Giant Bombcast 05-24-2011

[0] Tuesday, May the 24th, 2011.

[1] You are listening to The Giant Bobcast.

[2] I'm Ryan Davis.

[3] Joining me in the room, here in the zone, it's the no -spin zone, Mr. Vinny Caravella.

[4] Spinning.

[5] No, stop spinning that chair.

[6] I'm rolling.

[7] Jeff Gershman back from Los Angeles, which is the all -spin zone.

[8] Put it in the food zone.

[9] And Brad Shoemaker futzing with his phone.

[10] I'm going to put it down now.

[11] Let's do this.

[12] Let's get down into business.

[13] He's trying to buy Pac -Man Championship Edition DX.

[14] Oh, is that out?

[15] For his Windows Phone 7.

[16] Is that out?

[17] To be fair, I assume that he is making E3 appointments so he can keep that phone up for the entire podcast as far as I'm concerned.

[18] Actually, now I'm looking at Pac -Man Championship Edition DX.

[19] This podcast is over.

[20] $7, really?

[21] What?

[22] $7?

[23] Is it at least DX?

[24] It is DX.

[25] I'd get blown for $7.

[26] What?

[27] What?

[28] Like, poorly.

[29] Wait.

[30] Why would I buy that when I could...

[31] Wow.

[32] Yeah.

[33] Why are you clipping so much?

[34] Why are the mics so hot?

[35] Because Vinny wanted hot mics.

[36] Why would I buy a $7 version of Pac -Man when I can get Fable Coin Golf for $4 .99?

[37] I think you answered your own question right there.

[38] Or a bunch of game room.

[39] Wait, Jeff, what can I get for $4 .99?

[40] You don't want to know.

[41] It's a dirty look.

[42] Is this?

[43] That penny makes all the difference.

[44] Yeah, all those game room games started coming out on the phone also.

[45] Yeah, here's Luter, Luterlander, Pitfall.

[46] What are they, three bucks a piece?

[47] You've been using that Windows Phone 7 phone.

[48] It's a dumb term to call it, but I'm not going to call it that Windows Phone 7.

[49] Windows Phone 7.

[50] No, because Windows Phone 7 is like the platform.

[51] That is a different phone.

[52] You can use that Samsung.

[53] Yes, this is a Samsung Focus.

[54] Focus?

[55] Yes.

[56] So it is a Windows Phone 7 phone.

[57] Yes.

[58] Yeah, that's correct.

[59] Or handset.

[60] Is that what we like to call it?

[61] Yeah, that's what we like to call it.

[62] We like to call it a handset.

[63] I like to call it a handset.

[64] You like to call it a handset.

[65] How has your experience been with that Windows Phone 7 handset?

[66] It's okay.

[67] By default, it's faster and I guess therefore better than my iPhone 3G because my iPhone 3G is ancient.

[68] Unusable.

[69] That's true.

[70] As Vinny knows.

[71] Yeah, they are.

[72] If you're up and you've got an iPad 2 and now he's just using that as though it was his iPhone.

[73] It doesn't work when I hold it up.

[74] No. It's my ear.

[75] It's no good for talking on the phone.

[76] I put Skype on that thing and you're probably good to go.

[77] It's only Wi -Fi.

[78] I haven't bought any games on this thing and I probably should have to get the full Windows Phone experience.

[79] Windows Phone 7.

[80] Yes.

[81] Windows Phone 7 handset experience.

[82] It's hard to buy games for a phone that you have to give back eventually.

[83] It was like Windows Mobile before, right?

[84] Yeah, it was Windows Mobile 6 .5.

[85] Windows Mobile, or I think Winmo, as some people around here would call it.

[86] Sure, I've never heard it said out loud, but I've definitely seen Winmo written on tech blogs.

[87] That was way more like a business -focused thing, right?

[88] Sure.

[89] Yeah, yeah.

[90] That was for getting exchange support on your handset.

[91] Your Palm Treo had Winmo on it.

[92] My Palm Treo didn't.

[93] Harbormaster?

[94] You hacked it to put Ubuntu on yours.

[95] That's right.

[96] No, Kubuntu.

[97] I wanted a different front end.

[98] Your handset.

[99] It's the one with KDE.

[100] Yes.

[101] I see.

[102] I just found the name Windows Phone 7 weird.

[103] Before Brad had that phone, I had it over around Christmas.

[104] And I bought a bunch of games on it.

[105] And now I keep wanting Brad to stop using the phone so that I can start using it again.

[106] Specifically because I bought all those goddamn games on it.

[107] How much money would you say you spent on Windows Phone 7 games?

[108] Probably like $15 or something.

[109] Like $20 maybe.

[110] I don't know.

[111] I was trying to see if this thing was going to matter and if we should care about it for coverage.

[112] So I went and bought a bunch of games.

[113] Got a bunch of dumbass mobile games and got real -ass achievement points out of it.

[114] So that kind of felt good.

[115] But then I was like, how did...

[116] This Crackdown game is garbage.

[117] I don't want to play this.

[118] Will has another Windows Phone 7.

[119] He keeps threatening to bring it in so that I can play my games on it.

[120] So play your games on that and I'll continue not really liking this phone.

[121] There are new things branded Game Room coming out on it and I feel this weird twitch every time one of them comes out.

[122] Is one of them Sunset Riders?

[123] No!

[124] Yeah, I didn't think so.

[125] It's never coming out.

[126] It'll come out.

[127] It's never coming out, Jeff.

[128] Sunset Riders is never coming out.

[129] How awesome is that?

[130] Wait till E3.

[131] Yeah, I was going to say E3 is just right in the corner.

[132] If there was any kind of game room initiative at E3.

[133] When they announced their big classics initiative and the first game out is Sunset Riders.

[134] I'm saying that Microsoft has lost E3.

[135] I know we don't like using those terms, but.

[136] What if they come out on a horse?

[137] All right.

[138] If Jay Allard comes out on a fucking horse.

[139] At the start of the Microsoft press conference.

[140] You're just stacking this to make this even more impossible.

[141] Is he going to come out and lead?

[142] Then they win!

[143] He's going to come out and say, I'm back to lead the tribe.

[144] He's out to lead his tribe to the promised land.

[145] That's right.

[146] On a horse!

[147] And to begin with, sunset riding.

[148] I would follow Jay Allard anywhere.

[149] That's right.

[150] Even to a burger place in Seattle.

[151] You didn't see that.

[152] You were gone last week.

[153] I was gone last week.

[154] Someone took a commando picture of Jay Allard at a burger place in the Seattle area.

[155] And then sent it to us?

[156] Yeah.

[157] I love that we get these.

[158] This is not the first time someone has sent spy photos of Jay Allard to us.

[159] Jay Allard.

[160] So they didn't make it up on the site?

[161] Is that on the Jay Allard page?

[162] Probably.

[163] I haven't looked at it, but yeah.

[164] Is anyone at all surprised that he eats meat?

[165] No. You couldn't see him being a vegetarian?

[166] I could, but no. He needs the protein.

[167] For that muscle mass. I don't think he's a particular...

[168] He's not very well built.

[169] To go snowboarding as often as he does.

[170] He was clearly in a, like, post -snowboarding look of, like, scruffy beard with a weird tan line around the eyes.

[171] He had, uh, yeah.

[172] That's sounding Michael Stipe -esque.

[173] You know what?

[174] When you describe it to me?

[175] Yeah, yeah.

[176] Yeah, kinda.

[177] Kinda.

[178] Not as gaunt.

[179] Okay.

[180] But, yeah, a little Stipe -y.

[181] Like a healthy Michael Stipe.

[182] A healthier Stipe.

[183] Yeah, sure.

[184] We're all looking for a healthy Stipe.

[185] Michael Stipe?

[186] Yeah.

[187] Okay.

[188] R .E .M.'s still kicking around.

[189] They're still a band.

[190] Really?

[191] Vic Caravilla, how you doing?

[192] I'm doing all right.

[193] Fantastic.

[194] I had this crazy thing.

[195] I think it must have been my wife or somebody.

[196] I had a dinner with some friends last night, and somebody was talking about E3.

[197] And I was like, yeah.

[198] And they're like, yeah.

[199] So that's like, what are you doing this Friday?

[200] Because it's pretty much like the weekend after that.

[201] And I was like, what?

[202] That's not true.

[203] And then the sudden, like, flop sweats.

[204] I'm like, oh, my God, really?

[205] Like, checking my watch, checking calendars.

[206] Is it really that soon?

[207] Holy cow.

[208] It really is.

[209] Yeah.

[210] It's, like, less than two weeks.

[211] But I don't think of it like that.

[212] I think there's this Friday and then by next Friday we're pretty much leaving for E3.

[213] Right.

[214] I'm definitely leaving.

[215] That's my flight is that Friday.

[216] So I'm getting ready.

[217] Now I'm kind of in like the E3 mode.

[218] And so that's terrible for work because that means like everything else suddenly just takes a back seat.

[219] And it's like all I can see is E3 like right there.

[220] And it's like, well, we still have a ton of other stuff to do.

[221] There's a bunch of other work that needs to get done.

[222] And it's just like flying by me. We'll get it done.

[223] We'll get it done.

[224] E3.

[225] And then once that's over, it just starts.

[226] about the next E3.

[227] Yeah.

[228] Yeah, it's hard to not just immediately start thinking about, oh, like in a year we're going to have to do this again.

[229] Oh, it's not that hard, but it's hard for me to focus on what needs to be done and I just want to go to E3.

[230] You just want to pull that Band -Aid off.

[231] No, it's not even a Band -Aid.

[232] I'm kind of excited for E3 this year.

[233] I like our housing arrangement.

[234] Once that stuff all starts working out, it starts to get more exciting.

[235] Once the pieces start falling into place.

[236] Once you get some of the core logistics out of the way, you can actually start thinking about the show and not just the...

[237] Oh, God, are we going to even make it there?

[238] Right.

[239] And, like, do we have enough gear?

[240] And do we have all this stuff?

[241] Because, like, you know, E3 is what it is.

[242] And by the end of it, you've seen a lot of cool stuff.

[243] You're really tired.

[244] But you do see a lot of awesome stuff.

[245] And this year, I think, is shaping up to be a big question mark.

[246] And I'm kind of glad to see the motion stuff not popping up in weird ways.

[247] I haven't seen a lot of, like, invitations to be like, come on to our Move event or our Connect event.

[248] Or even, like, Nintendo is going to have something different that might not be.

[249] Oh, right, the Move.

[250] Yeah.

[251] So, like, for me, E3 last year was, like, just getting ready, shielding myself for all, like, the motion stuff.

[252] And that's kind of what E3 last year sticks in my mind.

[253] And none of that really panned out.

[254] So this year...

[255] Well, I mean, it panned out fine.

[256] And K 'Nex sold well.

[257] K 'Nex sold well.

[258] Sure.

[259] We'll see if there are games.

[260] Right.

[261] So this year, I'm really curious to see how it all goes.

[262] I think it's going to be some awesome games there.

[263] Jeff, how's it going to go?

[264] It's going to go all right.

[265] There will be some awesome games there.

[266] But you're not going to see any of them because I already saw them.

[267] Sorry.

[268] But I think hopefully my goal for this E3 is to be really excited about the coming where video games are going.

[269] The next six months.

[270] Whereas last year I left E3 with a kind of like dark heart being like, I don't want to play games anymore.

[271] All this motion stuff is a real big bummer.

[272] This isn't what I signed up for.

[273] No, let's just get through this.

[274] Close your eyes.

[275] Wake me up when we're past, like, Ohio.

[276] And, like, I'll wake back up and let's play some more games.

[277] So now I'm excited again.

[278] Did you play some games?

[279] I played L .A. Noire, which is a...

[280] You played the dinner party game?

[281] Noire?

[282] Is that L .A. Noire?

[283] Oh, dinner?

[284] Your dinner party game.

[285] Dinner was fun.

[286] I went to House of Prime Rib.

[287] Nice.

[288] Yeah.

[289] Frank Adams.

[290] A little hopper.

[291] Yeah, it's good.

[292] Oh, okay, good.

[293] You can hang out with Frank.

[294] I'm just wondering, who are you hanging out with that they're talking about E3?

[295] That's never a good sign.

[296] Jay Allard.

[297] He's like, I've got to get on this horse.

[298] And then you lean over and go, I think this guy behind us is taking a picture of you.

[299] Smile.

[300] Yeah, that was good.

[301] That was fun.

[302] L .A. Noire, did you finish it?

[303] That was also good.

[304] No, the game is long, Brad.

[305] That game is long.

[306] I thought I was chewing through it and I just made it past the homicide desk.

[307] Really?

[308] Which is a weird staggering in that game because it's like you go from out.

[309] Traffic is, well, if you start off on the beat and that's just tutorial stuff, then traffic is super quick.

[310] Traffic is super quick.

[311] Three cases.

[312] It's pretty fast.

[313] Homicide goes for a long time.

[314] I'm still neck deep in homicide right now.

[315] Homicide is definitely the longest desk in the game.

[316] Oh, is it?

[317] Okay.

[318] That's not to say that you're close to the end at all.

[319] So it's weird.

[320] So you go from homicide to vice, which seems like a step down in terms of movement within a police force.

[321] You think homicide would be if somebody dies, you're on the case.

[322] Vice is like liquor and gambling and all that stuff, right?

[323] Drugs, prostitution, yeah.

[324] I would...

[325] I have no idea how police forces work, especially how police forces work in the 40s.

[326] That's a good question.

[327] Is there any difference between vice and advice?

[328] Because they call it advice in the game.

[329] Advice is when someone asks you, like, is this guy dead?

[330] Hey, how do I?

[331] How come I can't date girls?

[332] Should I take these drugs?

[333] And then he says, yeah.

[334] And then you've got to call vice.

[335] Yep.

[336] Yeah, I noticed that.

[337] I thought vice, I don't know how it's named, but I thought vice was like the vice squad for, like, these are vices.

[338] That was my assumption.

[339] And then they started calling it Advice.

[340] So did you get into Vice at all?

[341] I just started and then I turned it off.

[342] Vice is fun because it's in Hollywood for one thing.

[343] So that's where all the extra sleazebags are.

[344] Okay.

[345] But yeah, it's all kinds of hooking and drug running and mob stuff.

[346] I'm sure people die though.

[347] Yeah.

[348] So that's not homicide?

[349] Call homicide.

[350] Well, so it's funny, actually.

[351] You just probably had a jurisdictional arguing over whose case it is.

[352] It gets into that because coming straight from homicide, like, you start occasionally when, you know, the basis of the case is, like, you know, drugs or the mob or whatever.

[353] But then somebody dies.

[354] Then like people you knew from the homicide department come in.

[355] They're like, all right, this is our case now.

[356] And there's like, yeah, there's a little bit of like infighting.

[357] It's pretty awesome.

[358] You see a little bit of that even when you're on homicide, like the last homicide case when Vice swoops in.

[359] Yeah.

[360] So you start seeing that stuff pretty early on.

[361] But I do appreciate sticking with a partner for all those cases because I like that partner relationship where you just start to get to know each other.

[362] Yeah, get to know each other, Rusty.

[363] I could not wait to get rid of Galloway.

[364] I fucking hated that guy.

[365] Which one?

[366] I got to know Rusty.

[367] Rusty Galloway is the homicide partner.

[368] Yeah, but you didn't grow to kind of...

[369] That guy's a dick.

[370] He's your partner, though.

[371] What are you going to do?

[372] He is kind of a dick.

[373] I grew to like him, though.

[374] Yeah, I liked having him by my side.

[375] I liked being the good cop, bad cop.

[376] He's a poor lawman.

[377] He is a terrible lawman.

[378] But he's a pretty good partner.

[379] He's a good, bad cop.

[380] He's the guy that you want there to talk about how he's going to break that guy's fucking jaw if he doesn't give him an answer.

[381] But that's not even the guy.

[382] In the first place.

[383] That's the problem.

[384] Well, homicide's a real beat, man. He doesn't even care if he's got the right guy or not.

[385] Did you ever strand your partner?

[386] Did you ever not wait for him to get back to the car?

[387] Yeah, they'll just warp to where you are and then yell at you.

[388] Oh, really?

[389] Oh, did you get yelled at?

[390] Oh, yeah.

[391] He's like, do that fucking one more time.

[392] I didn't notice that.

[393] Well, here's the thing is I never drive.

[394] I never.

[395] I drove everywhere.

[396] I never drive.

[397] I go back and forth.

[398] I always make them drive.

[399] So one time I got, you know, leaving a location, got into the car.

[400] I was like, yeah, you drive.

[401] And I was sitting there for like five minutes.

[402] And I don't know, dude got stuck on something, didn't make it, couldn't find his way out.

[403] I don't know.

[404] The only time I've had that happen.

[405] I had that happen.

[406] Yeah, that's when I stranded him.

[407] All right, I guess I'm going to drive this time.

[408] I get to the location and then.

[409] Like, as I'm getting out of the car, he's in the car somehow.

[410] And I'm like, oh, okay, well.

[411] Apparently there are all kinds of technical problems that I didn't run into.

[412] I mean, aside from, like, the crashing and the overheating is, like, the headline thing.

[413] For sure.

[414] I've read all these anecdotes about, like, some guy said he was investigating a house and then all of a sudden his car was in the living room.

[415] That's funny.

[416] And stuff like that.

[417] That seems like it warrants investigation.

[418] You should look into that.

[419] That's traffic.

[420] I really didn't run into any of that stuff.

[421] It's crazy.

[422] I've run into a few weird things here and there, but nothing that's really ruined my life.

[423] I'm actually really, really enjoying that game.

[424] It's a great game.

[425] Bad traffic behavior has been the oddest thing that I've seen in the world.

[426] Like guys turning into you?

[427] A guy straight into me, or just when I'm having my partner drive, and it's during a dialogue sequence, sometimes their choices are a little crazy.

[428] My second time through, I've been driving less, just because I did it all the first time.

[429] And you're right, Galloway actually was driving in the last case I played.

[430] He straight rear -ended the guy in front of him at the red light, and immediately reversed and ran into the guy behind him, and then drove forward again.

[431] Do they ever address that?

[432] No. No, there's no like, okay, this guy hit a cop car, let's get out here.

[433] When you're driving, they do.

[434] Yeah, when you're driving, if you do stuff like that, yeah, they'll get on your ass.

[435] For everything.

[436] But when they're driving...

[437] Even if someone runs into you, like you're saying cars turn into you or whatever, it seems like that should be...

[438] They always blame it on you.

[439] But it seems like the sort of thing where you should just be able to jump out of the car and arrest that dude.

[440] What the fuck are you doing?

[441] If you put the siren on, they'll kind of get out of your way a lot better.

[442] But that's not even why you're out there.

[443] You aren't beat cop anymore.

[444] That's for an officer.

[445] Yeah, I just flee the scene.

[446] Yeah, which is why you just beat the crap out of the guy.

[447] Like any good cop would.

[448] No, it really does a pretty good job of making you not want to drive like a jerk.

[449] By dinging you for points.

[450] That's the best practical reason not to drive.

[451] But also, guys will kind of jump out of the way as you're driving.

[452] I don't know.

[453] They do a good job of making the atmosphere where you don't want to do it.

[454] You just don't want to drive on the sidewalk, even if it's the shortest way to go.

[455] You're a fucking G -man.

[456] You couldn't be more tight -wound and straight and narrow.

[457] You're kind of an asshole.

[458] And kind of a dick about it.

[459] about following the rules.

[460] It's so not that character to just go plow through pedestrians.

[461] I feel bad every time I have to do it.

[462] They also make the pedestrians a lot more nimble than they are in GTA, so they get out of your way a lot better.

[463] I will say this about that game, though.

[464] When you play it for stretches, I think that's a game that is probably best played in little short case things.

[465] You play it for a bit, especially if you're doing a lot of the side stuff, that game becomes a lot of just drain pipes.

[466] You're constantly just running up drain pipes to chase people down.

[467] The side cases are basically two things.

[468] One is a shootout, and you just kind of pull up, and it's like, guys are inside.

[469] And they set it up with a nice story and everything.

[470] The setups for those things are actually better than they should be.

[471] Yeah, they're nice.

[472] And they set them up, and they get you in the action really quickly.

[473] But it's just shootout, right?

[474] You kill three dudes.

[475] Or it's like, chase this dude and climb a drain pipe.

[476] It's either like an on -foot chase.

[477] Sometimes it's a car chase.

[478] Yeah, sometimes it's a car chase.

[479] Or rooftop chase, yeah.

[480] Yeah, maybe there are three.

[481] I should say the third one's probably the car chase.

[482] But at some point I was just like sitting next to my wife and she's like, is this a drainpipe one?

[483] I was like, yeah, it's a drainpipe one.

[484] Because it's just like shoot me up the drainpipe, chase the guy down.

[485] Sometimes you tackle him.

[486] But they decide.

[487] I like a good tackle.

[488] They decide whether you're going to tackle, shoot a guy, like when you're chasing him, pull out your gun or shoot him.

[489] So you can't pull out your gun any time and do that kind of halt thing.

[490] It has to be part of the mission.

[491] Like the warning shot stuff.

[492] Yeah.

[493] Because at first I was like, man, I'm just kidding.

[494] I'm killing everybody.

[495] I hope I'm not doing this wrong.

[496] But I think it was just the side missions I was getting.

[497] But that game, it's captivating.

[498] I don't know, something about it really is sucking me into its whole atmosphere.

[499] It's just such an elaborately detailed world.

[500] There's so much there to see and get your hands on and just really get down and dirty with.

[501] Yeah, I really, really am enjoying it.

[502] I actually really like the mechanics of the puzzle solving, too.

[503] The false clues maybe are a little annoying once in a while.

[504] I'll pick up every little bottle, but they'll tell you usually right away when they're like, this ain't what you're looking for.

[505] I've gotten better.

[506] My pro tip is...

[507] Skip the bottles.

[508] Well, skip bottles.

[509] Hairbrushes.

[510] Skip hairbrushes.

[511] Always pick up picture frames.

[512] A picture frame will always be a significant clue of some kind.

[513] And if you flip it over, all the better.

[514] Also, always look at newspapers.

[515] I don't know if we had this conversation last time or two weeks ago about feeling kind of like you'd get ahead of the game in terms of clues and stuff like that.

[516] And you're right, you don't.

[517] The character seems smart enough to be putting together stuff as you're putting it together.

[518] Which is, in fact, smarter than everyone around him in some cases.

[519] But not so much where you're making logical leaps that don't make sense.

[520] And I really feel like there's never a case where...

[521] I want the guy to say something that he won't say.

[522] Like, oh, man, all the evidence points to this.

[523] Just have this line of dialogue.

[524] And I feel like that doesn't come up.

[525] If anything, it just remains so gray until certain points where you're just never even quite sure if this is the guy I should be convicting or not.

[526] But let's just get him in the – my chief really wants a conviction.

[527] So let's pull the trigger on this.

[528] Particularly when you're going through all the Dahlia stuff.

[529] Yeah.

[530] Particularly, like, that whole string.

[531] Sword of Justice swings fast and hard.

[532] Oh, I love him.

[533] I love the captain for Homicide.

[534] Godsmill grinds slowly, but he grinds finely.

[535] Young Phelps.

[536] He's got so many amazing, like, biblical retribution references in everything that he says.

[537] Yeah.

[538] It's a real story.

[539] Have you gotten a really bad rating on Homicide where he chews you out?

[540] Yes.

[541] Oh, my God.

[542] I did.

[543] It's terrible.

[544] I felt awful.

[545] The dressing down you get from that man. Oh, my God.

[546] So I was afraid that it was actually going to have a material impact.

[547] Because he pretty much tells you, or he told me, he's like, you two go out there and bust street crimes until you're in my good graces enough to get a proper case.

[548] And I thought, oh, shit.

[549] Did I fuck that case up so bad that I'm literally going to have to go grind out some open world stuff?

[550] Because I had not done any of those.

[551] Oh, the side missions?

[552] Yeah, because I'm never driving, so I'm never seeing them.

[553] Because I don't want that game to be open world.

[554] Well, you can just pick those up later on, the free roam stuff, if you want to.

[555] No, no, I know.

[556] I know there's other ways, but while I'm playing the story, I don't want to fuck around with this other stuff.

[557] I'm on a case.

[558] I should go take care of it.

[559] Have you ever just hit the power or done the quit?

[560] One time.

[561] When you just know you fucked this up so bad?

[562] Well, actually, one time because I accidentally hit the restart option, which actually restarts the case, and I was able to kill it before the restart.

[563] Affected the save.

[564] But you never did it just because you're blown in an interrogation so badly.

[565] Well, I mean, I hit restart because I had already blown that interrogation.

[566] So this was compounded.

[567] It's a very good game to live with your consequences, but there has definitely been once or twice where I'm just like, I'm fucking this up so badly.

[568] I've got all this evidence.

[569] I'm really good at collecting evidence, but I'm terrible at interrogating.

[570] And it took me a while.

[571] I would say a tip, and maybe you guys can back this up.

[572] It took me a while to realize what lied out.

[573] and truth really mean in terms of the gameplay mechanic.

[574] Like, what's the difference between doubting somebody and lying?

[575] And lie, they make pretty quick.

[576] Lie, you have to have evidence to back it up.

[577] Because, like, you know, some of them are hard where you're, like, the body cues on some of them are great and so over the top.

[578] You get the shifty dude who just literally starts looking side to side and, like, up and down.

[579] But some of them are not.

[580] Later on in the game, they absolutely don't telegraph.

[581] the answer through the body movement.

[582] Yeah, so a lot of times I just want to doubt it and then you get that bad music and you're like, oh man. Oh man, I just came to live in fear of the four notes wrong answer jingle.

[583] I was just like, ugh.

[584] I still haven't decoded those.

[585] I now know when to listen to the you have all of the evidence music cue.

[586] Oh, when the music stops.

[587] There's that little horn build.

[588] The right answer is like two notes and ends with a little chord.

[589] It's like ding, ding.

[590] Yeah.

[591] Yeah, but the wrong music answer is so bad.

[592] And when you get, like, two of those in a row, it's just heartbreaking.

[593] Crapping this up.

[594] I think the wrong answer one is in, like, a minor key, actually.

[595] You definitely know you got it wrong.

[596] It definitely has, like, kind of an unpleasant sound to it.

[597] It's just like, oh, fuck.

[598] One criticism I will say to that game is the performances are so good.

[599] And when you get people that are really going at it, and you get those weird characters that you're like, I know this.

[600] God, from something.

[601] Yeah, that game is just thick with character actors.

[602] But you get really good performances, and when you get a guy going and they start yelling at each other, it's really good.

[603] But then since you can choose the questions in any order, the next question can't start on that kind of high tone of them yelling at each other.

[604] So they'll be screaming at each other, and then the next question will be like, well, so tell me about this other thing.

[605] There could be hard swings.

[606] Yeah, but overall I think it's pretty awesome and pretty convincing in terms of what they've been able to do with, which essentially is like an FMV game done in real time.

[607] You're basically choosing, it could be FMV sequences that paused and you're like, truth lied out.

[608] And you're like, okay.

[609] But doing an FMV game of this scale would be prohibitive for all kinds of reasons.

[610] I don't know.

[611] I don't know what it took for them to get all that.

[612] But I'm talking about in terms of like the amount of video you would need on the disc and how long it would take to produce all of it.

[613] It's more of a concern of like then you can't have action sequences.

[614] Then you can't have stuff that isn't just entirely.

[615] Yeah, I'm not saying it is an FMV game.

[616] Bust out that Cinepak codec.

[617] Get it down to eight colors.

[618] Fits right on two Sega CD discs.

[619] But I mean like 15 years ago this would have been done in FMV.

[620] this quality, and it's great that they can do it without it, and it is completely convincing, and really, hats off to that team.

[621] Still completely, yeah, still, you know, whatever I am, six hours in, eight hours in.

[622] It never gets old.

[623] Yeah, completely, like, still every single time, like, that's a real person!

[624] Look at that guy's actual face!

[625] Look at how he's emoting!

[626] Yeah, I like it a lot.

[627] It's because you realize how...

[628] how managed your expectations are as far as facial animations go in video games.

[629] When you see that stuff, you're like, oh, wow.

[630] What I accept for facial animation in most games is so far below what they pull off here.

[631] And granted, they can only do it because of the technology, but it's...

[632] Incredible.

[633] It's mind -blowing.

[634] I did have...

[635] There's a user on the site who is also a game developer who chimed in about...

[636] Vinny, read the one last week that was asking about if they could apply this technology to unrealistic characters.

[637] If you could do an alien or something like that with this.

[638] This guy's take is that...

[639] they're generating the actual 3D model of the person's head from all this data.

[640] So if they're going to do like an alien or something like that, they would have to go in there with like the facial prosthetics and the makeup on to look like.

[641] Oh, wow, really?

[642] You can't do it after the fact?

[643] Well, maybe.

[644] I'm sure they could probably modify the prosthetics to do some kind of hybrid.

[645] I think the point is that you don't need the level of technology that they have to do what you want to do.

[646] Well, it's the fidelity.

[647] Like when you're talking to those people, there are great things of like, you know, eyebrows move and cheeks and stuff like that.

[648] For me, it's always the forehead creases.

[649] Yeah, because you can never do that.

[650] That and certain kind of asymmetrical mouth movements.

[651] I don't know how they do it.

[652] I guess they put out enough videos where I could probably look it up.

[653] You know exactly how they do it.

[654] How do they do it?

[655] They take pictures.

[656] It's too high -definition cameras.

[657] Yeah, I was going to say, I could just watch those making eyes.

[658] I kind of don't want to ruin the magic, though.

[659] I skipped all those.

[660] You know what?

[661] It's still completely impressive.

[662] It doesn't matter.

[663] It's still totally impressive.

[664] Because, again, it touches a part of your brain that is basically subconscious.

[665] It doesn't matter how they get...

[666] The result.

[667] It's doing it.

[668] When you see it in action.

[669] And it's still impressive to think, well, that guy was just sitting with a smock on in this weird white clean room with 32 high -definition cameras pointing at him.

[670] How did they then convincingly bolt that head onto this dude and make it move around?

[671] And get those people to put on good, realistic performances in that weird clean room situation.

[672] That's the part.

[673] That's me. Being able to coax those performances out of people.

[674] A huge testament to, you know, the quality of the actors that they got.

[675] And I have to imagine, you know, the direction they were being given there.

[676] Because, yeah, that seems like a wildly uncomfortable place to try and, like, put in performances like that.

[677] And the other part I think we may have mentioned.

[678] Especially since you were never playing against anyone else.

[679] Like, you're in that room doing that performance.

[680] You know, I don't know that you've even met these other actors.

[681] But you're still able to.

[682] I think the dude from Heroes was in there.

[683] Play off each other.

[684] Yeah, there's a bunch of dudes.

[685] Greg Grunberg.

[686] Yeah.

[687] Yeah, the part that is consistently also...

[688] Angel from Dexter.

[689] Oh, that's so amazing.

[690] Really?

[691] Yeah.

[692] Wait a minute.

[693] He's a bartender.

[694] Oh, wait, it's coming to me. Yeah, he's a bartender.

[695] Oh, fuck, yeah.

[696] Yeah.

[697] Shit.

[698] Yeah.

[699] You would think, like, on a first outing with this, you'd run into, like, five characters.

[700] Like, we're breaking this technology.

[701] It's really hard to do.

[702] But there are so many people.

[703] It's crazy.

[704] It's on and on and on.

[705] There's just everybody.

[706] I'll tell you what's weird, though.

[707] Our kids.

[708] Still a little weird.

[709] Kids don't work right.

[710] Kids and teens don't work quite right.

[711] The casting couch girl was pretty effective.

[712] She was good.

[713] There was a daughter.

[714] I don't know which one it is.

[715] She's weird.

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

[717] I suspected her.

[718] I'm like, you're weird.

[719] I think it might be you.

[720] Also, that game's really dark.

[721] That is some dark shit.

[722] I don't know if it gets darker in Vice than it did in Homicide, but that is...

[723] At some point, though, in the Homicide, I was like, okay, it's just always...

[724] There's a lot of dead, naked women in L .A. Less macabre, more...

[725] Seedy?

[726] Sinister.

[727] Okay.

[728] Maybe.

[729] Just some real...

[730] It's real dark stuff going on.

[731] A lot of violence against women in that game.

[732] Every time you get up on a suspect, you've got to touch their head and then turn it over.

[733] It's a vast, broad underbelly in the 40s.

[734] I guess it's kind of the trade -off with the realistic faces that when they just look...

[735] beat up and massacred, they also look kind of realistic.

[736] So you're just like, eww.

[737] Black eyes and swollen and bloated corpses.

[738] It's the hands that always get me. It's the part I don't care.

[739] Oh, with the rings are missing.

[740] Oh, the rings are missing.

[741] I don't like that part at all.

[742] Yeah.

[743] It's kind of gross.

[744] Think of just all that skin tearing and what you're seeing there.

[745] It's gnarly.

[746] Homicide is interesting because it's kind of a self -contained story arc. It wraps up pretty much.

[747] Is that unique to the rest of it?

[748] I thought I would keep going for the rest of it.

[749] That's like a natural break point.

[750] That's the intermission.

[751] I like that the action is very fast as well.

[752] Is that the disc change?

[753] There's one before then.

[754] PS3 also does have some weird streaming and stuff when you're driving around.

[755] A little bit, yeah.

[756] I was driving real fast in one of those cars, and all of a sudden it crashed into an invisible wall, and I was like, what happened?

[757] Then suddenly it drew in the barriers.

[758] The PS3 version is by no means without fault, but it's still better than the other one.

[759] It runs better than the 360 version.

[760] More so than I was anticipating.

[761] It's kind of sad.

[762] The only thing I was going to say about where you're at now is that you're moving into a part of the game that starts to tie up the little newspaper cutscenes and the flashbacks between cases that you've seen practically every time you finish a case.

[763] All that stuff starts coming together.

[764] Like his weird war backstory stuff.

[765] Yeah, like his wartime flashbacks and stuff like that.

[766] That all kind of comes together.

[767] Yeah, it's a cool universe.

[768] I haven't found any of those movie reels yet.

[769] I didn't find a single one throughout the entire effing game.

[770] They are very, very well hidden.

[771] They're all on, like, rooftops.

[772] What is it when you watch it?

[773] No, you don't watch anything.

[774] It's literally just a collectible.

[775] You just pick it up, and it's like, oh, you found...

[776] It's just, like, the hidden badges?

[777] I don't know.

[778] That's some DLC thing that I didn't mess with.

[779] But it's, like, it's the pigeons of...

[780] It's the GTA 4.

[781] Okay, so it's not like you actually watched that movie.

[782] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[783] You're not missing any content.

[784] Someone hooked me up with the Naked City code, and that has, like, that badge challenge in it.

[785] Yeah, no, that's about part of the main game.

[786] Right.

[787] I do find that, like, there's no reason to jump into other cars, especially with the...

[788] Oh, it's more of a free drive.

[789] A lot of them are faster and handled better.

[790] Yeah, but, like, there's no...

[791] I don't know.

[792] It doesn't seem like there's a lot of incentive there to kind of...

[793] Have you, uh...

[794] I'm sure you've ranked up enough to unlock some of the hidden cars.

[795] I found them all so far.

[796] Have you sought those out?

[797] Yeah.

[798] Some of them are really cool.

[799] Those are like a lot of weird like 40s concept -y sports cars.

[800] Like that's cool, but then I just ditch them.

[801] You know, like I drive around and I just ditch them.

[802] They're fun to drive.

[803] They're different.

[804] There's that one mission where you are, where it pretty much forces you to drive a different car.

[805] It's a chase mission.

[806] It's during Homicide.

[807] I won't get into it.

[808] But yeah, so there are moments where the game itself is like, here, drive this car.

[809] I just mean in terms of like, you know.

[810] You can get in any car you want.

[811] But that game's not an open world.

[812] No, no, no. It has some of the open world trappings.

[813] It doesn't detract from the game.

[814] No. But there is all that stuff in there, which you kind of never do.

[815] Also picking up other guns.

[816] Guys go down in one or two shots with a handgun.

[817] Never really, unless you just want to spray a Tommy gun.

[818] Or you just need the distance of a rifle.

[819] Even so, the target's just that little painted ball.

[820] Wait until you get the rocket launcher.

[821] Railgun is sick.

[822] Wait until you're taking down spank dealers.

[823] But I do like it.

[824] It's kind of the same thing as Red Dead.

[825] That was the drug at GTA 3, y 'all.

[826] Spank?

[827] Yeah, spank.

[828] I do like you shoot a dude and it's like two hits.

[829] And it's like, he's dead.

[830] We're not going to just soak up.

[831] If you get him once, he will fall down.

[832] If you get him in the main body.

[833] I like shooting off hats, though.

[834] My hat comes off all the time.

[835] Yeah, I bet it does.

[836] Just flies off.

[837] Anyway, that's L .A. Noire.

[838] Out now.

[839] The only action -y sequence that I've seen so far that I felt seemed out of character and a little odd for the universe, but it's like one of those, like, okay, in a video game, this is acceptable, but you guys have established this world so well, so much better, so much more realistically than I had come to anticipate for most games that it threw me off as the balance beam moments.

[840] Oh, yeah.

[841] I'm just like, this is super corny, super gamey.

[842] They can do without those.

[843] I also lose my hat during those.

[844] Oh, yeah.

[845] Yeah, you always do.

[846] And it's weird, too, because it's like Prince of Persia, early Prince of Persia style.

[847] Yeah, it's weird.

[848] Like, why is this here?

[849] Yeah, it was really strange.

[850] But it's basically like that one time, and then it's never there again.

[851] I've had two.

[852] There's one other time, actually.

[853] I've had two.

[854] Yeah.

[855] It's infrequent.

[856] Yeah.

[857] Also, some of the animations, when you're unfolding letters and then folding them back up and putting them, it just looks like it's in reverse.

[858] Yeah, kind of, but I mean, whatever.

[859] Well, those are just...

[860] Very nitpicky.

[861] They're so deliberate, those animations.

[862] Well, you've got to put the evidence back so the officer can bag and catalog it.

[863] That's true.

[864] I love the coroner.

[865] I want to play as the coroner.

[866] Oh, the coroner's great.

[867] Mal.

[868] You've got to have a good coroner.

[869] You're going to do a cop procedural.

[870] You've got to have a good coroner.

[871] You've got to have...

[872] He's a fun guy.

[873] I can't say...

[874] He's pretty much on Homicide.

[875] There's always a dead body somewhere.

[876] He's just always at that scene, and I love seeing him there.

[877] He's like my buddy.

[878] He's the only one I can trust.

[879] Also, R &I is way too chipper.

[880] They're always way too happy to help you out with stuff.

[881] Hi, officer.

[882] Well, I mean, he's a very polite guy.

[883] He's not a polite guy.

[884] He's like two tones.

[885] He is either talking or just screaming, I feel like, constantly.

[886] On the phone, he's all ma 'am.

[887] He's like, please.

[888] Yeah, but he's always yelling it.

[889] Phelps bad two, four, seven, five.

[890] It's 12, isn't it?

[891] 1247?

[892] It's a good trivia question because he says it.

[893] I think it's 1247.

[894] I'm not sure.

[895] My favorite moments are when he and Galloway are both on a phone or on the radio somewhere reporting something.

[896] So you just hear all this police chatter.

[897] Like, all right, Galloway, badge number, blah, blah, blah.

[898] And then I'm on the phone talking to R &I or getting messages.

[899] Yeah, they do.

[900] It's a nice world.

[901] And I like the foot chases.

[902] I like the animations on that stuff.

[903] It just looks real sharp.

[904] It's like the camera shake.

[905] It's almost like a handheld camera following you when you're doing the on -foot chases.

[906] I was tapping X to go faster for a while there, but it doesn't do anything.

[907] No, just hold that right trigger.

[908] Just go, man. Big Carabella!

[909] Yeah.

[910] Anything else, man?

[911] I jumped into a little bit more of The Witcher 1.

[912] But 2 is installed and it's real.

[913] I know.

[914] I should, right?

[915] Just do it.

[916] Because The Witcher 2 looks so good.

[917] It looks so good.

[918] Yeah.

[919] It looks so good.

[920] I really don't think you're going to be getting much out of The Witcher 1.

[921] I bought The Witcher books.

[922] What the hell?

[923] You should just uninstall The Witcher 2.

[924] Like right now.

[925] And just wait until new computers come out.

[926] Wait for Witcher 3.

[927] That'll be the time when you can catch up.

[928] Yeah, I really don't know when I'm going to get to it, especially at this point.

[929] Because when we come back from E3, it is game on in terms of tons of releases.

[930] Like five big games when we go back.

[931] But then, like, July is dead.

[932] I'll save it for there.

[933] July and August are both pretty wide open right now.

[934] Is Catherine still August?

[935] Yeah, end of July.

[936] Okay.

[937] So I'll just say, so Witcher 2 is installed and I boot it up every once in a while just to look at it.

[938] Breth date.

[939] That's a great looking game.

[940] Because it really is fantastic.

[941] And Witcher 1 doesn't look that great.

[942] Facial animations aren't as good.

[943] So it reminds me of what I need to get to.

[944] That's another super dark and really well realized universe.

[945] What they've done in The Witcher 2 is damned impressive.

[946] They don't waste a lot of time either.

[947] Getting you looking at some nude -ass polygons.

[948] Oh, yeah, you want to see some naked ladies.

[949] Living naked ladies?

[950] I will say, advantage the Witcher.

[951] All of the naked ladies that I've seen in that game have still been alive and writhing around.

[952] Still a lot of violence against women, though, so you've got that par for the course in both of those games.

[953] I will say L .A. Noire, Witcher 2 seems like there is a learning curve and maybe some difficult L .A. Noire, easy.

[954] It's not hard yet.

[955] Yeah, and I was worried that it was just me being bad, but The Witcher 2 is fucking hard.

[956] The combat is very unforgiving.

[957] The combat is really weird in that game.

[958] Everyone has to make decisions about what systems they're going to put into their combat, and it's kind of nice that someone's out there making some different decisions, but tying your ability to cast spells to your ability to block, and then making it so you eventually can't block because you're out of vigor.

[959] Yeah.

[960] Crazy.

[961] Yeah, and it can be super frustrating too because it doesn't give you a ton of room to make mistakes.

[962] It doesn't, and it doesn't necessarily give you a great handle on the combat up front either.

[963] The tutorializing in general.

[964] I haven't played with a gamepad, which seems like kind of the way to play it.

[965] And it doesn't even tell you, like, here's what the spells do.

[966] Right, until you try to cast it.

[967] Well, even then, it's never told me for some of them.

[968] Oh, really?

[969] Yeah.

[970] It'll do a little pop -up.

[971] Yeah, it was doing that.

[972] So I kept dying, like that first combat situation where you have to get down to the Belisa, and I kept dying there over and over again.

[973] Because it's like the first real combat, and you're like, what the fuck am I doing wrong?

[974] Like, how am I not?

[975] What do I need to do?

[976] Do I need to very carefully pull one enemy at a time, deal with him, then sit here and recharge?

[977] It's basically what I am doing.

[978] And I was like, clearly this is not how they intend for you to play this game, is it?

[979] And I never found a better way to deal with that situation.

[980] It's like even in later battles, I'm still kind of running circles around guys as I recharge.

[981] And as soon as I recharge enough to go in there and hack at them, I roll out of the way and block when I can and stuff.

[982] But mainly I just figured, well, this one shoots fire.

[983] So that's probably the spell for fighting.

[984] It seems like shield.

[985] The shield was always my go -to.

[986] The shield?

[987] Yeah.

[988] Yeah.

[989] All right.

[990] One of those is a shield.

[991] Okay.

[992] And it basically allows you to – because part of the problem with that game is the animation and the interrupts is you would be like mid – like, casting animation or mid, like, even just, like, sword swing.

[993] Like, you're in the middle of a combo.

[994] It's easy for another enemy, like, at your side to just step up and knock you out of that combo.

[995] This basically gets rid of that problem.

[996] Well, I definitely, like, first thing I did as soon as I got some points to spend was get to the point where I can parry from any direction.

[997] That seems like a key skill.

[998] And when the game didn't have that, I was like, man, this is broken.

[999] I don't even want to play it.

[1000] And I went in and saw the character tab and went like, okay, eventually I'll get that.

[1001] Okay, good.

[1002] All right, great.

[1003] But, yeah, it's...

[1004] It's very unforgiving, and it's also just not very good.

[1005] The combat.

[1006] The combat, very specifically, is the only thing about that game.

[1007] And it's weird how much better every single other thing about that game is.

[1008] That game really seems incredible.

[1009] Yeah.

[1010] All the dialogue stuff is really well done.

[1011] I thought the voices aren't always great, but I like them just the same.

[1012] The core is solid.

[1013] The core characters, I think, the voice work is good.

[1014] They bring good character to them.

[1015] Some good, like, kind of moral choices you make a little early on.

[1016] Yeah, a lot of, like, true gray, which I think is rare in those sort of, like, conversation -driven.

[1017] And a lot of, like, you know, Vinny and I played a little bit further during the QuickBooks stuff, and there's even very, very early on in that game.

[1018] There are full kind of quest paths where you don't have to fight anything, where it's not at all about combat.

[1019] It is like negotiations and research and all that kind of jazz, which is cool.

[1020] Paying hookers.

[1021] Yeah.

[1022] Well, not even paying hookers, but bribing hookers by doing favors for them, and then the hookers do something else for you, and then – Yeah.

[1023] Not like that.

[1024] Oh.

[1025] But also like that.

[1026] Oh.

[1027] How do you want to go?

[1028] It's not in that particular situation.

[1029] I got to basically the first blacksmith that I could find and then recrafted my Witcher sword.

[1030] Right.

[1031] Yeah, you got to do that.

[1032] Because I left it inside of a dragon.

[1033] Oh no, the dragon's back.

[1034] Dragon's back.

[1035] That's a great part.

[1036] Look out for that dragon.

[1037] Yeah, that's a really cool game.

[1038] I want to play it.

[1039] I gotta get through.

[1040] You gotta finish.

[1041] I don't know.

[1042] Also, like, that was another game where, yeah, that was a game when I started playing it and there was all this stuff about...

[1043] Tell me what happened and all this other stuff.

[1044] And I saw that it had an import character feature.

[1045] I was like, man, I don't know anything that happened in the first Witcher.

[1046] Like, oh, man, what am I going to do?

[1047] It seems like a kind of dense universe.

[1048] This game definitely drops you right into that, too.

[1049] Yeah, but I guess it's mostly like a storytelling thing.

[1050] Like, then you go on these four tutorial missions that tell you exactly where you're at and stuff.

[1051] Like, the whole prologue I thought was really well done.

[1052] But when they first present you with the prologue, it's not clear that that's what's going to happen.

[1053] So I almost stopped and just went, like, I should read up on what happened in Witcher.

[1054] one, because he's asking me a bunch of questions about what happened, and I don't have the answer to any of those questions.

[1055] But even beyond that, they don't tell you how the Witcher got into this position where he is an advisor to the king, or what the fuck is a Witcher?

[1056] Yeah, these are all things that may be the game.

[1057] It eventually kind of explains it.

[1058] And if you get into the journal, the journal very explicitly says what a Witcher is, so it's in there.

[1059] But the story probably could have been a little more forthcoming with that information.

[1060] And I feel like that's kind of that game's whole MO is like, yeah, it doesn't explain the combat very well.

[1061] And there are things about the back fiction that aren't very explicit.

[1062] But eventually, through illusion and implication, you'll figure some shit out.

[1063] And it's like the Witcher has amnesia, so it fits.

[1064] Yeah, he doesn't remember some shit.

[1065] Yeah, he doesn't remember, so at some point they'll explain that stuff.

[1066] In Witcher 1, he starts off, he doesn't remember anything either.

[1067] He's got a bad brain box.

[1068] Yeah.

[1069] Witcher 1 also has not really explained much of it either, which is making it more frustrating because they figure, like, I'll play through the Witcher 1 and, like, I'll be all set on this universe.

[1070] And it's just like, no, you're Witcher.

[1071] Like you're in Witcher World.

[1072] I guess they're based off a short story, so that's the book.

[1073] Well, look at it this way.

[1074] By the time you finish the PC version of the first Witcher, there will probably be a console version of Witcher 2 if you want to go that route.

[1075] But I guess you won't be able to import.

[1076] Yeah.

[1077] I mean, that PC game looks phenomenal.

[1078] It looks great.

[1079] It does, yeah.

[1080] I'm kind of glad they just – I'm playing on high.

[1081] On ultra, the frame rate started to take – I can't play above low at home, so I'm – I'm stuck.

[1082] I'm playing on high.

[1083] It looks fucking great.

[1084] It's kind of the thing that we've been looping around here and talking about.

[1085] We need PC games to step some shit up.

[1086] That game steps some shit up.

[1087] You couldn't make that game look that good on a console.

[1088] They're going to bring that to, I assume, to consoles at some point.

[1089] All of the native gamepad shit seems like it's like, okay, well this makes far too much sense here for them to not.

[1090] But if they do, it's going to take a hit.

[1091] It's a Nintendo launch game for their new console.

[1092] Witcher 2.

[1093] Bring it.

[1094] The UI is going to make way more sense with a touchscreen in there.

[1095] Alchemy, way easier.

[1096] Just drag the potions over to those slots.

[1097] It sounds like the subject matter is right up Nintendo's alley.

[1098] Exactly.

[1099] Naked bitches.

[1100] It's right up Reggie's alley.

[1101] That was pretty much all I played.

[1102] It was a lot of LA Noire.

[1103] Hot new releases.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] Well, one hot new release and then one old release because of a hot new release.

[1106] Because of a hot new release.

[1107] Jeff Gershman, you were in Los Angeles all last week.

[1108] Yeah.

[1109] City of Angels.

[1110] So I didn't play LA Noire.

[1111] I lived it.

[1112] That's right.

[1113] Angeles.

[1114] Actually, I have a sealed copy of LA Noire at home that I did not play over the weekend.

[1115] Santa Monica.

[1116] How much do you want to talk about what you were doing in LA?

[1117] So it was like a pre -show week for E3 stuff.

[1118] So I saw a ton of stuff.

[1119] related to E3, games that will be shown at E3, demos that will be given in theaters at E3.

[1120] You've done E3 already.

[1121] I have seen a significant percentage of the games that will be shown at E3.

[1122] But you cannot talk about most of those until E3.

[1123] What can you talk about?

[1124] Sonic Generations.

[1125] So what can you talk about?

[1126] Sonic Generations.

[1127] What is that?

[1128] It's a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

[1129] Right, but what is it?

[1130] Is that a compilation?

[1131] Sonic the Hedgehog.

[1132] No, it's not a compilation.

[1133] It is, but it's got the Green Hill Zone in it.

[1134] Of course.

[1135] But it's actually, you know, yeah, every Sonic game.

[1136] But it's in 3D.

[1137] So it's basically like the demo they were showing.

[1138] They finally brought back the Sonic of my youth that I love.

[1139] Kind of.

[1140] Again.

[1141] Yeah.

[1142] All over again.

[1143] It's like Sonic the Hedgehog 4, except.

[1144] Except that the physics are bad.

[1145] Dude, yeah.

[1146] I don't even know.

[1147] Like every other song of the Hedgehog game for the last decade?

[1148] The demo they were showing is like you could choose between old style or new style.

[1149] So it'll be kind of like two games in one in that sense.

[1150] And the old style is...

[1151] You know, it's old Sonic.

[1152] He doesn't have the homing attack.

[1153] He can do the spin dash.

[1154] It's basically like Sonic 2 moveset.

[1155] But all new graphics, you know, it's not the same levels from Sonic 2 or anything like that, but it's the same basic idea.

[1156] The camera does some weird stuff.

[1157] Like if you're running through corkscrews or down things, the camera will, you know, tilt in ways that it wouldn't have been able to do on a Genesis.

[1158] Wait, so is it 2D?

[1159] It is a 2D.

[1160] I mean, it's polygonal graphics, but it is a 2D.

[1161] It is a classic Sonic game in that sense.

[1162] All right, all right.

[1163] It'll just do some camera tricks when you're in some situations where you're not controlling anything.

[1164] It's a retail disc game.

[1165] Which is most of a Sonic game.

[1166] Yes, this is a disc -based game.

[1167] So then they have the other, which is the new style, which is basically Sonic colors, like that type of homing attack.

[1168] Sometimes it's behind the back.

[1169] Sometimes you're grinding on rails, all that sort of stuff.

[1170] Like, I guess...

[1171] I guess it looks okay.

[1172] I don't know.

[1173] You say you've lost the ability to think about Sonic the Hedgehog games?

[1174] It looks totally pointless.

[1175] I left kind of going, why does this even exist?

[1176] Actually, I had to ask.

[1177] I was like, so what does this mean for Sonic 4?

[1178] You already kind of tried to make an old, new Sonic game.

[1179] What the fuck's going on?

[1180] Presumably, there's at least one more episode of that.

[1181] Yeah, Sonic 4 was Sonic 4 episode 1, and there were meant to be at least three episodes of that, I guess.

[1182] And the guy doing the demo was very quick to say, like, oh, no, no, Sonic 4, that's still on.

[1183] That's a different game because the physics are all different and all this is just like a different thing.

[1184] I was like, so wait a minute.

[1185] To which I kind of wanted to say but did not.

[1186] I was like, so everyone complained about how horrible the physics were in Sonic 4, so instead of just fixing that for another episode, you're making an entirely different game?

[1187] What the hell is going on?

[1188] I'm charging $60 for it.

[1189] I don't know what they'll charge for it in the end.

[1190] Disc -based?

[1191] Disc -based.

[1192] Xbox, PlayStation 3.

[1193] I imagine it's Wii.

[1194] Can I get it for iOS?

[1195] Maybe.

[1196] I don't know.

[1197] So is the generation stuff because there are like two styles and it's supposed to like cross generations?

[1198] Yeah.

[1199] It's like they designed two Sonics.

[1200] Like there's the kind of chubbier looking original Sonic and then the sleeker looking.

[1201] I remember that commercial now.

[1202] Yeah.

[1203] They put a trailer.

[1204] I remember.

[1205] Where like there's Sonic and then there's another Sonic.

[1206] Someone sent us an email.

[1207] They were losing their minds over it.

[1208] And I'm just like this I don't this just seems stupid.

[1209] And yeah I basically said I was like I'm not I'm not going to fall for this again.

[1210] Stormed out.

[1211] I haven't necessarily fallen.

[1212] Slammed the door.

[1213] Yeah.

[1214] I haven't fallen for a Sonic game in a pretty long time.

[1215] I've been pretty good about.

[1216] I said good day.

[1217] Making this.

[1218] Yes.

[1219] Exactly.

[1220] So I can talk about that.

[1221] Great.

[1222] I think I can say I played Deus Ex.

[1223] Let's skip that.

[1224] I don't really know.

[1225] Deus Ex.

[1226] It's kind of hard to keep a lot of that stuff straight.

[1227] Okay.

[1228] But I can talk about Bioshock Infinite.

[1229] All right.

[1230] Do you want to talk about Bioshock Infinite?

[1231] Yeah.

[1232] Okay.

[1233] I want to hear about Bioshock Infinite.

[1234] Tell me about Bioshock Infinite.

[1235] No, wait.

[1236] Tell Vinny about Bioshock Infinite.

[1237] Tell me about Bioshock Infinite.

[1238] So I think barring any sort of actual announcements of new mind -blowing products at E3, I'm pretty sure that Bioshock Infinite will be everyone's game of show.

[1239] That was a bold claim.

[1240] Yeah.

[1241] There were some other stuff that I saw that week that looked pretty cool.

[1242] Sometimes it's the notes you don't play.

[1243] Right.

[1244] Definitely saw some cool stuff.

[1245] But that game is pretty awesome from the demo they gave.

[1246] And granted, it's a very guided demo.

[1247] I got to mess around with the controller and verify that it was in fact interactive.

[1248] But it doesn't necessarily, I mean, you know.

[1249] Like they played it in a very specific way for a very specific reason.

[1250] So how much can you actually talk about it?

[1251] Like whatever you played?

[1252] Yeah, whatever I saw.

[1253] So did they start you off in that early portion again?

[1254] Or was it like the horse and then the whole crow juice and all that stuff?

[1255] No, not really.

[1256] This was more designed to show kind of how the moment -to -moment combat will work and kind of show some of the powers that Elizabeth will have.

[1257] What's moment -to -moment combat?

[1258] Like...

[1259] what will happen from one moment to the next while you were playing.

[1260] I thought it was like a mechanic.

[1261] Yes, it was a back -of -box bullet point feature.

[1262] Features moment -to -moment combat.

[1263] There's a pause, and then you select a new guy.

[1264] Also includes graphics.

[1265] You know, because there are mechanics to that game.

[1266] There are things in that game that, you know, look kind of crazy.

[1267] Like you've got your hook so you can kind of grind on the trolley, like the sky tram rails and all that stuff.

[1268] And, you know, ostensibly all the while you're fighting.

[1269] But, you know, the game's not all about combat.

[1270] The game is really about a battle between two factions on Columbia.

[1271] And that's the founders and the Vox Populi.

[1272] And they're kind of each run by an individual person.

[1273] And you'll interact with the leaders of these two factions, I guess.

[1274] So do you know if that conflict develops only in accordance with the flow of the story?

[1275] Or is that any kind of like a back and forth like...

[1276] Well, that conflict has already kind of started going, but I guess you and Elizabeth will prove to be the catalyst that kind of kicks it into high gear.

[1277] What I mean is, I hate to break it down in such mechanical terms, but is there any kind of like a territory control or is there a...

[1278] I didn't see anything like that.

[1279] Like a will of the people meter or anything crazy?

[1280] Right, right.

[1281] It didn't seem like that was necessarily a system, but it very well could be.

[1282] That I don't really know.

[1283] Bioshock, first one.

[1284] pretty linear game.

[1285] Right.

[1286] Very story driven.

[1287] I think that this game will end up being very story driven and very linear in the end but that's not to say you're not making choices.

[1288] But it's not necessarily like very clear kind of good guy bad guy stuff and even Elizabeth who's been you know living locked up in this tower then has only just recently escaped and started to kind of figure out what her weird abilities are.

[1289] She's not necessarily there saying like oh make sure you do the right thing.

[1290] Like she's just like.

[1291] This guy's about to be executed and, yeah, you can hit A to stop execution or I could just fire my gun to stop the execution.

[1292] But who knows what that's actually going to start.

[1293] So what they did in that case was hit the button.

[1294] So they actually have a timed kind of timed stuff in there where the prompt comes up and says hit A and below it it says stop execution.

[1295] And there's a meter filling up around the button.

[1296] So you really only have a brief period of time to.

[1297] think about if you're going to stop that execution or not.

[1298] But when you stop it, it's literally like Booker DeWitt going like, hey, that guy didn't do nothing.

[1299] Then everyone turns around and goes, hey, it's that guy.

[1300] And they start basically coming at you.

[1301] And so it'll end up being stuff like that.

[1302] One of the examples that I guess wasn't in the demo, but they were talking about I guess being in the full game or something that might show up in the E3 version of the demo.

[1303] I'm not really sure.

[1304] is that, you know, you see, like, a dentist being tossed through a window, and he's got, like, guys kind of beating him up.

[1305] You could just kind of walk past that and let it happen, or you could save him.

[1306] And then I guess if you save him later on in the game, he might actually just be yanking out the gold teeth of dead bodies and comes up and goes, Hey, man, thanks for saving me. He has some gold teeth.

[1307] Scumbags.

[1308] Yeah, yeah.

[1309] So it's that sort of situation where they want to make it ambiguous about what your actions are and what's really the right move.

[1310] It's more about Booker and Elizabeth and their relationship and making sure that they escape.

[1311] And they'll have to make some tough choices along the way, I guess.

[1312] So what's that combat like?

[1313] You shoot stuff.

[1314] Left trigger zooms in.

[1315] Right trigger.

[1316] No. So the stuff with the combat is, I mean, obviously, you saw in the previous video that you would get powers sort of like the Bioshock stuff except, you know, you're shooting crows out of your free hand.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] Still bees.

[1319] Yeah.

[1320] So you will have that.

[1321] You will have guns, you know, pistol, shotgun, RPG, like.

[1322] Guns.

[1323] Weapons.

[1324] Weapons.

[1325] But then Elizabeth's powers end up factoring into a lot of that stuff in what could be some pretty interesting ways.

[1326] Like with you?

[1327] Yeah, with you.

[1328] So it's not an escort game.

[1329] They've been very clear both times we've been out and talked to them about it.

[1330] This is not one big escort mission where you are making sure she doesn't die.

[1331] She doesn't have a gun and won't be shooting, but she can kind of take care of herself.

[1332] You'll see her kneeing guys in the groin, I guess.

[1333] And basically her ability is to kind of open tears in space -time or something like that.

[1334] So you'll see objects in the world that are not part of your world, but you can still perceive them.

[1335] So in this case, after stopping the execution, everyone tries to jump you, and there are a lot of guys.

[1336] And so you look around and you'll see a kind of fuzzy barrel full of weapons.

[1337] And when you look at these things, it'll say open tear, and then in parentheses, weapons.

[1338] Okay.

[1339] And then for one of them, there was actually kind of a trolley, like a tram or whatever, coming in on these rails, and it was not phased in.

[1340] Right.

[1341] And you could phase that in, and its description was cover.

[1342] And you hit that.

[1343] That's the one they chose in the demo, and he just kind of calls out to, hey, Elizabeth, do this.

[1344] She brings it into this realm, and then it immediately knocks over, like, four guys who are running at you.

[1345] A little, like, singularity.

[1346] Kind of.

[1347] But it's, you know, she's not necessarily comfortable with her powers and doesn't know how to use them.

[1348] So you have to make a choice.

[1349] You can't do both.

[1350] Oh, so you're either getting weapons or cover.

[1351] Yeah.

[1352] Okay.

[1353] So you kind of have, that's, you know, so I guess as she gets more powerful, maybe you'll be able to open two of them in an encounter or something like that.

[1354] So.

[1355] One of these guys eventually gets to this big flare -launching contraption that calls in a fucking Zeppelin that comes in as just raining down rockets on your position.

[1356] It is ridiculous.

[1357] And it just looks great.

[1358] This whole thing is just like, granted, it's just vertical slice, no real indication of how the final game is going to run or anything like that.

[1359] What version were they showing?

[1360] That was an Xbox, I believe.

[1361] No, no, you know what?

[1362] It was a PC with an Xbox controller.

[1363] I think.

[1364] When we went out there, that's what they were showing it on.

[1365] I assume it was still that.

[1366] Anyway.

[1367] So, you know, now you have to deal with this Zeppelin and you're kind of left with more choices.

[1368] Like there's another kind of barrel of weapons and there's also a turret.

[1369] So you could call the turret in and control that.

[1370] Instead, he just jumps on one of these like tram rails.

[1371] And, you know, it's like you just have a hook so you can attach.

[1372] And as soon as you're on it, you're gone.

[1373] Like it's so fast.

[1374] It's crazy how fast things move.

[1375] I mean, you know, it's like you're used to this kind of like almost like methodical pace of something like Bioshock.

[1376] And just to see like this huge environment, like super vertical and just be like, I'm going to go.

[1377] And then you catch that rail and you're just jamming and you're fighting on the rails like you're shooting guys.

[1378] Like all the while, you know, they're kind of chasing you.

[1379] So you're turning around and shooting at them.

[1380] They're coming in on other rails.

[1381] You know, they're jumping from one rail to the next to try and get to you.

[1382] And he eventually kind of makes his way up to the Zeppelin, which he's already fired a few rockets at.

[1383] So it's already kind of on fire.

[1384] Gets on the Zeppelin, like mows down the guys that are on it.

[1385] And then the demo ended pretty much by him just jumping off the side of the Zeppelin.

[1386] And there's just being a rail way to just falling forward.

[1387] days and catching this rail.

[1388] So you can just, does it seem scripted or he just like caught, positioned and caught the rail?

[1389] He positioned it and caught it from what I could see.

[1390] You know, you could see little icons showing where you're going to land.

[1391] Or, you know, if you jump right now, this is where you're going to kind of go if you want to connect from one rail to the next.

[1392] So there clearly is a system there to let you kind of do that stuff at will.

[1393] But that said, I mean, the actions of this demo, like, make no mistake, it was very tightly scripted.

[1394] Sure.

[1395] Like, talking to them afterwards, it was like, yeah, there were, like, three spots in that demo where it could have gone horribly wrong.

[1396] We would have had to restart, but I nailed it.

[1397] So, like, you know, he had played that thing 150 times.

[1398] Sure.

[1399] And it literally, like, you know, blow up.

[1400] Oh, right, right.

[1401] And, like, the character jumps off.

[1402] You don't control it.

[1403] No, you control that.

[1404] So, I mean, and also you didn't have to go up there and do that.

[1405] You could have phased in that turret and done that.

[1406] So this whole time you're trying to get to this guy Comstock's place.

[1407] He's the leader of the Founders and theoretically he'll – the idea at least is that he'll be able to help you with Elizabeth's powers.

[1408] And kind of the catch on that is that Elizabeth has been protected pretty much her entire life by this.

[1409] big thing called the songbird, this big creature that, you know, if you had to pick out one thing in that game and go, that's your big daddy, it's kind of like that, but it's a giant mechanical bird man thing.

[1410] It's huge and crazy looking.

[1411] We've seen like...

[1412] Yeah, there's been some stuff.

[1413] But kind of glimpses.

[1414] Songbird, it's crazy looking.

[1415] It's awesome.

[1416] It looks really nice.

[1417] And the demo actually ends with Songbird kind of coming back to help out.

[1418] No, to take her back.

[1419] And I guess the idea is that the relationship there is supposed to be kind of complicated.

[1420] Like, you know, he is jealous of her not being in her tower where she belongs or has been programmed or, you know, whatever Songbird ends up being.

[1421] If we ever even find out.

[1422] Right, yeah.

[1423] So the other thing with Elizabeth's powers is you're kind of on your way to Comstock's place and she sees a horse that is basically still alive but not doing real well.

[1424] And she takes off and runs over there and is kind of flipping out about this horse.

[1425] I have to say that out of everything that has been described about the world of Bioshock Infinite, for some reason, horses on your flying city is the fucking weirdest thing.

[1426] Yeah.

[1427] And of both of these demos that they've shown so far, horses have been pivotal in them, which is even better.

[1428] Anyway, dying horse.

[1429] So I'm telling some of this stuff out of sequence.

[1430] It's not necessarily in the order that it happened.

[1431] So she finds this horse and is like, no, there's a tear here.

[1432] I can save it.

[1433] But, you know, she's kind of new to her powers.

[1434] She's not real comfortable.

[1435] So she kind of tries to open a tear to maybe when this horse was not so beat up and on fire or whatever the hell has happened to this horse.

[1436] And ends up opening a tear and all of a sudden you are in the early 80s.

[1437] Like, really?

[1438] And there's a movie marquee that says Revenge of the Jedi.

[1439] A Tears for Fears song is playing.

[1440] And there's a cop car screaming up the streets in your direction.

[1441] And there's this whole, like, close it, close it, close it.

[1442] And, like, they close the tear.

[1443] So it's not explained that this is even the same universe.

[1444] This could be whatever.

[1445] Well, it's implied that this is all time -based, that it's not necessarily.

[1446] Well, I don't know.

[1447] I mean, it could be other dimensions.

[1448] Well, it's in some dimension where it came out as Revenge of the Jedi instead of Return of the Jedi.

[1449] Or, you know, like, we don't.

[1450] This is, like, Bioshock is such a weird, you know, schism or, like, fractured timeline of, like...

[1451] Was it, like, recognizably Times Square or something like that?

[1452] No, it didn't look like any specific area.

[1453] It was just Dark City Street.

[1454] It wasn't implied that it was Columbia in the future?

[1455] Yeah, and it was just, like, movie theater off to the right.

[1456] Yeah, no indication of if it was a Sky City or anything.

[1457] It was just nighttime City Street.

[1458] Dude, what the fuck is that game?

[1459] Bioshock, for me, it was always, like, the kind of fallouts that, like, oh, this is...

[1460] at some point in the past, things went left instead of right.

[1461] Well, Fallout is, it's so far in the future that it's the past again.

[1462] Well, like, it's like a, it's like a, isn't it just like things went differently?

[1463] Yeah, things went bad so far in the past that things never progressed.

[1464] Fallout is alternate history from like 1950 onward.

[1465] Right.

[1466] Different stuff happened.

[1467] And that's kind of how I always felt about Bioshock.

[1468] It was like, oh, you know, like, it kind of went like this alternate direction.

[1469] So like, they should have never gotten there.

[1470] Except that everything that's happening, I mean, this brings up some different, as far as kind of overall like Bioshock universe continuity.

[1471] But, you know, the original Bioshock, the first two Bioshocks are pretty much taking place completely out of sight of the rest of the world.

[1472] No one else, you know, we don't have any evidence that anyone else in the world fucking knows that all of this crazy shit is happening in underwater town.

[1473] Yeah, the only connection there's a plane because that's how the dude gets there.

[1474] So I know there's at some point there's a plane.

[1475] So we know that there's still planes.

[1476] But like, yeah, you open up a riff like that and tell me like this is 1980, it could be the future.

[1477] Like I have no idea when that, Sky City is supposed to be happening.

[1478] Well, yeah.

[1479] Sky City stuff is happening in a very specific time frame.

[1480] They dated it.

[1481] Yeah, they did date it.

[1482] But, like, so in, like, an actual, like, 19...

[1483] Like, early 20th century.

[1484] Yeah.

[1485] Oh, really?

[1486] It's the teens, basically.

[1487] It's like, you know, they invented it at some World's Fair or something, this American Sky City, but then that American Sky City decides to launch an attack against China.

[1488] At which point the U .S. has to kind of disavow.

[1489] But at that point it just takes off and disappears.

[1490] And you're an ex -Pinkerton, this Booker DeWitt guy, and someone comes to you and says, hey, I need you to find this girl.

[1491] By the way, she's on Columbia.

[1492] And by the way, I know where Columbia is.

[1493] So have they ever said that this is in the same universe as Bioshock and Bioshock Rapture style Bioshock?

[1494] I'm not sure.

[1495] I'm not sure if they've kind of come forward with that.

[1496] If it is, it would be before those events?

[1497] Yes.

[1498] It would be like 20, 30 years before the events of Rapture.

[1499] I didn't know they had put a hard date on it.

[1500] Well, I mean, yeah.

[1501] Like, they are trying to pull a very specific...

[1502] kind of aesthetic tone for that much as they did with the original Bioshock.

[1503] It is more of that turn to the century.

[1504] It's Gangs of New York.

[1505] It's that kind of shit.

[1506] At one point there's an Abraham Lincoln gag in there.

[1507] So Abraham Lincoln exists in this universe.

[1508] But there's also like mechanical horses and stuff, right?

[1509] Yeah, I mean technology.

[1510] It's technology run wild.

[1511] It's sort of like how Rapture was.

[1512] These guys left to their own devices without the limits of morality or whatever.

[1513] The hand of the man coming down.

[1514] They picked it up.

[1515] That's cool.

[1516] That's exciting because I had no idea what that game was shaping up to be.

[1517] I thought I had a pretty good idea, but after seeing some of that stuff, I'm not even sure anymore.

[1518] I think at that point, once you show something like that, that game can go anywhere.

[1519] Are they talking about dates for that game?

[1520] Next year.

[1521] I don't want to know anything else at all.

[1522] That's it?

[1523] You know too much already?

[1524] Yeah, I'm good.

[1525] Just let me know when it's done.

[1526] It looked fantastic.

[1527] The characters and stuff just look great.

[1528] The interactions, there's a bit of downtime at the beginning where they're showing some kind of exploration stuff going through this kind of abandoned store looking for money and other stuff like that.

[1529] And the interaction between Booker and Elizabeth just seems really genuine and interesting.

[1530] And also, like, that part seems really dynamic where, you know, they've kind of lined up a bunch of things that might happen if you're standing in the right place and Elizabeth gets to, say, a giant, funny Abraham Lincoln head and puts it on.

[1531] Oh.

[1532] And makes it kind of like, oh, look at me, four scores, seven years.

[1533] You know, it's like just kind of fun and around in the downtime, you know.

[1534] And also, like, Booker will kind of talk to himself.

[1535] It's not, like, full -on silent protagonist.

[1536] Oh, interesting.

[1537] Like, he's, like, opening up cash registers and going, ah, scratch.

[1538] Okay.

[1539] Picking up guns and talking about Roscoe's.

[1540] You know?

[1541] Like, that sort of stuff.

[1542] So he is a character.

[1543] Yes.

[1544] Okay.

[1545] Yes.

[1546] What a character.

[1547] You think it'll be a...

[1548] It's a really good character name also.

[1549] Yeah.

[1550] I like it.

[1551] Though I keep thinking of Ellis DeWald from Beverly Hills Cop 3.

[1552] It's okay.

[1553] You think somebody will be showing that off at a press conference this year?

[1554] I think that'll be an onstage kind of like – I can't imagine who would host it.

[1555] No, I mean this demo that I saw is going to be shown in a theater at the 2K booth every half hour.

[1556] Oh, right.

[1557] Okay.

[1558] Yeah.

[1559] I want to see it.

[1560] Yeah, we can – I have – Very excited.

[1561] I have asked some questions about how can I make sure that the rest of these guys get in to see this demo.

[1562] And they say, ah, just let us know.

[1563] Oh, man. I don't know if I want to see it now.

[1564] What?

[1565] After a description like that?

[1566] He knows now enough.

[1567] Brad now knows that it'll be really good.

[1568] We had good reason to suspect before it would be really good.

[1569] It's time to go into blackout.

[1570] It's time to submerge.

[1571] It looks fantastic.

[1572] I can't underscore that enough.

[1573] The interaction between the two characters just seems like it is on some real next level type shit.

[1574] Looks really nice.

[1575] I especially had the regrettable experience of knowing everything about Bioshock before I played it.

[1576] I mean, everything.

[1577] Yeah.

[1578] So I really want to avoid that.

[1579] I think they're probably going to do a little better about that stuff this time.

[1580] This was a case of people pirating the game and then just posting spoilers on forums and stuff like three days before it came out.

[1581] That stuff's hard to, you know.

[1582] But yeah, just in terms of like, you know, I think this is the right amount of teasing to say like, by the way...

[1583] She is capable of some weird stuff.

[1584] So that's what things are going to happen in this game that you won't expect.

[1585] Well, if they're showing that 80s stuff now, if they're willing to show that now, if that's the thing they're teasing with, what are they holding back?

[1586] What the fuck?

[1587] Did they give you any sense of how deep into the game you were when they showed that stuff?

[1588] That was like a third or halfway somewhere on there.

[1589] Okay.

[1590] It wasn't necessarily late game stuff.

[1591] Okay.

[1592] But it wasn't necessarily like the first five minutes, right?

[1593] Right.

[1594] Well, the whole thing is that she will develop over the course of the game.

[1595] She has a very kind of defined arc that by the end of the game she'll be a lot more comfortable with her abilities and a lot further along.

[1596] So theoretically she won't be accidentally opening portals to other times.

[1597] Purposely open portals to the 80s.

[1598] Maybe.

[1599] Let's all do it.

[1600] Yeah.

[1601] What else did we say?

[1602] A bunch of other stuff.

[1603] I feel like that's going to be a really hard game to start covering at some point if it does get that crazy.

[1604] I just think that you figure when does that game come out?

[1605] When do you ship that game next year?

[1606] Is it in early 2012 or is it a mid to late 2012?

[1607] I think that's going to determine how many more times they show it.

[1608] You figure they show it here.

[1609] Then it's like do they do anything new for Gamescom?

[1610] I almost don't think they...

[1611] Need to, because that's still relatively close.

[1612] Yeah, but 2K likes showing off their games a lot.

[1613] This is not Rockstar, this is 2K.

[1614] Rockstar will always play it super close to the vest.

[1615] 2K will always trot their shit out.

[1616] But 2K PR does not run Irrational.

[1617] Irrational has its own PR.

[1618] But 2K can still run that stuff out.

[1619] I guess.

[1620] They just maybe have to do it without Irrational people.

[1621] I don't know what that relationship's like.

[1622] Yeah.

[1623] Yeah, I don't either.

[1624] I bet they have a level of control over how that game is exposed that would prevent people from showing it too frequently or making sure that new stuff gets generated specifically to show.

[1625] I think they could get away with two more pieces of...

[1626] two more chunks like this.

[1627] Like the first one they put out and this one.

[1628] And then ship it.

[1629] Significant bits.

[1630] Well, it sounds exciting.

[1631] I'm excited.

[1632] Brad Shoemaker!

[1633] You play anything other than replaying LA Noire?

[1634] Oh, man. Yeah.

[1635] I mean, I don't fault you.

[1636] So, yeah, I restarted after playing the PS3 version that you gave me last week, and then my 360 version showed up.

[1637] So I was kind of re -catching up through those first three hours or whatever.

[1638] It was interesting just seeing some stories playing out ever so slightly differently or like, oh, I found this other piece of evidence and that makes this part of this investigation go a lot more smoothly.

[1639] Oh, yeah.

[1640] Definitely had that experience too.

[1641] I find that I'm really good at collecting evidence and I have about 50 % or slightly higher success rate with interrogations.

[1642] You just have to roll with that stuff.

[1643] Yeah.

[1644] Why are you laughing?

[1645] Just breaking down your stats of like, I'm an interrogator.

[1646] Well, because they tell you all that shit when it's over.

[1647] It's like you found X out of X pieces of evidence and you successfully got through these interrogation points.

[1648] It's like someone sat down and said, we like those CSI games.

[1649] We're going to make a really good one.

[1650] It kind of is.

[1651] Way bigger budget.

[1652] It's like they took the CSI game and then added Phoenix Wright to it.

[1653] Yeah.

[1654] And then set it in 1940s.

[1655] I can't wait to start playing that game.

[1656] I'm going to start tonight.

[1657] It's neat.

[1658] It's pretty neat.

[1659] It's a very unique game.

[1660] Yeah.

[1661] The funny thing is as soon as something like this comes out, the Bombcast email just floods with people being like, what do you think if they set a game like this in this universe?

[1662] I'm like, I don't.

[1663] After playing this game, guess what?

[1664] I'm not going to want to immediately play this game again.

[1665] Right.

[1666] Like the idea of like, well, here's a hot idea.

[1667] Everyone should jump on this.

[1668] Like, no, don't.

[1669] Don't do that.

[1670] Everyone keep going and trying other shit.

[1671] I want to have multiple experiences, not just, yes, this one was good, but I could also see this one being handled really badly.

[1672] This game could have been complete shit if it didn't have, you know, the development time and the technology and everything else that they...

[1673] The polish.

[1674] Attention to detail, like the kind of period -appropriate setting and everything, like all the research they did.

[1675] I mean, a lot about that game could have been extremely awful.

[1676] Yep.

[1677] All of it could have been awful.

[1678] Oh, yeah.

[1679] Ambition does not necessarily equal aptitude.

[1680] Definitely not.

[1681] But in this case, they pulled it off.

[1682] Indeed.

[1683] I've been playing through the new Red Faction game, which I'm not yet at liberty to discuss.

[1684] Oh, Armageddon.

[1685] Yes.

[1686] How appropriate.

[1687] Notwithstanding the quality of the game, though, I have to give an A -plus or five stars to THQ's effort to get us that game this early.

[1688] Yes.

[1689] Hooray and bravo.

[1690] And well done.

[1691] Thanks, Neil.

[1692] Almost never get games.

[1693] I mean, this is...

[1694] God.

[1695] Three weeks.

[1696] That's a week of E3?

[1697] Almost three weeks before that game is actually on shelves.

[1698] We got a retail disc that we'll play in...

[1699] We got MK that early.

[1700] Real consoles.

[1701] Pretty close to it.

[1702] Do you think it has something to do with awareness of like, well, E3 is coming up and we understand that.

[1703] It was a bare disc and a sleeve, so it's probably just like, hey, we got these in.

[1704] I think it's very specifically like this game ships the week of E3.

[1705] There's also that.

[1706] No one's going to cover it unless we send it out.

[1707] Yeah, we're in a weird bind with like there's three games or two.

[1708] Infamous.

[1709] Infamous 2.

[1710] It's Infamous and this.

[1711] I think something else that week.

[1712] Those are the ones the week of.

[1713] The week right after.

[1714] Shadows of the Damned is that week.

[1715] I thought that was like the 21st or something.

[1716] Did they push it?

[1717] It's right in that wheelhouse, though.

[1718] It was the 7th.

[1719] Because the following week is like Alice and Duke and Child of Eden.

[1720] Oh, really?

[1721] Yeah.

[1722] When did that happen?

[1723] I don't know.

[1724] Oh, my God.

[1725] It's the end of the quarter.

[1726] It's coming out the 14th.

[1727] June is the end of the quarter, so everyone's just got to pump stuff out.

[1728] By necessity.

[1729] But these don't feel like your usual end -of -the -quarter pumps.

[1730] Yeah, this is all relevant.

[1731] I'm listing all games that I am very eager to see and play.

[1732] We want to play all that stuff, and we definitely need to cover all of that stuff.

[1733] But hey, E3.

[1734] I'll say that maybe I'm not so interested in anything that Alice has to offer.

[1735] After seeing it and playing it, I'm definitely eager to play some Alice.

[1736] You guys have seen more of it than I have, but I don't know.

[1737] Something about that.

[1738] I don't even care about the original.

[1739] I have no fondness for the original.

[1740] I never played it.

[1741] Yeah, original and stuff.

[1742] But the new ones, yeah.

[1743] Well, you get to play the original again with achievements.

[1744] That's true.

[1745] I probably won't.

[1746] They've got, yeah, it's actually part of the...

[1747] the new Alice's achievement set has achievements for old Alice in it because it's part of that whole online pass thing.

[1748] Anyway, I'd be good on them for, you know, like we will review and quick look this game before E3 because we can.

[1749] Because they made it possible to do so.

[1750] Does it take place on Mars?

[1751] I can't answer that.

[1752] Are you a part of the Red Faction?

[1753] I can't answer that.

[1754] Are you waiting for Armageddon, or has Armageddon already occurred?

[1755] Redacted.

[1756] What can you tell me about Geomod technology?

[1757] Break stuff.

[1758] Too much.

[1759] Someone wrote me in some form somewhere.

[1760] It's really specific, I know.

[1761] And said, hey, isn't Red Faction Armageddon just Epic Mickey, but with guns instead of paint?

[1762] Because the whole thing is you have the break stuff gun and the build stuff gun.

[1763] Yeah.

[1764] So it's just like paint thinner versus paint.

[1765] Oh, hey, you know what?

[1766] Epic Mickey was great in concept.

[1767] Yeah.

[1768] It was just the mechanical execution.

[1769] Right.

[1770] That was the problem.

[1771] So, yeah, sure.

[1772] It's like that.

[1773] I can confirm that the break stuff and remake stuff aspect is in the game.

[1774] You're willing to go that far?

[1775] Put your neck out like that?

[1776] Yeah.

[1777] Bold of you.

[1778] So, I mean, I figured I should do my due diligence.

[1779] I never got around to playing Gorilla.

[1780] A couple years ago.

[1781] Really?

[1782] When it came out.

[1783] Really?

[1784] So I fired that up.

[1785] That's a good game.

[1786] On the PC.

[1787] The game's fucking fun.

[1788] Yeah, the game's stupid, stupid fun.

[1789] It's just dumb awesome.

[1790] Excellent fun.

[1791] It can get a little long.

[1792] Some stretches could get a little long.

[1793] I barely made it into the second kind of zone or whatever, and I can already see how it could probably get pretty repetitive over time.

[1794] But it still remains fun.

[1795] But, man, just running around blowing shit up.

[1796] Like, just the way stuff explodes in that game and the way the explosives work.

[1797] Or the way you're like, I'm just going to run this truck into that building.

[1798] Let's see what happens.

[1799] And some of the weapons later on are actually really fun.

[1800] I think you get, like, the nanogun or something, and you're literally just, like, disintegrating.

[1801] Erasing.

[1802] Yeah.

[1803] Even now, just getting to throw, like...

[1804] It's paint thinner.

[1805] But a gun.

[1806] Think about it.

[1807] Think about it.

[1808] Throwing, like, three sticky charges inside a building at strategic points, and then just watching it crumble.

[1809] Oh, the sticky charges are...

[1810] Oh, man. My favorite shit.

[1811] It's so awesome.

[1812] It's good.

[1813] Their technology, for some reason, works really well.

[1814] It works extremely well, yeah.

[1815] That reason is probably they're very smart guys working on it, but you expect something like that to not really work and then consistently keeps working, and you're like, that seems kind of natural.

[1816] That has weight.

[1817] Sure, that should fall.

[1818] Or even just the stuff where you put a hole in something and it takes...

[1819] A little while.

[1820] For, like, the structure.

[1821] For, like, yeah, the load that that has put onto the rest of the structure.

[1822] So you're like, eh.

[1823] They did not employ.

[1824] They did not employ.

[1825] Maybe go hit it with a sledgehammer for a second.

[1826] No civil engineers were employed in the making of this game.

[1827] Like, they did not, you know.

[1828] They did not test for structural integrity on this stuff.

[1829] But it's funny.

[1830] There are moments in that game, in Gorilla specifically, where you can see the game crunching the numbers.

[1831] Should this thing stay up?

[1832] Nope.

[1833] There it goes.

[1834] That's got to go.

[1835] The thing I really love about that game, too, is it consistently works like that, right?

[1836] But I always would find myself surprised that I was underneath that building as I was using the sledgehammer.

[1837] I'm going to take this beam out.

[1838] I've noticed that...

[1839] Oh, no!

[1840] I should have been on the outside.

[1841] Oh, wait, does that end up killing you?

[1842] It can.

[1843] Oh, really?

[1844] You're going to crush it.

[1845] I noticed that he has the strongest skull in history.

[1846] He can get bonked on the head.

[1847] Yeah, you can have things collapse on him.

[1848] You can bear quite a bit of weight on top of your head.

[1849] It's one of those towers, those big towers that just come down on you.

[1850] Like the smokestack kind of thing.

[1851] Yeah, and you're just...

[1852] Oh!

[1853] I'm thinking of a specific...

[1854] encounter or something where he had to knock down a smokestack, and it was one of those, like, you only have two bullets and three of these explosive containers or whatever to knock down this tower.

[1855] Just came down on you.

[1856] And one of those, yeah, just like, okay, I blew a hole out of it, and I'm kind of looking at it, and I'm walking around like, I don't know if that's going to do it.

[1857] And then, oh, wait!

[1858] Here it comes on my skull.

[1859] So did you guys all finish the story in that game?

[1860] Because, I mean, looking at the size of the world and the number of missions there are, it's kind of a one -track experience.

[1861] By the end of it, it was a bit of a drag.

[1862] I was wondering if they could keep the momentum.

[1863] There are definitely mission types that you just kind of don't want to do, like the hostage rescue stuff later on.

[1864] That's a game that you want to kind of just play on easy.

[1865] I did.

[1866] It's a lot more fun that way.

[1867] I've never seen a game so universally thought to be the best on easy.

[1868] Everything I've ever read about that game on every forum and everywhere is just played on easy.

[1869] It lets you focus on the parts of that game that are really well done.

[1870] It's kind of like the Force Unleashed where they built a great engine and some physics stuff.

[1871] You just want to go fuck around with it.

[1872] You just want to play with all the toys.

[1873] Mars is probably a tough environment to keep visually interesting.

[1874] It's like you're moving from one area to the other.

[1875] Everything is red, and now everything is kind of a grayish red.

[1876] And you see a lot of the same structurally.

[1877] Oh, I'm sure all that stuff is very prefab.

[1878] It gets recycled pretty rapidly.

[1879] Honestly, it's the wide open spaces in that game that...

[1880] And, you know, it's kind of part of the thing that makes it feel like Mars.

[1881] But, you know, it just kills the pace on Gorilla of like, fuck, I've got to get all the way over to this other place.

[1882] Yeah.

[1883] The jetpack.

[1884] Travel time is rough.

[1885] Is there?

[1886] Yeah.

[1887] Really?

[1888] Super late game jetpack.

[1889] Oh, no. Yeah.

[1890] Oh, that should be like a...

[1891] I know.

[1892] It makes getting over those hills so much.

[1893] That should be like a halfway two -thirds at most kind of thing.

[1894] Oh, that's a bummer.

[1895] There might be two -thirds.

[1896] There's no...

[1897] I forget the jetpack.

[1898] I forget so much about that game.

[1899] I remember being one of those things where I got it and I was just like, man, this is pretty cool.

[1900] This would have really made everything I just played.

[1901] I saw in the handbook there's like air vehicles as well of some kind.

[1902] Like a little hover vehicle, a gunship kind of looking thing.

[1903] So there's no fast travel or anything?

[1904] I think you can fast travel between bases or whatever.

[1905] But it's one of those games where it's weird.

[1906] I feel like it's even a dated mechanic now where you're building up faction rep points before you can move on.

[1907] I kind of enjoy it.

[1908] Like Infamous, I conquered every single territory there was to conquer in that game.

[1909] I set out in Guerrilla to do that, but some of those mission types just ended up being so annoying.

[1910] But random, like wanton destruction also contributes to that number, so that's pretty cool.

[1911] Right, so yeah, you get to a point where there's almost like you've kind of destroyed all the easy stuff, and it's all of a sudden.

[1912] I'm like, oh, now I have to go rescue these guys.

[1913] I really got to go way out of my way to find anything to even blow up.

[1914] Yeah.

[1915] It pinches you a little bit at the end with that stuff.

[1916] Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun with it so far.

[1917] Seems cool.

[1918] I need to find a way to play PC games on my TV.

[1919] It doesn't involve moving the computer.

[1920] So are you playing it on PC?

[1921] Yeah, I'm playing the PC version.

[1922] It looks great.

[1923] That was going to be my question.

[1924] 60 frames, maxed out everything.

[1925] We are really just in that point of like...

[1926] Is it the PC version or the console version?

[1927] I remember, wasn't Red Faction the game that was kind of broken on PC?

[1928] I think I remember there being a lot of issues.

[1929] So I ended up buying that on PC on some Steam sale.

[1930] Yeah, I had it as well.

[1931] And then immediately regretting it because it just...

[1932] didn't run right, and then going to the Steam message board for it, and it's just full of people bitching about how fucked that game is.

[1933] And it's like, oh, Volition came out and said they're not going to make any more patches, guys.

[1934] So if it's broken, it's still broken.

[1935] I don't know.

[1936] It pulled down a patch when I started it, and it's totally been fun since I started playing it.

[1937] I have a different computer now, so maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

[1938] If I had had the Xbox version, I would have played that, but I happen to have the PC version.

[1939] It's not like I'd taken a stand here or anything.

[1940] Regardless.

[1941] We need to find a solution.

[1942] Stop.

[1943] What are you guys doing over here?

[1944] Vinny's over here carving into the table.

[1945] I had to take away a thing from Vinny so he wouldn't...

[1946] Stop breaking the table.