Giant Bombcast 11-09-2010

[0] Hey, everybody.

[1] Welcome to the Giant Bombcast.

[2] I'm your host, Jeff Gerstmann, filling in for the injured Ryan Davis.

[3] With us, as always, Vinny Caravelle.

[4] How you doing, Vinny?

[5] Doing well.

[6] Filling in for the injured Brad Shoemaker today.

[7] All right.

[8] Injured Brad Shoemaker is here.

[9] He just ate a persimmon.

[10] Yeah.

[11] I'm regaining my strength.

[12] And a string cheese.

[13] Okay.

[14] Does those tastes go great together?

[15] They're sort of complimentary.

[16] Okay.

[17] Filling in our four -hole Alex Navarro.

[18] You know, when Ryan Davis goes on IR, I get called up from the Little Leagues.

[19] Yeah, we call him up out of AA, out of Fresno.

[20] Literally from the Little League.

[21] Yeah.

[22] Because I hang around Little League parks a lot.

[23] That's right.

[24] No, for the nachos.

[25] Is that in violation?

[26] Oh, yeah.

[27] Well, yeah.

[28] Yeah, I go there for the nachos.

[29] Okay.

[30] What were you thinking?

[31] Go for the nachos, stay for the...

[32] Little Leaguers.

[33] Kidnapping?

[34] Yep.

[35] Yeah.

[36] All right, great.

[37] Brad, what have you been playing lately, dude?

[38] I own a van for a reason.

[39] Love this new podcast.

[40] Nothing new.

[41] If you can't remember, then it's probably nothing terribly memorable.

[42] I'm trying to think of something new.

[43] I feel an onus to talk about something that has not yet been discussed.

[44] I played a bunch of the Undead Nightmare for Red Dead.

[45] Okay.

[46] Which is great.

[47] Yeah.

[48] You should play that.

[49] You should play that because you don't like Red Dead.

[50] So if I were to play that and had not played through regular Red Dead, would I be totally at a loss?

[51] Control -wise?

[52] I mean, I think you'd get into it.

[53] It plays pretty much like a Rockstar game.

[54] Yeah, because I have it.

[55] I just haven't.

[56] I have Undead Nightmare.

[57] I just haven't.

[58] But you should play Red Dead.

[59] It doesn't get boring after initial story stuff?

[60] No, not really.

[61] It's got a lot of story -related missions.

[62] It's got lots of dialogue.

[63] I mean, the cutscenes and the writing are just as good as actual Red Dead.

[64] Yeah.

[65] Except way hammier.

[66] But way more...

[67] Like, self -serious?

[68] Legitimately thinking that I might just get myself finally a copy of Red Dead and just play that.

[69] And I realize that, like, half the fun is seeing the characters from Red Dead in, like, this totally absurd premise.

[70] But, like, I'm not going to get around to playing the full Red Dead game anytime soon.

[71] The dialogue pretty much sells itself.

[72] Yeah.

[73] Even if you don't know who's saying it, it's so ridiculous.

[74] Fair enough.

[75] Yeah.

[76] But what about the whole, I mean, because the whole thing seems so contrived.

[77] yeah but it's so far yeah i guess but it's like it knows the zombie thing sucks so much and for them to be doing like like the announcement the mere announcement was just me just going like what i know i know but i feel like i feel like our zombie rage on the whole is kind of impotent because people keep doing good stuff with zombies Much as we are sick of zombies.

[78] People did good stuff with World War II for a long time, too, but that didn't make us any less sick of World War II.

[79] Those games were all the same.

[80] Wild West zombies is not something that you have seen a whole lot of before.

[81] And the action is different than every World War II first -person shooter more or less being the same thing.

[82] I guess.

[83] I guess there's no historical zombie battle that they all try to recreate.

[84] No. When the zombies storm the beach at Normandy.

[85] My rage is not impotent.

[86] I'm just tired.

[87] I have a lot to drink.

[88] I would love it if Nazi zombies invaded France and you had to take out the Nazi zombies that had invaded France.

[89] That's something I could get behind.

[90] I want to see zombies cast in the fucking, something's attacking zombies.

[91] I want to see them be like, shit, like, you know.

[92] Allied soldiers are attacking us.

[93] Aliens versus predator versus zombies.

[94] Yes.

[95] No matter who wins, we lose.

[96] Brains.

[97] Yeah.

[98] I want to see zombies defending something because they're always attacking something.

[99] I mean, most zombies aren't capable of really defending anything.

[100] They don't coordinate very well.

[101] Yeah.

[102] Well, that's why I want to see it.

[103] What would happen, huh?

[104] You know what I'm saying?

[105] What would happen if the zombies shared?

[106] I mean, but you just want the ghouls from Fallout then.

[107] No. They're cognizant zombies in a way.

[108] Would you say they're conscious zombies?

[109] Yeah.

[110] If zombies win, could zombies reproduce outside of turning somebody?

[111] Oh, you're talking about people at fish concerts.

[112] What happens if they win?

[113] The zombies wear ponchos and are way into political activism and making pot cookies.

[114] Organic brains is all I'm into.

[115] Vegan zombies are the worst.

[116] They are the literal worst.

[117] Vegan brains.

[118] Tofu brains.

[119] It's really...

[120] So that's actually one of the really, really fun things about this is that like turning the process, because, you know, like every zombie fiction, like every zombie mythology is just a little different.

[121] Just like every vampire is a little different, you know, like every franchise.

[122] They all have like slightly different rules, right?

[123] Yeah.

[124] In this one, like the process of getting bit and turning into a zombie takes about five seconds.

[125] That's cool.

[126] Like everybody that you ever encounter is like five seconds away from becoming a zombie.

[127] So it's sort of like the 28 days later rule of like, you know, basically as soon as you're infected, you're fucking crazy.

[128] It's all just so ham.

[129] You have to see a lot of the lines are just ridiculous.

[130] Well, I saw a couple of the opening cutscenes when you started playing it for the quick look, and I remember just...

[131] I remember as soon as the uncle character showed up at the beginning, and everyone was sort of like, what's wrong with the uncle?

[132] I was like, okay, I get the tone of this.

[133] Clearly one of his eyeballs is hanging out of his socket, and everyone's like, what's wrong with him?

[134] And he's spitting blood, and nobody's making reference of any of these things.

[135] Yeah.

[136] It seems like it's definitely very knowing.

[137] It's more about sending up the environment they've already created than it is about just making another damn zombie game.

[138] Absolutely.

[139] But it's actually super impressive.

[140] Vinny, you played all the way through it, right?

[141] The zombie thing?

[142] No, no, no. Red Dead.

[143] No, yeah, yeah.

[144] You are at least acquainted with that world.

[145] Yeah.

[146] Like how thoroughly they remake the atmosphere of the world.

[147] oh it feels like everything feels like halloween town you know like all the like the desert birds that you would see off in the distance like they're all bats now weird like even like the color of the sunlight that filters through the clouds is just like this infernal looking orange kind of color The four horses, I don't know if Ryan talked about some of this stuff last week.

[148] A little bit, yeah.

[149] The four horses of the apocalypse are in there, and you can tame them.

[150] So did you play through the whole thing?

[151] Probably three, four hours into it.

[152] It seems pretty long.

[153] It encompasses the whole of the landmass of the original game.

[154] I heard it was around six hours.

[155] I do remember Ryan mentioning something about maybe Dragon a little bit.

[156] At some point, you're just running into town, killing zombies.

[157] Yeah, but you don't have to do that stuff.

[158] So there's a main thread that you can just kind of play through?

[159] God, because I wanted to know what I was in for.

[160] According to the guide, there are 19 story missions with, like, full -on cut scenes and dialogue and, like, an actual storyline progression.

[161] And there's a bunch of side quests.

[162] Just all the weird stuff they populate the world with.

[163] Like, there's unicorns and chupacabra in Mexico.

[164] Sasquatch.

[165] Well, no, I'm to understand that unicorns originated in Mexico.

[166] Oh, of course, yeah.

[167] Yeah.

[168] Are they zombie unicorns?

[169] I haven't seen one yet.

[170] Okay.

[171] Yeah.

[172] All right.

[173] I have a fiery horse at the moment.

[174] It's pretty cool.

[175] That's dangerous.

[176] Yeah, that add -on is for $10.

[177] It's awesome.

[178] I bought it.

[179] I got it.

[180] You should play it.

[181] There's so much to play.

[182] Play it.

[183] There are a lot of things to play.

[184] Pretty opportune timing that Rockstar would give you a reason to play more Red Dead right around the time the game of the year decisions are starting to be made.

[185] You don't think they calculated that decision at all, do you?

[186] They also did release it around Halloween, which is not a bad idea.

[187] Vinny, how about you?

[188] What have I been playing?

[189] I played majority.

[190] I beat Fable 3.

[191] How'd that turn out for you?

[192] That turned out well for everybody involved.

[193] Everybody has lived happily ever after.

[194] Thanks in no small part to Brad's warning.

[195] But, hey, heads up.

[196] Something's going to happen at some point in that game that you're going to be like, damn, that happened.

[197] So the entire time I was like, I think this must be what he's talking about.

[198] You were able to intuit what it was, right?

[199] I was pretty sure.

[200] And part of it was just the way I play games where it's like I'm very completionist at every step of the way, so I would not move on until I had very much completed every little thing.

[201] Right.

[202] Like I'm the same way, but the key difference is that you went and did it as soon as you could.

[203] Yeah.

[204] And I kept putting it off.

[205] He's right.

[206] Brad is totally right.

[207] There is a point in that game.

[208] Which they fuck over the player.

[209] Right.

[210] Which they, without warning, they basically shift gears and it's like, you're in the end game now.

[211] And it's like, wait, I need to do this thing before the end game started.

[212] And it's like, too late.

[213] Sorry, you can't go back.

[214] Moreover, they give you every impression leading up to that that you're going to have way more time to do the stuff you need to do than you actually have.

[215] Yeah, it's malicious.

[216] It is.

[217] Well, honestly, I think it's just sloppy design.

[218] I don't think they were maliciously trying to fight everybody over.

[219] Do you get the impression that maybe some stuff got cut out of that sequence just because of the way that the countdown works out?

[220] Very much.

[221] So are we just going to explicitly talk about everything?

[222] Do we want to just create a spoiler break right here?

[223] Spoiler cast.

[224] I can say without saying a spoiler, there's a countdown clock at some point that does not run at a regimented pace.

[225] It's random.

[226] It looks like it does.

[227] At first.

[228] Well, yeah, but by nature then it becomes like totally skips.

[229] Like let's say you have 60 seconds.

[230] It's like 60, 50, 40.

[231] All right, you're done.

[232] You're like, what?

[233] Wait, what are you talking about?

[234] It gets about two -thirds of the way, yeah, at about a regular interval.

[235] And then all of a sudden the last third it completely skips.

[236] And if you haven't taken care of all that shit, that's it.

[237] You don't get to.

[238] And once you get to that last day of the countdown thing.

[239] where it spawns you to go do the last like the last quest or whatever you run by the room in which the activity that needs to take place would happen but the fucking door is locked that sucks you literally go right by the thing you need to do but you can't get in there and do it before you go finish the game and it fucks everything up and it's a bummer because that then you know that game say auto saves on top of itself right yeah so once it's done there's Pretty much nothing you can do.

[240] And really, you're talking about the fate of the world at this point, like no small term.

[241] And not just in terms of the fiction, but in terms of the playability of the game after you finish.

[242] That's kind of a big bummer.

[243] So I did everything.

[244] I was like, all right, great.

[245] This all worked out for everybody.

[246] And I got my angel wings and everybody was psyched.

[247] And I don't know.

[248] I'm probably not going to go back and play it as much as I did Fable 2.

[249] I still think Fable 2 is probably the better game in that series.

[250] And it's probably indicative of me finishing that game and not really wanting to play it anymore.

[251] And looking at how much I played Fable, too.

[252] Where those kind of fall.

[253] I'm really more of a Fable pub game as myself.

[254] That's where I come out.

[255] In the lexicon of the Fable universe, that's really, I think, the superior entry.

[256] Yeah, that's...

[257] No. No. Yeah, so Fable 3 is what I played.

[258] It's spent a lot of time in there.

[259] How many hours do you think you spent?

[260] I am one.

[261] They count it in days and hours.

[262] So I am a day in 14 hours.

[263] Oh, wow.

[264] What?

[265] 38 hours.

[266] Well, all right.

[267] So there's a part in the game where you're like, hey, it would benefit me to sit around and not really advance the story for a bit.

[268] And so I went and I found all the keys and gnomes.

[269] I had to kill some time.

[270] Oh god, I wish we could...

[271] I mean, that's all I really need to say.

[272] There's a lot of other really fucked up stuff that we haven't said about that game.

[273] Go back and say how weird the frame rate is.

[274] So weird.

[275] Spoiler!

[276] Just the way that frame rate just turns into slow motion.

[277] It's not that the frame rate drops, it's that the whole game slows down.

[278] Like an old SNES game.

[279] But that's pretty much where I spent the majority of my weekend game -wise.

[280] I didn't really touch anything else.

[281] Alex?

[282] Well, let's see.

[283] Last week I spent a bunch of time playing GoldenEye for the Wii, which surprised me to no end in terms of how not suck -ass it was.

[284] Yeah, I mean, that conceptually sounds...

[285] On paper, it's the worst fucking idea ever.

[286] Oh, come on.

[287] No, it is.

[288] On paper, it sounds like crazy businessmen.

[289] Remember the EA GoldenEye?

[290] Right.

[291] Does anyone remember that besides me?

[292] Yeah, Rogue Agent.

[293] Yeah, remember that shit?

[294] It was a fucking wreck.

[295] That game was a total travesty.

[296] Granted, it was not a GoldenEye remake.

[297] It was their weird spiritual sequel.

[298] Yeah, they just wanted something that said GoldenEye on it.

[299] This is actually trying to take the pace and the basic core story of GoldenEye and redo it for a modern age and with Daniel Craig's weird fucking...

[300] giant elephant -eared face all over it.

[301] It's like Cro -Magnon.

[302] God damn it if he isn't an ugly -ass dude.

[303] I think he's a really attractive man in real life.

[304] Virtual Daniel Craig always looks messed up.

[305] I've seen more virtual Daniel Craig than real Daniel Craig.

[306] He looks like a rugby player that's been put through a ringer.

[307] That's sexy.

[308] Like someone has actually beaten up...

[309] an already ugly rugby player.

[310] That's rough and tumble, man. That's James Bond more physical.

[311] I'm just saying, I think Daniel Craig is an ugly -ass man. So, more to the point, they turn Bond from being the sort of cheeky, suave dude that Pierce Brosnan was at the time to the more aggressively murderous Bond that we have now.

[312] Rooting.

[313] And, you know, they change Ellen to the story.

[314] Like, you know, Xenia on a top is nowhere near the crazy, you know, sort of sexpot character that she was in the movie.

[315] She's more of like a...

[316] you know, just sort of generic badass.

[317] Does she kill people with her legs?

[318] Well, that never happened in the game either.

[319] I know, I know.

[320] But the thing is, the game is this incredibly, almost inexplicably good mix of sort of old school shooter and modern sensibility.

[321] Yeah.

[322] Like, they made a game that feels like Goldeneye.

[323] but doesn't feel hell of antiquated right which is not something that i ever thought someone would be able to toe the line on ever on any game like that yeah it was definitely one of those things that when i played it at e3 it was a very pleasant surprise yeah of just like oh wow like this isn't you didn't just try to duplicate the feel of golden eye which doesn't play in this day and age.

[324] They set out to make a modern feeling game.

[325] And the thing is, they do capture the feel of Goldeneye, but they make the multiplayer and things like that compelling to someone who has only played shooters in the last five years.

[326] They do enough with it to make it fun.

[327] Would it be just as good if it had nothing to do with Goldeneye?

[328] Are the mechanics just solid?

[329] I think it would make a little less contextual sense if it didn't have the Goldeneye name on it.

[330] Especially if you...

[331] If you knew what, like, if you'd been playing shooters for years and years and you played a game like that, you would not understand why someone would make that game and, like, make it feel like that now.

[332] Right, yeah.

[333] Because it does have that sort of, like, you know, old school kind of mentality to it.

[334] But at the same time, you know, having the GoldenEye remake sort of attached to it actually isn't, like, an encumbrance.

[335] It actually feels like, okay, it's why this game makes sense.

[336] How's the online in that?

[337] It's good.

[338] The Wii not necessarily known for amazing online shooters.

[339] So here's the thing.

[340] Like all Wii online games, there are annoying, unnecessary barriers to entry.

[341] Getting into a game with your friends is not as easy as it should be.

[342] You can't just create an eight -player match with people on your friends list.

[343] You can only get three of your friends.

[344] Get them to join a party with you.

[345] And then you have to go get into a match with other people.

[346] It's like a stupid pain in the ass thing that should not exist.

[347] By the same token, if you just want to jump in and play against people, matchmaking is super easy and it works really well and the online is not laggy at all.

[348] Cool.

[349] So I was pleasantly surprised by that.

[350] Otherwise, a lot of Kinect stuff.

[351] Yeah.

[352] Like I spent a lot of time.

[353] That thing.

[354] Yeah, remember that thing.

[355] Maybe this is the time in the podcast where we should discuss the Kinect.

[356] Right.

[357] So I played a decent amount of – I mean I played a bunch of Kinect adventures and I played a decent amount of Kinectimals enough to know that – We probably don't need to review that game.

[358] Is that out of our wheelhouse?

[359] Well, okay.

[360] Are you over the age of five?

[361] Or not like a middle -aged spinster who is so obsessed with cats that you will play anything that has cats in it?

[362] I might.

[363] I might.

[364] I might fit one of those two.

[365] Skittles!

[366] Didn't I see you at my Little League game?

[367] Yeah, I think you did.

[368] I think you did.

[369] Yeah, no, Kinectimals is barely a game.

[370] I mean, it's a lot of really cute cat animation sort of very loosely wrapped in a structure.

[371] But god damn, there's like the dude who would not shut up who would narrate that thing.

[372] God damn it, will he please shut up?

[373] Holy cow.

[374] That really put me off of that game, watching Ryan play it when we were doing all that footage of it.

[375] He doesn't stop, ever.

[376] It made me seem like there was so much more going on, though.

[377] Like, wow, is this going to open up into some crazy narrative adventure?

[378] And it's just like...

[379] Here's the other thing that was really kind of a bummer.

[380] He sounds like Raz from Psychonauts.

[381] I don't know if it is the voice actor, but that's all I could hear.

[382] He's like Raz's really annoying cousin that got the shit beat out of him in school all the time.

[383] But dude, what is that thing anyway?

[384] It's a meerkat with wings.

[385] Is that what it is?

[386] Basically.

[387] It looks like a cat turd that came to life and was just talking to you.

[388] I had that happen once, man. Trip.

[389] So annoying.

[390] It was so crazy.

[391] I don't know why that thing exists.

[392] I don't know why lemurs run a shop.

[393] I don't know why there are bunnies all over the island, but they can't do anything apparently.

[394] The Bunnies expansion.

[395] Why are there five cat cubs on that island, but they've been cubs for 200 years, according to the mythos?

[396] See, when you get to the end, you find out.

[397] None of those cubs are even there.

[398] Are there other animals?

[399] You died.

[400] There are five cats.

[401] But they're all cats.

[402] They're all cats.

[403] That game is all cats.

[404] Yeah, the game's all cats.

[405] Why does it got to be so catted?

[406] Dude, I like cats.

[407] I'm a cat person.

[408] Even I think that's a little ridiculous.

[409] It just seemed like it was intense moments of virtual petting and tech demo.

[410] cat stuff.

[411] It's not the kind of virtual petting I'm looking for, really.

[412] Mixed in with, like, bad throw stuff at stuff mechanics.

[413] The way they make you sit around in, like, each little hub world and, like, do these stupid ass, like, trick sessions with the cats and, like, fuck with them for a while before you can unlock the next, like, stupid ass minigame.

[414] Again, it's barely a game.

[415] What'd you name your cat?

[416] Vladimir.

[417] Okay.

[418] Does it ever come to you when you call?

[419] Does that work?

[420] Yeah.

[421] No, it recognizes the voice command.

[422] So, I mean, it works.

[423] It works.

[424] But, you know, I mean, theoretically, so does communism.

[425] So, I mean, it's like – Just ask Vladimir.

[426] Yeah.

[427] So it's like I'm saying not so much.

[428] So not really for people whose attention spans might go outside of throwing stuff and saying Vladimir.

[429] If you bought a Kinect and you have a child.

[430] and you need to distract them and they like cute fuzzy things, then sure.

[431] Otherwise, not so much.

[432] And your keys are not available?

[433] Yeah.

[434] Why was this not a Viva Pinata game?

[435] It does have kind of, it has some elements of Viva Pinata in it.

[436] Why did they go make Rare do a sports game?

[437] Also, instead of like, I was going through the Kinect, or through like the Avatar store and through like the Kinect calibration stuff and a lot of that music.

[438] Sounds like it fell out of Viva Pinata.

[439] I got super bummed out.

[440] Yeah.

[441] Super bummed out.

[442] What if instead of a cat, it was a fudge hog?

[443] Exactly.

[444] If it was a virtual fudge hog named Vladimir.

[445] I mean, it's like the environmental graphics already kind of look like Viva Pinata.

[446] It actually does have kind of a similar aesthetic.

[447] But no quack berries.

[448] If they could find a way to combine the animals of Viva Pinata and the adorable ass faces the cats make in that game, that would be my catnip.

[449] Like, straight up.

[450] I would be all over that.

[451] Connect killer app right there.

[452] After hearing that stuff and thinking about Viva Pinata, I got really bummed out because I was like, man, they should make Viva Pinata 3.

[453] Oh, fuck.

[454] And then I sat there for another 90 seconds or so and went, but no one would buy it.

[455] They should still make it.

[456] Yeah.

[457] They should make it for you and no one else.

[458] Yeah.

[459] I mean, I didn't even play all the way through Viva Pinata 2.

[460] I barely played Viva Pinata 2.

[461] Well, I mean, it was basically an expansion pack for the first one.

[462] Yeah.

[463] But I played so goddamn much.

[464] At some point, those games just become too stressful for me. I just can't deal with them.

[465] Viva Pinata 2 seemed like it was...

[466] more stressful than the first game.

[467] You had to keep bouncing between the different gardens.

[468] That got a little intense.

[469] So can I back up and ask you how your overall Kinect experience in your apartment was?

[470] I'm going to tie that to my Kinect Adventures discussion, which is to say that...

[471] so i i played a lot of connect adventures obviously that's a pack -in game it's not something you have to go buy you just get it if you buy this buy the damn thing yeah um it's probably the best demonstration of the technology other than you know like as far as like the basic mini game collection goes um considering there's a bunch of mini game collections for that thing now yeah um I didn't run into that many problems as far as my living room goes.

[472] I bumped into my couch occasionally because I'm just on the teetering edge between the seven -foot and eight -foot radius.

[473] Do you have a coffee table or anything like that?

[474] I was able to move that out of the way, so that was fine.

[475] But my couch, there's nowhere I can put it.

[476] My living room is kind of at a weird angle to where I can't really – there's stuff against the wall and the TV is sort of in the corner, so it's like there's not – there are limits.

[477] So every once in a while, especially when I was doing the stupid like leak plugging minigame, it would ask me to move my foot somewhere where literally I could not move it.

[478] Right.

[479] And no amount of like adjusting the room or the camera or anything would allow that.

[480] But you had already moved your coffee table.

[481] I'd already moved my coffee table.

[482] You're already footing a hole here and rearranging the living room for – Yeah, I'd already done about as much as I could there.

[483] Yeah, I'm not going to spend too much time talking about that game because it just sort of is what it is.

[484] But, I mean, it's like, hey, minigames, you know, here's the technology.

[485] Enjoy.

[486] Some of them are fun.

[487] Most of them not.

[488] And you're like, okay, well, I have this.

[489] I'll play this for a while.

[490] And then when actual games start coming out for that system, then maybe I'll – I probably won't remember it ever again.

[491] Did you get any more living statues?

[492] I got like six.

[493] five or six are they all as good as that first one no none of them are ever well there is one where you're standing inside a shark's mouth for no reason okay um that was a weird one yeah um most of them yeah none of them are as adorable as the uh horrible fucking abominations that you and worry or you and ryan discovered the uh the first time around yeah that's the first one you unlock and it's it definitely like throws you for a loop you're like what what what is this like wait what am i what okay i'll just i'll just shout then did you would you agree with me that feels like it's from a totally different game kinda Like, why is this here?

[494] Yeah.

[495] I don't know.

[496] And those little guys aren't found anywhere else in the game, right?

[497] No, they're not.

[498] So it's just like, here's a couple of...

[499] Here's a living statue.

[500] What?

[501] There's like this whole weird, like, adventure team, Boy Scout theme to the game.

[502] Right.

[503] And then these horrible, weird abominations start appearing out of nowhere as rewards.

[504] And you're like, I don't...

[505] The two things do not go together.

[506] That whole game feels like it was all the stuff they came up with while they were testing the thing out.

[507] And then we made a game.

[508] And they were just like, well, we could fit it together like this.

[509] Because, I mean, that ricochet stuff, that was like the first thing they were showing.

[510] It was all the ball bouncing crap.

[511] Here's what I'm going to say about Kinect right now.

[512] I've only played a little bit of Dance Central, and that does seem like the most game of any of the games so far for that thing.

[513] I don't like it.

[514] Yeah.

[515] Wait, what were you going to say about it?

[516] Thanks for giving it to us.

[517] Here's the thing.

[518] I think the Kinect is a really interesting idea.

[519] I think that it has a lot of technology built into it that is really interesting.

[520] I think that at this point, almost nobody has figured out what that thing is useful for.

[521] The launch lineup is super depressing to me. It's really bad.

[522] It's not even that it's bad.

[523] It's just that it is unimaginative.

[524] Yeah.

[525] Everyone sat down and said, well, this is like a Wii thing, right?

[526] So we're going to make our crap Wii games for it.

[527] So that raises a question.

[528] Like Alex, you said...

[529] You're talking about coming back to the Kinect when they make real games for it.

[530] Like, shouldn't that be more of an if they make real games for it?

[531] Maybe.

[532] I mean, that's fair.

[533] Do you think they feel responsible at all for making games that appeal to people like us?

[534] Or, like, that's certainly not the people there marketing that thing, too.

[535] Yeah, I don't know.

[536] But at the same time, like, if their idea of marketing to the masses is to put out a bunch of, like...

[537] kind of half -assed minigame collections, that's not going to hit for them either.

[538] No. So it's less about appealing to us and more about are they going to go and actually do this stuff right or is it just going to be...

[539] But whose definition of right are we using here?

[540] That's what you want to see on that thing.

[541] That's what I want to see.

[542] I think stuff like Connectables could be the way to go if they make it better and deeper and more interesting.

[543] So if they made Viva Pinata.

[544] Right.

[545] But look at motion sports.

[546] Look at...

[547] Connect Sports.

[548] Look at Connect Adventures.

[549] There's three things right there that are mini game collections and Game Party is coming out this year.

[550] And two of them even have the same words in the title.

[551] Is Game Party actually coming out?

[552] Is Game Party actually on the release schedule?

[553] Yeah, Game Party in motion is totally coming out in like two weeks.

[554] We were joking about the fact that there would be a Game Party.

[555] There totally will be a Game Party.

[556] There it is.

[557] So, you know, third parties are looking at this thing and saying like, all right, great.

[558] We know how to make kind of half -assed...

[559] mini game collections let's just make another one of those and and that's not going to be it i mean the the connect has a lot of potential you know it is interesting it's really interesting technology but if all they're going to do is make games that would actually probably play better on a wii yeah fucked yeah totally do you think microsoft needs to be more selective like i feel like the worst thing that can happen is all the shovel where it comes out and it's basically the You see those, what are they, the purple boxes, right?

[560] Yeah, yeah.

[561] On the show and you just ignore it because you know it is Big Buck Hunter, like, you know, or like White Trash, you know, whatever it was.

[562] All those weird games connect.

[563] All those, like, weird Wii games that you just walk by and like, what the fuck?

[564] Who the fuck let somebody make, you know?

[565] I hope that they eventually do kind of clamp down on it.

[566] But, I mean, you certainly...

[567] They can't be choosy at launch.

[568] You want to put out a thing for a thing?

[569] Great.

[570] Awesome.

[571] Great.

[572] We'll send you whatever you need.

[573] Great.

[574] Let's do it.

[575] Here's my clarification to my I don't like it statement.

[576] Is that when I'm playing a game, I want to get into that game with the least amount of hoops and effort as possible.

[577] Unless it's something I'm really, really invested in.

[578] The only reason I bother to plug in my rock band drums is because I really like drumming, and that's really fun, and it's worth the effort for me to plug in that weird big -ass controller that I have and do what I need to do.

[579] With Kinect, one, I still can't get the goddamn face ID thing to work right.

[580] It can't even sign in my profile automatically because it just can't find my face for whatever reason.

[581] I don't know what that is.

[582] I know I'm white.

[583] I'm maybe see -through a little bit.

[584] I don't know.

[585] More to the point, there is nothing about anything I've played for Kinect.

[586] And, I mean, you know, I like Dance Central, but I'm not a dancing game guy, and it's not something I'm going to play actively for myself because it's just not what I do.

[587] There has been nothing for Kinect that makes me want to stand the fuck up when I play video games.

[588] Like, when I want to play a game, I want to sit there, I want to grab my controller, turn on the damn system, and just play something and not have to, like, move my – like, not really think about anything.

[589] I just want to just kind of do what I'm doing.

[590] Yeah.

[591] And Kinect is, at this point, I mean, even with the Wii, it's like with the motion stuff, I don't really have to think that much about when I'm playing Wii games and I'm just kind of waggling and doing shit.

[592] Still just sort of sitting there.

[593] I'm still sort of sitting there and doing my thing.

[594] Even the move, to a degree, is the same thing.

[595] I mean, granted, there aren't really any move games I want to play, but it still feels more like, hey, this is a device that I can play when I feel like playing a game.

[596] I mean, or you're plugging in the classic controller.

[597] Yeah, exactly.

[598] And it's like with Kinect, it's like everything is a goddamn...

[599] It's just overly an effort.

[600] You don't have to pull your coffee table out of the way just to do it.

[601] It's literally a system that requires you to rearrange your living room is insane.

[602] It is insane.

[603] It's incredible to me that it made it into the quick start guide.

[604] Like a little graphic of the guy pushing his coffee table out of the way.

[605] Yeah, exactly.

[606] That is the sanctioned method to prepare for this thing in your living room.

[607] You're going to have to push all this crap out of the way.

[608] Did anyone get the take a break message?

[609] Yeah.

[610] Yeah, because everyone said like, hey man, you've been sitting there for a while.

[611] I think it's on an hour timer.

[612] Yeah, yeah.

[613] It's just like every hour, it's like, hey, you should take a break.

[614] Yeah.

[615] As if to say, hey fatty, you're not ready to play games like this right now.

[616] Relax.

[617] Speaking of hour timer, I believe it was, or for me it seemed like under an hour before the first video of dad whacking his son in the face.

[618] Oh, did you see that thing?

[619] Yeah.

[620] Oh my God.

[621] Hit the internet.

[622] Wham!

[623] Didn't, like, Will's wife accidentally injure him playing the Kinect?

[624] Yeah, he's got a gouge from fingernails or something.

[625] And, of course, Ryan has been out of commission for...

[626] Ryan's on IR because of this thing.

[627] I mean, I definitely, like, tweaked something in my knee when I was, like, trying to do the, like, jump up and down and crouch shit in Kinect Adventures.

[628] Like, something hurt for about an hour.

[629] I've not had any trouble like that.

[630] I have not run into any kind of physical issues or anything like that.

[631] Yeah, all your physical issues come from Applebee's at this point.

[632] So, yeah, that's a whole other story.

[633] Here's the thing about Kinect that I was not expecting.

[634] It's kind of the opposite of what I expected because this was the reason I was going to buy a Kinect was because I thought the interface stuff was really cool.

[635] And now it seems like navigating the menus with the Kinect is the slowest goddamn thing you could possibly think to do.

[636] It almost feels like they threw that in there because it was like, oh, well, I guess we should provide a way for people to do this without picking up a controller.

[637] Well, no, they said at the E3 press conference, that was the shit they were touting.

[638] It's like, look, this is such an easy -ass way to navigate your Xbox.

[639] I mean, it is easy from a mind standpoint, but it takes...

[640] Five times as long.

[641] From the dashboard, it's not even that bad.

[642] In -game stuff.

[643] It's like where you got to hold over.

[644] You got to get the hub up.

[645] And then like hold over something.

[646] Watch it tick down, right?

[647] And then like go into the next thing.

[648] And then we're like, are you sure?

[649] And it's like, God damn it.

[650] Like, yeah.

[651] Like hold it over there.

[652] Wait for it to tick down again and be like, yeah, I'm sure.

[653] And like, you know, sometimes maybe it was a studio or something when we were doing that day of the Kinect stuff.

[654] It seemed like.

[655] You even had to spend time just finding it, you know, like relative to where you are.

[656] The thing was losing my hand a lot.

[657] Again, I think it might be some of our more translucent qualities, but, like, it just doesn't seem like it knows, like, even when I'm doing the 45 -degree angle for the pause menu thing, like, it just can't find my damn arm.

[658] So some of that – and that – It gives me hope because that's something they can refine.

[659] That's a software thing.

[660] That's something developers will get more used to.

[661] I think Dance Central does a good job with interface stuff.

[662] Yeah, that shit's pretty easy.

[663] It's very intuitive.

[664] You're not holding over stuff to do things.

[665] Those Konami games are all right with it too.

[666] When you bypass a tutorial screen by miming the actions on it, it just accidentally picked you up and just skipped.

[667] Stuff like that, it's weird.

[668] It just makes you – my patience level for that was getting really – It feels like – that stuff just feels like first -generation woes that they'll iron out.

[669] If they keep at it long enough, they'll eventually figure it out.

[670] But yeah, so – I woke up Saturday morning and realized, you know what?

[671] These Kinect games are not going to review themselves.

[672] That's fair.

[673] And I need to be able to play them at home.

[674] That's another thing about Kinect.

[675] They're not reviewing themselves.

[676] They're just sitting there.

[677] What the fuck is that about, really?

[678] Come on, Microsoft.

[679] So I was like, all right, I got to go.

[680] I got to turn this home office into a place where I can do this stuff.

[681] So I went and bought TV.

[682] What'd you get?

[683] What'd you get?

[684] I got a Samsung.

[685] It does 3D.

[686] LED.

[687] The plasma.

[688] Like wafer thin?

[689] No, it's not super thin.

[690] The big glasses that sink and do the whole thing?

[691] Yeah.

[692] Two pairs?

[693] The TV was like, yeah.

[694] Well, normally you'd pay for that stuff, but now it's like I bought the TV with a starter kit.

[695] They give you two sets of glasses and like a Blu -ray with a bunch of like garbage documentaries on it about pharaohs.

[696] Are they in 3D?

[697] So, yeah, they are, but I have not seen any 3D on that TV yet.

[698] So first I decided, well, I'll take this 3D TV and put it in where my old TV was in my bedroom so that I can watch like SPN 3D and all this other crap.

[699] So I hook it all up and none of it works.

[700] Like none of the 3D works because my receiver can't do 3D.

[701] What?

[702] So you need to be able to pass through.

[703] You need a newer receiver that can handle that.

[704] So at that point I said, fuck all this.

[705] uh took the tv swapped them back and then threw the 3d tv in in my spare room and uh i currently have it sitting on top of a tub of dreamcast games and my dj hero renegade flight case uh specifically just to set it up so i could play some dance central um that whole thing has just been an ordeal but whatever it's all set up now and i'll eventually get a tv stand and a more permanent setup in there but uh You know, if you set up a room specifically for that stuff and don't have anything else in that room, that thing works fine.

[706] Yeah.

[707] Was it okay?

[708] Yeah.

[709] Yeah, it was all right.

[710] Cool.

[711] So if you live in an empty warehouse.

[712] Yeah, exactly.

[713] If you have an empty room, you can devote to playing.

[714] A series of games that most of which you would not necessarily want to play.

[715] It's great.

[716] Loft apartment dwellers of the world.

[717] You are stoked about this.

[718] It's targeting a bunch of kids.

[719] That means your kid's probably got a room.

[720] So to kick the kid out of the room, the kid could sleep on the couch and get a damn job.

[721] Contribute something to the family for a change.

[722] Come on.

[723] Put it in your damn room.

[724] Yeah, I don't have room for it.

[725] I don't think I was doing kind of the pacing measuring in my apartment.

[726] Yeah, it's a lot to ask.

[727] I think that's going to be the biggest problem.

[728] I think if I got that wall mount.

[729] Oh, right.

[730] Have you seen that thing?

[731] Yeah.

[732] If I mounted it over the TV on the wall and then stood on the couch, I think it would be okay.

[733] I bought the TV.

[734] I think I would be okay.

[735] So I tried playing standing on my bed and it wasn't having it.

[736] Really?

[737] Yeah.

[738] That camera is super wide angle though.

[739] Yeah.

[740] Like when you see the view from that thing, that's pretty amazing.

[741] The angle on that is pretty wide.

[742] I'm sorry, if any piece of game console technology requires a wall mount, I'm off the ship.

[743] I'm done.

[744] I bought the TV mount.

[745] I'm done with you.

[746] Oh, do they have one?

[747] Yeah.

[748] We were talking about that before.

[749] God damn it, 2010.

[750] Have a clamp.

[751] Thin -ass TVs do not let you put things on top of them.

[752] So they have this TV mount that has, you know, it's legs that go down the back of the TV that you're supposed to screw into, like, the mounting holes.

[753] But it's apparently not made for...

[754] This is a 50 -inch TV.

[755] It's not really that big in the grand scheme of things.

[756] This was not that expensive.

[757] It doesn't reach the fucking holes.

[758] So I'm like, okay, well, I guess I'm double screwed.

[759] Luckily, I have the TV kind of in a closet that I took the doors off of, and there's a top shelf in the closet.

[760] So I just put it up there.

[761] It's maybe a little higher than it should be, but it hasn't really been an issue.

[762] Yeah, so many things you have to do just to get it set up properly.

[763] Right now, most of the games aren't worth it.

[764] I really think people should pass on this thing for now.

[765] I think some of the games are cool.

[766] I think your shape's really neat.

[767] I think Dance Central's neat.

[768] I think that even Kinect Sports is cool.

[769] Kinect Adventures, it is what it is.

[770] Some of that stuff is worth seeing if you're going to get one of those things for Dance Central.

[771] Call it right now, Kinect Sports or Motion Sports.

[772] This is the question that people have been really wondering about.

[773] Of course it is.

[774] Who even makes motion sports?

[775] Ubisoft.

[776] I know they have a couple weird ones.

[777] I don't think any actual humans worked on motion sports.

[778] I think they had some algorithm.

[779] Whopper made motion sports.

[780] They just pushed some buttons on it.

[781] Oh, please.

[782] Is there anything on the horizon?

[783] For Kinect?

[784] Yeah, like Game Party in Motion.

[785] I mean, there's the stuff they announced back at TGS.

[786] They are doing a Steel Battalion game.

[787] Yeah, Grasshopper's doing a game.

[788] Yeah.

[789] There's a couple of different horror -themed games.

[790] Yeah, the Panzer Dragoon guy.

[791] Yeah.

[792] That could be kind of interesting.

[793] Project Draco.

[794] Child of Eden.

[795] Child of Eden is basically that, and I played that.

[796] It's better with a controller.

[797] It didn't work so well on the Kinect.

[798] But also, at the same time, you came back from that event saying that there was full second...

[799] delay on stuff like fighters uncaged and yeah the final version is not like that really it's it's not a full it's there's a noticeable amount of latency it's a full second but there is no yeah exactly like but you you came back talking the whole i mean that game's not a good game no i didn't necessarily feel like the input lag was what made that game i think a lot of early on development kit stuff for Kinect was pretty laggy and broken.

[800] I mean, I don't think I'm giving away any big trade secrets here or anything, but I remember when I was at Harmonix and we were messing around with Kinect early on, the technology was a little haggard to begin with.

[801] But, I mean, that's the same with all early console technologies.

[802] The early stuff you get toolkit -wise is usually kind of broken.

[803] Yeah, it's the same reason why you had people saying, like, oh, you have to be standing up.

[804] It's because the libraries hadn't evolved yet to a point where you could sit down.

[805] They could figure out how to do it, yeah.

[806] As far as Child of Eden specifically goes, I think PlayStation Move will probably be the best way to play that game.

[807] I don't know if that...

[808] Do we even know if that support's going in or not?

[809] Like, I could...

[810] I don't know that it is.

[811] I could see Microsoft locking down the exclusive motion control on that game or something.

[812] I don't know that they've said if it was going to have move support.

[813] That thing has proven one -to -one precision out of the box.

[814] That's the way to go on a game like that.

[815] I want to see better things come out for Kinect, but I feel like a jerk because I'm not willing to buy it right now to make better things come out for it.

[816] They need the install base, right?

[817] That's okay.

[818] I think we bought four of them.

[819] Yeah, we did.

[820] We're good.

[821] We've done our part.

[822] Do you want the one that's in my apartment right now?

[823] Because I don't need it for a while.

[824] Yeah, no. Like I said, there's nothing I could do with it.

[825] It kind of locks me out.

[826] You could use it for voice chat.

[827] That's kind of what I've been doing.

[828] I played Catan over the weekend, and I used it for voice chat.

[829] You know, the mic didn't seem terrible.

[830] No, the mic is good.

[831] It's a lot clearer.

[832] For straight -up, like, actual dashboard -level party chat?

[833] Yep.

[834] Yeah.

[835] Really?

[836] Yeah, you can use it for all your in -game chat.

[837] Now, here's the tragedy of that.

[838] Hang on, I'm going to go buy Connect.

[839] Here's the awkward tragedy of that, is that there's no easy mute function for that thing.

[840] So if you're just, say, for instance, saying really cute things to your cat while you're playing video games.

[841] people will hear you.

[842] But do they also hear the game being played in the background?

[843] Well, that's the thing.

[844] It probably knows what sound it's making.

[845] It cancels it?

[846] Well, no, here's the thing.

[847] When you set up the tuner early on, it does the ambient background noise, and it tests your speakers to figure out what the game noise level typically is.

[848] Oh, right, right, right.

[849] So when I was playing, for instance, Catan, The only time it was picking it up on the speakers was when, like, the big sound effects would come in.

[850] Like, the background music and everything else was not actually, like, being picked up by the mic.

[851] Did people sing something?

[852] Like, hey, turn your stereo down.

[853] No, because nobody fucking actually uses voice chat when they're playing, like, Catan, you know, four years after it came out on Xbox Live.

[854] So, you know, I'm the only asshole doing that still.

[855] Fair enough.

[856] But, yeah, I mean, that's the thing is it actually is kind of useful for that stuff.

[857] I wonder how many people are going to get that thing and set it all up and then not realize that it does that and just be playing games.

[858] Well, I mean, it tests all the voice stuff, like, right away.

[859] It does, and you turn it on for chat or whatever, but, you know, it's not necessarily clear that that's what it's going to use for in -game stuff.

[860] I wonder how many people will either put on a headset or just talk freely not thinking that their voice is being picked up.

[861] Also, and I'm going to throw this out there, do you think the fact that the camera sort of is the way it is, like where it won't really show you like you, except like in very specific situations, is a reaction to all the dong that you would see when the last Xbox camera came around?

[862] No, I think it's more that just they're showing you what's being picked up by that infrared stuff and not the regular camera because the infrared camera is what's really doing the heavy lifting on that tech.

[863] So I think that's more of it.

[864] They're only using the regular camera for face recognition.

[865] For face recognition and you doing stupid jumping in Kinect Adventures and taking photos of it for no reason.

[866] And that Konami dance game.

[867] A lot of good photos of me playing Dance Central taken over the weekend.

[868] Freestyle dancing.

[869] So how do you feel about Dance Central at this point?

[870] I like it.

[871] It's definitely a first year music product.

[872] It's kind of like Guitar Hero 1 type thing?

[873] Yeah.

[874] it's like here's a list of songs you can dance to them if you like and they've locked up a lot of the progression which i guess makes some sense because if that's the content you have yeah you kind of lock some of it away so it's like you can't do the hard version of a dance until you've gotten three stars on medium and you can't do the medium version of a dance until you've gotten three stars on easy also every song for every song wow it also has a first year game you don't want to intimidate people by like letting them get in over their head too early yeah maybe yeah slowly ramp up the difficulty yeah yes that is the case but it doesn't necessarily hold your hand and give you like a clear progression i feel like they could have done that a bit better instead it's just like it's a menu and it's up to you to pick it and you know you kind of inherently understand that the the easier songs are going to be near the top of the list because they do have a difficulty rating right but it's it's not necessarily like hey now you should try this like hey maybe now you're ready for this it's more just Go, I don't know, dance.

[875] I bought the Lady Sovereign song.

[876] That was the right thing to do.

[877] Yeah, I like that song.

[878] Yeah, that game works.

[879] That's the best thing about it, is that it just feels well -made.

[880] It feels smart and is functional.

[881] I mean, whatever, any opinion I have of that game is going to be inherently colored by things.

[882] But the thing I will say about...

[883] from what I played of dance central versus other stuff is that it seems like the one that actually tried to think outside the basic confines of what everyone else was thinking when it came to game design for the connect.

[884] Yeah.

[885] Like it doesn't feel like it, the mechanics of it don't feel like the easy answer.

[886] Yes.

[887] As far as making a dance game for the connect goes.

[888] Right.

[889] Yeah.

[890] So, you know, that I give it credit for that.

[891] And you're like, the moves aren't.

[892] great in a lot of cases.

[893] A lot of them don't feel...

[894] You kind of feel like you're dancing like if you were 10.

[895] I'm dancing!

[896] West Side Story or something like that.

[897] Though I did eventually get to the point where I could do a jazz square.

[898] I was like, this is just weird.

[899] Is the Cabbage Patch in that game?

[900] I don't know.

[901] I think it is.

[902] I would hope so.

[903] Maybe they don't call it that.

[904] Yeah, I didn't go through the entire progression or anything.

[905] I just worked my way through the first tier on hard, basically.

[906] I think that game won't really catch on until it allows you to spin it like a helicopter.

[907] That is when it will have come into its own.

[908] Yeah, basically.

[909] I don't know if the SDK has such advanced t -shirt tracking.

[910] I know.

[911] It's a really important detail.

[912] You need to put the t -shirt in a microwave to heat it up first so it can pick it up.

[913] Once you've done that, then it's fine.

[914] Yeah.

[915] So, yeah.

[916] I don't know.

[917] We played all that stuff last week.

[918] Marathon, man. I guess that's what we think of it.

[919] Yeah.

[920] It is a device waiting for someone to figure it out.

[921] Yeah.

[922] I hate to sound like I'm poo -pooing it and being like a big downer on the Kinect, but I also feel like it's – I don't know what the expectation was.

[923] And so I feel like my expectation has kind of been met.

[924] So I don't feel like I'm severely disappointed in it.

[925] Yeah.

[926] I'm just like it's functional.

[927] But a lot of the software is – is junk if i had bought into what the microsoft conference told me that thing was going to be yeah i would i would be raging right now if i'd actually paid money for that thing but of course i scanning your skateboarding yeah like the this year conference or the last year conference because last year's was the ridiculous like that's what i mean pie in the sky skateboard and all i'm saying the debut conference and i'm and the thing that i'm saying is that i didn't buy into that one bit i like i i tempered my expectations because i was like there's no way they're gonna have any of this shit at launch not a chance So I don't know.

[928] But if I had seen that and really believed that's what Connect was going to be, it would have been like learning Santa Claus didn't exist.

[929] I almost just wish Microsoft had – I'm an idiot to say this because, of course, they're not going to.

[930] But at least just come out and be like, it's for kids.

[931] We're going to put it in a big – It's not for you.

[932] Yeah, we're going to put it in a big white box with candy on it and stuff.

[933] This is – It's for kids and moms or whatever.

[934] Yeah, like whoever will buy a Wii.

[935] It's like Captain Crunch on it and like this is for kids.

[936] This isn't for you.

[937] Of course you're going to get bored with it.

[938] Look at this little kid.

[939] He's loving the connectables.

[940] He loves this stuff instead of being like, why am I petting this animal?

[941] Like, yeah, because it's not for you, idiot.

[942] It's for this little kid and it's for like the dad and the little kid to play together and like go play Gears of War.

[943] Yeah, it's so weird that this thing exists on the system where otherwise if you don't have the connect, you're chainsawing people in half.

[944] That's not even that weird.

[945] That's just them covering their bases.

[946] That's them finally having something that they can use to...

[947] It's the same reason why the move exists.

[948] So now that they can compete on that playing field with Nintendo, of course, they both did it in the year where people realized they don't want to do that stuff anymore.

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

[950] They kind of missed the boat completely.

[951] It's not the can they.

[952] It's that no one wants it anymore.

[953] Well, more to the point, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with any console trying to appeal to a mass audience.

[954] Because the whole point of this generation of gaming, as far as I can tell, is that everybody wants their box to be the one media device in front of the TV.

[955] Like with all the Netflix shit and like all the other streaming stuff and like all the other dumb ass media that people have like funneled into those consoles.

[956] That's what everyone wants.

[957] And the motion thing is just sort of an extension of that because that's, you know, was the Wii's appeal.

[958] And like you said, it's just too fucking late for it.

[959] So it's another checkbox on the list of required features.

[960] Exactly.

[961] It's like everyone who bought a Wii to play Wii Sports on it already did that.

[962] Yeah.

[963] And they're kind of done.

[964] So for stuff like the Kinect and the move to succeed.

[965] they need to go as far outside that as possible.

[966] They have to show people that, like, that device is actually something kind of revolutionary and crazy versus, like, hey, remember that thing you bought, like, three years ago?

[967] Right.

[968] On sale at Walmart.

[969] It's kind of better.

[970] I mean, it's kind of better.

[971] It's kind of better.

[972] Yeah.

[973] Like, the Move is better than the Wii Motion Plus.

[974] Totally.

[975] The Fidelity is better.

[976] And it's on a system that has better graphics.

[977] But that doesn't mean they're going to out -design Nintendo on games.

[978] Also, the buy -in is way higher because you have to buy a 360.

[979] And then you have to buy the Kinect or the bundle.

[980] Or you have to buy a PS3 and the Move.

[981] Yeah, or the Move.

[982] And it's expensive.

[983] It's an expensive buy -in.

[984] I think they're figuring that you already have a PS3, but your kids can't play it.

[985] Now they can.

[986] Actually, well, maybe it's a little even unfair to say that about the PS3 because it seems like out of all the motion stuff, their games have been the least pandering or the least targeted directly at kids.

[987] Yeah, they're making the best effort to make what we would consider real video games.

[988] Yeah, it's like here's motion controls for people that actually like games.

[989] They've also, at least as far as I can tell, the least advertised and the least noteworthy.

[990] I barely remember what any of the moves launch lineup was.

[991] It's sports champions and...

[992] Yeah, exactly.

[993] There's that golf game.

[994] There was the shoot, I guess.

[995] Yeah, the shoot.

[996] There's the fight.

[997] The fight is coming out this week.

[998] I mean, they've certainly got their share of Wii Shovelware.

[999] Nobody's disputing that, but at the same time, you can also play Killzone 3 and Socom 4 with that thing.

[1000] Right.

[1001] Then the question just becomes, would you want to?

[1002] We'll see how it works.

[1003] If it's really one -to -one tracking and it actually works well, then yes, totally.

[1004] When I played Socom with the move, it was cool.

[1005] It worked, but I wouldn't necessarily replace a DualShock 3 with it.

[1006] Yeah, sure.

[1007] And Kinect.

[1008] I just don't think that Kinect is actually physically capable of doing any of that stuff in game genres that are actually popular with people to play games.

[1009] Certainly not yet.

[1010] I mean, it's going to take people a long time and enough software updates.

[1011] I don't think we'll ever see a point where it's like you're playing Gears 3 with Kinect only.

[1012] I think at best for those types of games, you'll see people shoehorn in a couple of Kinect things.

[1013] Right.

[1014] Well, they've been talking about...

[1015] Like I've been saying, like lob grenades or salute the camera to taunt.

[1016] So like Fable 3 is the best example because they have said like they're going to add support.

[1017] Right.

[1018] So having played a bunch of Fable 3, like what do you guys think the Kinect would be used for?

[1019] Expressions.

[1020] Like only expressions.

[1021] To what end though?

[1022] In Halo, can I teabag with the Kinect?

[1023] You already have to hold down the button and watch it fill up like it was a Kinect thing.

[1024] That was in Fable 2 though.

[1025] Yeah, I know.

[1026] It looks like they've been testing that stuff.

[1027] It's almost exactly...

[1028] like all those yeah yeah but i mean you did that in fable 2 to confirm choices i i bet there's yeah totally stuff that is some kind of navigation but also just like i don't know what if it was all the net all the ui stuff what is all the map and weapons oh dude just like make a sword motion to or to change weapons or say connect map yeah what exactly like what if it was all that oh that'd be crazy like that would you have a back button and an entire d -pad going unused yeah Fuck that.

[1029] Well, the D -pad is like how you use your potions.

[1030] Like when they think you need one.

[1031] When they think you need one.

[1032] Not like that game's hard enough to actually need a potion.

[1033] So Black Ops.

[1034] Maybe there'll be voice commands.

[1035] Oh, hey.

[1036] Black Ops, connect.

[1037] Yeah, Black Ops has pretty heavy connect support.

[1038] Xbox, Black Ops, play disc.

[1039] So I played that game.

[1040] It's out today.

[1041] Yeah.

[1042] Cool.

[1043] Thanks for stopping by.

[1044] Yeah.

[1045] And yeah.

[1046] All right.

[1047] See ya.

[1048] That game's cool.

[1049] I don't mean to surprise you, but the latest Call of Duty game is pretty good.

[1050] Now this is a Treyarch Call of Duty game, so some people might have some trepidation about that.

[1051] Not that they make terrible games, but it's always a little bit different and not necessarily what you get.

[1052] People have taken to viewing the Treyarch games as the off year for that series.

[1053] They are the year now.

[1054] Treyarch is the main event.

[1055] I guess they kind of have to be.

[1056] I feel like we don't know enough about it, what the current status of Infinity Ward is to really say that.

[1057] The number of key people that have left there seems...

[1058] I will eat my hat, and I don't even have a hat on, if Infinity Ward ships Call of Duty game next year.

[1059] Have I ever seen you wear a hat?

[1060] Probably not.

[1061] I've seen you wear a hat.

[1062] I don't think I've ever seen you wear a hat.

[1063] I don't think I've ever seen you wear a hat.

[1064] I got some hats.

[1065] Are you a baseball cap?

[1066] No, not a big fan.

[1067] I've seen pictures of Brad wearing a hat.

[1068] I've seen you wear a big fan.

[1069] You got like a fedora?

[1070] You got a Newsy hat.

[1071] Oh, yeah.

[1072] Or a knit cap.

[1073] I got some.

[1074] Oh, you mean a toboggan?

[1075] No. No. I would love to see you in that Newsy cap and just walking around going, Wextry, Wextry, read all about it.

[1076] Connect kind of sucks.

[1077] So the.

[1078] You get the impression playing Black Ops that Treyarch went in feeling like they had something to prove.

[1079] And the list of things that are in this game is intense and long.

[1080] Just like features wise, you're like, man, they really put a lot into this game.

[1081] Like what's surprising on that list?

[1082] Well, so they added a whole theater mode and user file share, sort of the Halo type stuff.

[1083] That is actually kind of surprising.

[1084] Yeah.

[1085] And you can make custom game types.

[1086] It's not quite as deep as the Halo stuff is, but if you want to do all pistols, stuff like that, you can set up private games with all those sorts of options.

[1087] They've got a combat training mode in there where you can play multiplayer against bots.

[1088] They've got the whole wager match thing where it's basically a six -player death match, basically a whole new set of online modes.

[1089] They still have zombies, and they've got the campaign.

[1090] Thank God.

[1091] In a lot of ways, the campaign is probably one of the most ambitious things that has been done with Call of Duty since Call of Duty 4.

[1092] But ambition doesn't always directly translate into quality, and sure enough, the campaign definitely has its faults.

[1093] So that's kind of the thing with the game.

[1094] It does a lot, but enough of it, you're kind of like, eh, I don't know, that I would probably still rather play Modern Warfare 2.

[1095] That's not to say that Black Ops is...

[1096] But should you be playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, or should the world move on?

[1097] Well, so that's the catch, I guess, is that I'm kind of also done with all the Modern Warfare 2 maps.

[1098] So the multiplayer is basically the same.

[1099] You know, there's some differences with the way you kind of control and feel.

[1100] Whatever, there's an RC card.

[1101] Yeah.

[1102] It's totally different.

[1103] So they took out the nuke.

[1104] They put in dogs, which was in World at War.

[1105] Where are the dog guys?

[1106] That's what we do.

[1107] It's our cause.

[1108] You totally get the impression every step of the way, this is what we do.

[1109] To a fault almost.

[1110] Like I would much rather have seen spec ops in this game than zombies.

[1111] But no. This game has story elements from World at War in it.

[1112] That's kind of cool.

[1113] It picks up from their version of the Call of Duty universe.

[1114] Really?

[1115] Yeah.

[1116] It's not Captain Price, but Reznov is totally in the game.

[1117] That's fantastic.

[1118] That's great.

[1119] But is it the same thing as Captain Price where it's like a different character every time?

[1120] Or is he actually like...

[1121] This is actually physically...

[1122] He is like an aged version of the guy.

[1123] This is like their continuation of a story, like a narrative that's...

[1124] That's great.

[1125] So they're trying to construct a coherent timeline for their universe.

[1126] But it's weird because it's like...

[1127] their version of the universe over two games so it's like now you know modern warfare 2 at elements you know carrying forward from from call of duty or it's just kind of it's kind of a weird but it makes me want to go play world at war and now this do you feel like you don't need to do that um do you feel like it's all one universe though do you think that no no I guess it's hard to say.

[1128] It could be.

[1129] There's no reason why it couldn't be.

[1130] There's no overlapping time periods here.

[1131] Yeah, they haven't overlapped any time.

[1132] I kind of like the idea that all this crazy shit is going down in the same world.

[1133] So here's how kind of weird this has gotten.

[1134] I had a conversation with my dad asking me if Black Ops was coming out.

[1135] I was like, yeah, it's coming out.

[1136] So that's the Modern Warfare series, right?

[1137] I was like, yeah.

[1138] Your dad's pretty well informed.

[1139] He's like, I like that game.

[1140] I was like, yeah, it's Call of Duty.

[1141] It's the same thing.

[1142] Wait, is it Modern Warfare or is it Call of Duty?

[1143] I was like, wait, do you know that there's a difference?

[1144] And he was like, yeah, because there's the World at War one and there's the Modern Warfare one.

[1145] I want the Modern Warfare one.

[1146] I was like, oh, I can't actually explain this whole story to you, but it's not, but you'll be fine.

[1147] And it's weird that he would even like make.

[1148] Did he just not like World at War?

[1149] He knew that they were different.

[1150] Right.

[1151] Aside from just being like.

[1152] uh different games that there was he he liked world at war but he liked modern warfare like the story and like the whole thing uh the the gameplay he actually said a lot better and i was like well that's crazy like you you know obviously somebody who does not play games many hours a day like a like a once a month kind of gamer uh you mean not playing 80 to 90 hours a week like uh like sound like like rick tello see that quote no i did not oh my god but just like That sounds like the worst idea ever.

[1153] It's just like having to sit there and be like, listen, you're probably fine, but good on you for calling a distinction on that.

[1154] But you'll be okay.

[1155] I'm sure this game is fine.

[1156] It's going to continue the Call of Duty series.

[1157] He wanted his Modern Warfare.

[1158] The quality of the action is a lot closer to World at War than it is Modern Warfare 2, I think.

[1159] I don't know.

[1160] I couldn't even really make that distinction.

[1161] And the fact that he was like, I want my Modern Warfare, I don't want Call of Duty, was kind of a shock to me. I can kind of sit down and tell you this whole story, but it's not even what you want to hear.

[1162] You don't need to know.

[1163] Yeah, you don't need to know.

[1164] Yeah, the story is probably the biggest departure for this game compared to the Call of Duty games before it.

[1165] You know, the previous games did a lot of stuff where they're like jumping back and forth between characters, like almost level to level.

[1166] This one is largely one guy.

[1167] That's different.

[1168] But he's in a position being this SOG, black ops kind of guy where he's kind of at the flashpoint.

[1169] He's at all the things that matter.

[1170] So the game goes from Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam and then kind of beyond a little bit.

[1171] Is it...

[1172] kind of off the rails in the modern warfare style of like these are like the michael bay it is not that crazy but yeah there are a lot of things blowing up like are there is there ever a case where dudes are hanging from a rope ladder from a helicopter flying over an exploding castle no okay but there's a nothing that outlandish i think there's a scene at the end of that game that actually put me off of the game quite a bit.

[1173] You told me the ending.

[1174] We're not going to spoil it, obviously, but my reaction was basically like, well, that's kind of stupid.

[1175] It's almost...

[1176] They get so close, and then there are just a handful of moments in that game where you just go, wow, that's really dumb.

[1177] Yeah.

[1178] Wow, that's really hokey.

[1179] Wow, that's super cliche.

[1180] You didn't need credence here.

[1181] How do you write that?

[1182] It's the most generic, obvious thing.

[1183] Oh, no, is there a credence?

[1184] Is it run through the jungle?

[1185] Seriously, is it?

[1186] It's not going to lose a bet with Will, then.

[1187] Rolling Stones.

[1188] Is it Jimi Hendrix?

[1189] No, I don't think so.

[1190] Probably totally lost that bet.

[1191] Eminem song over the credits, though.

[1192] That's the big money.

[1193] That was the long shot bet.

[1194] There's a lot of really good music.

[1195] The unlicensed music is really good, but the licensed music is so Vietnam.

[1196] It pops up in the hokiest, like, hey, we're making a Vietnam movie.

[1197] And it's like, F off.

[1198] That stuff's just...

[1199] So it is...

[1200] It is couched in...

[1201] real events then unlike modern warfare modern warfare 2 these are actually yeah they're kind of weaving in and out of actual history in this so the end game of all of these are going to be actual events so you can't tell like they're going to invade the united states or something crazy like that right and the zombie mode in there is based on the zombie outbreak from the vietnam war yeah yeah so that's all just taking place like basically taking its beat from yeah exactly all right yeah there's a there's an interesting zombie level that unlocks after you beat the campaign that's uh it's funny sure zombies zombies are cool and everything but i'm really sad that spec ops has not been added to the list of requisite i don't i don't like the zombie mode at all yeah i mean i didn't really like it in world at war like i understand some people are way into it like that kind of like survival co -op stuff but i just it does absolutely nothing i would have i would have traded that in for spec ops dude absolutely the heart is awesome it was the best thing about werewolves Keep talking.

[1202] But yeah, you know, you get the impression that like Treyarch's doing the stuff that they're good at.

[1203] Like the fire and explosions look really good.

[1204] Like you've got, you know, under barrel mounted flamethrowers if you want, you know.

[1205] So it's like they're clearly saying like we made this fire tech and.

[1206] It's awesome.

[1207] By God, we're going to use it.

[1208] We're going to use it again.

[1209] I'm in favor of using good fire tech.

[1210] Oh, it's great fire.

[1211] Yeah.

[1212] It's great fire.

[1213] That's excellent.

[1214] Yeah.

[1215] Is there any kind of co -op or campaign with another person?

[1216] Zombies is the co -op.

[1217] That's it.

[1218] There's no campaign co -op or anything like that.

[1219] Do you think they're saving spec ops for like DLC?

[1220] No, I don't.

[1221] I think that's an Infinity Ward thing that they're not going to do.

[1222] Okay.

[1223] Yeah.

[1224] That's lame.

[1225] That's lame.

[1226] I'm sorry.

[1227] It just is.

[1228] Jeff, I understand this game has 3D graphics support.

[1229] It does.

[1230] How's that?

[1231] Did you hug up your 3D TV?

[1232] You hesitated too long.

[1233] I didn't like it.

[1234] It cuts the frame rate too much.

[1235] That's a shame.

[1236] The frame rate is less stable.

[1237] That series is all about smooth frame rate.

[1238] That underpins the action.

[1239] Did it even feel that three -dimensional?

[1240] Is it HUD stuff?

[1241] It's HUD stuff.

[1242] I mean, the gun at the bottom of the screen is a really good example of, like, you know, where to put the depth.

[1243] But it's just like you're looking into a little, like, like you're looking into a box that there's a game taking place in.

[1244] I got to see a little bit of it.

[1245] Like, the one thing that really impressed me was going to iron sights.

[1246] If you had, like, a scoped weapon.

[1247] Like, you actually got, like, a real sense of, like, smooth depth through the scope.

[1248] Yeah.

[1249] Which was kind of cool.

[1250] Yeah.

[1251] That stuff's neat.

[1252] And there is a lot of neat stuff.

[1253] There's some sequences where you have really large areas.

[1254] Just this huge, snowy.

[1255] zone of and you can see forever and in 3d like it looks really cool um just when you see the boundaries of the tv kind of bums you out well it's it's no it's just that the frame rate's not there yeah it's not worth trading yeah smoothness for yeah and also i found it really disorienting um i think a lot of it's because they do so many depth of field tricks in that game where they're forcing like, you know, this stuff's going to be blurry because it's not what you're supposed to be looking at.

[1256] But you look at it and go like, well, it's in 3D.

[1257] And your eyes think they should be able to focus on it, but they can't.

[1258] Like Death of Field is a side effect of 2D technology.

[1259] You're saying mixing and matching, like forcing it.

[1260] Yeah.

[1261] Hey, this is real.

[1262] Yeah.

[1263] So it's, yeah.

[1264] That stuff kind of gets in the way.

[1265] and and yeah just like the the frame rate not being there like it doesn't look as smooth and and that's that's so key to the entire call of duty experience it's just it's it's not worth it's not worth trading but i mean you know no no harm no foul on the 3d stuff because if you don't like it oh yeah yeah exactly you know and and you know there's like some stuff like uh the the version yeah i don't know they'll probably patch this very soon it's like a really minor detail but there's one part where you're launching I guess I won't get too specific.

[1266] There's one part where you are shooting things a great distance, like almost a mortar style or something, and the reticle is like two inches off to the right.

[1267] Like weird stuff like that that they just need to patch.

[1268] It's not really that big of a deal.

[1269] So then they've got their whole regular multiplayer mode in there as well.

[1270] They didn't really do any new modes.

[1271] It's still Team Deathmatch headquarters.

[1272] objective, you know, demolition.

[1273] Perks and perks and perks.

[1274] Perks and, you know, they kind of changed the loadout of perks.

[1275] And like I said, they got rid of the nuke.

[1276] There's no nuke killstreak anymore.

[1277] But there's a map called Nuke Town that at the end, it just blows up.

[1278] It's pretty good.

[1279] At the end of every game.

[1280] So it's sort of like Halloween Town except with nukes.

[1281] Yeah.

[1282] It's like this weird kind of 50s looking neighborhood with mannequins standing around in business suits.

[1283] Great.

[1284] So it's a Crystal Skull reference.

[1285] Yeah, sort of kind of.

[1286] You ever get the fear that they're going to like...

[1287] tony hawk that series into something where it's like every year they feel like that they add something new into the multiplayer and it's just gonna it's starting it'll start getting silly or something like that it's already isn't that that's already already it's already taking place before our eyes like that's what they do do you think that's like are you afraid that like that's gonna happen at some point do you feel like zombies are this bam margera of of that series no no okay it's it's The bigger problem is that they went and did all this wager match stuff, which is – the wager match stuff actually isn't bad.

[1288] It's actually a lot of fun.

[1289] But it's – they're building all this stuff around the core multiplayer and not doing anything really exciting with the core multiplayer.

[1290] Right.

[1291] So it's like – yeah it's team deathmatch and it's headquarters and it's all the stuff that you've totally been playing for the last three years and hey play it again and at this point i was like okay yeah like by the end of my time with the game like that's what it is i was like okay yeah i'm i'm kind of good um and i wish that they were doing more with with that stuff and it's not to say that it's completely unchanged um like i was saying that the mobility is a little different when you're holding light machine guns and stuff like the movement is is different so it's kind of a another consideration when you're choosing weapons which they've done in the past but it seems like it's even more exaggerated this time you can dive to prone so if you're like running and you tap b you'll dive and land which is uh so that one of the challenges is dive through five windows it's kind of cool you take like fall damage or you heal it back but yeah yeah absolutely um and you know you're on you're using perks and buying it so that's the other thing is you're buying all your attachments and and weapon camo and basically anything that is Going on to your custom classes, you have to now pay COD points to unlock.

[1292] So as you level up with your experience points, you instead earn the ability to purchase some of this stuff.

[1293] And what that does is if you know you play a certain way, like I don't ever want to use a sniper rifle in multiplayer Call of Duty anywhere ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

[1294] So I just don't have to buy any sniper rifles.

[1295] That actually gives you the flexibility to get the stuff you want sooner.

[1296] Yes.

[1297] That's cool.

[1298] The downside of that is that you get it all a lot sooner.

[1299] And by level 20, I was like, all right, I'm kind of done.

[1300] Wait, is it just like a flat, like everything is available at the same level?

[1301] As soon as you have enough, do you buy it?

[1302] No, it's – Are there like level requirements as well?

[1303] So like there are like eight assault rifles or something like that.

[1304] And at the start, you can only buy one.

[1305] So as you're leveling up, you're getting more and more.

[1306] And, yeah, if I kept playing, I would unlock another assault rifle, but I felt like I was pretty good at that point.

[1307] I was like, all right, this weapon's going to be fine.

[1308] They're not going to go so far out of balance and make these late weapons amazing.

[1309] And you can buy all the perks right off the bat.

[1310] They made getting the pro versions of perks a lot harder.

[1311] They added more requirements to that stuff.

[1312] But yeah, you can kind of just build your custom class, like build a couple of custom classes that are kind of how you play the game and sort of feel done.

[1313] And yeah, I guess I just got to a point where there was no carrot anymore.

[1314] There was nothing to look forward to other than I'm just going to keep shooting dudes.

[1315] And the campaign...

[1316] Six hours.

[1317] About six hours.

[1318] So what is the long -term...

[1319] Some people are going to say, like, ah, four hours or something like that.

[1320] But, you know, people always say that.

[1321] I think for the average person, it'll probably be six, seven.

[1322] So, like, what is the long -term carrot for the Call of Duty series at this point?

[1323] Like, how many more of these games do they have in them?

[1324] I think that they need to make...

[1325] And this isn't, like, me saying that Black Ops is bad.

[1326] Yeah, yeah.

[1327] I do think it's...

[1328] It's just very similar, it sounds like.

[1329] Yeah, I think that for whatever they do from here, it needs a dramatic redesign.

[1330] It needs something on the level of Call of Duty 4.

[1331] What that did to that series, they need that again.

[1332] If they really want to prevent it from doing this Tony Hawk Guitar Hero thing.

[1333] Because it's just kind of the same thing.

[1334] I think that this time around for this game, they will put out way more maps.

[1335] That's my gut feeling.

[1336] Especially because every...

[1337] Activision developer that churned out a shooter that didn't sell is now working on maps for that game probably.

[1338] Kind of just speculative here, but you think they'll annualize to keep this every year?

[1339] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[1340] Well, next year I think we're going to see multiple games that say Call of Duty on them.

[1341] But the question is, do you think there will be another one of these?

[1342] Yes.

[1343] This style of six -hour cinematic campaign.

[1344] So who's going to make it?

[1345] Is that Treyarch churn in it?

[1346] No, I think it's got to be Infinity Ward.

[1347] I think it's got to be Infinity Ward.

[1348] They're not just sitting there moping.

[1349] They're not just sitting there going, like, maybe we should quit too.

[1350] Yeah, but there's not, last I checked, there were not enough people there probably to pull off a project to that scale.

[1351] They probably hired people over there.

[1352] I'm probably totally high, but I thought I remembered that the dudes who were going to be, who they stole from, or not stole, but, like, they came over from Yay.

[1353] Yeah, sledgehammer games.

[1354] They're working on a...

[1355] something also.

[1356] But I thought the implication was that that would be something different.

[1357] So that's not a shooter.

[1358] I think that's not going to be the typical shooter.

[1359] So I think we'll get our chance next year to see a dramatically different game with the Call of Duty name on it.

[1360] But that doesn't necessarily automatically sound amazing either.

[1361] They're in a real tough spot.

[1362] It's not going to seem like a tough spot because I think this game is going to come out and sell fine.

[1363] They're going to be like, we still got it.

[1364] It's a moneymaker.

[1365] And next year, those games will probably still sell fine.

[1366] They'll be like, we still got it.

[1367] It'll be like that Guitar Hero syndrome where they had a couple of games where it was still selling and they were like, this is still amazing.

[1368] And then this one came out this year.

[1369] They're like, oh, fuck.

[1370] Right.

[1371] What year do they realize they don't really got it anymore?

[1372] When they stopped selling.

[1373] And then they just put the brakes on everything Call of Duty.

[1374] Well, they'll do the same thing they did with Guitar Hero.

[1375] As soon as they start to lose to another franchise or feel like their numbers are not justifying their insane marketing costs, they will be like, okay, brakes on, done.

[1376] Maybe we'll make another one or we'll farm this out to one of our lower tier developers and we'll keep making them for the audience that still cares.

[1377] But it won't be their big investment anymore.

[1378] That's how Activision rolls.

[1379] They wait until something's not popular anymore and then they shovel it off and they find their next thing.

[1380] But it doesn't look like anything's really stepping up to kind of fill that gap.

[1381] It's true.

[1382] Middle Modern had a shot and didn't make it.

[1383] Not even close.

[1384] When you come at the king, you best not miss. Exactly.

[1385] And they missed.

[1386] And they missed.

[1387] Bad.

[1388] DICE is still doing Battlefield 3.

[1389] Right.

[1390] That could be huge.

[1391] I think that will be huge.

[1392] Whether or not the game is...

[1393] competes on that level i don't know because it's it's such a bigger thing that i think a lot of people still just want their team deathmatch shooter their fast -paced action so i was just remembering back like like when you were talking about black ops to me over the weekend remember when call of duty debuted as a pc first -person shooter about world war ii and there was really nothing about it that was that fancy except for the fact that it had russian and american campaigns going at the same time yeah like it was just like hey here's this fast -paced shooter yeah I didn't really like the first three so much.

[1394] I don't remember.

[1395] Call of Duty 2 seemed like a...

[1396] I don't even remember.

[1397] They all seemed like quality games, but they just...

[1398] That series didn't interest me until 4.

[1399] Yeah.

[1400] That was like the dramatic...

[1401] That was the sea change.

[1402] Yeah, exactly.

[1403] That was when they...

[1404] I mean, that was the seminal point for...

[1405] I mean, that's just first -person shooters.

[1406] I mean, they basically defined the modern era of online shooters with that game.

[1407] Yeah.

[1408] And everything has changed.

[1409] I mean, games that aren't even first -person shooters have redesigned themselves to have multiplayer that functions...

[1410] I mean, look at Blur.

[1411] Yeah.

[1412] Perks.

[1413] Fucking Mario Kart with perks.

[1414] Yeah.

[1415] It's just like, it's crazy.

[1416] And it's fun.

[1417] It works.

[1418] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[1419] When you played Call of Duty 1, did you think that that was going to be the franchise that totally toppled all other shooter franchises?

[1420] No, it never seemed like that.

[1421] That and Medal of Honor back then, I don't know.

[1422] Medal of Honor wasn't even completely tired back then.

[1423] It was close.

[1424] There were a couple of really good Medal of Honor games, but it still never...

[1425] Back in that era, though, I was so hung up on like...

[1426] The multiplayer in a shooter.

[1427] I wanted an Unreal Tournament.

[1428] I wanted that type, that style of vast -paced multiplayer shooter.

[1429] Big rocket splash damage.

[1430] And all the multiplayer for that stuff.

[1431] Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

[1432] There's a whole era of the PC shooter that just totally lost me. Like kind of the post -Doom 2.

[1433] Yeah, that's fair.

[1434] Post -Doom 2, forget everything else.

[1435] Post -Quake.

[1436] Post -Quake 3, okay.

[1437] post -Unreal tournament.

[1438] It was just something that was crazy to me when I started thinking about it because I remember Infinity Ward seeming like this kind of weird upstart and people not really...

[1439] I mean, I remember when we got the review copy of Call of Duty, everyone was like, oh, this is really cool.

[1440] And that was it.

[1441] Everyone was like, yeah, this is really cool.

[1442] Call of Duty 2 came along and people were like, this is a really amazing World War II shooter.

[1443] And I think even back then, I was like, oh, great, World War II, fun.

[1444] Well, again, it was all evolutionary.

[1445] Old guns, blame.

[1446] Yeah, you really have to give it to...

[1447] I mean, the Call of Duty 4, especially the multiplayer.

[1448] I mean, it was revolutionary.

[1449] It was genius.

[1450] It hit the right time, and it hit a market that was stale.

[1451] Look what we could do.

[1452] And that's the thing, is that you can see the market getting stale again.

[1453] So it's interesting.

[1454] Maybe it'll go, like you said, another two years or another release and maybe one more.

[1455] And then who are the Infinity War guys that left?

[1456] Respawn.

[1457] Maybe their game will be done by then.

[1458] And they'll say, hey, go check this out.

[1459] They did it again.

[1460] That's crazy.

[1461] We made an adventure game.

[1462] That is the last thing that Activision wants to hear.

[1463] Well, then maybe it'll be Bungie.

[1464] Activision would be okay hearing that.

[1465] Oh, man. Oh, dude, who ships their game first?

[1466] This is some fucking Cuba nuclear arms race type of shit.

[1467] Bungie has to ship first.

[1468] You think so?

[1469] Respawn just founded in the last six months or something, right?

[1470] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1471] Bungie is still...

[1472] Bungie hasn't established...

[1473] Bungie's been working on the fiction.

[1474] Brockheimer Games, totally going to beat them all.

[1475] Brockheimer's going to be the one to totally be first to market.

[1476] My question is who wants to run further away from their old franchise the most?

[1477] Does Bungie want to get really far away from Halo?

[1478] Who's going to make the more similar game and be like, yeah, we're really...

[1479] I feel like Bungie has more to prove.

[1480] Well, that's something we were talking about before, Jeff, where like...

[1481] The point you made about Reach when it came out was that they perfected that formula.

[1482] They made their best Halo game and it's a good time for them to move on.

[1483] The same thing has happened to this style of Call of Duty in half the time or less.

[1484] But twice as many games.

[1485] They shipped as many games as main series Halo games in less than half the time.

[1486] It just seems to me like the dudes from Call of Duty...

[1487] still have a lot of pride for what they made and they're not like totally sick to death necessarily of making that style of game they just wanted to do something different but you know not necessarily totally get away from what made them famous whereas bungees has always seemed like they kind of wanted to get away from halo for a while like they're kind of done yeah Yeah, the X Infinity War guys just wanted to get away from Activision.

[1488] They wanted to take Modern Warfare with them.

[1489] And they still want to make their gangsta military shooters, it seems like.

[1490] But it's amazing, too.

[1491] Speaking of which, Ice Cube does voices in Black Ops.

[1492] Doesn't Ice -T also?

[1493] No, he's in Gears.

[1494] He's in something recently, isn't he?

[1495] Ice -T?

[1496] I thought he voice acted in something.

[1497] He's in Gears of War 3.

[1498] I swear to God, I remember him being...

[1499] Anyway, sorry, go on.

[1500] But yeah, so Ice Cube plays a role in the single player, but he's also one of the multiplayer voices.

[1501] I bet that's so good.

[1502] So you hear him talk about your tactical assertion has been destroyed and that sort of stuff.

[1503] You're like, damn, Cube.

[1504] We've got to get him.

[1505] And that's awesome.

[1506] Ed Harris.

[1507] In the multiplayer?

[1508] It's so weird to think about named celebrities announcing for multiplayer.

[1509] They just gave the lines to him.

[1510] They don't know it from whatever.

[1511] Sam Worthington does the voice of the lead character.

[1512] He's the avatar guy, right?

[1513] Is he really boring?

[1514] He's terrible.

[1515] Sam Worthington is terrible.

[1516] At some point I started looking into...

[1517] There's a whole...

[1518] crazy system in that game that you can there's a bunch of cool intel uh that you can unlock and there's a whole weird terminal system with a bunch of really cool stuff on it and you eventually kind of put together that that alex mason the main character which isn't wasn't he also the guy in uh red faction that alec mason i think that's alec big difference i feel like we had this what's the guy in fracture's name oh hell oh god anyway anyway uh so it's kind of a I'm just thinking of the Ed Harris, John Mason, and the Rock connection right now.

[1519] He's from Alaska, story -wise.

[1520] Half the game, sounds like he's from Australia.

[1521] Really?

[1522] Yeah.

[1523] Alaska and Australia are not the same place.

[1524] Not the same accent.

[1525] They start with an A. There's that.

[1526] That should give you some kind of indication as to Sam Worthington's performance.

[1527] To be fair, he's a protagonist in a Call of Duty game that actually speaks, which you don't always get.

[1528] He does a bad job.

[1529] He does a bad job.

[1530] That's sad.

[1531] You didn't do a good job.

[1532] Exactly.

[1533] They told me you were good.

[1534] You're not.

[1535] Oh, Sam Worthington.

[1536] Yeah.

[1537] What else?

[1538] Yeah, there's some cool.

[1539] That game's got FMV in it a little bit.

[1540] Really?

[1541] The first thing that happens when you put that disc in is you see a smoking woman reading numbers into a microphone.

[1542] Wait a minute.

[1543] You're talking about live actors.

[1544] Oh, so it's the live actor.

[1545] So it's the Warriors.

[1546] It is literally like a shot of her lips and smoking.

[1547] Sort of like that Warriors shot.

[1548] Yeah, but it's much better lit.

[1549] Because a lot of the game is about these numbers.

[1550] The whole plot of the game has this kind of numbers station thing in it, which I thought was really cool.

[1551] Cold War era.

[1552] I've been a big fan of numbers stations for a real long time.

[1553] It feels like kind of a weird kind of Lost -y reference at this point, though, because that was such a big part of that show and that mythos.

[1554] I never watched Lost, so I don't really know if they end up tying that to actual numbers stations.

[1555] No, it's not like actual communist numbers stations.

[1556] No, okay.

[1557] It's not like Lost, then.

[1558] Okay.

[1559] I just know that that game is big on its sort of like...

[1560] it has a lot of conspiracy stuff in it.

[1561] And that's, that's, that's what made me think it was weird.

[1562] Yeah.

[1563] Um, I have a question.

[1564] Yeah.

[1565] Is there a no Russian moment of any kind?

[1566] No. Okay.

[1567] Um, you, but, but I bet at one point they had one on the drawing board.

[1568] Cause there are rumors out there.

[1569] There's room for one you're saying.

[1570] Oh yeah.

[1571] Like I, I mean, there's room for like a pretty messed up one.

[1572] In fact, and then it's, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna.

[1573] Just a newborn infant shooting other babies.

[1574] Right.

[1575] And they're American babies.

[1576] Oh, so Call of Duty babies is the next one.

[1577] Does it involve a pivotal moment in American history?

[1578] Sure.

[1579] Okay.

[1580] So, yeah.

[1581] You could see them doing that.

[1582] You could see at one point someone probably brought that up and suggested it.

[1583] And they went, no, no. The legal team probably got behind that one.

[1584] But we could do it better.

[1585] Ours will have dogs and zombies.

[1586] Okay.

[1587] All right, fine.

[1588] That's our thing.

[1589] Good fire.

[1590] Good fire.

[1591] Call of Duty.

[1592] Yeah.

[1593] Still here.

[1594] It's a video game.

[1595] Also, I think the RC car is totally lame.

[1596] It's a kill streak.

[1597] It's a three kill kill streak.

[1598] So it's just as pervasive as like UAVs or whatever they call them.

[1599] Can you shoot down RC cars?

[1600] Yeah.

[1601] You can shoot the RC.

[1602] You damn well better.

[1603] It's not easy because they're pretty fast.

[1604] But yeah.

[1605] So the RC car, you just, you know, you start controlling it and you drive it up to someone and pull the trigger to make it blow up.

[1606] And it'll kill.

[1607] It'll kill deals.

[1608] Yeah.

[1609] Where's the multiplayer, if you don't mind, if this doesn't spoil anything, where does it take place?

[1610] Like, where are the maps?

[1611] All over the place.

[1612] Okay.

[1613] You know, the game kind of takes place all over the place.

[1614] I mean, you do a lot of traveling, but the multiplayer is not necessarily connected.

[1615] There's moments from the single player that you'll see in some of these multiplayer maps.

[1616] Is that like era -specific or anything like that?

[1617] No, not really.

[1618] I mean, the game takes place over a wider period of time as well.

[1619] Because a lot of it's told in flashback.

[1620] So you're seeing moments from...

[1621] You know, Cuba.

[1622] You're seeing like missile crisis type stuff and then going all the way through, you know, Vietnam.

[1623] Cuba.

[1624] And all that.

[1625] So it's not a Vietnam game.

[1626] The middle of it is a Vietnam game.

[1627] But it's not purely a Vietnam game.

[1628] Did you appreciate like a little different atmosphere there?

[1629] Yeah.

[1630] I think that that's probably one of the best things about it is that they do.

[1631] So the whole game is basically told in flashback because you're being interrogated.

[1632] The main menu to the game is an interrogation room.

[1633] Are you interrogated in first person?

[1634] Yeah.

[1635] Yeah.

[1636] So between that and the smoking lady reading numbers and all this stuff, they're very big about redacting text.

[1637] So it's just like when missions start, they'll kind of pop up in the lower left corner and it'll say where you are, what you're doing there, and the date and all this stuff.

[1638] And then it slowly starts putting black bars over all of it until all that's left is your name and the date.

[1639] It's supposed to be you telling the story and then somebody transcribing it or something?

[1640] Something like that.

[1641] Yeah, sure.

[1642] It's kind of a neat touch.

[1643] I'll fill it in.

[1644] There you go.

[1645] That's not accurate.

[1646] That's perhaps overthinking it.

[1647] I won't go too far into that stuff.

[1648] That's interesting.

[1649] Yeah, so it's cool that they were able to make it feel really different from a story perspective.

[1650] But a lot of that stuff, like I said, really hokey.

[1651] Really hokey.

[1652] Yeah, four stars.

[1653] It's cool.

[1654] It's a cool game.

[1655] Rated M for Mature.

[1656] Yeah.

[1657] Cool game.

[1658] It's got issues.

[1659] Okay.

[1660] Yeah.

[1661] Play anything else?

[1662] So that's video games.

[1663] I mean, no, not really.

[1664] I think we talked about Bloodstone last week, right?

[1665] I wasn't here last week, but it's a Bond game.

[1666] They should have put GoldenEye out for all platforms.

[1667] Not that that was necessarily possible because of their dealings with Nintendo to make that game.

[1668] If you have any more questions about Kinect, you can check out hours and hours and hours.

[1669] Of Kinect coverage from last week.

[1670] But really, there's only about 10 seconds of Kinect coverage that you really need to watch over and over and over again, and that is the Living Statues video found on the Kinect Adventures page, which is possibly the greatest thing I've ever seen.

[1671] Very good.

[1672] How do you guys feel about some news?

[1673] I love news.

[1674] All right, great.

[1675] Not a ton happening other than games coming out that caught my eye over the last week anyway, but NBA Elite 11 canceled.

[1676] Yeah.

[1677] Straight up.

[1678] Just shot ahead.

[1679] Just executed.

[1680] Yeah.

[1681] Done.

[1682] Done.

[1683] They're moving development of the basketball franchise to Tiburon, in fact.

[1684] So as soon as they delayed it, I wondered why they didn't like why anybody thought it was actually going to come out under that name.

[1685] Because you don't ship the sports game with the year name on it.

[1686] Right.

[1687] In the year that it doesn't work.

[1688] They could have been trendset.

[1689] Actually, baseball.

[1690] The only the only franchise that ever did that was college basketball.

[1691] Because they always came out around March Madness.

[1692] And so it was still technically that season that was the only franchise that ever did that.

[1693] And I feel like there was a baseball game that was right on the numbers.

[1694] Doesn't the show use current numbers?

[1695] It does.

[1696] It's MLB 10.

[1697] It does.

[1698] It came out this year.

[1699] It does.

[1700] Did they say anything with the press release saying like we're taking a year off to work on whatever?

[1701] They just said canceled.

[1702] They said canceled and we're moving development to Tiburon and they're going to work on it from here on out.

[1703] We'll see what happens.

[1704] And so basically Read Between the Lines was oh fuck.

[1705] What did we do?

[1706] But the name stays, right?

[1707] It's still Elite.

[1708] That's, I mean, we'll see.

[1709] I think it depends on how damaged that name is by the time they go to put out another basketball game.

[1710] Well, but this one never actually came out.

[1711] Well, it came out on the iPhone.

[1712] Oh, well.

[1713] So there is a product out there called NBA Elite 11.

[1714] But, you know, they never got any review scores attached to this.

[1715] Right.

[1716] They never generated any potential.

[1717] But, to be fair, it's all the demos out there.

[1718] If you're on eBay, there's technically a console game called NBA Elite that's out there.

[1719] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1720] Man. Man. Man. Like, dude, the game got finished through production, and then they pulled the plug on it.

[1721] If they released that, if they could put that game out with no marketing as cheaply as they can, I wonder how close they could get to making their money back just from curiosity seekers at this point.

[1722] Just be like, I need to get a copy of that.

[1723] Check that shit out.

[1724] It would be so brand damaging and so unbelievably negative for their shareholders that they would never do it.

[1725] Yeah, like think about what the math must have been on this that it made more sense for them to straight up cancel it after spending all of the money developing it.

[1726] I know.

[1727] Like all of it.

[1728] All of it.

[1729] They were done.

[1730] The only thing they probably saved money on was TV ads.

[1731] That was it.

[1732] Yeah, and maybe they pulled the plug mid -production so there aren't that many discs out there.

[1733] But some are printed, right?

[1734] No, there were some in stores.

[1735] They shipped out to stores and had to be shipped back, or at least to distributors.

[1736] They might not have made it all the way out to actual retail.

[1737] So how long until – 10 years until those things start freely being like dudes walking away with them, having them in their box on their office, and they're like, I got fired.

[1738] I'm going to take a ton of these with me. Right.

[1739] Handing them out to friends.

[1740] Yeah, yeah.

[1741] I wonder if they're actively destroying all the copies that they have their hands on.

[1742] Yeah, probably.

[1743] Probably.

[1744] They have to.

[1745] I mean, otherwise it's warehouse space.

[1746] Taking up copies of ET and replacing them, going out to the desert and just – Are there any on eBay at this moment?

[1747] Copies have gotten out there.

[1748] The guy ended up with a PS3 copy.

[1749] There might not be any copies on eBay right now.

[1750] I wonder how much they went for.

[1751] That video on YouTube of the two dudes playing the demo of that game is one of the greatest things I've ever seen as far as how did even this demo get through and approved.

[1752] But it's an amazing thing.

[1753] It's an amazing tale, I think, just in terms of where we are today in terms of the internet and that video.

[1754] I mean, kind of dictating the reaction that somebody's going to take for publishing a goddamn game.

[1755] It's like, shit, really?

[1756] But, I mean, here's the double messed up thing.

[1757] The guy's got a copy of the PS3 version up on eBay right now.

[1758] $600.

[1759] Buy it now for a grand.

[1760] Damn.

[1761] Jesus.

[1762] But that's the really messed up thing.

[1763] Okay, so I've worked for a publisher.

[1764] Like, I know how absolutely crazy.

[1765] those approval standards can be for some of those games.

[1766] Like what the boardroom decision -making process is?

[1767] More to the point, I can't believe that game got to the manufacturing process.

[1768] You're talking about on the QA level.

[1769] I'm talking about on the QA level because the thing is when you submit to Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo is I think by far the most stringent as far as that stuff goes.

[1770] I don't even know if there is a Wii version of that game.

[1771] I don't remember.

[1772] But I know that they will check you on some pretty base -level stuff standards -wise.

[1773] At the same time, though, there are ways around that.

[1774] There are ways around that.

[1775] A game like Fallout New Vegas otherwise would not have shipped if there weren't ways around it.

[1776] Yeah, it just seems crazy that a game like that, that obviously is so messed up that they had to pull it.

[1777] But also, they're going to ding you on technical issues in CERT, but they're not going to shut the game down based on bad design.

[1778] But it's more than just bad design.

[1779] In that video, there is literally a moment where there is just a player that is standing across.

[1780] In the demo.

[1781] Who knows what this game is.

[1782] I've seen that dude pops up in there.

[1783] Yeah, that still happens in the game.

[1784] Who knows what the technical state of the final certified game was?

[1785] It may be technically a clean game, but it might still be a terrible game.

[1786] And that's enough reason for EA, especially when you're in the middle of your, like, full -on brand relaunch.

[1787] Yeah.

[1788] Yeah.

[1789] Just spend all this time saying, like, we're changing the name because we've changed the game.

[1790] Yeah, like, it being a technically competent but still terrible game is enough reason to...

[1791] Yeah.

[1792] It's just crazy to me, one, the game made it through CERT, and two, that, again, it got to that production phase, and then finally someone turned around and went, no!

[1793] No!

[1794] I just wanted to kind of get out there and people be like...

[1795] This ain't that bad.

[1796] And somebody would be like, I told you.

[1797] God damn it.

[1798] It's not that bad.

[1799] You overreacted.

[1800] You always overreact.

[1801] What do you think?

[1802] Should we buy this copy?

[1803] You don't even know if that's the real thing.

[1804] Get our hands on it and review it.

[1805] He's got a good feedback rating.

[1806] Oh, well, there you go.

[1807] The thing is, if we got this copy and started doing video of it, EA would be up our ass with DMCA shutdown notices.

[1808] Is it illegal?

[1809] I'm no doctor.

[1810] I think it would, at that point, become a fair use case for us.

[1811] Is it illegal for that dude to sell it?

[1812] Probably.

[1813] Is it illegal for him to have it?

[1814] I don't know.

[1815] It's weird.

[1816] It gets really gray area with that stuff.

[1817] Is there a terms of service that he would have to agree to that he'd violate by playing that game?

[1818] I was wondering what happens if you don't agree to a terms of service.

[1819] Do you get to bring the product back?

[1820] You're supposed to be able to.

[1821] I read this in a...

[1822] I think part of the terms of service is if you don't agree, you need to return it to the store.

[1823] I just agreed to that.

[1824] But then the stores don't take...

[1825] Games back, they've been opened, so it's like this weird...

[1826] I wonder if anyone's actually tried to use that excuse, though.

[1827] Like, I don't...

[1828] I mean, you know, I know people returning games for all sorts of dumb reasons that aren't true, but I don't know if anyone's actually tried to use the excuse of the terms were not to my liking.

[1829] Well, because there's a new dashboard that came out, and you've got to agree to the new terms of service.

[1830] I was just wondering as I was clicking through, like, what if I don't?

[1831] Should I just take my Xbox back?

[1832] And it's like, can I get refunded on my subscription or something?

[1833] It's just kind of weird.

[1834] It does get really crazy.

[1835] Like how full of holes all that legal stuff really is.

[1836] God damn.

[1837] Somebody needs to just shorten that shit because that's not fair.

[1838] Especially on the iPhone.

[1839] You guys ever like when they update and you go to buy something?

[1840] It's like, oh, mother fucker.

[1841] 46 pages.

[1842] Like I'm going to read this thing.

[1843] Yeah.

[1844] Speaking of disks being out there that aren't necessarily supposed to be out there, there are copies of GT5.

[1845] Out.

[1846] Like physical copies?

[1847] Physical copies of Gran Turismo 5.

[1848] Not digital.

[1849] Not torrents?

[1850] No, not torrents.

[1851] They're now the gtplanet .net.

[1852] They're posting videos and screenshots of menus and pictures of discs and boxes.

[1853] This is all in Europe.

[1854] This could happen?

[1855] This game could come out?

[1856] Here's a question.

[1857] How'd that happen?

[1858] They've been pressing discs up for a little while, apparently.

[1859] They did say that they were making it.

[1860] Here's a more specific question.

[1861] Do you think they...

[1862] produced it prior to, what was it, November 2nd or 4th?

[1863] The original date?

[1864] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1865] Do you think these are LittleBigPlanet -style pre -ban or pre -delay?

[1866] No, they're probably the real thing.

[1867] I don't get the impression that they were in manufacturing when they pushed it.

[1868] What was the other question?

[1869] Did they push it so that they could create some sort of title update for it or something?

[1870] Fixes something?

[1871] I don't know that they came out.

[1872] A lot of people said they wanted to make sure that it required a higher level of firmware so that their most popular game would force people to update breaking all the hacking stuff that's capable of some of the older versions.

[1873] Firmware is the one that like locks out this crazy USB device.

[1874] Right.

[1875] Yeah.

[1876] Yeah.

[1877] So maybe that was that could have been partially behind it or, you know, there was some crash bug found.

[1878] There's a lot of people that have said a lot of things about that.

[1879] They're sure that this is why it got pushed back.

[1880] But I don't think there's anything definitive out there.

[1881] Is there an official word on it?

[1882] Like not the pushback, but like a date?

[1883] No. But.

[1884] It looks like they've got a launch party planned in Madrid for the 24th and 25th.

[1885] And some people are starting to claim that it's going to come out the following week.

[1886] So the 30th.

[1887] Like the 27th, 28th or something.

[1888] The 30th I think is the Tuesday.

[1889] I think the 30th is Tuesday.

[1890] These might have been people talking European dates.

[1891] So that would be like the Friday or something.

[1892] When's Thanksgiving?

[1893] The week before.

[1894] Yeah, the 25th.

[1895] So it'll be like right after all the Thanksgiving stuff.

[1896] This will be a Thanksgiving.

[1897] Well, I guess in Madrid, they don't have to worry about competing with Thanksgiving.

[1898] Goddamn communist.

[1899] I know.

[1900] Yeah, because they're eating and drinking at midnight anyway.

[1901] So yeah, theoretically, this game really could be out on the 30th.

[1902] There was some talk about 1130, and then some people started talking about 1230 as a possible date.

[1903] 1230 would be a mistake.

[1904] That would be a mistake.

[1905] That would be a bummer.

[1906] Yeah, that would be.

[1907] So I don't know.

[1908] It looks like this game is actually going to come out.

[1909] I mean, that was the thing.

[1910] I mean, that thing is basically a system seller, right?

[1911] I don't know.

[1912] You don't think so anymore?

[1913] I don't know.

[1914] I mean, three.

[1915] Was it three?

[1916] But Forza's made three iterations since the last one.

[1917] We've gotten our driving experience.

[1918] Well, on the Xbox, yeah.

[1919] But there are plenty of people out there who only play games of this caliber on a PlayStation.

[1920] Yeah, so it's not a system seller in that case.

[1921] I don't see people holding it off.

[1922] I'm going to hold out until Gran Turismo 5 before I go into the next generation.

[1923] I feel like I have vivid memories of that GT3 bundle flying off the shelves.

[1924] Yeah, yeah.

[1925] That game sold a lot of PS2s.

[1926] Yeah.

[1927] I'm just wondering if people are a little more cynical now about it.

[1928] Maybe they're not quite as jazzed as they were back then.

[1929] This series is popular with people outside of the realm of people who would know about all these delays.

[1930] These are people that the week before it comes out, you can say, hey, there's a new Gran Turismo.

[1931] They'll be like, oh, dude.

[1932] As soon as those TV ads hit, people get stoked.

[1933] You start advertising that shit on Top Gear, and it's on.

[1934] I'm excited because sim racing games always look so good.

[1935] On consoles.

[1936] For the longest time.

[1937] You look at like Gran Turismo and some of the other driving games and stuff.

[1938] They were like, that was how you told what the real power of a system was.

[1939] It was like first person shooters for the PC.

[1940] Yeah, totally.

[1941] Like you had driving games on consoles.

[1942] Like how shiny are those cars?

[1943] Yeah, look at all those little flashes.

[1944] Headlights.

[1945] How non -jaggy are those lines?

[1946] Wrestler entrance.

[1947] Yeah.

[1948] How does Triple H's hair look?

[1949] Terrible.

[1950] This is where we are.

[1951] We'll see how detailed those rims are.

[1952] How non -jaggy are they?

[1953] In a weird way, I'm totally excited in jazz.

[1954] I don't even really like...

[1955] I've never been a huge Gran Turismo guy.

[1956] But the last one, the last prologue they put out, they had added a level of assistance to it that made it a lot more approachable.

[1957] Because I don't really like hardcore sim racing.

[1958] The thing I like about Forza is that they...

[1959] They have all that assistance in there to make it.

[1960] There's a middle ground.

[1961] Yeah, there's a middle ground.

[1962] And you feel like you can turn those assists off as you get better at it.

[1963] Whereas Gran Turismo just felt like all deep end for a lot of years.

[1964] But that last prologue, it seemed like they were kind of figuring it out.

[1965] Like, okay, not everyone is out of their minds.

[1966] Let's try and make something that anyone can play.

[1967] So I think they've probably learned some stuff from how Forza handles.

[1968] Well, I bet.

[1969] Of course, to hear them say it, they'll say they thought of it first, one, and that, two, Forza is a bunch of bullshit.

[1970] Right.

[1971] I just – I can't wait.

[1972] I don't know.

[1973] For some reason.

[1974] I'm really curious to know if it's any good or not.

[1975] But I'm not sitting here like – fiending to play it.

[1976] I could not care less to play that game, but I can't wait to hear what everybody else thinks.

[1977] No, what you can't wait is to watch someone else play it.

[1978] That's the thing.

[1979] I want to see people play it and see what it looks like, but hear what people who are really into that stuff think about it.

[1980] I just want to see what the hell went into it.

[1981] What is on those discs?

[1982] After all these years, what have they done?

[1983] What have they done?

[1984] It's not quite like Duke Nukem crazy or anything, but I guess it has been a really long time.

[1985] It was like a mini Duke Nukem.

[1986] But it's also like I always felt like this game was going to come out.

[1987] As opposed to Duke Nukemere, it just was like, this is never going to come out.

[1988] This is like, no, they're working on this.

[1989] It's happening.

[1990] What are they doing?

[1991] I've seen pictures down in the studio.

[1992] Yeah, it's just like, here are more pictures of Japanese dudes underneath cars with microphones.

[1993] Yeah.

[1994] All right.

[1995] What has changed so much in the driving world that it's like, hold on.

[1996] We got to make this.

[1997] Well, they were always announcing additional stuff for it that didn't necessarily seem like it had to be in there.

[1998] We got cart racing.

[1999] What?

[2000] Yeah, we got that too.

[2001] Okay, cool.

[2002] I guess.

[2003] What are you guys making over there?

[2004] You can fly airplanes.

[2005] Yeah, exactly.

[2006] It's also a first -person shooter with cars.

[2007] It took a lot of licensing.

[2008] You can ride a pogo stick if you want.

[2009] Nurburgring on a pogo stick.

[2010] Takes a while.

[2011] You can sled in this game.

[2012] Also, James Bond is in it.

[2013] Also, you can get out of your car and jack somebody else's car.

[2014] That'd be cool.

[2015] That came out.

[2016] Yeah, I'm so curious to see.

[2017] Also, the menus.

[2018] What have you guys been spending your time on?

[2019] There's like a Puzzle Fighter mode where it's like the Maybach versus the Jaguar, but it's Puzzle Fighter.

[2020] Match three to take this turn.

[2021] Also, I would love, I just really want a camera in their offices when that thing releases and just being like, after all this time, just sit there and watch it release and be like, yay!

[2022] I went to their office.

[2023] I wonder if it's going to be like...

[2024] There was a quote, I think, last week sometime of them saying, yeah, we're already working on GT6.

[2025] Really?

[2026] Like, fuck.

[2027] You better get started.

[2028] Or, you know, they're thinking about GT6.

[2029] It's either going to be that or it's going to be, like, the end of Watchmen where basically Ozymandias, like, basically, like, poisons everyone from his team.

[2030] It's like, congratulations!

[2031] Drink the poison champagne.

[2032] Everyone's dead.

[2033] Fuck it.

[2034] I'm done with you.

[2035] I heard they sold their, those, whatchamacallit, the SIM, like, the sit -down SIM things they had in there.

[2036] Did you see those running out there at their office?

[2037] Yeah, I used one.

[2038] Yeah, I heard they got rid of those.

[2039] Really?

[2040] Yeah.

[2041] I don't know if that's true or not.

[2042] Check with Brian Eckberg.

[2043] Taking too much time away from the development.

[2044] I don't think he would know anymore.

[2045] He's not allowed to know.

[2046] He's the last guy.

[2047] I guess so.

[2048] He's the last guy.

[2049] No, he's the first one to know.

[2050] Brian, why don't you go back there?

[2051] Check it out.

[2052] I'm going to put this little sticker.

[2053] Unless they've moved their office as a parking lot on the roof.

[2054] Like, not kidding.

[2055] That's awesome.

[2056] Pretty neat.

[2057] Anyway.

[2058] All right, that's it for news.

[2059] Let's go on to new releases.

[2060] There are some games coming out this week.

[2061] It's not just Call of Duty Black Ops.

[2062] So that is out on PS3, 360, and PC.

[2063] But we've also got Chuck E. Cheese's Game Room.

[2064] And Chuck E. Cheese's Playhouse.

[2065] Both for the DS.

[2066] You think that Chuck E. Cheese's Game Room will get updated more often than actual Game Room?

[2067] Yeah, probably.

[2068] Okay.

[2069] Is Mel and Bushnell or whatever is involved?

[2070] Yeah, I mean, this is like the perfect melding of minds.

[2071] You get a little pizza time theater going.

[2072] Mario vs. Donkey Kong Miniland Mayhem for the DS.

[2073] Quick look at that.

[2074] Yeah, quick look at that.

[2075] Monster Jam.

[2076] Path of Destruction for DS, PS3, PSP, and Wii.

[2077] I know Brad loves a good Monster Jam.

[2078] Well, he is from the South.

[2079] I think he likes Apple Monster Jam, though, which is gross.

[2080] It's all persimmon.

[2081] Family feud decades for the Wii.

[2082] Is it still Richard Karn?

[2083] Is it like one host per decade?

[2084] Like which one killed himself?

[2085] Yeah, I would play that game.

[2086] Ray Combs, Hang Yourself minigame.

[2087] Is it a different developer?

[2088] No, I don't know.

[2089] It's still Ubisoft putting it out, so I imagine not.

[2090] Karyuki Revolution, Glee.

[2091] Oh, good.

[2092] Sing your favorite hits from Glee.

[2093] Which are themselves, other people's songs.

[2094] Yeah.

[2095] A song by actors.

[2096] But with a chorus.

[2097] There was a commercial for Glee on as I was watching something with a bunch of people.

[2098] And I was like, what the hell is that?

[2099] Somebody said, I'm so glad you don't watch television.

[2100] I have no idea.

[2101] Unless there's a part of that game where I can play as Jane Lynch and punch someone with a microphone.

[2102] I don't care.

[2103] I've heard Glee.

[2104] I don't know.

[2105] People say good things about Glee.

[2106] Most of the people that have said good things about Glee to me are not people I would trust.

[2107] I think Glee has positive qualities.

[2108] So there you go.

[2109] And I was like, yeah, you get high a lot.

[2110] So I don't want to talk to you about your love of Dexter and Glee.

[2111] Not you, Alex.

[2112] I know.

[2113] I know.

[2114] I don't like Dexter.

[2115] Dexter's gotten pretty bad.

[2116] Yeah.

[2117] I'm indifferent.

[2118] Knights of the Nightmare for PSP.

[2119] And then a trio of first -party Sony releases on the PS3.

[2120] The fight lights out.

[2121] The Sly Collection, which is the enhanced Sly Cooper set, and that's in 3D if you want that.

[2122] And SingStar Dance.

[2123] What happens there?

[2124] You'd sing and dance.

[2125] Did Jeopardy come out last week?

[2126] I think so.

[2127] Is that dancing with a move?

[2128] Yeah.

[2129] Any idea?

[2130] I think so.

[2131] I think so.

[2132] I think that's what it is.

[2133] Dancing.

[2134] Beyblade Metal Fusion Battle Fortress.

[2135] What's that?

[2136] DS and Wii.

[2137] I don't know.

[2138] Sounds great.

[2139] Another Beyblade.

[2140] You're just making up syllables.

[2141] Yeah, pretty much.

[2142] Xbox Live Arcade looks to be Fairy Legends of Avalon.

[2143] That's F -A -E -R -Y.

[2144] Isn't that that game that they're always trying to get me to play where they show the hot chicks and they're like, come play with me. No, that's Ebony.

[2145] I just assumed it was the same thing.

[2146] And Gwanji.

[2147] Gwanji.

[2148] Oh, I love Jumanji.

[2149] Yeah, Jumanji.

[2150] Robin Williams likeness is in there, but it's a sound alike for the voice.

[2151] Weirdly enough, they couldn't get Kirsten Dunst.

[2152] Yeah, she's busy drinking, drinking, drinking.

[2153] That is a shooter, a top -down shooter from Cave.

[2154] So get your Japanese bullet hell going for that.

[2155] And then there's the Nintendo stuff.

[2156] I guess I should read.

[2157] Oh, you have to.

[2158] Dude, there's some good stuff.

[2159] All right.

[2160] What you got?

[2161] We should pass it around and everyone should have a turn.

[2162] Actually, Alex, as the guest, why don't you read all this?

[2163] Do you want me to read these?

[2164] All right.

[2165] Pass me your laptop.

[2166] This is going to be dangerous.

[2167] People are going to bitch to no end that I am doing this, by the way, because they are very particular about their readings of this stuff.

[2168] Yeah.

[2169] All right.

[2170] Haters going to hate.

[2171] Starting with WiiWare.

[2172] So is there a specific way I should read this?

[2173] I think you should come up with an appropriate bad voice.

[2174] You want to set this one up?

[2175] All right.

[2176] All right.

[2177] Here we go.

[2178] This is going to overheat that other computer.

[2179] You've got laptop on laptop.

[2180] Yeah, you're right.

[2181] That's a bad idea.

[2182] All right.

[2183] Here we go.

[2184] I'm going to try and figure this out.

[2185] Contort yourself into a good position here.

[2186] So start with WiiWare, go with DSiWare after that?

[2187] Yeah.

[2188] Just read down the list.

[2189] All right.

[2190] Here we go.

[2191] Gods versus humans from Zalag.

[2192] ESRB rating E. Price, 1 ,200 points.

[2193] Embody major gods from fabulous mythologies of Scandinavia, Egypt, Rome, and Japan.

[2194] As a god, you have enough power to rule the humans.

[2195] All but the cheeky ones.

[2196] Some of them want you to enter your domain.

[2197] Some of them want to enter your domain.

[2198] That's kinky.

[2199] And they've decided to build a tower.

[2200] I want to enter your domain, girl.

[2201] They've decided to build a tower to confront you.

[2202] Hell yeah.

[2203] I'm going to enter that tower.

[2204] Use your divide powers to break them down and show them who's boss.

[2205] You're going to go down, girl.

[2206] Be careful not to hurt them.

[2207] You need people to believe in you.

[2208] There are 16 playable gods with distinctive powers, 4 hysterical bosses to defeat, 16 additional challenges for experienced players, 60 levels of the solo campaign, and a special split screen 2 player mode.

[2209] All right, well, you're already going from one voice to another by the end of each reading, so this is pretty much already successful.

[2210] You're pretty much getting the hang of it.

[2211] I don't know what you're talking about.

[2212] All right.

[2213] My voices are rock solid and well rehearsed.

[2214] Also for WiiWare, Mick Superstar.

[2215] ESRB rating E, price 500 points.

[2216] What is that, Mick Superstar?

[2217] Mick's Superstar.

[2218] Oh, okay.

[2219] I thought it was finally another McDonald's game.

[2220] From Digital Mick Kids.

[2221] New Mick Kids, yes.

[2222] From Digital Leisure.

[2223] Mick and Mac Global Gladiators 2.

[2224] Hey, Jeff.

[2225] Do you think you could be the next big music star?

[2226] Now you've got all the tools at your fingertips with Mick's Superstar.

[2227] Create, mix, and record your own royalty -free musical masterpieces right on your system.

[2228] Once I create it, I should be able to charge royalties on my creations.

[2229] Legal team's not behind that.

[2230] There are more than 1 ,000 dance, hip -hop, and techno loops included across multiple instruments, including drum, bass, synth, guitar, and voice tracks.

[2231] The one thing I've learned about royalty -free music is the more royalty -free music tracks you have.

[2232] The better they're going to be, right?

[2233] That's right.

[2234] We've got 10 ,000.

[2235] Oh, great.

[2236] Oh, they must all be awesome.

[2237] Over 9 ,000.

[2238] Here's Cinematic 5.

[2239] It's better than Cinematic 6.

[2240] Once you've created your next hit, it's time to show it off.

[2241] Mix Superstar lets you export your music creations and load them onto your computer so you can take them on the go.

[2242] You can also use the Wii Connect 24 system to send songs to your Wii friends and even collaborate on mixes.

[2243] The game includes full support for both Logitech USB microphone and WeSpeak accessory, each sold separately.

[2244] WeSpeak.

[2245] So you can lay down your own vocals.

[2246] Nintendo Wi -Fi connection pay and play service even allows you to enhance your music creation experience with additional loot packs for a variety of genres.

[2247] Buy loot packs.

[2248] I'm getting this jungle pack.

[2249] Go on and make some noise.

[2250] That's WiiWare.

[2251] That's it.

[2252] How much was that?

[2253] That was 500 points.

[2254] That's $5.

[2255] I didn't know.

[2256] Digital Leisure Incorporated is bringing you that.

[2257] Oh, so it's a Laserdisc game.

[2258] Yeah, apparently.

[2259] It's all Dragon's Lair samples?

[2260] God, I hope so.

[2261] No, it's royalty -free, man. The sound of Dirk the Daring falling into a skeleton.

[2262] Like skeleton bones falling into a pile on loop.

[2263] Oh, God.

[2264] All right, here we go with DSiWare.

[2265] Go series pinball attack from GameBridge.

[2266] ESRB rating E. Price, 500 Nintendo DSi points.

[2267] Developed by Art Plaza, Pinball Attack is a unique fusion of pinball, exploration, and shooting.

[2268] This already sounds awesome.

[2269] Control the flippers of a pinball machine as you go on a magical journey under the sea, inside the earth, through a jungle, and into space.

[2270] As the scenery passes in the background, use the pinball to fight off enemies, such as a giant blowfish.

[2271] Collect bonuses and grab power -ups.

[2272] Defeat bosses at the end of each level to progress to the next world.

[2273] Wow, I had never thought of that.

[2274] That's a great idea.

[2275] Defeat bosses and then you progress to the next level.

[2276] Yeah, it's pretty intense.

[2277] That's a really good marketing bullet point.

[2278] I think that's what Call of Duty needs next year.

[2279] Yeah.

[2280] Boss fights.

[2281] Totally.

[2282] So that's that one.

[2283] Here we go.

[2284] Adventure in Vegas Slot Machine.

[2285] That kind of sounds like Pinball Quest.

[2286] In a way.

[2287] Yeah.

[2288] That awesome.

[2289] That's how you're playing more pinball.

[2290] I was playing some pinball effects too.

[2291] Anyway.

[2292] Guys, I've got this slot machine game to talk about here.

[2293] Sorry.

[2294] This is really important.

[2295] Sorry.

[2296] From Game Lion.

[2297] Rated T. This is rated T because it's assimilated gambling, of course.

[2298] 200 DSI points.

[2299] So this is low barrier to entry.

[2300] Great.

[2301] Try your luck on three slot machines.

[2302] Hawaiian, Pirate Treasure, and Mexican Heat.

[2303] I like the Mexican heat.

[2304] I heard that about you.

[2305] Yeah.

[2306] Do you have a lotion or something?

[2307] You really just need, like, a shot of penicillin.

[2308] Hang on.

[2309] Hang on.

[2310] This gets better.

[2311] That's what this whole season of East Bounded Down has been about.

[2312] The one -armed bandits in Adventure in Vegas slot machine are not only uniquely themed with tunes and graphics, but they also have different special features.

[2313] Numbers of reels, extra buttons, winning sequences, and custom bets.

[2314] And you're around the world trip in Vegas and bet the remainder of the small fortune you inherited.

[2315] Why would I do that?

[2316] Because you're a gambling junkie.

[2317] You have to be good to be lucky.

[2318] That makes no sense at all.

[2319] That sentence makes absolutely no sense.

[2320] You have to be good to be lucky.

[2321] If you have to be lucky to be good, that makes sense.

[2322] Will you acquire more luxury goods like jewelry?

[2323] A bike?

[2324] In your own jet?

[2325] A bike or your own jet?

[2326] Really?

[2327] Really?

[2328] Will you sell enough grit?

[2329] Will you get a bike?

[2330] Yeah, exactly.

[2331] I just like the difference between, like, I've got a bike.

[2332] Well, I've got a jet.

[2333] Well, we're even.

[2334] Hang on.

[2335] The follow -up sentence to this is really tragic.

[2336] Or maybe you'll lose everything.

[2337] You mean like my bike?

[2338] Yeah.

[2339] And your jewelry.

[2340] Oh no!

[2341] You can keep the jet though.

[2342] Whatever the outcome, all you can do with Las Vegas is go for it.

[2343] On the slot machine.

[2344] Yeah, on the slot machine.

[2345] That's your best bet in Vegas.

[2346] Keep hitting that button.

[2347] Go for it.

[2348] That's the thing, like slots are not a...

[2349] This is what I'm afraid is going to happen to connect.

[2350] It's going to be a virtual slot machine.

[2351] Yeah, just like people pulling down.

[2352] That would be all for that.

[2353] Oh, my God.

[2354] The no -armed bandit.

[2355] That's what you call it.

[2356] It just debits Microsoft points right from your account.

[2357] No, because that would be too entertaining, actually.

[2358] If it used real money.

[2359] Oh, you'd be into that?

[2360] That would make the game way more interesting.

[2361] I think they would have to actually put restrictions on selling Xboxes if you did that.

[2362] Yeah.

[2363] Well, they are doing another Xbox Primetime thing.

[2364] It's poker.

[2365] But I don't think you actually have to buy in real money for that.

[2366] You probably won't.

[2367] Slot Machines is dumb.

[2368] You don't have to be good to be lucky.

[2369] There's one more game.

[2370] This is a really short description.

[2371] Disco Light from Kasa.

[2372] Not rated.

[2373] This game is unrated.

[2374] It's 200 DSi points.

[2375] Strobelight?

[2376] Hang on, hang on.

[2377] Party on.

[2378] This is from the makers of Flashlight.

[2379] Yeah, it actually is.

[2380] Party on by changing your Nintendo DSi system into a disco light.

[2381] I might leave.

[2382] Choose between music genres such as love, hip -hop, and rock.

[2383] I love love music.

[2384] You know what?

[2385] When I put on my love music, I just wish I could open my DS because my girl is way down with that.

[2386] That's right.

[2387] Yeah, check out.

[2388] I'm going to put some love music on here.

[2389] Get some disco light going.

[2390] If you could just take off all your clothes, that'd be great.

[2391] I'm paying you, aren't I?

[2392] Yeah.

[2393] Well, then you have to do what I say.

[2394] A special disco disco feature will display colors that change with the rhythm of the music.

[2395] Play several Nintendo DSi systems together and create your very own disco.

[2396] Oh, God.

[2397] This is the best.

[2398] That's the end.

[2399] That's the end of the description.

[2400] I'm going to go out and buy 10 DSIs just so we can do this.

[2401] This pretty much sounds like the lead up to how I got my Miami Heat.

[2402] Yeah.

[2403] Your Mexican Heat.

[2404] Yeah, exactly.

[2405] No, the Miami Heat.

[2406] No, the Miami Heat.

[2407] They love, love genre.

[2408] That was, well, that was special.

[2409] Harrowing.

[2410] Yeah.

[2411] That's terrible.

[2412] I had a really hard time keeping a straight face.

[2413] I don't know how you do that.

[2414] I had a really hard time keeping a straight face throughout reading that stuff.

[2415] All right, homework assignment.

[2416] Go buy the disco light.

[2417] Use it to get laid.

[2418] Get the Mexican heat.

[2419] I want to hear about it.

[2420] I want to know about love music and disco disco mode.

[2421] Please no one go buy the disco light.

[2422] No, you just encourage it.

[2423] Yeah.

[2424] What is it?

[2425] Two bucks?

[2426] Or maybe it's amazing.

[2427] I shouldn't say that because I haven't seen it.

[2428] It's inappropriate for me to make any value judgment about the disco light.

[2429] No. It's probably game of the year.

[2430] No, I don't think it is.

[2431] Probably game of the year.

[2432] That's right.

[2433] You should go tell all the other nominees that like, listen, we're going to have to hold off because look at what Nintendo is doing to us.

[2434] Yeah.

[2435] Man. So that's kind of what that's like every week.

[2436] Oh, this is why Jeff has to, he leaves the room and all those other characters, there's nut balls come in here.

[2437] Yeah.

[2438] It's just a procession of out of work.

[2439] Before the podcast, we go up to the street and whoever walks by like, come here, come here, read this.

[2440] A bunch of unemployed SAG members get in here.

[2441] Yeah.

[2442] Yikes.

[2443] All right, why don't we read some emails?

[2444] Right, there's more to this podcast.

[2445] Okay.

[2446] This comes from the Miami Heat and the Mexican Heat.

[2447] Moons over Miami?

[2448] Dude, let's go get Moons over Miami.

[2449] Bombcast at giantbomb .com is the email address.

[2450] Send us your emails and we'll read them.

[2451] Much like these, last week we were talking about a submarine game that we could not identify.

[2452] My dad just asked me about a submarine game.

[2453] Yeah.

[2454] He says genre's dead.

[2455] Well, this is like an early 80s arcade game, so this is not what he's really looking for.

[2456] Or maybe it is.

[2457] 688 Attack Sub, he said.

[2458] Yeah, that's it.

[2459] That's it.

[2460] That's it.

[2461] This guy got it?

[2462] We have a few different guesses.

[2463] James here says, the game is Tomahawk 777.

[2464] Here's a link to the site that's helpful for this kind of stuff.

[2465] Someone else said it was a game called Polaris.

[2466] Scott.

[2467] Butler says, I'm thinking it was called Death Charge.

[2468] Keep up the good work.

[2469] Never miss your podcast.

[2470] So the truth is, no one has any idea what you guys were talking about.

[2471] Well, the guy who said it was Polaris seems the most emphatic about it.

[2472] Okay.

[2473] Let me scroll down and I can figure out his name.

[2474] But let's look at some actual questions here.

[2475] Hi, Bombcasters and Castettes.

[2476] That's for you, Alex.

[2477] Boom.

[2478] Burn.

[2479] My name is Everett from Serrano, Canada.

[2480] The Evil Empire.

[2481] aka Activision Blizzard, just released its Q3 reports where they recorded net revenues of $745 million but only made a $51 million profit.

[2482] That's an illegal number.

[2483] Yeah.

[2484] But all that stuff came out of his own pocket.

[2485] Which by my logic means they have $694 million in expenses.

[2486] How the hell is that possible?

[2487] What do they spend their money on?

[2488] There are a lot of people that work for Activision.

[2489] Yeah, it's a big company.

[2490] They put out a lot of games.

[2491] They market a lot of games.

[2492] Marketing is very expensive.

[2493] Yeah, they're buying ads on television.

[2494] Servers.

[2495] During NBA finals and all that stuff.

[2496] Yes, there's all those dedicated servers they have to run for Black Ops.

[2497] I wonder how much maintenance and upkeep of World of Warcraft costs at this point.

[2498] Like all those data centers and just all that stuff.

[2499] It's got to be a pretty big ongoing expense.

[2500] I have to assume BlizzCon comes out of that budget now, right?

[2501] They can't have a separate one.

[2502] Yeah, but I think that probably turns a profit too.

[2503] But yeah, it is the money that they're spending.

[2504] All those hand lotions.

[2505] Right.

[2506] It's not cheap.

[2507] Yeah.

[2508] I mean, making games is expensive.

[2509] Marketing them even more so in some cases.

[2510] And not making your money back on them.

[2511] Right, yeah, especially when some of them don't turn a profit.

[2512] Yeah, that's expensive.

[2513] Yeah.

[2514] That costs you money.

[2515] Yeah.

[2516] Flair in Arkansas is saying, the game Vlad Tiberius was talking about is Polaris by Taito from 1980.

[2517] I was shouting at my iPod, it's Polaris, Polaris from Taito, how the hell do you know that?

[2518] Woo!

[2519] Woo!

[2520] I was just waiting for somebody to bring up the nature boy.

[2521] Yeah.

[2522] Yeah.

[2523] All right.

[2524] North Carolina.

[2525] Represent.

[2526] Yes.

[2527] Matt wants to know, hey, Bombcast, Super Mario Brothers 2, is it a real Mario game despite its Doki Doki origins, or can it never be considered truly part of the series?

[2528] It is now, I guess, right?

[2529] Yeah, I mean, they've integrated Shy Guys and stuff into it.

[2530] Is anyone really worried about Mario canon at this point?

[2531] And they also re -released Doki Doki Panic as Super Mario USA, did they not?

[2532] Yeah, they did.

[2533] Yeah.

[2534] So welcome them in with a big hug.

[2535] That happened in the 80s or early 90s.

[2536] Anyone who has a problem with Super Mario 2 is going to have a problem with these fists.

[2537] That's right.

[2538] I love that game.

[2539] Hell of a game.

[2540] Hell of a game.

[2541] Though I did beat it the day I got it.

[2542] It was depressing.

[2543] That sucks.

[2544] All the way through.

[2545] Took me about a week.

[2546] No warps?

[2547] I found a warp.

[2548] I stumbled into a warp by accident and beat it.

[2549] That new Mario vs. Donkey Kong rife with tracks from Super Mario 2.

[2550] Yeah.

[2551] And that's great music.

[2552] The boss music and stuff.

[2553] Also the shy guy.

[2554] Yes, there are Shy Guys.

[2555] Yeah.

[2556] David from San Jose asks, Hey, BombCast crew, do you think we'll ever see a PS2 Classics section on the PlayStation Store, or would that be too much of a giant middle finger to all their customers still buying PS2 games on a disc?

[2557] I think we'll get there eventually.

[2558] Yeah, it seems like a given.

[2559] Yeah.

[2560] I thought there was one already.

[2561] Might be one more console in the future before they really start doing that.

[2562] I don't know.

[2563] I mean, it already emulates the...

[2564] The PS2, they can already do it if they really want to.

[2565] I mean, the early ones especially.

[2566] Right, right, right.

[2567] Well, you know, I mean, they're putting out like Sly Collections out this week.

[2568] Yeah, so that seems more like the track they're going to go on for this stuff.

[2569] Maybe not shoveling every day.

[2570] HD re -releases or something like that.

[2571] Get your persona.

[2572] Here's the PS2 version of Metropolis Mania this week.

[2573] Fuck it, I don't know.

[2574] Yes.

[2575] All right, fine.

[2576] I'll buy Metropolis Mania.

[2577] Got nothing to live for.

[2578] Yeah, they could put out like Tony Hawk 1, 2, and 3 or something like that.

[2579] Yeah, sure.

[2580] But I think I'd rather see that as like an HD updated package.

[2581] Yeah, totally.

[2582] Got like modern online.

[2583] Man, how great would that be?

[2584] God damn it.

[2585] God damn it.

[2586] Crazy88.

[2587] That's the only name on this email.

[2588] Okay.

[2589] I don't like that.

[2590] I don't like that at all.

[2591] Okay, never mind.

[2592] Hey, this is Grant from San Diego.

[2593] There we go.

[2594] You blew your cover.

[2595] What were you doing?

[2596] Wondering if Jeff saw the news that Champions Online is going to a free -to -play model, and if successful, Star Trek might be next.

[2597] If Star Trek goes free -to -play, will Jeff feel ripped off or pissed?

[2598] I mean, you will retain your ability to play.

[2599] That's right.

[2600] And I will get whatever awesome bonuses that they feel that they have to give to all these people that bought these lifetime subscriptions whenever it goes free -to -play.

[2601] So, you know, that'll be sweet.

[2602] So how many times a week are you playing that now?

[2603] Pretty much like four days a week.

[2604] When was actually the last time?

[2605] Probably about six months.

[2606] We should do a check -in.

[2607] Yeah.

[2608] Boot that baby up.

[2609] Boot that baby up and just record the patching process.

[2610] I'm going to do something else.

[2611] That was about four.

[2612] We don't have enough space for that.

[2613] That game was kind of cool.

[2614] Spoiler, the Borg's everywhere now.

[2615] Yeah.

[2616] That game was kind of cool, but kind of not so good.

[2617] Not so good.

[2618] But, you know, I retain my right to not play it and not pay a monthly fee to not play it.

[2619] You always have the option.

[2620] I always have that option.

[2621] Hey, Giant Bombcast.

[2622] This is from Scott.

[2623] He says, to give Brad some more StarCraft 2 time, what do you think of Liquid TLO, the little one, switching his main race from Terran to Zerg?

[2624] Well, he played Zerg in the beta, so it's really not that surprising.

[2625] Yeah.

[2626] And based on, I mean, this is honestly, there have been a bunch of buffs to the Zerg and nerfs to Terran, so it's...

[2627] Smart move?

[2628] Yeah, just based on balance, but he also has not been doing well in the GSL.

[2629] He got knocked out first round this time.

[2630] He made it to second round last time, and his performance is degrading.

[2631] He actually just announced he is not going to play in GSL Season 3.

[2632] He is moving back to Germany.

[2633] Is this one of those LeBron of the Heat things?

[2634] Is it that kind of controversial weirdness?

[2635] I wouldn't say he's quite that caliber, but he's definitely a fan favorite.

[2636] Okay.

[2637] He does a lot of really weird, unconventional stuff, so a lot of people love watching him play.

[2638] So he didn't just switch to Zerg to do that whole, like...

[2639] No, no. Was it genetic?

[2640] Yeah, I don't know if you guys know about this, but they basically...

[2641] Somebody made an algorithm and ran all the...

[2642] I thought this was really interesting.

[2643] Yeah, yeah.

[2644] So I think it was somebody on Team Liquid or on their forums made a genetic algorithm and ran basically all the economic parameters of how the Zerg work, like how much everything costs.

[2645] When you say genetic algorithm, what do you mean?

[2646] That's how it was described.

[2647] I'm not sure, like...

[2648] Sounds like science.

[2649] Well, I think it's a generational thing, right?

[2650] Like it's, it mimics like the way it's sort of genes evolve.

[2651] I don't, I'm not, I'm no, sounds science.

[2652] It sounds cool.

[2653] Keep going.

[2654] Yeah.

[2655] Anyway, uh, like, so they took, you know, like how much everything costs to make, how long it takes to build everything, blah, blah, blah.

[2656] Figured out like the mathematically perfect best way to open a Zerg and get like with a, through the jaw, the most ferocious dude.

[2657] Hey, that's not, Hey, open your throat.

[2658] Whoa.

[2659] Whoa.

[2660] Whoa.

[2661] I need this.

[2662] Anyway, it's like this build that nobody would ever come up with on their own, but a computer says this is the most efficient, fastest way to get to this offense as fast as possible.

[2663] Right.

[2664] So that's all anybody is doing on the ladder now.

[2665] And is it beatable?

[2666] So I doubt you'll see this in the GSL because I'm sure the pros will very quickly figure out how to deal with it.

[2667] I have not yet beaten it.

[2668] So it is effective.

[2669] It is.

[2670] The computer was.

[2671] It is.

[2672] Fuck.

[2673] We're done.

[2674] It sucks.

[2675] It sucks.

[2676] But, I mean, you know, they'll run the other two factions through that algorithm at some point and, like, come up with their perfect builds and then we'll be back to square one.

[2677] Do you ever play the AI in StarCraft?

[2678] It's not really.

[2679] Actually, I was practicing up on Zerg some this weekend playing, like, I can't beat a hard AI with Zerg right now.

[2680] But you were saying like it does the exact same thing every time, right?

[2681] Well, I did like all AI game, like all on the highest difficulty and all of their build orders were identical.

[2682] So it was just determined by who found who first.

[2683] That sort of dictated how the battle went.

[2684] That's a shame.

[2685] Yeah.

[2686] But who's to say that just if I loaded it up a second time, it wouldn't just be a slightly different version of that, and I didn't get the impression it was some perfect build order or anything like that.

[2687] It was just what they were all using.

[2688] So GSL finals are this week, and I've got to tell you guys how it's shaped up.

[2689] Yeah.

[2690] So do you know Boxer?

[2691] Yes.

[2692] He's the Michael Jordan of StarCraft.

[2693] Right.

[2694] Built -up professional StarCraft in Korea, is credited as being the best Terran player of all time.

[2695] Yeah.

[2696] He's in this tournament.

[2697] Another player.

[2698] named Boxer, also entered the tournament.

[2699] Created a ton of confusion early on because everybody's like, oh, did you see that Boxer versus whoever game?

[2700] Not knowing, is this the real Boxer or is this the pretender Boxer?

[2701] Real Boxer got knocked out.

[2702] Fake Boxer is in the final.

[2703] Oh, man. Upset.

[2704] Oh, man. Crazy.

[2705] Guess who he's playing?

[2706] You.

[2707] Nestea.

[2708] Is he sponsored?

[2709] N -E -S -T -E -A.

[2710] Wow.

[2711] No, I love Nesty.

[2712] It's really refreshing.

[2713] No. That's just his idea.

[2714] Yo, Lipton is going to be real unbeatable.

[2715] Fuck you.

[2716] I'm all Snapple all the fucking time.

[2717] So you are going to be there to see this stuff.

[2718] By the way, I'm going to Korea for this final.

[2719] Yeah, you are.

[2720] Yeah, you are.

[2721] We should say this isn't just a personal trip.

[2722] I'll wave at you from the crowd.

[2723] No. You're going to be covering.

[2724] Drew Scanlon and myself are going over there with cameras hoping to get some access to some people and talk a bunch of StarCraft.

[2725] Will real Boxer be there if he's not playing?

[2726] I don't know.

[2727] I would imagine, yeah, he'll probably be in the audience.

[2728] He made it to the semis.

[2729] He was in the top four.

[2730] Just give me the ideal scenario for this trip to Korea.

[2731] Who do you see?

[2732] What happens?

[2733] Who do you talk to?

[2734] Oh, man. I gave Blizzard a big list of names of people that I want to talk to.

[2735] Fruit Dealer got knocked out in the second round.

[2736] So he's available.

[2737] He got knocked out by Fake Boxer, who people are calling Foxer now, just as a way to distinguish him.

[2738] It's a little too close to Foxer.

[2739] Boxer is technically Slayer's Boxer.

[2740] Slayer's Boxer is his full name.

[2741] But everybody just knows him as Boxer.

[2742] So yeah, Fruit Dealer got knocked out 2 -0.

[2743] Lost both of his games to this guy who has come out of nowhere and is just decimating.

[2744] That's awesome.

[2745] It's crazy.

[2746] Do you have, like, tickets to sit in, like, some box seats?

[2747] I don't know how that's going to work.

[2748] It's going to be a crazy trip.

[2749] Is there a booth?

[2750] We're barely in country for 48 hours.

[2751] I can't wait until you go too far north and we never see you again.

[2752] Drew's a little too close to the border with the camera.

[2753] I think it's this way.

[2754] Drew was eyeballing our itinerary today on the day that we leave, like, looking at how many hours we had.

[2755] And he was like, do you think we have enough time to go to the DMZ?

[2756] And I'm like.

[2757] No, you don't.

[2758] You can do that.

[2759] Next time I see Drew, it's just being like parade step in North Korea.

[2760] You should have blonde dude.

[2761] You know what?

[2762] You should just watch the Vice series on going to North Korea, and that should be enough for you.

[2763] Yeah, I feel like it's only something you want to mess around with.

[2764] I will not be going near the border.

[2765] Drew is his own man. Also, stay out of the ocean.

[2766] Make sure you don't bring the camera with him.

[2767] There's some dispute on who owns the ocean, so watch out for that.

[2768] Good to know.

[2769] Good to know.

[2770] All right.

[2771] How's your Korean?

[2772] Non -existent.

[2773] Awesome.

[2774] Non -existent.

[2775] You'll fit in.

[2776] You'll be great.

[2777] Bob will be there, so at least I'll learn how to blow fire with 151.

[2778] How to drink in Korean.

[2779] So you're doubly about coming back everywhere.

[2780] Yeah, exactly.

[2781] You're going to end up.

[2782] He's going to ruin you.

[2783] I hope you realize this.

[2784] Sounds like he's already been getting ruined over there by the Korean PR team.

[2785] No, I know.

[2786] And he's going to transfer that on to Brad.

[2787] Andrew.

[2788] Best of luck.

[2789] We only have two days.

[2790] I have to avoid it.

[2791] That's all I need.

[2792] Extreme inebriation in favor of actually getting coverage.

[2793] The P2 cars are real small.

[2794] Just do what you got to do to get them back.

[2795] I'm not going to make any judgment calls.

[2796] Just do what you got to do.

[2797] I'm just going to throw this out there.

[2798] Every single movie I've seen from Korea this year has involved someone getting murdered.

[2799] So just watch out for that.

[2800] Again, just do what you got to do to get them back.

[2801] Try not to get murdered.

[2802] I guess, yeah.

[2803] That's pretty much always the top of my priority list.

[2804] Definitely go into a PC bong.

[2805] Oh, yeah.

[2806] Oh, yeah, so there's, like, weird convergence of, like, so going to a PC bong was one of my goals.

[2807] Yeah, yeah.

[2808] I'm not really quite sure what that is.

[2809] So it's the whole internet, like, play games in a cafe culture over there.

[2810] Spelled bang, by the way.

[2811] It's PC bang, but I think it's pronounced bong.

[2812] If you had said go into a PC bong, it would have worked any better.

[2813] So anyway, one of the, like, seminal Brood War casters, like, one of the old commentators, I guess, is, like...

[2814] Some StarCraft super fans that I know were like, dude, you've got to interview this guy.

[2815] And then I found out he runs a PC bong.

[2816] He owns one now.

[2817] Oh, cool.

[2818] So I'll just go to that one and see his bong.

[2819] Nate, I didn't say that.

[2820] Let's move on.

[2821] I want to see your bong, bro.

[2822] Better than seeing your bangs.

[2823] Ash cats are sick.

[2824] Anyway, we'll be talking to a bunch of people.

[2825] When are you back?

[2826] So you're back Monday or Sunday?

[2827] Sunday.

[2828] Fly out of there at 6 .30 p .m. Sunday, and we land here at 9 .30 a .m. Sunday.

[2829] Time makes sense.

[2830] You live two Sundays over there.

[2831] We're probably not going to see you for a couple days, are we?

[2832] We have to get back.

[2833] We have to come in here.

[2834] We're all about this amazingness.

[2835] Bring our travel log back.

[2836] Yeah.

[2837] All right, next question.

[2838] That sounds awesome, by the way.

[2839] And we'll definitely have some coverage of that up, hopefully.

[2840] Hopefully next week, I guess.

[2841] Yeah, well.

[2842] I'm sorry, the week after.

[2843] There will be firsthand video of dudes rising through stages with smoke machines.

[2844] That sounds fantastic.

[2845] Anthony from the UK wants to know, do you think Activision will release Dance Hero for Kinect?

[2846] How can they improve and do better than Dance Central?

[2847] Do you think they want to maintain this?

[2848] Like battle with harmonics.

[2849] They totally don't care anymore.

[2850] I don't think so.

[2851] I don't think that.

[2852] Their apathy is clearly showing at this point.

[2853] And also they have nothing for Kinect yet.

[2854] So.

[2855] Yeah.

[2856] I mean they might do a dance game or something.

[2857] But like I don't.

[2858] I imagine they'll probably focus on like existing franchises.

[2859] I would feel if they're going to do.

[2860] Air guitar hero.

[2861] I was literally just going to say that.

[2862] And kind of seriously.

[2863] If they were going to do anything.

[2864] It would be like an air guitar.

[2865] Like Tony Hawk ride.

[2866] But for a guitar hero.

[2867] Yeah.

[2868] Yeah.

[2869] Well maybe they do a Tony Hawk.

[2870] game for that thing.

[2871] That was the kind of press conference -y thing, you know, scanning your board.

[2872] Yeah, that was skate.

[2873] Well, that was like the messed up thing is that you'd hold up the skateboard and scan it in and then also they were showing a Tony Hawk game with a controller, with a skateboard controller there.

[2874] It was like the most dissonant thing in the world.

[2875] And final question.

[2876] Chris from North Carolina.

[2877] who typed this message while eating a Bojangles Cajun chicken biscuit.

[2878] I was wondering why it smelled so good.

[2879] God damn.

[2880] During a recent Halloween discussion, I got into an argument with a co -worker over Jurassic Park being a monster movie.

[2881] So my question, are dinosaurs monsters?

[2882] Is Jurassic Park a monster movie?

[2883] They're just misunderstood.

[2884] I think Jurassic Park is a monster movie.

[2885] Really?

[2886] Yep.

[2887] I think it's a monster movie, but I don't know that I would call dinosaurs monsters.

[2888] Yes.

[2889] I don't know.

[2890] I feel like there's such a creative license with some of that stuff that like, who knows?

[2891] You mean like the part where there aren't really dinosaurs?

[2892] And never were.

[2893] Those bones were just planted there.

[2894] The earth is only 3 ,000 years old.

[2895] By the devil?

[2896] Yes, by the devil.

[2897] It's Tricus.

[2898] Will this part of the podcast remain in?

[2899] Let's tune in to find out.

[2900] Yes, it's a monster movie.

[2901] I mean, it's designed to be like a scary creatures trying to eat you movie.

[2902] I think it's a monster movie, but dinosaurs are not monsters.

[2903] Monsters are things that are not real or never were.

[2904] I don't know.

[2905] Anaconda was a monster movie, and that's just a giant snake.

[2906] Yeah, but there really aren't a lot of snakes that are like...

[2907] Like Croc?

[2908] They don't plot the way the Anaconda does.

[2909] Is Jaws a monster movie?

[2910] Yes, Jaws is totally a monster movie.

[2911] That's a big -ass shark.

[2912] All right.

[2913] I don't know.

[2914] I'm with Jeff.

[2915] That is an important distinction.

[2916] Are you also a raptors with feathers or not with feathers, man?

[2917] I don't know, man. See?

[2918] The current thought on the topic.

[2919] They'll eat your face no matter what.

[2920] T -Rex was feathered?

[2921] You can't make that movie with a feathered T -Rex.

[2922] That'd be for fucking pussies.

[2923] That's their Vegas show, like wearing their big feathers and coming out there and dancing.

[2924] So you're telling me that was a shaved T -Rex.

[2925] You know what's awesome about that, though?

[2926] Then when you go to Bojangles, you can think about how you're eating a dinosaur biscuit.

[2927] And on that note.

[2928] I don't think dinosaur biscuit means the same thing you think it means.

[2929] Oh, is that like shit in my mouth or something like that?

[2930] Like what's a dinosaur biscuit?

[2931] Let's move on.

[2932] No, you're thinking of a Cajun.

[2933] And that's going to do it for another edition of the Giant Bombcast.

[2934] Thanks to all you guys for listening.

[2935] Thanks, Brad, Vinny, Alex, for coming out.

[2936] And thanks to Ryan for editing this because I don't know.

[2937] I'm sure as shit not doing it.

[2938] I don't even know where the music is for this thing.

[2939] Did you know there's music in this podcast?