Giant Bombcast 03-08-2011

[0] Hey, everyone.

[1] It's Tuesday, March the 8th, 2011, and you're listening to the Giant Bombcast.

[2] I'm Ryan Davis.

[3] Joining me, as always, Vinny Caravella.

[4] Hi.

[5] Brad Shoemaker.

[6] What up?

[7] And Jeff Gersman.

[8] That's me. So what's been going on, guys?

[9] Catch me up.

[10] Vinny, are you still beefing with Brad?

[11] No, we squashed that.

[12] About that thing.

[13] Yeah.

[14] Squashed.

[15] Has Jeff's secret identity been revealed yet?

[16] Did we tell?

[17] No. Did we do that part yet?

[18] Okay.

[19] No, that's season five.

[20] I forgot.

[21] Yeah.

[22] Never mind.

[23] Hey, how's it going, everybody?

[24] Hey, welcome back.

[25] It's good to be back.

[26] Is it?

[27] For like a minute.

[28] And then it's not good anymore?

[29] No, no. We're going to be here for a minute, and then it's like, all right, see you later.

[30] We're in Boston now.

[31] We're in Boston already.

[32] In my mind, I'm already in Boston.

[33] I've got that Boston state of mind.

[34] Thanks to whoever decided to have PAX the week after GDC.

[35] You can't start blaming people because now there's everything after everything.

[36] That was an expert move.

[37] Good job.

[38] There's only so many weeks left in the year.

[39] Also, that matters for like 20 people.

[40] Yeah, but we're four of them.

[41] God damn it.

[42] How was GDC?

[43] GDC was, from what I saw, was cool hotels.

[44] I'd say the W. St. Regis, I heard, has pretty good rooms.

[45] A lot of the W industry room.

[46] I hear good sweets.

[47] How was the bottled water?

[48] I don't think I had it.

[49] Didn't have any bottled water.

[50] They got that Voss.

[51] Oh, I love it when it's the Voss.

[52] Who's got the remote control window blinds?

[53] Is that the Regis?

[54] St. Regis has those.

[55] That's pretty cool.

[56] I like the St. Regis.

[57] A lot of play at the Intercontinental.

[58] I know that that was also a hot spot.

[59] I never made it over there.

[60] You never made it to the Intercontinental?

[61] I was never over there.

[62] But, yeah, I don't know.

[63] We spent like half an hour on the show floor at GDC.

[64] Seemed kind of light on the floor.

[65] Seemed real light on the floor.

[66] There was no giant hamster ball this year.

[67] No. No AR drones that I saw?

[68] No, they were there.

[69] There was a cage.

[70] You can buy those.

[71] Yeah, exactly.

[72] That seems like a waste of time.

[73] The reason I just turned around and walked off the floor was a mocap guy was not there anymore.

[74] Oh, he wasn't jumping around doing his capoeira moves?

[75] Yeah, which is probably fine since everybody knows what mocap is at this point.

[76] Did you guys check in with B -Tree?

[77] No, I didn't see them.

[78] We did not check in with anyone.

[79] We went to where the indie games were, and then like three people went up and pulled the I'm going to read your badge and said, hey, what's up, Jeff?

[80] I would like to show you this video game, but we're booked up real tight.

[81] I don't know.

[82] But we'll try and fit you in.

[83] We'll fit you in.

[84] And I was like, we need to get out of here.

[85] Then we did.

[86] And then we did.

[87] Trying to get PR hustled.

[88] Yeah.

[89] Let's go see Smell -O -Vision and then leave.

[90] Yeah, let's go see The Game Skunk, which was the highlight of our time on the floor.

[91] GDC's never about the floor, at least not for us.

[92] Yeah, also Tested was on the floor.

[93] They shot a bunch of stuff.

[94] Oh, okay, good.

[95] So, you know, if you want to see what was on the floor, they went around.

[96] There was the NGP on the floor.

[97] Yeah, we took a look at that under glass.

[98] Yeah, under glass.

[99] Not allowed to touch it.

[100] Yeah.

[101] So they love doing that.

[102] Check this out.

[103] And they had BurgerTime HD at their booth, which we played.

[104] What?

[105] A severe disappointment.

[106] Oh!

[107] Don't break the microphone.

[108] I'm not even using the pop screen.

[109] I'm yelling directly into this microphone how disappointed I am.

[110] Here are all my pops.

[111] That's how little he cares now.

[112] BurgerTime HD is no good.

[113] What the fuck?

[114] When you die, it makes the same little music, though.

[115] I love BurgerTime.

[116] You're having an existential crisis over the failure of BurgerTime HD.

[117] I don't know.

[118] I feel like BurgerTime HD answered a bunch of questions for me. Like, where does BurgerTime take place?

[119] In a city of, like, giant burger patties and scaffolding.

[120] It's all been fleshed out.

[121] Get into the construction site.

[122] I thought the construction site was for the burger.

[123] Right.

[124] Like if you're going to fletch out some part of burger time to make it look more realistic or whatever, don't you then have to kind of go all the way.

[125] Yeah.

[126] Burger city.

[127] Yeah.

[128] We make it a city made out of food or something.

[129] Right.

[130] Yeah.

[131] Still playing as Peter Pepper.

[132] It doesn't really specify you're a dude with a or no, you're not the dude with a mustache.

[133] There's like two chefs.

[134] There's like guy with like.

[135] twirly mustache, and then guy with no facial hair.

[136] It has two -player, right?

[137] Yeah, it is two -player simultaneous, so maybe that's part of it.

[138] But yeah, it's...

[139] I don't know, dude.

[140] You can jump.

[141] I'm like, what?

[142] This is not Bioncometa Rearm 2.

[143] This is not how I wanted to start off this podcast.

[144] You do get bonuses for sucking up other food monsters in your burger.

[145] Are there some kinds of food monsters this time?

[146] They don't look good.

[147] I don't know.

[148] You get a hot dog in there and then you make the burger and it says like, oh, bonus Italian burger because Italian burgers have hot dogs on them.

[149] Everyone knows that.

[150] Everybody knows that.

[151] Sicilian burger.

[152] Right.

[153] We saw Batman.

[154] Yeah.

[155] I think we talked about that last week.

[156] Yeah.

[157] Before.

[158] Yeah.

[159] Saw more Batman.

[160] Or you saw Batman.

[161] I saw Batman.

[162] These guys, these jokers had seen Batman before before.

[163] No, Joker's not in the demo.

[164] His voice is, but.

[165] I can't talk.

[166] It's all embargoed.

[167] Yeah, you guys can't talk about that.

[168] That's actually not true at all.

[169] There's a mystery embargo.

[170] It's Friday.

[171] Is it Friday?

[172] Friday we can talk about the last 10 seconds.

[173] Did they put a date out?

[174] Because I'm sitting on an interview that is some kind of mystery embargo.

[175] Did they come out with something?

[176] Because I need to schedule that out.

[177] Yeah, Friday.

[178] Friday is the day for that.

[179] Good.

[180] So unembargoed, Batman still looks cool.

[181] I saw the demo that I think you guys saw at the EA show.

[182] Was it the EA show?

[183] Microsoft Showcase.

[184] Microsoft Showcase.

[185] Looks cool.

[186] There you go.

[187] Great.

[188] Yeah, there's nothing really new I can add to it.

[189] Something about it didn't seem, the sound or something didn't seem as punchy as I remember Batman being, but hey, who knows?

[190] Batman does punch.

[191] A lot of variables in seeing it in a suite.

[192] Bamf.

[193] Yeah.

[194] No, that's Nightcrawler is bamf.

[195] You're right, you're right.

[196] What is it?

[197] Pal?

[198] I mean, yeah, there's the pal.

[199] There's not really like a set Batman sound, I don't think.

[200] There's no snicked.

[201] Snicked.

[202] There's no snicked bub for that.

[203] Did we?

[204] I can't.

[205] My timeline's all messed up.

[206] Did we talk about Battlefield 3?

[207] Yes.

[208] Okay.

[209] Yeah.

[210] Did we talk about?

[211] I think we might have talked about everything.

[212] I think so.

[213] Oh.

[214] I went to a panel.

[215] I went to a single panel.

[216] You actually went to a panel?

[217] Did you guys go to any panels?

[218] What panel did you go to?

[219] Forced myself to go to a panel.

[220] Awesome.

[221] Some of those panels sounded freaking incredible this year.

[222] There were a lot of really exciting sounding ones.

[223] There was a Doom post -mortem with John Romero.

[224] I know it was him and Tom, right?

[225] Oh, man. What other?

[226] I think...

[227] That was the one that I saw.

[228] I was like, fuck, I wish I was there.

[229] There were a bunch of old post -mortems, which I thought was a good one.

[230] Marble Madness.

[231] Marble Madness, yeah.

[232] Mark Cerny came out and talked about that stuff.

[233] Jordan Mechner did a Prince Persia post -mortem.

[234] Like the original?

[235] Yeah.

[236] Wow.

[237] And I think Ron Gilbert did Maniac Mansion.

[238] He's the guy for that, right?

[239] He would be the guy, yeah.

[240] Yeah, yeah.

[241] I think on the last day he did Maniac Mansion.

[242] I know.

[243] I know.

[244] I know.

[245] So what did you say?

[246] I went to Dustin Browder's talk on building StarCraft II as an eSport, which was very enlightening for people who are into that.

[247] most of whom probably don't listen to the podcast.

[248] What was your takeaway?

[249] What is the main Blizzard thing to make it an eSport?

[250] Well, partially it was funny because he went in there from Command & Conquer, like generals and stuff.

[251] So at that time, it was all just this RTS arms race of who can have the most factions and the most unit in their RTS game.

[252] What year are we talking?

[253] When is this?

[254] That'd be 2003?

[255] 2004, yeah.

[256] I guess he went to Blizzard like 2005 -ish, I think.

[257] Something like that.

[258] But anyway, yeah.

[259] Everybody was shipping with four, five, six factions.

[260] and like hundreds of units, and then he gets there, and then Blizzard management's just like, all right, this game's going to have three factions, about 45 units, and most of them are going to be from the first game.

[261] And he was just like, what?

[262] Like, what?

[263] But yeah, I mean, it was just about how making it as an eSport kind of influenced every single decision they made about everything in the game, so that stuff was pretty cool from a conceptual perspective.

[264] But I mean, like, so things like the number of units and the number of factions are...

[265] Just strictly dictated by that.

[266] He literally was like, okay, the management has tasked me with building basketball too.

[267] It still needs a basketball.

[268] It still needs hoops and running shoes.

[269] So how do we do this?

[270] That's something.

[271] Add trampolines.

[272] Clearly.

[273] Which they did.

[274] Mascots.

[275] Which they did.

[276] Mascot dunk contest.

[277] Well, I'm glad you're able to get to one of the good panels.

[278] Panels are always the highlight of GDC.

[279] It sounded like there were some good uns this year.

[280] Oh, I know what embargoes are up today.

[281] Yeah.

[282] Or this week.

[283] Is it Reckoning?

[284] Yep.

[285] How's that?

[286] You saw it in motion.

[287] Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning.

[288] 38 Studios, right?

[289] It's Big Huge.

[290] Are they still calling it Big Huge Games?

[291] I thought I saw a Big Huge logo.

[292] There was.

[293] I think they are still calling it 38 Studios Baltimore.

[294] Somebody said that in the presentation.

[295] Did they get rebranded or something?

[296] I'm not sure what the official...

[297] I'm sure it's one of those, if you worked at Big Huge, you still call it Big Huge.

[298] Sure.

[299] Right.

[300] What is that game?

[301] That game appears to be...

[302] The stuff they were showing me is very focused on the combat, which is one button, but it seems like it is very timing -based.

[303] They do have a combo system in that game, and more importantly, there are a number of different weapons that will have different combos and different stuff.

[304] As you play, as you build your dude out in different directions, you'll get access to different weapons.

[305] So it might just be something as simple as a sword or it could be crazy.

[306] Big swords.

[307] Magical knives, dual knife.

[308] I heard people saying.

[309] Dual energy.

[310] Maybe it's you who were saying.

[311] The combat and animation stuff is kind of what they were hitting hard during the demo.

[312] Yeah.

[313] Did it look?

[314] Exceptional?

[315] It looked good.

[316] Okay.

[317] It was running super smooth.

[318] I don't know if they were on a PC or what, but it was...

[319] I think they were.

[320] Okay, because it was like a solid 60 frames a second.

[321] Yeah, that stuff looked nice.

[322] It's a good, bright, colorful world.

[323] They talked a little bit about some of the setup in that game.

[324] You don't really pick a class out of the gate.

[325] Oh, right.

[326] That was in the interview.

[327] Right.

[328] You more kind of pick your race and kind of go from there, but then as you...

[329] and as you put points into your skill tree and into your stats, it starts to create different destinies, which are basically, you'll kind of grow into a class depending on how you spec out your character.

[330] So if you're kind of, they want to get it to a point where, you know, if you're the sort of person that puts a few points into everything, you're not going to get to the end of the game and be totally boned.

[331] Right.

[332] That seems interesting.

[333] So if you're putting some points into swords and some points into spells, it's a little more detailed than that in the game, but for the demo they weren't really going over tooltips for skills and stuff.

[334] You might have a battle mage destiny show up later on in the game.

[335] Like, okay, I can kind of spec in this direction to kind of further go for battle mage.

[336] Would that potentially open up mission stuff?

[337] They didn't really necessarily say how.

[338] that stuff would work in game.

[339] They were, they weren't really focusing.

[340] They weren't really talking about any kind of story stuff or, or really any sort of, mission stuff per se other than that you there you will loot things and there will be missions and there will be some kind of player choice about how you complete your missions but the combat's real -time stuff it's not dice rolls or anything so it's an action rpg yeah i mean if you want to shorten it down just you know between the the way the game kind of looked and and the the people who are involved with it you could just say it's oblivion with third person you know combat combo stuff or it looks like a deeper fable or sounds like a deeper fable Sounds Fable -y.

[341] But more serious about itself, right?

[342] Not as irreverent.

[343] I didn't really get the impression that it was hilarious, like Fable obviously is.

[344] But yeah, like I said.

[345] You could fart at people.

[346] I'm sorry.

[347] They didn't necessarily go into – like I said, they were not showing story stuff.

[348] They were really getting into the tone other than that you are a person who has just come back to life.

[349] And you are the first in this crazy crypt of people who are apparently all going to come back to life.

[350] And as a result, there are things you have to deal with as being both a person who has come back to life and the first.

[351] There will be some sort of reckoning.

[352] Are they acting like this is a video game that's going to come out this year?

[353] No, they are in fact acting like it's a video game that is coming out next year.

[354] Got it.

[355] Okay.

[356] But they have said definitively next year.

[357] Yes, they have definitively said 2012 and will not nail down to a time frame tighter than that.

[358] Got it.

[359] Despite me asking a couple of times, are we talking early or are we talking late?

[360] I said 2012.

[361] We're talking.

[362] I suspect it will be early.

[363] You think it will be early?

[364] Yes.

[365] What do you think, if any, impact this will have on the other game?

[366] Kind of asked a little bit about that since they weren't really talking about story.

[367] But, you know, so apparently they have 10 ,000 years of lore specced out.

[368] That's what R .A. Salvatore has been doing all this time.

[369] You know, as they're over there chomping away on two different games, he's just like fleshing out different stuff.

[370] And as they hit these forks in the road, like, oh, this is not defined in our crazy lore book.

[371] Give me a minute.

[372] Let's call up Bob and ask him.

[373] And then they figure it out.

[374] And then it goes into the tome of here's the lore of this thing.

[375] He's like, I don't know, wizards.

[376] Like, all right, yes, then wizards.

[377] So the way they put it is that they own – Reckoning owns this specific point in the timeline.

[378] So whenever they get around to putting out that MMO in 2016, it will probably be a totally different spot in the timeline of this whole universe.

[379] All right.

[380] So this could be just like some Knights of the Old style.

[381] Yeah, you're not necessarily going to like finish this game and then go, oh, and then – I know exactly how this is going to play out.

[382] I know exactly how this works out in the MMO or anything like that.

[383] But they're still not talking about that as though it were a game.

[384] Oh, hell no. And I would have to suspect.

[385] It's just me suspecting.

[386] They're too busy moving to Rhode Island to make video games.

[387] I can't deal with that company, man. I don't know what it is.

[388] But that game needs to have a name.

[389] They need to put out screenshots.

[390] They need to talk about it as though it's gone on for too long, Curt Schilling.

[391] It's too weird.

[392] Well, it's really weird that they have.

[393] You know, like, this other game that they were not making at the time of the company's inception is going to come out first.

[394] And probably by a wide margin, it sounds like.

[395] I guess.

[396] But also, like, I don't know how seriously to take this game because I don't know what's going to happen with, like, the main game that this is supposed to be a bolt -on onto.

[397] Big Huge Games was working on this game when they were acquired.

[398] Okay.

[399] So this game is, I think they said it's been in development for like four years.

[400] Okay.

[401] So that means that, you know, it's not like they threw away every single thing that came from this game, right?

[402] It probably means that they had to look at that game and go, All right, let's build 10 ,000 years of lore so that all this stuff fits with our stuff and we'll adjust as necessary.

[403] We can make this work.

[404] I bet it was some kind of situation like that, right?

[405] We could wedge this in.

[406] Yeah, just put this in year 5K.

[407] It's far enough away.

[408] Or just make it so the end of that game is some giant apocalypse that just...

[409] Kills everything that was in that game.

[410] The only thing left is a sign that says Amalur.

[411] There you go.

[412] And then society rises again and they find the sign and go, oh, guess that's what it's called.

[413] We should build a kingdom.

[414] Boom.

[415] Video game.

[416] All the monsters, all the magic, everything that was in it.

[417] Man, that end of world event that happened.

[418] And on the ruins of that came an MMO.

[419] Yeah, maybe.

[420] Who knows?

[421] Maybe.

[422] I just really want them to.

[423] Put out a game.

[424] I don't know.

[425] It's freaking me out.

[426] Well, they will put out a game next year.

[427] 2012.

[428] Catch it.

[429] And then...

[430] And that sounds awesome.

[431] That actually, like, big, huge, and doing, and, you know, the pedigree of the developers within that specific part of 38.

[432] That sounds awesome.

[433] Like, that's something to look forward to in a year that, you know, actually, I guess, since it's 12, though, like, this year is going to be...

[434] It seems like it's going to be packed with some awesome RPGs.

[435] Well, Swords is here.

[436] And to get more of that next year, that's potentially a very cool thing.

[437] Yeah, it's like maybe they'll ship right around the time that you're done playing Skyrim.

[438] You'll be like, all right, I could go for something that looks to be maybe similar from some of the men behind the games prior to Skyrim.

[439] I want to do this from a third -person perspective now.

[440] Sign me up.

[441] I bet there will be books at some point.

[442] Yeah, with a number of people.

[443] And again, with comics and...

[444] Body S. Autographed baseballs.

[445] Yeah.

[446] You'll be able to get.

[447] Yeah, in glass.

[448] Autographed by Joe Amalur.

[449] We're not talking about that right now.

[450] Right.

[451] John Amalur.

[452] Richard K. Amalur.

[453] And then there's Alice.

[454] We have some EA stuff.

[455] American McGee's Alice 2.

[456] More American edition.

[457] I don't think his name's on this one.

[458] It's Alice.

[459] Was it Darkness?

[460] Madness Returns.

[461] Interview with American McGee's American McGee on the site.

[462] The real one?

[463] In a very loud one.

[464] Hopefully you can hear it.

[465] That event was packed.

[466] How American was he?

[467] Well, he's working out of Shanghai.

[468] All the way there.

[469] Vinny decided that Shanghai McGee is actually an even better name than American McGee, which is already a pretty good name.

[470] I bet there's already one of those there.

[471] By the time he got to Shanghai, Shanghai McGee was already taken.

[472] Ah, fuck.

[473] Especially since he has to be extra American McGee in Shanghai.

[474] I think Shanghai McGee is just a Hanna -Barbera character somewhere.

[475] He's in Wacky Races.

[476] He's actually a prototype version of Hong Kong Phooey.

[477] That's right.

[478] Got a couple of different names here.

[479] Shanghai McGee?

[480] I like that, but let's hear what else you got.

[481] But we can't make him Irish, so it doesn't really work that way.

[482] So, yeah, you guys chatted for a bit.

[483] Yeah, we talked to him.

[484] That event was so packed, and there was only one kiosk, and we had overlapping appointments that we didn't actually get to play at.

[485] So that's Spicy Horse developing that?

[486] Yep.

[487] The spiciest of horses.

[488] And so EA is just like, we own the IP, and we're publishing.

[489] Actually, I don't know.

[490] They do own the IP.

[491] But they did publish the first one, right?

[492] They did publish the first one.

[493] So they do own the IP.

[494] So, I mean, I always figured, like, that's why.

[495] You're probably right.

[496] I just had to guess.

[497] And I was just wondering, like, what the development load was looking like.

[498] I don't think at the time of the first game he was in a position to retain his IP.

[499] No. Probably.

[500] Also, since, you know, it's ripped off fucking Carroll also.

[501] There's also that, right.

[502] That's public domain.

[503] Sure.

[504] It is.

[505] I think.

[506] Public domain.

[507] I don't know.

[508] Now I am.

[509] American McGee's Vinny Caravella.

[510] Min Shanghai.

[511] The spiciest of horses.

[512] Hey, man, I've had a horse.

[513] It's not spicy at all.

[514] Well, I mean, you could spice it up.

[515] I guess you could, yeah.

[516] American McGee knows how.

[517] Shanghai McGee.

[518] Yeah, ask him the hard questions.

[519] Horse and some horchata.

[520] You don't live in Shanghai for a decade and not pick up a few tricks.

[521] I suppose not.

[522] Other things from the Electronic Arts.

[523] Shadows of the Damned.

[524] Shadows of the Damned, yeah.

[525] Okay, that's the Suda, Grasshopper, Shinji Mikami.

[526] Yeah, it's Suda, it's Mikami, it's Yamaoka from Silent Hill.

[527] Right, right.

[528] It's just like, there's all these titans of Japanese development that got together and made this thing.

[529] Like, we just get sweary in there.

[530] We now need all of them to get one game going.

[531] That's how things are in Japanese development.

[532] That game's weird.

[533] Oh, no shit.

[534] Yeah.

[535] The game from Suda, a little weird.

[536] Imagine it.

[537] Reminded me of Resident Evil 4, the way the aiming works and stuff.

[538] Well, I mean...

[539] Similar to...

[540] You can move and shoot.

[541] Yeah, I guess you can move and shoot.

[542] Tell me about...

[543] So Resident Evil 5.

[544] Tell me about the punk rock.

[545] It's, yeah.

[546] I don't know.

[547] There's leather jackets.

[548] Yeah.

[549] I mean, it's more...

[550] It's more grindhouse.

[551] Honestly, it's like...

[552] Punkish.

[553] More like from Dusk till Dawn kind of looking.

[554] All right.

[555] Garcia Hotspur is a pretty awesome name.

[556] It's punk in the Japanese mind.

[557] It's more whiskey.

[558] I mean, it's Guitar Wolf.

[559] That is punk.

[560] Honestly, when he says, oh, I make punk games or whatever, I don't think he means, oh, my guys look like Sid Vicious or something.

[561] No, no. It's more about the development process.

[562] That's not what that term means in Japan.

[563] It feels like he's doing it from the heart.

[564] I don't know if you know this, but punk's not dead.

[565] Oh, okay.

[566] Well, obviously.

[567] Just heads up.

[568] We have this game.

[569] But the dialogue in that game is pretty awesome.

[570] Oh, man, it's crazy.

[571] And, you know, basically you are running around with this crazy skull.

[572] You're running through hell looking for your girlfriend.

[573] Okay.

[574] Does this have anything to do with Drive Angry?

[575] Shot entirely in 3D?

[576] The skull also is all of your guns, so it'll turn into...

[577] Including your core weapon, the boner gun.

[578] No, is it just called the Bone?

[579] No, it's like the Bone Digger.

[580] No, that's the Bone Duster is from Bulletstorm.

[581] No, like on the Upgrade Tree.

[582] This is like the Hot Boner, I thought it was.

[583] On the Upgrade Tree, it's just straight up Boner.

[584] Boner, okay.

[585] Guys, I'm just going to type Boner into the internet.

[586] I'll let you know when I find out.

[587] Okay.

[588] Turn Save Sarcher off.

[589] Also, it has the Johnsonpedia.

[590] Because your skull's name is Johnson.

[591] And he's English or something?

[592] Sort of.

[593] Or like mid -Atlantic kind of?

[594] I've already forgotten the sound of his accent.

[595] But at one point, his teeth are chattering because he's a crazy skull.

[596] And he's scared.

[597] And I thought that was really clever.

[598] And then your dude just goes, Shit.

[599] Shit.

[600] Yeah.

[601] It's like the line is like, Now are you scared?

[602] Shit.

[603] Shit.

[604] And then you fight a boss.

[605] It's really funny.

[606] I don't know about the shooting so much.

[607] It's functional.

[608] It seems a little squirrely.

[609] Yeah, yeah.

[610] Which is where I draw the Resident Evil 4 stuff because I didn't like the aiming in that game at all.

[611] It does have a weird looseness to it.

[612] It's kind of hard to be precise.

[613] But it's drawing the laser sight off into the distance from a third -person perspective, which is where I'm kind of coming from.

[614] I guess it's called the boner.

[615] It shoots bones.

[616] Yeah, you pick up bones.

[617] Also, strawberries are demon feces, right?

[618] No, demon tongues.

[619] Oh, demon tongues, right.

[620] Okay.

[621] Yeah.

[622] Little known fact.

[623] If you didn't know.

[624] It's a weird place.

[625] It's a strange place.

[626] Suit his mind is a weird place.

[627] But basically, you know, so it breaks down to rooms get overtaken by darkness and you go into an aiming mode and you see a crazy goat head that makes noise and you shoot that with the light burst from your gun.

[628] Okay.

[629] And that takes the darkness away.

[630] So you can kill all the enemies that are in the room.

[631] Then you move on.

[632] You take damage while the room is engulfed in darkness, so it's in your best interest to find those goat heads and take care of them as quickly as possible.

[633] There's like a little Alan Wake -ish thing going on where the dudes are like coated in darkness.

[634] Yeah, so alternately you can shoot the guys that are coated in darkness with the light and it'll blast it off of them and then you can shoot them with bullets or bones or whatever it is that are coming out of your guns.

[635] Yeah.

[636] It's like Alan Wake, but extremely Japanese.

[637] Extremely Japanese.

[638] Very good.

[639] And the guns are all generated by your skull head friend.

[640] Are you just rolling around?

[641] You're holding a skull?

[642] He's on a staff.

[643] Yeah, he's on a staff.

[644] And he'll morph into the weapon.

[645] Whenever you pull the aim button, he'll go from holding this staff with a skull on the end of it to it'll just magically morph into a gun.

[646] And do they just look like guns?

[647] Or do they look like hell guns?

[648] Fuck yeah.

[649] So he's holding the staff.

[650] With skulls on the front of them.

[651] He's holding the staff with Johnson's head on the top, right?

[652] Which is kind of a small skull.

[653] But then if lets go it just floats there which i thought was pretty funny yeah it's just floating staff it doesn't even actually have to hold it the whole thing just strikes me as like the bayonetta of third -person shooters like as a game it is perfectly competent but you play it just because it's ludicrous sounds good you just want to see all that stuff sounds good into it What else?

[654] That was the EA stuff, basically.

[655] We went and saw Batman.

[656] For my benefit, you may have talked about this during the plentiful GDC podcast last week, but Battlefield 3, how does that look?

[657] Amazing.

[658] Yeah?

[659] Amazing.

[660] Did we talk about this?

[661] Not to me. Last week?

[662] I think it is the best looking game I have ever seen.

[663] Hot damn.

[664] I mean, we're all pretty jaded motherfuckers.

[665] Yeah.

[666] It just blew me away when I saw it playing.

[667] Fucking A. Yeah.

[668] Great.

[669] That's great.

[670] I mean, I think they were playing that thing on a rocket ship of a computer.

[671] Oh, sure, sure.

[672] Specs I heard of the machines that got thrown around that they were running that thing on was like a $5 ,000 PC.

[673] But that's okay.

[674] Right.

[675] Because PC fucking needs that so badly right now.

[676] You need something that's like, hey, you're going to have to go and spend a shitload of money on your computer because when was the last time you had to do that?

[677] I almost...

[678] fell over when they were like, tonight we'll be looking at a snippet from the PC version, which is our lead platform.

[679] I was like, what?

[680] You don't develop lead on PC anymore.

[681] You do if you're making fucking Battlefield 3.

[682] I mean, you should.

[683] Yeah, you definitely should.

[684] I'm not saying they shouldn't, but they don't.

[685] They're saying all the right things, and so far it looks like they're doing all the right things for that game.

[686] Yeah, but then there was also the moment where they were like, alright, we're going to be looking at the campaign tonight.

[687] There is nothing wrong with building a single player campaign.

[688] I know, but it's just Yeah.

[689] Record scratch.

[690] Yeah, totally a weird like, oh, wait.

[691] But DICE has gotten good at that.

[692] You mean bots?

[693] Yeah.

[694] They used to not do that.

[695] But now they can make a campaign.

[696] So they're like, yeah, we'll throw a campaign in there.

[697] Sure.

[698] And DICE is a studio that is able to work on multiple projects.

[699] So if they just say, well, this team is going to be larger than the Bad Company 2 team because we actually want to make it awesome instead of just great or whatever.

[700] I mean, say what you will about the state of the PC market.

[701] The console market needs the PC market to go crazy like this to advance.

[702] We need that bleeding edge to be like, look at how fucking awesome games can look.

[703] You've gotten used to this standard of how games look, and they look pretty good.

[704] But think of the potential.

[705] Hey, guess what?

[706] We can make them awesomer.

[707] Video cards.

[708] Two of them.

[709] You guys need more video cards.

[710] Also, it sounded fantastic, too.

[711] That's terrific.

[712] So I don't know how it played because I was too busy.

[713] They weren't going to let people play it, but the movement looks a lot more natural, I thought.

[714] I don't know.

[715] You look at that demo and you know exactly how it plays.

[716] You're absolutely right.

[717] As good as the game looks, I mean, you're still looking down a red dot sight and shooting at guys when they pop up over cover.

[718] It is that game.

[719] But also all the destructible stuff is in there.

[720] Yeah, the environment destruction actually looks really good.

[721] I guess video, like someone shot that whole demo at that event and put it out.

[722] Well, the real shitty quality.

[723] The gameplay demo video that EA put out.

[724] Is not the whole thing.

[725] It's not, but it is the first part of it.

[726] So that is what we saw.

[727] But I guess someone did shoot the entirety of it.

[728] The earthquake.

[729] They labeled that official video as like episode one or something.

[730] They'll be putting the whole thing out, I'm sure.

[731] Yeah.

[732] Well, excellent.

[733] But, yeah.

[734] What else?

[735] You guys.

[736] Mortal Kombat.

[737] Let me tell you about it.

[738] I don't.

[739] You guys played a bunch of Mortal Kombat, right?

[740] Yes.

[741] Okay.

[742] It's awesome.

[743] Great.

[744] It's a good fighting game.

[745] Demo coming out for PlayStation Plus this week.

[746] Yeah, like right now, I guess.

[747] Yeah.

[748] By the time you hear this, we will be playing it somewhere.

[749] Maybe.

[750] Hopefully.

[751] Depends on when this goes up.

[752] If it goes up in the morning, I don't know.

[753] I have a PlayStation Plus account, so that works out.

[754] Yeah, that game, the stuff that they are putting into it seems really cool.

[755] They're building this whole challenge ladder with 300 challenges.

[756] It almost seems like that Soul Calibur Dreamcast mission mode where it's like, in this one, you don't have fucking arms.

[757] So you can't punch guys because your arms fall off.

[758] Or here's another one where you are shooting arms at people.

[759] That sounds pretty mortal.

[760] Absolutely.

[761] That stuff.

[762] It seems really good.

[763] And the fighting seems really fun.

[764] They showed off the joystick that's going to come with the tournament edition.

[765] I think it's big.

[766] Yeah, the thing is big.

[767] It's cushioned on the bottom for better lap use, which I thought was kind of smart.

[768] It's like high.

[769] It's like thick.

[770] Yeah.

[771] Well, it's got storage inside.

[772] It also flips open so you can put the game in it, which I thought is maybe a little weird.

[773] Nope.

[774] Drugs.

[775] Or you can get at the buttons to replace them if you want.

[776] Games don't go in there.

[777] Drugs go in there.

[778] Or you fill it full of...

[779] Put your fat bag of weed in there and you go over to your bro's house.

[780] Dude, I got MK.

[781] You got some MK?

[782] I've got some MK.

[783] I don't like the way you're representing Mortal Kombat players.

[784] Mortal Chronic is more like it.

[785] Oh, jeez.

[786] If you tell me you've got MK Ultra in there, then maybe I will listen to you.

[787] 64 bits, kid.

[788] Oh, Jesus.

[789] Did I see a Toasty in there when we were playing?

[790] Yes, there was a new Dan Ford.

[791] Was that Dan Ford?

[792] It has to be, right?

[793] We should have asked.

[794] I came up while you were playing.

[795] Yes, it slides out and says, it sounded like the same sample to me. I mean, why would you redo it?

[796] Honestly.

[797] To get it in full duplex.

[798] Yeah, if you only had it at like 11 kilohertz or something because it was on a...

[799] you know, an old arcade machine, then that would be a good reason to redo it.

[800] But yes, a little 2D, you know, like a photo of guy slides out and that was pretty amazing.

[801] They still don't have, like they've announced more characters than were in the version of the game that they showed.

[802] Like Kano was in it, which I think is one of the more recent announcements.

[803] But like Striker was not in that build.

[804] So I don't know.

[805] So you're not even seeing the latest version of...

[806] Right.

[807] They are days away from submission.

[808] But we interviewed Ed Boon and talking to him, it just sounds like there are still a lot of things to announce about that game.

[809] Five or six characters that they haven't revealed just yet.

[810] I think one more is going to get announced this week.

[811] Sounds like he's been on Twitter putting the kibosh on carts or chess.

[812] Yeah, yeah.

[813] He's like, no, we can't.

[814] But the crypt is in there.

[815] We're pretty sure because the achievement list got out.

[816] Yeah.

[817] Yes, I saw some of those achievements.

[818] Yeah, so they are talking – I don't think they've specified what's going to be in their online mode other than saying that there is something called King of the Hill mode.

[819] And there are achievements related to King of the Hill mode, sure enough.

[820] So that's in there.

[821] But he said that the stuff from MK vs. DC is kind of the baseline for the online mode, and they're kind of going from there, which I take to mean that there will be lobbies and stuff like that in the game like there were last time, which was kind of a weird – that a lot of other games don't do, but it's kind of neat.

[822] You can just, I'm going to join the room marked only savage scorpion playing dudes here, yo, and then we're going to fight.

[823] Do you think they'll include some of that challenge room stuff in the multiplayer, like set up matches that you have no arms?

[824] Well, I think, yeah, I think you can do that.

[825] It's called Test Your Luck.

[826] So they have Test Your Might.

[827] They have Test Your Sight, which is like the tapper mini game, again, but with skulls.

[828] They have Test Your Strike, which is a new kind of mini game in which Striker throws grenades into buckets, I think is what that is.

[829] So that's great.

[830] And they have test your luck, which just puts up a whole bunch of reels like a slot machine, and they roll and determine the specific weird things in that match.

[831] So you'll start out standing there, normal fight, and the fight will not have started yet.

[832] It'll roll the reels, and if armless comes up, the arms fall off the characters, and they go, ah, and scream and bleed for a little bit.

[833] Now let's fight.

[834] And then maybe it's like flip the screen upside down and no blocking and stuff like that.

[835] So it kind of will roll all these weird random things.

[836] random modifiers for the fight.

[837] So it's kind of like the Mortal Kombat 3 combat codes.

[838] I was going to say it sounds like antagonistic combat codes.

[839] Absolutely.

[840] Which I think that was always really fun to me, like doing like the, you know, just going to randomly change fighters every few seconds and throwing is encouraged.

[841] Right.

[842] Throwing is always encouraged.

[843] Throwing is always encouraged.

[844] There's like a, I think there's an achievement.

[845] Assuming the achievement list is legitimate, I think there's an achievement for like pulling off six throws in one ranked fight, which is...

[846] Pretty funny.

[847] And also, the secret achievements point to hidden characters.

[848] Yes.

[849] Quan Chi and Cyber Sub -Zero.

[850] Cyber Sub -Zero.

[851] Back on board.

[852] Yeah.

[853] So they already have robots in the game, so it makes sense.

[854] And I think a robot Sub -Zero could work out.

[855] Need more robots.

[856] Need more Sub -Zero.

[857] Yeah.

[858] How many of those are there at this point?

[859] Four?

[860] This will probably just be one of the...

[861] I think there are two.

[862] Technically.

[863] Well, there's two Sub -Zero's and there's the lady Sub -Zero.

[864] This will be the one from the first game.

[865] Yeah.

[866] They resurrected him.

[867] Well, yeah.

[868] Yeah, probably.

[869] Yeah, because the other Sub -Zero is the original Sub -Zero's brother.

[870] MK2 Sub -Zero is, yeah, the younger brother.

[871] I thought it was MK3 Sub -Zero was the younger brother.

[872] No. No, MK2 Sub -Zero is a different Sub -Zero than 1.

[873] And then he's unmasked in 3.

[874] Scorpion kills.

[875] Henry Rollins is original Sub -Zero.

[876] No. Yes.

[877] No, Scorpion kills Mortal Kombat 1 Sub -Zero after Mortal Kombat 1.

[878] Yes.

[879] Right.

[880] And then Sub -Zero in 2 is seeking revenge.

[881] Right.

[882] And he's the same guy as in 3 because that's why they have classic Sub -Zero in there also.

[883] Right.

[884] Because that is original Sub -Zero.

[885] He's got the scar down his eye.

[886] Which one is that?

[887] That's younger.

[888] That is brother.

[889] It's Scorpion.

[890] So he's also in MK4 because you can see the scar through the mask.

[891] Oh, wow.

[892] Pixel searching shit right there.

[893] Yeah.

[894] Maybe this will all be cleared up in the extensive story and campaign mode that I haven't heard anything about.

[895] You'll have to pick up the comic books.

[896] Sure.

[897] Yeah, there is a full story mode.

[898] I think there's numbers going around saying that the single player content is like 15 hours or something like that.

[899] That's crazy.

[900] I imagine that's like all characters combined and a lot of the challenge tower or something like that.

[901] Not necessarily you just.

[902] Fighting 15 dudes.

[903] Or fighting for 15 hours.

[904] That's a bit much.

[905] It'd be a great campaign mode for a fighting game.

[906] It's 15 hours long.

[907] There's a couple of checkpoints in it.

[908] People should check out the interview with Ed Boon.

[909] We've talked to him.

[910] This is the third time we've talked to him over the course of the development of this game.

[911] We talked more about...

[912] Network code and balance.

[913] About being super duper tired.

[914] What's it like finishing a game?

[915] Yeah, he was only in town for less than a day.

[916] He flew out, did some interviews, and left.

[917] And went immediately back to work.

[918] Got stuff to do.

[919] That's what it's like when you're finishing a game.

[920] Make that game.

[921] Make that combat.

[922] PDP is doing the joysticks using HAP parts.

[923] So at least some names we know.

[924] Yeah.

[925] I've been extremely dissatisfied with some other PDP products in the past, like that fucking Kinect stand.

[926] The worst.

[927] Oh, that's right.

[928] That is totally useless and doesn't connect to my TV in any way, shape, or form.

[929] But, I don't know.

[930] Hap makes good stuff.

[931] And the joystick felt fine to me. I don't know.

[932] The buttons felt good.

[933] It felt responsive.

[934] And they were representing that as being production?

[935] Yeah.

[936] Being a production stick, not just a...

[937] Yeah.

[938] Cool.

[939] Brad, you saw Infamous 2.

[940] Oh, yeah.

[941] Can we talk about Sony stuff?

[942] Yeah.

[943] User -created content.

[944] Can we talk about...

[945] Yeah, we talked about Infamous 2 last week.

[946] You're talking about...

[947] Do a little refresher.

[948] Did you make the 1 -1 joke?

[949] Oh, no. I don't think so.

[950] Can't wait to play Mario Brothers 1 -1 and Infamous 2.

[951] That might be tough.

[952] Somebody will figure it out.

[953] There is some kind of, like, you can break from the regular camera and build, like, a side scroller and stuff, right?

[954] I thought I read that.

[955] I was not at this appointment.

[956] That's possible.

[957] They only showed four really basic missions.

[958] Like, one of them was, like, shooting galleries.

[959] It was actually, like, a physics.

[960] It was, like, here's a bunch of platforms with guys standing on it.

[961] Like, use your telekinesis to throw barrels at these guys and knock them off.

[962] Was it the tower or something?

[963] They made angry birds inside.

[964] Something like that, yeah.

[965] Yeah, there was one that was just, like, I mean, one of them was just a straight -up race.

[966] One was a kind of wave -based survival, just like stand on this platform and kill guys as they run at you.

[967] Real basic stuff they were showing.

[968] Jeff, how's Socom for looking?

[969] Good.

[970] Excellent.

[971] Yeah, looks really nice.

[972] It feels...

[973] You know, I have not played old SOCOM in a very long time.

[974] But it feels more in the spirit of those games than maybe the past couple have.

[975] But at the same time, it feels like they're kind of modernizing some of the control stuff up a little bit.

[976] Like, I think that people that are fans of other shooters will not.

[977] be alienated by the way this game plays.

[978] It's very much aim down the sights and shoot stuff but from a third person perspective and you can kind of take cover and lean out and stuff.

[979] I saw it go into iron sights a bit.

[980] Yeah, you can do that in previous SOCOM games too if you wanted first person.

[981] It didn't actually draw the sights but if you wanted to go into first person you absolutely could.

[982] You just kind of didn't want to.

[983] I thought I saw a red dot in this one.

[984] Yeah, definitely.

[985] It straight up goes from kind of gear style third person to Call of Duty style red dot.

[986] Absolutely aiming down the sights looking stuff.

[987] If you want to do that, you can toggle into it, but you don't have to.

[988] They showed a mode called Bomb Squad where one team is defending three bombs and the other team has one bomb tech on that team that is trying to get to those points and disarm the bombs.

[989] And if the bomb tech dies, then another player will spawn as the bomb tech.

[990] Interesting thing is the bomb tech spawns with an auto shotgun.

[991] It was pretty fun.

[992] I spawned as the bomb tech for my first time out and just went around mowing dudes down for a while.

[993] Yeah, the bomb guy is slower.

[994] Yeah, he's slower and super armored up.

[995] He does not seem in any way lacking in killing power.

[996] Yeah, he is not easy to kill.

[997] So that seemed fun.

[998] 32 player.

[999] They're starting up the beta, I guess, later this month, right?

[1000] Because the game's out April 19th.

[1001] It was like they were splitting it, right?

[1002] It's like plus members and then first.

[1003] Yeah, it's like plus members get in first and then people who have the Killzone codes get in afterward, which I don't know that I agree with that order of things.

[1004] When the first way you say to get in the beta is buying Killzone, they should be the first ones in, I think.

[1005] But eventually it will be open for everyone for another couple of weeks or something like that before they shut it down and get the game out.

[1006] Yeah, that'll be coming pretty soon.

[1007] Yeah, we have an interview up on the site for that.

[1008] I think that game looks nice.

[1009] More shooting dudes.

[1010] Yes, definitely.

[1011] How about shooting dudes with pizzazz, flair?

[1012] Brad, I'm sorry.

[1013] I didn't mean to cut you off.

[1014] Were they mostly just focusing on, like, the user -generated stuff?

[1015] Oh, yeah, that's all they showed.

[1016] I think they had it playable just, like, in their lounge between appointments, but this thing I went to was just that.

[1017] The thing that struck me about that, though, the only kind of cool thing that was, I thought novel, was the way they structure that user -generated, or how they surface it.

[1018] Like how it's integrated into the game, yeah.

[1019] Yeah, so, like, they'll just be there as missions.

[1020] From, like, minute one, as soon as you get into the open world.

[1021] Like, here's, like, story -based quest giver guy.

[1022] Here is user -generated mission giver guy.

[1023] So you don't have to do it if you don't.

[1024] And how are they bubbling it up?

[1025] Like, how are they choosing, like, which ones are going to actually show up in these games?

[1026] I can't remember if it is a user.

[1027] I don't remember if it's a user upvoting thing where just, like, the most popular stuff will show up or if it's actually a sucker punch is manually picking, like, hand -picking the best stuff.

[1028] I think it was both.

[1029] I think it defaults with, from what the guy said during the demo, I think.

[1030] Excuse me. It defaults when you start the game to being sucker punch, cream of the crop.

[1031] But then you can also just filter it yourself.

[1032] If you're like, I only want to do, for some god -awful reason, escort missions.

[1033] Only those will populate.

[1034] They're running down the list of possible missions you could make, and one of them was escort missions.

[1035] That's all I'm going to take.

[1036] Why?

[1037] So you don't have to do any of them if you don't want.

[1038] In fact, I think you can actually straight -up turn it off.

[1039] It's just like, I don't want to see any of this stuff.

[1040] I just want the story in my game, and that's it.

[1041] The thing I didn't – nobody answered, and I forgot to ask while I was there.

[1042] I think you may have asked off the record, will stuff you get in those missions count back towards?

[1043] Yeah, I asked specifically because the first game had all that territory control stuff tied to the side missions, which was awesome.

[1044] None of that will apply to a user.

[1045] So no experience or anything will come back out?

[1046] Because I could just see people making grind levels.

[1047] Actually, I don't know about that.

[1048] I thought you had said that they had, or someone had said that there were controls in place to prevent them from being just like farming grounds for trophies and experience and stuff.

[1049] Okay.

[1050] Interesting.

[1051] They had limits in place.

[1052] Okay.

[1053] That would be in keeping with this other aspect where none of that stuff affects the territory stuff at all.

[1054] It's just there.

[1055] Like preset side missions that will let you take the territories.

[1056] It would be pretty awesome if, like, the first mission you go on is just a billion dudes that you just blow up with one shot.

[1057] Trophy mission.

[1058] Little Big Planet has a lot of that stuff where it's like, you know, play this mission for trophies.

[1059] Just hold it to the right and you'll get them.

[1060] So did you ask why?

[1061] Like, was it just like, hey, everything is Little Big Planet now.

[1062] So your first party.

[1063] this is the new directive is everything is a little big planet.

[1064] That is entirely possible.

[1065] Did they give much justification of like, hey, we thought this could be a cool thing and then we got this tech?

[1066] I think their philosophy seemed to be like, hey, we built this really robust and dynamic combat system with all these cool powers and lots of physics applied to everything and then we only gave you like 99 missions to use them in or something like that.

[1067] He definitely nodded to the kind of like Sony is big in this domain right now and was like, you know, they...

[1068] They got this covered.

[1069] They didn't not acknowledge that.

[1070] But it seemed like they were like, hey, we think our gameplay is pretty fun.

[1071] We want to let you use it in as many ways as possible.

[1072] Except imagine it's still, however good your tools are, I imagine it's still a bit of an undertaking to create something that an end user could then, within the actual game engine...

[1073] script events and set up goals and objectives and adversity or whatever.

[1074] And then also a rating system and all the way that they're integrating it.

[1075] That clearly had to have taken some fucking time.

[1076] I think he explicitly said, he was like, we don't expect a lot of people to really get into this on their first playthrough, but after you beat the game, you can go back.

[1077] and extend the life of your game with this.

[1078] So you think this is kind of like in lieu of Sony making us put a multiplayer mode in this game?

[1079] Here's a reason to keep the game and not trade it in.

[1080] That was one of the things with the first game, being kind of single player only, that notion was like, well, people are just going to buy it used or sell it back and all that stuff.

[1081] I could see it being fun if you're a powered -up dude going in and just – It's at least an interesting way of addressing that issue.

[1082] It's a very real issue and so you can't fault them for wanting to do something about it.

[1083] I do wonder now that I think about it how they'll filter stuff by powers that you have if you can't necessarily participate in the user -created mission because you don't have certain powers.

[1084] If it's like the first one, I don't know.

[1085] We'll see.

[1086] That's a good question.

[1087] Yeah.

[1088] I don't know.

[1089] There was that.

[1090] All right.

[1091] There was also Uncharted.

[1092] Three, which there's not much to say about.

[1093] Uncharted.

[1094] They showed about 90 new seconds.

[1095] Oh, you weren't there, were you?

[1096] That was true.

[1097] They showed the burning chateau in 3D.

[1098] Oh, in 3D.

[1099] Guess what?

[1100] It was in 3D, and it worked.

[1101] They showed one cut scene that revealed the villain.

[1102] Her name is Catherine Marlowe.

[1103] She looks like she's about 58 to 60 years old.

[1104] All right.

[1105] She's an oldish lady.

[1106] Evil.

[1107] Yes.

[1108] Very, very conniving.

[1109] Good, good, good.

[1110] Insidious.

[1111] Could she be like an evil CEO?

[1112] She was definitely dressed like one.

[1113] Good.

[1114] All right.

[1115] I got it.

[1116] I've got it.

[1117] Pictures in my mind.

[1118] Maybe not a, I don't know about, maybe not a business woman, more of a high society kind of shadow organization.

[1119] Yeah, sure.

[1120] Socialites.

[1121] Yeah.

[1122] One of those evil collector types.

[1123] Very, very sharp tongue.

[1124] And then Nathan Drake's all, this belongs in a museum.

[1125] Very cutting wit.

[1126] Yes.

[1127] And she's all like, show to you.

[1128] She laughs haughtily.

[1129] Oh, Nathan.

[1130] That was about it.

[1131] She would call him Nathaniel.

[1132] Nathaniel?

[1133] She would call him Nathaniel.

[1134] You're so coy.

[1135] Such a simple boy.

[1136] When will you learn?

[1137] I think she does call him boy at one point, actually, if I remember.

[1138] We should have that footage on the site at some point.

[1139] The Burning Chateau?

[1140] No, this cutscene that she's in.

[1141] You know what?

[1142] You don't need to tell me shit about that game.

[1143] Give us a call when it's done.

[1144] I know it's in good hands.

[1145] I'm totally expecting to have my mind blown again, so let's go.

[1146] Very good.

[1147] And that was GDC?

[1148] That was, yeah.

[1149] I think so.

[1150] Yeah.

[1151] There's some resistance.

[1152] Do you see the resistance?

[1153] We can move on with our lives.

[1154] We can move on, but real quick, you saw Hybrid.

[1155] Oh, yeah.

[1156] The fifth cell game.

[1157] Yeah, we talked a little bit about that last week.

[1158] That was awesome.

[1159] And there's an interview up with Jeremiah.

[1160] And there's, I think, a bunch of footage in that interview, so you should be able to get a good sense of it.

[1161] Cool, cool.

[1162] I haven't watched that yet.

[1163] I should definitely check it out.

[1164] Check it out.

[1165] It's really unique.

[1166] I mean, you know.

[1167] It's a shooter.

[1168] You hear 5th Cell is making a third -person shooter.

[1169] You're like, all right, what's the gimmick?

[1170] There's something weird going on here.

[1171] What's the weird thing?

[1172] There is no text parser in there.

[1173] You don't pop up a line at the bottom and type shoot guy or something.

[1174] No, no. There's no movement on the analog stick.

[1175] You don't directly control your guy.

[1176] That's the thing.

[1177] So it's a rail shooter?

[1178] No. No, not at all.

[1179] It seems more like full spectrum.

[1180] Yeah, I heard a lot of people.

[1181] I never played that, but I heard a lot of people compare it to that game.

[1182] So basically, you move the camera around your guy.

[1183] He automatically takes cover behind whatever he's in front of.

[1184] Okay.

[1185] And all the cover in the environment is predefined.

[1186] Like, when you move the camera around, it highlights, like, here are cover points.

[1187] Like, here's where you can go to from here.

[1188] Right, and everything is mapped to one button, so, like, if you have cover highlighted and you hit A, he immediately vaults over the cover he's behind and runs right at it.

[1189] Okay.

[1190] And while he's moving, you have direct control of, like, over -the -shoulder aiming.

[1191] Got it.

[1192] So he runs on his own, but you aim and shoot stuff.

[1193] You can hit B while you're, like, mid -transit, and he will, like, reverse and retreat back to the cover he came from.

[1194] And you can also, on the fly, you can look at other cover and divert to that cover instead.

[1195] Okay.

[1196] It sounds kind of complicated.

[1197] No, no, I get it.

[1198] And, yeah, I think the Full Spectrum Warrior comparisons are apt in some ways there.

[1199] Except that one was a little more strategy.

[1200] This is definitely still an action game.

[1201] Do you think it'll end up in a situation with multiplayer or something like that where you have two players that are just running past each other to different cover points and shooting each other the whole way?

[1202] I think it kind of happened a little bit in mind.

[1203] But it was me and other press members who haven't played the game before.

[1204] You can spawn different kinds of bots.

[1205] You rack up points throughout the match, and you can drop a stationary gunner guy on this cover and then make an assassin guy that'll run ahead of you and stuff like that.

[1206] Did they say if this will be a download?

[1207] It's XBLA.

[1208] It's neat.

[1209] I like it.

[1210] I want to play more.

[1211] And there's a persistent worldwide war thing going on all the time, like territory control style.

[1212] I like when games do that.

[1213] I feel like more games would benefit from some sort of...

[1214] Like Mag did it and other games have done it in the past where you kind of like pick a faction and when you log in, it's like, oh, your faction is totally getting fucking stomped over here.

[1215] It's neat.

[1216] It requires a certain critical mass of users for it to...

[1217] to matter and make sense.

[1218] There's two factions that are the same mechanically.

[1219] I might be mistaken, but I want to say you, like, pick one at the beginning and kind of stick with it.

[1220] I'm not sure.

[1221] That's kind of how Mag is.

[1222] Yeah.

[1223] You definitely create your guy.

[1224] It seems neat.

[1225] I'm thrilled that you played it.

[1226] Yeah.

[1227] I'm just stoked that that, yeah, that that exists.

[1228] Yeah, I want to play.

[1229] Actually, they were only letting people play one match, and I was like, aw.

[1230] Just getting my legs here, man. Yeah, I'll go for another one.

[1231] There's an ant.

[1232] Very cool.

[1233] Don't kill the ant.

[1234] No, actually kill the ant.

[1235] Let the ant live.

[1236] No, no, no. Now the ant's gone.

[1237] No more ant.

[1238] What ant?

[1239] Dead ant.

[1240] Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant.

[1241] Yeah.

[1242] Hi.

[1243] You guys, what, you don't want to talk about Revenge of the Nerds?

[1244] Not right now.

[1245] Too fragile.

[1246] Fair enough.

[1247] Too soon.

[1248] So I think that was GDC.

[1249] All right.

[1250] That was GDC.

[1251] Sounds good.

[1252] Did you play any video games recently?

[1253] I did.

[1254] I burned another weekend on Demon's Souls.

[1255] Okay.

[1256] But that's it.

[1257] Done.

[1258] I finished it.

[1259] You got to the end?

[1260] I did.

[1261] 40 some odd hours.

[1262] I reclaimed my personal soul.

[1263] You're a man now.

[1264] Congratulations.

[1265] The game does kind of dump you right back into right after credits.

[1266] It's just a new game.

[1267] Let's start again.

[1268] You keep everything in your new game plus, but they increase the difficulty a little bit.

[1269] The crazy thing about that game is one of the crazy things about that game is the People, folks who play it, and as I was looking at stuff online, it's just like – so they denote new game NG and it's just like, I'm on NG4+.

[1270] So that means I have played this game like five times through already, which seems like a lot of Demon's Souls.

[1271] So I was actually – I wound up at the end kind of unexpectedly.

[1272] I was prepared for about 60 to 70 hours and then about hour 40 -ish -ish.

[1273] wound up just kind of beating it, being like, all right, I guess the last level on all these boards is only a boss fight, and that's it.

[1274] So the whole other time, there's only about three levels on each of the boards, and then the last one is just not really much of a level at all, just a boss fight.

[1275] You think he skipped a bunch of stuff or anything?

[1276] I don't think so.

[1277] I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff to do.

[1278] I know there's plenty of other stuff to do, but...

[1279] And so I will say, at the end of that game, I was still having the same issues I had in the beginning of that game.

[1280] So, yeah.

[1281] Maybe I had some blocking here in my head, pointing to my forehead right now that something just couldn't get through.

[1282] Or maybe I just had gotten it the entire time and that's what it is.

[1283] I wasn't waiting for some kind of moment of clarity with it.

[1284] That's all it was.

[1285] That is what it is.

[1286] I think it would be easy to assume that there is some kind of greater thing unfolding with the way some people talk about that game.

[1287] I thought I'd turn some corner and then suddenly like, oh man, this is fucking...

[1288] Awesome.

[1289] But I was still – by the end of that game, there were still dudes who could just one -hit me as soon as I walk into a room and just kill me. And still – it's not like all of a sudden I got the spell of checkpointing where it was like, oh, man, I have to go back and play this level 20 times.

[1290] You know, you do get better weapons and armor and all that sort of stuff, but I had the same armor for most of the game because there's an encumbrance and I didn't drop enough points in to ever get that up.

[1291] So it's a totally fine game, but I will say during my little play experiment of this game, waiting for this kind of epiphany to happen, it just never came.

[1292] But I enjoyed my time with it.

[1293] So my wife is really glad I'm done with it.

[1294] No more screaming and cursing from the other room.

[1295] It got to the point where she'd just be sitting next to me. I'd just do one of those controller flips up in the air and just let it fall on the floor.

[1296] Just like die.

[1297] Well, you need to stop playing.

[1298] Just take a break.

[1299] So I also played Bulletstorm.

[1300] Yes.

[1301] I finished Bulletstorm.

[1302] That game's fun.

[1303] Yeah.

[1304] It is fun.

[1305] You're right.

[1306] It did pick up after I got past some of that stuff.

[1307] They introduced.

[1308] A couple of different enemies that you couldn't just leash.

[1309] Right.

[1310] And that changed things up a bit.

[1311] So instead of leashing, I just wound up doing my butt slide across the entire map, just kicking dudes constantly.

[1312] You can also shoot them in the legs and then leash them.

[1313] Oh, to slow them down?

[1314] Yep.

[1315] It was way more fun.

[1316] I just zoom across that.

[1317] That guy slides forever.

[1318] It's like sub -zero, infinity.

[1319] First person just boots.

[1320] And surprisingly a good turning radius on that slide, too.

[1321] He just puts his leg out and moves.

[1322] You get to that boss fight and he will just slide in that mud forever.

[1323] You just do circles around it for as long as you want.

[1324] Kind of the one.

[1325] Oh, is it the big plant thing?

[1326] Yes.

[1327] They showed.

[1328] Well, I don't know.

[1329] You probably weren't there when they showed it.

[1330] Originally, but yeah.

[1331] So I got past that.

[1332] So I don't know if I'm nearing the end, but it seems like it's moving really quickly.

[1333] Like it seems like chapters are just flying by.

[1334] It's like six acts or something like that.

[1335] It goes on a little longer than maybe.

[1336] It's seven.

[1337] Is it seven?

[1338] Okay.

[1339] It's seven.

[1340] But like seven's not really.

[1341] Yeah, I think maybe seven's short.

[1342] Yeah.

[1343] Yeah, I don't know.

[1344] Like I got past like the first half of that game and it just, yeah, the rest blew by.

[1345] It seems like it's moving really quickly.

[1346] I don't know what else to spend money on, so I'm just maxing out ammo every time I hit a thing.

[1347] Just like buy a full clip, buy a full clip, buy a full clip.

[1348] Move on.

[1349] And they give you those – what are they called?

[1350] Dropbox?

[1351] Drop pods?

[1352] Yeah.

[1353] Like every three minutes or something.

[1354] I just feel like I'm missing something.

[1355] Like did I not unlock something?

[1356] Why do you keep – I have full – I shot like three shots.

[1357] It's really not a hard game at all.

[1358] It doesn't seem like it.

[1359] Maybe that's why it seems like I'm kind of cruising through it.

[1360] On normal at least.

[1361] Moving really quickly through it.

[1362] Because you can take cover.

[1363] You can just butt slide or slide your way behind a cover.

[1364] Every time it says take cover, just like zoom your way out of there and duck.

[1365] get your health back, and then...

[1366] It's definitely a game where when you die, it's because you did something wrong.

[1367] Yeah.

[1368] It's because you weren't paying attention to the take cover warning.

[1369] You're like, oh, I just watched it.

[1370] Oh, whatever.

[1371] I can kill all these dudes.

[1372] Yeah.

[1373] You push it too far and die.

[1374] It's rarely...

[1375] It's because you missed, like, seven kicks on a guy, and you're like, well, I'm going to get him on the eighth one.

[1376] No, you're not.

[1377] You're not.

[1378] I ran too far forward, and now there's a bunch of dudes behind me that are trying to murder me, and I didn't realize that, and oh, no. Yeah.

[1379] Not a very hard game, but satisfying, and I love the slam.

[1380] The thumper.

[1381] The thumper.

[1382] Oh, it's my favorite thing.

[1383] It's my favorite thing.

[1384] Those guys.

[1385] Because you always, they gave them telegraphs like, hey, there might be some interesting ways for you to murder some guys in this next room.

[1386] You walk into the room and dudes aren't even in there.

[1387] But you'll see there's fans on the ceiling and there's these electrical cables dangling.

[1388] And here's one of these spike plants over here.

[1389] All right.

[1390] So when these guys show up, I'll hit that and then I'll pull this guy over here and then I'll throw that guy over there and then I'll kick that guy into the water.

[1391] Yeah, they definitely – they want to let you know that there are some good freestyle ways to murder dudes.

[1392] I did stop looking at the points list for how to do things.

[1393] I thought it takes a little too long to get into those lists a lot.

[1394] I like to keep checking them.

[1395] But when I see that stuff, it's definitely like, oh, I'm going to try every way to push a guy into one of those things because that stuff is still fun, just being like there's this environmental hazard.

[1396] All right, I'm going to try everything I can to get a dude in there.

[1397] You go to weapons.

[1398] What's that?

[1399] What's your go -to weapons?

[1400] I've been using the regular assault rifle and the handgun a lot.

[1401] I tried the flail gun, didn't really dig it, and now I have the thing that launches the grenades.

[1402] That seems to work all right.

[1403] But, you know, just bullets and leash.

[1404] I never got good with the alt fire on the bouncing grenade ball thing.

[1405] What does that do?

[1406] It seems like it just exploded forever.

[1407] You can kick it at dudes.

[1408] Nobody's really giving me that much of a problem where I can't just – It's just a matter of like what do you find more fun to use?

[1409] I'm finding the alt fire, the charge shot on the assault rifle pretty fun.

[1410] I really enjoyed the flail.

[1411] I used the hell out of the flail.

[1412] I kind of varied it up.

[1413] I didn't use the pistol very much, but throughout the game I was just like, I'm going to use this one for a while because I was looking to see which skill shots I hadn't done.

[1414] I'm like, okay, I'm going to play with this gun for a while to get most of those.

[1415] Every third or fourth draw pod I would just switch stuff out.

[1416] I haven't tried the shotgun much.

[1417] I really like the shotgun.

[1418] I actually use the shotgun a lot.

[1419] It's got four barrels.

[1420] I just like getting up close and I got a lot of topless in that game.

[1421] for blowing dudes in half.

[1422] I guess I was doing most of my damage from a distance.

[1423] I like to keep the guys far.

[1424] I really enjoy the sniper rifle.

[1425] Oh, yeah.

[1426] Yeah, the sniper rifle's a ton of fun.

[1427] As a guy who hates using sniper rifles, that's maybe the most...

[1428] Well, they make it really hard, actually, to get those head shots because the guys always jump out of the way.

[1429] I found the head shots not tough, but I was never able to shoot a guy in the nuts.

[1430] The crotch shot.

[1431] The crotch shot with a sniper rifle.

[1432] Because the way they turn.

[1433] Because they go sideways, right?

[1434] Yeah.

[1435] I got a lot of neck shots.

[1436] Will told me you basically have to thump those guys to get the crotch shot.

[1437] Oh, okay.

[1438] Because, yeah, every single time they're on the ground, they go into that turn, and then you can't.

[1439] It's pretty satisfying when you get a headshot with that, though.

[1440] Oh, yeah.

[1441] It crutches and squishes nicely.

[1442] The other one that's really frustrating is to hit a different guy than the one that you targeted initially.

[1443] Oh, yeah.

[1444] Wait, with the...

[1445] I actually got that by mistake with my second sniper shot.

[1446] Right.

[1447] Because it'll break the target and you just lose control of the bullet and go more than a few degrees off.

[1448] But if they're two guys real close together, you can still do it.

[1449] I found that to be the case generally with the entire game was that if you look at the descriptions and try to replicate them...

[1450] In any given scenario, you're just going to drive yourself crazy.

[1451] Yeah, shooting the guy in the butt was...

[1452] I mean, some of them, but the more advanced ones are really hard to pull off if you're trying to do them.

[1453] I know what you mean.

[1454] A lot of it's just like by happenstance.

[1455] Just go with it, yeah.

[1456] Just go with it, have fun, and stuff will probably happen.

[1457] I always get a bunch of weird ones as soon as they give me a turret or like chain gun or something.

[1458] Then it's all of a sudden just like...

[1459] You just saw 700 guys in half.

[1460] Hit this guy in the butt.

[1461] You hit him while he was upside down.

[1462] You hit this guy while he was picking his nose.

[1463] It's just like I was just holding that on the fire button.

[1464] They were just running into it.

[1465] Yeah, I mean, I think after maybe the second act, I stopped looking at the skill shot list at all.

[1466] I'm just going to waste dudes and see what happens.

[1467] And I'm sure this will work out.

[1468] It is fun when it says new thing came up.

[1469] I'm like, yeah, that's fun.

[1470] I mean, it was a good reason to definitely explore the weapon set some of like, all right, I want to see what sort of.

[1471] crazy shit I can do with this gun.

[1472] Yeah.

[1473] Which I really appreciate.

[1474] Like, most other shooters, you just kind of end up finding your go -to guns, and that's it.

[1475] Yeah.

[1476] It was nice to have a great incentive to mix it up.

[1477] Also, the drill gun is the most people -can -fly -iest weapon in that game.

[1478] Is that the stake gun of this one?

[1479] Yeah, it's the stake gun, but then when it pins people to the wall, it makes them spin around.

[1480] Oh, it actually is the stake gun.

[1481] Yes.

[1482] Oh, yeah.

[1483] Yeah, it pins and spins.

[1484] Okay.

[1485] So then there are different...

[1486] skill shots for pinning them to the floor or the ceiling.

[1487] Or just there's the mile high club for just into the air.

[1488] So if you like, so you thump them up in the air and then you hit them and then they just disappear.

[1489] Send them into the wild blue yellow.

[1490] I do wind up getting a lot of fish food and vertigo.

[1491] Yeah, a lot of that.

[1492] Kicking guys off stuff.

[1493] I'm not going to waste a bullet on you.

[1494] And I know you're still playing.

[1495] I know that we talked a little bit before we started recording this podcast, Vinny Caravelle, the guy that I'm staring at.

[1496] People can't tell that though.

[1497] Oh, I thought you were talking to me. No, I know.

[1498] I'm staring.

[1499] at him.

[1500] I had to specify for the folks listening.

[1501] I know there are things about the story and the characterizations that you don't much care for.

[1502] The complaints that have been leveled against that game I think are generally pretty valid.

[1503] I was surprised at how much I ended up liking the characters and the story by the time it was over.

[1504] I was like, okay, yeah.

[1505] This is alright.

[1506] I thought it was going to be a massive fucking liability for that game, but by the time I got to the end I'm like...

[1507] You're right.

[1508] I see your point.

[1509] I hate everybody right now.

[1510] You know what?

[1511] It's kind of the point.

[1512] To be fair, everyone is supposed to suck at that point in the story.

[1513] It's not fucking high fiction or anything, but there's a little bit of a redemptive arc. By having everyone be really shitty at the beginning helps sell it by the time you're at the end.

[1514] I need to see whatever this watershed dramatic moment is that you guys keep talking about.

[1515] There's no one moment.

[1516] There's really no...

[1517] one turnaround moment which is good because it's kind of like over time you're like yeah this like there's the conversations take place in between it sort of became this thing where there's a moment later on you're like oh man like yeah I'm pretty bummed out about that thing that happened alright yeah I don't know if you're up to it it kind of sneaks up on you up to it Brad but there is a point in the game where did you get did you meet up with the lady Yeah, I just passed that part, yeah.

[1518] There's this part where there's like, I don't know, you figure it out, and there's a little timer that goes on the screen to open a door, which I totally flubbed, and I was like, restart checkpoint.

[1519] I figured it out.

[1520] I just died.

[1521] Oh, really?

[1522] And then restarted it.

[1523] I got it at the last second.

[1524] Oh, you figured it out?

[1525] Because I slid down, and I'm like...

[1526] There's got to be a reason why that big old fucking hill was there, right?

[1527] I don't want to spoil it for you, but the payoff from that was kind of – that was a nice moment.

[1528] Yeah.

[1529] Also the achievement.

[1530] So it's little kind of incremental things like that.

[1531] Like that moment was nice, but then like the rest of the time, then it just turns back into like jocular kind of like bullshit of like, oh, you guys are fucking – you're all assholes to each other.

[1532] Everybody's just so damn mean.

[1533] But you've met like the general – Only in the cutscene.

[1534] Only in the top.

[1535] It all comes down from him.

[1536] He's the guy who's determining the tone for everyone else.

[1537] Because everyone else either serves or has served under him.

[1538] So he is the reason why everyone talks like dicks.

[1539] Do they...

[1540] Without spoiling too much, I just need to know, do they ever reveal what the hell is going on with the dudes on that planet?

[1541] Yes.

[1542] Okay.

[1543] That is incorporated into the fiction?

[1544] The planet makes sense.

[1545] All right.

[1546] And becomes key to the...

[1547] It's not just like ICP land like we've...

[1548] Oh, actually, that is, in fact, what they reveal.

[1549] That's where the 2 ,000th gathering of juggalos took place there.

[1550] Juggalo extremists.

[1551] And they just got abandoned.

[1552] During the helicopter ride, someone decided to emit some kind of gas out of the helicopter.

[1553] This is Faygo.

[1554] And all the guys...

[1555] Yeah.

[1556] Yeah, it was Fago gas.

[1557] And on the hayride, all the people on the hayride got infected and started murdering each other.

[1558] That's the planet where the great juggalo colony ships crash landed hundreds of years ago.

[1559] And in the end, you fight the axe murder boys.

[1560] No one from the fresh -ass comedy tent was left alive.

[1561] And at the end, you find Jimmy J .J. Walker's skull.

[1562] Because I can see why it would be a scary planet.

[1563] And you drink booze out of it.

[1564] And then the credits roll.

[1565] All right, I'm back in.

[1566] I can see why everybody would be mad then.

[1567] Right.

[1568] No, they, yeah, they...

[1569] They fill it in.

[1570] They make a proper game out of it.

[1571] Would you say that this game will have a franchise, like this will be a place that we come back to?

[1572] Are we done?

[1573] There will be another bullet storm, I will say.

[1574] All right.

[1575] Yeah.

[1576] The universe is ready for more storming?

[1577] Sure.

[1578] All right.

[1579] Yeah, they definitely leave things in such a state where they're...

[1580] Could be a sequel.

[1581] I don't want to shock you, but perhaps this video game might get a sequel someday.

[1582] Nope, they just sewed up all those loose ends and everyone's dead.

[1583] Everything is figured out by the end.

[1584] Unless they're putting out Bulletstorm Zero, I guess we'll never know.

[1585] This new intellectual property that they may amortize the creation of assets and voice work and stuff across, let's say, three games.

[1586] Hugh Jackman wakes up and...

[1587] Thank God that's over.

[1588] Fuck.

[1589] We're making another X -Men.

[1590] Here we go again.

[1591] Yes, he wakes up.

[1592] On the space station.

[1593] I had the craziest dream.

[1594] You were a robot.

[1595] What?

[1596] Hey, look at that ship over there.

[1597] Anyway.

[1598] Guys, I also played Beyond Good and Evil HD.

[1599] All of it.

[1600] All of it.

[1601] I know.

[1602] How long is that?

[1603] It was around 11 hours.

[1604] Jeez.

[1605] which I don't know how that happens.

[1606] No, I know how that happens.

[1607] That game will get its hooked into you.

[1608] It kind of does.

[1609] That game also, it's not, that game is not bad, and, like, I think you have to, I had to play that with historical context in mind.

[1610] Like where we were at?

[1611] Yeah, like what games were like in, like, 2002, 2003 when this game came out.

[1612] 2003.

[1613] 2003?

[1614] Yeah, 2003.

[1615] Because there are things about it that now you're like, why doesn't it just do this?

[1616] Like all modern games do this.

[1617] Why?

[1618] Because it...

[1619] Okay, for one thing, the stealth in that game is awful.

[1620] I'm not going to make any apologies for hating the stealth sections in that game.

[1621] They're fucking way too long and...

[1622] I don't remember.

[1623] I think everybody hated those when it was new.

[1624] Yeah, they're not hard.

[1625] They're just tedious and repetitive.

[1626] And so it's just like that part's just not good.

[1627] But that game, when you first started up, the world just fucking opens up.

[1628] And it's not great about directing you where the hell you need to go next.

[1629] I'm not sure what the plot is at this point.

[1630] There's not a screen where I can go to and say, all right, here's your mission objective.

[1631] Here's where the fuck you need to go.

[1632] Get to it.

[1633] There's not?

[1634] Nothing that direct.

[1635] It's like, you should talk to this guy.

[1636] I'm like, but where is that guy?

[1637] If I wasn't paying laser -like attention to everything that was said in every dialogue scene, which I often wasn't because NyQuil.

[1638] It makes everything better.

[1639] So there were definitely several spots playing that game where I'm like, all right, I got to refer to a fact not to solve a puzzle or anything, but just what fucking landmass do I need to go to next?

[1640] Where am I trying to head to?

[1641] There's a ton of stuff going on in that game.

[1642] There's all of the stuff with the hovercraft where you're running around the city.

[1643] There are these races.

[1644] There's the stealth stuff.

[1645] There's the combat.

[1646] There's the photography.

[1647] There's weird puzzle solving.

[1648] There's a ton.

[1649] There's plenty of shit going on in that game.

[1650] And that ending, huh?

[1651] That ending's the worst.

[1652] That's just the worst ending.

[1653] Just such an unnecessary ending.

[1654] You ready for Beyond Good and Evil 2?

[1655] Oh, God, I hope they just don't...

[1656] I don't know.

[1657] They retcon it?

[1658] Like, that game has a really good feel.

[1659] She wakes up on the space station and goes, this is a weird dream.

[1660] Here we go again.

[1661] What?

[1662] A crazy robot pig.

[1663] Dick tits.

[1664] Because that game's got, like, a cool kind of, you know...

[1665] future urban French vibe going on.

[1666] Animal people.

[1667] Yeah, with weird animal people, and some good characterizations, some good voice work, some okay voice work.

[1668] Holds up well enough.

[1669] Yeah, I think so.

[1670] Most of it does.

[1671] Most of it does.

[1672] I bought it back when it came out and never opened it, so now I'll just play this one.

[1673] Yeah, I guess I have played Beyond Good and Evil to completion twice, and while I have...

[1674] My gripes with certain aspects of it.

[1675] It cleans up pretty nicely.

[1676] And, yeah, that's long.

[1677] It's like 11 hours.

[1678] And that's with me even having played it before and remembering some of its tricks.

[1679] Crazy to think.

[1680] It's what, $10?

[1681] Yeah, $10.

[1682] It's $10.

[1683] Crazy to think that this $10 game is the length of a full.

[1684] It is a full retail game.

[1685] Like, this is not.

[1686] A three -hour downloadable thing.

[1687] Eight years old.

[1688] Well, it's interesting, again, the historical context, because 2003, most of us here were already professionally working in this...

[1689] So it's not like for us it's like, oh, from my childhood I remember this game.

[1690] But for a lot of people, this is from their childhood.

[1691] This is from when they were extremely young children.

[1692] Fair.

[1693] This is eight years old.

[1694] That's enough time for you to go from being not even a tween to a legal adult.

[1695] So that is significant to someone in that way.

[1696] but not necessarily to us.

[1697] So to see the ways in which it's, like, okay, the length and the scope and the things that you do, the fact that it's polygonal, these all seem pretty modern, but there's a ton of ways in which, like, clearly, yeah, games have gotten better or at least more streamlined.

[1698] They've kind of figured out how to smooth out the, they've figured out how to take away the barriers that keep you from enjoying the game that you've already bought.

[1699] And I think it's something that, like, we heard this kind of notion at DICE.

[1700] repeated a bunch.

[1701] I'm sure it's the same thing being rolled around everywhere.

[1702] There's a difference between easy and accessible.

[1703] This is not a hard game, but there are definitely points in it where it might lack the accessibility of a...

[1704] A more modern game like it.

[1705] There's nothing necessarily fun or puzzling about trying to remember where a character is located.

[1706] When they say, you need to go see Ralph.

[1707] I don't even...

[1708] It's been eight hours since I saw that dude.

[1709] I've done all this other stuff since then.

[1710] You need to at least give me some kind of pointer.

[1711] What that game needs is just better...

[1712] Really, the main thing, keeping it from feeling completely modern, other than the graphics, which even those, they HD'd those up, I thought, pretty nicely.

[1713] Better paperwork.

[1714] That game just needs better internal documentation.

[1715] Better subscreen.

[1716] Yeah, it needs better subscreen for sure.

[1717] The maps aren't bad for Zelda -style dungeon maps when you're in that stuff.

[1718] Oh, when you're in those maps, those are absolutely fine.

[1719] But overworld stuff's a little...

[1720] Yeah, but also there are some of those, let's call them dungeons.

[1721] where the layouts can be extremely circuitous, and you're doing a lot of backtracking, and it's not always clear where you should be backtracking to.

[1722] Yeah, there's some tracking and pathing issues there, but I still think it's a hell of a game and very much worth the $10, and I wasn't sad to have spent the 11 hours with it.

[1723] I was a little sad that I only got to spend, I didn't even spend an hour with Pokemon.

[1724] Black, which is out.

[1725] It came out on Sunday.

[1726] I played a chunk of Pokemon White during the happy hour on Friday.

[1727] I don't see what you're getting at.

[1728] What, he likes Pokemon?

[1729] What's your starting Pokemon?

[1730] Yeah, what's wrong?

[1731] I don't remember.

[1732] We were doing a live show at the time, so I either picked fire.

[1733] No, I picked the water monkey or something.

[1734] That's like an otter thing, water otter.

[1735] The starting ones are always set.

[1736] You get the same one in black as well?

[1737] Yeah.

[1738] So there's like one or two Pokemon that are different?

[1739] Yeah.

[1740] I think it's a little more than that.

[1741] There's a handful of Pokemon, but there's some locations that are different as well between the two versions.

[1742] Can you guys mash them together or something?

[1743] Can you trade between?

[1744] Okay.

[1745] We can trade through the marketplace and trade on the internet.

[1746] But I'm going to play black.

[1747] If I'm going to play it, I'm not going to play it.

[1748] I'm playing as the Fire Pig.

[1749] Who's that?

[1750] Well, the starting form, his name is Tepig.

[1751] Okay.

[1752] He's a fire pig.

[1753] He's badass.

[1754] It's a Pokemon.

[1755] It's a Pokemon.

[1756] Yeah.

[1757] So Pokemon.

[1758] As far as I could tell so far.

[1759] Seems to be the takeaway.

[1760] The documentation that came with that game was pretty hilarious and crazy in terms of what they don't want you to spoil for reviews.

[1761] Not a lot of games do it where they kind of spell out exactly like Dead Space 2 did it in kind of an ugly way.

[1762] Halo 2 did it in its own special way as well.

[1763] But this was like, here's a list of Pokemon you cannot mention.

[1764] Don't mention this in preview or review coverage.

[1765] And they said story stuff that happens past the second gym battle.

[1766] And then it was like this fat list of Pokemon.

[1767] And as we were getting ready to do that live demo on Friday, I'm like...

[1768] I hope they don't.

[1769] I can't imagine that any of these Pokemon are going to turn up in the 15 minutes we're going to play this game.

[1770] So we'll probably be all right.

[1771] But I don't know.

[1772] And I kind of don't care.

[1773] She sat there and just read the names of those Pokemon.

[1774] Right.

[1775] So when you were looking at that list.

[1776] Because it's all new Pokemon.

[1777] Did anything jump out at you like, oh, I can see why that would be.

[1778] No, no. Because it's all just names of Pokemon.

[1779] You couldn't.

[1780] Because you've never seen any of these Pokemon before.

[1781] I don't know.

[1782] These are all fresh Pokemon.

[1783] Yeah.

[1784] So you can't be like, oh, that's a returning Pokemon of significance.

[1785] Nope.

[1786] So that was super hilarious to me. IGN ran their review redacted with a bunch of black boxes over stuff.

[1787] Which was kind of funny.

[1788] But like without the context.

[1789] Maybe they put it up somewhere else on the site that said like, hey, here's why it's like this.

[1790] And this is a ridiculous restriction.

[1791] But instead they just put up the review with all these black lines across names and locations and stuff.

[1792] And I was like, that's a decent way to handle it, I guess.

[1793] It's just ridiculous.

[1794] I don't know if now that the game is out, they just said, all right, whatever, we're going to go back and change.

[1795] There was no expiration.

[1796] After the game's out, you can totally say this.

[1797] They were just like, don't say this.

[1798] The Pokemon company will come and fuck you up.

[1799] Yeah, I guess.

[1800] Give them any business.

[1801] Fine folks, Game Freak.

[1802] Game Freak.

[1803] Yeah, I mean, it seems.

[1804] Criss Angels, Game Freak.

[1805] It seems like Pokemon.

[1806] I thought it looked a lot better.

[1807] Oh, yeah.

[1808] I thought the stuff that they've done to the world, just like technically, I like the way it looks.

[1809] It's cleaner, brighter, sharper.

[1810] The battles are more dynamic.

[1811] If you let it sit there for a second, the angle starts swooping around.

[1812] Yeah, saw that.

[1813] I thought that was kind of cool.

[1814] Yeah, within the limitations of the system, they've definitely gotten better with it.

[1815] And some of the stuff I saw of later game.

[1816] action in cities where the camera gets even more dynamic and the cities are more polygonal.

[1817] They're showing six Pokemans on the screen at the same time.

[1818] Six -way Pokemon battles.

[1819] Man. That's so many Pokemans.

[1820] Get off the illest.

[1821] Oh, man. This is just a ton of Pokemon everywhere.

[1822] Pokemon forever.

[1823] I'm going to wait about a month and then just read that list of Pokemon on the live show or something.

[1824] Blow the doors off this bitch.

[1825] Yeah, exactly.

[1826] Exclusive.

[1827] Except that game's been out in Japan for a while.

[1828] Well, they changed all the names for US, right?

[1829] They changed all of them?

[1830] Not all of them, but there's a significant number that end up getting changed between regions.

[1831] At least I assume they're still doing that with these new ones.

[1832] I'm so behind on Pokemon.

[1833] I don't even know.

[1834] I can't even keep up with Pokemon anymore.

[1835] I don't even know.

[1836] You played anything else, Jeff?

[1837] Pikachu's pretty cool.

[1838] I find Porygon to be offensive.

[1839] Yeah, well.

[1840] Yeah.

[1841] I played a bunch of Torchlight.

[1842] I finished Torchlight, in fact.

[1843] Did you?

[1844] I think we can talk about that.

[1845] Yeah, we can.

[1846] There we can.

[1847] Okay.

[1848] But we talked about it last week.

[1849] Oh, okay.

[1850] Yeah.

[1851] As we said last week, that game has frame rate problems that are very, very disappointing.

[1852] It does.

[1853] I felt like it...

[1854] And I figured the thing I don't like about...

[1855] The thing that they removed from the PC version is it doesn't look...

[1856] You can't have two weapon sets.

[1857] So you can't go say, like, here's...

[1858] I have two guns equipped.

[1859] And that was why I specced the character the way I did as I was playing the game.

[1860] Because I was like, you know, because in playing the PC version, I had my melee set and my ranged set.

[1861] And I would switch between the two depending on the situation.

[1862] Because you just hit W and switch between them or whatever.

[1863] On this one, there's no second.

[1864] You can have two sets of spells for hotkeys, but you can't do weapons.

[1865] That made guns useless, and I'm glad that I got my respec potion from telling a friend about Torchlight.

[1866] Thanks for letting me know about Torchlight, by the way.

[1867] Torchlight's coming out.

[1868] You should join me in the dungeon, and you'll get a...

[1869] I hate to break it to you, but Justin Calvert already told me about Torchlight.

[1870] It doesn't matter.

[1871] It's just the act of sending it gets you the thing.

[1872] I already knew about it.

[1873] Also, I'd already played it.

[1874] Hey, man, Torchlight's coming out soon.

[1875] I played a couple of hours of Torchlight when I got that message.

[1876] Well, I'll tell you a few more times just to make sure that it takes...

[1877] You know, I didn't play a huge amount of it on the PC.

[1878] Like, I didn't finish it on the PC.

[1879] I mean, yeah, it's got frame rate issues for sure, but I felt like they did a pretty good job of porting that over.

[1880] Like, it...

[1881] You make your points about certain...

[1882] Yeah, there are certain things that, you know, like...

[1883] Limitations.

[1884] Without tool tips, you're just staring at a red globe of health instead of actually getting numbers, which I like numbers.

[1885] Yeah.

[1886] I wish you could navigate all the menus with the D -pad.

[1887] Yeah.

[1888] There's some UI stuff on the menus.

[1889] There's some stuff with that in Beyond Good and Evil as well.

[1890] Yeah.

[1891] Yes.

[1892] I like that they draw the analog stick on all the menus.

[1893] Use the analog stick.

[1894] We know that no one does this, but do this.

[1895] Yeah.

[1896] For real guy.

[1897] Right.

[1898] Yeah, Torchlight's fun.

[1899] It definitely leads to that kind of compulsion loop of I sat there and played it for six hours straight and then went back to it the following day to finish it.

[1900] None of those issues are deal breakers.

[1901] But at the same time, I should have played on hardcore because I didn't die.

[1902] I forgot that normal was stupid easy.

[1903] Normal is a joke in that game.

[1904] Yeah, I'm playing on easy.

[1905] Dude, wow, wow, wow.

[1906] It's going pretty well.

[1907] Oh, yeah?

[1908] Well, I looked at the achievements, and there was no reason.

[1909] Other than going to hardcore, I'm like, well, literally no reason for me to play on normal.

[1910] I think the reason is it's boring.

[1911] I'll play on normal.

[1912] By the end of that game on normal, I was...

[1913] If it wasn't for the achievement to get maximum fame, I wouldn't have done any of the side quest stuff of find the gem and the named guy, but I ended up doing as much of that as I could.

[1914] You could XP and some gear for that stuff.

[1915] Yeah, but I didn't need it.

[1916] You know, by the end of the game, it's just like, all right, like the rest of the game, go watch that quick look.

[1917] It's a lot of me holding down the X button and then letting off and then hitting A to pick up stuff and then walking to the next batch of guys holding down the X button and repeating.

[1918] I remember when the first game came, or when it came out on PC, there was no way initially to change a difficulty on the fly.

[1919] So somebody found a way to hack the difficulty level.

[1920] Oh, nice.

[1921] Literally running some kind of memory analyzer that changed the variable when it was in memory.

[1922] Oh, yeah.

[1923] Just because it was so easy on normal, I was just like, man, this is not very satisfying.

[1924] On the PC version, I installed a bunch of mods that changed the way that a bunch of the skills worked to increase movement speed and stuff like that.

[1925] So it was a much peppier game.

[1926] And that didn't necessarily make it more difficult, but it definitely kept things moving at a pace that...

[1927] I mined it a lot less.

[1928] There are definitely cases, and with direct control, I think maybe you even notice it a little bit more of, I'm just holding the joystick in this direction, and man, I wish this guy moved faster.

[1929] I need to get some swift chaos gems up in this to get moving, because damn.

[1930] That said, I totally, instead of getting dressed, finished that game.

[1931] So it's pretty good.

[1932] Still good enough.

[1933] Really want to play Torchlight 2.

[1934] Indeed.

[1935] That was the other impact that that game had.

[1936] It's like, man, it would be really cool if they had a sequel to this that had, let's say, co -op and a little more variety in what you saw.

[1937] Hmm, Torchlight 2.

[1938] Maybe we should talk to somebody about that.

[1939] Yeah, let's see what we can do about that.

[1940] Well, Brad, it's funny you should mention Torchlight, because we are joined magically now through the magic of editing by none other than Max Schaefer from Runic Games.

[1941] Max, say hello to the folks at home.

[1942] Hi, everybody.

[1943] How's it going, sir?

[1944] Going great.

[1945] You guys just launched Torchlight on XBLA.

[1946] How are you feeling about it?

[1947] We feel great.

[1948] It actually launches tomorrow.

[1949] Oh, yes.

[1950] I don't know if that's today when people are going to hear this.

[1951] No, no, that'll be tomorrow.

[1952] That'll be tomorrow.

[1953] Okay, it launches tomorrow, and it's very exciting.

[1954] Our first console game.

[1955] Ten -plus years.

[1956] So we've all played a bunch of the XBLA version.

[1957] Obviously, we played a bunch of the PC version as well.

[1958] How do you feel about the way this version came out as far as changes, compromises?

[1959] Really happy, actually.

[1960] I think that the guys, Travis and Marsh and the guys back at the office, really nailed the conversion from the mouse and keyboard to the controller.

[1961] And in some ways, it's a more enjoyable experience than even the PC version.

[1962] Now, Jeff had one gripe to lodge about the XBLA version, which was not having multiple weapon sets to switch between.

[1963] Yeah, I think that that was just maybe slightly push the envelope of too many things on the controller.

[1964] But, yeah, I hear you on that.

[1965] To be fair, I was impressed.

[1966] I thought, like, gosh, this game has so much going on.

[1967] compressing this down onto a controller.

[1968] That's a challenge in and of itself.

[1969] I'm curious about the differences between obviously you guys, you know, you did PC first.

[1970] which is a very open platform.

[1971] You're pretty free to kind of keep to your own schedule and stuff.

[1972] But how was it working with Microsoft on this?

[1973] You've got submission deadlines and QA stuff to go through.

[1974] Was it more of a headache?

[1975] Yeah, I think you trade off the compatibility testing that you have to go through for PC for the dreaded Microsoft certification process.

[1976] But actually, it turned out to be a breeze.

[1977] And the Microsoft guys are super helpful.

[1978] And we were perhaps a tad nervous about it, but absolutely unfounded fears.

[1979] And it's been a joy, and we can't wait to do it again, frankly.

[1980] So now iPad, try to think what other devices can we get.

[1981] Do you actually have any ambitions to bring Torchlight to other platforms?

[1982] We have sort of ambitions and dreams, but kind of tempered by the fact that we really want to keep a small studio and focus on what we're doing and just do one thing at a time.

[1983] And it seems right now like the most important thing to do now that this is done is get Torchlight 2 on track.

[1984] I think there's a lot of people who would agree with you.

[1985] Brad, I'm going to let you go nuts here on Torchlight 2 in a second.

[1986] I just had one more Torchlight XBLA question for Max.

[1987] What portion of the core team did it take to do that port?

[1988] Well, it took pretty much Travis and Marcia.

[1989] So our engineering department basically was full -time just for a few months.

[1990] We actually used a porting house that helped us out, World Domination Industries.

[1991] I'll give them a little plug.

[1992] Very good.

[1993] And they handled a lot of the technical aspects, but we really found that when it comes to redesigning the interface, that that's something that we really had to dig into ourselves and completely control.

[1994] And so that took a lot of time.

[1995] You don't realize how much interface is in your game until you redesign every single pane to work on a controller.

[1996] You have to fit it onto like a tenth of the buttons.

[1997] Right, right, exactly.

[1998] So that took quite a bit.

[1999] So our interface artist and some of the engineers, the bulk of the team was still cranking out Torchlight 2 stuff, though.

[2000] Do you think any of the things you learned about making Torchlight work on a controller?

[2001] would inform interface things in Torchlight 2?

[2002] Definitely.

[2003] Definitely did.

[2004] And not only just with interface, but some technical things too with the loading times and some of the memory handling and stuff that we had to kind of optimize for the Xbox are definitely going to go back and help.

[2005] Torchlight 2.

[2006] Cool.

[2007] I don't know how much of this you can talk about, but have you guys had any communication with Sony?

[2008] I mean, obviously, now that the controller design work has been finished, it seems like kind of a natural fit for their controller as well.

[2009] Well, you know, this goes back to our having to do one thing at a time.

[2010] We kind of made the decision early on that we were going to focus on Xbox or PSN.

[2011] And since the Xbox was an easier technical port for us coming from a PC game, we elected to go that direction.

[2012] And we're just going to stick with that and see how this goes.

[2013] Obviously, the future is wide open, and we like to keep our options as open as possible.

[2014] For this one, we decided to make it an Xbox exclusive, and we actually made that a contractual deal with Microsoft.

[2015] So once we had made the decision, there was no reason not to because we can get a little better terms.

[2016] No turning back.

[2017] Right, right.

[2018] Well, you get that house party promo.

[2019] That's always – That was awesome for us.

[2020] That was huge.

[2021] That was not part of our deal.

[2022] They said maybe if it's coming out at the right time, you might be selected for the house party.

[2023] So when we found out we were part of that, that got cheers.

[2024] Not just selected.

[2025] It seems like you guys are kind of headlining that thing.

[2026] Yeah, I think – Between us and Beyond Good and Evil, we both got kind of most of the publicity.

[2027] And we're really, really grateful to Microsoft for that.

[2028] Very cool.

[2029] Torchlight 2.

[2030] What can you tell us?

[2031] How's it going?

[2032] Tell us everything.

[2033] Well, Torchlight 2 is obviously the next big thing for us.

[2034] And just as when we released Torchlight 1, every review said, this is cool, but where's the multiplayer?

[2035] With the Xbox, we're seeing we've gotten like 50 reviews already, and all of them are, this is cool, but where's the multiplayer?

[2036] So PC or Xbox, it doesn't matter.

[2037] Everyone's like, we need multiplayer.

[2038] Yeah, so I think we're going to see pitchforks and torches outside our office if we don't do some multiplayer coming up.

[2039] So, I mean, that's the big thing with Torchlight 2.

[2040] And also just kind of going to school on what we learned with the technology and our tool set and stuff from Torchlight One and just pushing it and seeing where it goes.

[2041] And it already plays great.

[2042] It's a lot of fun.

[2043] It looks great.

[2044] The music is awesome.

[2045] We had a live orchestra record music for us in Slovakia.

[2046] After Gamescom last year, we stuck around and went to Slovakia and had their symphony orchestra record a ton of music for us, and it sounds so good.

[2047] I can't wait for people to start to hear that.

[2048] Do you guys still have the same composer?

[2049] Yeah, Matt Ullman.

[2050] He was the same Diablo guy.

[2051] Right, right, right.

[2052] Kind of an instrumental piece of the puzzle.

[2053] Absolutely.

[2054] No, it really sets the tone.

[2055] Some of the new stuff has got its own distinctive sound.

[2056] I mean, I think Torsight One music was really evocative of the old Diablo music, and that was sort of deliberate.

[2057] But, you know, we're...

[2058] extending it a little bit this time and going some different directions.

[2059] It's fun stuff.

[2060] Cool.

[2061] Torchlight 2 sounds to me, and I think you guys have even made reference to this, it's kind of like literally the Diablo 2 to Torchlight's Diablo in terms of going from the single town and single deep dungeon model to kind of like a broader overworld.

[2062] How expansive is all that stuff?

[2063] I mean, are there going to be a whole bunch of different towns and different lands and kind of side quests all over the place?

[2064] Yep.

[2065] Just putting a little outdoors, the first thing we do, did with it was make some outdoor areas and it just makes it feel completely different and once you go to a couple different towns and you see some of the different landscape types it it the feeling is that you're in such a much bigger world and that you're in a real place and and it really gets the you know the exploring juices going and so it's pretty cool but it's gonna be about half i'd say overground and half down in dungeons okay cool that first game definitely you got a sense like i am only seeing a fraction of what this world has to offer.

[2066] So for the multiplayer, how ambitious are you guys getting?

[2067] Well, it was a point where you have to make some choices of what your structure is going to be like and how that affects the game design.

[2068] And one of the things that was really cool about Torchlight 1 that we wanted to preserve going into Torchlight 2 was the moddability of the game.

[2069] The community came out with some really cool things for it.

[2070] And I think that if we could make a moddable...

[2071] multiplayer game that we'd really see some great stuff and some cool things coming down the pike.

[2072] So we decided, for a couple of reasons, I'll go into some of the others later, to make this a peer -to -peer, very simple multiplayer game.

[2073] So it's basically designed to play with your friends.

[2074] It's completely moddable.

[2075] We don't have an exact maximum number of players yet, but it's really designed for four.

[2076] And you drop in, you drop out, and it's really simple and it's moddable.

[2077] And the one downside of that is that it's potentially cheatable because we've given you the tools to make the – but at the same time, we're making it so that you see exactly what mods are in play and from each player so that you can sync them up.

[2078] For a lot of the mods, you have to sync them up to be able to play.

[2079] It's a single -player slash co -op experience, so you're kind of only cheating yourself, right?

[2080] Right.

[2081] There's no real potential for griefing a competitive scenario.

[2082] No, no. It isn't about – it's about co -op.

[2083] I mean we're going to have a – we're going to let you PVP if you want to just to see who's the most badass character.

[2084] But it's really not part of the game.

[2085] It's really for playing with your friends and looting with your friends.

[2086] So you're not going to do like player matching necessarily?

[2087] You're aiming more for like if you know someone, go play with them.

[2088] If not, this is maybe not the best experience to have.

[2089] going to do is like a super light battle net.

[2090] So what we're going to do is present players a list of games that are available based on the criteria that they choose, whether it's their friends or their guild or certain level ranges or whatever mods you're playing with.

[2091] That's another filtering criteria.

[2092] And present people with a list of games, but then we basically just match them off and send them off on their own.

[2093] And what the cool thing about it is that since we don't have to have a giant bank of servers running games for people across the world, we don't have to do subscriptions or item sales or anything like that.

[2094] It will be just like Torchlight 1 where you buy it and that's it.

[2095] Just part of the package.

[2096] Part of the package.

[2097] Very cool.

[2098] Excellent.

[2099] How do you feel, Max, with your history and, you know, with what Torchlight is about, you know, potentially kind of, you know, you're at this point kind of going toe -to -toe with Diablo III?

[2100] You know, you're definitely getting into at least release windows for that stuff.

[2101] Yeah, they're kind of talking like this might be the year for them, too.

[2102] Is that any kind of consideration for you guys, or are you just kind of doing your own thing?

[2103] Well, we kind of just have to do our own thing, but it's been something we've...

[2104] been asked about and thought about since we started the company.

[2105] There was no guarantee that when we started that Torchlight 1 would be out before Diablo 3 came out.

[2106] Although it was a distinct likelihood.

[2107] Yeah.

[2108] Here's the challenge, Max.

[2109] Here's what you got to do, all right?

[2110] You got to get Torchlight 3 out by the time they get Diablo 3 out.

[2111] It'll be like the Forza to Gran Turismo of like in the time it took you to make the next sequel, we had an entire franchise come into its own.

[2112] That's the runic challenge.

[2113] I propose that to you.

[2114] We kind of hope that that's the case, but we also kind of are.

[2115] anxious to play Diablo 3 also like a lot of the people out there.

[2116] I think when it comes out it'll delay whatever our release schedule is by a month or two while we all play the crap out of it.

[2117] Torchlight MMO has been delayed indefinitely because Diablo 3 is out.

[2118] We're too busy.

[2119] So yeah, I mean obviously you mentioned you guys are doing one thing at a time and Torchlight 2 is taking precedence at the moment but before you announced plans for this kind of proper sequel you guys were talking about that free -to -play MMO.

[2120] Is that at least still in the cards?

[2121] Yeah, it's still in the cards and I want to caution that we use the term MMO fairly loosely.

[2122] We don't want to do a cookie cutter MMO and I don't think that the people who play Torchlight want us to just make the same thing again and attach item sales to it.

[2123] What we want to do is get through Torchlight 2, learn about the way that multiplayer works with this sort of game and the ways it doesn't work and come up with something that's original and has a lot of twists and newness to it that takes advantage of the fact that you can get a big you know, a wide community together in a game and have a secure environment and just do new things with it.

[2124] You know, like I said, we don't want to just make the same thing again.

[2125] We want to push it and also differentiate ourselves a bit from Diablo 3 when it comes out.

[2126] So are you thinking – I don't want to keep comparing Torchlight to other games here.

[2127] But are you thinking something more in the Guild Wars kind of mold as far as the structure or the approach?

[2128] I think it will most likely be fairly heavily instanced.

[2129] I mean I like to have towns and things like that where you see a lot of people and you feel like you're in a big world.

[2130] But our style of adventuring kind of lends itself to instances.

[2131] You don't necessarily want like 20 people camping a boss at the end of a dungeon.

[2132] No, that's fine.

[2133] No one likes that.

[2134] Absolutely.

[2135] But we'll see.

[2136] I mean whether it's – you have property or you have lots of different crafting options.

[2137] It's kind of – we're waiting and seeing.

[2138] We do one thing at a time.

[2139] We literally have not designed the MMO at all yet.

[2140] You know, we're going to see how it goes and make something that we think would be really cool and fun to play and call it an MMO, I think.

[2141] And MMO.

[2142] Yeah.

[2143] Whatever that means these days.

[2144] Yeah.

[2145] I want to dive deep here.

[2146] I want to talk about loot.

[2147] I want to talk about loot numbers for Torchlight 2.

[2148] Now, loot is why I play these games.

[2149] Oh, yeah.

[2150] It's the whole thing is get the loot, immediately pause, strap it on the guy, see how it looks, look at the stats.

[2151] So I want to know loot numbers for Torchlight 2.

[2152] Like comparative loot numbers from Torchlight 1 to Torchlight 2.

[2153] What are we looking at here?

[2154] Well, there's a lot of loot in Torchlight 1 also.

[2155] But here's the thing is that Torchlight 1 was made in 11 months front to back.

[2156] And when you're starting with blank computers, no tools, no technology, no graphics engine, nothing, and getting a product out in 11 months like that, you don't get to spend a whole lot of time making sure the balance is just right and that there's tons of endgame content and all this.

[2157] I think that given the time and the constraints that we did a great job, that was mostly my brother, Eric, by the way.

[2158] I've got to give him a plug.

[2159] He doesn't get mentioned very much because he's the recluse.

[2160] Props to Eric.

[2161] He's the shaffer behind the shaffer.

[2162] Yes, the shaffer behind the shaffer.

[2163] Secret shaffers.

[2164] But this time we get to spend a lot more time and give it a lot more love and make it so that it is really that much more special when you find that cool item and make it just that more crack -like as you wander the dungeons.

[2165] So it's not necessarily the volume but – But quality.

[2166] Right, right, right.

[2167] Exactly.

[2168] And the volume will be high.

[2169] I don't know what the exact numbers are, but we're making a lot more stuff.

[2170] So the volume will be up there, but it will also be spread out better and balanced better and more exciting.

[2171] Excellent, excellent.

[2172] I think if I remember the last time we talked to you at PAX last year, you guys were still making some decisions about the classes.

[2173] Have you guys nailed down?

[2174] I guess you're probably in the home stretch by now.

[2175] You've probably nailed down how many classes and which ones they are.

[2176] Yeah, we've only announced two.

[2177] And that's all I can continue to talk about.

[2178] I'm sorry.

[2179] That's okay.

[2180] We're still in the Xbox phase of our PR blitz here, so I can't say much more than you already know about the classes.

[2181] The media training is still in full effect.

[2182] Yes, I still get in trouble when I say things I shouldn't.

[2183] So obviously you've been super busy with Torchlight XBLA and Torchlight 2 coming.

[2184] Have you had a chance to play any games lately?

[2185] Um...

[2186] Not really.

[2187] I still play a lot of Minecraft, but I don't know if that's a game as much as sort of a...

[2188] I think we've decided that it's not really a game.

[2189] Yeah, we fall on that side.

[2190] We say yet.

[2191] It sounds like Notch is getting closer and closer to making it into an actual game.

[2192] No, I do play with the monsters.

[2193] I don't like just the pure sandbox.

[2194] I like there at least be a nominal threat of destruction and things blowing up and dying and having to do a corpse run and all that.

[2195] But it's actually pretty easy.

[2196] easy to avoid dying if you really want to.

[2197] So it's really more about building cool -looking castles, and I'm still a little obsessed with that, and it's a little embarrassing sometimes.

[2198] Any of that potentially informing design decisions in Torchlight 2?

[2199] I hope so.

[2200] Yeah.

[2201] I hope so, because I really like that you can...

[2202] be creative about how you build and affect your environment.

[2203] And I think it's a super clever and cool game, un -game, whatever it is.

[2204] Have you seen Magicka at all?

[2205] I've seen it a bit, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and play here, obviously.

[2206] But I've seen some footage and stuff.

[2207] It looks pretty cool.

[2208] I would recommend it.

[2209] I think it would be up your alley as far as it's, you know, action RPG, kind of dungeon crawler, but they have some really interesting stuff with the way you're only playing as mages.

[2210] You're only as wizards.

[2211] Right.

[2212] But they do some interesting stuff with these elemental combinations that you do for your spells that's kind of unlike anything I've ever seen.

[2213] It's very unique.

[2214] of weird Swedish sensibility.

[2215] Yeah, that was made by the Swedes, wasn't it?

[2216] Yeah, yeah.

[2217] They just announced an expansion, Magica Vietnam.

[2218] Yeah, that's so serious.

[2219] Yeah, that's absolutely true.

[2220] Oh, it's deadly serious.

[2221] I was running a fever when I first saw the trailer for that, and it was like full of NyQuil, and I'm like, so this isn't real, right?

[2222] I'm not actually seeing this, right?

[2223] It's like, oh my god, I was sick all the way through March.

[2224] It's April 1st.

[2225] I've lost it.

[2226] Yeah, I was like, no, it's too far for it to be a gag, but sure enough, their first expansion for it, Magic of Vietnam.

[2227] And is that in sort of a war -ish?

[2228] Oh, absolutely.

[2229] Yeah, yeah.

[2230] Well, they're directly They don't take place there.

[2231] No, no, no. They are directly kind of mocking Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam.

[2232] I believe there's fake credence in the trailer, if I remember.

[2233] Yeah, they go all the way.

[2234] It's pretty impressive how committed they are to their dumb Vietnam War joke.

[2235] That is commitment, isn't it?

[2236] Absolutely.

[2237] Do you know, are there any other games that have ravaged the runic offices that the other members of the team are into?

[2238] You know, we're kind of between.

[2239] obsessions right now.

[2240] I mean, Minecraft came through.

[2241] Obviously, that was a big one.

[2242] And people all kind of are doing their own things right now.

[2243] But that's a good thing because whenever that happens, the progress slows down a lot.

[2244] Certainly.

[2245] How much have you guys grown over the course of the Torchlight 2 development?

[2246] I think that we've finished Torchlight 1 with 24 people and we're at 30 people now.

[2247] Oh, wow.

[2248] And we want to grow to, you know...

[2249] Probably back to 28.

[2250] There's two people.

[2251] Your jobs are on the line right now.

[2252] Let it be known.

[2253] No, no, no. We love our group, but we don't want to grow.

[2254] We don't want to become a bigger studio.

[2255] We really like kind of the size we're at right now.

[2256] I mean, it lets you be nimble, right?

[2257] Yeah.

[2258] Socially and politically, it just works because everyone sees everyone every day and you don't – there's not cliques forming of people over here that don't know what the people over there are doing.

[2259] And you can still have meetings just by pivoting your chair and starting to talk.

[2260] And we really like that.

[2261] We want to stay that way.

[2262] It really is complicated though because … There are people who want us to do tablet versions and mobile versions and all this of our games and getting Torchlight 2 onto the consoles.

[2263] And then what about the MMO?

[2264] Are we going to do that?

[2265] We have to make some very, very difficult choices.

[2266] But that's kind of a small price to pay for having it still be fun to make games.

[2267] Absolutely.

[2268] I think Brad and I can both identify with the pleasures of having a small team.

[2269] Brad, do you have anything else for Max here?

[2270] I guess that's just about it.

[2271] I'm curious.

[2272] You're still based in the Bay Area.

[2273] Is that right?

[2274] Yeah.

[2275] Me personally and my brother are in the Bay Area and are musicians in L .A., but everyone else is in Seattle.

[2276] How is it working over that geographic distance?

[2277] Are you guys flying up there every other week?

[2278] We have a lot of Virgin America miles at this point.

[2279] But it's cool.

[2280] Our investment partner, Perfect World, is here in the Bay Area, so we can be close and keep in good communication with them.

[2281] And it's a pretty short flight.

[2282] We leave at 8 .45 in the morning, and we're in the office there by 11 .30.

[2283] And it's nice to get away and just do that once a while.

[2284] So it's working out, right?

[2285] It doesn't make any logical sense.

[2286] But I love San Francisco here, and I like Seattle, but I just want to stay living here as long as it works out.

[2287] Visit and come back.

[2288] Well, very good, Max.

[2289] We'll let you go and get back to the game.

[2290] Thank you so much.

[2291] You can't leave yet until you tell us when Torchlight 2 is coming out.

[2292] We don't have a date because we're going to take the Blizzard line and say that it's done when it's done.

[2293] However, we're aiming at a summer release.

[2294] Excellent.

[2295] It might be the Indian summer.

[2296] Summer -ish.

[2297] Very good.

[2298] Just don't do it the week before E3, man. Don't do us like that.

[2299] We won't do it.

[2300] We won't do that.

[2301] Guaranteed.

[2302] Max Schaefer, Runic Games, thank you so much for your time, and good luck with Torchlight 2.

[2303] Thank you very much.

[2304] Brad, you play anything else?

[2305] No, nothing.

[2306] How's StarCraft?

[2307] It's good.

[2308] I spent a lot of the weekend watching other people play StarCraft.

[2309] Yep.

[2310] Very good.

[2311] Did you play anything else besides Beyond Good and Evil?

[2312] No, what did I say?

[2313] I said Bulletstorm.

[2314] What did I say?

[2315] What did I say?

[2316] I said I put 11 hours into Beyond Good and Evil.

[2317] What the fuck do you want from me?

[2318] I played – no, I'm just trying to remember what I said and then if there was anything else.

[2319] Yeah, no, I think so.

[2320] That was it, yeah.

[2321] Beyond Good and Evil and Bulletstorm.

[2322] And I played a bunch of the – I think I played all of the echoes on Bulletstorm.

[2323] Which are okay.

[2324] I don't know.

[2325] Like, once you finish the game in that game...

[2326] Right, the last thing you want to do is jump back into...

[2327] No, no, like, I didn't find those, like, offensive or not fun or anything.

[2328] It's just, like, it's easy to just whip right through those.

[2329] I guess what I didn't feel is the compulsion to try and three -star all of them.

[2330] Right.

[2331] It's kind of like, I did it, and I'm like, well, I only got two stars.

[2332] Yeah, but I don't really give a shit.

[2333] Yeah.

[2334] I'll go do another couple of these.

[2335] Yeah, there's just not...

[2336] The game doesn't have a great draw.

[2337] back after you finish the campaign.

[2338] We'll see.

[2339] They are doing DLC.

[2340] Maybe they will come up with the right kind of level design.

[2341] I think there is a way to make a really exciting Echoes level.

[2342] But it's not just taking a chunk of the campaign and going here.

[2343] No, I think you're right.

[2344] Alright, let's talk about some news.

[2345] So during GDC, Nintendo had the keynote.

[2346] or I guess Nintendo held a press conference and called it a keynote, where they announced Super Mario.

[2347] Wait a minute.

[2348] Yeah.

[2349] You mean to tell me they are making a new Mario game for their new Nintendo hardware platform?

[2350] Yes, Super Mario.

[2351] What?

[2352] And there's still Tanooki Tail.

[2353] Could be Raccoon Tail.

[2354] There's nothing else in the title?

[2355] Yeah.

[2356] What is it?

[2357] Just a working title.

[2358] Super Mario 3DS.

[2359] No, it's Super Mario.

[2360] That's it.

[2361] That's all of it.

[2362] Here, I'll show you the logo.

[2363] Oh, good.

[2364] Super Mario.

[2365] There's a little Tiny Iwata.

[2366] There's a little Tiny Iwata.

[2367] Can you tell me Tiny Iwata's in the game?

[2368] That's right.

[2369] From the makers of Tiny Wings comes Tiny Iwata.

[2370] Can you make him slide up and down the hills and fly?

[2371] It's 99 cents on the App Store today only.

[2372] I'll take it.

[2373] Get Tiny Iwata.

[2374] In spite of everything he said about the App Store, someone went ahead and released himself as a 99 cent app.

[2375] Yeah, you know, they didn't really see anything more other than, yeah, they're making a Mario game.

[2376] They talked about the e -store situation with the 3DS.

[2377] Yeah, they talked about the e -shop.

[2378] A touch, such as trailers.

[2379] There's going to be a short form video.

[2380] Comedy shorts.

[2381] Including comedy shorts.

[2382] In 3D.

[2383] What?

[2384] Yeah, there's going to be like a short form video service that you'll be able to download.

[2385] That's what they call it.

[2386] Like trailers for movies, trailers for games, screenshots for games.

[2387] And video or comedy shorts.

[2388] Various videos.

[2389] What are the comedy shorts?

[2390] They just say, they don't specify.

[2391] In 3D.

[2392] 3D comedy shorts.

[2393] What'll be hilarious 3D comedy.

[2394] Like skids?

[2395] Just like you've been waiting for all your life is for comedy to enter the third dimension.

[2396] Weekend update in 3D.

[2397] God, yes.

[2398] That I might actually...

[2399] I'd watch.

[2400] There you go.

[2401] They're bringing Netflix later this summer to the 3DS?

[2402] No indication that that means that they're going to add 3D movies to Netflix streaming.

[2403] It's just that Netflix wants to be everywhere that you've got internet, anything.

[2404] I need more devices at this point that have Netflix on them.

[2405] I'm getting really good at not using Netflix at all.

[2406] I'm just paying for the subscription, so I welcome another service for me to not use Netflix on.

[2407] They have every Saturday Night Live on there now.

[2408] That's cool.

[2409] In 3D?

[2410] No. No, on Netflix in regular.

[2411] They haven't post -converted it to 3D yet.

[2412] I think maybe I just don't like the interface of any of the Netflix apps on anything that I've got.

[2413] And I find it really not conducive to exploration and discovering things like, oh, every Saturday Night Live is there.

[2414] A lot of it is just people telling me. That's how I tend to find out.

[2415] So here's what we tell you.

[2416] They have every Saturday Night Live on there.

[2417] Yeah, that's cool.

[2418] Like all seasons.

[2419] Even like the weird dark early 80s after Lorne Michaels got kicked out.

[2420] I'm going to get me as much Charles Rocket as I can.

[2421] Guess what?

[2422] All of it.

[2423] Great.

[2424] The whole thing.

[2425] Terrific.

[2426] In your hand.

[2427] I was watching Weekend Updates from 2001 and from 2000, which you want to watch.

[2428] You want to like the day the fucking innocents died.

[2429] Watching SNL weekend updates from just before 9 -11.

[2430] That is some awesome shit.

[2431] Like the things that were concerning everyone just before everything went real fucking bad.

[2432] I mean like in this pre -9 -11 world?

[2433] Yes.

[2434] What was the one directly after like?

[2435] Pretty somber.

[2436] Not a lot of political jokes.

[2437] Yeah.

[2438] Yeah.

[2439] Definitely a bit of a tonal shift after that change.

[2440] That's 10 years ago.

[2441] That was the other thing.

[2442] I'm like, this is 10 years old.

[2443] What the fuck?

[2444] Yeah.

[2445] These people that they're talking about are all now dead.

[2446] Because that was a long time ago.

[2447] They were making Anna Nicole Smith jokes.

[2448] They were making, the one that blew my mind, they were making Osama Bin Laden jokes before 9 -11.

[2449] That freaked me out.

[2450] So you're saying that it's an inside job.

[2451] Charlie Sheen's right all along.

[2452] I'm saying that Tina Fey knows more than she is letting on.

[2453] Is that when Charlie Sheen was on Saturday Night Live making fun of other people?

[2454] Exactly.

[2455] Ten years ago?

[2456] Yeah, about, no, ten years ago he was still wrapped up in all the Heidi Fleiss stuff.

[2457] Oh, so he was still mired down.

[2458] Yeah, he was in court for other reasons ten years ago.

[2459] That sounds about right.

[2460] Yeah.

[2461] Heidi Fleiss, huh?

[2462] Right?

[2463] Yeah.

[2464] Right?

[2465] Fuck.

[2466] Right?

[2467] Bill Clinton was still present.

[2468] You mean reality television superstar Heidi Fleiss?

[2469] Oh, yeah.

[2470] It's all of Saturday Night Live on Netflix, and now you can watch it on your 3DS this summer.

[2471] So they're going to patch a lot of this functionality in.

[2472] Yeah, the eShop launches in late May, and that'll come with the ability to transfer your DSiWare purchases over from your...

[2473] your DSi over to the 3DS.

[2474] And then in summer, there's the Netflix update.

[2475] So we're going to get TurboGrafx, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Gear games in the eShop.

[2476] As well as 3D classics.

[2477] Old games remastered in 3D.

[2478] Remastered their terms, their language.

[2479] On that.

[2480] Yes.

[2481] Did I actually show any of this stuff?

[2482] I don't think so.

[2483] You know what?

[2484] Yeah.

[2485] Actually, at the New York thing, they had a bunch of 8 -bit Nintendo games running in 3D.

[2486] Oh, I didn't see that 3D stuff.

[2487] Somebody was saying Punch -Out looked awesome.

[2488] Yeah.

[2489] Yeah, Klepek saw it.

[2490] Oh, that could be cool.

[2491] He was saying that Punch -Out was pretty cool.

[2492] Oh, 3D.

[2493] Oh, I thought you meant 3D.

[2494] No, not Polito.

[2495] Stereo 3D.

[2496] Oh, okay.

[2497] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2498] Right.

[2499] Yes, they did have that stuff.

[2500] I'm like...

[2501] When you say remastered and 3D, I thought you meant they were going to go in and...

[2502] Bro, we're talking about the 3DS.

[2503] Right.

[2504] It's not...

[2505] We're not talking about the 3D 3DS.

[2506] We're not talking about your dad's 3D.

[2507] We're talking about your grandpa's 3D.

[2508] Okay.

[2509] Why are you talking about my grandpa's 3D?

[2510] Because he's a nice old man. He's got a lot of great stories about the war.

[2511] And 3D.

[2512] About the war of 3D.

[2513] We're in it.

[2514] I know.

[2515] Sprite -based 3D.

[2516] Yeah, we're in it and everyone loses.

[2517] Apparently.

[2518] AT &T free hotspots, free Wi -Fi hotspots in the U .S. for 3DS owners.

[2519] I guess they did the math on that one.

[2520] And we're like, yeah, we can afford that.

[2521] That's okay.

[2522] We're talking like five people.

[2523] Yeah, how much does that matter?

[2524] Although I wonder then if it's just identifying based on, hey, we know that this.

[2525] Right.

[2526] Hardware is a 3DS, so can I just fake some other hardware to say, just tell them you're a 3DS.

[2527] You want a 3DS spoofer?

[2528] Yeah, just tell them you're a 3DS and you'll get it on the internet for free.

[2529] It'll work better on my phone.

[2530] It can't be too hard.

[2531] Yeah, Netflix.

[2532] And it wasn't part of this announcement, but they have said there would be original software coming to the 3DS in a digital format as well.

[2533] It's not just all this Game Gear and 3D remaster stuff.

[2534] So 3DS shop.

[2535] Yeah.

[2536] Great.

[2537] 3DS Wear or something like that.

[2538] Great.

[2539] All those hits.

[2540] Oh, God.

[2541] I totally forgot about Magic of Vietnam.

[2542] It just seemed like that was forever ago.

[2543] Remember that?

[2544] Remember Magic of Vietnam?

[2545] How could I forget?

[2546] The Swedes are crazy.

[2547] Yeah.

[2548] We're going to make an add -on for our nonsensical fancy pants magic PC game, and we're going to call it Magic of Vietnam.

[2549] That's going to make even less sense.

[2550] Nerd Jets.

[2551] Fly over.

[2552] That bad company image is all you need.

[2553] Yep.

[2554] It was amazing.

[2555] I just, when I first saw it, I was, I'm like, this is a spoof, right?

[2556] Someone's just like putting music over this, right?

[2557] Man, is it April already?

[2558] They're messing with me. Like, nope.

[2559] They are acting like this is a real game.

[2560] You sons of bitches.

[2561] Also a real game, Trench from Double Fine.

[2562] They've announced their next product.

[2563] Downloadable again.

[2564] They're staying on the download train.

[2565] And it's...

[2566] Making a lot of stops.

[2567] Yeah, no, they're going everywhere.

[2568] So, like, it looks kind of like Mecha Salt, but...

[2569] in like a steampunky World War I kind of vibe, except the aliens are all neon glowy.

[2570] Kind of halo -looking.

[2571] Yeah, kind of halo -looking aliens, but then kind of World War I, you know, obviously.

[2572] Kind of like tower defense.

[2573] Yeah, I read that there was a strong tower defense component.

[2574] Yeah, so there's a trailer that's worth watching that kind of lays out some of the at least basic ideas of there being some stationary defenses that you need to maintain, but then you're also highly customizing these fucking walking tanks that.

[2575] look very trench warfare inspired.

[2576] I like trench.

[2577] Hence, trenched.

[2578] I just wonder what happened someday at Double Fun where just like, I don't know how it went down, but like Tim Schafer just being like, fine, you guys make games.

[2579] And everybody was like, opens the drawer and everybody's just taking out their scripts and they're like, Fine.

[2580] Talking to people at Double Fine, it sounded like Tim Shavers was very much like, no, someone else, come and make some fucking games.

[2581] Because they were just, like, they were completely imaginative.

[2582] They were, like, totally different from each other.

[2583] It just sounds like everybody had a sheet.

[2584] It's like, well, what I want to do.

[2585] Here's what I was working on.

[2586] I think that's almost exactly what happened.

[2587] That is exactly what they did.

[2588] Like, he's like, all right, come and pitch your game.

[2589] They're like, all right, that sounds good.

[2590] We'll get you a little Skunk Works team and you can start working on it.

[2591] Hands slowly rising in a meeting.

[2592] He's like, I've got an idea.

[2593] And then hands all shoot up.

[2594] It was It was a bunch of the leads from Brutal Legend.

[2595] It was like the people who were running those departments anyway, just like all of a sudden are directing games.

[2596] What if we made like a Halloween -based game where you're like going around, fast track, we'll do this, 2010.

[2597] I've got this idea for a game with dolls.

[2598] Sure, great, yeah, great.

[2599] I always want to make a mix game.

[2600] Just, like, stuff is turning around.

[2601] I'd ask people, I'd say, like, you know, is Tim feeling slighted now that he's no longer necessarily the sole creative mind?

[2602] He's like, no, he's fucking relieved.

[2603] He's just watching Sesame Street with his kids.

[2604] Yeah, it's like he doesn't have to, like, the creative burden isn't on him all of the time.

[2605] It's like, oh, no, I have this genius group of people that I work with.

[2606] I should make use of them.

[2607] It's crazy.

[2608] And, yeah, I love the variety of shit that they're throwing out there.

[2609] Just like we couldn't make games more different from each other.

[2610] Right.

[2611] But.

[2612] Good on them.

[2613] Yeah.

[2614] It's been nice to see like those guys just kind of become instantly prolific going from, you know, we've existed for a decade and we've shipped two games to shipping four games in the next fucking 12 months.

[2615] Come at us.

[2616] It's definitely an interesting shift.

[2617] Yeah, absolutely.

[2618] So we'll see more of that, I think, in the near future.

[2619] Also announced Saints Row III.

[2620] Strap it on.

[2621] Does not take place on Saints Row.

[2622] Strap it on.

[2623] What?

[2624] Strap it on.

[2625] That's their slogan.

[2626] That's like the last sentence in the paragraph of flavor text that is in that press release.

[2627] Strap it on.

[2628] Like, what?

[2629] Whoa.

[2630] Where did that come from?

[2631] What the fuck are you even talking about?

[2632] You left that line in there?

[2633] I thought we were going to cut that out.

[2634] That doesn't mean pick up a gun, guys.

[2635] Strap it on.

[2636] I know that you know that, but it doesn't even a little bit mean that.

[2637] Are there jetpacks?

[2638] There's no wink to that.

[2639] It means put on a fake dick.

[2640] Strap it on.

[2641] Just because it's got the word strap in it doesn't mean it also works for carrying guns.

[2642] So maybe that's the next press release.

[2643] That is single entendre.

[2644] The next release just says put on a fake dick.

[2645] That's a half entendre.

[2646] That's not even entendre.

[2647] It's just draw.

[2648] They're going worldwide with this baby.

[2649] Yeah, there's a big criminal, the fraternity, what is it called?

[2650] The syndicates?

[2651] Syndicates.

[2652] Keith David in it.

[2653] Imaginative.

[2654] Probably.

[2655] People have to be, right?

[2656] Or no, did he die?

[2657] I don't know what the canon is.

[2658] I don't remember.

[2659] I really haven't delved into the rich mythology of Saints Row.

[2660] Saints Row 2.

[2661] Is that a hot dog costume and go skydiving?

[2662] Saints Row 2 is a criminally underrated game.

[2663] I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it.

[2664] Can you surgically recreate your guy -girl hybrid?

[2665] Saints Row 2 was ridiculous.

[2666] It did everything open world games needed to do at that time.

[2667] I'm glad they made a conscious effort to differentiate themselves from GTA.

[2668] Yeah.

[2669] Into.

[2670] They did not make as good a game, but they arguably made a way more fun game than GTA 4.

[2671] But a different game.

[2672] It went in a completely different direction.

[2673] They're the people keeping the porch light on for San Andreas.

[2674] Sure, yeah.

[2675] It's like, all right, you're going to fucking go this crazy?

[2676] Well, guess what?

[2677] We're going to go beyond that.

[2678] We're sticking with it.

[2679] While you're going in the other direction, we're going to mine this for all it's got.

[2680] And now it seems like as they go on, with this game specifically, it seems like they're kind of spinning off of that, what they've done in the past, to do something even more different than what they've done.

[2681] I don't even know what to expect from it.

[2682] I don't know.

[2683] Saints Row 2, I couldn't get into it at all.

[2684] No?

[2685] Not at all.

[2686] I played the heck out of Saints Row 1, but then...

[2687] It was one of those things where I recognized it to be a better game, but had zero interest in playing it.

[2688] I just couldn't click.

[2689] I didn't play through the first answer.

[2690] I think I had a save game debacle.

[2691] I think I just got to a point where I was like, oh, I have to do all this side shit to do other stuff, and I don't want to do any of this side stuff.

[2692] I remember 2 being so much better about that than the first one.

[2693] It was better about it, but still...

[2694] If I'm remembering correctly, still very much rooted in that.

[2695] Like the first one really hit you over the head with it.

[2696] Yeah.

[2697] The second one was a little bit better.

[2698] But in this one, you know, it's like the quote from Bilson is like, you're not going to be delivering fucking pizzas.

[2699] Yeah.

[2700] Yeah.

[2701] You're not going to be strapping on fake dicks and fucking people with it.

[2702] Oh, wait.

[2703] Strapping on.

[2704] 2011.

[2705] What?

[2706] A fake dick.

[2707] You heard me. The one that's got the bulb that you can fill it with fluid and squeeze the bulb at the end.

[2708] You're getting all this, Nancy.

[2709] Write it down.

[2710] This is a press release.

[2711] Write it down.

[2712] This is good stuff.

[2713] Get Volition on the phone.

[2714] This is what we're doing.

[2715] Send it out.

[2716] Did you send it out?

[2717] Get Vigil working on the tech for this.

[2718] I strapped it on.

[2719] I don't know what you want me to do from here.

[2720] It has that recall thing working out.

[2721] I don't know what you were talking about, Jeff.

[2722] I see zero reference.

[2723] I'm not saying that you're wrong.

[2724] I just want to say I don't know what this is.

[2725] Are you looking at the press release?

[2726] What are you looking at?

[2727] I'm looking at our news story.

[2728] Okay, yeah.

[2729] Our news story probably just wouldn't verbatim contain.

[2730] Okay.

[2731] I would hope would not just verbatim contain the paragraph of text.

[2732] It does not.

[2733] From THQ.

[2734] But, yes, the paragraph of text that they issued.

[2735] All right.

[2736] I believe it.

[2737] I'm with you.

[2738] And I think even the subhead on the press release might have incorporated the term strap it on.

[2739] All right, I didn't get that pressure.

[2740] So expect a – Saints Row.

[2741] Wait, hold on.

[2742] No. Strap it on holiday 2011.

[2743] Saints Row the third.

[2744] The fuck are you talking about?

[2745] That's the subject line.

[2746] That's the headline for this press release.

[2747] Yep.

[2748] About Saints Row, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[2749] Strap it on.

[2750] Just plain no exclamation point.

[2751] Just, hey, guys, strap it on.

[2752] All right, I think we've given enough play that's strapping it on.

[2753] That's all the news I've got.

[2754] Let's talk some new releases this week.

[2755] U -Star 2 in the movies.

[2756] Oh, finally.

[2757] Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

[2758] Wait, when did U -Star come out?

[2759] The 70s.

[2760] It didn't involve a game console.

[2761] All right.

[2762] So now U -Star 2.

[2763] This is the one that you saw.

[2764] All right.

[2765] This is the one that you did, you and Brad did the fine acting.

[2766] The Klingon Empire will never yield.

[2767] Yeah, that's the one.

[2768] He's been working on it.

[2769] It's been pretty good.

[2770] Been workshopping.

[2771] Five hours a day staring in the mirror.

[2772] Strap it on.

[2773] Strap it on.

[2774] Strap it on.

[2775] Strap it on.

[2776] I don't believe it.

[2777] Strap it on.

[2778] He's strapping on forehead ridges, though, so I don't know if that's necessarily...

[2779] Dragon Age 2 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

[2780] But never mind that, gentlemen.

[2781] The $1 million pyramid is coming to the Nintendo Wii.

[2782] Who's putting it out?

[2783] $1 million?

[2784] $1 million pyramid.

[2785] That is a significantly pricier pyramid than I'm used to thinking about.

[2786] You tell me you've got a $100 ,000 pyramid, I'm like, let's go.

[2787] We'll strap it on.

[2788] You tell me you're going to strap on a million dollars to the top of this pyramid.

[2789] Let me make sure that's right.

[2790] No, it is right.

[2791] I looked at it earlier.

[2792] That is in fact.

[2793] All right.

[2794] That was not my favorite game show.

[2795] It seemed like a big one.

[2796] I liked it.

[2797] Pyramid's pretty good.

[2798] Pyramid's all right.

[2799] Pyramid's a lot like Match Game where you're watching it more for the celebrities.

[2800] Things that a shitty Wii game would say.

[2801] Strap it on.

[2802] That's the challenge.

[2803] I don't know how you translate this into a...

[2804] Video game.

[2805] You have fucking polygonal Brad Garrett sucking dick on the fucking screen.

[2806] Who would you even have on, like, what's the modern...

[2807] Who's doing?

[2808] Yeah.

[2809] Yeah, like, what's the most recent fucking pyramid incarnation?

[2810] Dick Clark.

[2811] Done.

[2812] Still?

[2813] No, I don't know.

[2814] I have no idea.

[2815] Tom Bergeron?

[2816] He hosts everything at one point, doesn't he?

[2817] Emilio Estevez.

[2818] Yeah, you know, Tom Bergeron definitely.

[2819] Oh, that's right.

[2820] John Davidson did it in the 90s as the $100 ,000 pyramid.

[2821] Donny Osmond is the most recent host.

[2822] Sure, that makes sense.

[2823] 2002, 2004.

[2824] But yeah, clearly Dick Clark being the go -to.

[2825] You can do a digi Dick Clark.

[2826] Get away with that.

[2827] It's kind of the only Dick Clark you could probably get away with at this point.

[2828] MLB 2011 The Show for PlayStation 3, PSP, and PlayStation 2.

[2829] That game's in 3D on one of those platforms.

[2830] Brian Wilson on the cover of that?

[2831] No. Okay.

[2832] No, no. He's doing 2K11.

[2833] He's doing 2K11.

[2834] Oh, wait.

[2835] The show is Sony's game.

[2836] But he's also not on the cover of 2K11.

[2837] No, he's also not the cover athlete.

[2838] He's just their hype man. Major League Baseball 2K11.

[2839] Oh, that one.

[2840] That one.

[2841] For Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, PSP, DS, Torchlight for $15 on XBLA, as we said.

[2842] Earlier, Test Yourself Psychology on the PlayStation Network as well as Ultimate Board Game Collection.

[2843] What company is that?

[2844] That's coming out on the PlayStation Network.

[2845] Whose board games, though?

[2846] Sorry.

[2847] The ultimate board games.

[2848] Strap them on.

[2849] It's reverse -y.

[2850] All right.

[2851] Chess.

[2852] All the free...

[2853] And Atari 2600 checkers.

[2854] It's going to be on there.

[2855] Yeah, whatever they have to pay licensing rights for.

[2856] And as we said earlier, Mortal Kombat demo coming to PlayStation plus members this week.

[2857] So...

[2858] Sign up if you don't have.

[2859] I hope that's got a week later for Nonplus.

[2860] It'll be out on the 15th, I guess, for regulars.

[2861] And then at some point in the future for 360 as well.

[2862] I wonder how many characters will be in that.

[2863] Probably four.

[2864] Kratos.

[2865] If I had to guess.

[2866] And three other guys.

[2867] I doubt.

[2868] Out of the demo?

[2869] Nope.

[2870] I don't think Kratos will be in the demo.

[2871] Oh, also out this week is that Luigi is missing.

[2872] Da Vinci's Disappearance.

[2873] Oh.

[2874] The DLC for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

[2875] You're telling me that...

[2876] I was like, is that some Nintendo points...

[2877] You gotta save up your...

[2878] Nintendo points to get Luigi is missing.

[2879] Don't let him get started.

[2880] The follow -up.

[2881] No, that's it.

[2882] That's out on both PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace this week.

[2883] You're right.

[2884] That is every video game.

[2885] It's out this week.

[2886] Bradley.

[2887] We took a vote and decided to start reading the Nintendo releases of this podcast again while you were gone.

[2888] Jeff, strap it on.

[2889] Because it's time for emails.

[2890] Emails, oh God, we have eight minutes.

[2891] Let's do this.

[2892] Heavy Fire Black Arms from Taylor.

[2893] BombCash at GiantBomb .com.

[2894] Set out on a dangerous campaign in South America in a continuation of the popular shooter Heavy Fire Special Operations.

[2895] It's okay, he's only robbing the users of their emails when people say, why don't I get my emails read on the show?

[2896] It's because Jeff is selfish.

[2897] Soccer Bashy.

[2898] First email, what are the Wii releases?

[2899] Stuart from Shropshire, England.

[2900] Oh, that's from Shropshire.

[2901] Then I'll bow down to Shropshire.

[2902] Hey, Bobcast.

[2903] Just wondering if there's been any word of Magicka being released on Xbox Live Arcade.

[2904] I've seen a few sites reporting it's happening, but nothing concrete.

[2905] Yeah, I saw a quote came out of those guys at GDC.

[2906] They would like to do it.

[2907] Do you think you could do that?

[2908] Do you think that game does?

[2909] Oh, you plug in a 360 controller and it's got 360 controller support in there.

[2910] That's all crazy nonsense.

[2911] But I just, I mean, I wonder for the spells.

[2912] It seems like there are way more spells.

[2913] You're right.

[2914] It doesn't seem like the optimum way to do it.

[2915] What's going on?

[2916] We have a company coming.

[2917] We have visitors on.

[2918] That's right.

[2919] Yeah.

[2920] Okay.

[2921] So we've heard maybe you think it could work.

[2922] They said they'd like to.

[2923] Okay.

[2924] Doesn't seem like the ideal way to do it.

[2925] Yeah.

[2926] My little brother played it with the 360 controller, so it wasn't fantastic, but doable.

[2927] Okay.

[2928] I just wasn't sure.

[2929] Jason Russell from Edinburgh, Scotland.

[2930] Edinburgh.

[2931] Scotland.

[2932] I was looking through the Xbox Live Marketplace for Mass Effect 2 DLC when I noticed that Metal Gear Rising was still a thing that exists.

[2933] Why do you think Microsoft and Kojima Productions have been so quiet about this since E3 TGS?

[2934] Do you think it's still being made or has it been quietly offed in a back alley somewhere?

[2935] Kojima kind of takes its time with its stuff.

[2936] Also, what does Microsoft have to do with it?

[2937] Aren't they a publishing partner on that?

[2938] No, isn't it?

[2939] It's coming out on them.

[2940] PS3 also, right?

[2941] I think they just happened to show it at their press conference last year.

[2942] In fact, yeah, it was before that break in the presentation where everything else is exclusive.

[2943] I guess there's nothing to say about it.

[2944] I expect it'll return in nearly finished form this E3 and be out later this year.

[2945] You'll cut watermelons in weird ways.

[2946] I'll buy that.

[2947] That sounds about right.

[2948] Kevin from Orem, Utah.

[2949] When StarCraft II was released at the price point generally reserved for console titles, I was...

[2950] When StarCraft II was released at the price point generally reserved for console titles, I was mildly perturbed but paid the $60 for this PC -only title anyway.

[2951] Now with the release of Dragon Age 2, we see the same $60 price point for both consoles and PCs.

[2952] I feel much more outrage and indignation about this because PC manufacturers are not taking a cut of the profits like Microsoft and Sony do when titles are released on their consoles.

[2953] I feel like I am, in essence, subsidizing a reduced price point for console owners by paying the same amount as they do.

[2954] Do you feel this?

[2955] Is it just a case of PC elitism on my part, or am I justified in my contempt of EA for this apparent slap in the face of two PC gamers?

[2956] Well, Bulletstorm was $60.

[2957] People proved with Black Ops, and I think maybe Modern Warfare 2 was this way.

[2958] Maybe not.

[2959] Black Ops was $60.

[2960] Yeah.

[2961] There's definitely been some games over the past year or two years, I guess, now that have tried to push it up to $60, and people bought them.

[2962] So here we are.

[2963] If you don't want this to happen, don't buy these games.

[2964] Vote with your dollars.

[2965] Also donate.

[2966] I don't think you can extrapolate it to be like, I'm somehow subsidizing console people and direct your hate there.

[2967] Direct it where it belongs.

[2968] The businessman trying to milk 10 extra dollars out of you.

[2969] Also keep in mind that Steam takes a cut.

[2970] So as digital sales increase more and more over boxed sales.

[2971] they are taking a hit there.

[2972] They're charging what the market will tolerate.

[2973] If the market will tolerate $60 PC games, they are going to charge $60 for those PC games.

[2974] Yeah, and also there's an abundance of PC games that come out at $20.

[2975] So I think overall we're still seeing a good variety of prices across that platform that you don't always get on consoles.

[2976] But it's been five, six years now since $60 has been the de facto starting price for console video games.

[2977] Yeah, you know, PC is just catching up with inflation.

[2978] Yeah, so if that is something that outrages you, don't write a podcast about it.

[2979] Just stop buying those games.

[2980] And if enough of you do that...

[2981] They'll stop making PC games.

[2982] Yeah, exactly.

[2983] Right, yeah.

[2984] Strap it on.

[2985] You're going to have to.

[2986] Or let them strap it on.

[2987] Sean from Kyoto, Japan.

[2988] After recently playing the 3DS here in Japan, I noticed the quality of the D -pad seems very cheap and of a bad quality.

[2989] I like that he really wanted to hammer it home.

[2990] This is a low -grade D -pad.

[2991] It's both cheap and bad and poor and cheap.

[2992] Then I thought about it and the last Nintendo system I remember having a comfortably sized rubber D -pad was the N64.

[2993] Have you noticed the dip in size and quality of the patented Nintendo D -pad?

[2994] It's certainly changed.

[2995] I don't know.

[2996] I haven't really had too much trouble with the DS D -pad or anything like that.

[2997] The classic controller D -pad is pretty good.

[2998] What do you think of the...

[2999] Like DS Lite to DSi.

[3000] There's a distinct change in the D -pad there.

[3001] Yeah.

[3002] DS Lite had more of a rocker.

[3003] Yeah.

[3004] I think it was actually scooped, wasn't it?

[3005] Maybe.

[3006] Weren't the edges a little higher?

[3007] I think so, yeah.

[3008] I can't remember.

[3009] Then the DSi went to that, I don't know what the term is, but there's very little action on it.

[3010] It's almost like a button press.

[3011] It's like a click kind of.

[3012] Yeah, it's a lot flatter.

[3013] It doesn't seem like it doesn't rise up out.

[3014] It's a lot more flush.

[3015] I haven't had a problem with any of them.

[3016] I think they're all fine.

[3017] I think I like the DS Lite one better.

[3018] The DSi one I'm not as much a fan of, but whatever.

[3019] They're functional.

[3020] Get her done.

[3021] Got to get the Max back in here.

[3022] Was that thumb slidey?

[3023] There'll be some third party that releases some sort of device that you can buy and strap it onto the 3DS for additional D -pad stuff if you want.

[3024] Just pick up your PSP.

[3025] That's basically a max.

[3026] Yeah.

[3027] Man, that thing sucked.

[3028] The Nesmex?

[3029] Yeah.

[3030] Did you play just on the black ring on the side?

[3031] You just used the black part as the defense.

[3032] I never owned one of my own.

[3033] It made no sense.

[3034] But it was one of those things.

[3035] Every time you come in contact with each other, you're like, why is this preferable?

[3036] I don't understand.

[3037] People are like, oh, it's so much better for ice hockey.

[3038] It's not like it suddenly had full analog control.

[3039] I had a Max and everybody else I knew had an advantage.

[3040] Oh, man. You loser.

[3041] Every time I went to somebody else's house.

[3042] Sucker.

[3043] Advantage was for the rich kids.

[3044] Advantage was dope.

[3045] I had an advantage and hated it also.

[3046] The buttons were huge.

[3047] It was nice for the turbo and the slow motion on games that you could pull that off on.

[3048] The buttons were so big.

[3049] They were bigger than $1 .5.

[3050] The joystick I thought on that thing was total shit.

[3051] I like the regular controller.

[3052] You could smack me with your fist.

[3053] Not really a lot of consumer choice back then.

[3054] No, not really.

[3055] Take what you could get.

[3056] It was that or something that was complete shit from ASCII.

[3057] Yeah.

[3058] Or something B. Some newbie.

[3059] No, not newbie.

[3060] Different.

[3061] Well, newbie was more Game Boy stuff.

[3062] Like actual picture of a B. All right.

[3063] Shaking your phone.

[3064] Brad, do you need to leave?

[3065] No, let's just finish this.

[3066] Okay.

[3067] Levi from Manitoba, Canada.

[3068] Bombcast Crew looking for you to settle a debate.

[3069] Is sack boy a sack shaped like a boy or a boy made out of sack?

[3070] You can't separate.

[3071] You can't take the sack out of the boy.

[3072] Is a boy made out of sack?

[3073] Or the boy from the...

[3074] I don't know.

[3075] So is he sack first or is he boy first?

[3076] Yeah, I think he's sack first.

[3077] No, that would be boy sack.

[3078] We don't talk about that.

[3079] That's a different thing.

[3080] Strap it on.

[3081] All right.

[3082] Last email here.

[3083] Comment from Christopher Milondo in New York City, NYC, representing.

[3084] Recently, there was an article where Epic stated that they had no interest in developing games for the Nintendo 3DS because their engine simply can't run on it due to hardware issues.

[3085] That said, the iPhone slash iPod Touch run the Unreal Engine and do it fine, which got me looking through the comments for some explanation as to why this is.

[3086] Most of the explanation said that the 3DS is in fact way less powerful than the modern smartphone, which blows my fucking mind.

[3087] Do you know if there is any fact to this?

[3088] And if so, can Nintendo justify someone spending $250 on a piece of hardware that can't compete with a $250 smartphone with so much more functionality?

[3089] Yeah, that is apparently exactly the case.

[3090] case yeah there's some quote came out of gdc that 3ds is basically on a par with the wii yeah like uh i think it was the the new lego pirates of the caribbean like they just took the wii version and ported it right over to the 3ds yeah whereas like these i was just talking to will about this was like the whatever the snapdragon cpus that are in current phones like the xperia play and and all that stuff like those arm chips are better and thus will hit whatever Epic's min -spec for Unreal Engine is, whereas the 3DS won't.

[3091] That doesn't mean you're going to see like, oh, obviously the graphics on these systems are going to be way, way, way better because it's all about how you use that power.

[3092] Same thing with a PC and 360, stuff like that, when you have an open platform and you're going to bring your phone game to whatever, or if you're just designing specifically for the 3DS, you can exploit the system, I assume.

[3093] I ain't no programmer.

[3094] PC is way more powerful than what's in the 360, but games still look pretty good on those systems.

[3095] For my part, I'll take a device that has proper game plan controls on it.

[3096] So, yeah, it's like the iPad may be technically way more powerful, and you look at Infinity Blade and stuff like that, and you look at it and go, okay, well, yeah, clearly it is, but that doesn't necessarily translate into games I want to play.

[3097] Cut that fruit.

[3098] Yeah, exactly.

[3099] Strapping on my fruit -cutting pants.

[3100] Boy sack.

[3101] All right, we're going to cut this one short, gents.

[3102] It's surprising, I know, but there's been a lot of podcasting, and there's going to be fucking even more of it soon.

[3103] Oh, God.

[3104] GG Series Horizontal Bar is out from Enterprise.

[3105] I have to go.

[3106] Yeah, we have to go.

[3107] We have to end this podcast.

[3108] There is a new type of action game that will have you swinging and jumping from bar to bar just like the parallel bars in gymnastics.

[3109] Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

[3110] Bombcast at giantbomb .com.

[3111] There will be no Thursday Night Throwdown this week because we're going to be in Boston for PAX East.

[3112] Do you got times and stuff for our stuff?

[3113] Yeah, give me a second.

[3114] Oh, I've got all sorts of stuff.

[3115] Friday night is the Giant Bomb PAX East panel, which...

[3116] I don't have the information for that off the top of my head.

[3117] Where is that?

[3118] PAX is sold out, though.

[3119] So if you're going to PAX, there will be a schedule.

[3120] I know.

[3121] Friday night at like 9 .30 or something like that.

[3122] Trying to make sure that people know where we are and what's going on.

[3123] Because I don't.

[3124] We'll be there.

[3125] Dave was talking about trying to rent out a bar.

[3126] What?

[3127] I forgot he's going to be there.

[3128] Come see Dave Snyder.

[3129] Yes, we're at 9 .30 p .m. Friday night is when our panel kicks off.

[3130] We are the last panel in that theater.

[3131] So guess what?

[3132] What?

[3133] Running long.

[3134] Yeah.

[3135] There will be some weird shit happening during that panel, so you don't want to miss that if you are going to PAX East.

[3136] They sold out?

[3137] I'm sure they're sold out of three -day passes.

[3138] They may still have some one -day passes left, but you can check that out.

[3139] It's like paxsite .com.

[3140] We're going to be stomping all over PAX East all Friday, Saturday, and maybe even a touch of Sunday.

[3141] So if you see us, come say hi.

[3142] Give Vinny a hug.

[3143] He'll need it.

[3144] Yeah, and he'll give you strep throat in return.

[3145] Exactly.

[3146] The gift that keeps on giving.

[3147] Strap it on.

[3148] The Giant Bombcast.