Game Mess Mornings 12/18/23

Don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
December eighteenth, 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 Greb. Today, Activision tries to bury its settlement on a Friday
night, and Mario sixty four multiplayer was actually real. But first please join
me. Welcome to today's co host the Game Miss Mornings. It's Scott McCrae.
Everybody, Scott, how are you doing? Yeah? I'm all good.
I'm my fourth batch of COVID other than that eleven surviving. Just how
does they eat these days? Like when you get when you get COVID now
it was is it like is it still just as bad as ever? I
don't know. Yeah, I don't even remember anymore. All I remember is
like sweat and coughing, and you know it's persested like that, but you
know it's not the furst anymore. Maybe I don't know. I also have
had like four jobs right now at this point. It's like, yeah,
who knows if it's built up immunity and the vaccines and then just kind of
getting used to it and knowing what to expect at a certain point. But
hey, I'm glad you're not. It doesn't seem like you're doing too bad.
I bet pretty exhausted though, from getting sick for the fourth time.
Right, Yeah, just you know I have I've played a little boulders Gate
over the weekend, so that's kind of, you know, broke my focus
on it. I don't need to think about that. I can just you
know, tell goblins because that's the way to do it. Now, I
want to tell you what I appreciate about you. Scott McCrae. Your name
sounds very Scottish, unlike some people like these Jordan middlers. He sounds like
he's from Idaho. I just I need a real Scott on this show for
once, So I appreciate you coming on. I mean, my name luxuley
mean Scottish person. I know my parents like they didn't really think that one
for you know, makes it very easy for us year in America where we're
very stupid, So I appreciate that. There you goes you can say in
a weird accent, but you know work maybe I don't know. Yeah,
well, I mean, how are you feeling about the the end? Of
the year, catching up on games. Uh, you got any work left
to do or you all set? All? All my work is kind of
for the start next year stuff I can't really mention at the moment, but
I'm good, you know, I'm I'm waiting because I imagine I'm going to
be deep in g RPG hell for the start next year with the likes of
Persona and Ya because I like a Dragon and Dragon's Dog, but all that
coming out, so you know, I'm taking my time to chill out with
like nice short games like boulders Gate and you know Probo Cop. Yeah,
that's the that's that is like a palate cleanser game right there for sure.
And then before we get on with things, I guess, you know,
since people might not be aware of for you are, do you want to
tell them like where they could find your work things like that. So I'm
kind of all over the place. My My news shift is for the Daily
Mirror in the UK. We're under the Mirror Gaming sub banner. That's where
I've done, you know, a lot of more reviews this year, a
lot of ment reviews. I believe we're talking about some tech and stuff today,
so I can show that I've got an interview up on the YouTube channel,
but you know, like mostly I'm all over the place. You'll find
me in push Square you'll find me, and Nintendo you'll find me in start
menu, which you can look at their latest post to find out my top
ten games of the year and why pig Man four is the best game of
the year. Probably yeah, yeah, let's go. That reminds me,
Alexi. I'll get my right up to you. Today started it an cent
it over so sorry about that. All right, Let's let's explain what we
do here most weekdays. I Jeff Grub will help you use 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're 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 rsso giant bomb dot com. You can also
catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay,
we have a lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess
with Activision to settle discrimination suit for fifty four million dollars. This comes from
Jen Glennon at Kataku. Shout out to Jen, who is on the couch
for GB at night during the Game Awards Activision. Blizzard has been the subject
of scrutiny for several years now due to its alleged boys club corporate culture,
and now the Wall Street Journal reports the embattled gaming company will pay roughly fifty
four million dollars to settle a twenty twenty one gender discrimination and harassment lawsuit,
the same lawsuit that seemingly prompted Microsoft's landmark sixty nine billion dollar acquisition of the
Call of Duty and Overwatch public sure that was finally greenlight in October after an
eighteen month legal battle. In a statement to Kataku an activision, Blizzard spokes
versus shared further contexts on the settlement. We are gratified that we have reached
an agreement with the California Civil Rights Department today, as the CRD has now
announced in a press statement. We appreciate the importance of the issues addressed in
this agreement, and we are dedicated to fully implementing all the new obligations we
have assumed as part of it. We want our employees to know that,
as the agreement specifies, we are committed to ensuring fair compensation and promotion policies
and practices for all our employees, and we will continue our efforts regarding inclusion
of qualified candidates from underrepresented communities in outreach, recruitment, and retention. There's
more here, we'll get into some of it, but that's basically what they
were getting in trouble for women weren't being paid fairly. There was no clear
promotional paths for a lot of people who weren't looking like everyone else at Activision,
for the most part white men, and they'd been getting in trouble for
this for years. And they at first they're like, hey, we are
going to and when if at least allegations first came out, hey, we're
gonna accept responsibility for this. We are going to have quarterly reports about what's
going on inside there. And then quick, very quickly, that changed too.
Actually we never did anything wrong, fuck you, and those reports we're
not going to publish them for real. Uh So now things have flipped back
a little bit, but fifty four million dollars at a certain point for Activision
feels a little bit like a slap on the wrist. It could have been
much more. That money will go to people, to the women who worked
at Activision during that time, and some who were even contracted to work at
Activision at that time. How are you feeling about this, Scott? I
mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head there. When I
was reading that, I was thinking, fifty four million seems not that much
considering some of the stuff you heard coming out of a division two years ago,
including you know, a death. You know, it seems like a
bit of a okay, yeah, just throw some money out of go awake
and satuation. But I mean, you know, there's nothing you can really
say about it. It's disgusting. I'm glad you know something's being done,
even if it doesn't seem like enough. And you know, I hope under
Microsoft there's kind of a big shift. But you know, right, that's
that's the hope, right, That would that would be the optimistic outcome,
that things would get significantly better or at least noticeably measurably better under Microsoft,
Right. I mean, yeah, a lot of the people are still going
to be there, you know, I mean, I know Bobby himself is
on his way out or has already left. I mean, he's basically gone,
but they said he'll be here there through the end of the year.
But you know, I can only hope the under Microsoft things are gonna you
know, get better. But you know, these massive companies, it's kind
of hard to get damping on some of these things because you know, I'm
seeing from you know, countless different reports like this. I don't know,
Yeah, I mean, it's just a certain point you could it's the system.
It's going to keep happening. Stayed vigilant about it is maybe the one
thing we could do other than completely disrupting the system. But uh yeah,
and that does feel like, okay, some of that's happening here. Of
course, you know, the statement from Activision goes on to say, hey,
we're grateful that the California Civil Rights Department acknowledged that no allegations were corroborated
that Activision Blizzards board of directors, including its chief executive officer, Bobby Kottick,
acted improperly with regard to handling any of the instances of workplace misconduct.
So I mean, that's really Hey, we'll play you fifty four million dollars
you say that like the executives and the board are completely you know, clean
hands and all that stuff, and we'll all go on with our day.
You know. Again, based on the reporting, it seems very unlikely that
the board of directors didn't understand what was happening, what the culture was like,
and especially Bobby Kottick. But you know, I say unlikely because I
don't know, uh, and these are allegations, but the allegations were very
serious. And at a certain point, you know, if this is the
culture underneath you, you're still responsible for it at least you know that that
That's how I see it. Uh, Bobby Kottock is gonna just go away,
right? And is that too optimistic that he'll like, Okay, he's
gonna leave Activision, not be under Microsoft. He's not gonna try to start
up some new gaming company. Right. It's h It's like I call Croach
kind of saturation. I'm worried about I forget his name, but your guy
who left EA and then went and fucked up you, you know, like
yeah, John, yeah, yeah, there's always place for you know,
someone to kind of seek end somewhere and get someone else that or you know,
he buys a football team or hunt a doubt goesn't work in banking or
something like that. You know, I don't. I don't think he's done
forever. You know, he probably has enough money to be done forever,
but you know, not to see anything about greed or anything like that.
But yeah, I don't all I'm interested. I wonder if there's been a
single like firing towards any like as so far of any of us. You
know, early on, there were some people who definitely left, and I
can't remember they were explicitly fired, but it was it was obvious at the
time that there was some cleaning of the house, and a lot of that
was like people wanting to disassociate from Activision to like, I worked here at
the time, but I don't want to take any responsiblity for this. I
was not involved in any of this culture. I'm gonna leave, take my
money from Blizzard, for example, and go start my own studio. And
you know, part of that was also like, hey, we hate working
for Activision. The Blizzard era or the Activision era of Blizzard is fully here
and that sucks. But also all of these allegations have come out and it's
not great to work here. Anymore. And so we saw a ton of
people leave and go start their own things. And then a handful of people
were definitely like, no, this person is trash. And many of them
had already left and they I think they saw some repercussions at their next job,
but I don't think many of them did. It's really depressing when you
think about it in those terms of Okay, yeah, they're going to pay
a speeding ticket here the people responsible, it's hard to track down like whether
or not they actually paid any price, and the industry is just going to
keep marching on making more Call of Duty games. It's a bit of a
bummer in those terms. The CRD did put out a statement of its own,
saying Activision Blizzard will take additional steps to help ensure fair pay and promotion
practices at the company and provide monetary relief to women who are employees or contract
workers in California between October twelfth, twenty fifteen, and December thirty first,
twenty twenty A representative for the agency wrote, the agreement is still subject to
court approval, so not quite done yet. Yeah, and just like to
put it in perspective. In twenty twenty one, the state of California estimated
Activisions liability in these instances was nearly one billion dollars. So and put in
an even more perspective the very low Riot game settlement, the one that was
everyone's like, this isn't good enough. The one hundred million dollars, This
is even less than that. And as big as Riot is, Activision actually
even bigger. Uh so does feel like they're getting away with something here to
a certain extent. And then he just cald you and make it a year.
Yeah, and then they put they put it out on a Friday night
too, right, Scott. And it's like this is a story almost like
slipped through the for most people. But glad we got a chance to talk
about it here. All right, let's move on. Elder Ring's first expansion
could release in February. It's claim. This comes from Andy Robinson at vgc
ellen Ring. Elden Rings Shadow of the Urge Tree expansion could release in February
twenty twenty four, according to a retail listing. As captured by a Reddit
post. Retailer data Blitz briefly uploaded alleged details on the upcoming elder Ring themed
controllers from Thrustmaster. The website page claimed that the controllers would be released in
February twenty twenty four to two, you sync with the new Shadow of the
Ur Tree expansion release and Eldering's second anniversary. Again, there's a little bit
more here, Scott. But when you hear that, does that like registers?
That could be real? That could happen because for me, like a
lot of times, hey, things get put into retail websites all the time
by people who don't know anything, and you know, not they should know
anything, but they just are putting in their saving a spot for something and
they just put in a random date. This one seems a little bit more
plausible, except for February's not very far And if if that was happening,
I would have expected this DLC to show up at the Game Awards or something
like that. I don't know, what do you think. I I was
shocked that doesn't show up at the Game Awards. I mean, I'm pretty
sure every major from software thing in the last well at least five or six
years, whatever Saker was announced has been a JF Keelly event, right,
and then the elder Ring reveal at you know re reveal at the Summer Game
Fest or whatever it was was very successful them that that worked really well,
you would expect them to return. I agree, But it sounds if you
just said to me on paper, not thinking about, oh it's two months
away or whatever, just thinking about it. Elden Ring DLC twenty four February.
In my mind, that makes sense. But now that you've pointed out,
you know, we've heard nothing since whenever it was announced, it kind
of it is a bit less plausible that being said, February's packed off already,
Please don't. Yeah, I know what you mean, Like, there
are a ton of things happening very quickly next year. I can't remember who
it was. So someone on Twitter mentioned like, Hey, I was just
going through the games I want to play in the first quarter of next year,
and I'm going to need help, Like this is crazy already, and
it feels like more games could get dated for the for the first three to
six months of twenty or twenty twenty. Is it really gonna be twenty twenty
four? What a fucked up year? So yeah, I don't need a
massive expansion from elder Ring distracted me from all that. At the same time,
boy, am I ready for that, because I've been like thinking about
elden Ring a lot recently. It's like I would like to get back into
that. I should just wait for the DLC though. That'll be great and
I expect it to be pretty massive. I mean that they do, you
typically do relatively large, large scale DLC. Feels like they are taking extra
time on this one to do even more and that could be really big for
elder Ring, a game that was already very successful. If it's not in
February, I guess at a certain point that starts to feel like Man Eldering
came out a long time ago and we're still waiting for the DLC. At
the very least, we probably hear about this in the first couple of months
and next year, right, Yeah, I mean, but how long ago
was Cyberpunk? That was about three years ago now as well. So it's
like, yeah, when when you think about it like that, when you
think about it as an expansion rather than a DLC or something that makes a
bit more sense. I mean, I believe there was a cool about it
being like the size of Bloodborne or something like that, which is wild,
you know, uh huh. Plus I don't I don't know if I must
read this, but I believe in I'm not. Can I slide shoe?
They mentioned something else happening in twenty five in regards to elden Ring, which
like, if that isn't the only DLC, that seems like what is from
Software doing otherwise? You know, yes, when is the next you know,
elden Ring or the next Soul's game or the next secu roll. Yeah,
I'm not going to say blood Born too, because it's not that never
happened. They forgot they made that, Like what's that game? Yeah,
you know, games are taking longer to make, but at a certain point,
you know, From Software has done a pretty decent job of staying on
a relatively frequent cadence. You know, they did have Armored corese six last
year from this year. Still it's still twenty twenty three, and that was
like, you know, another team inside there. But yeah, it's okay,
the Elder Ring DLC is gonna come out, and it probably will still
take four to five years after that for the next like Miyazaki game, I
suppose. Uh so, yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to playing this and
then also looking forward to see what else they might be doing. If they
have more happening with elden Ring this this year, you know, this next
twelve months, I should say, uh yeah, that would be a lot.
And I g I guess at a certain point that makes sense because games
are taking so much longer, giving more to elder Ring and helping like softening
soften that blow of having to wait so much longer, that could be very
beneficial and people would probably appreciate that. I just hope that it's like you
can just go do it from you're saved. You don't have to do the
blood Borne thing or the Dark Souls thing. We need to play through the
game to a certain point, the l need to you know, let's just
what we can just press a button and go, Yeah, that's that'd be
you know, I mean at a certain point. Yeah, I think all
these expansions should be expand alones, just the standalone DLC at a certain point,
do the Miles Morales route. But that they haven't done that before,
and it's like I would expect like things to be trending always in that,
but we see like Pokemon used to basically do that, like they would have
the third game that was for all intents and purposes, DLC for the previous
gen and then they would just put that out as a standalone game, and
now they've moved towards no, it's just DLC for the game you already own,
and that seems to be working out fine for them. So as much
as I'm like, I love the idea of expand a loans, I don't
think it's necessary. Obviously a lot of people still buy DLC, and I
guess it's the proof, the biggest proof of that. Cyberpunk this year a
huge success with Phantom Liberty. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break.
When we get back. We got a lot more news. I should
say, I shouldn't say a lot more. It's gonna be a slow week
the holidays. Here. We got some more news. Look at all that
right after this. All right, we're back, and I have I have
a question. What is red and what is green? And I'm basing that
on this new video footage of Mario sixty four multiplayer that it's not leaked,
it was resurfaced and it was actually, oh my god, this is actually
got shown off to the public. The story is from Andy Robinson at VGC
to the headline, first ever Mario sixty four Luigi footage seemingly discovered via old
VHS tape. I'm not convinced it's Luigi, but we'll get into that.
Twenty six years after its release, the first ever footage appearing to show in
early Super Mario sixty four multiplayer mode with Luigi has been discovered. The footage
was spotted in a video quietly uploaded to YouTube last month, which contains rare
VHS footage showing Nintendo's nineteen ninety five Japanese Space World Show, where it showcased
the Nintendo sixty four for the first time. One second's long snippet of footage
appears to show off offscreen gameplay of both Mario and Luigi in early version of
Super Mario sixty four. If authentic, it's the first documented time Luigi has
been seen in the classic n sixty four game, outside of a high profile
twenty forty leak of classic Nintendo game files, which included a model for the
character. Even if this is not Luigi, this is still footage of the
multiplayer mode that Miamotos talked about before. I might be able to bring it
up here, but yeah, this this is pretty wild that still all these
years later, we can find documents like this and it could get uploaded to
YouTube and no one notices it for a month. Scott, how you finding
this? I think this is super interesting? What do you think this is?
So? I you know, I love Marius sexty four. I love
the community of Marius sixty four is very unhinged. So when the model in
that gegaleague from like what three years ago came out, that was you know,
that seemed crazy? Yes, So this is like another level, like
this is how how does this happen? You know what? Twenty eight years
ago? And they're like looking at it. It's there like and no one
noticed for that long. But I mean they said it. They said,
oh, we're gonna we wanted to do is it a dd? They wanted
to do the multiplayer if fourteen? Yeah, I bet they did, yes,
And I mean you're right, you're right. We have the Luigi model
that is real, that was in the Giga League, So I mean it's
definitely something they considered and it makes sense at a certain point, like they're
probably just testing a bunch of ideas. But they made this game in what
like eighteen months two years. They flew through development on this, so I
bet there was a lot of ideas that that got proposed and were quickly cut.
So, yeah, this is a pretty wild thing still that we're seeing
this. I I don't want to like dump in it because I think this
is so cool. But with this game be a good co op game,
no, I think that's probably it would have been really difficult. Actually,
for yeah, it probably would not have run. I mean, especially it
was like split screen early on. I mean, we've seen there's a great
YouTuber who I'm not gonna be able to remember the name of, but if
you google this you'll be able to find it who is basically reworked and optimized
Mario sixty four to run much faster on the N sixty four original hardware,
and they're getting, you know, forty five to almost sixty frames per second
sometimes for a game they ran nowhere near that because it was so unoptimized.
Again, because they made it so quickly and kind of had to slap it
together here. Let me uh, yeah, that the PC kind of not
a fecional pcport obviously, but the PC port that showed up during kind of
COVID time, there were like mods for that that court made it core I
think, and that was that was cool. I don't know, I probably
shouldn't publicly at met too. I've never played a moded PC port of Zumara
sixty four just in case, you know, you know, that seems it
seems like the type of thing that would have run really well and been really
cool and you know, been maybe my favorite way to play the game since.
But if if you know, if i'd played it well, game though,
you know, I still remarkable how much Marier sixty four as age twel
Yeah, I agree. It's like for being like that first idea of like
what three D gaming could be, like, they really nailed it right out
of the gate to the point where it still really does matter all these years
later, right, I think Nintendo has such a knack for that, Like
okay, the first first three D game they really made Marius sexty four blew
out of the war first open world games that really made one of the best
of all time, Like they can't keep gang away with it. As what
I'm saying exactly, Yes, totally, it's still my favorite one. I
think now here, let's see here the other thing that I want wanted to
play. It's like, okay, so people think this is Luigi, and
I could see because it like does look green at a certain point, but
this is VHS, and I don't know at first in the video here and
not see I can wind it up again. When he's doing the spin jump,
he actually looks red still, and then when he lands it kind of
suddenly turns green. But also it kind of looks a bit transparent too,
like but that could be like the color shifting of the VHS, like smudging
after all these years. So it looks green here, but part of me
is like, I don't know, like that, like the red from the
tile behind him is like bleeding through the hat in some way, so I
can see it. I don't know. I'll post the here's the Luigi models
on the chat if anyone wants to compare. But you know, I can
see it, right, I do think that is Luigi, but I don't
know. Right, it's very much the is the dress blue or whatever?
Gold sort of thing happened in here. We'll make a pool. This would
be today's poll question. Well, I'll see if I can get a picture
of this uh and put it in the poll. I think YouTube can do.
Put a picture poles uh, Okay, yeah, so I mean,
at the very least, this is really neat. And also I just love
any footage from Space World. I was such a Nintendo nerd as a kid
and always wanted to go to Nintendo Space World in Japan where which is basically
like their own E three that they had, and so seeing what it was
like is always very fun for me, and they should bring it back so
I can actually go make that dream come true. Uh, okay, let's
go here, all right. Zelda producer shuts down the idea of a Zelda
style Mario Maker game. This is from my Nintendo News. A Zelda style
Mario Maker game would be great fun, and Polygon asked the all important question,
why haven't we got one. Speaking to Polygon, the Legend of Zelda
producer ag Alnuma told the site that it's not something they have been considering,
as although the Legend of Ald Tiers of the Kingdom had the building mechanics,
they don't want to make creativity a requirement when we're creating games like Tiers of
the Kingdom. I think it's important that we don't make creativity a requirement.
Instead, we put those things into the game that encourage people to be creative
and give them the opportunity to be creative without forcing them to. But when
asked directly about a Mario Maker style game for Zelda, Alnuma had an interesting
answer about the nature of Zelda games and what they offer to players. There
are people who want the ability to create from scratch, but that's not everyone,
I think, and everyone delights in the discovery of finding your own way
through a game, and that is something we tried to make sure that we
included in Tiers of the Kingdom. There isn't one right way to play.
If you are a creative person, you have the ability to go down that
path, but that's not what you have to do. You are also able
to proceed to the game in many other different ways, and so I don't
think that it would be a good fit for the legend of Zelda to necessarily
require people to build things from scratch and force them to be creative. Does
that answer a vibe with you? Do you? Does that register with you?
I think my answer is a question. Maybe sure. I don't know
if we can make this a poll. The lengths Awakening remake, did anyone
touch that Dungeon Maker? Yeah? I played it? Like ten minutes I
tried it. I think there was some stuff you had to do to unlock
a few things, and it's not great. It feels very very limited,
and like yeah, in terms of limited, both in what you could do
and how much fun you can have, I think and theory. You know,
oh a maker is cool. You know, it's like, oh,
yeah, we can make a Zelda, but can you make a Zelda?
You know? Okay, so either do the dungeon maker like links Awakening,
which doesn't really work, or you can do you know, would you make
a full game? Like where does it stop with Zelda Maker? Yeah,
I guess that's the question. And I see why people think it's possible,
right, because it's, oh, it's a tile base, so you used
to like, you know, smash different tiles together. But you're right,
links Awaken the shows that they I mean, maybe maybe they could do more
to make it more fun, but it's at a certain point it's not a
problem worth solving because I think this answer is generally generally right, that most
people want to play new games in the Zelda series, not necessarily make their
own, or even play weird ones made by their friends. And it's if
you enable if you empower players with enough tools to make wacky Zelda stuff.
At a certain point, it's going to not a certain point very quickly,
it's going to stop feeling like a Zelda. And then you start asking,
what's the point? Uh, you know, Mario Maker, It's like,
oh, this stuff can kind of feel like within the realm of a Mario
platforming level, and some of them even gets outside of that. But Mario
can be a lot of things. There are certain expectations result that I think
would quickly get sullied and not that I would be upset, but I just
it's like, it wouldn't feel like Zelda. So what's the point? Does
that sound right to you? Yeah? I mean how long into Zelda Maker
being out does it turn into like the top courses are all like here's how
you can listen to I don't know, the SpongeBob tem tune and Zelda Maker
and it's like an a scroll or like here's like five hundred enemies on the
screen at once, try to survive. Well, like that's what Mario Maker
quickly devolved into. Yeah, I don't really think you can do that as
easily as Zelda, but I just I don't. It's such a it's cool
and theory that doesn't work. Not like someone mentioned in the chat a Mega
man maker, like that makes more sense, you know, but Zelda's a
bit too grandiose and too kind of you know, there's too much that goes
into a Zelda for it to really work and not feel like kind of half
asked kind of thing, you know, because it either just beat dungeons or
would be like impossible to do, you know. Yep, yeah, I
agree, and uh what really, at the end of the day, what
I want is for igl Numa and uh the director of Tiers the Kingdom Breath
the while Fujibayashi to keep going down the route that they're on, being happy,
like to explore more possibilities in open world, you know, fully open
Zelda, and then I want Nintendo to find either other other partners or other
teams inside of Nintendo to make spiritual successors to a link between worlds, which
is like one of the best playing games of all time. I don't need
them to like do all these other weird offshoots unless it's going to be like
the you know, the Rhythm game, uh, you know, crypt of
the Necro Dancer with the high role hustles when I want to call it,
that's not the name, uh, but yeah, like some like fun offshoots
from from like Indie Partners, something that I imagined they were going to do
more of at the time, and they haven't done do that stuff. You
don't have to like replicate Maker and all these other franchises. Turns out out
Mario was the right one for that, and we can move on. We
can just go back and play Mario Maker two like that will We'll be fine.
I wonder what was the team who that the a Krena and Joe's mass
remakes? Dude, you know what was the team that likes Awakening doing the
same team Link's Awakening? Was Grezo? And I want to I think maybe
the Grezo did those other two, but I'm not I actually have no memories.
I don't think I ever knew, but I think that could be right
and Grezo taking on Like, Okay, we've done a bunch of these remasters
slash remakes at this point, and we've learned about learned a lot about how
Zelda works. We've worked directly with a Nintendo e ad producer that is has
overseen Zelda before so what if we tried to make something new that was like
a sequel to like that. I mean, people want traditional Zelda. This
is the way to do it. Just make it. Like Okay, so
we had link a link, link to the past, a link between worlds,
and now a new game in that mold once again, and now this
time it's from Grezo. I would be very happy with that. But I
mean they had a Mark Creesteam do the remake of Metroid right exactly androidredgs,
you know, so like and there, I mean, if you think about
it, we don't know, but come on, they're probably making a new
Metroid, right, yeah, I would hope. So, so yeah,
that's exactly what I want from Zelda. But then it kind of leaves where
does the free D games go? You know, where's that kind of metal?
You know, where's the Okarna and Majora's mask and all that. Goal
They probably do a remake of ochera of time before we get the next major
Zelda release, right, because that's going to be so long, and I
don't know, it makes a lot of allowed to mention AND's Wiley Princess,
Yeah we can. I don't know why they don't just release those HD versions,
but they haven't, so yeah, that would be ideal as well if
we can get those on Switch at the very least, But son of a
bitch, Nintendo hates me, so they're not going to do that all right.
Zelda Boss is excited about net Nintendo console and what new things it can
do. This is from Eddie McCoo at Game Spot. Nintendo will eventually make
another hardware platform and there will eventually be another Zelda game for it. Neither
are one hundred percent confirmed, of course, but both are some of the
safest bets anyone can make. Zelda producer agi al Numa has now discussed at
a high level what Nintendo's designers think about when tackling new hardware. Speaking to
Polygon, Anumo, who has worked on the Zelda series for decades and has
been part of the team during multiple console transitions, laid out some of the
areas that Nintendo focuses on. He said, Nintendo's designers think about things like
what can what can we do that's new, what will be what will we
be able to do, and what kind of new themes will we be able
to explore? And so I think rather than focusing on the past when we're
changed. When we've changed from one console to another, it's more than a
feeling of saying goodbye. It's a feeling of excitement. It's about what we
will be, what will be the new things that we'll be able to do.
I this is why where I'm still very excited, because hey, the
switch I love. But at a certain point, you know that a team
like the Zelda team was looking at a variety of physics and simulation things that
they wanted to try, and they got They packed a ton in there.
I still think about the way the chains work in Tiers of the Kingdom and
being mesmerized by that and seeing a lot of other I've seeing developers who were
like, this is crazy that they put this in this game because it's so
unreliable in so many games like it shows a level of confidence, but it's
like, imagine what they could do if they had a little bit more power,
next gen console power, and not just in terms of visuals, but
in terms of physics simulation. So I'm very much looking forward to this,
But do you expect them to take like obvious advantage of a new system or
is it just going to be like, man, now that we got brought
to the Volunteers of the Kingdom. They are going to stay in this rut
for a while. What do you expect? I think the biggest thing I
expect is when the game gets revealed, it's going to have an art style,
and everyone's going to be expecting, you know, they're like, this
is what graphics will look like in twenty thirteen minutes La Twilight Princess, Like
you know, it's going to be It's going to be an art style.
It's not going to be like some amazing graphical powerhouse, because, like you
said, they love these like weird physics things and these weird like interactions.
That stuff seems more important if they keep I think keeping the spirit of those
two games is important if they want to continue doing it. But I do
maybe agree. I think it was Alnumas said that the next game isn't going
to be like Breath of the Wild, Free Usual the Kingdom Do. It's
going to be you know, it's going to be something new. But you
know, I feel like it's what do you do at this point? You
know, because like there's not really you know, you need to kind of
keep this going because these are the most popular Zelda games now, yeah,
you need to. I mean a lot of people still complain, Oh,
it's the same map from Breath of the World, even though you know there's
a lot of differences there. So I feel like, I don't know,
maybe they take it somewhere new, Maybe they take it out of Hirol.
Maybe I don't really know. But yeah, Mike was speculating like like a
win Waker spiritual successor to put it back on the ocean. That could be
cool, just something they need, something big to kind of say, Okay,
you know, we know you're tired of this same high roll. Here's
yeah, like the ocean or like the links awakening dream World to place,
you know, like something different. But I think if they keep they need
to find like a new physics gimmick, you know. I think that's gonna
be the big thing from Zelda going on. Like before it was like here's
the new items and dungeons. The new one is, here's this big new
like power you can use, you know, here's building cars or I don't
know, give Link a gun or something. Yeah, I mean, finally
he needs a gun. Just give a magnum. I've been saying, Detective
Pikachu the games, if they had him chain smoking and gave him a gun
ten times better. Yep. Game of the Year for sure. I'm right
there with you. I think when I look at the limitations that are obvious
and Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, it is, Oh,
they made these worlds very sparsely populated for a reason, like they built
that into the lore. But it's because they didn't want to overtax the switch
in any way. And I think having a more populated world and maybe having
better AI so that you can do more with the NPC characters and they feel
more alive and more responsive, that seems like a path they could go down.
But again it's like, hey, that they're not going to do something
that's going to completely derail them from the path they're on right now, so
suddenly the same time, it will be years and years before we get this
next game. You know, the weight between Breath of the Wild to Tiers
of the Kingdom was six almost seven years, right, So kind of looking
at them like, if it's that way again, the world could be very
different, So they might have to be thinking outside the bocket, some box,
in some grand way if they want to make sure that the investment that
it's going to take will be worth their time, all right? See if
Stars surpasses four million players in less than four months. This came as a
pressure release this morning. I figure you just kind of talk about, hey,
this was in h Xbox game Pass, was it also? I think
it was also in PlayStation Plus. Yeah, it was in the PlayStation Plus
extra and premium tiers, and and they got you know, four million players,
and that that's that's not like four million sales. That counts people who
played it in those things. That's that's pretty good. Right. Are we
feeling good about these numbers for games that are in these services and are able
to rack up millions of players? Or should they be even bigger? I
in a year like this, I feel like, see, this is the
best chance for CEA Stars to be on game Pass or PlayStation Plus, you
know, because the word I moved from that game was incredible. But you
know, we've got uh when we see the Stars. That was August,
so you had bold Esgate fore Starfield come out, even though that was you
know, sit and then you had the October Batch coming you know, so
in a year like that, yes, I think this is very good for
costars. I think maybe last year where it was about Choir, it could
have been like a Celeste kind of thing, where like you know, Cstars
probably would have been up for the Game of the Year Game of last year,
you know. So you know, I think as goods, but I
just I don't know. Yeah, I think it. I think that's just
its best bet this year. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot
of people were playing on the Switch though, because it seems like a switch
game. You know, You're right. I think it's still sold very well
because of that, right, like those it got a lot of players on
those other platforms and probably sold very well on the Switch. I think the
thing that always throws me off is it takes two sold like seven million copies,
and I'm not, like, man, that's is that the level that
we can expect for some of these games. And it's like, I know,
I think that was an anomaly. Obviously one Game of the Year and
that field some of that, But it was selling before or selling well even
before all that. So when I think look at numbers, it's it's easy
to be like, hey, these comparisons feel off, but no, like
See of Stars is a different thing, has a very much narrower appeal at
first, And so the fact that it's able to have success by going on
game Pass, bey on PlayStation Plus, and then selling one on the Switch
reaching four million players, that's good and it's someone to chat pointed out,
and I missed the name. When you are going to pitch your next game
and you're looking for investment from publishers or whatever, saying the last game had
four million players is going to be very helpful in making games going forward.
And then also being able to get your games in game Pass and PlayStation Plus
going forward, that also helps. And if you had one success in there,
those companies tend to be like, hey, yeah, if you want
to come back and do your next one the same way, we are more
than open to that. And the fact that you've got so many players,
maybe we're going to pay you even better. So they put this out as
a press release. They seem very happy with it. I think it's interesting.
I don't know if I can think of any other game that launched day
one on both PS Plus and game Pass. I can either maybe something that
you know the word, or when something comes out in game Pass the word
I know if you know what's restricted the people to XBOXSA xbots and PC.
When it's only in Place Plus it's you know, restricted to PlayStation owners.
But now it's like everyone can jump down, like you know, no matter
of walk constantly you're on, this game is here. It's free for most
of you, or it's free, you know. But I think that's maybe
an interesting experiment. I think they may see more of that going forward.
I mean obviously some people will probably have like exclusive deals and all that,
but right I'm interested to see if this makes more people put games out on
both by saying that, I mean, was it Stray? Was it a
Day one PS plus title as well? So? Yeah, I think so
something in the PS plus war that does. I don't know. Yeah,
I think PS plus has always been able to give games that extra juice when
when you know, Rocket League is the one, the earliest one I think
of watching on PS plus and then to turn it into a phenomenon. Obviously
a big part of that is it's a very good game, but PS plus
can certainly have I think that out of the gate benefit to a game,
even more so than Game Pass, where it's like, yeah, part of
game pass great. This is why game pass is great with PS plus.
It feels like if it's if it pops off on there, it's like,
oh, that's because this is a great game. I know it's like a
small difference, and maybe it's just in my head, but that's how I
feel about it. Concept art from seemingly canceled Time Splitter's reboot appears online and
it's not the game is canceled, but it seems like these are from that
Time splitter canceled reboot. This from Jordan Midler at VGC. Following the likely
cancelation of the Time Splitter's reboot and confirmed closure of developer Free Radical, alleged
images and assets from the project have started to appear online. Free Radical was
closed this month, just two years after it was established as part of a
huge company wide as part of huge company wide cuts and Embracer and its owned
publishers. Now following the closure, assets fur its game have seemingly started to
appear on the art station pages of various artists who worked on the times Splitters
reboot, as collected by the community maintained Free Radical wiki. And these things
are you know, mostly just like level art and stuff like that. A
lot of it was collected on reset era, but you know, it looks
pretty good. I think you know, it's concept art, so we can
only glean so much from it. But at certain point it's like, man,
trying to get a shooter going these days is difficult. How do you
make it stand out? And at a certain point, just saying it's times
Twitter, so we're going to go back to all these familiar settings, that
feels like a tough hurdle to overcome. But I was still looking forward to
this game. It's kind of a bummer and this make you feel any certain
kind of way seeing art like this, Oh, I think you might be
muted the way around. Sorry, it's weird. I think tames Players is
in like a weird kind of place because like anyone who is there at the
time has such a great fullness for Thames Players. Yes, definitely, if
you release a game and sway it's ready for you called tames Players for or
whatever? Is it there? Like are the people there is? You know,
does the as the markets still there? And then obviously they were talking
about it started off as like a Fortnight clone, but then you also run
into the wall of there's fifty Fortnights out now, how many of them survive.
You know, would it be another Radical Heights or would it just be
like another title Fall two where it's like how people love it and then you
know it kind of goes away. Is it's a shame. It's it's tough
because I don't think there was any winning for them, Like a lot of
people would have loved to see this, including myself. You know, it's
not like Okay, I'm got I. This is a bigger issue of you
know, Embracer. Being Embracer is the real real problem here. You know,
imagine like buying up a bunch of companies on a deal that wasn't done
yet. Like it's like this year has been bad, but Embracer groups like
you know, another level entirely here and it's like what two weeks before you
know, the holidays and they're they're laid off an entire studio, you know,
done yet they probably have more happening before the this year. That's the
scary thing. A studio that's been arouns as well, like late nineties.
I want to say, you know, people like how does this happen?
You know, how does like a mess up on this level happen? As
like you know what we've seen with Embrasier group. You know, yep,
it's it's tough, it's it's it's frustrating, and uh, I think that
when we try to figure out what was happening with Embracer, those sad things,
it's going to be like, well, it was the thing everyone kind
of felt in their gut, Like every time this would come, we would
talk about, oh, an acquisition from Embracer on various shows or various stories.
I would write and be like, well, well, you know,
they haven't really stated what their what their strategy is, and everyone's wondering,
like, well, they're just going to try to make a bunch of these
games of what's going on here, and it's like, well, they had
not really thought about it beyond like it would be good to be bigger.
That's all. They thought. It would be good to be bigger because then
you could do more, and what is more was never well, don find
because they didn't really know. There's just a new that bigger would be better
for them in some vague way, and it's like, okay, but that
seems pretty risky, especially if anything changes in the macro economic situation, and
it did and immediately fell apart to the point where there is no coming back
from Embracer. So yeah, this is a continue continuing, tough situation and
one that would have been avoidable had there had more thought been put into it.
As like far as Timesplitters like as a game and a concept, I
do think about like those New Blood games, the boomer shooters on Steam that
have a strong like visual identity, and like you look at it like,
Okay, I know what they're going for. They're trying to be like Due
Nucum. They're trying to be like Rise of the Triad or they literally are
Rise of the Triad, and I have a certain affinity for that stuff.
I'm ready to show up. It feels like we are working our way up
to being able to do that same sort of concept of Hey, a independent
studio is going to take on this kind of game that you like from your
youth, and they're going to do it with a lot of character and a
lot of style. And when I look at the art for this, I
don't get that sense. This feels like, hey, just try to make
a triple a times Twitter's modern game, and it's like, I don't know
if that makes a ton of sense. These days that would have been tough
to pull off. So hey, I'm sad that this game isn't happening,
but at certain points, like man that would have been a tough thing to
pull off. I mean, who has pulled off outside of Befezda. I
mean that far Shadow Warrior was really good. Yeah, sure, then the
rest of Shadow Warrior was quite well. I don't know a bit too about
three was pretty rough. But other than that, it's been like dooming Wolfenstein
and no one else is really kinda had to. Yeah, in terms of
these like legacy franchises obviously about stuff like Proteus and what was the one that
year Tarbo Overkill Overkill, Yes, exactly, So like there is a market
there, but I don't know if there's a triple a market there outside of
Doom and Wolfenstein. Yeah, and it's uh, I think Wolfenstein requires like
this certain amount of extra and Doom like they both like figured out their lane
and they went hard at it, and maybe Time Twitters could have done this.
That could have done the same thing, but it would have been very
challenging. Like you're not getting a Doom or a Wolfenstein every couple of months
from a bunch of different developers. It's one or two studios that really understand
it, and I think it would have been tough for this new free radical
to figure that out in a way that would have been wholly satisfying. But
again I would it's a shame they don't get a chance to try, all
right. Goddess and Goddess Wars has been removed from Steam. This is from
Brendan Sinclair at Games Industry Dot is Twenty two Cans has pulled Goddess and Goddess
Wars from sale on Steam in an announcement posted across both titles steam pages on
Thursday. The company attributed the removal to changes from a business partner. Regrettably,
due to an upcoming technical change to Amazon Web Services affecting our ability to
serve necessary game files to new users, these titles are to be withdrawn from
the Steam Store, the company said. Twenty two Cans said those who already
have the game will be able to continue to play them. Goddess Lea launched
on Steam Early Access in step September twenty thirteen. Jesus and the more combat
centric spin off, Goddess Wars followed on Steam Early Access in February twenty sixteen.
Neither Goddess nor Goddess Wars ever left Early Access on Steam, and they
both mostly have negative reviews on the platform. Peter malin who says that you
could still play Goddess on mobile where it's performing very well or really well.
He says, who knows this? Why I just brought this up because I
think about Peter Malinu sometimes. I know he's got some new Web three thing
he's working on that feels like whatever. I don't want to pay attention to
that. But man, the promise of Peter Malinu going out on his own
and trying something, and this being the Goddess being the result of that tapping
game where he kept on the cube Curiosity I think it was called, and
then the last player to tap on the last piece of the cube would get
the help inform what happened with Goddess, And I was like, man,
there were so many ideas about making games happening throughout the crowdfunding era and all
these things that you could do in the early access early parts of the early
Access era, and none of it came to fruition. And it was just
like, Okay, this was all a pretty bad idea. Do you have
any fondness for Goddess or this era of Peter Malineu. When I sent the
rundown today, I was like, what is Goddess? I remembered I remember
the Cube, I remember the Cube poppening, and I remember Goddess technically,
but Goddess Wars nothing. I I can't blind Peter Molineu in my head for
a while. So when I heard that it was making like a web free
game, it was like, no, that track. Yeah, I don't
know. I feel I feel bad for the guy who tapped on the cube.
You know, what's what's Where's has money going? You know Where's has
has our? Has a piece of art? Goddess going? But I don't
know. I didn't Did you play Goddess? No? I never played Goddess.
I'd like intended to try it out, and it was like another bummer
where it's like, now this just seems like a bad situation. Did anyone
play Goddess in the show? People like had some nice things to say about
Goddess Wars, but it was like I think it was always in comparison to
be like, oh well this is better than just straight Goddess. So hey,
well, that's a nice thing to say about this, and that was
it. But I don't think I actually like that either. Why thirteen was
maybe a good year for it when you know, the Semsei stuff had just
happened, and I think if it was gonna blow off, it would have
been then. Yeah. You know, now we have like Frontier and stuff
like that, but these like you know, good SETI Builders and good God
games and stuff like that. You know, So I don't really know if
it had a chance. I don't know. Maybe it took about too long
because is it still an early access? I never left it never left early
access? Yep. Yeah, I mean kind of tell us the whole story
right there, right where it's like they never really found a way to believe
in it as a real product. Last story here, Max Pain starred James
McCaffrey has died at sixty five after battling cancer. James McCaffrey, an actor
best known for a voice seeing the popular video game character Max Pain, has
died after a battle with cancer. That's according to TMZ, but now we
see that Remedy has also put out a post about this. He worked.
He was an actor for a very long time. Thirty five years, but
probably best known as Max Pain. He also did the voice of who's the
character? Now Wakey did the voice of Alex Casey. Thank you Alex Casey.
So yeah, you probably just heard him in a game. This is
a real shame. Rest in peace to James McCaffrey. Did did you hear
about this news this morning? How to hit you? So? I heard
it this morning, but there was like some questioning, right, confusion about
it this morning? Yeah, like someone I saw a post. It was
like, oh, someone, I think someone's wrong. Remedype is maybe like,
oh we haven't heard anything. Yeah, no, I mean, what
can you say? It's gotting. You know, he's phenomenal, phenomenal voice
actor. I haven't I can't say I've seen any of his live action stuff,
but even from Max Pain, Control and now Wake Too, it's like,
you know what, even like his voice is so iconic, you know,
like, yeah, I know, I know, Alex Casey's kind of
meant to be like a Max Pain but not really a thing. But you
know it was good at doing that. You know, he was a very
good actor. Interesting, you know how all that kind of happened, you
know, all the Alex Casey, Max Pain stuff. I wonder, actually,
are they not remaking Max pain? They are remaking Max Pain? Yeah,
I think they They're making Max Pain one and two, right, I
think that's how it's going down. Hm. So isn't that kind of a
real shame? I mean, who knows what the solution is there? And
may you know, it's a bummer in terms of thinking about preserving James McAffrey
to work and and honoring it and hopefully there's a way to do that.
But you know, right now, it's like just a shame that the man
has gone after such a good and long career. Is that kind of you
know David Bowie thing, were like, he just he just puts something out,
you know, he was just done a game, you know, it's
exactly. Yeah. I did remember watching American Splendor and being like, why
do I know this guy? And then being like, oh no, that's
James McCaffrey. Is this like kind of side character in the middle of this
HBO movie? So yeah, it was like cool to see him occasionally in
some live action stuff, all right. And he definitely did a lot of
acting a bunch of different roles, so he's been in a lot of things,
all right. I got a pull question from some time in the past.
Let me bring that up. Actually, before I do that, what
do you tell people? Scott where people where people could find you? What
you have going on? All that good stuff? So you can fight me
on Twitter? S McCrae underscore because I couldn't get the s McCraney. What
do you do? I'm all over the place. My news stuff is mirrored
ut Cody UK, Forward Slash Gaming. That's wherein I write news and a
bunch of reviews. I've just had an interview with Harada from Teching Project go
up on their YouTube channel, which you know what, I will maybe link
in there in the chat somewhere. But you know, Twitter is probably the
best place to find me. You'll find you will find my I'll post the
stuff I can curate what people see. You know, you'll see you too,
about god hand a lot. Someone's saying, don't ask Harrada shit about
tech, and he told me, don't ask me for shit. I got
them to say it. I said the word street fighter across Teching and he
was like, nope, So you know we did it. But yeah,
I don't know. Twitter is the best place you'll find me on a start
menu today with the best Game of the year list you're ever going to see.
So, yeah, the real, real game of the year, the
real game of the year. You know, no one can tell me any
differently, you know. So, yes, True Fighter Sex is the best
game of twenty three club we all agree, But yeah, I don't know.
I keep saying tw Twitter is the best place divide me. I refuse
to call it the other name. Oh yeah, sure, but I hate
the way it feels coming in my mouth. I did it once and never
again. Yeah, I've refused. We had we had the discussion and the
new and the news group like, so what do we do here? And
I was like, just keep going it, just keep going on Twitter.
Yeah, we're not We're not acknowledging it. We're not. Did you see
the Sonic the Hedgehog thing where it was like the voice actors doing one of
those like live Q and A's on Twitter and they were dogging on it.
So you know, when you're getting made funnel by Sonic, if you are
like a punching bag for Sonic the Hedgehog, you've fucked up big time.
Absolutely all right, I got pull question. Let's see here. Do you
want a multiplayer Spider Verse game from Insomniac in addition to Spider Man three and
Wolver Rang. Do we do this one? Alre? You know what?
Who cares? Twenty percent said yes, eighty percent said no. Yeah,
that's uh. I would. Yeah, we did, We did do this.
I refreshed. Maybe I didn't put up the last poll question, so
all right, we'll move. We we'll do two tomorrow. Everybody, Yeah,
never did the new one? Okay, well we'll fix that, all
right. New poll question? Is that Mario RhE or is it Mario or
is it Luigi in that thing? And again, I'll try to figure out
how to post a picture along with it so everyone can see it. If
not, I'll just link to the video so people can watch that, and
we'll get that posted and we'll talk about that on Game Mess Mornings on Wednesday
here on Giant Bomb. I think we'll do I think we'll do one on
Wednesday and not on Thursday or Fridays. Then we'll be done for the rest
of the week, and we got other things happening Thursday. But there will
least be one more Game Mess Mornings this year. We'll discuss that here.
Speaking of Giant Bomb, what else do we have going on. We should
have a couple of things popping off this week. I think we'll try to
do a Blight Club still, and then we're gonna be prepping a few things
for the rest of the year. I got a lot of guest lists coming
in Game of the Year Guest List. Those will be going up over the
holiday break, so look out for all that. Marina's got a bunch of
in the system already, so looking forward to reading some of those. I
was like, I'm getting these sent to me, Scott, and I'm like
checking on people's out list, and there are a few people did have Starfield
on there on their top ten, usually at like spot nine or ten.
So yeah, sure, sure, I don't know. I played about like
eight or nine hours and I was like, yeah, I don't really like
Defensta games, not much, but especially yeah, if that's really gonna do
nothing for you. If you've get Starfield in your list, then you haven't
played Street Fight or Sex or Pizza Tower. I do ask what what's going
on there? You know? Did you get into Starfield? Did Starfield have
Malow in it? I don't think it dead. I did miss this last
Stoor excuse me. Ginshold Impact has a character named Gaming. What is happening?
Finally? What is this? It's a post from the Ginschen Impact Twitter
account. Name Gaming title, leonin Vanguard or Leon Hine. It's a sorted
strongbox Transport Guard Vision Pyra All this is nonsense to me, So you know
there was there was a reason I want here today. I'd like to announce
that I'm also called Gaming and I will be coming to gainst them, but
in the near future. I don't know what what what is the name Gaming
of? What can you What type of character do you think he has?
Yeah, I suppose it's this this nerd here that they've put on I put
in the Actually, you know I need to only to go look at the
that is gaming, all right, Gaming personified? All right, Scott,
thank you so much for spinding today talking with me, with me about video
games. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I also appreciate
this absolutely. I thank you for watching. You're the best audience in gaming.
Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.