Giant Bombcast 03-29-2011

[0] Hey, everyone.

[1] It is Tuesday, March the 29th.

[2] That's a Tuesday.

[3] 29th of March, 2011.

[4] I don't know how calendars work.

[5] You look at me for approval and I'm like, yeah.

[6] Right, Jeff?

[7] It sounds like it's probably a Tuesday.

[8] Totally a Tuesday.

[9] Mouse over the time on the computer.

[10] No, I have it set to tell me the date all the time.

[11] Really?

[12] Yeah, you can do that.

[13] Why would you want to know that?

[14] Because I need to know what day it is.

[15] It's just a stress bomb.

[16] It's like, oh, God.

[17] It's bad enough knowing what time it is.

[18] Those unpaid parking tickets are due on April 8th.

[19] I know that much.

[20] Yeah, so many things.

[21] You've got like a week to put that off.

[22] All right.

[23] Great.

[24] So keep on keeping on with that.

[25] Great.

[26] Jeff Gerstmann at the table.

[27] Vinny Caravella as well.

[28] And I'd like to introduce for our fourth chair, Mr. Jared Ray sitting in for Brad Shoemaker, who's out on vacation.

[29] Jared, how are you doing?

[30] I'm doing good.

[31] I'm just here to enjoy the show.

[32] I'm just going to – I always wanted to experience the Bombcast live once more.

[33] And I'm just going to sit here and just kind of just soak it in.

[34] Soak it in.

[35] Oh, you've got to participate.

[36] Is that your action journal?

[37] Yes, that is my – Is that the opposite of like a dream journal?

[38] Yeah, it is a Behance action journal.

[39] My adult notebook.

[40] I decided that it was time to put away the childish notebooks of Sanrio and say I am an adult and I deserve an adult notebook.

[41] How many pages does that hold?

[42] 120 maybe.

[43] I've maybe filled two, two and a half.

[44] Is that Action Journal Black?

[45] Yes, it is, and it has the nice little cloth rubber bandy thingy.

[46] Because adults, they need to make sure that their pages stay contained.

[47] They don't want to open up, and you don't want people to see your actions.

[48] What kind of actions you got in there?

[49] Shoot, I got so much actions.

[50] Snap my fingers.

[51] Action for days in this journal.

[52] This ain't some my notebook carbon type nonsense.

[53] It gets a lot of comments, which is odd, though.

[54] It's just a notebook.

[55] I just like that it says action journal.

[56] It's like action weather.

[57] It's full of action items.

[58] It is.

[59] No, no, no, wait, wait.

[60] Come to the part that says shoot a guy.

[61] So that's the thing.

[62] So you put your action items on the side, and then you can check them off as you go about it.

[63] But then it's also got a back burner section.

[64] That's the stuff that, you know.

[65] It's written down, but eh.

[66] But not totally clutch.

[67] Yeah.

[68] It's not enough to waste the white space.

[69] Well, I'm sold, you guys.

[70] Yeah.

[71] Where can I get one of these action notebooks?

[72] Wait, does Zojirushi make this?

[73] I'm going to hide it.

[74] This is too distracting.

[75] We're here to talk about vision games.

[76] The good folks at Razor Mice, damn it, like to let you know.

[77] For more opportunities, please contact...

[78] It's Vinny Caravella and or Ryan Davis.

[79] You just CCS on that.

[80] Actually, we just have Vinny and Ryan at GiantBomb .com.

[81] Just hit us there.

[82] All one word.

[83] Yeah, all one word.

[84] Vinny and Ryan at GiantBomb .com.

[85] I wrote to Ryan and Vinny at GiantBomb .com.

[86] That account.

[87] Don't be an idiot.

[88] Come on.

[89] Okay.

[90] Vinny always gets first billing.

[91] That's a different opportunity.

[92] But my name is higher, so it works out.

[93] Actually, Ryan's all caps in that email address.

[94] And our mail server can tell the difference.

[95] So look out for video games.

[96] Is this like movie posters where the names don't exactly core align with – Oh, yes, exactly.

[97] That's why he's first, but my name is higher up.

[98] It's actually a line above the rest of the email address, but also in all caps.

[99] There's a lot of – Don't mess it up.

[100] It's a really confusing email to send.

[101] You must have a really good agent.

[102] The only people you can figure out were Zojirushi, so again.

[103] Fantastic.

[104] Wait a minute.

[105] You are getting money for that?

[106] I want a cut.

[107] What?

[108] I haven't heard your opinions on Zojerusi products yet, Jeff.

[109] So tell me, what do you think of the Zojerusi 17 -ounce stainless mug?

[110] Do I get it?

[111] Is this?

[112] Tell me what you think.

[113] I think it's the greatest thermos of all time.

[114] I would never use another thermos.

[115] I wouldn't use another beverage holder.

[116] It's awesome.

[117] It keeps hot.

[118] It's hot.

[119] It keeps cold.

[120] Yeah.

[121] Jared, you're in.

[122] Jeff, you're on probation.

[123] Yes.

[124] The bug is mine.

[125] See me after the show, Jared.

[126] Yeah, we'll see about it.

[127] We'll figure out where to mail the checks to.

[128] Good.

[129] All right.

[130] Anyway.

[131] I used the hell out of my Zojirushi thermos this weekend.

[132] I'm not going to lie about it.

[133] And we gave away a bunch of those Roku boxes on Friday.

[134] Wait a minute.

[135] And I'm not going to apologize for that either.

[136] I don't think we got paid for that either.

[137] No. We bought those with our...

[138] Yeah.

[139] That was Whiskey Media money.

[140] Went to go buy those.

[141] That's like 500 bucks we spent on that thing.

[142] Or Mike Tatum's personal cash or stuff.

[143] Yeah, exactly.

[144] Who knows?

[145] Is there a difference?

[146] I don't know.

[147] I bought two Norelco shavers.

[148] Slush fund.

[149] May I give one of those away accidentally through Amazon.

[150] Really?

[151] Do you buy one of those good ones?

[152] I was telling you, Jeff needs one.

[153] Oh, do you need one?

[154] Yeah.

[155] I'd buy it off.

[156] No, but it's a beard trimmer.

[157] I already have a beard trimmer that sucks.

[158] It's a beard trimmer that's good.

[159] What are you trying to do?

[160] Shave.

[161] Like just shave?

[162] Yeah.

[163] Or are you trying to manscape it?

[164] No, this is a trimmer.

[165] This is more like for stubble.

[166] Yeah.

[167] So it'll get me down to stubble, but not...

[168] Okay, see, I already have something along those lines.

[169] They're actually kind of like the stubble look at this point.

[170] Now I feel weird when I'm...

[171] There was something on Woot recently.

[172] They were selling some badass electric razor.

[173] I know you've been looking for one, Jeff.

[174] If you have an electric razor to recommend for Jeff Gerstmann...

[175] Then we can recommend it on the show.

[176] 445 -508 -3975.

[177] That's our number.

[178] Whiskey Media on Skype.

[179] Call us.

[180] Leave us a message.

[181] Let us know.

[182] Are you saying we should start taking calls during this podcast?

[183] I am not.

[184] Maybe just for a promotional gift.

[185] First call up.

[186] Go ahead.

[187] No, you're calling right now.

[188] Call up.

[189] You get the ticket seat, little kid.

[190] Yeah.

[191] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Yeah, I don't think I'm set up to take phone calls here yet.

[192] Got that new Tony Ayo talking New York.

[193] Let's do this.

[194] But Lord knows that I would not be able to match the Funkmaster Flex, the big dog.

[195] The big dog pit bulls are coming through.

[196] Always.

[197] It's great.

[198] We're only five minutes in.

[199] I'm already crying.

[200] That's great.

[201] Good start.

[202] So, yeah, guys.

[203] Video games, huh?

[204] What?

[205] Oh, yeah.

[206] Right?

[207] Yeah, those are good, too.

[208] Right?

[209] Right?

[210] I beat Bulletstorm.

[211] The Caravella.

[212] What you been playing?

[213] I beat Bulletstorm.

[214] You beat Bulletstorm.

[215] How do you feel about Bulletstorm?

[216] Man. Yeah.

[217] It's okay.

[218] It's alright.

[219] I didn't like the ending.

[220] What's rubbing you wrong?

[221] The ending.

[222] I didn't like how it ended.

[223] You want a little more closure?

[224] Did you feel that they wrapped it up too nicely and too conveniently?

[225] No, too like, we're going to leave these threads blown in the wind, and then after the credits, here's another thread.

[226] Just in case you didn't have enough to go on.

[227] Someone was bitching about that, about games.

[228] All games are now built to have a sequel to follow them up.

[229] It always feels like they never actually let you, like, the game that you're playing, you never fucking finish the fight.

[230] You never actually do that.

[231] And I would love it if someone could say, like, yeah, for our sequel, entirely different conflict or scenario.

[232] We don't have to just drag out the fucking scenario that we had in the first game.

[233] I think that's one of the things I really liked about Halo 3.

[234] I mean, sure, they did kind of leave it hanging a little bit, but there was plenty of closure for the events of the past three games.

[235] Certainly.

[236] Certainly.

[237] And then since then, they haven't returned to it.

[238] They've done exactly that.

[239] Like, here are different conflicts.

[240] And those, I don't think, have been as successful as, you know, Master Chief, who you care about as opposed to human dudes that you don't.

[241] But, yeah, I think Halo did a good job with that.

[242] I think the complaint was being leveled against Crisis 2 specifically.

[243] Does that do like a finish the fight at the end?

[244] I don't know.

[245] Jeff would.

[246] Crisis 2 is definitely, you know.

[247] A cliffhanger.

[248] Hey, you did this thing, but you know what?

[249] Still more to do.

[250] See, I don't mind that you did this thing and that was awesome, but there's a bigger picture here and we're going to take it to the big sequel.

[251] That's kind of what they're doing here.

[252] It's not the most creative thing in the world.

[253] I don't mind that stuff where it's like, oh, you finished your little mission.

[254] Guess what?

[255] That was a drop in the water, like a drop in the ocean.

[256] But your whole point in Bullstorm was murder this dude.

[257] Yeah, the whole thing was set up to be like, this guy's such an asshole.

[258] You can't wait to go get him.

[259] And then the end did not.

[260] really feel like I've I kind of put the controller down like felt like a jerk like kind of like I suck I liked by the end of that game they had managed to make totally unlikable characters relatively likable that was that was my thing with that game I still didn't dig those guys that much I came around on the girl by the end.

[261] You're not going to go out with them or something?

[262] Kiss them on the cheek?

[263] I'm not going to play that game anymore.

[264] Well, yeah.

[265] That's where they live and die.

[266] Yeah.

[267] There's not a whole lot to go back to.

[268] Just not going to put it in.

[269] Yeah.

[270] That game definitely, like, I enjoyed the experience.

[271] But, like, after I went back and looked at some of the, you know, the other modes that are in there.

[272] Whatever.

[273] Echoes.

[274] Yeah, the echoes mode and the co -op stuff.

[275] I'm like, eh, this stuff's okay, but you get your full.

[276] Yeah, you play the game.

[277] You're like, it's like Tony Hawk, but a first -person shooter.

[278] And then you're fucking good.

[279] I was just killing everybody with that drill gun by the end.

[280] I don't know about you guys, but that's like one -shot kill for everybody.

[281] I don't know why you would use anything else.

[282] And they give you those...

[283] What do they call them?

[284] You leash the rearm stations.

[285] I forget what they're even called.

[286] Yeah, the leash pods or whatever.

[287] Yeah, that's good.

[288] Yeah, I think it's like whatever.

[289] Man, it says it.

[290] The drop pods.

[291] Drop pods, yes.

[292] So they give you those like every 20 feet anyway.

[293] So you just burn through that ammo and you know you're going to hit another drop pod.

[294] So I never ran out of ammo for it even though there's only 20 shots when it's maxed out.

[295] They do definitely have a point.

[296] They're giving you those drop pods constantly.

[297] And they're like, just buy everything.

[298] I wish that it didn't take so long to arm the powered up version of your shots.

[299] Yeah, you've got to kind of think ahead of time.

[300] You've already kind of had that situation in your mind that you're going to use this.

[301] It's several beats between the time you initiate it.

[302] And if you miss. That button shouldn't arm it.

[303] It should just shoot it.

[304] Right.

[305] But I'm sure that's like a balance thing.

[306] Yeah, probably.

[307] They don't want it to be.

[308] Probably.

[309] Crazy powerful all the time.

[310] But okay.

[311] Okay experience overall.

[312] Yeah.

[313] It was fun.

[314] Yeah.

[315] In the sequel you should just play as that dinosaur.

[316] The whole time.

[317] You know.

[318] Epic discovering color.

[319] We should all be happy.

[320] I will say by the end.

[321] The one part of the ending was.

[322] In one sense, it is very final.

[323] I don't want to spoil it because it is actually pretty soon.

[324] So in one sense, the entire thing is very final.

[325] Like, well, that's done.

[326] And in another sense, it is so – it's one of those like narrative things where you're supposed to come back around and everything is supposed to be different by the time you left.

[327] And it's kind of like, no, it's just kind of worse.

[328] The whole thing.

[329] You're just kind of in a worse place.

[330] That kind of sucks.

[331] I think that can work, too.

[332] You know, there's a storytelling thing, but maybe...

[333] That's your second act.

[334] I don't know.

[335] Yeah, that's typically your end of Bulletstorm 2 sort of moment of like, oh, no. And then this one was kind of like, oh, no. But I felt like I got to know the characters, and I felt like there was a redemptive arc for those characters.

[336] Yeah, I thought it was interesting.

[337] What else have you been playing, man?

[338] Dragon Age 2, and I am up to 30 hours in.

[339] Just finished, I guess, what you can call the first act.

[340] Okay.

[341] So that game skips around in time.

[342] Right.

[343] And as we probably all know, you spend one year.

[344] One year goes by from, I would say, the prologue to the first act.

[345] Jared, you played through the whole thing?

[346] Yeah, I think each act is typically maybe.

[347] Year or less, but yeah.

[348] Yeah, so then I think the second one seemed to go three years or something crazy.

[349] Like you come out of the mines.

[350] And then you're like, oh, shit.

[351] And then it's like, well, tell me what happened.

[352] Then you get another one of those cut scenes and it's like, three years have gone by.

[353] But then everybody acts like it had only been five minutes.

[354] Like, hey, remember three years ago when that crazy thing happened?

[355] Well, that was insane.

[356] Well, not a lot else going on.

[357] So I turned it off at that point because I was kind of powering through that last bit before I went to bed.

[358] And then I was like, okay, this is a good stopping point.

[359] So you'd say you're 30 hours in and you're all done with act one?

[360] Yes.

[361] Remember, this is the Vinnie Caravella way of playing games.

[362] So I cleaned up every mission, right?

[363] And so this is not a spoiler because this is set up in the prologue.

[364] Basically, the game starts out and you need to get, I think it's 50 gold pieces, 50 gold sovereigns to basically kick off Act 2.

[365] Or no, basically end Act 1, right?

[366] It's like basically you need 50 gold pieces to go on this mission.

[367] And every mission that is set up in Act 1 is set up to get you gold, right?

[368] So this whole time I'm going through, I'm soaking up every mission.

[369] What if you spend that money?

[370] Because you could spend it.

[371] What if I get to a point where I don't have the 50 and I've done all the missions?

[372] So I was real curious to be like, are they going to put in a mission generator that is just going to let you do infinite missions to kind of keep grinding?

[373] Because you can't grind out guys either because they disappear.

[374] Or is there just like one kind of pre -story mission that...

[375] So you get access to that will always make sure.

[376] So let's say it gives you 50 that that's the reward for that mission.

[377] So at about, let's just say about 28 hours in, right?

[378] I'm down like two missions left.

[379] I'm like, what are they going to do?

[380] Because I'm running out of missions.

[381] To be clear, did you have enough to do it at this point?

[382] I had about 70 gold at that point.

[383] But you were just curious.

[384] And there was something I could buy for 42.

[385] So it's like, I could totally spend all this.

[386] The last, second to last mission that pops up, we go talk to this guy.

[387] He's like, hey, the guy you need to give the money to hates me, but I will give you 50 bucks or 50 gold.

[388] Just don't tell him.

[389] And that's like, I think that's their out.

[390] And then you say no. He's like, well, I'll stick around here and you see what happens.

[391] So that's their, it's kind of cool in a way.

[392] It's like very story related.

[393] It ties in well.

[394] It doesn't seem like it's totally out of the blue.

[395] It's basically this guy being like, I can't get in on this mission.

[396] I can't get on this expedition you need to 50 gold for, but I will back you as a kind of behind -the -scenes guy.

[397] Silent partner.

[398] Silent partner.

[399] Just don't tell.

[400] Never mention it again.

[401] Right.

[402] And we'll do it.

[403] And then when you come back, we'll split the profits or whatever.

[404] I don't know if you did that, Jared.

[405] I did see that mission pop up, but I just paid the cost.

[406] So I don't know what it does to the story later on because I didn't do it either.

[407] So I was like, oh, okay.

[408] My curiosity is seeded.

[409] I can move on.

[410] So how are you feeling?

[411] Yeah.

[412] Boss at the end of the first act was the hardest thing I had faced in an entire game by like leaps and bounds.

[413] I had been chewing through that entire game.

[414] Hadn't really died ever.

[415] And then died like five times on that one guy until I kind of like realized, okay.

[416] Time to start pausing the game.

[417] So you hadn't been pausing in group managing much?

[418] I had just been making dudes explode left and right.

[419] Did you sort out your frame rate -y performance issues?

[420] Yeah, so I dropped it down like everybody had said.

[421] They told me...

[422] Just drop it down from highest to high and you'll be fine.

[423] That's working better.

[424] I saw you were taking video cards home and shit.

[425] Yeah, so I have that 5 something.

[426] 570.

[427] 70 in there.

[428] And on highest, it was still chugging and having graphical issues.

[429] And then I was like, oh, you can stay on DX11 and just drop it down to high and that's fine.

[430] Just on highest, they must be hitting something that's making it go bad.

[431] What class are you playing?

[432] Warrior.

[433] Okay.

[434] People explode.

[435] And I have another warrior with me who's a two -handed weapon, Fenris.

[436] So you're playing as a tank then.

[437] Basically, yeah.

[438] And he's making – he makes dudes explode before I even get there.

[439] So, like, he – I got him this crazy axe.

[440] You're mop -up.

[441] And, yeah.

[442] And it's like we initiate combat and I don't pause it.

[443] And then just everybody – just bloods all over the place.

[444] And then I look for the dude who's still standing and try and get over to him.

[445] Because the thing about Dragon Age 2 is that they just throw a lot of garbage mobs at you.

[446] Just guys who have, like, no health.

[447] They're just like, hey, I'm here.

[448] It's like that part in Dragon Age 1 at the very end where you're just taking dudes out in one way.

[449] Yeah, yeah.

[450] And it's also really weird and I don't – there's a couple of things I don't appreciate about the game.

[451] One is mobs.

[452] There will be like five dudes in front of you and be like, I'm going to fight because I'm the guy who's going to fight.

[453] And you're like, all right, I'll fight this guy.

[454] And then dudes just appear out of nowhere.

[455] They just like warp him like out of nowhere.

[456] It's like, well, we're going to fight too.

[457] We're the ten other guys who are the second wave that like literally just spawn and then you kill them.

[458] And like we're the third wave and we just materialize out of the air.

[459] It's like, well, that's – That's kind of the weak part about Dragon Issues combat.

[460] The combat itself is fine, but then the way they spawn in enemies in mid -combat, it makes party positioning just completely pointless.

[461] Also, it takes you right out of the kind of like...

[462] the narrative and kind of a contextual feel of it.

[463] It's like, you're really just going to spawn in here?

[464] Like, where'd you come from?

[465] At least to generate a monster closet.

[466] Hey, magic.

[467] Magic.

[468] Wizards.

[469] They came from wizards.

[470] The other part I don't appreciate, and I now realize what everybody was talking about, was the recycling of the areas.

[471] About 12 areas in the game.

[472] If that, because they...

[473] I was counting day and night cycles.

[474] They're not even...

[475] I don't get if they're trying to pull one over on me or not because you go back to these areas.

[476] And all of a sudden, doors that you had once gone through to reach other areas are just stone.

[477] Yeah.

[478] No, they're not.

[479] They're not messing with you.

[480] You can't go through them.

[481] So they – I'm not sure if they're trying to – It's the same basic geometry.

[482] It's just like now you have to go a different way.

[483] It's exactly the same area.

[484] And it's like, yeah, they've shut off doors and like, OK, now you have to go this way.

[485] I'm just not sure if they're telling me like, no, this is the exact same area.

[486] But they're trying to be like, oh, this is a different area.

[487] Oh, you mean in the narrative?

[488] Yeah.

[489] Oh, yeah.

[490] I didn't understand that.

[491] I didn't understand they were trying to say, oh, this is a slightly different area.

[492] Oh, it's real weird.

[493] I don't know.

[494] Time has passed, and now this part of the cavern has collapsed, but you can find this alternate route.

[495] But it's not even that.

[496] It's like if we were playing in this office and suddenly one mission took you into this podcast room, then the next time you go through, that door looks like a door.

[497] It's just stone.

[498] So the frame is there, and it's just stone in it, but now you can enter into the bar area.

[499] And it's like, are you telling me this is a different area, or are you just...

[500] Totally different.

[501] No, you've never been here before.

[502] Totally different.

[503] And then they send you so many quests to the same area.

[504] He's like, wow, a lot of things happen in this nondescript cave.

[505] Everything.

[506] Yeah.

[507] Wow, this is a pretty small mountain.

[508] You don't want to know what goes on in nondescript caves.

[509] So aside from all that, I actually am kind of enjoying it.

[510] I'm having the same problem I had with Dragon Age 1 of like I wish I could bring all these other party members with me to hear all their dialogue options and all that stuff.

[511] Can't.

[512] I'm going to bring three other dudes with you at a time.

[513] So, Jared, you wrapped up with a bow on Dragon Age 2.

[514] Oh, I marathoned it.

[515] I think I completed Dragon Age 2 in, like, three days.

[516] But, yeah, it took me about 22 hours to get through the first act because I was doing everything.

[517] I was reading all the Codex entries.

[518] Does it pick up after that?

[519] Does it go a little faster?

[520] Yeah, you get to a certain part in Act 2 where it's just like.

[521] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[522] You can get out of the story, but it's just like so many things are happening and just different events are unfolding.

[523] It's like the story actually gets started.

[524] Do you get fewer pick -up quests and side quests?

[525] Okay.

[526] That makes sense.

[527] Because they've been saying stuff like, you can review this game in 40 hours and stuff like that.

[528] I'm like, oh, all right.

[529] Yeah, Act 1 is very dense.

[530] And then Act 2 and 3 are pretty much primarily story and then just a couple of decent -sized side quests.

[531] Yeah, like we've given you all the color you need for the world.

[532] Actually killing.

[533] Magical business.

[534] Well, it seems like, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like Act 1 is almost like the Mass Effect 2 style of first act of like, pick up all your party members and then we'll have the big kind of, once you have everybody now, you can do all the stories.

[535] I can't remember.

[536] I don't know if there are more party members in Act 2 or 3, but I've got a full, pretty full list.

[537] Yeah, you pretty much get the majority of the party in Act 1.

[538] In Act 2, I think maybe just one other person pops in.

[539] I can't remember exactly.

[540] Also, Act 1, very MMO -like.

[541] For me, it was very much like, pick up all the quests, Go click on the map to where all the quests are.

[542] Do them all.

[543] Turn in quests.

[544] Pick up another laundry list of quests.

[545] Do all the quests.

[546] Turn them in.

[547] And a lot of weird – I know they were saying that there were even more side quests than in the first one.

[548] But a lot of them are like, I found this laptop, right?

[549] That's my laptop.

[550] All right.

[551] I just found this on the mountain.

[552] No, it's my laptop.

[553] I'll put it in my pocket.

[554] Don't.

[555] It's my laptop.

[556] And then I walk back into town and there you are with like a triangle or like a thing over your head.

[557] Yeah, because that's my laptop.

[558] And then I go to you and I say – Hey, I found this.

[559] But then you say, this.

[560] That's my laptop.

[561] No, you don't say laptop.

[562] You say, this.

[563] I was missing this.

[564] How'd you find this?

[565] Well, this was a hard thing to find.

[566] Thank you for this.

[567] I thought I'd never seen this.

[568] It's like this really generic dialogue that happens when you're like, this is my laptop.

[569] But it never says laptop.

[570] It's literally like, this.

[571] Oh, I thought this was lost forever.

[572] Well, it's a good thing I found this.

[573] And we're like, that?

[574] Where'd you get that?

[575] You should be more careful where you leave this.

[576] Yeah, exactly.

[577] So it was kind of funny.

[578] Keep my hands on this laptop.

[579] And there's like 20 of those, if not more.

[580] Yeah, so there's a bunch of those where you're like.

[581] No, fuck that.

[582] I'm going to be specific.

[583] This laptop.

[584] Can I see your laptop?

[585] No. Just let me hang on to it.

[586] I'm just going to have nightmares about leaving my laptop on mountains and adventurers stealing it.

[587] No, I'll turn it in because I'll take care of all the class so you'll find it again.

[588] Don't worry about it.

[589] So, yeah, there are a bunch of those where you're just kind of questing and suddenly you find the book of Ryan's laptop.

[590] You're like, I don't know what the fuck this is.

[591] And then you go back into town and the dude's like, I'm going to click on you because I click on everybody who has a thing over their head.

[592] And you're like, oh, you found this.

[593] I'm going to give you money for this.

[594] I'm like, great.

[595] Glad I was looking out for this.

[596] So, Jared, how do you feel?

[597] I mean, not getting too specific about story beats or whatever.

[598] How do you feel the Dragon Age 2 compares?

[599] Yeah, so Dragon Age Origins, I must have played that about ten times through.

[600] I got all the achievements for it.

[601] I took my Origins very seriously.

[602] You know, I think a lot of the complaints are very well -founded, you know, that there's not a lot of areas.

[603] Right.

[604] And the narrative, you know, it feels a bit weak at times.

[605] But the combat, I think a lot of the naysaying over the combat was really overblown because it's pretty much the same thing as Origins except, you know— It's a little faster.

[606] A lot faster, yeah.

[607] But, I mean, playing it, you know, I used the same party tactics as Origins, just barely tweaked the things I was doing, and I was really successful.

[608] And you feel like it was— significantly easier or uh about the same i didn't really have uh much of a problem with origins and i played that on on nightmare where they just threw in some um you know uh resistances like that and then you had to think a bit more clear about what were you doing uh but overall yeah dragon age 2 I would say, yeah, it was easier.

[609] But, yeah, overall, I enjoyed it.

[610] I mean, it has a lot of issues.

[611] Like, a lot of things that, as a really huge Bioware fan, are really hard for me to swallow.

[612] Like, it's really hard for me to really kind of forgive them for only having about ten areas in the game and not very many interesting quests.

[613] What's going to happen with my party's armor?

[614] Because I see that there are, like, little, like...

[615] You just find upgrade items for those...

[616] Like, later on?

[617] For that armor.

[618] Okay.

[619] And your party will...

[620] pretty much the same.

[621] They also appear exactly the same.

[622] Oh, they don't look different?

[623] Some people have kind of like Mass Effect 2 had the loyalty costumes.

[624] A couple people in Dragon Age 2 have loyalty outfits.

[625] I'm sure at some point they'll be willing to sell you some costumes.

[626] But you don't feel like the Mass Effectization of Dragon Age has ruined this?

[627] No, actually, I mean...

[628] I feel like Dragon Age 2 was a lot more fun to play.

[629] I mean, do I miss some of the deeper elements?

[630] Do I miss the dialogue system?

[631] Sure, but just sitting down and playing it as, I guess, the action game it's kind of intended to be, I had a lot of fun with it.

[632] And you played both on 360?

[633] Yes.

[634] Yeah, I actually did play both on 360.

[635] I know a lot of people, like PC gamers, like to say, like, oh, you can't play Origins on console.

[636] You're missing the tactics and the strategy in it.

[637] You know, I think the thing is that Dragon Age Origins was a lot more busted than I think people realize.

[638] Like, that combat system was very easy to abuse.

[639] There wasn't a lot of in -depth tactics you had to use to get through Origins.

[640] Like, you just had to just use basic.

[641] you know, basic tactics.

[642] Stick a tank in there, get a healer, go nuts.

[643] I mean, it's...

[644] Yeah, I don't think either game is very hard.

[645] And that's the same in Dragon Age 2.

[646] Have a tank, get a healer, and then do it...

[647] Do all these two party members?

[648] Have a ball.

[649] Go crazy.

[650] I do think in Dragon Age 2, it seems like if you get good loot right away, like from whatever DLC or pre -order bonus or whatever you have...

[651] it can make the game a lot easier.

[652] Yeah, because they do give you the opportunity to get some really high -powered stuff in the first act.

[653] Just the DLC items you get just from buying the collector's edition or whatever.

[654] You could equip that in about an hour or two within the game, and then you're pretty much unstoppable until the level cap catches up to you.

[655] Right, so I'm pretty much using a lot of the same gear I had at the end of Act 1 that I started with at the beginning.

[656] But it's mostly for my character.

[657] I think I finally took off.

[658] I finally found something better than that blood dragon armor.

[659] I was using Sir Isaac of Clark's armor for quite a while.

[660] Sir, are you a rogue?

[661] Yeah, I'm a rogue.

[662] Because rogues were so broken in Dragon Age Origins.

[663] You get to a point where you have so much dexterity and cunning that just nothing touches you.

[664] Guys come up and they're just miss, miss, dodge.

[665] You're doing this in bosses and awakenings.

[666] Nothing can touch you.

[667] I do like the rogues much better in Dragon Age 2.

[668] They just seem more useful.

[669] Instead of just like a pretty much a lockpick.

[670] Yeah, and the thing with Dragon Age's combat, if you're comparing Origins to Dragon Age 2, the biggest difference is that it's much more skill dependent on Dragon Age 2.

[671] You have to be able to recognize the situation and use a specific skill to get out of it.

[672] For example, Rogues, you get surrounded.

[673] You can use it to dodge.

[674] Rogues have a lot of different crowd control.

[675] Where in Origins, it was pretty much...

[676] Don't get hit.

[677] Don't pull aggro and just backstab like crazy.

[678] And you could just kind of – it was kind of like playing a warrior in World of Warcraft where you kind of have these set few abilities and you spam them whenever your cooldowns come down.

[679] That's kind of how I felt about Origins.

[680] Dragon Age 2, they're – The cooldowns on a lot of the skills are a lot longer, especially for healing.

[681] Oh, really?

[682] Yeah.

[683] Healing has a much longer cooldown than it did in Origins.

[684] And so you just have to be a bit smarter about when you use your skills and how you use them.

[685] That's kind of the, I feel, is the biggest difference.

[686] I haven't even had a healer in my party the entire time.

[687] Oh, wow.

[688] I can't cast heal.

[689] So that's how I was about that.

[690] So you're just purely potion dependent?

[691] Yeah.

[692] And maybe that's probably why that last boss or that boss in Act 1 was kind of difficult because it was like.

[693] Well, that boss really does come out.

[694] It's a big.

[695] difficulty spike.

[696] Pretty much everything you've had up to that point is really easy.

[697] Then you meet this boss that is like a wow raid just for you.

[698] Yeah, it really is.

[699] And you're like, this is now, every fight has taken me about 30 seconds, and now this is going to take me about 10, 15 minutes.

[700] Yeah, it's like this guy has sequences, and he has a wide variety of attacks.

[701] And he has that weird AoE that sucks you in.

[702] Apparently, you can hide behind the pillars, and that prevents you from getting sucked in.

[703] But if you don't know that, it's just like Warcraft.

[704] You have to kind of know what you're getting yourself into before it even starts.

[705] A couple of tries.

[706] Yeah.

[707] I am enjoying it and we'll see how Act 2 kind of pans out and we'll see where it goes.

[708] If you're liking it so far, I think you'll really enjoy Act 2 because it snowballs really fast.

[709] It gets really, really interesting.

[710] Yeah, I am enjoying it.

[711] And I don't know if I'll go back and do another playthrough.

[712] I don't know how different it would be.

[713] But I do like the characters.

[714] Who are you boning?

[715] Nobody.

[716] Yeah, I accidentally...

[717] I didn't realize – I should have realized because the wheel has, you know, like smiley face or olive branch or heart, right?

[718] And it was like – one dude was like, hey, you know, I'm so tired or whatever.

[719] And one of the options was, well, you look okay.

[720] And it had a little heart next to it or something like that.

[721] It was on Anders.

[722] And I was like, well, you know, you look fine.

[723] But what he says is like, you look good to me. Isn't this what that guy on the Bioware forum is talking about?

[724] And there needs to be a heterosexual mode in Dragon Age 2.

[725] I just thought I was just trying to be a nice guy.

[726] Yeah, you look all right.

[727] Yeah.

[728] You look pretty good, you know, from where I'm standing.

[729] And the other guy was like, do I?

[730] It was just like, wait a minute.

[731] All right, sure.

[732] Let's just put out his path.

[733] Yes, you do.

[734] Yeah.

[735] Come on back.

[736] Yeah.

[737] I accidentally slipped down this path into there, so we'll see what happens.

[738] That's how it happens.

[739] Yeah, I never knew.

[740] It's a slippery slope.

[741] It's a slippery slope.

[742] Anything else we need to care about?

[743] So that was Dragon H2 and, yeah, Bulletstorm.

[744] That's it.

[745] Jeff Gristman.

[746] Hi.

[747] How's it going?

[748] It's going okay.

[749] You want to talk some more about wrestling?

[750] Yes, I do.

[751] Yeah, the quick look's not enough.

[752] Yeah.

[753] We've done already today a fair amount.

[754] Talking about wrestling.

[755] WWE.

[756] All stars.

[757] We need to get that radio voice training.

[758] Yeah.

[759] W -W -E.

[760] W -W -E.

[761] W -W -E.

[762] They're saying like double -D -U.

[763] Yeah.

[764] That's the radio guy saying W. W. W. W. W. W. W -W -E.

[765] Yeah.

[766] I tried to pick that up.

[767] It's W. It's like we were working with a radio guy like years, years, years ago.

[768] It's never doubles.

[769] I was trying to get him to teach me how to pronounce W's the radio way.

[770] And he tried.

[771] And I could never pick it up.

[772] W. But it was double -D -U.

[773] W. WWF.

[774] Anyway.

[775] WWE.

[776] Double Dare.

[777] All Stars.

[778] Out this week.

[779] Yes, out this week.

[780] It's really cool.

[781] I feel like a lot of people have no idea what you're talking about, that this game maybe even exists.

[782] It's a wrestling game.

[783] What?

[784] I've tuned out years ago.

[785] Yeah, exactly.

[786] I mean, wrestling games have been so samey and so boring for so long.

[787] And it all peaked at crush hour, so.

[788] Stop.

[789] You're the ones who planted the seed in my mind.

[790] I blame you guys.

[791] I wouldn't have even thought of that.

[792] It's the pinnacle of both wrestling games and car combat games.

[793] Absolutely.

[794] It doesn't really get any better than that.

[795] Pacific Coast and Light.

[796] Jack's Pacific.

[797] Yeah.

[798] So this game, they tried this before.

[799] They did that Legends of WrestleMania game where they were trying to get these older guys together and you could kind of get your current guys.

[800] Especially from what you remember it.

[801] And they also did WrestleMania the arcade game where they tried to take the wrestlers and make them into some crazy over -the -top game.

[802] In fact, at least one of the dudes on All -Stars worked on WrestleMania the arcade game.

[803] Yeah.

[804] So it's, you know, dudes got roots with making fun wrestling games.

[805] But this is kind of coming out of nowhere in the way that, yeah, the WWE games have been so – Like simulation -oriented, I guess, for lack of a better term.

[806] Like they've been trying to – like what if wrestling was real?

[807] No, wrestling is real.

[808] It's still real to me. It's still real to me, damn it, button when you hit start, and you have to press that to play SmackDown vs. Raw at this point.

[809] Do you agree?

[810] Do you agree that wrestling is real?

[811] All right, then let's do this.

[812] Okay.

[813] And it's all the stamina meters.

[814] Yeah, and just like...

[815] For me, it's the glacial pacing.

[816] Right.

[817] That I can't deal with.

[818] It never looks anything like it looks on television, basically.

[819] And every time they do get anything that looks like it looks on TV is because they've shoehorned it in there and it sticks out.

[820] Like when they added hot tags or something like that to SmackDown.

[821] It just seemed forced at that point.

[822] So let's call this arcade -style wrestling.

[823] Yeah.

[824] Yes.

[825] More or less.

[826] That's what it is.

[827] And they've taken grand liberties with the rules of an actual wrestling match.

[828] rules being kind of a loose mic quotes microphone air quotes yeah so every match is a false count anywhere match yeah there are no count outs you know like the only like real rule you'll get is in the default matches if you beat a guy with a chair you will eventually get disqualified but they'll give you several warnings like hey hey hey hey hey hey okay that's it so I'm already in there are chairs Yeah.

[829] Two by fours.

[830] Okay.

[831] Yeah.

[832] No Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

[833] No Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

[834] Yeah, you're right.

[835] No tables from what I've seen.

[836] Garbage pails?

[837] There's a garbage pail full of two by fours.

[838] Can I eventually empty that garbage pail and then use the garbage pail?

[839] I'm not sure.

[840] I'm not sure.

[841] It's just a self -replenishing.

[842] Anyway, hit the guy with the garbage pail, does it get dented, then blink away?

[843] I'm not sure.

[844] The objects do blink away if you use them too much.

[845] They don't blink out, but they do disappear if you break a chair.

[846] It'll eventually go away.

[847] So this game is very – like gameplay, if you're trying to compare it to the SmackDown series, it's stripped down in a lot of ways.

[848] But that's kind of a weird way to think about it.

[849] It's more that they have made it a high -flying, fast -paced game.

[850] So it's luchador wrestling?

[851] In some sense.

[852] You do backflips onto the top turnbuckle.

[853] From the mat.

[854] There are juggles.

[855] If you're doing hammered, double -fist axe handles, knocking guys up into the air off the mat.

[856] from that and then juggling them with either more strikes or just hitting the grab button and grabbing them for an additional hit there.

[857] Like out of the air?

[858] Like out of the air.

[859] Snatching guys out of the air.

[860] It's crazy.

[861] Jeff was playing as Andre the Giant and it straight up looked like Hugo from Street Fighter 3.

[862] He just stomped the ground and he bounced up off the mat into the air.

[863] Then he grabs him and slams him back down.

[864] Wait, you don't remember that?

[865] That's real.

[866] No, it's great because it's better than wrestling ever has been.

[867] Like they go Like the really bad but I still favorably recall Ness Acclaim WWF wrestling games.

[868] Bam Bam Bigelow.

[869] Yeah, yeah.

[870] And they'd throw the little objects in the ring so there's like a little cross for Hulk Hogan.

[871] So yeah, they would have these crazy kind of like power -ups in the middle of it and then Bam Bam Bigelow would start blinking and everything would go nuts.

[872] I feel like it's like pre -cut -off jeans wrestling.

[873] Like before wrestlers became like had to be like real people back when they were like Cops.

[874] They're archetypes.

[875] Sergeant Slaughter's in this game.

[876] He was Army Man. So they have a roster of those current guys.

[877] So you've got The Miz and Kofi Kingston and John Cena, CM Punk, and a lot of the current dudes.

[878] But then the other half of the roster, yes, Edge.

[879] The other half of the roster is like Bret Hart.

[880] Mr. Perfect.

[881] Mr. Perfect.

[882] Hulk Hogan, of course.

[883] Hulk Hogan.

[884] Randy motherfucking Savage is in this goddamn game.

[885] Ricky Steamboat.

[886] Ricky Steamboat's in there.

[887] I mean, if you need a reason to go buy a wrestling game, no. It's kind of one of the things.

[888] They do a really good job at...

[889] filling the character models with life.

[890] When they walk around, when they do their stuff, they look really good.

[891] But then the faces are locked in matches.

[892] So it's just always this kind of dead -faced Ultimate Warrior stare.

[893] Which works for Ultimate Warrior.

[894] It works so much for Randy Savage.

[895] That's where you get the glasses.

[896] Or like Edge always has this weird smile on his face.

[897] Like the stylized look doesn't really do him any favors.

[898] Because they are super stylized.

[899] Everyone looks super – Everyone looks jacked.

[900] They look like – there was a line of action figures they did for wrestlers that were just like super ripped, just giant, incredible Hulk -looking proportions.

[901] And they look kind of like those.

[902] I feel like – but it's an art direction choice that – sells absolutely everything else about that game.

[903] Yes.

[904] Yeah.

[905] Because they look so crazy that when they're doing stuff like jumping off the mat...

[906] kicking a dude in the chest and doing a triple backflip onto the turnbuckle.

[907] You're like, well, that's not a real dude, so I don't have any problems buying that that just happened in this game, so let's keep going.

[908] It opens them up to a ton of steroid jokes, but I think it's worth it.

[909] The way that game looks, I think they made the right move with the art style in that game.

[910] They do a really good job of actually, there are a few pre -rendered cutscenes for some of the story bits in there, and it's really great.

[911] at making those wrestlers and characters look and move like they really do.

[912] There was like a meticulously rendered Paul Bearer in there.

[913] Yeah, like they spent a ton of time getting Paul Bearer to look just right.

[914] And that's one of the voiced parts is they do have voices for...

[915] Well, it's just this cut scene.

[916] You have Paul Bearer and The Undertaker talking.

[917] There's another part with Randy Orton doing some...

[918] some cut scene work and then D generation X, Triple H and Shawn Michaels doing some stuff.

[919] But you're not cutting promos.

[920] There's not a road to WrestleMania, right?

[921] There are, there's a story mode where you go through 10 matches and then you see these, these really great cut scenes.

[922] I wish there were more of them.

[923] Yeah.

[924] You said there's only a handful.

[925] It's like three for each one.

[926] Yeah.

[927] Something like that.

[928] And, and they're, they're done really nicely.

[929] And.

[930] I wish that there was more of that.

[931] I wish that there was more voice work overall.

[932] Some of that would be hard to get because some of those wrestlers have passed away.

[933] But it would have been nice to, you know, like, hey, we've got a bunch of, like, curtain -heading voice clips that we're going to cut in for Mr. Perfect or something like that.

[934] It seems like there should have been a way to do that.

[935] But I was shocked at how good Paul Bearer sounds.

[936] It's Paul Bearer.

[937] I mean, that's a current recording of him when I was hearing it originally.

[938] Bring Paul Bearer in.

[939] And he talks like this.

[940] And all the while, the Undertaker is just like planing the top of a coffin.

[941] And then turns around and goes, I rest in peace.

[942] And you're like, yeah!

[943] It's great.

[944] And they rendered Paul Bearer holding the microphone the whole time.

[945] He's cutting a damn promo.

[946] Dude, it's amazing.

[947] The one scene that we shot, you can see this in the quick look, of the mic work.

[948] Because Paul Bearer's got a lot of hand motions, a lot of shaking his hand out towards the camera.

[949] But he does it with alternating hands, so he's constantly having to pass the mic from hand in.

[950] They could have just not put the mic in, but they were like, no, this is going to be a promo.

[951] He's cutting a promo.

[952] It's going to have the WWE microphone.

[953] It's going to have the mic block on it and everything.

[954] Do you think there's a real promo somewhere and they just watch that over and over again?

[955] I'm sure.

[956] I'm sure that someone spent a lot of time.

[957] watching because there are video packages in the game as well like yeah so they also have a fantasy warfare mode where they try to pair up old guys with new guys and some of that makes total sense like it's like because it's all trying to solve like some all -time like who's the biggest superstar ever is it Hulk Hogan or John Cena and it makes sense But then some of them are like, who's got the most ruthless aggression?

[958] Jimmy, Superfly, Snooka, or Kane?

[959] Who's more snakier?

[960] Well, that makes sense because they call Randy Orton the Viper.

[961] The Pit Viper.

[962] No, they don't call him Pit Viper.

[963] No, they just call him the Viper.

[964] Or if they're not calling him that, they're calling him the Apex Predator.

[965] That doesn't make sense to me. I hate Michael Cole.

[966] Yeah, yeah.

[967] Wrestling is really bad.

[968] It's been bad for a long time.

[969] So are you saying that this is currently one of the best wrestling experiences I can have?

[970] Absolutely.

[971] Regardless of it.

[972] It's the best wrestling game in years.

[973] And it's more exciting than what you're finding on television these days.

[974] Since Crush Hour.

[975] Basically since Crush Hour.

[976] The whole thing just looks so exactly what I remember.

[977] Wrestling games being just kind of crazy and stupid stuff.

[978] There's strategy to it.

[979] Some people, because Mad Cat's put out...

[980] like a fighting stick and like they're putting out like the street fighter sticks but with wrestlers on them and the fight pad so if you want to roll a tournament with john cena on your stick yeah which that that sounds kind of all right you guys cash games at evo what's up it'll i bet you it'll be there but the movement the way the characters move in that game you want to use an analog stick yeah it's not it doesn't make sense to use those controllers Yeah, and the way the buttons are laid out on normal controllers makes sense.

[981] If you slap those across eight buttons on a Street Fighter joystick, I think they make less sense.

[982] But it is more a fighting game.

[983] It's not to say it is a fighting game, but it has more...

[984] Yeah, you're training a life meter and knocking a guy out at the end in a lot of cases.

[985] Do you get finishers?

[986] Yeah, and basically if you've got a guy's life all the way down and then hit your finisher, it actually ends the match.

[987] That's it?

[988] It knocks him out, and then it actually cuts to one of those kind of lazy pins of a guy standing on the other guy's chest and flexing or putting one finger on him or doing push -ups on his chest.

[989] It's a really small thing in the grand scheme of that game, but it's so effective at just being like, oh, that's fucking awesome.

[990] It's a great inclusion.

[991] So it's just like they get enough of that stuff right and actually playing the game is fun enough to really carry it and it's really cool.

[992] Online stuff?

[993] Yeah, online stuff is good.

[994] It's really connection dependent.

[995] You end up in cases where you're in a game with some latency, and it really changes.

[996] Because it's a game that's all about faster attacks beating slower attacks.

[997] So if someone's trying to perform a strong grapple, it takes a while to reach out and get you.

[998] If you time that well in an offline game, it's totally doable.

[999] Online, it seems like more often than not, the guy standing up is still going to be able to fit in some fast strikes to totally interrupt you.

[1000] So I think it...

[1001] The way the timing changes online, it makes it a pretty different game.

[1002] But I still had fun with it.

[1003] It wasn't necessarily like, oh, this is totally broken.

[1004] It seems like every time I've taken a SmackDown game online, it's had that exact problem.

[1005] But it also totally breaks the game in the process.

[1006] This has felt still like I was still playing a game and still competing and stuff like that.

[1007] Professor Latency.

[1008] Yes.

[1009] Thank you.

[1010] Thank you.

[1011] All right.

[1012] And that's been this week's Giant Bombcast.

[1013] Brought to you by Zojirushi.

[1014] God damn it.

[1015] Go get your own freaking.

[1016] You guys got all the colors.

[1017] I have to get a pink one now.

[1018] That's the only color left.

[1019] Probably the only downside to WWE All -Stars is that the character creator is not so great.

[1020] Yeah, it's unfortunate, but you're there for.

[1021] Yeah.

[1022] You're there for the dudes.

[1023] And they're releasing a bunch of downloadable guys after the fact, which is typically met with total division and hate.

[1024] Pre -order to GameStop and get Ted DiBiase.

[1025] You get both Ted DiBiases.

[1026] You get the million dollar man. But you really only want the one.

[1027] I'm okay with Ted DiBiase Jr. He hasn't done great work recently, but I think he's got potential.

[1028] He's a mildly evolved creator wrestler.

[1029] Yeah.

[1030] He's that guy that when you go into SmackDown.

[1031] So he's like Cody Rhodes taking a little bit further.

[1032] Yeah, when you go into SmackDown and you put Crater Wrestler, he's that default guy.

[1033] It upsets me that they dropped the junior and that they'll just talk about it.

[1034] And Ted DiBiase, I'm like, oh, awesome.

[1035] Million Dollar Man's here.

[1036] No, who the fuck is that guy?

[1037] Because sometimes they have the Million Dollar Man come in and do a promo.

[1038] And you're like, yeah, Ted DiBiase.

[1039] It's like, oh, who's that caw in the ring?

[1040] Oh, never mind.

[1041] It's Cody Rhodes.

[1042] Do you think they'll keep moving down this crazy direction?

[1043] Do you think this is it?

[1044] I hope that they make a sequel to this.

[1045] I think they're going to keep going with the SmackDown series.

[1046] I think there's a SmackDown game this year, isn't there?

[1047] They haven't really talked about it, but I don't know.

[1048] Sometimes they will show that at E3 and then release it later in the year.

[1049] I think they just don't talk to us.

[1050] Maybe it is.

[1051] Yeah, I don't know.

[1052] I don't know.

[1053] Yeah, we've done a pretty good job at making our stance on the SmackDown series pretty clear.

[1054] Yeah, yeah.

[1055] I wouldn't blame them for not trying to wheel that around anymore.

[1056] But I also don't think that they have been showing it to other people yet.

[1057] I hope they just go down the crazy.

[1058] Like, I like the crazy wrestling games.

[1059] I hope this does well for them.

[1060] I really hope that this succeeds because I want them to be rewarded for making wrestling crazy like this.

[1061] They don't even stay in the ring.

[1062] Take dudes outside.

[1063] In between matches, you go do some Final Fight stuff with some dudes and go smash garbage cans.

[1064] Now you're talking about WCW backstage assault.

[1065] Sure.

[1066] This is not a conversation we want to even have.

[1067] You know what I would really love to see?

[1068] For a sequel, they do cut a promo where it's like Mass Effect conversation wheels and you get to cut promos.

[1069] Or a rhythm game.

[1070] Or do it like a rhythm game.

[1071] I think that would be the only other way to do it.

[1072] Or get in a car looking wild style.

[1073] Just start shooting dudes.

[1074] The guy's driving.

[1075] The guy's shooting.

[1076] Randy Orton's behind the wheel while Edge has the gun.

[1077] It would be like all those WCW weird promos where there's out shooting stuff on boats.

[1078] You know what I watched just the other day?

[1079] I watched Halloween Havoc, I think it was 95, where Hulk Hogan...

[1080] What are you doing with your life, man?

[1081] Where Hulk Hogan battles...

[1082] The Giant, who at the time they were still trying to say was Andre the Giant's son.

[1083] They battle on top of a parking facility, like a five -story parking facility in monster trucks.

[1084] And they have a monster truck sumo match.

[1085] And at the end of it, Hulk Hogan, air quote, accidentally pushes the Giant off the parking structure.

[1086] He's like, oh, God, I killed the Giant.

[1087] But then the Giant no -sells death itself and comes out 15 minutes later for his match.

[1088] And then the Yeti comes out.

[1089] The Yeti!

[1090] That's right.

[1091] So I just want this whole thing to take place in the wrestling world, wherever that is.

[1092] Wherever Tony Schiavone dreams.

[1093] Some place where someone is constantly being hit by an unmarked Lincoln Continental in a parking garage.

[1094] And then you just tear your shirt off and start fighting.

[1095] Yeah.

[1096] Oh, God!

[1097] Get hit on my dot!

[1098] And there are commentators everywhere.

[1099] The commentary in this game is also really disappointing.

[1100] It's an extra shame.

[1101] Ross and Lawler, right?

[1102] Yeah, because they went and dug Ross out of mothballs.

[1103] He's not on TV anymore.

[1104] And got him in for this, which is totally the right move, which is what they should do on actual television.

[1105] But they just – both of them turn in like a really lifeless performance.

[1106] And it's a problem that they've had in past games also where it's just like you hear differences in the recording between like the things that are supposed to be calling the match and then the generic thing like this guy right here has gone to this – like generic line of flavor dialogue about this character.

[1107] They always kind of just phone it in.

[1108] Absolutely.

[1109] It's just – it's really low energy.

[1110] Yeah, it's too bad.

[1111] But at least they got Howard Finkel for announcing it, so that's good.

[1112] Because the recent WWE announcers have not been very pleasant to listen to.

[1113] So you've probably got a review for this.

[1114] There's a quick look.

[1115] There's probably a review up on the site already.

[1116] Yeah.

[1117] There's probably a quick look up on the site already.

[1118] Yeah, it sounds...

[1119] The quick look we shot, I've not written the review yet, but...

[1120] It sounds radical.

[1121] It's a lot of fun.

[1122] I want to touch it.

[1123] It really is a lot of fun.

[1124] And that's on 360, PlayStation.

[1125] That's on fucking everything.

[1126] It's a PS2 version of that game.

[1127] What?

[1128] Yeah.

[1129] I thought they were done with that.

[1130] No, I thought so too.

[1131] THQ.

[1132] Of course, we've only seen 360 and PS3.

[1133] I don't know what the other ones are.

[1134] Wow.

[1135] And the other ones you draw, it's like car combat, but with wrestling.

[1136] Okay.

[1137] Yeah.

[1138] All right.

[1139] Yeah.

[1140] I'm back in.

[1141] Crush Hour 2.

[1142] Suddenly he's just flying, fists out, shooting down.

[1143] Actually, those versions only exist for iOS.

[1144] Oh.

[1145] And obviously you just play as the Shockmaster.

[1146] Finally.

[1147] Jeff Grishman, what else is going on for you?

[1148] I've been messing around with my PC.

[1149] I remember I got a new personal computer.

[1150] Have you fixed it yet?

[1151] Yes.

[1152] It seems to be bad RAM.

[1153] It seems like maybe it's got a bad batch.

[1154] Or, you know, I still need to do some swapping around.

[1155] But you pulled some out.

[1156] But I pulled some out, and now it's no longer crashing, which is great.

[1157] Following the expert instructions of Will Smith and Norm Chan.

[1158] It's what hot PC games you playing.

[1159] I've been messing around with Crysis some more, just playing some more multiplayer there.

[1160] So is that the game to show your friends you have a hot PC?

[1161] I don't really know.

[1162] I tried looking.

[1163] I was kind of digging through Steam.

[1164] I'm like, I should get it.

[1165] I feel like I should get it.

[1166] So I went and got this PC.

[1167] How do I max it out?

[1168] Team Fortress 2.

[1169] Now that you've got the album, what the fuck are you going to do with it, bitch?

[1170] That's basically where I found myself.

[1171] So basically I'm using that PC to listen to EZE records.

[1172] Like you were with all previous personal computers.

[1173] Yeah, now we know why it's been crashing.

[1174] Too much devil voice.

[1175] I've been playing Crysis 2.

[1176] It looks very nice on the PC, and I'm doing much better with a mouse and keyboard.

[1177] I have a mousing Surface now.

[1178] So I've had a Cyborg Rat 7 mouse sitting around for a while.

[1179] You may have seen it on Tested, Norm.

[1180] It's the one with the weird wheels on the side.

[1181] Yeah, it's got the weird wheel, and it comes apart in all kinds of different ways.

[1182] It looks like a transformer.

[1183] Yeah, totally.

[1184] It looks like it's going to turn into a robot at some point.

[1185] But like a new transformer.

[1186] Actually, no, it looks like the new Batmobile from the Dark Knight.

[1187] Sure, a little Tumblr -ish.

[1188] I see that.

[1189] Is it comfortable?

[1190] A lot of weird panels.

[1191] It is really comfortable, and you can adjust all kinds of things.

[1192] Yeah, you can remove weight from it if you like.

[1193] I have all the weight in it.

[1194] All right.

[1195] You like a heavy mouse?

[1196] Yeah.

[1197] And, you know, basically you can adjust where the thumb rest is and install a pinky rest if you want.

[1198] It comes with all these intervening.

[1199] You like a big mouse?

[1200] I like a big mouse.

[1201] Yeah.

[1202] In fact, I think this mouse could be a little bit bigger.

[1203] I've extended it as far as it will go.

[1204] I think it could be a little bit bigger.

[1205] But it's a very nice mouse.

[1206] But it wasn't working on the surface.

[1207] Like, it wasn't working just on my desk.

[1208] It's lasers, right?

[1209] Yeah.

[1210] No one puts balls into mice anymore, right?

[1211] No, I don't think so.

[1212] Christ.

[1213] Okay.

[1214] Just want to make sure.

[1215] Yeah, I haven't seen a mouse with a ball in it in – Five years or at least.

[1216] At least five years.

[1217] Something like that.

[1218] At least five years.

[1219] Okay.

[1220] This always blows my mind when we talk about high -end Mises.

[1221] Yes.

[1222] Because back when I was competing in Unreal Tournament 2004, I just used a Microsoft Intel mouse.

[1223] Yeah, it's a great mouse.

[1224] It's a great mouse.

[1225] Yeah, and I would go do ladder play and just – I would use base mouse.

[1226] But now it's like we have weights and crazy lasers.

[1227] The only reason I'm using this mouse is because it was in the goodie bag they gave everyone who went to Dice.

[1228] So – Yeah, otherwise I have like this SteelSeries Ikari mouse I was using before that that I was using because someone sent it to us.

[1229] It's like, okay, I guess I'll use this.

[1230] It's got buttons on the thumb and that's what I need.

[1231] And my Bluetooth mouse has broken.

[1232] Yeah, I have never, ever gone out to buy mouse and keyboard for any of those.

[1233] like specified purposes.

[1234] And they're like, I need to find the perfect gaming mouse.

[1235] But I had what turns out to be a pretty good gaming mouse with this thing and pretty good for everything else too.

[1236] It's a good high DPI and so I started using that.

[1237] So yes, so getting back to it, I had to...

[1238] I actually had to use a mousing surface.

[1239] I'm now using a mousing surface.

[1240] And what is your mousing surface?

[1241] It was also in the Dice Goodie bag.

[1242] Oh, okay.

[1243] It's actually some Psytec.

[1244] It's like a hard plastic.

[1245] I really liked when they first introduced me, those 3M mousing surfaces.

[1246] Really nice.

[1247] Yeah, a little ridgy kind of.

[1248] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1249] This kind of feels like those, but it's a hard surface.

[1250] It's got a good glide on it.

[1251] Yeah.

[1252] Oh, it's like a hard -backed thing that you put down.

[1253] Okay, okay.

[1254] So it just felt really weird to be back at this moment where it's like, now I have a mouse pad again.

[1255] Like, what has happened to me?

[1256] This is no good.

[1257] It's a picture I printed with my mom.

[1258] Right.

[1259] Got it at the mall.

[1260] Got it at the mall.

[1261] Hi, Grandma.

[1262] Yeah, so I played some Crysis 2 and probably played more Trackmania United forever.

[1263] Because that's a great game.

[1264] Pushing the limits of PC games.

[1265] Shadows turned all the way up.

[1266] So we played a little Crisis 2 on the PC on TNT last week.

[1267] And I think we spent kind of a lot of time during that hectic TNT talking about just the fact that we're at this point with PC games where it doesn't really feel like there's anything that's pushing.

[1268] that technical limit the way Crysis did, the original Crysis did, when it originally came out, when it was like, there's no system that could run this right now that exists.

[1269] And it took them several years to get to that point where you could actually run Crysis at full max everything.

[1270] But it doesn't seem like that's necessarily the case with Crysis 2.

[1271] And it seems like it's kind of...

[1272] It looks great, but yeah, it's not some...

[1273] It looks great.

[1274] It looks considerably better than the 360 version does.

[1275] Yes.

[1276] But it's not some next generational leap.

[1277] Right.

[1278] It's like, yeah, this is just higher res and better textures, but kind of the same tricks that we're used to here.

[1279] Yeah.

[1280] I kind of just feel like we're at the point where we need Battlefield 3 to come in here and say, look, we can make this stuff look so much crazier.

[1281] I just wonder if that game really is going to look that much crazier.

[1282] Because you look at the stuff in the trailer, it looks great, but it's feats of animation.

[1283] That's true.

[1284] That's the stuff that makes it look great.

[1285] I saw that demo.

[1286] It looked pretty amazing.

[1287] Something about it just looked like this was from the next level.

[1288] I don't know if it will look that good when it finally comes out, but definitely a lot of jaws hanging open.

[1289] And, like, everybody in that room was just kind of like, oh, fuck.

[1290] You know, you get that round of applause.

[1291] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1292] It's like, shit.

[1293] I don't know what I just saw, but.

[1294] Yeah, I just wonder, like, you know, it's like we're still at this point where games, where some games don't ship with DirectX 11.

[1295] Like, there's supposedly a patch coming for Crysis 2 to add it, which.

[1296] By the time they get it in there, everyone will have finished Crysis 2.

[1297] I wonder if that's just a symptom of having to make it so that it works, like trying to shorten the distance between getting it on a 360.

[1298] That's probably part of it.

[1299] They also have to support a lot of different generations of graphics hardware because the economy is at a point.

[1300] We're at a point now where no one can release a game.

[1301] that is solely for super high -end PCs.

[1302] It's just not economically viable to do that just now.

[1303] So, yeah, between games getting ported around to different platforms and just the realities of, I think, I can't imagine that too many people are out there building.

[1304] super high -end PCs right now, or at least the number of people doing it is not enough to warrant the millions of dollars going into game development.

[1305] So with games already having to scale like that, then you get to a point where they're developing for mid -spec and then releasing the high -end stuff later.

[1306] It'll probably change as more and more of these cards get out there and the economics change on that stuff.

[1307] The problem will kind of solve itself like it always does.

[1308] Maybe this isn't the right room to try and talk about it in, but do you feel like on the hardware end that it's been – like the lack of software is keeping that stuff from pushing forward more?

[1309] Like how much more powerful is your hot new video card than the one you had before?

[1310] Yeah.

[1311] It's way more powerful than the 260 I had, but it's – you're not going to necessarily see.

[1312] worlds of difference in every game out there yeah i think maybe maybe that is like a weird chicken and egg situation like you don't really know what drives that sort of stuff but i think excitement is what drives it in either camp so if they could release games that people got excited about um on the pc that required them to go out and spend all this money, you'd probably have people like, okay, now I have a reason to go spend all this money.

[1313] I have a game to upgrade around that might drive those sales, which in turn might drive further development along those lines.

[1314] But like you're saying, we're at the point where you can't do your $20 million game and have it only be for the hardcore.

[1315] Can you make an indie game that's going to push this level?

[1316] Could there be a small form game that could have some crazy technical feats in it?

[1317] would still push this?

[1318] I'm not sure.

[1319] If those libraries are good enough, then I guess, right?

[1320] Probably.

[1321] I don't know enough about it.

[1322] What if Minecraft comes out and supports DX12?

[1323] It just still looks exactly the same.

[1324] But it has really high demand.

[1325] But you could cook an egg on your computer while you're running it.

[1326] They're just like, now Minecraft has mega texture technology.

[1327] Look at that rain.

[1328] Watch it when it's going to rain.

[1329] I feel like we haven't heard anything out of, you know, Valve's engine camp.

[1330] Like, they've just kind of been, I feel like they've been bolting onto Source for...

[1331] That Portal 2 stuff looks pretty good.

[1332] That Portal 2 stuff looks very nice.

[1333] It really does.

[1334] That opening...

[1335] But it still looks like that...

[1336] It looks like the next version of, you know, the same stuff that they've been doing with Source for a while.

[1337] You're right.

[1338] So I wonder if they've got, because there's some fucking wizards definitely up there.

[1339] And we're at that point where it's time to start really thinking about what do we expect to see out of the next generation of consoles.

[1340] Good hair.

[1341] That's it.

[1342] Characters with hair.

[1343] Let's just start with hair.

[1344] It'd be nice to get good hair.

[1345] That's another thing that wrestling games are good for is kind of just gauging where hair technology is at.

[1346] Does Triple H's hair look shitty in a bad way or shitty in a good way?

[1347] A lot of stiff hair in All -Stars.

[1348] Yeah, the hair does not move in All -Stars at all.

[1349] Dragon Age 2 hair, not so great.

[1350] Weird planes of textures running off people's heads at odd angles.

[1351] Hair clipping into scalps.

[1352] My hair is constantly clipping into my scalp.

[1353] All of it does.

[1354] We're looking at the technology that's here now on the PC and kind of trying to look at when would they release these consoles and when would they be specking them out and that sort of stuff.

[1355] It's hard to kind of look at it and go, well, maybe games won't really look that much better, but they'll run in 1080p and have better frame rates, which I might be okay with on consoles.

[1356] The physics will probably be better.

[1357] Yeah, and more room for physics.

[1358] Maybe they put SSDs in there and that enables better streaming.

[1359] That'd be cool.

[1360] There has to be something that's happening on the back end because in this generation, we've also definitely hit the point where it's just expensive.

[1361] It just costs a lot of money to make all of these textures, to build all of these things, to animate all of this stuff.

[1362] There's no way around it.

[1363] You can do performance capture, but that still takes facilities and equipment and time and people who know how to use it and are trained on it and all that kind of stuff.

[1364] So there is still that.

[1365] You know, that barrier.

[1366] Yeah.

[1367] There's definitely like a financial limit on that sort of stuff these days that maybe – I mean it's always been there but it wasn't something that you heard a lot about or heard people worrying about.

[1368] But yeah, like now – People just can't throw infinite amounts of money at game development.

[1369] So, yeah, there has to be something about procedurally generating some of that content because it's the difference between a movie and a game.

[1370] A movie can be like, okay, we're going to shoot something in Times Square.

[1371] You're like, yeah, you have to go and run through getting permits and all this other shit.

[1372] But Times Square exists.

[1373] They didn't have to build Times Square from scratch.

[1374] I think at this point they just built Times Square from scratch.

[1375] It's a lot cheaper to get that damn permit.

[1376] Well, maybe that's a bad example as far as being a hard place to get a permit for.

[1377] But you know what I'm saying.

[1378] In a game, they have to make everything that's in there.

[1379] There is nothing in there that they didn't have to construct.

[1380] If you think about that.

[1381] And then you end up with situations like Dragon Age 2 where they're cutting all these corners and raising all these assets.

[1382] Which in a way, yeah, it kind of makes this look like their B game.

[1383] as it were but I also kind of can't blame them and you have to you know like the sad truth is you have to start looking at it from the business side and go how many people didn't buy Dragon Age 2 because they heard of these reused things Probably not a significant number.

[1384] Or how many more sales would we have gotten if we had spent twice as long on it?

[1385] It's the same reason why...

[1386] Yeah, exactly.

[1387] It's the same reason why people are saying, like, this game seems really consolized.

[1388] Like, well, where did Dragon Age 1 sell the most last time around?

[1389] Surprisingly.

[1390] Like...

[1391] On the console.

[1392] On the console.

[1393] That's crazy.

[1394] That kind of surprised me. They end up catering to that crowd.

[1395] And it's a...

[1396] It's not always the most comfortable reality, but this still is all a business.

[1397] And even when I disagree with it, I still at least understand in a lot of cases why those decisions get made.

[1398] I want to go back to your Times Square analogy.

[1399] Okay.

[1400] I would say the biggest difference is you shoot in Times Square.

[1401] You get the angle that the camera is on.

[1402] You don't have some asshole trying to climb to the top of every billboard and let them see what's behind it, what's through this door, what's around this corner.

[1403] You don't have to model every inch of it.

[1404] You're like, this is the shot.

[1405] But it's like a trash can.

[1406] Let's say a trash can.

[1407] Okay, maybe I had to – we got to get – properties to go and get us a trash can, they're going to go buy a fucking trash can.

[1408] They're going to go to Ace Hardware or wherever they go to some warehouse and get a trash can.

[1409] But then if the label's on the trash can, you just turn it away from the camera and you don't have like...

[1410] Right.

[1411] But if it's trash cans in a video game, someone has to texture and model this trash can, you know, potentially from scratch.

[1412] Or they have to go and also...

[1413] They probably have a library at this point with a lot of those kind of common items.

[1414] Certainly.

[1415] That they can pull from, but yeah.

[1416] I mean, but it's...

[1417] Yeah, I'm not saying this is a specific example, but the basic idea.

[1418] Speed trash can is actually how most trash cans are generated.

[1419] Sure, sure.

[1420] So there's a lot of middleware.

[1421] There's stuff out there that exists to bridge these gaps for developers, but there's still a lot of shit that they just have to do from scratch every single time.

[1422] I was wondering whether...

[1423] You can't just, you know...

[1424] Right, just recycle.

[1425] Yeah.

[1426] But recycle.

[1427] I always wonder why people just don't pull all their animation libraries together.

[1428] They're just like – I know the rigging is probably different on every character.

[1429] But at some point, there has been so much mocap that there must be like a gigantic library full of – I bet if you go to House of Moves or something like that and say we need mocap for our game, there's probably a lot of cases that are like, oh, we got that.

[1430] You need a guy shooting a gun.

[1431] You need walking.

[1432] We already – we're good.

[1433] Guy sitting down.

[1434] Yeah.

[1435] I feel like that could solve a lot of – mocap situation like how many different times have you heard at an event like we got real guys to come in here real special forces to come and mocap all the moves and it's like it's like the 25th time they've done that I stopped being impressed about like what people were mocapping when I heard for Onimusha they mocapped a horse at that point I was like alright done game yeah No, that's as far as it goes.

[1436] What?

[1437] Automation 2.

[1438] This was like a really long time ago, too, in the grand scheme of things.

[1439] I hope they save that data because everybody should be using it.

[1440] If you're going to go through that trouble, you should be licensing out that horse mocap.

[1441] You know, I really like what Speed Horse does, and we have a good relationship with them.

[1442] The thing is, if you start reusing mocap too much, you end up with situations where every running animation looks identical.

[1443] Yeah, but don't use it on the main guys.

[1444] Use it like background, like on fodder dudes that are just in the background.

[1445] That's like, ah, you know, we have this cycle of a dude smoking.

[1446] I suspect that that stuff's probably not that hard to get a hold of and generate and stuff.

[1447] I don't know.

[1448] Probably not.

[1449] I have no idea.

[1450] Yeah, again, we are talking outside of our areas of expertise here.

[1451] I'm pitching my idea to you guys of royalty -free mocap where we just go and pantomime smoking and getting up.

[1452] I think actually we need to take it one step further and it needs to be crowdsourced mocap.

[1453] It needs to be like, okay, we've created an open source mocap system that people can set up in their homes relatively easily.

[1454] Walk down this hallway.

[1455] Just walk down your hallway.

[1456] Just point a camera at it.

[1457] Make like you're shooting a basket.

[1458] Breakdance.

[1459] Put the ball suit on and let's do this.

[1460] Yeah, that's what today's mocap challenge is.

[1461] Right.

[1462] Yeah.

[1463] We're looking for really good – We're looking for layups.

[1464] So anyone that can do that.

[1465] Or maybe just make it like a get -rich -quick scene.

[1466] Like get this kit and then you can sell your walking animation to EA.

[1467] I like that idea more.

[1468] Anyway.

[1469] But I think it's almost something like a crowdsource idea of like you need it to be random and inconsistent in a way.

[1470] Yeah, especially for crowd stuff as games get more and more background crowd.

[1471] Because if you had to hand -animate that every single time – And if you wanted to – it would either – everyone would be the same shit or it would cost you a billion fucking dollars to actually pull that off.

[1472] Or crowdsource like background dialogues or people talking and stuff and just be like, send us a five -minute conversation out with your friends.

[1473] We'll mix it in the background.

[1474] You can't do that because the recording situations are so different that you end up with audio that just sounds bad or audio that sounds different or audio that doesn't fit together.

[1475] You just have it in a giant library.

[1476] You just pick what you need.

[1477] If you want really bad -sounding audio, it's going to be playing over like in a club or something like that.

[1478] It would be kind of fun.

[1479] I recognize that from the other game.

[1480] That's that guy having a conversation about his role.

[1481] You mentioned House of Moves, and I was just wondering, like...

[1482] If there are any, like, major crossovers of, like, yeah, this game and this game.

[1483] The main characters basically have the same.

[1484] Like, you would never guess it, but these two guys move fucking exactly the same.

[1485] I hope so.

[1486] Yeah.

[1487] Because otherwise there's a lot of inefficiency going on.

[1488] I could think of, like, a sound situation.

[1489] In Mass Effect 2, one of the club scenes on Omega, the music is actually straight from, like, Need for Speed, Porsche Unleashed or something like that.

[1490] It's, like, one of the menu themes from Need for Speed.

[1491] It was, like, in the EA library somewhere.

[1492] Oh, that's awesome.

[1493] That's awesome.

[1494] Google it.

[1495] Okay, that's great.

[1496] It's on the YouTubes.

[1497] Okay, I'll check that out.

[1498] I like that.

[1499] That's cool.

[1500] Like the Mass Effect 2 club scene?

[1501] Yeah.

[1502] Like that music there?

[1503] Like the Omega theme.

[1504] Oh, man, that's great music.

[1505] Yeah.

[1506] Yeah, where like the humans are free.

[1507] Yeah, that was totally from like a Need for Speed menu.

[1508] That's neat.

[1509] That's awesome.

[1510] I love that.

[1511] Great details.

[1512] Yeah.

[1513] Video games.

[1514] Video games.

[1515] It's good to know that Need for Speed stood the test of time.

[1516] Especially the question least.

[1517] Yeah.

[1518] I mean, it's great to know that people in the future went back and this is underappreciated.

[1519] This is a really good track.

[1520] Play that jail!

[1521] It's a hot cut.

[1522] It's a classic.

[1523] Like all the real music from that era got destroyed in the war.

[1524] But we found this copy of this game.

[1525] This is what they listened to back then, I guess.

[1526] Deep cuts.

[1527] Deep cuts.

[1528] They only listened to the old video game menu music and they can only eat Taco Bell.

[1529] That's the only thing that survived.

[1530] That's right.

[1531] And they found it's the only thing that...

[1532] peels across the kind of alien pan -racial.

[1533] Yeah, yeah.

[1534] This is pretty good.

[1535] We came up with this shit.

[1536] Krogan's like this shit, too.

[1537] And everybody came up with it independently, the same song.

[1538] Oh, damn, there is every species in Omega, too.

[1539] Oh, yeah.

[1540] All right.

[1541] We all dig this.

[1542] So PC game ended up some.

[1543] Anything else, Jeff, that you would care to talk about?

[1544] No, that's been pretty much it.

[1545] I've been playing some 3DS stuff.

[1546] Ridge Racer Review is up on the side.

[1547] You can still see it okay?

[1548] Yeah, I'm still okay.

[1549] I actually haven't really run into any sort of eye strain problems or anything like that.

[1550] How's that battery?

[1551] Not good.

[1552] It's three, four hours or something like that.

[1553] If I played portable games like a person who had to commute long distances...

[1554] I would be very sad about that.

[1555] You just have a charger at either end.

[1556] Yeah, I have a charger here on my desk.

[1557] I have a charger at home.

[1558] It's not an issue.

[1559] And I also don't really play it that much between the two.

[1560] Do you dock it?

[1561] I have the dock here.

[1562] And yeah, that dock is very much meant for the, it's easy to just make sure whatever you set it down, you're setting it down into a charger.

[1563] Trust us.

[1564] So I went and bought one of those things.

[1565] A 3DS?

[1566] I went and bought a 3DS.

[1567] Like, I don't know where.

[1568] You're just like, I'll F it.

[1569] No problem finding it?

[1570] No, so, yeah.

[1571] Literally, Sunday morning.

[1572] W. Woke up at, like, 11.

[1573] And I was like, I gotta go run some errands.

[1574] I gotta hit the CVS.

[1575] And, oh.

[1576] You know, swing by the GameStop.

[1577] Like, I was thinking, like, outside chance.

[1578] There's no way they're gonna have any left.

[1579] It's gonna be all pre -ordered at the S. And I was dreading even going.

[1580] Because if there's one fucking experience that I hate.

[1581] More than just about anything.

[1582] It's walking into a GameStop and asking like, hey, launch day game or launch day hardware.

[1583] Do you have that?

[1584] And they do the, well, did you preorder it?

[1585] And it's like, no. Oh, sorry.

[1586] Nothing but preorders.

[1587] Fuck.

[1588] I hate everything.

[1589] I feel like you have to preface the entire thing.

[1590] I know it's going to be.

[1591] It's like, wouldn't I just say I'm here to redeem my preorder if I had a preorder?

[1592] Motherfucker.

[1593] Right.

[1594] Oh, yeah.

[1595] Wait a minute.

[1596] I always feel like so.

[1597] Yeah, I'm having my nose rubbed in it.

[1598] Like the way it's structured.

[1599] Exactly.

[1600] And I hate it.

[1601] It's negative reinforcement in that it keeps me away from the store whenever I think there's a chance.

[1602] Yeah, it doesn't have the effect of like, oh, I should probably pre -order that.

[1603] I screwed up by not pre -ordering that.

[1604] Well, I guess I'm going to go somewhere else.

[1605] Yeah, you just don't want to go through that song and dance every single time.

[1606] And it was literally, I was thinking like.

[1607] If I can't get it here, this place that's, like, you know, half a mile from my house.

[1608] Just forget it.

[1609] I will buy it on Amazon.

[1610] I don't, you know, I don't need to do this Sunday hunt.

[1611] Like, I don't care that much about the system.

[1612] It would be good to have one around, whatever.

[1613] But, yeah, I walk in and I bite my lip.

[1614] I'm like, so, you know, 3DS, 3DS, 3DS.

[1615] And it's like, you know, have you got a preorder?

[1616] I'm like, do you do that?

[1617] And I said, nope.

[1618] And he said, what color?

[1619] And I'm like, fuck yeah.

[1620] So I say I want the black one, right?

[1621] And I'm like, all right, sure.

[1622] Give me the black one.

[1623] That sounds good.

[1624] He starts ringing me up.

[1625] As he's ringing me up, mother barges into the store, right, with her kid in tow.

[1626] Kid's maybe 13.

[1627] And she's like, hey, I talked to John.

[1628] I was just in the parking lot.

[1629] And I was on the phone.

[1630] I was talking to John.

[1631] Who's John?

[1632] Are you John?

[1633] Is this John?

[1634] And it's the dude that's ringing me up.

[1635] He's like, yeah, that's me. And so she's there with her kid.

[1636] a fucking meltdown because they bought the blue one but had not realized how turquoise -y the color actually was.

[1637] And so the kid was having a minor panic attack about it.

[1638] And the guy's like, well, actually, between the time that you called, this gentleman here got the last black one.

[1639] And so I said, you know what?

[1640] I don't have to go to school with this thing.

[1641] I don't really give a shit what the color looks like.

[1642] You take the black one.

[1643] I'll take one of the blue ones.

[1644] So I got my karma points on.

[1645] What did the mom say?

[1646] Oh, she was very grateful.

[1647] She was like, are you serious?

[1648] Yeah, everyone around.

[1649] Even the GameStop guy was like, really?

[1650] It is kind of a shirty color.

[1651] It does look kind of queer.

[1652] I like the blue one.

[1653] I think the blue one looks pretty good.

[1654] Like, whatever.

[1655] Yeah, I'm just like, dude.

[1656] Could not matter less to me what color this thing is.

[1657] So when she returned that thing, did she get full price?

[1658] I don't know what happened with the rest of that.

[1659] You basically traded her at that point, right?

[1660] DS?

[1661] That's it?

[1662] Yeah, it was just they just swapped them.

[1663] I don't know.

[1664] I got my stuff in the house.

[1665] Because I assumed that he must have opened it and saw it and went, oh, God.

[1666] Yeah, I think you know what it was?

[1667] It was the shininess that they didn't realize.

[1668] Because the blue combined with the shininess.

[1669] Here's the thing.

[1670] If you're 13 years old, you're going to junior high with this thing.

[1671] There's the boy one and there's the girl one.

[1672] Guess which one is the boy one.

[1673] It's the black one.

[1674] So if you have the blue one, you have the girl one.

[1675] No way.

[1676] I'm not saying that.

[1677] I would slap that right in my Lisa Frank Trapper keeper and I would just roll with it.

[1678] I'm saying that there are people with the confidence that can pull it off.

[1679] But this kid was not that kid.

[1680] I wonder if he just was eating.

[1681] It was just bawling as soon as he opened.

[1682] No. It was not the overindulged kid, and it didn't feel like it was the overprotective parent.

[1683] It was just like the, oh, God.

[1684] Like, he would have lived with it.

[1685] Right.

[1686] But it was like, oh, God, I know that I will catch some amount of shit.

[1687] How old was the kid, do you think?

[1688] Maybe 13.

[1689] Okay.

[1690] Like an age where that kind of shit would cause you grief and wouldn't matter.

[1691] I agree.

[1692] But I understand the reality of it.

[1693] I'm glad I'm a grown man and I can wear pink and whatever now.

[1694] I know.

[1695] That's kind of what I said.

[1696] I'm like, you know, yeah.

[1697] To me, it doesn't matter.

[1698] Like, I know that that stuff still kind of matters.

[1699] I had a pink spy versus spy shirt that I had to wear in high school.

[1700] And I got a lot of grief over that.

[1701] I was like, whatever, man. Did the mom give you just a kind of like knowing look?

[1702] She gave me a handy out in the parking lot.

[1703] So Dave, thanks for letting me borrow your truck over the weekend.

[1704] Did the kid take a 3D picture?

[1705] Take a 3D picture of the handy jam?

[1706] The kids at school are going to love this.

[1707] Guys, check this out.

[1708] This is black.

[1709] That's awesome.

[1710] This is the straightest 3DS you can find.

[1711] See, the pearls just kind of caught in midair.

[1712] All right.

[1713] Tilt it.

[1714] All right.

[1715] So, yeah, I got that, and I got Nintendogs and Cats and Raymond.

[1716] Wow.

[1717] Those are not the picks I would have thought you'd get.

[1718] What would you put me on?

[1719] Well, you did get the turquoise 3DS, I guess.

[1720] There you go.

[1721] Tell a lot about me. Hello.

[1722] I don't know.

[1723] I really don't.

[1724] Not a 3DS.

[1725] Which Nintendogs did you get?

[1726] French Bulldog.

[1727] Oh, you should have got Golden Retriever.

[1728] It's the only one we don't have.

[1729] Can you trade the dogs around?

[1730] You know what?

[1731] I didn't know there was a...

[1732] They unlock all of them.

[1733] I didn't know there was a...

[1734] I should have assumed that they would have done the same thing, but when I was purchasing it, I was not given an option.

[1735] I said, just give me the Nintendogs and Cats and Raymond.

[1736] This was the one he added.

[1737] But those are both still sealed because all I did was register friend codes and – Shake it to get some coins.

[1738] Health and safety information and AR cards.

[1739] Yeah.

[1740] And just kind of all the built -in.

[1741] Get to know the system.

[1742] Health and safety quick look coming up on Giant Bomb.

[1743] So when does that thing go live for real with all the eShop transfer stuff?

[1744] Late May. Yeah.

[1745] So there's a ton of functionality in that thing where you push a menu option somewhere and it says, this will be unlocked at a later time.

[1746] I'm still holding it.

[1747] Like main interface, like here's the web browser.

[1748] Like the web browser button is there already, but you hit it and it's like, nah, man. This isn't here yet.

[1749] Wow.

[1750] But we do have this 3D OK Go video.

[1751] Yeah.

[1752] Great.

[1753] I also find it weird that they pack it, that the SD card that comes with it, what is it, like a 1 gig, 2 gig?

[1754] 2 gig.

[1755] 2 gig SD card that comes with it is in it when you buy it.

[1756] Already in the system.

[1757] Already inside the 3DS.

[1758] Why is that weird?

[1759] I just, it seems like it would be like in a little plastic wrap sleeve thing.

[1760] You'd take it out and put it in yourself.

[1761] That means some dude somewhere had to take it.

[1762] Or a robot.

[1763] A machine can do that.

[1764] Well, maybe they test it.

[1765] Robot's got thumbs.

[1766] Maybe it's checked out.

[1767] I feel like they'd want that is, like, for kids, like, that 13 -year -old kid to grab it out of the box.

[1768] But I literally had that.

[1769] It was this afternoon that I even thought.

[1770] Yeah, I was able to take it out of the box and turn it on.

[1771] Yeah, just go.

[1772] But it was this afternoon that I thought, like, oh, wait, is the SD card even in there?

[1773] Like, I hadn't even thought.

[1774] Like, you could have that thing for a while, and it's not obvious that there's a little door on here, and here's this thing.

[1775] Because even, like, the menus, it doesn't.

[1776] At least the stuff that I've been monkeying around with, it's not real explicit about, like, where are you saving this?

[1777] Right.

[1778] Where is this data going?

[1779] But how many blocks has it taken up?

[1780] I don't know.

[1781] Does it measure in blocks?

[1782] It totally measures in blocks.

[1783] God damn it.

[1784] I know.

[1785] But the friend stuff is so much better.

[1786] Like, that's, yeah.

[1787] Guys, they did it.

[1788] Wow.

[1789] No. I mean, they did it, meaning they improved on the DS.

[1790] Yes.

[1791] But it's, you know, it's, yeah, it's a 12 -digit character that you have to punch in.

[1792] You know, you'd have to punch in a 12 -digit, like, yeah, it's not a thing that you can just remember.

[1793] Stop flipping me off.

[1794] Oh, sorry.

[1795] I thought you were just trying to be like, no, fuck you.

[1796] So how do you just get IM, email, just getting...

[1797] Yeah, just like, yeah, just DMs.

[1798] Now he's actually flipping me off.

[1799] He's got the fist going there.

[1800] That's an angry bird.

[1801] That's a fan school bird.

[1802] That's a tiny wing right there.

[1803] Did you just publish that on, like, Twitter or something and say, add me?

[1804] Well, because it has to go both ways.

[1805] Yeah.

[1806] And you don't get any notification on the system that someone else has added you.

[1807] You can get, like, a request or something.

[1808] Yeah.

[1809] Because they don't want rapers to be on there entering in kids' friends' codes.

[1810] Hey, rapers have money, too.

[1811] It's more secure.

[1812] And, like, I don't mind.

[1813] Like, I get why they have that layer of security in there.

[1814] I would rather.

[1815] I mean, so I've been adding people, adding Giant Bomb users as a thread on the forums with the numbers.

[1816] And, you know, everyone's posting their number.

[1817] Swap meet.

[1818] Yeah, so I'm just going through the list and adding every single one, and most of them have added me already, so it's completing the connection.

[1819] And then anyone I get to that hasn't entered me yet, I just hit cancel.

[1820] I'm not even going to wait around for them.

[1821] I'm just like, all right, whatever.

[1822] Is there a limit?

[1823] I'm up to 67.

[1824] Is it 100?

[1825] I've been told 100.

[1826] That makes sense.

[1827] But yeah, I'm up to almost 70.

[1828] But it's got all the present stuff, and like you were saying, you see, oh, that's what that guy's playing.

[1829] He's online.

[1830] That stuff's well done.

[1831] It's pretty quick.

[1832] Yeah, it's pretty quick.

[1833] When I've added people and they've already added me, immediately what they're doing I see.

[1834] I feel like pretty much the only thing that system is missing is some sort of achievement -y type persistence thing.

[1835] And an electronic shop.

[1836] Yes, and an internet store.

[1837] And video games.

[1838] A little click and mortar.

[1839] A little game.

[1840] Some optional, some third -party notebook software.

[1841] Maybe some e -books.

[1842] So I got a, yeah, I don't, it's feeling weird even bringing this up, but I got a message from someone on Twitter saying, hey, I interviewed the people at No the other day.

[1843] You mean No!

[1844] And they said, they don't seem to like you very much.

[1845] I'm like, well, how does that come up in conversation?

[1846] We have a long and storied history of speaking about No's Find My Notebook series.

[1847] I mean, but really though, like what are you – what's going on?

[1848] That's kind of what I – like it's like, oh, I wonder what I would respond to really if someone said that to me. I was like, well, look at what you're putting out.

[1849] I mean, I guess I would – I guess we've maybe given them a hard time for the thing that they develop and I'm sure at some point it probably props the studio up so they can make their other – Like they have Escape Vector coming out for WiiWare, which is like a kind of cyber -y looking thing.

[1850] I can only imagine that you are doing good things for them by mentioning that their products have come out.

[1851] I was about to say this might actually not be helping.

[1852] That's even worse.

[1853] Don't tell me that.

[1854] That's who you are.

[1855] You're causing yourself to go worse.

[1856] You guys hear anything?

[1857] How about that?

[1858] Oh, God.

[1859] You're doing it.

[1860] You're a fucking Nazi war criminal of electronic downloadable games.

[1861] Jeff has just got a blank stare on your face.

[1862] Jeff's nose is bleeding.

[1863] That's weird.

[1864] Zojirushi.

[1865] I think he just wrote their advertisement.

[1866] You guys smell that?

[1867] Jeff just zoned out into a weird place.

[1868] It smells like Zojirushi.

[1869] It smells like...

[1870] All right, fine.

[1871] I'll buy one of the thermoses.

[1872] You said they make rice cookers too?

[1873] Because I've been thinking about getting a rice cooker.

[1874] You don't have a rice cooker?

[1875] No, I don't prepare food.

[1876] It sings a little song.

[1877] Mine doesn't.

[1878] I have Zojirushi and it doesn't.

[1879] I must have the older, yeah.

[1880] There's one that's like 120 bucks.

[1881] That'll just chime.

[1882] That sounds like a real deal.

[1883] Tell me more.

[1884] Get that shit on Amazon.

[1885] I guess it's like Zojirushi and Tiger.

[1886] Those are kind of like the...

[1887] Wait, like Tiger Electronics Tiger?

[1888] Yeah, they make...

[1889] Can I play Double Dragon on my rice cooker?

[1890] That's right.

[1891] LCD panel.

[1892] Well, no, you have to if you want that rice to cook.

[1893] You've got to at least get to the first boss.

[1894] Do they have a Simon's Quest model?

[1895] It's a pretty good one, too.

[1896] Or do they have the Ninja Gaiden talkback?

[1897] I think they're just gutting the LCD screens out of those and putting them on the tops of the rice cookers.

[1898] It's pretty good.

[1899] There is some spirit.

[1900] Tiger Handles.

[1901] I don't think it's the same company.

[1902] I have no idea.

[1903] But you do, in fact, have a Zojirushi rice cooker.

[1904] Yeah, that's how I knew the brand.

[1905] That's how I knew the quality.

[1906] When you saw that Dave had one, you were like, hey, is that a Zojirushi?

[1907] We should really...

[1908] What, get Zojirushi on the line?

[1909] Should I call John Q. Zojirushi?

[1910] Hey, this is Bob.

[1911] This is John Zojirushi.

[1912] I'm Zojirushi.

[1913] I have to go Zojirushi.

[1914] What are you doing?

[1915] I think we've reached this weird inflection point, this weird flash point where...

[1916] they're obviously products that you use and would be willing to promote.

[1917] So if we could find a way to make money off it.

[1918] But it's too late.

[1919] So you already gave it away for free.

[1920] Fantastic.

[1921] We're just showing to other prospective.

[1922] Oh, so you would actually switch to another brand of thermos and rice cooker if the money came in.

[1923] Is that what you're saying?

[1924] You have no soul.

[1925] I'm just saying that we have you know that we're able to talk passionately about products.

[1926] If you've got a product.

[1927] Bring that across to our users.

[1928] If there's a product that we feel strongly about.

[1929] Like a thermos?

[1930] If you've got a dope thermos or a dope rice cooker, we will check it out.

[1931] I've heard Ferrari is pretty awesome.

[1932] They make a good rice cooker?

[1933] Yes.

[1934] Red.

[1935] You know, there's like a Bugatti Veyron belt buckle.

[1936] It's like a $100 ,000 belt buckle or something.

[1937] I love mine.

[1938] Uses parts from, I don't know, it's that same sort of ridiculous, like, way over -engineered, mundane thing that you would have in your life.

[1939] I'll take it.

[1940] Also writes good.

[1941] Bag it.

[1942] So that's my 3DS story.

[1943] I went to, at the behest of Mr. Jared Ray, I went to a video game arcade last week.

[1944] An actual functioning...

[1945] An actual functioning real video game arcade.

[1946] A little Scandia Fun Center.

[1947] Family Fun Center.

[1948] Tokens or quarters?

[1949] Neither cards, which really fucking confused me. Oh, they've moved off of tokens?

[1950] Yeah.

[1951] Wow.

[1952] So this is basically my childhood arcade, for the most part.

[1953] It opened a little later, but this is my teen plus arcade.

[1954] Okay.

[1955] Whatever.

[1956] This is where I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X -Men and shit like that.

[1957] So it was very confusing to me when I first went in there because I'm like, all right, I don't have any cash.

[1958] I go to the ATM and get a bunch of 20s.

[1959] I'm like, all right, I'm going to go turn this 20 into some fives because I don't want to turn all 20 of this into tokens.

[1960] So I go to the counter, and the lady is like, I need some change.

[1961] And she's like, okay, well, do you want this change?

[1962] Do you want to put it on this card?

[1963] And I'm like, I don't really want to buy into the fucking card thing because I don't know when I'm going to come back here.

[1964] So still thinking in my head, like, oh, everything is still token.

[1965] So I go in.

[1966] I don't know why she didn't sell me more and like, no, if you're going to do stuff, you need a card.

[1967] I'm just like – because I ask her.

[1968] I'm like, well, what does the card do for me?

[1969] She's like, well, you know, you use credits on it and every time you swipe it and it stays good for blah, blah, blah.

[1970] I'm like, I don't really care.

[1971] I'll be fine.

[1972] Just give me the – The cash.

[1973] So she still changed me out, which was – I'm like, but it's because she just knew you'd be back.

[1974] So I go out and, yeah, and then I go up to the machine I wanted to play, which was a four -player Pac -Man machine that they have there.

[1975] Pac -Man Battle Royale, which Jared had given me the hot tip, was there.

[1976] Basically four -player Pac -Man Championship Edition.

[1977] The internet told me it was there.

[1978] Which we'll get to that in a second.

[1979] But so, yeah, I go to the machine and, like, where the – Coins are.

[1980] So at first I'm like, okay, where's the token machine?

[1981] Got to go find the token machine.

[1982] And I find there's one token machine, but it's very much, like, around a corner and buried in with all the redemption stuff.

[1983] And there's a screw right in the coin slot.

[1984] No, it's in, like, the redemption corner.

[1985] Oh.

[1986] And so – and there's, like, a little, like, paper sign taped to it that says, like, only for this machine and this, like, very specific machines.

[1987] We're still using tokens.

[1988] I'm like – All right, that's weird.

[1989] I go over to the Pac -Man machine and see where it should take a coin or a token.

[1990] There's this big card swipe device bolted onto it.

[1991] I'm like, there's nowhere for me to put a dollar in this thing, so I can't put money directly into it.

[1992] I got to go back to the counter and see what the fuck is going on.

[1993] What's going on here, lady?

[1994] At that point, they're like, oh, yeah, you need a card.

[1995] I'm like, well, all right, let's do this.

[1996] Fine.

[1997] Give me a $10 card.

[1998] Let's go.

[1999] Do you get a good deal?

[2000] If you put $10, you get $11.

[2001] Oh, that's weird because Sunnyvale Golf Line does that.

[2002] Well, there you go.

[2003] For all of your arcade entertainment needs, go to Sunnyvale Golf Land in beautiful Sunnyvale, California.

[2004] Should.

[2005] They have popping music.

[2006] Anyways, keep going.

[2007] So it also – it took me several laps of the arcade to find the thing even though it's not necessarily the densest – Because it's a cocktail cab, right?

[2008] Arcade.

[2009] It's a weird machine because it's – Top down.

[2010] So you're looking down at it.

[2011] It is, I guess you could call it, it's a standing cocktail, let's say, but it's like hot rod.

[2012] But there's four positions, kind of.

[2013] There's four positions.

[2014] And so, you know, each player, there's a cup holder, which I thought, you know, sweet bonus.

[2015] Do they sell alcohol or anything at the arcade?

[2016] No. Okay.

[2017] Are there drinks or anything?

[2018] No, they have a pizza.

[2019] Yeah, they do.

[2020] I could have a Pepsi.

[2021] You could have a birthday party there.

[2022] Okay.

[2023] Yeah.

[2024] Let's do it.

[2025] All right.

[2026] Done.

[2027] Well, I do actually want to drag some dudes up there and see if they'll let us shoot something in there because I was there solo.

[2028] Not a game to play solo.

[2029] I didn't have anyone to play with, and it is a terrible game to play by yourself.

[2030] So I didn't get the experience that I went there for.

[2031] I want to go back and bring some dudes with me because it seems like it could be a lot of fun.

[2032] Because it's basically like CE in that there's kind of the two sides of the board, and when you wipe out everything on one side, it regenerates the other side.

[2033] But the thing is that...

[2034] that when you eat a power pellet, you can eat other Pac -Men.

[2035] So each round ends when there's only one Pac -Man standing.

[2036] So you really have to worry about these other powered -up Pac -Men more than you do the ghosts.

[2037] In these early rounds, it seemed like it took a really long time for the ghosts to get out of their little crazy ghost pen in the middle.

[2038] And there's no AI Pac -Men.

[2039] So that's the other problem.

[2040] So when I played this game by myself, when I started it up, it only made one other...

[2041] pac -man and it was ai controlled and it was dumb as a brick like very easy to corral and so it was like okay i know that if i turn here he's gonna turn there i can you know make these power pellets show up grab that eat him like literally each round was taking about 10 seconds to go through so after like five of those like all right you win game over and i was like oh well that was really unsatisfying how much is it 50 megabucks i don't know like you swipe a card in and it's like it took 10 points oh it's like it's not even quarters It's not like you don't put $10 on and then it's like 50 cents?

[2042] No, no, no, no. Yeah, it doesn't even play like that.

[2043] Oh, shit.

[2044] They Microsoft points you with the, all right, your $10 bought you this many points.

[2045] Now the game's take, I think it was like a 50 -cent game.

[2046] It might have been.

[2047] So you just walk out of there with points on your card?

[2048] Yeah, I've got a shitload of points on that card.

[2049] So I have to go back.

[2050] I hate that crap.

[2051] Yeah.

[2052] What are the stuff they have in there?

[2053] Which is junk.

[2054] Yeah.

[2055] Do they have Lucky and Wild?

[2056] Yep.

[2057] They have a Lucky and Wild.

[2058] They've had a Lucky and Wild there forever.

[2059] That is vintage Lucky and Wild there.

[2060] Golden Tee.

[2061] I don't know.

[2062] They've got, you know.

[2063] Got that Bonsai Run machine still.

[2064] It's a pinball machine with the back glass pinball stuff on it.

[2065] Oh, I don't know.

[2066] They have a small collection of pinball.

[2067] Monday Night Football.

[2068] They've got a bunch of, like, the Nouveau big screens fighting game machines set up.

[2069] Mad Dog agree?

[2070] No, they do have their own little shooting gallery there.

[2071] Like Old West style.

[2072] Old style, yeah.

[2073] They've had that forever.

[2074] Do they have any dancing?

[2075] They've got a huge amount of dancing.

[2076] They've got a good little kind of quad of dancing there.

[2077] That's good.

[2078] There are some machines that I recognized from a decade ago going there like, oh, they still have.

[2079] They still have the Paperboy and Turtles machine over by the bathrooms.

[2080] Nope.

[2081] No?

[2082] No. Those are gone.

[2083] Oh, wait.

[2084] The Turtles machine might still be kicking around there somewhere.

[2085] But they have a standalone Super Mario Brothers machine there.

[2086] But not the Play 10.

[2087] They also have a Play Choice 10 machine.

[2088] Oh, wow.

[2089] Sounds like there's a lot of good little gems in there.

[2090] There's some stuff that you look at that did the labs.

[2091] I'm like, I'm surprised to see this here.

[2092] Start wheeling and dealing.

[2093] Put your name on a little card, stick it on the machine.

[2094] None of the teenagers there were in that.

[2095] In a place to negotiate with me. Someone knocked on the front door of my house the other day and said, you want to sell that car in the driveway?

[2096] Let me give you my number.

[2097] Like, what?

[2098] I don't know.

[2099] Jeff, what's going on in Petaluma?

[2100] I feel like Petaluma in the last maybe, I'll call it month, just got super shady.

[2101] I don't know.

[2102] What's...

[2103] Are you feeling it?

[2104] The rain just made everybody crazy.

[2105] I guess so.

[2106] And it just got extra meth -y.

[2107] I don't really know.

[2108] Did you see all the fireworks that were popping off over by the – No. Yeah, like Friday night.

[2109] Yeah, Friday night I was looking out my office window.

[2110] One side garage party with beer pong going on.

[2111] And then there's fucking another neighbor with – beat -up RV that I think someone's living in right now.

[2112] Nice.

[2113] And then there's like mortars going off in the background.

[2114] I'm like, this is fucked.

[2115] It is the end of the game.

[2116] Knowing where your office window is, the direction you were probably looking in, that's not too far from where that home invasion was last year.

[2117] Yeah.

[2118] Yeah.

[2119] Terrific.

[2120] So, yeah, everything's going awesome here.

[2121] But, yeah, I want to go back to Scandia.

[2122] I want to shoot something with this Pac -Man Battle Royale.

[2123] Pac -Man.

[2124] Pac -Man Battle Royale machine because it's – I want to go to there.

[2125] Yeah, come with us.

[2126] We'll try.

[2127] That's a mighty trek though.

[2128] Yeah, no, that's a hell of a trip for you coming all the way from hell and gone.

[2129] But it's – I think that game could be a good deal of fun and like – It would be a tax.

[2130] And it kind of makes me crazy that this exists currently only as an arcade machine.

[2131] Right.

[2132] Because this is like – you charge me $10 for this as just a fucking bolt -on to like CDX.

[2133] Done.

[2134] Really?

[2135] Money paid.

[2136] Just a multiplayer?

[2137] Yeah.

[2138] Yeah, I mean it is pricey.

[2139] You're right.

[2140] I have to imagine they'll put this out eventually in some other way.

[2141] They have to.

[2142] But there's so much shared assets and you can tell that this is coming off of a familiar base of recent Pac -Man games.

[2143] Maybe a different team or something.

[2144] Yeah, it surprised me that I had heard nothing about this until Jared said, yo, dude, it's on the internet.

[2145] Oh, you didn't?

[2146] I'd been looking at pictures of those machines for a little while.

[2147] I didn't know it existed at all.

[2148] We need to find the four -player Pango.

[2149] Or is it six -player?

[2150] It's a Pango machine.

[2151] There's a new Pango out.

[2152] Oh, right.

[2153] The Pango revival.

[2154] Yeah, like super crazy multiplayer Pango.

[2155] Finally.

[2156] I don't know if anyone imported one.

[2157] Probably not.

[2158] Yeah, probably not.

[2159] I was surprised to know that there was Battle Royale nearby.

[2160] Yeah, yeah.

[2161] And I also played a little more U -Star 2.

[2162] Oh.

[2163] Beyond what we did on the Quick Look.

[2164] What did you think?

[2165] Did it work?

[2166] You played it at home?

[2167] I played it at home, yeah.

[2168] Did your connect work better at home?

[2169] It did.

[2170] Okay.

[2171] It wasn't as blown out.

[2172] All right.

[2173] I think we were over lit.

[2174] I guess.

[2175] I don't know.

[2176] Connect still drives me a little bananas.

[2177] It was still like a thing to set up at home, and the cutouts that it did still didn't work super awesome.

[2178] It did not effectively scan the background.

[2179] It did a relatively good job of scanning the background, but there were still some key issues.

[2180] Did you have fun with it?

[2181] I did.

[2182] I had some fun with it.

[2183] Is it weird doing it on your own?

[2184] Kind of despite itself.

[2185] I mean, that game takes a level of, like, fucking, you know, drama club kid, you know, improv gaminess that I think there is a...

[2186] Very, very small percentage of people out there would be willing to – even by themselves or even with just a couple of friends or even when drunk would be willing to get up and do this stuff.

[2187] Like I think that they – I think they have a good selection of scenes.

[2188] I think there's a decent number of scenes on the disc.

[2189] I think for the drunk stuff, they should have just had a jukebox mode where you're just like random playlists and just go.

[2190] There is kind of some options like that.

[2191] Okay.

[2192] There is kind of some stuff.

[2193] It's like party game style.

[2194] But just the interface stuff is wretched.

[2195] Like getting around menus is really bad.

[2196] There's just a lot of points where like you should have a try again option here.

[2197] I shouldn't have to hover over to this other thing to bring up a sub menu to then go and choose the retry option.

[2198] Like it's – there's kind of some basic usability issues with getting – to the content.

[2199] And then the way that the challenge, which is kind of, you know, the structured, I don't know, mode in the game.

[2200] Are there some DLC Star Trek?

[2201] There's a ton of DLC, which is kind of a bummer because it's a lot of DLC of like, here's other scenes from movies that we already have a scene from in the game.

[2202] So, you know, we already licensed, we already made the deal to get scenes from 300, but we're going to plug you for.

[2203] I don't know, two bucks a scene or something to add these additional ones in.

[2204] So that stuff, it kind of rubs me in a little bit the wrong way.

[2205] I did the Dean Wormer running down everyone's grade point average in Animal House.

[2206] Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through a live song.

[2207] Exactly.

[2208] That scene exactly.

[2209] Yeah, and I enjoyed it.

[2210] It was fun.

[2211] I upload it, and I'm getting star ratings, and people are looking at it.

[2212] Can I just go to YouTube and watch it?

[2213] How can I go see this?

[2214] You have to go to ustar .com.

[2215] Oh, and in there, a little thing?

[2216] Yeah, because the first U -Star was not a console.

[2217] It was like a standalone thing.

[2218] Yeah, it was not a DVD game.

[2219] A karaoke machine?

[2220] Something like that.

[2221] Something weird, yeah.

[2222] But I think the idea of movie scene karaoke, I think there's...

[2223] total value in that.

[2224] Absolutely.

[2225] But there is just a lot of awkwardness with, like, how it frames you.

[2226] Like, okay, we need you in this position.

[2227] But we're still kind of, it's like, they make you stand in a specific position or be in a specific spot.

[2228] And a lot of it, for whatever reason, when the Kinect first calibrates and how far it actually wants you to be from the camera.

[2229] I basically had a chair at the ready.

[2230] Oh, get close and sit down?

[2231] Because it was one of those, like, either get closer, get further away.

[2232] But even if I got all the way back, I was not low enough.

[2233] Right.

[2234] So – You got to get low.

[2235] Yeah, you do.

[2236] So a lot of acting in chairs, which doesn't necessarily – Inspire?

[2237] It doesn't evoke the most passionate performances per se.

[2238] But yeah, I – That game sells some things to me that I like.

[2239] Or do you start three?

[2240] No. No, I don't think they're going to be rewarded for their efforts here particularly well.

[2241] And maybe they shouldn't be because there are some truly, truly busted things about the way that it's gauging your performance.

[2242] It's almost like you need not be on camera at all.

[2243] It's almost like you could just read the lines.

[2244] All right.

[2245] That's enough about U -Star 2.

[2246] Jared, you're here for a reason.

[2247] You're here for a reese.

[2248] I am.

[2249] You're not just here to talk about Dragon Age and arcade stuff.

[2250] I'm always here to talk about Dragon Age and arcade stuff.

[2251] Although you've done that handling.

[2252] I'm pretty sure I did that on the last time I was on the podcast.

[2253] Probably Origins or Awakening was coming out at that point.

[2254] I'm glad we've had our annual Jared Ray Dragon Age check -in.

[2255] But there are more serious things at hand that you're a part of.

[2256] Why don't you lay it out for the folks at home here?

[2257] Yeah, sure.

[2258] So just today we announced...

[2259] Fight for Relief, which is a – Yesterday we announced Fight for Relief, which is a day of charity fighting game tournaments taking place here in California, all to benefit aid and relief efforts in Japan for the tragedy of the earthquake and the tsunami.

[2260] Yes.

[2261] So it's basically a two -part event.

[2262] So if you are here in Northern California and you want to compete in Street Fighter 4 and Marvel's Capcom 3, then you can come down to Union City where we'll be hosting a tournament.

[2263] All the proceeds will be going to a globalgiving .org account to benefit aid relief in Japan.

[2264] And, you know, we'll have prizes and raffles and all that fun stuff.

[2265] If you're located in Southern California, you can go to University of California, Irvine.

[2266] We have a group down there, Level Up, who is...

[2267] Running pretty much the exact same event, Street Fighter 4.

[2268] Wow, so North and South, squash and beef.

[2269] Yeah.

[2270] To come together over this.

[2271] I've seen a lot of bad YouTube videos.

[2272] So yeah.

[2273] Street Fighter 4 tournaments.

[2274] It truly is street friendly at this time.

[2275] Yeah, yeah.

[2276] It is street friendly now.

[2277] But no, up here in Northern California, it's the group that I work with.

[2278] Iplaywinter .com.

[2279] And down South, there is Level Up.

[2280] I play winter.

[2281] We do more of like the news and we do broadcasts, but the site is much more, you know, it's very important to us.

[2282] We're level up is pretty much a tournament.

[2283] and stream production like that.

[2284] And that's what they do.

[2285] And it was so funny because I only took one conversation where I was like, you know, hey, guys, I'm thinking of running a charity tournament.

[2286] And they were like, so are we.

[2287] So you've combined your forces.

[2288] Yeah.

[2289] So, you know, instead of instead of trying to because they are absolutely our competition there, you know, we're all great friends.

[2290] We're all really good friends, but they are absolutely our competition when it comes to stuff.

[2291] And this is one of those times where it's just like, you know, you absolutely cannot compete in this.

[2292] It was it just made so much sense to kind of pull together all our resources and try and make this into.

[2293] So Northern California, Southern California, where can people sign up for this stuff?

[2294] We've got websites.

[2295] Yeah, you can go to fightforrelief .com to find out more.

[2296] It has all the information for both the tournaments.

[2297] And also we are, of course, going to be doing a live broadcast of the events on Justin TV.

[2298] It's actually going to be the first time that I Play Winner and Level Up have ever...

[2299] streamed from the same channel so we're still trying to work out the details of exactly how that's going to work we have the general idea we just don't have a schedule there's going to be a handoff and like I'm hoping that our broadcast for iPlay winner ends like an old episode of WCW Nitro where it's like the grand finals of Street Fighter we're like oh my god I've done this all my time And then just cut to level upstream.

[2300] But yeah, if you want to find out more, go to fightforrelief .com.

[2301] Do we have a date for the actual event?

[2302] Yes, it is April 3rd, which is this Sunday.

[2303] Oh, it's coming up.

[2304] Yep.

[2305] And just so we're all clear, all the proceeds from the tournament will go to our globalgiving .org account for Japan Relief.

[2306] And also, while you watch the broadcast, we're going to have a way for people to donate online.

[2307] And also, we're going to have, you know...

[2308] Twitter raffles and stuff like that.

[2309] Is there a reason for people to come here, to come to the actual tournaments if they are not looking to compete?

[2310] Is there going to be other stuff going on?

[2311] Yeah, I mean, spectators are absolutely welcomed.

[2312] If you just want to come by, see what's going on, meet and greet with some of the players we have, we're going to have all the top players from Northern California.

[2313] And, of course, at the event, Southern California, all the top players will be down there.

[2314] Yeah, if you just want to come, just pitch us a couple bucks in our donation box and just hang out.

[2315] We're going to have a coffee can.

[2316] Yeah, yeah.

[2317] And we're going to have casual stations set up.

[2318] So, you know, even if you Don't want to compete.

[2319] You just want to play.

[2320] We'll have casual stations.

[2321] I think we're also going to run like a little WWE All -Stars, you know, just on the side.

[2322] There was talks of like Call of Duty.

[2323] So yeah, and we got some really cool sponsors.

[2324] Hori, who makes a lot of great accessories, including arcade sticks.

[2325] They're pitching us a lot of products.

[2326] Madcats is involved.

[2327] Astro Gaming is going to be involved.

[2328] So that's really cool.

[2329] They don't do much for fighting games.

[2330] So I was really excited to get them on board because they make some really cool headsets.

[2331] Very cool.

[2332] So fight for relief.

[2333] Dot com.

[2334] Dot com.

[2335] Yep.

[2336] Go there for information if you want to.

[2337] F -O -R on the four?

[2338] Yes.

[2339] Yes.

[2340] F -O -R.

[2341] We use the full English language.

[2342] Yes.

[2343] IV.

[2344] Seems like a hot property.

[2345] Yeah.

[2346] But yeah, we'll have more information throughout the week.

[2347] So if I wanted to, like which tournament would I want to go to if I wanted to face the Red Baron?

[2348] You would want to go down to UCLA.

[2349] Okay.

[2350] All right.

[2351] Good to know.

[2352] Good to know.

[2353] All right, this is inside baseball that I'm not getting anymore, Kenny.

[2354] Let's move on to news.

[2355] Let's talk about what else is going on in the world.

[2356] EA Electronic Arts saying goodbye to game manuals.

[2357] They're going to be shutting down.

[2358] For real, huh?

[2359] Yeah.

[2360] That's it?

[2361] Yeah.

[2362] And on the other end, the 3DS shipped with like a 200 -page full -color manual.

[2363] Yeah, wow.

[2364] Nintendo is always.

[2365] The Street Fighter manual on 3DS is pretty thick.

[2366] Just murder entries left and right.

[2367] But they're joining Ubisoft.

[2368] Ubisoft announced the same.

[2369] And they're given the same reason of we're going green.

[2370] We're doing this for economic reasons.

[2371] For economic reasons or for the.

[2372] I'm sorry.

[2373] No, for not economic.

[2374] For ecological reasons.

[2375] I think it also makes sense like as more and more.

[2376] players get these games digitally on the PC or however they're getting them.

[2377] And they're not going to get the manual anyway.

[2378] So if this spurs more developers to design better in -game manuals, then I think that's...

[2379] Well, that's what they're saying is that all games will have...

[2380] In -game manuals, and it sounds like you'll also be able to download them off of the EA website as well.

[2381] Brotherhood had an in -game manual that was the manual.

[2382] It just wasn't great.

[2383] Isn't that the one that had the looping, the game loop or whatever?

[2384] Yeah, yeah.

[2385] We're talking about, here's the game loop.

[2386] You don't want to put that in your manual.

[2387] This reads more like a – So I wonder if you get away from this manual having to exist as a physical thing.

[2388] What does that start doing to the formatting of it and how you present that information?

[2389] Will they start making, like, really good manuals again?

[2390] Probably not.

[2391] But that would be nice.

[2392] But, like, even the definition of calling it a manual, like, how they disseminate this information, like, a lot more of it has become contextual within the games, like, the information that you would expect to see.

[2393] Like, you know, how does this shit control?

[2394] What do I do in this situation?

[2395] Like, that stuff's just being kind of presented to you as you go through the experience.

[2396] I wonder if they'll need slips of paper for all the legal stuff.

[2397] They probably will.

[2398] They probably will still have to put.

[2399] Or, you know, it's in the front of the game.

[2400] So I wonder if they'll just put, oh, I guess it's not.

[2401] The seizure warnings don't happen in front of the game.

[2402] No, they don't.

[2403] So they'll probably have to put, like, those types of medical notices and, like, the boilerplate Microsoft and Sony stuff that you have to put in every single one.

[2404] I could jam more stuff onto the top of the disc.

[2405] I'm sure they could put it all there.

[2406] Say, don't have seizures.

[2407] By the way, bink and don't have seizures.

[2408] Also, bink.

[2409] And physics.

[2410] These game tools are rad.

[2411] No, that stuff they do have to put on the game.

[2412] Yeah.

[2413] That's great.

[2414] So game prices coming down.

[2415] Oh, yeah.

[2416] The printing costs.

[2417] Games will be cheaper.

[2418] Fantastic.

[2419] Air will be cleaner.

[2420] So we're loading the age we live in, right?

[2421] Food will taste better.

[2422] Sojerushi.

[2423] Damn it.

[2424] $59 .95.

[2425] Damn it.

[2426] Is that really how much the rice cookers are?

[2427] $59 .95?

[2428] No, no, no. I figured they'd be more expensive.

[2429] No, no. Like the one I was saying, the cool one I was talking about.

[2430] $120.

[2431] It's like $1 .20 something.

[2432] But mine wasn't better.

[2433] You can get cheaper rice cookers.

[2434] But I wouldn't want to.

[2435] But just make sure you're not.

[2436] I don't know.

[2437] Ask for my name.

[2438] Zojirushi.

[2439] I don't know what your rice cooking needs are like.

[2440] I like rice.

[2441] There's this issue of volume and you need it to have a timer on it.

[2442] If I get a really big rice cooker, can I just fill it up part way?

[2443] Yeah.

[2444] Yeah.

[2445] Okay.

[2446] So it still doesn't have portion control.

[2447] It's not – Sure, but it's like if you're paying a whole lot more money for a more rice cooker than you need.

[2448] Well, what if a situation erupts where I need more rice cooker?

[2449] You run it twice.

[2450] Rice cookers are pretty quick.

[2451] How long does it take?

[2452] 20 minutes.

[2453] How long does it take to make – At the back end?

[2454] Yeah, at most.

[2455] If you do brown rice, it's longer.

[2456] Okay, sure.

[2457] But yeah, if you're just doing regular, you know, some sticky -ass rice.

[2458] If you're doing some fucking Uncle Ben's, like 20 minutes on the outside.

[2459] And the Zojirushi will know.

[2460] It'll tell you how long it's going to take you.

[2461] Wow.

[2462] You know, growing up white, I didn't know that good rice existed until I...

[2463] I was, like, maybe 15.

[2464] I went to a friend's house and I had a rice cooker.

[2465] You were just used to, like, Uncle Ben's with a patty.

[2466] Yeah, because my mom would just make Uncle Ben.

[2467] Yeah, and she'd put butter on it.

[2468] Until one time I went to a friend's house and they had, like, a rice cooker and they made it.

[2469] And then I was like, yeah, can I get some butter?

[2470] And it was like, plates dropped.

[2471] And people just threw it.

[2472] Yeah, they were like, what?

[2473] Dog looks at you sideways, cocks its head.

[2474] What?

[2475] That's right.

[2476] Goes and hides under a blanket.

[2477] Yeah, I went back and I was, like, yelling at my parents.

[2478] Like, I didn't even know there was good butter and good rice.

[2479] Get some lime grain.

[2480] Get some basmati.

[2481] Get some jasmine.

[2482] Yeah, yeah.

[2483] Some of that extra fancy shit.

[2484] That's right.

[2485] Sushi rice.

[2486] This rice is G'd up.

[2487] I got a bag of sushi rice at my house.

[2488] Hot 9 -7.

[2489] We got the basmati rice up in the building.

[2490] Yeah.

[2491] Exclusive.

[2492] Debt mate.

[2493] The Big Dog Pit Bull is in the building.

[2494] Exclusive.

[2495] The Big Dog Pit Bull never does it to make me laugh.

[2496] Oh, my computer's gone off.

[2497] Oh, it's back.

[2498] Bunch of Resident Evil news, I guess.

[2499] We just skipped that part.

[2500] Well, there's a couple.

[2501] Like I said, multiple items here in the world of Resident Evil.

[2502] So we've got Famitsu revealing this Resident Evil HD collection, which combines Resident Evil Code Veronica X and Resident Evil 4.

[2503] Those are going to be downloadable here.

[2504] I don't know if they're going to be there.

[2505] I'm pretty sure they're downloadable games.

[2506] Right.

[2507] Yeah.

[2508] When I heard about this, I heard about it like, hey, Resident Evil 4 HD.

[2509] I was like, oh, okay.

[2510] It's been released a couple of times, but that's okay.

[2511] Yeah.

[2512] But then, and Resident Evil Code Veronica.

[2513] It's like, really?

[2514] Really?

[2515] People have fond memories of Code Veronica.

[2516] Only because that's like misguided Dreamcast nostalgia.

[2517] Yeah, you're probably right.

[2518] Like, why didn't they do the remake for GameCube?

[2519] That's a...

[2520] Resident Evil that actually has been re -released to death.

[2521] But so yeah, they've confirmed, Capcom has confirmed that in the States those are coming out, XBLA and PSN.

[2522] I'll probably get Resident Evil 4.

[2523] As downloadable titles.

[2524] It seems kind of crazy that RE4, it doesn't seem like that much time has passed since RE4 came out.

[2525] I realize that it's been six years or something.

[2526] Hey, what are you buying?

[2527] What are you selling?

[2528] Resident Evil 4 HD.

[2529] I'm not buying that.

[2530] Maybe.

[2531] I don't know.

[2532] More chance of buying that than of buying Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City, which is a team -based third -person shooter being developed by Slant6.

[2533] Because when you think of Resident Evil, you think of third -person team -based tactical shooters.

[2534] I think of the guys who made the off Socom.

[2535] Well, the other guys that made Socom.

[2536] They made the good quality PSP Socom games, if you're into that sort of thing, and then they made Socom Confrontation, which is not.

[2537] which I did not like.

[2538] Yeah.

[2539] Yeah, so I guess the whole thing with this is it's four on four.

[2540] But then there are also zombies and monsters.

[2541] So there's objectives for everyone to be going up against with lots of Resident Evil monsters.

[2542] And they're setting it during that kind of Raccoon City classic RE era.

[2543] Yeah, but it's not even directly that era.

[2544] It's a reimagination of the events of RE 2 and 3.

[2545] But multiple teams competing but also going up against AI.

[2546] Like, it's zombies and bio -organic weapons.

[2547] B -O -W's.

[2548] Bowls.

[2549] Which I thought, yeah, a weird bit in the press release there.

[2550] They're really playing up the whole, like, you can change the storyline.

[2551] Like, you can kill Leon.

[2552] Or not.

[2553] Or not.

[2554] But it reminds me of, like, when they did Force Unleashed.

[2555] Like, you can kill Han Solo and Chewie.

[2556] It's like, why would I really want to do that?

[2557] This doesn't really work that way.

[2558] It's not the experience that I...

[2559] I really want from Resident Evil.

[2560] I don't want to kill the main characters.

[2561] I want them to live.

[2562] It can't be any worse than the last multiplayer -focused Resident Evil game they put out.

[2563] Well, Outbreak 2 was okay.

[2564] It was clunky, but it worked.

[2565] When it worked, it worked.

[2566] Nope.

[2567] Nope.

[2568] Okay.

[2569] I'm just going to shake my head at that.

[2570] I just like tank controls.

[2571] I could never play old Resident Evil games.

[2572] That stuff always made me nuts.

[2573] I couldn't hang.

[2574] I got pretty close to zero love for the Resident Evil franchise.

[2575] I like Resident Evil.

[2576] How do you feel about this?

[2577] I want some new Resident Evil.

[2578] This is new Resident Evil.

[2579] This is your new Resident Evil.

[2580] Why are you holding the thermos up, Adam, as you say that?

[2581] You need a thank -based god for Resident Evil.

[2582] What's this?

[2583] What's it called again?

[2584] This is a long title.

[2585] Operation Raccoon City.

[2586] Oh, okay.

[2587] Oh, yes, yes.

[2588] The name of the multiplayer game.

[2589] Resident Evil Operation.

[2590] Resident Evil colon.

[2591] Resident Evil.

[2592] No colon.

[2593] No second colon.

[2594] No, Resident Evil TM.

[2595] Operation Raccoon City.

[2596] Operation New God.

[2597] I guess there could be a colon.

[2598] There's a colon atorism.

[2599] Okay.

[2600] I'm looking at the logo.

[2601] Yeah, I would mind.

[2602] So multiple Resident Evil stories out there.

[2603] And they said that the 3DS game is going to come with a demo for the other 3DS game.

[2604] Mercenaries?

[2605] Yeah.

[2606] I really don't like that they split those two games up.

[2607] Because I'm a fan of Resident Evil, but I don't really like the mercenaries parts of it.

[2608] So I guess it's like, okay, cool.

[2609] I don't have to deal with that part.

[2610] But it's like, well, now you're just taking away from the package.

[2611] Even if I'm not really going to play it, I still want it on there.

[2612] In 3D.

[2613] Dates?

[2614] Winter release, I think.

[2615] You want to go on a date?

[2616] Bad date.

[2617] Bad end.

[2618] Is it Winter for that stuff?

[2619] I think it's Winter for Operation Raccoon City.

[2620] PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, I think they said.

[2621] I could be making that up.

[2622] Who knows with me. I'm scrubbing through this stuff.

[2623] You don't see a date?

[2624] I like how they're making Hunk the focus of it.

[2625] That's one of those characters that they try and use to tug at fanboys.

[2626] Hunk's in it, man. What about me?

[2627] What about tofu?

[2628] Come on, man. Oh, man. Yes, winter.

[2629] And you're right.

[2630] PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

[2631] Told you.

[2632] Do you think that's kind of like their Left 4 Dead?

[2633] Do you think that's kind of the point?

[2634] Like, oh, Left 4 Dead did it, so we can kind of do that sort of gameplay.

[2635] Maybe, yeah.

[2636] Your zombie team?

[2637] Maybe it is something like that, but I think it's just more of Capcom partnering with weird external developers and making new games based on their old stuff.

[2638] And it sounds like this was a Capcom Europe announcement, so...

[2639] They sent out the press release out of the U .S. at the same time.

[2640] Okay.

[2641] So it was multi -jurisdictional as far as I can tell.

[2642] I just wasn't sure if that was a sign that this was coming from their creative side or what.

[2643] I've reached this point where I don't know what Capcom is working on.

[2644] And it's weird, because it's like they're announcing more Resident Evil games, and then there was the BBFC listing for Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition.

[2645] That's coming to consoles.

[2646] So it's like, is Capcom really working on more Resident Evil and more Street Fighter?

[2647] Is that really where they're at?

[2648] They have to be working on something else totally crazy and separate, right?

[2649] Forgotten Worlds remake.

[2650] Yeah!

[2651] Which Western developer would you want them to partner with for that?

[2652] Because they got Ninja Theory for Devil May Cry.

[2653] For Forgotten Worlds?

[2654] Yeah.

[2655] Id. Megatexture technology bringing the giant bosses of Forgotten Worlds to life in a way you've never seen them before.

[2656] I would want Epic because they're really good with muscular dudes that look like trees.

[2657] That's kind of the motif that Forgotten Worlds had.

[2658] I think Epic.

[2659] Better at rendering sunglasses.

[2660] Get the people who can fly.

[2661] Guys on that, because they can do over -the -top shooters.

[2662] Yeah, do weird weapons.

[2663] Let's not waste Epic's time.

[2664] Let's take it directly at a chair.

[2665] Those guys would do a way better job.

[2666] Because they would keep it a side -scroller anyway.

[2667] Yeah.

[2668] Or would they just make it an iPad game?

[2669] It's hard to tell at this point.

[2670] I bet Infinity Blade brought in more money overall than Shadow Complex ever did.

[2671] You're probably right.

[2672] You're probably right.

[2673] I was going to say, I didn't do a what I was playing segment, but I've been playing a lot of iPad stuff.

[2674] So I would be okay with that.

[2675] If Cher wanted to make a Forgotten World on iPad.

[2676] Jared, I knew that, and that's why I skipped you.

[2677] Sorry.

[2678] Hey, okay, we'll just, you know.

[2679] Duke Nukem Forever.

[2680] You could just deal with it.

[2681] Thanks.

[2682] It doesn't really have the same hit in real life.

[2683] And you also don't have any sunglasses that come down from out of frame.

[2684] Enjoy your day.

[2685] Duke Nukem Forever.

[2686] It would be pretty cool if you did, though.

[2687] Duke Nukem Forever.

[2688] Yes.

[2689] Guys, they had.

[2690] They've delayed Duke Nukem Forever.

[2691] That's cool.

[2692] I've waited this long.

[2693] One more time.

[2694] That 2K is going to put it out.

[2695] No, no. They've delayed it again.

[2696] Yeah, but now they got it.

[2697] Now Randy Pitcher is going to put it out.

[2698] Right.

[2699] Well, he's still going to put it out.

[2700] It's still Gearbox, but after the Gearbox reveal, it's not coming out in May anymore.

[2701] It's not going to come out in June.

[2702] It's a plan all along, right?

[2703] So, yeah, let's kick it around the table.

[2704] What do you think?

[2705] You think this is – I saw that commercial they put out.

[2706] I thought it was well done.

[2707] That little, like, teaser thing.

[2708] Yeah, where it's Randy Pitchford saying, like, we're so excited.

[2709] Final days here of Duke Nukem.

[2710] He's got the big Duke Nukem Forever standee behind him.

[2711] And dude just walks up and slaps another date over the date that they had on.

[2712] Yeah, we're fucking kidding, man. And then he swears up a storm and kind of runs off screen.

[2713] Shaking camera.

[2714] Yeah, they sell it.

[2715] They sell it in a way that makes me think that, no, this was not a planned thing.

[2716] And our talks with the 2K guys made it sound like.

[2717] Yeah, when they first made the announcement, we were kind of joking, like you should have announced it, and then a day later delayed it.

[2718] And the response was like, it turns out shareholders really don't like it when you lie about release dates, so no. But not that we didn't think about it, so I have to imagine this is totally real.

[2719] The thing that gets me is like, what does a one -month delay do for that game at this point?

[2720] Is it a window thing?

[2721] I have no idea.

[2722] If it's, I mean, you're in the same quarter, so it doesn't touch anything like that.

[2723] If there's a game -killing bug that they've found.

[2724] If there's, I don't know.

[2725] Maybe they didn't pass certain.

[2726] The trash cans didn't look good enough.

[2727] Maybe they got kicked back from console.

[2728] These vehicles are too boxy.

[2729] Maybe they got to take out the women slapping or whatever it was.

[2730] Tell me what you guys think.

[2731] Every single time that I have seen that game, they have been really eager for feedback.

[2732] Sure.

[2733] More so.

[2734] than even other games under the 2K umbrella.

[2735] Are they less confident and less sure how this is going to play?

[2736] I think if they feel that they can do something to, you know, if they can take some of that feedback and tweak it ever so slightly, I think they absolutely will.

[2737] I think they're very, very open to that idea.

[2738] Also, I feel like delaying games is more the norm than the exception at this point.

[2739] So, yeah.

[2740] Especially that game.

[2741] No game has been delayed more.

[2742] So what's a month?

[2743] If it gets delayed again, then it's funny.

[2744] If there's a second delay, then it's funny.

[2745] If there's this weird fucking Duke Nukem Forever curse that you literally can't ship this game.

[2746] You would not believe it.

[2747] The pressing plant melted down and a fire happened.

[2748] We got the discs printed.

[2749] I don't think it could be related to any of other...

[2750] any other 2K releases because Darkness 2 is not due out for a while.

[2751] Oh, you mean as far as like release window stuff?

[2752] Yeah, yeah.

[2753] So I don't think it would be competing with their own stuff.

[2754] Spec Ops is coming out in May. Is that still a game?

[2755] It gets out of the way of L .A. Noire.

[2756] Not that those are direct competitors.

[2757] Yeah, those are pretty off.

[2758] But it is still the same company releasing games.

[2759] You think the Housers would fucking pull that card?

[2760] I don't even know.

[2761] I'm not even going to speculate.

[2762] Just fucking delay Duke Nukem!

[2763] Well, you don't want to get in L .A. Noire's way anyways.

[2764] Yeah, probably not.

[2765] Maybe it's a marketing thing.

[2766] I don't know.

[2767] Maybe resources.

[2768] Who knows?

[2769] You think that's going to be a big deal?

[2770] L .A. Noire?

[2771] It's Rockstar.

[2772] I mean, I'm super excited about it.

[2773] Everything I've seen about it is like, yeah, this is up my alley.

[2774] But I wonder, what is the public interest level in games from the developers of the getaway that look like L .A. Confidential?

[2775] Well, I mean, they're not going to say they're going to say Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

[2776] But I wonder even still like the, yeah, like, What that game is, like if that sells.

[2777] They're going to release a commercial.

[2778] It's going to be the typical Rockstar trailer package.

[2779] And then they're going to say, look, it's Grand Theft Auto meets Mad Men.

[2780] It's like a movie.

[2781] It's like watching a movie.

[2782] No, they're not going to explain how it plays.

[2783] They're not going to explain anything.

[2784] That's not how Rockstar markets.

[2785] No, no, no. They're going to put together a nice little package and just push it out.

[2786] Those GTA IV trailers were phenomenal.

[2787] I'm not being sarcastic.

[2788] I mean, that's just what they do.

[2789] A bunch of guys yelling at each other and then somebody saying you betrayed me and then some guns get pulled.

[2790] I trusted you!

[2791] It's been a long day in L .A. It's going to be an even longer night.

[2792] Hot 97!

[2793] The big dog, Pitbull.

[2794] Dropping a bomb on him.

[2795] Alright, so that's news.

[2796] Let's talk about some new releases.

[2797] We've got WWE All -Stars, like we said earlier, coming out on freeing everything.

[2798] What do I mean when I say friggin' everything?

[2799] What do you mean when you say friggin' everything?

[2800] I'm glad you asked, Vinny Caravella.

[2801] I mean Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 2.

[2802] Also out this week, Dynasty Warriors 7.

[2803] That's right, the seventh Dynasty Warriors game.

[2804] Yes!

[2805] Which really means like...

[2806] I prefer to think of it as Shin Sengoku Musa 6.

[2807] Though I think that technically makes it the 40th...

[2808] No, wait.

[2809] My map is off.

[2810] It's always by a factor of like at least six.

[2811] Because you have to do like there's like always three different versions for each one.

[2812] And then are they doing like they'll do empires.

[2813] Yeah, they'll do an empires.

[2814] And then extreme.

[2815] And then extreme legends.

[2816] And extreme legends.

[2817] Yeah, it's extreme legends.

[2818] So you already got three.

[2819] So the 21st game at least.

[2820] You already did.

[2821] You know what was a pretty good game?

[2822] The first Dynasty Warriors.

[2823] Wasn't that like completely a different game?

[2824] Yep.

[2825] Tiger Woods PGA -12 The Masters, available for Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

[2826] Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky for the PlayStation Portable XSEED.

[2827] Is all you need to know that they're publishing it.

[2828] Some sort of crazy -ass PSP tactical RPG, if I had to guess.

[2829] But yes, Legend of Heroes, colon, Trails in the Sky.

[2830] Also this week on the PlayStation Portable, The Third Birthday, which is the next Parasite Eve game.

[2831] And that's been around.

[2832] I thought that came out of Japanese cell phones like a decade ago or something weird like that, didn't it?

[2833] Something like that.

[2834] I don't know what they've done in bringing it to the PSP, but it's available on disc and downloadable through the PlayStation Network.

[2835] It's kind of crazy.

[2836] If someone told me all those years ago, like, hey, they're going to bring Parasite Eve back, but it's going to be Oni Chambara, I wouldn't have believed them.

[2837] I remember you got to clean your sword.

[2838] I remember being – I remember liking Parasite Eve 2.

[2839] I remember nothing about Parasite Eve 2.

[2840] Parasite Eve 2 was like – it was not as good as the original.

[2841] They made a lot of wacky changes to it and just – It didn't have the same impact.

[2842] Or maybe something of Dino Crisis.

[2843] I don't know.

[2844] Fucking – Did you like Dino Crisis?

[2845] I like Dino Crisis 2.

[2846] You didn't like Dino Crisis 3?

[2847] No, I definitely didn't like Dino Crisis.

[2848] Dino Crisis 2 had the crazy combo system.

[2849] Remember, the first one was just like Resident Evil with dinosaurs.

[2850] But the second one went hot.

[2851] It went a little action -y.

[2852] Shift 2 Unleashed for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

[2853] Yeah.

[2854] We've got that in here.

[2855] Yeah, we'll have some video up of that.

[2856] Is that a trailer in the front?

[2857] It does not.

[2858] It does not.

[2859] Sad.

[2860] Yeah.

[2861] And NASCAR 2011, the game.

[2862] No. NASCAR, the game, 2011.

[2863] I'm sorry.

[2864] I'm going to redact that earlier statement.

[2865] NASCAR, the game, 2011.

[2866] Yeah.

[2867] So this is what?

[2868] I'm sorry.

[2869] This is for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

[2870] It's Activision.

[2871] Activision and Eutechnics is doing development.

[2872] Oh, really?

[2873] That still exists?

[2874] Yeah.

[2875] Son of a bitch.

[2876] Yeah.

[2877] Well, I guess maybe this has a chance.

[2878] Wait, what are Eutechnics doing?

[2879] The NASCAR.

[2880] Did they do the EA NASCAR games?

[2881] No, they did the ones previous to that.

[2882] I was actually kind of disappointed back when EA lost the NASCAR license because that series was actually getting pretty good.

[2883] I don't really have interest in NASCAR, but it just has a racing game.

[2884] It had a lot of really interesting ideas.

[2885] And rounding it out, it reads...

[2886] This one has Bobby Labonte.

[2887] And inside the box is a slip good for 15 % off a domain registration.

[2888] And the way they tie it into the game is like, hey, have you learned any secrets about NASCAR the game 2011?

[2889] Put them on a website.

[2890] Register a domain through Danica Patrick says you should.

[2891] Yeah, exactly.

[2892] Does it have Jeff Gordon?

[2893] He's handsome.

[2894] It does have Jeff Gordon.

[2895] Okay.

[2896] It does the football game thing where when you first turn it on, it asks you to pick your favorite driver and then tailors the menus around that.

[2897] I'll pick my NASCAR driver by how yummy they look.

[2898] Bobby Labonte.

[2899] And rounding it out at retail, Country Dance for the Nintendo Wii.

[2900] Oh, I like it.

[2901] From the aptly named Game Mill.

[2902] Straight out to Game Mill.

[2903] Wait, didn't Game Mill publish fucking big rigs?

[2904] They may have.

[2905] No, I thought that was pure Russia.

[2906] I'm not going to go look at it.

[2907] Is it like a dancing game that features licensed country music?

[2908] Let's talk about downloadables.

[2909] Let's hope it contains unlicensed country music.

[2910] We made up all this country music for you to dance to.

[2911] It's like custom.

[2912] This Russian composer made some.

[2913] Now you're making me. I'm typing country dance.

[2914] We don't even have a page for this on the site.

[2915] People used to say that the para para dancing game was like line dancing for your hands.

[2916] So why didn't someone just make a line dancing game for your feet?

[2917] That's a great point.

[2918] Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Sugar Land, Tony Keith.

[2919] Got some Sugar Land.

[2920] Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, and many more.

[2921] 25 -plus chart -topping hits.

[2922] Yes, Game Mill Publishing.

[2923] was the second publisher of Big Rigs.

[2924] Activision Value did it in 03.

[2925] Okay.

[2926] And then Game Mill did it in 04.

[2927] Okay.

[2928] I remember the Activision Value days.

[2929] Also, this out this week from Game Mill.

[2930] I didn't list this originally, but what the hell.

[2931] This is for the DS.

[2932] And I didn't list it because it's called Pinkalicious.

[2933] Yeah.

[2934] Tell me more.

[2935] I'm in.

[2936] I think it comes with a pen.

[2937] I couldn't find a product description for it.

[2938] Does it have a fuzzy top on it?

[2939] I found a product description.

[2940] I'm going to read it?

[2941] Yeah, please.

[2942] Pinkalicious loves her friends.

[2943] So Pinkalicious already is a character.

[2944] Could you read it hotter?

[2945] Pinkalicious loves her friends, family, and fun.

[2946] And what better way to combine them than a pinktastic party?

[2947] Players express their licious style.

[2948] Can you read it like Hot 97 Prologue?

[2949] Yeah, players express their licious style by designing parties.

[2950] Choosing impertetious, bicarious, green wine.

[2951] Let's go digital.

[2952] All right.

[2953] That was a free -to -play online game.

[2954] Oh, okay.

[2955] And now you get to pay $800?

[2956] Yep.

[2957] And Sisu Kuki Strania.

[2958] It's one of those.

[2959] It's a bullet hell.

[2960] It's a bullet hell shooter, right?

[2961] Yeah.

[2962] Oh, okay.

[2963] Is that a cave release?

[2964] No, it's a G. What's the other?

[2965] Oh, G -Rev.

[2966] Yeah, G -Rev.

[2967] G -Rev.

[2968] That's Senko Naronde, people.

[2969] 800 Microsoft points.

[2970] I'll buy that because I'm just a sucker for it.

[2971] So $10 across the board.

[2972] On those, Jeff, what was your feelings on Russian Attack after you saw that in pre -release forms?

[2973] It's, yeah, I don't know.

[2974] It seems like it could be okay.

[2975] It's definitely, you know, it's a game that's made to look like something like Bionic Commander Rearmed or something like Shadow Complex, but it is a lot more linear than those games.

[2976] Okay.

[2977] And, yeah, I don't know.

[2978] You use the knife.

[2979] Yeah, I use the knife.

[2980] You do pick up some very limited -use weapons, so it's got that.

[2981] also from the arcade original.

[2982] But it didn't seem that terrific.

[2983] I've only played through a couple of levels from what they have shown of it over the past year or so.

[2984] Man, that game has been kicking around forever.

[2985] We'll see what it looks like come Wednesday.

[2986] I have a feeling it's just going to add to the Capcom Konami confusion on GAF.

[2987] Oh, totally.

[2988] Or we could play a day earlier on PlayStation Network because it's also coming there.

[2989] All right.

[2990] So you've got Russian Attack Expatriot on both platforms.

[2991] Free Realms is coming this week to the PS3 via the PlayStation Network.

[2992] Free Realms being their free -to -play MMO that SOE has been running on the PC for a couple of years now.

[2993] Speaking of kicking around for a really long time.

[2994] So they're maintaining their same free -to -play, but there's premium shit, and you can pay for membership to get to higher levels of jobs or whatever, but it's family -focused.

[2995] MTX, y 'all.

[2996] Family -focused, yeah.

[2997] I played Free Realms for a little bit.

[2998] It's quality.

[2999] It's pretty good.

[3000] Yeah, I played a few hours of it and thought that it was certainly a cut above all the other free -to -play stuff that was out there at the time.

[3001] Chime Super Deluxe.

[3002] Remember Chime, that charity game?

[3003] They've made an expanded version of that for PlayStation Network out this week.

[3004] More music in it.

[3005] And Moondiver, which I'm super curious to see.

[3006] Yes, Moondiver is the four -player simultaneous.

[3007] Strider.

[3008] Strider -looking thing.

[3009] So the dude who made Strider.

[3010] Yeah.

[3011] involved in this, which is why it kind of looks like Strider.

[3012] So I like Strider.

[3013] Why not?

[3014] I'll give it a look.

[3015] And that's it for new releases this week.

[3016] Let's take it to emails.

[3017] Show's over.

[3018] What do we do now?

[3019] Emails!

[3020] I can try and do a bright voice, but I don't think I can.

[3021] Bombcast at giantbomb .com is the email address.

[3022] First email comes in from Paul in Birmingham, England.

[3023] Hey, Giant Bomb.

[3024] Hope you're well and stuff.

[3025] Okay, so this is great, actually.

[3026] This is something that we should have talked about earlier.

[3027] I've just learned that Capcom has plans to release a retail version of Super Street Fighter IV featuring the arcade stuff.

[3028] Arcade edition.

[3029] It's like four more characters and like a rebalance.

[3030] It's Yan Yang, Oni Akuma, Evil Ryu.

[3031] Evil Ryu, yeah.

[3032] Yeah, I'm not particularly proud of them.

[3033] So Paul says, now I love my Street Fighter as much as anyone.

[3034] I bought Street Fighter 4.

[3035] I bought Super Street Fighter 4.

[3036] Do you think Capcom's slipping back into those crazy old days of the 90s where it developed a nasty habit of releasing updates as full retail titles?

[3037] Four characters is DLC, surely.

[3038] What are your thoughts, gentlemen?

[3039] I think that if they only release this stuff on a disc, then it'll be tragic and terrible and the worst thing about...

[3040] Video games.

[3041] If they release the update as DLC and then simultaneously just update all the copies of Super Street Fighter that are out there now with this new version that has the arcade edition stuff in it.

[3042] This is the one.

[3043] That's okay, I think.

[3044] I don't really have too much of a problem with that.

[3045] But yeah, they need to sell this as DLC for super owners or somehow cut the price even further.

[3046] Or pay the consequences.

[3047] Like Super Street Fighter 4 was $40.

[3048] Right.

[3049] which was an acceptable price for what they were adding to that game.

[3050] It was a great game.

[3051] But I don't think they can get away with it again.

[3052] I think they know that.

[3053] I think they even said so at the time, that it wasn't going to be like Street Fighter II where they were pumping out new updates all the time and selling them on disc or selling them on cartridges, the case may be.

[3054] Yeah, this is really one of those situations where it really has to be DLC.

[3055] Like, they can release an on -disc kind of, you know, on -disc kind of roll -up.

[3056] Whatever, like, your most recent point update, you know?

[3057] Like, if you're going to buy it in the store, you want that thing out the box to be compatible with what people are actually playing online.

[3058] Yeah, but, I mean, yeah, it has to be DLC because I've been playing Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition for a couple months now with the new characters and all the balance changes.

[3059] I'm not even particularly thrilled at the concept of paying money to get that stuff because it...

[3060] I don't agree with pretty much any of the balance changes.

[3061] You're not a fan of the updates they made?

[3062] No. Pretty much the way they looked at Arcade Edition is they took all the characters and were like, you know what?

[3063] Instead of keeping you guys kind of unique and interesting and keeping kind of a nice balance together, we're just going to nerf everybody.

[3064] We're just going to make all of you worse and more just boring and uninteresting.

[3065] But these new characters are going to be...

[3066] Like, these guys are going to be unstoppable.

[3067] And it's just, yeah, it's just not enjoyable.

[3068] It kind of killed some of the enjoyment for me. I mean, if it comes out and, well, when it comes out.

[3069] I'm going to buy it.

[3070] I'm not going to be particularly happy about it.

[3071] But, yeah, it better be DLC or there are going to be a lot of angry people.

[3072] And also it's going to create just a lot of mistrust in kind of the Street Fighter brand, I think, or maybe even just fighting games of, oh, now we're back in the 90s.

[3073] Now you're going to try and charge me every time.

[3074] They've been good so far.

[3075] I hope that we're not so spoiled that one misstep.

[3076] Maybe it made sense for them, maybe it was the most profitable point for them, but I think that releasing Super Street Fighter IV at $40 was solid by the community, solid by trying to foster this thing.

[3077] So really, them doing this is a fuck -up, but in the grand scheme of how they've kind of re -approached fighting games here in these last few years, it would be kind of their first significant fuck -up.

[3078] Yeah.

[3079] I still hope it doesn't happen.

[3080] I agree.

[3081] Like, all your points are totally valid.

[3082] Well, like I said, I think it's fine if they put it out on disc and, you know, if they take all the existing copies of Super Street Fighter 4 off shelves or stop restocking them and only restock arcade edition versions.

[3083] And if they sell that for the same $40, that's fine.

[3084] But they have to offer a DLC option at this point.

[3085] Last time when Super was coming out, they were like, oh, well.

[3086] It seemed like they kind of were backpedaling and making up a lot of excuses as to why it couldn't be DLC from regular to Super.

[3087] Technology wasn't in place.

[3088] Right.

[3089] And I think they have said at this point, like, the technology is now in place.

[3090] So they really probably don't have the excuse.

[3091] They've taken out their excuses.

[3092] Yeah.

[3093] All right.

[3094] We'll see what happens.

[3095] Next email comes in from Jonathan Abrams in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

[3096] I just got a 3DS and can't stop thinking about how they could get PCross 3D onto it.

[3097] On one hand, it's a perfect fit.

[3098] It's a perfect application of 3D.

[3099] On the other hand, you need to be able to stylus.

[3100] You need the stylus to be able to chip away the blocks.

[3101] Do you guys think it can be done or should be done?

[3102] Jeff Gerstmann, as John Baum's resident PCross fanatic and lover of PCross 3D, what do you think about trying to do that shit with holograms?

[3103] Put the cube on both screens.

[3104] That way you can still accurately chip away at it on the bottom screen.

[3105] while having a 3D version of it up top.

[3106] Or just have that little snake creature thing totally flip out up top in 3D.

[3107] Like, what's going on?

[3108] Yeah.

[3109] I think they should make another one of those games.

[3110] I don't care what platform they put it out on, but if they made another Picross 3D.

[3111] Do you think they're due?

[3112] I mean, I don't know that they're due.

[3113] It's not like they've released a ton of those things.

[3114] I know, but I'm saying as far as the cycle of the release PCross.

[3115] I would happily pay for another PCross game.

[3116] PCross.

[3117] 2D or 3D.

[3118] 3D, 3D.

[3119] 2D or 3D or 3D, 3D.

[3120] About 40.

[3121] Whatever you got.

[3122] However many Ds, Jeff will take all of them.

[3123] That's right.

[3124] Jeff loves Ds.

[3125] I want to throw some Ds on that bitch.

[3126] And that bitch is my 3DS.

[3127] Gavin from Scottsdale.

[3128] How come spoken dialogue and the accompanying subtitle text doesn't always match up in games?

[3129] I realize that sometimes the voice actor will make slight alterations to the lines they're given, but it seems like sloppy work for them to not go back and correct the subtitle text before shipping.

[3130] I feel like it's something that's been a topic of conversation within the Giant Bomb offices a lot recently.

[3131] Read what's on the page.

[3132] Crisis 2 is real bad about that stuff.

[3133] Yeah, a lot of...

[3134] Like, same message but different.

[3135] But, you know, like subtitles in movies or subtitles on television don't match the stuff accurately all the time either.

[3136] I just assume that they write that script so early that gets put in the game and then when they're recording it.

[3137] They never go back.

[3138] That sounds like shit, dude.

[3139] Don't say that.

[3140] Can I just say this a different way?

[3141] Is that okay?

[3142] Yeah, please do.

[3143] Because that was a little clumsy, that first take.

[3144] All right, let's do this again.

[3145] It's not necessarily important work that doesn't.

[3146] Someone would have to spend time going back and doing that.

[3147] And updating it based on the recordings would probably be a real pain in the ass.

[3148] Yeah, a real pain in the ass.

[3149] And I'm sure the shooting script is just going to be different.

[3150] No matter if they changed it or not, you have to go back and listen to the dude.

[3151] And I'm sure somebody's not taking notes in the recording studio.

[3152] He changed man to guy.

[3153] But I wish that they would do it.

[3154] It's a minor thing.

[3155] You get more for your money.

[3156] You're getting two different takes on this.

[3157] I find it to be completely disrespectful.

[3158] Disruptive, you know, like trying to pay attention to a story and then like running into that.

[3159] It's just like, oh, what's going on?

[3160] So what's your – I mean we try and run with subtitles whenever we do quick looks just – Because we're babbling.

[3161] Because we're talking over everything.

[3162] So if you want to try and follow whatever the hell is going on in the story and the game, you can by following the subtitles.

[3163] But like personal preference, Vinny.

[3164] I turn them off.

[3165] You don't like them, Jeff?

[3166] I really need to start turning them off because it's how I'm absorbing most game stories.

[3167] now is reading ahead of the dialogue because I read faster than they speak.

[3168] You're just getting impatient.

[3169] Like, all right, go on, go on.

[3170] Yeah, exactly.

[3171] I just don't trust the sound mix.

[3172] Yeah, that happens a lot of times too.

[3173] So often there's – Do you leave it on?

[3174] So, yeah, like that will be my reason for leaving on subtitles.

[3175] Like I want to make sure that I – Even if the wording is different, I don't care.

[3176] I want to make sure that I am absorbing the information that they're spitting out here.

[3177] That's right.

[3178] And there will definitely be times where, you know, guys will just be like, you know, Assassin's Creed.

[3179] They'll be talking, talking, talking.

[3180] I'm like blank and go, wait.

[3181] That was like five minutes of dialogue.

[3182] What the fuck did anyone just say?

[3183] I totally missed all of that.

[3184] Oh, crap.

[3185] So the reading helps keep me. Jared, are you a reader?

[3186] You're a reader.

[3187] Yeah, I'm with Jeff.

[3188] I read ahead and then I kind of regret that I can't.

[3189] I can't turn them off because then when I turn them off, I just go, man, I wish I could just read this so I can get through it faster.

[3190] I find in like RPGs or something or mostly JRPGs, if there's any spoken word in the text bubble, I will zoom to the end of the text and just go.

[3191] At some point, like waiting for them.

[3192] You end up accidentally skipping a screen.

[3193] Well, I'm just like waiting for them to read.

[3194] Oh, you mean the thing where it does the...

[3195] No, no, even if they're voicing and they're like...

[3196] Man, we need to get to the pit to go save the souls of the whatever, whatever, whatever.

[3197] And it's like lines and lines and lines of text in a text bubble.

[3198] Then I will just hit whatever button it is to fill out that text bubble and move on.

[3199] I don't need to wait for bad dialogue.

[3200] Word up.

[3201] I don't know if that's a subtitle.

[3202] Next email comes in from Steve from Brunswick, Ohio.

[3203] Hey, Bombcast.

[3204] On the forums recently, there were some talks about how much video games cost back in the day.

[3205] Who was saying that?

[3206] There seems to be some conflicting reports.

[3207] Some people say that they distinctly remember only paying $50 for games that came out around the N64 era, which is apparently now back in the day, just so you update your calendars accordingly.

[3208] While others say that they saw some games hit 70 to 100 every now and then.

[3209] Do any of you remember or are your old man memories just not what they used to be?

[3210] So we're only talking N64?

[3211] Yeah, they're plugging us here.

[3212] There were some stupid expensive N64 games because they were cartridges and they needed, you know, it's like some of them were bigger games that took more.

[3213] Tactics Ogre, I remember being like a $75, $80 game for N64.

[3214] Yeah, 80.

[3215] I want to say some of them maybe hit 90, but I could be wrong.

[3216] So yeah, there was...

[3217] Even before the N64, we've talked about it repeatedly, Strider for the Genesis.

[3218] That was $80.

[3219] Complete precedence for games more than $50.

[3220] That was $30 more than the standard Genesis game.

[3221] I think my copy of Street Fighter, I want to say, was like $60.

[3222] Yeah, it was a larger cartridge.

[3223] That was one of the things.

[3224] To get all this action onto the Genesis, we had to make an 8 -megabit card.

[3225] Calling all the way back to DICE.

[3226] That was one of those things that Mark Cerny was talking about that I thought was extremely interesting about early game development was 90 % of your budget was going towards hardware, like arcade or console.

[3227] You're making console games.

[3228] You've got to make carts.

[3229] That cart is fucking expensive.

[3230] Most of your development cost goes into making that cart.

[3231] Make an arcade machine, same thing.

[3232] It goes into the hardware, not the software.

[3233] Not a lot of money left to actually make the game.

[3234] Right, exactly, which is an interesting perspective, something that as we get away from the medium at all.

[3235] Get away from manuals.

[3236] Yeah, we get away from physical disks.

[3237] The albatross on the industry snack.

[3238] Even the disk itself where it's like I'm installing this thing to the fucking hard drive on my system.

[3239] I have the disk in there for disk check.

[3240] Right.

[3241] That's the only purpose it serves is this disk is proof that I bought this thing.

[3242] I wish that would go away.

[3243] Just send me a code.

[3244] Just put a piece of paper in the box.

[3245] Word.

[3246] I think I'm going to cry when someone comes up to me and is like, hey, remember old school Nintendo?

[3247] And they show me like Mario 64 and I'm just going to weep openly.

[3248] So you show you Mario Sunshine.

[3249] That's the bigger crush because.

[3250] I'll buy Mario 64.

[3251] It's a watershed moment.

[3252] It's an important game.

[3253] It was a big shift in how games were made.

[3254] There were standards set in that game.

[3255] It's when people come to you and say like, hey, this Mario game that was clearly not as good as the games that came out around it but was still okay.

[3256] That's my childhood.

[3257] Mario Sunshine.

[3258] Oh, man, that's a bummer.

[3259] You didn't even know good.

[3260] Too bad.

[3261] Next email comes in from Craig in New York.

[3262] The best thing about Mario Sunshine.

[3263] Well, the banjo music, too.

[3264] Shine Get.

[3265] Hey, crew, I noticed Vinny seemed blown away at GameStop, would not have enough bonus cards, plushies, keychains, etc. for customers who pre -ordered a game.

[3266] Still.

[3267] Craig's going to break it down for you.

[3268] Okay.

[3269] He's going to drop a bomb on it.

[3270] Here's how the process basically works coming from someone who worked at a GameStop for two and a half years.

[3271] Two months before launch, stores will receive notification that an upcoming game will have an exclusive bonus and are told to use this bonus to motivate customers to order.

[3272] Employees are told to guarantee.

[3273] I feel like we need, like, shaky cam, black and white reenactment style going on.

[3274] Like, I'm having a conversation with Jeff, pantomiming this as you go.

[3275] Guarantee that.

[3276] You're mouthing the word guarantee really clearly.

[3277] It's right on the mouth.

[3278] That's right.

[3279] Yeah, zoom in shot on just the mouth.

[3280] Yeah, so he all caps it, which is why I'm jumping out with both feet here.

[3281] Employees are told.

[3282] Told to guarantee the bonus.

[3283] Two weeks to one month before release, stores are told to stop you doing some more good in studio pantomime coming from Vinny.

[3284] Two weeks to one month before release, stores are told to stop guaranteeing the bonus but still mention its existence and state it's possible to get the customers early enough.

[3285] It's possible to get if the customers come early enough opening day.

[3286] That is the truth behind bonuses.

[3287] They are first come, first serve.

[3288] It does not matter how early the game in question was pre -ordered.

[3289] So one to seven days before release, the bonus items arrive in store.

[3290] The number of items received are equal or less than the number of pre -orders gathered before the cutoff month, depending on the type of bonus.

[3291] For example, if a bonus is a card for unlockable content and the store gets 50 pre -orders before the cutoff, the store will most likely receive around 50 cards.

[3292] However, the bonus is something like a plushie.

[3293] The number received is drastically reduced to around 5 to 10.

[3294] So it's not how far ahead you're pre -ordering.

[3295] Yeah, it's just you still need to get there early.

[3296] So when you say guarantee, though, when you were telling those early guys that it's guaranteed, that's an actual lie?

[3297] He says employees are told to guarantee the bonus.

[3298] But then later on when you say it's two weeks out, you're saying you may get it?

[3299] So he says – let me finish the email here.

[3300] So from the start, the number of bonus items is less than the total number of pre -orders.

[3301] Subtract any items that greedy employees take for themselves, which most of the managers I've met don't care about since the item is free.

[3302] And you're looking at a very few bonus items for customers who pre -orders.

[3303] So yes.

[3304] Pre -ordering is a joke.

[3305] My advice, either don't pre -order or make friends with employees.

[3306] They'll hold your items while they tell everyone else that they are sold out.

[3307] I just, yeah, that whole concept of people not getting fulfilled.

[3308] I'll say third podcast in a row.

[3309] Unbelievable to me. Especially as people are putting more and more exclusive bonus stuff in pre -order.

[3310] It seems like in some cases the codes are generated and printed on receipts.

[3311] Yeah.

[3312] And they come out that way.

[3313] Check your receipts.

[3314] But that's not always the case.

[3315] I did actually get another email if someone said, hey, check your receipts.

[3316] Because a lot of the times that shit is printed on there.

[3317] Just print me up a code.

[3318] Take that out of the equation.

[3319] All right, that's going to do it for emails.

[3320] Thanks everyone who wrote in.

[3321] Bombcast at giantbomb .com.

[3322] Yeah, pre -order bonuses.

[3323] Crazy.

[3324] Nuts.

[3325] Bad business.

[3326] Get it from Amazon.

[3327] Rewind that shit.

[3328] Pre -order bonuses.

[3329] Bad news.

[3330] That's some bullshit.

[3331] And that's it for our show.

[3332] We ran nice and long.

[3333] Nice meaty one for you all.

[3334] I know the last few weeks have been a little short, but we gave you a good one this week.

[3335] Jared Ray, one more time.

[3336] Give us the details.

[3337] It's April 3rd.

[3338] Fightforrelief .com.

[3339] Come out.

[3340] Give us some money for a good cause.

[3341] Either in Union City or University of Irvine.

[3342] University of Irvine.

[3343] Or online at justin .tv slash Fight for Relief.

[3344] And you can just donate online or do you actually have to get down there?

[3345] No, you can donate online.

[3346] Great.

[3347] Yeah, all the information is on the site.

[3348] Lazy.

[3349] Is there a Twitter account for the giveaways?

[3350] No, but you can use the hashtag Fight for Relief.

[3351] Just throw a pound sign in front of it.

[3352] Number four IV.

[3353] Throw a pound on it, son!

[3354] I didn't want to do it.

[3355] But I was thinking.

[3356] Like, thank Bosmati!

[3357] Jasmine!

[3358] We're going to get a cease and desist from Hot 97 now.

[3359] I'm doing it real big!

[3360] Now getting shot out in front of the Whiskey Media offices is going to become the new getting shot out in front of the Hot 97 offices.

[3361] Whatever I can do to make these mics clip, I am all about it.

[3362] That's going to do it for our show.

[3363] Once again, Jared, thank you for coming in and hanging out with us.

[3364] It was a pleasure.

[3365] It's been too long.

[3366] We'll have to have you back again soon.

[3367] Next time someone goes on vacation or gets terminally ill or gets shot outside the West Community office.

[3368] Yes, next time there's a shooting outside our offices.

[3369] Dazer.

[3370] My cousin works for Hot 97.

[3371] Really?

[3372] Doing what?

[3373] Dropping bombs on it.

[3374] Just use the sound button.

[3375] No, she was doing marketing or something.

[3376] Street team?

[3377] Intern.

[3378] Those all sound like radio jobs.

[3379] Vinny and Jeff, thank you guys again for a solid week here on the Bobcast.

[3380] Thank you.

[3381] We're going to call it.

[3382] Thank you for listening.

[3383] We'll be back next Tuesday.

[3384] Another edition of the Giant Bobcast.