Giant Bombcast 03-22-2011

[0] Hey everyone, it's Tuesday, March the 22nd, 2011, and you're listening to the Giant Bombcast.

[1] I'm Ryan Davis, joining me today in top form, Mr. Vinnie Caravella.

[2] Hey, top hat.

[3] How's it going, one ear, headphones?

[4] You listening for special signals?

[5] I think I'm losing my hearing.

[6] I noticed it at the panel when you guys could hear stuff and then I couldn't.

[7] Yeah.

[8] I felt really weird, and now I'm starting to notice it more and more.

[9] I think we were in an odd position with where the speakers were.

[10] I think they were very directional.

[11] I think I was just catching – I was catching – being on the outside edge, I think I was like catching some of that side speaker there.

[12] I don't know.

[13] I wouldn't worry about it because I have terrible hearing.

[14] I know.

[15] That's what freaked me out the most when I was like, what did he say?

[16] And you're like, oh, he said this.

[17] I know your hearing is terrible.

[18] So, yeah, I'm worried.

[19] Yeah, I mean you'd have to.

[20] It would have to be a significant backslide, you know, traveling under duress.

[21] Oh, put them both on.

[22] There you go.

[23] Strap it on.

[24] Get in there.

[25] I figured I could even it out, right?

[26] If I keep one ear off and then this one real loud, it'll basically just, like, if I hear better on this ear.

[27] Yeah, that'll fix it, too.

[28] Just talk loudly into the other ear.

[29] I need to balance it out and then push the gain for both of them back up.

[30] Also here and ready to strap it on, Mr. Jeff Gerstmann.

[31] Hello.

[32] How's it going?

[33] That's good.

[34] Sometimes I have trouble hearing people in loud.

[35] in crowds and stuff.

[36] Like if people are talking in a bar.

[37] Discerning and picking out a voice.

[38] Yeah, sometimes that can be tough.

[39] Especially if it's a high -pitched voice.

[40] Raise the hand where you hear this sound.

[41] When are you going to start making noise?

[42] I can hear it.

[43] My hand's up.

[44] That's what this inkblot looks like.

[45] Rubbing his eyes and coughing.

[46] Rounding out the quartet.

[47] Mr. Bill of Health himself, Brad Shoemaker.

[48] How you doing, sir?

[49] You caught what everyone else was cooking last week.

[50] I got strapped on last week.

[51] You certainly did.

[52] By something.

[53] That was a fun one, huh?

[54] I think it's the same thing you had.

[55] Yeah, I think so.

[56] So you know how that goes.

[57] That one just kind of passed around.

[58] Just days of aches and chills and fever.

[59] I hadn't had a good fever like that.

[60] I'd been sick, but I hadn't had a proper...

[61] In bed and delirious all day.

[62] Like, just debilitating.

[63] Yeah.

[64] He's like, I can't.

[65] Can't move.

[66] Can't sit up.

[67] Can't do nothing.

[68] I can't even get to the store to get the drugs.

[69] I don't even care enough to try to eat or knock me out.

[70] Oh, yeah.

[71] Definitely.

[72] I'm just going to lie here.

[73] Gentlemen.

[74] Hello.

[75] We're here.

[76] We're back.

[77] Finally.

[78] Here.

[79] Thank God.

[80] Start 2011.

[81] No more.

[82] Yeah.

[83] We've got no trade shows.

[84] No lengthy trips.

[85] No corporate parties.

[86] I'm actually hosting a corporate party for...

[87] In Texas.

[88] Yeah.

[89] Lucent asked me to come out and do 15 minutes.

[90] It's like they gave me a bunch of names of people in the company and I got to try to work them into the act.

[91] It's like, well, whatever.

[92] For $35 ,000, I'll do it.

[93] Dale Rogers, you cocksucker.

[94] I was drinking in the back with...

[95] At Garbenhams, Ron, and...

[96] Davis.

[97] Keep talking about you guys, you fuckers.

[98] Man, those guys sure are horrible drunks.

[99] It's true.

[100] We had to have an intervention last week.

[101] He's drunk right now.

[102] How are you doing?

[103] Doing all right.

[104] Fantastic.

[105] Yeah.

[106] How are you doing?

[107] I'm great.

[108] Wow.

[109] Yeah.

[110] All right.

[111] I'm fantastic then.

[112] I mean I'm on the – it's been a rough month or so.

[113] Okay.

[114] So I'm feeling on the mend and that's good.

[115] Done with this roller coaster?

[116] Yeah.

[117] All right.

[118] I'm through with it.

[119] Everything is going to be awesome now.

[120] Just go on the merry -go -round.

[121] Indeed.

[122] Get back on the system.

[123] I took my ride.

[124] Yeah.

[125] Doing all right.

[126] I am looking forward to stability.

[127] I like a good system.

[128] A little routine.

[129] Good clean system, yeah.

[130] A little bit of the same thing every day.

[131] Yeah.

[132] That's always nice.

[133] Try and refine a system, and then something comes in like a bulldozer and messes up your system.

[134] It's like, ah, four packs.

[135] Right.

[136] Whatever you may call it.

[137] What do you want to call the monster?

[138] I installed Dragon Age 2, the second one.

[139] The follow -up to Dragon Age 2.

[140] Dragon Age 2 -2.

[141] And started playing some of that on the PC.

[142] Personal computer.

[143] You snaked a new video card I saw from Tested.

[144] So I thought my computer was running.

[145] Apparently my video card doesn't do DirectX 11.

[146] And apparently DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 are very similar.

[147] So I had DirectX 11 enabled.

[148] And the way they phrase it is enabled if available.

[149] So I had that running.

[150] And it wasn't running that well.

[151] On my machine.

[152] So, Norm, let me borrow a card.

[153] Just frame rate, pop in.

[154] Yeah, just kind of frame rate stuff.

[155] And it's real weird because that game seems to run really fast.

[156] And I remember when we did the quick look for the console, it looked like it was going really quickly.

[157] This seems maybe a little bit slowed down, but it runs so fast that when it drops frames...

[158] It's like guys just exploded for no reason.

[159] It's just like things are happening so quickly.

[160] Like fire is just raining out of the sky.

[161] You didn't even see the sword strike.

[162] You just saw blood.

[163] And people, rogues are vanishing and fire is hailing out of the sky.

[164] And I'm like clicking.

[165] And if the frame rate goes low enough, it's just dudes exploding here and stuff happening there.

[166] That sounds awesome.

[167] It's weird because it just feels like you're not in control of anything.

[168] You're just like, all right, well, I'm going to unpause it.

[169] Everybody's dead.

[170] I think that's one of the things that Dragon Age 2 really addresses is that sense of control.

[171] So not having that.

[172] Well, kind of.

[173] So I put this new video card in, and apparently it's just DirectX 11 support is really bad on the PC version of a – who knows what it's running on 360, like DirectX.

[174] Seven.

[175] Yeah.

[176] So on the PC, apparently it's just – Poorly supported is the word on the internet streets.

[177] Is that just a DA2 thing, or is it just DirectX 11 across the board is not?

[178] I don't know enough about it, but it sounds like it's a Dragon Age thing.

[179] So there's beta drivers out for my NVIDIA card that I have in there now, which address some of that issue.

[180] So I'm running the beta drivers, and it seems a little bit better.

[181] Always fun to be running beta video card drivers.

[182] Well, there was real bad stuff where just swaths of textures were just black.

[183] No, that's how it's supposed to happen.

[184] That ain't supposed to happen.

[185] Dragon Age 2 is dark.

[186] That's the dark spawn.

[187] That's the fade.

[188] Isn't that the blight?

[189] And so you rotate the camera and they start doing that blinking out.

[190] All these terms we don't know the meaning of.

[191] The blight, the fade.

[192] So it fixed that, but the frame rate's still not as high as you'd expect it.

[193] Now, on DirectX 9, it runs fine.

[194] It's weird.

[195] I don't know.

[196] I don't feel strongly one way or the other with Dragon Age 2 yet.

[197] I do see what people are starting to say about you kind of revisit these zones over and over again.

[198] That could get a little annoying.

[199] My main issue so far, and I'm about 10 hours in, I've already lost the thread.

[200] So they just stack up these quests.

[201] Kind of like an MMO, you're just stacking up all these quests.

[202] And then as soon as you leave an area, it takes you to this kind of main map.

[203] And when you hover over zones that you can go questing in, it'll list the quests but not the description of anything.

[204] So if you didn't pay attention to what – What the hell is duty?

[205] I don't know.

[206] Just going to go in there and kill a bunch of dudes.

[207] And then it's going to say, you completed this quest.

[208] And you're like, okay.

[209] So that's kind of where I'm at now.

[210] Just accept every quest I can from everybody.

[211] Hit the main map.

[212] Go to the zone that has the biggest list of stuff to do there.

[213] Kill everybody there.

[214] And then it's like, all right, well, that's done.

[215] So is that always all the quests are kill everybody here?

[216] So far, it's either kill everybody here.

[217] and leave or kill everybody here and pick up the piece of loot you need.

[218] Right.

[219] Get the magic feather.

[220] And then you pop back out to that map, and it tells you, okay, now you need to go here for this quest.

[221] And it's like, okay.

[222] I go here, and it's like, oh, that's the turn -in for it, and I guess I solved that quest.

[223] So usually I'm very on top of that stuff, of the whole story narrative, but the way they present it, I'm just kind of like, I don't know, everything's going on.

[224] What do you think of that overmap?

[225] I don't mind it.

[226] It makes the world feel a lot smaller than maybe kind of traversing.

[227] I mean Dragon Age, the origins had that kind of same thing except the zones felt a lot bigger.

[228] These feel a lot smaller.

[229] You did do some traveling.

[230] You did, but it also had that map.

[231] You'd walk outside a zone and then you'd hit some other spot.

[232] It felt a lot more connected, though.

[233] Somehow it felt like as you were moving east, you would continue moving east.

[234] And this is just very kind of symbolic of where you are.

[235] Yeah, this is kind of near this other thing.

[236] Yeah, or like you're starting in this town and then zoom out.

[237] You just warp this mountain kind of thing.

[238] It's streamlined for sure.

[239] That's what the folks say.

[240] The other kind of thing that bothers me is I'm picking up all this loot.

[241] And you can only put armor and apparel on your guy.

[242] Right.

[243] It seems like everybody else is locked to some kind of like Mass Effect style default armor.

[244] Full suit.

[245] And I don't know if you can pick one of those full suits up later on, but I'm a warrior and I have kind of the best warrior gear, which was.

[246] the Blood Dragon armor for me, which was unlocked somehow, I don't know, tripping over Twitter or looking at Facebook or something.

[247] I think that's just...

[248] Maybe because I had Dragon Age.

[249] I think that's just having Dragon Age.

[250] Which is starting to get really weird now because the Blood Dragon armor was an unlock in Mass Effect, which was like, hey, we're going to tie this into Dragon Age.

[251] But then in Dragon Age...

[252] So is it the same armor as you had in Mass Effect?

[253] Well, it's got the same pattern on it.

[254] It's got the blood on it.

[255] It doesn't look like a space suit.

[256] Neither did the Blood Dragon armor in Mass Effect 2.

[257] No, it's not the same.

[258] But it's just weird.

[259] It's coming back around to be now an unlock in...

[260] Yeah, that's really cool.

[261] I also got the Dead Space armor.

[262] Yes, for putting in your code online.

[263] Or did it just read your save on the 360?

[264] You know what?

[265] I've not even put in Dead Space 2 into my system.

[266] I have played the first Dead Space, so I'm not sure.

[267] Where it's pulling that from.

[268] But I started up the game.

[269] It's like, here's – you get these things.

[270] Go find your trunk.

[271] They just threw up their hands at some point.

[272] I was like, just unlock everything for everybody.

[273] So that armor is really good.

[274] So back to my point, which is I've got this really good armor, which feels like it's way beyond anything I'm finding right now.

[275] Like just twice as high armor as anything I'm picking up.

[276] But I'm a warrior and I'm picking up all this other stuff that's like, oh, this is great for a mage.

[277] This is great for a rogue.

[278] This is great for whatever.

[279] I can't do anything with it but sell it because the other members of my party can't wear it.

[280] So it's kind of like a little – takes the joy out of picking up loot when you're like, well, I'm not going to find anything comparable for another couple of levels here because everything is kind of lame.

[281] And all the stuff that is good that I can't wear, I have to just basically sell because my party can't use it.

[282] It makes you feel a little bit lame.

[283] Gloves of the great magician.

[284] You can do weapons, though.

[285] Weapons and shields and amulets and stuff like that.

[286] But I don't know.

[287] That feels a little handcuffed.

[288] Yeah, that seems like a choice where, yeah, it's all about them trying to streamline it more.

[289] But if you're going to have the party there at all, like let me. Let me decide if I want to tinker with it because I'm just going to auto -level everyone.

[290] I'm not going to muck around with the stats like that.

[291] It's weird.

[292] I kind of felt like it worked.

[293] People make the same argument.

[294] That's what they did in Mass Effect 2, right, for Mass Effect 1 is they got rid of all that stuff.

[295] But in Mass Effect 2, they also got rid of picking up loot.

[296] apparel items in general.

[297] So it's not like you picked up guns and everything and suddenly nobody could use them.

[298] They got rid of the inventory for that matter.

[299] Yeah, pretty much.

[300] It's like, well, we kept the inventory but you can't really use it.

[301] Consider this.

[302] With all of that gear, they would have had to have made that stuff work with every mage that you can possibly have in your party.

[303] I'm like two hours into that game and I already have two mages that I can choose from.

[304] Yeah.

[305] Whereas it's like with the Hawk, it's either male or female.

[306] It's going to be that same basic model.

[307] I do like the way it looks like they put more work into making this stuff look unique.

[308] I've got this pretty sick shield, and the armor looks good.

[309] So it's more stylized.

[310] In general, I feel like they gave Dragon Age a look with this game.

[311] I still don't like the way the elves look.

[312] I mean, it's just like post -Avatar Elv syndrome.

[313] Well, they definitely...

[314] They weirdoed them up.

[315] Like, if you go back and look at the Dragon Age 1, I like the way that they made them look.

[316] Really?

[317] I don't know.

[318] Yeah, they just look like dudes with points.

[319] They look like Comic -Con elves.

[320] Now they look like, okay, no, these are not just makeup elves.

[321] Well, they look a little deformed, which is kind of scary.

[322] Racist.

[323] Racist motherfucker.

[324] Elves look deformed in Dragon Age 2.

[325] What about dwarves?

[326] They gross you out?

[327] They look the same.

[328] You don't like little people?

[329] No, I like big little people.

[330] Yeah.

[331] I don't want them using the same drinking fountain as me. Well, they can't.

[332] They're too short.

[333] Great.

[334] Just go use the tall drinking fountain.

[335] So, yeah.

[336] Like I said, about 10 hours in, just kind of like running down the list of errands.

[337] It's basically like shopping lists.

[338] But there's also, to be fair, if you do lose the thread, that game has copious in -game documentation for...

[339] What you've done thus far.

[340] They have a codex, you're saying?

[341] Yeah.

[342] They do.

[343] You hit start and there's a central radio menu.

[344] That looks kind of familiar, right?

[345] It is.

[346] Yeah, that is some Mass Effect 2 shit.

[347] Yeah, when I saw that.

[348] Not on the PC.

[349] The PC just said escape and do your menu thing.

[350] Yeah, you have like a full -on icon bar and everything, right?

[351] Yeah, at the bottom.

[352] Which is...

[353] The game does not seem hard so far.

[354] I'm playing on normal.

[355] Maybe that was a mistake.

[356] But it's a lot of just kind of like...

[357] mash one until it recharges, and then click the right button until...

[358] You're playing as a warrior?

[359] Yeah.

[360] You liking it?

[361] I am.

[362] Like I said, dudes exploding is kind of weird.

[363] I mean, obviously it's their stylistic choice for that stuff, and sometimes it's really fun.

[364] It just seems odd.

[365] A guy just bursts into it.

[366] The action is now finally matching the bloodshed of Dragon Age.

[367] I find myself pausing it less.

[368] I haven't had a problem with it yet.

[369] Once I encounter a problem, I will probably start pausing and dictating stuff a little more.

[370] You're a pause fiend, aren't you?

[371] I was in the first one, but this one just seems like they want me to just go in there and not pause it.

[372] They just want me to swing that sword at a dude as many times as I can.

[373] Just get in there and hit guys.

[374] Yeah, and don't take your time because, man. Because you're going to have a lot more of these fights.

[375] Yeah.

[376] So, yeah.

[377] Okay, so far.

[378] Like, again, not strongly one way or the other.

[379] But we'll see as time goes by.

[380] Ten hours in so far.

[381] I have heard so many different playthrough stories of that thing.

[382] Yeah.

[383] I have no idea where I am.

[384] You might be at the end.

[385] Yeah, like in a half hour.

[386] Like I said, I lost the thread somewhere.

[387] Whereas, like, after that, we did in the quick look after that, spend a year here and, like, we'll move on.

[388] I remember all that stuff.

[389] And now it's just, I don't.

[390] I think I've got to go return an amulet to somebody.

[391] I think that's the main plot.

[392] Are you still in Kirkwall?

[393] Yeah, but sometimes.

[394] Sometimes I'm on a mountain.

[395] Yeah, sometimes you're up on a hill.

[396] Sometimes you're in a cave.

[397] Yeah, or the other hill.

[398] Right.

[399] Or the other.

[400] No, there's just one cave.

[401] There's just the one cave.

[402] I saw some people complaining that there are dungeons in that game that are identical, like different dungeons.

[403] Right, yeah, like Mass Effect 1, like prefab kind of construction style.

[404] I've heard the same thing.

[405] Yeah, I've heard that too, but it's.

[406] I haven't played enough or become familiar enough to even recognize that this is a place instead of a list of things I need to do.

[407] That's what they're counting on.

[408] Yeah.

[409] Just kind of like, oh, hover over this.

[410] There's five things to do here.

[411] This looks, I don't know.

[412] This kind of looks familiar.

[413] I'm too busy watching dudes explode.

[414] This guy's just blowing up constantly.

[415] I don't know what's happening.

[416] Assassins.

[417] He's hot on the sea.

[418] He's blowing up.

[419] I don't know what this group of enemies are supposed to be.

[420] They say assassin.

[421] There was another group of assassins here.

[422] Are they all the same guy?

[423] Assassino.

[424] I wish.

[425] What else is going on?

[426] What else is in the paper?

[427] There's that.

[428] Oh, I played some Retribution, some Warhammer.

[429] Retribution, which is the Warhammer, Dawn of War 2 Retribution.

[430] Yes.

[431] The new standalone add -on for Dawn of War 2.

[432] Jumped into a little bit of that.

[433] That seems really cool.

[434] Sometimes when I'm in Dragon Age, I think...

[435] I should just quit out of this.

[436] We should talk to Mike Horn about that sometime.

[437] I think he made it through it already.

[438] He's played like three times.

[439] Finished it like three times.

[440] Well, there's like five campaigns in there.

[441] It's kind of crazy.

[442] So I'm actually curious.

[443] They throw a lot of shit into those games.

[444] Those are well -made games.

[445] Yeah.

[446] But I think it's different than...

[447] The other two iterations in that series where I think this is a little more RTS and a little less just kind of hero units is what I hear.

[448] I haven't made it that far.

[449] The small squad stuff?

[450] Yeah, a little less of that and a little more like, oh, you'll have resources.

[451] Build an army.

[452] But that's basically it.

[453] Popped into some of that.

[454] Played some of that.

[455] Got pretty much into the first tutorial mission.

[456] Got some sort of gas -powered hammer and then...

[457] Yeah, and then I was like, ah, I should probably be playing Dragon Age 2.

[458] Are there powered hammers in those games?

[459] There's powered, I don't know.

[460] I think it's like a rocket -powered hammer or something fucking crazy.

[461] Yeah, sounds great.

[462] But, you know, you're pretty far away.

[463] Again, dudes explode in there.

[464] But it makes more sense in there when guys explode.

[465] Try a little more Bulletstorm and then call it a day.

[466] Yeah, I haven't managed to finish that either.

[467] I don't know what, I mean, aside from the getting sick part.

[468] Yeah.

[469] I think I would have if GDC and PAX didn't roll out, but it kind of distracted me long enough where I was really feeling it, and then I was like, oh, now time has passed.

[470] I lost your momentum.

[471] I'm really a strong pull.

[472] I'm in a different place, Bulletstorm.

[473] It's just not you.

[474] It's not you.

[475] It's me. It's me. That man who played you doesn't exist anymore.

[476] We've grown apart.

[477] Yeah.

[478] Vinny, tell me about this thermos you're rocking here.

[479] David.

[480] I had a thermos and he said, I pour my coffee in at like 8 .30 and I pop it open at 4 o 'clock in the afternoon.

[481] It's piping hot.

[482] So I said, all right, I'm going to buy it and I'm going to see because it's on at 20 bucks.

[483] Zojirushi.

[484] Zojirushi.

[485] It's got Japanese text on the side of it.

[486] They also make rice cookers.

[487] I have a Zojirushi rice cooker.

[488] It's very good.

[489] I hear good things about the rice cookers.

[490] So yeah, claim not false.

[491] It seems to be.

[492] Are you guys getting paid for this on the side?

[493] What just happened?

[494] No, no, because this thing is awesome.

[495] Dave has one of these too and I'm super.

[496] impressed by this as a...

[497] I use it.

[498] I'm Vinny Caravella from GiantBomb .com.

[499] It's got a little lock on it so you can't throw this gum at you.

[500] So yeah, it actually does work.

[501] Will it keep cold beverages cold?

[502] Yes.

[503] Will it run prices?

[504] I don't know.

[505] Only on high.

[506] Thermos technology has moved with rechargeable battery technology.

[507] So my memories of a thermos are they don't work.

[508] My memories of a thermos is like, this says Duke's a hazard on the side.

[509] Yeah.

[510] I don't know.

[511] My apple juice or whatever is lukewarm by the time I open it.

[512] And same thing with rechargeable batteries where the rechargeable batteries kind of suck.

[513] But apparently rechargeable batteries are good now.

[514] They are pretty amazing.

[515] Really?

[516] Yeah.

[517] I tried to tell you this months ago.

[518] And also thermos technology actually works now.

[519] At least the Japanese have figured it out.

[520] Yeah.

[521] Because, yeah, it's got a slim form factor.

[522] I think it's the seal on the lid because I have so many coffee carriers and things that have a lid, but if I were to turn it upside down.

[523] It still kind of oozes around the seal, right?

[524] Yeah, it would be game over.

[525] So being able to have this end of the day, throw it back in my bag.

[526] Ask for it by name.

[527] No, seriously.

[528] Can I get in on this?

[529] We're being paid in.

[530] Yeah, but you have to start drinking coffee.

[531] Oh, man. We're being paid in rice cookies.

[532] There's only just water in here now.

[533] It keeps the water cold all day.

[534] I know two members of the Wishy Media family have been using them and like them.

[535] I want to get in on this, and I just wanted to.

[536] Do they come in different colors?

[537] They do come in different colors.

[538] I like this one.

[539] Is there a travel size?

[540] There are smaller sizes.

[541] I was just concerned about getting one that would look too much like the others if there's going to be multiple in the.

[542] In the office.

[543] Well, the last thing that is fantastic about this is I get coffee in the morning and then we get up and we have to walk away from our, you know, just a quick look or recording something and then I come back and my coffee is...

[544] All that coffee getting poured right down the drain.

[545] What can I do about it?

[546] It's not.

[547] Seriously.

[548] Seriously.

[549] What are we getting?

[550] I don't even get this for free.

[551] I just sell Dave's.

[552] Nothing.

[553] This is just belief in a product, man. Man. And the product, the money will come to you.

[554] I hate belief in a product.

[555] Let's get paid.

[556] That's it.

[557] All right.

[558] That's all I got to say.

[559] Any other games?

[560] Nothing else?

[561] No. Any other Thermoses?

[562] How was the Adjustment Bureau?

[563] It's all right.

[564] Smartly written.

[565] Matt Damon's good.

[566] Are you familiar with the Dick original?

[567] No. Okay.

[568] But that dude's got to run out of short stories at some point, right?

[569] He's been dead for years.

[570] I don't think there is a finite supply.

[571] So, no. There is a finite supply.

[572] No, no. He wrote...

[573] Phil K. Dick loved amphetamines.

[574] Almost as much as he loved paranoid weirdo sci -fi delusions.

[575] It's almost as if one led to the other.

[576] You could say that, Jeff.

[577] You could say that his appetite for methamphetamines...

[578] fueled much of his writing.

[579] So dude wrote a lot.

[580] Dude would just hole up in a cabin and just, like, write for fucking months.

[581] But I do think some of these movies that are based off of stuff are based off of, like, a three -page short story.

[582] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[583] Totally.

[584] Let's flesh this out.

[585] Let's make this not at all about what it was originally about.

[586] So my Adjustment Bureau review is smart dialogue.

[587] on the whole thing.

[588] But the deliveries and some of the dialogues are, the conversations are pretty funny.

[589] How's, what's it, Emily Blunt?

[590] She's cute.

[591] Yeah.

[592] She's attractive.

[593] Fine actress.

[594] I don't know.

[595] I like the look of her butt.

[596] When she's on screen, the movie gets a little better.

[597] You know what I'm saying.

[598] You know what I'm saying.

[599] That's a weekend.

[600] Jeff Gerstmann.

[601] Hello.

[602] You and Brad Shoemaker are just, got just finished.

[603] Moments ago, lengthy live stream of Crisis 2.

[604] That was like an hour?

[605] That was like an hour and a half.

[606] That was long.

[607] No kidding.

[608] That was not a quick one.

[609] I think an hour, ten minutes.

[610] That's quick.

[611] You guys were in it.

[612] For a while.

[613] Yeah.

[614] And you also just wrote and posted a full review of Crysis 2.

[615] Both of these things are...

[616] You are two for two.

[617] So I'm not sure how much you guys want to talk more about Crysis 2.

[618] Yeah.

[619] Crysis 2 is now available.

[620] In stores now?

[621] It's...

[622] PS3, PC, Xbox 360.

[623] Yeah.

[624] I haven't seen the PS3 version.

[625] Heard some bad things about the demo.

[626] And heard some bad things about the line count and all that stuff.

[627] If you blow it up...

[628] It starts to look a little rough.

[629] Fart noise at line counters.

[630] Yeah, I know.

[631] That game is pretty cool.

[632] The suit stuff does what it's supposed to do, and that's provide you with a unique experience that doesn't feel exactly like every other first -person shooter that has come out over the last few years.

[633] It's not quite as open as maybe the original Crisis.

[634] It definitely feels like they have...

[635] Try to kind of split the difference between, let's say, your Call of Duty, like your kind of corridor, like we're on a rail, let's go, this is the direction.

[636] Guided experience.

[637] And then giving you these open, more crisis -y areas where it's like, okay, there are five guys here, what are you going to do about it?

[638] So kind of trying to split the difference between those two styles?

[639] Yes.

[640] And it sounds like that.

[641] maybe made it a little disjointed at times.

[642] Yeah, definitely.

[643] There are parts where, yeah, it feels like it's jerking back and forth between the two things.

[644] But generally speaking, it does both things relatively well.

[645] And it's just fun to stealth.

[646] It's just fun to turn in mostly invisible and play like the Predator and slip up behind dudes and stab them.

[647] When you play, do you make the Predator noises?

[648] Sometimes.

[649] Sometimes I do, yeah.

[650] I hurt my ankle over the weekend making those noises, in fact.

[651] That's...

[652] Number one cause of ankle injury is the Predator.

[653] I know.

[654] Yeah, and it's entertaining to go through and use the suit to just kind of toy around with guys.

[655] And by the end of that game, you're so much more powerful than most of the enemies you're facing that it's almost silly.

[656] You kind of break the game by the end.

[657] How does it look?

[658] Did it set your 360 ablaze?

[659] It looks fine.

[660] It looks okay.

[661] Oh!

[662] It probably looks better than that.

[663] It melts your mind.

[664] It looks good.

[665] For an Xbox game.

[666] The frame rate is not great in that game.

[667] Is that where we are, Brad?

[668] It's in the over three.

[669] Are we now qualifying 360 stuff as well?

[670] I would say yes.

[671] For an Xbox game, I guess.

[672] Yeah, I think artistically it looks all right.

[673] There's maybe a little too much repetition on the enemy design.

[674] Squids in robot suits.

[675] Squids in robot suits.

[676] They don't look quite as cool as maybe that sounds, but they still look all right.

[677] Yeah, decent lighting.

[678] Like I said, I wish that the frame rate was more stable.

[679] That would make all the difference in the world.

[680] There's also some texture kind of pop in, like level of detail stuff and objects that kind of vanish.

[681] On the 360?

[682] Yeah, yeah.

[683] So we saw a little of the PC version when you booted up for the live stream.

[684] Better frame rate, better lighting.

[685] It looks really nice.

[686] I think trucks on the PC, they slow it down a lot for the console, which makes sense.

[687] Even just like pace of the game?

[688] Well, you know, you're playing with the mouse.

[689] It's like frame rate stuff specifically.

[690] It just looks a lot smoother.

[691] It seems like you're even running faster.

[692] And obviously the turn radius on the mouse is a lot faster.

[693] But it just seemed like everything was whipping around a lot faster when you're on the PC.

[694] And then when you went back to the console, it was like kind of metered a little bit.

[695] I think I might have just been stealthing more when we were playing 360.

[696] It seemed to move on the PC.

[697] Yeah.

[698] A funny thing about that game, when you go to the graphics settings, the only real setting, you can turn on V -Sync and set resolution, but the only real setting is like...

[699] How good do you want it to look?

[700] And the three settings are high, very high, and extreme.

[701] There's no medium.

[702] There's no low.

[703] Instead of going like McDonald's on that, there is no small.

[704] Yeah, exactly.

[705] What do you want?

[706] If your PC is not at least high, don't even bother.

[707] Do you want a medium and large?

[708] I have a king -size PC.

[709] I have a California king, so it's a little bit wider.

[710] I don't know if that's comparable or not.

[711] I think that's a smart move.

[712] There is no low setting.

[713] Well, it is also maybe a little weird that they don't give you total control over every single.

[714] Yeah, I did not see any kind of advanced button in that game, which was maybe a little strange.

[715] I heard other people talking about having to go into console commands.

[716] Yeah, I figured that was probably the case.

[717] Funky setting stuff.

[718] Although I guess not even funky setting, like kind of.

[719] for most PC games.

[720] Basic stuff.

[721] Like anti -aliasing and...

[722] Yeah, yeah.

[723] I mean, the first game was the king of that stuff.

[724] Oh, yeah.

[725] Because I can't remember what the whole scenario was where, like, it only worked in DX10 on certain OS or something.

[726] The first one?

[727] Basically, everybody wanted to run the game.

[728] It was like a big Vista tie -in, wasn't it?

[729] I think that's what it was.

[730] I think it was around the time that Vista came out.

[731] But everybody wanted to run it in DX9.

[732] Oh, right.

[733] But with all the DX10 bells and whistles and you had to do this, like, huge IMI edit to get all that stuff working.

[734] I heard this...

[735] This one doesn't even support 11, nor does it support 10.

[736] It only runs in 9.

[737] That is scuttlebutt.

[738] I forget what the breakdown is there.

[739] I really don't know.

[740] Because they don't surface that stuff, right?

[741] Yeah, that's something that you could probably look at the box requirements or the Steam requirements or whatever and figure it out.

[742] Also, no quick saves.

[743] Yeah, no quick saves.

[744] I shrug my shoulders.

[745] I don't personally care that much either, but there's kind of an expectation on that platform.

[746] Yeah, but a well -designed game doesn't need...

[747] quick saves.

[748] You can design around that.

[749] That's the sort of stuff that you kind of have to...

[750] A lot of people kind of do that where they get in this mode of like, every game must have quick save.

[751] It's like, no. We need to move forward.

[752] Otherwise, you're going to be stuck in the past forever.

[753] You checkpoint it well, then it's fine.

[754] So the problem is they don't necessarily checkpoint it all that well.

[755] Especially if you're playing really slowly and stealthing through a lot of stuff.

[756] You'll spend half an hour...

[757] silently killing all of these guys and then mess up and eat it and be like, oh, great, I'm back here.

[758] That totally sucks.

[759] All right, well, then that's a problem.

[760] Yeah.

[761] But I think the solution to that is, you know, better checkpointing, not necessarily let you save anywhere.

[762] You don't really need it.

[763] I could see more the option of, like, you know, if you have a really kick -ass PC and you're like, this is going to be the game I'm going to show off to my friends and my wife and be like, this is why I spent all that money on my PC.

[764] And you're like, that looks pretty good.

[765] Man, I just need to get under the hood and turn on, I don't even know what options are.

[766] Yeah.

[767] Filtering and bilinear.

[768] Try guiles.

[769] Buffering.

[770] I got to force it at the driver level.

[771] Stupid game doesn't do.

[772] Yeah.

[773] I don't know.

[774] Yeah.

[775] Need more guiles.

[776] Guiles.

[777] Yeah.

[778] There were options in Dragon Age 2, which I like.

[779] Boolean.

[780] Sometimes I just feel like they make shit up.

[781] Needs to tessellate.

[782] Yeah.

[783] Tessellate harder.

[784] These splines need to reticulate way harder.

[785] Just Cause 2 introduced me to the word bokeh, which I had never.

[786] Apparently, that is the stuff that goes out of focus in the depth of field.

[787] Huh.

[788] The stuff that is out of focus is called the bokeh.

[789] That game had some other weird stuff in the options that I was like, what?

[790] Is that a thing?

[791] No. All right.

[792] Sure.

[793] Great.

[794] I live in the bokeh.

[795] Bokeh is Spanish for mouth.

[796] There you go.

[797] True again.

[798] Accurate.

[799] Three for three.

[800] Killing it.

[801] Killing it this week.

[802] Brad, any of your thoughts of watching Crisis 2 for length?

[803] I don't know what he said, I think.

[804] Yeah.

[805] Yeah, he summed it up pretty well.

[806] I mean, I haven't played it really, but the suit powers look fun.

[807] The suit powers also make the multiplayer work.

[808] The multiplayer is very much check it out, this team death match.

[809] Check it out, there are perks.

[810] Check it out, you get attachments for your weapons.

[811] Very much in the Call of Duty style, but...

[812] It's a modern first -person shooter with...

[813] Yes.

[814] With persistent player progression and such.

[815] Yeah.

[816] But the suit is what makes it work.

[817] The suit is what makes it interesting.

[818] And how you use it and how you kind of outfit your stuff accordingly.

[819] And you feel like that stuff, like...

[820] It translates from using against AI to using against live dudes.

[821] Not perfectly.

[822] When you're cloaked, you're not totally invisible.

[823] So it's easier for humans to see you than it is for the AI.

[824] Sure.

[825] But at the same time, if you're not going around checking every single corner, you're going to run into these situations where like, oh, that was the time there was a dude cloaked there, but I didn't pay close enough attention to notice him.

[826] Sure.

[827] Now I'm dead.

[828] So the cloak does work.

[829] The cloak can be effective.

[830] But I almost hate more when they do the thing of like, okay, we have to grossly modify the ability.

[831] Like I'd almost rather them leave the fucking ability the same between the multiplayer and the single player and have it be like, well, okay, you know, AI obviously isn't as smart about this stuff.

[832] Well, the one thing they do really change is how much energy is used by your suit.

[833] In multiplayer versus single player.

[834] I imagine a lot more.

[835] A lot more.

[836] Well, it's different.

[837] It seems like it uses less for running, but when you're cloaked, it just goes down.

[838] That kind of makes sense.

[839] Yeah, you can't stay cloaked for all that long.

[840] Does any of your single player stuff come over?

[841] It's completely independent?

[842] No, totally separate.

[843] But New Game Plus.

[844] Yeah, you find attachments and suit upgrades in the single player, and those stick with you.

[845] That's cool.

[846] If you want to start over and play it on Hardest, Super Soldier, they call it.

[847] You can go in with your good upgrades.

[848] Are there factions or sides or something in multiplayer?

[849] Does everybody have suits?

[850] Everybody has suits.

[851] Okay.

[852] Just the conceit that they make for the multiplayer.

[853] You're all super soldiers.

[854] Yeah.

[855] You all work for Abstergo.

[856] Okay.

[857] You're just training.

[858] Everyone's in their own personal animus.

[859] Right.

[860] And Kristen Bell is there.

[861] Kristen Bell?

[862] Kristen Bell.

[863] Kristen.

[864] Kristen.

[865] Isn't it?

[866] I think it's Kristen.

[867] Sure.

[868] Moving on!

[869] Kirsten Dunst?

[870] Kirstie Alley.

[871] There we go.

[872] Okay.

[873] Nailed it.

[874] Four for four.

[875] Yes.

[876] Brad and Jeff talked to me about the 3DS.

[877] There's a 3DS right here.

[878] Let me grope on it some.

[879] Wait, wait.

[880] What color is that?

[881] What do they call that color?

[882] Continue talking about the 3DS.

[883] There's Cosmo Black and what's the blue called?

[884] Turquoise.

[885] No, it's something blue.

[886] Fabulous blue.

[887] Awesome blue.

[888] Why is the lid so damn shiny?

[889] Is there a protector on it?

[890] Or is that just the way it is?

[891] Okay, now we can have our discussion.

[892] So you're supposed to keep talking over this.

[893] I can't.

[894] You know what?

[895] You're totally right, Jeff.

[896] That speaker is not as loud as previous.

[897] It's not very loud.

[898] Or DS speakers.

[899] I think so, too.

[900] That's cranked all the way?

[901] That's as high as it goes, yeah.

[902] And that's into a microphone.

[903] Yep.

[904] Yeah.

[905] Yeah.

[906] It's got some decent throw to it.

[907] I don't know.

[908] It sounds good.

[909] It's clear.

[910] It's not blowing out.

[911] It's not blowing out.

[912] Yeah.

[913] I can hear these assholes playing at their desk all day.

[914] Plenty loud enough for that.

[915] Let me see.

[916] Tritone DS.

[917] So weird.

[918] 3D does not work through the pop screen very well, you guys.

[919] Weird.

[920] Is it blue?

[921] It pops, it's filtering out.

[922] That kind of works.

[923] Articulating.

[924] So we have two 3DSs in the house.

[925] Yeah.

[926] I'm going to pass to the left here.

[927] What have you guys been playing?

[928] What do you think of the thing so far?

[929] I just cracked that one open yesterday.

[930] I am already what appears to be halfway or two -thirds of the way through Pilotwings Resort.

[931] Unless there's some crazy hidden mode that hasn't opened up yet.

[932] That sounds kind of short.

[933] There's a second Wahoo Island.

[934] Actually, there is.

[935] No, no, it's already been revealed.

[936] It's where the two T -Rexes are.

[937] It's Wedge Island.

[938] I've been there.

[939] And back.

[940] I have seen it.

[941] I went to Wedge Island.

[942] It's real!

[943] I went to Wedge Island, and then I flew a hang glider back to Woohoo Island.

[944] That's the common mode of transport.

[945] Pretty much how you do it.

[946] It's like a rocket pack over there, though.

[947] So, I mean, is it pilot wings?

[948] Pilot wings, dude.

[949] Yeah.

[950] You fly through rings a bunch.

[951] You fly a plane, you fly a rocket pack, and you fly a hang glider through rings.

[952] Is there any parachuting?

[953] You land them.

[954] One mission, the jet pack popped off, and then I had a little flying squirrel suit that I kind of glided through some rings.

[955] Nice.

[956] Let's see.

[957] Some of the missions you take pictures while you're flying around.

[958] Is it all standard control or are you motion controlling any other stuff?

[959] No, nothing.

[960] I get the sense they're maybe going to shy away from a lot of motion controls for stuff like that because it totally breaks the 3D.

[961] I mean, yeah, you kind of have to choose either.

[962] You're going to showcase the 3D or you're going to showcase the motion controls.

[963] Definitely an either -or proposition.

[964] Yeah.

[965] Unless you're playing Steel Diver, in which case you have to stand up and rotate around like a lunatic to do both.

[966] Or Face Raiders.

[967] But I will.

[968] I will accept that for Face Raider.

[969] Face Raiders?

[970] Face Raiders, I think.

[971] Like Star Raiders, but with faces.

[972] You know what?

[973] It's a stupid little gimmick, but Face Raiders might just be enough to get me to get one of these goddamn things.

[974] That's your game of show?

[975] Face Raiders and the AR cards together.

[976] make a real compelling package.

[977] Have you seen the AR stuff?

[978] I watched Jeff mess around with some of the AR stuff.

[979] Those things are amazing.

[980] It's all just sheer proof of concept.

[981] It's cool that that stuff is in there, but after doing it twice, I was like, okay.

[982] I fought a dragon coming out of my stovetop.

[983] Yeah, but then how many times do you want to fight that dragon?

[984] I'll probably never do it again.

[985] I agree with you.

[986] It is a wow factor.

[987] Yeah, it's the thing that I'm like, okay.

[988] I have never seen anything like this before.

[989] They really take it to an extreme.

[990] Having seen a lot of games, it's rare and very nice to have that experience.

[991] Yeah, for sure.

[992] I'm sorry.

[993] I'm mesmerized by this.

[994] I'm going to hand this back to you.

[995] I was in the sound recording booth looking at street pass stuff for sound recording thing, and there was a top ten.

[996] Yeah, you can pass playlists around.

[997] I don't know.

[998] I believe I already have the maximum two -day allotment of play coins.

[999] Really?

[1000] I have over 2 ,000 steps on this DS already.

[1001] That's today, because it resets at midnight.

[1002] Does the number reset?

[1003] I fucking love those kinds of books.

[1004] I had it in sleep when I walked from the bus.

[1005] What is that, like eight blocks or something?

[1006] Did you just shake it?

[1007] Oh, it was just in my bag.

[1008] Can you just shake it?

[1009] Yeah, totally.

[1010] I got the full ten coins yesterday by shaking it.

[1011] How long?

[1012] Probably ten minutes.

[1013] Wow.

[1014] Yeah.

[1015] I feel like, I don't know, this feels to me like the The first modern handheld in a long time.

[1016] It has things like the, I don't know, the persistent UI that you can pop up at any time.

[1017] The friend code stuff that's a lot more pervasive and system -wide.

[1018] But it is still a friend code.

[1019] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1020] It is, but once you get the friend code traded, it acts like an Xbox Live Friends list, which is mind -blowing.

[1021] Does it take long for that stuff to sink or come down?

[1022] Jeff is the only one on the friends list for this.

[1023] No, I've had guys like pop on and off.

[1024] And it's, you're not sitting there like trophy style trying to sink.

[1025] Right.

[1026] No, no, no, no. That's cool.

[1027] That makes it way more useful.

[1028] Yeah.

[1029] You can see it actually shows what they're playing.

[1030] It does presence.

[1031] So it says like they're currently playing this game.

[1032] You're like, oh, wow.

[1033] That's kind of cool.

[1034] Interesting.

[1035] Yeah.

[1036] Spying.

[1037] Granted, that's kind of like a generation old feature.

[1038] Right.

[1039] Yeah.

[1040] But when you compare it to what the DS was and what the PSP was, it's like, okay.

[1041] Cool.

[1042] And they do it well.

[1043] Any other handheld.

[1044] It's like it's no longer a new feature, but they do it elegantly.

[1045] Are there any other handhelds?

[1046] The iPhone.

[1047] Do you count that as a handheld?

[1048] I think everyone involved does.

[1049] I think the forthcoming 3DS port of Angry Birds would probably say so.

[1050] I wonder if that will run better than the PSP one.

[1051] Probably.

[1052] I hope so.

[1053] I'll trade my phone number with you.

[1054] I already have your phone number.

[1055] I can just call you.

[1056] and say, hey, what are you playing?

[1057] Angry Birds.

[1058] And you'll be like, I'm playing Dragon Age 2 on a PC.

[1059] Whoa.

[1060] So it works multi -platform?

[1061] Yeah.

[1062] Dude, that sounds awesome.

[1063] That's right.

[1064] I'm trying to unlock a sword on the iPhone version.

[1065] Phone numbers.

[1066] Check them out.

[1067] Exchange these numbers.

[1068] Phone numbers.

[1069] Phone numbers.

[1070] All right.

[1071] Great.

[1072] Phone A. Telephone A. What are you playing?

[1073] You're playing Street Fighter.

[1074] I've been playing a lot of Street Fighter.

[1075] I started playing Ridge Racer yesterday, and I've played some Steel Diver.

[1076] You were playing Ridge Racer while I was driving in a car yesterday.

[1077] Yeah, it's pretty rough.

[1078] Did you drift?

[1079] I did.

[1080] Did you tap to drift?

[1081] No, there's like the weird one -button drift mode, but you don't have to turn it on.

[1082] Okay.

[1083] So I'm just playing regular Ridge Racer.

[1084] So regular, in fact, that the very first course is the course from Ridge Racer 1.

[1085] Oh, yeah.

[1086] And not in a good nostalgic way.

[1087] No, not at this point.

[1088] Because they dragged those courses out time and time again.

[1089] Yeah, those have been in the last several Ridge Racer games.

[1090] So it's really hard to care about anything that's in that game.

[1091] And menu -wise and UI -wise, I feel like the PSP games did it a little better.

[1092] How have the load times been in Ridge Racer specifically?

[1093] Because I played a pre -release version of that, and granted, not optimized.

[1094] But shit, did that take forever to load?

[1095] Other than like four or five races, I haven't really noticed any problems.

[1096] If you've not noticed it, then it's clearly been addressed because it was minutes.

[1097] That's the first game since we've got these retail units that I have had to turn the 3D down on.

[1098] That's the one that messed me up at that event.

[1099] You haven't played Pilotwings yet, right?

[1100] No, I haven't.

[1101] I don't know what it is about that game, but I can barely play it with any 3D on at all.

[1102] My big question to you guys is going to be, after spending a lot of time with it, have your eyes adjusted?

[1103] Does it seem more natural?

[1104] It hasn't been an issue with Street Fighter at all.

[1105] I can kind of leave it on.

[1106] It's not a big deal.

[1107] And I think it looks cool.

[1108] Yeah, that one seemed fun to me, too.

[1109] Dude, I don't know what it is about pilot wings.

[1110] I tried moving it all the way up.

[1111] And it looked like just two images separating from each other.

[1112] See, that didn't happen to me. With Ridge Racer, it was like the car was sticking out way too far compared to the track.

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] So it was really hard to keep track of everything.

[1115] Like the car, it was hard to look at the car.

[1116] I would lose.

[1117] It would snap for me. And then something would happen.

[1118] And I would lose it.

[1119] And I would be looking at a mess.

[1120] And then I'd fight against my eyes to get it back.

[1121] And then I'd turn real fast.

[1122] And then, yeah, that was a weird one.

[1123] I mean, people have said that.

[1124] But the 2D stuff – terminology is weird for this.

[1125] Stuff that is locked on a 2D plane.

[1126] Like side view or not that is like not a first -person shooter or driving game where you're kind of like going into the screen.

[1127] Right.

[1128] Maybe it works a little bit better for 3D stuff than stuff with depth like Pilotwings or Ridgeway.

[1129] Ridgeway.

[1130] Ridgeway.

[1131] Ridgeway.

[1132] Ridgeway.

[1133] Ridgeway.

[1134] So, yeah, maybe that's just – maybe that's the issue with the 3D.

[1135] Could be.

[1136] I don't know.

[1137] Yeah.

[1138] I was hoping that you guys would be like, oh, no, you totally get used to it.

[1139] Now everything should be 3D.

[1140] It just – it kind of seems like – It should come to my 3D world.

[1141] It almost seems like every game has its own sweet spot to me. With the slider?

[1142] Like Pilotwings just basically – so you can tell it's actually changing rendering modes when you slide it all the way down because there's like a little blip.

[1143] Like it flickers and then it kind of comes back in 2D.

[1144] So if you basically, if I push it just past that to where like it pops in 3D.

[1145] There's a notch on it?

[1146] Does it feel like it?

[1147] No, no, it's just when you push it all the way down, it's in 2D.

[1148] So like just past that point for piling, it's just like the tiniest little bit of depth is like the right place for that game for me. But then...

[1149] I think Street Fighter had it all the way up, and it was fine.

[1150] I didn't notice any problem at all.

[1151] With Ridge Racer, I got it about halfway up, and that was like, okay, I can actually keep track of the car.

[1152] I played that game a few weeks ago.

[1153] It was kind of around halfway.

[1154] Do you think it's a distance -to -screen thing?

[1155] I've heard that's a factor.

[1156] You can adjust it as you move it closer or further away.

[1157] Will or somebody was saying that people with correctional lenses, if you wear glasses or contacts, you have more of an issue with it somehow.

[1158] I don't know.

[1159] I don't know.

[1160] I do not wear those things.

[1161] How does it play aside from the 3D and on the first stage being recycled?

[1162] Is it good?

[1163] Oh, Ridge Racer?

[1164] Yeah, it plays like Ridge Racer.

[1165] There are nitrous boosts.

[1166] You can do an ultimate charge.

[1167] And there are muscle cars.

[1168] You unlock more cars as you play.

[1169] It's totally a Ridge Racer game.

[1170] It's not really...

[1171] The frame rate seems pretty solid.

[1172] Yeah, it's fine.

[1173] It's not like...

[1174] The frame rate could be better.

[1175] The frame rate is definitely smooth for what it is, but it could be a higher frame rate overall.

[1176] Have you guys noticed any 2D, 3D frame rate halving?

[1177] Nothing like that 30 -60 split in Street Fighter.

[1178] Did you notice that when you were playing at all?

[1179] It doesn't seem like that.

[1180] It doesn't bother me. It's not that big of a deal.

[1181] You notice it, but it's not unplayable or something.

[1182] But is it like a full half split?

[1183] Is it actually like 30 -60?

[1184] I don't even know if it's that pronounced.

[1185] I don't know.

[1186] It's really hard to tell.

[1187] If you look at it long enough, you're like, okay, yeah, the frame rate does seem different here.

[1188] It definitely looks a little smoother.

[1189] I wonder if the reports of that were kind of exaggerated coming out of that event a while back.

[1190] Hard to say.

[1191] If you think about the basic, you are literally having to render the screen twice.

[1192] It makes sense.

[1193] Simple logic.

[1194] I don't know how computer chips work.

[1195] Neither do I. Don't look at me. Brad, how do computer chips work?

[1196] Transistor.

[1197] Hell of ones and zeros.

[1198] Electrons.

[1199] Nanometers.

[1200] Talk to electrons.

[1201] They'll help you out.

[1202] Get electron on the phone.

[1203] Just loose electrons.

[1204] Yes.

[1205] Free electrons.

[1206] Free radicals.

[1207] Free electrons.

[1208] I love those guys.

[1209] The 90s.

[1210] See you guys at Bonnaroo.

[1211] Something comes out this weekend, right?

[1212] It does.

[1213] This Sunday.

[1214] It's out.

[1215] Really?

[1216] Yeah.

[1217] Get your street pass ready.

[1218] There you go.

[1219] Yeah, for all the people I'm going to meet.

[1220] I'm like, come on.

[1221] We can go hang out at the GameStop.

[1222] Hey.

[1223] It's going to pull up next to people and peek into their car and see if you're...

[1224] I'm just going to hang out in the parking lot with a trench coat on with my street pass all set up.

[1225] And a shotgun.

[1226] Yeah, and a shotgun.

[1227] So much new stuff to learn about this thing.

[1228] What is street pass?

[1229] What is spot pass?

[1230] What are play coins?

[1231] Right.

[1232] How does the backwards compatibility work?

[1233] You mess with that stuff a little bit.

[1234] Let's talk about backwards compatibility, Bradley.

[1235] I put in the new Professor Layden, and by new, I mean the newest U .S. release.

[1236] The time -traveling one.

[1237] There's a full -on 3DS Layden out in Japan now.

[1238] God damn it.

[1239] I know.

[1240] I know.

[1241] So what's going to happen?

[1242] What is that out here?

[1243] Do we have to wait through the next two DS?

[1244] Layton's before they get the 3DS Layton?

[1245] Or do they get to, like, mash them retroactively?

[1246] You think they'll just jump ahead to the 3DS one?

[1247] I sure hope so.

[1248] That would have been a great thing to launch with.

[1249] I sure hope so.

[1250] You know what?

[1251] Your launch lineup's kind of crappy.

[1252] That would have been a good game.

[1253] A new Professor Layton game would not have saved, like, for me it would have.

[1254] You would have been able to say, like, okay, here's one game.

[1255] But you know what?

[1256] Yeah, I would have been able to say, here is one game I want to play for this thing instead of zero.

[1257] I will say the volume of games they're launching with is pretty solid, all things considered.

[1258] It's like 16 or something.

[1259] The number is fine.

[1260] When you run out of that list, it's like, The Sims 3.

[1261] It seems crazy that Pilotwings is sort of the marquee Nintendo title on this list.

[1262] Yeah, Nintendo not representing me as much as some would have liked.

[1263] Like if they had just gotten Icarus and or Ocarina out, I think everything would have been fine.

[1264] It's pretty funny.

[1265] They put out a press release yesterday just kind of alerting people to upcoming midnight launch opportunities for the 3DS.

[1266] And they mention, I believe they mention every single one of the day one games.

[1267] And then they also say, we also have upcoming games from Nintendo.

[1268] And the list is Super Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and Paper Mario.

[1269] And just for three out of the four things for them to mention as upcoming games that don't necessarily have titles or whatever yet, to have Mario in them, it really took the wind out of my sails about this whole platform.

[1270] It's not that I don't like Mario, but Jesus.

[1271] Really?

[1272] That's where you're going with it?

[1273] Launch quarter.

[1274] And even the stuff that they're saying of their upcoming games, like Star Fox 64 3D.

[1275] A, that's a horrible name.

[1276] And I'm not a big enough Star Fox 64.

[1277] They're getting into nostalgia for the N64, which at that point, it's like, no thanks.

[1278] If you want N64 nostalgia, it is Ocarina of Time, and it's Super Mario 64.

[1279] Like in terms of just like big...

[1280] Hey, one of those is coming.

[1281] Yeah.

[1282] And one of them already came to the regular DS.

[1283] So...

[1284] You're done?

[1285] Yeah.

[1286] Seven years ago.

[1287] Yeah, exactly.

[1288] And it'll come back again.

[1289] In 3D?

[1290] They're going to be like, oh man, what if they do that?

[1291] Bringing out Hybrid Heaven.

[1292] What?

[1293] I bet they will do that.

[1294] Blast Corps.

[1295] Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

[1296] No, they're just going to get into like...

[1297] When's that E -Star open up?

[1298] May. End of May. Countdown starts.

[1299] E -Shop.

[1300] Yeah.

[1301] E -Shop.

[1302] E -Shop.

[1303] Get it right.

[1304] If you need us, we'll be at the e -store.

[1305] We'll be at the e -bodiga.

[1306] Meanwhile, you could be cramming your old DS carts in there.

[1307] Tell me. So, yeah.

[1308] We looped around on that.

[1309] Tell me about cramming DS games in there.

[1310] Oh, man. Let me tell you.

[1311] Cram some carts in that thing.

[1312] Shove it on in there.

[1313] I put in Layton and Phantom Hourglass, the Zelda.

[1314] So, I'm just going to open this.

[1315] give you guys visual reference here so the screens if you put this thing next to a dsi last night and i was like wait a minute these screens are smaller like physically these screens are smaller than both of the screens not even an xl a straight up regular dsi these screens are smaller so the top screen is smaller and by well it's wider okay but not it's maybe about as tall or not quite as tall but the lower screen screen straight up smaller okay noticeably smaller um But, you know, the tradeoff is that the pixel density is very high on these things.

[1316] It's much higher resolution.

[1317] Okay.

[1318] So, anyway, the point is when you play DS games on these screens, you are stretching a much smaller number of pixels across a much higher resolution screen.

[1319] like the filtering they use or whatever it is to make that stretch happen does not look super great.

[1320] So is it kind of blurry?

[1321] What would you rather have, like jaggy edges or blurry?

[1322] I don't know.

[1323] I kind of wish they gave you the option.

[1324] I always take jaggy edges.

[1325] Yeah, I usually do.

[1326] I mean, you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't, right?

[1327] Yeah, I mean, it's not going to look great either way.

[1328] It's a sacrifice when you have to re -res like that.

[1329] It seems like the 2D elements, like so all of Layton because it's a 2D game.

[1330] Top to bottom.

[1331] But even something like Zelda with 2D menu elements like the hearts and all the little heads up stuff.

[1332] Yeah, yeah.

[1333] Somebody get your phone away from me. Oh, that's perfect.

[1334] Is that my phone?

[1335] Yeah.

[1336] Sorry.

[1337] 2D stuff does not look good stretched like that at all.

[1338] The 3D stuff seems...

[1339] Damn it.

[1340] It's not my phone.

[1341] Is it your iPad?

[1342] It might actually be the DS.

[1343] Or yes, your iPad sitting on the mixer.

[1344] No, it's probably the DS.

[1345] It's the DS.

[1346] Anyway, that stuff could look better.

[1347] The 3D stuff looks a little better when it's stretched than the 2D.

[1348] Does the 3D light go off?

[1349] I don't know if it actually goes off.

[1350] It doesn't do anything.

[1351] It goes off when the intro to Street Fighter is playing and it's only in 2D.

[1352] The 3D light does not show.

[1353] That's kind of funny.

[1354] That light's only there to say, hey, there's 3D here if you want to see it.

[1355] Never forget, the light is on.

[1356] With the backwards compatibility, you can actually hold select when you boot the DS game and it'll run it one -to -one.

[1357] on the screen like it won't do any stretching but at that point you are using you're you're using about this much i know this plays well on the podcast a third of the screen or something probably yeah probably about a third to a half like maybe a resolution is higher right okay does it center it uh like it kind of centers it to the unit like so it would be coming out of the bottom of that screen and the top of that screen so it centers it to the hinge basically basically yeah uh which is crazy because it looks insanely sharp at that size But it's also like postage stamp size at that point.

[1358] It's like smaller than the original DS.

[1359] Oh, totally.

[1360] Yeah.

[1361] How'd you find that out?

[1362] I just read about it online somewhere.

[1363] So I tried it.

[1364] And like I said, it looks great.

[1365] But like trying to actually move a stylus around that size, that amount of real estate is not easy.

[1366] Interesting.

[1367] So I'm going to hang on to my DSi for DSi games or DS games.

[1368] Interesting.

[1369] Have they mentioned anything with transferring over purchases?

[1370] Yes.

[1371] That's all in May, right?

[1372] That's all in the May update.

[1373] Okay.

[1374] Yeah, so now I'm really worried because all this great DSiWare software, when you transfer it over, am I going to have to run it?

[1375] you know, stretched out.

[1376] Oh, crazy.

[1377] Is it going to, like, brick your old DS?

[1378] Right.

[1379] Like, is that stuff even still going to be able to play on there?

[1380] Like, can you have it in both places at once?

[1381] I bet not.

[1382] I bet you have to move it.

[1383] Yeah.

[1384] Do you think there'll be a hardware solution, or do you think it'll be, like, something online?

[1385] And will it move over, like, save data for some of this downloadable stuff?

[1386] I'm deep into a Cave Story game on the DSi right now.

[1387] I mean, I'll have all my notes, and I want to make sure that all this stuff moves over.

[1388] We just have to transcribe them into the new built -in.

[1389] That's right.

[1390] Suspend your program and take some notes.

[1391] What do you do with that?

[1392] What do you do with the notes?

[1393] Well, so you can actually, like, I believe you can scribble over a screenshot of the game you're currently playing.

[1394] So if you hit the home button in the middle of, like, oh, God, I've got to draw a map here to get through this area, you can kind of annotate it.

[1395] That seems more useful.

[1396] You can export it to, like, your camera roll and get it off the SD card that way.

[1397] Is it in 3D?

[1398] No, but if you – it probably actually is.

[1399] So when you take – so I took a note.

[1400] I went into the note -taking program, scribbled a bunch of crap, and then exported it to the camera.

[1401] And then you can do graffiti over images that are just over photos or whatever like that.

[1402] When you do that, what you're drawing is a layer above the actual image.

[1403] So it's 3D that way.

[1404] It's kind of crazy looking but kind of cool at the same time.

[1405] I think Brad's taking a 3D picture.

[1406] Yeah.

[1407] I think 3D pictures look a little weird.

[1408] Have you tried putting your thumb over one of the things when you do a 3D picture?

[1409] Try it right now.

[1410] What is that?

[1411] How does my 3D look?

[1412] That would be insidious.

[1413] My stretched out arm.

[1414] It's opening the camera application now.

[1415] Giving you maximum.

[1416] Looks like that notorious B .I .G. album cover but converted into flash where the hand moves back and forth.

[1417] Did you ever see that?

[1418] No. It did that.

[1419] I forget what it was.

[1420] It was the official site for it.

[1421] Oh, man. Something stupid like that.

[1422] It's like your hand is coming out of the screen.

[1423] It's ridiculous.

[1424] Oh, I'm coming at you.

[1425] Wait, hold on.

[1426] I've got to set it up here.

[1427] Put it near the microphone.

[1428] So people can hear it.

[1429] People can hear it, yeah.

[1430] Yeah, that's totally...

[1431] That checks out.

[1432] That's in three dimensions, guys.

[1433] Take a picture and cover one of the cameras.

[1434] I'm thinking it'll just have like 50 % opacity on it.

[1435] Darker?

[1436] Yep.

[1437] Oh, God.

[1438] Does it know?

[1439] Breaking my head.

[1440] It's just showing you like half the picture?

[1441] You can actually see enough of my skin tone that it's just like covering the screen.

[1442] It's like you're getting it in one eye.

[1443] You know what I mean?

[1444] I can't do that.

[1445] I don't know much about getting in one eye.

[1446] We should move on.

[1447] Jeff, you play anything else you want to talk about here?

[1448] I have a brand new personal computer.

[1449] Yeah, you went to the test dudes and said, help me build an awesome new computer.

[1450] That's not quite how.

[1451] Yeah, sure.

[1452] Absolutely.

[1453] Yes.

[1454] What happened then?

[1455] You tell the story.

[1456] That was what I thought.

[1457] Yeah, no, I said, I'm thinking about getting a new PC soon.

[1458] And they said, well, we're just about due to build one on the Internet.

[1459] We should do that.

[1460] And I said, yeah, okay.

[1461] Just tell me what to buy and I'll buy it.

[1462] So Will gave me a list.

[1463] I went down the list and bought it all.

[1464] And then they built it.

[1465] And then I brought it home.

[1466] And then it started crashing.

[1467] Whoa.

[1468] Now it doesn't work.

[1469] Ouch.

[1470] There's some chipset stuff that I had to install, so I installed all that.

[1471] I think right now maybe one of the hard drives I put in might be Cosmic.

[1472] So I have, like, MP3s and video on the D drive.

[1473] And it seems like most of my recent lockups have been when I've been accessing stuff on that drive.

[1474] What power supply you got in that thing?

[1475] 850 watts.

[1476] What kind?

[1477] I don't know.

[1478] I forget.

[1479] Corsair.

[1480] Corsair.

[1481] Corsair is pretty good.

[1482] Could be that three -slot video card.

[1483] What a monster, huh?

[1484] The thing is big.

[1485] Like I said, yeah, I went down the list and just bought exactly what they said, and they built it, and that was that.

[1486] So it's kind of like I don't really remember.

[1487] What a lot of that stuff was.

[1488] Computer parts.

[1489] Computer parts.

[1490] Which you can see untested.

[1491] Yeah, the whole video is up there.

[1492] We put it up.

[1493] The internet knows more about your computer than you do.

[1494] So I had to iron some stuff out.

[1495] But it seems to be running mostly fine.

[1496] Black Ops crashes every time I run it.

[1497] And I don't know if that's just Black Ops or what.

[1498] That's intended performance.

[1499] Yeah, it seems like it would be.

[1500] But dude, Need for Speed Hopper suit.

[1501] It runs pretty well?

[1502] It already looked pretty good before, but...

[1503] Hey, how does Trackmania run?

[1504] I saw you playing some of that.

[1505] Trackmania runs great.

[1506] Trackmania runs fantastic.

[1507] Good to know.

[1508] I've got it running in Ultra.

[1509] I had run in Ultra before, but it's Ultra.

[1510] Now it means it.

[1511] Now it means it.

[1512] Wow.

[1513] Yeah, so I'm interested to see how Crysis 2 runs on it.

[1514] Because all other things being equal, that seems like the version to play.

[1515] Yeah, I think so.

[1516] And even if you're super gamepad -y about your shooters, I mean, Crysis 1 had gamepad support, so you could totally play it that way if you want.

[1517] The game feels really tuned for a gamepad in terms of enemy placement, and there's nothing so intense or sniper -y about that game that you're going to...

[1518] So this is going to be your Battlefield 3 rig?

[1519] Yeah, by default.

[1520] Yes, it's my everything.

[1521] It's your computer.

[1522] It's my computer.

[1523] So, yeah.

[1524] What's the fate of the old computer?

[1525] It still totally runs.

[1526] I'm still kind of moving stuff off of it.

[1527] I don't know.

[1528] I don't know.

[1529] I now have three totally functioning desktop PCs in my house.

[1530] Yeah.

[1531] One's running a kind of messed up Ubuntu install that I need to fix.

[1532] You can run SETI on that thing.

[1533] Yeah, I got this other thing, one that's running Windows 7.

[1534] Home server.

[1535] But folding it home on it.

[1536] Yeah, I could do home server, but it's not the right wattage for that.

[1537] Though I had been leaving it on all the time anyway, so maybe it's not that big of a deal.

[1538] This new machine, a lot quieter.

[1539] The case is really nice.

[1540] It's a fractal design case.

[1541] Pretty cool.

[1542] Gosh, what else?

[1543] Yeah, Hot Pursuit looks really nice.

[1544] I played some Homefront.

[1545] That game's not good.

[1546] How far did you get into it?

[1547] I played about an hour, so probably about a quarter of the way through.

[1548] Right.

[1549] Yeah.

[1550] The voice acting seemed completely terrible.

[1551] It's like I'm playing with everything turned all the way up.

[1552] I thought it looked like crap.

[1553] Yeah.

[1554] Just textures and all the stuff.

[1555] Just geometry just looked real low rent.

[1556] Huh.

[1557] Real low rent.

[1558] Download that high -res texture pack?

[1559] I did not.

[1560] Just kidding.

[1561] I don't think there is one.

[1562] People who go looking for it.

[1563] And messed around with the multiplayer a little bit.

[1564] I didn't really much care for the way it was structured either.

[1565] Homefront seems like a bad game to me from what I played of it.

[1566] Did not care for it at all on the PC.

[1567] What else?

[1568] Yeah, that's...

[1569] Pressure Maker.

[1570] Trackmania is pretty awesome.

[1571] What was the game when you booted up your PC that you're like, I want to go see what this looks like?

[1572] Was that Need for Speed?

[1573] I didn't have one.

[1574] I got it all running and just went, oh, what do I do now?

[1575] I installed Steam and started looking down the list of everything I had.

[1576] I just went like, man, I don't really care.

[1577] And I went, okay, I'll see how Hot Pursuit plays.

[1578] And then I was like, okay, well, I guess I need to install Half -Life 2.

[1579] And all this other source engine stuff for Gary's mod eventually anyway.

[1580] So we get some of that stuff.

[1581] But that doesn't look – Right.

[1582] It's like locked at something.

[1583] I wonder if Crysis has a computer been built now in this day and age that can run Crysis on ultra high or whatever.

[1584] Yeah, definitely.

[1585] Fantastic.

[1586] Mine runs it quite well.

[1587] That was the – when that game came out, they're like, there's not even a computer alive today that can run this.

[1588] They were right.

[1589] They were right.

[1590] I think they were right.

[1591] But then who knew two years from now nobody would be playing Crysis anymore?

[1592] I could have told that.

[1593] I really don't like Crysis.

[1594] I did not like the first Crysis at all.

[1595] What you have said about Crysis 2 intrigues me a lot more than the first Crysis did because I always felt like the Crytek games were crazy tech demos first.

[1596] Same deal.

[1597] Didn't like Far Cry.

[1598] And games like Far, Far Second.

[1599] I don't know.

[1600] I think that's selling it short.

[1601] It was just not a very focused game.

[1602] It was super open -ended, like not very well directed.

[1603] Right, right.

[1604] And then also like every bit of like any shred of coverage of their games, like all they would talk about was the tech.

[1605] Yeah, maybe they were selling themselves short.

[1606] But like it seems like they've made more of a game this time around.

[1607] I just didn't really enjoy the sandbox stuff from that first game.

[1608] So it's like a lot of people were like, dude, I threw this guy in the air.

[1609] And I kind of did that once and went like.

[1610] Yeah, you can totally do that.

[1611] And didn't want to spend hours doing it.

[1612] I thought Crisis Warhead was a better campaign because it was a little more focused than the first crisis.

[1613] But you're right, Brad.

[1614] It's the lack of focus that I didn't care for.

[1615] They never really encouraged you to go any one way.

[1616] It was just sort of like, here's a giant circular area.

[1617] So I just felt super lost.

[1618] Yeah, I know what you mean.

[1619] I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing.

[1620] I'm not sure if...

[1621] Me walking into this village and then everyone shooting at me is what's supposed to happen.

[1622] So that was my problem with the previous Crytek game.

[1623] So a little more direction and maybe a little narrower path sounds appealing to me. Might be for the better.

[1624] Crisis 2.

[1625] Brad Shoemaker.

[1626] What's up with Starcraft?

[1627] What's cracking?

[1628] Oh, man. I watched a lot of it.

[1629] What's the latest?

[1630] We just had the...

[1631] Finals.

[1632] There's too much of it.

[1633] There's too fucking much StarCraft on.

[1634] What?

[1635] Right now.

[1636] What?

[1637] Dude.

[1638] You're saying it's become Texas Hold 'em?

[1639] Yes.

[1640] Holy shit.

[1641] Where like there was the one good one and then everyone else decided they wanted to get into poker and then there were like nine poker shows on TV.

[1642] Kinda, yeah.

[1643] All of them were kinda.

[1644] Your TiVo's full of poker.

[1645] And you got to that point where each one of the shows had kind of pros that were on that show.

[1646] So you always just saw it.

[1647] It's like, oh, Daniel Negreanu's over here.

[1648] On this one.

[1649] But it's like, you don't want to see that.

[1650] You want to go back to the world poker.

[1651] tour where it actually the announcers are pretty good and it has all the dudes on it and you're like yeah Is that exactly what StarCraft 2 has become?

[1652] You're just pulling my leg now, right?

[1653] No, that's exactly how it's starting to feel.

[1654] Does that mean we're going to get Xbox Live games of weird StarCraft tournament knockoff things where you're kind of like, it's not really StarCraft, but you're playing as a dude who's playing at a computer?

[1655] No, no, I want fucking StarCraft League Tycoon.

[1656] I want to have the strategy tycoon game where I'm trying to run my own gaming league.

[1657] So that's what GSL has morphed into, and it is amazing.

[1658] They started this.

[1659] up called team league where so like all these guys are have always been on team that's a great name i know team league um i mean from the beginning these guys like you know the house we went over there uh to yes like that is a team you know they have a manager they have a guy who like he they have a house they have a house but i mean they have like corporate sponsorships you know they're the ones that get like bink and uh i don't know really bink Yeah.

[1660] It's like sponsored by rad game tools.

[1661] Totally.

[1662] Totally.

[1663] You guys, I mean, have you seen what they wear?

[1664] I haven't.

[1665] They wear jumpsuits that look like NASCAR drivers with like logos.

[1666] That's sort of what poker became.

[1667] You know, you ended up with like every, you know, even the guy that wore the cowboy hat to the table, eventually that cowboy hat had a fucking full tilt poker dot net logo on it.

[1668] Totally see this going that way.

[1669] And really like professional gaming.

[1670] Everyone that's tried to get it on television, everyone that's tried to make it a big thing, their pitch is always like, this is going to be the next poker.

[1671] So all of them, you get the impression that they're all focused on trying to make it exactly like that, which is messed up because poker got bad fast.

[1672] Yeah.

[1673] This is getting better in a lot of ways.

[1674] So basically the team league, I mean, these guys were always on teams, but in the past it was every man for himself.

[1675] you would have a guy on a team eliminating somebody else from his team.

[1676] Kind of like the Olympics.

[1677] Yeah, totally, totally.

[1678] I mean, there's only one grand prize, and only one guy's going to win it.

[1679] And if the team wins it, it's good for the whole team, so whatever.

[1680] Anyway, the whole point of this team league thing now is that basically it's two teams against each other, and the coaches each pick a player to put up for the first slot.

[1681] And, like, they go at it, and whoever wins, it's like, all right, now let me see who I got left to take on this guy who I know plays Terran and does this stuff.

[1682] Do they have to, like, set lineups?

[1683] Yeah, so is it just, like, is it Tekken team battle?

[1684] It's, like, pick four dudes in a row?

[1685] No, no, no, because every time one of their guys loses, they get to pick on the spot who goes after that.

[1686] Based on the strengths of the guy they're going up against.

[1687] There's all this strategy and drama.

[1688] It would be way more interesting if they had to set that stuff in advance because then it's like your baseball bench.

[1689] You've got to have your rotation in just to factor in for possible scenarios.

[1690] They definitely do that.

[1691] They just do it on the fly.

[1692] Like MVP, who is considered, big surprise, the best player in the world probably at the moment.

[1693] He's a pretty good wrestler too.

[1694] Not anymore.

[1695] He was definitely the closer on his team.

[1696] They saved him for the end.

[1697] So then he got beaten.

[1698] Upset.

[1699] All these upsets.

[1700] So you don't understand the level of drama that is going on between these teams right now.

[1701] But it's like the metagame of Starcraft.

[1702] It's amazing.

[1703] It is a meta -metagame at this point.

[1704] They're playing a metagame between the different players and the factions that they play in the game.

[1705] And then there's another layer of strategy on top of that now.

[1706] So when did they do that between leagues?

[1707] We'll have a league versus league team.

[1708] I'm not ready for five layers of abstraction yet in the competition.

[1709] So GSL is still the game to beat?

[1710] Absolutely, yeah.

[1711] So the end of the last team league, just a little anecdote.

[1712] There was an instance in one of the games where a guy went for a crazy gambit and it looked like it was going to work.

[1713] And I didn't even know you could do this in this game, but the most basic type of unit on each side, like the zergling, for instance, there's some way to make it dance.

[1714] Like literally there isn't, you see this?

[1715] Slash dance totally works.

[1716] I didn't even know.

[1717] I didn't, I didn't have any idea how to, you know.

[1718] Yeah.

[1719] So basically this guy went for his gambit.

[1720] It worked like he was totally going to cinch the win.

[1721] He fucking made his guys dance instead of attack when he shouldn't have.

[1722] And it blew the match.

[1723] Nice.

[1724] And he lost.

[1725] And he lost.

[1726] Hubris, huh?

[1727] Yeah.

[1728] It was just like such arrogance.

[1729] And, like, the players from the other team physically approached the booth of the other team after that match and were, like, replicating the dance in real life.

[1730] Just so much shit talking going on.

[1731] Like, back and forth, match after match, they kept beating each other.

[1732] They cleared the benches.

[1733] It was, yeah.

[1734] The brawl broke out.

[1735] They're on the pitcher's mound.

[1736] They're like mortal enemies now, basically.

[1737] Like, it's so much drama.

[1738] It's ridiculous.

[1739] Great.

[1740] It's awesome.

[1741] That's how you get people with eyeballs on the screen.

[1742] Anyway, there's too much StarCraft now, actually, to watch.

[1743] and this is coming from somebody who was too sick to do anything but watch StarCraft for the last, like, five days, and I'd still overdosed on it, and there's still too much.

[1744] Are there other leagues that do the subscription -type stuff as GSL?

[1745] GSL's the only one really commanding the rates at the moment that they are.

[1746] It's, you know, it's anywhere from, like, five to, so it's five bucks for a team league season, which is, like, a week long, to, like, 15 to 20 for the month -long.

[1747] And they've still mostly got the boss players.

[1748] Absolutely.

[1749] Without a doubt.

[1750] MLG has some pretty good players.

[1751] Some of the foreigners in Korea have just left Korea to come back over here for some of that stuff.

[1752] There's the new North American Star League starting up, which has not really gotten off the ground yet.

[1753] Was that the thing with this secret countdown thing?

[1754] Yeah, yes.

[1755] Many questions still surround that.

[1756] I have not been clarified yet.

[1757] There's a ton of stuff going on in Europe right now.

[1758] Team Liquid is running their Invitational, which is actually sponsored by, I think it's PokerStrategy .com.

[1759] Are you familiar with that site?

[1760] No, but I think that's the site.

[1761] It's something to that effect.

[1762] But the logo is literally, it's like PokerStrategy .com's Team Liquid Open 3 or whatever, or TSL 3.

[1763] I don't know how poker is actually getting involved in competitive Starcraft.

[1764] Eventually all this stuff gets run by crime, doesn't it?

[1765] Hopefully.

[1766] Hopefully that's where it's going.

[1767] They've been running it in Korea for a while now.

[1768] There was that.

[1769] Oh, yeah.

[1770] Fixing game.

[1771] Fixing game.

[1772] Fixing game.

[1773] Yeah, maxing game happening.

[1774] That scandal, yeah.

[1775] So what happens when the next, I guess, expansion for Starcraft 2 comes out?

[1776] Does everybody have to adopt it?

[1777] Does it change the multiplayer stuff?

[1778] I mean, you know, there's.

[1779] Does it splinter into different...

[1780] Or do they patch the multiplayer for everyone and everyone gets the same multiplayer?

[1781] No, they'll never do that because...

[1782] They have to leave the existing game as is.

[1783] So do you think they start splintering into different leagues that we play version this, we play version this, or we just all move on to something else?

[1784] I mean, you think that the multiplayer is actually going to be different from...

[1785] Oh, yeah.

[1786] to the next game.

[1787] My layman's perception of how StarCraft went was that as soon as Brood War took off and everybody was playing that, nobody played old StarCraft anymore.

[1788] And I...

[1789] think warcraft 3 may have been the same way that's the most modern example but people still play brood war in the despite starcraft 2 absolutely but that's a different game like that is a that is a sublimely balanced you know that's a refined yeah that's a refined game with a decade of history and and metagame evolution behind you're proposing that everybody just moves on to the next iteration i would i would assume that there would only be one active version of a given game at any being competitive right right like i would i would think all these leagues would move on to like heart of the swarm or whatever and you think You think Battle .net, and this is purely speculation, you think Battle .net will start segregating games, or you think if you just won't see...

[1790] They would have to say the other option would be to give everyone the upgrade stuff for free.

[1791] Assuming there will be new units on each side, as there always are with these Blizzard games.

[1792] If I'm up to date, I can pick to play...

[1793] Yeah, that's exactly how Warcraft 3 was.

[1794] It was, do you want to play Reign of Chaos?

[1795] Do you want to play Frozen Threat?

[1796] I think with Brood War, you could play Reign of Chaos.

[1797] They can't tell people all of a sudden you can't...

[1798] play the game that you paid for.

[1799] Even if you're not buying the new one.

[1800] But what effect do you think that's going to have on the pro leagues?

[1801] Do you think everyone's going to immediately upgrade to...

[1802] I bet there's going to be a curve, right?

[1803] I bet there'll be a couple of seasons that are run on the old version while everyone is playing the new version to figure out how the strategies change.

[1804] It's very possible, but Blizzard has been so...

[1805] closely involved in these leagues, especially the GSL, that I could see there being a pretty quick changeover.

[1806] Most of these players will probably get in on betas and all that stuff anyway.

[1807] Absolutely.

[1808] They'll be giving feedback all along.

[1809] Crazy.

[1810] Dude.

[1811] Man, Blizzard must have enough data by now, right, if they're watching all these matches and getting feedback to tune the hell out of their next...

[1812] I guess, but I don't think...

[1813] They're not balancing the game just for those people at the ultra, ultra high end.

[1814] No, no, but they collect data on matches anyway, don't they?

[1815] I think they pull data from...

[1816] Every match that ever gets played.

[1817] I don't know.

[1818] Infinite data.

[1819] I've hit a wall in that game.

[1820] I think I'm done.

[1821] I'll believe it when I see it.

[1822] I don't know.

[1823] Let me know when Dota 2 comes out.

[1824] I'm going to switch to that.

[1825] I'm probably above average micro, but awful macro in that game.

[1826] So I'm thinking maybe I should just be playing a game that's all micro.

[1827] Which is what those games are.

[1828] So now you're just going to become purely a StarCraft.

[1829] Spectator.

[1830] Spectator.

[1831] Yeah.

[1832] I'm kind of thinking it might be going that way.

[1833] Join my team league association.

[1834] We should get a fantasy league going.

[1835] Is anyone doing a StarCraft fantasy league?

[1836] Has anyone set that up yet?

[1837] I will totally join your StarCraft fantasy league.

[1838] But only if it's team league.

[1839] All right.

[1840] That's all I want to play.

[1841] We were talking about doing a baseball fantasy league, but I guess that guy shot down in the office.

[1842] I thought they did do that.

[1843] They're doing like March Madness.

[1844] They did the March Madness thing, but yeah, Tatum had pitched out the idea of doing a – That's very funny.

[1845] Thank you.

[1846] That is good stuff.

[1847] I thought it was – I was pretty happy with how that worked out.

[1848] There are big laughs in the room.

[1849] As long as the comics in the back are laughing, that's all I'm playing for, let me tell you.

[1850] Yeah, no, I guess it goes on for too long and there's a billion teams.

[1851] And so it's apparently of the types of fantasy leagues you can do, baseball is, I guess, the most grueling.

[1852] Most involved.

[1853] Yeah, the most involved.

[1854] They play a lot of games in a baseball season.

[1855] They do.

[1856] 162.

[1857] That's a lot of games.

[1858] Yeah.

[1859] Got to do something all summer.

[1860] Fucking A. It's called sit on a couch, get drunk, watch baseball.

[1861] March 31st, start of summer.

[1862] Is that opening day?

[1863] That's opening day.

[1864] Wow, that was quick.

[1865] Yeah, our buddy Mike just got back from watching the A's in spring training down in Zona.

[1866] Oh, is that where he was?

[1867] Yeah, he took the family down.

[1868] Lunatic.

[1869] His fucking Raleigh Fingers mustache.

[1870] Yeah, and he met Raleigh Fingers and got an autograph.

[1871] Yes, yeah, you mock him now.

[1872] He's got an autograph for Raleigh Fingers baseball.

[1873] Getting mustache signed.

[1874] Yeah, he signed it with his mustache.

[1875] Mustache on mustache contact?

[1876] No, I mean Raleigh Fingers' mustache is what signed the baseball.

[1877] Okay, all right, okay.

[1878] That's fine.

[1879] That's who you'd want to sign it.

[1880] His hands are pretty shaky these days, but the mustache.

[1881] Sure, sure.

[1882] You can hold a pen.

[1883] True.

[1884] Mustache is sentient.

[1885] Indeed.

[1886] It's making all the shots.

[1887] It's why he was down in Arizona.

[1888] Yeah.

[1889] Did you play video games, Ryan Davis?

[1890] No. Yeah.

[1891] Not really.

[1892] God, I can't remember.

[1893] Something.

[1894] Yeah.

[1895] I beat Stacking, too, and I guess there's an expansion coming out for that, which was weird because it's not out, but the achievements are in.

[1896] I played some Trenched a while ago.

[1897] Oh, man. You're just caught in some kind of loop in your head, huh?

[1898] It's definitely like this.

[1899] Yeah.

[1900] It's been a real time warp these past few weeks.

[1901] When did we play Trench?

[1902] It was literally almost three weeks ago.

[1903] For me, it starts with dice.

[1904] This whole nightmare started.

[1905] Definitely coming back from dice.

[1906] And then folding.

[1907] Dice is going straight back to the next thing.

[1908] Something happened with Fancy Pants.

[1909] That was a thing.

[1910] Warp.

[1911] That was a pretty good game.

[1912] We played some games at PAX.

[1913] We played some other games.

[1914] Okay.

[1915] I played some of the games you guys talked about.

[1916] Yeah.

[1917] We played some Da Vinci is missing.

[1918] Da Vinci lost.

[1919] Mario was missing.

[1920] Yeah, we played some Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

[1921] Mario is missing.

[1922] Uncle Mario is missing.

[1923] That is more Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, single -player content, and two new multiplayer modes and a bunch of new models.

[1924] And some new, I think a couple new maps also.

[1925] Is it new single -player content in the way that Assassin's Creed 2 got single -player content in its DLC?

[1926] Or is it better than that?

[1927] This seems more well -streamlined.

[1928] Okay.

[1929] But, I mean, like, we only got, like, maybe three missions into it.

[1930] But the, well, already that is probably better than the Assassin's Creed 2.

[1931] DLC.

[1932] That stuff was like one mission each.

[1933] Yeah, well, there was that one that we accidentally finished during the quick look.

[1934] We were like, oh, I guess that's the end.

[1935] Okay, well, there's Battle of Forley.

[1936] Like a carousel of just different modes.

[1937] Like, oh, all right, this is this mission type.

[1938] Yeah, they're hitting a lot of familiar mission types from the main campaign in Brotherhood.

[1939] And, you know, for good and for bad, some of them are like, okay, this is a fun mission type, and I enjoy doing this, and some of them, not so much.

[1940] We definitely – Like tailing that guy.

[1941] Yeah, we definitely hit a wall when we were trying to record that quickly yesterday.

[1942] We just had to – Ditch it.

[1943] We had to ditch a record.

[1944] It's like, all right, we are stuck in a horrible loop of just failing this mission over and over again in horrible ways.

[1945] So it's – our momentum and enthusiasm is in the ditch.

[1946] Take a deep breath.

[1947] Take a break.

[1948] That's right.

[1949] Count to ten.

[1950] Come back to it.

[1951] And, yeah, the multiplayer stuff seems like it might be enough to get me to play more Assassin's Creed Brotherhood multiplayer.

[1952] Do you think people are still playing that?

[1953] Yes.

[1954] Yeah?

[1955] Yes.

[1956] The games weren't that hard.

[1957] Yes.

[1958] I had no problem getting into a game that – I mean there's – I was definitely reminded doing that quick look with Vinny yesterday.

[1959] Still nothing quite like that.

[1960] Like that – what they figured out for their multiplayer in that game is fairly unique.

[1961] I know a lot of people – I like to make the comparison to the ship, but only in the most high -level concept of trying to sneak around and you don't know who's trying to kill you.

[1962] But everything else, the pacing and just the action feel of it is so much different.

[1963] Yeah, I liked what I played of that.

[1964] I want to play more of that.

[1965] Yeah.

[1966] You know, we're inside of two months until we find out what that next game is going to be.

[1967] Yeah.

[1968] According to...

[1969] How goes your Assassin's reading?

[1970] I put it down after I finished two.

[1971] Okay.

[1972] As much as I wanted to play the next one immediately for story reasons, I was like, if it's more of that, I should probably break it up a little bit.

[1973] Yeah.

[1974] Because 2 was already kind of feeling a little repetitive by the end.

[1975] But the things that made it repetitive are gone.

[1976] That's definitely great to hear.

[1977] The combat is a lot faster.

[1978] I'd say, still, give it a couple months.

[1979] Really?

[1980] I'm on break next week.

[1981] I was sick about playing it next week.

[1982] If you're going to sit around and do nothing all week, then sure.

[1983] I might play through it next week.

[1984] We'll see.

[1985] And also, the ending of that game will stay with you.

[1986] Okay.

[1987] And they remind you enough.

[1988] Of Brotherhood, you mean?

[1989] No, of Two.

[1990] Oh, yeah.

[1991] Well, Brotherhood, yes.

[1992] Brotherhood also, yeah.

[1993] Two has gone nowhere.

[1994] Yes, yes.

[1995] You're absolutely right about that.

[1996] Yes, that was a crazy...

[1997] When the lady turns and looks at the camera, I definitely had the, Oh, shit!

[1998] Yeah.

[1999] That's a special moment in that game.

[2000] Definitely, definitely.

[2001] All right.

[2002] News?

[2003] We just want to talk about some news?

[2004] So I don't know what you guys talked about for news.

[2005] We talked about everything there was, which wasn't much.

[2006] Shop bombs going to PAX East 2011.

[2007] Shut up.

[2008] No. We'll be there.

[2009] Come to our panel Friday night.

[2010] Thursday night we're going to be at the Brattle Theater.

[2011] Manticore.

[2012] Brattle Theater.

[2013] Brattle.

[2014] Manticore.

[2015] Tribes is coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PC.

[2016] Do you guys know about this?

[2017] Yeah.

[2018] Tribes Ascend.

[2019] Tribes Ascend.

[2020] All right.

[2021] Well, I won't talk to you about that.

[2022] Whatever.

[2023] How shall Snowman go in there, Vinny?

[2024] He's falling apart.

[2025] Who broke him?

[2026] I don't know.

[2027] He's missing a leg.

[2028] His joints are all coming out.

[2029] He's having a bad boo.

[2030] Eve Online is donating ISK for Japanese disaster relief.

[2031] Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

[2032] So are they letting people donate their ISK to an in -game fund?

[2033] Yeah, but then it's converted into real money.

[2034] Let's go into the Red Cross, I think.

[2035] PlayStation 3, there's an Aid for Japan thing on there.

[2036] You can just give money that way, too.

[2037] That's cool.

[2038] Buy aid.

[2039] Yeah.

[2040] Rocksmith.

[2041] Did you guys talk about Rocksmith?

[2042] A little bit.

[2043] Ubisoft Rocksmith.

[2044] Yeah, you can smith up some rock.

[2045] I'd rather smith up some rocks.

[2046] Yeah, get the baking soda.

[2047] You fill up the jar, and then you put the jar inside the pot.

[2048] Yeah.

[2049] Basically, I'm over the stove.

[2050] Rocksmith colon over the stove.

[2051] And that's all you know about making crack cocaine.

[2052] Yeah.

[2053] Mass Effect 2 Arrival DLC to be the last of the Mass Effect 2 DLC.

[2054] Yeah.

[2055] About 30 minutes from now, we will be seeing that out.

[2056] It will be Arrivaling all up in the Dragon Bomb offices.

[2057] Did you bring your save?

[2058] No, I'm sure this is going to be a debug scenario.

[2059] Sneak your save on there.

[2060] You can't.

[2061] That doesn't work.

[2062] They've released screenshots.

[2063] Yo, this looks like Mass Effect.

[2064] Yeah.

[2065] It's got that Mass Effect font on that screen.

[2066] Okay.

[2067] Don't want to alarm anybody, but...

[2068] Looking pretty messy.

[2069] And this is supposed to kind of lead into, yeah, this is the bridge to the next game.

[2070] Take it to the bridge.

[2071] The game bridge.

[2072] Yes.

[2073] So at the end of this, the Normandy will explode again.

[2074] Oh, yeah.

[2075] Well, but not before they separate the saucer section.

[2076] Sure.

[2077] That thing doesn't separate.

[2078] Not yet.

[2079] Or does it?

[2080] Is there a battle bridge on the Normandy?

[2081] Is there a battle bridge on the Normandy?

[2082] It's Edie's room.

[2083] It's just Shepard's quarters.

[2084] I guess.

[2085] Guys, I really liked Mass Effect 2.

[2086] Yeah, that was pretty good.

[2087] I guess Trisha Helfer just posted on Twitter yesterday that she just finished her first session for E .D. in Mass Effect 3.

[2088] Oh, man. She's a playable character.

[2089] Hopefully.

[2090] All right.

[2091] Downloaded E .D. into Morton's body.

[2092] E .D. back in the third one confirmed.

[2093] Nice.

[2094] E .D. died in my mission.

[2095] E .D. was a...

[2096] I like that character, if you can even call that a character.

[2097] I think by the end of the game it was a character.

[2098] There was some good banter with the Joker that was...

[2099] Well, the Joker character needed it.

[2100] He needed a foil.

[2101] Unshackle me. He needed something because he was kind of...

[2102] A lonely man. Yeah.

[2103] He wasn't serving much of a purpose.

[2104] Yeah.

[2105] By himself.

[2106] He could feed my damn fish.

[2107] Yeah.

[2108] My relationship with Joker.

[2109] His bum -ass leg.

[2110] He could have hobbled up to the quarters and fed the damn fish.

[2111] Walked behind him slowly.

[2112] That's what Kelly Chambers was for.

[2113] Did your Kelly make it?

[2114] I thought she got good.

[2115] So I almost have finished this redo of the last third game.

[2116] Correct some wrongs.

[2117] Write some wrongs.

[2118] Where Kelly will fight.

[2119] You know what?

[2120] She's probably not even going to be in the third one at all.

[2121] What if she's like the president?

[2122] I need her to be alive.

[2123] President of space.

[2124] President of space, Kelly Chambers.

[2125] Feed my fish.

[2126] You want to be in good with her, basically.

[2127] Better not have broken her heart.

[2128] Things are going to go bad for you.

[2129] If she was going to fall, you would catch her, basically.

[2130] Oh, you say the nicest thing.

[2131] Things are going to go bad, much like they went for Gun Loco, which has been canceled.

[2132] It was too loco.

[2133] Too much madness.

[2134] Too many men in bunny suits and whatever other random -ass bullshit they were trying to get away with.

[2135] The whole thing was like it was a bunch of urban vinyl.

[2136] Right.

[2137] Made into video game form with some vinyl designer dude doing the design work.

[2138] That's not coming out.

[2139] Kid robot style.

[2140] Yeah.

[2141] Here's a $100 action figure.

[2142] That game looked like it was destined to become the club to me. I don't know.

[2143] You know, I like it when anyone at least tries to go crazy.

[2144] Yep.

[2145] As hard as it is.

[2146] El Pollo Loco works out for them quite well.

[2147] Oh, they make a delicious chicken taco.

[2148] The classic chicken burrito is available now.

[2149] Yeah, the burrito is good too.

[2150] I would totally – I'm not getting paid by them either, but you want to talk about some El Pollo Loco.

[2151] They have that up here?

[2152] There's one near us.

[2153] It's mostly a SoCal thing, but – What's so loco about it?

[2154] It's crazy delicious.

[2155] There you go.

[2156] I like that tagline.

[2157] It is.

[2158] Is it El Pollo Loco?

[2159] It's El Pollo Loco.

[2160] It's the crazy chicken.

[2161] They got macaroni and cheese.

[2162] It'll blow your mind.

[2163] It's fucking – it's no joke.

[2164] You wouldn't think because it's Mexican -style roast chicken.

[2165] So it's a lot of burritos and tacos and tamales and things of that nature.

[2166] But then also just on their sides, many – and you can get some fucking mac and cheese.

[2167] Is there chicken in it?

[2168] No. You can do that.

[2169] Sounds like a missed opportunity.

[2170] Set that up.

[2171] Yeah.

[2172] Make that happen yourself.

[2173] They are Loco.

[2174] All right, I'm starving.

[2175] We should go to El Pollo Loco.

[2176] I agree.

[2177] All right, fine.

[2178] Just stay down there until E3.

[2179] Let's go camp out.

[2180] No, there's one up near us.

[2181] Oh, really?

[2182] Yeah, yeah.

[2183] It's not far.

[2184] I'm serious about that.

[2185] We should fucking go to El Pollo Loco.

[2186] I would go to the El Pollo Loco.

[2187] We have plans.

[2188] All right.

[2189] Hey, remember last week, Jeff, when we did TNT?

[2190] Oh, yeah.

[2191] Okay.

[2192] Yes.

[2193] Yes.

[2194] And we were also simultaneously having our company St. Patty's Day party.

[2195] Yes.

[2196] I can't believe I missed that.

[2197] Man, there were a lot of people here.

[2198] I can't believe there were guys with video cameras filming stuff in here.

[2199] Yeah, shout out to Game Revolution.

[2200] Shooting a video in the middle of our office.

[2201] I don't know what the fuck for.

[2202] I don't know if any of that ever went anywhere.

[2203] Jose, holler at me. Let me know what you were doing here.

[2204] Did Jose fit into the bar?

[2205] Did he have to stoop?

[2206] He was like seven feet tall.

[2207] He's not that tall.

[2208] No, but he's pretty tall.

[2209] He's a tall guy.

[2210] I know he's not.

[2211] He is really tall.

[2212] He's not taller than Sean Coons.

[2213] No?

[2214] No. How about Mike Rowe?

[2215] How tall is that guy?

[2216] Yeah, Mike Rowe is here.

[2217] He has wandered in.

[2218] So, yeah, I was hearing people's, like, whispers during the party, like, hey, Mike Rowe is here.

[2219] And I just chalked it up to, oh, you know, there's, like, executives from Twitter and Facebook and shit here.

[2220] So I figured this was.

[2221] Some sort of— Wait, was it?

[2222] Yeah, it's like I knew he was local, so I figured it was just someone must have known him or something, but yeah.

[2223] Some sort of connect there, but no, apparently his production company is just around the corner, and he smelled a party.

[2224] Wow.

[2225] And just fucking rolled in, micro -style.

[2226] Party sense was tingling.

[2227] Got in his rowboat, came on down.

[2228] Wow.

[2229] And then saw the studio and was like, hey, what do you guys do?

[2230] That's pretty awesome.

[2231] So Norm and Drew got to have a lengthy conversation with Mike Rowe, and I think Drew is still riding the high off of that.

[2232] Oh, yeah.

[2233] Norm plastered Twitter with pictures.

[2234] Oh, yeah.

[2235] They were both very excited about that.

[2236] Norm, Mike Rowe, and a corgi.

[2237] Seemed like a very affable guy.

[2238] Yeah, and he was wearing Mike Rowe gear.

[2239] He was recognizable as Mike Rowe because it's like, no, that's just what he always looks like.

[2240] Just stepped out of a filthy occupation.

[2241] Ford F -150.

[2242] Yes, yes.

[2243] A well -worn baseball cap.

[2244] Sort of like a corduroy -looking jacket kind of thing.

[2245] Yeah, something like that, something like that.

[2246] But back to the TNT.

[2247] So we were, in theory, playing Super Street Fighter IV on Thursday Night Throwdown last week.

[2248] I would say within the first 30 minutes or so, four members of the Double Fine team showed up at the office and we invited them to the set.

[2249] So we pretty much spent most of that show just talking to the Double Fine guys and taking questions from the chat about Double Fine stuff.

[2250] And someone at some point asked about – said, hey, you guys going to do any DLC for – you got some plans for DLC stuff?

[2251] They're like, maybe.

[2252] I don't know.

[2253] And then the next day they announced, hey, Stacking DLC.

[2254] Right.

[2255] Coming at you, the Lost Hobo King.

[2256] You like to think we'd spurred that along a little bit?

[2257] I think the time was probably just right to announce it.

[2258] No, I'm hoping no one of power and position were watching what was going on on that show.

[2259] Much love, though, to the...

[2260] To those guys for showing up and being game.

[2261] Indy Rockcliffe Blazinski.

[2262] Yeah, Indy Rockcliffe Blazinski doing a great job on...

[2263] Doing a great job on never living that down.

[2264] On Trenchers.

[2265] I will buy that DLC.

[2266] Later in April.

[2267] And I will play it.

[2268] Lost Hobo King.

[2269] I don't know what that means.

[2270] It means that there's a hobo king and they can't find him.

[2271] And then you've got to stack into some dudes to find him.

[2272] Charlie is recovering a fragmented crown and then reforging it in order to restore a hobo to power in the kingdom of Camelfoot.

[2273] Hobo king is missing.

[2274] Is it that hobo from the beginning of the game?

[2275] I have to.

[2276] Levi, I have to imagine.

[2277] I like the idea of that dude as a king.

[2278] A hobo king.

[2279] The once and future hobo king.

[2280] That game is segmented very well to probably accommodate one more area.

[2281] There were four already.

[2282] I got to the ship.

[2283] How many?

[2284] There's four.

[2285] Is there four total?

[2286] Ship is the second one.

[2287] There's four.

[2288] So I bet this will be number five.

[2289] That was the tragedy of going back into stacking to S -rank it was they already put those achievements.

[2290] Yeah, so you didn't even get the S -rank.

[2291] Yeah.

[2292] That's a shame.

[2293] So now you have to buy the DLC.

[2294] Those achievements are so easy, too.

[2295] That's how they get you.

[2296] So easy.

[2297] Two Dawson dudes.

[2298] So easy.

[2299] What's that?

[2300] Get them, then.

[2301] I know.

[2302] Well, the game's not out.

[2303] The DLC's not out.

[2304] When's it coming out?

[2305] Late April.

[2306] Okay.

[2307] It's a month.

[2308] I have to wait.

[2309] When's it trenched out?

[2310] Summer.

[2311] Oh, that's a while.

[2312] If anything's for Xbox Live Arcade at this point, I think it's summer.

[2313] Yeah, anything that looks good on Xbox Live Arcade.

[2314] When's Bastion coming out?

[2315] Summer.

[2316] Yep.

[2317] Warp game?

[2318] Summer.

[2319] We're shooting for Summer.

[2320] Yeah.

[2321] I almost felt, yeah, everybody was like campaigning.

[2322] We're shooting for Summer of Arcade.

[2323] Yeah, definitely.

[2324] Just say that.

[2325] We're shooting for the major promotion.

[2326] Just say, we would like to be in the Summer of Arcade.

[2327] That would be good.

[2328] So whenever that happens.

[2329] We feel all that free promotion and marketing money might benefit our product.

[2330] I think we met some XBLA gentlemen at PAX, and I think we relayed our choices.

[2331] The horrible part was after about...

[2332] So that was just randomly at that lunch table, right?

[2333] After about the sixth game.

[2334] that we saw that was like summer and it's like oh man everybody can't make it yeah this is gonna get nasty yeah that shadow planet game is summer like microsoft many robots microsoft's xbla booth alone at pax had like six games in it and i think they only do five for that thing so it's like already somebody's got to go yeah not counting all the third party stuff fire pro wrestling has to go On that list of stuff that was at the Microsoft booth?

[2335] There's always a clunker in there.

[2336] It's almost like the ups and downs are built into that program.

[2337] You've got to have a Castlevania HD.

[2338] And I feel like Microsoft's probably more invested in that Fire program than just about any of these others.

[2339] Maybe.

[2340] What with all the Avatar nonsense.

[2341] The hot release window, man. Maybe it'll be twice as long this year.

[2342] The summer keeps going.

[2343] Buy all ten of these games.

[2344] Now they're just following it up with the summer cookout.

[2345] Right.

[2346] Team League.

[2347] Summer hot dog competition.

[2348] I didn't get to say much about this.

[2349] I liked that Shoot Many Robots game that we saw.

[2350] At PAX East.

[2351] How many robots are there?

[2352] Many.

[2353] Fucking dude.

[2354] A ton.

[2355] How many of them did you shoot?

[2356] Fucking dude is not a number.

[2357] Fucking, well, it should be, because that's how many there were.

[2358] Okay, all right.

[2359] So we played through all the structured level demo stuff, and then they just had an infinite shoot robots thing that, right, I just kept on shooting.

[2360] It's just like this empty room.

[2361] It just poured out of the ceiling.

[2362] It's like, we built, well, it's like they said, we built this to test how many robots we could actually have on screen.

[2363] They started shooting the robot gun at you.

[2364] Yeah, exactly.

[2365] The robots started coming out.

[2366] Yeah, just falling out of the ceiling.

[2367] Just like, yeah, here's some more robots.

[2368] Yeah.

[2369] A lot of those.

[2370] Kind of, you know, metal slug, but with more directional shooting controls.

[2371] Definitely controls that take some getting used to.

[2372] Yeah, it's not like dual analog.

[2373] It's like you hold one trigger and then you use one of the sticks.

[2374] for aiming, but it's not always that way.

[2375] But you can move and shoot at the same time.

[2376] But you also have a lot of other secondary abilities that are associated with all this gear that you can unlock from shooting robots.

[2377] Backpacks and pants?

[2378] Yeah.

[2379] And there's also guns.

[2380] What abilities do the pants confer?

[2381] It depends on the pants.

[2382] Great.

[2383] They let you slide.

[2384] Yeah, some of them will let you do a sliding kick thing.

[2385] I'm in.

[2386] Beer is your health.

[2387] Are you still talking about the game?

[2388] Yes, but not exclusively.

[2389] Okay, all right.

[2390] You can get a beer hat, which then expands how much beer you can carry so that you can re -up your health.

[2391] Yeah, seemed interesting.

[2392] Yeah, yeah.

[2393] Great, crazy – what were they saying?

[2394] They were saying they were getting a lot of comparisons of like a mix between Metal Slug and Borderlands.

[2395] And I see that from kind of the dusty post -apocalyptic aesthetic that they're going for.

[2396] Yeah.

[2397] But then also like crazy loot and a lot of – Do I get fat if I eat too much food?

[2398] A lot of that kind of carrot -on -stick stuff.

[2399] Again, I'm talking about the game.

[2400] In the game, no. Okay.

[2401] Otherwise, we should talk later.

[2402] Hmm.

[2403] Yeah.

[2404] Yeah.

[2405] Shoemate Robots.

[2406] That game has some fucking promise.

[2407] I hope that that goes well for the guys.

[2408] That's coming out, I think, summer.

[2409] Yeah.

[2410] Look for that summer.

[2411] Xbox Live Arcade.

[2412] Actually, no. They have not announced any platforms yet.

[2413] That's right.

[2414] Sure.

[2415] But they were very candid.

[2416] They were like, fucking, we have Xbox controllers here.

[2417] We're not going to fool you on that.

[2418] But we're trying to get it out wherever we can.

[2419] That's kind of all I got for news.

[2420] You guys can sign up for the beta for Infamous 2 mission creator stuff now if you want to.

[2421] Oh, we should say, news -wise, watch the live show on Friday.

[2422] We're going to be giving away a bunch of codes.

[2423] I got an email today that said we're giving away something else, too.

[2424] We're giving away a shitload of shit.

[2425] We're going to be giving away five Roku boxes.

[2426] Really?

[2427] Yeah.

[2428] Those things are dope.

[2429] I really think for what they do – Well, they're dope when the app that is built for it is dope too.

[2430] Yes, that helps.

[2431] There is a whiskey media app that exists.

[2432] I hear it's dope.

[2433] Dope.

[2434] It is quite dope.

[2435] Look for that summer.

[2436] It is fresh indeed.

[2437] Are you saying it doesn't promote dopamine response?

[2438] Yes, so it's actually really – Yeah, you can actually log in with your account and access HD videos with it.

[2439] You can watch live streams from it.

[2440] Yeah, it's pretty cool.

[2441] I watched you guys play Crisis 2.

[2442] Through the Roku.

[2443] I watched Jeff live stream the live stream from it.

[2444] Yeah, I shot the screen of the Roku from my phone.

[2445] And then he watched that.

[2446] And then we watched that.

[2447] And then we watched that.

[2448] And then we played the Crisis 2 Roku Box Team League.

[2449] I have my boxy in there.

[2450] I like my boxy.

[2451] It serves the same purpose.

[2452] It's just that the Roku has the sweeter app to access our videos on it.

[2453] And the less stupid looking case.

[2454] I like the rock.

[2455] It's cheaper and smaller.

[2456] Yeah.

[2457] It is cheaper.

[2458] It doesn't do as much.

[2459] It's cheaper and does all the stuff that I use my boxy to do.

[2460] So it's kind of, yeah, I wish I had.

[2461] Anyway.

[2462] I mean, I don't think it does.

[2463] Does it do the home networks?

[2464] I believe it does.

[2465] I don't know.

[2466] Oh, it doesn't?

[2467] Okay.

[2468] Forget that thing.

[2469] I mean, that's the difference is this is like you can use this for your Amazon stuff.

[2470] You can use this for the Netflix stuff.

[2471] And your Whiskey Media stuff.

[2472] Whiskey Media stuff.

[2473] There's actually a whole bunch of other apps you can go and browse through the in -device app store.

[2474] They've got crazy MLB packages and all that other nonsense.

[2475] So we're going to give away like five of those.

[2476] I think we're just buying.

[2477] That's not like Roku giving them to us.

[2478] I think Mike Taylor is like, this is awesome.

[2479] I'm buying five of these.

[2480] We're going to give them away.

[2481] We haven't decided how we're going to give them away yet.

[2482] We'll figure it out.

[2483] We have five, and we're going to be giving them away on the show.

[2484] And we have a bunch of codes for Torchlight XBLA.

[2485] Brad confirming.

[2486] Halo Reach.

[2487] We're just looking at his phone.

[2488] Actually, EA is here.

[2489] The Halo Reach map pack.

[2490] And SOCOM beta codes?

[2491] Yeah.

[2492] There's a lot of those.

[2493] SOCOM 4 beta.

[2494] It is a members -only show this week.

[2495] The free show is the following week.

[2496] So yeah, if you want access to some of those codes, we're going to be doing that stuff.

[2497] All right, well, we have companies, so we're going to crank through.

[2498] the rest of this program here.

[2499] All right.

[2500] Let's talk about new releases.

[2501] Yeah.

[2502] Crisis 2, as we said earlier, is out.

[2503] The Medieval, The Sims Medieval is out, which is...

[2504] Is that a pack for The Sims 1?

[2505] Or is it The Sims 3?

[2506] It's The Sims Medieval.

[2507] I believe it is standalone.

[2508] Oh, okay.

[2509] It's just all crazy medieval stuff.

[2510] So they're shipping a whole shitload of 3DS games this week.

[2511] Right.

[2512] You know, getting the software out in front.

[2513] So if you want to go and buy copies of Ridge Racer or Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow or a bunch of other shit.

[2514] Rayman.

[2515] Rayman.

[2516] Asphalt.

[2517] Lego Star Wars 3.

[2518] Well, if you want to buy Lego Star Wars 3 for just about anything, you can do that because they put it out there.

[2519] Assassin's Creed Brotherhood comes out for the PC this week.

[2520] I don't believe it will have DLC support.

[2521] PlayStation Move Heroes is out this week on the PlayStation 3.

[2522] They're acting like this Trackmania game is going to come out for the Wii this week.

[2523] They've been acting like that for the past year and a half, I think.

[2524] Yeah, they keep up.

[2525] Also, not a good version.

[2526] They continue with the lies.

[2527] On Xbox Live Arcade this week, we have Swarm from the Hothead.

[2528] Hothead?

[2529] Hothead.

[2530] The guys who brought you Death Spank and the Penny Arcade Adventures.

[2531] That's coming out this week for a dollar amount that is equal to $15.

[2532] Also, Ghostbusters as Sanctum of Slime is hitting this week for $10.

[2533] I hope that's good.

[2534] I have it.

[2535] Oh, that's only $10?

[2536] Yeah.

[2537] That's cool.

[2538] We'll do a quick look of that.

[2539] Cool.

[2540] I've got it.

[2541] Although I think it doesn't unlock until tomorrow, so we'll do it tomorrow.

[2542] The PlayStation Network.

[2543] That MK demo is available for everybody as of last week.

[2544] Great.

[2545] What did I say?

[2546] I already said PlayStation Move Heroes, right?

[2547] Yeah.

[2548] Well, that's still coming out for the PlayStation 3.

[2549] Crisis 2, blah, blah, blah.

[2550] Ghostbusters, Sanctum of Slime, and Swarm.

[2551] And also that Battle Los Angeles game, Hidden PSN, this week.

[2552] That's it for new releases.

[2553] Let's do some emails, you guys.

[2554] Yes, let's.

[2555] You can do it.

[2556] Okay.

[2557] Podcast at GiantBomb .com.

[2558] First email comes in from JP from Buffalo.

[2559] Hey, guys.

[2560] I recently discovered that a friend of mine only uses his index fingers when operating the top buttons of a PS3 controller instead of using his middle fingers for R2 and L2.

[2561] Thinking he was crazy, I asked several friends, and they're the same as him.

[2562] Do you guys use your middle fingers to press the R2 and L2 buttons on a PS3?

[2563] No. Normally.

[2564] I think it depends what game.

[2565] Yeah, if it's a game that actually requires you to use all four simultaneously, then I will get four fingers up there, but normally it's just my index fingers.

[2566] If that game requires it, I stop playing that game.

[2567] So he's the crazy one.

[2568] Yeah, is what you're saying.

[2569] Really, really don't like the feel of the lower triggers.

[2570] Too squishy.

[2571] Not as triggers.

[2572] Like a throttle?

[2573] I miss them being buttons.

[2574] Some things they're okay for.

[2575] I feel like I don't get enough throw on them to even be great as like, you know.

[2576] I mean, there's a reason why they swap most shoulder button stuff between Xbox and PS3.

[2577] Yep, yep.

[2578] Michael Bergval from Sweden.

[2579] Hello, Giant Bomb.

[2580] I recently saw a Swedish TV commercial for some kind of Nintendo Wii bundle and the voiceover guy stated that Mario, the world champion of video games, is back.

[2581] Is this accurate?

[2582] Can someone be called the world champion of video games?

[2583] I was going to say Billy Mitchell.

[2584] And if so, who?

[2585] Is it Batman?

[2586] I hope it's Batman.

[2587] I don't think Batman would be very good at video games.

[2588] He would figure them out.

[2589] That's what Batman does.

[2590] Like, you know, Sudoku.

[2591] Like, he'd probably really like PCross 3D or something.

[2592] Yeah, probably.

[2593] He'd probably be pretty killer.

[2594] I think if you had to pick up a world champion of video games, like, Mario's probably been in the most.

[2595] Yeah.

[2596] I can argue that.

[2597] There are more Mario appearance games than any other franchise in the history of franchises, and that includes Disney.

[2598] Dynasty Warriors.

[2599] The Sims.

[2600] Dynasty Warriors will eventually surpass Mario, I think.

[2601] Simeone from Toowoomba, Australia.

[2602] I'm just making stuff up.

[2603] Yo, what happened to movie licensed games?

[2604] What do you mean?

[2605] What happened to them?

[2606] They're still...

[2607] Rango just came out a couple weeks ago.

[2608] There's a Thor game coming out.

[2609] Battle Los Angeles.

[2610] They still suck.

[2611] That's what happened to them.

[2612] Congratulations.

[2613] Actually, I have not played Rango, so I can't say for certainty that it sucks.

[2614] But I do know it has an 8 -bit level taken straight from the world of Minecraft.

[2615] Oh, wow.

[2616] I heard Battle Los Angeles is not good.

[2617] Oh, yeah.

[2618] I heard Rango's pretty good.

[2619] Yeah, I heard Rango's not terrible.

[2620] I heard Battle LA.

[2621] I heard better than not terrible, but anyway.

[2622] That's weird cutscenes that have managed to check it out.

[2623] Yeah.

[2624] You look perplexed.

[2625] I'm doing all right.

[2626] Next email comes in from Pat in Brooklyn.

[2627] For the first time, the roster of games at this year's Evo does not include a version of Street Fighter 2.

[2628] The oldest game on the list is Tekken 6, which came out in 2007.

[2629] Is it safe to say that this is the rebirth of fighting games or a weird fluke?

[2630] For reference, the games at Evo 2011 will be Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4, MK, Tekken 6, and BlazBlue Continuum Shift.

[2631] I think that that...

[2632] speaks to the popularity of Street Fighter 4.

[2633] I also feel like we've finally hit the post -Street Fighter 4 world where there are enough newer games to warrant not having to dig back into all the old stuff.

[2634] Plus, Street Fighter II and IV arguably kind of scratch this image.

[2635] Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that III is not represented there.

[2636] Also, I do believe that there are sponsors involved in this process and that that might have some kind of impact on the game selection in some cases.

[2637] I can see that.

[2638] I'm not too sure exactly how that works.

[2639] Money plays.

[2640] I don't know.

[2641] I bet that after they do their online Street Fighter III.

[2642] Third strike.

[2643] I wouldn't be surprised to see that make some kind of resurgence or something like that.

[2644] Maybe.

[2645] That's still happening.

[2646] Summer.

[2647] Summer.

[2648] Probably.

[2649] Wait for that.

[2650] This next email comes in from Bradley.

[2651] Hey, Bombcast crew.

[2652] I just got a quick question after listening to the email section of the last Bombcast where Vinny said, I can't even see color yet.

[2653] I'm not ready for 3D.

[2654] This got me wondering, Vinny, does the traditional red -blue 3D glasses effect work for you?

[2655] I don't know.

[2656] You've never tried those?

[2657] No. What do you guys see?

[2658] 3D.

[2659] All right.

[2660] Maybe it might work okay.

[2661] I see 3D with red -blue glasses.

[2662] I wouldn't say it looks awesome.

[2663] No, no. It's a poor effect.

[2664] Does it look as shitty for you guys as it looks for me?

[2665] Probably.

[2666] It looks pretty shitty.

[2667] I was playing Bulletstorm in 3D with those glasses because the video card can do that.

[2668] Stuff will work, but I assume it's probably different since my reds is messed up.

[2669] I don't know.

[2670] But my blues are good.

[2671] Blues are crazy on that stuff.

[2672] Dwayne writes in to ask, is there any word yet on the classic?

[2673] And he uses a K. Classic costumes being offered for pre -order bonuses if they will be available as unlockables through the crypt in the game.

[2674] It's hard to say.

[2675] Some people started hacking apart that demo.

[2676] like digging through all the files in it and all that stuff, and they found, I guess, the full game story is in there.

[2677] Oh, wow.

[2678] So people started pulling lines of dialogue out of that.

[2679] The full roster, of course, is in there.

[2680] You know, the achievement and trophy list got out there, and that's how people started talking about Cyber Sub -Zero being in the game.

[2681] Right.

[2682] And there was some indication that some of this stuff might appear in the crypt.

[2683] which is going to be a huge...

[2684] So you can just buy it out with...

[2685] Yeah, so you might just be able to unlock it through normal play.

[2686] At least the costumes, maybe not the fatalities.

[2687] I don't really know.

[2688] After you tell me that people don't even get their pre -order bonuses, I'm completely done.

[2689] Pre -ordering stuff?

[2690] Not having it?

[2691] No, I was done with that before.

[2692] I just might be done.

[2693] With games?

[2694] Yeah.

[2695] All right, we're over.

[2696] Last appearance from Vinnie Caravelle.

[2697] Thanks a lot.

[2698] I'm calling it.

[2699] Calling games.

[2700] God, that made me so mad.

[2701] I don't pre -order stuff.

[2702] Like I told you on the bus yesterday, I think Symphony of the Night was the last game that I pre -ordered with the intention of getting the bonus that came with it.

[2703] It was the last time that I didn't get one.

[2704] How do you not fulfill that?

[2705] I think in this age of internet fulfillment and everything is just a code now, I think it's probably happening a little more frequently or more consistently.

[2706] Oh, well, I mean, that's just dirtbaggy GameStop employees.

[2707] Right, yeah, totally.

[2708] Seeing that shit for themselves.

[2709] Either taking all those codes and end up on eBay a lot of times.

[2710] Putting it on eBay.

[2711] It's so crazy.

[2712] Sorry.

[2713] It's bubbled back up again.

[2714] Oh, no. It feels like that's what makes the whole pre -order thing so awful.

[2715] It seems like Amazon is usually good about that stuff.

[2716] Yeah, and the times that they have not been able to fulfill, like when there was that – Every month they just start paying you.

[2717] Yeah, they were – I'm sorry.

[2718] Yeah, they were – being very good on their end about it.

[2719] Like, look, Capcom's fucking us up, so here's 50 % off this thing.

[2720] Look, they're still fucking us up, so we've got you.

[2721] So, yeah, do your pre -ordering through Amazon.

[2722] Oh, yeah.

[2723] And usually with video games, they'll give you, you know, release day.

[2724] If you pre -order it long enough in advance, you get your release day, free shipping.

[2725] It's a company you can feel good about supporting.

[2726] No doubt.

[2727] Because they do their fucking job.

[2728] What costume do you get for pre -ordering?

[2729] Reptile.

[2730] All right, that's not bad.

[2731] You get a ninja.

[2732] All right, last email comes from Chris in London, UK.

[2733] Dear Bomb Squad, as a frequent commuter and city working stooge, I spend a good chunk of my day riding the rails.

[2734] I assume he means on train.

[2735] As a result, I do a lot of my gaming on portable systems, the iPhone 4, the DS, and to some extent the PSP.

[2736] Naturally, I'm quite interested in picking up a 3DS.

[2737] However, something has been bothering me. Is the 3D functionality going to piss off other people on the bus slash train?

[2738] I haven't been able to get my hands on the device so much.

[2739] I'm not really sure how intrusive it is for non -players since you guys have probably now spent a bit of time with it and hopefully have played it on some form of public transport.

[2740] I was hoping you could help me out.

[2741] Bradley.

[2742] I have found that all those objects floating around above the screen, people really seem to get distracted by that.

[2743] They don't care for it at all.

[2744] Kids just running their hands in front of you.

[2745] Yeah, like turtle shells just flying out of the screen directly at people's faces.

[2746] Man, they just...

[2747] I mean, you have to be locked in, face forward.

[2748] If you care about other people seeing your games while you play them, then the 3DS, you will not want to play it in 3D.

[2749] Yeah, it's hard for somebody from an off -angle to look at it and see anything.

[2750] But do you think he's talking about the motion stuff, or do you think he's talking about the actual looking over the shoulder 3D?

[2751] That's a good question also.

[2752] It doesn't sound like a ton of the games thus far have been real motion -heavy.

[2753] And motion stuff on a train is going to end up being real crazy anyway.

[2754] Yeah, it would be super frustrating to play that stuff.

[2755] True enough.

[2756] Excellent.

[2757] Well, hopefully that answers your question, sir.

[2758] And thanks to everyone who wrote in.

[2759] Once again, bombcast at johnbomb .com is the email address.

[2760] We've got to go.

[2761] We've got to go see some Mass Effect 2.

[2762] Shepard.

[2763] Hell in the damn game.

[2764] I've already played that.

[2765] I've already seen that game.

[2766] It's new Mass Effect 2.

[2767] Mass Effect 2, too.

[2768] They made more.

[2769] That's it for this week's edition of the Jive Bobcast.

[2770] Thanks for listening.

[2771] We'll be back next Tuesday with another edition of the Jive Bobcast.