Giant Bombcast Arrow Pointing Down Podcast 03-04-2008

[0] All right, we are back for the world's most popular and famous podcast about video games.

[1] podcast i am your host ryan davis and i am joined once again by uh tv's jeff gerstman howdy hi hello jeff thanks for uh coming out and joining us for this uh in your own living room again thanks for joining us in your living room i could be asleep right now finding the time to come out of your bedroom i do have a cold you should you should yeah you have a cold and your house is again chilly and uh you're wearing short pants i will have a fever so i'm actually hot You give me a fever, much like our other guest, Alex Navarro.

[2] Alex, how's it going?

[3] It's not going too bad.

[4] I'm not sick.

[5] I have no sickness.

[6] You'll be soon.

[7] Oh, dear.

[8] Yeah.

[9] Well, fantastic.

[10] I have no fever.

[11] So apparently everyone is listening to this stupid, stupid podcast.

[12] I know why, right?

[13] What do you guys think about this development?

[14] For those folks at home, apparently the Airpoint Down podcast has rocketed to the tops of the iTunes charts.

[15] That's right.

[16] We were number one in the UK, number two in the US.

[17] Big in Columbia.

[18] I feel like I speak for the group here in saying that that's fucking ridiculous, man. Oh, it's so absurd.

[19] Well, you know, I think it just clearly shows that people have a desire, that they have a need that's not being filled by the podcasts that are out there right now, and they're just not getting that high -level discourse about beverages.

[20] People want to know about Gatorade and various flavors.

[21] Yeah.

[22] No Gatorade on the show this week, unfortunately.

[23] No, not this week.

[24] There's not?

[25] I bought a grip of Gatorade a few days ago.

[26] It was on sale.

[27] Right, 88 cents a bottle.

[28] 88 cents a bottle for Gatorade Tiger and G2, so I stocked up.

[29] I think I scared the lady because I was buying 15 bottles of Gatorade and then like five cases of soda.

[30] Nice.

[31] You were going to go run a marathon.

[32] Yeah, I felt like I started, and the rest were all bags of chips and stuff.

[33] It was the most horrific shopping trip in a long time.

[34] Actually, okay, it was the most awesome shopping trip in a long time.

[35] Slap of bacon.

[36] That's clean living right there, is what that is.

[37] Large bottle of lube.

[38] Yeah, no, I felt like I was going to have to make up some kind of story about, like, oh, kid's soccer game, got to get his Gatorade.

[39] I'm like, nah, whatever.

[40] Extra large tub of light Miracle Whip.

[41] Yeah.

[42] You know, I got to tell you, I was promised Gatorade.

[43] That's the only reason I came back at all.

[44] No, no. I didn't come here for the discourse with you assholes.

[45] You came here for the Gatorade.

[46] You came here because I yelled in my phone, Podcast!

[47] Which I assumed meant Gatorade.

[48] No, that's not what that means at all.

[49] Oh, we are, however.

[50] Oh, we have a beverage.

[51] Jeff and I are both enjoying a little bit of Cactus Cooler, which is a delicious beverage available primarily to us in the Los Angeles area.

[52] Yeah.

[53] I've never seen it elsewhere.

[54] Not available nationwide.

[55] It is available in select stores in Arizona and New Mexico, I found.

[56] I think I've heard that.

[57] It is a Southwest thing.

[58] Yeah, Southwest thing.

[59] It's a night thing, like Arsenio.

[60] As people might have noticed, the Arrow Pointing Down blog has been kind of dead this past week.

[61] My apologies.

[62] That's largely because I was on vacation.

[63] I took a little trip down to the Los Angeles, the greater Los Angeles area.

[64] You know, when you don't have a job, I don't think you can really call it vacation.

[65] The Southland.

[66] It's a vacation away from the norm, though.

[67] I stayed in a hotel.

[68] It's an escape.

[69] I stayed in Fullerton at a nice Wyndham Hotel.

[70] Oh, wow.

[71] That's class.

[72] There was a feather pillow top on the bed.

[73] What?

[74] And then I took my special lady friend to Disneyland for her birthday.

[75] So that was my week.

[76] I went to L .A. a couple weeks ago.

[77] I had a good time.

[78] Did you enjoy the Southern California?

[79] Did you have a nice time down there?

[80] I did because it was a very short trip.

[81] It was down Wednesday.

[82] I went to the parks on Thursday and then drove back up Friday.

[83] That's good.

[84] Nice and tight.

[85] You should never be in Southern California for more than three days, ever.

[86] I agree.

[87] I agree with this entirely.

[88] Because I always think to myself, I could totally live in L .A. There's a lot of stuff going on down there.

[89] There's all sorts of fun craziness, and the entertainment industry is there and all.

[90] Hey, maybe I could give that a go, give that a shot.

[91] Give it a shot, get out there, go to some auditions, get an agent, do the actor thing.

[92] Do some workshopping.

[93] Yeah.

[94] Get into it.

[95] Workshop, some new material, a lot of open mics down there.

[96] Plenty of.

[97] Some good coffee house venues.

[98] Oh, yeah.

[99] Oh, wow.

[100] We go shop our screenplays.

[101] I actually did go to a fancy, expensive pizza place in Hollywood on my way.

[102] California Pizza Kitchen, maybe you've heard of it.

[103] CBK is what we call it.

[104] Yeah, that's what we call it around here.

[105] For those who don't know.

[106] It's our little thing.

[107] No, it was.

[108] It's an inside thing.

[109] It was, what was it?

[110] Pizzeria Mosa, which I guess it's something fancy and special.

[111] I paid like $18 for a personal pizza.

[112] And it seemed like exactly the type of place where I should have my Macintosh laptop out.

[113] Talking about my screenplay with someone.

[114] It's a rom -com.

[115] Matthew McConaughey is very interested.

[116] They're talking to Kate Hudson.

[117] His personal trainer showed it to him for me. I hear he's locked up in a bunch of dramedies from here to eternity, though.

[118] Yeah, a lot of buzz.

[119] But so, yeah, that was it.

[120] So, yeah, more than three days, Alex, I agree with you because I think, oh, I could totally live here.

[121] But then by about day five, the air quality of Los Angeles.

[122] The air quality and the people quality.

[123] I'm not to disparage all people who live in Southern California.

[124] But they all suck.

[125] But a lot of them really, really suck.

[126] A lot of L .A. just sucks.

[127] People there are bad.

[128] I did see the ultimate, like, L .A. vanity plate on a Porsche as we were leaving Hollywood that said, I sue you.

[129] Great.

[130] Bravo, sir.

[131] That's delicious.

[132] Way to be a...

[133] Minor character in a late 80s.

[134] Way to be a minor character in Beverly Hills Cop 2.

[135] Way to be the guy who gets his car ruined in the action movie where someone has to fucking take someone's car.

[136] Keanu Reeves comes flying up on a bus beside you on the freeway, and then he jumps into your car, and then he wrecks it.

[137] Yeah.

[138] But right before it happens, it shows you on the phone being really abusive, so everyone gets the idea that you're evil.

[139] Yeah, so it's like, oh, he was a jerk anyway.

[140] Exactly.

[141] So it's great that his car got destroyed.

[142] Even after the car was destroyed, he's still screaming into his phone.

[143] Somebody stole my car!

[144] Exactly.

[145] Standing in the middle of the freeway, pointing down the road.

[146] So yeah, that was my Southern California trip in a nutshell.

[147] But now I'm back, baby!

[148] Welcome.

[149] Welcome back.

[150] Well, you came back just in time because, like I said before, caught a cold.

[151] You missed us.

[152] We went and saw Cobra.

[153] Oh, we totally went to Cobra.

[154] Yeah, I was actually in town.

[155] I was back in town last night, and I knew I could have gone and seen Cobra, but I just didn't have it in me. Jeff, you guys want to talk about that at all?

[156] Yeah, let's talk about Cobra for a minute.

[157] This is a subject that deserves a lot of discussion, I think.

[158] So Cobra is the greatest movie ever made.

[159] It's up there.

[160] Up there as the greatest.

[161] Yeah.

[162] And we caught wind that they were showing it in San Francisco from one Matt Rory.

[163] who said hey you guys should come see cobra they're having this you know 80s action movie night like well you know every sunday they watch a movie like okay yeah totally cool so we go down this in the mission in this place and uh we get there it's not a movie theater it's more like a bar that doesn't have a liquor license and they let people in there and then they They show Cobra, and then they don't really care if you bring in burritos or booze or whatever.

[164] Yeah.

[165] Explain bar without a liquor license.

[166] So the place is obviously a bar.

[167] It has a bar in it.

[168] Yeah.

[169] Like something you can lean on, a bar, physical bar.

[170] Yeah.

[171] But the place itself is just sort of rented out by these kind of like mission area burnouts who are using the space as sort of like a performance type space.

[172] Like they're doing a play there of the Ten Commandments, I guess, like during the weekend.

[173] Except starring the cast of Friends.

[174] Yeah, that type of thing.

[175] So it is a place that has a bar, but they are not operating it as a bar.

[176] Yeah.

[177] Continue.

[178] So we get there, and they're showing a bunch of YouTube clips because they have a laptop wired up to this projection screen.

[179] What sort of is it like?

[180] It's like the Italian Stallion trailer.

[181] Every gunshot from the Death Wish series.

[182] Stuff like that.

[183] Stuff that fits into the theme.

[184] So not like dudes falling down.

[185] Not like warm -up for a Carrot Top show.

[186] No, nothing quite like that.

[187] And then it didn't dawn on me until right before they started that the people that were putting this on were going to be speaking into microphones through the entire movie.

[188] Oh, dear.

[189] Yeah.

[190] Which had the potential to be really, truly terrible.

[191] Because, as Rory said, like, every time he's ever seen, and every time I've ever seen it, anytime anyone tries to do the Mystery Science Theater thing when they are not the Mystery Science Theater people, it almost always goes just horrifically bad.

[192] Well, I think the thing that few people really give enough credit is the fact that those guys write all of that material beforehand.

[193] Oh, yeah.

[194] And then pare it all down to only the best stuff.

[195] I'm sure they overwrite every single one of those to death.

[196] Exactly.

[197] So this had more of the feeling of, like, They had not seen the movie ever, or at least in a very long time, and were kind of just going off the head.

[198] And it was fine.

[199] To be fair, it wasn't bad.

[200] Yeah, I had a good time.

[201] They all had their moments of being funny, and they had the subtitles on, so I was able to watch Cobra and eat a burrito.

[202] Well, I ate half a burrito, but they put onions in it when I specifically said no onions, so I couldn't eat the rest of it.

[203] So that happened.

[204] So Cobra stands up.

[205] Cobra is the greatest movie ever made.

[206] So 2007 movie of the year.

[207] 2007 movie of the year is Cobra.

[208] I want your eyes, pig.

[209] I want your eyes, pig.

[210] Have you been drinking?

[211] Yes.

[212] Commando this Sunday.

[213] Yeah.

[214] And I think I'm, you know, provided I don't still feel sick, I think I'm going to go.

[215] So that sounds like an endorsement.

[216] yeah no i had a good time like like i don't i don't want to like come out and say like oh these guys talking about the movie and they're fake hipsters and jerks and no like like it was like they obviously had their scene like they had their thing going and they did it and that's cool i thought it was neat they're just like a posse of people and they all seem like you know They were just friends hanging out doing this thing.

[217] And they were going to get shut down at any minute.

[218] Like any second, someone's going to figure out their whole thing, and it's just going to come storming in.

[219] They're going, you can't do this.

[220] Well, I was really bummed out because they call it bad movie night.

[221] Yeah.

[222] If you're going to show Cobra, it's obviously not bad movie night.

[223] It's badass movie night.

[224] Maybe it's in a bad good way.

[225] Maybe that's just like they leave that for whatever hyphenate they need for that week.

[226] Yeah, maybe.

[227] I don't know.

[228] This is bad funny night.

[229] This is badass nights.

[230] Yeah, so all this month it's 80s action movies.

[231] Commando this Sunday.

[232] Death Wish 3.

[233] Red Dawn at some point.

[234] Yeah, Missing in Action.

[235] I'm sure Red Dawn will draw a crowd.

[236] Yeah, yeah.

[237] There's a surprising number of people there for Cobra.

[238] Yeah.

[239] A lot of people there.

[240] And they did a show of hands who's been here before and almost everyone raised their hand because Cobra brings them out.

[241] Yeah.

[242] When you say you're showing Cobra somewhere, people come out the woodwork and go, Cobra.

[243] That's the greatest movie ever made.

[244] Well, we're going to go see Cobra.

[245] You did venture into the harrowing depths of San Francisco for it.

[246] Yeah, I drove.

[247] That is definitely the harrowing depths of San Francisco.

[248] Are we talking like deep in the mission?

[249] No, it's like between like 18th and 19th.

[250] It's in there, but it's not, you know.

[251] It's all up in it?

[252] Whatever.

[253] I'm saying there was a Pentecostal church like across the street that had a service going on while we were walking there.

[254] It was Sunday night.

[255] I'm just saying.

[256] Blasting out some live music too out of there.

[257] It was the jam.

[258] So there you go.

[259] Cobra is awesome.

[260] Look forward to just review of Commando in the near future, I guess.

[261] And I'm deliberately leaving the name of the place out because I don't want it to get in trouble.

[262] I don't want to ruin nothing.

[263] They got their awesome scene, and that's great.

[264] Bring the hammer down.

[265] No, we didn't say what streets it was between.

[266] Do you think this is, yeah, but who knows what door behind which this is happening.

[267] It could be any of them.

[268] It could be the one that has the flyers for the event that we went to posted on the door.

[269] Okay, so they're flying.

[270] This isn't just like weird like fight club word of mouth thing.

[271] No, it kind of is.

[272] You got to know a guy.

[273] You got to do like a gang sign with your hand before they let you in.

[274] I don't know.

[275] We brought an egg.

[276] I don't know if that helped.

[277] Maybe that was what you needed to bring to show.

[278] It's like, all right, if they've got an egg, cool.

[279] Then we all got high on euphoria.

[280] Like a chicken egg?

[281] Yeah.

[282] What were you, like, cooked or uncooked?

[283] Uncooked, man. What were you doing with an uncooked chicken egg?

[284] I had to bring it to get in, man. All right, good to know.

[285] So if you want to go see Commando next week, bring an uncooked chicken egg down to Mission Street, San Francisco.

[286] It's a different thing, man. Oh, this week, maybe it's an ostrich egg.

[287] I don't know.

[288] All right.

[289] I guess moving on or back to Cactus Cooler, which is delicious.

[290] I'm going to drink some more of this.

[291] Well, yeah.

[292] Cactus Cooler.

[293] Cactus Cooler.

[294] Yeah.

[295] It says Orange Pineapple Blast, and it builds itself as an orange pineapple soda.

[296] I think it roughly tastes like chewable children's aspirin, that orange flavor of children's aspirin.

[297] I feel like you equate a lot of things with that taste.

[298] No, no, pretty much just this.

[299] A lot of people like to say that Red Bull tastes like that or Flintstones vitamins.

[300] I think they're crazy.

[301] I feel like you've said that before.

[302] I feel like you've said that you thought that Red Bull tasted like Flintstones.

[303] No, it wasn't.

[304] No, and Flintstones changed the flavors, by the way.

[305] I love that you keep up.

[306] I just went and bought some more because I was out.

[307] For your 30 -some -odd -year body.

[308] It still says 100 % for...

[309] For adults, you can't beat that.

[310] It's like, you know.

[311] As it's been proven.

[312] It's math.

[313] It's in science books.

[314] Look it up.

[315] 100 % is the top.

[316] But they changed the flavors and they taste all different now, which I don't know.

[317] Maybe I bought the wrong stuff, but I bought, I'm pretty sure I bought.

[318] See, okay, so for a while I was taking like one a day.

[319] Just like, you know, one a day maximum.

[320] Just like, here's a vitamin.

[321] You wanted vitamins, right?

[322] Follow this.

[323] Centrum.

[324] Centrum silver.

[325] I don't eat breakfast.

[326] No, and that gets around on top.

[327] Yeah, so you swallow a vitamin first thing of the day.

[328] This is when I was driving to work.

[329] I would drive to work, or I'd be driving over to Alex's, and I would have to stop and pull over and throw up.

[330] That's always fun.

[331] Yeah, and I just wasn't into that.

[332] So I was like, you know what?

[333] Stick with what works.

[334] Flintstones vitamins, they work.

[335] Trust the kid, baby.

[336] You never told me that, that you were throwing up frequently before coming to my house in the morning.

[337] Oh, it only happened for about a week before I realized what was causing it, and then just stopped taking them.

[338] So it wasn't the bulimia.

[339] Well, that's a different thing.

[340] It just spiraled out of this.

[341] That's your secret puking.

[342] Right.

[343] See, this is when I gained a taste for puking and decided that I really liked it.

[344] And then from there, I just want to see my beautiful bones.

[345] I can't remember the last time I threw up.

[346] I can.

[347] It has been a good long time.

[348] Alex, when was the last time you threw up?

[349] The last time I threw up was probably about a year ago.

[350] I way, way overdid it on some random drinking night, and I got home at about, I don't know, like 3 in the morning and just head toilet stayed there for about an hour.

[351] So this is well after when we played 40 hands?

[352] Yeah, this is after the 40 hands, isn't it?

[353] Because that was a pretty epic.

[354] That was epic.

[355] I agree.

[356] That was definitely the most memorable throwing up I've done in years and years and years.

[357] But I have thrown up since then.

[358] Yeah, I think I've only probably thrown up from drinking once or twice over the last few years.

[359] Like, yeah, maybe four times ever for me. But, like, yeah.

[360] I came close last week.

[361] There was a morning after.

[362] Oh, sure.

[363] You would get up and be like, oh, man. I was a little delicate at one point and thought, oh, man. Actually, yeah, I guess in the wake of the GDC four nights of drinking extravaganza towards the end there.

[364] Yeah, that last night, that very last night, the next morning.

[365] You mean the morning that you would have come to GDC on the last day?

[366] No, no, no, no, no, no. No, after that.

[367] Okay.

[368] Beyond that.

[369] No, the drinking kept going, man. All right.

[370] That's good.

[371] Yeah.

[372] Well, I guess that's it for the arrow pointing down drink minute this time.

[373] Yeah.

[374] By drink minute, you mean drink.

[375] We actually have some beverages on the way being shipped in.

[376] from out -of -state.

[377] That's true.

[378] We do have out -of -state beverages coming.

[379] We'll be able to taste test soon, so we'll look for that in the near future.

[380] What are these out -of -state beverages?

[381] Some out -of -state drinks.

[382] Don't want to talk about it just yet.

[383] Are you smuggling Coors across state lines?

[384] Me and the snowman.

[385] So part of my ritual for going to the Southland involves me on my way back stopping at a Ralph's just before you hit the grapevine.

[386] and picking up a couple cases of this cactus cooler.

[387] So I grabbed those, and then I also saw that they had some Manzanita Sol.

[388] Oh, awesome.

[389] Which is the Pepsi -made apple soda, which is, if you've never had an apple soda, let me invite you to enjoy a wonderful sensation that is kind of a split between a sparkling apple cider and regular old soda.

[390] It's great.

[391] I love apple soda.

[392] I love it.

[393] It's so damn good, and you always wonder how come it's only in the Spanish -speaking part of town.

[394] Yeah, I know.

[395] Me and Chris used to buy apple soda at the dollar store all the time.

[396] They don't sell it there anymore.

[397] Yeah, they had the Shasta was a good, solid apple soda brand.

[398] Manzanamia.

[399] That was good stuff.

[400] The Manzanita Soul from Pepsi is also good.

[401] quite high quality so i grabbed some of that and am enjoying it immensely so uh if you have the opportunity if you see it around try yourself some some apple soda oh yeah i just i really find it horribly racist that you can only find it seems like any sort of awesome weird fruit flavored soda in well i think they've done research that like fruit flavored sodas tend to sell well to like the latino demographic Which I think is totally crazy because you give me an orange soda, I'll drink an orange soda, damn it.

[402] Well, just because they sell well to the Latino demographic doesn't mean they won't sell to Whitey.

[403] It's like people like me. I would be more than happy to buy plenty of that stuff.

[404] And that's just kind of the narrow -mindedness of this market research is they aren't realizing that.

[405] I would drink the hell out of some apple soda.

[406] I just don't see it as frequently as I would like.

[407] You can't buy it because it's not there because they have it for like a second and then they go, oh, well, no one's going to buy this.

[408] Right.

[409] So I implore you, drink distributors and local retailers, carry the damn apple soda.

[410] And bring Cactus Cooler up north.

[411] It used to be up here.

[412] I used to be able to walk to the gas station and get a Cactus Cooler.

[413] I used to be able to find it along with Tahitian Treat right there.

[414] Oh, Tahitian Treat.

[415] It definitely seems like a kind of a compliment to the Tahitian Treat in its fruit flavoriness.

[416] If I could just stock my refrigerator full of cactus cool or a Tahitian treat and apple soda, I would never leave my house except to get more of that.

[417] You barely leave your house now, man. I know.

[418] And I'm saying I would do even less leaving the house.

[419] Well, fantastic.

[420] Let's go ahead and get into talking about video games, eh?

[421] I guess, dude, if you really want to.

[422] All right.

[423] Well, let's take the time machine back to last week.

[424] Okay.

[425] Take it to the top.

[426] We recorded our last podcast last Sunday?

[427] Yeah.

[428] Right before apparently all of the important things in the video game industry happened.

[429] Right.

[430] Like it's been like two months of pretty much nothing until this week.

[431] And then it exploded.

[432] And then it all happened like the morning after we posted the podcast.

[433] So let's talk about some of that stuff first.

[434] So EA making moves on take two.

[435] Yeah, EA basically has put itself out there and said, hey, we would like to buy Take -Two.

[436] And we pretty much found out about this because EA took it public, I guess.

[437] They got denied.

[438] This is very similar to kind of the move that Microsoft made on Yahoo. Exactly.

[439] It seems exactly the same.

[440] To the point that EA is kind of saying, listen, if you don't want to play ball, we are going to go straight to your stockholders, which means kind of a hostile takeover situation.

[441] Which is sort of what they did.

[442] Right.

[443] By making all this stuff public.

[444] And then the thing that came out a couple days after that is Take -Two saying that it has other offers from other companies, which I don't know.

[445] Who else could buy?

[446] Who else could buy Take -Two?

[447] Activision Blizzard?

[448] Well, I mean, maybe it's not a video game company.

[449] Maybe it's some big media company that wants to get in.

[450] Microsoft?

[451] Yeah, I mean, certainly.

[452] MTV could do it.

[453] Yeah, MTV could be looking to do something like that.

[454] Why not?

[455] That could be a good compliment to what they're trying to do.

[456] But so, yeah, so EA denied, but I don't think this is the end of that.

[457] Yeah, the thing that I kind of thought immediately after reading that is like, well, this is going to happen whether Take -Two wants it or not.

[458] I think this is eventually going to happen, and then a bunch of analysts came out and basically said the same thing.

[459] So, yeah, it definitely seems like EA get what EA want.

[460] Yeah.

[461] And in this matter, it seems like they're probably one of the better poised companies to do this.

[462] Yeah, and of course, I mean, anything involving EA in business just kind of brings up that horrible backlash of a bunch of people that don't really have any stake in it either way, going, oh, EA needs to stop ruining the video game industry.

[463] The only losers I would see in this scenario really are...

[464] Everyone, like visual concepts, like basically everyone working on sports games for 2K.

[465] But whatever, those guys are circling the drain.

[466] No, who would have to move to working somewhere else probably.

[467] Yeah, they would just shut all that stuff down.

[468] Yeah, they don't get absorbed.

[469] They get shut down.

[470] And, you know, I respect the work that those guys have tried to do.

[471] There's just no room in this world for a non -NFL -licensed football game.

[472] Right.

[473] But, I mean, at the same time, 2K's basketball game is year after year the better of the two.

[474] Sure.

[475] But that's not going to stop.

[476] So maybe in that scenario you fire the NBA Live team.

[477] But I'm willing to bet you that the NBA live games still pull in more money than the NBA 2K games.

[478] What they could probably do is slap the live name on the engine that they have just bought, essentially, and make 2K into live.

[479] Sure.

[480] That's possible.

[481] That would work.

[482] If EA were to do that, they would, again, have a baseball license because Take -Two holds the exclusive rights to MLB.

[483] That's true.

[484] Which I don't really see that as a huge deal.

[485] I feel bad for the hockey guys because those guys would be gone immediately.

[486] Because they don't even have the best hockey game anymore.

[487] Right, yeah.

[488] They would probably all just be cut off.

[489] But that's all external development.

[490] That's a lot of kush or something, right?

[491] Well, it's kush, but they have internal guys that work on that stuff.

[492] Some dudes I used to work with.

[493] So it would be a bummer for people that want a lot of choice in sports games.

[494] But as far as like...

[495] EA being the people that put out Grand Theft Auto, that doesn't ruin Grand Theft Auto.

[496] EA doesn't come into that situation and say, we want to do this and that.

[497] They don't make changes to that.

[498] Can we make it T -rated somehow?

[499] And that was one of the interesting things right around GEC is you saw EA's management coming out and kind of owning up to some of the mistakes they've made in the past with companies like Bullfrog and Origin and just like all these Westwood.

[500] Not letting people have their identities within EA.

[501] Right.

[502] Trying to integrate stuff too hard.

[503] Yeah, and now you see EA kind of shifting to have their Sims division and their casual division and their sports division and all that stuff.

[504] That's a little more like the Take -Two with Rockstar and 2K Games.

[505] Discreet labels.

[506] So I could see that working out for all involved and not being that bad because, I don't know.

[507] You know, bottom line, yeah, there's definitely kind of that knee -jerk.

[508] sense about EA of, oh, they're the biggest, so, you know, hate on them.

[509] They're the ones that are making all games bad.

[510] You go look at EA games, they're generally pretty good.

[511] Yeah, they're generally solid.

[512] There's definitely some bad licensed stuff happens, but, you know, for the most part, when they get into something, they do it pretty well.

[513] Obviously, they get the right people to do it.

[514] They, you know, picked up Pandemic and...

[515] BioWare, it's like, well, these guys are really good at making these types of games.

[516] Let's have them do it over here.

[517] It doesn't sound like they're going to go in and start ruining what BioWare does.

[518] They're just going to fund it and get a piece of it, and that's going to be that.

[519] So why not?

[520] Yeah, probably.

[521] So, yeah, I don't know.

[522] Given EA's weird track record with this stuff, I could see why people would be apprehensive, but this seems okay.

[523] But they also seem aware of it.

[524] Right.

[525] EA seems aware of it.

[526] EA seems aware of it.

[527] And on top of that, it's not like Take -Two is some brilliantly run organization that is not on the verge of ripping apart at the seams.

[528] This is the best possible scenario for that company, and I have to believe it's just going to happen.

[529] I mean, the one thing I'd read was that, like...

[530] was it zelnick the guy yeah zelnick like like the only reason him and the board and whatever are delaying this deal is because he's trying to sign some sort of like gigantic pay raise deal where if they get bought he gets like a bajillion dollars sure that seems completely believable to me so and yeah Take -Two has had nothing but management issues and money problems for years and years.

[531] I mean, the guys that are in power now were put in there after a huge coup in the boardroom that happened a year or two back.

[532] So it's been strife and crazy on a top level at Take -Two for a long time.

[533] So some sort of stability that could be offered by EA, I have to imagine, would only mean good things for those games that are being published under them.

[534] And Jack Thompson wants it to happen.

[535] You know, that right there.

[536] That's the kind of vote of confidence you really need to make a deal happen.

[537] That's just such a weird...

[538] Oh, it's perfect, because he hates those guys so much.

[539] Every time anything happens with any of this stuff, he just comes in and says, Oh, you've played right into my hands!

[540] Like he's some kind of master strategist that wanted this to happen all along.

[541] He's like, Oh, by doing this you have sealed your own fate!

[542] Twists his mustache and disappears into a puff of smoke.

[543] I'd really like to see him actually do that.

[544] Disappear into a puff of smoke.

[545] like the bad guy from professor layton at this point yeah which seems like he's i don't know like making a deal with the devil in some way no like the quote no don't don't be fooled like the quote from him is very much like i hope this happens because i can totally ruin them okay it's not like he's like yeah that would be good for no it's like yeah i missed i mistook the tone that's yeah no he's he is excited for it for his very much his own reasons So almost at the exact same time that all of this news of incredibly huge potential mergers, which we all in the room here believe are probably going to happen, even if Take -Two don't want it.

[546] Yeah, I mean, unless some other company rises out of nowhere and takes them away.

[547] So if not EA, although I believe it will be EA.

[548] Let's say Q3, Q4.

[549] So before the end of the year, we will see Take -Two folding into another publisher.

[550] And then at the same time, we learned that Sony's Phil Harrison.

[551] Yes.

[552] The Phil Harrison?

[553] He's up out.

[554] Motorstorm.

[555] Yeah.

[556] Motorstorm.

[557] I no longer care about Motorstorm, says Phil Harrison.

[558] I'm going to go play the drums.

[559] That's the only thing I can think of.

[560] They showed Motorstorm 2 to a select group of people at GDC.

[561] And maybe he realized he didn't want to go through another two years of saying Motorstorm.

[562] So he...

[563] He pulled a fat Otis and bounced up out.

[564] Did they actually show Motorstorm 2 at GDC?

[565] Yeah.

[566] Wow.

[567] Not to people like you and me, but yes.

[568] It exists somewhere.

[569] I hear there's dirt and bikes.

[570] Yeah.

[571] Well, that sounds promising.

[572] So, yeah, this guy, one of the major faces for Sony, one of the big public faces for their video game.

[573] And really, I think, though, the one public face that could come up there and talk about games, and you got the impression that he, A, knew what he was talking about, and B, was telling the truth when he said, I am excited about this game.

[574] And wasn't just out of his mind.

[575] Yeah, I mean, Ken Kutaragi was just completely flipping insane.

[576] Yeah, and Jack Trenton's a businessman.

[577] I mean, you know, it's like...

[578] And Kaz Hirai hasn't really had that much pull, I think, of the audience in a long time.

[579] I think Kaz Hirai is much the same as Jack Trenton and Ken Kutaragi in that he is a business dude.

[580] Right.

[581] That this is about games is kind of secondary.

[582] And they're just like totally legit dudes and they know what they're talking about.

[583] And they're like fairly compelling speakers in their own right.

[584] But I don't think that they can deliver when it comes to now we are going to talk about the games.

[585] Are you ready for the Beck?

[586] Like that's just not – they can't.

[587] That's not there.

[588] So now Phil Harrison's going to go do it for Atari?

[589] Yeah.

[590] He has this awesome French title for infograms, like directeur, I don't even know.

[591] A guy who is basically president of infograms.

[592] He is president of France.

[593] Yeah, he is now the president of France.

[594] I think that's what that means, basically.

[595] It's all socialized over there anyway, so if you are the president of infograms, you're the president of France.

[596] Well, great.

[597] Good for him.

[598] Way to break down barriers by being the first Brit to run France.

[599] Yeah, so I guess there's a quote from him out there talking about the legendary brand of Atari and so much potential here.

[600] Oh, no. And those guys have been, like, circling the drain in a bad way for a while now.

[601] I mean, that's been my view of it, but if they can get someone like Phil Harrison over there, then they've obviously got something going on up top where they still have some money to play around with.

[602] Or at least something to offer, a huge percentage of, like, if you can turn this around and make it happen, you'll be paid.

[603] I have to imagine that that's it.

[604] I can't imagine that they have the cash to pay someone like Phil Harrison enough to draw him away from that.

[605] Because he had been at Sony for, like, 10 years, 12 years.

[606] He'd been there for a really, really long time.

[607] So to pull him away from that, I have to imagine just huge amounts of stock.

[608] That would you obviously appreciate if he was able to turn it around.

[609] Here's this risky situation, but if you can make it happen, you'll be paid very well.

[610] You'll get many francs or drachmas or whatever the hell that much money is.

[611] And frankly, it's not like he's going to have trouble finding work if that all goes south.

[612] Oh, yeah, exactly.

[613] Yeah, that guy is pretty much set.

[614] Phil Harrison writes his own ticket.

[615] Yeah.

[616] He's the Sean Archer of the video game industry.

[617] Totally.

[618] That is still a weird...

[619] shift for him, though, just kind of going from Sony riding on top.

[620] Well, the other thing that people were speculating about, which is based on some comments that you said around GDC about Japan being slow to move online and various things with the PlayStation platform, is that maybe he's just another casualty of the I don't want to work for a Japanese company anymore, which every time I hear it, it seems to be PR people that can no longer deal with the Japanese arm of their company coming in and making all these crazy decisions, being like, that is not the way to do it!

[621] Oh, God!

[622] You definitely, being in the industry, you hear that on kind of a low level a lot of people finding themselves working for these large Japanese companies and being frustrated by kind of the disconnect in communication and also just kind of the way that stuff is decreed in Japan.

[623] Yeah.

[624] By people who are just so completely disconnected from kind of what is happening on the ground here.

[625] I wrote a bit about this on my blog, and someone commented.

[626] Someone actually had a really good comment where they said that basically Japanese business looks in decades, not quarters.

[627] They're very much long view, so they're a little bit slower to move as a result because they are kind of looking at that bigger picture that American business tends to be about.

[628] What can you do for me in the next three months?

[629] And so Japan's like, the internet.

[630] Yeah, pretty much.

[631] Yeah, exactly.

[632] And that's worked out really well.

[633] Yeah, it's worked out really well for worldwide sales for some of these units.

[634] Yeah.

[635] Whatever, PS3 is doing fine over there.

[636] So, yeah, Phil Harrison is going to bring incredible online support to Atari.

[637] Yeah.

[638] That'll look great.

[639] Before the Atari home, your network connected 2600.

[640] What franchises does Atari still have that they haven't sold off?

[641] They sold Driver.

[642] Yeah.

[643] They still have Dragon Ball Z. Okay, so they still have that.

[644] For now.

[645] For now, yeah, which I...

[646] Which Funmation desperately wants to get away from them, but I guess did not actually get that shook out.

[647] Did they...

[648] Yeah, so they have that.

[649] They don't really have anything else.

[650] Beyond Good and Evil, they still have?

[651] No, that's Ubisoft.

[652] No, that's Ubisoft.

[653] The other French company.

[654] Yeah, that's the other French dudes.

[655] Yeah, Splinter Cell.

[656] Yeah, Splinter Cell.

[657] I think they got Rayman.

[658] Let's see, Atari's got...

[659] I think they made the Lost License.

[660] Atari has Adventure.

[661] They've got Combat.

[662] Oh, right, right, right, yeah.

[663] Actually, Hasbro owns all that stuff.

[664] They don't even own that.

[665] Atari doesn't – well, yeah, like what classic Atari games does the Atari of today even still own?

[666] They don't have anything.

[667] They have Dragon Ball Z. They really don't have anything else.

[668] But I mean like Pong.

[669] Well, they still put out like Asteroids.

[670] Like all that stuff all came out through Atari.

[671] Like the Xbox Live releases and like all the ones that Stamless did that were really bad.

[672] Yeah, right.

[673] Joust.

[674] Yeah, so they still have access to some of that stuff.

[675] But, like, the Atari split, basically, like, Hasbro got all the home stuff and Midway got all the arcade stuff.

[676] Right.

[677] And then the brand.

[678] I guess maybe, like, they...

[679] Did Hasbro sell it off at some point?

[680] I don't remember the exact logistics of it.

[681] I remember in the mid -90s there was that split.

[682] Yeah.

[683] And I just don't know what's happened since then.

[684] So maybe they have Rush.

[685] I don't know.

[686] No, Midway has Rush.

[687] No, Midway has Rush.

[688] Yeah, that's...

[689] 45 minutes of us.

[690] Trying to figure out what Midway owns.

[691] Super Mario Brothers?

[692] Do they still have that?

[693] Is that still them?

[694] Yeah.

[695] Have they got Flight Simulator 08?

[696] Could they make another Smurfs game?

[697] That was Coleco, dude.

[698] There is a new Smurfs CG film coming out, so I'm sure there will be some fantastic video game tie -in for that.

[699] Atari being a French company is perfect for that.

[700] Poised.

[701] Poised to take advantage of this French property.

[702] So yeah, Atari is in some shit right now.

[703] I guess not.

[704] If they're able to make this move, I think that this definitely raises their chances of actually doing something.

[705] It raises their chances, but they still have a long way to go.

[706] Again, I cannot remember the last time Atari put out a game.

[707] Test Drive.

[708] Yeah, Test Drive.

[709] Yeah, TDU.

[710] Test Drive Unlimited.

[711] They licensed that out to someone, didn't they?

[712] Sure.

[713] Might have.

[714] Mark Echo's Getting Up Contents Under Pressure was an Atari release.

[715] That is true.

[716] Oh, what's the new...

[717] Didn't all that come out in 2005, 2006?

[718] Years ago, man. That was like 2004, I think.

[719] But even better than that was the recent announcement tangentially related to all of this.

[720] That they were making a video game based on Dexter, the TV show, the Showtime show.

[721] Yeah, I saw that.

[722] Being produced by Mark Echo's video game company.

[723] So Mark Echo has not given it up.

[724] Mark Echo Entertainment.

[725] is going to bring you, which I don't think it's any of the dudes from Getting Up.

[726] No, it's probably just Mark Echo.

[727] Because that was the collective, and they developed that.

[728] No, it's just whatever dudes Mark Echo decided on.

[729] No, he bought a developer or something like that and renamed it, I think.

[730] Maybe.

[731] But that just seems like such a weird combination of, here's a show about a serial killer who kills serial killers, brought to you by The Graffiti Guy.

[732] Right.

[733] I'm sure he's just a big fan of the show.

[734] He said, you'll be awesome as if that was a video game.

[735] Check it out.

[736] Yeah, here's this footage of me spray -painting on Air Force One.

[737] I still don't get how they're going to turn that into a game.

[738] That doesn't seem...

[739] You're a serial killer that kills...

[740] The word kills is right in the description of the show.

[741] That's how you make a video game out of it.

[742] It's not a particularly action -oriented thing.

[743] If Ubisoft was able to ring a goddamn video game out of Lost...

[744] No, whatever.

[745] It's just an adventure game.

[746] The thing you don't realize is that you've got to think about the verticality of Dexter.

[747] You've got to get in, get up, kill a serial killer, and get out.

[748] And to be fair, the Lost game, not very good.

[749] Sure.

[750] Well, you know what?

[751] This probably won't be very good either.

[752] All right.

[753] Well, there we go.

[754] So now that we've decreed that.

[755] I liked Mark Echo's last game a great deal.

[756] I did, too.

[757] So I'm interested in more than most people.

[758] He mentioned to me by name in some interview because apparently I got it and no one else did.

[759] I was kind of weirded out by it.

[760] Apparently I was one of the people who didn't quite get it.

[761] I liked it.

[762] I didn't love it.

[763] It was quite the same level of fervor that you did.

[764] Fantastic soundtrack.

[765] I'll grant that.

[766] The combat killed that game for me, the awfulness of the combat.

[767] I like the story, the characters, the setting, everything about that game.

[768] Yeah, there were good ideas there for sure.

[769] So that's the beginning of last week.

[770] 2K and then Atari and Phil Harrison.

[771] And then what else has been going on in the world around us, Jeff?

[772] Well, let's see.

[773] There was some stuff today about Bobby Kodak, the CEO of Activision, was talking at some.

[774] Is that some alternate ego of Bobby Digital?

[775] Yeah.

[776] Bob Digi.

[777] Bobby Kodak.

[778] D -I -G -I.

[779] Kodak?

[780] Speaking at some Morgan Stanley something or other.

[781] I don't know.

[782] uh and and kind of talking about what they're doing with guitar hero aerosmith and he mentioned van halen in one of the sentences so now like just basically said like oh you know like or like you know a new audience getting exposed to van halen or something like that just kind of dropped it out of nowhere and now everyone's taking that to mean that after this aerosmith game comes out that there's going to be a uh van halen guitar hero game i mean i'm sure that's something they're probably speculatively looking at but that doesn't sound like a confirmation by any oh no no no i mean it's yeah exactly and it's one of those things that you call them up and ask they're like no we haven't announced a game like that he's just he just mentioned it what yeah but it's also something that like you know like is this road rash game gonna happen like dude mentioned road rash twice in different speeches during gdc uh and then what was it sebastian bach mentioned yeah we got a game we're selling on some road i don't know something in some interview so somewhere in a bunker some in some place there is probably somebody sitting behind the computer working on road rash yeah but meanwhile then when ea got a hold of the you know when everyone got a hold of ea they went no which never means no. That's the sad fact about all this stuff.

[783] Calling for confirmation is probably the least useful thing you can do with your time these days.

[784] On things like that.

[785] Because they're not going to say anything until they're ready to actually say their thing.

[786] They've got a timeline figured out.

[787] Right, and they're not going to break it just because someone dropped it in some kind of roundabout way.

[788] But these are usually very calculated things, and I don't think you go in there and just mention something like that off the top of your head.

[789] So I think it's something they're definitely...

[790] thinking about we'll see if the band you know can get into that or whatever it wouldn't surprise me considering how like weird and flighty you know a band like van halen can be you know it's like they're like who's even in van halen anymore they're asking eddie's son like hey 16 year old kid can we be in your video game like yeah hell yeah my name is He's in Van Halen.

[791] I know.

[792] He's the bass player.

[793] He replaced Michael Anthony on the last tour.

[794] That's criminal.

[795] I know.

[796] Then I'm going to throw this down right goddamn now, gentlemen, is that if there's a Van Halen game that has Eddie Van Halen's son instead of Michael Anthony, no. Well, here's where this gets really weird.

[797] I don't care if you even give Wolfgang the Jack Daniels -shaped bass guitar.

[798] Whatever.

[799] At this point, you tell me, hey, we're making a Van Halen version of Guitar Hero.

[800] I'm going to say the exact same thing I said about Aerosmith.

[801] I mean, that makes more sense.

[802] The difference is that I actually like older Van Halen stuff and really don't care about Aerosmith.

[803] Right, but here's the thing about that is that Van Halen makes more sense just from the perspective of playing Guitar Hero versus Rockman because Van Halen is about...

[804] The guitar playing.

[805] It's about Eddie Van Halen.

[806] That's what that band is.

[807] It is practically a showpiece for Eddie Van Halen.

[808] Tell that to David Lee Roth.

[809] I don't have to.

[810] He has heard it.

[811] I'm actually the greatest rock and roll frontman of all time.

[812] Greatest.

[813] The greatest.

[814] The greatest.

[815] I still think the idea of doing an entire game dedicated to any one band is functionally retarded.

[816] I would much rather play a Van Halen game than an Aerosmith game.

[817] Well, did you see the other news about the Aerosmith game?

[818] Like, there was some, because they're taking pre -orders in stores now, and I guess one of the best buy circulars had something in it that said, like, play as Aerosmith or other bands.

[819] Like, basically implying that there would be opening acts in the game.

[820] Right.

[821] Their bands, like, they said that in the initial release.

[822] Oh, did they?

[823] Okay.

[824] They said it was going to be bands that inspired Aerosmith over the years and bands that have toured with Aerosmith over the years.

[825] Right.

[826] So it's all still going to be kind of very loosely thematically kept together.

[827] That at least gives me hope for the project because that means there will probably be a Run DMC song in there somewhere.

[828] You would hope.

[829] I would expect so.

[830] I also totally expect...

[831] That song, Christmas and Hollis.

[832] Yes.

[833] Great on guitar.

[834] I totally expect that there is someone having conversations, trying to get deals to get Guitar Hero Van Halen going.

[835] But I also hope that they have sense enough to wait and see what the sales figures for Guitar Hero Aerosmith look like before they drop the hammer on that because I very much question how many people are going to give a good goddamn about that game.

[836] I'd hazard to guess that they're not going to because I imagine that right now they're still riding so much the high of anything we put out with the word hero in it is going to sell billions.

[837] They're just running out and trying to lock up as many bands as they can before Rock Band can get to them.

[838] Right, and meanwhile, the Mindshare seems like it's moving away from Guitar Hero.

[839] Right, so right now they're just doing everything they can to keep it relevant and in the public eye.

[840] And if that means having to spend a billion dollars on getting a gaggle of Van Halen songs and maybe a gaggle of ACDC songs or something, just so they can put out three of those games a year.

[841] They'll do it.

[842] Way to think about the long -term, Activision.

[843] I would think that they would – Good job.

[844] At this point, they would just look at what Rock Band is doing download -wise and instead just go for, like, Guitar Hero 4 with heavy download stuff.

[845] Yeah, if you're not totally invested in the download business model like the way that Rock Band is, you're still thinking, like, we should put out a bunch of discs every year.

[846] Right, yeah.

[847] And that seems to be the mindset they're pretty mired in, which – I hate that because, straight up, I don't want to be switching discs constantly when I'm playing games with friends.

[848] Yeah, exactly.

[849] It's an awful thing.

[850] And, you know, they'll probably put out PS2 versions of those games, too.

[851] Yeah.

[852] And Wii versions.

[853] You know, those are consoles where you can't really do the download stuff.

[854] A model that worked so wonderfully for the Tony Hawk series.

[855] Yes.

[856] Now being applied to the Guitar Hero franchise.

[857] Clearly the right way to go.

[858] Chronic short -sightedness is going to kill Guitar Hero.

[859] I'm afraid to say.

[860] Yeah, it'll be at least a couple years before it happens.

[861] Yeah, it always is.

[862] It takes a long time for that kind of momentum to slow down and fully shift.

[863] Right around the time of Guitar Hero X. That'll be a futuristic Guitar Hero where you play on laser guitars.

[864] When Guitar Hero Underground comes out.

[865] Guitar Hero Underground would be really funny.

[866] Scan your face in for your dude.

[867] Yeah.

[868] Whatever.

[869] What else is in the news, Jeff?

[870] Well, see, we should talk about the Grateful Dead stuff.

[871] Right.

[872] Since we're already on the subject of the music stuff.

[873] Eh, you know.

[874] Should we really?

[875] I just want to say how horrible I think it is.

[876] I think the Grateful Dead are also pretty horrible.

[877] Yeah, like that's, you know, every other song they've put out to date, I've looked at and been like, well, I guess I understand that.

[878] But then you go and put out like six Grateful Dead songs at once.

[879] Like that, like the reason that, yeah.

[880] Why is that the first band to go whole hog with your...

[881] Because they licensed 18 songs by them.

[882] Because they totally just jumped on board the thing and said, here's a whole bunch of our music.

[883] There you go.

[884] Well, then I got to go back and question that decision.

[885] I have to imagine that that was in part because that was a bulk deal.

[886] Like, if we're going to get anything, we've got to get this much.

[887] Maybe.

[888] Yeah, I don't know.

[889] I just...

[890] I don't think it's that bad of a decision.

[891] I mean, I understand that, you know, you guys aren't fans and that's fine.

[892] I'm not even a particularly big Grateful Dead fan, but I understand why they would do it.

[893] It's like they're trying to create as big of a cross section of different, you know, genres and styles.

[894] I think you put those tracks out one at a time with other stuff.

[895] Yeah, just mix it in there.

[896] I mean, you know, they haven't been putting out, you know.

[897] the police six tracks at a time, but there has been a steady influx.

[898] Yeah, there was the one police pack, and then after that, it was just kind of from there.

[899] Yeah, they've thrown a track in here or there.

[900] I don't see the deadhead Xbox 360 or PS3 owner Venn diagram as having a lot of crossover.

[901] I think it's probably, maybe that's the thing, though, is that maybe they put out the one pack, and from here on out, they just kind of throw one or two in here and there, and that's that.

[902] It seems like a lot of the stuff that they're doing with the download.

[903] stuff right now with rock band is very experimental so at this point they've sold so many downloads that they can afford to experiment a little bit and go well let's see if people will come along with us for this little ride here if we put out six songs by this by this band and see how that goes it could be them kind of priming the pump a little bit for full album downloads down the line that's i mean that's the thing that i mean that that this prompts from me is the question of where are these full album downloads And I guess, yeah, this will be them saying, all right, are people willing to go for more tracks at a time?

[904] But I feel like The Grateful Dead is a horrible band to do that with.

[905] Totally.

[906] I feel like, you know, Nirvana's Nevermind.

[907] Yep.

[908] Put that out as a full album.

[909] If that is your first full album release for Rock Band, it will sell crazy.

[910] It's going to be The Who.

[911] The Who is totally going to be the first one they do.

[912] They already talked that one up.

[913] They already confirmed it.

[914] I don't think they've ever actually said officially that they're doing Nevermind.

[915] I mean, it was in that news story about that list of songs.

[916] Right, right.

[917] Like all the Nevermind tracks were on that list.

[918] So it seems pretty likely that that's coming, but I don't think they've ever actually officially said that that's coming.

[919] Yeah, I don't know.

[920] I agree.

[921] I think that the Grateful Dead is not the best benchmark for that sort of thing.

[922] But at the same time, I played the songs, and you know what?

[923] They're kind of fun.

[924] If you like the sort of noodley Allman Brothers stuff that was in the Guitar Hero 2 and whatnot, it's the same kind of thing.

[925] I did break my recent decision to not download any new tracks, and I got the Nine Inch Nails pack.

[926] If only because I know that March of the Pigs on drums will be a whole shitload of fun.

[927] Super fun.

[928] And the perfect drug on drums is the most horrifically insane thing ever.

[929] Insane time signatures and stuff on that.

[930] It's all drum and bassy with crazy fills and stuff.

[931] The time signature, it actually remains pretty steady.

[932] It's just that the rhythm is just all over the place.

[933] It's so fill heavy, so drum and bassy.

[934] And yeah, it took me five tries to even beat it.

[935] on expert which for me i can usually sight read most of that stuff pretty pretty easily and that that shit like vexed me for a good hour there too big man on campus yeah yeah pretty extreme i don't know as soon as i get around to like playing more rock band i'm just gonna go back and buy everything except for the grateful dead songs i guess yeah like that's been the first thing like that's that's been in the back of my mind all along like oh you know as soon as i get back into rock band it's gonna happen one of these days i'm gonna go buy everything this has been the one first thing that came out i was like oh except for that I refuse to buy that.

[936] You and I need to do the endless set list at some point.

[937] Yeah, we do.

[938] Yeah, we're about to do it.

[939] Get the achievement for that and we're on.

[940] That would be fun.

[941] Yeah, because I haven't really played it too seriously since we finished Fan World Tour.

[942] A friend of mine did it, said it took him about four and a half hours.

[943] Christ.

[944] So, hey, I'm going to put in the time if needed.

[945] Yeah, no, I am too.

[946] It's just all the 58 songs that come with the game.

[947] Right, yeah, so that's not even that bad.

[948] Whatever.

[949] It's still 58 songs.

[950] Child's play.

[951] Yeah.

[952] Still means we have to play foreplay long time well.

[953] On expert.

[954] Yeah.

[955] Which means I'll play base.

[956] Yeah.

[957] Speaking of old white dudes with giant beards.

[958] Yes.

[959] Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax has passed along.

[960] Yeah.

[961] He was 69 years old.

[962] Apparently, he'd been sick for some years.

[963] He has leveled up for the last time.

[964] Yes.

[965] His tombstone will read, he rolled natural 20s.

[966] So that's, I think, tangential to all things.

[967] I was never a big D &D guy.

[968] No, I never played D &D.

[969] In a tabletop way.

[970] I tried playing it once, and this girl that we were playing with showed up with a full loaf of bread and just was eating it with no butter on it.

[971] And I'm like, what the hell?

[972] You do have your monster manual.

[973] No, this is the player's handbook.

[974] Okay, so you have an AD &D player's handbook.

[975] But it's just the cover, because inside is this copy of PokerPro with Sammy Farha on the cover.

[976] Because it's a player's handbook.

[977] I see.

[978] Sammy Farha, big into D &D.

[979] Dude, big time.

[980] Yeah, so I don't know where the actual player's handbook went.

[981] It fell out of the cover a long time ago.

[982] But even as someone who was not a D &D player, I understand how important he was in a lot of modern game design conventions, especially with role -playing games and whatnot.

[983] Yeah, definitely.

[984] The modern RPG would not exist as it does without that tabletop RPG convention existing beforehand, which was a large part his construction.

[985] So his influence is felt even today.

[986] Big time.

[987] Are we going to miss him?

[988] I'm probably not going to miss him, but it's still sad to hear when stuff like that happens.

[989] The industry will miss him.

[990] Well, I think he's made his contribution.

[991] Yeah, he did what he needed to already.

[992] Miss him in a more attached way.

[993] All right.

[994] Okay, I'll give you that.

[995] So, yeah, that'll about do it, I guess.

[996] For news.

[997] Yeah.

[998] For the news of the world.

[999] Yeah, that's basically what happened.

[1000] There's also some new games out.

[1001] Yeah, did anything else happen while I was gone?

[1002] Because I was out of it all last week.

[1003] I was not in the loop.

[1004] I'm too busy playing a Conflict Denied Ops to know what the hell was going on in the world.

[1005] So that's a lot of fun.

[1006] It's a good game.

[1007] You recommend that?

[1008] That is a fantastic game.

[1009] Alex Navarro gives two thumbs up to Conflict Denied Ops.

[1010] Out of ten.

[1011] That's a lot of thumbs.

[1012] Two thumbs out of ten points.

[1013] Yeah, so...

[1014] A thumb does not equal a whole point.

[1015] No. So basically it gets a four.

[1016] Yeah, well, it is...

[1017] I don't even know what type of game that is.

[1018] The Conflict series, like Conflict Desert Storm and all those other...

[1019] Oh, okay, so it's that stuff.

[1020] This is a first -person shooter.

[1021] Oh, sure.

[1022] So they changed it up on you.

[1023] I mean, you gave me that name, and I could have thought it was like an RTS.

[1024] Right, yeah.

[1025] No, it's the Conflict series that's been going on for some time now.

[1026] Is it squad -based?

[1027] I don't know.

[1028] I don't even remember.

[1029] Actually, sort of.

[1030] There's two characters you control the whole time.

[1031] Yeah, I guess that's how the last one was, too.

[1032] Which, to me, sort of felt like someone saw the announcement for Army of Two and said to a design team, here, make this, but make it in six months.

[1033] Nah, they've been making those games for a long time.

[1034] I don't know.

[1035] They're straight up biting someone else's style with it.

[1036] It feels like it.

[1037] It's the same sort of...

[1038] But they've never been especially good games, either.

[1039] I've been playing the club.

[1040] Yeah, I didn't like that either.

[1041] I just got my copy today.

[1042] I haven't started digging into it yet.

[1043] Yeah, no, I understand.

[1044] Now that I've played the club, I've played through the first three scenarios, the prison levels, the last level I finished.

[1045] Yeah, I don't know.

[1046] That game makes a really passable first impression and then immediately goes downhill from there.

[1047] We're just like, oh, so I'm just going to do this then?

[1048] It continues on like that for a while.

[1049] and then it's over.

[1050] So you can pick a different character pretty much at any time.

[1051] What is the condition for seeing a different...

[1052] You said the characters have endings.

[1053] To finish the last tournament.

[1054] Last tournament with...

[1055] Oh, yeah, that's what I thought.

[1056] Yes.

[1057] So you have to do those same levels again and again and again and again to see all the endings.

[1058] You know, the great fucking endings that really tell you a lot about what's going on in that game.

[1059] Are they pre -rendered?

[1060] Yes.

[1061] They sound like Tekken ending is only not as good.

[1062] Yeah.

[1063] Well.

[1064] Conceptually, the same.

[1065] Because that game's a lot like Tekken.

[1066] Conceptually, that game is a fighting game, but a shooter instead.

[1067] The level of depth it has, everything about it.

[1068] Conceptually, it's Tony Hawk.

[1069] It's Tony Hawk with guns.

[1070] I mean, you're creating combos over and over again.

[1071] Well, okay.

[1072] Conceptually, it's Project Gotham racing with guns.

[1073] but with fewer moves.

[1074] If you do a Power Rover drift around corners and then shoot guys, maybe you'd have something.

[1075] Yeah, but you can't do that, unfortunately.

[1076] So that game's not so good.

[1077] Essentially, it's like Mr. Do and Rad Racer.

[1078] So it's Mr. Do, but 3D.

[1079] I wear the glasses.

[1080] I hit the select button and put on the glasses.

[1081] That's it.

[1082] That's the greatest game ever made.

[1083] We're going to make that.

[1084] 3D Mr. Do.

[1085] Coming to you soon from Carbon Neutral Games.

[1086] The new development studio.

[1087] Helmed by famed Jeff Gerstmann.

[1088] So, yeah, I had not played a ton of games over the past week.

[1089] I just yesterday wrapped up my time with Jumper.

[1090] Ah, good.

[1091] Never have to play that again.

[1092] So that's good.

[1093] How many points did you get with?

[1094] I received 750 points for finishing that game.

[1095] Then I need to borrow your copy of Jumper.

[1096] I was totally going to bring it today, dude.

[1097] I'm sorry that I spaced on that.

[1098] That's cool.

[1099] I just got notification from the good folks at Gamefly that they're sending me a copy of CSI.

[1100] So I'll have that for points.

[1101] And Lost.

[1102] And also Frontline's Fuel of War.

[1103] Yeah, Lost.

[1104] You were saying that was good points.

[1105] Very easy points.

[1106] Yeah.

[1107] I hear that as well about the Lost.

[1108] I'm closing on 55 ,000.

[1109] So I guess I'll technically be closing out on 56 ,000 after I play CSI.

[1110] There you go.

[1111] Yeah, that is five and a half hours of your life you won't mind having lost.

[1112] I'm just going to stare.

[1113] That's about the best you can say.

[1114] Whatever.

[1115] I have two computers in the same room that I play video games in.

[1116] I'm just going to have one of them with a FAC up at all times.

[1117] Yeah.

[1118] And then the other one doing other computery stuff.

[1119] Yeah.

[1120] There you go.

[1121] Occasionally turn around and hit a button to make them.

[1122] use the semen searching light on something.

[1123] That's the best part of that whole game.

[1124] I bet.

[1125] Yeah.

[1126] Did Telltale make that?

[1127] Yeah, Telltale made that game.

[1128] They've made the last two CSI games.

[1129] I've been playing through the second season of Sam and Max.

[1130] How is it?

[1131] I've only played through the first episode so far and just started on the second one.

[1132] It's great.

[1133] Cool.

[1134] So they've kept up the momentum.

[1135] Yeah, it's funny.

[1136] I mean, it opens basically where the first season left off.

[1137] Like, Max is still president.

[1138] Oh, good.

[1139] You still encounter the giant stone head of Abe Lincoln.

[1140] Good, good, good, good.

[1141] It basically just picks up.

[1142] I finally went back and played through.

[1143] I'm up to episode five of the first season.

[1144] Episode 5 is the Reality 2 .0 one, right?

[1145] That, I think, is my favorite one.

[1146] Just because the arcade machine that yells at you.

[1147] And they show up again.

[1148] Oh, awesome.

[1149] This is actually the first thing that happens when you boot up, at least on the GameTap version.

[1150] I don't know if it happens in the download one as well.

[1151] But it comes up.

[1152] They offer a tutorial now that you can play.

[1153] If you've never played an adventure game before, it kind of walks you through what it basically is.

[1154] But the tutorial is kind of introduced by the four.

[1155] machines like the phone the pong machine the arcade machine and the the computer and it's awesome nice so funny just so just those characters like those those four characters are up there with like weighted companion cube in my book in terms of amazing video game characters from last year Yeah, seriously, cannot say enough about the Sam & Max series if you haven't played it and like a good, funny adventure game.

[1156] It's great stuff.

[1157] I was super impressed with it.

[1158] I'd watched you play a lot of it while you were reviewing it back in the day for the site, which shall never be named.

[1159] And I got an impression of how good it was, but actually playing it, it is really something.

[1160] Yeah, I mean, it's a very traditional adventure game in format, but just the quality of the writing.

[1161] Yeah.

[1162] Which obviously is a thing that carries an adventure game.

[1163] If you don't have good writing, then who cares?

[1164] That pretty much is what an adventure game needs.

[1165] Right, good dialogue, good story, stuff like that.

[1166] And the Telltale people seem to know how to do that, so Bully for them.

[1167] Yeah.

[1168] And speaking of which, this week, Bully!

[1169] Woo!

[1170] Yeah, Bully Scholarship Edition.

[1171] For the Wii and Xbox 360.

[1172] I picked up my copy for the 360 this morning.

[1173] I picked mine up this afternoon.

[1174] But it's still very much, you know, for the hour or so that I've played it so far, it's still very much Bully.

[1175] They did not change what that game is about.

[1176] It still very much looks like a PS2 game as far as the quality of the presentation.

[1177] Oh, yeah, totally.

[1178] Like, I played the 360 version for an hour or so while I was waiting for you to show up, and it's...

[1179] I like it so far.

[1180] A little disappointed by the frame rates.

[1181] Yeah, that's the problem.

[1182] Graphically, I think it looks good.

[1183] They sharpened it up nicely.

[1184] Put some more shadow, a little more detail and stuff like that.

[1185] Yeah.

[1186] I really thought that they would have been able to hammer down the frame rate stuff, although not done by Rockstar in Toronto.

[1187] Right, MadDoc did the port.

[1188] Oh, wow.

[1189] But also, the first thing that jumped out at me is the frame rate and the pre -rendered cut scenes was jacked.

[1190] Yeah.

[1191] Those were stuttering.

[1192] I was like, what the hell is going on?

[1193] It's not pre -rendered.

[1194] That stuff's real time, but in the in -engine cut scenes, I noticed that.

[1195] No, I mean the MadDoc logo at the start of the game and him being dropped off at the school.

[1196] No, that's in -engine.

[1197] Engine 2, the MadDoc logo, they use the engine for that.

[1198] Yeah, Bully's awesome.

[1199] Totally.

[1200] It's still rude.

[1201] The music, god damn it.

[1202] That's not some of the best music in any game.

[1203] I'm still a little, I don't know, from playing it for an hour here, I'm a little disappointed by the quality of the port.

[1204] I wish the frame rate stuff was better.

[1205] I agree.

[1206] You know what's weird?

[1207] What I realized is that frame rate, way better at night.

[1208] Weird.

[1209] Like in the game, like when you're doing nighttime missions and like when you first go and see the homeless guy early on.

[1210] Right.

[1211] When I did that, I realized, wow, it's running way smoother than it was.

[1212] Do they fog up the outside of your view or something?

[1213] No, I guess maybe.

[1214] Well, there's fewer people out on the streets at night.

[1215] That's probably part of it.

[1216] You can see less pedestrians.

[1217] When you first said that, I thought you meant like, you know, when I'm playing a game, the frame rate for me is always better at night.

[1218] No, when I play games at night.

[1219] No, that's because you're drunk at night, dude.

[1220] Yeah.

[1221] Well, it makes the frame way, way better.

[1222] Yeah.

[1223] So yeah, Bully's out.

[1224] Army of Two is out this week.

[1225] Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to that one.

[1226] Both of you guys seem up on it.

[1227] I am a little more cautious.

[1228] I played it forever ago at some EA event, and it actually kind of impressed the hell out of me. Yeah, and I'm impressed based on what he told me after that event, I think.

[1229] Basically, you're impressed by the Wu -Tang line.

[1230] Right, yeah.

[1231] Because they just talk about completely random, ridiculous shit throughout the game.

[1232] And that's in the game, right?

[1233] That's not just stuff they did for trailers?

[1234] No, that was in the game.

[1235] I've seen that stuff where like...

[1236] You're in the middle of a firefight, and one of the guys starts asking the other guy who his favorite member of the Wu -Tang Clan is.

[1237] Yeah.

[1238] I saw that.

[1239] Yeah, I found that very endearing as well.

[1240] No, the best part about that line is that he says, you know, there's a lot that I like about Ghostface Killah, but, you know, I was thinking to myself, what about U -God?

[1241] Like, that's the level of dedication they go to.

[1242] A lot of people say RZA or Method Man. Yeah, I mean, that kind of stuff is great, and also...

[1243] learning that they hired actual mercs, these real sketchy -ass mercenaries, to come and consult on the game.

[1244] Nice.

[1245] And that's where they got the...

[1246] Straight out of Blackwater.

[1247] The grizzled old merc.

[1248] That's where they got the stuff about...

[1249] They killed three developers while they were working on the game.

[1250] About using tampons to stop bullet wounds from getting out and stuff like that, which are great, authentic touches that I find compelling.

[1251] But then you also hear just all these...

[1252] horror stories from development about how there's a reason that it was delayed for the six months that it was or whatever.

[1253] So that makes me a little trepidatious, but I still like the idea of what they're doing of a non -regimented military shooter.

[1254] Like a military shooter that isn't about, I'm in the army.

[1255] It reminds me of some of the more freewheeling concepts of mercenaries without the open world.

[1256] Sure.

[1257] Like some of the same concepts.

[1258] Or even like Gears of War.

[1259] I mean, you know, it's like technically they were part of a military operation, but you didn't get a lot of that feeling from the characters and the dialogue and stuff.

[1260] But I was speaking with one Rich Gallop earlier today over the...

[1261] The Rich Gallop?

[1262] The Rich Gallop.

[1263] TV's Rich Gallop?

[1264] Television's Rich Gallop.

[1265] He basically said he's waiting to hear from me how Army of Two is because he's worried it could be filled with too much baditude.

[1266] Yeah, that's possible.

[1267] Yeah.

[1268] I don't know.

[1269] I'd just like to have a good co -op shooter that I would actually want to play with people because I haven't had one since Gears of War at this point.

[1270] So there's both of those, and then there's God of War for the thing.

[1271] Yeah.

[1272] Was that last week or was that this week?

[1273] I think that is this week.

[1274] That's this week.

[1275] I hear it's totally amazing.

[1276] Yeah.

[1277] I would like to, very much.

[1278] Really, on a personal level, kind of don't care?

[1279] Yep.

[1280] I know that makes me bad.

[1281] I like the first God of War.

[1282] I've never been a huge fan of the series, so...

[1283] I like the first one.

[1284] You give me one that's...

[1285] I'll wait for it to come to PS2 and then also not play it there.

[1286] That seems like an inevitability.

[1287] Even PS3?

[1288] No, PS2.

[1289] Okay.

[1290] Yeah.

[1291] Oh, wait for...

[1292] When they port the PSP game to PS2.

[1293] Right, right, okay.

[1294] Which, yeah, is inevitable.

[1295] So Q3, look for Chains of Olympus on the PlayStation 2.

[1296] You heard it here first.

[1297] Yeah, with some kind of trailer, after you beat it, some kind of video of the PS3 game at the end or something.

[1298] Breaking news.

[1299] Well, there's a thing like in the instruction book that the trade -off says, yeah, God of War PS3, yeah.

[1300] So those are probably the most significant releases of this week.

[1301] Next week, Condemned 2, Bloodshot comes out.

[1302] Which I've seen a lot of ads for.

[1303] Best subtitle ever.

[1304] That is a good subtitle.

[1305] Bloodshot is a fantastic subtitle.

[1306] Are they just picking up where the first one left off of that?

[1307] It plays the same guy?

[1308] Yeah, except he's like gone crazy and he's an alcoholic now.

[1309] Great, great.

[1310] That's great.

[1311] Like to fight off the demons that have been haunting him.

[1312] He's been drinking them away.

[1313] No, awesome.

[1314] Perfect.

[1315] And he'll pick up the school desks and bash dudes with them.

[1316] As long as there's a lot of very detailed, very gory bum fights in that game, it's going to be awesome.

[1317] There are now environmental kills.

[1318] So in one part that I've seen, a dude grabs the hobo.

[1319] crazy guy that he's fighting and shoves his head into a pneumatic press.

[1320] Terrific.

[1321] And you see this very slow press come down onto the guy's head and squish, squish until everything pops out.

[1322] And so, yeah, totally.

[1323] It looks way more brutal than the first one, which the brutality was really what made the first condemned any fun, honestly.

[1324] Is bent rebar in it?

[1325] Is rebar bent?

[1326] Yeah, bent rebar with concrete chunk.

[1327] Terrific.

[1328] Will make a return as well, so.

[1329] Yeah, there's probably other releases, but I looked over the calendar, and that's probably the...

[1330] Yeah, that's the big stuff.

[1331] I mean, we're going to start picking up releases here over the next few weeks because we're trucking on to the end of the first quarter.

[1332] That's true.

[1333] End of Q1 is coming up, end of the month here, so you'll see a lot of rushed releases.

[1334] Yeah, yeah.

[1335] And then, well, there's a...

[1336] What's the Xbox Live arcade game this week?

[1337] Rocketman.

[1338] Rocketman, Axis of Evil.

[1339] which I saw described as kind of like Smash TV, but with some RPG stuff thrown in.

[1340] Okay.

[1341] Twin stick shooters.

[1342] Twin stick shooters, but with character development.

[1343] Bringing it to the Xbox Live Arcade for the first time.

[1344] Yeah, finally.

[1345] When you level up, do you turn faster?

[1346] Let's hope.

[1347] Now when you level up, you become Mutoid Man. Well, then that's the greatest game ever made.

[1348] Yeah.

[1349] That would be sick.

[1350] Play as Mutoid Man. Yeah.

[1351] That's why you got to have Smash TV MMO so you can have the faction of the people that run the TV studio.

[1352] Dude, what is Midway doing?

[1353] I want to do quests for Mutoid, man. What is Midway doing that there is no Smash TV, no new Smash TV game out there?

[1354] Just wasting potential.

[1355] Yeah, probably.

[1356] I mean, yeah, they're about due to announce some new stuff.

[1357] They got ballers coming out in April.

[1358] Oh, yeah, I know it is their turn this year, isn't it?

[1359] Yeah.

[1360] They get to do the freestyle basketballing.

[1361] The b -ball?

[1362] Oh, good for them.

[1363] Oh, yes.

[1364] The b -ball.

[1365] As we like to call it.

[1366] Way to have a game, Midway.

[1367] The stuff on ballers looks really cool.

[1368] No, I'm sure it's great.

[1369] The first one was great.

[1370] Oh, yeah.

[1371] Totally.

[1372] I don't even like basketball games.

[1373] I like ballers.

[1374] Yeah.

[1375] I have no opinion about ballers.

[1376] Do you want to be a baller?

[1377] Nope.

[1378] Shot caller?

[1379] Yes.

[1380] Do you want to have 28 -inch blades?

[1381] Yes.

[1382] On your impaler?

[1383] Yes.

[1384] That's not really a rhyme.

[1385] I don't want to talk to you.

[1386] I don't want to talk to you about this.

[1387] We're having a conversation over here.

[1388] The adults are talking, Alex.

[1389] I'm sorry.

[1390] I drove past Rose Krantz.

[1391] Ah, good.

[1392] On my way through L .A. Excellent.

[1393] So I guess that's about it for what's going on.

[1394] For actual news and releases.

[1395] You got any questions from the folks at home?

[1396] Oh, brother, we have questions pouring out.

[1397] the everything here.

[1398] But what we don't have is answers.

[1399] But we're going to fake it anyways.

[1400] Kurt from Washington, Iowa asks, what are your three favorite Xbox Live arcade games?

[1401] Wait, he lives in two states?

[1402] He lives in the city of Washington in the state of Iowa.

[1403] That doesn't make any sense.

[1404] Three favorite Xbox Live arcade games?

[1405] Which is a pretty challenging question, I think, because there's been a volume of really excellent Xbox Live arcade games.

[1406] Yeah, they're up over 100 now.

[1407] I'm going to say, and I know I own like 60.

[1408] Yeah, I have like 85.

[1409] I actually only own like 25.

[1410] God, I've spent way too much money on downloadable games.

[1411] It's because it doesn't ever seem like real money.

[1412] Oh, five bucks, sure.

[1413] I'll just push this button.

[1414] 400 points?

[1415] That's for 10 money.

[1416] I hit the magic button, and then it goes.

[1417] Yeah.

[1418] I'm going to put Uno on my list.

[1419] Yeah, it would be on mine as well.

[1420] You know, I like Geometry Wars, but I don't feel like it's one that I've necessarily gone back to so much.

[1421] I'd put it on mine.

[1422] I would put Geometry Wars on mine.

[1423] Well, you definitely put Catan on yours.

[1424] Yeah, Catan.

[1425] So there's your three.

[1426] The only one that comes close to possibly knocking off either Geometry Wars or Uno is Alien Hominid.

[1427] I like Alien Hominid an awful lot.

[1428] I guess what kind of dings Alien Hominid for me is its availability.

[1429] Right.

[1430] Elsewhere.

[1431] For me, it was the problem that I experienced while playing it where there was a bug that wouldn't save your game.

[1432] Right.

[1433] Yeah, there was that bugginess.

[1434] Which I don't know that they ever fixed it, but it was something that was only happening on certain 360s, and I have since changed 360s.

[1435] So there you go.

[1436] It might even work for you now.

[1437] Who knows?

[1438] Right.

[1439] But I haven't found out.

[1440] And I'm sure someone is screaming right now, Puzzle Quest, but I'm not.

[1441] Lost opportunity.

[1442] I'm not a Puzzle Quest guy.

[1443] I don't mind it.

[1444] Oh, you know, I do love Puzzle Quest.

[1445] I love Puzzle Quest a lot, too, and I've played a whole lot of it on the Xbox Live Arcade version as well.

[1446] Probably the best version of that game.

[1447] Yeah.

[1448] All things considered.

[1449] I'd probably put that on my list.

[1450] I also really was...

[1451] I was so thrilled when they brought Streets of Rage 2 to Xbox Live Arcade just because it's such a left -field thing that, you know, someone just knew.

[1452] Right.

[1453] You know, someone just said, yeah, this is a, we have Sega, you know, Digital Eclipse is going to do these ports.

[1454] This is one of the games that needs to be in this list.

[1455] Shouldn't we do Streets of Rage 1 first?

[1456] No!

[1457] Shut up.

[1458] Yeah, exactly.

[1459] It's got the car with the rockets, but Streets of Rage 2 is better.

[1460] It is the superior game.

[1461] Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen.

[1462] We need desperately Final Fight Arcade to come to Live Arcade.

[1463] That's got to happen.

[1464] That's got to happen.

[1465] You know, I'm kind of over the arcade remix.

[1466] At this point.

[1467] I will be once that comes out.

[1468] That's the only thing I'm still burning a candle for at this point.

[1469] I guess.

[1470] Do you want to throw any Xbox Live originals into your list, Jeff?

[1471] I think Uno is a really obvious choice.

[1472] I think that absolutely has to be.

[1473] It's obvious, but it's also really good.

[1474] There was a reason it was one of the most played and most downloaded.

[1475] Pac -Man Championship Edition.

[1476] Certainly.

[1477] Yeah, that's a good one.

[1478] That game.

[1479] Space Giraffe?

[1480] I love Space Giraffe.

[1481] I know you love Space Giraffe.

[1482] I actually was playing Space Giraffe recently.

[1483] A couple days ago I fired up.

[1484] I will never be able to fathom anything going on in that game.

[1485] Yeah, I don't know.

[1486] Maybe my color blindness actually makes it easier for me to see in that game.

[1487] Could be.

[1488] Because it is a mess.

[1489] Oh, wow.

[1490] Visually, that game is a mess.

[1491] Yeah.

[1492] Is Poker Smash in your list anywhere?

[1493] I really do like Poker Smash.

[1494] I like it.

[1495] I don't like it as much as you do.

[1496] I wish that, like, I guess I wish that the presentation was a little bit better.

[1497] Like, maybe the music and the themes were a little...

[1498] I don't know.

[1499] Certain aspects of that game seem kind of chintzy.

[1500] I guess what bothers me or what I have an issue with is I don't feel like the gameplay evolves as much as it could while you're playing.

[1501] Yeah, it just gets faster.

[1502] They don't add anything new.

[1503] Maybe if they started out with two suits and expanded to four as you went on or something like that.

[1504] Tactics never really change as far as what you're trying to do.

[1505] Right.

[1506] It does the challenges and stuff.

[1507] I think the multiplayer, the online, is pretty neat.

[1508] And that's kind of a neat way to kind of change the game up a bit.

[1509] I guess I feel like doing something other than just speeding up the pace would have helped me feel better.

[1510] Yeah, I agree with you.

[1511] But at the same time, for them to make the control changes that they did to basically...

[1512] I think Poker Smash totally revolutionizes the way puzzle games are controlled.

[1513] Oh, I agree.

[1514] Using the two analog sticks for moving your cursor and then for moving the pieces.

[1515] That's...

[1516] Bejeweled needs to start doing that.

[1517] Yeah, like, what the hell?

[1518] Like, how did we go this long without someone else coming up with that?

[1519] Like, that's...

[1520] Because all these games were, you know, Flash games.

[1521] Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[1522] Like, yeah, I guess, yeah, Microsoft invested in Poker Smash or whatever early on, and that happened.

[1523] So there you go.

[1524] I don't think I would put Poker Smash in my top three, though.

[1525] No?

[1526] No, I think it's...

[1527] I think it's Pac -Man Championship Edition, Uno, and probably actually Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

[1528] UMK3.

[1529] Yeah, which has its problems, but I love that game so much.

[1530] I'm willing to kind of look past a few of the issues it has.

[1531] Nope.

[1532] Nobody picks Sultry of Solitaire, man. What the F?

[1533] What the hell, man?

[1534] Nope.

[1535] Yeah, no Sultry of Solitaire.

[1536] Sorry.

[1537] No one did.

[1538] No backgammon.

[1539] I do have all 200 points in backgammon, but.

[1540] You fucker.

[1541] That's sick.

[1542] That was like me and Carrie losing back and forth to each other to each get like 10 wins or whatever.

[1543] And plus.

[1544] is awesome.

[1545] N Plus is super awesome for the Xbox Live Arcade.

[1546] Res is awesome, but that's just because it's Res. I have a hard time, you know, it's a difficult game to recommend to the average person.

[1547] Yeah.

[1548] And with good reason, and I don't know that, you know, what was amazing about it necessarily translates.

[1549] E4.

[1550] I thought a lot of the stuff in E4, like, I really, every extent, extra extreme, I thought was really, like, way better than E3.

[1551] Yeah, no. Every Extend Extra was definitely improved in becoming Every Extend Extra extreme.

[1552] So you're saying extremeness helped it.

[1553] When it went extreme, it went extreme.

[1554] When it went bungee jumping, slammed a do.

[1555] It definitely helped its case some.

[1556] But yeah, it's still not going to put that in.

[1557] Yeah, probably not top three.

[1558] Bottom line, there is a wealth of excellent games for the Xbox Live Arcade.

[1559] A few of our favorites.

[1560] Alex, you said PSN, Everyday Shooter, would be...

[1561] The winner on everything.

[1562] Yeah, the only game on that list.

[1563] Yeah.

[1564] Pain I liked.

[1565] Warhawk is technically a downloadable PSN game, and that's pretty hot.

[1566] Tekken is also sweet.

[1567] I own all of these.

[1568] Yeah.

[1569] That's pretty much it.

[1570] There's Puzzle Fighter.

[1571] I mean, that's on 360 as well.

[1572] Right.

[1573] Puzzle Fighter actually has a little.

[1574] Yeah, I'd probably say Everyday Shooter, Mortal Kombat 2.

[1575] Yeah.

[1576] Warhawk, I guess.

[1577] Warhawk or Tekken.

[1578] It's DOS up.

[1579] Jeff, as a follow -up question that you didn't want to answer, this listener asks if you could have one game remade for the Xbox Live Arcade, what game would you choose and why?

[1580] He does not specify arcade game, so you can definitely go anywhere that you want.

[1581] Any old console game.

[1582] I'm going to say I talked about this with...

[1583] with Jeff a little earlier.

[1584] Apples to Apples.

[1585] The card game, Apples to Apples, I would love to see made into an Xbox Live Arcade game.

[1586] Sure.

[1587] I'm not going to sit here and try to explain what Apples to Apples is, but people who know what Apples to Apples is, you can see it translating very nicely into a fun, group -based Xbox Live Arcade game.

[1588] Yeah.

[1589] Yeah, I don't know.

[1590] Journey?

[1591] Journey, yeah, that'd be a good one.

[1592] But really, I mean...

[1593] would you pay five bucks?

[1594] Like, the problem is that at some point, the old arcade games become a really bad deal.

[1595] Like, I was playing Discs of Tron.

[1596] I passed on it.

[1597] And I felt like a jerk while I was playing.

[1598] Because you're like, why did I pay five dollars for this?

[1599] Yeah, you are perpetuating a bad system by paying money for that.

[1600] Yeah, and I bought regular Tron as well.

[1601] Neither of which are particularly great emulated versions of the game.

[1602] Like, they both feel kind of off.

[1603] Yeah.

[1604] We know what my answer is.

[1605] I love the original Tron.

[1606] an awful lot, and I bought that, and after that, I did not feel super compelled to buy Discs of Tron, but Alex, any games?

[1607] Final Fight.

[1608] Final Fight.

[1609] So Alex wants Final Fight for Xbox Live Arcade.

[1610] Pre -player Arcade Final Fight.

[1611] That's all I want.

[1612] I want Apples to Apples, the card game, which I think would easily challenge Uno in being a good, casual multiplayer game experience, and Jeff can't decide.

[1613] Samurai Showdown 2.

[1614] There you go.

[1615] Jeff wants Sam Show 2.

[1616] Yeah.

[1617] I'd play that.

[1618] That'd be great.

[1619] And that's happening, I think.

[1620] No, there you go.

[1621] It's a tad out.

[1622] Money Puzzle Exchanger.

[1623] Ooh.

[1624] Oh, yeah.

[1625] I've just blown your minds, haven't I?

[1626] Known as Money Idol Exchanger in the Orient.

[1627] All right, so here's a question from Al Wong in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

[1628] I'm a hit man. Because he's from Calgary.

[1629] Alberta, Canada.

[1630] And this is a really long question, so I'm not going to ask the whole thing.

[1631] But basically he wants to know.

[1632] He says, yeah, so they're doing the guitar hero Aerosmith thing, and you guys think it's a bad idea.

[1633] We do.

[1634] He wants to know if Harmonis could just upload the songs into Rock Band and steal their thunder.

[1635] No, because they probably have an exclusive deal with Aerosmith.

[1636] Yeah, I'd like to think that Activision did the business on that and prevented.

[1637] Aerosmith from from selling their songs to competing products like I'd almost suspect that maybe that's why train kept a rolling is the Aerosmith song in Rock Band because maybe that was one of the ones they didn't license for that game maybe maybe I just yeah everything about that deal screams we like we will not be able to get any Aerosmith song for a good year or so until after this game has come out right so I my guess is no All right, so there you go.

[1638] I tend to agree.

[1639] I imagine that Activision, before they did this, showed up all the exclusive deals for that kind of stuff.

[1640] Which is weird when you think about where this is going, locking up exclusive rights to songs for your games and stuff.

[1641] That's really crazy.

[1642] It's a really crazy spot for us to be in with Rhythm Games now when you think about the history of them being super obscure and now all of a sudden being...

[1643] These huge, huge industries under themselves.

[1644] Before, rhythm games didn't really license music that anyone gave a shit about.

[1645] It was just stuff that like, it's like the DDR series.

[1646] Frequency and Amplitude.

[1647] I'd like to bring to your attention.

[1648] Frequency and Amplitude.

[1649] Yeah, you know what?

[1650] Some of that stuff was popular.

[1651] A lot of it really wasn't.

[1652] Some of those remixes and stuff that were in those games.

[1653] Sure, no, I mean, they were definitely going for more dance music than...

[1654] out -and -out pop music.

[1655] I'm just saying, that was not a big thing until, you know, Guitar Hero came along.

[1656] And then, of course, like, Sony's going to enter, I mean, they've already done so in Europe, but they're about to enter the space in a big way here in the U .S. when SingStar comes out in, like, May. And did you see that there is downloadable tracks for the most recent karaoke?

[1657] Yeah, yeah, the American Idol.

[1658] The American Idol karaoke revolution game.

[1659] Yeah, Beat It is one of them.

[1660] But is that even a singing game?

[1661] Oh, yeah, it's a karaoke revolution game.

[1662] It's a karaoke revolution game.

[1663] There's some other American Idol game.

[1664] Years ago, they did awful rhythm games.

[1665] But they've done two American Idol karaoke revolution games in the second one, and now they have downloadable content for it.

[1666] And Beat It was in there.

[1667] What's the weirder thing to me, more so than people getting exclusives, because whatever, that's just kind of part of the game, is when people don't have exclusives and then also don't have master tracks, and then everyone gets to record their own cover version.

[1668] of the song.

[1669] Right.

[1670] So you start getting multiple covers of the same song in these different games.

[1671] Right, like there's two different covers of War Pig spread out between Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

[1672] Right.

[1673] And even though Harmonix did both games.

[1674] So yeah, that's weird.

[1675] And so that's the answer to your question, sir.

[1676] Next question coming from some dude who wants to know, will they ever make a sequel to the 2001 PS2 game Rumble Racing?

[1677] No. It's one of the best racing games ever.

[1678] They should.

[1679] He's totally right to ask that because rumble racing is radical.

[1680] They did like a NASCAR.

[1681] You do like fat spins in the air all the time.

[1682] Yeah, exactly.

[1683] It was like, you know, all those Hot Wheels games that came out that were all not so good.

[1684] Like those were kind of like rumble racing, but bad.

[1685] Who put out rumble racing?

[1686] EA.

[1687] Yeah.

[1688] And NASCAR rumble also was a similar game, but with NASCAR license in it.

[1689] At least now EA will announce new Rumble Racing.

[1690] Yeah, exactly.

[1691] That's the Sebastian Bach.

[1692] That's kind of all we have here.

[1693] Yeah, Rumble Racing.

[1694] I love that game.

[1695] Like that and Tony Hawk 3 were out right around the same time, and those were like the two games where you're like, oh, dude, the PS2 is awesome.

[1696] All of a sudden, like, holy crap, the PS2 all of a sudden is way better than the Dreamcast.

[1697] What the hell were we thinking?

[1698] Next question comes from Tom Buell.

[1699] Tom asks, hey, guys, if you could make your own flavor of Gatorade, what would you call it, and what would it taste like?

[1700] I don't, you know, I think, Tom, fantastic question for the podcast, but we don't have a large enough marketing department or enough chemists on staff here.

[1701] We have a few, just not enough.

[1702] Yeah.

[1703] The chemists we do have are pretty busy.

[1704] Yeah, with street chemistry.

[1705] Do we want to throw some ideas out there anyway?

[1706] Let's just spitball it.

[1707] What do you got here, Alex?

[1708] You got any ideas?

[1709] Put me on the spot.

[1710] Booberry?

[1711] Booberry.

[1712] And it would be a ghost on the front.

[1713] And then it would be champagne flavored.

[1714] So you call it Booberry.

[1715] But it tastes like champagne.

[1716] It tastes like champagne.

[1717] It's shocking.

[1718] That's what ghost berry tastes like.

[1719] You would be surprised.

[1720] You would go, oh.

[1721] You would be scared after you drank the blueberry.

[1722] It's like, this doesn't taste like berry at all.

[1723] What's going on?

[1724] You're talking about that warbly voice.

[1725] So, yeah, that's my idea.

[1726] As a totally unrelated, I have no contributions for this, but as an unrelated aside, yesterday as I was driving back here.

[1727] I saw that Carl's Jr. has Cap 'n Crunch flavored milkshakes.

[1728] Oh, yeah.

[1729] I saw a picture of that.

[1730] Don't toy with my emotions.

[1731] I am not.

[1732] We should go there after this.

[1733] We'll go get him after this.

[1734] Wow.

[1735] All right.

[1736] Yeah, I got to try him out.

[1737] I don't even want Carl's Jr., but I want that.

[1738] I never want Carl's Jr. because of their gross -ass commercials.

[1739] I'm not a fan of the food, really.

[1740] I am a fan of the food, but I don't really want any right now.

[1741] It's like, oh, thanks.

[1742] The green burrito, like now that most of them emerged to Carl's Jr. green burrito.

[1743] The green burrito side.

[1744] They do some okay stuff.

[1745] You get a burrito and a superstar.

[1746] Yeah, they have a sizable burrito.

[1747] Can you make me a hamburger that makes it look like someone barfed on it?

[1748] Yes.

[1749] That'd be great.

[1750] They have those.

[1751] And here's Paris Hilton washing a car.

[1752] Thanks for advertising that.

[1753] Here's a chicken sandwich that looks like it has poop in it.

[1754] If it doesn't get all over you, it's your face.

[1755] If it's not smeared all over your greasy maw.

[1756] I would call my Gatorade Black Shock.

[1757] Black Shock, that's good.

[1758] Would it be black?

[1759] Yes, it would be a black liquid, and I would want it to taste like sweet tarts.

[1760] Like if you ate a whole roll of sweet tarts all at once, like that weird kind of shocking, like, oh, whoa, kind of like that.

[1761] And we get Lil Jon for the cover.

[1762] All right, here's a question from Sean Evans out of Raleigh, North Carolina.

[1763] Sean asks, hey, Jeff.

[1764] Hey.

[1765] In one of your GDC blog entries, you say that the problem with game reviews is that no one reads them anymore.

[1766] I was wondering what ideas you had to get people to pay more attention to the actual written reviews.

[1767] Okay, you're right.

[1768] Let's give some context for what this guy's asking about.

[1769] So at GDC, there were a lot of different panels, and this one that he's talking about was one where the press was on the panel.

[1770] There were various members of the press, Andy McNamara from Game Informer, Brian Crescenti from Kotaku, a couple other guys.

[1771] got up there and were asked questions that NGuyKroll from Newsweek had gotten from developers.

[1772] And it didn't get, you know, like the whole thing was supposed to be like, oh, it's going to be pretty fiery, but it never really got fiery because they sucked up all the time talking about the nice stuff and then never really got into the more harsh stuff.

[1773] But someone there said that, you know, in kind of the, as what is one of the problems with aggregate review score sites is that it makes it so that no one reads the reviews.

[1774] I don't really think that's a huge problem.

[1775] I think the ultimate goal of a review should be to get people the information that they want.

[1776] And if they don't want to read your review, that's their business.

[1777] And I think it's up to the authors to be writing more compelling reviews that demand to be read.

[1778] You know, a lot of people say like, oh, game reviews shouldn't have scores on them, which is ridiculous.

[1779] It's just, you know, it's too far.

[1780] No, well, that's absolutely wrong because if anything, these, you know, aggregate...

[1781] Score sites prove that there is a good portion of people that do want just a score and have a rough idea of what the average popular opinion of a game is.

[1782] Right, and that's perfectly valid.

[1783] That is actually the one valid use for those sites is for consumers that just want to get that kind of quick fix of information.

[1784] I think that, yeah, I think if people are finding that not enough people are reading their reviews, they need to start.

[1785] looking at the reviews they're writing and figure out ways to write better reviews.

[1786] Yeah.

[1787] If you're writing reviews that are just like, here's everything on the back of the box and at the end of every paragraph I'm going to tell you if that's any good or not.

[1788] That's not going to keep people interested.

[1789] That don't work in 08.

[1790] No, it does not fly anymore.

[1791] I think that video game reviews have not changed as the industry and the audience have.

[1792] I think in a lot of ways that's going to have to be addressed.

[1793] I think part of it is that you just kind of, at this point, people need to start sort of embracing subjectivity to a degree.

[1794] I mean, it's like reviews are opinions, and as much as, you know, it's just kind of like, you know, yes, there are facts in reviews, but you've got to kind of let your own personality and your own taste sort of guide reviews, you know?

[1795] Yeah, and I think that it's the idea, honestly, for me, of people using these aggregate review score sites.

[1796] to make purchasing decisions seems super crazy to me because that's that's that is completely devoid of any context whatsoever is it's just right yeah it's like a bunch of different at best at best they give you like a sentence from the review right it's like that doesn't tell you anything about you know your own personal likes or dislikes i think you know like for me personally frame rates a very big deal to me in games yeah uh when a game has a sketchy frame rate that can really that really takes away from it other people it might not be a big deal right So I think, you know, you need to read the review and find out, you know, what's wrong with it, you know, and compare that to your own personal likes and dislikes.

[1797] And then furthermore, you know, I feel like where that reviewer is coming from specifically makes a difference.

[1798] And that's something that, I mean, film criticism has had for a long time is those kind of named people that you can make those connections with and decide if you're, you know, it's like, well, I never agree with Mick LaSalle or I never agree with Peter or whatever from Rolling Stone.

[1799] Right.

[1800] And it gets back into that whole, like, you know, every six months or something, someone pipes up and goes, where's the Lester bangs of game journalism?

[1801] Yeah, and that's...

[1802] And, you know, they don't really want that.

[1803] No, but they do...

[1804] Or the Pauline Kael of game criticism.

[1805] They want personalities that they can kind of, you know, look to time and time again and to see, you know, that match up with their own taste.

[1806] You know, they want people that they can kind of just sort of...

[1807] latch onto in that regard.

[1808] And there hasn't been, I mean, I think more and more now you're starting to see that.

[1809] There are names that are starting to pop up and kind of matter.

[1810] I think that's just the maturation of games and the people that play them.

[1811] So I guess that, yeah, there's reviews.

[1812] There's our thoughts on them.

[1813] There's our little tree of teas on game criticism.

[1814] Sean, thanks for writing in.

[1815] Next question comes in from Ewan in Aberdeen.

[1816] That's in Scotland, y 'all.

[1817] Word.

[1818] Ewan is in crisis because he is stoked about Street Fighter 4.

[1819] But he is not stoked about playing Street Fighter 4.

[1820] on his Xbox 360 D -pad.

[1821] Oh, I hear you, brother.

[1822] Now, you are our two gentlemen in the rarefied position of having actually played Street Fighter IV, albeit in an arcade -type environment.

[1823] What are your thoughts on this?

[1824] Is this going to be an issue for people, or is this going to be a deal -breaker as far as where they go?

[1825] Yeah, if you don't like the Xbox 360 D -pad, you're not going to like the way this game plays because it plays like Street Fighter.

[1826] Yeah, it plays exactly like Street Fighter 2 in a lot of ways.

[1827] The game speed's a little different and the timing will be a little different, but you're still making drag -and -punch motions and charging up moves.

[1828] Do you think that the release of this game on the Xbox 360 will warrant some crazy Hori?

[1829] Well, Hori already put out Virtua Fighter 5 joysticks.

[1830] They put out sticks, but I'm talking about like a...

[1831] like a classic pad for the 360 with D -pad stuff on it like you like it.

[1832] No, I think if anyone is going to be crazy enough to need something like that for this game, they're going to want to just get the Virtua Fighter 6.

[1833] I've never liked using a D -pad for any.

[1834] I haven't had too much trouble with the 360's D -pad.

[1835] It comes up here and there.

[1836] But I've never liked using any D -pad for it.

[1837] I'm all the way with a joystick.

[1838] So you're Street Fighter.

[1839] I'm Street Fighter.

[1840] Your game comes up through the arcade, so that's how you like playing it.

[1841] Yep.

[1842] I think I probably played my best Street Fighter with a Super Nintendo controller.

[1843] Is there any way to just plug a Super Nintendo controller into a 360?

[1844] I don't think so.

[1845] I'm sure someone probably has made some kind of weird adapter by now.

[1846] There's like a USB version of it.

[1847] But yeah, those Hori sticks.

[1848] I want to say it's Hori.

[1849] Those sticks that came out alongside Virtua Fighter V are high -quality joysticks.

[1850] That's Hori.

[1851] Yeah, as long as Street Fighter IV has full -on button remapping in, which usually Capcom has been very good about that, you should be able to just get one of those and be straight.

[1852] But it is a Japanese -style joystick.

[1853] It's a ball, not a bat.

[1854] Convex instead of concave buttons.

[1855] I would hazard to guess that there is probably some sort of deal going on where there will be yet another joystick.

[1856] Yeah, probably.

[1857] They'll probably put out just another one of these Hori sticks.

[1858] Yeah.

[1859] Just with Ryu on it instead of Akira.

[1860] Yeah.

[1861] Big difference.

[1862] They'll be doing a spot instead of throwing a fireball.

[1863] Way different.

[1864] 360 D -pads to deal break for you.

[1865] Maybe look at another version or maybe look at getting one of these third -party controllers.

[1866] Next question comes from Michael in the UK.

[1867] Oh, God, there's more?

[1868] Yeah.

[1869] Wow.

[1870] The hits keep coming, sir.

[1871] Okay.

[1872] A lot of email comes in here.

[1873] All right.

[1874] The podcast is now three hours long.

[1875] Michael.

[1876] It's a very special episode of the Arrow Pointing Down podcast.

[1877] It's very touching.

[1878] This one, Jeff gets hooked on drugs, and then we have to have a talk with him about it.

[1879] This is the one where he gets molested by the guy.

[1880] I'm so excited.

[1881] Michael is.

[1882] This is a dirty movie.

[1883] Is writing into.

[1884] To talk about drinks.

[1885] Okay, great.

[1886] The envy that he has.

[1887] All right, Michael, let's go out for drinks.

[1888] Michael wants to go out for drinks.

[1889] Mike says that in the UK, apparently Gatorade and Mountain Dew aren't happening so much over there.

[1890] Yeah, there's no Gatorade in the UK.

[1891] Lucozade is as close as you can get, I think.

[1892] There's no Gatorade at all?

[1893] No, they do not sell Gatorade in the UK.

[1894] How do they live?

[1895] What do they drink after they've been hungover?

[1896] More beers.

[1897] They just go back to the pub.

[1898] Wow.

[1899] That's one way to do it.

[1900] Yeah.

[1901] And he goes on to talk about how he has nearly purchased crates of Code Red for the equivalent of about $50 a pop, which I'm going to say, good investment, Mike.

[1902] Yeah, yeah.

[1903] For a crate, $50 for a crate.

[1904] Wait, can you even get Code Red here now?

[1905] Well, at this time of year, probably not, no. No, Code Red's full -time.

[1906] Code Red is all the way.

[1907] Okay, because they stopped selling it at the Taco Bell, and I was super bummed about that.

[1908] Yeah, that's because they rotated it in that Baja Blast flavor.

[1909] Which is not so good.

[1910] Yeah, which is awful.

[1911] Which they don't even sell that in bottles.

[1912] They just sell it at Taco Bell.

[1913] It's like, great.

[1914] I want my Code Red back, damn it.

[1915] So Michael goes on to list a few of his favorite UK -only drinks.

[1916] All right.

[1917] Terry 7 -Up is one of his lists, and that's a comment all the time.

[1918] Yeah, they sold that here.

[1919] I don't think they sell it here anymore, though, do they?

[1920] Yeah.

[1921] I haven't seen it in a while.

[1922] I can't stand it.

[1923] Never liked Cherry 7 -Up.

[1924] I'm a fan, so glad to hear that's still popping off in the UK.

[1925] It goes on to discuss Pepsi Max Coffee Chino.

[1926] Nice.

[1927] I wonder if I've heard of this.

[1928] Pepsi Max, I mean, I've heard of.

[1929] I've heard of the coffee Pepsi before.

[1930] It's like Coke Black.

[1931] I was going to say, it's probably a lot like Coke Black, but not sold in the U .S. Awful.

[1932] I heard Coke Black was going away.

[1933] I would hope so.

[1934] I heard that as of 2008, they were going to stop making it.

[1935] But I've still seen it around, and I've still seen people.

[1936] It's probably a lot of back stock.

[1937] Yeah, hopefully.

[1938] Hopefully they're just clearing it out.

[1939] The grocery outlet will be carrying it exclusively soon.

[1940] Extreme value retailers.

[1941] Brothers and sisters, Michael then ends this email with a revelatory bit of information.

[1942] Okay, I'm going to sit up for this.

[1943] Please do, because it's going to knock you back into your seat, and we don't want you all the way back in your seat.

[1944] Okay, I'm ready.

[1945] Then Lord knows what you'll be knocked into.

[1946] He says that nothing can compare to Panda Pop's anniversary party cake flavor, which tastes exactly like sponge cake and jam.

[1947] Heroin.

[1948] Heroin?

[1949] Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me, too.

[1950] Pretty addictive.

[1951] It sounds like pure China white, as far as I'm concerned.

[1952] Cake -flavored soda is...

[1953] I'd say the closest we were...

[1954] No, no, no. Sponge cake.

[1955] Sponge cake.

[1956] Have you guys seen the new Dr. Pepper monstrosity?

[1957] No. Affront to God that they're doing?

[1958] No. What is it?

[1959] It's chocolate cherry Dr. Pepper.

[1960] Oh, yeah.

[1961] Or no, I'm sorry.

[1962] It's chocolate cherry diet Dr. Pepper.

[1963] Oh, even better.

[1964] Because for whatever reason, they can't make a regular non -diet chocolate soda.

[1965] Yeah.

[1966] Do you ever know, like, when they used to sell chocolate soda, like, you could never find regular.

[1967] There's always diet chocolate soda.

[1968] Always diet chocolate soda.

[1969] I think that's because regular chocolate soda would just kill you.

[1970] I'd let it.

[1971] I would happily let it.

[1972] It's just chocolate syrup.

[1973] Right.

[1974] Yeah.

[1975] Sounds really good.

[1976] Pop top can of chocolate soda.

[1977] Well, Michael, if you could send us some of this Panda Pop anniversary party cake flavor, we will drink it here on the podcast.

[1978] We will review it.

[1979] And tell people what we think about it.

[1980] And actually, that goes for any of our UK listeners.

[1981] Right.

[1982] Anyone outside the US that has any beverage at all that they want to ship.

[1983] Just email it to us.

[1984] We'll send you a shipping address.

[1985] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1986] Yes, and I'm totally serious about that.

[1987] Podcast at arrowpointingdown .com.

[1988] Send us weird soda.

[1989] We will drink it.

[1990] All right.

[1991] So that's going to do it for this edition of the Arrow Pointing Down podcast.

[1992] Oh, God, I'm going to have to whittle this one down a little bit.

[1993] I would hope so.

[1994] No, this one's going to be the super long one because it's a very special week.

[1995] It is a very special week.

[1996] It's true.

[1997] But anyways, that's it.

[1998] We're done.

[1999] Send in your emails to podcast at arrowpointingdown .com if you want something.

[2000] If you want to send us drinks.

[2001] If not, until next time.

[2002] All right.

[2003] Turn these machines back on for a special addendum for this.

[2004] Turn it back on.

[2005] Turn the machines back on.

[2006] Very long episode of the Air Pointing Down podcast.

[2007] Earlier in this podcast, we were discussing milkshakes.

[2008] Milkshakes.

[2009] Drinking them up.

[2010] Yeah.

[2011] Talking about Carl's Jr. having a Cap 'n Crunch milkshake.

[2012] And then we actually just went and got.

[2013] God damn Cap 'n Crunch milkshakes from the Carl's Jr. We had to drive two towns.

[2014] We had to drive to another town to get this because there is no Carl's Jr. in this god awful town that Jeff lives in.

[2015] You know, the Carl's Jr. two towns over.

[2016] Shelbyville.

[2017] The ironic thing is that we didn't actually get, we went and ate food somewhere else.

[2018] Yeah, we went to the Arby's.

[2019] We went to the Arby's and I had bad roast beef.

[2020] You had good roast beef.

[2021] I had a good turkey sandwich.

[2022] I'm not going to let you use the internet as a platform for you to speak ill of Arby's.

[2023] Arby's isn't very good.

[2024] Arby's is awesome.

[2025] The Alabama poppers I had weren't very good.

[2026] Everything.

[2027] Arby's serves food in such a way that I can just order it and be done.

[2028] I don't have to tell them to not put stuff on it.

[2029] Because they don't put anything on it.

[2030] Exactly.

[2031] They don't put any flavor into any of their food.

[2032] They say, well, instead of flavor, let's just put salt.

[2033] Yeah.

[2034] Salt is a flavor.

[2035] Here's some salt.

[2036] Do you like saltiness?

[2037] Delicious meat, and you can get an Arby's melt, which is meat with cheese.

[2038] Anyway.

[2039] You can get a beef with cheddar, which is meat with cheese also.

[2040] No, fuck you, Alex.

[2041] The point is that Arby's, I had those loaded potato bites, which were like a potato skin, but in a deep fried format.

[2042] Yeah.

[2043] And it was awful.

[2044] I mean, you know, yeah, potato skins are awful regardless of how you have them.

[2045] And yet you ordered them.

[2046] Well, I had to find out.

[2047] Yeah, well.

[2048] I had to know.

[2049] The moral of the story is that we went and got milkshakes after that.

[2050] I don't really know if that counts as a moral, Alex.

[2051] But we got them, and I...

[2052] Made sure that nobody drank them in the car.

[2053] I skipped mine.

[2054] That was it.

[2055] Yeah, Alex smelled his.

[2056] I'm now actually going to test the nose on this.

[2057] Smells like Captain Crunch.

[2058] It really does.

[2059] Wow.

[2060] It really does smell like Captain Crunch.

[2061] That smells like a bowl of Captain Crunch.

[2062] But I know what I'm looking at.

[2063] There is dissonance between what my eyes are seeing and what my nose is smelling.

[2064] This is a milkshake.

[2065] This is a milkshake, not a bowl of cereal, which is what it smells like.

[2066] Okay, so...

[2067] Taste test time?

[2068] So, yeah, let's taste test it.

[2069] One, two, three, go.

[2070] Wow.

[2071] That really tastes like Captain Crunch.

[2072] Yeah.

[2073] I'm concerned.

[2074] Yeah.

[2075] I'm concerned with how they got Captain Crunch's taste into this milkshake.

[2076] At times, it tastes almost like I'm eating ice cream out of a waffle cone.

[2077] You know, like it's kind of like Captain Crunch waffle coney kind of flavor.

[2078] This is sweet.

[2079] It's just not like.

[2080] But the sweetness is coming from the milkshake side of it, not the Captain Crunch side of it.

[2081] Yes.

[2082] The thing that makes it taste like Captain Crunch is not the sweetness.

[2083] Right.

[2084] It's the other thing that is in Captain Crunch.

[2085] Right.

[2086] It's like Donkey Kong cereal, which was just Captain Crunch, but barrels.

[2087] No, because that was still cereal.

[2088] Well, yeah, but.

[2089] They were barrels.

[2090] Yeah.

[2091] Because Donkey Kong threw barrels.

[2092] That's the mind -blowing part.

[2093] That's got a chunk.

[2094] Yeah.

[2095] There's some little chunks in there.

[2096] There are definitely pieces.

[2097] Of Cap 'n Crunch in here?

[2098] Yeah.

[2099] Awesome.

[2100] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[2101] Some sort of blended cereal thing.

[2102] Oh, yeah, there is.

[2103] Yeah.

[2104] Something masquerading as Cap 'n Crunch.

[2105] There's something caught in my teeth that makes it feel like I just ate a bowl of Cap 'n Crunch.

[2106] Good.

[2107] Now, if only they'd make a Crunch Berry milkshake.

[2108] You know that has to be next.

[2109] Yeah.

[2110] I'm going to say that the chunks are fucking this up for me. I really like it.

[2111] Yeah, they don't bother me at all.

[2112] It's just the same principle as an Oreo milkshake, but instead of crunching up Oreos, they crunched up Cap 'n Crunch.

[2113] Yeah.

[2114] Yeah.

[2115] I'm going to give this a four out of five.

[2116] Four stars.

[2117] I'm going to give it a pass.

[2118] I don't dislike it.

[2119] I will never order one again.

[2120] For the rest of my life.

[2121] Maybe like a three out of five.

[2122] This is what you should rent first.

[2123] Yeah.

[2124] Yeah, rent this milkshake and make sure you like it.

[2125] I like it a lot.

[2126] If I were near a Carl's Jr. and needed a milkshake, I would get another one of these.

[2127] All right.

[2128] So there you have it.

[2129] I feel like they do make good on their promise of Captain Crunch milkshake.

[2130] Yeah.

[2131] In that regard, success.

[2132] Yeah.

[2133] Agreed.

[2134] The greater question that I think you have to ask yourself before you make this purchase yourself is, do you want a Captain Crunch milkshake?

[2135] Yes.

[2136] I'm going to say yes.

[2137] Yes.

[2138] Why don't you guys do?

[2139] I'm saying for the listener at home.

[2140] The listener at home is going to do what we say, and what we say is yes.

[2141] Or the listener in their car.

[2142] Unless the car is their home.

[2143] Or the listener.

[2144] Well, still both apply.

[2145] Yeah.

[2146] Or if they're listening at a construction site, perhaps at the gym.

[2147] Perhaps on a train.

[2148] On a train, a transcontinental train.

[2149] Hopefully it's in a car because you could drive to a Carl's Jr. True, you can't take a train to a Carl's Jr. unless the train has a Carl's Jr. in it.

[2150] Or perhaps a Carl's Jr. at the train station.

[2151] Which I bet they wouldn't have these because it would be one of those weird airport -style Carl's Jr. Yeah, that has the special burgers they had 40 years ago.

[2152] Right, and they're $9 more.

[2153] We have the $12 burger here.

[2154] Though we still call it the $6 burger.

[2155] Yeah.

[2156] And if it gets all over your face, well, please wipe off before getting on board.

[2157] Do we have anything else to add about this monstrosity of a food item?

[2158] No, but I guess we should say to people that listened all the way through this that it's going to be a real big week.

[2159] Agreed.

[2160] And not just for milkshakes.

[2161] Not just for milkshakes.

[2162] But for milkshakes.

[2163] So stay tuned to stuff because there's going to be some stuff going down later this week.

[2164] Jump it off.

[2165] It's going to blow your damn eyes.

[2166] Fantastic.

[2167] All right.

[2168] Thanks for listening.