while they wait for their turn in battle, which appropriately reflects their
personalities. For example, you might see Mario take a couple of practice swings
while he waits for his turn. He's holding a hammer in that case.
Ig And says it recreates a classic while breathing new life into its combat.
Timing your attacks and blocks has also been made more important, even against pushover
enemies who could be cleared in a single area of effects smash. That's because
Super Mario RPG he keeps track of how many successfully time presses you've completed in
a row, even between fights. I loved seeing how high it could get
that number, and you're rewarded the better you do with small buffs and a
slowly changing gauge meter. And then at games Beat Super MARIORPG preview, what's
new with the Geno Crew Well, Mike Minatti writes, if you struggled with
hitting those action commands before and those being the timed button presses during combat,
the remake will give you a little help. When you first have a new
ability, exclamation marks will appear to help you learn the timing for its action
command. Those exclamation marks will disappear on their own once you nail the action
command five times in a row. Some moves also have new visual elements to
help you with timing. Geno Beam for example, now shows a row of
stars that give you a good idea of how long you need to charge the
attack for I feel like that happened in the first one, but maybe not
either way, though, that one right there, that little tidbit tam is
big for me. I'm a big super Mario RPG fan. I love the
game as it is. If they never remade this, I'd be perfectly fine.
This remake looks pretty good, though, and what I like to hear
is the combat action timing sequences are going to be a little bit more informative
about when to interact with them. It was a lot of guesswork on the
Super Nintendo, so improving that is kind of all I really needed, and
all this other stuff is just butter on top or icing on top. I
should say, Uh, so, I'm excited about this. You are a
super Mario RPG guy. You ever played it? You excited about this?
Oh? Yeah? I mean like I am a super Mario RPG enjoyer.
I mean I love those those, all of those Mario arpages. I think
I fundamentally good on some level. Yeah they all get some star star but
yeah, yeah, even stick a start, it's like got a little bit
of chance. I know, yes, yeah, I mean, like,
I don't think it's the best of the bunch. I don't think it's like
an amazing game either, Like, but I still have fun with it and
it's charming, and I'm like, oh, it is cute, but like
Super Mario RPG is definitely the one that is like the standout, So I'm
excited to play more of it. For a minute, I was like,
did the reviews come out? What's going on? Because it's like the way
you're reading stuff of us, like a very definitive statements. Yeah, and
I don't even know if people got a chance to play. I thought a
lot of this these were hands off previews, but people are excited about it.
I think Nintendo just did a lot of like one on one, hands
off previews with people, and so they're feeling pretty good about it. But
we could probably expect reviews in about a week and a half. I would
think I know exactly when the reviews are coming. I was just confused the
other one. Don't even don't even tell me because I don't want to know,
because still but hurt about my Nintendo jail problem. Yeah, I'm still
very excited about this. I'm actually gonna like when I read these, I'm
like, oh, yeah, I should just go pre order that game.
And so I've done that. I cannot wait. It is going to be
preloaded on my switch and ready to go as soon as possible. And then
yeah, then it's like after that, we got a thousand year door probably
early next year from Nintendo. So it's like Mario RPG fans. Yeah,
it's the remakes or re releases or whatever, but who cares, that's great.
I want those on the switch. So looking forward to it. All
right, we're gonna take a quick break, everybody. When we get back.
We got Sonic news, we got EA talking about the Microsoft acquisition and
what that means for them. A whole lot more. Right after this,
we're back. We're talking about we're talking about air Horns and Sonic front Tiers
has now sold three point two million copies worldwide. Not a huge story,
Jan excuse me, Tam, listen. Oh wow, Oh no. Jeff
Grubb thinks that all of us people, all of us, we're all the
same. All of us people, we have three Lettin names, all the
same. Mollie, Wow, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's my get up
for Blake Club. Now I just use it whenever I need it. I
need to escape into my other persona Sonic Frontiers three point two million copies,
damn uh really, I just want to know they've they've been talking up about
how they want Sonic. Someone's getting canceled, canceled. I love that.
That's good stuff. Do you think Sonic could actually sell significantly better than three
point two million copies if the games were even better? Like I think Frontiers
is okay, but if they put extra effort into it, would it make
that much of a difference. Or are they like, we're gonna put up
kind of the game and it's gonna do just fine. Anyhow, is the
question hit with Sonic solo if it was good? Yes, yes, it
is? No, no, no. We had a story earlier this week
where it's they said, hey, they still view Mario as the thing to
beat, and they their their goal is to one day have Sonic bigger than
Mario. And here's an idea. I'm gonna pulse it. Sonic is no.
Sonic's popularity outside of the game dwarfs his popularity in games. I don't
think Sonic is Sonic is no longer, right, Yeah? Yeah, the
Sonic is no longer a video game icon like he Sonic used to be a
video game icon. Sonic now is more of a multimedia entertainment icon than a
video game one. I don't think about Sonic when when people ask me,
like, what are the you know, the major characters in video games right
now? I do not think of Sonic at all. I'm a Sonic boy
as well. I grew up playing Sonic over Mario, even though I wanted
Mario. I had a Mega Drive and I had to play Sonic. But
I just do not think about about Sonic as a factor in the video game
world. I feel like it's a nostalgic one. Like every now and then
there's a game that comes out, I'm like, oh, Sonic cool,
But like I do not. I feel like Sonic's popularity is huge outside of
video games, just not within video games. I think that's that seems rape
and I think when people like people bring that fandom back to the games.
Yeah, I mean, I look at the comments for that new Apple Arcade
Sonic three D game that looks I think it looks pretty cool. Who knows
what's gonna end up being, but I think at least In terms of aesthetics,
I think they did a good job of capturing the look and feel of
Sonic in a three D world in a way that I don't think really has
happened before. It's it's been like, oh, we're going to do a
different aesthetic for the real world stuff. You're gonna get San Francisco and grinding
down rails. So to see them like, oh no, this is just
going to look like those Zone Genesis gameplays, but in three D it's pretty
cool. But I look at the comments and it's like, oh, we're
really glad cream the rabbit is here. And I'm like, listen, no,
i am not yet at anyone rabbit, but I'm not going to cream
a rabbit exactly. And it's oh, that's that's what they care about.
Their their lore and the characters that they learn about in some other games,
and probably from the cartoons and the comics and and all, and from their
merchandising. And I think that's perfectly fine. But I do think it leads
from the it's kind of like backwards now, where it's like they have certain
things that they care about and it's not really so much about oh, let's
improve the Sonic game so much, and not to say that there can't be
good Sonic I think Sonic Mania is great. But yeah, but I think
if I think if Sonic Frontiers was a nine out of ten, I think
it still sells about three and a half million copies. Yeah, I feel
like you can make a ten out of ten Sonic game and it starts roughly
it. Yeah. I feel like the benefit of making a ten out of
ten nine out of ten Sonic games is that people buy Sonic plushes comics and
watch the TV show more. Yep, that's pretty much it. Whereas with
Marios like Mario sells crazy amounts. Yep, it's it's just stop raating in
a completely different different way, know what. You know? What is popping
off right now that I'm excited about sanche Sonic Mania, the team that Team,
Christian Whitehead and Evening Style Games. Then next game, Penny's Big Breakaway.
Yeah, looks awesome. Have you seen more of it since we saw
that first trailer? Oh? Yeah, Like we indieland they while we were
there, they did the first gameplay reveal and they played it for like an
hour or something, and it looks awesome. It is so cool. I
don't know if it's going to be amazing, but based on what I saw,
I was like, this, this looks like someone went, what if
we took some of the ideas from Sonic and and some of the other like
mascot platformers and mess with it a bit, and what can we come up
with? And it's this platforming game with a yo Yo character assenting it yo
Yo and it's it's really charming, and I got some great music. It's
got quite a noticeable like rare NAIs era energy to it. Okay, So
like that's that is what I'm excited about now, because I do miss games
like Sonic game yeah, and the classic three D platform style. We don't
get as much of it these days. But so I'm like I saw the
Christian Whitehead Evening Star working on this game. I was like, okay,
I'm excited to keep an eye on that. And then I saw the game
and I was like, oh, I like this, Okay, that's very
exciting. It's got like skill based traversal in it and like fun stuff like
that, and like, oh, I'm down. I am very down for
that. I'm gonna go back and check that out. I wish we had
time on upf to like watch some of those segments from indie Land and react
to them. That could be fun. But maybe we'll find another time for
that. At the very least, I'm gonna be spending some time watching that
this weekend, so looking forward to it. Penny's Big, Penny's Big Breakaway,
Right, That's the name of the game. I always always slips my
mind, but I'm gonna remember it from now on, I promise, all
right. EA boss says I think that active Microsoft and Activision is a great
thing. This is from Jonas Mackey at Game Reactor and tam I'll read a
little bit of this, but want you're like put yourself in his shoes and
tell me why you think he thinks this is a great thing. While Sony
was fierce opponents to Microsoft buying Activision, Blizzard, a lot of other major
companies have been more positive, and we have previously reported how leaders for companies
like Nintendo, take To and Valve supported the deal. EA also seems to
be happy about it, and the Boss, Andrew Wilson even calls it a
great thing in a CNBC interview. I think that Microsoft Activision is a great
thing. It means that one of the world's largest companies is going to continue
to invest in our industry to help us grow the industry over time. But
as we think about our position, certainly as an independent developer and published of
the world's leading interactive entertainment content, we feel really good about our opportunity,
and to the extent that there are opportunities for us to be acquisitive, we
would of course look at those. Well, the fuck is it? I
mean inquisitive? Does that mean him acquiring others or them being acquired? I'll
say, okay, Tim, I'll say that I've heard following the activision,
you'll being announced that immediately EA was like, sound the alarms. We need
to go look at every opportunity for us to be acquired or for us to
merge. See if I mean acquisitive means means to like acquire things? Okay,
So then them acquired? Okay, okay, but they like I wait,
what is the context he used? Then he says, h we feel
really good about opinion, and to the extent that there are opportunities for us
to be acquisitive, we would of course look at I don't think Andrew Wilson
knows that acquisitive means to be like excessively acquiring stuff to a level that's greedy.
Yeah, well, or he doesn't make anything wrong with that, Okay.
Just to put it plainly here, I think that most of these executives
think it's a good thing because it's always a good thing to have someone above
you that has a ton of money that would enable you to exit the market
while getting a big payday. That is why these fucking layoffs happen. This
is why this this student has gone, Oh no, someone else bought a
thing. I would like to buy a thing. Why you know how this
is gonna go. You're gonna end up having to do all this bullshit and
people are gonna lose their jobs because you're spending loads of money for no reason.
Just shut I mean we look at like, look over at Square makes
a good fucking game, right like sort Battlefield out? Do that? Keep
your money and battle Field out. Make a new Apex Legends or make a
new Titan For, make a new Titan Fall, make a new Titan for.
Shut up about acquisition and just make better games because your games aren't popping
that hard respawn is carrying your company on its back, and its better with
that on the way out, so it's like you better figure something, you
better help them figure something, Like I like, I'm sure like the fucking
EA Sports Soccer Club or whatever the hell is called now is making a lot
of money, But are they in a good enough position, like Catalog broad
Catalog wise to be thinking about acquisitions like that when genuinely respawn is pretty much
all they have, Like Dice is I like Dice as a studio, but
like Battlefield is not popping at all. Yeah, I think that they're doing
They're probably they might think it's a necessary thing, so they'll just have to
figure it out. But I would imagine that a company like EA, they
have money on hand, that this is that they would have been in a
better position to acquire things when interest rates for zero and they could just go
out and borrow a bunch of money for cheap. So I don't know,
I do know that, Like when the deal was was announced for the Activision
deal, they were just laid off people at buy Away. Yeah, but
al this is exclusively about acquiring other things, Like they when it was about
coming out of the Activission deal, they were like, no, we want
to be acquired. We are going to go talk to a bunch of big,
bigger companies than us, and we're going to go talk to other publishers
about merging. Like they had real conversations with some of the other biggest publishers
that are out there and saying, hey, do you want to acquire us?
And then some other publishers came to them too, and EA was like,
no, we don't want to work with you. Not you you you
you not you. Uh So it's like they're looking up and down. I
don't know what really they could be spending money on to acquire in any major
way right now that would make a difference for them. Yeah, I mean,
like financially, I am sure they're doing perfectly fine because like I said,
like responsorship is popping, They've got Star Wars, that game's doing well.
And also like the sports ship they do is that they can crank out
some absolute turds and they will still sort of like crazy. But as far
as I can tell, the new FIFA is good to fine, which is
so like they're probably fine. Just a matter of should you be doing this
right now? What like is your house in order to the point where it's
diffinitely can you can look around and start thinking about buying other things when your
core franchises aren't doing that well, Like they don't have the prestige that they
ever had. Like, instead of trying to make up for a lack of
prestige by just owning a lot of shit, why don't you spend that time,
money, and effort on raising the profile of your existing franchises and having
them be a kind of bedrock to then build expansion on top of. I
just don't I don't know. Maybe I'm dumb and I don't know anything about
businesses, which is probably true, but like, I just don't understand it.
It's like it feels very greedy every time. Yeah, and you did
use the word acquisitive, and that is greedy acquisitions. So I think that
you diagnosed it pretty well there where it's like their house isn't in order enough.
They are This is not exclusively EA, This is a lot of publishers.
This is sonny we were just talking about. They are successful. They
do make a lot of money. That money is understood to already be there.
The investors know. EA. Sports games are going to make a lot
of money, and they've done a good job about growing into these live service
things that continue to make a lot of money. But now that those expectations
are now built in, so EA now needs to find for infinite growth to
happen. You got to find the next thing, and there is no obvious
next thing. This is the same question we come back to for every single
one of these companies, and none of them have a good answer for it.
It was going to be live service there for a few years. EA
got off that tip a little bit earlier than some of these other companies,
but it wasn't like they turned to and they had another answer similar to that.
It was, Okay, we're going to bide our time by trying to
make some good games again, and so we're going to make another one of
those Star Wars Jedi games, and we're gonna let buy away instead of making
the live service games. We are going to actually let them make Dragon Age
and Mass Effect. But those are going to take a while, and those
aren't necessarily going to be Hey. The solution to Hey, Live service isn't
working anymore. But if those games are good, it can still help them
get a little bit of growth. But the expectations is for those games to
hit and do really well. So they're in a tough spot. But they
just continue to be flailing with their answers for these questions, and it's always
ends up again with these big executives making decisions that end up hurting people below.
So yeah, we'll see I at the very least, I don't think
Microsoft's is looking over at EA to acquire them, And I really I don't
know if any big company is. Maybe beyond that Disney story we heard a
little bit ago about Disney. Think, ay, let's just buy EA and
then we could be in games. But bob Igo doesn't seem too keen on
that either. Uh okay, just made all my text really small. Let's
move along here. Xbox startup screen is now a full page Modern Warfare three
ad. This comes from Claire jack Jackson at Kotaku. If you fired up
your Xbox today, you might have seen something you didn't expect. A d
a darn full screen advertisement for the latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare
three. Though Microsoft has done this before with exclusives like Starfield, it's already
rubbing some gamers the wrong way. Though twenty twenty three's Modern Warfare three isn't
technically coming out in full form until November tenth. Those who want to get
on the campaign can do so right now by pre ordering pre ordering any edition
of the game. So while that early access period might be enticing for those
eager to follow the story of Task Force one four one, it's far from
a universal desire, making the full screen Call of Duty add on Xbox's start
screen feel intrusive. The Modern Warfare three marketing blitz comes just weeks after Marcus
Microsoft wrapped its acquisition of Call of Duties publisher Activision Blizzard. Uh, and
then they're going to talk about what's actually in the ad. Hey, you
had a sound that you made when I when I read that, and I
think that's the correct take on this. We're already in your ecosystem. We're
already pretty locked in getting aggressive and throwing it in our face. Does it
it doesn't, It stops making it feel like. The reason we're in your
ecosystem for consoles is because it mostly it's pretty pleasant. Mostly my friends are
playing games over there. I get stuck the game. It's just gonna work
if I buy micro transactions. I have a general sense that these things are
going to last. These are all things that sort of build this network effect
of keeping me attached and stuck to this, to this ecosystem. This feels
like actively repulsing me away where it's like, hey, spend more money on
our ship and it's just like chill out where we already are. Come on,
I I just I'm just trying to remember when did we pass the point
where we like were okay with this, because I remember the other time when
we all had like the Xbox dashboard, Yes, and then they were like,
we're gonna put ads on hand. People were like, you're gonna do
what yep, where we pay you money for this and you're gonna put ads
on here, and like that was a big deal back then. And now
we've reached the point where they don't even ask anymore. They just like full
screen ad immediately in not even like in a in a kind of like here
is the you know the dashboard, here's where the ad is. It is
fundamentally a core part of the system. The startup sequence is now an advertisement.
That's that's a bit cheeky, man. I don't I'm not I'm not
sure if I'm into that. Like I think I would be more into it
if it wasn't for call of duty or if it happened for more than just
call of duty, you know what I mean? Like this, this feels
like the cheapest, most bullshitty way to try and advertise to me. It
has no nuance, it's got no subtlety to it. It's just like here's
a big fucking logo. Enjoy it, like by this game please. That's
not going to help. It's like you said, that's going to turn me
off. Whatever your advertise. If it was a case of like, here's
a random indie game that we did it for as well, isn't that cool,
I'd be like, yeah, that's kind of fun, like you maybe
you know this, you know random check like Immortality for example. It feels
like here's a full boot up sequence for Immortality that's fun, or like you
know, here's like a dragon boom. Isn't that fun? No, it's
just for like fucking Activision Blazzers paid US ten trillion dollars in now are going
to make a boo sequence so that you you are even more aware of how
much money they have. And it's like when I'm starting up the console,
really like if I was starting up the store, yeah, Pam, and
this happened, zero issue. That's exactly thing I expect to be advertised to
when I go into a store, that is where commerce happens. Like when
I walk into a store, I expect to see advertisements. When I boot
up a digital store, I expect to see advertisements. I think it's I
think it's a good thing that developers can pay money to make their things more
visible, because that means smaller developers could do that as well. It's probably
maybe out of the price range for a lot of them, but it's like,
if you can make it happen, it probably has a pretty good effect
on your sales. So I want that to be an option. And if
there's an option to take over the whole screen when I start the store whatever,
But just starting out my console trying to get to my games that I
played that I paid for already, we are now, that is intrusive.
That is sad. This is this is you going to the store and someone
coming and shouting in an infomercial at you in the parking lot. Yeah yeah,
when you're driving that way, can yeah, let me get into the
store, like like you've already bought the things and you're going home, and
like right before you walk in your home to use the things that you bought
already. That's when they come at you with the ad. This just feels
out of the pre unis an advert for a game published by company they own.
It's like, what fucked up? Man? Yeah, and it's I
don't even know if Activision Blizzard is paying them because they have the exclusive marketing
deal with PlayStations, so it's like, I think the only way that this
could happen is if Microsoft just did this of their own accord, which is
even weirder. There's nothing Sony's not doing that. No, definitely, absolutely,
if I was Sony, I'd be like, what the fuck? Man?
Yeah, I think they probably are a little bit, and I bet
Letter of the Wall like Microsoft probably okay, because yeah, yeah, but
still it still feels, uh, it's it's weird, it's unnecessary, and
you know, just don't do it. Let's uh get the fervor going a
little bit for this one to stop them and let them know that this is
pretty stupid. Don't do this again unless you've got a good advert for a
game that unless it's just do it for pentiment every day, for the advertised
pentiment on your fucking screen every time, and will take it do that,
and I don't know, like, actually bring pegal two back, cowards.
Let's go. Uh all right, so let's see Modern Warfare three. Players
are being asked for Modern Warfare two before they start the game. This is
from Jonas Game Reactor some PlayStation four users advertising but full screen. There's a
lot of fun stuff with this game apparently, where the the achievements in the
trophies are actually nested under Modern Warfare two the same way DLC is, And
it's like, boy, they they really did just turn this DLC into a
real game and did a kind of a half assed job at that. So
yeah, some PlayStation four unit users trying to play called due to Modern Warfare
three's campaign, which was released earlier today for people who pre ordered one of
the more expensive editions, aren't counting a peculiar issue. The game demands a
Modern Warfare two to start. Okay, wait that I actually misread this when
I first put this in here. That's weird. This has raised concerns about
the game's origins, as it was rumored from several good sources last year,
including Bloomberg's very trustworthy journalist Jason Treyer, that it was intended as DLC expansion
for its predecessor, something that was reportedly changed only a year ago. Another
thing pointing towards this is that the game lacks a Platinum trophy for PlayStation five,
as the titles listed as DLC for Call of Duty Modern Warfare two.
It's like they kind of makeing it pretty obvious at a certain point. Now
whatever, people are allowed to like change up their products, but they're asking
seventy dollars for this thing. This is a seventy dollars video game, and
it speaks to a certain lack of respect for your audience and for people spending
money on your game that you're not even going to make the effort to opt
to obfuscate the fact that this was once just DLC and probably would not have
been seventy dollars. And so, yeah, did everything right they indicted mesh.
Yeah, it's just weird. It's not into the world. But damn,
it just feels like these publishers are getting kind of spotty with these things.
I don't know, how do you feel that was an impression of gigs
from the UK crime scene? I I I am not surprised by this.
Yeah, and I think I've reached the point where I'm gonna be honest with
you, Jeff Grubb, I don't care. Yeah, and you know what,
that's fine. I think whatever. Man, Like this is a call
to you. Is a room that I walk into once a year for a
little bit and then leave, and sometimes it's on fire and it's like,
well what can I do? Sometimes I walk in there and I'm like,
man, what can I do? So it's on fire, So I'll just
come back and hope that it doesn't, you know, completely burn the entire
world down. But yeah, I don't think it's great. Like, I
feel like they need it makes perfect sense from a technology perspective as well,
right, Like this is a platform. Quality is a platform, and that's
how the game works. Yeah, that's how the game works. It's understandable.
I feel like what they need to figure out is the optics of it
a bit better, or like the transparency, like just explain what you're doing,
is tell us why this is happening or TELP, I understand why it's
happening. You understand why it's happening. But like, and I think a
lot of the audience does understand it, but not all of the audience.
Yeah, Yeah, like random, Gary, the game on X is gonna
be racist to me, on on on on the social networks. When I
tell them this is how it should be, speak to them and say like,
hey, this is an you know, this is a code base that
we've got out there, or we've got like, you know, a whole
infrastructure already set up. We're going to inject new qual of duty into this.
It's going to override the old one. You are getting a new game,
Gary, relaxed. Uh, we're just making We're making it quicker for
you so we don't have to upload a bunch of shit and make you download
it up a bunch of times and and you know, clog up your system.
Gary, Stop being racist. I think Gary's biggest problems when he called
you by Jan's name just because you're brown too. I think that was that
was really messed up. Gary. Shouldn't have done that. Uh, okay,
Okay, the other side of this, and then we're gonna move on.
Apparently this is still a two hundred gigabyte download. What the fuck many
games doing a gigabytes? Man? What's going on? Holy smokes? Okay,
Gary, fuxt drive you correct? Fucked Gary? All right? Next
story, this one you will care about. Silent Hill game disables chat after
too many posts about come uh, this is slea bartam at Kentaku Silent too.
I knew this was gonna happen, and I was like, I got
to get into these these episodes so I can be there when it happens.
And it's just like nine pm Eastern time. It's a bad time for me
and putting my kids to bed, making sure everything's taking care of some if
I've got a show. So I haven't been in there, but we're gonna
keep up with this story as much as possible. Silent Hill Ascension carried the
weight of the entire Souldent Hill franchise, of which they're hasn't been an official
installment in about a decade, and immediately fumbled it during a disastrous October thirty
first premiere. The series, essentially an extended choose your own adventure cutscene progressed
but progressed by a live audience, already suffers from wonky ui and a useless
battle pass, which requires you to pay twenty dollars among other things. You
paid twenty dollars for, among other things, a legendary breadsticker, an unexpected
number of people are watching. Developer develop jimvid CEO Jacob Novic told Kotaku over
email, making it so that several systems were strained during its launch. A
lot of those people were also posting about the game director Hideo kojimas come.
So Jenvin disabled Ascensions Chat for its second night of streaming on November first,
Ascensions fifteen ish minute episodes air nightly. I did see some some tweets about
Hideo Kajima's come so that that seemed that tracks with the reporting on the ground.
Yeah, this was gonna happen. Have you seen any of the footage
of this tam though, so they talk about wonky Ui. It looks like
a nightmare. It looks like an old AOL flash game popped up over footage
of a Silent Hill game or a Silent Hill like bad TV show, And
it's just so fucking bad and weird. Uh. I've really got to I
do have to see it for myself. I think they're doing new episodes every
night at nine pm, so I might try again tonight. We'll see.
Uh. Yeah, Konami, right, I mean that's the question, tam
Konami. Konami, Like I don't know Konami when they did the Silent Hill
stuff that I was like, Okay, some of this sounds pretty interesting.
This was the one where I was like, what are you doing? Man?
This is where you went one step two. It's a sign that Konami
doesn't actually know how to pick winners and losers when it's like doing some things
does seem like there's some winners, you know that. Who knows what's gonnappen
the Blue Uber Team remake, I don't know. I'm not a Bluebird guy.
I never probably played their games, but the Soilon came in. Yes,
it feels like someone came in and was like, here's a seven papers
of Silent Hill ideas, which one would you like? And they went yes,
yes, and everyone was like what okay, cool, let's just do
that then. Yeah. Like I feel like the smart thing would have been
to start with the Silent Hill to remake and be like, hey, is
a Silent Hill too remake? What do you guys think? Well? The
Silent amazing. The sign Hill community is in a good place because they're at
they're already doing the conspiracy theories, where like they released this first so that
when the Bluebird team's uh Silent Hill remake comes out, and it's terrible.
It will look better in comparison as a longtime Southern Hill fan has well,
say, Sane Hill two community is fucking unhinged like sny Hill two community,
and Kingdom Hall has two community on that far off from each other. So
it is what it is. Yep. Well, good luck Silent Hill community.
You guys seem like you're gonna need it. As a Silent Hill fan,
I know that my my chances of being heartbroken im much higher than my
chances of being excited, So I have, like I laser focus on the
things that I care about exactly. You got a shill to remake. I'm
paying attention to that, and maybe a couple of those other like interesting side
projects that are come great. I didn't. I never played and this game
is apparently good that like Zelda a light gun game for the Wii. It's
like, I get it just didn't strike my fancy, so I just ignored
it. I'm a big Zelda fan. I think Zelda light gun game for
the Wii. What you mean? Link's crossbrow train Stross training, king Hell,
get the name around, let's act just think I ignored it because it's
just wasn't for me. But it's I think that's what you know, people
can learn from me. Right, that was a good thing for me.
That it was like it was asked what I thought people liked that. I
could never know a lot of times where people like link, Okay, that's
what. This is great? This is this is great. It's got the
green kid in it. The green kid. Oh man, I love that
green kid. All right, let's say this last story. Good legging games
on. We were dead? No, there was dead space extraction was good?
That? Yes, that one was fine. Was there a house of
a dead wine? I don't know? Overkill? Yeah, ok, yes,
all right, let's do this last story because that's part of the poll.
France gave I g Aluma Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters.
This is from my Nintendo News stay Away from a fronts As and the
rest of the Dead team behind the Legends, all the Tears of the Kingdom.
It has been been a very busy year for them. The game was
finally released on the Nintendo Switch, so it's only a matter of time before
the arrival of the Gaming Awards season will result in the game winning some Awards.
However, Aga has already received some recognition this year that may surprise you.
In France, a has been named Knight of the Order of Arts and
Letters. For all intents and purposes, Anuma is now a Knight. It
is actually very common for France tonight. Non French people, for example,
Shigeru Miyamoto is also a part of the Order of Knights of Arts and Letters
in France. All right, well, I'm gonna skip today's full question,
tam. Which one of these giant bomb staff members is the most likely to
become a Knight? Is it gonna be Lucy James, Dan Reckert, Jeff
Backlar or Janachoa. We all know it's Dan. It's Dan. We all
know it. We know it's Dan. That will be like that will be
like, okay, how did this happen? And it's like, yeah,
there will be no good explanation for how it happened, and yet it will
happen. It's like everyone will be like hmm, everyone else make it well,
everyone will make it a good case for literally everyone else, and then
somehow Dan will be the knight and it will be like, oh, yeah,
that makes perfect sense. Yeah, it makes any of her walking around
with a sword, just flailing about being like I'm a knight. I'm just
just drinking Miller Lite and with this sword and walking down the street. That's
yeah, I'm a night with the middle of Light. I'm a night with
a middle light. I'm the middle of Light. Six Miller like box and
puts it on his head like a crown. Yeah, Doc Cells like a
boss that he comes up as Night of Miller Light. Yeah, oh boy,
oh boy. All right, let's let's get to the poll question from
yesterday, what do you want from God of War Ragnarok DLC? I want
it? Sixty percent said they want a Dan Reikert or an expansion connected to
the main game. Thirty nine percent say they want a standalone expansion and expand
alone similar to Miles Morales, and forty six percent say no, DLC,
just make God of War three. Sam, do you where do you fall
fall in on this? Because I'm I'm the one and Milescott like, I
want to see Cratos trying to be a dad like not like a you know,
I'm gonna teach you how to kill dad ad. I'm talking like I
gotta change this little ships nappies. Yeah, you know, I mean,
I I want, like, what's that Vin Diesel movie where he's the pacifier.
Yeah, the past fire. I was gonna say, mister Nanny,
but that's the different one. Yeah, the past is what I want from
I want Kratos to be doing that ship being like, oh God, I
gotta look after this child, whereas my wife, Oh she's a tree or
whatever. I gotta take her ashes pa, But I gotta feed this boy.
I got no milk. Boy. It should should just be like a
life sim like just a trace, just like summer break from school or whatever.
And so he's like at home all the time, and and and Critis
is always like, go out and do something, go clean the yard,
go play with your friends, and he never does. He just wants to
hang out with his dad. Yeah. I a real talk, though.
The thing that I want now is the Middle Gates solid cutification of God of
War. That's what you get, that's what that's what's getting my character.
You play as a character who has to hunt creoles. Oh okay, yeah
you get so, Like the best thing about Middle Gate solid to is you
get to write and it is not great. Okay, I I don't mind
him this in this this point but like, the coolest moments are when you
are fighting alongside Snake and you get to see why Snake is who Snake is
and why he's revered in the way he is because he's fucking badass, really
big. How cool would it be if you were a huge, huge,
way huge time Well, how cool it would it be if you were like,
Okay, I need to I need to hunt this god of war who
has been going around You play a character from the Greek Pantheon who has like
now been the entire life vowed revenge to kill, destroyed everything. He destroyed
everything, so he's grown up hating Kratos his entire life, and he has
no context for why this happened. So you begin this like realm hopping journey
to find and kill this god murderer and you have no idea of the history.
But that means that you have to go on the bloody like you have
to be on the trail of Kratos, after he's gone through his war path
through the Greek pantheon, through the Norse one. You can maybe add some
the you know, pantheons through there, and along the way you like have
to you get to experience the kind of the full magnitude of his wrath right
without actually facing him up until the eventual points where you do run into him
and you're like, this guy is fucking unreal and they could do so much
to subvert that right where it's like you have to track him down through this
other pantheon, and as you fight those guys, you like realize how messed
up most gods are, and so you're maybe a little bit conflicted by the
time that character gets the credos and then that yeah, have all this emotional
build up. That would be fantastic, and you're being manipulated by by these
other gods because they know that they fucked up. Age Gun then next on
the list, because this board motherfucker is killing everyone, So it'll be like
that could be like, oh cool, that's a new way to look at
craters through the lens of someone else, to show how like how much of
a beast he is. That would be really cool, I think. And
you can even have like a trece ap pear at some point and be like,
yo, but that's actually pretty cool, man, Relax. That would
be fantastic. All right, Well, there you go. That was a
time to Monica. I enjoy. That wasn't an option, but I'm sure
that would have got one hundred percent of the votes if it was up there.
All right, we already talked about that new poll. It's gonna be
who's going to get the knighthood most likely to get the nighthood from the Giant
Bomb staff. Talk about that on Monday. Before we get to all that,
though, Tam, what do you have going on this week or we
were next week? I suppose? And where can people find you on the
internet? All that good stuff. You can find me on Twitter there,
you can find me on Twitch. I will be three milli again very soon.
But I've been shadow banned on Twitter right now for reasons, so it's
a bit hot for me everywhere, and so I'm being very careful about my
availability online, as I said, But we'll be back soon. I will
be on the Bomb Cost today, Bomb Cost Revenge, BombCast Revenge. It's
BCR coming actually everybody after UPF. It'll be like a little bit after UPF,
it'll be live, so go ahead and watch. Yeah, so we'll
be doing that and then UPF is happening as well well, uh yeah,
and then I think next week we have do we know we don't have a
Jeff Chess next week. Yeah, we'll figure that stuff out. We'll figure
out that's plenty to do. Okay, we're planning some stuff or end of
the year. Please be excited. Please be excited, especially if you're in
LA. Yes. Yes, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Yes. Also, Sean, I think put up a little blog post
about extra life on the site today. So oh yeah, some w' is
in the chat for Shan. Yeah. Yeah, he's been doing a ton
of work on that. It's actually hurting cats, so tough stuff. And
then what time is you? PF UPF should be in about an hour,
we'll start around one ish. We'll see that. That's when we've been doing
it recently. So yeah, okay, let's see here. Let's wrap up,
Tam, thank you so much for spinning today talk with me about video
games. Man, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. As
always, another Drags day down. Stay tuned for the ship survey of the
week. Thank go for watching you the best artis and game. Until next
time, have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye, goodbye
YouTube, goodbye. I did everything right and they indicted me