Game Mess Mornings 12/11/23

He'll be go me, bit, it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's
do this for December eleventh, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or
so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess
Mornings Live with me Jeff Grub Today we're recovering from the Game Awards while Sega
is making Golden Axe more edgy. But first please join me and welcoming today's
co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's Rachel Kaser. Everybody, Rachel,
how are you doing? Hi? I'm sorry about the glare. Helios is
basically squatted right over Texas as usual and so like this is his like light
just this is the best I can do to block it out. This is
with the curtains draw and the green screen up everything. So Rob, the
sun God is coming for you and as long as I don't lean too far
for this way or he's going to start taking me. Oh no, no,
well you're sending goodbye. Yeah no. How have you been? Ah?
Pretty good? I mean after the Game Awards, I detoxed by going
to Anime Frontier this weekend, which is a big anime convention that isn't fort
Worth, which, like any good Dallas resident. I only go to Fort
Worth if it's absolutely necessary. But I can show you this. If you
hear any squealing in the background, it's my cat. But I can show
you guys these whoa, that's they really are amazing. Because of Ebony and
Ivory from DMC, I asked if they had Scarborough fare from Bayonetta. They
did not. Unfortunately, this is the best they could do. And the
sales guy, after asking me to play a rock paper scissors game with another
customer, he said, because I was such a good sport, he'd give
these to me at a discount. I know it wasn't really a discount.
I home stupid, but at the same time I saw them and I was
just My best friend actually bought them for me because we hadn't bought each other
Christmas presents yet. So he said, let's just buy each other Christmas presents
while we're there. There's gonna be a ton of merch there, and he
said, hey, I'll give these to you for forty dollars and I just
went Sydney. Sydney. Next thing I know, I've got these in my
hands. Well, they're great. They look fantastic for people listening to the
audio version Ebony and Ivory. These guns are as big as Rachel Kaiser.
They are gigantic. Yep, they are longer than they're almost as long as
my whole arm. Yes, that is incredible stuff. Well, I'm glad
that. I'm glad you got a chance to get away from games to the
complete opposite, which is of course anime. The way to do it.
You said you got to meet Steve Bloom and all that stuff. That's fun,
Steve Bloom among other voice actors. I waited in line for three hours
to meet Steve Bloom because unfortunately I got there right as he was going to
lunch, and they said, you know, just you know, just park
up here early in the line. He'll be back soon. He went and
had a nice lunch and then you know, it took a while for the
line to go through, but it was great when you finally got up there.
He's just lovely guy. All the voice actors there are just wonderful people.
I've never met. I've never met a voice actor who wasn't just a
delight to be around. Yeah, they seem to be very appreciative of the
industry that made them, you know, made them, you know, they're
famous, whatever it is. But yeah, like it's always nice to see
that they pay that back. So glad that worked out. I am.
I definitely am recovering from the Game Awards. It was like halfway through the
week and I was already losing my voice and then we had to go do
our live show and that was a struggle for me to speak during that thing.
So very happy with the response though. We had a great time.
It was really fun. It was great to see like all the bits that
I was like, you know, half planning, like being like, ah,
this is pretty stupid, but I'm gonna do this. We had been
star intro our show with a little sketch or whatever, and I'm like,
God, no one's gonna find this funny. And everyone seemed to like all
the stuff we did, so that was that was nice. And then yeah,
it was just cool to get together with everyone and hang out and do
cool stuff all week, which is how it worked out. And very very
happy with it. So thanks to everybody who came out, Thanks to everybody
who watched GB at night. That was a ton of fun. A boy,
I liked doing that a lot. Y'all looked like you were having fun.
Oh, hello, little daughter. Excuse me? Oh yeah, kitty,
Yeah, get in there. She is very I was afraid she's going
to hit a button and shut me out of the stream or something, of
course, but yeah, anyway, Yeah, it looked like y'all were having
fun. I think Mike was there. Well, obviously Mike was there,
but I think he said he brought one of our other colleagues, Jordan there
too. Yeah, I'd got to meet Jordan for the first time. Yeah,
that was great. You got to meet Jordan before you got to meet
me, Yes, exactly. Hey, I feel bad about that, but
I'm glad you're here now talking about James with me. It's because I was
the one staying behind and minding the store while everyone else was in la Yep,
it's but like Jordan lives out there. That probably made it easier.
But yes, so it was got to meet Jordan for a little bit at
she was at the office, but I was busy. Mostly I met her
at like a Twitch event later and that was it, And yeah, it
was cool. It was great. Now so now now I just got to
meet you in person to collect collect all the games beat team to unlock the
achievement. Yeah, unlocked the achievement exactly. Yeah, I still haven't met
Mike in person, so you know it's probably gonna be both the Yeah,
I have it. It's just we've kind of missed each other at every single
games Beat event. We've only worked together for two years. Yeah, yeah,
he uh right, Like it probably makes sense. It's like, okay,
well Michael go to this Game's Beat event, you can go to the
next one. That sort of thing. Yes, we're both the ones who
don't live in California, right, Although I'm I'm hoping y'all can come out.
Either y'all can come out to Texas, or I can do a road
trip up to New York or something and pass cross paths with you guys on
the way. I've been looking for a reason to get down to Texas at
some point. I'd like to visit. That's that would great just for the
brisket, risk it for the PRIs. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the food of course, Yes, yes, exactly.
One of my uber drivers tol me all about his favorite Texas barbecue and I
was like, this is this is a good kind of Uber driver, the
one that just wants to talk about barbecue. 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 search 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 YouTube. All right, hello YouTube. We have a lot to
get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with Lego Fortnite is propelling Fortnite
to a new level of popularity. This is from Ali Welsh at Polygon.
I didn't realize Fortnite had new levels of popularity to go to. Yes,
and it seems that's like a wild thing like that over the weekend. Yet
again, apparently they had a new high for concurrent players at the same time.
Like that's like it just keeps doing that now. Lego Fortnite, the
new survival game spin off of the Fortnite phenomenon that Epic Games, launched on
December seventh, is off to a flying start. According to Epic's official player
tracking as recorded by Fortnite dot gg, Lego Fortnite peaked at an astonishing two
point four to five million concurrent players on Saturday. To put that number in
context, it's considerably higher than the all time high for any game on Steam
save Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, which peaked at over three million se simultaneous players in
January twenty eighteen. It's more than twice as many players as Steam's current most
popular game, counter Strike two, had it at the same point on Saturday.
Lego Fortnite is also the dominant game mode within Fortnite itself right now.
It's drawing roughly twice as many players, is the main Battle Royale mode,
and a comparable number to the Battle Royale Zero, Build and ranked modes combined.
Epic launch to two other new games within Fortnite last week, Arcade Racer
Rocket Racing and Rhythm Game Fortnite Festival. These are not nearly as popular as
Lego Fortnite, although their peak player counts are deep into six figures and would
still be the envy of all but the top three of four to four games
on Steam. Rachel. When I was like first hearing like rumors about this,
It's like, yeah, that Lego game is probably going to be very
very popular inside of Fortnite. I bet it's gonna make a ton of money.
Here. It is again though, that they it is taking over the
world. It seems like and makes sense like Lego has been looking for a
way to sneak back around and take over some of the lunch that that Minecraft
eight from Lego in a way and partnering up with Fortnite makes a lot of
sense, and people seem to really like the game. I'm gonna try to
try it out this week, but I don't know, what do you think
this is? This just like peanut Butter and Jelly working together to create a
great results for everybody. Oh oh yeah, yeah for sure. I mean
I was thinking about this kind of reminded me of how last year a Lego
game was the only game that competed with elden Ring for sales, like it
was the Lego Star Wars the Skywalker sky Walker Saga. That was the only
game that was like neck and neck with elden Ring for sales, like the
entirety of the year, and then so you combine something like Fortnite, which
I mean, I think it might not have been as big if Fortnite hadn't
gotten such a resurgence with the OG, but I think that brought back so
many people in and then you have like a bunch of parents going lego,
Well, that's got to be great for kids, and you know, putting
their little tikes back on. You know, maybe it also attracted some of
the Roadblocks audience, like kind of brought them in maybe a little bit,
you know, at the very least what I think is happening with that.
If it's not attracting the Roadblocks audience, which it might be, I think
it could be. If it's not, though, what it's doing is it's
creating a new thing that's attracting people who might have been into Roadblocks as a
kid and missed it, and now they're like, well, I like this
idea of going to one hub and getting a bunch of different experiences, having
like one place I hang out, and then it could be a bunch of
different things. That's what Roadblocks does better than anything else. Even though it's
a nightmare for the people that make the games and kind of a mess of
a company. It still does that thing better than anything else, except for
now maybe Fortnite, which is going to have the ability to be anything because
the underlying fundamental technology is unreal and that could be shaped into any number of
things. And then also the quality level seems to be much better. Now.
These games all still seem to be made by Epic themselves, right,
I don't think these are any of these things have been made by fans yet,
is that correct? You know, I don't think they've been made by
fans. I think it's I mean, there are like companies that Epic collaborates
with, like they did that with the Alan Wake, right, uh,
Fortnite Island. So, but I think there have been some that have been
made with by collaborators, but I don't remember. I don't like official partnerships
that sort of thing, Yes, exactly. Uh that's probably Eventually they do
get to a point where they are bringing in like the community made games,
and that that's what powers them going in the future. That's their you know,
metaverse play or whatever. But in the meantime, it's like, well,
these these select partnerships where you like you're taking game modes that you know,
can be very fun and can fit into Fortnite and like appeal to the
kinds of players that were already in Fortnite. That makes a ton of sense.
I yeah, I'm gonna play the Lego game, but I'm actually more
excited about the Rocket Racing because I love Rocket League and I love the way
those cars feel. So now I'm just gonna go play a KRT Racer with
those games. That's a great idea to me. Do you think that this
is going to have a long term sort of benefit to the game. Do
you think this is gonna last or it's just a flash in the pan and
then in a couple months everyone's going to be back over on the Battle Royale
game. I think Lego Fortnite has staying power for sure. Rocket Racer I'm
not so sure. Like I feel like the same people who will be playing
that will probably just go back to Rocket League. But there's no singular Lego
game that the Lego audience can just go back to. I feel like,
you know, you say you can go back and play some of the single
player Lego games, you can what is that Lego Mmo? So I my
brain, I know what you mean. Yes, but I can't remember the
name of it either, but Worlds or something like that. Maybe, Yeah,
yeah, I think I think this is definitely I think that this also
has the power to attract, you know, the younger audience as well,
parents who maybe didn't want them playing Fortnite, but also is are just now
starting to realize that Roadblocks may not be the safest place either, right,
which it probably which isn't. So you combined that and then so you've got
you know, parents bringing in the kids. You got a little bit of
the Roadblocks audience, and then you've got the Fortnite players who want to try
something new. I think it's got staying power. I think it's got legs.
I totally agree they and like the way that they're phrasing this that they
like in this story says together, the three new modes which launched launched alongside
Fortnite's Chapter five and in the wake of the Big Bang event on December second,
represent a new era for Fortnite as it continues its evolution from a hugely
popular battle royale shooter into a multi multifaceted, multiverse style online gaming platform.
Like this story calls them new modes every time you bring that up to Epic,
They're like, we think they're new games. These are whole new games
inside of inside of Fortnite, And it does feel like they are gonna be
able to establish that that this that these things aren't just asides from the or
distractions away from the main attraction of Fortnite, which is the Battle Royale.
It's like, no, that's that now. It's just everyone comes to four
like to see what else they can do in there, and it's a place
to hang out with their friends. I get to be a little bit of
an old man about this, and I get a little friend. I'm like,
I don't know if I like the idea of like one game being like
the ultimate game for people. It's like I like the idea of things being
so different and be able to come out of nowhere. But at the same
time, it doesn't seem like that side of gaming is going to stop.
It's not like suddenly early access games are going to stop popping off on Steam.
Because millions of people are playing on Fortnite, it looks like we can
have both and maybe that's that's yeah, that's pretty cool, right, Oh
yeah, I think it is for sure, because there are always going to
be people who are the opposite of you or like, you know, I
just want to go one place where I can you know, hang out with
the people that I want to I want to hang out with, play games
with them, socialize and you know, or just meet new friends or try
new things. And you know, some people, it can be an ease
of use factor as well, because I mean, especially with early access games,
those can be hard to I mean speaking of someone who has been playing
Boulders Gates since twenty twenty, yeah, yes, yeah, And there's definitely
an ease of use factor there, right, And it's you know, Jason
Fanellian Chat's kind of saying something similar about how this can introduce new concepts,
new new genres to an audience that may have never tried things before. And
you know, gaming's got a lot of that right now. Like game Pass.
So, oh, hey, game Pass, you've already subscribed a game
Pass. There's gonna be games in there that you wouldn't have tried if you
had to pay for them, but now you could just go ahead and download
them and play them on your Xbox. It's like that is going to work
for a certain audience, but another audience is like, well, I don't
even want to subscribe to anything I want. I want a free to play
game. And because I don't have any money, I'm a I'm a poor
college kid, or I'm someone who is like streaming Fortnite to a device because
I like, yeah, so I'm a free to play game makes sense for
me from a single yes, exactly, there's a million scenarios in which it's
like a free to play game has a lot more appeal, and then now
they have this whole world opening up to them of a bunch of different genres
coming into this one place and in a place where they feel like it's worthy
of spending my time in there because I know I always have a good time
in Fortnite, and my friends are already there. That's the biggest factor in
most of most of the time for people with like game Pass, it's like,
yeah, if my friends are already there and I'm playing a bunch of
games with them, that makes sense for me. But if your friends are
already in Fortnite, you're not going to want to like leave there to go
try to find games to get them maybe maybe to bring them with you.
It's much more beneficial if it's already in the Fortnite ecosystem. I think what
other games would you want to see in this? Oh yeah, or if
you have something else that since no, no, actually, since that that's
actually an answer to your question since I mentioned it. Lego boulders Gate.
Okay, yeah, that would be fantastic idea. That's Carlac. Uh huh.
I just I can picture her now, just my beautiful Carlac just in
lego form. Yeah, yeah, you know, I could work, especially
like some of the weirder races that you get in Dungeons and Dragons, like
the mushroom people as well, that they would be fun to see in lego
form. I think we need like a little Lego episode of Boulder Skate three.
I like that a lot. Yeah, and having like the simple look
of something like a lego to be more welcoming and let people know like,
hey, no, yeah, this is don't worry, this is going to
be easy to visually parse. I think that could be beneficial to something like
Boulder Skate three. Yeah. Did you see the whole thing that was popping
off after the Game Awards where Spider Man fans were like, have you ever
played Boulder Skate three, who's played Boulderskate three. It's like, here's lego
Boulderskate three. Here, educate yourself exactly exactly. Yeah, how'd you feel
about the overall reaction to the game Awards and the game awards themselves. We
talked a little bit about it before we got started, but yeah, how'd
you feel about it all? I mean, okay, leaving aside the whole
criticism of you know, whether this event is like too commercial, whether it
didn't acknowledge the enough whatever was going on with Hideo Kojima as usual, that
like, what was going on with Hideo kojimas like a subheading for every single
game awards every year, and believing all that aside, I thought I thought
all of the awards went to the worthy candidates. The only one that I
thought was given incorrectly was Best Ongoing Game, because that should not have gone
to Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven because it's not an ongoing game. It's done.
Yeah, it's over. Yeah, it ongoed to this year. I suppose.
Yeah, I don't. I'm not like, yeah, I think,
yes, it's a repairy job. That's exactly right. That's where my problem
is, Like, there are other ones where it's like, hey, they
went from strength to strength because their ongoing support was so good, and Cyberpunk
went from we have to fix this mess to being something that is acceptable and
now people really like. Of course, of course, but yeah, I
agree with that. I mean, since we're talking about it, that should
have gone to Fortnite. I think because Fortnite has put in so much work
this year with with Og and then as well with Lego Fortnite, I think
they I never thought I'd say this, but Fortnite was robbed. Yes,
yes, exactly, but yeah, I mean in terms of like the the
the commercialization of the game awards. Obviously it can't be commercialized. It was
always a commercial, but boy it was pretty egregious this year. It was
wild. And I think my thing is that this is Jeff Keeley's nature.
Like I put out the you know, the Scorpion and the Toad image of
him being the scorpion and us expecting different from him, and it's just like
that he isn't that. This is who he is. This is the kind
of show he's gonna make. He's going to have probably like ten celebrities,
if if those celebrities will show up, He'll put those on them on stage
before anyone else, and then he will short change more awards if it means
more commercials. And I mean at a certain point it's on us to like
not expect him to change and to do something different and to avert our attention
somewhere else. Is what I think. It's like. I like, I
think we should maybe try to like lift up the Dice Awards and make them
a bigger deal, because that they are the complete antidote to the Game Awards,
if this is what we actually care about. But I don't know what
you think those are the actual awards. I think I remember seeing somewhere on
a social media somebody said was trying to defend Jeff and sayings like why does
everyone say Jeff doesn't love games? Jeff Keey, Jeff Keeley, not Jeff
Grebb, Jeff Jeffrey. Yeah, And I say, and I just wrote,
like, of course Keeley loves games. I don't for a second doubt
that he loves games. In fact, I think part of this is because
he promises to so many publishers and developers that they can get their game in
front of an audience. That I mean that combined with it because he's also
a film and TV nerd, which is, you know, one of the
reasons he and Kajema get along so well, because Kajima is exactly the same
way. I think like those two things are so paramount to him that you
put them together and it just crowds the awards out. And I mean,
I don't think it's malice, but I think, you know, it's like,
yes, of course Keeley loves games, but as with all relationships,
loving something is not enough if you don't treat it right. Yes, And
I think in this case it was more just that everybody who actually got a
chance to accept an award on stage basically had like fifteen to twenty seconds to
speak, and poor Neil Nubah is up there actually getting teary ey thanking his
family and this is like, you know, talking about what a great honor
this is for him. And meanwhile, there's like that teleprompter that flashes up,
please wrap it up, yep. And I was like, don't you
dare play that man off the stage. He's crying, I know, Yeah,
And so the ends up feeling very very awkward and a little embarrassing.
I think is kind of what it is. But whatever, I know what
the Game Awards is. Most people know at this point. It's just like
even knowing it going in by TV, Yes, yeah, exactly, so
giving a ton of time to Jordan Peele and Kojima, of course that's how
it's going to go down. Yeah, that was the only part that I
was like, Okay, there were some obvious cuts that could have been made
here. Like everything else, you want to let Anthony mackiw whose only relation
to GET is like Simol you and uh and and Matthew McConaughey at least have
game are associated with games that are coming out. Anthony Mackie's only thing is
like being in the Peacock adaptation of Twisted Metal, right, and yeah it
does. It does feel like, Man, if there's any sort of gaming
relation, it's like, okay that this counts as gaming one hundred percent,
so we won't get in trouble, and it's like, no, these are
just actors from Hollywood, and it just it feels weird that Anthony Mackie.
I realized what he was doing. He saw the Keanu Reeves thing of No
I Love You More, and he was trying to recreate that. So hard
that it just blew up in his face. It's like, oh man,
I'm like, you really blew that one big time, Anthony. Yeah,
because as any three, it's just it's just a bunch of like industry professionals
in the audience going yep, day, last thing before we move on.
It is I mean, obviously everyone knows it's expensive to get into the game
boards. If you are if you have a game and you want to spend
a lot of money to get get on there, it's it's probably worth it.
It's hundreds of thousands of dollars for seconds of airtime. With that kind
of business, us complaining online is only going to be so effective when that
money is very green and spends very well. And Jeff Keeley like, that's
going to be the priority there. All right, let's see here, Sega
wants its franchise reboots to be edgy. This is from Alex Hopley at Game
Reactor. While we were speculating on some Sega reboots, now the company has
confirmed it's bringing back some beloved ips, including jet Set, Radio, Crazy
Taxi, and more. While we didn't hear much of what these reboots will
look like, Sega CEO coo Shuji Utsumi recently revealed more information. Speaking with
The Washington Post, Utsumi said Sega wants to show edginess and a rebellious mindset
in these reboots. The concept of games like jet Set Radio is it has
advanced, the original creators are involved again, and its time is now.
He continued, It's a good time where people can appreciate all kinds of concepts.
We got a glimpse of a bunch of the games, excuse me,
at the Game Awards, and I thought they looked pretty good. I didn't.
I didn't think anything looked especially like rebellious or edgy. But maybe that's
something we haven't been shown yet. Do you think like these classic Sega franchises
can find that edge and could come out and have a relevancy in today's market.
Yes, it depends on what they mean. I'm kind of wondering if
maybe there was maybe a little bit of like a something lost in translation,
A little bit always a possibility, yes to me, because like Edgy could
be you know, I mean, I can see how you could say something
like jet Set Radio could be like more. I think a rebellious mindset like
that's jet Set Radio right, nutshell, But I'm not sure how you could
make that edgy. It's it's riding around and probably a different edgy than we're
thinking of. Right, it's quite a different edgy than what are our culture
associates with edgy. This is coming from a completely different place, different country.
They probably mean it like it does have an edge, like it's something
where you look at that you're like, oh, this feels like something like
they're going for something. It's probably what they mean, you know what.
Yeah, that's probably I'm thinking that's probably what it is that. I don't
think they're going to go like a whole I think somebody mentioned it in chat
d MC Devil May Cry reboot. I don't think that's where they're going to
go with at all. That's not a bad idea. Oh no, oh
no, you said it. You've said it. I've spoken it into existence.
It's going to happen now. Yeah, absolutely, it's unavoidable. Yeah.
I think that those games all looked pretty cool. The Shnobi game,
it looks looks excellent. But I think you've been like the streets of rage.
There was streets of rage in there too, streets of rage in there,
yes, and I could go that could go edgy definitely, And that's
the one I'm like most worried about because it's okay, you got to get
the music. Do they did they get the music and make that right?
And are they going to have the right snappiness? Streets of Rage four just
came out, not from Sega really, and that's excellent. That's still a
game I played to this day, So you're gonna have to You're gonna be
compared to that. But hey, beat them up center good, are in
a good place, go for it. But I'm like gold golden ecks that's
coming back as well. It's like these are things that I think I would
like ask for, but I wasn't like, Oh, you need to go
all out and try to make them triple A games. And it doesn't feel
like necessarily they are going to be triple A. But it just feel like
they are going for something more than just a nostalgia k let's repaint these things,
put them out again, and then move on in a couple of years,
and maybe we'll do something with them again in a couple of years.
So I'm glad they're making an effort here, and it sounds like they have
a vision. I just I don't know. We're going to start getting these
games to see if Sega is actually going to deliver on them. Is it
a good thing that maybe Sonic is not a part of this initiative, Like
Sonic gets to live over here, and it's like, Okay, all the
other Sega games get a chance to breathe because Sonic's not taking up the oxygen.
Oh yeah, for sure. I feel like Sega has relied on Sonic
a whole lot as a franchise, as they should. It's it's still a
big money maker. But I think in this case, I feel like they
have had a lot of people over the years. I think it's got to
be like a ramping up of voices saying, hey, we want another Crazy
Taxi game or we want another Golden Ax game. There's got to have been
I think there have been more of those. Probably that's I'm gonna guess that's
probably what prompted it. And I think even if they only put like a
quarter of the resources into this that they put into Sonic, then I think
it definitely has a strong chance of success of you know, of giving us
something, giving us something good that we will want to play. Even people
who perhaps are not you know, lifelong Goldenacks or crazy taxi fans like you
and I are, will give them a chance to onboard into the franchise.
And you know, it's it's it's that whole thing that I feel like a
lot of people have talked about this this year of you know, we've got
these older franchises, you're just leaving money on the table by not bringing them
back, because even if there aren't a whole lot of people asking for them,
there's are still good ips. Yes, absolutely, and it is a
Sega sort of figuring out, hey, we can make bets on a variety
of different things because we have these pillars. And then that's what Usumi says
is these projects wouldn't be possible without the Sega pillars, A persona like a
Dragon and Sonic. We've been investing into these three titles, yeah, the
last three years making these pillars grow, and they grew very well, and
now they're enabling them to take chances on some of these other franchises. It's
like, okay, yeah, in my opinion, that's the way it should
always be working, right. It's like, you got things that are working
now and obviously keep trying new things, and I think Sega probably almost certainly
is they have been. But also, let you have these these dormant franchises
that I have a lot of nostalgia for. Let's yeah, let's give them
a chance to come back. I'm a little shocked that they're coming back all
at once, or that they announced like five games at a time, but
part of that makes me think like, oh, this feels like a true
like I said, like a vision, like they have an idea behind all
of this, and that's going to give them this impetus to keep going.
I hope that these five game five games come out do well enough that we
keep getting more and we'll talk about there are there are more coming beyond these
five, that they have some stuff planned that they didn't talk about and they
didn't reveal at the game wards, but fair nothing to show per se although
I will say it is funny after seeing Persona and Yakaza now like a Dragon
games be kind of niche for so long now to hear Shuji Utsumi describe them
as pillars of Sega's marketing strategy, and I'm like, it is the times
we live it. I'm glad they're getting more attention now. But god,
it is weird to hear those described in such a way. It's weird,
But it's congratulations Sega for like figuring that out and like making it happen.
That's a company that has often felt lost, and at least when it comes
to those, well maybe sonings still a little bit. They're still lost,
But when it comes to Persona and like a Dragon, they seem to have
a pretty good idea of where they need to be with those. All right,
we're gonna take a quick break. When we get back. We're going
to keep talking about the news. We'll be right back after this. And
we're back. We're back, and we're no longer breaking. Was this on
the side of the screen? Ready? I'm ready? Yes? All right?
Well, oh yeah, no problem. You know, you take your
take your your drink. That's fine, stay stay hydrated. Everyone, everyone
drink water exactly all right, Sega says some of the original jet Set Radio
team are working on the reboot. This is from my Nintendo News. Sega
co Chief operating Officer and Sego of America CEO shu Jiutsumi has spoken a little
more about the new jet Set Radio reboot, which was showcased at the Game
Awards. Talking to The Washington Post, the CEO said that a number of
developers from the original game are currently hard at work at the jet Set Radio
reboot, and says that they will try to invoke that aforementioned ed genus and
a rebellious mindset the concept of games like jet Set Radio advanced. This is
the quote from before, but basically the other newspit from this interview here is
that the original team, some of those people have returned to work on the
game, and I think that's probably for the best. I was never a
huge jet Set Radio lover, Rachel. I think I always thought it looked
cool and I liked it for contestance, and I would play it and be
like, ah, this doesn't quite immediately click with me. But that doesn't
mean like people who worked on that game are going to just make that exact
game again. They've been making games this entire time. They know where to
improve upon the formula, and I still want like that original feel and style
to be there, but it's it's it's cool. Do you think that they
can modernize a game like this and make it relevant? I think so.
I think, well, it can go either way. When you bring back
the original creators, either they just spin their wheels and make the same game
again, or they pull out all the draft documents, all the like concept
documents that they had and they're like, oh, we really wanted to make
this game back in the day, and you can. And then they'll they'll
throw in like so many of the original concepts that they worked on that maybe
technically they weren't able to put into the original game. You know, maybe
you know another you know, it's a different story, direction, a different
you know, some additional art, you know, because there's there's so much
that gets cut in the pre production of these games. I can't help but
think that there's a chance if you bring back the original creators for them to
expand on their original vision. And I'm hoping that's what we get with Jet
Set Radio. Yes, I totally agree. And then at the same time,
Sega plans to revive even more legacy franchises. This is from Liam Doolan
at Nintendo Life. Arguably one of the biggest highlights of this year's Game Awards
show with Sega's announcement it would be reimagining five classic ips, including Jet Set
Radio, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Shanobi, and Streets of Rage.
In case you missed it, there's apparently even more to come, according to
the official trailer and in the pr for the announcement that it's further noted how
the upcoming projects spanning a range of genres and currently in different stages of development,
with plans to release them over the next several years. SEGA co Chief
Operating Officer and SEGO of America CEO Shuji Utsumi had to say this about the
announcement. We are digging into our legacy and reimagining several franchises to bring these
games to more audiences around the globe. Today's announcement is just the start of
our initiative. First and foremost, our ambition will be to create game great
games with memorable characters and worlds. We hope fans of all ages will look
towards our future with anticipation as we release these projects in the coming years.
So yes, like we got, we got Chanobee, Streets of Rage,
Golden Ecks, Crazy Taxi Jet Set Radio. Uh, there's other games that
have been rumored. The one that I want is Echo the Dolphin, mostly
mostly because I really, I really like that Dreamcast game, and I think
if they were to take Echo the Dolphin and kind of reimagine it now,
they could do a cool three D Echo the Dolphin game again. But I
don't know what would you want? People in chatter saying things like Knights is
that is that appealing to you? Oh yeah, yeah that would definitely.
Yeah, Altered Beasts, Alter Beasts for sure, Panzer Dragoon maybe, yeah,
the House of the Dead, yes, I like, yeah, just
throw although I will say you'll be playing Echo the Dolphin by yourself, me
and my philosophobia. I can't even watch videos of Sybnautica, so like I'm
probably not going to be the like Echo the Dolphin two D is I can.
I can make that work like I can, Like my brain doesn't like
like make that connection as like oh this is like that's kind of why I
can also play Dave the Diver. But you know, anything like like you
get to like three D like Subnautica, Oh no, it's done. I'm
like my brain just makes kind of makes me go like this, no,
like curl up into a ball, like can't watch I get a little scared
as well with with underwater games, but I it's kind of a fun scared
and any sort of thing swimming beneath me freaks me out. But I'm gonna
be playing Symnautica because my name works really well with it, Rachel. That's
how it works at Giant Bomb. If it it could be grub Nautica.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to play it. People. Yeah, people mentioned
Vector Man. Comic Zone is one that actually has been rumored that that it
will come relatively soon after this these five games, I suppose. But yeah,
Comic Zone is when they're making it's like, man, I wonder what
that looks like they try to like make that three D. I kind of
hope they just stick with the two D visuals and make them look like a
comic book again, because that was such a good gimmick for a game that
is pretty hard to play. Actually, it's pretty difficult to uh uh,
to actually get through that game because the challenge is so high. But yeah,
I'm pretty excited about all this. Oh, they mentioned Virtual Fighter.
When they mentioned Virtual Fighter, I was just having flashbacks to like that was
actually the very first fighting game I ever played was Virtual Fighter two. Oh
yes, yeah, Virtual Fighters one that was kind of hoping would get mentioned
at the Game Awards. So yeah, that the fact that they didn't even
though they had that recent Arcade re release of Virtual Fighter. Iree. I
love Virtual Fighter, and I know it doesn't have We're talking about it before
one of the shows. The John bomstaff was talking about it. It's like
the characters aren't quite as memorable as some of the other games. But it's
like you could fix that pretty easily by just you could getting them a new
code of paint for sure. All right, let's see her. Final Fantasy
sixteens producer doesn't think there will be a sequel or a spinoff. This is
from Alex Hopley, a Game reactor. Recently, we've seen the surprise launch
of Final Fantasy sixteen's first expansion, packing a new story, weapons, and
level cap We're also going to get another expansion next year, seeing Clive face
off against the against the Leviathan. But even with this lot of DLC,
it doesn't seem like Final Fantasy sixteen is getting much more attention in the future.
According to a recent interview with Famitsu, the game's producer, nioki Yo
Yoshi p Yoshida, believes that believes the team is looking more towards a new
title altogether, rather than add to Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy sixteen. The
producer said he'd rather work on the next title or consider a new challenge.
Still, the door isn't closed forever. If you ask me if there will
be anything related to Final Fantasy sixteen in the future, I don't know.
Since I don't know what will happen, I'd rather not say anything. Diffinite,
said Yoshida, which I think is code for Square Enix could do it
without my input and I don't, so I can't speak for them. Yes,
I think you're probably right about that. It's yeah, I think that
Final Fantasy sixteen is in a place where they're gonna maybe let it settle for
a little bit and see if, like the fandom can resurge in some ways,
because that could happen with a game like this, where it's like a
lot of our arguments happened in the early months, but always it a real
Final Fantasy or whatever, but that stuff will wane, and then a lot
of times with games like this that do have a lot of them a behind
them and a lot of fan love, it's like, okay, no,
actually, we appreciate what this is, even if it's different than what we
were expecting, and now it's actually a beloved game, and that happens all
the time with Final Fantasy games in particular, So they could take their time
on this and maybe come around to doing something a little bit later. But
also it doesn't seem like it's in a place where it would make sense to
do a ton with Final Fantasy sixteen as opposed to like making more Final Fantasy
seven spinoffs. Just from a business perspective, I get maybe people might be
a little over Final Fantasy seven stuff. I have no idea, I'm not,
I'm just not a fan. But they keep doing more of that stuff,
and they seem that seems to be doing just fine. It's like now
opportunity costs. Maybe we should just keep doing that instead of doubling down on
Final Fantasy sixteen. Maybe we should just get on with Final Fantasy seventeen.
I don't know, does that sound right to you? Yeah? They really
do feel like different entities at this point, Like you know, you got
your Final Fantasy seven like ecosystem basically, where they're like they're they're trying to
do a whole like remaking the original game with something new they're doing a Resident
Evil for remake and that with that and in multiple stages. But we've also
got a you know, and they've they're releasing mobile games, and they did
that remake of what was the prequel game with Zach I can't remember. They
released that last year. Yes, the Crisis Core, Crisis Core, thank
you, and uh so they they're they're, they've they've got that whole thing,
like that's a whole separate cauldron that's bubbling away and uh they're they're they're
stoking that as much as they can. I really don't think Final Fantasy sixteen.
I think I think it's better as a closed system as what it is,
like just like, let's not over market that it's it's perfectly lovely the
way it is. It's had its time. But I I think it would
be like not in their best interest to necessarily invest more money in it directly,
especially when they can just immediately go on to Final Fantasy seventeen. Maybe
right, And you know, the thing that is the biggest success out of
Final Fantasy sixteen that they don't need Final Fantasy sixteen to do that. That's
Ben Star. They could just hire him to do other games. He could
voice characters in the future. I suppose maybe they like he played the main
character Clive. I guess maybe he wouldn't play the main character in another Final
Fantasy game, but maybe, hey, why not. He's got range.
He probably could cast him as Sid in all future installments exactly. Yes,
that way he can keep coming back. He doesn't necessarily to be the same
character. Yes, I think that's the way to do it. So that's
that's my proposal. We have Ben Starr play Sid in all future Final Fantasy
games. Yes, oh yeah, Marino says Final Fantasy eight remake as Squall,
thank you, because yeah, he's a huge fun Fantasy eight fan.
Yes, I can see it now, and I'm just like, yes,
I can see it. There it is. Although, although to be fair,
I always picture Squall is having a little bit more of like a because
his voice, especially as Clive, is much more like very serious fairy tone.
I picture Squall is kind of having like augh whatever kind of a voice,
you know, like kind of like a really kind of cringey teenager.
He doesn't who doesn't realize he's cringey exactly. Not that I doubt Ben can
do that, but you know, it'd be a little bit different. Nexte
to be different for I would like to see it. I know he could
do it. I saw some of this range of myself, so yes,
absolutely. Speaking of games not getting direct sequels or spent offs, Zelda producer
confirms Tiers the Kingdom won't get a direct sequel. This is from Jonathan Wright
at Destructoid the legend of Zelda. Tiers of the Kingdom might be the perfect
sequel in every definition of the word, but even Nintendo seems to agree that
it has exhausted all possibilities for this particular iteration of Link's journey. You'll know
by now that Tears originally conceived as DLC for Breath of the Wild more than
to a proper installment when the producers realize the sheer scope of the IDs being
thrown around at the studio. The entire game is pretty much modeled after what
you already experienced in the acclaimed twenty seventeen title. And yet we couldn't begin
to list all the fun elements they built upon to turn Tiers of the Kingdom
into another sensational hit. Sure it may it may have ultimately lost the Game
of the Year to Balder's K three. But it's not every day that we
get a sequel to one of the greatest games in history and somehow end up
enjoying it more. And the best part, it looks like Nintendo knows when
to leave well Enough alone, because it's not planning to develop a threequel to
the Breath of the Wild offshoot. Ag Al Numa, who's served as a
producer on the Legend of Zelda franchise for well over a deck over three decades,
recently explained it in an interview with Game Informer that they aren't planning a
three quel mainly because Tears is already the apotheosis of this particular sub series.
As I've mentioned previously, with the Tears of the Kingdom, we were seeking
to build on top of the world we created with Breath of the Wild and
really exhaust the possibilities of what we could put into that world. On Numa
explained, I think it is to use a bit of a term in apotheosis
or the final form of that version of the Legend of Zelda. In that
regard, I don't think that we'll be making a direct sequel to a world
such as that that we created here. That's correct, right, Rachel.
I mean you could do that twice. A third time would be serious diminishing
turns, right, Yeah, especially since they've already used Ganendorf. I mean
that was the only thing that was kind of missing in Breath of the Wild
that they brought back in Tears of the Kingdom is classic Ganandorf as you know,
the main villain whereas and that was one of the weird things about Breath
of the Wild to me, is like, well, yeah, we've got
Gannon, but he's basically just like this big evil cloud and you know,
without necessarily a personality. And then they finally bring back Ganandorf classic in this
and you know, have him be the big villain in this. I can't
see where they would go with a third game. I don't. And also,
as much as I appreciate the writing there, it's like, was it
a perfect sequel? Because to me, I feel like we neglected the story
of Tears of the Kingdom a little bit. I really like the story of
Tears of the Kingdom because of the don't I don't care about the lore of
Zelda. I care about like what's happening in front of me, and the
emotions of Tears of the Kingdom really worked. This is true. Yes,
that stuff really hit me. I thought the moments were very powerful. Them
fitting in overall doesn't bother me, but yes, they definitely neglected that.
That's some one's concerned. Yes, I agree that they did not care about
that at all. So yes, if if we're looking for like sequels in
those terms, it's not the perfect sequel, You're right, Is that something
you were looking more from the series in the future. I think so.
I think well, personally, one of the like slight disappointments to me about
Tears of the Kingdom was that I felt we could have made like a little
bit more complexity with like Gannendorf and you know why he wanted to conquer.
It was like he's just evil, you know, as opposed to like,
maybe this is just like you know, he was, you know, somebody
who was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons or something like that.
It's just a force of nature, right, He's like a hurricane. Yeah.
Yeah, And at this point you're just like, well, that's just
not At a certain point that fails to be interesting to me, especially when
we're trying to like make Zelda more complex as a character, not like necessarily,
but you know, Zelda and all the other side characters were trying to
make them more complex. And I really think if it had been a story
only, it had been story only, it definitely would have stayed dealc.
It was the mechanics, the gameplay mechanics, which are just Chef's kiss,
that was what it into a whole separate game, not the story. So
if you were going to make a third game in the series, you'd have
to come up with an even more interesting gameplay mechanic, because there is really
I don't think there's anywhere else for a story to go. Yes, you're
definitely right, And I think that like, when you look at it that
way, it's obvious you just do something new with the next game. Now
it's going to be open world it's still gonna be Breath of the Wild inspired,
clearly, that's that's clearheaded. I mean they're not stupid. Yes,
I mean we could just look at the numbers, like the Breath of the
Wild and Tiers of the Kingdom are about to be like outselling the rest of
the Zelda games combined here pretty soon, we're going to be pretty close to
it. It's it's that though those games have sold so much better than previous
Zelda games that they're just they're not going to go back in the like they're
not gonna go wholesale back. They will have offshoots of Zelda. They will
keep doing two D Zelda here and there, but probably have something equil into
the Links Awakening remake again in a couple of years, and I'm I will
play that and I'll be very excited. But they're gonna keep making games in
this Breath of the Wild form. It's just they're gonna have to change up
a lot more, a completely new map, maybe rethinking a lot of that
stuff as well, just like how the map can work and things like that.
So hey, we'll find out in seven years whenever that game actually comes
out, right, So yeah, I think, well, I think we're
probably definitely gonna have something that comes out in conjunction with the movie, so
which probably will still be quite some time from now. Yeah that, Yeah,
that's not bad. That's not bad because they probably could do a like,
do we know, like what story in the movie is, Let's say
it's let's say let's say it's oker enough time. Let's say they're doing opera
of time. If they had an Okera enough time remake to go along with
that. Oh yeah, that would that would pop off right if you get
people people love getting home from the movie and then playing the game that they
just got really excited about, or watching the movie on Netflix or whatever.
Uh that that's happened recently with The Witcher and and and Last of Us.
It's like, if it's in leaks, you know, if ocker enough time,
the remake would be awkerat in time, it would be a very good
game. It's like, and it looked like big and important with the remake
of Visually, I think that could be very successful. But yes, I'm
like, I'm picturing it now that that seems if I were a Nintendo executive,
I would want to capitalize on like having uh not necessarily the attention that
a movie would bring, because I don't think Zelda needs the attention, but
more like the franchise continuity. Yes, definitely, So you don't want the
movie to feel like a whole separate entity from the game series. Do you
are you a high roll historia reader? I know I have friends who are.
I'm sorry to hear that. If you'd like me to read high role
historia, I I will do so. I would never upon anybody you said,
I'll start a I'll start a Patreon and we can and you can request
that of me. Okay, well there you go. If you're getting paid
and whatever, let's make it happen. I mean, I was. I
was thinking about reading the those god awful Assassin's Creed novels for a while.
But if but I'd have Fily pivot to High Rule Historia. It's better than
the Balance Wonder World novel. I can assure you. I could assure you
there was a Balance Wonder World novel. How did I not know about this?
I wish I didn't know about You shouldn't have told me that, Jeff,
I'm thinking about this all things rough stuff. It's very rough, all
right. Fortnite's dev really wants a crossover with Nintendo, but hasn't had any
luck. This is a Liam Dulan at Nintendo Life. Fortnite has had just
about every crossover at this stage, from Dragon Ball and Marvel to Lago,
but the one brand Epic believes could top them all is Nintendo. Speaking to
Axios in Los Angeles this week, the head of Fortnite's ecosystem, Zax Pearson,
admitted Epic had tried incredibly hard to wo the legendary video game company behind
Zelda, Mario, and Donkey Kong, but was unable to make any significant
progress. When asked out how hard Epic had tried to woo Nintendo, Pearson
said told Axios, I don't know what the word for, like making diamonds
is. If it did happen, though, it might just be Epic's biggest
crossover ever. Pearson believes that Fortnite players would love it. Nintindo has their
strategy and we have our strategy, and we hope at some point to use
their characters. Per Parent said, because our players would love it. Given
Nintendo's history and the way it protects certain ip we immediately can't see Nintendo running
along the battlefield with a Tactckle assault rifle, and William Dulan's probably right about
that. Over a Nintendo life, this is one where it's like you you
you could see a world in which Nintendo was like, oh yeah, maybe
we should like do this, and it's probably that world was probably the we
U when that was out, and the only thing that Nintendo had going for
and they needed a lot of help. It's the complete opposite world now,
right, the Nintendo Switches space dominant, the games are dominant. I mean
when when someone was like, saw this, like Natindo can't afford not to
be in Fortnite, and this was a Fortnite saying that, So I don't
really I didn't really want to pile on, but I couldn't help to just
feel like, hey, the bad super Mario super Mario Party game that no
one likes is has outsold God of warrag Rocket has outsold the Last of Us
Part two. Like that's where Nintendo s and that game is is I don't
think even in the top ten of it's best selling switch games. If it
is, it's near to the bottom now because it's like it's got there's a
ton of games that have done more than sixteen million copies, which is I
think our nineteen million copies, which is where I where I think Super Mario
Party is. And it's like, Okay, if that's the reality that we're
dealing with, Nintendo just isn't even thinking that this is a need in any
way. And if they don't need it, that's going to be a big
hurdle to get over to convince them they should do it, right, Yeah,
I think it's not something that nint Nintendo does not have to do it.
They don't have they don't need the prestige. Like you approach Crystal Dynamics
and say hey, we want to put Lara Croft in Fortnite, They're going
to jump at the chance. And then you approach Nintendo like, hey,
can we put Let's let's not be ambitious here, let's put somebody mentioned to
her in chat. Let's put Samus Ran in Fortnite, and they'll and Nintendo
will be like, no, they don't have to, yep, exactly.
And it's at a certain point you could see like there's maybe a fifth sixth
tier character that if Nintendo cared about getting attention to, they could still do
this, But that's not what Epic wants and it wouldn't be worth the effort
to Nintendo at a certain point. So it's just it's just not Yeah,
yeah, it would involve like a lot of licensing their their the image,
and I just don't think they want to be part of that, right exactly,
And and and then having to come in and dictate like, hey,
this is what it's okay for these characters do and what it's not it's yeah,
and well, and the word to answer his question, the word for
making diamonds is pressure. And I don't think they have that kind of pressure
exactly. Not that not that they can exert on a material as hard as
Nintendo, right like that is yeah, you just don't have the gusto for
that one, all right. Deo Kajima appears to have snuck a Silent Hill
message into his OD trailer. This is from Chris Sculling at VGC. Uh
Hideo Kojima appears to have snuck a reference to Konami's Silent Hills series into his
to a trailer for O. The El Spots exclusive, which was previously known
as Overdose, was officially introduced during the Game Awards last week, along with
a teaser trailer showing close ups of actors' faces. However, as spotted by
Central Xbox and verified by VGC using the trailer on the Official Coach of a
Production's YouTube channel, the section involving German actor Udo kir appears to have a
hidden message in it. While Kere is talking to the camera, faint letters
appear in his mouth during five separate frames, which could be seen easier if
the video's brightness levels are adjusted in order. In order, the letters spell
out Atami, which is a Japanese city located in Shuzoku prefacture. The kanji
spelling of Shuzoku, and when separated into individual kanji means calm, quiet,
or silent, and the other kanji in there means hill. So basically,
just put silent hill in Udo Kir's mouth. Okay, yeah, listen,
we've been trying to say, like, oh yeahdemus make another Remember when Death
Stranding was first like being teased before they released the trailer, and everyone's like,
oh, it's just silent hills and disguise. Guys, We've got to
let this go. We have to for our own mental health. This is
not going to be I can promise you I can. I would almost bet
money on it. This is not going to be silent hill. This related
out all. Yes, it's not going to be silent hill related. But
is he teasing and he must be just teasing Konami, right, That's the
other solution here, is that he's just tweaking somebody's nose exactly. It's just
poking them, or at least maybe trying to suggest that this is the thing
I did because I didn't get to make Silent Hills. Maybe he's trying to
flag that in a way, but this is just Kojima being Kojima, right,
He's just messing around because it's one of his trailers and he gets the
mess around and he loves doing that shit. Right. Yeah, I think
if nothing else I would I would just accuse Kojima of trolling us because he
knows we're going to look for that sort of stuff. And you know,
it's like this isn't practically his whole arg marketing shtick at this point. So
yeah, I would definitely say that. No, I understand I want a
new sign and I want a new good Silent Hill game two. I don't
think Jima is gonna be making it. I don't think we're gonna see pt
Silent Hills come back. I'm sorry, guys, but just for our own
peace of mind, I think we just got to let this go. Sarahs
skates as shout out to Grubford to pronouncing koch of it in two different ways
in three seconds. I caught that too. It's just gonna happen. That's
how the mouth works sometimes. All right, let's see it. I think
that's gonna do it for the news. I got the pull question from at
some point in the past. It's been a while since we did a show.
It says here on YouTube eleven days ago. That just can't be right,
that's wild. But we were traveling everybody, Yes, exactly, Rachel
got to do the first show back. I'm very glad you were here for
that. But yes, the poll question was do you care that the Grand
Theft Auto Trilogy is on Netflix on mobile? And only seven percent of you
say you care. Ninety three percent said no. And that's what I voted
for as well. Yeah, I get it, but I have a million
ways to play these games now. I think for the very casual Netflix fan
who might see GTA in their app when they're on their phone, maybe it
moves the needle a little bit. But I don't think this is some actual
huge get These are the older Grand Theft Autos. People have played these before.
It's not that big a deal, right, Yeah, I don't.
I don't know. It's hard to say. With Netflix. I feel like
I don't think Netflix knows what kind of games it wants on its platform.
I think it's just I think it's throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what
sticks. Yes, it's going to be a big hit for Netflix. It's
I don't think it's going to be the GTA trilogy, but you know,
they're trying everything. It's the it's they're they're doing it in a way that
seems safer than what Google did right with Stadia, where it's like, hey,
they're throwing my old nemesis. Yeah, they're throwing stuff at the wall,
but it's like twenty million dollars. They're throwing at the wall to get
a bunch of games that are already playable elsewhere, Like they're just trying to
get them on Stadia. That doesn't seem to be happening here. They're like,
we're gonna try small things and see their recording indies. Yeah, Braid
and Hate and you know, the new Valiant Hearts game, which I'm mad
because I still didn't get to play because I don't have a Netflix subscription that
includes games, yes exactly, but which I mean, I love Valiant Hearts.
I don't want to pay for that for that level of Netflix just to
play a Valiant Hearts game. All Right, I have a new Poole question
that we're going to post here in a second. In the meantime, though,
Rachel, why do you tell people where they can find you on the
internet and all that good stuff? Okay, well, you can find me
on a little site you may have heard of called games Beat. I'm going
to be writing some new stuff. I'm working on, an Avatar or Frontiers
of Pandora review. I also do a weekly column there called kaser Focus.
You can catch that on Fridays if you're interested in hearing me rant about the
industry, usually after Minati has already clocked off for the weekend. That's usually
when I really get going with that with that column. And also, Jeff,
since the last time you and I talked, I kind of have something
going over on TikTok. I've started doing a daily gaming news uh blast on
TikTok three minutes. It's it's going pretty well. A lot of people seem
to show up and appreciate me like giving them like rapid fire news updates three
minutes or less. I always keep it to three minutes or less unless it's
a very special episode like it was with the game Wards. But yeah,
it's my username on TikTok. You can just search my name. But it's
uh, my username is at Grace of Athena and yeah, you can also
find me on Twitter. I'm over on Blue Sky now if you want,
if you want to, you know, if you're a if you're a Twitter
refugee, which I don't blame you, but yeah, so you can you
can. If you want to see more of my face, you can definitely
do it on TikTok excellence. Yeah, so everyone follow Rachel on TikTok Grace
of Athena because also search Rachel Kaser fantastic. I uh now you mentioned I
think I've seen a TikTok of yours come across my feed like that, So
yes, excellent. Oh that would be yeah, small world, small world,
and that's how that's how it goes. Sometimes. I think I follow
you on TikTok as well. Yeah, I've started posting like I go for
my morning walks. Now I'm just like, I'll post a TikTok of me
doing bullshit on my walk every day and night. Most most of the videos
just meet crunching leaves. That's all you can hear. So yeah, I
think I did. I think I did call Jeff Keeley a tall drink of
Canadian water on one of my tiktoks, a tall drink of Werners. Yeah,
all right, we have a new poll question for Wednesday. Tomorrow's gonna
be the podcast for Wednesday. Were you happy with the Game Awards? Yes
or no? Just curious, yavy question, heavy question, Interpret it however
you want, whatever you think, yes or no. If you're happy with
the Game Awards, we'll discuss it then in the meantime, Rachel, thank
you so much for spending today talking with me about video games. I really
appreciate it. Oh, no problem, I missed you, Jeff. It's
good to be back. Just you too. We'll get you back on way
more often. It's the ADHD out of say it, out of mind is
how it goes from now. It's fine that I'm like, who gonna get
Here's what happened. I will be like who gonna get for the Monday show
and I'm like there's no one, and there's like a list to like ten.
People are like I would totally do it, and I'm like, oh,
okay, I forgot. That's just how I would definitely be in like
a better or if you if we did this like another Monday, any other
Monday. But it's a The roof is literally being worked on where I usually
work, and so you would hear nothing but like loudhammer sounds like if I
was there right now. So that's just normal for us. Every time we
do a show, it feels like Jeff Backlar's got someone like working in his
yard. I'm like, I'm what kind of you a fucking jungle out there?
I've been there. He doesn't. I don't know what's going on over
there. It's just New Jersey. That's how they do it there. I'm
just kidding. Thanks for listening, and everybody, you're the best audience in
gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself,
and goodbye bye.