Giant Bombcast 10-05-2010

[0] Hey folks, it's Tuesday, October the 5th, 2010, and you're listening to The Giant Bombcast.

[1] I'm your host, Ryan Davis, joined by Vinny Caravella.

[2] Hey, what's up, my man?

[3] Brad Shoemaker.

[4] Howdy.

[5] And Jeff Gerstman.

[6] Hi.

[7] Hey.

[8] Hello.

[9] How's it going?

[10] I wasn't prepared for...

[11] With the 1 -3 -2?

[12] The swelling intro.

[13] Like, hey!

[14] I feel like I should be walking out from somewhere.

[15] Well, I definitely gave your voice a different read than I usually do.

[16] I definitely gave him more.

[17] Okay, that explains it.

[18] I gave him a little more game showy.

[19] Got it.

[20] Jeff Gerstman.

[21] Oh, that's great.

[22] Ryan, can we get another read, a little less game showy, just kind of read natural for this one?

[23] And Jeff Gerstman.

[24] Just one more.

[25] Just one more for safety.

[26] Jeff Gerstman.

[27] Perfect.

[28] Great.

[29] Okay, everybody, page two.

[30] We're going to take it from the top.

[31] And Vinny Caravella.

[32] Oh, that's good.

[33] Vinny Caravella.

[34] Oh, we're good.

[35] No, we got it.

[36] We're locked in.

[37] Page two, starting from the top.

[38] All right.

[39] Yeah, thanks for coming out.

[40] We're not going to do the rest of the script today.

[41] Just take forever.

[42] Talk to Tasha on your way out.

[43] She'll validate your parking.

[44] I came here on the bus.

[45] Okay, great.

[46] Even better.

[47] All right, video games.

[48] What about them?

[49] Vinny, what's up?

[50] About video games?

[51] What's up with video games?

[52] You played a bunch of Comic Jumper this weekend.

[53] I did play a bunch of Comic Jumper.

[54] Twisted Pixels Comic Jumper.

[55] We talked about that, right?

[56] Yep.

[57] It's Tuesday.

[58] Game's out tomorrow.

[59] That's a funny game.

[60] It's a game from the makers of The Maw and Splosion Man. They let you know it.

[61] Yeah.

[62] Specifically.

[63] Oh, yeah.

[64] They reference those games.

[65] You can buy those games within Splosion Man. Oh, I'm sorry.

[66] It's in Comic Jumper.

[67] Yeah, there are arcade cabinets in your lair that you can try the demo or buy the full game.

[68] What?

[69] Yeah.

[70] Does it just, like, launch the Explosion Man executable from there?

[71] Yeah, I mean, you're not running Comic Jumper at any point after that, but yeah.

[72] Yeah, I didn't try running them, but I assume it just pops you out.

[73] So they're also, you know, in jokes for the jokey crew.

[74] Similar in visual style and tone of humor.

[75] So before we go anywhere else, I think that game is really funny.

[76] Yeah.

[77] Some of the best laughs I've had from a game in a while.

[78] Like LAFF laughs?

[79] Yes.

[80] That game's fucking crazy.

[81] Yeah.

[82] In like an amazing way.

[83] What's LAFF?

[84] It's like a proper laugh.

[85] Like LA fucking fuck.

[86] No, like a laugh.

[87] No, like a good...

[88] Not like laughter.

[89] I mean like a laugh.

[90] Like a ha!

[91] Yeah.

[92] No, yeah.

[93] It's really...

[94] And consistently for how much they put into it, a lot of stuff hits.

[95] Yeah.

[96] Like there are a lot of jokes in there and a lot of them hit.

[97] So quantity and quality.

[98] So always start off saying something nice in a meeting.

[99] Yeah, roll in with compliments.

[100] You're doing a great job.

[101] Really funny.

[102] A lot of people really like you.

[103] Happy with this part of it.

[104] However.

[105] However.

[106] However.

[107] So areas of improvement that we can work on to get you to the next step.

[108] Performance review.

[109] Am I being fired?

[110] Well, we've had some issues with your gameplay.

[111] Some of the gameplay things.

[112] Some people say they're not having a good time.

[113] So really, like, good setup, good premise.

[114] But we make jokes about how our gameplay is bad in the game.

[115] And they're funny.

[116] They're funny.

[117] I ask anyway.

[118] They're funny.

[119] Yeah.

[120] But they're true.

[121] Maybe it makes them funny.

[122] They're not jokes anymore at some point.

[123] No, like, honestly, the gameplay really does get a little draggy and kind of grindy in a way that...

[124] What is the gameplay?

[125] So it's...

[126] It's like a Genesis game.

[127] Yeah.

[128] Kind of.

[129] I don't know.

[130] It's like dual joystick.

[131] It's really ambitious.

[132] It goes through a few different styles of gameplay.

[133] The primary one is a side -scrolling shooter where you're on foot and you're using the right stick to aim your shots and then the triggers for jumping and shooting and stuff like that.

[134] And you're also moving with the left stick.

[135] Aiming with the right.

[136] And then from there sometimes it pulls a little perspective trick and goes into like kind of Panzer Dragoon mode or something where you're automatically running.

[137] But then you – yeah, or Cabal or like the G .I. Joe game.

[138] Yeah, so you're like strafing left and right and like – Behind the back.

[139] Yeah, you're moving an aiming reticle around and you're still kind of moving your character and jumping to dodge projectiles.

[140] It's like Space Harrier or the Adventures of 3D World Runner.

[141] Sure.

[142] References the kids get.

[143] Which is nice when they change it up and then that'll happen and you'll go sideways or something.

[144] And sometimes you'll fall down a hole and shoot dudes and just move the reticle around.

[145] I say those are probably the two basic things.

[146] Yeah, there's some quick time events.

[147] But when you're running left to right just shooting dudes, you do a lot of it against probably three enemy types of level or something like that.

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

[149] Maybe it's the way they intended it, but there is a level up system so you can invest in more damage or more health or whatever.

[150] Sometimes it just feels like you're pumping dudes full of bullets and that's kind of all you're doing.

[151] That is, yeah, exactly.

[152] That's kind of all you're doing.

[153] And sometimes you're just sitting there for like four seconds or something shooting this robot.

[154] Just like, all right.

[155] Blow up already.

[156] And it can be hard at spots.

[157] I mean, they throw a lot of stuff at you, and sometimes you feel like you should just be jumping past it and moving on, but you take a lot of damage, so you don't want to get hit.

[158] And then if you go too far, if you're not inching your way forward, you go too far, there's just too much on screen, and you kind of get boned.

[159] It's one of those things where they're trying for deliberately old school.

[160] Like kind of.

[161] Harder than it ought to be.

[162] Kind of, but like the movement doesn't feel that way.

[163] It's not like super tight.

[164] Yeah, it's kind of loose.

[165] It's kind of all over the place.

[166] Like it just doesn't.

[167] But man, it's funny.

[168] Some of the animation doesn't match like the speed at which it's moving.

[169] Like when he takes off running for some of these interactive cut scenes, it's like he looks like he's hauling ass, but it's like everything's moving so slowly.

[170] Like it just looks weird.

[171] Feet is like skating across the floor.

[172] Yeah, kind of.

[173] It's.

[174] It's really ambitious, and just the story and the plot and that sort of stuff is pretty amazing.

[175] Kind of mind -bending in a weird meta way.

[176] It's great that they made it.

[177] It's amazing that they made it.

[178] There's some really incredible stuff in there, but actually playing the game is not one of those incredible things.

[179] Without ruining too much, but giving people a feel for what's great about that game.

[180] That game is two gigabytes because there's a lot of video in it.

[181] Okay, so a lot of FMV.

[182] Yes.

[183] And a lot of unnecessary video, but man, it's great it's in there.

[184] So you earn money that you can use to unlock concept art and behind -the -scenes stuff, and almost all of the videos are great.

[185] It's a lot of great videos.

[186] I've not seen much of it, but I did hear the voice of one Christopher Sabat, the voice of Vegeta, and many other...

[187] What'd you call me?

[188] Vegeta.

[189] Ugh.

[190] And many other anime.

[191] And at least the nice things they do for all the...

[192] No, he says anime.

[193] He says anime?

[194] And he would know.

[195] He would.

[196] He would if anyone...

[197] Yeah, he does say anime.

[198] They have a ton of unlockables, and the nice thing they do, which other games should maybe think about, is they at least reward you for unlocking the unlockables by increasing your earned percentage.

[199] You earn money after each mission, and the more unlockables you've bought...

[200] the more money you'll take in at the end of each mission.

[201] So that's kind of nice.

[202] So it's not just like, hey, you bought this for your own amusement.

[203] It's like, oh, if you invest in this stuff, you'll actually make more money at the end of each mission, which is kind of cool.

[204] Good, because I don't really ever enjoy unlocking concept art. Yeah, yeah.

[205] There's like 160 pieces of concept art, and I'm just like, yep, that's another one of those.

[206] That stuff's not hilarious, but the video is great.

[207] It's really weird.

[208] And a lot of the descriptive text for a lot of the stuff is pretty good as well.

[209] So I don't know what's in the demo for the game on Xbox Live, but if you make it past the first level in the retail version...

[210] you will immediately see why this game is kind of awesome.

[211] Like, it goes full motion video, and, like, you see, if you don't enjoy that, then you're done with Comic Jumper, basically.

[212] And it's a little through the rabbit hole, too.

[213] So weird.

[214] Very, like, self -referential and...

[215] Yeah, everything is this weird...

[216] Self -knowing, like, the guys at Twisted Pixel basically wrote themselves into the game, right?

[217] It's very Chuck Jones, very kind of, like, you know, Bugs Bunny talking to the animator.

[218] Sure.

[219] It sounds like the Donuts song and the ending of Splosion Man, The Game.

[220] Kind of, yeah.

[221] They took the tone and style of that stuff and made the whole game out of it.

[222] The things that they probably got the most positive feedback from from people and then built a game kind of around that stuff, but then inserted this shooter that's not great into it as well.

[223] And that's kind of where it sort of starts to fall apart.

[224] But yeah, you go through different comic styles, of course.

[225] I'm in the manga style right now.

[226] Yeah.

[227] Pretty funny.

[228] You unlock it.

[229] It's like one of the things you can unlock is a premium theme for the game, which is really good.

[230] Just, you know, with your in -game currency.

[231] What was the name of the high school?

[232] Hentai.

[233] Oh, Hentai.

[234] Yeah.

[235] The Hentai tentacles.

[236] Fighting tentacles.

[237] Nice.

[238] Yeah.

[239] Like that kind of stuff.

[240] Sure.

[241] Funny.

[242] Smiling.

[243] Yeah.

[244] Yeah, that stuff's incredible.

[245] I'm super stoked and happy that they got to make this game.

[246] Sure.

[247] I just wish it was a better game.

[248] Sure.

[249] Well, you know, I feel the same way about Amp3.

[250] Yes, yeah.

[251] It's a lot like Amp3 that way.

[252] Where everyone's like, yeah, this is not the best game to play, but these other parts are amazing.

[253] Like it's worth suffering through some of the more monotonous parts of it to see the stuff that they've lined up.

[254] Well, Suffer maybe sounds a little harsh.

[255] I mean, like, yeah, it sounds monotonous, but, yeah, I don't know.

[256] I haven't played any, but if both of you are making weird faces.

[257] It can get a little...

[258] The checkpoints are tough sometimes, too, where you're...

[259] So it's not even just a matter of it's monotonous.

[260] It's also it's monotonous and kind of punishing.

[261] Yeah.

[262] Yeah, but not like punishing.

[263] Between, like, the loose controls and you've kind of taken a lot of damage when you get hit, there's some spots where you're just like, ugh.

[264] I so don't want to play this part of this level again.

[265] Yeah, and sometimes the level design is like, where am I going?

[266] Like, oh, I was supposed to jump here and now I'm dead and now I have to go back to the checkpoint.

[267] Yeah, those parts of the Silver Age stuff where you're just climbing up ropes and I don't know where I need to jump from here.

[268] I definitely got a little bit of that in Explosion Man from time to time where it was like, ugh, I just went through that whole section and then blew up and now I have to go through that whole section again.

[269] But the checkpoints in that were pretty tight.

[270] Generally speaking, there were definitely, there were some, I mean, it was, in Explosion Man it was the sections where it's like, the whole point is pull off this lengthy string of, of jumps and moves, uh, uh, you know, very quickly and without screwing up.

[271] Yeah.

[272] Like that was kind of the design for some of that stuff.

[273] And yeah, there were certain points where I was like, Oh, I got through most of that and then died.

[274] I really don't want to, I'll, I'll just stop.

[275] Yeah.

[276] This is the story of how I never finished explosion man. Uh, this is more kind of like, You know, all I see, I have to take my time to shoot my way through this.

[277] And then at the end died because of some weird control thing.

[278] And now I just have to do this 15 minute part over.

[279] So super funny.

[280] Incredibly.

[281] 15 minute is a bit harsh.

[282] Maybe a bit harsh.

[283] Depends.

[284] Like, you know, it depends.

[285] You know, if you're really inching your way through it.

[286] I don't know.

[287] Well, that's the thing is if you're really inching your way through it, you're probably not dying as much because it's just like, OK, one guy popped on screen shooting him now inching forward again.

[288] Yeah, it's not.

[289] I guess each level is probably 20 minutes.

[290] Yeah, yeah.

[291] I don't know.

[292] Sometimes it seems long.

[293] Yeah.

[294] I agree with you there.

[295] Some crazy humor.

[296] Yeah.

[297] You can't do this.

[298] Absurd.

[299] Origami kids, you can't do this.

[300] It's great that they did it.

[301] It's great that they did it.

[302] What do you mean?

[303] Like just foul?

[304] Just filthy?

[305] No, not filthy.

[306] Just really weird.

[307] Like random, right?

[308] incredibly like wow all right sure it's funny kind of don't want to talk too specifically yeah sure because it's stuff that's that's really worth seeing like i i'm you know like i'm gonna write this review probably like tomorrow and it's you know i'm probably gonna say i mean they're the best parts of the game if you like good stuff you should get it but just know going in that there are parts of this game that are not good the game parts specifically sure I hope they make more games.

[309] The game parts, the parts where you're playing it are kind of middling it best.

[310] The boss fights, everything about it, it's just like, eh.

[311] Even at its best, it's just kind of mediocre.

[312] Sure.

[313] So the parts that are worse than that are worse than that.

[314] Got it.

[315] Some of the parts that are better than that.

[316] But then the parts where you're not playing it are kind of all incredible.

[317] So far.

[318] This is good.

[319] This is cryptic.

[320] It's a good stats song.

[321] Yeah.

[322] Oh, I heard the stats song.

[323] The stats song was pretty good.

[324] If the stats song...

[325] Yeah.

[326] Brad, you know there's the stats screen at the end of the level?

[327] Oh, no, I heard it.

[328] It's...

[329] It is.

[330] It's pretty good.

[331] Well, I was talking to you like you were the audience.

[332] Oh, no, please.

[333] Go on.

[334] So there's the stat screen at the end of the level where you get stats.

[335] And they wrote just like a little kind of everybody loves.

[336] It's not little.

[337] That song fucking goes, dude.

[338] It's awesome.

[339] Yeah, but I mean as far as like kind of production scope, it sounds very much like the everybody loves dance.

[340] It's the little ukulele and kind of folky vocals.

[341] But they wrote a song for the stat screen.

[342] Yep.

[343] Telling.

[344] Very telling.

[345] All right.

[346] Let's move off Comic Jumper.

[347] Because I just moved off of yours.

[348] She's moved off of mine.

[349] What?

[350] You and I are both trying to come up.

[351] Crank that one out.

[352] How do we make this your mom joke?

[353] I think you should workshop that one a little bit before you wheel it out again.

[354] No, clearly both of us.

[355] We had the kernel.

[356] How did you think the set went?

[357] Dead Rising 2.

[358] Why don't you move off the kernel?

[359] Yo, your Comic Jumper's so fat.

[360] Finish it.

[361] Come on.

[362] How fat is she?

[363] I thought this was, we're going to play a match game.

[364] When your comic jumper sits around the house, it really sits around the house.

[365] Boom.

[366] Dead Rising 2.

[367] Snaps contest.

[368] Did you guys play that?

[369] No. All right.

[370] Wait.

[371] Dead Rising 2.

[372] Amen.

[373] I turned it on and looked at the menu screen for a little bit.

[374] I watched the zombies shamble a little bit and then I didn't play.

[375] I got up to my point where I couldn't do two things at once.

[376] I got really annoyed and then got past and broke that part and then felt a lot better.

[377] Watch the timer just run out.

[378] I didn't let it go.

[379] All right, let's go.

[380] Twice now I have reloaded a save about a dozen times trying to find a way.

[381] It's not a game you're supposed to do.

[382] You probably literally cannot do that your first time through the game because of your character level.

[383] Yeah, and I knew that from playing Dead Rising 1 where it's like, I'll play this again when I'm level 50 and it'll be way easier.

[384] I'll just start off with the thing that bums me out the most is...

[385] No big bonus for getting any of those zombie genocider achievements.

[386] Like, you just get the achievement.

[387] No, like, weapon bonus or anything like that.

[388] Have you done them yet?

[389] I looked it up online.

[390] I checked.

[391] People say nothing.

[392] No Megabuster.

[393] No, like, super.

[394] Really?

[395] Yeah, that's crazy.

[396] I have a hard time believing that.

[397] This is what my research tells, because I was like, all right, you know what?

[398] Maybe one of these playthroughs, I found the spot where I'm like, oh, you got a car here.

[399] This is kind of cool.

[400] And I see where this is going.

[401] Right.

[402] And then I looked it up.

[403] I was like, all right, what do I get?

[404] And it was like, nothing.

[405] Really?

[406] Nothing?

[407] Less than a week after release, I don't believe that we're in a position to answer that question right now.

[408] I mean, people have gotten it for sure.

[409] But there could be something beyond that.

[410] It's not an achievement.

[411] True.

[412] You don't know.

[413] I'll keep the door open.

[414] There's got to be something.

[415] You know, some of this stuff you get clothing and, you know, avatar stuff, but I think nothing.

[416] I don't know.

[417] So I got up to the point where I couldn't do two things and it made me real tense and nervous and I broke past that.

[418] Now I think I'm kind of enjoying it more.

[419] Now that I know that I've missed one thing, I'm like, all right, whatever.

[420] Now I can miss whatever.

[421] Oh, you were talking about doing literally everything it tells you to do?

[422] Yeah.

[423] Oh, my God.

[424] Like hitting every mission.

[425] Jesus Christ, man. Yeah, you're out of your mind.

[426] And so I couldn't make it back in time to beat the dude on the bike, the bicycle bike.

[427] And so then I just let that go.

[428] That's a good one to do, though, because when you beat him, you get that bike from then on.

[429] With the chainsaws on it?

[430] You can slap a chainsaw on it.

[431] Does it have the keys to the bike?

[432] It's BYO, but yeah.

[433] I've got the keys.

[434] Can I not just take that other bike?

[435] Does that bike respond?

[436] I assume everything.

[437] You get like a bike workshop after you beat that guy.

[438] You go in there and give your bike a paint job and all this stuff.

[439] Oh, well.

[440] I'll get it next time.

[441] How many restarts are you on at this point, Vinny?

[442] None.

[443] Oh, wow.

[444] Well, I had my five levels from K -Zero, and I'm just kind of plowing through.

[445] So I got up to a point where one dude wanted Zombrex.

[446] It was like competing with the Zombrex I had to give to Katie.

[447] And then I stopped, and I was like, well, I can go buy it at the pawn shop.

[448] So I went into the multiplayer.

[449] The multiplayer, if you guys have had this experience, joining a game seems kind of hard.

[450] sister finds a game and I'll be the only one in there and then it takes like another five minutes for like it to fill up with dudes I don't know if it's people weren't playing it at the time I was going or uh I didn't yeah that's probably the case I haven't had I didn't have that problem because I'd quit out too much but I was playing like the day it came out the day before it came out and I would find games but you know I was I've not played that game since it was released in stores.

[451] It seemed like I was playing with the same people, too.

[452] So I suspect it wasn't that many people.

[453] Man, you make some money.

[454] Yep.

[455] Yeah, I was, like, yanking, like, 80 grand out of that thing every time.

[456] I was just like, I'm just going to buy all the Zombrex and not have to go do these stupid missions.

[457] Unfortunately, the time ran out for that guy, and he's dead.

[458] But I got plenty of money.

[459] I beat that dude to death because he wanted Zombrex.

[460] I was like, I got it right here, son.

[461] So on my, like, 12th try trying to reload my busted save file and do the motorbike guy and that guy, because they expire at the same time.

[462] And Katie's real close to that, too.

[463] Yeah, so, like, you're definitely hauling ass.

[464] So, like, I ran to the pawn shop, got the Zombrex, like, went and killed the Psycho.

[465] Uh, and the hauled ass in there with like a sliver left on that guy and got there just in time to see him turn into a zombie.

[466] Oh, and that's it.

[467] You let me go.

[468] And then he just like, he stands there and sways and you just kill him.

[469] Uh, one of the things that's weird and I'm not, I'm not tracking it enough to know if this is for certain, but I don't like when you're running out of time on something and you get to a place and that's not the end of it.

[470] And you have like something else you need to do now within that other sliver of time, like, like beat a boss or like do something else.

[471] And I'm not sure if it resets the time.

[472] I don't think it does.

[473] But, like, usually I'll let it run down real low.

[474] It depends on the case.

[475] And then I'm like, oh, shit.

[476] Now I've got to jump my motorcycle onto the back of this train.

[477] And I literally have five seconds to do it.

[478] And, like, that was the part where I just had to keep reloading it to hit that first jump.

[479] You know, it's just you're either doing story missions or you're not doing story missions.

[480] I don't think you do both.

[481] Like, per playthrough, you mean?

[482] Like you either set out to do the story or you don't.

[483] You could do some side stuff.

[484] The way you're trying to play that game.

[485] Not interested at all.

[486] If that's the way you're suggesting it should be played, then it's very poorly paced for that.

[487] I agree.

[488] The game is very poorly paced in a lot of ways.

[489] There are like 12 hours of game time in between case files.

[490] Basically, I'm just trying to...

[491] In those cases, I'm actually running off and figuring out what the easy side stuff is.

[492] That's how I did it.

[493] It was like, okay, this one does not result in a fight, so I'm going to go get this person and bring them back.

[494] Yeah, the fight stuff is kind of weird, but...

[495] Because every time I got into that fight, I just lost the fight.

[496] But they let you run away so far.

[497] The music will go off.

[498] I just run, go grab some pizzas or something, find the shotgun, run back.

[499] I don't know if you can go through a load.

[500] That's what I did with the mail carrier guy.

[501] I don't think I got that.

[502] I got a dude who had a piece of glass who was like.

[503] Yeah, I lost that guy and I was like.

[504] All right, well, I tried it again.

[505] I was like, all right, never doing this again.

[506] I ran out to the bathroom.

[507] Yeah, ran out to the concession stand, ate some pizza, put some in my pocket.

[508] I just wasn't even really hitting him much because he would just appear and juke you with that shard of glass, and you would get two hits that barely do any damage.

[509] The damage in that game just seems so far out of whack between what you do to them and what they do to you.

[510] Do you get a dodge move at some point?

[511] You do.

[512] They're psycho.

[513] You get a roll.

[514] You do.

[515] And that changes everything.

[516] I can imagine.

[517] It does.

[518] You're so slow on the turnarounds and stuff.

[519] Although even that, there's like a spin up and spin down coming in and out of it with like frames of animation you can't avoid.

[520] Yeah, that's the same thing with just hitting to the right real quickly.

[521] He like turns.

[522] Yeah, yeah.

[523] You have to really hit the dude once.

[524] You can't like clobber him to death.

[525] Yeah.

[526] Hit him once and start moving away before he resets.

[527] It's doable.

[528] It's just not fun.

[529] It's not something that's like, yeah.

[530] One of those fights, going into those with a weapon that you either drop when you get hit or that you have to rev up before you use it.

[531] And every time you get hit, it resets that whole process.

[532] It's just like, dude.

[533] I'm up to the pizza guy or the chef.

[534] Oh, man. He was the worst.

[535] But I've got like three lightsabers and like a shotgun.

[536] Or no, the LBR.

[537] Laser swords.

[538] Yeah, sorry.

[539] Laser swords.

[540] I love their cheap little fake tinny laser sword sound.

[541] It's a really good sound.

[542] I think it's better than the lightsaber.

[543] It's so awful.

[544] It's great.

[545] That thing seems to take out a lot of damage.

[546] I don't like a combo card for that.

[547] I died and I just shut it off.

[548] It's one of those games where when I die...

[549] Especially if you haven't saved in a while.

[550] So that dude in the bathroom, that game is full of hard lessons.

[551] And the hard lesson I learned from that was that psychopaths are just side missions.

[552] And you really don't know.

[553] There's probably some telltale sign to look for, but just looking at your quest log, you can't tell what it is before you go do it.

[554] So I had, I think, four survivors trailing me already.

[555] Did they help you fight the guy?

[556] No. They stand around and get killed.

[557] Really?

[558] You can tell him to go hide though, right?

[559] Yeah, so I ended up doing that.

[560] But like, so yeah, I was looking at my quest log and I was like, all right, that guy's on the way back.

[561] I'll just pick him up and drop these five people off at the safe house.

[562] Yeah.

[563] Like the last one turned out to be that guy.

[564] And then he just proceeded to like kill my other survivors as I was trying to fight him.

[565] The survivors, after a rocky start, I've come to find that this is way better than Dead Rising.

[566] They hold together a lot better.

[567] Initially, I had some problem where they just stopped following me, some dudes.

[568] But now, I mean, I just don't even look back.

[569] Just run and say...

[570] You coming?

[571] You there?

[572] You coming?

[573] Even when they get caught by zombies and they're getting thrashed, they'll get out of it in five or ten seconds.

[574] Run to the door.

[575] The thing I hate about the survivor stuff is I wish they didn't let you go through doors unless your whole party was with you.

[576] I wish they gave you some kind of prompt.

[577] Like a more direct.

[578] There is some kind of icon that will appear on the picture.

[579] But if you're looking at them.

[580] Yeah.

[581] I don't know.

[582] You have to kind of turn to make sure.

[583] Because they cover up each other a lot.

[584] Just something that's like, hey, your whole party is not with you.

[585] Do you want to continue?

[586] But now I just, you know.

[587] That would be user -friendly and convenient.

[588] The other big thing that would make this game so much more fun, so much more fun, Ryan Davis.

[589] What else would make this game so much more fun?

[590] If you just had to take them back to the vent and to a circle that's like they're in safety and like...

[591] Once you get there, they say, thank you.

[592] I'm going to go through the vent on my own.

[593] Nope.

[594] You got to sit through that whole loading screen.

[595] And then realize that one of them wasn't close enough.

[596] And then button back out and load it back up.

[597] And then button back in and get them in it.

[598] Seems so silly.

[599] That's the sort of thing you just look at and just go, how did you?

[600] Yeah, why?

[601] At what point didn't QA people just say, I'm going to quit this job if you don't do this because sitting through these load times that are even longer on this unoptimized build of the game.

[602] Because if I just sit through one more game QA process, then I get to be an assistant producer.

[603] It seems like such a...

[604] Also, I can do other stuff during those load times.

[605] Check my email, Twitter.

[606] Or you can play the PC version and not worry about it because the load times are like that.

[607] Really?

[608] Yeah.

[609] Really?

[610] Yeah, it's weird playing that game on the PC, but awesome in a lot of ways.

[611] Yeah, how has the PC?

[612] Because I saw that game on a PC at E3 and thought it looked fantastic.

[613] Yeah, and it's got achievements and it's got, you know, the built -in 360 controller support.

[614] And so I decided to be that guy on this one and drag my PC into the living room.

[615] Oh, yeah.

[616] Plug it into my TV.

[617] And it is a revelation looking at that game.

[618] Running in full -on 1080p at a solid 60 frames a second.

[619] Yeah, as opposed to the 360 version.

[620] It's like 720 and there's some bad frame rate spots.

[621] Yeah, I played a little bit of the Xbox one.

[622] Yeah, the frame rate gets pretty shitty.

[623] There are parts of that game that are inexplicably so.

[624] Is it that, what do they call the courtyard area in the middle?

[625] Oh, like the outdoor strip or whatever?

[626] Whatever it is.

[627] Is that the area?

[628] No, this was like I was running past the stage.

[629] Weird.

[630] Yeah.

[631] Well, that is where the stage is.

[632] It's out there.

[633] No, the indoor stage.

[634] Are there, like, pyrotechnics going off or anything?

[635] No. That's weird.

[636] No. Like, there was a part later where I was carrying a lit tiki torch, and I was like, well, okay, if there's fire effects on screen, I guess I understand why it might not be optimized for the entire game, though, like, that still sucks.

[637] But no, this was just like, I was running, and all of a sudden it was like, why did the frame rates, it felt like it was...

[638] approaching seconds per frame type territory in a couple of spots.

[639] I mean, just in terms of the way it looks and plays and loads and everything, I mean, it makes a fucking mockery of the Xbox version.

[640] But then on the flip side, I had to drag my fucking computer into the living room and my girlfriend's looking at me funny going, why are you running an Ethernet cable all the way down the hall?

[641] Why is there a mouse and keyboard?

[642] And the answer is because I'm cool.

[643] All the kids are doing it.

[644] My PC is dead.

[645] Again, see, he put to use that big length of Ethernet cable you were talking about last week.

[646] Although, I will say, the fucking third HDMI cable that's been chilling in my closet for the last two years that I thought would come in handy one day turned out to be the reason that the PC was not working well with my TV.

[647] It's because HDMI is the devil.

[648] I figured it was like, you know, it's digital signal.

[649] It works or it doesn't, right?

[650] It works.

[651] Apparently not.

[652] Just doesn't work.

[653] I thought it was, like, video drivers or my card was going bad or something.

[654] So just, like, resolution stuff.

[655] Bad cables?

[656] No, no. It was, like, the screen was flickering, like, some kind of scan issue, and then it would, like, lose the signal.

[657] The TV would just, like, go looking for signal every, like, five minutes.

[658] So, like, it worked most of the time, but, like, why would a cable cause something like that?

[659] Bad cables.

[660] I guess, but...

[661] Bad dates.

[662] Bad ports.

[663] Anyway.

[664] Anyway, in summary, fuck that game.

[665] Dead Rising?

[666] Yeah.

[667] Basically.

[668] I know.

[669] I'm enjoying it in my masochistic way.

[670] It's great, yeah.

[671] It's like you hate everything about it, and then all of a sudden you realize you're flinging handfuls of poker chips at zombies, and they're flinching backwards, and then you realize it's so lovably ridiculous.

[672] But at the same time, that's the exact description for the first game, too.

[673] And I think this game does a lot of things better than the first game, but not enough things.

[674] And I'm not sitting here saying like, they should have made it easier.

[675] Oh, I don't understand.

[676] Oh, time pressure.

[677] Like all these people that are saying like, oh, you should play the PC version so you can install a trainer to lock the time.

[678] Like day one.

[679] There's a freaking mod out for that.

[680] Right.

[681] Like that doesn't interest me at all.

[682] At that point, that's no longer Dead Rising.

[683] For me, it's just that every single instance of combat against like a psychopath or anything resembling a boss fight, I mean, yeah, that's the thing for me. I've always loved and had a deep respect for the way that they handle themselves with the time stuff.

[684] It's just that the gameplay is not good.

[685] It's that the feel of the controls is lacking.

[686] Yeah, and then kind of the rest of it has become completely easy because of the combo weapons.

[687] You're just wailing through hordes and hordes of zombies.

[688] They're never grabbing you.

[689] They're barely ever grabbing you.

[690] Yeah.

[691] So it's become like that stuff's all too easy and the other stuff's just too hard in ways that kind of make the whole thing not fun.

[692] So it's like it's a really cool zombie sandbox and it's really cool to make the combo weapons and mess dudes up.

[693] But none of the game is optimized in favor of those things to have you do it often enough or in a satisfying enough way.

[694] So it just left me wanting across all modes.

[695] Is there anything?

[696] Oh, sorry.

[697] I just wish I'd let you drop them off at the airport.

[698] Well, I mean, while we're wishing, I don't know, I wish there was like a common inventory system.

[699] Oh, yeah.

[700] Some kind of storage locker.

[701] I think you brought that up last time, where it's like your treasure chest.

[702] Yeah, it's like, okay, I found all these gems.

[703] I'm going to put them in my locker, and they'll be at every locker and every maintenance room.

[704] There should be some way to store clothing after you find it.

[705] Yeah.

[706] Every time you pick up clothing, it should be in the locker in the safe house.

[707] That lets you mix and match.

[708] Just dumb.

[709] There's all this stuff that you can take advantage of and have a really good time playing dress up and all this stuff.

[710] I was holding on to gems.

[711] Two sets of gems for about a day and a half in that game or whatever.

[712] As soon as I picked up the gems, I could not find a flashlight.

[713] Just find the looters.

[714] The looters always have a flashlight.

[715] I found looters and they had the tomahawks.

[716] They were all tomahawking me. And like literally, oh, figures.

[717] So I had to hold on to those damn gems forever.

[718] Finally found two flashlights when I found them because I dropped a pair of gems at that point.

[719] This is when I got my laser sword to beat the chef guy.

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

[721] It was worth it to finally make that damn laser sword.

[722] You're going to keep going?

[723] You're going to keep going?

[724] With the game?

[725] Vinny does not keep going.

[726] He always goes all the way.

[727] Are you going to keep going?

[728] At least that's the word around school.

[729] I don't know.

[730] Word.

[731] Yeah, absolutely.

[732] He's got stamina.

[733] They call him all the way Vinay.

[734] The only thing that'll make me stop playing that game, I was actually really excited to S -rank that game until I realized that.

[735] If it turns out to be true that you don't get anything for that zombie genocide achievement, I won't do it.

[736] At that point, it's not worth it.

[737] What are you talking about?

[738] You would gain levels.

[739] Like, theoretically, you'd be gaining PP from that, wouldn't you?

[740] That's the kind of thing you do after you've done everything else.

[741] I want a game breaker.

[742] I want to beat that and I want something...

[743] That breaks the game at that point.

[744] Because, like, what else is there to do?

[745] I mean, how good was the Mega Buster?

[746] Was it...

[747] Did it, like, not break?

[748] Did it kill everything?

[749] It didn't break.

[750] It took down Psycho Pass in, like, one hit.

[751] Oh, wow.

[752] And, like, yeah.

[753] It's ridiculous.

[754] Although, at that point, I mean, you've done everything else there is to do.

[755] Like, why do you even care?

[756] Because getting that, it was, like, one of the first things I did in the game.

[757] You can get all the other achievements so easily because you could get all your Prank the Pimp and all that other stuff.

[758] It's like a backwards way to play it, but I don't know.

[759] I mean, you've got to spend a full...

[760] you know, day or whatever, just grinding over zombies.

[761] Driving through zombies.

[762] That's what I did.

[763] Yeah.

[764] I was on vacation.

[765] Time off work.

[766] Kill zombies.

[767] But if you're just going to give me, bless you, like 20 points for that, it's almost like an embarrassment at that point.

[768] Like, why would you do that?

[769] I don't know.

[770] I have anything better to do.

[771] I just wanted to.

[772] I think they lowered the number for the top end zombie achievement.

[773] I remember seeing an earlier version.

[774] I could have sworn it was like 131 ,000, but now it's 72.

[775] Well, it was double the old one, right?

[776] Yeah, exactly.

[777] It's not in there anymore.

[778] Now it's 72 ,000 is the highest end one.

[779] Maybe they realized that, okay, fine.

[780] We're not going to give any people anything.

[781] They should give you something.

[782] You know what?

[783] If they were going to make one concession, that was the wrong concession to make.

[784] And they talk about Mega Man so much in that damn game.

[785] They just throw me a Mega Man. It's got to be in there somewhere.

[786] I know, right?

[787] I don't know.

[788] So there's an achievement in Rock Band 3.

[789] If you go look at the Rock Band 3 list, You know, everyone had their, like, well, we're going to one -up the zombie genocide achievement by adding one or whatever.

[790] Like, there's one for, like, hitting hammer -on pull -offs.

[791] Like, it's like Hopo Killer or something like that for nailing, like, 53 ,000 hammer -ons.

[792] Oh, my gosh.

[793] So mean.

[794] Some ridiculous impossible number.

[795] I guess, you know, lifetime of a rock band game.

[796] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[797] Pop that.

[798] A couple of years.

[799] Those work on the pro guitar?

[800] Like they can read those?

[801] I wonder.

[802] I don't know.

[803] Is that game out this year?

[804] Rock Band?

[805] Yeah.

[806] It's out this month.

[807] Oh, wow.

[808] In like three weeks.

[809] Great.

[810] It's out very soon.

[811] How much is it for a pro guitar bundle?

[812] Pricing out there?

[813] $1 ,000.

[814] I don't know that they're bundling guitars.

[815] Oh, because it's Mad Catz, right?

[816] They're bundling the keyboard.

[817] So they just announced, I guess, they're not bundling PS3.

[818] with a keyboard like they're not doing a game and keyboard bundle for ps3 they're only doing it for 360 and people were taking pre -orders for ps3 bundles for a while and now they're like figuring out how to honor those pre -orders without actually but yet in europe they're totally selling actual bundles i don't know what the hell is going on with that stuff but something weird happened didn't they'll have the pro guitar stuff like, stocked in stores regularly?

[819] Or do you think that's going to be a special order?

[820] Well, like, the keyboard's out now.

[821] If you just want a keyboard, you can buy a keyboard.

[822] Really?

[823] Yeah.

[824] Huh.

[825] If you want the keyboard in the game, you've got to wait until the 26th, unless you're, like, one of the eight people that ordered it and somehow got it shipped.

[826] Yeah, I guess there were, like, there were some Rock Band 3 live streams happening this morning.

[827] Wait, what month is 10?

[828] This one.

[829] That's this one.

[830] Ah, shit.

[831] Oh.

[832] Uh -oh.

[833] What?

[834] Nothing?

[835] I mean, we're in the month of release.

[836] It's just, you know, a little bit ahead of time.

[837] I kind of want to check out that pro guitar stuff.

[838] Do you want the Madcats or do you want the Fender?

[839] I didn't know there was a separate.

[840] Oh, well, there's the one that has strings and the one that has buttons.

[841] Oh, no, the string one.

[842] Okay, that's the Fender.

[843] And you can't just use a regular guitar, right?

[844] No. Yeah.

[845] Well, the Madcats one is just...

[846] I don't think they've said how much that Fender is going to be yet.

[847] Because the Madcats one is just like a shitload of buttons.

[848] And that one's like $150, I think.

[849] So if that one's $100...

[850] No, I don't like that one.

[851] I don't think it's full, like three -quarter size, I think they said.

[852] Maybe not full, full, but...

[853] Well, I have held it, but I couldn't tell you.

[854] I think it's not...

[855] The Fender is just a Squire Strat, right?

[856] That is the entry -level Fender.

[857] Those are like $150 plain, so I doubt it's that much more.

[858] That thing's not out at launch.

[859] If you want pro guitar at launch, you've got to get one of the buttons.

[860] The Fender's not out.

[861] That button one freaks me out.

[862] The string one feels fine.

[863] It just looks like...

[864] It just looks like...

[865] any one of those could break independent of the rest.

[866] And it's like so many, so many buttons, so many things to break.

[867] It just makes me wonder why it's like when you can get the real thing and get actually like build up some real calluses.

[868] Well, that's the difference.

[869] I think it's going to be like finger strength because if you have not played a real guitar.

[870] And I had not played a real guitar in a very long time.

[871] When I picked the thing, I was like, oh, man, I got to push down on these things.

[872] Like, if you're used to playing plastic guitars, that thing's going to feel like you need a vice grip.

[873] Like, your hand's going to fucking hurt.

[874] At some point, as you're building up those calluses, of course, you will end up with bloody fingers.

[875] Like, that's kind of invariably part of it.

[876] Just put nylon strings on it.

[877] Like, if you're, yeah.

[878] If you're not ready for that, that thing's going to be incredibly off -putting when you first grab it.

[879] But the one with the buttons, you can push those buttons like nobody's business.

[880] Yeah, it just seems like the real...

[881] And I'm interested in the one with the buttons because I want to hook it up to a PC and see what it does.

[882] Oh, yeah.

[883] So I'm really interested in that.

[884] You need a PS3 one for that?

[885] Nah, it's MIDI.

[886] All that stuff has MIDI.

[887] Even the keyboard has MIDI out.

[888] So you can hook those up as...

[889] Well, yeah, they were just using weird MIDI controllers when we were looking at them.

[890] Well, I think the...

[891] The Pro Guitars.

[892] I don't know if it's both Pro Guitars or if it's just the Fender.

[893] It might just be the Fender where they're actually selling a separate MIDI box.

[894] So if you have a keyboard already, you can just buy that MIDI box for $40, hook your keyboard up to that, and use that to play Rock Band.

[895] You need a MIDI port on your controller though, right?

[896] It needs to be a MIDI controller or is it like a line out into a MIDI converter?

[897] It's a MIDI.

[898] You need a MIDI on your controller.

[899] I have an M -Audio Ozone.

[900] You can probably just plug right in and go.

[901] How are we still talking about MIDI in the year 2010?

[902] It never went away, man. It's the standard for this stuff.

[903] Haven't you heard of the universal serial bus?

[904] Do you know what universal means?

[905] That's all drivers and bullshit.

[906] Like, MIDI is just fucking MIDI.

[907] They created that standard.

[908] It's just crazy.

[909] But it's also like a sequencing standard.

[910] It's not just pure data.

[911] And I mean, that...

[912] ozone that i have is totally midi over usb or something like that like it's it's it works as a midi controller but hooks up over usb um which is you know like best of both or something jeff gerstman hello how's it going good you play anything else other than the the comic bumper comic bumper um finish that borderlands dlc tell me about that borderlands dlc is it any good yeah it is yeah I recommend it, but I also recommend you don't play it until the patch comes out that is going to increase the level cap because I played through the whole thing stuck at level 61.

[913] I thought that was going to come with it.

[914] No, no, it's everything because it's free for everyone.

[915] Everyone will get eight levels, so it can't come bundled with the DLC.

[916] But I mean, I thought it was going to come at the same time.

[917] Yeah, no, no. It was always due sometime between the release of this DLC and the release of the Game of the Year edition of the game, which is due out the 12th of this month.

[918] Yeah.

[919] It's hung up in CERT, I understand.

[920] Oh, okay.

[921] Yep.

[922] It sounds like CERT and submission and everything has been a fucking nightmare for Microsoft right now.

[923] They're having to test a lot of stuff again because of the way it rebuilds.

[924] Oh, yeah.

[925] Sure for them, yeah.

[926] But just a lot of games.

[927] We've heard that elsewhere.

[928] We've heard about a lot of games.

[929] Getting caught.

[930] Getting caught up in a very backlogged certification process and stuff like that.

[931] Games.

[932] Games, yeah.

[933] It's the holiday season.

[934] It's the season for...

[935] Submission being backed up.

[936] When's that all the big king box coming out, the game of the year edition?

[937] 12th.

[938] That's the 12th.

[939] Okay.

[940] Yeah, so the patch will have to come out sometime before then, as I understand it.

[941] And then I will replay this DLC to gain those levels, probably with some friends or something.

[942] I might buy that.

[943] So Claptrap's new robot revolution, how does this compare to the other Borderlands DLC packs?

[944] It's good.

[945] They've streamlined a lot of stuff.

[946] If you remember, General Knox was stretched out into one long line.

[947] So it was like there were two ways out of town and then zones on either side of those zones.

[948] So if you...

[949] were at one end and needed to do something at the other end, you would just quit, reload the game, you'd start in the center, and then drive out to the other side.

[950] Rather than driving through all the other bullshit.

[951] Yeah, yeah.

[952] So for this one, it's a hub world with multiple exits.

[953] They've kind of...

[954] Wized up a little bit there.

[955] Yeah, it's a smarter way to build it.

[956] And, you know, it's good.

[957] You're facing a lot of enemies that you've seen before in kind of slightly altered forms.

[958] Like basically Claptrap is, you know, infected everything with, you know.

[959] With robots.

[960] Robot stuff.

[961] So everything has vacuum tubes sticking out of it now.

[962] So, you know, you're fighting Skaggs and Spider -Ants and General Nox twice, which is kind of a bit much.

[963] And that can be a little repetitive, but you are fighting Claptraps along the way, and they're kind of interesting.

[964] new enemy to face, especially the Divine Wind ones would just sort of blow up when they get near you and kind of instantly kill you, which is fucked.

[965] Were there a lot of new enemies in the other DLC packs?

[966] Not really.

[967] There were some new guys here and there, but they haven't really gone too overboard with making new enemies.

[968] New boss fights and stuff like that they've come up with, but yeah.

[969] Yeah, it's funny.

[970] They've also kind of gone out of their way to make the quest dialogue a little richer this time.

[971] When you take on a quest, there's obviously the quest text there for you to read.

[972] But now every character, every time you take on a quest, they'll talk at you for a while.

[973] A lot longer than they did in the past.

[974] Which is nice.

[975] It gives the game a little more personality.

[976] It gives a little more context.

[977] Even if you run away from it to just go, I'm going to run to the bathtub and kill everybody.

[978] That option is there to stick around and listen to these characters that are pretty funny.

[979] That's cool because I definitely found myself at a point in Borderlands of just like, run up to guy, just button, button, button.

[980] Don't care what you're really saying.

[981] Just give me the quest so I can run back out and keep going.

[982] Yeah, that stuff's pretty nice.

[983] And also, there's a really good sense of closure at the end of this.

[984] They kind of bring a lot of things full circle.

[985] I mean, obviously, you're fighting claptraps and stuff.

[986] Sure.

[987] Borderlands 2.

[988] Electric Boogaloo.

[989] I think they absolutely have to do a sequel to Borderlands.

[990] Borderlands.

[991] I was going to say, it seems like their post -release support for this has stretched out longer than even they expected.

[992] I mean, that game's been out almost a year.

[993] Yeah.

[994] And also, I looked today, I have played my main character, which I almost lost.

[995] It was on my USB stick because I brought it in to do the quick look of the DLC.

[996] Yeah.

[997] And then I almost lost that DLC.

[998] I almost lost that stick.

[999] I couldn't find it, lost it?

[1000] Yeah, yeah.

[1001] It was on top of a pile of dirty laundry, as it turns out.

[1002] But apparently I've got some pockets that it will just fly out of.

[1003] So four days I've played that character, that main character.

[1004] Four fucking days.

[1005] You're coming up on wow numbers.

[1006] Yeah.

[1007] At a certain point there.

[1008] And that doesn't necessarily represent even all of that game you've played, right?

[1009] Right.

[1010] I've leveled other characters up to 20 or something like that.

[1011] I wasn't reviewing the game.

[1012] I had to play the other classes, obviously.

[1013] Right, right.

[1014] I guess we were playing retail.

[1015] That's right.

[1016] Yeah.

[1017] Yeah, I've played a lot of Borderlands over the last year, which is kind of crazy.

[1018] And this has been a satisfactory Borderlands experience for you?

[1019] Yeah, yeah.

[1020] It's kind of crazy to return to it a year later like this, but it's a lot of fun.

[1021] And if you have a character in Borderlands that you care about, it's worth going back in and playing more of it.

[1022] But like I said, I would wait for that patch to come out so you're actually gaining levels.

[1023] There's more levels to be gained, more skill points to be had, more stuff to do.

[1024] You definitely get more out of it if you wait.

[1025] Assuming you're at the cap.

[1026] Assuming you're at the cap.

[1027] Right.

[1028] Yes.

[1029] We're nearing it.

[1030] Yeah.

[1031] Brad Shoemaker.

[1032] Hey.

[1033] Tell me about Call of Duty Black Ops in 3D.

[1034] Oh, man. Yeah.

[1035] Call of Duty Black Ops is in 3D.

[1036] What?

[1037] Next question.

[1038] On what platforms?

[1039] All of them.

[1040] 360, PS3, PC?

[1041] All of them.

[1042] DS?

[1043] All of them.

[1044] Wii?

[1045] Okay, maybe not.

[1046] What kind of glasses are you wearing?

[1047] The three.

[1048] Well, PC is the same NVIDIA, like whatever it's called, that they had for the last one.

[1049] You know what I'm talking about.

[1050] Resident Evil.

[1051] I guess, yeah, I don't know if Modern Warfare 2 had it on the PC.

[1052] Batman.

[1053] I know Treyarch's last one did anyway.

[1054] Anyway, whatever it's called on television is what it has.

[1055] Like they didn't say what the name of it was, but they said it's the one that all the Sony TVs use.

[1056] Like Real...

[1057] I don't...

[1058] Real D. No, Real D is the cinematic format.

[1059] true vision i don't know the glasses had to be turned on i can tell you that so it's like the one that so you need the 3d tv shutter yeah it's the same thing that like kill zone and motor storm and i don't know name a 3d game it was the same thing motor crisis you crisis 2 sure uh but they're showing it on xbox 360 which i guess was kind of a new thing because That 3D stuff has felt like the domain of the PlayStation 3.

[1060] That's because Sony has been pushing it so hard.

[1061] The word on the street is that that is not a Sony computer.

[1062] That's like a Sony Electronics is making that push.

[1063] They're the ones that are kind of...

[1064] Different money.

[1065] It's different money.

[1066] Yeah, absolutely.

[1067] They're the ones that really stand to profit.

[1068] Right, exactly.

[1069] That's why they care and why they're pushing that stuff so hard.

[1070] Did they give you any kind of like A -B toggle?

[1071] Like, all right, turn 3D off.

[1072] Was it all in 3D?

[1073] I'm wondering.

[1074] I didn't get to play it.

[1075] I just got to watch it be played.

[1076] Did they explain to you why they're doing it?

[1077] And if it's been hard for them to do?

[1078] 3D is here.

[1079] Welcome.

[1080] Yeah, where have you been?

[1081] 3D is more immersive and it was surprisingly easy to do.

[1082] So we decided.

[1083] The Sony engineer sat with us for weeks helping our people develop.

[1084] They were really involved in the product.

[1085] We had a lot of people come by and actually gave us some of the models and some of the dialogue they used in the original 3D film.

[1086] Nothing makes competitive games better than fucked up modes that make you look at the game all weird.

[1087] I find.

[1088] Did you enjoy your 3D time?

[1089] Or did you just look at it as...

[1090] Show me the game.

[1091] It looked pretty nice.

[1092] I mean, that engine has like a really nice contrast to it.

[1093] Like there's a crispness to it.

[1094] You know what I mean?

[1095] Yeah.

[1096] The lighting, everything is really well defined.

[1097] The sky is super bright and everything else is dark brown.

[1098] Yeah, so like that stuff, it made it look pretty cool.

[1099] I mean, you know, like...

[1100] That stuff came through in 3D.

[1101] 3D looks, yeah, like 3D looks good when it's done well, but the...

[1102] So I was expecting you to say, like, all that's been muted, and now it's all blurry.

[1103] I mean, it looked like a Call of Duty game in 3D.

[1104] The only thing that suffered was that the frame rate was not always there.

[1105] I haven't seen Black Ops in 2D yet, so I don't know if they're, like, pushing the engine.

[1106] Like, have you seen any instances?

[1107] Because, I mean, traditionally it's a 60 frames a second series.

[1108] That's hard to tell right now because what they have to do to get it running in 3D is crazy anyway.

[1109] It's really weird to me because you hear a lot of people say there is no hit on it.

[1110] But then it's like – There's got to be – Some people say like, oh, but except we have to make our game run at 120 frames a second.

[1111] That's marketing spin.

[1112] Like I asked one of the MotorStorm dudes at E3 straight up, like, does this hamper your performance?

[1113] And he said, yeah, absolutely.

[1114] Yeah, like there's no way you can get that pass for free on it, like where it's just like – You're doing some kind of...

[1115] But you can certainly optimize around it.

[1116] And they have.

[1117] Especially if you're from the get -go saying, we want to make this game in 3D.

[1118] That's...

[1119] You probably have a leg up if you're planning that from the get -go.

[1120] I don't want to say that the frame rate was bad.

[1121] And also, the game's not done yet.

[1122] It's not necessarily optimized.

[1123] It's hard to tell.

[1124] It seemed fine when I played it, but I don't remember if the frame rate was 100 % smooth.

[1125] The only reason I bring it up is because...

[1126] Typically Call of Duty is a 60 frames a second.

[1127] Locked, you know, just buttery smooth.

[1128] Like franchise.

[1129] It dipped a little bit, yeah.

[1130] Like it wasn't a bad frame rate.

[1131] It just was noticeably not what it usually is.

[1132] So kind of going back to what Jeff said, I know you don't have a good answer for this, but I'm just going to ask you again anyway.

[1133] And I don't really mean to kind of keep kicking this 3D dog, but do they say anything about like market penetration on 3D TVs since you need one?

[1134] Like who has them?

[1135] Like where are these people who are buying them?

[1136] I didn't think to ask about that.

[1137] It just seems so...

[1138] I don't know if these guys would have had that information anyway.

[1139] Is it something they think that's down the line?

[1140] It's something that companies like Sony and NVIDIA are paying them scads of money to implement and integrate into their games.

[1141] Try to push the 3Ds.

[1142] So be like, hey, your favorite games like Call of Duty and Crisis and Killzone and MotorStream all have 3D.

[1143] Are they going to start packaging TVs with games that like 3Ds did Best Buy special?

[1144] There's some Bravia TV that came with demos for Sony 3D games.

[1145] If you have a PlayStation 3, enter these codes to get this stuff.

[1146] That's the level that they're attempting to hit.

[1147] And that's where you've got to do it.

[1148] The last Sony firmware update for PS3 added 3D Blu -ray movie support finally.

[1149] So all those 3D Blu -ray movies, are there any?

[1150] Yeah, there are a couple.

[1151] Coraline 3D.

[1152] I don't know where the marketing synergy is here then because they're showing it on an Xbox.

[1153] Well, that's just the same.

[1154] We're doing it all over the place.

[1155] I mean, you've already seen games running in 3D.

[1156] I guess what I'm saying is I don't know who, if anyone, is paying them for this.

[1157] In this case, because they're doing it on every platform.

[1158] I don't mean to leverage them.

[1159] Remember, if it is different money coming out of Sony.

[1160] Yeah, they just want that.

[1161] Yeah.

[1162] That dollar.

[1163] That's true.

[1164] That division of Sony doesn't care what game platform you have.

[1165] I'd like to know.

[1166] I mean, if listeners out there work at big box retailers, are these things moving off shelves?

[1167] Part of me just feels no, but maybe they are.

[1168] Your wry eyebrows tell me that you don't have a lot of faith.

[1169] Like, no, right?

[1170] Yeah.

[1171] No. They're just there for demo units.

[1172] And especially, are people buying them this year?

[1173] Can people afford to?

[1174] buy that stuff like by the time 3d matters will people still be playing call of duty black ops here's why i don't think they're selling because i don't see an aftermarket for spare 3d glasses yet like everywhere if those things were going off shelves Where's my Madcats 3D glasses?

[1175] It's because you have to buy specific ones for your TV.

[1176] When you buy the TV, it's like, and if you need more glasses, call us up and pay us money and we'll send them to you.

[1177] Like we were saying earlier, we're still in the bag phone stage of this technology.

[1178] We haven't gotten to the StarTac yet.

[1179] We haven't gotten to...

[1180] In the hands of every man?

[1181] Yeah, like a Nokia 5000 series or whatever.

[1182] We haven't hit the point where...

[1183] That point is glasses -free 3D, right?

[1184] Am I wrong?

[1185] No. Either glasses -free or such a low price point for glasses that it's an inconsequential thing.

[1186] Even if they were free, though, I wouldn't want to wear the glasses.

[1187] No, I mean, I agree.

[1188] It's one of the things that still...

[1189] If the experience was dramatically better, I would totally wear the glasses.

[1190] That's the problem.

[1191] Part of why the experience is hammered with the glasses, not just that you're putting on glasses, is that they have to...

[1192] dim the image that you are seeing for you to see the image in 3D.

[1193] And then it's like, oh, everything just looks kind of darker.

[1194] It's like I'm wearing sunglasses inside because it's basically what I'm doing.

[1195] So yeah, I think Glasses Free is going to, if this technology is going to actually keep progressing like this, that'll be kind of that full broad market.

[1196] But they're still even figuring out just with glasses, like who's standard, like who decides at what refresh rate does this shit run and what's the best way to actually...

[1197] do this so so you're saying like 20 maybe yeah let's say 20 years from now some dude is gonna buy an 2010 3D television for his 2000 room.

[1198] Dude, somebody's got an old Sony 3D.

[1199] Do you remember those things?

[1200] Oh, you got the glasses.

[1201] I got two pairs that are in good shape.

[1202] Those are so hard to find.

[1203] Yeah, the battery's still working them.

[1204] Original stuff.

[1205] I got Call of Duty Black Ops to play on it.

[1206] You had to have paid so many creds for those on X -Bay.

[1207] Yeah, the guy delivered it and everything.

[1208] It was great.

[1209] I'm going to boot up Black Ops right now and check it out.

[1210] Guys?

[1211] It's true.

[1212] Crazy.

[1213] A hemfer.

[1214] Brad, any non -three -dimensional games you've been playing?

[1215] What are you playing today?

[1216] Yeah, I'm trying to think if there's anything besides that.

[1217] You can talk about that.

[1218] Yeah, Enslaved.

[1219] We talked about that some before.

[1220] We did before, but now you've played a bunch more.

[1221] I'm most of the way through it.

[1222] And I want to talk to you about that game, goddammit.

[1223] I want to.

[1224] I want to talk to you.

[1225] No, for real, because people are going crazy over that game.

[1226] It's a really good game.

[1227] And watching you play it, I just see nothing but frustration.

[1228] I've watched you play the same sequence today all day.

[1229] I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up.

[1230] That boss is not hard.

[1231] Oh, you're trying to do it like the achievement way so that you do it without getting any hits.

[1232] That boss is hard to beat without getting hit.

[1233] Yeah.

[1234] Because I realized after a while that it was just you would get hit and then you would stop and restart.

[1235] I was like, at first I thought, oh, it's just one of those bosses that's so fucked that if he gets hit at this stage in the process that he knows he won't be able to make those away.

[1236] fucking achievement is beat this boss without getting hit can you chapter select later on yeah yeah so this man um yeah and there's there's some collectibles in that game and you upgrade your powers and if you care about achievements there's achievements for upgrading like all the powers in a given category so and there's achievements for like you know easy medium hard so you could go back and chapter select and like find all the little orbs you missed and do it on hard and blah blah blah if you want to get all that stuff but let's see you like it It's a really good game.

[1237] It made a pretty good first impression, but it's gotten a lot better as it goes on.

[1238] They do a lot with...

[1239] I'm counting, right?

[1240] There are three speaking characters in that game.

[1241] And they do a lot with characters.

[1242] It almost feels trite at this point to harp on performance capture stuff in this post -Avatar world.

[1243] We did.

[1244] But I mean, yeah.

[1245] You know, in light of Avatar and like what Uncharted 2 did last year with like, you know.

[1246] Performance captures.

[1247] Yes, performance.

[1248] And, you know, Heavenly Sword, the last Ninja Theory game, relied on that stuff heavily as well and got pretty good dividends out of it.

[1249] Yeah, like I don't know how, I didn't play that game.

[1250] I don't know how it played.

[1251] Yeah.

[1252] But I remember the cut scenes looking fantastic.

[1253] Hair.

[1254] The characters, like the emotions that come out of these characters are almost startling.

[1255] Out of the performance or the actual writing?

[1256] uh some of both actually so like andy circus the golem from Lord of the Rings.

[1257] He directed and acted in most of all the scenes in this.

[1258] So he's still hooked up with his new theory guys because he did a bunch of stuff for...

[1259] Strangely, deeply involved with Ninja Theory.

[1260] Weird career path.

[1261] I guess.

[1262] I think he still does movies too, right?

[1263] Like he did King Kong.

[1264] Now I'm the mo -cap guy.

[1265] That's what I do.

[1266] I know this stuff.

[1267] But it's not just mo -cap.

[1268] It's like voiceover.

[1269] It's all like a package now.

[1270] But he wasn't before Lord of the Rings, right?

[1271] He was just an actor, wasn't he?

[1272] Yeah, I think he was like a stage actor or something.

[1273] Well, you got to act big on the stage, right?

[1274] You got to project to that audience.

[1275] Just like an odd, weird way my career went.

[1276] I guess, but I mean, if you need an outsized personality to...

[1277] Hey, man, he found his niche.

[1278] Yeah, no, totally.

[1279] That's why it's just like, wow.

[1280] And he's doing a bang -up job.

[1281] But now he's an expert.

[1282] I guess, I guess.

[1283] And not only that...

[1284] Did you play Gollum?

[1285] No. Fucking shut up.

[1286] Alex Garland wrote this game.

[1287] Screenwriter.

[1288] He's written a bunch of Danny Boyle movies.

[1289] He wrote Sunshine.

[1290] He wrote 28 Days Later.

[1291] He wrote The Beach.

[1292] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1293] A lot of real dark shit.

[1294] Yeah.

[1295] So he wrote this game.

[1296] Oh, really?

[1297] Yeah.

[1298] I understand it's also based on basically the Dragon Ball story.

[1299] Is it?

[1300] Yeah, it's basically this.

[1301] I thought it was based on some Australian cartoon.

[1302] No, that Australian cartoon is based on the same.

[1303] It's like an ancient fucking Asian myth.

[1304] Yes, what he said.

[1305] I traced the lineage back.

[1306] It goes back to a Chinese folktale from a thousand years ago.

[1307] But it's like the little telltale signs of his name is Monkey.

[1308] Is that a carryover?

[1309] Or he has some sort of monkey -like characteristics flying around on a cloud.

[1310] Okay, yeah.

[1311] He has a little...

[1312] I don't even know what to call it.

[1313] It's this little energy hoverboard, and it's called a cloud.

[1314] I didn't know that was a reference.

[1315] There have actually been several other games.

[1316] I can't pull the names off the top of my head, but there was a PlayStation 1 strategy RPG that was based on that same myth that had somewhere.

[1317] If you're familiar with other tellings of this, like the original Dragon Ball stuff, or at least the setup for that, you're like, this.

[1318] is oddly familiar.

[1319] Interesting.

[1320] Okay.

[1321] I guess there is an active cartoon right now called Monkey.

[1322] Okay.

[1323] The main character is called Monkey.

[1324] That makes sense.

[1325] They pay a lot of...

[1326] The names of the characters in that show and in this game are apparently identical.

[1327] Interesting.

[1328] They pay a lot of close attention to the way they develop the characters.

[1329] Even the physical design of Monkey, the way he moves is kind of simian.

[1330] He's got this little sash tucked into his belt that looks like a tail.

[1331] Yeah.

[1332] He climbs like crazy.

[1333] Yeah.

[1334] Yeah, I mean, it's...

[1335] And it's just the way the characters interact and stuff is just eerily believable.

[1336] Sure.

[1337] And I've seen a lot of just like the facial animation stuff, which again, I think is performance capture based.

[1338] Like you actually, even when it's just like a close shot of one character, you can tell they're making eye contact with the other character.

[1339] They look with purpose, if that makes sense.

[1340] You know what I mean?

[1341] Yeah.

[1342] It's not just like, this is where the eyes should be looking in this general direction.

[1343] It feels like these characters are really talking to each other and looking at each other and like feeling stuff.

[1344] And it's...

[1345] I hate fielding stuff.

[1346] It's the worst.

[1347] It makes me so angry.

[1348] I don't know.

[1349] It's weird that we would be so impressed with the most basic elements of human interaction.

[1350] It's like heavy rain.

[1351] Oh, dude.

[1352] Heavy rain could have used a dose of this stuff.

[1353] Well, it's still the nuances.

[1354] It's the small stuff, especially when you're trying to get that level of fidelity.

[1355] It's easy when you have a very abstracted, for lack of a better word, avatar.

[1356] on the screen where it's like, oh, okay, when he makes the smiley face, he's happy.

[1357] When he makes the frowny face, he's frowny.

[1358] And then you can kind of embellish on that stuff with the writing of it.

[1359] But when you're trying to do this lifelike kind of rendition of these characters.

[1360] Oh, monkey, I thought you were the one who liked to climb.

[1361] Let's go jump.

[1362] Dad will be so impressed.

[1363] Oh, no. We have died.

[1364] This is terrible.

[1365] I'm not going to make it.

[1366] Smile.

[1367] You are going to make it.

[1368] I will see to it that you make it.

[1369] We will make it together, you and I, because I care about you very deeply.

[1370] Let's go eat some pizza.

[1371] We like that.

[1372] So Enslaved.

[1373] Yeah.

[1374] Out in stores.

[1375] Pretty good.

[1376] Out in stores this week.

[1377] Out today.

[1378] Yeah, the gameplay is mostly pretty good.

[1379] Really good.

[1380] It varies.

[1381] Great.

[1382] The Prince of Persia climbing stuff.

[1383] Sometimes not as intuitive as you would like.

[1384] So is it like traversal and then hand -to -hand combat?

[1385] Yeah, yeah.

[1386] The hand -to -hand combat stuff works really well.

[1387] It's really satisfying.

[1388] I got a really shitty question for you.

[1389] Okay.

[1390] Any platform differences, PS3, 360?

[1391] I haven't tried the PS3 one yet.

[1392] Okay.

[1393] Multiplayer -like?

[1394] Do you have bridges in it?

[1395] Zilch.

[1396] Yes.

[1397] No multiplayer?

[1398] Great.

[1399] S -rank.

[1400] Let's go.

[1401] You could get close.

[1402] There's a handful of achievements that would be a real pain in the ass.

[1403] Like find every orb in the entire game.

[1404] Oh, that's what Vinny does.

[1405] Yeah, but there's a lot of them.

[1406] That's his bread and butter right there.

[1407] There's like hundreds of them.

[1408] I don't know if I'll have time between that and Dragon Age.

[1409] But yeah, it's a really impressive game.

[1410] I'm ready.

[1411] Unreal Engine.

[1412] It's a great -looking game, but that engine doesn't really do it a service.

[1413] You get the kind of pop -up texture.

[1414] A lot of texture popping.

[1415] Rampant.

[1416] Every time it changes camera angles, practically.

[1417] Going back to Borderlands reminded me. It had been a while since I played a game that did that so heavily.

[1418] So I'm kind of curious about any platform differences.

[1419] The PS3.

[1420] Yeah, I don't know.

[1421] I mean, they came from PS3.

[1422] Yeah, Heavenly Sword was.

[1423] I don't know.

[1424] I feel like we've heard from developers.

[1425] We know that Unreal Engine is pretty much like...

[1426] They've reached parity on the PS3 at this point.

[1427] I think that they're basically the same.

[1428] So does this then make you more excited about the concept of them doing a Devil May Cry?

[1429] Yes.

[1430] Absolutely.

[1431] But I say that as someone with no interest or...

[1432] Right.

[1433] Yes.

[1434] Not as a DC fan.

[1435] Vinny, I have no reverent feeling for Devil May Cry.

[1436] Good use of the word reverent Brad Shoemaker.

[1437] Is that on a coffee cup?

[1438] Yeah, it's on this coffee cup here.

[1439] Oh, is that where that came from?

[1440] Okay.

[1441] Yeah.

[1442] Yeah.

[1443] Apparently Boy Scouts, they are reverent.

[1444] That's one of the things.

[1445] Yeah.

[1446] Oh, okay.

[1447] They're also clean.

[1448] Clean.

[1449] Yeah.

[1450] It's, you know.

[1451] How many of the Boy Scouts?

[1452] It's like coffee cup from like 1955.

[1453] They also are thrifty.

[1454] Yep.

[1455] Brave.

[1456] Cheerful.

[1457] Obedient.

[1458] Yeah.

[1459] I can't see the rest of them.

[1460] Kind, courteous, friendly, helpful.

[1461] Loyal and trustworthy.

[1462] I knew this left -hand side of trustworthy through kind.

[1463] I was not down with the brave, clean, and reverent.

[1464] With obedient and clean.

[1465] I think somebody added this shit in.

[1466] Maybe like two of those things.

[1467] Clean.

[1468] No. Just keep going.

[1469] That's 2010.

[1470] That's this year.

[1471] That's this year's coffee cup.

[1472] Just keep adding stuff.

[1473] Yeah, reverent.

[1474] Yeah, like I'm not – I don't hold Devil May Cry close to my heart or anything, so I – But you've seen a game that Ninja Theory has made, and you said these guys can make a good -looking, fun...

[1475] Yeah, and the character action component of this game is really good, which is what Devil May Cry is, right?

[1476] Unless they're going to put racing or dating simulation...

[1477] I don't know.

[1478] If they're making, in spirit, a Devil May Cry game where you run around and kill a bunch of enemies, they know how to do that.

[1479] Great.

[1480] And, yeah, performance stuff.

[1481] Fantastic.

[1482] Sweet!

[1483] Let's take it to news!

[1484] Unless you had anything else, Brad?

[1485] Wow Cataclysm is coming out December 7th.

[1486] They have a date.

[1487] What are they going to announce at BlizzCon now?

[1488] They're going to get eaten up by Tron.

[1489] I think that's out the same day, isn't it?

[1490] Yeah, that's right.

[1491] Tron's going to whip the ass.

[1492] They should just step aside.

[1493] They know what's good for them.

[1494] Wow Cataclysm is cancelled.

[1495] Seriously, though, somebody who might need to book travel for BlizzCon.

[1496] What do you think?

[1497] What are they going to announce there?

[1498] Maybe they'll show the movie.

[1499] Dude, I don't think there's, yeah.

[1500] They'll show some Diablo.

[1501] Diablo class stuff.

[1502] More Diablo stuff.

[1503] Maybe some Zerg.

[1504] I'm surprised they announced this.

[1505] I mean, BlizzCon is like two weeks from now?

[1506] I don't know.

[1507] Three weeks?

[1508] Seems like the kind of thing they would announce there.

[1509] WoW 2.

[1510] I don't know.

[1511] The people at BlizzCon, they all pre -ordered it anyway.

[1512] But they keep saying they're working on their other MMO or something like that.

[1513] They're like, there you go.

[1514] Just get Starcraft MMO.

[1515] Yeah, maybe they announced like, and by the way, Cataclysm is our last expansion.

[1516] Yep.

[1517] Because you'll want to play this.

[1518] Rock and roll racing.

[1519] I think they've said that other MMO is not going to compete with it.

[1520] Yeah, they keep saying it's a different.

[1521] How is that?

[1522] I mean, it'll be a different kind of game is what they're saying.

[1523] What is that?

[1524] Card game.

[1525] Electable card game.

[1526] A collectible card game.

[1527] That still competes with WoW directly.

[1528] It must be like a Free Realms clone.

[1529] Based on poker.

[1530] WoW has everything in it at this.

[1531] I don't think it could make anything.

[1532] Maybe they're doing Tony Hawk.

[1533] Maybe that's the Tony Hawk project.

[1534] The skater MMO.

[1535] It's a board sports MMO.

[1536] That might be the only thing I can think of that doesn't compete with WoW.

[1537] It's going to be persistent guitar hero.

[1538] Guitar hero world.

[1539] They have that band in WoW.

[1540] What?

[1541] What are they called?

[1542] The band.

[1543] The WoWheads.

[1544] Oh, the level 80 elite horn chieftain?

[1545] There you go.

[1546] WoWza.

[1547] We didn't talk about StarCraft.

[1548] They have that band in WoW called Rainers.

[1549] Do you think there's going to be anything StarCraft related at WizCon?

[1550] They might show some concept art from the Zerg box or something.

[1551] Is Zerg next or is Protoss next?

[1552] Zerg is next.

[1553] That seems weird.

[1554] No, that's how it was in Starcraft.

[1555] That's the order of the original Starcraft.

[1556] It just seems like all of the real plot shit is between the humans and the Zerg.

[1557] Brood war was different.

[1558] Up front, yeah.

[1559] I mean, clearly the Protoss are a significant kind of agent in this whole story, but it kind of seems like it's...

[1560] When it comes down to it, it's fucking...

[1561] It's space marines versus aliens.

[1562] Yeah.

[1563] Well, the way they set up the story.

[1564] No, totally.

[1565] It sounds anticlimactic.

[1566] What's the threat?

[1567] Yeah, if we're going to get the big Zerg kind of plot push out of the way in the second one, what happens in number three?

[1568] Well, we don't want to spoil it.

[1569] You're never going to finish.

[1570] No, go ahead.

[1571] Do you know what happens at the end of the story?

[1572] Kind of, yeah.

[1573] Do you care?

[1574] No, not really.

[1575] Anybody doesn't want to know what happens at the end of Starcraft 2?

[1576] Skip ahead like five minutes.

[1577] Turn the podcast off right now.

[1578] Oh, okay.

[1579] Oh, fuck.

[1580] It's weird that I totally do want to finish that game.

[1581] All right, now I feel terrible for anybody who accidentally heard that.

[1582] What?

[1583] We gave them a pretty fair warning, I think.

[1584] I might just bleep that out.

[1585] Yeah.

[1586] I might just leave that.

[1587] Well, mysterious.

[1588] Well, if you finished it, then you know, and if you haven't finished it, then you don't.

[1589] That's a pretty big one.

[1590] Yeah.

[1591] That's pretty much it.

[1592] That's it.

[1593] I was going to say, that's all StarCraft has as far as I'm concerned.

[1594] Now I'm partially interested, but also I thought I had heard what the fuck that game was, but Jesus.

[1595] Now I'm just like, what the fuck are they going to do for the rest of these games?

[1596] That's what I'm saying.

[1597] I'm super re -pumped about StarCraft 2.

[1598] So yes, Zerg is the next box.

[1599] How the hell do you make that game now that that's happened?

[1600] I don't know.

[1601] Anyway, are we back?

[1602] We came back a little while ago.

[1603] We cut back.

[1604] Anyway, I think they will maybe show some concept art from that thing.

[1605] While we are back, I will say that it will be very hard for them, I think, to talk about that game at all without spoiling the first game.

[1606] Maybe.

[1607] Well, there's a lot of gameplay questions because they're saying the whole metagame, like all the walking around your ship and upgrading in the tech lab and all that stuff, it's completely gone.

[1608] It's going to be something Zerg -specific for the next game.

[1609] And people will continue to ask questions about what impact is this going to have on multiplayer, if not.

[1610] That will continue to be a line of questioning.

[1611] Oh, man, I don't want to talk about the GSL so bad.

[1612] Who?

[1613] Oh, I know.

[1614] That's why we're going to move on.

[1615] Fruit dealer.

[1616] 2010.

[1617] What?

[1618] It's the last thing I want to hear a grown man grunt out.

[1619] Fruit dealer.

[1620] Fruit dealer.

[1621] You should have heard the commentators, dude.

[1622] Dude, they were totally doing that the whole time.

[1623] Everybody's in love with that guy.

[1624] Fruit dealer.

[1625] Here's the story behind Fruit Dealer, though.

[1626] I know Vinny can appreciate this.

[1627] You can appreciate Fruit Dealer, can't you, Vinny?

[1628] I bet you can.

[1629] Okay, all right, fine.

[1630] You know what?

[1631] He was a professional brood war player.

[1632] He went by Cool, and then his dad got very sick, and he had to quit to take care of his dad.

[1633] And he sold fruit to make money to pay for his dad's medical bills.

[1634] Really?

[1635] And then when this huge -ass 85 grand tournament came around for StarCraft II, he came out of retirement.

[1636] And went in there and won that fucking money.

[1637] Wait, did he make enough money?

[1638] So he could give it to his parents for medical bills.

[1639] That's a movie right there.

[1640] Now make fun of Fruit Dealer.

[1641] There's the movie that Bobby Kotick has been talking about.

[1642] He changed his name to Fruit Dealer in honor of what he was doing to make money.

[1643] Why didn't he change his name to his dad or something like that?

[1644] Actually, I don't know how sick his dad is.

[1645] That part is like message.

[1646] Anyway, I'm not laughing.

[1647] The movie is 100 % accurate except in real life.

[1648] Facebook.

[1649] I don't know if he has like stage four cancer.

[1650] Also, I know that there was like some illness involved.

[1651] I don't want to.

[1652] Anyway, it's a feel good story.

[1653] This person's family.

[1654] It's a feel good story.

[1655] I hope he wins money.

[1656] I was never a marathon runner.

[1657] Mustache, you know.

[1658] Stay there for a while.

[1659] We only present the facts because of it what you will.

[1660] Anyway, next season of GSL is starting soon.

[1661] So you can't call them seasons when it's monthly.

[1662] I know.

[1663] I agree with you.

[1664] But on the website, when you buy the pass, you're buying a season pass per month.

[1665] So every month you have to re -up?

[1666] Every month is a season.

[1667] Yeah, that's how the payment is structured.

[1668] Oh, and seasons.

[1669] But also each monthly tournament.

[1670] Do they have a way of roping you into multiple seasons?

[1671] Yeah, you can pay for the whole.

[1672] They've only planned out the first three months because they're not sure how this is going to catch, but it is fucking catching.

[1673] Yeah.

[1674] Three of the biggest Brood War pros in the last two weeks have announced that they are leaving Brood War to come over to StarCraft 2.

[1675] They put out press releases.

[1676] Practically.

[1677] When you say announce, I just expect...

[1678] It's a huge deal.

[1679] It is a huge fucking deal.

[1680] There's a blue microphone.

[1681] Someone's handing them a jersey.

[1682] Guys that are wearing suits that normally don't wear suits, so it's kind of ill -fitting and odd.

[1683] The politics of StarCraft are weird enough that that is a big deal.

[1684] These guys are all signed onto long -term contracts with teams and sponsors and stuff over there for Rude War.

[1685] StarCraft 2 has no such contractual obligation, so they just come out of there as a free agent and just do whatever the hell they want.

[1686] That's awesome.

[1687] But also, those dudes get recognized on the street.

[1688] Models and stuff.

[1689] Like those guys are fucking celebrities over there.

[1690] I know it's bizarre.

[1691] All right.

[1692] All right.

[1693] Microsoft's going to give out some points if you buy shit this month.

[1694] What?

[1695] So if you buy 2 ,400 points worth of stuff.

[1696] 2 ,400 points worth of stuff or points?

[1697] Spend.

[1698] You have to spend.

[1699] You can't just buy points.

[1700] You have to.

[1701] Buy points and spend them.

[1702] Buy and then.

[1703] You can already have them.

[1704] I don't care if you buy them now or if you already bought them previously.

[1705] Got it.

[1706] Spend 2 ,400 points this month.

[1707] How much do I get?

[1708] You get 800 points.

[1709] What?

[1710] Really?

[1711] On whatever.

[1712] Like, they did this basic thing with this.

[1713] They did this thing.

[1714] Comic Jumper.

[1715] Yeah, Comic Jumper.

[1716] Comic Jumper and...

[1717] And bald effects, too.

[1718] Game Room.

[1719] Every week.

[1720] Clothing Party is going to be out later.

[1721] Right.

[1722] Or Costume Quest.

[1723] Costume Assassin.

[1724] Totally buy that.

[1725] Yeah, that's coming out on the 20th, and that's going to be 1 ,200 points, so that's half your nut right there.

[1726] Okay.

[1727] Game Room.

[1728] That doesn't even count.

[1729] That doesn't even count.

[1730] Can you only do that once?

[1731] Jeff will spend his $2 ,400 through the month of October.

[1732] Is it a one -time thing or can I spend another $2 ,400?

[1733] I don't think you can double up on how much you get back.

[1734] I think it's just at $2 ,400.

[1735] All right.

[1736] Somebody was saying there was a...

[1737] So they did this during Summer of Arcade where it was like if you bought all of the games in the Summer of Arcade this past one that you would get some little 800 -point kickback.

[1738] Super Meat Boy is also out this one.

[1739] Wow, really?

[1740] Done.

[1741] So between Super Meat Boy and Costume Quest, I understand.

[1742] I get it.

[1743] That game is pretty messed up.

[1744] And those guys admit that it's pretty messed up.

[1745] But I think it's messed up in the right ways.

[1746] I've spent points on worse.

[1747] That's right.

[1748] And I'm into that game.

[1749] I've definitely misspent.

[1750] I bought that Death Spank sequel.

[1751] You done fucked up.

[1752] We did that quick look.

[1753] I bought it so I could play it enough to do that quick look.

[1754] And then thought, well, maybe I could go on a review it.

[1755] And then a billion games came out.

[1756] Also, it was more death spank.

[1757] Jeff, you also said isn't Rock Band 3 coming out this month?

[1758] Yeah, that's out this month.

[1759] DLC?

[1760] I'm sure there will be some sort of Rock Band 3 specific DLC.

[1761] I just bought the Snoop Dogg DLC.

[1762] Yeah.

[1763] Rock Band 2 era DLC, obviously.

[1764] It's all coming into 3.

[1765] Same thing.

[1766] Bring it all in.

[1767] Yeah, they don't add.

[1768] So you get pro drums automatically because...

[1769] Apparently, they've been coding drums like that all along.

[1770] And just hiding it?

[1771] Yeah.

[1772] But, you know, they're not going to add keyboards.

[1773] It doesn't add key parts or pro guitar.

[1774] As long as you can play it.

[1775] Yeah, you can still play it.

[1776] Snoop stuff could have really benefited from it.

[1777] Well, theoretically, you know, they did say that there would be an option, or they're looking at options to add keys to stuff.

[1778] So I imagine there'll be some sort of, like, I don't know what they've said about this stuff, but I imagine they'll probably, like, sell, like, upgrade.

[1779] Like, hey.

[1780] Remastered.

[1781] You know you want to play the key parts on Don't Stop Believin'.

[1782] Don't be a dumbass.

[1783] Give us another dollar.

[1784] Okay.

[1785] People are like, well, all right.

[1786] You're right, I do.

[1787] Anyways, if you were going to buy stuff on Xbox Live Arcade this month, do that anyways because they'll give you a little kickback and that's nice.

[1788] Somebody said they were offering a...

[1789] I have to wonder if this is like just...

[1790] This almost just seems like, let's see if we can goose sales with this simple little promotion.

[1791] Because they've done this like they've attached it to bigger deals before.

[1792] Like, let's just go broader.

[1793] Maybe this is just a sign that their Summer of Arcade promotion didn't really work the way they wanted it to.

[1794] Maybe just not enough people bought.

[1795] All of those, or bought those games specifically.

[1796] Like, our Xbox Live sales are crazy right now, but it's not necessarily because of these games.

[1797] What if we just say, fucking buy anything?

[1798] Like, well, maybe that'll goose it.

[1799] Yeah, the structure of that thing, especially with this past summer of Arcade with Castlevania in there.

[1800] Maybe they're going to raise the price of points.

[1801] Yeah, they had to buy all of those to get the thing.

[1802] Trying to get you to sell your stock and they're going to raise it up.

[1803] Don't you dare talk to me about raising the price of points.

[1804] And then they're like, oh, you spent it on $2 ,400.

[1805] Oh, they're a little bit more.

[1806] They don't have to raise the price of points.

[1807] They just raise what the accepted standard is for the price of stuff.

[1808] It goes from games being $5 to games being $10 to games being $15.

[1809] It's going to be more subtle.

[1810] There's like two cents here.

[1811] Not enough people are getting outraged about the brazen approach they're taking now for them to care.

[1812] I heard they're offering something like...

[1813] buy two years of membership or something, you get a discount?

[1814] Yeah, they've been discounting gold stuff ever since they announced that the price of that was going up to $60.

[1815] It's like $80 or something for two years?

[1816] They had a couple of different promotions with that.

[1817] When Reach came out, you could sign up for gold for $30 through the dashboard.

[1818] Not even going to buy .com and get a $30 card or whatever, which you should just do anyway.

[1819] So they'd raise the price and then just keep discounting it?

[1820] It hasn't been raised yet.

[1821] November.

[1822] All right, so you guys know Medal of Honor.

[1823] That's a game that's coming out.

[1824] First -person shooter set in modern military times.

[1825] A big deal was made about the fact that they were going to use the Taliban by name as the fighters that your U .S. soldiers would go against.

[1826] Yes, the trademarked the Taliban -branded terrorist group.

[1827] We've got the CRIPS license.

[1828] I remember that conversation.

[1829] There was a game that had the Crips license.

[1830] What was that?

[1831] They were going to put the Bloods and Crips in.

[1832] Wait, that's not the game I think is.

[1833] It ended up not happening.

[1834] Oh, okay.

[1835] It ended up not happening.

[1836] That game went in a different direction.

[1837] Very different direction.

[1838] What was that Eidos game that seemed like that would be appropriate?

[1839] 187 Ride or Die.

[1840] No, it was a shooter.

[1841] Real.

[1842] What was that?

[1843] Yeah, yeah.

[1844] It was like a totally urban -themed third -person shooter.

[1845] Was that the one that was like John Singleton was working on that got canceled?

[1846] No, it came out.

[1847] It's the one I never saw before, and I played video, and then you guys were like, yeah, no, that was totally a game.

[1848] I was like, really?

[1849] What game is this?

[1850] It had like an online multiplayer component.

[1851] Yeah.

[1852] I went way out to Dogpatch to see it.

[1853] What was that game?

[1854] All right.

[1855] Anyways, while you think of that, yeah, so apparently there's been just enough.

[1856] Enough blowback over the use of the Taliban name.

[1857] Now, this change is just for multiplayer.

[1858] This is strictly for multiplayer.

[1859] The storyline is what it is because, you know, all the stink was raised because you would play as the Taliban.

[1860] So now it'll just say, what is it?

[1861] Opposing Force.

[1862] Totally different.

[1863] They'll get black visors on their, you know, on their Air Force, on their helmets.

[1864] Isn't that what Modern Warfare uses?

[1865] Op 4.

[1866] Op 4, yeah.

[1867] No, no, they say, well, it's like Spetsnaz.

[1868] They'll say like...

[1869] I'm pretty sure the Middle Eastern guys are up for.

[1870] And it's weird because there's a lot of quotes from, you know, and we, this is because of the outrage and the people we talked to.

[1871] We didn't want to, it's like, no, no. The people you talked to were shareholders.

[1872] Don't be crazy.

[1873] Yo, business.

[1874] Shareholders get all antsy when their game is at the center of a controversy of this nature.

[1875] So what do you do when you're skittish about this reboot of a game?

[1876] You say, opposing force.

[1877] I mean, it's really whatever.

[1878] It's kind of like a non -change.

[1879] It's like, whatever, not that big a deal.

[1880] Because it is just multiplayer.

[1881] Whatever they're doing with the story.

[1882] Changing a text string.

[1883] Which is still going to be set in Afghanistan and have all of that shit in it.

[1884] The story is still the thing.

[1885] It's just the...

[1886] Yeah.

[1887] You will not be playing as the Taliban by name.

[1888] Guess what?

[1889] Public companies don't like to take crazy risks like that, and they should have known that before they even went down this road in the first place.

[1890] Then, Jeff, what do you make of this next story of Gears of War 3 being pushed back to fall 2011?

[1891] Clearly they just needed more time to record more Ice -T dialogue.

[1892] They must be expanding his role in the game.

[1893] Well, then they must have him under a deep NDA because he has explicitly said on Twitter that not his part's done.

[1894] Well, they're also not playing.

[1895] They're actually just adding new lines based on what he went into.

[1896] They're just going to chop up the stuff.

[1897] They're just going to DMX keyboard him.

[1898] I like this.

[1899] You're also not playing against the Lambent anymore.

[1900] Yeah.

[1901] It's the opposing force.

[1902] Opposing force.

[1903] You're not playing against the opposing force of Ice -T's.

[1904] And out of spoilers, you lose.

[1905] Against Ice -T.

[1906] Of course.

[1907] Yeah.

[1908] Well, whatever.

[1909] Yeah, I know.

[1910] That's why I was being ironic about the spoilers, Warren.

[1911] Once you knew that you're fighting.

[1912] Forces of lambent iced teas.

[1913] Everybody knows.

[1914] Blows in the dark.

[1915] And he does that anyways.

[1916] Yeah.

[1917] That's why it's so hard to tell.

[1918] Are you okay?

[1919] No. No, I'm lambent.

[1920] A lambent iced tea blows up when you shoot him, but you ain't going to shoot him.

[1921] You're not going to have the chance.

[1922] They didn't say why, right?

[1923] They said business.

[1924] They said business.

[1925] I think they just, they have a hole in their fucking fourth quarter next year that they need to fill.

[1926] Oh, so this wasn't even just like a, they actually came right out and said like, ah.

[1927] They said like, no, we were fine.

[1928] Like, this is just going to let us make it more awesome.

[1929] They say that this had nothing to do with development.

[1930] They were just being very vague about like, for business reasons is why we're doing this.

[1931] What else is coming out that they're putting?

[1932] So don't expect Halo next year.

[1933] Yeah, this is basically like, yeah, there will be no Halo 4 in 2011.

[1934] Gotcha.

[1935] Wink, wink.

[1936] Wow.

[1937] Man. That puts it in a completely different light.

[1938] Right?

[1939] You think they...

[1940] No. What?

[1941] They could not have been expecting to ship the new Halo game next year.

[1942] I don't know.

[1943] Really?

[1944] I mean, it would be a little weird.

[1945] It feels like 343 is just now staffing up, though.

[1946] It doesn't seem like nearly enough time if they're just...

[1947] Well, DLC.

[1948] Maybe that's why they had to move gears.

[1949] Well, I thought that's what you were implying, that they moved it to...

[1950] Yes.

[1951] I'm applying that they're moving it to fall because they have a hole.

[1952] I don't know what that hole could be.

[1953] I thought you specifically meant a halo -shaped hole.

[1954] It could be a halo -shaped hole.

[1955] Although I agree that the traditional trade -off has been halo and gears.

[1956] Those have been the big two.

[1957] We're showing at E3.

[1958] So if you're pushing gears back for...

[1959] That reason, if you're pushing gears back for business reasons, it's because you know you're not going to have a Halo game to go there.

[1960] I had a listener write in, and they had a theory that this was not in reaction to anything to do with Halo.

[1961] This may be a little kind of crazy theory, but I'm interested in it.

[1962] But they were so unhappy with how Alan Wake performed in that same time slot.

[1963] That same release slot is when Alan Wake came out this year.

[1964] Maybe they put whatever it was that they put into Alan Wake and had certain expectations for it and maybe didn't meet those expectations.

[1965] It's Gears of War.

[1966] I agree.

[1967] It's such a different beast.

[1968] Alan Wake had other issues besides the month it came out.

[1969] Yeah, I agree with that.

[1970] Gears of War makes shipping the same day as Red Dead.

[1971] I feel like Gears of War at this point makes whatever month it's shipped into the event.

[1972] It's like, ah, it's, you know, sh**.

[1973] Ship in March.

[1974] It's like the Mass Effect or the Street Fighter or whatever.

[1975] It's like whenever it comes out is the big event.

[1976] You're probably right.

[1977] But at the same time, if these things are piling up of like, shit, we don't have the big Q4 shooter for our system.

[1978] And then also, hey, we kind of got burned last year with our big first party title push right there.

[1979] It's reasonable.

[1980] They move to when?

[1981] Fall.

[1982] They've moved to fall.

[1983] To fall.

[1984] Yeah, I mean, you want a big holiday game that doesn't get bigger than Gears 3.

[1985] Maybe they know that...

[1986] And the guys at Epic are all super upbeat, just basically like, yep, we're going to have more time to do this, so it's not like we are crapping things up.

[1987] And it separates it from Bulletstorm a lot further as well.

[1988] That's a Q1.

[1989] And maybe they feel like, you know, maybe there's a little more wiggle room now that maybe the Call of Duty franchise is, you know, don't have another Modern Warfare 3 coming out.

[1990] this year, and they can take over a little bit of that holiday money again.

[1991] Those guys put a name and title on their stuff yet?

[1992] Respawn guys?

[1993] Yeah.

[1994] No, they won't even commit to what type of game they're making.

[1995] I bet it's a first -person shooter.

[1996] What do you think?

[1997] Think?

[1998] Nah.

[1999] Been there.

[2000] Persistent rhythm game.

[2001] Let's just play our new IP guessing game.

[2002] Sure.

[2003] What do you think Bungie's going to make for Activate?

[2004] Racing games.

[2005] Yeah.

[2006] Pure racing games.

[2007] Gotham.

[2008] They took that with them.

[2009] That was part of the deal.

[2010] Very hush -hush.

[2011] They didn't talk a lot about that.

[2012] DLC for Guitar Hero.

[2013] Beyond Good and Evil is coming to downloadable systems near you in 2011 in high definitions.

[2014] There's string cheese included.

[2015] No string cheese this time, but it will be...

[2016] They will upgrade, they'll up -res some graphics, some textures, and leave all the bugs in, and then charge you like 15 or 20 bucks.

[2017] Was that buggy?

[2018] Was that a buggy game?

[2019] No, but it came out in 2003, and I know that seems like the relatively recent past.

[2020] That was like seven years ago.

[2021] Yeah.

[2022] And so that game's kind of old now.

[2023] Like, it was cool at the time.

[2024] I mean, I did not necessarily love it the same way that people who really love it love it.

[2025] I really liked it.

[2026] The stealth parts were terrible.

[2027] At the time, it was a good...

[2028] Like, it was a really interesting kind of, you know, smash the machine, kind of, you know, fight the man kind of thing.

[2029] Well, that seems like exactly what this is a prelude to, right?

[2030] I thought, didn't they openly can that?

[2031] No, no, no. We were told at E3 specifically that it was kind of still a thing.

[2032] I think it was Ansel had basically said, like, we're not soon.

[2033] Yeah, not soon.

[2034] I have to imagine that they'll put this out and gauge interest and see where to go from there.

[2035] They've got ideas for a circle.

[2036] I have to wonder if Ancel is almost like a Miyamoto -esque figure now where he's just creatively advising multiple projects at a time and stuff.

[2037] I don't know.

[2038] I have no idea.

[2039] Hard to say what that guy's involvement specifically is in these games.

[2040] A lot of charm in that game, though.

[2041] Good personality.

[2042] Yeah, absolutely.

[2043] So is it worth...

[2044] I mean, that's the thing that I'll be curious to see.

[2045] The photography mechanic, too, and stuff.

[2046] Like, good art style, good characters.

[2047] It was Zelda -esque.

[2048] It was very Zelda -esque.

[2049] Oh, interesting.

[2050] Except for, like, the stealth stuff.

[2051] Except for the stealth stuff.

[2052] Like, good universe, like, kind of fun.

[2053] They're like anthropomorphic pigs.

[2054] Yeah.

[2055] Interesting.

[2056] All sorts of weird anthropomorphic characters.

[2057] Strong female protagonist.

[2058] Yeah.

[2059] She's an interesting character.

[2060] Good stuff there.

[2061] And she covered wars.

[2062] Kind of adventure game -y in some ways.

[2063] Yeah, yeah.

[2064] Yeah, yeah.

[2065] I'll give you that.

[2066] Bought that game.

[2067] When it came out, it's still in the shrink wrap.

[2068] Yo, sell it.

[2069] Really?

[2070] I don't know.

[2071] Because at this point, I'd rather just play this new thing.

[2072] Yeah, I think you'll be fine.

[2073] I will be curious to see how the gameplay of that stands out.

[2074] Yeah, I wonder how it will be received by people who don't hold any nostalgia for the original game.

[2075] That's a great question.

[2076] That's a game that after seven years, I feel like you're going to look at it and go like, yeah, especially if they're just releasing it as is and cleaning it up graphically.

[2077] I think there are going to be a lot of people that will be like, why are people all fucking crazy about this game?

[2078] This game is kind of janky.

[2079] I think that it's one of those games that I think that you probably see the influence of in other games that have come out since, but they've incorporated them into games that feel more modern and more familiar, more approachable.

[2080] They did a very good job with just like, you know, it was...

[2081] an emotional story in spots like they did a really good job with with the storytelling and stuff like that and i think that stuff will definitely hold up because it's not like video games have suddenly gotten all mature since then no it's not yeah i don't know gameplay good for the time not even not even necessarily like amazing for the time no no definitely not so we'll see yeah we shall see but yeah like strong art style so i could see if I could see that still carrying fine because it was even – If by HD they mean they're redoing all of the models, great.

[2082] If they are upraising textures and put that out, not great.

[2083] I think that's probably what they're doing.

[2084] But it was kind of even at the time a pretty like – you know, like Rayman 2 was not about necessarily the highest graphical fidelity.

[2085] It was about like let's make good use of these textures and a lot of style.

[2086] But I think games have even done like stylistic representations of polygonal people.

[2087] Better.

[2088] So much better since then.

[2089] I don't doubt that.

[2090] The style only goes so far.

[2091] You will have to, I think, regardless, I think you'll have to approach this when this comes out as a re -release.

[2092] Yeah, this is an old thing.

[2093] This isn't, we've rebuilt this for you.

[2094] This is old.

[2095] And know that going in.

[2096] Call of Duty Black Ops is going to have a zombie mode.

[2097] What kind of zombies?

[2098] 3D zombies.

[2099] Who are they?

[2100] I do not know if they are Nazi zombies or if they are just zombies.

[2101] Opposing force zombies?

[2102] Tommy zombies.

[2103] They are zombies.

[2104] I mean, zombies really are the most opposing of forces.

[2105] It's a zombie opposing force.

[2106] What?

[2107] You know, those opposing forces, you know, the bad guys.

[2108] I did not like the Nazi zombie mode in that game very much.

[2109] It was kind of cool once.

[2110] I had one or two really good games of it, but the week before it came out, I never wanted to play it again.

[2111] It was just not what I was coming to that game for.

[2112] I was like, okay, yeah, I'm going to keep boarding up these rooms, and we're going to keep doing this.

[2113] It was really weird.

[2114] All I'm saying is that it was really weird.

[2115] to see that catch on about that game and have people go, like, super crazy for it.

[2116] So it was, like, the whole time I'm just, like, throwing up my hands and going, like, what are you people talking about?

[2117] Yeah, it's a thing now, I guess.

[2118] It's cool.

[2119] It's cool.

[2120] Like, over time, they got really heavy with, like, stat tracking it on their site and stuff.

[2121] Yeah, yeah.

[2122] Like, people got really into it.

[2123] So I will say, if they're not...

[2124] They put out DLC, focused on it.

[2125] I think, you know, Treyarch just found their thing.

[2126] They found, like, we did something.

[2127] We did something with Call of Duty that people really liked, and so we're just going to cling to that for dear life.

[2128] Please, please like our next game.

[2129] If they're not Nazis, though, it is a little weird.

[2130] Like Nazis, I can almost get behind where it's like, oh, yeah, kind of a cult.

[2131] Like they have this kind of weird mythology of kind of like being in the occult.

[2132] If they're like insurgents that are Nazis and – It just gets a little, like...

[2133] But would it be weirder?

[2134] Nazi insurgents?

[2135] I was going to say, like...

[2136] That's a mode I'd give on.

[2137] Oh, I'm sorry.

[2138] Zombies, yeah.

[2139] Nazi insurgents, sure.

[2140] Is it weirder if you are...

[2141] Sorry, we just made them Nazis.

[2142] Zomb 4.

[2143] Is it weirder if you were just the fucking Vietnam War, you know...

[2144] Yeah, it's just like Cold War era and all of a sudden...

[2145] Nazis show up?

[2146] I mean, I guess, you know, whatever.

[2147] Wait, what?

[2148] Like, what if you were...

[2149] Like, this game, this is not a World War II game.

[2150] Right.

[2151] So if you have Nazi zombies, it's like, what?

[2152] Why?

[2153] I don't know.

[2154] Why put that mode in there?

[2155] That's the part that breaks it for me. It's not the zombie part.

[2156] It's the Nazi part.

[2157] I think it would be way cooler though if they like – You make Viet Cong zombies.

[2158] Oh, congies.

[2159] And you give them a donkey.

[2160] Uh -huh.

[2161] That is also a zombie.

[2162] No, the donkey congies are – that's my arcade award show that we hold once a year.

[2163] Okay.

[2164] The congies.

[2165] That's – Most improved Sinistar player goes to...

[2166] Oh, Nintendo 3DS.

[2167] They had a thing last week where they said that they're going to put it out.

[2168] And they're going to put it out on February the 26th, 2011 in Japan.

[2169] That is not November at all.

[2170] No. I feel like the internet lied to me. For 25 ,000 yen.

[2171] What is that?

[2172] It's like $300.

[2173] The math is kind of weird.

[2174] I mean, yeah, it is.

[2175] But like current economic states are weird.

[2176] But that doesn't necessarily mean that when they release it here the following month or something, right?

[2177] But at the same time, they've said that – I guess they didn't say officially, but they hinted at it could be out in the states as early as March.

[2178] They have said March worldwide, I think.

[2179] 2011, so.

[2180] And there is a history of kind of this price point in Japan and then like $250 in the States.

[2181] Still pushing it.

[2182] I tend to agree, but...

[2183] That's risky.

[2184] Yeah, that's high.

[2185] What it is, though, is it's...

[2186] I don't think it's risky at all.

[2187] Yeah, it gives them a launch price to sell to the people that don't give a fuck.

[2188] And then by the time sensitive people get in, they'll cut the price.

[2189] If you think it's part of their strategy to...

[2190] not sell to the mass market initially, then sure.

[2191] Oh, I think absolutely.

[2192] Okay.

[2193] I don't think they'll have enough of them out there.

[2194] Yeah.

[2195] I read somewhere that they were projecting like 4 million sales the first month.

[2196] That's a lot of units.

[2197] Yeah.

[2198] That is a lot of units.

[2199] Make.

[2200] Yeah, to come up with those.

[2201] Is that Japan or is that like first month of Japan?

[2202] I don't know.

[2203] I read that on Twitter.

[2204] Twitter.

[2205] Some games reporters were throwing those numbers around.

[2206] Why I ought to.

[2207] Yeah, $300 is a lot of money, but there are people that are just going to see.

[2208] $250 is a lot of money.

[2209] But there are going to be people that are going to see that tech and go, I don't care.

[2210] I want that now.

[2211] Right.

[2212] I will pay the $250 or $300 for that.

[2213] Yeah, so if you can maintain that price point for like nine months and then cut to like, you know, let's say it comes out at three months.

[2214] How long did the Wii sell at $250?

[2215] Yeah, but I feel like that's asking a lot.

[2216] If they can put it out and have this catch on like the Wii and have it become that huge fad like the Wii was and sell to the mainstream that way, then yeah, they'll keep the price there forever.

[2217] Assuming it follows a more traditional kind of launch and a more traditional kind of game system deal, I don't think it's guaranteed that it'll be as big as the Wii.

[2218] That price point for the Wii, at least, was linked to that sense of scarcity that was pervasive for the Wii for the first two years.

[2219] That's true.

[2220] That kind of allowed them to...

[2221] I remember that.

[2222] Maybe they do.

[2223] Maybe they put it out at $2 .99 and keep it deliberately scarce and just repeat the Wii scenario very deliberately this time.

[2224] I don't think this has the mainstream hook, though.

[2225] I don't think it does either.

[2226] But at the same time, what's more mainstream than...

[2227] What's more mass market?

[2228] In terms of just like trying to get in front of people than 3D.

[2229] If you can tell people like, oh, you liked Avatar.

[2230] Wii Sports.

[2231] Then how about a video game machine that does all that and no glasses?

[2232] Take it with you.

[2233] There is some sort of mentality.

[2234] It's a big deal.

[2235] You can push for this to be a huge, huge deal.

[2236] Seeing is believing with 3DS.

[2237] Yeah.

[2238] Like you go in the Toys R Us or whatever and you look at it and see it work.

[2239] Yeah.

[2240] You're like, well, I need one of those.

[2241] Well, but do you?

[2242] I don't know.

[2243] Or maybe you go, damn, that's really cool, but that's a lot of money.

[2244] Yeah, yeah.

[2245] I guess they need the software.

[2246] But they also need a place.

[2247] They need somewhere to come down from.

[2248] So you start at $299 or $250.

[2249] That gives you a lot of room to drop prices incrementally over time.

[2250] Like, all right, hey, six to nine months in, we've had a – I think if they go higher than $250, they cut that price in the first year.

[2251] If they launch at $250, they stay at $250 for a while.

[2252] I think they can get away with $250 for a lot longer.

[2253] What's the color?

[2254] Blue and black.

[2255] Blue and black.

[2256] Cosmos black and something blue.

[2257] I may actually wait for the first revision.

[2258] That's Japan.

[2259] U .S. colors might be different.

[2260] Maybe.

[2261] I don't like how fat it is, though.

[2262] I don't like the lines don't look right.

[2263] I like it.

[2264] I think it looks good.

[2265] Setting themselves up for the headlines.

[2266] Nintendo gets a black eye, blue and black.

[2267] Oh, no. This is their first...

[2268] I don't know if that turn of phrase plays in Japan.

[2269] Doesn't have to.

[2270] I'll do it here.

[2271] Well, again, we don't know what colors they're going to come out with here.

[2272] Blood red.

[2273] What are you going to do for that, New York Post headline writer?

[2274] Bloody nose.

[2275] Streets run red with Nintendo 3DS.

[2276] Too long.

[2277] Cut it down.

[2278] It's a kid.

[2279] Nintendo knife mom.

[2280] Dead kid on street.

[2281] There we go.

[2282] There we go.

[2283] That's better.

[2284] Do you think $250 is a profitable price for them?

[2285] I have no idea.

[2286] I have no idea.

[2287] Do you think the hardware is expensive?

[2288] I don't know.

[2289] Probably.

[2290] I have no idea how this magic works.

[2291] I hope so.

[2292] I hope the hardware is expensive.

[2293] It better be a good profit.

[2294] If they're going to put Street Fighter 4 on this thing, the screenshots for that do look pretty good.

[2295] They've said it's way more capable than the GameCube.

[2296] PS2 level -ish, something like that.

[2297] And it shit looks hot.

[2298] It looks good, yeah.

[2299] It pushes some...

[2300] I don't think it looks dramatically better than the PSP.

[2301] No, but it looks dramatically better than the DS.

[2302] Oh, yeah, by far.

[2303] And that 3D tech, whatever it is that it's pushing back there, that has to account for something.

[2304] More importantly, that screen.

[2305] Like, I know it's a small screen, but that has to be a very custom -made, because what other...

[2306] You've seen a lot of – we get exposed to probably more 3D shit than most people.

[2307] Like I have not seen any other 3D thing that didn't make me put on funny glasses.

[2308] It's a digital camera.

[2309] Right, right.

[2310] That sold Japan.

[2311] It's the same screen technology.

[2312] That ridiculous thing that Dino had, that was that same basic idea.

[2313] Yeah, but you couldn't look at those on the viewfinder, could you?

[2314] There's one that is straight up.

[2315] Well, that one had it on the screen.

[2316] On the back, you could look at it that way.

[2317] So it had that.

[2318] The only reason I ask is that it's been Nintendo's business model forever to sell hardware that they make money on.

[2319] Right.

[2320] So do you think that they are just like...

[2321] Addicted to that feeling of selling a bunch of systems and making profit per unit.

[2322] It's been working out pretty well for them so far.

[2323] It's hard to argue.

[2324] But they also haven't asked anybody to buy a $250 handheld yet.

[2325] What did the DS launch at?

[2326] It was $199 or $79.

[2327] Wasn't the PSP $250?

[2328] PSP was $300 when it came out.

[2329] Jesus, was it?

[2330] Yeah, and you see how that went.

[2331] Well, here's the thing that I'm worried about.

[2332] If the graphics quality is good enough on the new DS.

[2333] I wonder if you'll wind up in the same PSP land where you're like, well, you have the Wii version and you have the PS version.

[2334] But it still has the two screens and it still has the 3D.

[2335] Like it's not going to – I don't think it's going to fall into the we're trying to make PS puzzle games.

[2336] You don't think you'll just see cheaper ports getting pushed over?

[2337] Yeah, they still have the touchscreen.

[2338] You're still going to end up with just better -looking DS games.

[2339] I kind of am worried if it can do that, that people will be even lazier with ports.

[2340] You see bad ports already that don't make use of any of those features.

[2341] And if it can push out the graphics that we can or close to it.

[2342] Well, I think the more pressing concern is how much...

[2343] junk is going to come out that just relies entirely on the 3D gimmick.

[2344] My 3D notebook?

[2345] Yes.

[2346] How does that even work?

[2347] It's not included.

[2348] It only has 64 pages because since it's 3D, they had to double up.

[2349] That's way more pages than I think it has normally.

[2350] It has 128.

[2351] It is a bargain, isn't it?

[2352] My only concern with this thing is that the DS Lite still sells.

[2353] People still buy the cheap DS.

[2354] I bought a GBA SP not that long before I bought a DS.

[2355] Yeah, but you're not the typical consumer.

[2356] You don't represent the critical mass of sales that they are going for.

[2357] But they do this every time.

[2358] They do this every single time.

[2359] I mean, if they intend for the old DS models to coexist with this thing, then fine.

[2360] That's a whole different revenue stream.

[2361] They don't intend that at all.

[2362] They will for a while.

[2363] They'll prop it up for as long as they can.

[2364] Sure, until it gets cheap enough that everybody wants to buy it.

[2365] Until the 3D.

[2366] Pokemon exclusive comes out and then they'll say oh it's just you can't really it's just I mean it's moving out of that that mainstream like impulse or holiday gift Well, part of that announcement is that they are releasing a Game Boy store for the 3DS.

[2367] So Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.

[2368] What?

[2369] No Game Boy Advance games, but Game Boy and Game Boy Color games coming as downloadables.

[2370] Why don't Game Boy Advance games?

[2371] I don't fucking know.

[2372] They'll get there.

[2373] They'll get there.

[2374] That's just all they're talking about right now is Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

[2375] That sucks because I wanted that stuff on DSi.

[2376] I know.

[2377] I wanted like a GBA store on DSiware.

[2378] And they know.

[2379] Yeah.

[2380] F them.

[2381] And they also know you want Game Boy Advance.

[2382] But will they all be in 3D automatically?

[2383] If I can play Super Mario Land in 3D.

[2384] What if I can play Virtual Boy games in 3D?

[2385] Don't be dumb.

[2386] If I can play Virtual Boy games.

[2387] No one wants to play Virtual Boy games in 2D or 3D.

[2388] I want to play 3D tennis.

[2389] They should do that.

[2390] They should.

[2391] Because they're going to have like a 3DS where, you know, they'll have.

[2392] So did I?

[2393] Or did I not read that DSiWare purchases will transfer over?

[2394] They are working on that, yeah.

[2395] Man, that's the best.

[2396] Now I can buy Cave Story.

[2397] Well, you talk to Cammie.

[2398] I feel good about it.

[2399] She had no further information.

[2400] Cammie, there was an interview that was talking about her new venture.

[2401] She's starting up.

[2402] It's some Mexican company that creates, like, theme parks for like cities for children and they're like theme parks that are inside like the slightly bigger than the shopping center but it's just like buildings that are all kid sized so kids can go like hang out in this thing and they're trying to launch it in the U .S. and she's gonna like build the U .S. office for that it's called like Kidzania or something Amazing.

[2403] What is it for?

[2404] It's like you leave your kids there while you're shopping or something like that.

[2405] Or you take your kids there and leave them there and then you go drink.

[2406] This is Billy.

[2407] He's the mayor.

[2408] And then kids get to try real jobs like Radio DJ or something like that.

[2409] There was a Venture Beat story.

[2410] There was an interview with her.

[2411] Street sweeper.

[2412] Garbage man. That is where the smiles are going.

[2413] You just want to be a hobo on the streets of Kidsylvania.

[2414] Have you the crazy guy that eats his own shoes?

[2415] You can be whoever you want.

[2416] In Kidsylvania?

[2417] Yeah.

[2418] Last story here.

[2419] NBA Elite 11 has been delayed.

[2420] And in the wake of this, they have announced that NBA Jam is coming to Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3.

[2421] And then they also just announced fully featured.

[2422] Yeah.

[2423] They said, hey, also, remember before I always said we were going to put out these fucked up, crapped up versions.

[2424] What's going on?

[2425] They're fixing the mistake.

[2426] They're fixing the mistake.

[2427] So NBA Jam will no longer be.

[2428] Also, we're not calling them the other team.

[2429] Yeah, yeah.

[2430] Opposing forces.

[2431] You're always against the opposing force.

[2432] Chicago Bulls force.

[2433] Yeah.

[2434] I don't have any information about the full version stuff, but I saw the story of...

[2435] Crazy.

[2436] There's some quotes from Trey Smith, who's been working on the game for a while, saying that they're looking to put Remix Tour in there and basically as much stuff as they can that they kind of had online up and running in a very basic form already on 316 PS3.

[2437] Because keep in mind, they were already planning for this to be a downloadable game.

[2438] Right.

[2439] And now they're like, oh...

[2440] Why don't you take a little extra time and get it all up and running so we can put it on a disc because we suddenly don't have a basketball disc this quarter.

[2441] So it is definitely a disc game.

[2442] That's my understanding, yeah.

[2443] Yeah, so they'll sell it for – I guess that's the question now is do they sell it for $60 or do they sell it for $50 because it's – well, isn't it $40 on Wii?

[2444] I don't know.

[2445] Anyway, whatever.

[2446] Like that's – There will end up being some price disparity, I'm sure.

[2447] But if they add online support to the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, that won't matter because that'll be the version to get regardless.

[2448] Because that's the thing that that game needs that it does not have on the Wii.

[2449] Ridiculous.

[2450] It's ridiculous.

[2451] It's interesting that all this didn't really, this whole story didn't really tumble out until the week that the Wii version was out.

[2452] So people are...

[2453] It sounds like there might have been some copies of Elite that got out.

[2454] Like pressed copy copies?

[2455] Maybe.

[2456] I don't know.

[2457] Maybe like green discs?

[2458] I need to look into it.

[2459] But I saw someone say, dude, people are bidding on copies of NBA Elite 11 on eBay.

[2460] I don't know if discs got pressed up and they were like, wait, this game's fucked.

[2461] We can't make another basketball game after this one.

[2462] It was that YouTube video.

[2463] That's what did it.

[2464] Was it?

[2465] That's the thing.

[2466] Actually, I'm always semi -joking about that.

[2467] I know.

[2468] That's the crazy part.

[2469] You assume a decision like this must have been made months ago and they were just waiting for the right timing, but the right timing is not the week before that game is supposed to come out.

[2470] Not after copies have been produced.

[2471] That's insane.

[2472] Copies would have had to have been pressed up if they made the decision that 11th hour.

[2473] Does this game exist?

[2474] Can you get an A and then a B version of NBA Elite 11?

[2475] Because they're saying they're trying to fix this game.

[2476] They're trying to fix NBA Elite.

[2477] They claim it's going to ship.

[2478] Yeah.

[2479] They claim it's still going to exist.

[2480] Yeah.

[2481] I think by the time they ship a game, it'll be NBA Elite 12.

[2482] That's my guess.

[2483] Yeah.

[2484] Yeah.

[2485] You know, unfortunate news for the NBA Elite team.

[2486] I'm sure they're going through hell at the moment.

[2487] But hey, good news if you're into NBA Jam.

[2488] Absolutely.

[2489] This is all the greatest news that could have happened for me. Because now it's like I don't have to care about the real basketball game and I can potentially get it on other platforms.

[2490] I can potentially get it with online and all of the other features that I should have.

[2491] I bought it on the Wii and I'll play a bunch of it there, get real good at it.

[2492] And then when 360 and PS3 come out.

[2493] I feel like EA is now in a position to succeed really well with this game completely fucking in spite of themselves.

[2494] Yeah.

[2495] Just like the great magnet willed it and now it shall be.

[2496] So, look forward to that.

[2497] I don't know if they're still aiming for before the end of the year.

[2498] All they've said is before the holiday season for 360 and PS.

[2499] For all the jam stuff.

[2500] We, NBA Jam, is out.

[2501] It's out this week.

[2502] Out now.

[2503] But, I mean, if they had that game running as a downloadable game, and I guess the...

[2504] So, something leaked from that downloadable NBA Jam.

[2505] Like, some people have it somehow in some weird bootlegger sort of way.

[2506] And the thing I heard out of that was that Remix Tour was showing up in there as like DLC or something.

[2507] There was some potential for them to add it in there.

[2508] That explains how they could get the shit done in like two months.

[2509] Right.

[2510] Okay.

[2511] Which is not a bad deal if you think about it.

[2512] Because imagine you care about NBA Elite or you care about simulation basketball.

[2513] You go buy that game.

[2514] You get NBA Jam for free.

[2515] And then they ask you to pay like another, what, $20 if that for Remix Tour.

[2516] That's still a good deal.

[2517] So I don't think that's necessarily bad that they were splitting it considering the way they were originally offering the game.

[2518] Which the original conceit was kind of backwards.

[2519] Yeah, exactly.

[2520] The whole notion that people want both those games I think is not as right on.

[2521] Not as synergist as maybe it might have been.

[2522] Especially if NBA Elite 11 is a total fucking shit show.

[2523] I wonder if this is why submissions all fucked up for Microsoft these days.

[2524] I wonder if all of this drama is...

[2525] Gumming up the works over there for all these other games.

[2526] I imagine that and Kinect stuff.

[2527] It's got to be fucking weird over there right now.

[2528] No doubt, no doubt.

[2529] I don't know.

[2530] Kinect stuff is running on retail.

[2531] We took in achievements for Dance Central the other day.

[2532] Now I really want these weirdo unreleased bootleg versions of both Elite and NBA Jam.

[2533] I really want to see.

[2534] It's only on LaserDisc.

[2535] I have a LaserDisc player.

[2536] On your PC?

[2537] I could plug it into my PC.

[2538] Okay, all right.

[2539] I mean, since it's just an analog data.

[2540] You need to pioneer laser active.

[2541] Stalking the mythical LD -ROM.

[2542] It's there.

[2543] Don't talk to me about laser active.

[2544] I did, after we had our lengthy laser active conversation, go and look at that stuff, and it was all just disgustingly expensive.

[2545] I really want to play Pyramid Patrol again, though.

[2546] Wait a minute, what?

[2547] There's a video.

[2548] You were going to get a laser active?

[2549] We were talking about it a lot, and I was just looking into it some.

[2550] I would get a CDI before I would get a laser active.

[2551] Okay.

[2552] I think I can get you a CD -i.

[2553] We can all make our own bad decisions.

[2554] It's fine.

[2555] I have some CD -i games somewhere.

[2556] I don't have a CD -i, but I have some games laying around.

[2557] My cousins go with CD -i if they want.

[2558] I've never known.

[2559] I hadn't even heard of the Laser Active before you.

[2560] Nuon.

[2561] Nuon.

[2562] Let's talk about new releases for this week.

[2563] Let's talk about some Merlin cart.

[2564] Close, Jeff.

[2565] We're not going to talk about Merlin cart.

[2566] We're going to talk about Hollywood Squares.

[2567] What?

[2568] Nintendo Wii.

[2569] Jim J. From Ubisoft.

[2570] Jim J. Jim J. Jim J. In the center square.

[2571] Tell him, Jim J. Celebrity voices in this game.

[2572] Whoopi Goldberg?

[2573] Not Whoopi Goldberg.

[2574] Hold on.

[2575] Let me see if I can pull off the top of my head who it was.

[2576] See, there's Jeffrey Tambor.

[2577] Yeah.

[2578] Are you remembering from Kathy Griffin?

[2579] Kathy Griffin.

[2580] Are you saying they're going to go to squares too?

[2581] No, no, no. Left to right?

[2582] No, I'm saying these are in the game.

[2583] They're listed four.

[2584] So Jeffrey Tambor, Kathy Griffin, Brad Garrett.

[2585] Remember as the big brother from Everybody Loves Raymond?

[2586] Okay, yep.

[2587] Starved Till Death, your favorite sitcom on Fox TV.

[2588] Yep, yep, yep.

[2589] Every Thursday night.

[2590] Oh, who was the fourth?

[2591] Wasn't it Hasselhoff?

[2592] It's not, no. No one that good.

[2593] Shadow Stevens.

[2594] No, no. And I don't know that they even have Tom Bergeron, who is, I guess, the most recent host of The Squares.

[2595] I don't know.

[2596] Anyways, I hear it's terrible.

[2597] Because it's also being released alongside who wants to be a millionaire for Nintendo Wii from Ubisoft.

[2598] Ubisoft also put out all of those other bad Wii.

[2599] I want to play it.

[2600] I know me too.

[2601] We'll get it.

[2602] What do you think, Kathy Griffin?

[2603] We'll get it.

[2604] It's a thing you use that women use to test if they're horny or not.

[2605] Is that right?

[2606] I believe her.

[2607] I believe her.

[2608] I think she's right.

[2609] I agree.

[2610] Oh, so sorry, player one.

[2611] You're bringing far more life and personality than this game ever possibly could.

[2612] Your turn, player two.

[2613] Again, they're going to say, your turn, and he's going to show it on screen.

[2614] Why spend the time to have someone say, we were able to get this guy hourly.

[2615] We didn't have to give him day rates.

[2616] Center gets the square.

[2617] So we very rapidly had him read off all these words in no particular order, and then we just assembled it all after.

[2618] If they had just built this from old John Davison clips.

[2619] Davidson.

[2620] Sorry.

[2621] That would be fun.

[2622] Build it from old John Davison clips, too.

[2623] That would be great, too.

[2624] I would play that game.

[2625] I'd play the shit out of that game.

[2626] Drip Torn.

[2627] The British -ass version of Hollywood Square.

[2628] Whatever.

[2629] Castlevania Lords of Shadow for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[2630] That's the game that Kojima's name is on.

[2631] Right.

[2632] Enslaved Odyssey to the West, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

[2633] NBA Jam for the Nintendo Wii.

[2634] Def Jam Rap Star for the PlayStation 3 Wii and Xbox 360.

[2635] I'm being nodded at yes.

[2636] These are the platforms.

[2637] For the Nintendo DS from Kokum International.

[2638] Who's spelling on this?

[2639] C -O -K -E -M.

[2640] Oh.

[2641] I figured it had to be a U or something like that.

[2642] Okay.

[2643] I love puppies.

[2644] Fucking A you do, man. Let's all throw in together.

[2645] I just love puppies, man. They're just awesome.

[2646] Let's just throw in together and let's get this game for Matt Rory.

[2647] Okay.

[2648] You think Matt Rory has a DS?

[2649] Do we have to get him a DS too?

[2650] NBA 2K11 for the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Sony PlayStation Portable.

[2651] 2K had no problems putting out their basketball game this year.

[2652] I mean, 2K's basketball game is the reason why we're in this situation in the first place.

[2653] I guess so.

[2654] It has been so much better than NBA Live for so long that EA kind of had to do something drastic.

[2655] That's right.

[2656] That's why they had to scrap Live, huh?

[2657] And now here we are.

[2658] But they are just giddy.

[2659] Right now.

[2660] Yeah, probably.

[2661] I think if there's anyone that's left there after the NFL 2K days.

[2662] I think there was a guy that left 2K to go over to live and then left in the wake of what NBA Elite was becoming.

[2663] We just had different directions in mind.

[2664] I think how much press we've given Elite, though.

[2665] I mean, we talk about it every week.

[2666] Yeah, but.

[2667] I didn't even know they were making it.

[2668] The difference is they have a game that.

[2669] you can buy in a store.

[2670] So we can give NBA Elite.

[2671] I have a copy of NBA 2K11 here.

[2672] If you want to see it, it's a real video game.

[2673] Aren't you so curious?

[2674] You're almost going to buy a bootleg version of Elite.

[2675] Aren't you so curious?

[2676] No, he was talking about Jam.

[2677] He's not talking about that.

[2678] I'm talking about both.

[2679] I want to see that.

[2680] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2681] Come on.

[2682] You want to see like a pressed but not published fucking game like that?

[2683] And also don't you want to see them?

[2684] And especially knowing like that they're going to eventually try and put that shit out.

[2685] If they could put out another game called NBA Elite 11.

[2686] That can't be real.

[2687] It can't exist.

[2688] This can't be happening.

[2689] That's almost like having Thrill Kill to the Wu -Tang game.

[2690] But like a pressed up actual retail Thrill Kill.

[2691] That's the difference.

[2692] There are plenty of bootleg copies of Thrill Kill out there, but imagine if they had pressed them up retail and then killed it.

[2693] So you're going to buy two copies of this game versus no copies.

[2694] I'm just saying, I want to see what the final game is.

[2695] Do you want to buy my uncensored copy of LittleBigPlanet?

[2696] $500.

[2697] You still have that.

[2698] He still has that.

[2699] Sealed.

[2700] He still has that.

[2701] Sealed.

[2702] And this one with the Opposing Forces song in it, right?

[2703] Yeah.

[2704] Okay.

[2705] Final Fantasy.

[2706] That's bad.

[2707] Final Fantasy The Four Heroes of Light for the Nintendo DS.

[2708] Yeah.

[2709] What is that?

[2710] DS game?

[2711] Word.

[2712] Oops.

[2713] I think it's like Monster Hunter.

[2714] Oops.

[2715] Damn it.

[2716] Oops.

[2717] Prank party for the Nintendo Wii.

[2718] Oops.

[2719] Exclamation point.

[2720] That sounds like fun.

[2721] Prank party.

[2722] Prank party from Hudson.

[2723] I pranked you with my Wii remote while hiding it in your body cavity while you were asleep.

[2724] Oops.

[2725] And John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf for the PlayStation 3.

[2726] Move.

[2727] As a move game.

[2728] That's accurate.

[2729] On Xbox Live Arcade, we have Comic Jumper.

[2730] And for Game Room, Jeff, you ready?

[2731] Konami GT for Arcade.

[2732] All right.

[2733] Private Eye for the 2600.

[2734] No clue.

[2735] Sharp Shot and Body Slam Wrestling for the Intellivision.

[2736] Is that one game?

[2737] Sharp Shot and Body Slam Wrestling?

[2738] Yeah.

[2739] Sharp Shot and Body Slam!

[2740] And an exclamation point after Body Slam Wrestling.

[2741] That might be like a two -in -one cartridge or something.

[2742] You gotta flip it over?

[2743] Those are illegal.

[2744] Chuck Norris Super Kicks.

[2745] I used to add that.

[2746] I had that fucking stupid Chuck Norris game.

[2747] Double Ender.

[2748] Double Ender.

[2749] Yeah.

[2750] Crazy looking.

[2751] Plug them both in at the same time.

[2752] Go ass to ass on those 2600s.

[2753] Terrible.

[2754] It was a terrible game.

[2755] Oh, yeah.

[2756] Chuck Norris Superkicks.

[2757] Terrible.

[2758] Terrible.

[2759] Fucking awful game.

[2760] Terrible game.

[2761] For PlayStation Network this week, we have Alien Breed, Impact, and Deadliest Warrior, the game.

[2762] Oh, awesome.

[2763] Deadliest Warrior.

[2764] Great.

[2765] PlayStation owners, get ready for a treat.

[2766] Apparently, they're actually rebalancing that game for PSN.

[2767] Deadliest Warrior?

[2768] To where the ninja won't be super overpowered.

[2769] Oh, thank God.

[2770] Oh, was the ninja just the winner?

[2771] Yeah.

[2772] The ninja is the deadliest warrior.

[2773] We found out, by the way.

[2774] We found out what the deadliest warrior was.

[2775] It says it right in the name.

[2776] There's only one of them.

[2777] Don't buy that game.

[2778] What was that terrible game that you and I did that quick look of?

[2779] It was a game show with the big ball.

[2780] The Wipeout?

[2781] Wipeout.

[2782] Wipeout, okay.

[2783] For some reason, Deadliest Warrior reminds me of that game.

[2784] It was basically the same game.

[2785] They're roughly.

[2786] They're comparable.

[2787] They're definitely comparable.

[2788] Actually, while we have fucking Hollywood Squares on the brand, someone sent me a YouTube clip from Hollywood Squares from a few years back featuring all your favorite soap stars, including Port Charles' Nolan North.

[2789] Oh, awesome.

[2790] Hot.

[2791] So you get to see Nolan North sitting there with a bunch of other soap stars and fucking Brad Garrett.

[2792] And Nolan North rocking the frosted hair.

[2793] Something hard.

[2794] Mid -2000s, early 2000s.

[2795] This is what happens.

[2796] This is how things work.

[2797] Sounds awesome.

[2798] You should check it out.

[2799] Let's do that now.

[2800] Let's go get our hair frosted.

[2801] I'm going to go get my mustache frosted.

[2802] Yes.

[2803] That's another good idea.

[2804] Pull coke in that shit.

[2805] Grow some more stubble out.

[2806] Then bleach my mustache.

[2807] Fucking coke them.

[2808] I'm going to coke him the shit out of this mustache.

[2809] Actually, while I'm doing that, while I'm busy turning my mustache white, throw it over to Jeff Gershman for this week's Nintendo downloadable releases.

[2810] Jeff, what's going on in the world of Nintendo?

[2811] This email is titled, Revenge is a dish best served on a Nintendo DSi system.

[2812] Okay.

[2813] Yeah.

[2814] What?

[2815] Shantae!

[2816] Risky's Revenge.

[2817] From WayForward, one player, E10 +, 1200 Nintendo DSi points.

[2818] Is that the real Shantae?

[2819] Yeah.

[2820] No, that's the real Roxanne.

[2821] So this is the sequel to Shantae, which was a well -received...

[2822] Wait, is this actually a new game?

[2823] This is actually a new Shantae.

[2824] From WayForward.

[2825] WayForward.

[2826] Yeah, people actually like Shantae.

[2827] Yeah, people love Sean.

[2828] There were some people.

[2829] The sequel to the critically acclaimed Sean Tay is here.

[2830] Fans asked and WayForward has answered with a powder keg of high -octane, hair -whipping, hip -shaking action available only on the Nintendo DSi service.

[2831] I'm very aroused right now.

[2832] Sean Tay, Risky's Revenge, sets the bar even higher with thousands of frames of animation.

[2833] huge multi -sprite bosses, and a quest so big it's bursting at the seams.

[2834] Guide Half -Genie, in quotes.

[2835] As if...

[2836] Is that code?

[2837] I don't know.

[2838] That person's name?

[2839] Yeah.

[2840] No, no. It's just Half -Genies in quotes.

[2841] It's almost like it's like...

[2842] Guide Half -Genie Shantae through haunted wastelands, burning deserts, enchanted forests, dripping caverns.

[2843] Hmm.

[2844] E10+.

[2845] And deadly labyrinths.

[2846] Discover magical attacks.

[2847] Brew zombie coffee.

[2848] Save golden babies.

[2849] And master the art of belly dancing.

[2850] To transform Shantae into more powerful creatures.

[2851] Use your powers to foil the lady pirate Risky Boots.

[2852] And save Sequin Land from certain doom.

[2853] Now, Vinny, this is the people that brought you the Boy and His Blob remake.

[2854] Same developer.

[2855] In.

[2856] With its infectious characters, flirtatious humor, and deliciously outlandish action, Shantae Risky's Revenge offers up all the hair -whipping, belly -dancing action you can handle.

[2857] This is second use of hair -whipping.

[2858] Yeah.

[2859] It was high -octane hair -whipping, hip -shaking action, but now it's hair -whipping, belly -dancing action.

[2860] Now, you say it's E10 +, but they talk about half genie.

[2861] The implication there is then someone fucked a genie.

[2862] I don't want my kids seeing no half genies.

[2863] I'll give it the full genie.

[2864] Ooh.

[2865] Ooh -ha.

[2866] So that was a DSI?

[2867] Yeah, it was DSI.

[2868] Okay.

[2869] As far as description goes, it was pretty good.

[2870] Yeah, that game's been coming for a while.

[2871] It's very exciting for people who were fans of the original Shantae, which was a pretty kick -ass game.

[2872] It was a Game Boy Color game?

[2873] Yeah.

[2874] Rummikub!

[2875] Can I get a spelling on that?

[2876] R -U -M -M -I -K -U -B.

[2877] Rumikub.

[2878] Rumikub.

[2879] Rumikub.

[2880] Rumikub.

[2881] Rumikub.

[2882] Rumikub.

[2883] Rubik's Cube.

[2884] From Games Factory Online.

[2885] One to four players.

[2886] E for everyone.

[2887] 800 Nintendo DSi points.

[2888] Far more than 50 years.

[2889] Players have loved Rumikub for its combination of tactical thinking, luck, and tense competition.

[2890] In this new edition for the Nintendo DSiWare service, combine the tiles to create the smartest combinations.

[2891] And play with friends who have their own copy of Rummikub.

[2892] You can also pit your wits against the computer in single -player mode at various difficulty settings.

[2893] Collect all the medals Rummikub has to offer and become the world champion.

[2894] For more than 50 years, players have loved it.

[2895] Are you looking at what this is?

[2896] Yeah, I think it might be Rummikub.

[2897] Rummikub?

[2898] A gin rummy?

[2899] Yeah, this is also known as Rummy -O, Rummy -Cube, Rummy -King, and Rummy -Tile.

[2900] This is a long -established, apparently invented in the 1930s.

[2901] 50 years.

[2902] That's more than 50 years.

[2903] I mean, that was when it was invented in, like, Palestine or something.

[2904] We wear Racers Islands.

[2905] Crazy Racers.

[2906] From Zalag!

[2907] One to four players.

[2908] Rated E for everyone.

[2909] 1 ,000 Wii points.

[2910] Six drivers are competing on a popular TV show.

[2911] An English lord.

[2912] A dangerous beauty from Russia.

[2913] A Mexican desperado.

[2914] An eccentric Frenchman.

[2915] A Japanese prodigy.

[2916] And an American bulldozer.

[2917] What?

[2918] And a cultural stereotype.

[2919] Well, one of those things is not.

[2920] All right.

[2921] A dangerous beauty from Russia, a Mexican desperado, an extension freshman, a Japanese prodigy, and an American bulldozer walk into a bar, right?

[2922] Wait, an American bulldozer?

[2923] Like a person?

[2924] A person.

[2925] A bulldozer?

[2926] He's like boorish.

[2927] Okay.

[2928] I don't know.

[2929] Whichever driver you choose, you'll have to drive and shoot simultaneously to be the first to cross the finish line.

[2930] The game includes 20 different races and six thematic islands styled to look like a big amusement park.

[2931] Unique gameplay lets you drive with one hand while aiming with the other.

[2932] Discover tons of new content like new items, trophies, and time trials.

[2933] Learning with the Puyus.

[2934] Episode 3.

[2935] Oh, the Puyus.

[2936] Oh, this is like a...

[2937] We're back.

[2938] That's P -O -O -Y -O -O -S.

[2939] Capital Y. From Lexus Numerique.

[2940] Not the Pooplings.

[2941] Oh.

[2942] One player, early childhood, 500 points.

[2943] Welcome to the world of the Puyus.

[2944] The first fun, poetic brain trainer for children ages 3 to 6.

[2945] With the Puyus, a merry band of adorable baby animals.

[2946] Children will have fun with learning basic development concepts such as numbers, letters, lateralization, shapes, and colors.

[2947] Children get to dance with their new friends and earn lovely interactive rewards.

[2948] With two levels of interactive activities, children can play activities based on plants and music.

[2949] The game has been designed for use by children who have not yet grasped reading.

[2950] The instructions are spoken in French, English, or Spanish, depending on the language setting of your Wii TM console.

[2951] And Virtual Console, Fatal Fury 3 Road to the Final Victory from the Neo Geo, published by D4 Enterprise, 1 -2 players, 900 Wii points, rated T -14.

[2952] Originally released in 1995, this is the fourth title in the Fatal Fury series of beat -em -up games.

[2953] Alright, two things with that.

[2954] Yeah?

[2955] It is the fourth title, they're right.

[2956] There was Fatal Fury special.

[2957] But, uh, they call them beat -em -up games, which is fucked.

[2958] Yeah.

[2959] It's just wrong.

[2960] That's incorrect.

[2961] Don't...

[2962] Beat -em -up is a very specific type of genre.

[2963] I know.

[2964] Fatal Fury 3 is a fighting game.

[2965] Why would you write this, Ryan?

[2966] Are you going to sit there and tell me that you think Fatal Fury 3 is a beat -em -up?

[2967] Do I walk to the right and punch things until meat pops out?

[2968] Sometimes.

[2969] No, I do not!

[2970] Sometimes you walk to the right and you punch.

[2971] And sometimes meat does my abs.

[2972] Usually that happens.

[2973] You just have to not use low kicks during that round.

[2974] Previous releases in the series used a two -plane battle system allowing you to move and fight between the foreground and background.

[2975] This game features a three -plane format!

[2976] Oh god!

[2977] Foreground, background, and main plane, known as the oversway system.

[2978] Characters will automatically move back to the main line after a certain period of time in the foreground or background planes.

[2979] Other new features include combination arts, the ability to execute combo attacks with simple rhythmic button taps, hidden abilities, superior versions of the popular special moves and super special moves from previous installments, and minor tweaks to all the characters' special moves.

[2980] As a result, this installment offers the deepest strategies and tactics in the Fatal Fury series to date.

[2981] Unless you count Mark of the Wolves as a Fatal Fury game, which you don't.

[2982] You technically don't.

[2983] No. But it is Garo, Mark of the Wolves.

[2984] Yeah.

[2985] It was Garo.

[2986] Yeah.

[2987] Fatal Fury 3.

[2988] I like Oversway as a system name.

[2989] It is kind of descriptive because you are swaying to the other lines.

[2990] You kind of fight in the main line and kind of sway back in and out.

[2991] Baffled by D4 Enterprise.

[2992] Is that like an upgraded version of D3 Publisher?

[2993] Yeah.

[2994] One more D. I forget what D4 is.

[2995] Thank you, Jeff, for those.

[2996] It's Kenji Eno's latest game.

[2997] Dramatic readings.

[2998] Skipping 3.

[2999] Oh, man. Dramatic readings.

[3000] No, that'll be a Kinect game.

[3001] Let's take it to emails.

[3002] But if you move, you lose.

[3003] Stand perfectly still.

[3004] And there's also no image on the screen.

[3005] No, you're going to get raped.

[3006] Oh, you moved, and then you got...

[3007] All right, Vinny, stop fun with those.

[3008] You're making a lot of noise.

[3009] Where are we going?

[3010] Emails.

[3011] Where?

[3012] Emails.

[3013] Where are we going?

[3014] Stop making devil eyes at...

[3015] These aren't double eyes.

[3016] You're giving them the prompt eyes.

[3017] Yeah, these are.

[3018] No, you don't prompt them.

[3019] Bombcast at johnbomb .com is the email address.

[3020] First email comes in from Duncan from Hotlanta.

[3021] Hey, guys.

[3022] Hi.

[3023] In Hollywood, terrible movies are usually not screened in advance for critics.

[3024] After I played the truly god -awful demo for Quantum Theory last week, I got to wondering.

[3025] Why does the video game industry release demos for games that they most likely know are bad?

[3026] Don't crappy demos hurt potential sales wouldn't be in the developer's favor to just let hype and general interest sell the game.

[3027] Thoughts?

[3028] I think that by the time they had committed to doing that demo and releasing it, they might not have known that the game was bad yet.

[3029] I think it was only after that demo that the reaction was so overwhelmingly negative.

[3030] They're like, oh.

[3031] Well, I think our conversation about the NBA Elite stuff might illuminate that same thing.

[3032] It seems like the timing at least was it wasn't until that demo hit and everyone was like, fuck, this game's all messed up.

[3033] But that got back.

[3034] Oh, we don't know.

[3035] We don't know.

[3036] Are you talking specifically about quantum theory, what you just said?

[3037] Or were you speaking in general terms?

[3038] I'm speaking in general terms.

[3039] Oh, I didn't know if there was some debacle with that demo coming out and being...

[3040] Oh, I know that people did not like the quantum theory.

[3041] Okay, that's what I thought.

[3042] It came out and people thought it was very...

[3043] I hadn't heard what the reaction was.

[3044] I haven't seen it myself, but pretty unanimous.

[3045] And they did send out...

[3046] It wasn't like it wasn't screened for critics per se.

[3047] They did send us a game on the day of release.

[3048] They didn't send us an early one, but we didn't necessarily hound them for one either.

[3049] So who knows how that might have gone.

[3050] It's not like Castlevania, which we're buying tomorrow.

[3051] What was that demo that came out that everybody fucking flipped out on?

[3052] In a good way?

[3053] No, in a bad, terrible way.

[3054] And then the developer was like, oh, we're going to fix it.

[3055] It was on a PC maybe a while ago.

[3056] What kind of game was it?

[3057] I don't know.

[3058] Minecraft.

[3059] Yeah.

[3060] They're adding a bunch of stuff to Minecraft for Halloween.

[3061] There's a Halloween update coming.

[3062] They're adding a bunch of new monsters.

[3063] There's already spiders.

[3064] I got to buy in that game.

[3065] It's crazy because there's a bunch of...

[3066] Reading the list, it's like none of that is the stuff I want to do with Minecraft.

[3067] Torches will extinguish automatically now.

[3068] I'm like, oh, great.

[3069] Remember when this was real?

[3070] It was about mining.

[3071] Dude, I told you it's the Ultima Online Syndrome.

[3072] Everybody loved it when it was lawless and you could do whatever you wanted.

[3073] I started clamping down on it.

[3074] Somebody wrote me an email trying to take us to task for taking glee and griefing the shit out of multiplayer worlds in Minecraft.

[3075] Oh, yeah.

[3076] Saying don't do that?

[3077] Yeah.

[3078] For shame.

[3079] I'm like, yeah, well, yeah.

[3080] I like to have fun in video games and watching things burn is one of the things I enjoy.

[3081] I like that.

[3082] Give me something to burn for real in real life.

[3083] Regardless of format.

[3084] Absolutely.

[3085] I didn't necessarily intend to.

[3086] Or the thing I burned to burn that way, but it burned that way.

[3087] And it was awesome.

[3088] Ryan from Garden Grove, California.

[3089] Dear Giant Bombcast, do you guys think that Bungie slash Microsoft will put out Halo DLC around the same time as Black Ops as a form of counter -programming?

[3090] You know, it's always hard when you're the platform holder with stuff like that because you don't know how hard to go against games that are coming out on your own platform.

[3091] Because you're going to make...

[3092] You want people to buy Call of Duty Black Ops.

[3093] You want people to play it.

[3094] You want people to sign up for Xbox Live Gold accounts.

[3095] You want them to buy DLC.

[3096] You want them to buy DLC for Black Ops, especially because it's exclusively starting on 360 before coming to other platforms.

[3097] Tell your friend to buy 360.

[3098] They wouldn't have made those deals if that was their whole mentality.

[3099] But I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some Reach DLC this year.

[3100] They've already started alluding to it.

[3101] They showed more achievements coming.

[3102] I almost have to imagine that they've been working on DLC stuff or just general map stuff for a good while here.

[3103] Wait a minute.

[3104] What do you know about more reach achievements?

[3105] They're adding some with DLC.

[3106] That makes me want the S -Rank less.

[3107] Damn it.

[3108] Major video games get more achievements after the fact.

[3109] That's how it works.

[3110] Yeah, but they're going to be multiplayer focused.

[3111] So I'll never get them.

[3112] Yeah, probably.

[3113] Damn it.

[3114] I don't know.

[3115] The multiplayer ones, like, a lot of them aren't terrible.

[3116] Like, some of the stuff they had in Halo 3 were jacked.

[3117] Like, all those vidmaster achievements, they're all, like, zero point, but it's just, like, you do super fucked things to get them.

[3118] Oh, that stuff, yeah.

[3119] I mean, in Reach, though, like...

[3120] The last two in Reach are pretty bad.

[3121] Which are the Lieutenant Colonel and...

[3122] Lieutenant Colonel one is, I mean, that's, like, half a million credits almost.

[3123] That's not...

[3124] I mean...

[3125] That's a lot.

[3126] You just have to play it a lot.

[3127] It's not pretty bad in the sense that, like, there's no way this is ever going to happen.

[3128] There's no way it's ever going to happen, because I don't fucking have time to play that game every...

[3129] day or week for the next six months.

[3130] You weren't going to get it anyway.

[3131] Yeah, you were already boned out.

[3132] You might have been able to grind those out.

[3133] That's a great achievement because it's ideally only the people that are very dedicated to that game get it.

[3134] And they're the people that deserve to have all the points in that game.

[3135] Throw in a few double credit weekends here and there.

[3136] Those might be attainable, but if they're going to like...

[3137] You don't deserve to have all the points in Halo Reach.

[3138] I don't either.

[3139] None of us do.

[3140] Fine.

[3141] This is true.

[3142] Fine, I'll get those legendary points and that'll be it.

[3143] Okay.

[3144] Lick Chan, Medford, ma.

[3145] Hey, Lick Chan.

[3146] Hi, Bombcast.

[3147] This is a little FYI.

[3148] We got this email from a bunch of people.

[3149] I feel bad even opening this can of worms back up, but whatever.

[3150] FYI, Blizzard sold the CG cutscenes for StarCraft and Diablo 2 on DVD years ago on their official online store.

[3151] So it's...

[3152] There is precedent for selling Blizzard cutscenes on a disc, and Blizzard did it first.

[3153] Yeah.

[3154] So...

[3155] Bobby Kotick didn't even originate that idea.

[3156] Genius.

[3157] That's how deep his genius goes.

[3158] It was a very different era because the quality of cut scenes in games were not HD quality.

[3159] And they were selling it to fans.

[3160] It was kind of the scenario that we were talking about.

[3161] They're selling it to people who have already seen this stuff.

[3162] They just want it in a higher level quality.

[3163] It's other format.

[3164] This question comes from Ho Man Chung in Livingston, Scotland.

[3165] Question for Jeff.

[3166] Does the new Borderlands DLC have the bank in it or is that still exclusive to Mad Moxie?

[3167] The bank is exclusive to Mad Moxie.

[3168] But you don't want to...

[3169] You really need the bank?

[3170] You don't.

[3171] I wasn't sensed about that too until I thought about it.

[3172] Once you start farming Kromoraks, just like so many...

[3173] pricey weapons are dropping.

[3174] You just don't care about any of that stuff.

[3175] It kind of ruined it.

[3176] I only need one gun.

[3177] Maybe two in case there's a turret and I need a sniper rifle.

[3178] At this point all I'm using is this caustic shotgun that rips the dudes up.

[3179] This next email comes in from Green Domo.

[3180] Hey guys.

[3181] I was just wondering why everyone seems to pan Dead Rising 2's co -op but not Halo Reach's.

[3182] I mean, in both cases, the story only has a main character, be it Chuck Green or Noble Six, and any additional players aren't represented in the story or the cut scenes.

[3183] I've seen a ton of reviewers and other sites complaining about it in Dead Rising 2, but no one seems to have a problem with it in Reach.

[3184] What's the deal?

[3185] Do people just hate Canadians or what?

[3186] I don't think that's an either or.

[3187] They're not too separate.

[3188] But I think it's a good question.

[3189] The Dead Rising co -op reminds me of the co -op in Crackdown.

[3190] Co -op in sandbox games is always super unfocused and people don't stay together.

[3191] They run off and do whatever.

[3192] Halo design lends itself toward playing with other people because you're all going in a straight line toward a common objective.

[3193] Also, I'm not going to say that I don't disagree.

[3194] They should come up with a better cutscene experience for Halo.

[3195] You're right.

[3196] But the rest of the game is satisfying.

[3197] in the way in its co -op options to kind of offset that.

[3198] Whereas like with Dead Rising, it's just like, it's a little janky, you know, you kind of like stick together.

[3199] It's like, oh, I can't run through this door because this guy's too far away.

[3200] And it's, it seems like it's easier to actually play cooperatively in Halo Reach, which might be part of it.

[3201] But I thought about this some this morning and I think that like just kind of one of the basic issues is.

[3202] third person versus first.

[3203] Like you don't see yourself.

[3204] So when you see the other dude, it's not like, oh, it's, and you, I assume that all of the weird like outfit customization shit in Halo Reach carries to co -op.

[3205] So then you very likely don't look anything like whoever your co -op buddies are.

[3206] Another soldier.

[3207] Yeah.

[3208] It's just you're the, now it's the noble team has a few extra dudes in it.

[3209] I think that's probably it.

[3210] They get bad with that stuff, but I agree.

[3211] They should definitely integrate that stuff more effectively.

[3212] It makes for a better game, especially a game like Halo Reach where you are rolling with a bunch of other dudes that could very easily be played by people.

[3213] There's these other three members of Noble Team who nobody ever talks to.

[3214] It definitely would not work.

[3215] Yeah.

[3216] I think it's crazy to play through a story -focused game in co -op the first time you play it.

[3217] That's my feeling.

[3218] Yeah, like all yammering into headsets.

[3219] Someone's always like, skip stupid cutscenes, try to shoot guys.

[3220] Reach should be played and appreciated by yourself before you go back and do it on co -op.

[3221] That's my feeling.

[3222] I agree.

[3223] Last email comes in from Pat in Brooklyn.

[3224] Dear Bombcast, just got a chance to watch your quick look of Costume Quest, and I must agree, candy corn is the fucking worst.

[3225] It is terrible candy and terrible corn.

[3226] It fails at both of those things.

[3227] It is very bad corn.

[3228] It is as poor as corn and as awful as candy.

[3229] It is terrible.

[3230] It is just grainy and you can make fangs out of it.

[3231] The texture is all right.

[3232] No, the texture is bad.

[3233] You can just taste the carnauba wax and it's sweet like what?

[3234] Wait a minute.

[3235] There's wax in it?

[3236] Absolutely.

[3237] I've never eaten candy corn again.

[3238] It's ruined it for me. Good.

[3239] Good.

[3240] If I can destroy all candy corn.

[3241] I hate candy corn like I hate fucking Valentine's Hearts.

[3242] The Valentine's Hearts.

[3243] How do you feel about Peeps?

[3244] Chalky Valentine's Hearts.

[3245] What's your stance on Peeps?

[3246] I'm down with Peeps.

[3247] Pro -Peep.

[3248] I'm pro -Peep.

[3249] Peeps are vicious.

[3250] They are.

[3251] Sugar on sugar.

[3252] They wreck you up.

[3253] I don't like them.

[3254] They're special timing, although I saw they have Halloween fucking peeps.

[3255] Like pumpkins?

[3256] Yeah, like ghosts and pumpkins.

[3257] Are they still chickens?

[3258] No. They're just like...

[3259] Ghost chicken?

[3260] Well, they made non...

[3261] You can get rabbit peeps also.

[3262] That's true.

[3263] Even during Easter time, they aren't always peeps.

[3264] Just give me Cadbury cream eggs.

[3265] You're around and we're good.

[3266] Oh, I can't.

[3267] No, they're too...

[3268] Again, gooey.

[3269] That's actually my 12 -year -old self speaking.

[3270] I can't...

[3271] Cadbury caramel eggs.

[3272] Yeah.

[3273] I like those.

[3274] Cadbury cream egg seems so awesome.

[3275] Yeah, it does.

[3276] When you're a kid, you're like, that seems like the fucking best thing ever.

[3277] It's like a fucking booger in a chocolate shell.

[3278] Unlimited sugar when you're a kid.

[3279] But now when you look at it, it's like, oh, that just makes me tired.

[3280] It's too much.

[3281] And also the way that the saliva collects inside the egg is the most disgusting thing ever.

[3282] What are those ones you break that you slam on the table?

[3283] Orange chocolate.

[3284] Yeah, I hate those too.

[3285] Orange chocolate.

[3286] I've never had one of those.

[3287] Anyways, Pat's question is what's the worst candy we've ever had?

[3288] I think we just started talking about it.

[3289] Yeah, I was going to say that the conversation already started unfurling.

[3290] It was lavender.

[3291] Mints, lavender -flavored gum.

[3292] I don't mind lavender stuff.

[3293] Black jelly beans.

[3294] Probably any kind of licorice.

[3295] Yeah, Turkish pepper.

[3296] Yeah, I think it's unfair by our standards.

[3297] If we talk by the specialist candies that we've consumed here.

[3298] But, you know, Vinny, I'm not a big black licorice fan either.

[3299] But you know what I love is blackjack gum.

[3300] Or black black.

[3301] That's a spicy gum, isn't it?

[3302] That's the one with the kick in it?

[3303] No. That's the caffeine gum.

[3304] No. Blackjack and Black Black are just...

[3305] The Black Black had caffeine.

[3306] I don't think so.

[3307] I don't know.

[3308] I've got a bunch of sticks of it.

[3309] We can look at it.

[3310] Look at the packages for it or whatever.

[3311] They still sell Big League too.

[3312] They do.

[3313] I bought a case of it for Dave last year because he was asking that same question.

[3314] Okay.

[3315] That was actually...

[3316] No, that was maybe even longer.

[3317] That was when I bought all that bubble gum soda because I needed to buy enough stuff to hit a certain point for shipping.

[3318] They sell some bubble tape?

[3319] So much of that.

[3320] Yep.

[3321] So much of that bubblegum soda is still in our fridge.

[3322] I think it might only be like one or two left because I was drinking it for a while when there was absolutely nothing else.

[3323] Like, oh, I need something so bad.

[3324] Water?

[3325] Water?

[3326] Yeah, water's pretty good.

[3327] What are you guys, fucking priests?

[3328] We got a whole cooler of it, though.

[3329] I don't have a cup, okay?

[3330] I don't have a cup here.

[3331] I like a Cracker Jack.

[3332] Yeah.

[3333] A box?

[3334] It gets kind of sick.

[3335] I mean, I prefer a poppycock.

[3336] How is that?

[3337] That's the higher end.

[3338] You've got your Screaming Yellow Zonkers.

[3339] You've got your Cracker Jack.

[3340] Fiddle Faddle.

[3341] You've got your Fiddle Faddle.

[3342] Fiddle Faddle is pretty good.

[3343] I'm just making stuff up.

[3344] Poppy Cock is like the high end version.

[3345] Whatever.

[3346] Cracker Jacks.

[3347] Where's that?

[3348] Cracker Jacks is fine.

[3349] I had Cracker Jacks not a month ago.

[3350] They don't even sell them in boxes anymore.

[3351] I thought they were bags.

[3352] Yeah, I got a bag.

[3353] I don't know that they sell them in boxes.

[3354] They still come with stuff?

[3355] Yeah, you still get a little prize inside.

[3356] This stuff's crap.

[3357] This stuff's been craps for as long as I can remember.

[3358] It's been somehow crappier than even it was.

[3359] What would you like to see in there?

[3360] You're not wrong.

[3361] It's not even temporary tattoos.

[3362] It should be metal shit.

[3363] You get throwing stars.

[3364] Here's a car.

[3365] It's an aluminum baseball bat.

[3366] Caramel corn?

[3367] So you're down for that?

[3368] Sure.

[3369] Pink popcorn.

[3370] You get the brick of pink popcorn at the fair.

[3371] As long as you got something to drink with it.

[3372] If you ever go into those tins of divided up, like the cheese corn.

[3373] Yeah, I go caramel corn first.

[3374] Really?

[3375] Oh, man. So what's the last thing in yours?

[3376] Depends.

[3377] Regular.

[3378] I go cheese corn first.

[3379] I go cheese corn first.

[3380] I go for the caramel corn.

[3381] How long has it been since you've had the devil corn?

[3382] What's devil corn, man?

[3383] The fucking holiday.

[3384] We got to convince somebody to send us some of that.

[3385] It's like caramel corn that they.

[3386] What are you talking about?

[3387] The triple, the three -way.

[3388] No, no, no. This is the devil fucking devil corn.

[3389] Like the stuff that just puts you under.

[3390] It's caramel corn that they also drizzle like dark and white chocolate onto and then also put a bunch of like crazy nuts into it.

[3391] So it's just the heaviest, thickest, just most hardcore.

[3392] Just glob of sugar.

[3393] It's a naughty dog.

[3394] It's like you kind of gnaw at it because like it – they put the chocolate on it but kind of thick and uneven.

[3395] So sometimes you get a piece that's just like – It breaks up into big chunks.

[3396] Yeah.

[3397] She's like, I just got this big chunk of like a few pieces of popcorn just kind of embedded in this hunk of chocolate.

[3398] You're like, ah.

[3399] It's like 11 in the morning and I'm eating this because – It's December 11th, and we're about to leave for holiday break, and all of this stuff is just now showing up from game publishers.

[3400] Yeah.

[3401] Yeah.

[3402] I'm not a fan of caramel corn.

[3403] Because it gets stale.

[3404] Once that gets stale, it's the most.

[3405] I feel like it's the most edible when stale.

[3406] Really?

[3407] I like a stale caramel corn.

[3408] It just flattens in your molars.

[3409] That always is there.

[3410] Yeah, any of that treated popcorn like that.

[3411] Where are we talking about?

[3412] We need to stop the podcast.

[3413] It's super fucking late.

[3414] We went on for a long time again, as usual.

[3415] Vinny, Brad, Jeff, thanks for joining once again.

[3416] And thanks, folks, for listening.

[3417] And come back next Tuesday for more of the Giant Bomb Cat.