Giant Bombcast 05-17-2011

[0] Hey everyone, it's Tuesday, May the 17th, 2011, and you're listening to The Giant Bobcast.

[1] I'm your host, Ryan Davis.

[2] Joining me in the room, in the chamber, here in the...

[3] Beautiful downtown Burbank.

[4] In Studio City, California.

[5] Vinny!

[6] Vinny Caravella!

[7] Hey everybody, how you doing?

[8] Oh man, Simon Bin Laden joke.

[9] What, too soon?

[10] Vinny, you're crazy, man. We've got a great show for you today.

[11] We have an amazing show for you today.

[12] We have an amazing show for you today in the studio.

[13] Cade Blanchett back there.

[14] It was always one of my favorite things with Conan was how unconvincing.

[15] Like every episode, you guys say, we have just an amazing show for you today.

[16] It's like, you know, there are some days someone should just cut that.

[17] Every single time he said that, which would be every single show.

[18] No, this show's not that great today.

[19] And he would even do that enough that that became a running gag of the, this show's not so great.

[20] No, I'm just joking.

[21] It's an amazing show.

[22] It's an amazing show.

[23] But today, seriously, folks.

[24] No, for real.

[25] This show.

[26] Knock your dicks in the dirt.

[27] This is why we do this for days like today.

[28] It all comes together for moments like this with Mr. Patrick Klepek.

[29] Coffee cake is pretty good.

[30] Yeah, there was a full half sheet of coffee cake in the office.

[31] Thank you, Will Smith's birthday.

[32] That's right.

[33] Welcome to coffee cake.

[34] I'm tired.

[35] It was a big coffee cake.

[36] Ain't all this coffee cake.

[37] There's no caffeine.

[38] I thought this was supposed to give me energy.

[39] It says coffee right in the day.

[40] Someone should have just said you can only have one, and then I would have been all right.

[41] Please take one.

[42] There was no limit.

[43] Just eat as much as you want.

[44] There was still a whole fourth left, and I was like, all right.

[45] I'll keep eating the coffee.

[46] What's your thoughts on the coffee cake?

[47] It's pretty good.

[48] It is actually pretty good.

[49] It's actually pretty delicious.

[50] Some people were complaining about it being too crumbly.

[51] That's what a coffee cake does.

[52] Yeah, pretty much every time I bite, I need like three more napkins to clean myself up.

[53] Who the hell is going to complain about free coffee cake?

[54] I think Melissa was complaining because she bought the coffee cake.

[55] Okay, so you can complain.

[56] She's allowed to.

[57] She had expectations for the coffee cake.

[58] You didn't see my anonymously sourced story today talking about the crumbly coffee cake.

[59] Bringing it all down from the inside.

[60] And that fourth voice you hear is Mr. Bradley Shoemaker, who's in the process of furiously wolfing down an apple.

[61] In the role of guy who thought he could eat an apple before the podcast started.

[62] Oh, that's a tragic story.

[63] The problem is once you start, you have to go.

[64] Of hubris and downfall.

[65] As the color starts to disappear.

[66] Yeah, it starts to oxidize, and then your apple is ruined.

[67] You got a brown apple.

[68] Yeah, you do.

[69] Maybe you do.

[70] I had to go to the doctor over the weekend.

[71] Take out my brown apple.

[72] Oh.

[73] Did grandma touch it?

[74] That was me imitating you talking to the doctor.

[75] I was saying, why is it that you and I are the only ones without food?

[76] Why are you and I the only ones who are able to speak freely here?

[77] There's more coffee cake.

[78] No, no, I'm saying we're good without food, but it shouldn't be us that are talking right now.

[79] Why?

[80] Because we'll just say awful things.

[81] Oh.

[82] You just give you and me microphones.

[83] Yeah, talk about people's brown apples.

[84] Yeah, start talking about brown apples.

[85] I was about to go wash all this apple juice off.

[86] Then Vinny just kicks out some casual racism.

[87] So maybe you guys should fill time.

[88] Soup comes out.

[89] What?

[90] No, you're not going anywhere.

[91] I don't care.

[92] You don't need to podcast with your hands.

[93] My hands are all apple sticky.

[94] Podcast with your mind.

[95] Apple sticky.

[96] Worth noting that Mr. Jeff Gerstman is not with us today because he's in the City of Angels.

[97] He wouldn't be part of this.

[98] He said no. People are going to eat food in the podcast room.

[99] Brown, I'm out.

[100] I'm out.

[101] Ran out of Grandma's cookies and unfortunately Jeff just moved on.

[102] He's doing some pre -E3 shit right now.

[103] He's not down there to clean up.

[104] up that town.

[105] I hope he's doing that as well.

[106] If he's got any downtime whatsoever, better clean up those streets.

[107] Acting out some of the crimes from L .A. Noire.

[108] We'll expect his shield and his peace on our desks on Monday.

[109] He gets a little taste of E3.

[110] A good taste.

[111] Hopefully.

[112] Hopefully.

[113] He'll come back with stories aplenty.

[114] A lot of...

[115] I can't.

[116] I mean, I don't even really know.

[117] They went down for an E3 tasting menu.

[118] A number of publishers have these pre -show events with a majority, the lion's share of the content embargoed until E3 time.

[119] The most fantastic part, though, being that as we continue to wildly speculate about games, he now has to just shut up.

[120] Yeah, it's like he knows all of the facts about everything.

[121] Now anything I say could be held again.

[122] So I just can't say anything at all.

[123] Well, guess what?

[124] I think it's going to be there.

[125] He'll be back next week.

[126] Snoopy.

[127] Yeah.

[128] But he will be completely silent.

[129] Might as well just not record his channel.

[130] No, you can just record it but just mute it so the conversations don't make any sense.

[131] Just put a tone underneath the entire thing.

[132] Just beep him the entire time.

[133] Just constant.

[134] Not even when he's talking.

[135] Just the whole time.

[136] Oh, that wouldn't be crazy making.

[137] I should do that.

[138] You're out of your goddamn brown apples.

[139] fear box in every episode of the podcast.

[140] That's not good, no. You don't think so?

[141] Nope.

[142] All right.

[143] Brad's finished up his apple.

[144] All right, let's start this podcast.

[145] Beardy Brad, ready to go.

[146] Man, yeah.

[147] This is my game review in beard.

[148] It is a solid game review in beard, sir.

[149] This is why I have not left the house for four or five days.

[150] You know, that's an admirable amount of growth for the amount of time that you were out.

[151] In fairness, I don't think I had shaved for a few days before that.

[152] All right, but this is probably more like a week.

[153] You ducked out.

[154] You're kind of ruining the story.

[155] Sorry.

[156] But still, for a solid week, that's good growth.

[157] Yeah, I couldn't do that over the course of a couple of months.

[158] That's flattering.

[159] Thank you.

[160] So you and Jeff, all right.

[161] I can't do that.

[162] You and Jeff are in the spotty facial hair club.

[163] I will always look like I'm 16 until at least I'm 45.

[164] Do you just have the thin mustache and that's it or something?

[165] Oh, I just look like a dirty sexual predator.

[166] I will pay good money to see you as a dirty sexual predator.

[167] I have some pictures when Katie asked me. She's like, you know what?

[168] We've been together for a good long time.

[169] I want to see if it will fill out.

[170] I was like, I don't want to see if it will fill out.

[171] She's like, oh, no, no. Come on.

[172] Come on.

[173] So we did it.

[174] Give it a try.

[175] We got about, like, eight weeks in, and I was getting some real strange looks on the streets, and I was, like, still going to, like, events for games, like, wearing this, but, like, trying to, like, play it up.

[176] Ha, ha, it's a funny joke.

[177] You know, my girlfriend thinks it's funny.

[178] And then eventually I just woke up, and I was disgusted with myself, and I just shaved it off.

[179] Did you ever trim it down to just a mustache?

[180] No, no. That would just be arrested.

[181] Maybe my favorite potential look for Patrick Klepik.

[182] Well, we'll see.

[183] That hair, just a nice, thin, awful mustache.

[184] Maybe after E3.

[185] Maybe I could be convinced.

[186] Yeah.

[187] I like a good, bad mustache.

[188] I'm not going to lie.

[189] That happened to me the last time I had a real beard.

[190] Like, you know, the kind of beard that you keep and trim and, you know, like you have a beard.

[191] It's not just stubble or whatever.

[192] And then, you know, how you decide to get rid of it and you think, man, I should do some funny stuff with what's left before I get rid of it all.

[193] Well, you do your short afternoon of, all right, shave this much of the facial hair and run around like that for a bit.

[194] Now I have a goatee.

[195] Now I have a Fu Manchu.

[196] Now I have the chaplain.

[197] Now I have like the chaplain push broom.

[198] You mean the Hitler mustache?

[199] No, I don't.

[200] Everyone puts the Hitler mustache and then runs around their apartment going, I got a Hitler mustache!

[201] I got a Hitler mustache!

[202] And you, like, maybe take a picture, but then you shave it off before you ever step outside your house because you can't wear that shit.

[203] Well, I stopped at Selleck.

[204] Okay.

[205] I had a good Tom Selleck going on.

[206] Well, you actually went out with that.

[207] So that's where I was going with that.

[208] That was handsome.

[209] That was good, yeah.

[210] It was hot.

[211] It was terrible.

[212] It was solid.

[213] It was a really good mustache.

[214] Universal consensus.

[215] Everyone that's seen it loves that mustache.

[216] I really wish I had not posted that picture.

[217] It was so good.

[218] It was really solid.

[219] What didn't you like about it?

[220] You'd have to ask all the people around me because when I went out with the mustache.

[221] It was not well -received in person.

[222] Yeah, you're going with people that can't grow mustaches.

[223] I went to Steph's for a couple hours after that.

[224] I was like, yeah, this will be funny.

[225] Everybody will laugh and think it is ironic and amusing.

[226] I mean, a few people laughed, but for the most part...

[227] It's the pretty boy thing, though.

[228] It's like Brad Pitt can wear a mustache.

[229] Because it's like, everything else is working so well.

[230] You wear the mustache, it's like, you're only offsetting a little bit.

[231] So I think people were just upset that you were, like, scarring up this otherwise good look.

[232] You flatter me. Because the Tom Selleck mustache does not go into hipster territory.

[233] Or does it?

[234] I don't think so.

[235] I don't know that I would call Brad's a Selleck, though.

[236] I mean, it was a full mustache.

[237] Yeah, it was full.

[238] I don't know.

[239] But you did have the depth.

[240] You didn't quite have the...

[241] He has a 3D mustache.

[242] He definitely...

[243] His protrudes.

[244] Yeah, his comes out at you from the screen.

[245] That probably would take a few months to really work up.

[246] It was good.

[247] It was a good, clean, well -trimmed mustache, and I appreciated it.

[248] You'd have to trim and shape that thing to get the full effect.

[249] You don't get a mustache named after you without a little work.

[250] It takes a while.

[251] Yeah, that's true.

[252] It takes a while.

[253] People don't realize that me. No. I'd like to see you with just a mustache.

[254] Just a full mustache?

[255] Just a full mustache.

[256] I go once in a while.

[257] I just kind of want to see everyone at some point with just a full mustache.

[258] It's a little more piratey.

[259] It is May. Yeah.

[260] It's kind of thin.

[261] Mustache May. Yeah, we just don't have a big upper lip.

[262] No, my dad's got the full big mustache, cop mustache.

[263] Does he get food caught in it?

[264] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[265] But now it's like, you know, it's got gray in it and stuff.

[266] Does he have a mustache cone?

[267] I don't think so.

[268] To get the food out?

[269] I don't think so.

[270] Now when he shaves his mustache, it looks weird.

[271] I don't know.

[272] Mustaches.

[273] You haven't seen me without a mustache.

[274] In a while.

[275] In a long, long, long, long time.

[276] Without some facial hair, for sure.

[277] Yeah.

[278] And it will be a long while longer.

[279] You're keeping it, God damn it.

[280] Yeah, this is not going anywhere.

[281] Vinny Caravella.

[282] Ryan Davis.

[283] How's it going, man?

[284] It's going well.

[285] I got over some little...

[286] You were sick last week.

[287] Yeah, it's still hanging in there.

[288] We all become paralyzed with fear when Vinny Caravella gets sick.

[289] It's like, oh, no. What do we do?

[290] Vinny's not here.

[291] I don't know how to work anything.

[292] I don't know what to do.

[293] Hit the buttons.

[294] I just felt real bad because I had been going to a couple of doctor's offices, so I probably picked up something there, I have to guess.

[295] Because nobody else in the office was sick.

[296] So I knew I was the vector.

[297] If anyone else got sick in the office.

[298] So I actually took a sick day.

[299] Yeah.

[300] So like if somebody else had been sick in the office, then I probably would have just come in.

[301] It's like, ah, it's not me. Old patient zero Caravella.

[302] Right.

[303] So like I knew that like, oh, crap, they're all just going to pin this one on me. If I come in, people get sick.

[304] That's my ass.

[305] So I took one of those days off.

[306] It was good.

[307] It was thoughtful of you to take that sick day.

[308] Because right now would be a shit time for people to get sick.

[309] But taking a sick day kind of sucks because you're sick.

[310] Right.

[311] It's like, oh, a day off from work.

[312] No, no, no. Or I feel awful.

[313] I'm out of this bed.

[314] Yeah, and you just kind of wallow in your own sense.

[315] You can't enjoy anything that you would spend your time doing.

[316] You're like, I'm going to get so much done today.

[317] The games are too intense.

[318] I don't even want to think about that.

[319] I just want to stop using tissues.

[320] Just bore OJ and NyQuil.

[321] Just put them in a great big bucket.

[322] I can't sleep because every time my nose is all stuffed up, it was bad.

[323] But it was just like a cold.

[324] Yeah, it seemed like you're expectorating maybe a little bit still.

[325] So it's in there.

[326] You got some sun this weekend, though.

[327] I will say that.

[328] Yeah, then on Sunday, I went on a boat.

[329] You went on a boat.

[330] I went on a boat.

[331] What brought on the boat trip?

[332] It was a sailboat.

[333] So for Christmas, my parents got...

[334] No, no, not a toy boat.

[335] Not a toy boat.

[336] Not a toy boat.

[337] Toy boat?

[338] Not a toy boat.

[339] Not a toy boat.

[340] Not a toy boat.

[341] For Christmas, my parents got...

[342] For me and for Jessie, they got a brunch on a sailboat thing.

[343] Wait a minute.

[344] You sound like you kind of brushed that off.

[345] You made a face.

[346] For Christmas, my parents got for us a brunch on a sailboat.

[347] Sounds magical.

[348] Yeah.

[349] It sounds like a wonderful time for a young couple.

[350] It's a fantastic time.

[351] Actually, a sailboat.

[352] Sailboat.

[353] Powered by the wind.

[354] And also a motor, if you like.

[355] I think all sailboats pretty much have to have a motor at this point.

[356] So just very briefly, like when we imagined it, we were like, oh, I guess we're going to be on this big boat in a cabin and sitting at a table eating brunch.

[357] It was like a schooner with a bench seating and everybody was like sitting on a bench seat.

[358] butt, like, thigh to thigh.

[359] Yeah.

[360] And, like, you get up and you get, like, some bagels and some cold cuts and stuff.

[361] And then, like, sit back down.

[362] Everybody sit back down.

[363] We're going to put the sails up.

[364] It was weird.

[365] So it was not, like, a large luxury yacht.

[366] No, no, no. It was, like, 30 dudes, like, of, like, kind of weird, like, familial stuff going on.

[367] Like, oh, Jay's here.

[368] It's Alex's birthday.

[369] And they're all, like, 45, 50.

[370] And they're, like, this is a lot of fun.

[371] And Jesse and I are just kind of sitting there.

[372] Lone wolfing it.

[373] Who was piloting this boat?

[374] The captain.

[375] What was he like?

[376] He was fine.

[377] He wasn't like Ron or anything like that.

[378] He was just like a dude in a baseball cap.

[379] Very nice.

[380] Sailboats are awesome.

[381] They've never been on a sailboat.

[382] It's been a long time.

[383] When I was a kid, maybe.

[384] You should not underestimate how awesome a sailboat is.

[385] Very different than a powerboat because once the wind kicks in, it just goes.

[386] It's amazing.

[387] Sailing is a lot of fun.

[388] And so it was cool, but I did not bring sunscreen.

[389] And let me tell you something.

[390] You learn quickly about not having as much head cover as maybe you once did.

[391] You've got to wear a hat now.

[392] Oh, I do.

[393] Because I got in the shower this morning.

[394] And you're like, oh, the top of my head!

[395] Oh, the top of my head!

[396] Oh, the top of my head!

[397] Yeah, that was not good.

[398] You got a little color.

[399] What do you say?

[400] Do you burn in brown, though?

[401] I bet you do.

[402] You look like this is going to turn into just some color in a couple of days.

[403] Yeah, usually I don't burn so much.

[404] Yeah, I just turn into a crab.

[405] Just a big red man. No, it's a shame because I really love the beach and I love the water.

[406] I grew up on Long Island, which was like 20 minutes from the water all the time.

[407] But here I never go.

[408] I don't know why.

[409] I think they get bummed out because the water is always cold.

[410] Yeah, San Francisco Beach sucks.

[411] No offense to any locals.

[412] No, no. We know.

[413] It's fun to look at.

[414] It's great to look at.

[415] I go to Southern California or at least Santa Cruz if I ever want to get into the ocean.

[416] And even then, that's like premium season time that you want to go.

[417] So though I may be burned, I was kind of freezing my ass off the entire time.

[418] It was actually really cold.

[419] But video games.

[420] So did you play any video games on this boat?

[421] Wait a minute.

[422] Before we move on.

[423] Yeah.

[424] Were you on that boat when I called you yesterday?

[425] No. Okay.

[426] That was afterward.

[427] Wait.

[428] Oh, you guys were eating again somewhere else?

[429] So we didn't eat, actually, on the brunch.

[430] You didn't have the cold cuts?

[431] I didn't.

[432] You got something to use cold cuts?

[433] I was kind of like, this kind of isn't worth getting up and standing in line.

[434] I love cold cuts.

[435] Deli meat?

[436] Do you guys say deli or cold cuts?

[437] I'll say either.

[438] You can say deli.

[439] You can say deli?

[440] All right.

[441] I bet you'll just stand there and eat those.

[442] In time.

[443] Just like in perpetuity, right?

[444] Turkey slice.

[445] Like in perpetuity, just like one after the other.

[446] Like when somebody gets those plates, those platters.

[447] Just like roll them up, sit there and eat the whole thing, right?

[448] Well, because the breadsticks always run out.

[449] Hopefully.

[450] Oh, yeah.

[451] Your starch is long gone.

[452] Roll some cheese up in one of them.

[453] Yeah.

[454] Just grab them.

[455] Stack of salami.

[456] So we didn't eat much there.

[457] And then we went to go eat before we saw Thor, which we saw.

[458] Very fancy day.

[459] You saw it.

[460] We did a lot.

[461] We went to the – so we had time to kill.

[462] So we ate and then went to the MoMA and then went to Thor.

[463] MoMA?

[464] I think it was a MoMA.

[465] That would be the art gallery down there.

[466] Yeah.

[467] Assuming you saw it at either Century Theater or the Metreon.

[468] Metreon.

[469] Metreon.

[470] Yeah, that's the MoMAs right there.

[471] Yeah.

[472] Across from the pack.

[473] Yeah, so it was a full day.

[474] Did you get any video games in?

[475] I did.

[476] I made it a point because I really wanted to move on from Fallout New Vegas to finish Fallout New Vegas.

[477] You finished Fallout New Vegas.

[478] So I finished Fallout New Vegas, and at some point I just needed to put it into sixth gear and go in Fallout New Vegas.

[479] What gear had you been in previously?

[480] Reverse.

[481] Just going backwards to the game.

[482] You probably don't want to go straight from reverse into sixth.

[483] I think I heard a little grinding.

[484] You're probably going to stall out, honestly, if you go straight from reverse to six.

[485] I coasted across the finish line.

[486] It was cool.

[487] Very probably.

[488] I got a good push.

[489] Fry out your transmission doing that, in fact.

[490] You want to rev up to 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 vats per minute.

[491] So it was that game.

[492] I don't want to talk too much about it, but it done.

[493] It's finished.

[494] I am so relieved.

[495] So you pulled down the console and typed in the ending?

[496] No. Did you talk your way out of the ending?

[497] I talked a lot.

[498] I had a very high speech.

[499] But you didn't have 100.

[500] I had 100.

[501] Oh, you did.

[502] You probably did.

[503] You probably talked your way out of it.

[504] I probably did.

[505] Because you can only do it if you have full speech.

[506] Well, I talked my way into getting killed, and then I talked my way again after I reloaded into not getting killed, if that's what you mean.

[507] I must have made some poor decisions.

[508] So did you only do one ending?

[509] You don't feel compelled to do multiples?

[510] I do.

[511] I feel very compelled.

[512] But that game lost something when I came back to it.

[513] Some of the magic had kind of flown away.

[514] I felt like...

[515] I went from being 12 to like 32 and watching a magic show.

[516] Like, I don't really.

[517] I know what all the tricks are.

[518] I know that you're going to.

[519] This just seems weird now.

[520] Those games are really hard to go in.

[521] Once you've lost the momentum, you forget what story threads you were following.

[522] I tried to come back to Fallout 3 after a year.

[523] You just can't do it.

[524] I don't remember what anything is.

[525] Too many variables.

[526] Too many variables.

[527] There's so much side stuff.

[528] And it's crazy because there's so much side stuff.

[529] And then in the last 45 minutes of that game, it pretty much just funnels you into a laser.

[530] Just a laser focus.

[531] One of basically four or five end games.

[532] Choose your side.

[533] Which honestly, as someone who wants to see all the endings, for me, it was great.

[534] Because I'm like, oh, okay.

[535] I've got this save here that's just moments before the split happens.

[536] I can jump in there and then choose a line with this guy, choose a line with that guy.

[537] All the best characters are in that kind of big finale.

[538] And you kind of want to see how it's going to play out with all those people.

[539] So I might go back.

[540] But honestly, there's so much other stuff coming out.

[541] I just want to stick it back into neutral, start at first again, and go grab L .A. Noire and go.

[542] Hell.

[543] And cruise.

[544] And damn, yeah.

[545] Yeah.

[546] That game looks – that's kind of why I was like, I need to finish it.

[547] And also The Witcher 2, which is coming out today.

[548] Yeah, out this week for the personal computer.

[549] I had to play through some of The Witcher, and I love what's going on there.

[550] But I think, again, I think I missed my sweet spot on The Witcher.

[551] I'm coming to it very late.

[552] You started it or you wanted to go back and try it?

[553] It started a while ago, a couple of months ago.

[554] That's another really long game.

[555] Yeah, and I think out of its time, maybe it loses a little something.

[556] I actually kind of want to go back and play some more of the original Witcher, but Witcher 2 is out, so it's a tough call for me. Time to move on, man. Yeah, really hard.

[557] So that's actually kind of it.

[558] It was a lot of falling in Vegas.

[559] I had a lot of ground to cover, and I covered it.

[560] That's a pretty long game if you want it to be.

[561] Definitely.

[562] There's not...

[563] A small amount of content in there.

[564] No, it suddenly turned into, like, 45 hours in that game, and I'm like, damn.

[565] That tech is really starting to show its age.

[566] Hell yeah, it is.

[567] They put out a trailer for the new Vegas DLC last week, or week four, maybe.

[568] Shit.

[569] I'm forgetting the name.

[570] It's not Lonely Hearts.

[571] Honest Hearts.

[572] Honest Hearts, you're right.

[573] Yeah, I looked at that trailer, and I was just like, ugh, man, I don't remember this looking so...

[574] Just rudimentary, like, not a lot of detail on stuff.

[575] The characters are very robotic -looking.

[576] It's becoming increasingly reliant on, like, the story, the written stuff to sort of carry the day, especially because the comic mechanics aren't fun anymore.

[577] The characters look bad.

[578] All right, then.

[579] Text -based Fallout.

[580] Who's in?

[581] Yeah.

[582] All right.

[583] Yeah.

[584] Just Zork -style.

[585] Yeah.

[586] Text adventure.

[587] Go, Vat.

[588] Shh.

[589] You are in Vat.

[590] Kill everyone.

[591] Target head.

[592] Everyone is dead.

[593] Target head.

[594] Target head.

[595] Target head.

[596] Target head.

[597] Go.

[598] Oh, man. Now I don't want to play the text.

[599] You target his head.

[600] Damage.

[601] Fallout radio play.

[602] It almost is.

[603] Where it's just the voice.

[604] You're right.

[605] It almost is.

[606] It almost is.

[607] So that was kind of it for my little video game adventure.

[608] It was really Fallout.

[609] Fallout.

[610] It was a Fallout adventure game.

[611] Just take out the combat.

[612] Yeah.

[613] Yeah.

[614] I don't know.

[615] Fallout's cool.

[616] Yeah.

[617] Patrick Levick, what you been playing?

[618] Yesterday I played a 12K run.

[619] Well, sort of a 12K run.

[620] You went on the beta breakers.

[621] Yeah.

[622] Yeah, I mean, I'd say three -fourths run, one -fourth drink and walk.

[623] So you were able to actually blend the two disparate elements of the beta breakers.

[624] You know what?

[625] It was, having seen it at its most...

[626] And it was still disgusting.

[627] There were still the – we were calling them landmines.

[628] It was the naked dudes running along.

[629] So we had – I was with a group of five or six and we'd announce landmine.

[630] You should set up beta breakers for those out of San Francisco.

[631] So this – yeah, this year is the 100th anniversary.

[632] So it was like this big – Geez, really?

[633] Yeah.

[634] I got a little medal and everything.

[635] Basically, it's just – San Francisco's, like, craziest debauchery, like, centralized into this seven -mile run that has people running and walking, but really it's just an excuse for a bunch of people to get really drunk, have floats.

[636] have kegs on those floats, and then get naked.

[637] Or wear crazy costumes.

[638] Yes.

[639] Or wear a costume and then get naked.

[640] It's one end of the peninsula to the other?

[641] It's from the bay to the ocean.

[642] Yeah, it's from Embarcadero, which is kind of the financial district area of San Francisco, to Ocean Beach, which is the coldest balls area we were talking about before.

[643] Once you get there, you're like, this is why I don't care.

[644] So some people run it, like you said, and some people just stumble.

[645] Most people don't run it.

[646] There are proper, like I woke up Sunday morning, turn on the TV, and Channel 4 was showing the Kenyans crossing the finish line at 25 minutes or something.

[647] Yeah, they're the people, yeah.

[648] And I'm sitting there watching, so I mentioned this on the screen podcast yesterday, but I watched those people.

[649] I'm like, hey, awesome performance and everything, but you guys are really kind of missing what beta breakers is all like.

[650] The people who are actually running that thing in 30 minutes, it's like...

[651] There are other runs that are for you, sir.

[652] This is the ones where we get our Gatorades.

[653] I feel like that's a necessary component of it.

[654] You have to have a couple of people making it legitimate.

[655] I think that just double underlines the horrible, gross, five -hour walking hangover that the rest of Beta Breakers.

[656] To the common person, Beta Breakers, because these people are literally pushing these giant – nothing's motorized because you have to go down footpaths during parts of it.

[657] Well, there used to be – like motorized floats and stuff like that that people would get onto the course.

[658] And then San Francisco has been trying to like sort of get rid of that.

[659] And so actually this year where there were no floats, no nothing, they were very strict about what you could have.

[660] They were checking to see what you were holding in your hand.

[661] I went past one street where there was just this float.

[662] It was like this gold giant -ass thing that desperately wanted to be on the course, but the cops had blocked it off.

[663] So they probably spent countless hours building this damn float.

[664] Thinking they would have a chance to sneak it on.

[665] And they picked their street that they'd be able to bring it onto, and then it got shut down.

[666] But in years past when I've gone, it's been floats that are hand -pushed.

[667] Oh, yeah.

[668] For seven miles, drunkenly, like, taking turns because there are these huge teams, drunkenly pushing these floats.

[669] With people on the floats, too.

[670] We're not, you know, I mean, like, there were some that, a couple years ago, there was, like, 10 or 12 people partying with, like, you know, DJ equipment on that.

[671] Right, right.

[672] And then people dragging that along.

[673] It's basically a drunk -ass -for -no -good -reason parade.

[674] At its finest moments.

[675] Did you ever hang out with David Luby used to live off of?

[676] He lived on Fell?

[677] No. That's right on the route.

[678] Yeah, I was a block off the route.

[679] Okay.

[680] Where I used to live.

[681] You probably missed the runoff then.

[682] Or maybe, I don't know, maybe they would venture a block.

[683] You tell me. Well, you were in the apartment building, so people couldn't really get in.

[684] The point is that his house was right on the route, and his front door was exposed to the outside.

[685] Yeah.

[686] So he would literally sit on his front step the entire duration of the thing.

[687] to make sure nobody was coming and defecating on his steps or pissing on his car.

[688] He said people would constantly...

[689] I went over there one time to watch this for a few minutes, and people were constantly trying to come in and use his bathroom.

[690] It just sounded like a nightmare for people that actually lived on the route of the thing.

[691] I never saw any of that because of...

[692] Like you said, because of where I lived, but I also lived right across the street from that Safeway, which you know is just a real gross Safeway.

[693] Oh, yeah.

[694] No standards.

[695] I don't live super far of food.

[696] And that Safeway just gets mangled up during Beta Breakers.

[697] That's a nice Safeway.

[698] I feel bad for those people putting together those sandwiches when I went in there one time.

[699] It's like they got no lunch meat.

[700] They're all out.

[701] There's people screaming at them.

[702] Just brown apples everywhere.

[703] All over the place.

[704] I went to the liquor store near my house at like 9 o 'clock last night, and there were people from Beta Breakers in there.

[705] 9 p .m. That's what I'm saying.

[706] The people who are older at 9 a .m., I'm like, you guys are going to go home and sleep through the actual beta breakers.

[707] Well, there were some people that we – some friends that are right outside of a club that were kind of waking up thinking that these people were maybe leaving the club.

[708] But they were leaving the club.

[709] But then they were just walking over to the start line of Beta Breakers to start drinking there.

[710] So that's amazing.

[711] So they just like pulled an all -nighter.

[712] That is amazing.

[713] And then just said, all right, Beta Breakers, let's go.

[714] Got to run this one off.

[715] Those are champions.

[716] They are.

[717] That's world -class scumbaggery.

[718] Those were the Kenyans.

[719] Well, their metabolism is so high that it just burns right through them.

[720] Let's go for a run.

[721] Let's go.

[722] That's a Lindy class performance.

[723] Yeah, no doubt.

[724] No doubt.

[725] So, Patrick, tell me about your blended experience of part run, part drink.

[726] Well.

[727] Because watching the beta breakers go past, you see kind of like, okay, here are the serious runners.

[728] Here are the amateur but still taking it seriously runners.

[729] It's shortly after that that you start seeing the naked dudes.

[730] Because there's some naked dudes that are like, okay, I'm actually going to try and run some, but I'm still naked, so I can't run that hard.

[731] See, and the naked dudes break down into some really weird classes of naked dude that we noticed over the series of the run.

[732] One is the naked dude that doesn't have a bag.

[733] Like, he doesn't have his clothes with him.

[734] Yeah.

[735] Or a wallet.

[736] Like, what does he do at the end?

[737] Like, where is he?

[738] How does he get home?

[739] Do they just commit ritual suicide over on the beach?

[740] Like, he doesn't have keys.

[741] He's got nothing.

[742] He's naked.

[743] Or if he's hiding around.

[744] Yeah, you don't know that.

[745] Yeah, it's a reasonable assumption.

[746] Maybe he's just wearing a ruse.

[747] Maybe he's got a key.

[748] Yeah, just in a pocket of his shoe.

[749] Keeping a quarter in that little pocket on the top of his shoe.

[750] Because you're not going to get in a cab.

[751] Or at least you hope not.

[752] Force your way into a cab.

[753] Don't get in my cab.

[754] I don't think a cab driver will pick you up.

[755] And then there's the guy.

[756] I understand when they're doing it in groups.

[757] It's like, okay, fine.

[758] They're doing like this fun.

[759] They got mutual friends that think this is a thing to do.

[760] It's kind of the guys that are by themselves, just sort of waltzing by themselves.

[761] They're not drinking.

[762] They're just naked to be naked.

[763] And I'm like, ah.

[764] And then there was this one over by this tree, and he was wearing a pig mask.

[765] And he was naked, and he had gone off the course and was just standing next to a tree and just watching.

[766] That guy didn't even know Beta Breakers was going on.

[767] This is awesome.

[768] I'm going to go by this tree.

[769] This was supposed to be my special Sunday.

[770] I always just stand here by this tree and watch the kids, but now there's thousands of people.

[771] This is fantastic.

[772] I love this city.

[773] So the cops don't care if you're naked.

[774] No. No, clearly not.

[775] But they care if you're drinking.

[776] Yep.

[777] Yeah.

[778] This year.

[779] Yeah.

[780] Okay.

[781] Well, they've been drinking.

[782] They were brown baggers.

[783] I mean, basically, don't be an asshole.

[784] They've been trying to crack down on it for years.

[785] I have to imagine the cleanup is a little rough.

[786] The city of San Francisco hates beta breakers, but they can't stop beta breakers because you can only hope to contain it.

[787] Didn't they stop the Halloween parade?

[788] Didn't they cancel that?

[789] Yeah, in the Castro?

[790] Yeah.

[791] I think they maybe allowed it in a reduced fashion.

[792] It wasn't really a break as much as it was the, you know...

[793] Party.

[794] Right.

[795] The street party in the Castro.

[796] It was just people in the street.

[797] I think they stopped letting you sell alcohol.

[798] There used to be street vendors that would sell alcohol and stuff, and they just cracked down on that.

[799] A lot of naked dudes with that thing, too.

[800] Yeah.

[801] Our city is out of control.

[802] That's what's going on.

[803] In debt.

[804] That's basically it.

[805] We can't afford brooms, so please don't litter.

[806] Just please don't.

[807] Those 10 ,000 tortillas that people were throwing for some godforsaken reason.

[808] Just don't do that.

[809] Does anyone know why they do that?

[810] Does anyone have any reason why they throw the tortillas?

[811] Well, stop the naked guys with no shoes from running.

[812] Those guys, the John McLeans of the world, just...

[813] You're not going to throw glasses.

[814] Where are they throwing tortillas?

[815] Tortillas.

[816] Who?

[817] I don't know.

[818] When?

[819] Just along the route?

[820] At the beginning, yeah.

[821] Oh, during the beta breakers?

[822] Yeah.

[823] I have no fucking idea.

[824] Maybe it's so that there's a plan to push the naked guys down onto the tortillas and just...

[825] Maybe they get wrapped in tortillas?

[826] I don't know.

[827] Gross.

[828] A sweaty naked dude wrapped in tortillas.

[829] What kind of tortillas are we trying to call it?

[830] Corn tortillas?

[831] White corn?

[832] Yellow corn?

[833] Yellow corn.

[834] Okay.

[835] What corn?

[836] I was going to say the corn tortillas, they're going to crumble pretty easily.

[837] You start trying to fold those around in certain contours.

[838] I just don't think you're going to cover a naked dude with those kind of tortillas.

[839] Oh, they're flour tortillas.

[840] Yeah.

[841] Oh, they're not chips.

[842] No. Not tortilla chips.

[843] Oh, okay.

[844] No, no, yeah, no. Chips could be edible.

[845] Well, no. I mean, I'm talking about corn tortillas versus flour tortillas.

[846] You're like a manrito.

[847] You just want to roll them up.

[848] Oh, my God.

[849] A flour tortilla is going to be a lot sturdier than a corn tortilla, but corn tortillas are going to be more common, I'd imagine.

[850] Any naked women?

[851] A couple questionable ones.

[852] Maybe some of the slightly overweight body.

[853] Any naked women do you want to be out with?

[854] About three -fourths through, like a shining beacon in the darkness.

[855] We saw this one that was like kind of petite, small.

[856] We were like, this could be it, guys.

[857] This could be finally.

[858] Finally.

[859] Justification for coming out.

[860] For all the nakedness.

[861] For all the nakedness.

[862] And she had some pretty gross fake tits.

[863] I'm going to say that.

[864] But they were sturdy.

[865] They were too sturdy, which is what was kind of unnerving.

[866] Yeah.

[867] But they were good.

[868] She had a tramp stamp, so you know.

[869] It's been verified by a number of individuals probably.

[870] But it was all right.

[871] Considering the naked competition.

[872] I will say this, that despite as many naked dudes as you may see during beta breakers, that the scantily clad, costumed women more than make up for that.

[873] They're going to be all the way naked.

[874] Close enough.

[875] Come on, you've got to leave a little something.

[876] It's more fun that way.

[877] I just think running, for the gentlemen and for the ladies, any kind of...

[878] aggressive movement while naked.

[879] It's just uncomfortable.

[880] Yeah.

[881] You see, I don't think running naked would be fun.

[882] Like, I just don't logistically see how that works out.

[883] I could understand even, like, minimalists running.

[884] Like, if you're going to go, like, I'm just going to go Speedo and my shoes and that's it and let's go.

[885] Like, okay, you know, that's just enough to contain and wrangle.

[886] I have no problem with naked.

[887] no matter what your body shape is, naked, beautiful, go do what you want to do.

[888] It's the, like, running and just, like, body parts flaying.

[889] It's endangering other people.

[890] Stuff flopping around.

[891] Especially because we were doing, like, the half run, so we're moving fast.

[892] So we can't take into account everything that's around us, which is why you had to yell out.

[893] Oh, so you don't plow into naked dudes.

[894] Yeah, there was the flap effect.

[895] You know?

[896] Like, that is a noted danger.

[897] It's a valid concern.

[898] Especially if you're going in front of someone and you're dodging a little too close because you're going too fast.

[899] The flap effect could hit you and that's – no one wants that.

[900] That's collateral damage that – Unless that's wrapped in a tortilla.

[901] Well, it sounds like you had a fantastic time.

[902] Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

[903] I'm just tired.

[904] So three -quarter run and then just kind of – Gatorade and vodka.

[905] Just in proper mix.

[906] Walking it the rest of the way?

[907] Yeah, until you got to the cold ocean beach.

[908] Why am I here?

[909] Why does anyone come here?

[910] Does everybody, when they get down there, congregate at bars?

[911] I mean, there aren't that many.

[912] It's a very residential area.

[913] They kind of purposely, at that end area, curve it back around, back into the park.

[914] So by the time you've collected your metal, they've kind of funneled you away from the residential area.

[915] So the drunk people kind of just keep stammering back into the woods.

[916] Never to be seen.

[917] Hopefully they'll just pass out somewhere over there.

[918] Or just take all that energy and just go back up the parts.

[919] Even once you came.

[920] Now you're doing a drunk seven miles.

[921] You're not going to notice the next seven.

[922] Fair enough.

[923] Well, it sounds like a good time.

[924] I'm sad I missed it.

[925] I was worried about the weather this weekend.

[926] San Francisco was supposed to be shit this weekend.

[927] Our costume theme was, like, we had, like, snorkels and swim trunks.

[928] And, like, it was like, oh, it's going to be, like, rainy.

[929] And so, like, ironic.

[930] And then it didn't rain, which was cool because then it didn't rain.

[931] Yeah, it was kind of nice.

[932] It only rained for, like, a second on Sunday up in my neck.

[933] Saturday night it rained pretty good.

[934] Yeah.

[935] At the...

[936] At the send -off for one Mr. Navarro.

[937] Yes.

[938] We say Auf Wiedersehen to Alex Navarro.

[939] I was drizzling pretty heavily then.

[940] Any games you played, Mr. Navarro?

[941] Yeah, I decided I didn't really have anything to play this weekend, so I picked up The Darkness for like three bucks.

[942] Oh, where'd you get that?

[943] Just like a GameStop.

[944] It doesn't have any labels or it doesn't come with anything.

[945] Just a disc?

[946] Just a disc for three bucks.

[947] This naked guy in a pig mask was selling the darkness.

[948] You want the darkness?

[949] You want the darkness?

[950] I will introduce you to the darkness.

[951] I was with him all week.

[952] He holds up pretty well.

[953] He's pretty good at the darkness.

[954] That game holds up having...

[955] I have not played a Starbreeze game before, so I haven't played Chronicles of Riddick either.

[956] Yeah, now I desperately want to.

[957] And I borrowed Chronicles of Riddick from a friend.

[958] But, yeah, Darkness holds up really well.

[959] It wasn't a good shooter when it came out, and it's not a better shooter now.

[960] But if you just crank it down to easy so you don't have to worry about...

[961] Like, failing, like, the combat stuff.

[962] Man, the storytelling in that game is just...

[963] It's pretty good.

[964] It's really cool.

[965] Like, I love the loading sequences where he kind of tells a little bit of the story.

[966] Like, he's sitting in, like, the dark room.

[967] He's just sitting on a chair, and he just talks to you.

[968] There is that weird part that I think it's the darkness where you go into, like, weird, like, voodoo land.

[969] Crazy World War II.

[970] World War II?

[971] Oh, that shit's awesome.

[972] Oh, I hate that part.

[973] Really?

[974] I just don't understand what the hell was happening there.

[975] Man, I love...

[976] I mean, I'm a huge fan of, like, Clive Barker, and that's...

[977] That is right in Clive Barker's wheelhouse of weird.

[978] All the people stitched together body parts.

[979] It's just strange and fucked up.

[980] Some weird stuff in there.

[981] I guess that's historically grounded.

[982] That seems like the real Clive Barker touch of we're going to be in a very specific old time period but also horrible monsters.

[983] Yeah, I think I lost why I was there.

[984] What is this game again?

[985] But I did like that game a lot, actually.

[986] Typical Caravelle.

[987] If he doesn't understand it, he doesn't like it.

[988] Yeah.

[989] That's right.

[990] I don't get this shit.

[991] What?

[992] What are you kids yelling about?

[993] Your Kokomo and your cocktail Tom Cruise.

[994] Kokomo?

[995] He's now channeling.

[996] You were the pig man, weren't you?

[997] Maybe you're Pogo Balls.

[998] He's channeling his dad now.

[999] Yep.

[1000] It ain't Billy Joel.

[1001] It ain't music.

[1002] Pogo Balls.

[1003] Fuck.

[1004] So Dark is still enjoying the storytelling stuff.

[1005] Yeah, and I just love games that have a real commitment to the first person and trying to do something a little bit different in that.

[1006] I mean everyone else has already had the first person kiss and the first person like – arm around your girlfriend, like, couch scene from four years ago.

[1007] Oh, yeah, I forgot that.

[1008] And you watched, like, To Kill a Mockingbird.

[1009] Yeah, and you can watch the whole damn movie if you want to just sit there and watch it.

[1010] And there was some dude on Twitter who was like, yeah, I just sat there and watched it.

[1011] And I was like, well, I don't know.

[1012] It really got into the experience.

[1013] I guess if you want to watch that postage stamped version.

[1014] Yeah, probably better way is to view.

[1015] But it's kind of, like, even if it is, like, a throwaway, like, no one's going to actually do this.

[1016] That's kind of incredible.

[1017] I'm just going to sit here and fucking watch this whole movie in this game.

[1018] And I love Starbreeze's commitment to allowing you to do that.

[1019] Also, it has a very – those games – Darkness reminds me a lot of Alan Wake and their commitment to the background stuff, like the posters.

[1020] And it's all funny and really well done.

[1021] You could tell me this was a Remedy game in first person.

[1022] I'm like, I would believe you.

[1023] It has the same sort of sensibilities.

[1024] Starbreeze is a Swedish developer.

[1025] And then Remedy is a Finnish developer.

[1026] So there's some sort of sensibility they have.

[1027] They hate each other.

[1028] Do they?

[1029] Finns and Swedes do not.

[1030] Oh, yeah.

[1031] There's a lot of national animosity there.

[1032] Oh, yeah.

[1033] Absolutely.

[1034] Oh, yeah.

[1035] The Swedes all love each other.

[1036] There's a whole Swedish development community out there.

[1037] They're all very friendly.

[1038] But I think it's a friendly competition.

[1039] I don't know.

[1040] Yeah, maybe.

[1041] I've heard more broadly from a Finnish friend that there is an air of superiority about the Swedes.

[1042] I'm sure the Swedes have plenty of things to say about the Finns.

[1043] They have a condescending nature toward Finland.

[1044] And I'm sure the Swedes are like, ah, the Finns all have dirty feet.

[1045] Illegitimate children.

[1046] Pogo balls.

[1047] Pogo balls.

[1048] They're still running around on pogo balls.

[1049] Carrying their pop -ums with them.

[1050] Skip -its all over the place.

[1051] Skip -its.

[1052] Still walking around like my buddy still in fashion.

[1053] It's funny because it's true.

[1054] What is Starbreeze doing right now?

[1055] Supposedly syndicate.

[1056] Well, that's a rumor, right?

[1057] Project Red Light.

[1058] They had a game canceled.

[1059] Didn't they have it announced yet?

[1060] Oh, they were making a boring game, weren't they?

[1061] Yeah, they got canceled.

[1062] Yeah, they got canceled.

[1063] And then, yeah, they just have this Project Red Light or Project Red something.

[1064] Oh, that's right.

[1065] Those rumors have been going for a while.

[1066] For years have been Syndicate.

[1067] And having played The Darkness and knowing what I know about Chronos or Riddick, I would love to see them do that.

[1068] Who's doing two, then?

[1069] Digital Extremes.

[1070] Digital Extremes.

[1071] Yep.

[1072] Which is not a great pedigree, necessarily, but that game looks pretty good.

[1073] Yeah.

[1074] It's different.

[1075] I like the art style.

[1076] It's not an idea.

[1077] It's kind of got that cel -shaded.

[1078] The art's cool.

[1079] Was it PAX?

[1080] Did we see that?

[1081] It was PAX.

[1082] Did you guys see it?

[1083] Yeah, that's right.

[1084] We had that appointment.

[1085] They're doing more with tentacle killing.

[1086] As an action game, it seems like they're fleshing it out.

[1087] We'll see if the story keeps up.

[1088] I'll say that about Starbreeze.

[1089] I've never felt like the fundamental gameplay has ever been necessarily the strongest point of their games.

[1090] It was great in Riddick.

[1091] I always felt oddly disconnected from a lot of the action in Riddick.

[1092] Ambitious.

[1093] They cram a lot of animation in there between you and what you want to do.

[1094] I mean, it's ambitious for what they're trying to do with that first -person melee in Chronicles of Riddick, but I just didn't find it.

[1095] And when that game really first came out on the original Xbox, things they were doing with stealth action and kind of a HUD -less perspective was very advanced for the time.

[1096] And even the engine technology.

[1097] It was before Doom 3 came out.

[1098] That game came out using some of the same techniques before Doom came out, and you were just like, holy shit.

[1099] It looked really, really sharp for its time, but I've never felt like actually playing Starbreeze games was my favorite part of Starbreeze games.

[1100] I don't know.

[1101] I really like the darkness.

[1102] Their worlds are just really well realized.

[1103] Absolutely.

[1104] That part and the way they tell stories and the character development I always find is really top notch.

[1105] Like you're saying, actually shooting your way through the darkness is not the most fun way to play it.

[1106] I'm happy that you were able to discover that a little late.

[1107] Well, I thought it was a good setup for a pretty short game, and I'm getting set up to play L .A. Noire, which is a real story -based game.

[1108] I thought it would be a good sort of...

[1109] tee off into that one.

[1110] I have a save for The Darkness like maybe two hours from the end or something.

[1111] I've heard the ending is really good.

[1112] I can report back.

[1113] No, I'm like in the last row.

[1114] I need to go get a $3 copy and finish that game as well.

[1115] I think you can borrow mine if you want.

[1116] Now, Brad, you've spent the past week just playing L .A. Noire nonstop.

[1117] Oh my god.

[1118] I almost don't want you to talk.

[1119] Oh my god.

[1120] Because I've seen the game.

[1121] We shot a quick look earlier.

[1122] I have done nothing.

[1123] Yeah, I kind of almost feel like we just defer.

[1124] There's a lot of questions I think answered in that quick look.

[1125] Dude, we can't not talk about that.

[1126] No, we should.

[1127] We should, but I'm saying maybe put this on pause, go watch that quick look, and then listen to the rest of this.

[1128] Just so we don't have to re -explain all of the systems and everything that's going on in that game.

[1129] Mainly I say that because...

[1130] Also, Patrick hasn't seen much of it.

[1131] Once you see it...

[1132] I think this will make a lot more sense, this conversation.

[1133] Because you had told me a bunch about it, and I still didn't get it.

[1134] And when I came in this morning, or yesterday morning, and I was like, so Heavy Rain.

[1135] And you're like, no, not at all.

[1136] Like, what are you talking about?

[1137] And then I saw, I literally watched like 10 minutes.

[1138] I'm like, oh.

[1139] I now know what this game is.

[1140] Yeah, now I know what this is.

[1141] It breaks down into very clearly defined component parts that fit together in a specific way.

[1142] So give us the pitch.

[1143] But you need to see that stuff.

[1144] I hesitate to say that they're pulling a fast one on their fan base or anything, but with the paucity of information that's been out there about this game, I feel like a lot of people are going to go into this thing not knowing what it is.

[1145] The trailers show a lot of guns.

[1146] They're going to see the Rockstar name on the box, they're going to see the action that's in the trailers and stuff, and I think the natural response is, okay, it's Grand Theft Auto 1947.

[1147] Which is what Red Dead was for the Western.

[1148] Yes, Grand Theft Horse, basically.

[1149] Which also, that was another game I had not seen any of prior to its release.

[1150] So, like, I wasn't even making that assumption then.

[1151] I was just like, okay, I know what the original Red Dead is.

[1152] I don't know what this is going to be.

[1153] Is this going to be just a linear, like, oh, wait, no, this is a full -on, wide -open action game.

[1154] Right, right.

[1155] Which L .A. Noire is not.

[1156] This is an adventure game, primarily.

[1157] I mean, it's definitely got action to it, but...

[1158] The majority of your time, you're going to be looking very methodically through crime scenes for clues.

[1159] You're going to be interrogating people of interest.

[1160] But that's not to say that it's like a point -and -click game.

[1161] Not at all, no. I mean, it's only on consoles for one thing.

[1162] But even just for, like, the style of the interface or...

[1163] It's very...

[1164] Because at this point, I think you say adventure game...

[1165] People think Pixel Hunt.

[1166] Well, yeah.

[1167] You think Telltale.

[1168] Me and Vinny were talking about that earlier.

[1169] I mean, you've got Telltale over here making the old style of point -and -click adventure game.

[1170] That is what's classically defined as an adventure game.

[1171] Right.

[1172] Then you've got, you know, the Heavy Reigns and now L .A. Noire and you can probably name half a dozen other examples of people, like, trying to, like, redefine in a modern context what an adventure game is.

[1173] Sure.

[1174] And I feel like this is the best...

[1175] attempt so far to blend those mechanics with like a more modern recognizable kind of gameplay style which is the open world action game there's a lot of information gathering and inventory yeah yeah i mean any game any game where you spend more time well i shouldn't i shouldn't i shouldn't speak in absolutes like this but i from from watching it people had been saying like oh it's like it's uh you know gta plus phoenix right right and i feel like that is terribly accurate, but also incredibly misleading for what the tone, at least for the stuff that you were showing me with the criminal process, the interrogations, the case setup seems like it's very much like, okay, here is your case.

[1176] This is all you're concerned about for timing.

[1177] You can take a break between the steps of that case and do other stuff.

[1178] There's never a timer.

[1179] There's no...

[1180] to have to go and do, well, there are actually a couple cases where you're timed.

[1181] But I'm just saying, like, in general.

[1182] That's your focus.

[1183] Generally, yeah, yeah.

[1184] Well, I mean, one of the biggest key differences between this and a Red Dead or GTA is that you don't go around the map picking up missions from, like, quest givers.

[1185] Right.

[1186] There are not, you know, there's not an E up here on your map where, you know, Everett is hanging out to give you your next mission, but then also Quentin is down in this other place, you know.

[1187] It unfolds very linearly, you know.

[1188] It fades from black to a title.

[1189] for each case.

[1190] And you go through the case, you do all the stuff to solve it.

[1191] I mean, you might do some side missions in between if you feel like it, but when you solve that case, it fades back to black and then fades back up on the next case.

[1192] A chapter -based kind of presentation.

[1193] And I really like that idea because we were talking about this earlier about how it's kind of Alan Wake -ish in the sense that if you want to, you can stretch this game out like it seems like three weeks to a month if you want because each of the cases are like, what, like an hour and a half?

[1194] It varies, but yeah, I'd say an hour to two hours probably each.

[1195] And, I mean, it's not any kind of spoiler.

[1196] I mean, they've been very forthcoming.

[1197] You become a detective.

[1198] You start out as a beat cop for basically the tutorial.

[1199] But as soon as you get promoted to detective, they take the training wheels off.

[1200] You are out there solving cases for real.

[1201] They're not telling you.

[1202] They're not giving you any kind of real hints about what to do.

[1203] But this isn't like a lot of, like, all right, drive to this location and meet this guy.

[1204] Well, I mean, there is some of that.

[1205] The only point I was going to make about becoming a detective, you work different desks.

[1206] You start out on traffic, which is just like real run -of -the -mill.

[1207] Like, oh, there's an abandoned car over on the railroad track.

[1208] You should go check that out.

[1209] You go from there, you end up on homicide, arson, vice.

[1210] And each one of those has multiple cases on it.

[1211] kind of build a mini -story arc just for that division of the police department, basically.

[1212] Is there a larger one?

[1213] So, yeah, all of them kind of link up toward the end.

[1214] You start seeing, like, oh, that guy from before is, wow, where'd he come from?

[1215] It's interesting that each case is sort of its own episode, but then all of the cases of a particular desk kind of form a vignette unto itself, and then all those vignettes kind of cumulatively make a storyline that...

[1216] I was super just impressed, though, with...

[1217] There is shooting.

[1218] There is driving.

[1219] There is hand -to -hand combat.

[1220] But what really impressed me from what you showed me of the game was how deep they dive into the...

[1221] like kind of basic forensics part of the process of you figure out like, okay, let's appraise this crime scene.

[1222] Let's figure out who we need to talk to.

[1223] Let's, you know, find the evidence that's going to be relevant here.

[1224] Well, that's definitely the Phoenix Wright -ish kind of.

[1225] Right.

[1226] And having that in this context, in this, you know, mid -century L .A., the very Chinatown feeling world.

[1227] Yeah, absolutely.

[1228] It's obviously all, it's, you know, kind of 40s era forensics, you know.

[1229] You're not running a lot of CSI, like, you know, there's no computer analysis.

[1230] Right, you're just looking at something and going like.

[1231] It's basically here.

[1232] These are the tools the lawmen had to work with at that time in history.

[1233] But I appreciate really getting into that stuff, the level at which when you're like, okay, this body is an item of interest, and kneeling down and then basically hovering your hand over and like, okay, here's a thing that I can move or look under and determine if there's a clue to be had there.

[1234] Yeah, looking for the evidence has such a tactile feel to it.

[1235] I mean, granted, all the objects that you can pick up and manipulate are predefined as, you know.

[1236] Objects that you can pick up.

[1237] Obviously you can't grab everything you see, but the stuff that you can pick up and look at is the detail on it, the texture mapping is so high res. There's so much fine detail.

[1238] You pick stuff up, you kind of turn it over and look at it and find little details that are going to go into your notebook and contribute to new leads that you need to follow up on.

[1239] So I thought this was an interesting part and I just want to bring it up because I think I'm still trying to work it out in my head.

[1240] Throughout all that stuff, the investigation, the kind of adventure gaming parts where you're picking up inventory items, you're doing the interrogations, which is leading you to other places you can search and kind of fleshing out your notepad and stuff of possible suspects and places.

[1241] You can't fail to move on, right?

[1242] Correct.

[1243] So it's just either you solve the case well or you solve it poorly.

[1244] There's never a case of like, oh, you...

[1245] should have asked this guy this before he fled town, like, you have to start the whole case over and do it again.

[1246] That's super interesting.

[1247] It's never like that at all.

[1248] So I guess the question is, like, how badly can you finish a case?

[1249] There's sort of multiple layers to how well you do in a case because the game grades you after every case.

[1250] There's a five -star scale.

[1251] I mean, I guess the question is, like, can I finish a case where the dude gets away?

[1252] Can I finish a case where I...

[1253] convict the wrong guy yes you definitely so there are definitely cases where you have multiple suspects in custody and you need to figure out which one it doesn't just go like you picked the wrong guy case over try again uh you will definitely it's weird i mean you'll get a dressing down from you know you have a different captain on every desk and those guys are ferocious when you as especially as i expect them to be the irish guy that you guys saw he's in the quick look oh he's great I can tell just from the first appearance, like, oh, he's going to be fun.

[1254] Oh, my God, dude.

[1255] When he gets mad, it is unbelievable.

[1256] Sounds great.

[1257] It's weird because when you talk about getting the wrong guy, it's like for these guys, for these type of policemen.

[1258] Like, putting away the guy that will make them look good in the press is more important than actually, like, ferreting out the truth and really getting the guy who actually did the crime.

[1259] As long as the guy that you have is a reasonable suspect.

[1260] Right.

[1261] And so, well, not even that.

[1262] I mean, this is, you know, this is two years after World War II.

[1263] When you come up to a situation where one of the guys is an avowed communist sympathizer and you don't arrest him.

[1264] Yeah.

[1265] Like, it's your ass.

[1266] Right.

[1267] Like, you were very unpopular with the captain.

[1268] Regardless of...

[1269] Because you did not arrest the pinko.

[1270] Do you get graded as though you did really well in the case, even though everyone's kind of upset at you?

[1271] Does, like, the grading play into the expectation of, like, the time period?

[1272] I'm not entirely sure how that stuff is related.

[1273] You would have to...

[1274] I mean, I replayed a number of cases more than once to try to get my head around how this stuff works, but you would have to do a lot of replaying to really dissect the mechanics.

[1275] But...

[1276] You get graded on if you found all the evidence or not.

[1277] The interrogations are a huge part of the game, which we haven't even addressed yet.

[1278] But how well you do on those goes to your rank.

[1279] If you bust up your car, if you hit pedestrians, that stuff will detract.

[1280] Collateral damage.

[1281] Yeah, yeah.

[1282] So you really want to do everything on the straight and narrow if you're trying to get a five -star rating on the case.

[1283] I feel like we can't talk about the interrogations until we talk about the facial animation in that game.

[1284] So they deliver?

[1285] I mean, it's a big part.

[1286] Everybody knows.

[1287] You've seen it.

[1288] No, I know how it is.

[1289] I'm asking you.

[1290] Yes, it is that good.

[1291] I'm setting you up.

[1292] What you saw is a precursor to...

[1293] Hey Brad, is the facial animation good?

[1294] Yes, it is amazing.

[1295] It is effing amazing.

[1296] And I'm not the only one in this room who has said that the first time they sat down and looked at it.

[1297] Yeah, I kind of can't believe what I saw.

[1298] It's like a new moment for this specific aspect of making games.

[1299] It's just like, holy shit.

[1300] I think the shame of it is looking at anything else is going to be really hard.

[1301] Maybe because there is still – like the facial animations are amazing.

[1302] They're amazing.

[1303] There's a level of articulation happening there that you just don't see.

[1304] In games at all.

[1305] In the mug, for sure.

[1306] Yeah.

[1307] In the face, specifically.

[1308] Specifically, the facial animation.

[1309] Right.

[1310] From the neck down.

[1311] From the neck down, they look like video game people.

[1312] Yeah.

[1313] Yeah.

[1314] I mean.

[1315] Decently realized video game people, but they look like video game people.

[1316] Like, if the faces were hand animated, you know, sitting on top of those bodies, it would all mesh well.

[1317] It would look like one character.

[1318] I think it's the juxtaposition of this staggeringly believable face next to this, like, kind of believable body.

[1319] So it seems like this game is almost just a proof of concept for this technology because this is a game that could benefit from it with the interrogation stuff where you're trying to look for tells or determine from the way that they're shifting around whether they're telling the truth or not.

[1320] I'm not sure it'll work for every game too.

[1321] That level of realism may not – like it's in like a chart of two.

[1322] I'm not sure I want those characters to have that same sort of fidelity given sort of the world.

[1323] I don't know.

[1324] I don't know.

[1325] It would be weird because – I don't know how this technology works because – It almost looks like this kind of toned down video of like – Yeah.

[1326] You feel like you're watching FMV.

[1327] You absolutely do.

[1328] I definitely – like when I first started seeing people walking around and talking, I got a hardcore mid -90s CD -ROM FMV game vibe.

[1329] Tex Murphy adventure.

[1330] Of like, oh, there are people walking into this tiny sound stage and then talking to each other on this green screen.

[1331] So like that level, I definitely don't want it to look like you said, like in something like Uncharted.

[1332] I don't want it to look real.

[1333] But if you lampoon or kind of caricature some of that animation to fit those guys, maybe.

[1334] Because there's just the stuff that's going on.

[1335] It just looks fantastic.

[1336] It really looks like people acting, which it is.

[1337] Yeah.

[1338] I mean, I'm looking at your face right now, and you are kind of subconsciously, I'm sure, raising your eyebrows as you talk.

[1339] And I see your lines form in your forehead.

[1340] That happens in the game.

[1341] Are you saying you study people now as a result of this game?

[1342] You're not looking around the room effectively.

[1343] So I think you're probably telling the truth.

[1344] I might doubt, though.

[1345] It's good to a point.

[1346] I almost feel like the fidelity might even hurt it in a way because I felt like I could actually not just see the real person that this was being based on, but I could see the actor acting.

[1347] Yeah.

[1348] Which is great because it's like, wow, that level of realism.

[1349] But then it's not that I see the character.

[1350] I see the actor.

[1351] I think that's a testament to the technology and more that you're just impressed with what – like you've never seen that before though.

[1352] But I'm saying like the transparency is so extensive.

[1353] Again, I've only seen a little bit of this but definitely one of the things that I was thinking about.

[1354] In the back of my head while I'm watching these characters talk, I am thinking about the actor.

[1355] Well, like if you were to see any of those people in another game now with the same technology.

[1356] it would be kind of ruined.

[1357] Sure.

[1358] Forget about Nolan North doing the voices for everybody.

[1359] Now that you would have actual actors playing these parts of these characters.

[1360] I think it would start to get really weird.

[1361] Well, there are very recognizable actors in this game.

[1362] Like half the cast of Mad Men?

[1363] Literally, like everybody but Jon Hamm, practically, and a couple other teams.

[1364] I'm totally okay with.

[1365] Yeah, that's cool.

[1366] Right, so if you were to now see those guys be like, he's playing Master Chief.

[1367] I really didn't have any issue at all with that.

[1368] No, no, I didn't know.

[1369] There's a guy from Lord of the Rings.

[1370] It's John Noble who's on Fringe.

[1371] He's in there.

[1372] I'm saying if you were to take this technology and apply it across the board to many other games, it suddenly shows up.

[1373] Shepard were one of those guys, it could start getting weird where you're recognizing actors in the video game.

[1374] I think that's a good thing, though.

[1375] At that point, you're trying to elevate what you expect from – like a good actor is able to transcend the fact that you've seen him in some films.

[1376] Also, if that's the price we pay to get this kind of technology into every game, then I am totally fine with it because the results speak for themselves.

[1377] Man, the money in this industry is going to go through the roof.

[1378] I fully expect Rockstar to descend on Team Bandai and purchase them because, I mean, they also created this technology.

[1379] I kind of read into the backstory a little bit.

[1380] They themselves put this system together.

[1381] And they should just use it for every game.

[1382] It's just unbelievable.

[1383] It's so good.

[1384] I just wonder how costly and time -intensive it was.

[1385] I don't know.

[1386] I mean, again, like you said, there's definitely work to be done on blending it with bodies and stuff like that.

[1387] But as a first step, it's...

[1388] I don't think it keeps any of it from being completely impressive, though.

[1389] Oh, no, absolutely not.

[1390] Like, you see, like, okay, I see where the seams are here.

[1391] Right, but that doesn't matter because the focal point is so good that it doesn't even matter.

[1392] Especially, I mean, in this game of defense, you know, 90 % of the time you're talking to people, they're sitting at a table with their hands on the table or something.

[1393] They're not, like, gesticulating wildly for the most part while these animations are being engaged.

[1394] So you have time to sit there and study what they're doing.

[1395] I see it like banjo.

[1396] They did some kind of making of featurettes about this performance capture process that they did for L .A. Noire.

[1397] And it's not just like, okay, we are cropping down to the facial area and then filming that and then putting that onto the characters.

[1398] They're literally putting them in full makeup and, like, doing their hair in the character -appropriate hairstyle and then having them sit there and do all of their lines in that position, recording the full 360 of their heads.

[1399] So they're getting – It's kind of bananas.

[1400] But, I mean, it's not Avatar in that, okay, we've got – We've got the little dots and then we've got the two cameras for reference points and then we're going to graft all of that information onto this big blue thing.

[1401] It's like we're just going to make you look like you in this digital space.

[1402] It's like we're basically making a movie.

[1403] Right.

[1404] We've got wardrobe.

[1405] Yeah.

[1406] And they would also go and – Money.

[1407] I imagine this is only true for certain cut scenes but they were having all of the actors go and put on the black suits and walk around and – perform these scenes as well.

[1408] In the same room with each other?

[1409] Yeah.

[1410] So these are two different processes.

[1411] There's the dialogue performance stuff.

[1412] Yeah, sit down stationary in a chair.

[1413] Sit down in a chair and read lines.

[1414] And then there's the walk around in the black suit, and that's a completely different studio and a different place.

[1415] Whatever they did, what I saw from that game looked great.

[1416] I can't speak to the rest of it, but you can.

[1417] It's consistent throughout.

[1418] And after what I saw, I'm very seriously considering playing in black and white.

[1419] Yeah, that's a great feature.

[1420] I'm really glad they included it.

[1421] Personally, it looks so good in color.

[1422] The art design, everything about it, all the period stylings are spot on.

[1423] I didn't want to lose that.

[1424] Because that's my perspective on that era.

[1425] I love hard -boiled ass 40s cop fiction.

[1426] That appeals to me greatly.

[1427] And my window into that world is black and white.

[1428] So to have that consistency could be...

[1429] It's tempting.

[1430] It's cool.

[1431] I mean, you can see in the quick look when you toggle it back and forth, it doesn't just desaturate the image.

[1432] It actually kind of raises the contrast of the lighting and sort of changes the highlights and stuff.

[1433] So it looks very natural in black and white.

[1434] Oh, man. It's a crazy game.

[1435] I'm going to play the fucking game.

[1436] It's a crazy game.

[1437] And there's nothing in there?

[1438] Yeah, totally.

[1439] You mean in terms of length?

[1440] Yeah, I mean, we talked a lot about the technology and the gameplay.

[1441] Yeah, I mean, the story itself is probably 20 -ish hours, I would say.

[1442] I hit about 20 hours just doing a handful of the side stuff and mostly just story.

[1443] I mean, there's a lot of cases.

[1444] Some of them get pretty long.

[1445] That's relatively short for a rock star production.

[1446] Oh, yeah, for sure, compared to GTA 4 Red Dead.

[1447] Yeah, which I've been hoping they would do because those games do not have 35 hours of worthwhile content.

[1448] It's just 35 hours of a storyline that gets stretched out too far.

[1449] And I've always wanted – I've always rather them have – Put more of that stuff on the side, on the periphery, and just have a stronger 15 -hour main storyline rather than making the main storyline go on forever and ever and ever.

[1450] When the first rumblings that this was not going to be a typical Rockstar open world game started coming out, I was like, awesome.

[1451] Yeah.

[1452] Because I love what those guys do when they have to flesh out this entire world like this.

[1453] But imagine what those fuckers could do if you just – Propped it in, gave them a very linear focus, like what sort of quality could come out of there.

[1454] Practice a little self -restraint and do one thing really well.

[1455] And you get crazy faces.

[1456] I said this in the review, but there are a zillion other studios making open -world action games at this point.

[1457] If you want to go out and blow up a block full of cars or just kill everybody you see, there's plenty of other opportunities to do that.

[1458] Go load up Mafia 2.

[1459] So this game is an interesting contrast to Mafia 2.

[1460] In fact, I've seen a lot of people talking about it on forums.

[1461] As people have started to form a mental picture based on sparse information about what this is, they have started speculating and saying, okay, it's an open -world game, but it's extremely linear, and it just has story beats one after the other, and you just go from place to place.

[1462] The critical flaw of Mafia 2 was that you had to do all the driving between all those story...

[1463] elements and there was very little to do in between and it just got super boring it wasn't a worthwhile open world right right i mean this game ironically this one is more worthwhile there's not as much side content as a gta or something but you know there are side missions there are things to collect and stuff yeah but This game is fully aware of its own nature and lets you completely warp from destination to destination.

[1464] You could practically never drive a car in this game and still play through the entire thing.

[1465] What you do is you're telling your partner to drive, basically.

[1466] You just kind of hold the button down, and he's like, oh, you drive, and then it just pops a loading screen.

[1467] Oh, it's kind of like the cab stuff in Grand Theft Auto 4 where you get in a cab and just hit a button and you work.

[1468] Right, except you're not spending money, and you don't even have the option to watch yourself drive all the way there.

[1469] If there is important dialogue that happens as you would be driving there, it'll show you that.

[1470] and then immediately go to the loading screen and then just pop you into the next thing.

[1471] Well, I think it's really interesting that Rockstar is even recognizing what kind of game, whether they're tricking people in their marketing or not, and the fact that it's mostly an adventure game, and you can skip the action sequences if you fail them enough times.

[1472] That is a toggle on the options.

[1473] I think that's really interesting to say, we know this is mostly an adventure game.

[1474] If you're enjoying it as that, don't get pissed off if you can't finish the shooting sequence.

[1475] But what happens if you skip it?

[1476] Is it just like, you did it?

[1477] I didn't try it, because the wording of that option is, if you fail enough times, I don't know how many enough is.

[1478] Yeah.

[1479] But, I mean, the action is not overly complicated.

[1480] It's not terribly difficult, so I never failed anything.

[1481] There's not, like, a lot of mechanics going on.

[1482] I mean, this is all just playing to, and again, I don't want to shortchange Team Bondi and their role in the creation of this, but this feels like this is playing to the rock star strengths, which is, you know, setting characterization and storytelling.

[1483] Yeah, the stamp.

[1484] It's not the quality of the gameplay in Red Dead or GTA 4 that makes it great.

[1485] It's the volume.

[1486] It's how many different things you can do and how spread over this crazy giant world they are.

[1487] Actually going out and hunting bears is kind of a pain in the ass and kind of tedious.

[1488] Other than it's fucking awesome to go and hunt.

[1489] It's amazing that you can go out and hunt them.

[1490] Yeah, it's amazing that you can.

[1491] It's not amazing how you do it.

[1492] It's often like it's kind of kludgy and the rope physics are weird.

[1493] It always feels like it's all context -sensitive button presses for getting on and off horses and all this other kind of shit.

[1494] So to really – It's a pretty good game.

[1495] What's that?

[1496] It's a pretty good game.

[1497] I'm not saying it's bad.

[1498] What I'm saying is it's not that I can ride a horse that makes it great.

[1499] It's that the core mechanics aren't that interesting.

[1500] It's the million different things that I can do.

[1501] It's the breadth.

[1502] And it's also got its open -world jank.

[1503] And it pays for it with open world jank, absolutely.

[1504] This is a much less janky experience.

[1505] Everything works as it should, more or less.

[1506] I think it's genius to recognize that these are the really strong parts.

[1507] These are the parts that really make an impression.

[1508] Yes, there's always going to be some teenage misanthrope that just wants to go shoot rocket launchers at police helicopters.

[1509] Hey, we've got you covered.

[1510] Yeah.

[1511] I mean, I've come to realize that there is an extreme end of that spectrum reading discussion about this game coming up.

[1512] goes out and buys every GTA that's released and basically never plays a story mission in those games.

[1513] They literally pop them in and go around and blow shit up and kill people, and that's all they ever do with those games.

[1514] That's all I did with 3 back when I was in high school.

[1515] I didn't play any of the story.

[1516] I think I played the first two missions.

[1517] I was like, yep, I just want to get five stars and die and then do it all over again.

[1518] And I have to wonder what's going to happen if that segment of the audience sees the...

[1519] I forget what the wording is on the box, but it's the Rockstar Games presents or...

[1520] Something to that effect.

[1521] They see that logo on the box and they think, oh shit, it's the new Rockstar game.

[1522] I've got to get this.

[1523] It's time for GTA.

[1524] And then they find out that when they're driving around the world, they can't even draw their weapon because the story doesn't call for it.

[1525] I hope that that is at least a very small pocket.

[1526] Yeah, I do too.

[1527] I have to imagine that that format has been around long enough that the audience has matured with it to a certain degree.

[1528] I would like to think that too.

[1529] This is probably a pretty pessimistic view.

[1530] They can go play Saints Row.

[1531] Oh, no. I'm not saying.

[1532] Again, there are plenty of other games out there for them.

[1533] But, yeah, yeah.

[1534] I mean, that name has a certain kind of expectation attached to it in a lot of cases.

[1535] So I'm curious to see what people think.

[1536] But they've been getting more and more story -focused and more ambitious with their storytelling with each of those games.

[1537] Did you ever feel like any choices you made throughout the game affected the main story in any kind of a...

[1538] Like forking or branching way?

[1539] You mean way, way down the line, like something might change?

[1540] Anything.

[1541] Because things can change within a case pretty dramatically.

[1542] Well, I guess I mean in a larger picture sense.

[1543] I think the particulars of the overall plot arc are completely rigid.

[1544] So your ending is your ending.

[1545] The ending is the ending.

[1546] I don't think there's any malleability there whatsoever.

[1547] But within a case, within the way, I mean, it's weird because each case is almost sort of like an episode of a detective show or whatever.

[1548] Do you not have your Dwayne moment?

[1549] Not so much.

[1550] Okay.

[1551] No. I mean.

[1552] Again, each storyline is fairly well self -contained, although they do link up pretty well.

[1553] I love a good cop procedural, man. Yeah, plenty of procedure to slog through in this.

[1554] You're not...

[1555] You're not filing any paperwork in this game, but I think it stops just short of that.

[1556] Like, there's plenty of...

[1557] But grilling witnesses and suspects.

[1558] Yeah.

[1559] I think the...

[1560] Horn -boiled fucking cops.

[1561] Yeah, I mean, that stuff is spot on.

[1562] Like, all the cop personalities, like, there's plenty of corruption around.

[1563] You know, they're gangsters.

[1564] And, I mean, it's another break from Rockstar tradition that this is a fully real...

[1565] 40s Los Angeles.

[1566] Like, it is called Los Angeles.

[1567] It is full of real landmarks.

[1568] Which is why I'm super excited having lived in a year and a half in Los Angeles.

[1569] I mean, it's a different era, but like...

[1570] a lot of that, you know, like the Egyptian theater is in there.

[1571] Fairfax Avenue.

[1572] It's going to be really...

[1573] What was that theater I drove by?

[1574] You drove by the Roxy.

[1575] Oh, shit, the Roxy.

[1576] And I had never even seen that play in the game, and then you saw it, and you're like, oh, that...

[1577] We've been inside that theater.

[1578] Yeah, I guess so.

[1579] I know where that theater is, and so as soon as I saw that, I'm like, okay, yeah, we're just going to go down a couple blocks, make a right, you're going to make a left onto Flower.

[1580] We're going to use L .A. Noire to plan out our E3.

[1581] No, because it stops...

[1582] It actually, the map stops just...

[1583] I'm less shy of where the convention center would be.

[1584] But downtown is where Ubisoft and EA have.

[1585] We'll just kind of see where the hotels are.

[1586] Can you go to the Figueroa Hotel and get a really expensive beer?

[1587] You might be able to, but I think that's right on the edge.

[1588] Yeah, that's the outer edge.

[1589] Because it seems like it ends right about where the, what is that, the 110?

[1590] I think so, yeah.

[1591] Yeah, it's like the 110 that just kind of skirts downtown like that.

[1592] It's weird because this is a directly pre -Freeway Los Angeles.

[1593] They are laying the groundwork for the freeway system.

[1594] Sure, sure.

[1595] Reference it in.

[1596] Oh, man, that's cool.

[1597] That is super cool.

[1598] We should probably point out that I think Team Bondi probably deserves all the credit for most of it for focusing on this specific historical aspect because it's easy to forget that these guys were making this game long before.

[1599] Rockstar came along and picked it up.

[1600] Seven years.

[1601] That's actually the thing that blows my mind the most is that if you read up on the history of this game, well, in 2009 was the first time when they got the motion scan stuff up and running and implemented into the game.

[1602] Up until 2009, and this game had been developed five years before that, you know.

[1603] The thing that blows everyone's mind wasn't in the game until two years ago.

[1604] I think the way they phrased it, I read that interview too, and they said until that came online, we basically had the world's biggest text adventure.

[1605] I just can't even imagine seven years of your life.

[1606] Or just the development process of like, okay, we're going to get to a point here where we can actually...

[1607] It's going to make sense, guys.

[1608] It's going to make sense.

[1609] It actually was 1944 when we started this game.

[1610] Taking pictures of it.

[1611] We started developing this game three years before the time period that the game's ended.

[1612] That's the impressive part, is that we were able to write the story in 44.

[1613] Commitment.

[1614] So the thing I was going to say about the freeways and all that stuff in there, adding to this kind of hard -boiled atmosphere, it's not just real Los Angeles, real landmarks, but all these historical figures that you may very well be familiar with are in there.

[1615] Mickey Cohen, the very well -known gangster that kind of helped the mob expand into Vegas and the West Coast.

[1616] The Black Dahlia murder is a major component of the storyline.

[1617] Wow.

[1618] I mean, obviously, a lot of fictionalized stuff.

[1619] There's a big -ass kind of disclaimer at the start of that game, big text disclaimer.

[1620] It's like, this is depicting a historical era of Los Angeles, but this is all fucking fiction.

[1621] Pretty much, yeah.

[1622] There's also, if you go to the LA Times, they worked with Rockstar to produce an interactive map.

[1623] that points out all of the real crimes that are referenced in the game, and you can look up information about the L .A. Times coverage of those crimes back from the 40s.

[1624] Is this like in the L .A. Times now, like L .A. Times .com?

[1625] Yeah, if you go to L .A. Times .com.

[1626] It's a fucking amazing, awesome thing.

[1627] So what they did, reading interviews and just playing the game, my impression is that they basically took a slice of time in 1947 and kind of looked at the news coverage at that time and used it as a launch pad.

[1628] It's like a little Assassin's Creed -y.

[1629] A little bit.

[1630] A little bit, yeah.

[1631] There's just kernels of truth here.

[1632] Historical, but eh.

[1633] They said they spent just tons of time pouring.

[1634] I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that this is probably more historically accurate than Assassin's Creed.

[1635] Oh, yeah.

[1636] I'd say that's a safe bet.

[1637] Well, like from the surrounding stuff or you just mean in general?

[1638] I'm saying once you start getting into it in Assassin's Creed, the historical veracity.

[1639] I don't know.

[1640] I haven't finished this game yet.

[1641] Which one haven't you finished?

[1642] L .A. Noire.

[1643] Leonardo da Vinci doesn't show up at some point.

[1644] How many hidden blades do you think he built in real life?

[1645] No, you know what?

[1646] Actually, I read somebody said on Twitter today was that Jack Marston would be in his 40s at the time of this game, and how amazing would it be if he made a cameo or showed up in the show?

[1647] Did we just walk by on a horse in the background?

[1648] That would be awesome.

[1649] I don't know anything about that.

[1650] If the zombie plague from the DLC started to impact 40s LA.

[1651] I guess that does kind of make the DLC potential for this game seem pretty rich.

[1652] It's tremendous.

[1653] It's huge.

[1654] Because everything is so self -contained.

[1655] Take this as you will, but there already are three DLC cases out there.

[1656] Right, there's pre -order bonus stuff.

[1657] They're not for sale, yeah.

[1658] They were like Walmart and GameStop exclusives, and then the PS3 version has its own case that comes in every copy.

[1659] Just one case.

[1660] Yeah.

[1661] But I read in this interview with them that they...

[1662] wrote and designed way more cases than they ended up cramming into the game two full desks uh really yes two full desks were cut from the game that's crazy which means like yeah there's a lot of content they could sell a lot of episodic stuff for this i mean but do you think because of the technology and the way that's implemented that it's actually very hard to to kind of get the crew back together yeah but it's not cheap to because now you're committed to that guy that i mean unless they do side stories i don't know i mean who's to say if they did all the capture for this stuff and then cut it or if that's well I just mean, like, ongoing.

[1663] Oh, if they were to do new ones?

[1664] I don't think they need to because, again, like...

[1665] If they've got two full desks already in the bag.

[1666] I mean, because there are only four desks in the game.

[1667] Oh, wow.

[1668] So that's like if they have as many cases on these cut desks as the ones they included, that is a shitload of content.

[1669] So maybe they captured them but did not actually, like, render them out and go through the process.

[1670] Like, okay, we've got all the performances in the bag.

[1671] Right.

[1672] Like, we'll never have time to actually implement this, but let's capture them while they're in the studio, while we're renting this out for a billion dollars a minute.

[1673] Not to belabor the technical aspect too much, but reading about that capture system, I think they – I think they said they pull like a gigabyte a second of facial data from that thing.

[1674] And at the end of the whole process, they had 350 terabytes.

[1675] So when they were out there, so when the story, like you ran a story, you know, about the, you know, the one full Blu -ray or three, three DVDs thing.

[1676] And that came out and I was just like, ah, there's a bunch of, there's like eight languages of uncompressed audio or something on there.

[1677] They always say, yeah, we filled up a whole Blu -ray.

[1678] But the interview I read was that they literally.

[1679] had to decide at some point, like how many cases can we realistically fit on here?

[1680] Cause this data takes up so much space.

[1681] And they basically stopped at the point where we're like, all right, we're filling this Blu -ray.

[1682] That's all we can put in here.

[1683] That's amazing.

[1684] Presumably there is a lot more content out there that could appear for this.

[1685] Who knows if it will?

[1686] And it's already 20 hours of a main storyline.

[1687] Yeah, there's a lot in there.

[1688] Theoretically 10 hours of side stuff.

[1689] I would really love to check out those DLC cases and see.

[1690] I'm sure they'll be on sale at some point, but I'd love to know how meaty and fleshed out those are.

[1691] I wonder if they'll do any, because...

[1692] I wonder if it doesn't get into any weird territory.

[1693] It's not...

[1694] You know how in the GTA games and Red Dead, they got some sort of zombie stuff.

[1695] They kind of go into some weird territories.

[1696] This game plays it pretty straight.

[1697] There's no...

[1698] case where you like bring in the werewolf or something yeah like i'd love to see if they just did some really weird shit with some of the dlc nothing like that in the game but i appreciate that they play it straight oh it is absolutely this game sounds like it was fucking made exactly for me i could not be more fucking excited for every single thing that this game is selling it doesn't come without caveats you know there you know there are some issues like the the facial and body Kind of contrast is sort of weird.

[1699] Sure.

[1700] But I imagine just the, I don't know, the novelty of those faces is going to last for at least a little while.

[1701] Talking to some other reviewers, the biggest sticking point, like probably, I said this in the review, the most divisive thing about the game is probably going to be the interrogations because it can be really easy to get those questions wrong.

[1702] There are definitely some cases where...

[1703] You think you've got it right.

[1704] It's like, oh, I got you pegged.

[1705] I know what evidence I need to present.

[1706] And it's not the right thing.

[1707] Well, I get that in Phoenix Wright.

[1708] It happens in Phoenix Wright, too.

[1709] Actually, what annoys me about it in Phoenix Wright is that they make me go through it again.

[1710] So that is absolutely the difference here.

[1711] That is the thing that redeems this potentially disastrous failure in this game is that if every time you missed a question you had to start the interrogation over or something like that, this game would be unplayable.

[1712] Yeah.

[1713] missing questions a exposes you to more of the fantastic you know facial animation and dialogue the writing is really good the performance is really good and it's it's fun to see you get like unnecessarily sort of aggressive towards somebody and have them clam up and get really pissed off and that's that sounds like that See the indignance.

[1714] Fucking it up almost sounds more exciting and more engaging to me than, like, nailing every single one and being fucking super cop.

[1715] Right.

[1716] Because it's, like, you watch a police interrogation, it's always fun to see, like, okay, this guy's not going to talk this way, so I've got to, like, kind of put some muscle to him.

[1717] This guy is too slick a customer to fall for my, you know.

[1718] Right, or I come in, like, with, I've already decided before I walk into the room that this is what happened and this is who did it, so I'm going to try and force this issue.

[1719] Right.

[1720] And then coming up short when you're actually in that moment.

[1721] That sounds exciting to me. That sounds like exactly how that should play out.

[1722] The important extension of this whole system is that, again, you miss a question, you get alternate dialogue, you don't get information out of it, but at least the conversation flows in a fairly natural way.

[1723] Right.

[1724] You hear something else and it moves on to the next question.

[1725] If you are missing important information from those guys, potentially you will uncover that information through some other means, like you will find a clue later on or some...

[1726] new cut scene will happen you know some other twist in the case storyline will pop up or you might just miss that information entirely and kind of be lacking that aspect of the case i mean it like i said i replayed a lot of this stuff and found a lot of really interesting ways that these things can kind of twist around and link back up i just really like the idea of no wrong answer yeah i really like the idea of okay well i didn't i didn't find what could be found there but it didn't Kill the game.

[1727] It didn't stop you.

[1728] You will always finish the case.

[1729] You just will find a different route.

[1730] It's very heavy rain in that respect.

[1731] It just keeps moving along.

[1732] It just diverges.

[1733] The only time you ever get a game over is if you die in a shootout or something.

[1734] Right.

[1735] There's no way to fail an interrogation, fail like a sweep of a crime scene.

[1736] Do you ever feel like you're too many paces ahead of where your character is?

[1737] And like you kind of like, I know where this is going.

[1738] Like, I don't have the gun, but we all know you did it.

[1739] Just make the guy say that you did it.

[1740] But it's kind of, I think it's...

[1741] See, that's what I'm thinking of being like, I think I know.

[1742] Like, I hope to have that moment where I'm like, I've already decided that this is where this is going and then have the rug pulled out from under the entire...

[1743] But the frustrating part of where...

[1744] it's like i don't have the dialogue option to just be like i know you killed him i just don't like did you ever get those points where you're like oh i just need to go through and like we i know you did it the way the uh the way the cases are framed i don't know if this is i'm not enough of a student of film to know if this is like a kind of a trademark of noir or something but like when you go into a case file and you get those you know really cool looking titles in black and white uh More often than not, you will see some aspect of the crime being committed very briefly for, like, 20, 30 seconds, and then it cuts away to, you know, daytime in the precinct.

[1745] That's just law and order.

[1746] That's just classic police procedural.

[1747] Yeah, maybe it's just any procedural.

[1748] Maybe that's just pretty common.

[1749] But the point is, like, you as the viewer know more than, like, you the character.

[1750] Like, you have...

[1751] Not kind of total omniscience, but you have more information than what your character has revealed to himself and the people around him.

[1752] So it never really feels like you're not given the proper – like they're holding back dialogue options from you.

[1753] Well, it's hard to know because if you haven't discovered the evidence, if you don't have a lead, then you don't know that it's there.

[1754] You know what I mean?

[1755] But your character seems smart.

[1756] Is basically what it comes down to?

[1757] Yeah, reasonably.

[1758] Okay.

[1759] Yeah.

[1760] I mean, it's kind of hard to parse your question.

[1761] Well, there are games where I feel like the...

[1762] they're sidestepping the obvious in lieu of gameplay mechanics.

[1763] It doesn't feel contrived in that sense, if that's what you mean.

[1764] It's not like Mass Effect where if you're not high enough in Paragon, you see an option that's just grayed out and you can't use it or something like that.

[1765] Not even that.

[1766] I know what you're getting at of like, okay, clearly this is a red herring.

[1767] You're talking more about a breakdown in logic, right?

[1768] It's very clear this guy's guilty and I know why.

[1769] I don't have the bloody knife to prove that he did.

[1770] get over to that location yet but I know that over there is where the thing is going to be but even in like a dialogue with somebody when you're like when it has been spelled out so explicitly clear in every single thing but they're just not giving you that one dialogue option that's just like I know you did it dude or like I don't have the gun so I can't talk about the gun but like we know it's well there are cases like I mentioned some cases end with multiple suspects in custody and You have to decide which one to accuse.

[1771] And there was one that I only played through once, so I'm not entirely sure I need to go back and play it again.

[1772] But there was one where I was unable to accuse one of the suspects, and I assume it's because I must have not built a strong enough case against him.

[1773] And he seemed like the guy who was probably the guy.

[1774] So it's hard to say.

[1775] Again, to really dig into the machinery that runs all this stuff under the hood, you would have to play through some of these cases three or four times.

[1776] truly kind of find everything and explore every option and see what happens when you get stuff wrong intentionally and that kind of thing.

[1777] Most things seem to play out in a very logical pace.

[1778] Generally, the internal logic is consistent and it feels...

[1779] Pretty natural.

[1780] You just mean more like when you see an episode of Law & Order and you're like, it's the fucking sister -in -law.

[1781] Right.

[1782] You could tell because there was the scene where she showed up very briefly in the beginning but was kind of nice to everyone and then took off.

[1783] But we have 42 more minutes, so hold out, everybody.

[1784] But you know it's her, so you just have to wait for them.

[1785] Okay, you're going to go ask the babysitter.

[1786] You're going to accuse them.

[1787] You're going to go through part of a trial with them, and then that's not going to work out, and you're going to find out that it's the fucking sister -in -law.

[1788] When I knew it was a sister -in -law 15 minutes in, Or like in the very beginning of the episode, she's like, yeah, I've been taking these pills that make me really crazy anyway.

[1789] And like, ask her about the pills.

[1790] Ask her about the pills.

[1791] That seems really important.

[1792] No. Okay.

[1793] No, not going to.

[1794] No. It's not my dialogue deal.

[1795] Later on, you're going to find the bottle of pills at a crime scene and be like, the pills.

[1796] That's right.

[1797] So, like, that kind of stuff.

[1798] I understand what you're getting at.

[1799] It's a huge pitfall of those kinds of games where you're, like, you get too far ahead of where it's going and you're just like, oh, I know.

[1800] I just need to click through and, like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[1801] Surprise!

[1802] Like, you did it.

[1803] I bet that happens to cops.

[1804] I don't know.

[1805] But that's the thing.

[1806] If you're playing the character and he's like, I don't want to pin it on this guy.

[1807] No, he's the guy.

[1808] I just don't have the gun.

[1809] Like, that's different than, like, I don't know who did it.

[1810] I guess you do.

[1811] We all do.

[1812] We know who did it.

[1813] But I'm saying like the cop getting ahead of himself.

[1814] I'm sure that happens in actual police work.

[1815] I would love if that happened in this game.

[1816] I can only think of...

[1817] Like you were saying, like wrong collars.

[1818] That's great.

[1819] Yeah.

[1820] To be fair, this is our fucking game as a blur.

[1821] I played through the whole thing in like two and a half days.

[1822] But I'm thinking, looking back, I can think of one case where you find what to the player looks like an awfully suspicious piece of evidence that...

[1823] is dismissed by, like, your rookie partner as incidental.

[1824] And you move on, and then it comes back around later, and you're like, oh, duh.

[1825] It's fun if it's incorporated into the story.

[1826] In that case, yeah, it's literally, like, it's an early case in the game, and your partner dismisses it, and you move on.

[1827] As long as it's contextualized.

[1828] Yeah, it's never, like, it never, to me, felt like a breakdown in the logic of the design in the case.

[1829] It was more like the characters were not getting...

[1830] definitely some cases where it's like all right you come on you guys like it's obvious what's going on here and in fact uh your character is sort of acts as the voice of reason around all these that's fantastic is exactly what i want for the most part he is the guy going like no it goes deeper than this like you don't have you got the wrong guy like just because you put somebody away doesn't mean this case is solved and then like oh shit more people are dying even though your suspect is in jail okay stuff like that you know so i mean for the most part yeah everything pretty much lines up.

[1831] Great.

[1832] I can't imagine what a nightmare it must be to design these things.

[1833] Whoever's the continuity person on L .A. Noire, I would imagine they probably must have had someone that just tracked that shit.

[1834] They would have to, I would think.

[1835] It's just really amazing that this game even exists.

[1836] Yeah.

[1837] To the production quality, to everything about it, it should not exist.

[1838] To the length of the development process.

[1839] The fact that Rockstar is in a position, they have this...

[1840] The Grand Theft Auto games are great, but it's kind of just like this cash farm so they can do these other really wild experiments.

[1841] And hopefully this pays off for them.

[1842] But even if it doesn't, I don't get the indication that all of a sudden they would just be like, well, I guess we've got to just make some more GTA games and see how that goes.

[1843] Not that they won't make more GTA games, and it's great that they do.

[1844] But it always justifies everything else.

[1845] It's amazing.

[1846] It's wonderful that this exists.

[1847] Well, let's go play L .A. to War.

[1848] That's going to do it for this week's podcast.

[1849] We're going to take off Place of L .A. to War.

[1850] Well, fantastic, Brad.

[1851] I could not be more absolutely eager to play this game as a video game.

[1852] Yes.

[1853] Tell me about Zim multiplayer.

[1854] Grab the hat.

[1855] Capture the hat.

[1856] Capture the fedora.

[1857] There's that phone -a -friend in the interrogation thing.

[1858] Yeah, it's kind of neat.

[1859] I wasn't able to play that on the PS3 because PSN was down.

[1860] Right, it does have some Rockstar Social Club stuff in there.

[1861] What did other people pick?

[1862] What you've got is you've got these intuition points.

[1863] You rank up in the game.

[1864] There's a very thin RPG layer where you rank up, you unlock new outfits, new cars, and these intuition points that...

[1865] You can cash in to help out the questioning process or find evidence or whatever.

[1866] One of those is ask the community.

[1867] So in the interrogation, I mean, I don't know if you've seen it, Patrick.

[1868] These guys watched it, but it's literally your options are truth, doubt, and lie.

[1869] And using this intuition, one of the options is just to remove one of the two incorrect answers.

[1870] But the other one is Ask the Community, which slaps percentages next to each one.

[1871] It seems like they would take you out of it.

[1872] Literally, they're just tracking all the people who played their game online.

[1873] So it's not even saying like...

[1874] All it's saying is that...

[1875] It's not right.

[1876] Out of the people that are connected to this, this is the percentage of people that chose this option.

[1877] It could be telling you 80 % of the people chose this answer and it ends up being the wrong one.

[1878] It's kind of funny because it goes to a tenth of a percent.

[1879] It's like 48 .9 % of people picked this option.

[1880] But even just seeing like, oh, well then 48 .9 % of people are dumbasses and got the wrong answer.

[1881] It was weird getting a hold of the Xbox copy on Saturday and like a few people had gone out and bought it at mom and pop's stores or whatever.

[1882] So pretty much every time you use that option.

[1883] It was like 100 % on one option and zero on the other two.

[1884] It was like, well, why would I ever use Remove and Answer again when I can just do this and see the right answer every time?

[1885] Well, because your pool is much smaller.

[1886] But that's the thing.

[1887] So now the game's still not out at the time of this recording, and already the statistics are getting pretty muddied for some of those questions where it's like a fairly even split.

[1888] That's funny.

[1889] Which is an interesting social experiment in itself.

[1890] to see how this stuff is breaking down.

[1891] I just really like a good detective story, and it's, you know, honestly, as someone who enjoys that style of storytelling, to, like, most games that are supposed to be cop stories, like...

[1892] detecting happens in cut scenes, if at all, and then it's just a lot of shooting dudes.

[1893] The detecting is the game here.

[1894] Yeah, the crutch of the game.

[1895] Oh, I love that so much.

[1896] Like in Grand Theft Auto, the crutch of the gameplay is action.

[1897] That's in Red Dead 2.

[1898] It's like, well, just swarms enemies.

[1899] Shoot some guys.

[1900] Kill these 30 or 40 guys rushing at you, and then you win.

[1901] Yeah, the crutch is an interrogation sequence.

[1902] It's amazing that the action sequences are just...

[1903] That's the variety.

[1904] Those are the mini games are shooting dudes or driving in a car.

[1905] That chase, that foot chase scene that we saw, I don't know, that's an early one.

[1906] That's a great fucking part.

[1907] I mean, the camera shake on the camera follow running behind your guy, and they script a lot of neat stuff in those foot races.

[1908] Granted, if you fail it and do it over, you'll see.

[1909] A lot of the same scripted stuff again, but, like, you'll jump a fence going after a guy, and as soon as you hit the ground, like, two cars will collide in front of you, and you have to run around it to keep going after the guy.

[1910] He's just, like, running through buildings, back alleys, cross a park, like, just...

[1911] Oh, it's great stuff.

[1912] Dude, it's like somebody made a really good, like, Law & Order CSI game.

[1913] Yeah.

[1914] Yeah.

[1915] I love that stuff.

[1916] I love – It isn't actually those Law and Order CSI games.

[1917] I love mid -century aesthetics.

[1918] So I love just the setting.

[1919] I love film noir and just kind of pulp fiction stuff.

[1920] I like that.

[1921] I just mean even like some of that game.

[1922] I love – The focus on – yeah, on those kinds of mechanics.

[1923] Like turn the body over.

[1924] Because that stuff is always – like whatever that's put into a game, it's half -assed and like a secondary feature.

[1925] For them to say, no, this is where we're really putting our focus and our time is on these interrogation and these data collection basically.

[1926] Like that's fascinating to me. It just seems impressive to me that that whole time.

[1927] You were playing that quick look.

[1928] None of this stuff leaned on a minigame for any of that stuff.

[1929] Oh, yeah.

[1930] It wasn't like, you know, match the DNA or like, you know.

[1931] Yeah, I'm not playing pipe dreams to fucking get a fingerprint.

[1932] Yeah, to get a fingerprint or, yeah.

[1933] There are a few, like, little contextual world puzzles.

[1934] When you bend down and examine something, it's like, oh, shit, I have to solve this little thing.

[1935] But it's always pretty neat and, like, sensibly designed as part of that environment.

[1936] You know, it's not just like.

[1937] oh, shit, I've got to match three for 30 seconds here to get this water heater opened up or something.

[1938] It's like, oh, there's a bunch of pipes on the ground from where the suspect sabotaged this heating system.

[1939] I need to piece it back together to see what he left with or something like that.

[1940] That's funny.

[1941] It all makes sense in context.

[1942] But there's a lot of neat, neat, puzzly stuff integrated in there.

[1943] All right.

[1944] That's a lot of it.

[1945] I'm really excited to start hearing what people think about it.

[1946] Again, I think it's some people, it's not going to be what they were expecting or maybe looking for.

[1947] I feel like that's a good thing.

[1948] The people for whom this game is made are going to be pretty stoked.

[1949] La Noire.

[1950] If you like standing still and talking to people in Mass Effect.

[1951] Yeah.

[1952] You're going to be into this game.

[1953] Oh, man. I do like that part.

[1954] I do a lot in that in Fallout.

[1955] That's my favorite part of Fallout.

[1956] Imagine that facial stuff in Fallout.

[1957] Shut the fuck up.

[1958] Holy cow.

[1959] That game would never come out.

[1960] That game would never, ever come out.

[1961] I'm serious.

[1962] It would take 20 years to make that game.

[1963] The same camera is doing it.

[1964] Still have to do that weird lock -in.

[1965] Shoulder turn and just like square off.

[1966] Oh, man. I just had the biggest game boner of all time.

[1967] I think it would be the scariest thing.

[1968] Fallout 4 with that.

[1969] Oh, my God.

[1970] That would be really freaky.

[1971] You take seven years.

[1972] I don't give a shit if I get that game.

[1973] I'll be curious to see if other developers pick this up and how it gets applied.

[1974] Because clearly the context, like what they're trying to accomplish with this game, they needed this technology.

[1975] I don't know that many other games need this technology that really would benefit to the degree that this game benefits from it.

[1976] I hope everybody uses it.

[1977] It's going to be so fun to see them try.

[1978] It's going to be fun to watch them fail.

[1979] Rockstar in particular.

[1980] Three characters in it, and everybody else is just texture faces.

[1981] GTA 4 in particular, and the Red Dead to a lesser extent, there was a real zombie Deadeye kind of thing going on with the characters.

[1982] The facial animation was just not there.

[1983] So it's weird to see the guys who put out those games coming along and then redefining that whole thing.

[1984] But, I mean, it also takes, like, there's a limit.

[1985] I feel like there's a pretty hard limitation to the use of this technology just because you have to want to make some sort of a realistic looking game.

[1986] to really bother doing this.

[1987] If you're going to then make everyone fantastical...

[1988] I don't know.

[1989] Maybe, though.

[1990] I'd say there's got to be implications for that for a game that has a stylized art style.

[1991] Picks up already on people's facial movements.

[1992] I guess, but it's not just picking up on facial movements.

[1993] We could do that before.

[1994] If you go and watch Heavenly Sword, they're doing full performance capture.

[1995] Yeah, enslaved.

[1996] To the face.

[1997] That was the strength of enslaved more than anything else.

[1998] It's more specifically that you don't just want the guy's performance.

[1999] You want his actual face in your game.

[2000] I think if you're able to take some of that data and stylize it, I think you still might come away with something really special.

[2001] Maybe you don't do 100 % like L .A. Noire where it's full on.

[2002] They're taking all of that.

[2003] What I'm saying is that the systems already exist to get something close to that if you're then going to exaggerate physical features, put it into a fantastical context.

[2004] I'd like to see it.

[2005] I'd like to see somebody try it.

[2006] Guess what?

[2007] Because I could never have imagined this if you described it to me until you actually see it.

[2008] You have to see it.

[2009] You're not wrong.

[2010] It taps into a subconscious part of your brain.

[2011] The image processing, the pattern recognition parts of your brain are what are firing when you see that stuff because you talk to 100 people a day where you're parsing the little ticks in their face to get a sense of what they're thinking and feeling, but you're not thinking about it.

[2012] It just, it's, it's innate in, in kind of human image processing that you know how to interpret this information.

[2013] And one of the hardest things, it just comes right across.

[2014] You know, the hardest thing to animate as a human just because we know, we know the minute something's off, the second something is a little weird.

[2015] And again, it's that, you know, the contrast of face and body is not perfect in this, but taken alone, the faces are, you sit there and stare at a dude's face.

[2016] The faces are clawing their way out of the uncanny valley.

[2017] I hate to use that phrase, but like they are, they are like, they're up the far slope at this point.

[2018] It's what makes this stunning is that I've never seen anything that I really felt started going in that direction.

[2019] It always seemed like, well, we cannot scale this uncanny valley.

[2020] We just have to retreat to more cartoonish, and that'll be fine.

[2021] We can make that work.

[2022] But to see this out, no, these are real people, real faces in this digital world, and you buy it.

[2023] After this, how can you go back?

[2024] How can any developer make a cinematic game like this?

[2025] and not do something like this.

[2026] I don't know.

[2027] I mean...

[2028] Unless they're, like, stealing their souls and putting them in there, and there's, like, a real dark secret.

[2029] Well, stuff like...

[2030] It's really about Commando.

[2031] Yeah.

[2032] Stuff like Enslaved was already paving the way, but this is just so much more impressive even than that.

[2033] Next level.

[2034] But, I mean, obviously, budget is a factor, you know, if you're making a small -budget game.

[2035] Probably not an option, but if you have money to – Right.

[2036] I was going to say also keep in mind Rockstar made a $50 million adventure game here.

[2037] Sure, sure.

[2038] So not a lot of people can do that.

[2039] Right.

[2040] But it will be even more fun with really bad actors.

[2041] It's not the bad actors that's costing this.

[2042] That's not what's making this expensive.

[2043] It's got to be.

[2044] You've got to pay those dudes something.

[2045] You have the money to perform this technology or this capture.

[2046] You have the money to hire decent, horny actors.

[2047] I'm saying now, but down the road, it's going to...

[2048] Oh, sure.

[2049] This tech gets democratized to some degree.

[2050] It gets formalized and licensed out or whatever.

[2051] I want some real shitty acting in my game.

[2052] Looking real good.

[2053] I have to wonder.

[2054] Maybe this is just the beginning of a new FMV era.

[2055] I hope so.

[2056] It kind of feels like it.

[2057] Imagine the facial performances from that original Resident Evil 1 style lines of dialogue.

[2058] The master of unlocking.

[2059] Where is Dana Plato when you need her?

[2060] I have to wonder.

[2061] I looked into this.

[2062] The guy who founded...

[2063] The developer in Australia was the director of The Getaway.

[2064] Yeah, he originally came from Sony Soho.

[2065] Yeah.

[2066] So out of their London studio, and they did both of The Getaways, but he was just part of the first one.

[2067] Yeah, if you really want to know how long this game has been in process, I'm pretty sure The Getaway was the last thing he worked on.

[2068] Yeah.

[2069] I'm not positive.

[2070] Anyway, so he founded not only this development studio, but a separate company to develop this technology, this facial capture stuff.

[2071] I have to wonder, like, do those two things come as a package deal if somebody is to acquire the developer, or will they stay independent and license it out to people on the road?

[2072] They were showing the motion scan tech, I think.

[2073] two E3s ago or two 3D GDCs ago separately.

[2074] Right.

[2075] They were showing L .A. Noir stuff as a way, hey, this is what it's being used in practice.

[2076] But, I mean, everything kind of changes depending on, I think, the success of this game and sort of what Rockstar does with it.

[2077] But it was at one point being marketed as, like, this could be used in movies.

[2078] This could be used in computer animated film.

[2079] Like, there's a lot of applications for it.

[2080] And it's just, I think it's a...

[2081] It's amazing, though, that the first time we see it applied is...

[2082] in something that's being rendered in real time.

[2083] Not a cutscene.

[2084] Not a rendered cutscene.

[2085] Not a rendered cutscene.

[2086] Something in -engine.

[2087] On current consoles, yeah.

[2088] On what is pretty old hardware at this point.

[2089] Not a fucking movie.

[2090] That alone to me is kind of impressive.

[2091] Not only done in real time, but in service of a gameplay mechanic.

[2092] The game is no slouch, but the rest of it's not the best looking thing out there.

[2093] It looks pretty good.

[2094] It looks pretty good.

[2095] It's not like it is slapped on to something that is fantastic across the board.

[2096] It's pretty good looking.

[2097] That's the highlight.

[2098] The facial stuff is the highlight.

[2099] Like looking at the world, the world looks fine.

[2100] You know, maybe like most open worlds, a little sparsely populated.

[2101] It's got a great style.

[2102] But it's not blowing out the graphics card on that thing.

[2103] No. But, yeah, that facial stuff is fantastic.

[2104] There's good detail in the world.

[2105] But I – I see your point.

[2106] I understand what you're trying to say.

[2107] Which I think is great to have this, like, thing...

[2108] It's not to say that, like, yeah, the concrete is as realistic as the faces.

[2109] Well, that's always the trade -off with an open world is breadth versus depth, right?

[2110] Like, you are detailing an enormous environment, so you can't put that much detail in any one spot.

[2111] Which is why I might have loved this even more if they had just gutted the open world element.

[2112] If they had just made this a purely linear...

[2113] I don't know.

[2114] I feel like it...

[2115] And just think of how much they could have cranked up stuff even more.

[2116] Maybe, yeah.

[2117] I don't know.

[2118] I feel like it...

[2119] Yeah, I would like to see...

[2120] Rockstar make just a straight linear game and see what they do within the real strict confines of story linearity.

[2121] Yeah, because it sounds like other than some minor mechanical stuff, this game could have been like that.

[2122] Oh, you could absolutely get away with having no open world at all in this.

[2123] And I'd be curious to see what would they choose to put their...

[2124] focus on if there wasn't that breadth of an open world to try and flesh out.

[2125] You could easily cut from you're at the corner doing whatever and then here's a clock wipe and all of a sudden now you're at the crime scene.

[2126] What Rockstar really uses those open worlds for though is context and tone.

[2127] That's the direction they've been moving for a while.

[2128] It's all supplemental to the storytelling of we don't have to say these things out loud because it is inherently apparent just from what you see of the world around you.

[2129] And the, you know, little snippets of dialogue you hear from passersby and maybe something you hear on the radio and the billboards that you see and like just, you know, radio ads, like that kind of stuff.

[2130] Like it's...

[2131] It's not reason enough for you to have an open world, but it seems like at least the past few games, it's what Rockstar has been most using for open worlds.

[2132] It allows them to do a lot of implicit storytelling rather than explicit.

[2133] Usually that stuff's in a cutscene, so they hit you in the face with it, but they don't have to do that.

[2134] We've got to move on.

[2135] We can't keep talking about Alien Noir.

[2136] I think three times now we've tried to say, all right, well, done with Alien Noir.

[2137] We have to stop talking about Alien Noir now.

[2138] We have to move on.

[2139] I can tell you about the other games I've played.

[2140] You had time to play other games?

[2141] Real briefly, we don't have to spend a lot of time on it.

[2142] I stopped by Nintendo the day the LNR came in here.

[2143] I was on my way home to go start it.

[2144] Oh, yeah.

[2145] But Nintendo was showing Ocarina of Time 3DS, or 3D, I guess is the actual name.

[2146] Vinny, don't get too excited.

[2147] Sorry, I'm going to blow my nose.

[2148] At Ocarina of Time.

[2149] We had some words about that game before I went over there.

[2150] Vinny is not especially stoked about the idea.

[2151] I'm not really a fan of them doing this, especially for the release of the 3DS.

[2152] Also, I liked how Ryan didn't know it was a full retail release.

[2153] He thought it was a downloadable.

[2154] Exactly.

[2155] I feel like that's fairly telling.

[2156] When does Nintendo do that, though?

[2157] They don't.

[2158] At this point, things have changed to the point that you...

[2159] My expectation for re -release of...

[2160] Fucking 10, 12 -year -old game is not $40 cartridge.

[2161] It's a download.

[2162] A, this is Nintendo.

[2163] If it's called Zelda, it's going in a box.

[2164] I still, you know.

[2165] But B, I mean, going and seeing it.

[2166] I guess I've grown up then.

[2167] Going and seeing it was pretty eye -opening.

[2168] I'm going to be honest.

[2169] They actually had the original game running on a TV when I went in there.

[2170] Yeah.

[2171] Which was smart because I was able to, like, literally side -by -side it.

[2172] This game is weird because it's not a port.

[2173] but it's not a full remake either.

[2174] Same dungeon layout, same text translation.

[2175] Same everything except the graphics.

[2176] Asset -wise, they rebuilt everything from scratch.

[2177] It's just so halfway there for me. There's no new dungeons.

[2178] The interface is only improved because there's two screens.

[2179] Changing the boots is a little bit easier in the water dungeon.

[2180] It's a lot easier.

[2181] That was kind of the focus of this thing.

[2182] They actually dropped me into the water temple.

[2183] It's just not enough for me to want to play that game again.

[2184] That is absolutely a valid perspective, but I think if you have any interest in playing that game again...

[2185] They're doing right by its legacy.

[2186] When I saw that in New York, they didn't have the original playing, obviously.

[2187] It looks dramatically better.

[2188] When you really look at it side by side.

[2189] But the gameplay is so similar that it was like...

[2190] It is.

[2191] It's the same game.

[2192] In my mind's eye, it's like, oh, yeah, this is Ocarina of Time.

[2193] You could very well not know if you didn't look directly at it.

[2194] Right, because you don't remember all the...

[2195] I feel like this also just kind of speaks to how little Zelda games have changed since Ocarina.

[2196] That was a groundbreaking, genre -setting moment for the series and for Nintendo, but...

[2197] like, what you do in a Zelda game since then.

[2198] Hasn't changed much.

[2199] Hasn't really changed.

[2200] I guess that's why I don't want to play it again, because I'll just wait for the new one.

[2201] I'm going to do the same sort of thing anyway, and the mechanics are going to be better.

[2202] It's going to be a new world.

[2203] It's not the same story.

[2204] Like, why go in through?

[2205] I respect Ocarina of Time immensely.

[2206] It doesn't go in your pocket.

[2207] I don't know.

[2208] Play it on the playground.

[2209] For me, it really comes down to, like, you're launching a console.

[2210] You're launching a system.

[2211] It's the 3D stuff, whatever.

[2212] You're launching a goddamn console.

[2213] Give me some games, some new games that play on it.

[2214] Make me buy your console.

[2215] This would have made a big difference, honestly, for the launch of this thing if that game had been out.

[2216] This would have been, like, I would have happily accepted this as a launch game at $40, saying, like, okay.

[2217] From Nintendo.

[2218] Nintendo published title.

[2219] I was like, yeah, this is a half remake, half, you know, whatever.

[2220] Whatever this is.

[2221] But it's still, it says Zelda on the box.

[2222] It says, Nintendo on the box, fine.

[2223] This would have changed the story of the 3DS launch significantly.

[2224] Not for me, though.

[2225] Give me a new Zelda title.

[2226] Don't give me a rehash.

[2227] But, I mean, how old is that hardware?

[2228] How long has a developer actually had to make a new Zelda game for that thing?

[2229] Probably not long enough.

[2230] Like Nintendo?

[2231] Yeah.

[2232] As long as they need.

[2233] Any developer.

[2234] But the point is, like...

[2235] Who says that hardware was finalized to the point?

[2236] I mean, how long does it take?

[2237] Then don't launch it.

[2238] Then wait until you have a game to come out for it.

[2239] That's great, but that's not the reality of a hardware launch in 2011.

[2240] I'm with, yeah, like if this had been at launch, then it would have been like, I would have played it.

[2241] I don't know if I'd beaten it.

[2242] I certainly wouldn't have beaten it.

[2243] But I would have enjoyed, like...

[2244] I played my 3DS.

[2245] I beat Pilotwings.

[2246] I got all the silvers.

[2247] The golds are too fucking frustrating.

[2248] And now, like, I just don't touch it.

[2249] Like, I play Monster Tail on it.

[2250] Right.

[2251] Like, for me, this is a pack -in at launch.

[2252] This is like, this comes on the machine, on the system.

[2253] They're putting too much into this to be a pack -in.

[2254] I guess maybe I'm of an age of, like, I just really don't want to replay this game.

[2255] That's fine.

[2256] I mean, I sat down with it and I haven't played that game since 1998.

[2257] And I don't remember any of that shit.

[2258] Did you use the motion stuff for the first person aiming?

[2259] No, I mean, you can turn that off.

[2260] So that's not novel.

[2261] The 3D stuff is not novel to me. Basically, it's new window dressing on the same game that you're putting in a box for $40.

[2262] I am baffled that you have chosen now to become incensed about this.

[2263] They are in the business of repackaging the same shit and selling it to you over and over and over.

[2264] a big marquee release for the 3ds that i am not having having witnessed the uh xbox and ps3 launches i don't understand how anybody could expect any different in this day and age like this is how you launch a console now you get it out to market as fast as you can you don't want the competition seeing your ideas and trying to replicate them you get that thing into market and you push out the quickest software that you can expect consumers to accept.

[2265] So I'm not...

[2266] I mean, there wasn't really a, like, great Xbox 360 game.

[2267] No, no. They were terrible.

[2268] It was Cameo and Perfect Dark.

[2269] I'm not throwing stones at Nintendo and saying, like, you're an outlier and, like, this is crazy.

[2270] I'm saying that this does not deserve the hype that it is getting.

[2271] This is a basically...

[2272] All right.

[2273] Well, I'll tell you this, to share with you here, I'm baffled every time people get excited about Zelda.

[2274] Just in general.

[2275] See, I like Zelda.

[2276] I'll keep going.

[2277] I'll keep going back to the well and playing a new Zelda game.

[2278] But to make this a reason to buy a 3DS and make coverage of this and waste people's time to go cover this in any kind of meaningful way, when you...

[2279] this is a new console and you could be doing way new stuff on it.

[2280] And they are.

[2281] They clearly are doing new stuff.

[2282] There is a new Super Mario Brothers announced for it.

[2283] E3 is a couple of weeks away, which is where you're going to see all this stuff.

[2284] That's all I'm saying.

[2285] This game is out around E3.

[2286] I'm sure people are very excited, but it is a known quantity.

[2287] It's not like they're a Christmas game.

[2288] This is a holdover.

[2289] This is, hey, here is a game that you might want to play on this 3DS until there are bigger games that you will for sure want to play.

[2290] Sure.

[2291] As a stopgap measure.

[2292] That's exactly what it is.

[2293] Nobody.

[2294] is propping this up as the savior of the 3DS.

[2295] I wouldn't say that's for sure.

[2296] If they are, I don't know them because I haven't heard any such lunacy.

[2297] When you ask me do we want to go cover this game in any kind of way that's going to take up my time, I'm going to say no. Dude, it's a Zelda game.

[2298] I'll go tell you what.

[2299] Let's go fire up Ocarina of Time and I will tell you what that Zelda game is about.

[2300] Let's not get into website best practices, but people want to consume content about Zelda games.

[2301] Sure.

[2302] Let me just make that blanket statement and move on.

[2303] But I'm saying in terms of why it seems like I'm making us think about it is because I guess I just want to see more.

[2304] From the 3DS?

[2305] Oh, dude, trust me, everybody does.

[2306] But this is what they got for now.

[2307] And it just seems a little weak to me. It's not great.

[2308] It could be better.

[2309] But, I mean, again, they are showing an appropriate amount of respect and care to this hallowed classic.

[2310] And also, the thing for me is that I haven't played this game since 1998.

[2311] And at this point, it's almost a new game to me. Because I can't remember anything about it.

[2312] Yeah, they've made enough decent improvements to it, and it looks better, and it's got a few extra modes that we're not going to get into because we need to move on.

[2313] I see your point, but this is, I mean, we talked about this when the 3DS launched of how come there's not any good games at the 3DS launch.

[2314] It's because there doesn't have to be, and it's depressing, and it's why you don't own a 3DS yet, but that's fine.

[2315] I didn't buy a DS at launch.

[2316] I waited until the, what was the Kirby game?

[2317] Oh.

[2318] That's how good it was.

[2319] Canvas Curse.

[2320] No, that game is phenomenal.

[2321] Yeah.

[2322] Canvas Curse remains, I think, the best utilization of the DS touchscreen.

[2323] So I waited until, like, okay, I saw, you know, Super Mario 64 3D.

[2324] And you loved that film pad.

[2325] Super Mario 64 DS.

[2326] And I said, okay, this is awful.

[2327] I'm not going to buy one of these yet.

[2328] Waited for the actual good game to come out.

[2329] And it took them, like, it took them a color.

[2330] revision before they actually had a system out that I wanted or they had a game out that I wanted to buy with the system.

[2331] So, in a way, this is a way better treatment than previous Nintendo systems have received.

[2332] And also, Nintendo is not shy about trotting back out their old shit over and over and over again.

[2333] I guess maybe I'm kind of tired of it.

[2334] Fair enough.

[2335] That is valid.

[2336] I will fist pump you on me. I still got a sealed copy of Trauma Center that I never opened that I bought with my Wii at launch.

[2337] That was basically because there's nothing else to buy with your Wii at launch.

[2338] That's exactly my point.

[2339] Name the last four or five hardware platforms that came out.

[2340] Fuck you, Nintendo.

[2341] Put out a goddamn game because I'm tired of it, and I'm not going to put video resources to go cover that stuff.

[2342] That's fine.

[2343] You can become incensed about it, but you're going to be spewing the same vitriol when the next Xbox and the next Nintendo system come out.

[2344] because it's going to be the same shit over and over again.

[2345] Well, I'll tell you what.

[2346] Launch lineups are not what they used to be.

[2347] Mini is not covering new games anymore.

[2348] That's right.

[2349] The days of the Super Mario World coming out with the Super NES are over.

[2350] I'm just tired of it.

[2351] Really, I think you want somebody to spend that kind of money on something you need to put out more than just a promise.

[2352] I mean, you just have to wait a year.

[2353] If the market doesn't support it, then they'll stop doing it.

[2354] But so far it has, because people like to buy new shit.

[2355] When they haven't had a new console.

[2356] I don't want to feed the beast.

[2357] Well, don't.

[2358] Vote with your wallet.

[2359] You'll be the only one.

[2360] It goes back to why there's always a new Mario Kart every generation.

[2361] We've had this conversation a million fucking times.

[2362] It's that it's always new to someone.

[2363] It's true.

[2364] The target audience for the 3DS is your children.

[2365] That's the grist of power in the Pokemon mill forever.

[2366] For them, 1998 is several years before they were born.

[2367] So when they see a new Zelda game on the 3DS, that's a new Zelda game.

[2368] To them, it's brand fucking new.

[2369] They've never seen an N64.

[2370] They don't know the lineage and the history, and they're going to play that game, and they're going to have a fine time with it.

[2371] Now, we've seen it before, so a remake, a whatever, we're going to yawn at it because we are too goddamn world -weary.

[2372] But you also have to recognize that there are people younger than us that don't have that perspective.

[2373] God bless them.

[2374] I'm not trying to deny that.

[2375] That right there is when they offer a look at a Zelda game.

[2376] That's why we go cover it.

[2377] Beyond my personal interest, which I have, but it's something people care about.

[2378] Oh, I know that for sure.

[2379] I just think at some point...

[2380] You have to call a spade a spade and just be like, this is...

[2381] I don't think Nintendo is pretending it is anything more than it is.

[2382] I have not seen any evidence that they're trumpeting.

[2383] They're just saying this is pretty much the first major release for the system.

[2384] That's all they're saying.

[2385] We didn't fly to New York to see this game.

[2386] I walked two blocks.

[2387] There was little fanfare about it.

[2388] It's just like, hey, we're making this and we think it's pretty neat.

[2389] I flew to New York to see this game.

[2390] You flew to New York and saw this game.

[2391] Yeah, you know, whatever.

[2392] Maybe it's a bigger industry problem.

[2393] But, like, I personally think that, like, propping this up as something more than just kind of a remake or kind of a...

[2394] I don't think they're doing that, though.

[2395] I don't see the evidence of that.

[2396] Okay.

[2397] I don't think it's them or us.

[2398] I think you're just desperate for decent stuff to talk about with the 3DS.

[2399] Maybe.

[2400] Or maybe I'm letting my connect...

[2401] hatred spill into my nintendo another perfect example i mean every been nothing since then that thing left yeah like that's just i mean and you won't have anything till next fall are you gonna are you gonna take a huge risk on an unproven platform that doesn't have an enormous installed base and like spend tons of money i don't know you're not i mean in the days of the super mario worlds coming out with the system and you could make games were made by 20 or 30 people max not The $200 that it takes today.

[2402] Seven years, $50 million.

[2403] Yeah.

[2404] Making games is a different beast than it used to be.

[2405] Sure, but you're asking the consumer to.

[2406] Right.

[2407] You're basically asking the consumer to take a leap of faith so you can get an install base.

[2408] And again, if the market will not bear this proposition that they're offering, then they will stop offering it.

[2409] But they haven't because people keep buying the stuff.

[2410] Because they like shiny new hardware.

[2411] And they like Nintendo new hardware.

[2412] I don't buy consoles at launch because there's never anything to play.

[2413] I mean, that's just...

[2414] I haven't done that since the PS1 era.

[2415] I buy consoles at launch.

[2416] Yeah, I buy all of them.

[2417] I like poking at the console.

[2418] I don't expect there to be any software for me to care about, so I buy the hardware just to poke at the hardware.

[2419] What does that do?

[2420] I even like going to the midnight launches because I think they're fun.

[2421] So I guess I'm taking this moment to say Vinny Caravella says don't buy Zelda games so you can get better games at launch.

[2422] Don't buy a 3DS.

[2423] This is not the wrong franchise, wrong game.

[2424] You need to pick your battles and this is not it.

[2425] Would you rather have a new Zelda game?

[2426] They will make a new Zelda game.

[2427] You're getting it anyway.

[2428] They will make a new Zelda game.

[2429] Or the 3DS.

[2430] You said I'm speaking with my wallet and my mouth.

[2431] Okay.

[2432] All right.

[2433] I'm using my mouth wallet.

[2434] I mean, as soon as their bottom line is impacted, they will change their ways.

[2435] You heard it from Brad.

[2436] Fold up your mouth wallet.

[2437] I mean, those games are coming.

[2438] Majora's Mask 3DS.

[2439] That stuff just takes time.

[2440] That's right.

[2441] Give me Majora's Mask.

[2442] Shut up.

[2443] That's the original game.

[2444] It's going to be Majora's Mask 2.

[2445] I'll take it.

[2446] Just a follow -up to Majora's Mask.

[2447] Yes.

[2448] Best 3D Zelda game.

[2449] I would love a...

[2450] A side -scrolling follow -up to Majora's Mask just to combine the two most divisive elements of all Zelda games, which is fucking Adventures of Link and Majora's Mask.

[2451] I would play that game.

[2452] People fucking love or hate both of those games.

[2453] I love Majora's Mask.

[2454] Hard swings.

[2455] I hate Majora's Mask.

[2456] Oh, I love Adventure of Link.

[2457] I'm kind of so silly.

[2458] Wow.

[2459] I always kind of thought that the, like, hate...

[2460] Majora's Mask was the same crowd.

[2461] Hate Adventures of Lake was the same crowd.

[2462] Maybe I'm some statistical outlier.

[2463] What do you hate about Majora's Mask?

[2464] I got to the...

[2465] It's been so long, but the first time that I had to do an entire dungeon over again because the moon rose before I finished or something, I was just like, fuck this.

[2466] Legitimate criticism.

[2467] I pulled it out of the N64 and never touched it again.

[2468] Legitimate criticism.

[2469] But that's also why I like it.

[2470] Bought it the day it came out.

[2471] The reason that can happen is part of the reason I love that game.

[2472] But it is fucked up.

[2473] If you're down with a Demon's Souls -esque game that's abusing you or whatever, then that's...

[2474] That game was kind of like that.

[2475] Especially if you try to collect all the masks and that last mask quest that takes you an hour and a half to do and you can fail it in the last five seconds and then have to do it all over again.

[2476] I still loved it.

[2477] It sounds super compelling.

[2478] So, El Anymore.

[2479] We're out of show.

[2480] Oh, man. We also saw Dark Souls.

[2481] Speaking of Demon's Souls.

[2482] That game is Demon's Souls 2 in everything but name, so that's all that needs to be said.

[2483] Yes.

[2484] How are you feeling, Vinny?

[2485] Resident Demon's Souls.

[2486] Exactly as Brad said.

[2487] I was actually expecting a little more deviation from that.

[2488] You have finished Demon's Souls.

[2489] Are you ready for more Demon's Souls?

[2490] Do you want exactly more of that exact kind of punishment?

[2491] Yes, because it's a known quantity now.

[2492] I feel like I understand.

[2493] You're ready to get fucked.

[2494] You've wrapped your head around the first one.

[2495] Got it.

[2496] I know from start to finish, there's no surprise at the end.

[2497] I'm like, click, I got it.

[2498] I know exactly what's going on.

[2499] If I want to jump into Dark Souls, I think I know what's going on there.

[2500] Well, good.

[2501] We'll see what happens.

[2502] That game could not look more like Demon's Souls if they had just brought in Demon's Souls itself.

[2503] Could they have just like engine art style assets, just everything?

[2504] Side by side Coke Pepsi challenge?

[2505] I would have picked Dark Souls over Demon's Souls, I think.

[2506] If you were like, which one's Demon's Souls?

[2507] Oh, that's Dark Souls!

[2508] Oh, no!

[2509] You got me!

[2510] It tastes better.

[2511] It's great.

[2512] Zero calories, huh?

[2513] Wow.

[2514] It was funny.

[2515] Actually, there is some difference.

[2516] Matt Roy did a blog post, but it's funny how much that looked like Demon's Souls.

[2517] What else you got?

[2518] I had nothing else.

[2519] Can we talk about console releases some more?

[2520] Let's talk about news ever so quickly.

[2521] I was going to say there was a lot that happened.

[2522] I know.

[2523] I know.

[2524] We'll do.

[2525] We won't blow it out.

[2526] All right.

[2527] We'll do this.

[2528] Modern Warfare 3.

[2529] Okay.

[2530] That's worth talking about.

[2531] Modern Warfare 3.

[2532] We'll just hold on.

[2533] PSN's back up.

[2534] Yeah.

[2535] Fuck it.

[2536] Moving on.

[2537] Yeah.

[2538] They handled that well.

[2539] They handled that well.

[2540] They did that nicely over the weekend.

[2541] Casuo was humble and to the point.

[2542] Had some sweet tunes, some piano going on beyond in that video.

[2543] They had the cool map thing so you could see when you're coming up.

[2544] And I was able to just – I turned on my PS3.

[2545] Patch came in.

[2546] It said – you've got to change your password right now.

[2547] This is super important.

[2548] I'm like, okay, I'll do that.

[2549] And then I was up.

[2550] PlayStation Store is still not working as of this recording.

[2551] But it's going to be up very soon.

[2552] They've announced the welcome back details.

[2553] We've got a story up on the site with that stuff.

[2554] You're going to get a couple of games.

[2555] And it's stuff that you probably already own, but if you don't own it, it's a good package.

[2556] I don't own a copy of Infamous, so now I'll have a copy of Infamous.

[2557] So wahoo.

[2558] And those will all be digital, right?

[2559] Yes.

[2560] A lot of it is stuff that you can access.

[2561] Through PlayStation Plus already.

[2562] I know they've had, but I know they've had like, you know, on demand or whatever you want to call them, versions of LittleBigPlanet and Infamous.

[2563] Yes.

[2564] And there's going to be some free movies, most likely ones that were created by Sony, but there'll be some select ones you can download.

[2565] Spider -Man 2.

[2566] Spider -Man 3.

[2567] They also upped, if you're a PlayStation Plus member, that you're actually getting 60 free days.

[2568] Great.

[2569] And it's 30 days if you are not a member.

[2570] I am.

[2571] Yeah, I think at the conclusion of a fucked up situation, they handled it pretty well.

[2572] It came back as classy as it could.

[2573] As best as they could in a dire, horrible situation.

[2574] I think they still could have handled it better at the start, but I feel like they did eventually kind of figure it out.

[2575] I don't envy anyone at Sony, man. No, tough times.

[2576] I don't envy the engineers who had to make the call when they were originally putting this infrastructure together to say, look, we realize that this security isn't as good as it could or should be, but we have to launch this system now, so suck it up.

[2577] I don't envy the people who've had to administrate that stuff with whatever knowledge they might have had about the quality of the infrastructure.

[2578] Also kind of crazy how it's not up in Japan yet because the government said they can't put it up.

[2579] Yeah.

[2580] I don't envy the executives who had to make these calls at the highest level of what they were going to do with the system.

[2581] And I don't envy the engineers who in three weeks' time had to completely rewrite.

[2582] the fucking, you know, the system infrastructure for PlayStation Network.

[2583] Like, it's just...

[2584] The PR people who have to go...

[2585] Oh, my God, PR nightmare.

[2586] Like, there is nothing good out of the last three weeks.

[2587] Yeah, the amazing PR nightmare for these poor PR people.

[2588] And, like, the biz dev people who have to go...

[2589] The people who have to go, you know, bow and scrape in front of partners and developers and say, like, yeah, I know that we've just fucked you real, real bad.

[2590] Oh, God.

[2591] Yeah, people can play Brink on the PS3 now.

[2592] Yeah.

[2593] In fact, we're going to do this week's TNT.

[2594] We're doing...

[2595] our own return of PSN show.

[2596] We're going to welcome you back with nothing but PlayStation Network games.

[2597] So it's just Mortal Kombat for two hours.

[2598] Mortal Kombat for two hours.

[2599] MK will be in the mix.

[2600] We're going to do Portal 2 split screen co -op.

[2601] I want to play some Warhawk.

[2602] I want to play some Wipeout.

[2603] Motorstorm Apocalypse.

[2604] We might play some Motorstorm Apocalypse.

[2605] I've got to dig up our copy of that if I can.

[2606] Celebrate the PlayStation Network.

[2607] We haven't been able to touch this thing for three weeks.

[2608] We have never played MK with our PS3 community.

[2609] Let's see if we can bring this baby back down.

[2610] That's right.

[2611] That's right.

[2612] It'll be us.

[2613] It's up.

[2614] Let's tear it down.

[2615] Game of mag.

[2616] So, yeah, we'll dabble in a handful of non -first -person shooters.

[2617] See what it has to offer.

[2618] Yeah, exactly.

[2619] I'm looking forward to it.

[2620] It's going to be exciting.

[2621] So, PSN, halfway up.

[2622] Yep.

[2623] Do they have any sort of ETA for store stuff, or is it just sort of like shit's a process, man?

[2624] Yes.

[2625] That's basically it.

[2626] Like, the store is up, but they don't have a way for you to buy things yet.

[2627] That's still sort of being worked out.

[2628] Got it.

[2629] Modern Warfare 3.

[2630] Yeah, Kotaku broke a serious amount of information about Modern Warfare 3, like everything from what maps are already confirmed to be in the game at this point of development to the entire story beats from beginning to end.

[2631] Holy shit.

[2632] How does that happen?

[2633] If you want to know every bit of the storyline of Modern Warfare 3, they've...

[2634] They claim that they have held back on certain story beats, like certain twists in the story.

[2635] But if you want to see generally what happens from beginning to end to modern world three, if you want to see – Assuming they change nothing, it's probably kind of late for them to do that.

[2636] Who do you play as?

[2637] Who dies?

[2638] Like what old characters show up?

[2639] What new characters are introduced?

[2640] Obviously they're not revealing their sources.

[2641] So based on – The way Kotaku's stories are structured, it's very much that they got some sort of dump of assets and then combined that with backing that up by verifying it with sources at Infinity War, at Activision.

[2642] I can't speak to that, but I have definitely heard that the way a lot of these games get made these days is to get all these art assets.

[2643] You see this especially on the Dead Space team.

[2644] You have to shuttle these out to a lot of studios.

[2645] So it's not all happening.

[2646] Under one roof.

[2647] Under one roof.

[2648] If it's happening a lot of outsourcing to China, it's happening to a lot of outsourcing to other places that can do cheap art asset labor they can't do in -house.

[2649] So the best theory I've heard is that because of all these moving pieces and the way those assets, if you go and look at them, they look awful.

[2650] Like they're reference material.

[2651] Most likely this was reference material for people to create art assets for the game, which shows why they look kind of janky and – The theory is that this was somehow sort of a deliberate viral marketing by Activision.

[2652] This is awful art. The screens are terrible.

[2653] It's not representative of the game at all.

[2654] And that's not how Activision rolls.

[2655] For Modern Warfare 3, their plan had to have been blow it out big mainstream primetime TV shit.

[2656] Yeah, so that makes me wonder because in the wake of this leak, they put out this salvo of teaser trailers.

[2657] Yeah, there were, like, four of them.

[2658] It definitely seemed like these were supposed to be spread out over an amount of time.

[2659] Well, I mean, so, yeah, presumably they had that stuff in the wings, right?

[2660] Like, they were planning some kind of gala unveiling.

[2661] Yeah, Robert Bolling said on Twitter, he's like, well, we were going to do this later, whatever.

[2662] And then they just put them all out on Friday night.

[2663] And, like, you know, Robert Bolling even, like, did a hashtag, like, MW3 when he was talking about it.

[2664] So I had to kind of hand it to Activision or at least Infinity War for just sort of...

[2665] Alright, it happened.

[2666] Now we move on.

[2667] As opposed to, like, you could expect why they might just bury their head in the sand and be like, no, it doesn't exist.

[2668] And then, like, three weeks later at E3, like, they confirm it that it exists.

[2669] Everybody's just like, fucking whatever.

[2670] Duh.

[2671] It's crazy, though.

[2672] Yeah, there's been a lot of discussion over whether, you know, like, should Kotaku have put up the entire storyline?

[2673] That's pretty ballsy.

[2674] I mean, they don't spoil it for you.

[2675] It's in a separate story.

[2676] If you don't want to see it, movies and stuff like that, stuff that gets leaked all the time, it's up to your discretion to not go out and read that stuff.

[2677] Games just don't usually encounter that.

[2678] It's oddly a much tighter ship when it comes to games for that stuff.

[2679] Well, they also rarely have a story.

[2680] Well, like two weekends ago, I was reading through the screenplay for the next Quentin Tarantino movie.

[2681] And it's not a big deal.

[2682] I read a good third of that, and that getting out there, yeah, it wasn't a – particularly big deal, but if, you know, that same thing happened for a video game like Mortal Warfare 3...

[2683] Well, what they're leaking out is the gameplay.

[2684] You know, usually the story is so secondary.

[2685] Like, with the movie, that's kind of all you have is the script.

[2686] Right, well, then, you know, you'd be more well -protected then if that's all they have is the script.

[2687] Yeah, you'd think that would ruin the experience more for the movie if that's all that matters and you absorb it through other means.

[2688] Like, imagine a Portal 2 script.

[2689] Leads.

[2690] Like, something like that.

[2691] Well, I'm saying that in the amount of, like, buzz and excitement for, like, the preview run of a movie is the story, and on the preview run of a game, it's the gameplay.

[2692] Like, Modern Warfare 2 came out and we were like, we're an RTS.

[2693] Like, that would be the first thing they would announce, and then you would get the story beats later on.

[2694] I see your point.

[2695] I see your point.

[2696] That's fair.

[2697] I think it's just, like, the preview cycle.

[2698] But this is going to be a first -person shoot.

[2699] What?

[2700] There will be some vehicle elements in it.

[2701] Is this confirmed?

[2702] It's basically World War III.

[2703] Is it going to have poops?

[2704] You start in New York and it's basically just – hop from major city to major city as it gets blown to shit.

[2705] They're not toning it down from Modern Warfare 2.

[2706] I was going to say that if you need to amp it up over Modern Warfare 2, there are a whole lot of valid avenues.

[2707] World War 3 is about an alien invasion.

[2708] They strapped a giant cannon on Earth and they're going to pilot it into the sun.

[2709] If you're going to remain confined to this planet, having global war is just about all you can do.

[2710] Maybe three ends with aliens arriving on Earth.

[2711] I'm actually totally okay with that.

[2712] That would be That would pretty much be the logical progression.

[2713] If you finish and everything's all cool and then just – Could you possibly go to saucers?

[2714] Independence Day warships just like show up over all the cities cut to black.

[2715] Captain Price is just like – Postmodern Warfare.

[2716] Postmodern Warfare.

[2717] Yeah.

[2718] Right.

[2719] There you go.

[2720] Postmodern Warfare is playing as a dude on a couch.

[2721] No, no, he's watching his buddy play Modern Warfare.

[2722] Wait, didn't we define poster Modern Warfare a couple years ago?

[2723] Yeah, I think so.

[2724] On this podcast.

[2725] Probably.

[2726] I think it was assaulting Infinity Ward.

[2727] Yeah.

[2728] And Robert Bowling was the last boss.

[2729] That's right.

[2730] Oh, how things have changed since then.

[2731] What else in news?

[2732] Mortal Kombat sold really well.

[2733] Good for that.

[2734] 900 ,000 copies.

[2735] Hot damn.

[2736] But that's just in the month of April, right?

[2737] Yep.

[2738] So actually, I'm sure it's well over a million, yeah.

[2739] Like 11 days.

[2740] Yeah.

[2741] So good for them.

[2742] That game's good.

[2743] Yeah.

[2744] Starhawk was announced.

[2745] Yeah.

[2746] After being talked about for like two, three years now.

[2747] That was a sci -fi Warhawk, is that correct?

[2748] Yeah, the full campaign.

[2749] Which is, Warhawk at one point had a full campaign.

[2750] Oh, that's right.

[2751] Until they realized, that initial teaser at that E3 was about, oh look, we got this big...

[2752] You know, it's Warhawk.

[2753] I totally forgot.

[2754] They got rid of it.

[2755] I totally forgot about Warhawk in the PlayStation 1 context when it was a single player with a gunship with the cluster missiles.

[2756] Speaking of FMVs, that game had some bad...

[2757] Oh, does that have...

[2758] It's been so long.

[2759] I don't remember.

[2760] I don't remember the FMV.

[2761] I just remember the cluster missiles.

[2762] Amazing.

[2763] Just like the worst...

[2764] Classic quick look incoming.

[2765] The worst B -movie shit.

[2766] It is so much fun.

[2767] Sony was admittedly the kings of that at the beginning of the PlayStation 1.

[2768] PlayStation era.

[2769] Really?

[2770] What was that Capcom one?

[2771] Snow Dogs?

[2772] Or it was the spy skiing one?

[2773] No. You know what I'm talking about though, right?

[2774] I like Snow Dogs.

[2775] Oh, you're talking about Fox Hunts?

[2776] Fox Hunts.

[2777] I think so, yeah.

[2778] Capcom game, yeah.

[2779] Capcom FMV game.

[2780] Yeah.

[2781] Late 90s.

[2782] It was a PC game as well, but they released it for a bunch of different platforms.

[2783] That game's terrible.

[2784] Yeah.

[2785] That game's super bad.

[2786] Warthog is actually a good game.

[2787] Yeah, I just want to see the FMV in it.

[2788] That's good.

[2789] Excellent.

[2790] I don't know.

[2791] Tecmo Coey's going to have some Project Cafe launch games.

[2792] Good for them.

[2793] Do you think any of them will involve the killing of dozens of guys?

[2794] Probably.

[2795] At once.

[2796] You mean like a dynasty of dudes?

[2797] Yeah, maybe.

[2798] How many are in a dynasty?

[2799] That's like a baker's dozen, right?

[2800] Is that like a gross?

[2801] I don't know.

[2802] It's like a metric gross.

[2803] Oh, and then there was a Ubisoft financial call where they said – like an analyst asked, like, so are Wii games – are these Wii 2 games going to cost us a bunch of money again because we have to make a whole other separate game for this one machine?

[2804] And they were like, no. Kind of just reconfirming the like, yeah, this is – The specs are at least on par with current hardware.

[2805] Does not tell us anything about if it's substantially more powerful, but at least – Will there be an Assassin's Creed game on the Project FA?

[2806] Like, yes.

[2807] So...

[2808] Oh, wait.

[2809] Okay, that's what we're talking about.

[2810] Right, well, just how they've had to, like...

[2811] you know, establish and dedicate.

[2812] You have to make spin -off games.

[2813] I'm in Project F. I hadn't heard that yet.

[2814] Oh, Project Cafe?

[2815] Yeah, that's sort of the code name.

[2816] That's terrible.

[2817] Yeah, Project Cafe.

[2818] I had no idea what you were talking about.

[2819] Oh, yeah.

[2820] They've been kicking the Project Cafe name around for a little while.

[2821] Yeah, I don't like it either.

[2822] Who made it?

[2823] Is that Nintendo?

[2824] No, not properly disclosed, but that has been the value to buy.

[2825] The unofficial code name.

[2826] Project Cafe and Stream.

[2827] Stream is the other one.

[2828] I've heard Project Cafe a lot.

[2829] Oh, man. Yeah, yuck.

[2830] Super Mario Cafe.

[2831] Yuck.

[2832] 64.

[2833] Yuck.

[2834] HD.

[2835] Actually, if Cafe is now like the weird Nintendo generational tack -on, I'd be totally okay with that.

[2836] Mario Kart Cafe.

[2837] Mario Kart Cafe, sure.

[2838] Oh, man. All right, so then I could get behind an Ocarina of Time cafe.

[2839] So we found it.

[2840] We found it.

[2841] Mario Kart cafe.

[2842] It just sounds fun.

[2843] It just sounds like light and breezy.

[2844] Sounds kind of French.

[2845] Kirby cafe.

[2846] Oh, I love Kirby cafe.

[2847] Kirby cafe curse.

[2848] Cafe?

[2849] Just can't wait for the Wario cafe game.

[2850] I would not eat at the Wario cafe.

[2851] I bet he's going to pee in your coffee.

[2852] I've heard the food is pretty sloppy, yeah.

[2853] I hope you like garlic.

[2854] Yeah.

[2855] It's all there is in anything.

[2856] Onions and garlic.

[2857] All right.

[2858] That's it for news.

[2859] Thank you, Patrick.

[2860] New releases this week.

[2861] L .A. Noire is out this week.

[2862] The Witcher 2 is out this week.

[2863] What is it called?

[2864] It's Sega Rally.

[2865] Is it downloadable?

[2866] Sega Rally Online Arcade.

[2867] It's coming out for Xbox Live Arcade this week for $10.

[2868] I don't know if PlayStation Network is going to be up in time.

[2869] I don't know if they're going to put anything out this week.

[2870] Still don't know if they're going to just dump all the stuff that they've been supposed to have launched over the past three weeks.

[2871] Hard left.

[2872] Or what, but...

[2873] Isn't that Sega Rally?

[2874] Are they announced the directions for you?

[2875] Yes.

[2876] Okay.

[2877] Well, they do that in most rally games.

[2878] Oh.

[2879] Rally Cafe.

[2880] Yeah, I play Sega Rally Cafe.

[2881] Would you play Sonic Cafe?

[2882] Oh, I would play the shit out of Sonic Cafe.

[2883] You ready?

[2884] You come back for some Sonic Cafe?

[2885] Sonic Cafe sounds great.

[2886] What's the hook?

[2887] I don't know.

[2888] These all just sound like delightful.

[2889] Like little mini games.

[2890] Well, just like Italian espresso machines that I would buy at the Bed Bath & Beyond.

[2891] I can hear some light jazz in the background.

[2892] Yeah.

[2893] Reggie comes out on stage.

[2894] It is.

[2895] It is very.

[2896] Welcome to the Nintendo Cafe.

[2897] These all sound very adult contemporary.

[2898] That could be their E3 booth.

[2899] They're serving some lattes.

[2900] Yeah, but then you'll just have to play Supersonic Cafe, the next generation.

[2901] Then that one's junk.

[2902] Yeah, that's no good.

[2903] That's all I've got for new releases.

[2904] Not to say that those are insignificant new releases.

[2905] It's not a lot.

[2906] So let's take it to some emails.

[2907] That's my impression of the discordant strings that, like...

[2908] It took me a second to figure out who was making that sound.

[2909] All of the interrogations in that game.

[2910] As soon as you ask the first, like...

[2911] Damn it, you've got to stop talking.

[2912] Stop!

[2913] The first, like, tense question you ask, once it sets the tone and everything gets kind of unpleasant in there, like these strings kick in where it's just this constant hum of, like, these discordant strings in the background that just make you very uncomfortable.

[2914] As you were questioning these people.

[2915] I want to play that game.

[2916] Bombcast.

[2917] Wait, you can't start yet.

[2918] Emails.

[2919] That was the key.

[2920] Bombcast at giantbomb .com.

[2921] I thought the E was going to be all I was going to get.

[2922] Bombcast at giantbomb .com is the email address to write in.

[2923] First email comes in from Sam Saturday.

[2924] Howdy, Bombastic Crew.

[2925] What do you guys think about the current state of connected games and the way some publishers are using connectivity to deliver rewards?

[2926] EA seems to be pretty into this.

[2927] For example, I've just started playing Dead Space 2.

[2928] and I've received in -game rewards for playing Dead Space 1, Dead Space Ignition, and Dead Space for iPhone.

[2929] Plus, Dead Space 2 gives special armor for Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Legends on Facebook gives you additional equipment in DA2.

[2930] And on top of that, you get special stuff in DA Legends for having played Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2.

[2931] It never ends.

[2932] This all got me thinking that in the future, games may never be complete.

[2933] You can go back and play Super Mario Bros. now, and it will be the same as it was in the 80s.

[2934] But what if I want to play Dead Space 2 20 years from now?

[2935] Will it include all the bonus stuff that came with the other games?

[2936] Conversely, will having Dead Space 2 on my EA profile give me special Mass Effect Universe 5 items in 2031?

[2937] Any thoughts on this kind of stuff?

[2938] Mass Effect Cafe.

[2939] You know, it's interesting because there has been, I'd say over the last decade, definitely in the latter half more so, some concerns about...

[2940] I guess the archivability of these games.

[2941] Also servers going down.

[2942] We've already got all these sports games that are basically unplayable now.

[2943] But I mean, yeah, but it's, you know, it extends.

[2944] It's been going on for longer than that.

[2945] It's just it's taken a while for it to really become widespread.

[2946] I mean, there were Dreamcast games that, you know.

[2947] that had online support, that's dead now.

[2948] There was, you know, even stuff before that, there was the weird...

[2949] At least in Japan, there was like, what was it, Satellavision or something?

[2950] Satellaview.

[2951] Satellaview, thank you.

[2952] You know, stuff like that where there were weird, rare, like oddball, connected -only versions of games that...

[2953] That's what they should do.

[2954] Just don't exist anymore.

[2955] They should bring out the BS Zelda.

[2956] I think that was the name of it.

[2957] Which one is that?

[2958] That was the Satellaview Zelda.

[2959] Exclusive.

[2960] You could only get this Zelda over satellite.

[2961] And extra dungeons?

[2962] They should have ported that.

[2963] I think it was a whole new game, if I'm not mistaken.

[2964] I will support that as well.

[2965] It might be crazy.

[2966] They should have ported that to the 3D.

[2967] But, you know, these are all...

[2968] The thing about these experiences that Sam is talking about is...

[2969] Like they're adding stuff and they're trying to hook you in and keep you connected for now.

[2970] But like I don't know that that stuff has incredible value.

[2971] I actually just don't give a shit.

[2972] When I turn on Dead Space and I get like 15 items I've unlocked.

[2973] I thought it was kind of neat.

[2974] I like it when it's one or two, but it's when you get like 15.

[2975] Like there's no value to them.

[2976] I've not earned those.

[2977] Like I don't know.

[2978] I'd rather just get them in the game in some capacity.

[2979] Dead Space 2 is an extreme example because some of the stuff you get is basically tantamount to cheat codes.

[2980] Some of the weapons that you get are literally just free versions of the weapons that are already in the game with extra ammo or they do a little bit more damage.

[2981] Or you're getting an armor class five hours before you would unlock it through normal play.

[2982] It's literally just easing the gameplay experience.

[2983] But it seems like these, at least the way EA is handling it, granted they are doing it a lot.

[2984] And they're doing it kind of heavy -handedly.

[2985] They also do this stuff in their sports games.

[2986] to crazy ends, and they've been doing it for longer than they've been kind of easing it into their non -sports of like, oh, you've got NBA Live saves on this, so when you load up Tiger, you'll get this special ball, or something to that effect.

[2987] They've been doing some sort of crossover there, but it's all very in the moment.

[2988] It's all stuff that really matters.

[2989] They're not doing stuff that's going to be critical to the experience long -term.

[2990] I mean, look at the market for that stuff.

[2991] Like 15 years from now, you've either paid $5 for that game used somewhere, or you're not going to buy it off the shelf new at $60 for sure, or you're buying a re -release of that game in some kind of platinum edition or 3DS edition or whatever.

[2992] You're not buying the moments past.

[2993] Yeah.

[2994] All that synergy and Facebook and getting all those items.

[2995] Yeah.

[2996] That's gone.

[2997] It's gone.

[2998] They're not making money off of that anymore.

[2999] They're not running ads for that in their viral game.

[3000] And because of that, in a way, they're deliberately making this stuff very non -critical to the experience.

[3001] Oh, yeah.

[3002] Because they know, like, this is for launch week.

[3003] We're doing this for fucking the first six months, and that's when we care about you've bought these other games.

[3004] Hopefully you'll spend the extra $5, because otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the $5.

[3005] But it doesn't matter when they move down to the next game.

[3006] It's really fortunately no different from pre -order bonuses.

[3007] It's the same stuff.

[3008] Look how quickly that stuff turns around, though, too.

[3009] It's like, how long?

[3010] A year until it's a pack -in for the full price, and it comes with all the DLC.

[3011] I mean, the Borderlands thing, right?

[3012] That was a year out?

[3013] Fallout does the same thing usually.

[3014] Those are significant pieces of content.

[3015] Those are not just like an extra weapon.

[3016] But it doesn't even take them a year before you're getting that stuff on a deck.

[3017] It's free.

[3018] It's basically the same.

[3019] That's the thing.

[3020] I don't know if anybody's come up with a clever name for these EA co -branded unlocks or whatever.

[3021] They were calling it Gun Club for their shooters.

[3022] Right, that stuff.

[3023] Whatever the clever name you want to come up with.

[3024] That stuff is so trifling that they don't even bother to include it in those collections because it's that incidental to the experience.

[3025] It's so cosmetic.

[3026] Honestly, as tempting as it is to see this for the filthy marketing ploy that it is...

[3027] When you're not detracting from the experience by not getting that stuff, it's easy to not give a shit.

[3028] Well, here's where the wrinkle comes in, is try and think about these experiences nostalgically.

[3029] I know it's hard because they're just new, but try to think of them future nostalgically, okay?

[3030] To Sam's point, when you played Super Mario Bros. 3, It was – if you go and you plug that shit in now, it is exactly the same.

[3031] If he is having his experience now at a young age with Dead Space 2 and he's got all of this crazy shit unlocked, when he comes back to that in 15 years and has that experience again … Even though that stuff isn't necessarily critical to the overall experience, that was still part of his experience.

[3032] You're not going to own a console that's going to play that game at that point.

[3033] There are things outside of our control that I have.

[3034] Paul's Boutique and Beck's Mellow Gold are forever attached to Doom 2 because I listened to that shit while I was playing that game.

[3035] That stuff is outside of the game, but you can't help it.

[3036] This is stuff that they're introducing into the game that when you go back in X amount of time and look at it, it will not have that nostalgic veracity, which isn't critical, I don't think, but just an interesting thought of even the past will not look how you remember it, even if you have the actual physical thing that you had then.

[3037] Sure.

[3038] Sure.

[3039] Those things are just so incidental to the experience.

[3040] It's hard to get too worked up about it.

[3041] I mean, if you go back and play arcade games on not the proper arcade hardware...

[3042] You're like, oh, I kind of get, yeah, this isn't fun anymore.

[3043] But you feel it.

[3044] Yeah, you feel it, for sure.

[3045] But, I mean, if you end up playing through Dead Space 2 15 years from now and you don't get the vintage plasma cutter and you only have the regular plasma cutter, you may not even remember and you certainly aren't really missing anything.

[3046] And that's the level of stuff, I think, in some of that.

[3047] Yeah.

[3048] You're right.

[3049] Well, I mean, I'm thinking, the thing that I'm thinking of is armor.

[3050] I'm thinking, like, I used the fucking Dragon Age armor through all of Mass Effect 2.

[3051] And if I go back to that, then I'm like, I don't.

[3052] Yeah, that's true.

[3053] There's a suit in Dead Space 2.

[3054] The unlock suit is very viable.

[3055] It's way better than the in -game stuff.

[3056] But if you don't have that, you're not going to miss it.

[3057] Fair enough.

[3058] Interesting to see the evolution of this stuff and consider what the long -term effects of that are going to be.

[3059] This next email comes in from...

[3060] Joseph Rubowitz, on the 5 .11 edition of the Bombcast, it was suggested that DiGiorno use wings for their boneless ersatz poultry because this misspelling is trademarkable.

[3061] The unfortunate truth is that this is, in fact, a government -sanctioned and regulated fanciful term.

[3062] I'm sorry.

[3063] That's wings, W -Y -N -G -Z.

[3064] Which is what they – like the DiGiorno – I think that's what we said.

[3065] What's what we said?

[3066] And we suggest – it was – someone here suggested that – I think it was maybe even me – that the reason they do that is because you could copyright the term wings, W -Y -N -G -S.

[3067] Oh, it's definitely because you can't use wings.

[3068] That's not true.

[3069] There's a meat content.

[3070] There is actually a – There's a regulation there.

[3071] I'm looking at the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service Use of Wings on Poultry Product Labeling.

[3072] Now, keep in mind, every time I say wings – I am saying it W -Y -N -G -Z.

[3073] Kind of notice when you elongate the Z a little bit.

[3074] I can tell that's the one you're going for.

[3075] I just want to be clear here.

[3076] Under what conditions can wings be used as a fanciful term on poultry product labeling?

[3077] The FSIS has a standard of identity in Title IX of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 381 .170B7, that defines a poultry wing.

[3078] The use of the term wing cannot be used at any poultry product unless it complies with the standard of identity.

[3079] In comparison...

[3080] FSIS allows the use of the term wings to denote a product that is in the shape of a wing or a bite -sized appetizer -type product under the following conditions in which the agency considers its use fanciful and not misleading.

[3081] I love the fanciful.

[3082] The repeated use of fanciful.

[3083] What does fanciful mean?

[3084] It means that unicorns are shitting wings?

[3085] Is that like fanciful?

[3086] We've got to find some unicorns.

[3087] One, the statement may only reference the term wings.

[3088] No other misspellings are permitted.

[3089] All labels bearing the term wings need to be submitted to the labeling and product and program delivery division for sketch approval because it is considered a special statement that cannot be generically approved.

[3090] Two, the poultry used is white chicken with or without skin.

[3091] That's racist.

[3092] Three, wings is placed contiguous to a prominent, conspicuous, and legible descriptive name, e .g. white chicken fritters.

[3093] the same color font.

[3094] Four.

[3095] Really?

[3096] Wow.

[3097] Four.

[3098] The smallest letter of the descriptive name is no smaller than one -third the size of the largest letter used in wings.

[3099] Holy shit.

[3100] That's great.

[3101] How fucking specific they get about this.

[3102] Where did someone go wrong where that part had to be put in?

[3103] Because someone was putting the Y really small and the Z really small so that you just read...

[3104] Oh, they're wings.

[3105] I love wings.

[3106] Like, oh, wait, no. Found out they're wings.

[3107] Damn it.

[3108] And five, a statement that further clarifies that the product does not contain any wing meat or is not derived only from wing meat, e .g. contains no wing meat with no wing meat.

[3109] Wing meat makes it sound like it's some sort of weird creature.

[3110] Contains breast meat and wing meat.

[3111] Is placed in close proximity to the descriptive name and links to wings used by use of an asterisk.

[3112] You going to go bust some wings down?

[3113] Wings referenced elsewhere on the package, e .g. on the front riser panel, would also need to be displayed with an asterisk linking it to the statement on the principal display panel.

[3114] Wow.

[3115] There you go.

[3116] That is government at work.

[3117] I fucking love being so informed on dumb, dumb, dumb shit like that.

[3118] Oh, what else?

[3119] Now let's talk about light.

[3120] L -I -T -E.

[3121] Food.

[3122] That's another fun one.

[3123] Let's see here.

[3124] This next email comes in from Jean -Francois Murray.

[3125] It has been revealed that no less than, I'm sure you say it, Murray or something.

[3126] He's really pissed right now.

[3127] Yeah, whatever.

[3128] Oh, man, that is so great.

[3129] Fuck you, Johnny.

[3130] I love really oddly juxtaposed first and last names.

[3131] I saw this.

[3132] Did we talk about this?

[3133] I saw a thing on TV about...

[3134] directly after the American Civil War, like, I forget which state it was from, but some community in the south, like, relocated whole hog to Brazil and started farming, I think, like, sugar cane or cotton or something.

[3135] But anyway, like, now you have however many, what, like five generations, six since then, of this community that's been built up in Brazil.

[3136] With all these, like, they showed, like, the headstones and the graveyards with, like, Confederate flags on them.

[3137] Oh, weird.

[3138] And they have all these, like, you know, these family -run farms that have been going for generations down there.

[3139] And they're talking to people with names like Alejandro McCormick and stuff like that.

[3140] And, like, these Confederate...

[3141] Like, they found some integration, but they're still, like...

[3142] Yeah, but these, like, again, like, you know...

[3143] Old antebellum artifacts sticking up.

[3144] Seeing, like, Confederate flag in the middle of this, like, subtropical, like...

[3145] You know what Brazil looks like.

[3146] Maybe they're hanging out with all the Nazis.

[3147] Such a strange kind of contrast.

[3148] Still fighting the war down there in Brazil.

[3149] I'm saying, you know, all the secret Nazis that escaped to South America.

[3150] Maybe it blew my mind extra because I'm from the South, but just seeing that stuff was really...

[3151] I like Alejandro McCormick.

[3152] That's good.

[3153] I made that up, but it was something to that effect.

[3154] All right, well, J. Franks says, it has been revealed that no less than six satellite studios are working on Assassin's Creed Revelations.

[3155] Do you think that this is because the main team in Montreal...

[3156] are hard at work on AC3, possibly putting all of their efforts on a heavily modified or brand new engine.

[3157] I would be inclined to think so, especially if they were to make the game a huge improvement upon its predecessors and release it during the fall of 2012, which would position the game in parallel with its in -game timeline.

[3158] No, those games are completely full of art assets, and in order to produce that in a decent length of time, they have to.

[3159] I guess this is more an issue of kind of...

[3160] transparency on Ubisoft's behalf of who has been working on all of the Assassin's Creed games because to my understanding, it has been a kind of all -hands effort for almost all of those.

[3161] Montreal gets the primary credit here, but they are pulling in help for asset creation and modeling and animation from any corner of the fucking globe that Ubisoft has an office in.

[3162] Yes.

[3163] When you're producing an annual franchise that has assets on that level every year.

[3164] Also, when that franchise is selling 5 million copies a year, you don't mind devoting a lot of resources to it.

[3165] Brotherhood sold 7 .2 million.

[3166] Wow, was it?

[3167] Holy shit.

[3168] I think they expect Revelations to sell less.

[3169] I was going to say, are they saying that going in?

[3170] Their estimates are a little bit under.

[3171] That's probably good because this could be the point where people are like, all right, enough stuff.

[3172] But at the same time, Activision also said they thought Black Ops was going to sell less than Mono for a two, and that didn't happen.

[3173] It's better for them to temper expectations, especially when it's the third one with Ezio.

[3174] I will say this.

[3175] I hope that there is right now, within Montreal, a small Skunk Works team.

[3176] working on the very high -level shit of what is going to be AC3.

[3177] It's in the Game Informer.

[3178] It would have to be beyond that.

[3179] They said explicitly the third one will have a new Assassin.

[3180] It's being worked on, and it seems likely it'll be next year.

[3181] If it's end of next year, it has to be beyond Skunk Works at this point.

[3182] They have to be ramping up.

[3183] But yeah, there you go.

[3184] Assassin's Creed games take a lot of dudes.

[3185] They were even saying, because Ubisoft had caught a lot of flack for how many people were working on AC1, but it turned out even more working on AC2.

[3186] Actually, no. It was even more than AC2 working on Brotherhood.

[3187] They just keep cranking up the number of dudes.

[3188] It was a phenomenal amount.

[3189] If you're going to do it in 12 months or 18 months is probably what it's going like.

[3190] Did you kill somebody at profit margin, though, at that point?

[3191] When you're like...

[3192] Well, this game cost us $18 billion.

[3193] Canada and Thailand and weird places where you're getting crazy tax breaks.

[3194] And then also a lot of those assets are kind of just shared.

[3195] Look at what they're doing with Revelations.

[3196] It's Ezio and they're essentially reusing assets from previous games.

[3197] I've read in developer interviews talking about art outsourcing that it's still cheaper and more efficient to correct a broken asset than it is to build it yourself from scratch.

[3198] To farm it out and fix it when it comes back.

[3199] Yeah, sounds about right.

[3200] Interesting.

[3201] You know what?

[3202] I'd love to hear if any developers listening want to address that issue.

[3203] That would be a great thing to hear about.

[3204] Yeah, absolutely.

[3205] That's my impression of it anyway.

[3206] Always, always love to hear developer stories.

[3207] If you know how to make games, get in touch.

[3208] And if you just want to tell us a crazy developer story anonymously, I will happily read anonymous crazy -ass game development stories.

[3209] Bring it on, bombcastandgiantbomb .com.

[3210] Your safe haven, your Casablanca.

[3211] Yeah, I'm just saying, yeah, this is absolutely a safe place for you.

[3212] Just don't tell me anything personally revealing.

[3213] No names.

[3214] Yeah, don't need names.

[3215] Go sign up for a blank Gmail account and spit some game.

[3216] Always working on our dinner for the rolls.

[3217] Mark from Newcastle, England.

[3218] My question is, do you think we are just too adjusted to traditional controllers to be able to get used to newfangled motion controllers?

[3219] Would people who have only known a Wii remote eventually find it to be a more effective control scheme than a normal controller ever could be?

[3220] Just a thought.

[3221] I don't know if you've seen the Conduit 2 quick look.

[3222] Phenomenal.

[3223] But it sounds like you had some problems.

[3224] I spend as much time playing that game as I do pausing to pull up the control menus to tweak the controls.

[3225] There was a good seven minutes, I think, where we were just going through the different.

[3226] No, this doesn't feel right.

[3227] Hold on a second.

[3228] All right.

[3229] To its credit, you can go in and tweak everything.

[3230] Well, I was like Conduit 1 had.

[3231] You can even tweak the sensitivity of the shaking of the nunchuck.

[3232] Oh, wow.

[3233] I didn't even know you could.

[3234] allow you to adjust that.

[3235] I certainly think that anybody who has exclusively just used the Wii Remote would find that more comfortable than trying to use a dual analog stick.

[3236] If you just used the Wii Remote and then said, here, now play this game with this dual analog stick, it would take them a long time to get used to it.

[3237] Well, here's the thing for me with the, like, specifically with the argument of, like, oh, well, you're just conditioned for this way, this other way is totally viable.

[3238] It took...

[3239] Years of shitty attempts.

[3240] And it took finally one very deliberately designed attempt to bridge the first -person shooter console gap.

[3241] Halo.

[3242] It took Halo.

[3243] And they had been making first -person shooters on consoles for years and years up to that point.

[3244] But that was the game where you're like...

[3245] oh, okay, first -person shooters can work on this system.

[3246] The problem is that we've never had that moment.

[3247] Just Disruptor didn't do it for you?

[3248] On the Wii.

[3249] Power Slave.

[3250] Those motion controls.

[3251] Oh, my God.

[3252] I played Quake 2 on the original PlayStation.

[3253] Oh, wow.

[3254] I remember that.

[3255] They made that?

[3256] Pre -Dual Shot.

[3257] So you had to use L1 and R1 to, like, move out straight?

[3258] Actually, it ended up being, like, kind of, like, forward -looking because you were using, like, The D -pad and the buttons as your left and right analog sticks, basically.

[3259] It's just that at the time, again, I'm coming off of keyboard and mouse for all first -person shooter experiences.

[3260] And so there was no standard for how you map that stuff onto a controller, and no one had figured out what the right speed was, how you actually make the game for this format, which they, you know, since have definitely locked in there.

[3261] But that's the bottom line with the Wii Remote stuff is it has its advantages over a dual analog stick and it has its disadvantages, but no one has quite captured that.

[3262] No one has quite made the game that makes that all make sense.

[3263] Or if they have – The Prime stuff was pretty good.

[3264] There's been the – I mean you've had the controls, but maybe not the game.

[3265] Metroid Prime 3, I enjoyed that a lot with the Wiimote.

[3266] I actually thought that was superior to – Playing with the GameCube controller.

[3267] I will fuck you guys.

[3268] But you know what that is?

[3269] And when we were doing the Condo Kickload, one of the things we really liked was that when you could lock on to guys, Metroid Prime is based around basically locking on to guys.

[3270] So you avoid the problem of having to continually try to strafe and shoot at the same time, which is really fucking difficult with a motion controller.

[3271] You know what else is based on locking on to guys?

[3272] What?

[3273] Zelda Ocarina.

[3274] Wait, which version?

[3275] I have an important question.

[3276] An urgent question.

[3277] What is that?

[3278] I know Patrick will answer yes.

[3279] Have you guys watched the ending to Conduit 2?

[3280] No, because I actually want to play it.

[3281] No, no, no. Can we just tell you the ending?

[3282] It's better if you don't know what leads up to it.

[3283] I want to tell everyone on Twitter who has been linking me that about 100 times a day for the past two and a half weeks.

[3284] Yeah, I've seen it.

[3285] Thank you guys.

[3286] You really need to watch it.

[3287] Like out of context?

[3288] Absolutely out of context.

[3289] You don't need context for it to...

[3290] But it will make you think, I really want the Conduit 3 in HD.

[3291] I want this game now.

[3292] Conduit 2 is not good at all, but I really want the Conduit 3.

[3293] I didn't have that feeling.

[3294] Oh, I want it.

[3295] See, I know everybody was talking about it.

[3296] I was like, oh, the ending is that great.

[3297] I'll just go play through it.

[3298] No. I wouldn't even say the ending is great.

[3299] It's just you have to see the ending.

[3300] That's all.

[3301] It's a YouTube clip.

[3302] That's all that game deserves.

[3303] It's so mean.

[3304] That is pretty awful.

[3305] Well, here's the thing.

[3306] The YouTube clip shows the fucking protracted boss fight that happens before the very end of the game.

[3307] It looks awful.

[3308] It looks like the worst thing.

[3309] I'm like, oh, come on, high voltage.

[3310] Come on.

[3311] You can do better than this.

[3312] All right, one more email here from Frank in McAllen, Texas.

[3313] Hey, guys, let's get right down to it.

[3314] Why aren't there any video game theme parks?

[3315] How likely are we to see one fizzle into existence?

[3316] And what are your ideal theme park rides slash experiences?

[3317] Thanks.

[3318] There are.

[3319] There's one in India.

[3320] There's a Sega one.

[3321] What?

[3322] Like, okay, you know you go to Disney.

[3323] Yeah, I mean, is he talking about, like, a theme park with, like, Mario -themed rides?

[3324] Yes.

[3325] Oh.

[3326] No, I just want video game, the theme parks.

[3327] Yeah, because otherwise it's just a giant warehouse full of arcade machines.

[3328] Like, those characters make their way into theme parks, don't they?

[3329] Do they?

[3330] I don't know, like, giant Sonics or Mario's or anywhere.

[3331] I can only really imagine, like, someone like Nintendo being able to pull.

[3332] Like, you can imagine Nintendo theme park.

[3333] For sure.

[3334] They have enough characters to pull off.

[3335] Yeah.

[3336] But the amount of infrastructure and money it would cause to pull it off.

[3337] They're not willing to give their characters to someone else.

[3338] Well, the shitty thing would be like they'd spend all this money making this kind of gigantic theme park and then opening the day there would be no rides.

[3339] Yep.

[3340] That's a real good piece of business.

[3341] You like that?

[3342] All right, moving on.

[3343] This is our real last email.

[3344] I forgot about this one.

[3345] I like it, so we're going to finish on this note.

[3346] How is L .A. Noire?

[3347] Not on Vinny's shit joke.

[3348] Well, I'm glad you asked.

[3349] What are you talking about?

[3350] That was great.

[3351] Mark Stewart in Rockdale, England.

[3352] Greetings, Bombcast.

[3353] I recently purchased a fan controller for my PC, and the blurb on the side of the box is perhaps the greatest piece of badly translated promotional nonsense I've ever encountered.

[3354] I've included the full text.

[3355] below so you can share my discovery with the world.

[3356] I've quoted it verbatim including the exact grammar and punctuation used by the manufacturer.

[3357] It seems that all the things is decreasing recently.

[3358] Pay attention to this boy.

[3359] It will decrease your cost and decrease the noise of your computer effectively.

[3360] But the function of FC4 is increased.

[3361] Laptron FC4 is designed for what you want at these special days.

[3362] Features.

[3363] Normal output, 20 watt per channel.

[3364] Four channel adjustable function.

[3365] Various knobs designed to control the brightness.

[3366] That's not bad, Mark.

[3367] I might say that I've seen better.

[3368] I want to meet this boy.

[3369] What was it?

[3370] But it's a fan controller for a PC.

[3371] As someone who has been buying computer hardware from Taiwan for about 15 years, there's something very comforting about awfully translated box promotional material.

[3372] Like machine -translated shit.

[3373] Yeah, I don't know.

[3374] It's weird because when you dig deep and you're looking at dip switch settings, I almost expect it to be crazy and almost unintelligible at that point.

[3375] But it's when it's on the front of the fucking box.

[3376] When they feel confident enough about it, We can put this on the outside.

[3377] I don't know.

[3378] It just makes me feel comfortable to hear that.

[3379] It just reminds you of putting together your own PC.

[3380] I saw this thing about there's some area in England that needed some Welsh street signs posted, and there are so few people that can still speak and write the language that they had to email a translator to get the...

[3381] I think it was Welsh.

[3382] They had to email a translator to get the signs translated so they could make the signs.

[3383] And they got a response, and they made the signs, put them up, and the response turned out to be like the translator's out -of -office message.

[3384] Because they got it back and they had no idea what it said.

[3385] And they just assumed that was the translation.

[3386] So they put up these road signs that just have this like this like outlook auto response.

[3387] It's like when you see those machine printed cakes where it's just like broken HTML code.

[3388] Right.

[3389] It's being printed out on them.

[3390] Fantastic.

[3391] Well, thanks everyone who wrote in bombcast at giant bomb dot com.

[3392] Once again, that email address.

[3393] And yeah, if you're a developer and have crazy fucking stories to tell.

[3394] Share them with us.

[3395] We will do so happily and anonymously.

[3396] Anonymously.

[3397] Anonymously.

[3398] That's it.

[3399] I'm going to go play some L .A. Noire.

[3400] That's quite a podcast, Ryan.

[3401] Y 'all have a good week.

[3402] TNT, we're going to do the PSN.

[3403] Welcome back.

[3404] Stay tuned for details on that.

[3405] Friday, of course, is the Whiskey Media Happy Hour.

[3406] You don't want to miss. And then we'll be back next Tuesday with another edition of the Jive Bobcast.

[3407] This apple is really brown, by the way.