Giant Bombcast 03-11-2008

[0] All right.

[1] It is March 11, 2008.

[2] I'm Ryan Davis.

[3] I'm Jeff Gersman.

[4] And you are listening to the Giant Bomb Podcast or the Giant Bombcast or just the Bombcast.

[5] Yeah.

[6] Giantbomb .comcast.

[7] Yes.

[8] No. That sounds too much like Comcast.

[9] It's Comcastic.

[10] No, it's not.

[11] It's Giant Bombcastic.

[12] It's Bombcastic.

[13] It is Bombtastic?

[14] Bombcastic.

[15] No, not Castic.

[16] Bombtastic.

[17] Bombtastic.

[18] Anyways, this is formerly known as the Arrow Pointing Down podcast.

[19] This is still going to be the same great, delicious content that you're used to, us talking about video games and other stuff.

[20] I guess primarily other stuff at this point.

[21] Maybe you should just say we're going to talk about other stuff and video games.

[22] We'll talk about stuff and then maybe at some point get to video games.

[23] But, yeah, top of the show.

[24] Let's talk about some drinks, I guess.

[25] No, before we get into drinks, let's talk about where we are.

[26] First podcast being recorded in the new office space.

[27] Yeah, we have an office.

[28] We have an office, which if you've gone to GiantBomb .com, you've seen some of our making of videos and some of our still shots of us having massive piles of stuff in the middle of the room, which is still here.

[29] Most of that's still here.

[30] A couple of PlayStations, a couple of Xbox 360s.

[31] You haven't unboxed your TV yet?

[32] I haven't unboxed my TV yet.

[33] I haven't yet had the need.

[34] You've unboxed yours.

[35] You were playing some Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

[36] Yeah, I got that set.

[37] It's paused right now.

[38] Indeed, you're fighting as Marth.

[39] Marth.

[40] You know, Marth.

[41] You know, Marth.

[42] Everyone's favorite Nintendo -ite.

[43] Marth.

[44] Marth.

[45] Lucas.

[46] Lucas.

[47] Everyone loves Lucas.

[48] Dude, you know what I love?

[49] What's that?

[50] When I think of Nintendo, Lucas.

[51] I just think of characters from Nintendo games that have never come out in the United States.

[52] Yeah, totally.

[53] I think of Lucas.

[54] But, yeah, the stack still has a lot of game systems.

[55] My TV's over there.

[56] There's a chair over there in a box, which we're not going to use because we made our chairs.

[57] Yeah, we made our own chairs.

[58] We made our own chairs.

[59] So if they ever break, we know who to blame.

[60] It's entirely on us.

[61] We sat in them.

[62] We built them.

[63] Which is why I was thinking we should have just built each other's chairs.

[64] That would have just ended poorly.

[65] That would have ended with someone going to the emergency room.

[66] Exactly.

[67] I would have just, like, purposely left bolts out.

[68] Just at some point you'd lean back and then.

[69] Emergency room visit.

[70] And, of course, no shortage of sports drinks.

[71] This is electrolyte -draining work we're doing here.

[72] It is indeed that.

[73] And I feel like, though, that these purchases were not our fault.

[74] No, no, I'd say we were enabled.

[75] We were definitely enabled.

[76] We went and we were trying to decide.

[77] We were like, oh, we should get some Gatorade while we're at the Costco while we're buying all these TVs.

[78] Also, everyone at the Costco, if you buy more than one TV at a Costco, apparently, you're some sort of billionaire.

[79] You're treated like some sort of ridiculous king that you flew in on a magic carpet from another faraway land.

[80] Two TVs?

[81] Every single person at the Costco losing their minds over the fact that we bought.

[82] two TVs.

[83] And we were even going to buy three TVs.

[84] Yeah, we were going to buy one larger TV.

[85] We decided to get that one over the internet.

[86] We're going to buy that from Costco online.

[87] But if we had purchased that third TV, we would still be there having sex with everyone who works there.

[88] They would have lined up at that point and said, alright!

[89] You guys in the executive club, you got that black card?

[90] Alright, in the back.

[91] Black and gold.

[92] Classy.

[93] But so we were, oh, we could use a case of Gatorade for the office.

[94] That seems reasonable.

[95] And we were over there looking at their sports drink selection.

[96] And we're like, oh, which type of Gatorade should we get?

[97] And then a third party that was there with us said, oh, just get all of them.

[98] Yep.

[99] So we ended up on a tear and have like five cases.

[100] A case of vitamin water.

[101] Six cases, actually, because there was a case of fake vitamin water that was in the trunk of my car.

[102] VitaRain.

[103] VitaRain.

[104] That's what it's looking like.

[105] That stuff is terrible.

[106] Is it?

[107] Well, thanks for bringing it in.

[108] Yeah, no problem.

[109] Yeah.

[110] Well, it's so good that I left it in the trunk of my car for several months.

[111] So I figured.

[112] Making it even better, I'm sure.

[113] Yeah, yeah.

[114] Enhancing flavor.

[115] Improved the flavor.

[116] We've got some regular Gatorade.

[117] We've got two cases of Gatorade Tiger, which we've already torn into.

[118] Yeah.

[119] Ironically, we've been drinking what we consider the worst flavor of the Gatorade Tiger so far.

[120] That's because we don't have a fridge yet.

[121] We're supposed to get that taken care of today, I think, but we'll see if that actually happens.

[122] Instead, we're doing this podcast.

[123] Yeah, instead we're doing this podcast.

[124] It seems like at some point we should put some things up on the website we're making rather than spending all our time buying furniture and, you know.

[125] Thus the podcast.

[126] Yeah.

[127] Content.

[128] We've also got our sweet orbital lounger, which one of our dudes came down and put together yesterday.

[129] This thing is crazy.

[130] It is crazy.

[131] It's relaxing.

[132] It's like a rocking chair.

[133] Well, okay.

[134] I want to say it's like a rocking chair because theoretically it'll rock back and forth.

[135] But as soon as you get into it, it just kind of finds where your center of gravity is and rolls to that point, and you're just kind of stuck there.

[136] So you have a lot of upper body.

[137] I do.

[138] That is where your distribution is happening.

[139] That's right.

[140] So when I get in it, it's like I'm at the dentist.

[141] I was watching you lay in it as opposed to other people, and with you it would go all the way to the little stoppers on the back of it.

[142] the rocking mechanism.

[143] I'm a tall, top -heavy individual, so that's just a...

[144] It doesn't look...

[145] It looks like you have to really, like, give yourself to the chair.

[146] Oh, yeah, you cannot fight the chair.

[147] You need to get in the chair and...

[148] And let the chair do what it does.

[149] And let the chair do what it does, exactly.

[150] And it'll take you to Comfort Town, but you have to trust it.

[151] It's a big trust game.

[152] So, yeah, that's pretty much...

[153] We've got our...

[154] A box of paper and a printer sitting over the other side of the room, but still not too much different from how it was yesterday from the shots that people saw on the site.

[155] Yeah, and the video that's up there now was shot before we went and made these purchases.

[156] Non -linear.

[157] Yeah.

[158] So it's like a Quentin Tarantino movie here.

[159] You see all the stuff first, and then you see what it looked like before the stuff was there, and then how John Travolta gets shot.

[160] Like we're going to launch the site this summer and then put up pictures of us as babies.

[161] That's going to be the big reveal.

[162] It's actually the baby versions of us launching the site.

[163] Right.

[164] It's like Baby Mario.

[165] Yes.

[166] Yes.

[167] So, yeah, that's a little update on the physical space here at Giant Bomb and how we're doing.

[168] What about the mental space, man?

[169] It's pretty good.

[170] Yeah.

[171] I think it's pretty good.

[172] I think we're pretty happy with what we're doing right now.

[173] It's kind of weird, the response, I think, that we're getting from the outside world right now.

[174] Yeah, definitely.

[175] It's been awesome.

[176] A lot of people, a lot of positive vibes, bro.

[177] Yeah, a lot of offers for people to send in a sports drink on the last podcast that we did.

[178] We put out the call and said, hey, send us some stuff.

[179] For everyone that is out there in Scotland or thereabouts, I ordered a case of...

[180] Is it Iron Brew?

[181] It's just Iron Brew.

[182] It's just Iron Brew.

[183] But it's called I -R -N -B -R -U.

[184] Yeah, I want to say it's Irn Brew.

[185] Irn Brew.

[186] I'm sure, like, if you're Scottish, it sounds more like that.

[187] But it's orange and apparently tastes like death.

[188] So we've got some of that coming.

[189] Yeah.

[190] Very excited about that.

[191] I also had a couple other offers from the UK and Australia.

[192] Australasia.

[193] They're going to send in, like, koala -flavored.

[194] Yes.

[195] You drink it, and then it's like a boomerang.

[196] It boomerangs out your mouth.

[197] I got an email from someone in this.

[198] I'm not going to get to this in our email section, but he mentioned Dr. Brown's celery -flavored soda, which Dr. Brown's, they make all sorts of weird.

[199] They make like a black cherry and other good stuff.

[200] I've heard of the celery -flavored soda.

[201] Why would anyone make that?

[202] That seems like a Jones soda gag, you know?

[203] Right, yeah.

[204] Like when they make their Thanksgiving sodas, and they're all awful and make you want to die.

[205] Yeah, they should just make, I mean, you should just eat celery at that point.

[206] I guess so.

[207] Or skip it.

[208] Or, yeah, yeah.

[209] Or, you know what, celery on its own, that's not why, ants on a log flavored soda, where I get the celery, but then I also get peanut butter and, you know, the raisin action also.

[210] What?

[211] Ants on a log.

[212] What?

[213] Have you ever had ants on a log where you take a stalk of celery and then you put peanut butter in it and then you put little raisins on top of it and it looks like ants on a log?

[214] No, never.

[215] Never even heard of that?

[216] No. Good Lord.

[217] Did you just make that up?

[218] No, that's like a childhood staple, man. Are you on drug?

[219] Do we need to start drug testing in this office, son?

[220] Man, I got some sweet ants on a log from Bolivia.

[221] I hooked up some ants on a log.

[222] My buddy Jesse just got out.

[223] Oh, right on, right on.

[224] Knows this guy.

[225] No, I'm not a big celery fan to begin with.

[226] I've certainly seen peanut butter on celery.

[227] Yes, but you've not seen it taken to this next level with...

[228] No, I've not seen clever names brought up for it.

[229] No. Well, there you go.

[230] Learn something new every day.

[231] Jeez.

[232] It's in a log.

[233] That you learn is what I mean.

[234] We have other drinks also in the office here.

[235] Right.

[236] On my way in, I stopped at my local bodega.

[237] And I picked up something to have this morning, and then I saw this, so I figured I had to get it.

[238] It's Kabbalah Energy Drink.

[239] Just like the kind Madonna used to drink.

[240] It's exactly that kind.

[241] It's even got, I guess, what are supposed to be like the little red bracelet things in a stylized format on the...

[242] Holy Christ.

[243] So that's like...

[244] I was kidding.

[245] I thought it was going to be spelled differently, and they just thought it was a fly name.

[246] No, I think this might actually...

[247] It's like Kabbalah, and it's got the TM on it.

[248] This might be like officially licensed Kabbalah drink.

[249] I'm holding out for the Cabal energy drink where you can hit back forward, low kick, and he does the little sweepy move that makes you spin.

[250] That's pretty energetic.

[251] I thought you meant like the old arcade game Cabal.

[252] No. But like the MK character.

[253] Right.

[254] All right.

[255] Well, I'm going to get into this Cabala energy drink here, Jeff.

[256] Dude, don't do it.

[257] It's a cult.

[258] Once I open it, I have to spend another $50 to get another one.

[259] You and Lindsay Lohan.

[260] So while I'm cracking this open, Jeff, I'm going to put my microphone down.

[261] You want to describe the drink that you've purchased?

[262] Okay.

[263] You've already gotten into it, so you can maybe discuss the flavor.

[264] We went out for a drive this morning because the dude at the restaurant across the street finally realized that we were parking in his parking lot and said, you guys going to be here long?

[265] So we had to move the cars.

[266] So we went by the 7 -Eleven food stores up the street, and I got one of these sun -kissed floats.

[267] Which they have a Sunkist float and they have a A &W root beer float.

[268] Right.

[269] This tastes like a melted 50 -50 bar.

[270] So the idea is that it is like soda plus ice cream.

[271] Ice cream flavor.

[272] But ice cream flavor.

[273] Right.

[274] Not.

[275] A creamy blend of Sunkist soda and ice cream flavor is what it says.

[276] And this is a glass bottle.

[277] Classy.

[278] That's nice.

[279] That's how you know.

[280] It's a shapely glass bottle.

[281] It is very.

[282] And I found it to be delicious.

[283] You enjoy it?

[284] I love orange soda.

[285] I love 50 -50 bars.

[286] Hey.

[287] Do you think it doesn't compare to like the Steward's like orange dreamsicle flavor?

[288] Yeah, it does compare to that.

[289] I think maybe this is a little bit more creamy.

[290] Yeah.

[291] The weird thing about it is it's in a bottle, but the bottle is all like plastic shrink wrapped, so you can't see the content.

[292] Do you know what color the drink was?

[293] It is.

[294] It is orange, but at the edges of the orange, you can kind of see it's a little creamy around the edges, a little fizzy.

[295] Yeah.

[296] Well, excellent.

[297] Looks like a melted ice cream bar.

[298] So Jeff Gershman endorsement on the Sunkist float drink.

[299] Slugging back a little more right there.

[300] Yeah.

[301] All right.

[302] Let's go ahead.

[303] Give yourself over to the Kabbalah.

[304] You need like some beads or something for this, don't you?

[305] Let me take a seminar before I can drink this.

[306] Right.

[307] I don't know.

[308] Not bad.

[309] Actually, you know how energy drinks are usually really overbearing with the flavor?

[310] Yeah.

[311] This just kind of tastes like soda.

[312] Hmm.

[313] Weird.

[314] Like a cola?

[315] Or like just a soda water?

[316] Kind of like a...

[317] Do they tell you what...

[318] Oh, they do have a warning on the side.

[319] Consume responsibly.

[320] Limit 24 ounces per 24 -hour period.

[321] Not recommended for children, pregnant women, or people sensitive to caffeine.

[322] They just put that on there so you drink it more.

[323] So you buy into it.

[324] Oh, man, this must be legit.

[325] They got a warning label on it.

[326] Well, they don't have any sort of description for the kind of flavor they're going for, but it's like a...

[327] Can't quite place it.

[328] It's like a split between, like, Squirt and Red Bull.

[329] Okay.

[330] You want to give it a...

[331] Yeah, yeah.

[332] Have a better chance at articulating what this tastes like here.

[333] It says taurine and B vitamins.

[334] Oh, it's infused with Kabbalah water.

[335] Oh, well, that'll do it.

[336] So it's got holy water in it, or fake holy water.

[337] It's got Jewish magic water.

[338] It smells like an energy drink.

[339] Yeah, it's kind of a nebulous flavor, much like Kabbalah.

[340] Right.

[341] Neither of us can accurately explain what it is.

[342] When you say Kabbalah to us, we say, oh, crazy cult Madonna.

[343] I don't know.

[344] Yeah, I don't know.

[345] Kind of citrusy, kind of.

[346] Kind of, yeah.

[347] I'm feeling it.

[348] Yeah, you know, okay, but not a taste sensation.

[349] But not bad.

[350] You know, whatever.

[351] Drinkable.

[352] Drinkable.

[353] But there are so many other products out there to recommend.

[354] Boy, are there.

[355] Give this one a pass.

[356] Do we want to step straight to our next product here, Jeff?

[357] I say we just get all the weird energy crap into us as soon as possible so that the rest of the day can be...

[358] Bad.

[359] Bad.

[360] Us crashing out on all these beanbag chairs that are down here.

[361] Actually, I call the orbital lounger.

[362] Fine, I don't want it.

[363] You can stack up all these beanbags.

[364] I will take our beanbag snowman over there and tackle him to the ground.

[365] Actually, whatever.

[366] We're going to crash in the middle of going to Ikea.

[367] We'll be looking at desks, and then suddenly our eyes will roll back in our heads.

[368] That happens to be at Ikea regardless.

[369] Well, it'll happen extra because we're going to drink some Mana Energy Potion.

[370] Yeah, so this is not distributed by...

[371] This is not Blizzard.

[372] This is not a World of Warcraft product, but it is marketed to World of Warcraft players.

[373] And it comes in a little tiny kind of potion bottle.

[374] A little, like, bulbous.

[375] And the color of it is probably the worst color I've ever seen anything.

[376] It's like a murky green.

[377] If you hold it up to the light, you can't really see through it, even though it's a pretty small bottle.

[378] And it looks thick.

[379] I see stuff.

[380] This is mad viscous.

[381] I can see stuff floating in it.

[382] That's just bubbles.

[383] It's air bubbles.

[384] No, no, like a thing.

[385] Like, there's a thing in there.

[386] So this stuff looks...

[387] I'm at their website right now, and if you needed one more reason to not like it, it says, Energy for Gamers.

[388] I just, I don't...

[389] This, like, whole marketing...

[390] Like, I understand, you know, people sit in front of a computer for long periods of time, so they often need to drink an energy drink.

[391] It's just that when it's marketed directly at that segment, I get really put off immediately.

[392] That they would choose to do that.

[393] Yeah, it's just like, hey, man, you sat around all day.

[394] Take a break from the Cheetos, fat man, and drink an energy drink.

[395] Oh, that's what I need.

[396] I need that extra boost.

[397] That's right.

[398] You're not going to get it from 15 minutes of exercise that would give you natural energy.

[399] How am I supposed to get to level 70 that way?

[400] Exactly.

[401] You need to grind all the way for the rest of the night, man. Forget rest state.

[402] You need to drink this, ground this energy potion.

[403] Come on, man, we're going to do this.

[404] We're going to take this truck all the way to Vegas.

[405] Okay, so I've taken the plastic off, and the label is kind of sticky as if some of it has been leaking out.

[406] Oh, my.

[407] Okay, I'm going to prepare this beverage that I have over here.

[408] Secondary, your backup beverage.

[409] You can wash it down.

[410] Cool Fusion G -Tig.

[411] Let's dwell on the smell of this for a minute, Jeff.

[412] This smells like syrupy.

[413] But like...

[414] Like medicine -y.

[415] Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[416] I just got all the way down in it and put my nose right up to it before I was getting this kind of primary scent.

[417] No, no, it's down in it.

[418] It's like a bitter, almost like a ground -up aspirin.

[419] Right, yes.

[420] More ground -up pill flavors here.

[421] Oh, God.

[422] Oh, this is going to be really bad.

[423] I say we have to commit and we have to chug the whole thing.

[424] This is going to be the end of this segment.

[425] This is going to be the last time we're going to do this.

[426] God.

[427] No more stupid drinks after this one, I think.

[428] Go upstairs and curse the people who bought these.

[429] Curse the people that bought these for us.

[430] All right.

[431] Well, actually, we have to keep doing this segment.

[432] We're committed because people are sending us stuff.

[433] Right.

[434] Okay, yes.

[435] And I have that case of Iron Brew coming, so I'm going to drink that anyway.

[436] Might as well drink it in front of a microphone.

[437] All right, so we're going to chug these mana energy potions.

[438] Let's see here.

[439] There's 20 calories in here, so it's not too high impact in that regard.

[440] Also, these are really small, I think, is a thing to stress.

[441] Yeah, this is like 1 .35 ounces, 40 milliliters.

[442] So it's like a shot, basically.

[443] Yeah, just about.

[444] A little bit bigger than those five -hour energy or those six -hour energy things.

[445] Oh, you know what?

[446] It definitely reminds me of that.

[447] Of those, okay.

[448] Of the mini thin drink.

[449] Right.

[450] So we have to pull the whole thing.

[451] All right.

[452] So if this is the end of the Giant Bomb podcast, if it just stops after this, you'll know why.

[453] Yeah.

[454] All right, here we go.

[455] Bottoms up.

[456] Oh.

[457] Oh.

[458] Oh.

[459] Oh.

[460] Oh.

[461] It takes.

[462] Oh.

[463] Oh.

[464] Oh, God.

[465] Yeah, there it is.

[466] It takes a little bit to get at you.

[467] It rope -a -dopes you.

[468] Gross.

[469] And I actually managed to get most of it to bypass my tongue.

[470] Oh, I poured it directly down my tongue.

[471] I wanted it full on.

[472] I wanted it bad.

[473] Oh, it is bad.

[474] Don't buy mana energy potions, especially because they're, like, stupid expensive, too.

[475] Right, yeah.

[476] They're like...

[477] I'm going to click this buy now link on their webpage and see how much they actually want.

[478] I was told that after shipping and handling, they were like $5 a pop or something.

[479] A six -pack is $20 .70 with $6 .40 for shipping and handling.

[480] So, yeah, like $28.

[481] Just about $5 per go.

[482] Sure.

[483] Yeah, if you want to actually do math, I guess.

[484] A little less.

[485] Yeah, it keeps coming back on you.

[486] Going to my control drink.

[487] Oh.

[488] That's definitely going to do it for that segment, I think.

[489] At least for today.

[490] No more drinks.

[491] Well, we're out of drinks anyway.

[492] So that's that.

[493] So that's that.

[494] We want to talk about some video games?

[495] Yeah, yeah.

[496] What happened?

[497] Well, let's see here.

[498] Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out on the Wii.

[499] Yeah, they put that out on Sunday.

[500] That's a weird day to put out a video game.

[501] It's something that they do in Japan on occasion, but I want to say that they passed a law for it, but I could be totally making that up, that all Dragon Quest games have to be released on a weekend.

[502] Oh, because of that?

[503] Because people were skipping school and calling in sick from work.

[504] It was just causing too much trouble.

[505] So they just kind of stepped in and said, look, you have to release these games on the weekends.

[506] Even if the video game industry is kind of tapering off some in Japan, It's so great to know that that's a nation that is so, you know, the games are so ingrained there.

[507] Yeah.

[508] That it has, you know, effect on the economy on a national scale when a game comes out.

[509] Right.

[510] That's awesome.

[511] Yeah.

[512] Yeah, totally.

[513] That's so fantastic.

[514] So that to me is probably what the thinking was with Smash Brothers is that.

[515] Poisonous bottles away from us.

[516] Yeah, yeah.

[517] Is that by releasing it on a Sunday, you don't have, you know, the kids that are fanatical about it trying to.

[518] you know fake sick from school or doing anything like that plus released like right around spring break for a lot of schools um so you know i think some people some people are saying that they're they're out on break right now did this come out on a sunday in japan no no i'm just saying here okay okay um so spring break for for a lot of kids out there so you're you're playing it uh yeah yeah it's smash bros it is totally smash brothers it is uh you know and and you know that What that means to you depends on how you feel about playing more Smash Brothers.

[519] I think the subspace emissary mode is pretty neat.

[520] It's kind of the single -player story mode thing, but there's no voice in the story.

[521] You just kind of see Nintendo characters hopping around doing ridiculous stuff, and then, oh, wait, Denny Kong shows up, and he shoots his peanut gun, and oh, my God!

[522] It does seem very fan...

[523] Totally.

[524] This game is totally Nintendo fan fiction, fan service friendly.

[525] Like that's, that is its main draw for me. Is then someone walks into frame and then their name flashes up on screen.

[526] Like, oh snap, that's the dude from Star Fox, but not Fox, some other dude from Star Fox.

[527] Some guy that I've never seen before.

[528] Right.

[529] Huh?

[530] They definitely like getting their obscure characters on, which if you're a huge Nintendo fan, good for you.

[531] Yeah.

[532] And then of course this is the, I mean, well, okay.

[533] So primarily it's a fighting game, like, but not.

[534] Not in the traditional sense.

[535] It is a brawler, I think, is kind of the sub -genre that I would put it under.

[536] I've always felt like it was a parallel to, like, the Capcom Power Stone games.

[537] Yeah, definitely.

[538] But I don't think I would call Power Stone a brawler either.

[539] Well, are you considering, like, brawlers to be, like, beat -em -ups?

[540] Yeah.

[541] Okay, well, I would not call, like, Final Fight or, you know, Double Dragon.

[542] I would not call those brawlers.

[543] I would call those beat -em -ups.

[544] Okay.

[545] That would be my distinction for the genre.

[546] Yeah, I guess.

[547] That could be wrong.

[548] Or maybe this is just an alternative fighting game, sort of like how Tony Hawk is an alternative sports game.

[549] No, don't say that.

[550] It's extreme.

[551] So this is an extreme fighting game.

[552] No. So, yeah, it's not the sort of game that I think is going to appeal to anyone who likes a lot of Tekken or, yeah, like real, quote -unquote, fighting games.

[553] Oh, you just pissed off so many people saying that.

[554] Yeah, whatever.

[555] Smash Bros. isn't a real fighting game.

[556] It's not.

[557] No, I agree.

[558] Yeah, it's its own animal, and that's cool.

[559] Yeah, so it's four -player, crazy, run around, beat them up.

[560] You know, a lot of people...

[561] talk about how there's this huge hidden depth to the gameplay.

[562] People are like, I'm just going to play on the final destination stage because it's just a flat surface and we're going to turn off all the items so it's not all random because you got the lucky item that made you hammer me into space and we're just going to do it, man. Just go.

[563] Those people are crazy.

[564] That seems like defeating the purpose of the whole game.

[565] It seems like it's all about complete crazy chaos.

[566] Close your eyes and hit A. There is a tournament scene around this series really kind of bums me out.

[567] Because it is just so much about, hey, we're having fun with Nintendo dudes, and how cool is that?

[568] Though also, the roster has kind of been expanded this time around.

[569] I mean, there are a lot of great Nintendo characters in the game, of course.

[570] But also, non -Nintendo characters for the first time shouldn't be a surprise to anyone listening.

[571] No. Because it's been...

[572] This is not breaking news.

[573] Yeah, that is the crux of this game.

[574] They are on the back of the frickin' box that Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog are in the game.

[575] We were talking about this a little earlier, about now that they're busting in third -party characters.

[576] Yeah.

[577] And I suggested that Purple Tentacle from Day of the Tentacle.

[578] That would be so awesome.

[579] Should be in the next one.

[580] That would be so awesome if Purple Tentacle was in this game.

[581] Yeah, let's just get characters that have never appeared on Nintendo systems.

[582] Although, I guess...

[583] Yeah, Maniac Mansion came to the NES.

[584] So that counts.

[585] Yeah.

[586] So, yeah.

[587] Like, that I think is the perfect example of a character I would love to see in this game is Purple Tentacle.

[588] And that seems like the kind of obscure characters that they're mining, you know, from the Nintendo side at least.

[589] Right.

[590] But since this game is coming out of Japan and is big in Japan, you're never going to see something like that.

[591] No. I mean, obviously the reason that, you know, Sonic and Snake are in there is because...

[592] You'd be more likely to see, like, Dog from Resident Evil in here before you would see...

[593] Yeah, there was some talk like that there was...

[594] The dude from Planescape Torment.

[595] Well, there was buzz at some point that the reason why no Resident Evil or like Mega Man...

[596] were in this game was because there was a falling out between Capcom and Nintendo.

[597] Oh, over the...

[598] The Resident Evil 4 releases on non -Nintendo platforms.

[599] Right, right.

[600] So, yeah.

[601] That's too bad because Mega Man would be a perfect fit.

[602] Mega Man would fit into this.

[603] They have a lot of weird cases where characters can change forms like Zelda.

[604] You can change Zelda to Sheik and back again.

[605] You can change Samus to have no suit and have a suit again.

[606] Sexy Samus.

[607] Zero suit Samus.

[608] Meaning there's no suit, I think is what that means.

[609] Zero suits.

[610] How many suits do you have, Samus?

[611] I have zero suits.

[612] Zero suit Samus.

[613] So there'd be a lot of cases for like, oh, now he's Gutsman Mega Man. Sure.

[614] Now he's Iceman Mega Man. So I think that would be really awesome.

[615] And yeah, I don't know.

[616] You could put Claire.

[617] Sure, they were in those Marvel versus Capcom stuff.

[618] Put some RE guys in here.

[619] Yeah, I'm trying to think what other stuff would actually be a natural fit that actually comes out of Japan.

[620] Soul Calibur characters?

[621] Yes, right.

[622] Darth Vader, but the Soul Calibur version.

[623] They're going to put in the next Smash Brothers.

[624] So yeah, the box art, Jeff, if you haven't seen it, you want to come over here and check it out.

[625] Yeah, yeah.

[626] So the box art for Soul Calibur 4 has been released.

[627] This is a game being released on the PlayStation 3.

[628] And the Xbox 360.

[629] One of the big reveals, when was that, like CES?

[630] I guess, yeah, it was right around CES that 1UP had the exclusive reveal for that stuff.

[631] Which is that Darth Vader and Yoda are going to be exclusive characters in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Soul Calibur 4, respectively.

[632] Right, so what is it?

[633] Is it Darth Vader on PS3?

[634] Because that system is black.

[635] Yep.

[636] Because that system looks like Darth Vader.

[637] And Yoda is on the Xbox 360.

[638] Well, at least they got that part of it right.

[639] Green.

[640] Oh, yeah, sure.

[641] Yoda, green.

[642] Yoda's green.

[643] Xbox boxes are green.

[644] So, but, I mean...

[645] The thing that drives me crazy about this is that it makes no sense.

[646] Right.

[647] It's such a wedged -in thing, and it just reeks of desperation on Nanto Bandai.

[648] Way more desperation than it did last time around.

[649] It was bad last time, but at least it was like the system -specific Link showing up there.

[650] It's like, oh, okay, well, it's a...

[651] Yeah, Link on a Nintendo.

[652] Sure, yeah, definitely.

[653] Spawn was dumb.

[654] Spawn and then the other dude.

[655] And Hiachi.

[656] Oh, it was Heihachi on the other one, right.

[657] Which, you know, Heihachi's just a bit of all of them.

[658] Yeah.

[659] Heihachi's awesome.

[660] He's wicked sick.

[661] Yeah.

[662] That arm bracers.

[663] Right.

[664] But so...

[665] What makes this even worse is that Yoda and Darth Vader are on the damn boxes.

[666] On the box.

[667] Like on the top.

[668] On the top.

[669] Like first thing you see.

[670] Above the title it says it's Darth Vader's head and then Soul Calibur 4.

[671] And then it's Yoda's head and then Soul Calibur 4.

[672] As if to say, look at these characters from this universe.

[673] And then who else is on?

[674] Is it like Mitsurugi?

[675] No, not even Mitsurugi.

[676] Yeah, some other.

[677] It's like Ivy and then.

[678] Nightmare, and then...

[679] I don't remember who these other...

[680] Alright, well, whatever.

[681] Some dudes with nice hair.

[682] Some soul -caliber dudes.

[683] Some dudes with swords.

[684] Siegfried, I don't know.

[685] Could be Siegfried.

[686] I couldn't tell you at a point.

[687] But it's just maddening.

[688] Like, just totally trying to integrate them as if to say, like, total natural fit.

[689] Here they are on the box.

[690] Because there are characters, not Star Wars characters.

[691] I don't know.

[692] Or just that, like, that is what they're using to sell the game.

[693] Right.

[694] Well, that is what they're using to sell the game.

[695] I mean...

[696] Let's face it, the number of people who really like fighting games in this day and age is dropping all the time.

[697] I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, the fighting game is dead, because I don't think it is, but I don't think that market is growing either.

[698] So anything they can do to rope people in, and Soul Calibur, it's really a shame that the Soul Calibur series has had to go this route.

[699] It seems weird that it has, though, because it's like...

[700] I guess.

[701] Is it that much less popular than the Tekken series, which Namco also publishes?

[702] I think it is.

[703] Definitely in terms of arcade usage and stuff like that.

[704] I don't know.

[705] Soul Calibur had its moment when it came out on the Dreamcast, and it was such a dramatic graphical step up from...

[706] what the PlayStation was capable of.

[707] It was the game that sold Dreamcast.

[708] It was a great showpiece for the system.

[709] Totally.

[710] And it was a perfectly fine, fun fighting game.

[711] And just from there, they just haven't really done a whole lot with it.

[712] Yeah, this just really, using Darth Vader and Yoda on the top of the box, that is their primary selling point is kind of sad.

[713] Yeah, and there's some talk out there, because these guys are going to be exclusive to the consoles that they're on for now, but there's talk that...

[714] they'll become available as downloadable content.

[715] Well, they have to.

[716] That's probably one of the things that I hate the most about this.

[717] So you can end up with both characters in it.

[718] You can't even have Darth Vader and Yoda fight right now.

[719] Right.

[720] Like, the thing you would want to probably do.

[721] Have two Jedis fight in this wicked, like, a good, you know, not Masters of the Taras Kasi, but in a good fighting game situation.

[722] Right.

[723] Yoda wasn't even playable in that one.

[724] That was pre -Yoda being a guy who could hold a lightsaber.

[725] Right.

[726] Yeah, yeah.

[727] But, yeah, you can finally have that, but sorry.

[728] Yeah, I don't know.

[729] You know, it's got us talking about it, which I think that's, you know, it's serving its purpose.

[730] Sure, but it's making us angry!

[731] Yeah, but at the same time, it's sad that that's the only thing that's worth talking about with Soul Calibur 4, I think.

[732] That the series has kind of just come to this point.

[733] You know, it's like I'd much rather, even though everything I've heard about Tekken 6 has been just totally middling, unless you're totally like a Tekken psycho fan, I'm still way more excited about Tekken 6.

[734] And of course, way more excited about Street Fighter 4.

[735] Absolutely.

[736] Like Soul Calibur, I just, like, whatever.

[737] Totally don't care.

[738] So do we want to get back to more Smash Bros?

[739] I don't think there's a whole lot.

[740] Yeah, we are going to review it.

[741] We are going to review some Smash Bros. I finally got the online to work.

[742] They had some trouble.

[743] It seems like this is a problem that I guess some of the Pokemon games on DS had, is that the servers just get swamped, and they just explode, and they'd have an error code that when you look it up on Nintendo's site, it says, this means the servers are jacked.

[744] Right.

[745] Because so many people are trying to play it.

[746] Right, so the 85 -something.

[747] 85020, 85010.

[748] Yeah, those codes.

[749] And I finally stopped getting those last night and got in a few games.

[750] You could play with friends because those didn't go through the matching stuff that everything else did.

[751] Right, so you can actually connect directly and then just go.

[752] Yeah, so if you exchanged friend codes with people, and it's a separate Smash Bros. specific friend code, not your Wii code.

[753] Like with all Wii games.

[754] Right, yeah.

[755] Then you can...

[756] play with your friends so i got into like a one game with uh with a friend of mine uh but he was he's boosting his wi -fi from his neighbor or something like that so it's like it was super lagged crappy i got into some good games last night that were pretty much lag free and felt fine um But yeah, you know, like I'm already it's kind of a tough sell because I'm already not like a super ridiculous fan of the series.

[757] Right.

[758] I think it's a competent, fun game that's good in groups.

[759] But yeah, it's like so you add that online play.

[760] It's cool that I can play with people because I literally know no one who was way into Smash Brothers personally.

[761] I could not.

[762] If I said, hey, guys, let's get together and play Smash Brothers, people would look at me like I was from space.

[763] Yeah, you wouldn't get that group together.

[764] And for a lot of people, getting a group of four people together for a game of Smash Brothers is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

[765] And the online doesn't faithfully duplicate the experience of having three other dudes there and you shouting and going crazy.

[766] fun, successful multiplayer session of Smash Brothers must be like.

[767] It's like, you know, the people in the room definitely add to the chaos of that game, which I feel like is kind of a key point of the experience and perhaps a bit of a selling point for some people.

[768] Yeah, so it definitely seems like a game that is dependent on your ability to get that group together and keep them excited.

[769] Well, in addition to that, last week, Bully Scholarship Edition came out.

[770] Yeah.

[771] We talked about this a little bit.

[772] And we, on the last podcast, we discussed there were some frame rate issues that we were having with Bully.

[773] And it turned out that that was not what Rockstar had intended.

[774] Right.

[775] Or so they claim.

[776] Or so they're claiming is that people are complaining about frame rate issues, sound bugs, long load times, locking up a lot.

[777] Which I finished the game over the weekend and I had it probably lock up four or five times on me over the course of the...

[778] Which is a real bummer in that game because...

[779] Yeah, the saving is not...

[780] You go stretches in that game without saving, so you have to be a lot more vigilant about that or else you end up...

[781] And I ended up losing a good amount of progress anyways having to replay sections multiple times.

[782] Man, that is frustrating.

[783] Yeah, it is extremely frustrating when you have to replay stuff not because you failed at it.

[784] Right.

[785] Like if I just completely boned it and just died or whatever, it's like, all right, well, that's my fault, but...

[786] Right, I mean, yeah, that was kind of like my learning process with the Mass Effect save system where there would just be segments of the game.

[787] where it would not save for a good long time.

[788] And then, oh, I rounded this corner, and oh, there's four things in here, and oh, I got jacked, and oh, God, four hours.

[789] Yeah.

[790] Actually, I never had that problem when I was playing Mass Effect the first time, but when I started my second playthrough of it, I got to a point where I had played for an hour or something, and then I died.

[791] And I said, all right, well, I guess I'm not going to do the second playthrough anymore because I'm not doing that hour segment again.

[792] Right, yeah.

[793] So, yeah, the thing with Bully is that Sam Hauser's come out, and he's...

[794] Big head guy over at Rockstar.

[795] Head honcho.

[796] Head honcho.

[797] Big cheese.

[798] Big cheese.

[799] International cross -country Mac.

[800] Yes.

[801] Professional gentleman of leisure.

[802] And he has come out and said, hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

[803] What the hell?

[804] They seem shocked by what is actually happening on retail machines.

[805] Yeah, yeah.

[806] They're saying that in the development process, that the build that they shipped off to be pressed, when they were playing it in the development environment, that it didn't have the frame rate issues and kind of the longer load times and this sort of stuff.

[807] So they are working on a patch, and it should be out sometime this week is what they said at the end of last week.

[808] His statement said that they're working on it.

[809] And, yeah, as much as I hope that they get that out soon.

[810] You've already finished it.

[811] I've already finished it, so it's like, that's really too much good.

[812] I played it up to the very first save point, and then we recorded the podcast where we talked about how boned it was, and I haven't played it since.

[813] So at this point, I'm going to wait for the patch and then play it.

[814] I did see that you have zero achievement points in that game so far, so I assumed you didn't get too much further.

[815] Yeah, I mean, I started playing Armia 2 and some other stuff, so I kind of just moved on.

[816] But yeah, very interested to see that patch, because the pre -rendered video was stuttering.

[817] Right.

[818] When I was watching it.

[819] Specifically, yeah, the Mad Doc logo at the start is...

[820] Even that was jacked.

[821] So it's hard to kind of trace back what happened, and we'll probably never actually know what occurred.

[822] But there are a few different cases where...

[823] You have a theory about this.

[824] I do.

[825] I have a couple of theories.

[826] One is that the wrong build got shipped off for manufacturing, which is actually something that has happened before.

[827] It's super rare.

[828] Frightfully more common than it ought be.

[829] Right.

[830] But just straight up, someone...

[831] at some point in the process, made the wrong gold master and sent off the wrong...

[832] When you're dealing with a million versions of a game in that development process, it's probably a lot easier for that to happen than it seems.

[833] I wish I could think of examples of that happening.

[834] Let's see here.

[835] There was that Tiger Woods game for the PlayStation that had the...

[836] The South Park episodes on the disc.

[837] Yeah, right.

[838] There was Alien Hominid HD for Xbox Live Arcade.

[839] The Behemoth guys said that the wrong version got shipped for that, which is why it had all of those, like, no sound in the Soviet mission.

[840] Yes, that's right.

[841] So it happens.

[842] Wrong versions get put out.

[843] Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

[844] There was something with the characters for that, or the wrong version of the...

[845] downloadable content got pushed live.

[846] Right, right, right, right.

[847] Yeah, for the DLC for Marvel Ultimate Alliance, that happened.

[848] And then they had to yank it down, and it was messing up everybody's save games.

[849] Like, that was a pretty dramatic...

[850] The other theory I have is...

[851] Okay, so when you're making an Xbox 360 game and also when you're playing them in the pre -release environment, you are playing it on an Xbox development kit or a Xenon development kit.

[852] I forget what the exact abbreviation is.

[853] An XDK.

[854] An XDK.

[855] And basically developers update their pre -release hardware with newer versions of the development tools all the time.

[856] And then the press occasionally gets updated as well.

[857] And there have been cases where games have run well on one version of the XDK, but not well on another version of the XDK.

[858] We've experienced this in the past.

[859] Yeah, we've experienced this in the past, even back to the original Xbox, where it's like a version of a game we got for review.

[860] Straight up wouldn't run or was running poorly.

[861] Or wouldn't run at all.

[862] Yeah, horrible frame rate, wouldn't stream right.

[863] There's all kinds of broken stuff that when you see an actual retail disc, it doesn't do it, or vice versa.

[864] So my theory is that they developed it on a version of the XDK that has not been pushed to retail users yet.

[865] So what they have is beyond what is currently available on a retail Xbox 360.

[866] So once that update happened or if they patched it, whichever would happen first, then theoretically that would correct the issue.

[867] That's my theory.

[868] And it is just a theory.

[869] Strictly speculation.

[870] Any number of things could have happened to mess that up.

[871] But we also, you know, there's precedent for this stuff, and we have had experience with it.

[872] So it's real.

[873] These things do happen.

[874] It also could be, you know, maybe this is all just smokescreen.

[875] Maybe Sam Hauser is just trying to, you know.

[876] Buy the guys some time to fix it.

[877] Buy them some time.

[878] I mean, my initial reaction was like, well, MadDoc is a PC developer that does RTS games primarily.

[879] Right.

[880] them doing the port for this is kind of weird and I just my initial reaction was just chalking it up to their inexperience you know and Rockstar just not really caring about it because they're worrying about GTA.

[881] Right.

[882] So who knows?

[883] It could be any of those things.

[884] It could be a combination thereof.

[885] You're right.

[886] We'll probably never know, but let's hope that patch comes out in the near future anyways.

[887] Yeah, because I totally want to play Bully.

[888] You know what?

[889] Even with all those problems, I was having so much fun with that game.

[890] That is just a phenomenal, just a great little game.

[891] Yeah.

[892] But yeah, for now it sounds like the Wii version might be the way to go, but we'll probably wait until the patch comes out.

[893] Either way, what I like about Bully is I feel like it's a good primer for GTA 4.

[894] I feel like their release of this kind of before GTA 4.

[895] Gets you used to their style of open -worldness.

[896] It reminds you of how Rockstar does open -world, how they do narrative stuff, like watching the little cutscenes in Bully.

[897] It's like you're watching a GTA cutscene in the presentation and how characters interact with each other.

[898] tone things like that although it's more mischievous than out and out kind of evil the way gta yeah that's and that's that's part of what i really love about it and that that's why it's so ridiculous that with the release of bully like a lot of the groups of people that are trying to stop the evil video games.

[899] Like, they came up out of the ash and said, bully, this looks horrible.

[900] Like, dude.

[901] It's like, dude.

[902] You're a year and a half old.

[903] Yeah, it's like, no kidding.

[904] You said this last time.

[905] We're past this now.

[906] You already had your shot at it.

[907] It came out.

[908] Yeah, it's like them adding two new class types isn't going to suddenly...

[909] The eight new missions are all about cutting off hookers' heads.

[910] Like, no, no. So, ridiculous.

[911] Indeed.

[912] Let's move on from that ridiculous and move on to other ridiculousness.

[913] Yeah.

[914] Oh, Sierra, what else is going on in the world?

[915] So have you heard about this Shred 64 project?

[916] I have.

[917] Yeah, I watched a video of it a few months back.

[918] So it's basically someone has gone and kind of made a Guitar Hero -esque game for the Commodore 64.

[919] Awesome.

[920] Which is a fantastic thing to do.

[921] Yeah.

[922] Because the Commodore 64 has an amazing sound to it.

[923] It does.

[924] The SID chip is capable of ridiculous things, and it's just so much classic game music came out of the Commodore 64.

[925] And there are a lot of groups today, people out there making electronic music that have sounds that are either coming from that SID chip or are very rooted in kind of the mentality of what the C64 was able to do.

[926] It's a very iconic sound.

[927] Totally.

[928] Yeah, so it's just a perfect fit.

[929] And they've gone and made this adapter that actually lets you plug in a Guitar Hero guitar to a Commodore.

[930] Yeah, it's the PSX -64 interface, which they're going to be releasing in a commercial.

[931] Capacity soon enough.

[932] They've been prototyping it.

[933] That's awesome.

[934] So it's, yeah, it'll make a commercially available adapter to plug in PlayStation controllers to Commodore 64.

[935] And they're also, they're also researching.

[936] I went and checked out the site for this, for the, the people that are doing this, uh, synth, uh, synth dreams .com.

[937] You can go and check out this stuff.

[938] And they're also talking about creating something that allow you to like connect your PC to a C64 to like.

[939] I guess use it as a virtual drive or something, but basically allow you to send files from your PC to your C64.

[940] For like song packs.

[941] Yeah, they're going to release song packs and updates.

[942] Or any disc images of C64 stuff you might have lying around.

[943] New SID stuff or something.

[944] So that's kind of awesome.

[945] I definitely recommend you go and check this out.

[946] I want to get a hold of this myself because that sounds amazing.

[947] Yeah, definitely.

[948] I'm really interested to see how responsive it is, like if the Commodore 64 can even kind of...

[949] Handle it.

[950] I was thinking about that some too, but it's, you know, it's, what is it?

[951] It's five buttons.

[952] And a strummer.

[953] And a strummer, which is two buttons basically on its own.

[954] Yeah.

[955] I imagine it probably doesn't use the, you know, the whammy bar at all.

[956] Yeah, maybe not.

[957] But maybe it does.

[958] Who knows?

[959] That would be crazy.

[960] That would be, yeah.

[961] To put whammy, like, note bending on a SID sound.

[962] Oh, man. Because, I mean, you can totally do that.

[963] I mean, that is like a command you can send to the SID ship.

[964] You can pitch bend stuff on there, I think.

[965] Well, I'm going to actively pursue trying to get us some of this gear, so hopefully Giant Bomb will have some coverage of Shred 64.

[966] Yeah, it all kind of depends on if my Commodore 128A works at all and B works with this, if it's compatible with the 64 mode on a 128, which most stuff is.

[967] It kind of reminds me of, remember how Dude made Doom for the Atari 2600?

[968] Yeah.

[969] I just love seeing people trying to take these current games and current game concepts and then retrofit them into old systems.

[970] Yeah, I just love that there's new game development going on for stuff like this.

[971] I bought, and granted, it's still in the box.

[972] It was shipped to me in, but Adventure 2 for the 5200.

[973] Right.

[974] I bought a copy of that.

[975] A game that was never officially released before.

[976] Well, I think that they made it from scratch.

[977] I don't think this was like a prototype.

[978] Oh, this wasn't a partially finished thing?

[979] Right.

[980] No, though it was like Elevator Action for the 2600, I think, was a prototype that they released.

[981] So, you know, people are getting a hold of these games.

[982] The fact that some dude had to go and take an old 2600 cart and strip it.

[983] Right.

[984] Hollow it out.

[985] Take a solder new chips onto the little PCB.

[986] Right.

[987] That's pretty awesome that people are going to those lengths to create weird new game experiences on old systems.

[988] Why don't they just release them on tape, man?

[989] I've got a Star Path Supercharger.

[990] Let's do this.

[991] I think you're the only person.

[992] I bet that thing doesn't work at all.

[993] Sealed in box, dude.

[994] Oh, really?

[995] Yeah.

[996] Damn.

[997] Speaking of things that weren't sealed in boxes, Jeff, you probably heard about this.

[998] This dude named Nathaniel.

[999] had this very sweet, customized Xbox 360 that he had had.

[1000] The Rooster Teeth guys.

[1001] The Rooster Teeth guys had autographed it and done a special little mural, like a little drawing on it.

[1002] It had a bunch of great autographs and things on it that this guy really put a lot of effort into getting.

[1003] Right.

[1004] And it had a lot of sentimental value to him.

[1005] And then his 360 red -ringed, so he had to send it in for repair.

[1006] And when he was sending it in, he made very clear, listen, don't.

[1007] Touch the box.

[1008] This looks this way for a reason, please.

[1009] And they said, oh, okay, sure.

[1010] But then once it got there, they must have either replaced the case or just scrubbed it down because when he got it back, it was clean and white.

[1011] And it was kind of a bummer for him.

[1012] Yeah, like he had spent all this time trying to get all these different autographs on it and boom, pass, surprise.

[1013] Came back totally clean.

[1014] So, of course.

[1015] You know, this being kind of a heinous community -oriented thing.

[1016] The community got all up in arms about it.

[1017] They did, and...

[1018] Honey McBloggy was pissed.

[1019] People didn't care for it.

[1020] It was kind of a sad story that you didn't want to hear happen.

[1021] And so people got kind of rallied around this guy, and Bungie caught wind of this, and they made it up to this guy with just a huge, awesome package, I think.

[1022] Yeah, yeah.

[1023] I think he got it made up to him in a really nice way.

[1024] He's got, like, this legendary edition helmet signed by most of the Bungie staff, like a soundtrack disc signed by the guy who did the soundtrack, jacket, T -shirt, limited edition wireless controller.

[1025] There's actually some pictures online of just...

[1026] Just a big mountain of free stuff that he got.

[1027] Big free...

[1028] And then apparently Microsoft is working separately on something.

[1029] Oh, they're going to like...

[1030] That they're going to send him also.

[1031] Yeah, he's also got like a bunch of Halo action figures in the Halo novel and...

[1032] I don't even know what that is.

[1033] But, yeah, all sorts of just, it looks like Bungie just gathered up all of the Halo -related swag they had in the office and signed it and shipped it to them.

[1034] Next time your Xbox breaks, find a way to get a bunch of people to be angry about it, and you too will get a mountain of free stuff.

[1035] Let's talk about a more significant story, I guess.

[1036] All right.

[1037] Xbox 360 price cuts.

[1038] Yeah.

[1039] In Europe.

[1040] In Europe.

[1041] That includes Britain.

[1042] So they're going to get a fat break on this.

[1043] Yeah.

[1044] So if you want to compare, I mean, granted, it's a stripped down 360 that you'll need to go buy a hard drive for.

[1045] but it's like half the price of a PS3 over there now.

[1046] So these are like getting down to like U .S. prices.

[1047] Like there's always been kind of a, outside of the U .S. it seems on consoles across the board, there's a premium that you pay just being in Europe.

[1048] Everything's like $10.

[1049] Right, you always hear these stories like, I paid the equivalent of $780 for a 360 in New Zealand.

[1050] Yeah.

[1051] You yanks have it lucky.

[1052] So yeah, making it a little bit more aggressive.

[1053] I have to imagine that's cheaper than it is here now, isn't it?

[1054] I don't know what the conversion is.

[1055] Yeah, I don't know.

[1056] But no, I don't think so, because I think it's like two to one or something for euros to dollars.

[1057] And they just did like a cut in Canada on it too long ago to kind of bring it in line with the way that the dollar is crap right now.

[1058] But they're being aggressive with it, and I think they're seeing that Sony is starting to get a little more momentum with the PS3, and they need to address that.

[1059] Yeah, yeah.

[1060] So good for anyone that needs a 360 in Europe.

[1061] Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see if this is going to end up – I mean, it'll end up with more price cuts in the U .S. eventually, but if this is going to lead to kind of near -term price cuts.

[1062] If this is like the precursor to other price cuts.

[1063] Yeah.

[1064] Maybe, although they did kind of just do like that reshaping the whole line for the U .S. with the arcade.

[1065] And now there's a lot of talk.

[1066] People are saying that there's going to be a 60 -gig Xbox 360, and there's all this talk now about an external Blu -ray drive somewhere down the line.

[1067] Maybe they'll finally do their Xbox 360 Ultimate with a built -in Blu -ray, which will be awesome because then I can take that and I can plug in the HD DVD drive and have totally dual format player.

[1068] Daisy chain the Blu -ray player into the HD player, which then goes into the 360.

[1069] Yeah.

[1070] And the little open tray thing will have three separate.

[1071] I don't know if we talked about this.

[1072] I guess, yeah, we didn't talk about this last week, but my HD DVD drive freaking broke.

[1073] Dude, bummer.

[1074] How are you going to watch all those great upcoming HD DVD movies?

[1075] I can't now.

[1076] Oh, no. Well, actually, maybe I could because yesterday as part of our great haul of stuff, we decided it would be a worthwhile use of company funds to buy ourselves a brand new Xbox 360 HD DVD player.

[1077] Yes.

[1078] A great idea.

[1079] Hey, dude, it comes with a copy of King Kong on HD DVD.

[1080] Sweet.

[1081] That is probably worth the price we paid for it alone.

[1082] Oh, yeah, definitely.

[1083] King Kong, love it.

[1084] King Kong is not overly long and boring and tedious.

[1085] Right.

[1086] And completely nonsensical.

[1087] It's, in fact, very good.

[1088] We got this kind of, I guess, in the heat of the moment, but we also have a grander plan for it.

[1089] We do.

[1090] I think, yeah.

[1091] We're not going to do it this week.

[1092] No. We're going to figure out some kind of elaborate thing.

[1093] But we bought the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive so that we might give it away to one of you lucky listeners.

[1094] Oh, those lucky, lucky listeners.

[1095] If you were lucky enough to win whatever.

[1096] Prize or drawing or whatever we come up with.

[1097] Horrible contests.

[1098] Yeah.

[1099] Guess what your prize is.

[1100] You will win an HD DVD drive.

[1101] Courtesy of GiantBomb .com.

[1102] Right.

[1103] Yeah, I don't know.

[1104] Should we autograph it?

[1105] I don't know.

[1106] Perhaps.

[1107] I'll just write Peter Jackson on it.

[1108] If you were thinking about investing in the thriving HD DVD formats.

[1109] Hold off for another week because you might be able to get in there for gratis, courtesy of us.

[1110] So stay tuned for that.

[1111] Yeah.

[1112] As soon as we concoct something appropriately over the top and needless to go with this over the top and needless prize, we'll let you know.

[1113] So this next story is one, Jeff, that is near and dear to my heart personally.

[1114] Okay.

[1115] So they're making a Max Payne movie.

[1116] Yes.

[1117] I love Max Payne.

[1118] Yeah, you do.

[1119] I love it probably more than it deserves.

[1120] Yeah, I really like Max Payne, and I wish that Max Payne 2, the gameplay, was a little different, I guess.

[1121] Sure, sure.

[1122] But, I mean, for me...

[1123] But it's awesome.

[1124] The core of it is, you know, shooting dudes in slow motion while you're jumping sideways holding two guns is fantastic.

[1125] It's something I've done.

[1126] And that game really does it well.

[1127] Yeah.

[1128] And it's got a nice sense of style.

[1129] I really like kind of the gritty, pulpy, noir look and feel of the games.

[1130] And so it seems like a pretty good fit for a film.

[1131] Yeah, a motion picture.

[1132] Yeah.

[1133] You know, one of those.

[1134] So some of the first shots of Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne have surfaced.

[1135] Perfect.

[1136] How do you feel about that casting?

[1137] I think it's perfect.

[1138] You think that's right?

[1139] I think it's perfect.

[1140] He can brood, which Max Payne has to do.

[1141] Max Payne is kind of a brooding character.

[1142] I think he needs to just scrunch up his face as best he can and hold that look the whole movie.

[1143] And the only other actor that I think could have played this role, Edward Norton.

[1144] But he's all tied up with the Hulk movie right now.

[1145] Right.

[1146] Which is unavailable.

[1147] Perfect casting.

[1148] Yeah, more perfect casting on that.

[1149] Like when I heard that Ed Norton was going to go and make a new, they said, ah, we're going to scratch the Ang Lee movie.

[1150] Yeah.

[1151] Forget that happened.

[1152] We're doing a new one.

[1153] The Incredible Hulk.

[1154] Right.

[1155] Instead of just the Hulk.

[1156] You know.

[1157] You know me. You're a Bill Bixby man. Yeah.

[1158] I want them to call him David Banner.

[1159] Yeah.

[1160] Not Bruce Banner.

[1161] Not Bruce Banner.

[1162] Straight up make a movie after the TV show.

[1163] Well, they did kind of give you a little bit of that in the Hulk movie because his dad was named David Banner.

[1164] Right.

[1165] So they kind of linked it.

[1166] Gave you a little nod in that regard.

[1167] You know, the reason that they changed it to David Banner is because the guy making the TV show thought that Bruce was too effeminate.

[1168] Really?

[1169] Yeah.

[1170] Fun fact.

[1171] Yeah.

[1172] Did not know that.

[1173] But so, yeah.

[1174] And Bill Bixby ain't effeminate.

[1175] No, he is not.

[1176] He's all man. He's a raw dog.

[1177] Dude.

[1178] He'll break you in half.

[1179] He will.

[1180] He will chop wood and then fall underneath a van.

[1181] That's right.

[1182] He will change a tire, and then the car will fall off the jack, and he will be outraged about that fact.

[1183] And he'll turn green, and you'll get a close -up of his eyes.

[1184] This happens in real life with Bill Bixby to this day.

[1185] You want the scrunchy face from the Max Payne movie.

[1186] I don't think you're going to get it because I'm looking at the wardrobe here, and he does not wear the Hawaiian shirt under his black leather jacket.

[1187] So it's a prequel then.

[1188] After the end of the movie, he buys the Hawaiian shirt.

[1189] Actually, you know what?

[1190] It sounds like they're going to be maybe basing it more off of Max Payne 2.

[1191] Sure.

[1192] Because they also announced that Mila Kunis is going to play the sister of a girl who is killed by the mob that teams up with Max, which is...

[1193] Kind of the plot of Max Payne 2.

[1194] Right.

[1195] Is that Mona Sachs in Max Payne 2?

[1196] Yeah, that's Mona Sachs.

[1197] I don't know if that's the name of the character.

[1198] Because they're also talking about the plot not being about Max Payne's revenge against the killers of his family.

[1199] It sounds like they might take it a slightly different route.

[1200] I think that's fine.

[1201] Sure.

[1202] I think I'd be okay with that.

[1203] I mean, yeah, that core part, all you need is him to be...

[1204] Max Payne angry or something.

[1205] Max Payne holds two guns.

[1206] Takes a lot of painkillers.

[1207] Oh, I hope there's that.

[1208] I want lots of scenes of Mark Wahlberg downing pills.

[1209] Yeah, I agree with that entirely.

[1210] And they need the noise from the game.

[1211] The little pill rattle box.

[1212] The little pill rattle noise.

[1213] Yeah, that's very iconic.

[1214] That would be nice to hear that at some point.

[1215] I think that, yeah, like Remedy should take the item that they use to record that noise, which I imagine is some pills or some items in a box, mass produce it and sell it.

[1216] So that I can get something that I can shake around and have it make that exact noise.

[1217] Some energy pills.

[1218] Yeah.

[1219] Sort of like guarana and taurine in a pill form.

[1220] No, but I want it exact.

[1221] So when I shake it, I go, yeah.

[1222] And I'll just feel better.

[1223] Oh, not even like a thing you could take, but just like a little maraca.

[1224] No, yeah, just something like whenever I have a headache or something, yeah, I can shake it and go like, all right, cool.

[1225] I feel a little better just hearing that sound.

[1226] Yeah.

[1227] So we here at Giant Bomb totally approve of the casting of Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne and look forward to seeing more on the production of this film.

[1228] Yeah, though.

[1229] It's a major motion picture.

[1230] I probably won't see it.

[1231] I'll probably see it, and it'll probably be really terrible.

[1232] Sure.

[1233] But, you know, I'm willing to go down that path for both Mark Wahlberg and Max Payne.

[1234] Yeah, I'm actually, I do like Mark Wahlberg.

[1235] I think he's great.

[1236] You know who else you like?

[1237] Mark Dacascos.

[1238] Dude, yeah.

[1239] That guy's badass.

[1240] He knows Capoeira.

[1241] He does that.

[1242] Yeah.

[1243] Oh, it's only for the strong.

[1244] I don't know if you've heard that.

[1245] Yeah, only the strong can practice Capoeira.

[1246] And apparently only the strong can have their TV show that's based on a Japanese TV show then made into a video game.

[1247] Yes.

[1248] Which is what's happening.

[1249] Iron Chef America is going to feature a digital Mark Dacascos.

[1250] Like, here's a picture if you want to see digital Mark Dacascos.

[1251] Like, that's the one screenshot I've seen.

[1252] Oh, God.

[1253] Yeah.

[1254] Look at that.

[1255] That's pretty good.

[1256] That's a pretty good fake Mark Dacascos.

[1257] It's a creepy style.

[1258] The style of the character is really weird.

[1259] Yeah, that's nicely exaggerated and bizarre.

[1260] Do you think this is just going to be like, you know, Cooking Mama?

[1261] Probably.

[1262] Something like that.

[1263] I don't know.

[1264] You remember now, though, that for the Saturn, there was an Iron Chef game that came out only in Japan.

[1265] Yeah, there was.

[1266] It wasn't there.

[1267] Featured the chairman biting into delicious peppers.

[1268] Right.

[1269] Yeah, I don't know, dude.

[1270] I really don't.

[1271] I guess I don't.

[1272] I like Mark Dacascos, but I don't really care about Iron Chef America.

[1273] Holding out for the Only the Strong game.

[1274] Although I have to wonder if it will have a digital Mo Rocca since he has appeared as a judge on that show on more than one occasion.

[1275] I'm going to hope not.

[1276] I'm going to say maybe, but let's hope not.

[1277] You don't want to see digital bow ties and snarky, nasally comments?

[1278] Yeah, I think I could really do without.

[1279] I think, you know, nothing against Mo Rocca.

[1280] Media gadfly.

[1281] Yeah, other than some things against Mo Rocca.

[1282] I just think I liked him on the VH1 stuff, and I think it's unfortunate that he's not been able to parlay that into meaningful success.

[1283] Well, best of luck to both Mo Rocca and Mark Dacascos and the folks working on the Iron Chef America game.

[1284] Yeah, I just totally, yeah, I don't know.

[1285] Like, I totally think we need to go get a copy of Only the Strong now and watch it.

[1286] And then just spend the rest of the day running around here just going, Banan away.

[1287] Because you don't have the rhythm, you can't do Capoeira.

[1288] That's why Eddie Gordo in Tekken is so crappy, because there's not a circle of people around him clapping.

[1289] You need it.

[1290] Yeah.

[1291] Let's talk new releases here a little bit.

[1292] Yeah.

[1293] What is there?

[1294] Condemned.

[1295] Condemned 2 Bloodshot comes out this week.

[1296] This is not the game sequel to the Stone Cold Steve Austin movie, The Condemned.

[1297] No. This is The Condemned based on...

[1298] bloody monolith Sega games.

[1299] Yeah, beating bums with pipes and desks and stuff.

[1300] We actually, I was so excited that we ran to the Best Buy this morning to get a copy even though I hadn't called in advance to see if they had it.

[1301] Yeah, which I figured you had because normally games are not in stores on Tuesdays.

[1302] I'm so used to, yeah, the Best Buy near my house always has games first thing on Tuesday.

[1303] I bet that they do not have it either today.

[1304] Yeah, sometimes, yeah, there has been occasions where that's not been the case, but more often than not, I've been able to go.

[1305] Yeah, it was like Bully was a Tuesday game for some reason.

[1306] Yeah.

[1307] Like Burnout, I think, was.

[1308] Yeah, Burnout definitely was because I bought that Tuesday.

[1309] Right.

[1310] Yeah.

[1311] But so, yeah, I look forward to Condemned 2.

[1312] We're looking forward to it.

[1313] I'm stoked about it.

[1314] Yep.

[1315] I'm not as stoked about the multiplayer, but I'll give it a shot.

[1316] Yeah, I don't know.

[1317] That gameplay of the first game never really seemed like the sort of thing I would want to play against other dudes.

[1318] First -person melee combat.

[1319] in a first -person shooter.

[1320] Well, it's one thing where you're going up against AI opponents, but when you're going up against someone who ostensibly has the exact same abilities as you do in that sort of context, I have a hard time.

[1321] Yeah, you just end up running up to each other and both swinging and then both backing up at the same time, so you just end up kind of either hitting off each other.

[1322] You know, if it allows for objects to clang or if the objects just both hit you and then you just step back two steps and forward two steps and back two steps and forward two steps.

[1323] Well, we'll see.

[1324] I mean, I think that of all of the games that try to do that first -person melee stuff that the first condemned was probably the most successful in that regard.

[1325] That had the most kind of connected feel between your actions and what you were seeing.

[1326] Yeah, you felt like you were whooping dudes.

[1327] Yeah, which was fantastic.

[1328] It wasn't the Quake 1 axe.

[1329] House of the Dead 2 and 3 Returns for the Wii.

[1330] So Sega doing more of its classic arcade stuff for the Wii.

[1331] Is Target Terror for the Wii out this week or next?

[1332] It's either this week or next week, but Konami is bringing that out.

[1333] That Raw Thrills developed arcade game, Eugene Jarvis.

[1334] The Defender guy.

[1335] Yeah.

[1336] Crazy USA guy.

[1337] It just looks like one of those awful...

[1338] It's Area 51, yeah.

[1339] It's an FMV -based light gun game.

[1340] It was out in arcades years ago.

[1341] Yeah, it's been out for a while.

[1342] It came out in like 01 or something, 02.

[1343] Basically, like, soon enough after terrorism.

[1344] Right.

[1345] So that it seemed really weird and kind of exploitative that they were doing this.

[1346] Right.

[1347] And then Eugene Jarvis did a bunch of interviews where he was just like, no, this is the way the world is now.

[1348] And it's like, you know, I think he turned out to be right in that way.

[1349] But, yeah, I don't know.

[1350] I've played that game a few times and never really liked it.

[1351] But, yeah, if you're looking for new games, a little lean right now.

[1352] It's going to ramp up.

[1353] Yeah, I guess because we're getting close to the end of the quarter, so there'll be something probably last week of March.

[1354] That's our expectation.

[1355] Maybe we'll get to the end of March.

[1356] It'll still be crap.

[1357] It'll be nothing.

[1358] Yeah, maybe.

[1359] We'll see.

[1360] But for this week, you do have Condemned 2, which we're looking forward to playing, so we'll have more of that in the near future.

[1361] Right.

[1362] Let's see here.

[1363] What else?

[1364] Oh, the Mass Effect DLC came out.

[1365] Right, yeah.

[1366] That's out this week.

[1367] Bring down the sky.

[1368] So 500, or I'm sorry, 400 Microsoft points, 90 minutes of play, and I believe...

[1369] 100 achievement points for finishing it.

[1370] 100 achievement points.

[1371] Actually, I think I saw some, no, 50 points.

[1372] Oh, really?

[1373] 50 points.

[1374] Oh, so they're saving another 50 points for another DLC.

[1375] Or they can go up to 1 ,250 now, not 1 ,100.

[1376] Oh, right, right.

[1377] So maybe they have five packs planned.

[1378] Probably.

[1379] 50 points a pack.

[1380] I wouldn't be surprised.

[1381] Or maybe another larger pack in the near future that is worth more.

[1382] But anyways, right now, if you want to go and bring down the sky and hop over to this new planet that they've put into the Mass Effect world, check it out.

[1383] It's out there now.

[1384] If you're looking for some more Mass Effect side quest action, that seems like a good way to go.

[1385] I'm not really.

[1386] I kind of had my fill.

[1387] I mean, I played the hell out of that game.

[1388] Right.

[1389] Yeah, I did most of the side stuff when I played there the first time.

[1390] And after a while, after, you know, 20, 25 hours, you kind of realize, I just want to see the dialogue.

[1391] Right.

[1392] I want to go to another planet and search for more relics and then go into that same bunker.

[1393] Right.

[1394] I hope, I hope, I almost want to check this out.

[1395] Find three dudes inside this bunker yet again.

[1396] I almost want to check this out just to see if...

[1397] If BioWare bothered to make another type of building shape for this alien race that you're going to go and encounter in this pack.

[1398] Right.

[1399] Yeah.

[1400] I hope it is all custom stuff.

[1401] It's a nice dream, but I guess we'll see.

[1402] Or we won't.

[1403] I think, yeah, the downloadable content I'm holding out for is the Call of Duty 4 maps.

[1404] It's going to be three or four maps when it comes out.

[1405] I think they're getting ready to reveal more information on what those maps are going to look like.

[1406] The community guy for...

[1407] Infinity Ward was talking about how he's taking screenshots and doing all kinds of stuff with the new maps.

[1408] So I imagine info coming soon if it hasn't hit already.

[1409] So wait, you're not going to be downloading these new South by Southwest inspired rock band songs?

[1410] Oh, you know.

[1411] You going to get any of that stuff?

[1412] Okay, so I probably will, but only because it's discounted right now.

[1413] It's a dollar a track right now.

[1414] And the last time they did a dollar a track stuff, it raised up later on.

[1415] So this is supposed to be kind of in time for South by Southwest, the big independent music festival that happens in Austin.

[1416] I guess it's this week.

[1417] Yeah, it's happening right now.

[1418] Happening right now.

[1419] So three songs, Shockwaves, Black Tide, Crush, Crush, Crush by Paramore, and Beethoven's See by Serge Tankian.

[1420] And that's pretty much my favorite.

[1421] The thing that stands out at me is that the title of the third song is bleeped out because they can't actually say the full name.

[1422] That's pretty funny.

[1423] Of the song in there.

[1424] I mean, obviously, they've had cursing that they've had to work around in the rock band in the past.

[1425] But never write in the title of the song.

[1426] Yeah, they're like, oh, we can't even say the name of the song.

[1427] So they must really like this song to put it in there, I guess, is probably the secret.

[1428] I guess so.

[1429] Yeah, maybe just props to Harmonix for saying, to hell with it.

[1430] Yeah.

[1431] We like the song.

[1432] I don't care if you can't say the title of it.

[1433] Put it in there.

[1434] Paramore, though.

[1435] Yeah, yeah.

[1436] There are no 30 Seconds to Mars.

[1437] I'll tell you that much.

[1438] Well, that's the thing.

[1439] The 30 Seconds to Mars song were actually really fun to play.

[1440] So maybe this Paramore song is just fun.

[1441] Well, I guess maybe we'll find out.

[1442] Even if I hate everything that that band stands for?

[1443] From what little I've heard about them?

[1444] I know nothing about that band.

[1445] When's Crystal Castles going to have a song in there?

[1446] That's my question.

[1447] I think you'd be better off looking for a Shred 64 Crystal Castles pack at this point.

[1448] We should hook those people up together and say, hey, you, meet this guy.

[1449] Now you two, do something awesome.

[1450] Yeah.

[1451] Or like a Freeze Pop song in there.

[1452] Yeah.

[1453] That would be awesome.

[1454] Like a Sid version of a...

[1455] Well, there was that great Game Boy synth remix of Science Genius Girl that was out on that Freeze Pop remix album.

[1456] That would be pretty good.

[1457] Something like that.

[1458] Something that sounded similar to that.

[1459] That could be a lot of fun.

[1460] Man, I really want to get that Shred 64 now.

[1461] Yeah.

[1462] Now, Jeff, you and I have caught a little bit of flack in the past for perhaps being a little flip about Peter Molyneux and the things that he says.

[1463] A lot of people, they feel like he'd be given a little bit of slack because he is at least trying to innovate.

[1464] Sure.

[1465] I see that point of view.

[1466] I just think it's still kind of fun to have fun with the way he operates.

[1467] I think it's really funny.

[1468] That's not to say that I don't think he's a talented game developer or anything like that.

[1469] No, I think the thing is Black and White and Fable, these are great games on their own.

[1470] The issue that I have is that he talks them up.

[1471] He is so...

[1472] pleased with his ideas and, you know, the stuff that's going into it that he talks about how amazing it's going to be beforehand and builds it up to be this, you know, top -of -the -world thing, and you get it, and it's great, but it's really never that great.

[1473] Right.

[1474] It's not...

[1475] It never lives up to his hype.

[1476] Yeah, exactly.

[1477] It is not the greatest thing that has ever happened to you.

[1478] Which Peter Molyneux always says in every one of his games.

[1479] Which is what he sort of makes it sound like.

[1480] Yeah, yeah.

[1481] I think it really started hardcore with Black and White Man. Yeah.

[1482] Did he really talk that game up?

[1483] So now he's talking a little bit about the project that he's working on after Fable 2.

[1484] Oh, we're past Fable 2 now.

[1485] Yeah.

[1486] We're done talking about how Fable 2 will be the most amazing thing ever made.

[1487] What I'm really excited about now is this next thing.

[1488] Yeah, we're not even talking about that.

[1489] So does that mean that we should just not buy Fable 2?

[1490] I don't understand.

[1491] Shouldn't he still be saying how insane Fable 2 is going to be?

[1492] Until the day it ships, and then he can talk about how insane the downloadable content is?

[1493] Apparently not.

[1494] Dog armor?

[1495] I'm reading the story off of Joystick, and they got it from Gamers Global, so it's being kind of paraphrased here.

[1496] Yeah.

[1497] But, you know, there's an AI -focused experiment codenamed Dimitri that they're working on.

[1498] And the experiment became a game six months ago after a discovery was made.

[1499] Said Molyneux, I think that discovery is so significant.

[1500] And he goes on to say, this discovery has led us to start a game, and that game will be on the front cover of Nature Magazines and Science Magazines.

[1501] So, again.

[1502] Peter Molyneux talking about how his next game is going to be so significant and earth -shattering.

[1503] Before the game that he's working on right now, he's even shipped.

[1504] Wow.

[1505] He's already pre -hyping his next thing before he even had a chance to digest everything that is Fable 2.

[1506] Sounds like Spore to me. You're telling me you're going to have a game that's on the cover of Science and Nature magazine.

[1507] That sounds like Spore.

[1508] Well, right.

[1509] I already did that, sir.

[1510] You know that, right?

[1511] Right?

[1512] Right, Peter?

[1513] Well, you know, at the same time, you're right.

[1514] It is fun to hear him say these crazy things.

[1515] It's nice that somebody is kind of swinging to the fences in that regard.

[1516] Passionate.

[1517] You want your game developers to be excited for the things that they're working on.

[1518] Agreed.

[1519] And that's not a quality that I begrudge Peter Molyneux at all.

[1520] I know exactly what it's like to be so excited about something.

[1521] I want to just talk about it constantly.

[1522] But at the same time...

[1523] I think dude just needs to learn how to manage expectations.

[1524] For sure.

[1525] I think that would benefit his products in the end, I think.

[1526] Well, Tony Hawk is going to try to benefit his products.

[1527] Really?

[1528] Here.

[1529] Is he showing up to Neversoft with a hoverboard and just saying, dude, put this in there?

[1530] I guess so.

[1531] Because Tony Hawk has a hoverboard, you know.

[1532] I know that.

[1533] A working one.

[1534] Yeah.

[1535] From Mattel.

[1536] Right.

[1537] So Tony Hawk, the last Tony Hawk game, Proving Ground, kind of got served.

[1538] A little bit.

[1539] EA's brought out Skate.

[1540] They decided they were going to jump into the skateboarding space on consoles and make their own skateboarding game.

[1541] And it's like part of me wants to say that's totally an unfair comparison, but they're both skateboarding games.

[1542] It's totally not an unfair comparison.

[1543] But they are both going after such different things.

[1544] They are trying to do totally different things, but apparently people like the thing that Skate is doing more than the thing that Tony Hawk is doing at this point.

[1545] I actually had a conversation with some real nasty...

[1546] LA skaters recently about this.

[1547] They obsessed, love skate, love the way, like, kind of the realism and how that feels like skateboarding.

[1548] Right, yeah.

[1549] And, like, they say, oh, you know, we still like Tony Hawk.

[1550] You know, it's just, you know, it's fun to go for these ridiculous combos and skate, you know, grind around the entire level and all this kind of stuff.

[1551] But, you know, their complaint was that, you know, it hasn't really changed enough.

[1552] It hasn't significantly been any different for...

[1553] Ever.

[1554] I liken it to what's been going on with racing games for a good long time now.

[1555] And that's, you know, driving games, you know, you used to think of like the premier series of driving out there.

[1556] You would think of stuff like Ridge Racer.

[1557] Right.

[1558] You know, which were just like super hyper arcadey, you know, stuff like Daytona and the arcade is, you know, never handled like a real car.

[1559] And then you saw Gran Turismo come out.

[1560] Kind of changed the game on everyone.

[1561] Definitely.

[1562] And now, you know, it's like people are much more excited for these simulation -style racing games now than they are the kind of arcade -y stuff.

[1563] I think Burnout's the lone exception because it really is going for something different.

[1564] Sure.

[1565] But, you know, it's like I'm the only person that cares about Ridge Racer anymore, it feels like.

[1566] You and some people in Japan, I think.

[1567] Right.

[1568] Yeah.

[1569] Yeah, I agree that, you know, you see stuff like Forza and stuff like PGR kind of.

[1570] You know, PGR is still pretty arcade -y, but these are still games that err more towards that kind of, you know, realistic driving model and stuff.

[1571] And I guess, yeah, I guess the skate kind of runs that parallel.

[1572] Yeah, so now you see that happening with Tony Hawk, where people are like, well, you know, I used to relax again, but exactly.

[1573] Like, it hasn't changed very much, and it's not as realistic, I think, is a pretty fair complaint at this point.

[1574] Perhaps my favorite thing about this is that they're calling this the Tony Hawk Innovation Plan.

[1575] FIP.

[1576] Yes, the Thip.

[1577] Maybe that'll be the name of the next game or something.

[1578] Right.

[1579] That would be pretty funny.

[1580] When we first heard that Skate was going to come out, we were thinking, all right, good competition for Tony Hawk.

[1581] Yeah.

[1582] And then once Skate kind of, you know, we saw that they had some success, like, all right, obviously Neversoft and Activision are going to have to respond to this in some way.

[1583] And they responded to Proving Ground by kind of changing the camera and doing some stuff.

[1584] Well, I feel like that was, like, they were probably doing that.

[1585] Yeah, definitely.

[1586] They kind of just, hmm.

[1587] But, like, now they're going to have to, like, for the next game, I think they see that they really have to, that Skate is a threat to their empire, and they are going to need to, you know, bring a little more to the game this time than perhaps they have in the last few.

[1588] And I really hope they do.

[1589] No surprise, Tony Hawk 3, I think, is one of the greatest games ever made.

[1590] Neversoft is super talented, and I think that, you know, them being locked into kind of Activision's endless annual publishing cycle has just been to the series' detriment.

[1591] And now, especially that Neversoft is splitting its time between that and Guitar Hero.

[1592] Although, obviously, that's several teams.

[1593] Yeah, they were splitting it with Gunn before, so, you know, they've been splitting their time for a while.

[1594] Sure, and then they did Spider -Man also before that.

[1595] So, yeah, I guess they've always kind of been splitting their time.

[1596] Apocalypse.

[1597] Bruce Willis.

[1598] Please don't kill us.

[1599] Did I mess you up with my exhibit?

[1600] Please don't kill us.

[1601] Please don't kill us.

[1602] Yeah, so what is the story here?

[1603] That Tony Hawk is going to be more hands -on with the next game?

[1604] I guess so.

[1605] Basically what they're saying is that he is going to...

[1606] I have to imagine...

[1607] There's some story in USA Today about this, right?

[1608] That's where this...

[1609] where the root of this story is coming from.

[1610] Yeah, yeah.

[1611] The story is from USA Today.

[1612] So good on Activision PR, getting a story in a big old newspaper like that.

[1613] That's big mainstream coverage.

[1614] And hopefully this does have an actual effect on what the next Tony Hawk...

[1615] I thought Project 8 was a step in the right direction for this series.

[1616] For sure.

[1617] I liked a lot of the changes that they made there.

[1618] I think the nail -the -trick stuff is really neat.

[1619] I agree.

[1620] The stuff they've been doing to the games over the years I think is largely...

[1621] been good it's just not necessarily enough yeah and i and i you know that's why i don't make games because i don't really know really what they should do it's like in the back of my mind i think they should just go completely crazy with it go as far away from skate as they possibly can and and just go wait like they're already over the top just take it further out time -traveling crazy Tony Hawk hoverboard madness.

[1622] But it's going to be the exact opposite of what they do if they're bringing Tony Hawk in to be more active on the development.

[1623] I don't know.

[1624] Maybe Tony Hawk came in and said, dude, I don't know, man. I don't compete anymore.

[1625] I can do a 900, but what about 1080?

[1626] What if I was skating in space?

[1627] All right, later.

[1628] If I skated on the moon, how many spins could I do?

[1629] It's like, what if Bob Burnquist took his loop ramp from his backyard and we put it on Mars?

[1630] All right, later.

[1631] Like, what if he came in and said that?

[1632] Like, what would happen?

[1633] I don't know.

[1634] You know.

[1635] The other option of seeing Tony Hawk go from kind of innovating and inventing this genre to just kind of going with the flow and realizing that EA has kind of changed the game and just responding to that, like making a response game, I think is a real bummer.

[1636] If that happens, I'll kind of immediately be bummed out.

[1637] I feel like that's probably what they're going to do.

[1638] I think you're probably right.

[1639] Like, obviously, them being public about Tony Hawk's more intimate involvement in the development process is, you know, for cred.

[1640] Right.

[1641] It's like, oh, you know, there's an actual skateboarder involved.

[1642] And it's the skateboarder.

[1643] Yeah, it is skateboarding, basically.

[1644] Right.

[1645] It has come back to the Tony Hawk franchise.

[1646] So we'll see how that pans out.

[1647] And I do suspect it will be more skatish.

[1648] Yeah, and meanwhile, you have to imagine that Skate 2 is in development.

[1649] Oh, absolutely.

[1650] I'm sure the day after that, I'm sure they took a week off, and then, all right, Skate 2, let's go.

[1651] Yeah.

[1652] I hope that they iron out the control stuff.

[1653] I feel like the only real problem I had with Skate is that there were too many tricks on that right stick, and the right stick just isn't responsive enough for most players to just bust out every one of those tricks.

[1654] You had to go crazy and spend.

[1655] Probably 100 hours for that game if you want to just be able to do any trick on command.

[1656] I really respect the model that they have for how the gameplay worked in Skate.

[1657] I really like the idea of your dude doesn't get better at skateboarding.

[1658] You get better at skateboarding.

[1659] As you play, you get better at pulling off these tricks with the analog sticks.

[1660] Although it sounds like perhaps the difficulty could be toned down a little bit and it could be a little more forgiving.

[1661] Yeah, there were just a few challenges in that game that were just asking you to do things that you hadn't gotten good at yet because you hadn't been asked to do them enough times.

[1662] Yeah.

[1663] And, you know, maybe that's just the nature of it being an open -world game.

[1664] Maybe there was another route through that game that I would have had better luck with.

[1665] For me, it was like, it's not even a skating -related challenge, as ridiculous as it sounds, but there's one where you have to, like, wreck into a tree or basically get on the Thrasher Hall of Meat by breaking a bunch of bones in one go.

[1666] And there just wasn't any feedback on what you were doing wrong or what you were doing right.

[1667] You just, you know, you just did, you bombed down this hill and...

[1668] stacked into this wall a hundred times, and the hundredth time it just happened to work, and you're like, oh, well, what did I do different that time?

[1669] So it sounds kind of like freshman bugs.

[1670] Yeah, totally.

[1671] Like stuff that, you know, it's like, yeah, they got the core game mechanics in there, and they work great, and some refinement, I think, is going to make that second game absolutely killer.

[1672] Let's talk about WiiWare.

[1673] WiiWare.

[1674] WiiWare.

[1675] It's like T -shirts.

[1676] It's fun to say.

[1677] WiiWare.

[1678] Like toddler underoos with Link on them.

[1679] Sure -teak.

[1680] Yeah.

[1681] So they've announced, in Japan at least, they've announced the release date and the prices for some games that are going to be coming out on the WiiWare.

[1682] Pretty soon here.

[1683] Yeah.

[1684] If you don't know about the WiiWare, this is kind of the downloadable stuff that's bigger than the virtual console stuff that they're already doing on the Wii.

[1685] Yeah, like originally developed downloadable stuff akin to the PlayStation Network store and Xbox Live Arcade to some extent.

[1686] March 25th in Japan.

[1687] That's soon.

[1688] That is damned soon.

[1689] There's the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game is going to come out for 1 ,500 points or $15 to you and me. And then stuff like the Pokemon Ranch and Dr. Mario are going to be 500.

[1690] Or I'm sorry, those will be like 1 ,000.

[1691] And then stuff like the Tenshi Solitaire will be 500.

[1692] 5, 10, 15.

[1693] So kind of getting into that same PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade.

[1694] Tiered structure of, you know, yeah.

[1695] But also just of also having original content on there.

[1696] Right, yeah.

[1697] You know, original downloadable content, so good to see them.

[1698] But, you know, this then brings up the question of there's that limited space on the Wii internal memory.

[1699] Right, and it'll be interesting to see if they're going to let you store these games and run them off of SD cards.

[1700] No, they're not.

[1701] Oh, man. They're straight up.

[1702] You're going to have to manage how much, like, what is on.

[1703] The thing is that you can.

[1704] delete stuff and then re -download it onto that Wii again because everything is associated with that hardware.

[1705] Right.

[1706] So it won't cost you to go and re -down whatever virtual console games that you have to delete.

[1707] I mean, there was talk for a while that they were going to announce a hard drive.

[1708] Oh, there's no way they'd do that.

[1709] But even if they did, would they let you run stuff off of it?

[1710] Right.

[1711] Or would you have to just store stuff there and then move it back to the console when you want to play it?

[1712] I don't know.

[1713] That's...

[1714] Nintendo's problem with me is one of logistics, and it's the same deal with the friend code stuff.

[1715] It's just like every step, everything you want to do has three or four more steps than it should.

[1716] Like when you have to buy stuff through the Wii store, like when you're buying virtual console games, and you have to put your credit card in every time that you want to buy more points to then buy the game, so it's this...

[1717] you know, extra step process.

[1718] It's just like friend codes.

[1719] It's just like, yeah, I don't know.

[1720] It's disappointing, but it's cool that they're doing this, and there's some cool domestic stuff that is going to be coming to this when, I guess it's out here in May. So it'll be March in Japan in May here.

[1721] That sounds about right for a Nintendo rollout.

[1722] It sounds about the timing for stuff for them.

[1723] So there'll be, you know, some more U .S.-based stuff, and like Telltale's doing a series of stuff for WiiWare.

[1724] It's awesome.

[1725] Yeah.

[1726] Get some sweet adventure game action on the Wii.

[1727] Yeah.

[1728] Perfect console for it.

[1729] Seriously, that is where adventure games should live at this point.

[1730] Yeah.

[1731] Developer Obsidian, they made KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2.

[1732] And I think maybe some other sequels to other Bioware games.

[1733] Right, yes.

[1734] But solid RPG developer.

[1735] Those guys make some good stuff.

[1736] For sure.

[1737] And they're working with Sega now to make an action RPG.

[1738] Res RPG.

[1739] No, it's going to be like a Secret Agent -y.

[1740] Cosmic Smash RPG.

[1741] Bond -style kind of setting.

[1742] Daytona USA RPG?

[1743] Yep, that's it.

[1744] All right, you got it.

[1745] It's a car PG.

[1746] And it sounds like they plan on continuing to cop from the BioWare playbook with Mass Effect -style action sequences and Mass Effect -style dialogue sequences.

[1747] Well, yeah, so Secret Agent RPG seems like a...

[1748] That's territory that no one's really gone into yet.

[1749] I like, like, between this and the Sonic RPG that Sega is working with BioWare on for the DS, I'm totally into Sega saying, guess what?

[1750] Western games.

[1751] Yeah, I think that's where you see Sega really differentiating itself from the other Japanese developers, is that they've realized that, you know, this is a worldwide business now, and...

[1752] Maybe we can go out there and instead of just localizing the Japanese stuff, maybe we can get out there and just make some other games with some other developers and publish some stuff just like Midway or Ubisoft would while still having all of the Sega internal stuff out of Japan.

[1753] Right.

[1754] If you still want to get your Japanese Sega games, they're not stopping that, but they are creating these relationships with Western publishers and Western developers and getting stuff going here.

[1755] And now Konami is publishing this Target Terror game, which I think is...

[1756] That's perhaps not the best relationship for them to make.

[1757] Perhaps not the greatest idea, I guess.

[1758] But I think it's kind of impressive that, you know, Condemned, that's developed by Monolith.

[1759] That's a Western developer.

[1760] And, you know, they're working with Bioware.

[1761] And they did full auto with Pseudo, which I think they bought.

[1762] Did they buy Pseudo Interactive?

[1763] Oh, I don't know.

[1764] I don't know.

[1765] Anyway.

[1766] But they've been dabbling in Western stuff for a while.

[1767] Not so great, but, you know, it's another example of Sega being.

[1768] very different than than i think any other publisher out there i mean i don't think that they've had the greatest success because i don't think sega's games out of japan have been as great as they once were but it's it's you almost get the feeling like they are you know after kind of getting they haven't really recovered since all the dreamcast stuff went down they've been kind of trying to to get their act back together and it's it's good to see that they are trying something different to do that right like the club yeah Bizarre Creations.

[1769] Not a great game.

[1770] Yeah, not a great game, but it's weird.

[1771] It still feels strange to me when I put the club in.

[1772] A, that I'm putting the club in.

[1773] But also the Sega logo comes up because that's just such an, I don't know, like even...

[1774] It's iconic.

[1775] It reminds you of so many very Japanese games in the past.

[1776] Yeah, there's still a bit of a disconnect for me, but I feel like they've...

[1777] They've done a really good job of kind of spreading themselves out and kind of at least setting the stage for some success in the worldwide market.

[1778] Well, I think it's, again, a smart move on their behalf because right now the most interesting games, as far as I'm concerned, are coming out of Western developers.

[1779] Yeah, a lot of great stuff out of Europe, some really great stuff out of the U .S. So, yeah, awesome stuff.

[1780] Not every game out of Japan can be Metal Gear or Resident Evil.

[1781] And Sega's realizing this.

[1782] Or Final Fantasy.

[1783] So it's like Sega went down a checklist and said, do we publish Final Fantasy?

[1784] No, that's not us.

[1785] Okay.

[1786] Resident Evil, that's ours, right?

[1787] No. Crap.

[1788] Metal Gear?

[1789] Dude, Metal Gear's totally ours.

[1790] Let me look.

[1791] Hold on.

[1792] No, no, that's also not us.

[1793] Okay.

[1794] Sonic the Hedgehog, though.

[1795] That's us.

[1796] Okay.

[1797] And those games are all awesome, right?

[1798] Exactly.

[1799] How about Knights?

[1800] We own that.

[1801] Yeah.

[1802] Oh, God.

[1803] Okay.

[1804] Sorry, let's not go down that path.

[1805] I'll just get depressed.

[1806] Oh, bummer.

[1807] Where's the new Alex Kidd game?

[1808] Why isn't Alex Kidd an unlockable character in Condemned?

[1809] That's what Sega needs to be doing, is leveraging their weird old characters in all of these Western -developed games.

[1810] Yeah, what if you just happen to pawn a master system in Condemned 2, and then you pick it up, and then you're playing Alex Kidd?

[1811] That would be awesome.

[1812] Totally out of place, just crazy, but they can do it because they can do it.

[1813] I think that would be rad.

[1814] Little bites of that.

[1815] Yeah, that could be cool.

[1816] Yeah, there's a few other stories.

[1817] I think I'm going to skip them.

[1818] Well, let's shift gears into emails.

[1819] Yeah, let's.

[1820] So one of the things that came in, obviously a lot of drink -related questions.

[1821] Obviously.

[1822] Obviously also a lot of people making offers.

[1823] Where drinkers go to know.

[1824] To send us drinks.

[1825] Which we are accepting.

[1826] If you have drinks to send, we'll accept them and then we'll drink them and then go, ah, on the podcast.

[1827] One thing I want to say, though, is that apparently there are some people operating under the belief that Pineapple Crush is a super rare drink.

[1828] Really?

[1829] has not been my experience.

[1830] It seems like you kind of just see it around.

[1831] Whenever you're in a place where you see multiple crush flavors, like there's a grape crush.

[1832] Right.

[1833] I expect any place that I would find a Tahitian treat at that I would probably find a pineapple crush.

[1834] Right, which not super common.

[1835] Not the same brand, but not super common, but not that hard to find either.

[1836] So I appreciate people writing in about that, but we are good on the pineapple crush front.

[1837] It is not just in Saskatchewan.

[1838] All right.

[1839] It is not just in Saskatoon.

[1840] Let's see here.

[1841] A question comes in from Brandon Craig.

[1842] Let's see here.

[1843] I know you guys got to play Street Fighter IV recently.

[1844] He's a big 2D fighting game fan and hopes that Capcom doesn't ruin the series.

[1845] Anyways, his question is, I want to know if you could talk more about the new gameplay elements like the revenge meter focus tax.

[1846] And he hears that there's a counterattack system in it.

[1847] Huh.

[1848] Does any of that stuff ring?

[1849] I mean, you played it briefly.

[1850] Yeah, sort of.

[1851] I did.

[1852] If there's anything, you talk about how that affects the feel of the game.

[1853] So I believe the, I mean, we were playing it and it was just covered in Japanese.

[1854] So, you know, the names of stuff.

[1855] But there is a revenge meter that fills up and you can do a super out of that.

[1856] There's also a super meter and you can do a different super out of that.

[1857] So there's two kind of super moves that you can get there.

[1858] I believe the focus attacks are the thing where you hit.

[1859] multiple buttons.

[1860] Like, if you do a fireball and hit both buttons, it'll use up a chunk of your meter, but you will throw a more powerful fireball or do a more powerful hurricane kick.

[1861] So you can do kind of pumped -up versions of your moves, which they've done that before.

[1862] Would that also, like, take longer to charge up or something?

[1863] Like, there'd be a timing?

[1864] No, it's just...

[1865] It just gets into the meter.

[1866] Yeah, it just eats up some of your meter.

[1867] Okay.

[1868] So there's that.

[1869] I believe the revenge attack is something where that gauge fills up as you get hurt.

[1870] I'm not sure how the push and pull with that stuff works.

[1871] But I did pull off a revenge attack at one point.

[1872] It was, okay, write this down.

[1873] Two quarter circles forward and then a punch button with Ken. Then he did.

[1874] Two quarter circles forward and then a punch button.

[1875] So, yeah, it's all very standard Street Fighter -y stuff.

[1876] The systems didn't feel a lot different.

[1877] But counterattack stuff, I mean.

[1878] I only played it like five or six times.

[1879] Sure, you don't really get all the way into what is different about that game just yet.

[1880] Yeah, so I couldn't really deduce every single system in there, but I just, you know, the revenge meter filled up, and then I said, okay, I'm going to do this.

[1881] And basically, like, there are two separate commands for super moves.

[1882] Like, if you want to do the super, there's one thing, and the revenge is a separate one, I believe.

[1883] Well, I guess you kind of answer then in a roundabout way his greater question, which is, you know, is this going to be...

[1884] a game for Street Fighter fans.

[1885] It sounds like that is who they are making this game for.

[1886] Definitely.

[1887] And I think that's the only way to make this game, and it's a very dangerous way to make this game, because they are fighting directly against nostalgia with one of the most beloved games ever made.

[1888] Yeah, people who like Street...

[1889] A lot of people like Street Fighter 2 a whole lot, and those people like it.

[1890] Crazy amounts.

[1891] And they're basically just trying to make that game in 3D in a lot of ways.

[1892] A lot of the timing stuff will be different, but for the most part, yeah.

[1893] It's the Chun -Li background brought to 3D and all that sort of stuff.

[1894] And also, Brandon, who's coming out of Alabama, also wants to let you know that he thinks the EX games are fun and underrated.

[1895] I totally agree.

[1896] Street Fighter, this game doesn't feel quite like Street Fighter EX.

[1897] It's not quite as crazy with all the chaining together and cancels and all that stuff.

[1898] At least I don't think so.

[1899] But like the EX games, it is perfectly competent.

[1900] Sure.

[1901] I actually like the, I am not even a big Street Fighter fan and I like the EX games, although that's largely because of Skullomania.

[1902] Yeah, exactly.

[1903] Like the characters in the EX games are so awesome.

[1904] Yeah, the stuff they decided to throw in there on their own are so completely insane in a way that I can really appreciate.

[1905] Let's see.

[1906] Our next question comes from Dante Kleinberg, and this is a drink -related question.

[1907] He wants to know if either of us have ever been to the Coca -Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

[1908] I've heard a lot about this.

[1909] I have not.

[1910] I went to – there's like some kind of Coca -Cola museum thing in Vegas next to the MGM Grand.

[1911] Quarter bottle Cokes.

[1912] Yeah, yeah.

[1913] So I remember hanging out there and buying some bottle Cokes.

[1914] Well, the thing that's amazing, what I've heard about this, the Coke Museum in Atlanta.

[1915] which is where they make Coke.

[1916] Where Coke is made.

[1917] Where Coke is made.

[1918] Coke is it.

[1919] That is where Coke is it.

[1920] Have a Coke and a smile.

[1921] They have, like, all of these crazy international flavors and, you know, ridiculous drinks that don't come out here or super limited edition.

[1922] Dante lists.

[1923] They've got watermelon, strawberry, apple, et cetera.

[1924] And there are two flavors that he considers unswallowable, leachy nut and bitters.

[1925] Ugh.

[1926] And there have been some other stuff that I've heard.

[1927] I feel like we...

[1928] We need to go.

[1929] We need to go there and then to the Epcot Center because they have that whole drink area there, don't they?

[1930] Yeah, I feel like.

[1931] Where they have like French beverages including the one that just makes people throw up.

[1932] Yeah.

[1933] No, that's also at the Coke Museum.

[1934] Oh, it's there too.

[1935] Yeah.

[1936] I can't remember the name of it.

[1937] Yeah, I know, but I've seen people drinking and then immediately throwing up.

[1938] Yeah.

[1939] Which we need to do.

[1940] Right.

[1941] Pack your bags, dude.

[1942] All right, dude.

[1943] Live broadcast.

[1944] Business trip.

[1945] We do this for business.

[1946] We're in the business of drinking sodas.

[1947] Well, Dante, thank you for the tip.

[1948] These are intriguing things.

[1949] I'm glad someone reminded me that the Coke Museum is out there.

[1950] So the next time we're out east, we will definitely have to make our way there and give you people what you want.

[1951] All right.

[1952] I got another question here.

[1953] Drew Brucey, also from Atlanta, wants to know about...

[1954] A -Town.

[1955] The ATL.

[1956] Hotlanta.

[1957] Hotlanta.

[1958] He wants to know about...

[1959] Peach Tree.

[1960] He says he's big into horror games.

[1961] He loves being so freaked out by a game that he can't move my character any further without peeing himself.

[1962] He's excited about Condemned 2.

[1963] He says he's stocked, but I'm sure he means stoked.

[1964] He wants to know how we feel about horror games in general.

[1965] Is there anything that we're looking forward to?

[1966] Is it a genre that we enjoy?

[1967] Obviously, stuff like Resident Evil 4 is probably one of the better examples of that kind of stuff, of games creeping you out.

[1968] I have a very low tolerance for it, personally.

[1969] I love them.

[1970] Yeah.

[1971] But, like, being scared in a game situation like that, it's easy for me to get freaked out and have to, like, put down the controller.

[1972] Really?

[1973] Especially, like, Resident Evil 4, I could not play during the nighttime.

[1974] Like, it literally was freaking me out so bad that I just couldn't play it properly then.

[1975] So I had to only during daylight hours.

[1976] Yeah, I don't know.

[1977] That stuff has never really affected me, but also I've never really been a big fan of horror, period.

[1978] Oh, just any sort of horror.

[1979] Right.

[1980] It's just it's never been my thing.

[1981] Well, I think it's very rare in the game space for like, you know, horror games to actually be scary.

[1982] Right.

[1983] Because it's more startling because it's like, oh, dog jumped through a window.

[1984] I didn't expect that.

[1985] Like, it's just like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[1986] Jump scares.

[1987] Yeah.

[1988] And any game can do that.

[1989] You know, you don't have to be a horror themed game.

[1990] So I think more games go for those kind of jump scares than anything else.

[1991] Also, it seems like they're also perhaps going more for the aesthetic of horror than the actual kind of structure of horror.

[1992] But when it comes to the genre of gaming, survival horror, that sort of stuff, I'm not a fan.

[1993] I never really have been.

[1994] I certainly can respect what Resident Evil has done and Silent Hill and stuff like that, but it's just not for me. What do you think about Left 4 Dead?

[1995] I think that looks cool.

[1996] That looks super awesome.

[1997] Yeah.

[1998] I agree.

[1999] It's that kind of squad -based fighting zombies.

[2000] Yeah.

[2001] Overwhelmed sensation.

[2002] Right.

[2003] I'm totally not against fighting zombies.

[2004] That doesn't mean I don't want to play in a game where you fight zombies.

[2005] What about vampires?

[2006] I will fight some vampires.

[2007] What about wolfmans?

[2008] I will fight the heck out of some wolfmans.

[2009] What about Frankensteins?

[2010] No. I draw the line there.

[2011] I won't play Castlevania 1 ever again.

[2012] Fair enough.

[2013] So there you go.

[2014] That's us on horror games.

[2015] I am a big sissy and can't play them during nighttime hours.

[2016] And I could, but I choose not to.

[2017] Chris Crowley writes in from Michigan.

[2018] Missouri?

[2019] Michigan.

[2020] MI?

[2021] MI.

[2022] Yeah, Michigan.

[2023] Because MO is Missouri.

[2024] Right.

[2025] What's MS?

[2026] Mississippi.

[2027] Multiple sclerosis.

[2028] Right.

[2029] Microsoft.

[2030] No, that's M dollar sign.

[2031] That's M dollar sign.

[2032] Do you see what I did there?

[2033] It's the money.

[2034] You're a business that likes to make money.

[2035] I call them macro shaft.

[2036] What's their problem?

[2037] Do you get it?

[2038] They like to make money.

[2039] You should install Linux, filthy capitalists.

[2040] Anyway.

[2041] He wants to know how we feel about toilet paper being hung over or under.

[2042] Totally don't care.

[2043] I know some people that are super freaked out, like have to have it one way or the other.

[2044] I will take it any way I can get it.

[2045] He said, when it comes to that paper, Jeff doesn't care.

[2046] That's right.

[2047] He wants it however.

[2048] I just want a lot of it.

[2049] You don't care if it's single ply?

[2050] No, I very distinctly care that it is not single ply, I guess.

[2051] Okay, so in that regard, you do care.

[2052] I don't know.

[2053] You like it quilted.

[2054] Yeah.

[2055] A little quilted northern.

[2056] He says that...

[2057] I changed brands recently, but I can't remember the name that I'm buying now.

[2058] He says, see, that's weird that you have brand.

[2059] Like, I just go, and it's like, all right, this is the cheap stuff right now.

[2060] Sure.

[2061] And that's it.

[2062] He says he understands the ease of use factor for overhang, but because two hands are required, overhang creates sanitation issues.

[2063] Please tell us what you think.

[2064] I am a hangover guy.

[2065] Boy, are you.

[2066] I don't like it going under because then it's always against the wall, and I feel like that's a greater sanitation issue.

[2067] What are you doing to your wall, dude?

[2068] Dude, a wall in a bathroom, like any surface in a bathroom, is going to be filthy.

[2069] I guess, yeah.

[2070] Regardless, because it's in a damn bathroom.

[2071] So you're saying the Ocean's Eleven poster I have hung in my bathroom is now unsanitary?

[2072] It's extremely, extremely unsanitary.

[2073] Oh, jeez.

[2074] That thing is nasty, as are all those issues of complex.

[2075] Oh.

[2076] But those were unsanitary beforehand.

[2077] That's true.

[2078] All right, here's a little more serious question from Matt Sponsier in Tallahassee, Florida.

[2079] He says, very excited about Giant Bomb.

[2080] Looking forward to seeing how you grow and expand the site.

[2081] However, I was wondering if you would elaborate on your decision to use a five -star scale on your reviews as opposed to a 10 -point scale, A to F letter grade, or other such options.

[2082] Good question.

[2083] Yeah.

[2084] We are working on a bunch of documents that we will kind of spell out our process as we establish it, kind of what our approach to games is.

[2085] and how we intend to employ that methodology to reviews and to everything else that we do.

[2086] But yeah, one of the first decisions that I think that we agreed on was this one to five scale with no half stars, no half steps.

[2087] Ain't no half steps.

[2088] Five points.

[2089] Big Daddy Kane.

[2090] That's it.

[2091] And that just, I think that philosophy is coming from, you know, I don't need four different ways to say how bad a game is.

[2092] And I don't need more than, I don't need five different ways to say how good a game is.

[2093] Yeah, at a point.

[2094] In score terms.

[2095] At a point, I kind of believe that, like, too much more granularity than that doesn't really help purchasing decisions.

[2096] Right.

[2097] It just kind of fuels, you know.

[2098] petty internet arguments over which is better yeah it's like oh well this got a 6 .3 so it's better than this game they got a 6 .2 it's for people that are looking at like review aggregator sites and you know basing right weird decisions off of that stuff yeah but meanwhile you know there's the five star standard has been on the rise just not in this kind of game review sense absolutely i mean i One of the reasons that I was very attracted to it and kind of a proponent for it here is that I use that when I go and rate stuff on Netflix or something.

[2099] Yeah, or Amazon uses it.

[2100] iTunes uses it.

[2101] It's very clear to understand what a five -star scale means.

[2102] You've got two things that are above average, two that are below, and one that's in the middle.

[2103] And I think that you can definitely apply that to most games.

[2104] The thing about games, and I think media in general these days, and it is kind of a thing that's been a trend that I think has been happening more and more, is that your own individual taste is going to shape your decision to purchase a game more so than any one review can, or even a group of reviews.

[2105] Take a look at Smash Brothers, for example.

[2106] That game is going to do very well at game review sites.

[2107] It's already doing very well out there.

[2108] There are plenty of people that don't like it because it's not their type of game.

[2109] Now, do they need to be able to compare that?

[2110] If a game gets a 9 .6 to a 9 .5, do they need to be able to make that comparison?

[2111] Or do they need to just be able to say, well, that's great that that's a quality example of that type of game.

[2112] However, that type of game is not for me. Yeah.

[2113] There does not need to be a constant one -to -one between how much you like a game and the score it receives.

[2114] Right.

[2115] Like the overall kind of general, because your tastes are going to vary.

[2116] No one, at least I hope, is going to perfectly match lockstep that median score for every game.

[2117] Yeah, definitely.

[2118] Everyone's going to have, you know, there's going to be a lot of, you know, Japanese RPGs out there that get great scores that I just, I don't care about.

[2119] And I know that.

[2120] Right.

[2121] About myself.

[2122] And so, you know, it doesn't really matter.

[2123] So, yeah.

[2124] So that's, you know, that is the methodology we're applying to game reviews.

[2125] You know, if we're giving something three stars, we're saying, you know, this game's okay.

[2126] Yeah.

[2127] You know, it's middle of the road.

[2128] It's not broken.

[2129] It's fine.

[2130] Whatever.

[2131] If you try to then translate that into, you know, a 10 -point scale somewhere else and, you know, where a halfway down the scale is a game you don't ever want to touch.

[2132] Right.

[2133] That doesn't really apply here.

[2134] It doesn't.

[2135] It's not the same thing.

[2136] Right.

[2137] And honestly, the other thing that I feel is that too much more granularity on the review scale hurts the text, the impact that the text can have.

[2138] Right.

[2139] Because if people are just looking at the score and then that is all the information they're getting about the game from that source.

[2140] And not bothering to look at, you know, the whys of that stuff.

[2141] Yeah.

[2142] That's, you know, people complain about people not reading reviews.

[2143] That's, you know, a pretty good reason for it.

[2144] Right.

[2145] Though at the same time, I mean, that's not to say we want to force people to read reviews.

[2146] It's just, you know, we're going to give you this bite -sized piece of information that's this one to five score.

[2147] But it's the most at a glance that you can get.

[2148] Right.

[2149] Exactly.

[2150] You will at a glance know if we think this game is good or bad.

[2151] And ultimately, that's all that matters.

[2152] So there you go.

[2153] That's kind of our reasoning behind the five -point scale.

[2154] I'm stoked about it.

[2155] Yeah, I'm very excited about it.

[2156] I think it's going to work out.

[2157] I agree entirely.

[2158] And, Matt, thanks for writing in with that excellent question.

[2159] Well, that's going to do it for questions.

[2160] Thanks for everyone that wrote in.

[2161] And for those of you who didn't get on the air, keep trying.

[2162] Yeah, keep sending the questions in.

[2163] Have better questions, and we'll put them on here.

[2164] Right, and we are going to look to answer some questions on the site itself, specifically stuff about, like I said, stuff about the way we're going to review games and that sort of stuff.

[2165] We can also say, yes, there will be forums on the site when it launches.

[2166] We're getting a lot of questions like, are you guys going to have forums?

[2167] Oh, absolutely.

[2168] Yeah, totally.

[2169] We're totally going to have a lot of big community stuff on the full site.

[2170] It's going to be awesome.

[2171] There's going to be a lot of, I mean, I don't want to oversell it, but there's going to be a lot of stuff here.

[2172] Oh, yeah.

[2173] There's going to be some cool stuff happening on Giant Bomb.

[2174] What you're seeing here is very much just a small, small taste of what's going to happen.

[2175] Yeah, like we're going to wrap a whole site around this whole thing.

[2176] Yeah.

[2177] It's going to be crazy.

[2178] Which you will see in our ongoing video series, How to Build a Bomb.

[2179] Right.

[2180] Also, avatars for your comments on the blog.

[2181] Go to gravatar .com.

[2182] It's a globally recognized avatar.

[2183] We're getting a lot of questions from people saying, how do they change their icon?

[2184] You can go there and set it.

[2185] It doesn't take immediately, so you'll change it, and it'll probably take a couple hours for your comments to be updated with the new icon.

[2186] It seems like some people are figuring it out.

[2187] Yeah, they are.

[2188] Some people are.

[2189] Just for the other people, and we'll post information like this.

[2190] We'll post that in text for people that don't listen all the way to the end of us.

[2191] rambling about mana energy potion.

[2192] Horrible, horrible things.

[2193] Oh, I forgot to mention it.

[2194] One of the emails that came in as a side note mentioned that Carl's Jr. is called Hardee's on the East Coast.

[2195] Yes.

[2196] And apparently they do not have the Cap 'n Crunch shake there.

[2197] Oh, that's unfortunate.

[2198] So you East Coasters don't get to know the glory of that weird, weird shake.

[2199] Which is apparently also extremely bad for you.

[2200] Surprise.

[2201] What?

[2202] I know.

[2203] Who would have thought?

[2204] Yeah.

[2205] But apparently that's like five meals or something in one of those.

[2206] It's pretty brutal.

[2207] Jeez.

[2208] You drank two of those that night, too.

[2209] Yeah, because you...

[2210] Well, I drank one and a half because you...

[2211] Whatever, I had about a quarter of mine, and I was good.

[2212] That was all the Cap 'n Crunch tasting ice cream.

[2213] Well, I didn't eat for like a day and a half after that, so...

[2214] That's true.

[2215] You'd kind of go under for a bit there.

[2216] Yeah.

[2217] So, yeah, let's wrap it up.

[2218] Let's send it home.

[2219] We're about done here on this edition of the Giant Bomb podcast.

[2220] The first edition, technically, of the Giant Bomb podcast.

[2221] You're right.

[2222] Damn.

[2223] The third or fourth overall of aeroplane down.

[2224] But, yeah, well, scratch that.

[2225] This is number one.

[2226] Yeah.

[2227] We're restarting.

[2228] We're rebooting the franchise here.

[2229] Yeah.

[2230] Joss Whedon came in.

[2231] We're reimagining everything.

[2232] And has rewritten the script, the podcast script.

[2233] All new origin story for Ryan.

[2234] Punch up.

[2235] Yeah.

[2236] A lot of punch up.

[2237] All right.

[2238] Well, thanks for listening.

[2239] We need to get on some sort of regular damn schedule for this thing.

[2240] better than we have so far but we do yeah um i mean things are gonna run kind of fast and loose right now because you know there's just so much going on with us uh buying stuff for the office and doing all this other stuff and and all that but uh as we get a little more nailed down yeah we'll pick a day and stick to it yeah so uh until then we will see you next time on the giant bomb podcast yeah