Giant Bombcast 10-11-2011

[0] October the 11th, 2011, 10, 11, 11.

[1] You are listening to the Giant Bombcast.

[2] I'm Ryan Davis.

[3] Joining me today, Mr. Faddy Caravella.

[4] 10, 11, 11.

[5] Mr. Jeff Gerstman.

[6] How come there aren't big games coming out?

[7] That's a day thing.

[8] 10, 11, 11.

[9] That's all like, 11, 11, 11.

[10] We got games coming out.

[11] 10, 11, 11.

[12] It's because they were all blinded by 11, 11, 11.

[13] Or 11 something 11.

[14] They also wanted to get out of the way of Sesame Street.

[15] That's true.

[16] Fair enough.

[17] Wouldn't you?

[18] Really?

[19] Yeah.

[20] You get the hell out of the way of Sesame Street.

[21] It's my whole street.

[22] All right.

[23] Sesame Street landed on us.

[24] Brad Shoemaker's here.

[25] I want to cause trouble.

[26] Geez, guys.

[27] Why you got beef with Sesame Street?

[28] Because Snuffleupagus ain't real.

[29] They ain't never been to Sesame Street.

[30] We're taking the Sesame Street back.

[31] I watched Follow That Bird a month or two ago.

[32] That movie's weird.

[33] It is weird.

[34] It's on Netflix Instant.

[35] Not to be confused with Quickster Instance.

[36] That's when he gets adopted.

[37] Big Bird gets adopted.

[38] Yeah, Big Bird gets adopted.

[39] By the Dodos.

[40] Yeah, he goes and lives with Dodos and they're idiots.

[41] And then he escapes and then it's a road movie from there.

[42] There are a lot of Muppet road movies.

[43] Is that one of those that is ostensibly for children but is actually for adults on drugs?

[44] I'd say it works.

[45] I think that's everything Jim Henson did ever.

[46] I think it's called Baby First.

[47] There's a baby channel on DirecTV.

[48] If that's the route you want to go.

[49] Oh, TV.

[50] Stuff that's for kids that you should take a lot of drugs and watch.

[51] It's for drug people.

[52] Yeah, that's like at night.

[53] It's just like flying butterflies for three hours.

[54] Fuck yes.

[55] But they're not even real.

[56] It's just like.

[57] Not real, man. No, it's just like CG nonsense.

[58] The TV's not even on, man. They charge for it now.

[59] They actually charge as much on DirecTV for the Playboy channel as they do for the Baby channel.

[60] And I imagine that couples go from one to the other.

[61] I was going to say, you get as much out of either.

[62] You know what I'm saying?

[63] They're probably both terrible.

[64] Brad Shewaker's here.

[65] It's going.

[66] But I had forgotten that they rotated through Muppets on Sesame Street.

[67] There are some that were clutch.

[68] like early players that have been kind of...

[69] Sideline?

[70] Sideline.

[71] I mean, everything is like that.

[72] You know, G .I. Joe, Clutch, quite literally.

[73] Zap, Rock and Roll.

[74] Those guys, you don't hear about those dudes.

[75] Like Barkley.

[76] Because they stayed in the alternate dimension.

[77] Like Barkley.

[78] The fucking giant dog?

[79] The big old dog?

[80] Yeah, vaguely.

[81] But he was like Mr. Hooper's dog and then Mr. Hooper died or whatever, right?

[82] He was there through the 80s.

[83] Hooper died in like 82 or 83 or something.

[84] There's some core Muppets that just never go away.

[85] Yeah.

[86] Rolf.

[87] Guy Smiley.

[88] He's out of the picture.

[89] You don't see a lot of Guy Smiley anymore?

[90] No, you don't.

[91] He was gone through.

[92] Also, that's one where that was voiced by Henson originally, so I imagine that probably informed some of them.

[93] Well, Dr. Teeth was always just with the band.

[94] Yeah, where's the band?

[95] They're with the Muppets.

[96] I mean, it's Kermit, Piggy, Yonzo, Fozzie.

[97] Well, I mean, we're talking Muppets versus the Sesame Street crew because I think they might technically not be Muppets.

[98] Like, not everything that comes out of the Henson Workshop is a Muppet.

[99] Really?

[100] What else?

[101] That's a branding distinction that they make.

[102] Like, Big Bird's not a Muppet?

[103] No. No, he's not a Muppet.

[104] He's a suit.

[105] No, no, but I mean it's not even like a – some of them are the Muppets and some of them are not.

[106] It's not like Muppet is a life form.

[107] So like Muppets and Sesame Street can't breed?

[108] It's like – Oh, they can.

[109] They can.

[110] But then the offspring can.

[111] I wouldn't saw like that adult's like Henson Puppet – like Henson Workshop improv show in the city.

[112] No. I was going to say, is that happening to you?

[113] No, it's an actual Henson production, but they never say Muppet because they do adult cheeky curse and stuff.

[114] So because of that, it's like, no, the Muppet brand can't be...

[115] Oh, a Muppet would never do that.

[116] Yeah.

[117] These are Henson puppets, but they are not Muppets.

[118] Is Rizzo a Muppet?

[119] Although then, Rizzo the Rat?

[120] Yeah, he's absolutely a Muppet.

[121] Okay.

[122] He's not on Sesame Street, so yes.

[123] But Muppets can be on Sesame Street.

[124] Right.

[125] Kermit was on Sesame Street.

[126] Yes, some Muppets appear on Sesame Street.

[127] But a lot of the Sesame Street dudes do not appear on the Muppets.

[128] You think the Sesame Street crew hates the Muppets?

[129] Elmo is not a Muppet.

[130] Elmo is not a Muppet.

[131] He's a monster.

[132] Yeah.

[133] Okay.

[134] The Cookie Monster is not a Muppet.

[135] Clearly.

[136] Right.

[137] But Miss Piggy's – So Muppets – But they will make cameos.

[138] There is some cross -pollination for sure.

[139] So Muppets are basically movie people in Sesame Street.

[140] There's also the Muppet Show.

[141] They're like TV guys.

[142] Bread and butter.

[143] That's where they started.

[144] Yeah.

[145] The Muppet Show.

[146] Yeah, but they took off.

[147] Muppet Babies.

[148] I would say the majority of their work has been on television.

[149] But their best known work?

[150] Yeah, Muppet Show.

[151] You think Muppet Show is more known than the Muppet movie?

[152] Yeah, absolutely.

[153] The Great Muppet Caper?

[154] Yes.

[155] Even Muppets Take Manhattan.

[156] What?

[157] Blasphemy.

[158] Even Muppet Christmas Carol.

[159] I would say the Muppet Show theme is more well known.

[160] Even Muppets Go to Space.

[161] Muppet is rapidly becoming one of those words that I cannot hear.

[162] Muppet Christmas Carol.

[163] You've got to stop.

[164] Muppet Christmas Carol.

[165] Stop taking my headphones off.

[166] So this baby channel.

[167] Sometimes they would just show trains.

[168] I've got a copy of the Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster, and I'm really looking forward to playing that.

[169] Unlock Muppet Mode.

[170] But I feel really weird.

[171] Like, I don't know what's weirder, like me being like, I'm just going to be an adult man. I'm going to go home and play the Sesame Street game.

[172] Probably with my girlfriend.

[173] That'll help, I guess.

[174] Pull the blinds.

[175] Because she's eight.

[176] I guess we should point out.

[177] My child bride.

[178] Yeah.

[179] I bought her in India.

[180] Let me know what Svetlana thinks of it.

[181] But it's like the way creepier option is like so do I get like a child over to – do I try and like – What?

[182] No, you do not.

[183] No, no. I don't talk to one of my friends of your parole to forbid you in fact.

[184] Do you guys want to play a video game?

[185] Like I can't ask a friend who has kids like, hey, you want to come over?

[186] Like that's way weirder.

[187] Do you want to trick them into playing?

[188] Not trick – like be upfront about it but like it's – I just want to have you over so your kids can play this video game.

[189] Yeah, see, it's creepier, right?

[190] And I just want to watch it.

[191] I just want to watch, man. I'm just going to check it out.

[192] He's good.

[193] It's just weirder.

[194] That's all I'm saying.

[195] Don't look at the bottom part of my bathrobe.

[196] I do have a nice bathrobe.

[197] I don't know what to expect from the...

[198] level of gameplay from that game.

[199] Yeah, me neither.

[200] The times I've played it, it's been, you know, real basic kind of...

[201] It's very straightforward.

[202] Yeah.

[203] It's like you're flapping your arms and leaning and the monsters are flying up the screen accordingly and you're trying to collect flowers and stuff.

[204] It's real...

[205] Basic.

[206] Basic activity motion stuff.

[207] It is made for children.

[208] Yeah.

[209] But, you know, like...

[210] That's fine.

[211] I'm not even, like, looking for, like, I want lots of, you know...

[212] Don't focus on nudges and winks and stuff.

[213] It's like headshots.

[214] On a headshot Cookie Monster?

[215] Yeah.

[216] I think the Muppets look weird with legs because you don't see that outside.

[217] But in the game, they have to render full bodies a lot of the time.

[218] And Cookie Monster especially, I think, just looks a little crazy.

[219] Some work better than others with legs.

[220] But I don't know.

[221] From what I played of it, it seems responsive.

[222] The control works.

[223] I don't know.

[224] For what it is, it's probably pretty good, but I'm in no position to judge it on any level other than a creepy one.

[225] So maybe we just need to lean into that.

[226] Maybe we need to have the creepiest coverage of Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster as possible.

[227] I want a quick look of you just wearing a towel playing the game.

[228] But not playing the game?

[229] Just watching the game?

[230] Yeah, you just wearing a towel like Paul Bellini style.

[231] Holding it up.

[232] Watching kids play.

[233] I've got like a snifter of brandy.

[234] No, you've got a coconut drink holder.

[235] Like a half coconut full of booze.

[236] And you're sitting in a director's chair.

[237] Faster.

[238] That's all you're saying.

[239] More.

[240] Faster, more intense.

[241] I think we can go creepier.

[242] I want to see the rest of the story.

[243] We just revisit the idea we had for whatever dumb porno game was called and just get strippers in here to play it.

[244] Oh, yeah.

[245] Let's not do that.

[246] What was that?

[247] I don't want to have to steam clean these couches again.

[248] Was that an Ubisoft game?

[249] No, it was We Dare.

[250] Yeah, that's right.

[251] Not really a porno game, but...

[252] Well, you know what I mean.

[253] I do.

[254] We can get stripper.

[255] Decidedly un -porno game, actually, I guess.

[256] Yeah.

[257] What if we got child stripper Muppets to play the game while Ryan watched in a towel?

[258] So we'll get Muppets that are our...

[259] Babies.

[260] Muppet baby strippers.

[261] Barbara Billingsley.

[262] Stripper Muppet babies.

[263] Muppet baby buggy bumpers.

[264] And they play the game.

[265] I don't think the Kinect will pick up their skeletons properly.

[266] But it's not the game.

[267] I will.

[268] It's just a cardboard box with Ryan's face inside it.

[269] Yep.

[270] And it says surprise.

[271] It says dance.

[272] You broke the law.

[273] And then we filmed that.

[274] You win a knifing.

[275] Oh.

[276] Not again.

[277] So that's out this week?

[278] That is out this week.

[279] There's like six Kinect games out this week.

[280] It's all purple.

[281] It's a purple -ass week.

[282] Yeah.

[283] If you like Wipeout.

[284] Finally, that's where all the games have been.

[285] So, you know, the TV show Wipeout, the crazy obstacle course, like they rip off the Japanese game show format for that, you know, John Henson is in it.

[286] Takeshi's Castle?

[287] It's basically Takeshi's Castle, only Americanized.

[288] And that other guy who's on ESPN, I can't remember his name, the other John.

[289] And they've released a couple of video games for that.

[290] So first there was a game called Wipeout on the Wii.

[291] And I saw that.

[292] I'm like, okay, it makes sense.

[293] Cool, futuristic racing.

[294] Let's do this.

[295] TV show is called Wipeout.

[296] And even that, I'm like, it's a Sony property, so you put it on the Wii.

[297] There's no confusion.

[298] There's no overlap there.

[299] And they make another one for Kinect for 360, and it's called Wipeout in the Zone.

[300] I'm like, all right.

[301] Still sticking with the Wipeout name?

[302] Still not on a Sony platform?

[303] Wipeout does have zone mode, zone racing in it.

[304] So we're getting a little closer and a little weirder.

[305] But we're still away from the platform in question.

[306] And this new one, they're just calling Wipeout 2.

[307] Great.

[308] And I have to say, okay, they're just making a move now.

[309] They're just like, no. We don't care.

[310] Fucking they haven't done anything for a while.

[311] We're going to come out here, and if no one says shit, then we are taking over the Wipeout name in the video game space.

[312] And so I fear that's where we're going.

[313] Wipeout's a Vita launch title.

[314] I fear we're headed to a world where that's what Wipeout really means to most people.

[315] Yeah, what's that one called?

[316] Just Wipeout?

[317] No, it's called something, man. I don't know.

[318] There's Wipeout HD on the PS3, and then there's Wipeout Pure?

[319] There's Wipeout Pure.

[320] Isn't there a Wipeout Pulse?

[321] Yes, that was also on the PSP.

[322] I don't remember what they're calling the Vita one, but it does wipe out.

[323] Oh, it's a year, so you wipe out.

[324] It's 2048 or something.

[325] Yeah, it's 2097.

[326] Is that Robotron year?

[327] No, it's 2084.

[328] Don't be crazy.

[329] You've got 40 more years in total.

[330] Yeah.

[331] Last human family.

[332] Mikey.

[333] Mommy.

[334] Daddy.

[335] Go go kart racing.

[336] Yeah.

[337] Look out for them.

[338] The Hulks are there.

[339] And you can't shoot them.

[340] I mean, you can shoot them and back them off, but you can't kill them.

[341] Yeah, Hulk's coming out this week, too.

[342] It's true.

[343] Yeah.

[344] All sorts of good connects.

[345] I haven't played half this stuff, and I want to see.

[346] Oh, you mean Hulk Hogan.

[347] I'm like, what are you talking about?

[348] Hulk Hogan's main event coming to chair shop minigame.

[349] Hilarious.

[350] Looking forward to getting that in here.

[351] There's a lot of hilarious stuff in there.

[352] Because I love bad games.

[353] Actually, that game seems generally inoffensive from what I played at E3.

[354] It's like, all right, sure.

[355] You made a wrestling -themed minigame collection.

[356] Why not?

[357] Yeah.

[358] Why not?

[359] Yeah.

[360] Why not?

[361] You know, Jeff, I can't think of a good reason.

[362] Good reason to not make a wrestling minigame collection for Kinect?

[363] No. You got a good one?

[364] A good reason?

[365] Okay, any reason.

[366] You want a bigger audience than the Kinect audience?

[367] They sold a bunch of those.

[368] And are you going to make a wrestling -themed minigame that you play with a controller?

[369] Who cares about that?

[370] You should make a Kinect -themed minigame for every console.

[371] All right.

[372] Even if it doesn't have Kinect.

[373] Okay.

[374] Yeah.

[375] I'm in.

[376] So it's a minigame collection where you're controlling a dude who's standing in front of a TV playing Kinect games?

[377] Yes.

[378] Just Assassin's Creed controls.

[379] This button is my legs.

[380] Who's watching kids play Once Upon a Monster.

[381] And you have to hold the towel up.

[382] That's right.

[383] So wait, it's Hulk Hogan though, but is it not WW something?

[384] No. No, he's – no. So he's got his – it's just his brand.

[385] Just his brand, yeah.

[386] And he's just doing wrestling things.

[387] He is affiliated with a wrestling promotion.

[388] But this I think – Two in fact.

[389] One that he is like with like men of normal height and then there is like he is on this midget wrestling show.

[390] Really?

[391] MCW or something it's called.

[392] It's like his production company or something.

[393] I don't know what it is.

[394] I haven't seen it.

[395] But it's some reality show spin on this.

[396] What you're saying is that Hulk Hogan has not recovered financially from the divorce.

[397] That is exactly what I'm saying.

[398] And like all wrestlers, he will be in garbage for the rest of his life.

[399] As long as he can stand up and deliver a line, someone will be willing to exploit him for something.

[400] Whether it's selling used cars.

[401] I understand he got pretty well cleaned out by that.

[402] Is Macho Man, he passed away?

[403] Yes.

[404] Yes, died earlier this year.

[405] Why'd you have to bring that up?

[406] I'm taking account.

[407] Heart attack in his car.

[408] No, I'm sad.

[409] Heart attack in his car.

[410] Bad place to have one.

[411] Was it the heart attack?

[412] It was not the accident.

[413] It was the subsequent collision.

[414] I believe it was the heart attack.

[415] He ran to a tree, but by then it was already too late.

[416] Thanks, Vinny.

[417] Thanks.

[418] And that is one of the minigames you'll find.

[419] Hey, is Steve Jobs still around, Vinny?

[420] What's wrong with Steve Jobs?

[421] I don't know.

[422] I'm asking you.

[423] I don't know.

[424] I can't have this conversation.

[425] I'm punching out of this.

[426] Sub in someone else for the rest of this.

[427] Come on.

[428] Find someone to tag in.

[429] Get Hulk in here.

[430] All right.

[431] You can't pay him enough, as it turns out.

[432] I have like a dollar.

[433] I got like a dollar and like 50 -something cents.

[434] No, brother.

[435] I mean, he can't even be bothered to stay around E3 for the full time.

[436] Like his presence at E3 this year was he walked across the floor.

[437] Like we got the email saying like, do you want to follow Hulk Hogan as he walks his way across E3?

[438] I'm like, no. No, I do not.

[439] No, I think that was just the – I think he actually did have a presence there.

[440] There were some interviews and stuff that they signed him up for, but he was there for like half a day or something like that.

[441] I mean, he's like 65 now, isn't he?

[442] I don't even know.

[443] I don't even know.

[444] Immortal.

[445] 750.

[446] Anyway, the chair comes at you and you have to hold up your hands at the right time to time the blocking of the chair shot.

[447] He is a Highlander.

[448] Otherwise you get hit in the damn head and get a concussion and then...

[449] That's bad.

[450] That's bad.

[451] The best thing about the movie Highlander is the soundtrack.

[452] What?

[453] The best thing about the movie The Highlander is the soundtrack.

[454] Why?

[455] The Highlander's not.

[456] The Highlander 2.

[457] I can't speak to any Highlanders past the first Highlander.

[458] I'm not interested in the Highlanders.

[459] How about Mario Van Peebles?

[460] Are you interested in him?

[461] I'm interested in Solo.

[462] Yeah, quality films.

[463] You want to talk about?

[464] You want to talk about Posse.

[465] Yeah.

[466] And I do.

[467] Man, I don't remember anything about Posse except for there being a really explicit sex scene.

[468] Just put that on Connect.

[469] I'm really enjoying that at 13 years old.

[470] Gross.

[471] Do you remember anything about Posse?

[472] No. I didn't even know Mario Van Peebles was in Posse.

[473] It's his.

[474] He's like wrote and directed.

[475] He's the star.

[476] That was Mario Van Peebles at the height of his power this summer.

[477] Prepare to go solo.

[478] I would argue that Solo is him past the prime.

[479] I think that is him trying to hold on hard to like, God, everything was going like New Jack City.

[480] Everything was going great.

[481] I had a thing.

[482] My dad made these movies that was influential in kind of a weird way.

[483] But now everyone knows me. And then, oh, now I'm in Solo.

[484] Push your luck.

[485] Damn it.

[486] So Hulk Hogan's main event is out this week.

[487] Yes, Hulk Hogan's main event is out this week.

[488] Yeah.

[489] So is that Michael Phelps game.

[490] Anyway.

[491] Again, the chair comes at you and you have to chop it.

[492] Otherwise they take away all your endorsement deals.

[493] I don't remember in my limited wrestling viewing experience that the chair was often wielded when the other guy was in a position to block it.

[494] It seemed like the guy was usually on the ground before somebody was going for a chair.

[495] Right.

[496] But if that was the case, then you just hit the chair over and over again until the guy was dead.

[497] So yeah, there are definitely people blocking or grabbing the chair out of other people's hands or drop kicking the chair while the other guy is holding it in front of his face.

[498] Rob Van Dam started doing this thing where he had a chair and he would throw it to the other guy.

[499] The other guy would catch it and then he would kick the chair when the chair would hit the guy in the face.

[500] And you were like, that's innovative.

[501] That's pretty good.

[502] And then he did it every week for as long as he was able.

[503] And now you're like, I get it.

[504] It's still pretty good.

[505] It's still all right.

[506] It's still pretty good.

[507] He's thinking about it.

[508] Exactly.

[509] What can we do with this chair?

[510] Rob Van Dam, the thinking man's wrestler.

[511] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[512] He's a real cerebral kind of guy.

[513] You can tell in all his High Times interviews, you can tell that he really has a lot to say about conspiracies that drive this great nation.

[514] He was able to hold interviews.

[515] What is it with former wrestlers being crazy conspiracy theorists?

[516] They get hit in the head too much.

[517] Yeah, that must be it.

[518] They spend a lot of time on the road talking to other idiots.

[519] And when you just have a bunch of idiots in this pressure chamber.

[520] And you were all super fucked up on pain medication the whole time.

[521] And probably steroids.

[522] All it takes is one.

[523] crazy person in Omaha handing you a pamphlet to kickstart that conversation.

[524] Brother, I think that guy in the truck is watching us.

[525] Well, plus you're probably in an environment where everybody's trying to fight for your showtime.

[526] Anyway, there's a conspiracy left and right.

[527] Anyways, guys are getting hit by cars constantly.

[528] Yep.

[529] Over and over again.

[530] You think there's just...

[531] It's an environment that...

[532] The paranoia is just low level and constant.

[533] That's what happens when you get a bunch of independent contractors together and let them know very clearly there's only so much...

[534] TV time, you guys.

[535] So be good.

[536] Oh, good.

[537] Great.

[538] I mean, the Ultimate Warrior is basically like the craziest of all crackpots now, right?

[539] Sure.

[540] Yeah.

[541] Forget wrestling.

[542] Talk about the world.

[543] That guy's...

[544] Just on a larger scale?

[545] Yeah.

[546] Even outside of the wrestling bubble?

[547] Dude.

[548] He's pretty crazy.

[549] He's...

[550] Yeah.

[551] It's kind of always his thing, though, was that he was pretty crazy.

[552] I don't know.

[553] Hacksaw Jim Duggan, though.

[554] Not so crazy.

[555] Libertarian.

[556] Manimal?

[557] What?

[558] Manimal?

[559] Is that a guy?

[560] What?

[561] Probably.

[562] Is that a Muppet?

[563] You thinking of George the Animal Steel?

[564] No. I'm thinking of the guy who used to wear the mask with the crazy long hair.

[565] Mankind.

[566] Mankind.

[567] Yeah.

[568] He's totally...

[569] Hey, is it a successful author?

[570] Yeah, that guy's got it together.

[571] Seriously, he is.

[572] Mick Foley.

[573] Mick Foley, yeah.

[574] This guy who lost missing an ear.

[575] Most of both of his ears or something.

[576] But I've seen him do interviews, and he's just like, yeah.

[577] He also walked away from a bunch of it before it got him.

[578] Really?

[579] I thought he was doing barbed wire.

[580] At the end, yeah, he was doing super hardcore matches, and he was one of those fringe crazy wrestlers, but always came off as super balanced and like family man in interviews.

[581] He was like, oh, he's a really nice, funny guy.

[582] This is all on the outside and the inside.

[583] He gets it all out in the ring.

[584] I guess, I don't know.

[585] Yeah, like his ears.

[586] He's probably going to come back pretty soon.

[587] They all do.

[588] Brad Schumacher's here.

[589] Brad Schumacher's.

[590] Brad, how you doing?

[591] Great to be here.

[592] I'm doing all right.

[593] You want to talk about what you've been playing?

[594] Vinny.

[595] What?

[596] We just cut straight to it.

[597] Talking about what you've been playing?

[598] I'm excited to hear what you've been playing.

[599] Because I knew.

[600] Yeah?

[601] Wait.

[602] Hold on.

[603] Why do you need Vinny to sign off?

[604] Is he your man now?

[605] I'm managing Brad.

[606] He's an integral part of this.

[607] He's been mentoring me. Don't talk to me. All right, Vinny.

[608] What can you tell me about what Brad's been playing?

[609] What do you want him to offer?

[610] This air exclusive platform for his views.

[611] How much time does Brad get?

[612] Airtime.

[613] I want front billing for Brad what you've been playing.

[614] We need to know what he's been playing before we can commit any kind of time.

[615] That's it.

[616] We're done.

[617] Yeah, well, good, because we don't want to talk about what he's been playing anyway.

[618] Brad's been playing Dark Souls.

[619] See, told you.

[620] So, Brad, I understand you drunkenly put Dark Souls in on Friday nights.

[621] I had played it before that.

[622] Oh, okay.

[623] I just woke up the next morning.

[624] I was like, oh, God.

[625] I beat the game.

[626] Oh, no, but I don't know how I did it.

[627] Pile of cellophane around the bed.

[628] He's not even going to make breakfast for me, Brad.

[629] Several broken controllers.

[630] Just go home.

[631] So what do you think?

[632] Saliva running down the walls.

[633] How much time would you say you've put into...

[634] It's hard to say because since there's no pause function...

[635] I've let it idle a bunch of times, so I've got like eight hours on this character, but there's no way I've played it for nearly eight hours.

[636] No way.

[637] Where do you let it idle?

[638] Just at a bonfire or something?

[639] Wherever there's room.

[640] I mean, since I started caring about the game, which was pretty recent, I've started quitting to the main menu.

[641] Oh, before you quit?

[642] Yeah.

[643] You can get baited, man. That's the thing.

[644] Well, I have not been playing as a human.

[645] Okay.

[646] All I want to do about this game is just ask questions for the next 30 minutes.

[647] Go.

[648] I'm going to give you 15.

[649] Ask any questions about Dark Souls.

[650] Should we just go?

[651] Jeff and I are going to go get a coffee.

[652] I'm afraid I can't answer your questions, but give it a shot.

[653] What's the point of ever being human?

[654] You can summon other people into your world.

[655] If you're not human, what are you?

[656] Are you a dancer?

[657] You're dead.

[658] You're undead.

[659] You're zombie man. You're hollowed.

[660] You look like bacon.

[661] Yeah.

[662] You look like you were made out of bacon when you're not alive.

[663] Yeah, you're hollowed, right?

[664] That's the term?

[665] Yeah, hollowed.

[666] So much fucking jargon in this game.

[667] Oh, do you want to reverse hollow?

[668] It sounds like the translation is...

[669] Yes.

[670] It's not great.

[671] I saw John and Mark on...

[672] The 8 -4 gentleman basically saying like, in the Japanese version it says this.

[673] It says you walked through the fog, not you traversed the white bullshit.

[674] You defeated.

[675] It sounds like the translation is super bad, but I think that works in the game's favor.

[676] You recovered.

[677] Why not go all the way with it?

[678] If you're going to make this crazy, stupid game, go full fucking board.

[679] That has to drive those guys nuts.

[680] We were kicking it at the fire oyster ritual site all weekend.

[681] Yeah.

[682] So, yeah.

[683] I can't even figure out what that would correctly translate to.

[684] They've got a pretty good Bloomin' Onion if you want to count the fire oyster.

[685] So, yeah, you can summon other people into your world to help you fight.

[686] Oh, see, I thought you could only invade other people's world.

[687] No, you call backup, and the bosses are a lot easier when you have other dudes in your world.

[688] What's their incentive to, like, you have to invite specific people?

[689] No, you just put out a call.

[690] You never get to invite specific people.

[691] Yeah, they just put down a sign that says, hey, I'll come join your world.

[692] That guy was a mercenary style, and then you invite them into your world, and you go fight a boss.

[693] And then you have three dudes fighting a boss.

[694] So do they get more souls for coming and helping people?

[695] I think so.

[696] Or are they just not at risk of losing souls?

[697] I forget what they get if they win.

[698] You might get some humanity.

[699] I mean, if they kill you, if a phantom enters your world and kills you, then they get humanity.

[700] That's a PvP player as opposed to a co -op player.

[701] That's when a dude comes in to kill you.

[702] Is that a black phantom?

[703] Yes.

[704] Is there any other kind?

[705] No. Okay.

[706] It's racist.

[707] Yes.

[708] So, yeah, the part that I found kind of awesome that they added to this is they had the phantoms entering worlds in Demon's Souls, but now there are covenants that you can join, like basically clubs.

[709] It'll be in Ryan's club, it'll be in Brad's club, it'll be in Jeff's club.

[710] But each one has different rules.

[711] Do you get to invite clubs, join clubs based on your actual friends, or is it again just like, this guy and me?

[712] No, no, it's with the NPCs.

[713] So it's like, okay, so I'll go to Ryan and be like, I'll join your club.

[714] Okay, the rules for this club are you can't kill anybody in this forest.

[715] Be like, ah, that's a sucky club.

[716] Join Brad's club.

[717] The club for this is, hey, every time somebody breaks the rules of a club, I'm going to send you into their world as a black phantom to assassinate them.

[718] That's kind of cool club.

[719] Like your club might be like, hey, anytime.

[720] And me being an NPC.

[721] And you being an NPC.

[722] So basically you're affiliating with certain NPCs.

[723] Right.

[724] Like going down that path.

[725] And that is.

[726] And basically you're in this organization, like this cult.

[727] Yeah, yeah.

[728] And it's like a background thing that happens.

[729] But I put on this one ring for this one cult that was like, anytime somebody who's not in our cult, in our cool club, who enters this area, I'm going to let you know.

[730] I'm going to summon you and like two other dudes into his world.

[731] And you're just going to.

[732] have to stop him from reaching the boss and make his game basically grief him as he tries to make his way to this really hard boss over there you're going to try and get his health down and kill him and every time you do that i'll reward you so like i would play the game with this ring on and be doing something to be like oh you're getting summoned into this other world jump into this other world with another dude and just kill this poor kid who's trying to make his way so you're being like paired with some other random person who's also joined this covenant this Yeah, and basically just kill this poor guy who – Hey, man, he broke the rules.

[733] He knew what was coming.

[734] Or didn't join the covenant and is in this part of the world.

[735] It's kind of messed up.

[736] So the other thing, like I said, if you're in this covenant and you break the rules, you can get put in this Book of the Guilty, which then is basically – if you're in this other covenant, hunts people who are in the Book of the Guilty and basically invades their world.

[737] It's kind of messed up but kind of cool in a way of like – It's a cool idea.

[738] Yeah, that's a cool idea.

[739] Sounds like being in a frat.

[740] Yeah.

[741] There's a lot of hazing going on.

[742] I mean the whole game sounds like being in a frat.

[743] It's pretty much all kegs, Dan.

[744] Where it's just like a lot of complicated rules that aren't explained very well that you are randomly and without warning punished for.

[745] Yeah, because they don't really – yeah, I got eggs on my head.

[746] But if you get arrested, my uncle's a lawyer.

[747] Don't worry about it.

[748] So wait.

[749] Did you have any other real questions?

[750] So whatever he asks, I'm going to ask, wait, what is that?

[751] Yeah, that's the problem, right?

[752] No, no. We're all learning stuff.

[753] This is good.

[754] That's why I give you 15 minutes.

[755] My understanding is everything that's on it is a lack of information out there right now because I assume people are just trying to make it through their first playthrough.

[756] And in order to have a pool for statistics, they need to try it again because so much random stuff happens.

[757] All of it's crazy out there.

[758] What's great on the internet now is it's all hearsay and rumor.

[759] So it's like, I don't know, man. I was walking down this path and I spun in a circle seven times and I got eggs on my head.

[760] And then if you pause the game and unpause it like seven times, the eggs explode into a giant maggot head.

[761] And people are like, does that really happen?

[762] Exactly like that.

[763] So I got eggs on my head.

[764] And what happened?

[765] And then I got rid of them because I bought this item.

[766] Why would you get rid of head eggs?

[767] Because they take half your souls, right?

[768] Yeah, and if you feed it more than a bunch of souls, it turns into something else and your head is gone.

[769] You could be headless?

[770] I think it gets rid of your kick animation and suddenly a giant thing comes out of your head.

[771] You can't kick anymore?

[772] Yeah, and plus they're highly flammable, so having eggs on your head.

[773] Sounds awesome.

[774] Yeah.

[775] Anyway.

[776] Throw them at people.

[777] So like I said, I don't know a lot of information, but ask me. I somehow made it over 40 hours.

[778] Did you know about eggs?

[779] What are you talking about?

[780] You know well more than we do.

[781] I don't know why they come.

[782] I think if you break a covenant.

[783] Someone's beat Dark Souls by that, right?

[784] I assume.

[785] Yeah.

[786] Really?

[787] That's been on Japan for even longer than it's out here.

[788] Certainly someone is.

[789] Is there a story in this game?

[790] Not really.

[791] Like, I don't know.

[792] Like, there's technically, like, a thing, you know, you're doing stuff.

[793] You're undead and you're trying to stop.

[794] You're trying to ring these bells.

[795] Yeah.

[796] You're trying to, like, reverse, stop the undead curse, I think.

[797] Yeah.

[798] But that's as deep as it gets.

[799] It's not like.

[800] They set up the universe a bit.

[801] Like, there was.

[802] I watched the opening cutscene.

[803] First there was void, and then there were these guys.

[804] Right, there was the light, and then there was darkness, and then there's these guys that you'll probably fight at some point.

[805] There's death, and then there's the witch, and the sun.

[806] There was demons, and now there's darkness.

[807] And now there's souls, right.

[808] No, there have always been souls.

[809] It's all nonsense.

[810] So what are you up to?

[811] Did you get the Drake Sword?

[812] I just got the Drake Sword.

[813] Great.

[814] Which makes it feel like I am cheating at Dark Souls now.

[815] You can't cheat at Dark Souls.

[816] Rule number one, you can't cheat at Dark Souls.

[817] It was taking like six hits to kill the most basic enemy.

[818] And now I can one -shot everything except for like the kind of semi -boss characters.

[819] Yeah.

[820] It just feels cheap now.

[821] You haven't gone far enough.

[822] No?

[823] No. All right.

[824] It'll change back.

[825] Don't worry.

[826] I feel like it's not the real experience.

[827] That sword, I think, is intentionally put there.

[828] I think it's a fantastic early game sword.

[829] It's so clearly obvious that if you just shoot this dragon in the tail from underneath the bridge for about 10 or 15 minutes, you'll get this amazing sword.

[830] But the thing is that sword doesn't scale as you level up.

[831] So if you were to get that later on in the game, unless you were a really weak character, you'd have way better weapons.

[832] So most of the weapons scale up, and that doesn't scale with any strength attributes or anything.

[833] So you're stuck at...

[834] Like 200.

[835] Yeah.

[836] The entire time.

[837] That makes sense.

[838] But it's great for a long time.

[839] It kind of feels like Dark Souls training wheels.

[840] Yeah.

[841] Except you have to kind of go through some shit to get there.

[842] Yeah.

[843] I find Dark Souls a lot easier than Demon's Souls.

[844] Really?

[845] Yeah.

[846] I think it's better at leading you in the right direction.

[847] I don't know about that.

[848] I just got through the Undead Burg and now it's Undead Parish or Darkroot Basin I think is the other one.

[849] I don't remember what the Undead Parish is.

[850] We went to it in the quick look.

[851] It's where the armored boar thing is.

[852] Oh, yeah.

[853] You should just do that.

[854] There's a Black Knight on top of the tower.

[855] Don't fight the Black Knight.

[856] I tried.

[857] You can.

[858] Fuck that guy.

[859] I beat him eventually by cheesing him, which is pretty much the way I play Dark Souls.

[860] Yeah, so there was a comment on the forums from some guy going, I'm not very good at Dark Souls.

[861] I'm just good at exploiting this game's terrible AI.

[862] Yeah.

[863] First response was, that means you are good at Dark Souls.

[864] I buy that, yep.

[865] Yeah.

[866] I, most of the enemies I've beaten that are big was by trying to find a way to, like, I feel like a lot of that stuff is intentional in there though.

[867] Like you need to find, I do.

[868] I really do.

[869] Come on.

[870] There is a giant stuck on the environment.

[871] No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like I got a guy to chase me in the, in the bus.

[872] So they lock you into the boss area when you go in, right?

[873] You go through, you traverse the white fog, whatever.

[874] And then the door seals back up so you can't escape.

[875] Right.

[876] So you're in the boss zone.

[877] I had a guy that was just tremendous.

[878] He was called, his boss name was Ceaseless Discharge.

[879] And he just, this giant lava monster.

[880] And he was huge.

[881] I was about the size of his thumb.

[882] And he'd kill me in one shot every time.

[883] And I was like, well, this sucks.

[884] But I was able to lead him back towards the door, which is locked.

[885] I can't get out, so I'm trapped in there.

[886] And then he fell down a bottomless pit.

[887] And he died.

[888] All right.

[889] So there's no way that you like put this bottomless.

[890] Yeah, you're right about that.

[891] So there is stuff like that where I feel like once you figure out like how to beat a boss, you might find like a super easy way to do it.

[892] I mean, that might be the only way you could be.

[893] I read something and I think it's true.

[894] If you can hit it, you can kill it in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, right?

[895] So even if you take one damage off.

[896] Like if you're just really good at rolling around, you can evade.

[897] You can be really good and kill it.

[898] And plus people will try to kill it.

[899] Sure.

[900] And I feel like that's the way you just find out like, oh man, I took damage off.

[901] Fuck, now I know I can kill this thing.

[902] And you'll just try and kill it forever.

[903] How many things do you run into that you don't do damage to that you can't kill?

[904] Oh, everything.

[905] Yeah.

[906] Well, frequently.

[907] Even where I'm at.

[908] Everything.

[909] But you'll see things that you can't reach.

[910] So if you can reach it, people will just buy a thousand arrows and sit there and try and kill a thing.

[911] But some things you just can't reach.

[912] I saw some people saying they were killing the dragon with one arrow.

[913] Like weird stuff like that.

[914] I think that's a glitch actually.

[915] So I think that's broken.

[916] Because I hit the dragon and he tried to land on the bridge.

[917] And then he clipped through the bridge.

[918] Yeah, the theory I read that is that he somehow gets displaced outside the level and the game just assumes that he's vanished or something.

[919] That's broken.

[920] Great.

[921] Awesome.

[922] But when that happens, I will take that point.

[923] You're so anxious at that point that you're just glad that it's gone.

[924] Yeah, any exploit or any bug, I'll take it, man. As long as it falls in my favor, like, whatever.

[925] I have to say, I've never played a game that was so able to just inspire abject fear in you constantly, all the time.

[926] You should play more roguelikes.

[927] No matter what's going on.

[928] Because they're all like that.

[929] All that permadeath stuff.

[930] And that's even worse because you can't.

[931] Yeah.

[932] You're just done.

[933] So are you enjoying what you're playing?

[934] I don't know that I would say that I love it, but at least I am starting to understand it.

[935] I'm like, I have good days and bad days.

[936] Yeah.

[937] Yeah.

[938] I could totally see that.

[939] I was up to like one o 'clock last night just trying to find something to do that was not that first five minutes of the Undead Burg over, like I must have gone through that like 20 times.

[940] Right.

[941] Or something.

[942] I don't know if that's...

[943] Is that an uncommon experience?

[944] No, that's why, like, when we were standing over your shoulder, it'd be like, all right, kill that guy who's going to run up the stairs.

[945] Like, I got to the point where I...

[946] Like, I could get through all of those enemies to the tower where...

[947] Because you've seen that a million times.

[948] Yes, a million times.

[949] What's the guy's name?

[950] Hovel?

[951] Oh, yeah.

[952] At the bottom of the tower?

[953] I mean, that's one of those things where you just fight him or not.

[954] Like, that run up to that tower, I could practically do with my eyes closed at this point without taking any hits or anything.

[955] That guy's got a good ring.

[956] And then you get to the...

[957] I know, I found that out after trying to beat him about 12 times.

[958] Yeah.

[959] It's a good ring.

[960] And then I beat him.

[961] It's pretty awesome.

[962] So, Brad, are you going to keep playing Dark Souls?

[963] Yeah, I'm going to keep going with it.

[964] You get some good stuff.

[965] Yeah.

[966] It kind of is a loot game.

[967] Kind of, yeah.

[968] I found a better shield than that one that you already said was a pretty good shield, so I'm pretty happy about that.

[969] Yeah, and you'll keep that sword for a while.

[970] Yeah.

[971] But you'll get some cool armor and stuff like that.

[972] And armor makes it, you know, the weapons and loot make a big difference.

[973] Like your level, you're basically leveling to use that stuff.

[974] And it's really, what are you playing as?

[975] I started a warrior.

[976] Okay.

[977] I think.

[978] So you have no magic at all?

[979] You're all melee?

[980] No. I've been doubling all my points into strength and endurance and vitality.

[981] I'm at a point now, too, where I've got three terrible options of where I can go.

[982] I can go into this place called Valley of the Titans or Giants.

[983] It's pitch black.

[984] Can't see anything.

[985] Just get a torch.

[986] I think there's, like, a lantern you can get.

[987] Even with your, like, default glow?

[988] You think it's weird how your guy is, like, an automatic light source?

[989] That works out.

[990] So, like, it's pitch black, and also you're, like, on, like, beams.

[991] Great.

[992] And also there are guys jumping at you.

[993] So, no, I'm not going to keep playing.

[994] So that's a terrible place.

[995] I'm at a place where that ceaseless discharge was, which was just full of dudes that were way too powerful.

[996] Or I'm at a place where you have to fight ghosts that you can't lock onto or hit or block unless you're...

[997] have this temporary curse on.

[998] So, I don't know.

[999] I'm at a bad place.

[1000] Now I'm just grinding and trying to level up.

[1001] That's the thing.

[1002] When it gets really repetitive and you're just grinding and you're playing through the same thing over and over and over again, it's kind of hard to stick with.

[1003] Yeah, I found a great place to grind.

[1004] It's a good grinding place.

[1005] Yeah.

[1006] I mean, is it the one in the forest?

[1007] Yes.

[1008] That's like basically another exploit, right?

[1009] I read about it a little bit, and it sounded like you were just...

[1010] If that's the rules of the game they set up...

[1011] I mean, it's in there.

[1012] If you can throw, it's not an exploit.

[1013] Yeah.

[1014] Yeah, throwing's not cheap.

[1015] But you get, like, 2 ,000 souls per guy, and you can basically get 10 ,000 in two minutes.

[1016] Jeez.

[1017] Just going at it.

[1018] And then do you just, like, go to a bonfire, cause everybody to respawn, and then do it again?

[1019] Yep.

[1020] There's a bonfire.

[1021] But the thing is, like, now I'm at the point where it takes 20 ,000 to level up, so it's starting to take a little too long to do, so that's when I called it quits.

[1022] So I'm at level 60 -ish, 59, 60.

[1023] I'm ready to move on.

[1024] I have to say I should be the one representing Vinny's time because I basically didn't know that I wanted to keep playing that game until Friday morning when you stood there for, like, what, 20 minutes?

[1025] Just explaining every stupid little thing that the game doesn't even bother conveying to you.

[1026] Yeah, it's weird.

[1027] watching somebody else play, and you've never played Demon's Souls.

[1028] No, I had no idea.

[1029] I was like, why do I need humanity again?

[1030] And what is kindling?

[1031] Well, that's not a Demon's Souls thing.

[1032] And when would I want to reverse hollowing?

[1033] But like, you know, backstabbing and rolling and keeping your shield up and all those concepts.

[1034] Yeah, like knowing that you can attack with the spear from behind the shield.

[1035] Right.

[1036] I saw it in that quick look, but I didn't appreciate why it mattered.

[1037] Or knowing that your rolling is going to slow down if you're over it.

[1038] I mean, I didn't crack the manual.

[1039] I don't know if that...

[1040] It's mostly online stuff.

[1041] There's no manual to crack.

[1042] It's weird.

[1043] I do like the idea of just putting out a game and saying, here it is.

[1044] And not explaining a lot of the stuff and that notion.

[1045] Because it is very kind of classic.

[1046] Yeah.

[1047] Like very old.

[1048] It's like, yeah.

[1049] You need a hotline.

[1050] Like old RPG type stuff.

[1051] But also, think about stuff like Mortal Kombat.

[1052] Just like fatalities and finishers and all that stuff.

[1053] Like all the stuff about combos and things about fighting games of that era that had to be.

[1054] kind of passed along the oral legend.

[1055] Yeah.

[1056] So that's kind of the state of the stuff online now.

[1057] Yeah.

[1058] As soon as I heard you talking about that, the first thing I thought was Canomorph.

[1059] Yeah, exactly.

[1060] Which totally feels like that.

[1061] And even, like, the things that you would assume would have it by now, like wikias and stuff like that, like, totally, or, like...

[1062] Piece it together.

[1063] Help us fill in this page.

[1064] And, like, nobody...

[1065] I don't know.

[1066] I don't know how I get the eggs off my head.

[1067] I just...

[1068] I did, but...

[1069] I did, but...

[1070] I killed my first NPC accidentally, and it sucked.

[1071] Wait, how does...

[1072] What?

[1073] There was a dude blocking my path.

[1074] He looked like a bad guy.

[1075] I hit him with a sword.

[1076] And then he was like, oh!

[1077] And I was like, just any quest pathing that you were going to do there is gone.

[1078] Well, he was still blocking my path.

[1079] And he said, he looked exactly like every other bad guy I've seen.

[1080] And those bad guys never attacked me before either.

[1081] So I wasn't like, well, this guy's not aggressive.

[1082] That's weird.

[1083] Because they all just sat there and did their thing.

[1084] And then he had eggs all over his back.

[1085] You can't talk to him?

[1086] I couldn't talk to him.

[1087] So I walked up to him.

[1088] And I was like, you're going to move because you're in my way.

[1089] I'm behind you.

[1090] And he didn't move.

[1091] And I hit him with the sword.

[1092] And then he was like, oh, no, the witch, he's coming for you.

[1093] And I was like, yeah, OK, I'm here to kill a witch.

[1094] Like, let's move.

[1095] So I hit him again.

[1096] He died.

[1097] And then that's when I think I got cursed with the eggs on my head.

[1098] The shitty thing was I'm a pyromancer.

[1099] That guy sells you pyromancer spells.

[1100] Now he's dead.

[1101] And so your first instinct is to be like power.

[1102] But it saves.

[1103] The game is just trolling you.

[1104] Every step of the way, it was just mocking you.

[1105] I felt really...

[1106] I almost stopped playing because I was like, really?

[1107] You can't buy these two spells from anybody else.

[1108] And it's like, that's it.

[1109] He's dead.

[1110] I imagine that's a nightmare game to try and write a guide or a fact for just because of how much random shit there is.

[1111] And there being no...

[1112] It seems like there's no good, meaningful way to try and replicate...

[1113] Well, also, yeah, I mean, especially, like, if you have developers that are deliberately trying to make it hard to write a guide for it and not cooperating with guide people.

[1114] Sure.

[1115] Yeah, I mean, that's the game they want to make.

[1116] They probably...

[1117] Don't want a guide.

[1118] It's just the business crap that is surrounded video games compels the publisher to, no, we made a deal for the official guide.

[1119] Forget the official guide.

[1120] Just like if you're going to try to write a fact on the internet.

[1121] Just like – Right.

[1122] Just trying to do fact checking on, okay, what is it that actually causes this?

[1123] What are the actual systems at play in Dark Souls?

[1124] So people have started finding some stuff out.

[1125] And there is like Demon's Souls.

[1126] There's like – The game definitely lends itself to replaying because there are different sequences you can do to trigger different things.

[1127] Like do this area first and this NPC won't be hostile.

[1128] Or like do this other area first and you can talk to the guy and get this thing but then you can't join this thing.

[1129] So there are different scenarios with the way they play out.

[1130] But man, you have one save.

[1131] You can never retry anything, so you're going to have to play through the game, a new game plus or something like that, just to see these different scenarios.

[1132] And I think that's why there hasn't been a lot of information.

[1133] Or at least YouTube movies up there yet, because if you didn't catch it on your first playthrough, you're playing through the entire thing again to capture this fight.

[1134] I found a mimic, a chest, only one of them.

[1135] I went to go get something out and the chest ate me. I've never seen it happen again.

[1136] One bite?

[1137] Just dead?

[1138] I think I live through the bite, but like...

[1139] Not in the game anywhere else.

[1140] There's just one stupid chest in this tower that was full of other shit.

[1141] And it was even Jesse just coming over.

[1142] This is just mean.

[1143] It's just totally mean.

[1144] Because you're like low on health already.

[1145] And it's just like.

[1146] This is new.

[1147] So, Brad, what do you say?

[1148] Is it your 2011 game of the year?

[1149] Yeah, sure.

[1150] Why not?

[1151] You know what?

[1152] Yes, because I think it will murder me if I don't say that.

[1153] The only thing is that chest gave me an awesome spear, and now I'm using that spear to kill guys.

[1154] I heard it's way easier if you have a complete Chromehound save.

[1155] It'd be hard to get, and I know the server's been down for a while.

[1156] Yeah, see?

[1157] Start the game in a mech.

[1158] Yeah, we'll just start all these great Dark Souls rumors.

[1159] Brad, you want to talk about Dead Rising?

[1160] Yeah, what a strange product that is.

[1161] So Dead Rising 2 off the record.

[1162] Speaking of...

[1163] It's coming out this week.

[1164] Speaking of weird Japanese and Japanese style games.

[1165] Are we like nine months after the release of...

[1166] When did Dead Rising 2 come out?

[1167] No, it's been just over a year.

[1168] It was like September last year, right?

[1169] Yeah, that sounds right.

[1170] Although, if you think about it...

[1171] Give or take a few weeks, this is the fourth product called Dead Rising 2.

[1172] Right, we had Dead Rising 2 Case 0, Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2 Case West.

[1173] Case West, now off the record.

[1174] And now off the record.

[1175] So this is Dead Rising 2 where they have replaced Chuck Green with Frank West, the protagonist from the original Dead Rising 2.

[1176] Emphasis on this is Dead Rising 2.

[1177] Is it an alternate?

[1178] Universe?

[1179] Yes, yes.

[1180] The original Dead Rising 2 never took place as far as this is concerned.

[1181] Okay, so even Case West, that is...

[1182] I don't know what that was.

[1183] The opening scene of this is Frank West in the Murder Dome.

[1184] Pretty much, yeah.

[1185] It's the opening scene from Dead Rising 2, right?

[1186] More or less.

[1187] They do a good job of giving him an arc, giving you a sense of what's happened since the first game.

[1188] Okay.

[1189] He became a reality television star.

[1190] Perfect.

[1191] Okay.

[1192] They show him stepping out with some pretty ladies and signing autographs.

[1193] And then something goes bad.

[1194] They don't get into it, but there is a scandal.

[1195] Uh -oh.

[1196] And then all of a sudden he is in a wife beater in his apartment drinking Jack out of the bottle and getting fat and then hawking baldness remedies.

[1197] Do they work?

[1198] And then he goes on terror as a reality to try to reignite his star.

[1199] And so the progression of the game is the same.

[1200] And then once you're back in the game, a few things change here and there.

[1201] But I haven't finished it yet.

[1202] I should say I've only seen up through probably not even quite half of the actual story.

[1203] Because it's straight up Dead Rising.

[1204] But the same cast of characters, basically.

[1205] Yeah, totally.

[1206] Like Reporter Girl.

[1207] Like the leader of Cure is in there.

[1208] TK is in there.

[1209] Rebecca Chang, yeah.

[1210] One of the differences is you know that TK caused all this stuff from the get -go.

[1211] Or did he?

[1212] I don't know.

[1213] You see TK doing some bad stuff at the very beginning of the game.

[1214] As opposed to the last one, I guess.

[1215] Yeah, which was a little ways in.

[1216] So again, this is completely, this is like Gundam Wing style, like alternate universe.

[1217] This is nothing to do.

[1218] The other thing didn't happen.

[1219] Right.

[1220] This thing happened instead.

[1221] Instead.

[1222] Although Chuck Green is in the game, but in a very different capacity.

[1223] Right.

[1224] Saw that.

[1225] That's cool.

[1226] Yeah.

[1227] I won't say exactly how.

[1228] But it's just – it's so weird to see these cut scenes, which I in some cases remember almost line for line because in playing a Dead Rising game, you see the first two or three hours of it like three or four times in a row, right?

[1229] So – Some of those cut scenes are almost identical here except that lines have been changed here and there so it fits with Frank West.

[1230] Can I ask you a question about this?

[1231] Sure.

[1232] Why?

[1233] I don't know.

[1234] Like why?

[1235] I don't know.

[1236] Like why?

[1237] I think they thought that one of the things that game was missing was Frank West.

[1238] There were definitely people that reacted poorly to the announcement of Chuck Green and I don't know if they thought that this was going to be the thing that...

[1239] that gets those people on board.

[1240] But originally this did start as like Dead Rising 2 director's cut.

[1241] They were like, oh, what's the stuff that we kind of left on the floor that we could put back in the game that would be like a discount price kind of updated version.

[1242] And I think along the way...

[1243] they said, well, what if we put Frank West in it?

[1244] And then it became a bigger project.

[1245] Right.

[1246] That's no longer a different cut.

[1247] Exactly.

[1248] Yeah, yeah.

[1249] But it did originally start as, like, we made all this stuff that didn't make it.

[1250] So does it feel like that stuff, are there levels or something, like parts of the mall?

[1251] There's one new area.

[1252] One new area.

[1253] It's like a little theme park off to the side.

[1254] I haven't done a whole lot there yet.

[1255] The story hasn't sent me there.

[1256] I just kind of checked it out.

[1257] So what's your opinion on...

[1258] The protagonist, does this feel like a truer sequel?

[1259] Frank West is a lovable guy.

[1260] You're a popular guy.

[1261] A memorable guy, let's say.

[1262] Do you like this better than...

[1263] He had a certain attitude.

[1264] Or just different?

[1265] It's different.

[1266] I've seen a lot of comments on our site on trailers and Jeff's preview from a while back and stuff that a lot of people were like, oh, I'd skip Dead Rising 2.

[1267] This seems like a good time to pick this up because it's only $40.

[1268] Right.

[1269] They've added a lot of mechanical stuff.

[1270] I should say that, like, as a game, it's better.

[1271] Streamline?

[1272] You can drop waypoints on the map, so the little arrow will point you to wherever your waypoint is.

[1273] They already went to three save slots in two.

[1274] On top of that now, there are checkpoints, like automatic checkpoints.

[1275] So you can't really get in the situation of, like, stumbling into a psychopath fight, which could have been, like, complete dead end in the first game where you could, like, practically have to start over if you couldn't beat it.

[1276] So you can always roll back to a checkpoint, which was probably five to five.

[1277] I think you can manually restart checkpoint, but you can definitely, if you just die, you can go back to your last checkpoint.

[1278] Okay.

[1279] So that helps.

[1280] The load times seem better.

[1281] Can you just point people at the air duct entrance and say, go inside?

[1282] Just go.

[1283] Just get in there.

[1284] They added that.

[1285] They changed it to that in Case West, and now they've gone back.

[1286] I mean, granted, it's a large part of the Dead Rising experience to have to shepherd those people.

[1287] I don't care about getting them back there, but don't make me load in and then load back out.

[1288] You still have to do that.

[1289] You still have to do that.

[1290] But the load times are a little better.

[1291] Load time is a lot faster.

[1292] Specifically going into the safe room, it's much faster.

[1293] It's like five to seven seconds.

[1294] But it's just one of those, like, okay, we're past danger.

[1295] We are well past danger.

[1296] It makes no sense.

[1297] Just say goodbye to me here and crawl inside.

[1298] Here's a part where I can say, okay, you guys keep going.

[1299] Right.

[1300] I'm going to go save more people.

[1301] Give me some points now and go.

[1302] Nope, still there.

[1303] Yeah, that part's done.

[1304] And they've added photography.

[1305] Yeah, the photography's back, if you liked that.

[1306] Just like Frank West.

[1307] So basically, if you're a person who considered Frank West and the photography stuff to be part of the soul of Dead Rising, then this is probably your game.

[1308] In some respects, this is the true Dead Rising 2.

[1309] Is there anything that says, like, gather your party before going through a door, or can you still just go through doors and leave people behind?

[1310] Oh, was that not a...

[1311] You get a message now, if you try to go through a door, it'll say, so -and -so is too far away.

[1312] Like, I don't know if that's new or not.

[1313] I think when I was playing, I remember I would go through a door, and then someone didn't come with me, and I'd be like, crap.

[1314] And they lose health.

[1315] Super fast.

[1316] Consistently, if they're in a different area, the health just starts draining.

[1317] But sometimes the icons stack on top of each other, so you can't really see.

[1318] Yeah, that's hard to see.

[1319] Yeah, that's not great.

[1320] That's still there.

[1321] That's not handled super well.

[1322] So, like, doing this, I get the why of, like, okay, why bring Frank West in here to kind of, you know, I guess make the Dead Rising 2 experience that some people thought they wanted or whatever.

[1323] Some people do want it, I'm sure.

[1324] Yeah, sure, sure.

[1325] There are mechanical differences and there's character differences and that makes sense.

[1326] But to not address the myriad other things about that game that people took issue with.

[1327] I mean that's why I think it's the same reason why they don't make a game like Dark Souls way easier than the previous game or add a bunch of stuff to make it kind.

[1328] Like some of these things define it.

[1329] This is the stuff that I think the developers of that game view as critical to the experience.

[1330] And you can agree or disagree all you want.

[1331] But I suspect that when it comes to something like Dead Rising 2, that's just their vision.

[1332] And they're just like, this is the game we're making.

[1333] And it's perfectly in my power to sit here and say, well, then I don't want to play that game.

[1334] I guess it just seems weird to go through the trouble of like, okay, we're going to make the game right.

[1335] And have the things that you change to be kind of weird.

[1336] And that's why I feel that way.

[1337] Because I suspect that their vision of what makes that game right, way different than mine.

[1338] Why would we ever change that?

[1339] Well, it wouldn't be Dead Rising 2.

[1340] The waypoints and the checkpoints and stuff like that get them a little bit closer.

[1341] Yeah.

[1342] But...

[1343] Stuff like not being able to pick up an item because you can't perfectly center your guy over it so you get to pick it up.

[1344] Meanwhile, you're getting hit by six guys.

[1345] For me, it is straight up the you have to level up and play the early parts of this game multiple times.

[1346] That stuff is just stupid.

[1347] That's especially crazy to me that they haven't found a way to expedite the restart process.

[1348] You still have to hit start through.

[1349] You have to load into and then hit start through every single cutscene.

[1350] getting into the start of the game every time you restart it.

[1351] And it's kind of a top -heavy game.

[1352] Yeah.

[1353] I mean, granted, if you're just sitting there hitting start while you're watching TV elsewhere or something, you can get through it in five or ten minutes, but it should be able to just load straight into where you start playing the game.

[1354] And I recall that game's never been great about conveying the...

[1355] You eventually figured out playing Dead Rising 1 that, okay, this is what you needed to do, but I feel like neither of those games have made it explicitly clear of like...

[1356] Why you would want to restart your game.

[1357] Or when you would want to.

[1358] Exactly.

[1359] Can you import a save and start?

[1360] It finds an Air Riding 2 save, and you get Chuck's dirt bike guy jacket thing.

[1361] You can't bring in your level?

[1362] No, nothing like that.

[1363] But Frank West has let himself go a little bit, so it's kind of funny to see him wearing the dirt bike gear because he's straining that thing a little bit.

[1364] Does he stuff into it?

[1365] He's kind of fat now.

[1366] That's good.

[1367] He's very down on his luck.

[1368] But all new voice work and all new cut scenes.

[1369] Yeah, for him.

[1370] There are lines that straight up come out of the other game.

[1371] The first time you meet Rebecca in 2 where it's like specifically this zombie comes up to you and is about to jump on you from behind and then she shoots it in the head and then says something to you that is exactly the same here as it was in 2.

[1372] She's not calling you Chuck ever though, right?

[1373] No, but then like so she gives one line.

[1374] It's old.

[1375] Frank responds, and then she gives a new response that was tailored to Frank.

[1376] Oh, so they did get that voice address back?

[1377] They reused what they could, but yeah.

[1378] They did record new dialogue.

[1379] It's like this weird patchwork dialogue recording.

[1380] Everything is edited together.

[1381] It's just weird.

[1382] Is it the same start in that people think Frank started the...

[1383] No, so now they're...

[1384] Stacy, the leader of Cure, is the one that's under the gun here.

[1385] The security footage has a different guy in it.

[1386] setting the bomb that's not chuck is there any kind of that is different i mean that's kind of significant because that that establishes the tone of like what all other characters take towards chuck in dead rising 2 right like oh you're the fucking guy you're right about that and uh whereas in this game when you meet rebecca she like oh i remember who you are i used to think you know you used to be a hero of mine or something like that before you got all washed up yeah whatever uh so yeah imagine that that makes that relationship way less antagonistic kind of yeah yeah We're kind of all, like, everyone, and it's kind of one of the things.

[1387] I don't know, when I saw that cutscene, she still totally sucks.

[1388] Yeah, well, sure, sure.

[1389] But it's one of the things that I kind of really loved about Dead Rising 2 is that everyone just treats Chuck Green like a piece of shit.

[1390] I know, I know.

[1391] He was so.

[1392] He's just like, oh, I'm just this guy.

[1393] Fuck you, Chuck.

[1394] He just put up with it.

[1395] He just put up with it.

[1396] Yeah.

[1397] Something about the existence of this game feels like it cheapens the real Dead Rising 2 to me. It's like a year later, they're like, all right, fine.

[1398] Nobody liked Chuck.

[1399] Here's what you wanted.

[1400] Here's the guy.

[1401] It is weird.

[1402] It's just weird.

[1403] I can't decide if it's the right Dead Rising 2.

[1404] It kind of just seems like a dirty project in a lot of ways, too.

[1405] If you are a Dead Rising fan, it borders lines on exploitative.

[1406] Here's this game that is pretty similar.

[1407] It seems like 80 -90 % the same.

[1408] So we didn't have to do a lot of work on that stuff.

[1409] I can see a fan that would be into this but I feel like it's a real fringe case to be able to be totally satisfied with what this is as a product.

[1410] If you played through Dead Rising 2 already it is a really tough sell.

[1411] Sure.

[1412] To play through this again because it is that similar.

[1413] If you didn't play Dead Rising 2 and you want to play more Dead Rising, it's a good way to go.

[1414] But it's also weird because then why didn't you buy it last time?

[1415] Well, yeah.

[1416] The reasons that kept you away from it last time should probably, unless those reasons are Frank West or I can't afford a $60 game, it still seems like it's similar enough that maybe you don't want to.

[1417] It's weird because now you have that question of what's the definitive...

[1418] Dead Rising 2.

[1419] Like, if they ever make a Dead Rising 3, is it just going to be Frank again, and they're going to take this as the canon and forget that Chuck Green ever existed?

[1420] Like, who knows?

[1421] Splinter universes.

[1422] As goddamn sequel -driven as this industry is, like, I applaud any time a sequel...

[1423] takes any kind of risk, such as changing the main character.

[1424] Maybe the game ends with Chuck Green waking up and he was having a dream that he was Frank West on the couch.

[1425] You're still only halfway through it.

[1426] We'll see what happens.

[1427] You're totally right that that one key difference at the beginning could...

[1428] That could butterfly wing its way into some pretty big differences.

[1429] They could have big tonal significance.

[1430] Some of the achievement names and stuff implies that some things might be pretty different later on.

[1431] But this seems like this is kind of par for the course for Capcom these days.

[1432] As far as Capcom.

[1433] Can we put out another one of these?

[1434] Ever.

[1435] Soon.

[1436] Right now it seems like we've seen any of their significant properties has had a remake.

[1437] sequel of some kind, you know, come out multiple times over the past couple years.

[1438] I mean, Super Street Fighter was the first one in the modern era, right?

[1439] Two or four, what do you mean?

[1440] Which modern era?

[1441] Like in the last couple years.

[1442] Yeah.

[1443] This current wave of their weird re -releases.

[1444] Yeah.

[1445] Like that one was not super weird.

[1446] You could see why.

[1447] I mean, there was the tradition of Street Fighter games getting updates and like, you know, there were a bunch of new characters they added and stuff.

[1448] Like that kind of made sense.

[1449] And that made sense for them to do it with Marvel in some weird way because...

[1450] They have done that with a lot of fighting games over their history.

[1451] It's getting egregious.

[1452] It's like Resident Evil 2 DualShock Edition.

[1453] Sure.

[1454] Or something.

[1455] None of the DLC comes in, right?

[1456] From Federizing 2?

[1457] What was the DLC?

[1458] I don't think so, no. Oh, you know what?

[1459] There's like a 30 -something meg download on Marketplace right now that's like support pack.

[1460] Or compatibility pack or something.

[1461] That might just be for co -op players that don't have any of the pre -order bonus, if they did do pre -order bonus again.

[1462] Oh, maybe.

[1463] To see all that stuff.

[1464] It is specifically for you to download.

[1465] Have you seen any of the co -op stuff yet?

[1466] One guy tried to co -op with me, and I let him into my game, and he just stood there.

[1467] He never did anything.

[1468] Was he also a Frank West?

[1469] No, no. The second player is Chuck.

[1470] Okay.

[1471] Which doesn't make any story sense.

[1472] It's extra weird.

[1473] But it makes more sense than two Chucks.

[1474] Or two Franks.

[1475] Yeah, you're right.

[1476] You're totally right.

[1477] I don't know if that's true.

[1478] Like the version they had before.

[1479] It makes as little sense.

[1480] I would rather see two Franks.

[1481] That makes more sense in this weird, bizarro Frank West version of this game.

[1482] Does it be Chuck with a camera?

[1483] Does he have the camera?

[1484] That's a good question.

[1485] Maybe they only let Player One shoot pictures because it's a weird thing anyway.

[1486] I haven't played second -player co -op yet, but we'll figure that out.

[1487] We'll check back in on that stuff.

[1488] Anything else, Brad?

[1489] There's one other thing that Bear's mentioning is that there's a sandbox mode now.

[1490] So what does that mean?

[1491] That seems kind of cool.

[1492] It seems like something this series has needed.

[1493] It's just like no timer, no story.

[1494] Here's the entire mall, no timer, all the shit, all the weapons, all the gadgets.

[1495] Just go to town.

[1496] All the psychopaths?

[1497] That I don't know.

[1498] So it's mission -based.

[1499] It's like...

[1500] Straight up open world.

[1501] Here are missions dotted around.

[1502] You run up to them and accept them to do them.

[1503] And the one that we saw in the quick look was like kill a bunch of zombies within 30 seconds.

[1504] Kill as many zombies as you can in 30 seconds.

[1505] And then there's a leaderboard for that challenge.

[1506] Yeah, there are leaderboards.

[1507] You earn money and maybe experience.

[1508] I wasn't sure about the experience.

[1509] Do you bring your level in?

[1510] Yeah, you bring your level from you pick a save from the campaign and take that into sandbox.

[1511] And bring that back out.

[1512] It looks like the money at least comes back with you into the story and maybe the experience as well.

[1513] Did they have any of that weird terrorist reality multiplayer stuff?

[1514] Is that all gone?

[1515] I don't think any of that is in there.

[1516] I think they took that out.

[1517] Money is so not an issue.

[1518] I have like $250 ,000 right now.

[1519] Do you have money for pictures or just pee -pee?

[1520] Just pee -pee.

[1521] Okay.

[1522] All the pee -pee.

[1523] Is it erotic pee -pee?

[1524] Is that what it was?

[1525] Yeah.

[1526] That's my favorite kind of pee -pee.

[1527] There's erotica.

[1528] There's drama, outtake, horror, brutality.

[1529] I think maybe one other one.

[1530] Do you have to get pictures of survivors?

[1531] Is there a...

[1532] Sometimes, yeah.

[1533] Photo mechanics, same as Indies.

[1534] Yeah, pretty much the same.

[1535] There's PP stickers everywhere.

[1536] I can't remember if those were in the first one.

[1537] There's a tiny little camera symbol.

[1538] They're basically impossible to see.

[1539] I found like two so far out of at least 75.

[1540] Those were there.

[1541] They have a lot of fun with the achievements.

[1542] I'll give them that.

[1543] There's a lot of cool stuff in there.

[1544] Is there Mega Buster?

[1545] I don't know.

[1546] That would be great.

[1547] If there was something like that in there, that would be one of...

[1548] the many needed reasons to play through this.

[1549] You had a messed up video game weekend, Brad.

[1550] I know.

[1551] Dark Souls and Dead Rising 2 thing.

[1552] The funny part is, you did it all to yourself.

[1553] I know.

[1554] I asked for it.

[1555] I brought it on myself.

[1556] Yes!

[1557] I could have been playing something else.

[1558] Yeah.

[1559] Anything else?

[1560] That was pretty much it.

[1561] I want Jeff to tell us about Arkham City.

[1562] I don't think you can.

[1563] I don't care.

[1564] Say it anyway.

[1565] Fuck them.

[1566] You play as the Batman.

[1567] Information wants to be free.

[1568] You know, we're trying to do spoiler -free stuff here.

[1569] Oh, man. That's what I want to hear about.

[1570] I will say that I have completed Batman Arkham City.

[1571] So there's an ending.

[1572] It's got an end.

[1573] No, I'm saying I have completed it.

[1574] Maybe it's not over, but I have completed it.

[1575] He's done with it.

[1576] For those of you who are trying to avoid Batman, you can tune back in now.

[1577] Now it's safe.

[1578] Now it's okay.

[1579] Catwoman's in it.

[1580] Now you can tune back in.

[1581] We're done.

[1582] Guys, you'll never believe what happens to the Joker.

[1583] Friday!

[1584] Review is going to go up.

[1585] Yeah, review on Friday.

[1586] For that.

[1587] And then the following week for the video stuff.

[1588] Video when the game is on shelves.

[1589] So there is video in the game.

[1590] It does have imagery.

[1591] Pictures and sound.

[1592] Okay.

[1593] I can say both these things now.

[1594] That's it, though.

[1595] That's all.

[1596] That's all I can say.

[1597] That's all I will say.

[1598] That's all I feel comfortable saying.

[1599] And Brad was originally going to do that review.

[1600] Yeah.

[1601] It showed up and I was holding the game in my hand.

[1602] And I was like, I need to set this on Brad's desk.

[1603] And as I was holding it, I was like, fuck, I really want to play this goddamn game.

[1604] I could sense it emanating from your desk.

[1605] Just like from his hand.

[1606] So I handed it to him.

[1607] Even after he gave it to me. Yeah, and said like, I almost want to play this.

[1608] And then I kind of...

[1609] Put it to him.

[1610] Sat on my desk for like two hours.

[1611] And then he handed it back to me. Not without asking.

[1612] You very clearly were in playing that game.

[1613] Yeah, I said, if you want me to do this, I will do this.

[1614] I was sitting there balancing my desire to play that game in particular and also just to have something new to play with...

[1615] I'm glad you played Dark Souls.

[1616] My desire to not play through that game quickly on a deadline.

[1617] Yeah.

[1618] And I decided to wait and enjoy that game on my own time.

[1619] I mean, you're still going to play that game quickly because there's like 18 games coming out right after it.

[1620] Well, I mean, if it's anything like the first one, you know, you can probably get through it.

[1621] If it's anything like the first one, you will spend the rest of your life in those challenge rooms trying to.

[1622] I did all that stuff.

[1623] Yeah, I know.

[1624] There was nothing left to do for me. The completionist thing might make you crazy with that game.

[1625] Probably.

[1626] They told me when I went to see it that there's like 10 hours of Riddler stuff alone.

[1627] Jeez.

[1628] Who can say?

[1629] I can say, but I can't say.

[1630] Jeff, how's Trackmania going?

[1631] It's great.

[1632] Added some new music, some new tracks to the server.

[1633] Oh, shit.

[1634] I need to check my bandwidth here.

[1635] It is still a very popular server.

[1636] There are a lot of people using that server.

[1637] Is all the record keeping working?

[1638] Yeah, someone is finally...

[1639] In fact, the people that I'm paying to host...

[1640] the server, I guess, finally got tired of there not being any universal record system, so they just made their own.

[1641] And so is it local or is it across all?

[1642] It's across all servers that are running this plugin.

[1643] Okay.

[1644] And that's been picking up steam.

[1645] Because there was one for a previous track, Mania, but that one did not carry over.

[1646] It didn't work.

[1647] And I guess those guys said, ah, we're working on it.

[1648] But then apparently have totally dropped the ball.

[1649] So these guys have come up with their own thing.

[1650] And that's starting to gain widespread acceptance.

[1651] So you can have local times on your server, then you can match them again.

[1652] So on the server, we keep local times, like the top 50.

[1653] But then you also get the top 30 across all servers in a separate list.

[1654] Who've been playing those tracks, right?

[1655] Yeah, yeah.

[1656] And that's a great site.

[1657] I think it's like Mania.

[1658] Maniarecords .org, I think is the name of the site.

[1659] And there's no way, really, once you have the track, everything's self -contained in that track, so there's no way a server could be like, well, of course they have better times because you're using something else.

[1660] Right, yeah, yeah.

[1661] It's that track, it's that track.

[1662] And they have a system in place to report faulty -looking records if something funny happens.

[1663] But I think they're just hashing the track.

[1664] and submitting that with it.

[1665] So, you know, you would have to modify the track, at which point it would go up in a separate track or something.

[1666] It would be a different record.

[1667] Yeah, it would be a different record.

[1668] That's cool.

[1669] That's great.

[1670] So the sanctity of it seems decent for the most part.

[1671] That's awesome.

[1672] I mean, that game is all about leaderboards.

[1673] Yeah.

[1674] Yeah, so that stuff's pretty good.

[1675] I've got to restart the server tonight because there's a new dedicated server version out now.

[1676] that apparently fixes some stuff.

[1677] I'm not sure.

[1678] I don't know what.

[1679] But hell, man. There it goes.

[1680] My bandwidth usage has gone up demonstrably since you added four more songs to the playlist.

[1681] I'm currently serving all of the music off of a personal web service that I have for the Giant Bomb Trackmania 2 server.

[1682] One with a generous bandwidth allowance, right?

[1683] Yes, yes.

[1684] Very, very generous, which is good because...

[1685] Yeah, I was within the first two weeks after starting this doing about five and a half gigs.

[1686] Currently, my average megabytes per day is about 8 .6 gigs.

[1687] So over the course of the month, I will have used 255 gigs.

[1688] And your host does not care?

[1689] I get like 13 terabytes a month.

[1690] They just think that nobody's crazy enough to host a Trackmania server.

[1691] How much larger has the overall audience gotten?

[1692] Because the last time I looked at it was like mid -30s.

[1693] That's the last time I checked also.

[1694] I'm not really sure.

[1695] Are you banking like world points or whatever it is?

[1696] Are you making planets?

[1697] Yes.

[1698] So I've converted that server to an official server, which means I gave them 10 ,000 planets as a deposit.

[1699] How'd you get those planets?

[1700] People donated them, or I earned some of them.

[1701] Okay.

[1702] So now you're an official server.

[1703] Which means that it actually earns planets on its own.

[1704] Planets making planets?

[1705] I have over 100 ,000 planets.

[1706] And someday you'll be able to cash those in on a first -person shooter or something else?

[1707] I don't know.

[1708] They're not good for anything.

[1709] He could just install the game 100 times.

[1710] You don't think you'll be able to get used planets on the other games?

[1711] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[1712] I think that is meant to be a universal currency system.

[1713] Do you think you'll be able to buy the other games with the planets?

[1714] I doubt it.

[1715] That would require the other games to exist.

[1716] Do you think you could fund the making of the other games with your planets?

[1717] Probably not.

[1718] Invest these planets into here.

[1719] Now actually make these other games.

[1720] Please make this.

[1721] That's all we needed.

[1722] We only needed 200, but thanks for the other planets.

[1723] So it's still ridiculous, basically, since you asked.

[1724] It is still...

[1725] messed up it's still a weird thing and there's nothing else like it and that's good because if there was the whole world would explode I can't wait to see their next presentation whatever that is some E3 some some Gamescom it'll be like a French LAN party that's where Trackmania 2 was unveiled Wherever it is, I can't wait.

[1726] It was a baby of a German.

[1727] It was a huge land party.

[1728] Is that true?

[1729] Yeah, that's totally true.

[1730] At a land party?

[1731] Gigantic, like 100 ,000 person, like the biggest land party in Europe, like some kind of insane.

[1732] I showed pictures of it because I wrote up the story, I remember, and there was like computers as far as I could see.

[1733] It was like the Matrix.

[1734] Wow.

[1735] But real.

[1736] But real.

[1737] It was pretty crazy.

[1738] I don't know why you would bring a computer.

[1739] I don't know why you would do that.

[1740] I don't know why anyone would do that.

[1741] Because you are way into Trackmania.

[1742] I would love to see...

[1743] No, they weren't necessarily playing Trackmania.

[1744] They were probably playing Counter -Strike or something.

[1745] Oh, I see the power cable going into that building.

[1746] Right.

[1747] Just one gigantic power cable.

[1748] Yeah.

[1749] Was it inside a building?

[1750] It was.

[1751] Because I would imagine to get that many people, you'd need something bigger than...

[1752] It's probably like an airplane hanger or seven.

[1753] Who knows?

[1754] Sure.

[1755] I don't know.

[1756] Power.

[1757] Jeff Gershman, is there any games you can talk about?

[1758] If you want to talk about Forza Motorsport 4.

[1759] Yeah.

[1760] We didn't really talk about that last week because I don't think we could, right?

[1761] No, we could not.

[1762] No, we couldn't.

[1763] It's true.

[1764] That's out this week.

[1765] That is out this week.

[1766] I played a couple hours of it.

[1767] I got up to a certain level.

[1768] Really?

[1769] I reached a certain level.

[1770] I'm not going to tell you what it is.

[1771] You know what?

[1772] I remember levels coming fucking fast.

[1773] Oh, yeah.

[1774] The low levels come very quickly.

[1775] So I think I was like up to level eight or nine.

[1776] So I bought Forza 2.

[1777] Uh -huh.

[1778] And then I really enjoyed that.

[1779] Yes.

[1780] And then Forza 3 came out and I was like, well, you know, I really enjoyed Forza 2, but this looks very, very similar.

[1781] Yes.

[1782] I'm not that crazy.

[1783] Should I come back for Forza 4?

[1784] Is there enough there that I'm like, oh, wow, they've made some improvements.

[1785] Things have changed.

[1786] Having skipped a year.

[1787] It was a real two years.

[1788] It's been two years.

[1789] Okay.

[1790] It very strange playing through Forza 4 because I was very excited when we got it in.

[1791] I was like, oh, awesome.

[1792] I'm totally going to sit down and just play the shit out of this game.

[1793] Oh, and it's really good.

[1794] They have made improvements.

[1795] It is a better game than Forza 3, but it is largely similar to Forza 3.

[1796] So iterative on 3.

[1797] Yeah, very much so.

[1798] I think if you're super diehard about it, they did make some simulation level changes that I think those people will appreciate.

[1799] They've improved menu UI for Auction House and some of this other stuff to make that a somewhat smoother process.

[1800] But by and large, you are getting another Forza game.

[1801] of 3, and even 2, were amazing games.

[1802] They kind of nailed it.

[1803] They kind of nailed it with 3.

[1804] 2 was good, and then 3 kind of polished it off.

[1805] You're like, alright, we've learned some stuff between 2 and 3, and you're going to see that stuff.

[1806] But in 4, you're seeing a lot of the same tracks, and the game looks...

[1807] roughly the same like a lot of the major stuff they've added is like the Kinect stuff at the periphery and like the auto vista mode so you can like walk around a car which I don't think that's for everybody I don't think that's for most people really it's just kind of it's in there if you want to watch British guys talk about cars that section of the game has you covered or just hear them or hear them rather yes if you want to look at models of cars while British men talk about them there's a dry guy and then there's the top gear guy Two different British dudes.

[1808] I did hear some of the Top Gear guy.

[1809] I did like what I was hearing.

[1810] Yeah, he's good at that.

[1811] It's like he just wrote his own script.

[1812] Yeah, yeah.

[1813] I mean, they have a disclaimer up front saying, like, you know, the views of Top Gear do not necessarily represent.

[1814] So I expect that within the ratings limitations imposed by an E rating, meaning that he does not talk at length about cocaine when he's talking about the DeLorean, you know, it seems like he is pretty.

[1815] Right.

[1816] Open.

[1817] Pretty free to say what he wanted to say.

[1818] It's colorful.

[1819] Yes.

[1820] It's not – And also like he'll be critical of cars.

[1821] Yes.

[1822] He will say like, yeah, this thing about this is shit or the last five Mustang or the last five Ferraris have been garbage and finally they fucking got it right.

[1823] Like they – yeah.

[1824] After that part – He will editorialize for that.

[1825] But then the part where you actually go inside the car and like hit a button and the car goes – Starts the car.

[1826] Vroom.

[1827] Vroom.

[1828] All right.

[1829] And then you're like – All you're making me want to do by making that sound is pull the trigger and rev the car, and I can't do that.

[1830] Yeah, you can't do that.

[1831] And you're, like, faking me out.

[1832] And, like, it's more annoying than anything.

[1833] Like, don't even rev it.

[1834] Don't fake rev it.

[1835] So they added that stuff, and it's, like, well done for what it is, but it's not a huge part of the game.

[1836] I'll say because that first car that you have in the Autovista modes is the Ferrari.

[1837] Right.

[1838] Even just, like...

[1839] Getting in and doing the startup sequence, just seeing, like, how the dash lights up and all of the crazy diagnostic stuff.

[1840] Vinny, I see your point about, like, just hearing the sound.

[1841] But I really enjoy it.

[1842] I actually really – I'm like, this is cool.

[1843] It's impressive from a technical perspective because they are really great -looking car models.

[1844] They're insanely detailed.

[1845] They've done a great job.

[1846] But it's – It's not something you do twice, I assume.

[1847] Yeah, it's like looking at pretty models, and you have to unlock a lot of them through events and stuff.

[1848] Or hogging.

[1849] No, no. I imagine you have to.

[1850] My guess is that you have to complete every Auto Vista challenge, and then it gives you that at the end or something like that.

[1851] I just think you should be able to rev the engine.

[1852] You should be able to honk the horn.

[1853] Honking the horns, yeah.

[1854] Maybe roll down the window.

[1855] Yeah, maybe.

[1856] So the thing that happened to me is I sat down, really excited to play it, just started putting in hours on it, and then I reached a point where I was like, I'm totally bored.

[1857] And it was depressing, man. Like the novelty?

[1858] Yeah, it was just like Maple Valley again.

[1859] This is an urban ring again.

[1860] There are tracks that you've seen before.

[1861] Some of it, you expect that because it's a real -world track.

[1862] What are they going to do to it?

[1863] Rainbow Road.

[1864] Yeah, exactly.

[1865] It's like, now it's in space.

[1866] No, that doesn't fit with the game.

[1867] But they nailed it so well in the past that now it just seems like, well, I'm waiting for the next generation.

[1868] And when they put out Forza 5 or something on the next Xbox, then everything will get that bump up and it'll be like, okay, now it's hopefully a different game.

[1869] This just didn't change enough.

[1870] It's like victims of their own past success.

[1871] Yeah, that's exactly how I felt with it.

[1872] It sounds like Madden -ish.

[1873] Absolutely.

[1874] It feels like...

[1875] that type of annual sports game sequel that's like, you know, football's always going to be football.

[1876] There's really only so much they can do.

[1877] If it's really that Madden -like, does that mean the next Forza on the next console is going to be stripped down and not have all of this and all that stuff anymore?

[1878] Let's hope not.

[1879] Let's hope not.

[1880] So I was coming at Forza from the opposite of Jeff.

[1881] I haven't worn myself out on Forza games.

[1882] I played enough of like 2 and 3 to know that, okay, it's kind of simulation -y, but they do some good hand -holding where they need to.

[1883] And But yeah, the few hours that I did play a Forza 4, just loved the hell out of it.

[1884] Just thought it was a lot of fun.

[1885] It looks really good.

[1886] It's got a real – it has that weird hermetic kind of car catalog look to it.

[1887] Like I know they specifically use that language and talk about it internally at turn 10.

[1888] And I can see that.

[1889] Like if you've played the hell out of Forza 3, it's like, yeah, you want Forza.

[1890] At some level, it's like you have to be the sort of person that has continued to play Forza up until right now.

[1891] And you're just going to keep playing Forza and you obviously need this year's model to continue to do that because of the DLC support and all the other stuff they're doing.

[1892] Like you need to upgrade.

[1893] Sure.

[1894] But I think if you're a little more casual about it.

[1895] then it becomes a harder sell, I think.

[1896] Or if you're even more casual about it...

[1897] Then you haven't played enough of 3 to...

[1898] Then it comes back around.

[1899] So I'm in this weird middle area where, yeah, it was...

[1900] You're not paying either enough or too much.

[1901] I was bummed out, man. I really wish that didn't happen.

[1902] But that's totally...

[1903] It's just diminishing returns of it being the follow -up to a great game.

[1904] I felt like I'd already played this game for hundreds of hours or something by the time.

[1905] By the numbers, it's a greater game.

[1906] Yeah, absolutely.

[1907] Which is kind of like the same with Off the Record.

[1908] You could look at half a dozen bullet points and say this is a better game.

[1909] This is clearly a better game.

[1910] But yeah, it is far less impactful than its predecessors because those games were...

[1911] also fantastic games that happened to come out two or three or four years earlier.

[1912] The multiplayer is kind of the same package?

[1913] They've got a better clan system in there, like the car club thing.

[1914] That was a huge deal for 3.

[1915] They're definitely catering a lot of that stuff towards their diehard community.

[1916] Those people will definitely benefit from that stuff.

[1917] There's a way to share cars through your car club garage and stuff like that.

[1918] I feel like those are good changes for people who are way into it.

[1919] You can import your vinyls from 3, even the ones you bought that you didn't make yourself.

[1920] You can bring those in, and that's great.

[1921] So if you want to paint some cars, that stuff's all still there.

[1922] How about from two?

[1923] No, no. It does not go from two to four.

[1924] Well, two to three didn't work either.

[1925] They redid it?

[1926] That was their break.

[1927] Yeah, it's a really great game.

[1928] How's the racing wheel?

[1929] How's your racing wheel?

[1930] So we get the wireless speed wheel with it, which is the new wheel.

[1931] That's Microsoft made that, right?

[1932] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1933] And it's like 60 bucks.

[1934] That's like you looking.

[1935] Yeah, it's like imagine the plastic wheel that came with Mario Kart Wii, but you don't have to put a Wii remote in the middle of it to get it to work.

[1936] It might be a little more responsive than that.

[1937] I don't want to undersell it, but it's a similar experience.

[1938] It's not even a circle.

[1939] I mean, yeah, you're holding it.

[1940] Like a yoke?

[1941] Yeah.

[1942] It's just free floating?

[1943] Yeah.

[1944] It is the wireless speed wheel.

[1945] It is just this boomerang -shaped thing that you hold and tilt back and forth that you can use to steer if you like.

[1946] And it works well enough for what it is, but I don't know who that serves.

[1947] It's a weird – if you want a steering wheel, there are super expensive.

[1948] I do.

[1949] And new options, but don't get one.

[1950] There are, like, Fanatec, I think, made new wheels to come out with Forza 4 that are probably fantastic and probably cross -platform.

[1951] Yeah, PC, PS3, and Xbox, which sounds crazy.

[1952] Yeah, there has not been a lot of those in the past.

[1953] Very few.

[1954] But I think Fanatec has specifically been the ones making those.

[1955] Price to move.

[1956] Yeah.

[1957] Now it's those sleds that are damn expensive.

[1958] Right.

[1959] Yeah, exactly.

[1960] So actually what we do need to do though is we need to get a third copy of Forza in here so we can do the three screen stuff because we already have three Xboxes.

[1961] We've got three TVs.

[1962] Yeah.

[1963] Yeah.

[1964] So we should definitely – we should do that.

[1965] I think that would be fun.

[1966] And that's three copies of Forza, three Xboxes and just into like a Switch or something like that?

[1967] Yeah.

[1968] They all need to be on a network.

[1969] Okay.

[1970] It's crazy that you need three copies.

[1971] I remember we had this discussion earlier.

[1972] It'd be nice if you could spawn side copies onto these other Xboxes or something like that where it's like, okay, we're going to install the game, but it's not bootable.

[1973] It's nothing that you can actually play on its own.

[1974] It's not a copy of the game.

[1975] It's just the data.

[1976] Because I've got two Xboxes because I've got the Slim and my old one.

[1977] I'd at least have a left...

[1978] view.

[1979] Can you do it with just DVD 3?

[1980] Can I put a black garbage bag on a TV over here?

[1981] I think you can even set the angles how you want.

[1982] So if you wanted the split to be in the middle, I think you probably maybe could do that.

[1983] I don't know for sure.

[1984] This window's broken and blown out.

[1985] Can't see out of that one.

[1986] Yeah.

[1987] But look at these two.

[1988] But then it's got Kinect support.

[1989] I was going to say, so the Kinect support, I feel like it's like Kinect Joyride but with real cars.

[1990] Yeah.

[1991] Why?

[1992] You don't control the gas.

[1993] You just hold your arms up and do it.

[1994] Why?

[1995] Because they ran all those tests with Kinect.

[1996] Turn 10 was doing that stuff early on.

[1997] And it was already done.

[1998] So throw it in and why not?

[1999] Is it head tracking in there too?

[2000] That's another option.

[2001] You can't do both at the same time.

[2002] Okay.

[2003] So using a controller or a steering wheel or something like that, you can opt for head tracking.

[2004] But even that, like...

[2005] I never got it to work very well.

[2006] I got it to work just fine here by just having the Kinect on top of my TV because it wants it to be a lot closer than the typical Kinect experience.

[2007] And all it is is you're kind of swaying side to side or moving your head side to side like I'm doing right now.

[2008] And then you're up.

[2009] And what does that do?

[2010] It emulates the right stick.

[2011] You can push the right stick up and work it around to tilt left and right.

[2012] You can't look down at the instrument cluster or down at your steering wheel.

[2013] It's strictly just – and it's not very useful.

[2014] It's like panning around versus actual rotation.

[2015] It's not head tracking.

[2016] It's tracking your head.

[2017] But it's not – emulating your head in the cockpit of this car.

[2018] Gotcha.

[2019] In a meaningful way.

[2020] So I thought that was almost like deceptive or something.

[2021] It was not a very useful experience.

[2022] Novelties.

[2023] They are novelties.

[2024] Yeah.

[2025] At best, the Kinect stuff.

[2026] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2027] Yeah, it's really good, but you need to be in a very specific place, I think, to get the most out of it.

[2028] Does the pacing keep up?

[2029] Because that is definitely the...

[2030] The carrot on the stick is strong at the start of that game of unlocking new stuff and going new places.

[2031] Every time you get a driver level, it gives you another car.

[2032] But at some point, you've got so many credits and stuff that you can afford most normal cars.

[2033] It's only the super raced -out, sponsored -looking cars that cost millions of credits and stuff.

[2034] At level 10 or whatever I'm at now, I have a ton of cars.

[2035] You have a ton of cars?

[2036] I have a ton of cars, and I'm getting new cars, and I have a ton of money that I can buy cars with.

[2037] But every time I get a new car, it's awesome.

[2038] I'm just stoked.

[2039] I'm like, all right, I can choose from one of four random -ass cars.

[2040] What's the car I'm going to get?

[2041] That part is still novel.

[2042] Yeah, and you're also gaining this manufacturer affinity.

[2043] And when you hit, I think it's level five.

[2044] all your parts upgrades become free for that.

[2045] Yeah, I managed to hold off on buying any sort of, like, not knowing that that was going to happen.

[2046] Right, right, right.

[2047] I managed to hold off on buying too many upgrades for one of my cars, and then that hit.

[2048] I'm like, oh, fuck yeah.

[2049] Now they're all free.

[2050] This VW Rabbit's going to be pimped at.

[2051] Yeah, so it seems like, you know, their big sinkholes for money are going to be the auction house, the storefronts, and, you know, actually just buying cars.

[2052] What's a unicorn?

[2053] It's, like, one -off, like, super rare cars that they only...

[2054] offer through the auction house.

[2055] You can't just go to the car menu and buy it.

[2056] You can only get it through there.

[2057] So that ends up being like gigantic money sink because when there are people out there bidding for those cars, it just gets insane fast.

[2058] Sure.

[2059] Because there were none pre -release, obviously.

[2060] I think they put up like one prior to the release of the game.

[2061] I know someone who has the achievement for getting a unicorn, so they must have done something at some point before the game was out.

[2062] Yeah.

[2063] And that's about all that I've...

[2064] Play it, I think.

[2065] All right.

[2066] That's, yeah.

[2067] Well, NBA Jam on Fire Edition, I've been messing around with that.

[2068] Yeah.

[2069] It's kind of broken.

[2070] You said it's been locking up on you?

[2071] Yeah.

[2072] Whereabouts?

[2073] The main menu, or not even before you get to the main menu, like the logo at the start of the game.

[2074] Yeah.

[2075] It's just been locking up there at home over and over again on the 360 version specifically.

[2076] Been playing PS3 also.

[2077] That version seems fine, but they both have insanely long load times.

[2078] Like, I don't know what the hell's going on.

[2079] From the quick look, we saw a little bit of that.

[2080] Yeah, yeah.

[2081] I don't know if it's a server hit, because it's got a lot of integrated leaderboards that show just directly on the menus.

[2082] If it's got to go out and fetch that stuff every time, and that's only adding to the length of time it takes, because no one on my friends list has played that game.

[2083] So it's just like a fat bunch of zeros.

[2084] down this leaderboard.

[2085] EA hasn't done much to really even let people know that this game exists.

[2086] Yeah.

[2087] Could almost go as far as to say they buried it.

[2088] Yeah.

[2089] It just sort of came out.

[2090] I wonder if it's one of those things where they just feel ashamed about what has happened to them in basketball.

[2091] Yeah.

[2092] And, you know, they're doing this just so they got something, but...

[2093] I wonder if they have to do something to keep the license, like if there's something where they have to put out an NBA game.

[2094] I was going to say, at the very least, they're paying for that NBA license one way or the other.

[2095] They might as well kind of try and wring something out of it, you'd think.

[2096] On the upside, they did the right thing by putting this out as a downloadable game, but it doesn't sound like they did right by the NBA Jam Legacy.

[2097] I don't know.

[2098] Maybe the design of the game itself seems fine.

[2099] I think that they've made a lot of smart choices about how they've built this game in terms of getting people to play it and having the online be interesting.

[2100] They've done some cool stuff there.

[2101] It's just the part where it doesn't work.

[2102] It's just the part where it crashes on me. You know, like hard locks on me when I boot it up that's pretty disappointing.

[2103] Does it only happen at home?

[2104] Have you tried it here?

[2105] I tried it here and it actually did load in.

[2106] So I don't know what the deal is.

[2107] Same memory stick.

[2108] Your data's bad.

[2109] I don't know.

[2110] But I've had it work at home.

[2111] So it's just like randomly, like sometimes it'll go?

[2112] Yeah, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[2113] So it's all kinds of screwed up.

[2114] Xbox is dying.

[2115] Don't say that.

[2116] I don't think that's the case.

[2117] Never say that.

[2118] It's on a slim, right?

[2119] Why would you say that?

[2120] I've never heard of a single person whose S died.

[2121] It's fine.

[2122] It's only been, what, a year or something?

[2123] Something like that.

[2124] It's fine.

[2125] Anyway, that game, yeah, I think they did some cool stuff when they...

[2126] put it on disc last year.

[2127] They built some interesting stuff around it that I think kind of justified it.

[2128] But this is probably the way it was meant to be all along, this downloadable stuff.

[2129] And the stuff they did with the way they built the online and the way they get people into the game and leaderboards everywhere and all that stuff, it's smart.

[2130] Do you think this is it?

[2131] Yeah.

[2132] For a while, at least?

[2133] For another five, six years?

[2134] I don't think they can put out another NBA Jam game next year at all.

[2135] Because the changes they made to this game are stuff that people probably would argue should have been in the previous one.

[2136] Well, it seems like it's just a lot of stuff of...

[2137] reformatting it so that it makes more sense as a downloadable game.

[2138] Some of that stuff.

[2139] They added a whole little challenge system to it.

[2140] They did something like roster update style.

[2141] This actually has roster updates in it.

[2142] Like built in?

[2143] Built in.

[2144] It checks online for roster updates, which is insane.

[2145] Yeah, it is kind of insane.

[2146] Especially when you consider there's probably not going to be a basketball season this season at all.

[2147] So there won't be any roster moves.

[2148] It's a good roster update.

[2149] Unplayable.

[2150] Right.

[2151] Check back next year.

[2152] Maybe that's why it keeps crashing.

[2153] It's just like, oh, is there basketball?

[2154] Nope.

[2155] Nope.

[2156] All right, forget it.

[2157] We're updating your roster to represent the current NBA season.

[2158] It just checks istherebasketball .com.

[2159] Right.

[2160] Is there basketball yet?

[2161] No. What does this mean for the future of NFL Blitz?

[2162] I think it'll still happen.

[2163] The last thing I heard is it was still on.

[2164] It's a new chance to win an arcade machine.

[2165] Right.

[2166] Has that ever been officially said?

[2167] Nope.

[2168] All right.

[2169] but I mentioned it offhand to someone at EA pretty recently in a way that I made it sound like it was no big deal.

[2170] I said, oh, yeah, and just like totally.

[2171] Kind of like Syndicate, right?

[2172] Rope -a -dope them.

[2173] Yeah, kind of.

[2174] Yeah, I think this will end up being a lot like the Syndicate announced to release where they're going to say, hey, we're making NFL Blitz, and then two months later you'll be playing it.

[2175] That's how I expect this to go.

[2176] Assuming it still happens.

[2177] It should.

[2178] It better.

[2179] It better, damn it.

[2180] Give it one more shot.

[2181] We'll see how it does.

[2182] Vinny Caravelle.

[2183] Yeah.

[2184] What you been playing?

[2185] Well, I kind of talked over the Dark Souls part.

[2186] We can talk about more Dark Souls.

[2187] Nope.

[2188] I've been sitting here thinking about it.

[2189] What do you got?

[2190] I feel like you didn't actually express your opinion on it.

[2191] Taurus Demon.

[2192] Yeah.

[2193] I thought back to fighting that thing.

[2194] Remember that?

[2195] Yeah.

[2196] Remember how it exhorts you to do a plunging attack?

[2197] Or no, maybe that's the Asylum Demon where they tell you to do that, but then you...

[2198] Climb up on that little tower where the demon runs back and forth.

[2199] I thought I was all clever.

[2200] He's going to get up there and stab that guy in the head from above.

[2201] Yep.

[2202] And then he jumped up there with me. Wait, he did the, he Rory'd you?

[2203] He did the same thing he did with that?

[2204] Well, the Asylum Demon did that.

[2205] Oh, the...

[2206] The Taurus Demon can do the same thing.

[2207] Oh.

[2208] Like, yeah, I just feel like AIM's constantly, again, mocking you.

[2209] It's mean.

[2210] By doing things that it doesn't look like it should be able to do.

[2211] Yeah.

[2212] Like, this guy who is as big as the tower I'm standing on just jumped on top of the tower with me. Well, I think that's why it's awesome because just when you think you've found the exploit, you really have it.

[2213] You are the one getting exploited.

[2214] You find out the roof is actually a giant mouth.

[2215] Repeatedly, yes.

[2216] Yeah, it's just the hard emotional swings in that game that I'm thinking about the more I sit here and think about it.

[2217] The sense of triumph every time you finally make something happen the 15th time that you try to do it.

[2218] I had a lot of highs and lows.

[2219] It was a lot of Dark Souls.

[2220] I was going to put other stuff in, and then every time it was just...

[2221] You know what?

[2222] I thought about it.

[2223] I took a break, went for a walk, just kind of like practice kung fu or something.

[2224] Yeah, joined the old Chinese people for some Tai Chi in the park.

[2225] And then suddenly it's like, all right, I think I could.

[2226] It's worked out pretty well for me because I didn't necessarily have a huge desire to play any more of it, but having it in my bag was definitely like a thing.

[2227] Let's get it back in there.

[2228] So when I took Batman, I gave Brad my copy of Dark Souls.

[2229] So now not an issue.

[2230] No longer tempted by the demon?

[2231] No, not even.

[2232] But then I make some progress and then I reach another plateau and I'm like, this is stupid.

[2233] I need to take a break.

[2234] And Jesse's like, you should take a break.

[2235] I take a break.

[2236] Just say you're still married.

[2237] Yeah, and now we both come to this kind of zen place of like, if you just want to relax, we'll play some Dark Souls.

[2238] She knows not to talk to you.

[2239] We'll just sit there and watch, and we just both know we're going to die.

[2240] We've come to realize our mortality and just sit there.

[2241] You found serenity.

[2242] Watch it drain down.

[2243] Yep, there go the souls.

[2244] That was actually a good release, because now I don't feel tempted to go get them anymore.

[2245] We've totally been like...

[2246] You've come to terms with your cancer.

[2247] You pulled up Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

[2248] Said goodbye to all your loved ones.

[2249] And now you can play Dark Souls.

[2250] Well, we're like, yeah, we've definitely had the ice pick through the eyeball into the brain of like, yeah, stir it up.

[2251] This is good.

[2252] This is good for us.

[2253] I have a question.

[2254] Take my pills.

[2255] This makes me happy.

[2256] I'm curious about something.

[2257] It's not Dark Souls.

[2258] Okay.

[2259] When are you going to play Rage or Deus Ex?

[2260] Because I know you bought those and have them waiting in the wings.

[2261] Yeah, so like I said, there's a bunch of stuff I was ready to jump into.

[2262] And it just kept on being this like, well, I'll just get past that part.

[2263] Because I don't want to leave that hanging in Dark Souls.

[2264] And I think I figured out a way to do it.

[2265] You don't want to forget where your bloodstain is.

[2266] Yeah, I found there's this other area I forgot about.

[2267] I'll just go do that.

[2268] And then suddenly...

[2269] lead into me being stuck at another part four hours later and then at that point I can't play video games anymore.

[2270] I've got to take a break and then just come back.

[2271] It's burning up.

[2272] Do you feel it building towards anything as you make this progress?

[2273] Is it like, okay, I've cleared this area out and now it's friendly?

[2274] No. What are you doing in each area?

[2275] Does it lead somewhere else?

[2276] Well, yeah.

[2277] So the kind of fun thing is you clear out an area and it's almost Zelda -like in a way where as soon as you get past a certain point, you usually find a shortcut.

[2278] That would be like, okay, now I can, like, zip from area A to area C without going into area B. There are a bunch of, like, kind of hidden loot backs built into the level C. And then eventually you can just straight up fast travel.

[2279] Yeah, so eventually you can find a thing that will let you warp from bonfire to bonfire.

[2280] What?

[2281] Yeah, you're pretty far away from that.

[2282] I'm sure.

[2283] But, yeah, so, like, there are certain things that won't respond.

[2284] The big bosses and stuff, they don't respond or anything like that.

[2285] So you do clear out this area and they usually change the world in a slightly meaningful way that makes you be like, yeah, that part that you used to have to grind through a billion times, like the part where you are, you can skip all that.

[2286] You drop down that ladder and then you can just circle around.

[2287] You'll just find an elevator in the Firelink Shrine that just takes you right past all that part because you unlocked a gate.

[2288] Does it still have tendencies?

[2289] Is there still a world tendency?

[2290] No. All that sort of, I think, humanity now.

[2291] Oh, I forgot about tendencies.

[2292] Yeah, that part was stupid.

[2293] So now humanity is kind of like the more humanity you have, something happens.

[2294] But yeah, I got wrapped up in Dark Souls.

[2295] Sounds like it.

[2296] Yeah.

[2297] And it's one of those things like now I'm so invested in my guy.

[2298] But it's one of those things also where I just want to look online.

[2299] I just want somebody to be like.

[2300] Here's the best sword you can get.

[2301] Just go get this.

[2302] And I can't find it yet.

[2303] And you're like, all right, now I know what to do.

[2304] Now I've got the best sword.

[2305] Go get the best sword.

[2306] No excuses.

[2307] Because sometimes I'm just like, this is really hard.

[2308] Maybe I don't have a good weapon or maybe my armor is bad.

[2309] Like the not knowing.

[2310] Yeah.

[2311] Even the little bit I played, having the three different areas to go to, it was just like, which one of these?

[2312] I don't know where I should be.

[2313] They're all hard.

[2314] I don't know how hard is this game even supposed to be.

[2315] What am I doing?

[2316] The worst part seems to be there's one answer to that question.

[2317] It's like out of the three, there's one.

[2318] you should be going to, but it's not immediately evident which one that is.

[2319] I was talking to Will.

[2320] I think I mentioned it to you, Brad.

[2321] It was one of those things where that game to me is kind of like the flow of electricity or kind of like water where...

[2322] You just keep going until the resistance gets too high, and then you just need to find another path that lets you keep going.

[2323] So I'd keep going, and then I'd be like, this is way too hard.

[2324] I shouldn't be here.

[2325] It's got to be somewhere else I can go.

[2326] I'm like, oh, these guys.

[2327] I can fight these guys.

[2328] I can kill one of these guys.

[2329] I'm going to keep going down this way until it gets like, I can't kill anything.

[2330] You have to be on board with that repetition.

[2331] You have to be down for that kind of poking and prodding here and there to see where you're not going to die.

[2332] Yeah, you have to die to figure out that you should not be there.

[2333] All the time.

[2334] All the time.

[2335] But like I said, I think it's a little easier with those monfires.

[2336] There's no escape.

[2337] There's no respite.

[2338] You have to die.

[2339] It's not like you get to a point where you're like, this is too messed up.

[2340] I'm going to turn around and run the other way.

[2341] No. You could, but...

[2342] You're probably going to die.

[2343] I mean, so many things can kill you in one hit.

[2344] Right.

[2345] Or, like, hit you once and you, like, stumble or get knocked back or whatever and then you get hit again.

[2346] But then, so then, what is the process from that?

[2347] Like, run back there, get your souls, turn around, run the hell out, right?

[2348] Hope that you get your souls.

[2349] Well, they also have, this is why this game is a little bit easier.

[2350] They have some items now, like a Homeward Bone, I think it's called, that's, like, it's a limited use item, but, like, I have plenty of them that you can just pop and it'll just take you right back to the bonfire with all your souls.

[2351] So, if you guys...

[2352] So you just punch out.

[2353] Yeah, you punch out.

[2354] And you can go...

[2355] Or still forget every single time you go rise to the bonfire, you are killing everything that you've already killed again.

[2356] Yeah.

[2357] Next time you go back.

[2358] Which is good for...

[2359] It's good for grinding.

[2360] Yeah, at least you're able to spend your souls and upgrade.

[2361] But sometimes, like I said, after I had been through the Undead Burg for the 20th time, I was just like, I don't want to fight this series of enemies again.

[2362] But it's all I'm capable of doing right now.

[2363] So I was at the top of this tower after fighting through this tower 100 times.

[2364] And then I'm on a narrow path that's about the width of one of my shoes, right?

[2365] And along this path, they might have seen this when they came about a demo.

[2366] I don't know, Brad, if you saw this.

[2367] There are gigantic swinging axes.

[2368] And I'm at the top.

[2369] And I finally made it to the top.

[2370] And it's instant death.

[2371] You drop all the way down, you're dead.

[2372] And I'm like, great.

[2373] I've got to run past like five of these swinging axes.

[2374] And it's not like a game where you just run off the edge.

[2375] It's not like you do any of that kind of like Assassin's Creed.

[2376] Like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[2377] A little balance animation.

[2378] No, this is like if you turn too quickly, you're going to fall off.

[2379] The animation routines don't suddenly become more delicate.

[2380] It's like, no, you're sprinting or not.

[2381] If your guy were to move back a little bit while you drank a potion or something, it would push you off.

[2382] Right, or you swing your sword.

[2383] Or.

[2384] If you were to hold your shield and something were to hit you, it would knock you off.

[2385] So I'm walking.

[2386] And so there's a fucking dude on the side who shoots magic at you.

[2387] You can't see him until you walk out there because he's in a blind spot.

[2388] And he's just there.

[2389] pew and he just hits you and you're like what the it just seems like some pseudo like some real kind of like massacore kind of thing it's just like it's going to be as trial and error as it can get and either you're going to find that rewarding or you have something to do with your time but I guess like you know I don't want to do that like nothing about that sounds appealing at all it's one of those things where like you know you may you could be able to see that guy but it's just like the design of it is just like that come on that's me it's that fuck you design Yeah, fuck.

[2390] That's just me. No thanks, man. There's just the tiniest kernel of an incentive to keep going when stuff like that happens.

[2391] Well, then you know he's there and then you could kill him easily.

[2392] But it's like you have to know he's there kind of thing.

[2393] So there is a part of it that's a little bit like puzzly.

[2394] But it's that same kind of part of Splinter Cell that I don't like where it's like you're going to make me memorize the level to go through it.

[2395] I mean there are parts where you go through and you're like, oh, I was prepared for this because I was being really cautious.

[2396] But some parts like that where it's just like.

[2397] come on, man, you're going to hide behind this door and then you're going to shoot me off of this thing after I spent 30 minutes getting up here.

[2398] And then it's like I can't find the bonfire in this level, so I have to run the whole level back.

[2399] Because they start hiding the bonfires later on too.

[2400] It's really kind of tough to find spots where you're like, all right, if you didn't know to fall off this edge.

[2401] You wouldn't find it.

[2402] Thank you for all this conversation.

[2403] I started thinking about it.

[2404] Maybe I should play some Dark Souls, but you've curbed that.

[2405] I still think you should try it.

[2406] No. You should definitely try it.

[2407] No. I can respect your decision.

[2408] I can respect your confident knowledge.

[2409] That this is not for you.

[2410] And I don't want to play any more of it.

[2411] My concern – my great concern about Dark Souls, like people are finding enjoyment out of this, whatever.

[2412] That's fine.

[2413] I don't mind that.

[2414] And it got to the point where I think I understand what the – what the satisfaction is that people are extracted from it.

[2415] My real concern is that this is going to be turned into a gateway into Monster Hunter.

[2416] And we can't have fucking Americans playing Monster Hunter.

[2417] We've got to close the gate, basically.

[2418] We've got to stop, cut this off at the pass, whatever we've got to do.

[2419] We can't allow this to turn into the, oh, well, I can tolerate all of the horrible bullshit in Monster Hunter because I tolerated all of the horrible bullshit in Dark Souls.

[2420] The horrible bullshit is totally...

[2421] different in monster hunter like there are similarities to be found in the in the like animation priority over hidden dudes but that's just very japanese i guess i guess i mean dead rising is like that yeah it is yeah so like that stuff that that part now for me it's like oh yeah it's still like the closest parallel i can think of and it scares me yeah I'm telling you, I don't think we have to worry about it.

[2422] Okay, okay.

[2423] But maybe that's just, you know, maybe I'll wake up one morning and be too late.

[2424] Just say, wishful thinking over there.

[2425] That game is just full of, like, very small, very small, very frequent challenges.

[2426] Each thing becomes, like, its own little challenge.

[2427] Like, it's like, this little part, yay.

[2428] Like, very small victories until you get a very big victory.

[2429] And that becomes very rewarding on the big victory side.

[2430] Plus you do just become so powerful.

[2431] But, I mean, like I said, I've sat there questioning myself every step of the way because the victories are usually the result of me going online and looking at, like, what the exploitive way to beat this guy is.

[2432] Or how to get the Drake Sword, which is way too powerful for where I'm at.

[2433] Yeah, so the losing the Souls part, I've gotten completely over it.

[2434] Because you just wind up not carrying Souls.

[2435] You spend them all every time again.

[2436] It's the time.

[2437] It's literally my time investment where it's like...

[2438] I can't remember who it was that said this, but someone had mentioned I spent two hours playing Dark Souls and ended up...

[2439] at the exact same spot where I started.

[2440] It's almost as if Dark Souls is a parable for playing video games themselves.

[2441] They're just like, yep, spend all that time and have literally nothing to show for it.

[2442] It is like a meta -commentary on all video games.

[2443] So things that are in Dark Souls, you'll just do suicide runs to get a piece of loot.

[2444] Because that will be the thing that's different.

[2445] I think that was the moment.

[2446] You and Castler were standing there Friday morning telling me to run past that black knight.

[2447] You're going to die.

[2448] But you never lose your item when you die.

[2449] So it's like now you're going to come back at least with this advantage.

[2450] You're dead.

[2451] You lost your souls.

[2452] You'll always get the souls back.

[2453] You got this ring that is.

[2454] Or this sword or this armor.

[2455] All right.

[2456] That makes you.

[2457] But you would never know to do that unless you had people behind you.

[2458] who've already done it, telling you that it's there.

[2459] Just always go for the twinkly thing.

[2460] I guess.

[2461] Abandon your souls.

[2462] Yeah.

[2463] That game would be completely different if you could checkpoint.

[2464] Like hard save, you mean?

[2465] Or even...

[2466] I was wishing that you could just plant your souls here.

[2467] Be like, all right.

[2468] Bury them here.

[2469] Yeah, bury them here.

[2470] Like, I'm going to come back for you.

[2471] If I die, I'll lose them.

[2472] But I just want...

[2473] Or, you know, if I die, I have to come back to this spot.

[2474] Well, you start picking up some tricks, you know?

[2475] Like, when I was trying to beat Hovel, I would...

[2476] pull him up a couple floors up the tower before I fight him so that if I died it was easier to...

[2477] Yeah, the problem is they do that, like, I think it's like 10 seconds or 15 seconds from before you died.

[2478] Oh, regardless of the direction?

[2479] I think so.

[2480] Oh, really?

[2481] Yeah, so, like, I ran into problems where, like, I'd fall on a beam, like, I'd fall down and I'd catch myself on a beam and then I wouldn't die right away so I'd be stuck there and I'm like...

[2482] Literally counting in my head like, fuck, I need to make a decision really quickly because the longer I stay on here, they're going to make my blood stain on this beam if I die.

[2483] Or I have to fall down again and then die really quickly so that 10 seconds before that, there's just weird things like that.

[2484] That was a pain in the butt.

[2485] Anyway, that's kind of what I played.

[2486] I'll probably – I don't know how – like I said, information is really lacking out there.

[2487] We have to talk to Matt.

[2488] I don't know if I'm near the end of that game or not.

[2489] I don't know how that game ends.

[2490] It could never end.

[2491] According to the achievement decision, there's more than one ending.

[2492] So get ready to play through it multiple times.

[2493] So yes, to answer your question, I am excited to get into J -Sex.

[2494] Did you find the crystal geckos?

[2495] I did.

[2496] Shot the crap out of that crystal gecko.

[2497] Wait, is what I found a crystal gecko or is that something else?

[2498] Did you get a twinkling?

[2499] It was definitely a crystal lizard of some kind.

[2500] I got a titanite shard out of it.

[2501] Was it twinkling?

[2502] Oh, it was highly...

[2503] I mean, was it called twinkling?

[2504] Because if it was just a shard.

[2505] I want to say I eluded two different kinds of Titanite out of it.

[2506] Is that possible?

[2507] Probably.

[2508] Let's not talk about this anymore.

[2509] Rage and Deus Ex, yeah.

[2510] I own them both.

[2511] They're ready to go.

[2512] It sounds like Rage is working fine now.

[2513] Seems to be fine, yeah.

[2514] In fact, actually, it's kind of a shame you have to do this, but people have put together the ideal list of launch options for it to make the texture pop in kind of non -existent and fix the mouse acceleration.

[2515] Do you have to make folders?

[2516] No, that never did anything.

[2517] It's really disappointing that it's come to this with an id game.

[2518] Well, the texture pop -in thing specifically sounds like it's just making bad assumptions about how much video memory you have.

[2519] It's basically making the assumption that it's console.

[2520] They didn't tweak that.

[2521] But then again, who knows what you're going to be running it on.

[2522] I guess.

[2523] They should.

[2524] That's not a difficult process.

[2525] It might be a difficult process, but I feel like it's part of it.

[2526] But there are no options in the menus.

[2527] It all has to be command line options.

[2528] It's a shame.

[2529] But at this point, it's...

[2530] It comes down to basically going on a forum or whatever and pasting this string of options.

[2531] Oh, so it is a command.

[2532] You're not even changing it.

[2533] It's the way games have always worked.

[2534] It's the old John Carmack affinity for, you know.

[2535] Well, some games used to have mouse speed and stuff in the actual options.

[2536] This is very bare bones.

[2537] It's like resolution, anti -aliasing, all that stuff.

[2538] It's just console commands, except that you can append them to the end of the executable.

[2539] No, no, I know that.

[2540] Because in this case, if you enable the console, you disable all the Steamworks stuff, which is really unfortunate.

[2541] Yeah, anyway.

[2542] Excited to get into there.

[2543] You will be able to play it more or less.

[2544] I do want to finish Rage.

[2545] Batman comes out next week?

[2546] Yeah, it's next week.

[2547] A week from today.

[2548] Clock's ticking.

[2549] You could easily finish Rage before then.

[2550] I could.

[2551] I don't know about Deus Ex.

[2552] Sounds like that one's a bigger commitment.

[2553] Yeah.

[2554] And Castlevania.

[2555] Oh, God.

[2556] And I have Vanquish.

[2557] What are you doing?

[2558] Vanquish is quick.

[2559] Playing good games.

[2560] Vanquish is quick.

[2561] Vanquish is super quick.

[2562] Okay.

[2563] You bang that one out.

[2564] You got to start playing this year's stuff, though, because we got to get in here and start talking about end of the year stuff.

[2565] Was Vanquish not this year?

[2566] Nope.

[2567] That was last year?

[2568] Nope.

[2569] Nor was Castlevania.

[2570] Yeah.

[2571] 2011, y 'all.

[2572] I know.

[2573] 2011 games.

[2574] I finished Spider -Man Edge of Time over the weekend.

[2575] We got it on Friday and did a quick look of it.

[2576] Did you know that game was coming out before it came out?

[2577] Yes.

[2578] Really?

[2579] Yeah.

[2580] They announced it.

[2581] They announced it a while ago.

[2582] E3 time.

[2583] Yeah.

[2584] Man. I was just completely checked out because it was, by all accounts, the direct follow -up to Shattered Dimensions last year's Spider -Man game, and I was supremely disappointed by Shattered Dimensions.

[2585] So I was like, oh, yeah, I don't – I don't want to think about this one because they had four Spider -Men in the last one and now they have two Spider -Men.

[2586] Not even the more uncanny of the Spider -Men.

[2587] No, yeah.

[2588] The noir Spider -Man, arguably the most interesting of the Spider -Men in Shattered Dimensions and he got cut from the list.

[2589] Although there were kind of the ultimate and amazing Spider -Men in Shattered Dimensions were arguably kind of redundant.

[2590] I will say this.

[2591] This game starts off with a pretty...

[2592] kind of hokey and overdone time travel premise of dude from 2099 travels back in time and starts his corporation earlier and it affects the whole time stream.

[2593] There's a lot of stuff about quantum causality.

[2594] They were just throwing around real bullshit pseudoscience terms all over the place.

[2595] But the story actually ends up coming together.

[2596] By the end of it, I'm like, oh, hey, there was actually some good turns in there, a couple of decent beats and some good dialogue writing.

[2597] They've got a very...

[2598] For the Peter Parker part, they've got a very kind of snarky Spider -Man, and that's how I like my Spider -Man.

[2599] But that game, other than like that stuff and kind of the – a little bit of the traversal stuff because you can climb on walls and do a little web swinging.

[2600] But that game could have not been a Spider -Man game with ease.

[2601] Like there's not a lot kind of fundamentally about the situation or what's going on that's like, oh, yeah, this needs to be a Spider -Man game.

[2602] Are you seeing other Marvel dudes running around?

[2603] There's like three other characters in that entire game.

[2604] So it's just like robots or something?

[2605] Yeah, you're fighting like nameless like corporate thugs, jackbooted thugs and robots.

[2606] For 99 % of the game.

[2607] Are the robots thuggish?

[2608] Yeah.

[2609] In fact, so it's basically like you're playing as both current timeline, you know, Amazing Spider -Man and future Spider -Man 2099.

[2610] You're hopping back and forth as the story sees fit.

[2611] Does he play differently?

[2612] A little bit, yeah.

[2613] Like there's upgrade trees for abilities, but it's the same.

[2614] I mean, it's a brawler when it comes to the combat.

[2615] What's 2099 like?

[2616] It's the future.

[2617] How does it look?

[2618] Is it bleak?

[2619] Yeah, so the entire game takes – I remember it from the last game.

[2620] I remember it looking like a bad fifth element.

[2621] Yeah, it's like super vertical.

[2622] Like there's a couple of free fall.

[2623] Like he was very much the character when Spider -Man 2099 actually had a comic book.

[2624] Which I'm not even going to get into how dumb all the 2099 stuff is and how fucking awful the Spider -Man 2099 character design is.

[2625] But a lot of like that – like, oh, he's in this giant, very vertical city of the future.

[2626] So there's a lot of free falling and skydiving and stuff like that.

[2627] So there's a couple of sequences like that in the game.

[2628] Flying cars.

[2629] But the whole game takes place inside one building.

[2630] You are always inside this – it's like a fucking huge building, right?

[2631] I hope so.

[2632] But the entire game takes place inside.

[2633] Even in 2099?

[2634] In both timelines, you are inside the same building for the entire duration of the game.

[2635] In fact, you're like both characters are kind of like coming back because there's this one room where the fucking time portal exists.

[2636] And so both dudes are like kind of, you know, traffic is happening in and out of the crazy time portal.

[2637] And so you're kind of revisiting this space over and over again.

[2638] What do the computers on people's desks look like in 2099?

[2639] It's not really.

[2640] Hollow computers?

[2641] Not really people's desks.

[2642] Oh, it's not like an office building?

[2643] No, I mean it's the future.

[2644] Oh.

[2645] Potted plants?

[2646] No, it's a lot of like metal corridors.

[2647] Oh.

[2648] It's like the future.

[2649] It's very steely and fucking dark.

[2650] But it's also that way in the current timeline as well.

[2651] Okay.

[2652] And then you also – I was going to say we live in some pretty dark, steely times.

[2653] And then you also do a lot of like, all right, I'm in the future.

[2654] Now I'm in the past and this space looks almost identical.

[2655] Are you like opening doors for yourself?

[2656] So the game like – Time puzzles?

[2657] I wish that was the case.

[2658] I wish there was like a cool time puzzle or something.

[2659] But it just sort of – like they explain early on like the slightest thing you do could have an effect on the future.

[2660] And they kind of demonstrate this by, OK, 2099 has to fight this giant robot.

[2661] So if dude – if current Spider -Man can go to where the robot factory is inside this building and destroy this giant robot, the giant robot won't exist in the future.

[2662] Well, it turns out when you destroy that giant robot, it just makes a bunch of small robots in the future.

[2663] So it's like, oh, well, so it does – so changing – so quantum causality doesn't really work.

[2664] It's not really a thing.

[2665] Just fate, man. It's fate.

[2666] As we change things or random shit.

[2667] It's one of those things and it's actually – Like the special effect they use to show it like when you're running down a hallway and suddenly like the world has changed and what was a hallway and now a dead end and you have to go and crawl through this corridor like an air duct or something.

[2668] Like the effects for how that looks are actually pretty cool but the logic for it is fucking dumb.

[2669] Oh, it's comic books.

[2670] Yeah, it's comic book time travel also and time travel is very, very dumb.

[2671] So is this like a sequel to Shattered Dimensions?

[2672] I don't know.

[2673] I don't think so.

[2674] Because they're talking to each other.

[2675] I don't know what the cross...

[2676] I don't remember what the cross Spider -Man awareness was like.

[2677] But these guys are having straight up back and forth conversation.

[2678] They know each other.

[2679] How old is 299 Spider -Man?

[2680] You mean when did they start writing Spider -Man?

[2681] No, no, no. Oh, it is?

[2682] It's not Peter Parker.

[2683] It's Miguel O 'Hara.

[2684] He's just got the same powers?

[2685] No, he has kind of different powers.

[2686] Okay.

[2687] He is not radiation powered the way Peter Parker is.

[2688] Okay.

[2689] It makes perfect sense to me. He's a different Spider -Man.

[2690] Activision not exactly batting 1 ,000 with their Marvel licenses.

[2691] No, no. I also played a little more X -Men Destiny.

[2692] I saw you playing that.

[2693] I almost called you and said, what the fuck?

[2694] What are you doing with yourself?

[2695] Get your life together, man. I wish I could.

[2696] I wish I could.

[2697] No, I just wanted to clean up a few things.

[2698] Now X -Men is on the shelf.

[2699] It is gone.

[2700] All right.

[2701] It's done.

[2702] Val Kilmer does the voice of the villain in Spider -Man Age of Time.

[2703] Val Kilmer.

[2704] Ladies and gentlemen.

[2705] Does he do a good job with it?

[2706] No. I didn't think so.

[2707] No, he does not.

[2708] I would not have expected that.

[2709] Yeah, so the game is not great, but I was a little bit surprised at some decent story stuff, and I guess it was written by Peter David who created the Spider -Man 2099 character.

[2710] How are you swinging inside a building?

[2711] That's the thing is all of that stuff sucks because there's really not a lot of big open space.

[2712] So like it's the frustrating thing of like the best Spider -Man experiences are let's simulate New York City, let you swing around it like crazy and go fight dudes at – specific locations right and so by saying nope no city whatsoever inside the entire time like they have you end up relying on like the web zip ability a lot more than you do where it's like you see a specific point and it'll like light up with little reticles saying like you can just tap the shoulder and you'll hop right over there so you use that stuff a whole lot more than you would well you're hookshot then Yes.

[2713] Yeah, rather exactly.

[2714] Like a grapnel gun of some kind.

[2715] But you don't even need to aim it or anything.

[2716] It's just kind of swing the camera over in that general direction.

[2717] Something will hop up on your screen and you just tap over there.

[2718] Does it have detective mode?

[2719] No, spider senses.

[2720] Okay.

[2721] Which I tap up on the D -pad.

[2722] Everything turns kind of blue.

[2723] Everything turns kind of translucent, a little purple, kind of like neon edges on it.

[2724] And then you can see through stuff like, oh, there's the door over there that I need to get to.

[2725] Because it's green.

[2726] And it's dangerous.

[2727] And the spider sense kicks in.

[2728] That door is going to kill Spider -Man.

[2729] Look out.

[2730] Yeah, I guess they're kind of misusing the spider senses.

[2731] Well, that's, I don't know.

[2732] Yeah, I guess.

[2733] It's just.

[2734] It's supposed to be like an early warning system.

[2735] Yeah, it's supposed to be like his spider senses are tingling because something bad is about to happen.

[2736] This is more of just like, my spider sense is.

[2737] I'm lost.

[2738] My spider senses are, I don't know what the next objective is because this game is not being very clear about it even though it is incredibly linear.

[2739] Do you feel that tingling?

[2740] No. Well, fuck you.

[2741] Let's just go this way.

[2742] Spider -Man.

[2743] Yeah, and I don't know.

[2744] They need to do better by Spider -Man.

[2745] Do they?

[2746] Yeah.

[2747] They've already done some great Spider -Man games.

[2748] I think maybe they just need to stop making Spider -Man games for a while.

[2749] But then they lose the license, right?

[2750] Disney would love to have the Spider -Man license back, I'm sure.

[2751] He's the only one missing from that cart racer.

[2752] They're doing that movie reboot.

[2753] Is that next year or something that's happening?

[2754] Maybe that's where they're banking on actually putting some effort into a Spider -Man game.

[2755] Do you think it'll be B -Nox doing the game for that movie?

[2756] I think given time, B -Nox could make a very good Spider -Man game.

[2757] I look at stuff like Arkham Asylum and hopefully Arkham City.

[2758] And I think, like, man, you know, Spider -Man has never really had that game.

[2759] Well, to be fair, like, almost no comic book character has.

[2760] Yeah.

[2761] Well, I think next to Batman, for me, for my money, Spider -Man's the character that most deserves it.

[2762] I like that Wolverine game.

[2763] It was all right.

[2764] The best you can say about it was that it was all right, though.

[2765] Yeah, it was all right.

[2766] I thought them doing an M rating for that game did it a good service.

[2767] But Arkham Asylum kind of...

[2768] As comic book games go, that game is in its own class.

[2769] Yeah, that's a game you can talk about in a game of the year discussion.

[2770] Whereas Wolverine, you're like, that's a solid B tier.

[2771] They did okay.

[2772] They made an okay cut.

[2773] Yeah, I think Wolverine is something you talk about.

[2774] They did it mostly with vigor.

[2775] Yeah.

[2776] They got behind it.

[2777] There's some enthusiasm there.

[2778] You can see where some of the inspiration is.

[2779] But Arkham Asylum.

[2780] Well, Arkham Asylum is a great game.

[2781] Wolverine is a pretty good comic book game.

[2782] Arkham Asylum doesn't need a qualifier.

[2783] Yeah, yeah.

[2784] It's a pretty good comic book.

[2785] Yeah, I guess I thought that Wolverine game was pretty generic, all things considered.

[2786] There wasn't a lot of ride.

[2787] You got past a certain point, and he's like, okay, I'm just going to do this again for another little while.

[2788] But when he jumped out of that helicopter, the first thing is him stabbing the guy.

[2789] You're like, man, this is awesome.

[2790] But that was the only awesome thing about that.

[2791] And Ultimate Alliance, those are okay.

[2792] That still sticks out.

[2793] Or the first one was okay.

[2794] Yeah, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and before that, the X -Men Legends games.

[2795] And the X -Men Legends games are part of why I was so bummed out about X -Men Destiny, because I'm like, there's precedent.

[2796] from really awesome X -Men action RPGs.

[2797] I know they don't have the most consistent track record, but God bless them, the Silicon Knights guys.

[2798] I feel like there's every one of their games that I play.

[2799] Those guys are due, man. Well, they're due, and I feel like every one of their games that I play, even when I play 2Human, I'm like, okay, this game's a fucking mess in so many ways, but I see this thing.

[2800] I can see where...

[2801] This cyber viking.

[2802] No, I can see this one part of the game where it's like, this is the smart thing.

[2803] This is the thing where they were really thinking about it, and they were actually able to execute it.

[2804] on what their crazy vision was, and that's great.

[2805] It's all that loot.

[2806] Should I play Two Human?

[2807] Not at this point.

[2808] I bought it when it was on sale.

[2809] I have it as well, and I haven't played it.

[2810] If you want to go through it together.

[2811] Is there any co -op?

[2812] There is co -op, isn't there?

[2813] I think it must be two, but yeah, you guys should make a Two Human date.

[2814] Dude, let's play some Two Human.

[2815] I got some other stuff.

[2816] Not now.

[2817] Maybe in January.

[2818] It's just weird that the comic books...

[2819] It feels like it would set up perfectly for like, here's...

[2820] Dude, you have superpowers.

[2821] You don't even have to explain it, really.

[2822] They have incredible things they can do.

[2823] They were made for video games.

[2824] I think a lot of it runs into the licensed game conundrum.

[2825] Licensed games have traditionally been bad because they rely on the license to sell it.

[2826] They're locked into the set fiction in a lot of cases.

[2827] They kind of have to keep turning them out.

[2828] I don't know.

[2829] And Batman broke the mold for expectations on that stuff.

[2830] And all that's really done is put a much brighter spotlight on all this other crap that's coming out that is using licensed comic characters and that sort of stuff.

[2831] They don't do a good job with that stuff.

[2832] And I think they probably think they don't have to.

[2833] To be fair to Activision, I still feel like Spider -Man has had his moments.

[2834] Like there have been.

[2835] Yeah, there have been fantastic Spider -Man games that Activision has put out.

[2836] Yes, totally.

[2837] But maybe it worked for Batman as well because he is the least super -powered superhero kind of going.

[2838] He can take on.

[2839] a couple of average dudes and still, you know, win.

[2840] But it's not like he's shooting lasers out of his eyes.

[2841] Yeah.

[2842] When two thugs beat up Batman and he dies, it's sort of believable.

[2843] Sure.

[2844] And, like, you can't have Batman because he's a dude.

[2845] It looks a lot, asshole.

[2846] And Wolverine has to chew through a billion guys because he's Wolverine and he's not going to get taken out by Thug B. Whereas, like, Batman, it's more, like, technical.

[2847] He's kind of stealth.

[2848] He's almost like Sam Fisher.

[2849] He's like a ninja.

[2850] Yeah.

[2851] Like, if you're sloppy, you can see Batman getting his neck broke.

[2852] Right.

[2853] Whereas, like, Superman, what do you throw at Superman?

[2854] Like, the world?

[2855] Yeah.

[2856] So maybe that's the difficulty.

[2857] What do you throw at Spider -Man?

[2858] Superman sucks.

[2859] He always has.

[2860] But, like, Spider -Man needs to take on, like, 500 guys before it's, like, a challenge, right?

[2861] Or giant robots.

[2862] He's kind of got, like, battle damage through most of this game.

[2863] Like, he almost dies kind of at the start of this game.

[2864] Spider -Man?

[2865] Yeah.

[2866] He kind of gets his ass handed to him pretty early on.

[2867] And Spider -Man's also, like, he's not a...

[2868] Like, yeah, he's strong, but he's not a...

[2869] particularly big dude.

[2870] He's not a tank.

[2871] No, he's not a tank.

[2872] He's more like a DPS.

[2873] He's a rogue.

[2874] He's resilient, but he will get punched hard and he will feel it.

[2875] It's a touch that I actually appreciated.

[2876] At one point, his suit gets so fucked up that his ear is just sticking out.

[2877] And they model his ear.

[2878] Straight up.

[2879] Where his head would be totally smooth because he's contained in a mask.

[2880] That's a pretty direct...

[2881] Batman influence.

[2882] The ripped up suit stuff is one of those things that Batman did so well.

[2883] Not that it was the first to ever render any kind of battle damage, but to have it go over the course of a game like that.

[2884] It was very prominent in that game.

[2885] Yeah, I don't know.

[2886] I don't know why they're messing it up.

[2887] And yeah, so this decent comic book story is because they have to put out every year.

[2888] It's because it's a game over 12 months.

[2889] And based on the story is a decent...

[2890] I could see this story playing out over the course of, like, six issues in a comic book if you wanted to do it that way.

[2891] I was going to ask, is this written by any kind of, like, notable...

[2892] Peter David.

[2893] That's what I said earlier.

[2894] Oh, I'm sorry.

[2895] He's the guy who wrote, who created Spider -Man 2099.

[2896] Oh, okay.

[2897] And they still let him work there?

[2898] Yeah, and, well, if they're going to make him write a 2099 story, who better?

[2899] Because, um...

[2900] Alchemics.

[2901] They have Paul Dini doing the Batman games?

[2902] Yeah.

[2903] There's three writers credited.

[2904] He's one of them.

[2905] Okay.

[2906] So, like, decent, like, and that's, you know, decent talent behind the writing of this, but other than...

[2907] I don't know who that is, by the way.

[2908] Is Paul Dini, like, is he the Batman writer?

[2909] I've heard the name.

[2910] He's a big dude in the DC crowd.

[2911] So, what's the DC -Warner connection?

[2912] So outright?

[2913] Yeah.

[2914] So it's like Disney and Marvel at this point?

[2915] Yeah.

[2916] Same thing.

[2917] The difference is that Marvel had made all these licensing deals and put them in place before the Disney buyout, so all those are still ongoing.

[2918] Until some contractual...

[2919] Yeah.

[2920] It'll eventually get to a point where I imagine that Disney will pull it all back in and make the Marvel games themselves because they have a game division.

[2921] Right.

[2922] But for now...

[2923] So Sega still has like Thor and Captain America and Iron Man. Activision has Spider -Man and the X -Men.

[2924] And then like Marvel Universe type stuff.

[2925] Like if they want to – like they could – I guess – what is it?

[2926] Like they could include Thor in a game.

[2927] They could not make a Thor game.

[2928] Weird.

[2929] I think is what it is.

[2930] Weird.

[2931] So it becomes this weird thing of like how much focus is there on a specific character.

[2932] That's how the Ultimate Alliance stuff worked even though – They did not technically have the exclusive rights to every single character.

[2933] It's a mess.

[2934] The same thing extends to the movies.

[2935] There's the incorporated Marvel films universe, but the X -Men, the movies that Sony are making about the X -Men, that's completely separate.

[2936] That's its own thing.

[2937] I think Fox makes the X -Men.

[2938] I'm sorry.

[2939] Sony has Spider -Man.

[2940] Sony has Spider -Man.

[2941] You're right.

[2942] What's that?

[2943] They've got the font.

[2944] Yes.

[2945] Marvel's all over the place.

[2946] Those pre -existing deals is part of why Sony's like, we've got to keep making Spider -Man movies, because if we don't, then...

[2947] We can't make Spider -Man movies anymore.

[2948] Are those deals ever open -ended, or is it that they have an expiration date, but they're terminated prematurely if you don't keep exploiting them?

[2949] You know what I mean?

[2950] I'd imagine that no one would make that deal in perpetuity.

[2951] Hey, as long as you keep making them, we'll let you.

[2952] Yeah, those will probably all come up for renewal eventually.

[2953] They must just be really long -term deals.

[2954] But they do.

[2955] I think we've talked about it here before.

[2956] If you are not doing anything, if you're sitting on the property...

[2957] They revert.

[2958] Right.

[2959] And then it's like...

[2960] That's why they have to crank them out.

[2961] So Warner, as long as they're just publishing, they can do whatever they want with their properties of DC.

[2962] It's theirs.

[2963] They could choose to never make another Batman game ever again if they wanted to.

[2964] They own it.

[2965] But financially, they probably will.

[2966] They turn around from Arkham Asylum to City.

[2967] Two years, yeah.

[2968] Was it a full two years?

[2969] Yeah.

[2970] Over two years.

[2971] Really?

[2972] Asylum shipped in August of 2009.

[2973] Oh, was it?

[2974] Yeah.

[2975] It's like end of August.

[2976] This is an October game.

[2977] They announced Arkham City very quickly.

[2978] I wonder if they'll do that with others.

[2979] Plus because they had stuff in Arkham Asylum that let you know what Arkham City was going to be.

[2980] I wonder if they'll try that with other DC characters.

[2981] It really makes you wonder if the Superman equivalent of Arkham Asylum is in the works or something.

[2982] It doesn't exist.

[2983] I don't think it can happen.

[2984] It doesn't exist.

[2985] Name another character.

[2986] No DC characters.

[2987] Wonder Woman.

[2988] What's great about Batman is what's great about most Marvel characters.

[2989] Most DC characters are gods.

[2990] Like literally gods.

[2991] In the 60s what kind of separated Marvel and made them socially relevant while DC was making corny Batman.

[2992] comics was that they were making characters that were people.

[2993] Here's a dude like normal dude thrown into an extraordinary fucked up insane situation.

[2994] This guy might have claws coming out of his hands but he's a real person with real problems.

[2995] Well that early like the 60s like the you know Stan Lee Ditko stuff.

[2996] Spider -Man, he's a nerdy high school student who gets bit by a spider.

[2997] The Fantastic Four is like, yeah, they're scientists, but it's husband and wife and brother -in -law.

[2998] It's a family drama that then takes an insane turn.

[2999] All that stuff back in the 60s had real -world social relevance stuff, right?

[3000] I'm sure Stan Lee would argue that.

[3001] They would like you to take that through the lens of history.

[3002] He would...

[3003] Term it excelsior.

[3004] True believers.

[3005] So, you know, playing both those games, I was thinking a lot about how, gosh, I would like an excellent X -Men game and an excellent Spider -Man game.

[3006] And that's kind of off of the thinking a lot about Batman because Batman's awesome.

[3007] I think, like, Wolverine, like, there's definitely room for, like, a really cool Wolverine game.

[3008] Sure.

[3009] I mean, like, that character, I think, is...

[3010] Does Wolverine run at multiple speeds, though?

[3011] Isn't he just like on at 110 % all the time?

[3012] Batman's kind of methodical.

[3013] There's like brooding Wolverine.

[3014] There's I've got real problems Wolverine.

[3015] But when he takes action, he has one method of doing so, right?

[3016] Batman's great because he can whip your ass, but he's also thinking man. He can boggle his way out of a situation if he needs to.

[3017] Like Wolverine quite literally has the berserter rage, right?

[3018] Yep.

[3019] Yep.

[3020] Yeah.

[3021] Yeah, maybe that is limiting.

[3022] I mean, yeah, Batman's got all the traversal gadgets and that stuff.

[3023] Batman is basically the best comic book ever.

[3024] Can we just agree?

[3025] Sure.

[3026] You know, it's detective comics.

[3027] I'm not a DC guy, but I will say Batman's pretty fucking awesome.

[3028] I didn't make these outrageous claims here.

[3029] I think he's the only superhero worth anything.

[3030] All right.

[3031] Enough comic book nonsense.

[3032] You guys want to talk about a little bit of news here?

[3033] What's Batman up to?

[3034] Batman news.

[3035] What's going on in the world of Batman?

[3036] Infinity Blade 2 has been announced by Chair.

[3037] This happened during the Apple press conference, right?

[3038] Yes, during the 4S press conference.

[3039] Last week they brought him out and said, hey, we're making another Infinity Blade because we made hoodles of money off of that first Infinity Blade.

[3040] Did they quote any numbers?

[3041] I believe the official number was hell of.

[3042] Yeah, oodles and oodles.

[3043] Scads.

[3044] Yeah.

[3045] And they've also recently said some stuff about other games.

[3046] Shadow Complex.

[3047] Shadow Complex, thank you.

[3048] Alpha Protocol was the only name coming up in my mind.

[3049] I'm like, that's, come on.

[3050] That's not it.

[3051] They also talked about that.

[3052] They said, hey, it was two bucks on Steam a while ago.

[3053] You should have got it.

[3054] What do you want?

[3055] Yes, there was a part of the Gears of War 3 interview tour that Cliff Polzinski went on, I believe he mentioned.

[3056] Yeah, I think it was basically designed.

[3057] We just need to find someone to finish it.

[3058] Shadow Complex 2?

[3059] What does designed mean?

[3060] There's a document somewhere, if I had to guess.

[3061] I'll go and I'll finish it.

[3062] There's still a lot of work to be done, if that's the case.

[3063] Yeah, exactly.

[3064] It's a really hard game.

[3065] Nobody's working on Infinity Blade 2, because that game made hell of money.

[3066] Probably more than Shadow Complex.

[3067] Way more.

[3068] Orders of magnitude, I'm sure.

[3069] Man. Let me ask you this.

[3070] If they were to compromise and make the next Shadow Complex on the iOS, how would you feel?

[3071] I don't know.

[3072] I don't like that.

[3073] I don't like that one bit.

[3074] No. That's not a good fit for the interface.

[3075] I want Infinity Blade 2 to finance Shadow Complex 2.

[3076] All right.

[3077] I'm confident that Shadow Complex 2 will eventually happen.

[3078] Yeah.

[3079] I hope so.

[3080] I feel like they really want it to happen.

[3081] I think their investment in it is pretty high as well.

[3082] Let's make the dude move faster.

[3083] I wonder how surprised those guys were at the success of the Infinity Blade stuff or if they knew that they were going to just sell scads.

[3084] It's like one of the ultimate stories of right place, right time for a game like that.

[3085] What was the deal?

[3086] It launched alongside iOS 4 or iPad 2?

[3087] There was some product launch involvement, right?

[3088] I guess no, it wasn't iPad 1.

[3089] 3GS?

[3090] No. Infinity Blade is about a year old.

[3091] I know that Infinity Blade got swept up in some kind of Apple.

[3092] Oh, I'm sorry.

[3093] I'm thinking of the...

[3094] Well, they originally had the sword demo before the actual game came out.

[3095] Well, Epic Citadel was the walk -around demo.

[3096] But the game itself got swept up in a giant Apple marketing push.

[3097] Yeah.

[3098] Like it showed up in standard iPhone commercials or iPad commercials or whatever.

[3099] Yeah, so it got a little more attention than most iPhone games do for sure.

[3100] Right.

[3101] I mean, also probably the best -looking game on the platform, right?

[3102] Yeah.

[3103] Yes.

[3104] Yeah, that doesn't hurt.

[3105] Definitely.

[3106] Last week, Microsoft announced media partnerships with just a shitload of different companies for the Xbox 360, including HBO and SyFy Network and Comcast and Verizon.

[3107] But have not said anything about what any of that actually means.

[3108] What does that mean?

[3109] They don't know.

[3110] Like Bravo and a bunch of like Canal Plus, like a bunch of European media companies, fucking YouTube.

[3111] Well, YouTube is going to be part of the fall update.

[3112] Yeah.

[3113] Oh, is it actually to roll out with that, did they say?

[3114] I believe that is the case.

[3115] It would make sense.

[3116] They should roll out around the same time.

[3117] They showed it at E3.

[3118] Someone in our system has used it.

[3119] Someone in our achievement system has run a YouTube app.

[3120] So they're clearly testing something somewhere.

[3121] YouTube achievements?

[3122] Achievements for watching YouTube videos?

[3123] That would be amazing.

[3124] Can I watch dirty YouTube videos?

[3125] That's a dirty YouTube video.

[3126] I bet that they – I bet not.

[3127] Man. I bet there ends up being some kind of weird limit on the YouTube stuff on the 360 where you can't just do a straight up raw search.

[3128] YouTube does not serve the kind of dirt that you're looking for.

[3129] Yeah, what kind of dirt is on YouTube?

[3130] It's cursing.

[3131] Oh.

[3132] Can you buy episodes of TV on the Zoom marketplace currently?

[3133] So this isn't like, I'll watch Top Chef.

[3134] You can do that already.

[3135] This is more like HBO Go subscription style.

[3136] So this is the thing is that Microsoft is like – Well, they're constantly re -clarifying of we don't know what's going to be silver and what's going to be gold.

[3137] We don't know what the individual content partnerships are actually going to mean.

[3138] Like what you need to get it.

[3139] Like if you have to be a Comcast subscriber and be on a Comcast network to watch Comcast on demand, I would imagine that's probably – I would have to assume at least that.

[3140] More specifically, can you be on Comcast and use – a different service through Comcast, or are they going to block that out?

[3141] You'd have to be subscribed to that service already to be able to access it.

[3142] I would imagine.

[3143] And again, they are not saying anything.

[3144] Your dream of living without cable and using this instead is not going to happen, though.

[3145] Not with this.

[3146] Someday it will happen.

[3147] This is baby steps, Brad.

[3148] We're getting there.

[3149] I literally physically don't have room for a cable box.

[3150] want 90 % of what's on the cable box.

[3151] Yeah.

[3152] So I'm just not going to get it.

[3153] Cable boxes are not that big, dude.

[3154] Wait, where are you going to put it?

[3155] You can't fit that cable box?

[3156] I have a small shelf TV.

[3157] There's nowhere else to put it.

[3158] Just put it on a...

[3159] More to the point, I don't want what's on it.

[3160] There you go.

[3161] It's ridiculously expensive.

[3162] Cable boxes got kind of small.

[3163] That's fine.

[3164] Well, I'll just tell you how long it's been since I had one.

[3165] Yeah.

[3166] As long as you're not getting a DVR in it.

[3167] Like, I had a cable box for a while.

[3168] It's pretty tiny.

[3169] But the more to the thing is, like, what you pay for and what you get.

[3170] Well, that's the thing.

[3171] I mean, I don't care about most of what's...

[3172] part of a cable subscription.

[3173] Yeah, I, yes, I should probably cancel TV.

[3174] Also, I personally don't need the temptation of being able to sit down and flip through X hundred number of channels.

[3175] Well, the thing is, I have, I spent a lot of money on DirecTV, and I never watch it.

[3176] Like, there's stuff I'm recording that I never watch at all.

[3177] It's just a, I'm just flushing money down a toilet.

[3178] You're getting an HD now, at least?

[3179] Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

[3180] I went and got the HD, and that's great, you know, it's like the, for all the TV I'm not watching, like, it looks great.

[3181] Yeah.

[3182] And, you know, the package, like, if you subscribe to everything on it, it's a lot of channels, man. You get just about anything.

[3183] And if there was something I wanted to watch on it, that'd be great.

[3184] I would totally watch it.

[3185] But I don't.

[3186] The only thing I really watch is baseball, and I don't even really watch that much of that.

[3187] I'd be better off just buying the MLB package on a PlayStation 3.

[3188] I was going to say, like, that's, like, one of the few pieces of content that there's a good alternative for.

[3189] I mean, Netflix is becoming a better and better alternative.

[3190] Yeah.

[3191] Content deals are good.

[3192] There's some daily stuff that I like.

[3193] But yeah, the network stuff.

[3194] It's like if I want to watch it the night that it's on, you need to bite the bullet and pay for fucking cable, I guess.

[3195] And pay way too much.

[3196] The thing I hate is like...

[3197] Or you'd be shocked at where you can get over the air.

[3198] I've got a $2 pair of rabbit ears that I had to solder a cable back onto at one point because it broke off.

[3199] I get everything in the city just fine with those.

[3200] It's like basic cable.

[3201] I watch the Daily Show or something like that.

[3202] You're right.

[3203] You're right.

[3204] But just like, that's it.

[3205] I watched like four things and like, that's it.

[3206] And it's a bummer that I have to pay $160 or whatever to watch those four things.

[3207] That's basically what I'm paying.

[3208] It's crazy.

[3209] And like, you know, I'm sure if I call them up and be like, Hey, I'm going to leave you and I'll be like, Hey, well, we'll give you this six month deal.

[3210] And I'll be like, okay, great.

[3211] Now I'm paying $80 until I have to call back in six months and be like, Hey, I'm leaving.

[3212] Oh, Hey, we'll give you this $80 for this thing.

[3213] It's like, I always feel like I'm getting gouged by them.

[3214] It's a lot of money based on a business model that is slowly becoming obsolete.

[3215] I think there are some people that are ahead of that curve a little bit and are ready for it to get out of here, but there aren't enough of us yet.

[3216] I was impressed.

[3217] I recently learned my mom just canceled the cable.

[3218] She's like, yeah, I've got the fucking Roku box.

[3219] I've got Netflix.

[3220] I can – if there's something that's – She's like, I canceled the disc service.

[3221] I just have the streaming stuff now.

[3222] If there's a movie that's just out on DVD that I want to watch, I've got Amazon there.

[3223] I'll pay the $4 and just do the rental stream right there.

[3224] She worked it out.

[3225] Yeah.

[3226] That's pretty good.

[3227] I was really proud.

[3228] I'm like, you figured all this?

[3229] You realized, wait, cable is bullshit.

[3230] This is the future and went down that path.

[3231] Well, because the cable box charged me for HD.

[3232] And it charged me for DVR.

[3233] Like, all on top of the regular fee.

[3234] Brad, what's your...

[3235] I didn't know Amazon did movie rentals.

[3236] I thought they only sold movies.

[3237] No, they do rentals.

[3238] Yeah, it's like four bucks.

[3239] Wow.

[3240] Something dirty.

[3241] Like in HD?

[3242] I think so.

[3243] Maybe I should just cancel my disc service with Netflix.

[3244] I mean, I think it depends on how much you're watching.

[3245] I mean, that stuff, you could get those rentals through the Zune or on the Apple Store and stuff.

[3246] Like, yeah, the disc service is insane.

[3247] Well, Blu -rays are pretty nice.

[3248] There's still nothing that looks as good as a Blu -ray.

[3249] Yeah, but how much do you care?

[3250] If I'm going to watch a Pixar movie, I want to see it as nice.

[3251] How much do you care?

[3252] Eight bucks a month.

[3253] Ten, whatever.

[3254] The thing that makes the disc service, again, less kind of appealing, though, is that most of the big studios are holding back new releases, like the big new releases, by like a month.

[3255] You're right.

[3256] I mean, I don't care about watching movies in a timely fashion.

[3257] But it's sort of like the, hey, this thing just came out on Blu -ray or DVD or whatever.

[3258] I want to watch it because it just came out, and I missed it in theaters.

[3259] And it's like, no, you're going to wait another 30 days.

[3260] But, I mean, the a la carte rentals are expensive enough that if you were to do more than, like, two a month, then you should just have the disc service because it's more at that point.

[3261] Yeah, I guess I don't consume that much.

[3262] I just want paper use.

[3263] thinking about canceling Netflix streaming because I don't watch that at all either.

[3264] And so I'm paying for that, paying for cable, paying for all this stuff with the potential that someday I'm going to have the free time and desire to watch any of that bullshit.

[3265] Netflix streaming seems real hot and cold to me. And I got a feeling it's going to get real cold real fast.

[3266] It's possible.

[3267] But in the last six weeks, I've watched all of Mad Men and all but one season of Breaking Bad just as part of that $10 a month subscription.

[3268] That's amazing.

[3269] But they don't have that very often.

[3270] With the way they're going with, yeah, we're going to spin on this thing off.

[3271] No, we're not going to spin this thing off.

[3272] And, oh, God, Star is squeezing us out for this.

[3273] It's like everyone else is going to.

[3274] Blood in the water.

[3275] Yeah.

[3276] Like, the Netflix streaming stuff is going to get real ugly, and then Google's going to do it better, and then Netflix will be the new TiVo.

[3277] It'll be the pioneer that no one ever thinks about.

[3278] But until then.

[3279] But until then, like, yeah, there's nothing quite like Netflix, but I'm also not using it, so it's ridiculous.

[3280] You should cancel everything.

[3281] Yeah, I should cancel everything.

[3282] You're right.

[3283] I've thought about canceling everything.

[3284] Just get rid of all of it.

[3285] You say, oh, it's only $10 a month, but fucking everything's $10 a month.

[3286] And now I'm signed up for so much weird shit that I never use.

[3287] I've thought about canceling everything and starting over.

[3288] Cancel your 900 number, Jeff.

[3289] You don't need it anymore.

[3290] No, that's my moneymaker.

[3291] So, Brad, you use Comcast for your internet, and you have the super, super duper internet?

[3292] I do, but I looked at the bill recently, and to drop from the boost package or whatever is only $10.

[3293] Yeah.

[3294] It's like...

[3295] 60 -something dollars.

[3296] If you don't have cable, then the internet is expensive.

[3297] So it was like $65 for the basic internet.

[3298] It's like $75 for the fast one.

[3299] So it's like, why?

[3300] It's 10 extra bucks.

[3301] Why not?

[3302] And that I totally support.

[3303] Anything that gets you faster internet, get the fastest goddamn internet you can get.

[3304] I've got the fast, like, consumer package.

[3305] Without going to a business line.

[3306] Yeah, I'd pay the $10 or $15 penalty.

[3307] I think it's $10 more to not have cable and have the Comcast internet.

[3308] Yeah.

[3309] Same here.

[3310] Because I'm like, I don't.

[3311] The one thing that kills me, this is getting off on a big tangent, but have you noticed how much they charge for the modem rental?

[3312] I don't read the modem.

[3313] Did you buy a modem?

[3314] I bought a modem.

[3315] I need to buy a modem, dude.

[3316] I bought a modem like third month that I got on to the Comcast.

[3317] I thought buying a modem too.

[3318] I went and looked online and you can buy like the Motorola surfboard for a fucking song.

[3319] That's the thing.

[3320] It's like seven bucks a month that I've had it for over three years.

[3321] I was just like, you know, like my head in my hands.

[3322] Stupid money.

[3323] Stupid waste of stupid money.

[3324] I will say while we're on this tangent, the problem is I have a landline through the package or whatever through Comcast, like the digital phone or whatever.

[3325] You can't buy that modem that does the calling.

[3326] No, the VOIP.

[3327] Yeah, so warning to anybody who's looking into doing that because I looked at buying a modem too.

[3328] I was like, fuck it.

[3329] You're going to charge me. Literally, I looked at the bill.

[3330] I was like, you're going to charge me. I'd buy my own.

[3331] I'm technically savvy.

[3332] I was like, you can't.

[3333] They're proprietary for those phone ones.

[3334] So, I mean, I guess the thing to get it back to the Microsoft announcement.

[3335] Micropayments.

[3336] I could see this as being like potentially a decent like.

[3337] Value add, like a way to keep some of the stuff that feels like it's sliding into irrelevancy, keeping it relevant for a little bit longer because if you're going to be able to get on -demand stuff, if there's other types of content that's associated with these services that might be harder to get otherwise.

[3338] It seems like it will be like a lot of stuff that is like HBO Go.

[3339] Yeah.

[3340] Which is a cool service.

[3341] Except you have to.

[3342] You're already paying for cable on top of that.

[3343] Comcast has, if you go to the Xfinity site, it's styled, like literally designed to look like Netflix.

[3344] Like the presentation of the Xfinity site is very clearly lifted directly from Netflix.

[3345] And you're watching a la carte shows in the exact same way.

[3346] You should just join like a cable co -op and like basically like we'll all just put money in.

[3347] You get the box Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

[3348] Yeah.

[3349] Like what do you want to watch?

[3350] Every other weekend.

[3351] Yeah.

[3352] One of us can watch it at a time.

[3353] You watch Breaking Bad or whatever.

[3354] Fucking communists.

[3355] Yeah, exactly.

[3356] Let's just – Cable socialism.

[3357] Get some organic food while we're at it.

[3358] Let's just get a 500 -foot coax cable and run it over the rooftops from my place to yours.

[3359] We're not very far.

[3360] You're not very far.

[3361] You're probably – I beam it over.

[3362] I doubt it goes that far.

[3363] You need a repeater.

[3364] You need a repeater, yeah.

[3365] You just open your window and put on channel 45, and I'll just watch.

[3366] Just get a tin can wrapped in tinfoil, point it, like highly directional.

[3367] All right, go down the Safeway, buy a can of Pringles, dump all the chips out.

[3368] I'll say again, that pair of rabbit ears.

[3369] Yeah.

[3370] Not bad.

[3371] If there were only an NBC affiliate in San Francisco.

[3372] That's good because you live in San Francisco.

[3373] I don't think I would get anything on.

[3374] Petaluma is specifically in a real bad bed.

[3375] We're in a little valley that's just cut off from everything.

[3376] My parents that live in very rural North Carolina get pretty decent over the air.

[3377] Well, the fucked up thing, and I remember this from living in San Francisco in your neighborhood even, is that, yes, you get everything except for...

[3378] NBC because they're based in San Jose or whatever.

[3379] But you can turn to get, you can reorient your rabbit ears to catch it.

[3380] But it's one of those things where it's like you can either have your rabbit ears set up to get NBC and it comes through beautifully.

[3381] It looks crisp.

[3382] And nothing else.

[3383] And nothing else or everything else and not NBC, which is why I had to get rid of my rabbit ears because it's like that fact was just driving me fucking insane.

[3384] That's what Tim Tracy was doing, right?

[3385] He had a weird...

[3386] He may have.

[3387] You can't put two pairs of rabbit ears and split the signal so you have double.

[3388] What do I look like an electrical engineer?

[3389] You could have a switch box or something.

[3390] I've heard a powered antenna.

[3391] You can get everything.

[3392] Yeah.

[3393] Mine was, my set was powered.

[3394] Oh, powered, really?

[3395] Yeah.

[3396] Those are $40, $50, though, I think.

[3397] Yeah, that's about what I paid.

[3398] I actually found a tutorial online that takes a 2x4 and, like, six coat hangers and apparently makes, like, the best HD antenna that money can buy.

[3399] Like, no lie.

[3400] All right, I'm not canceling my cable.

[3401] Stick with your cable for now because these are your options.

[3402] This is the crazy path you're going to go to.

[3403] That's the thing.

[3404] How awesome is that, though?

[3405] Well, it's like you're still going into this crazy media fucking adventure land when it's like, okay, I'm getting rid of cable.

[3406] I've got to go out into the streets to get my stuff.

[3407] It doesn't just come safely delivered in this giant pipe from the man. I've got to go out there and fucking knife fight a guy to get the daily show.

[3408] When you live that kind of Spartan media existence, you kind of have to take what you can get.

[3409] Does anybody know how to unpack a flak file?

[3410] Definitely there are cases where you're flipping through the five channels that you get that are worth watching to see what's on, and you just leave it on some freaking shows.

[3411] I enjoy that because then I only do one lap.

[3412] Like when there's so many channels, you're like, by the time I get to the bottom of this media listing for DirecTV or whatever, get back to the top.

[3413] It's going to be a whole new list of stuff.

[3414] Cycle through five channels.

[3415] Like, all right, there's nothing on.

[3416] Turn off the fucking TV.

[3417] I don't enjoy reality TV, and that's all that's on.

[3418] So I don't really cycle through anything because it's literally all the same show.

[3419] And now everything is like Ghost Hunter or Wilderness Show.

[3420] Ancient Aliens.

[3421] Yeah, or it's like...

[3422] Paranormal people ghost in my house or I'm going to survive in the wilderness in some odd pairing now or some ridiculous other reality show.

[3423] What's going on on TV?

[3424] It's terrible.

[3425] I just want to watch Daily Show and maybe Mythbusters here and there.

[3426] That's it.

[3427] Other than that, it's just scripted serialized shows, right?

[3428] You guys need to get the horse racing channel.

[3429] They're always showing horse races.

[3430] It's true TVG.

[3431] You can bet on it if you want.

[3432] I don't even just sit there and watch horse racing and be like, this is insane.

[3433] I don't even think that's part of the basic package anymore.

[3434] No, it's on the sports package.

[3435] You have to pay more for that?

[3436] You have to pay more for the horse racing channel.

[3437] You have to pay more for the channel so that you can gamble on horse racing.

[3438] I want to sell channels back.

[3439] Effectively.

[3440] Right?

[3441] Yeah, really do.

[3442] Can I sell my speed network to someone else?

[3443] Someone else out there really wants speed network and they don't have it.

[3444] I don't want speed network.

[3445] What are those music channels?

[3446] I'll fucking give those away for a song.

[3447] I like having those.

[3448] Really?

[3449] When I had that, I would use those every once in a while.

[3450] Just put it on the radio.

[3451] When I'm cooking?

[3452] What radio?

[3453] What?

[3454] I have an FM antenna.

[3455] Wait, hold on.

[3456] Like terrestrial radio?

[3457] So I just bought a new Denon home theater receiver.

[3458] How do you like that?

[3459] It's great.

[3460] Oh, you got rid of it.

[3461] It works.

[3462] You got rid of it.

[3463] It works.

[3464] It's not broken like that piece of shit Ankyo.

[3465] My Ankyo's still broken.

[3466] When did everybody turn on Ankyo?

[3467] When they started breaking garbage.

[3468] Like three or five years ago, that was like all anybody.

[3469] Yeah, that's when we bought them, going like, oh, everyone loves Onkyo.

[3470] Oh, wait, they're junk.

[3471] And then at two years, right after the warranty was up, all the HDMI ports started dying, and they don't handshake anymore.

[3472] So I can't run any of my fucking HDMI through my receiver, which is half the reason I bought that receiver.

[3473] I solved that by buying a stereo receiver.

[3474] Mine goes out to two speakers, and that's it.

[3475] But yours doesn't handle any HDMI.

[3476] No, that all goes into the TV.

[3477] Well, that's, yeah.

[3478] I like to simplify.

[3479] I wanted digital audio.

[3480] Also, I wanted all of those HDMI ports.

[3481] At the time, I had more HDMI devices than I had ports on the TV.

[3482] Switchers used to not be cheap.

[3483] Whatever.

[3484] I even have a switcher, but I just wanted a cleaner.

[3485] So this thing came with radio antennas.

[3486] It came with an AM loop and an FM antenna.

[3487] I'm like, I'm going to hook these things up.

[3488] It gets nothing.

[3489] Really?

[3490] Again, that's Petaluma.

[3491] Petaluma is kind of a weird zone.

[3492] We're in a hole.

[3493] My shitty clock radio gets better FM radio reception than this thing with an actual antenna.

[3494] I tried that on my phone.

[3495] Onkyo as well, but I think it's just we are in a shit place for...

[3496] Also, it's the radio.

[3497] Yeah.

[3498] At least with the channels, the Sirius, or I guess it is all Sirius now and stuff.

[3499] There are no commercials on that.

[3500] They're just kind of playing music all the time.

[3501] Can you get that?

[3502] Is that like built into your receiver?

[3503] Is that just like Sirius?

[3504] It's built into DirecTV.

[3505] It's just like 30 channels.

[3506] He's talking about the music channels on your TV.

[3507] Oh, I'm thinking of what's the satellite radio for?

[3508] There's HD radio.

[3509] Yeah, Sirius.

[3510] It's not built into that.

[3511] But it did have HD radio, which I was hopeful for.

[3512] Like, oh, I want to see what HD radio is all about.

[3513] What is HD radio?

[3514] It's like five channel?

[3515] I don't know that it's capable of that, but it is digital.

[3516] And with that, it can carry artist name and song title stuff.

[3517] Oh, to display.

[3518] To display somewhere and that sort of stuff.

[3519] So a lot of radio stations thinking that this was going to be the big transition that was going to save them, bought into some of this stuff.

[3520] People still listen to the radio.

[3521] I listen to the radio.

[3522] I listen to NPR.

[3523] I don't listen to music radio.

[3524] I don't really understand how the music radio still works.

[3525] The only time I listen to – yeah, yeah.

[3526] It's nonsense.

[3527] I'm confused.

[3528] The experience of what people want to listen to has splintered so much that the notion of like a top 40.

[3529] Is insane.

[3530] And a playlist period is crazy to me. Well, also like – And you know what?

[3531] It just seems crazy.

[3532] But like – Yeah.

[3533] It still moves numbers and sells a lot of fucking stuff.

[3534] When you see the number of people that are willing to defend Britney Spears on Twitter, it's like, oh, this is a totally different world of insane people out there.

[3535] Bush put out a new record.

[3536] It's like a top ten record.

[3537] Puddle of Mud just put out a hot new record.

[3538] Awesome.

[3539] And again, these are top charting artists that are making fucking shitloads more money than any of the stuff we're listening to.

[3540] Last time I was in a car with a radio...

[3541] I'll listen to like...

[3542] I'll actually listen to, like, hip -hop stations because, like, that's the only way I'm fed. You feel alive.

[3543] That's the only way I'm fed that, like, kind of music.

[3544] But I put on a classic rock station and it was, like, you know, Foghat and then, like, you know.

[3545] Some Weezer.

[3546] Yeah.

[3547] It was, like, Nirvana.

[3548] You mean 20 -year -old rock music?

[3549] Classic rock?

[3550] Yeah.

[3551] From your childhood?

[3552] Yeah.

[3553] Yeah.

[3554] It was weird.

[3555] That's what it is now.

[3556] So it was, like, yeah, Led Zeppelin.

[3557] It was, like.

[3558] Red Hot Chili Peppers.

[3559] And then, yeah, like, Black Hole Sun.

[3560] Yep.

[3561] Up next.

[3562] And I was, like.

[3563] That's a classic rock song.

[3564] That's not a classic rock.

[3565] That's the alternative station.

[3566] That's the beauty of classic rock, is that it is constantly applicable.

[3567] There's always new shit being added, because as rock gets older, more music becomes that.

[3568] It's weird to me, because to me, classic rock never designated...

[3569] old rock, I guess, when I was a kid.

[3570] It was just like...

[3571] It's a style.

[3572] It's a style that didn't exist anymore.

[3573] Yeah.

[3574] So to see their playlist grow as everyone gets older.

[3575] Yeah.

[3576] It was all handlebar mustaches and cowbell.

[3577] Exactly.

[3578] It was all like, we're spinning Brody's in this Kuda.

[3579] Do you want to come out and smoke bones with us?

[3580] Yeah.

[3581] Classic rock is now a black hole that just takes up everything that passes by.

[3582] To me, classic rock is music you would listen to while working on an engine.

[3583] And guess what that is?

[3584] Fucking Soundgarden.

[3585] No. No, I don't think so.

[3586] Because you're assuming...

[3587] The cars from the era that people would be working on are not cars that people can work on themselves anymore.

[3588] It's like Creedence Clearwater.

[3589] It's like Led Zeppelin.

[3590] It's music from the 70s is what you're saying.

[3591] What I'm saying is that people...

[3592] And you're working on 70s cars while listening to 70s music.

[3593] You're right.

[3594] What I'm saying is that people are still working on cars but not listening to Foghat anymore.

[3595] So guess what they listened to?

[3596] They fucked up.

[3597] That's their problem.

[3598] You're right about that.

[3599] When we were teenagers in the 90s, it was...

[3600] It was the music from 20 years before.

[3601] Nothing about grunge rock sounds like working on cars.

[3602] Because you're too sad to work on a car.

[3603] At the time we were hearing classic rock as teenagers, it was 20 -year -old music.

[3604] And the music that is now being portrayed as classic rock is now 20 years old.

[3605] Precisely.

[3606] I love it.

[3607] I love it.

[3608] Yeah, I don't really have a problem with it in that sense.

[3609] Are you going to say Credence is in the oldies station now?

[3610] I think they need to come up with a new term for an all -inclusive classic rock.

[3611] I think you're right.

[3612] It makes the oldies transition.

[3613] And classic classic rock.

[3614] Yeah, maybe it does make the oldies transition.

[3615] So what happens to the big bopper?

[3616] Is it classical?

[3617] What is like 50s sock hop?

[3618] So oldies just gets wider too?

[3619] Yeah, everything is constantly expanding at a constant rate.

[3620] It's the universe, man. Come on.

[3621] The same rules apply to rock music.

[3622] You just blew my mind.

[3623] Classic rock is accelerating.

[3624] It's not slowing down.

[3625] Classic rock is forever changed.

[3626] Classic rock is actually expanding faster than the universe can.

[3627] So when this music dies, it's cold death.

[3628] There's classic rock that exists outside of the universe.

[3629] But what happens when Kings of Leon gets old and it all folds back in on itself?

[3630] That's entropy.

[3631] It's just cold death.

[3632] The heat death?

[3633] The heat death, yes.

[3634] Other stuff happened, too.

[3635] Mass Effect 3 is going to have multiplayer.

[3636] Steve Jobs died.

[3637] and more let's talk about some new releases for this week Ace Combat Assault Horizon for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 Hulk Hogan's main event You mentioned that earlier.

[3638] That's a Kinect game for Xbox 360.

[3639] Brad Shoemaker is here.

[3640] Whoa.

[3641] Brad Shoemaker is here.

[3642] Aliens Infestation for the Nintendo DS.

[3643] I did a quick look at that.

[3644] You should look for that on the site.

[3645] For which what?

[3646] For Aliens Infestation for the Nintendo DS.

[3647] Up now?

[3648] Up now.

[3649] Up now.

[3650] Developed by WayForward.

[3651] Kind of cool.

[3652] Got some, you know, WayForward.

[3653] It does good 2D animation.

[3654] This looks like it could have been a pretty sweet SNES game.

[3655] It's got some good Aliens hooks in it.

[3656] There are things about it that I like.

[3657] Like, for all the bitching and moaning that I've made about trying to make aliens into a game, that game actually addresses some of the stuff of, like, the fragility of the Marines.

[3658] Of the human condition.

[3659] And things like that.

[3660] Yeah.

[3661] They touch on the important stuff.

[3662] Wipeout 2 for the Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS.

[3663] I'm a Fisar guy.

[3664] Nope.

[3665] John Hanson guy.

[3666] I'm a John Hanson guy also.

[3667] Michael Phelps pushed the limit for Xbox 360, although this listing just says push limit.

[3668] Yeah.

[3669] Yeah.

[3670] The retail lists all just say push limit, and that's the dumbest way to make a dumb sounding game.

[3671] Push limit.

[3672] Push limit.

[3673] Michael Phelps pushed the limit good.

[3674] We got really high, and then we went swimming.

[3675] Oh, man. I'm feeling that push limit now.

[3676] I heard that's the new mechanic in Final Fantasy.

[3677] Push limit?

[3678] Yeah, you got to get your push limit up.

[3679] Well, if you can break through the push limiting in Dark Souls, that's the right way to play that game.

[3680] Dead Rising 2 off the record for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[3681] Connectimals, now with bears.

[3682] Finally.

[3683] For Kinect.

[3684] Man, the Kinect has been missing bear.

[3685] Connectimals.

[3686] The bear quotient has been alarmingly low.

[3687] Connectimals, colon, now with bears.

[3688] I think that's also coming as DLC for regular -ass Connectimals.

[3689] It seems like a lot to put on a disc.

[3690] Bears, bro.

[3691] Now with bears.

[3692] Actually, I meant...

[3693] It had cats before, now it's got bears.

[3694] Wait, did they remove the cats?

[3695] No, cats are still there, now with bears.

[3696] Man, they're really putting the extra space on that disc to use.

[3697] Sesame Street, Once Upon a Monster, and Forza 4.

[3698] On PSN, we've got Sideways New York.

[3699] which is a weird -looking game.

[3700] It's a weird -sounding name.

[3701] Yeah.

[3702] Set against the greedy art culture in New York City, sideways follows the adventure of Knox, a 2D rebellious young artist, as he navigates the 3D urban streets.

[3703] Kind of remind me of, and yet it moves, and numerous other kind of 2D, 3D games.

[3704] You are a texture on the side, like what little gameplay I actually saw of this.

[3705] Do you like it?

[3706] You are 2D boy texture on the side of this environment, and you're hopping around.

[3707] As you hop up to the roof line, I think either you're switching perspective or it's happening automatically, then the orientation changes.

[3708] Even though you're looking down on the roof, the way you're looking at the world, your 2D platforming orientation remains the same.

[3709] So it's like, oh, this thing that's like an air conditioning unit that's sticking out of the top of the roof because I'm looking down at the top of the roof.

[3710] and my character is just 2D on it, I can hop on top of that thing.

[3711] What would be the side of it is the top for me. Anyway, Sideways New York, PSN this week.

[3712] And we've got Guardian Heroes from Sega and Treasure.

[3713] Treasure.

[3714] That's a treasure game.

[3715] And Real Steel, the companion for the Hugh Jackman robot boxing movie.

[3716] I don't know, but it's...

[3717] Wow, yeah, it really should.

[3718] It's a Ukes game.

[3719] The makers of wrestling make an unboxing game.

[3720] They made that dodgeball game that was like weird retro.

[3721] Maybe not retro graphics, but just kind of like weird line art, like junky looking stuff.

[3722] People like Real Steel.

[3723] I didn't make it to go.

[3724] I was going to make it to go.

[3725] Entertainment Weekly gave it like an A -.

[3726] Like everybody I know on Twitter that saw it highly recommended it.

[3727] I don't know that Alex highly recommended it.

[3728] The thing I keep getting is that he really liked it.

[3729] I don't know what his taste in movies is.

[3730] Not great.

[3731] But I thought this was going to be complete shit.

[3732] So I think it's a lot of like expectations.

[3733] Everything looks really dumb about this thing.

[3734] This looked like Hugh Jackman cash grab.

[3735] It's just junky looking.

[3736] And I think it's at least not that.

[3737] Anyway, yeah.

[3738] Real Steel also out this week for 800 Microsoft points.

[3739] Let's take it home with a few emails.

[3740] Brad Shoemaker is here.

[3741] Brad Shoemaker is here.

[3742] Finally.

[3743] Bombcast at GiantBomb .com.

[3744] First email comes in from Eddie Woods in Ayrshire, Scotland.

[3745] Hey, Giant Bombsters.

[3746] With the news that Mass Effect 3 will have multiplayer slash co -op and with it being the last in the Shepard story arc and indeed the trilogy, do you think Bioware could or should have left out this seemingly unneeded and unwanted, if the Bioware community is anything to go by, edition?

[3747] Would it have been to their advantage to work on another game set in the universe featuring this new multiplayer feature, giving them perhaps a whole new set of Mass Effect games to build from the ground up with multiplayer co -op in mind?

[3748] I don't think putting that into this game precludes them from building multiplayer -focused games in the future.

[3749] If anything, something like this would pave the way for that if they wanted to go in that route.

[3750] I think this is the most important one to put the multiplayer in because if this is the end of the series, you need to put the biggest legs on this one, longest legs on this one, right?

[3751] Because you're not going to buy this to get ready for a mess set.

[3752] And if they need to put everything behind this one to try and keep that franchise going.

[3753] Try and keep it going and try and get it to sell.

[3754] And not sell used.

[3755] And this is your last chance to create those hooks of when the next game, when they bubble up the next thing, whatever the non -Shepherd stuff is, if they choose to go that route.

[3756] you've already got something, some grounding in this game with that.

[3757] They're trying to serve some weird masters with that game.

[3758] The way they're kind of pitching and come back at the end of the month and we can talk more definitively about the multiplayer, but it's weird because on one hand, it's Mass Effect 3.

[3759] It's the conclusion to the trilogy.

[3760] On the other hand, when asked, they will tell you this is a self -contained game with a beginning, middle, and end.

[3761] Please, God, if you have not...

[3762] played Mass Effect in the past, this one, you can totally play it.

[3763] So that is my new weird kind of worry about that game, is that they are going to...

[3764] be trying to satisfy the people that really liked the previous two Mass Effect games, as well as trying to make a game that will stand on its own?

[3765] And will that lead to too much exposition?

[3766] Will they have to keep it real simple because people might not know what happened in the past two games?

[3767] Or is it just if you don't import a save, it's real dumb about everything and over -explains everything and assumes you know it if you're importing a Mass Effect 2 via Mass Effect 1 save?

[3768] I just want to say we don't have...

[3769] much of an idea of what this is going to mean for the game.

[3770] Like, the covers came out.

[3771] I don't know that any details have actually made it out yet.

[3772] I know exactly what it means, and we can talk about it at the end of the month, but yes.

[3773] But more to the point of, like, people need to pump their fucking brakes on an announcement and then saying it's the worst thing for...

[3774] whatever it is.

[3775] Yeah, it's like, let's let them show us a little more before deciding this is the worst direction that they can take.

[3776] And a lot of people get into the argument of like, oh, do they divert single player resources to make multiplayer?

[3777] Like, that's not quite how it works.

[3778] It's a different skill set in a lot of cases.

[3779] And that's not something I'm worried about.

[3780] You don't think so?

[3781] You don't think the single player Mass Effect 3 is going to be worse because of whatever multiplayer stuff they throw in there?

[3782] I don't think so.

[3783] Okay.

[3784] Good enough for me. Next email comes in from Xeroneus talking about Reckoning's Kingdom of Amalur.

[3785] Backwards.

[3786] It's Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning.

[3787] That makes sense.

[3788] Since we started saying things about Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning.

[3789] There we go.

[3790] But if you were referring to the place Amalur within the game called Reckoning.

[3791] I don't even know anymore.

[3792] I have gotten...

[3793] It's another weird thing because they all just call it Reckoning.

[3794] Right.

[3795] There's almost like a palpable disdain for the term Kingdoms of Amalur.

[3796] Maybe it was Reckoning before any Amalur got attached to it.

[3797] I have gotten kind of a janky Two Worlds feel from it.

[3798] Two Worlds being the RPG.

[3799] Maybe it is the fact that the gameplay videos for a lot of the game seems...

[3800] A lot of the game seems to present a pretty inconsistent frame rate.

[3801] Everything always seems to move at about three -quarters speed.

[3802] And the game's art style is kind of all over the place.

[3803] But I don't know that I am sold on it.

[3804] Love the Elder Scrolls games.

[3805] From what you have seen, are my worries unfounded?

[3806] I don't know.

[3807] That sort of optimization is the stuff that happens at the end.

[3808] I wouldn't put too much credence in any frame rate you're seeing on a game that's that far out.

[3809] Because they're probably just getting to the optimization part of it.

[3810] Now -ish.

[3811] Arkham City had a bad frame rate at E3, and when I played it two weeks ago, it was perfectly fine.

[3812] Yeah.

[3813] Yeah, I mean, when I played Reckoning at E3, it was on a PC, and it looked fine.

[3814] And then most recently, they showed it on a 360, and I thought it looked just fine there as well.

[3815] If you like Elder Scrolls, I suspect you will like a lot of the things about Reckoning, because a lot of it is very similar.

[3816] The thing I think might go down is that you might find it to be a little too similar.

[3817] Some of the stuff is very directly straight out of it.

[3818] It's some of the same people working on this that worked on Oblivion.

[3819] So does that give them a pass for lifting whole gameplay mechanics out of that game?

[3820] I don't know.

[3821] Maybe yes, no. We'll see when the final version comes out.

[3822] But I don't really get a Two Worlds vibe off it.

[3823] It's definitely...

[3824] I definitely get an Elder Scrolls vibe off of the structure of that game and everything except for the combat, which is obviously dramatically different from what Oblivion was and what Skyrim is.

[3825] And that seems to be, to me at least, between the third -person thing and the better combat, that's the takeaway.

[3826] Yeah.

[3827] Next email comes in from Chris J. in Los Angeles.

[3828] Observation about Rage.

[3829] I don't know if anyone else has brought this up yet, but I just thought I'd point out the plot for Rage is the exact same plot as the failed MMO auto -assault.

[3830] Same asteroid, arcs, mutants, society rebuilding, etc. No kidding.

[3831] Jeff, thoughts?

[3832] I did play Auto Assault, but I don't remember nothing about No Asteroid.

[3833] It is a wasteland, and there are cars, I guess.

[3834] I wanted to bring this one up because everyone has made the Fallout comparisons, but I like that there is another one that's even closer, apparently.

[3835] Yeah, that's weird, man. I like that.

[3836] I like that.

[3837] Oh, man, Auto Assault could have been so cool.

[3838] Goddamn, man. At launch, even, there was just no one playing it.

[3839] The only people playing it were in the arena section and no one to help you with quests that you needed to team up for.

[3840] It was just a real rotten experience, man. That game had potential.

[3841] All right.

[3842] This email comes in from Aaron G. in Alexandria, Virginia.

[3843] Question about Metacritic here.

[3844] Is it even possible to take yourself out of Metacritic?

[3845] You've mentioned that there is sometimes friction caused by your five -point scale.

[3846] Are publishers more likely to ignore you completely if you're not in Metacritic than if they're afraid of a bad score?

[3847] It would almost be sensible to take the exposure if there's no risk to bonuses, etc. Is there an obvious example out there of someone removing themselves from the system and failing?

[3848] G4 took themselves out.

[3849] You can absolutely take yourself out of Metacritic if you like.

[3850] They will remove you.

[3851] I have no interest in doing that.

[3852] Yeah.

[3853] I've never heard of anybody trying to and being refused because I don't know anybody else who's even tried.

[3854] Sure.

[3855] That's the only one I can even think of.

[3856] Yeah, like the other big one was like for the longest time 1UP was trying to get them to change the way the scores were interpreted.

[3857] I don't think they won it off completely.

[3858] Yeah.

[3859] But they didn't, yeah.

[3860] Yeah.

[3861] Our scores translate to Metacritic perfectly.

[3862] It's just that nobody else is dead.

[3863] I don't care about anybody else's scores.

[3864] Let them score how they want.

[3865] They want to use a dumb scoring system.

[3866] Go for it.

[3867] Be my guest.

[3868] And that's it for emails.

[3869] Thanks to all who wrote in, bombcast at giantvinny .com.

[3870] Big old Vinny.

[3871] That's it for the podcast.

[3872] We're going to be playing a bunch of NBA games and basketball games on TNT this week.

[3873] Now listen to this classic rock hit, Rotting Pinata.

[3874] What?

[3875] That's the name of an album, not a sponge song.

[3876] Wax A Static by Sponge.

[3877] Jamiroquai in their classic rock hit, the song Jamiroquai did.

[3878] Virtual Insanity.

[3879] Come on.

[3880] That's the one.

[3881] Pick it up.

[3882] The Caravella, Jeff Gersman, Brett Schemaker.

[3883] Thank you guys so much.

[3884] Another successful podcast.

[3885] What are you trying to say?

[3886] I know.

[3887] Thanks, everyone who listened.

[3888] Be sure to tune in for TNT.

[3889] And that's it for the show.

[3890] Come back next Tuesday for another edition of The Giant Podcast.