Giant Bombcast 08-31-2010

[0] Tuesday, August the 31st, 2010, and you're listening to The Giant Bombcast.

[1] I'm your host, Ryan Davis, joined by Vinny Caravella, Jeff Gerstman, and Brad Shoemaker.

[2] Also joined by very special guest, Giant Bomb contributor, Brad Nicholson.

[3] Hey.

[4] That was succinct and effective.

[5] Brad Nicholson.

[6] Hey.

[7] There we go.

[8] I'm looking for a little energy.

[9] Brad, good to have you here in the studio and in the office.

[10] Oh, wait.

[11] You're going to play that game all show long, aren't you?

[12] No, no, that was pretty much it.

[13] Okay, all right.

[14] I guess I'll just call you Shoemaker then.

[15] I'll start being that guy.

[16] Call everyone by their last name.

[17] Hey, Gerstman!

[18] Can I change my last name?

[19] Hey, Jeff.

[20] Hey, hi.

[21] Sorry.

[22] Maybe you didn't understand that I was talking to you.

[23] Sorry, I wasn't paying attention.

[24] That's okay.

[25] I try not to listen to most things that you say.

[26] So how are you doing, Jeff?

[27] I'm doing all right.

[28] Yeah.

[29] Yeah, doing good.

[30] Yeah.

[31] Vinny, how are you doing?

[32] Also doing all right.

[33] Yeah.

[34] Yeah.

[35] How are you doing?

[36] I'm great.

[37] Great.

[38] I'm doing good.

[39] It's PAX week, y 'all.

[40] Yeah.

[41] We're going to PAX this weekend, and so I've been...

[42] Kind of trying to figure out our panel plans and our meetup plans and various other plans that we might have during the show.

[43] And it's all space plans.

[44] It's all coming up awesome.

[45] There are currently no space plans, although I understand the Space Needle is in Seattle.

[46] I went there once.

[47] How was it?

[48] It was up high.

[49] I've never been.

[50] I saw the base of it.

[51] I saw the weird experience music that the other Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Paul Allen's weird thing.

[52] But I have not.

[53] He's going to eventually just sue the real Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over some kind of patent thing, I'm sure.

[54] Don't own it all.

[55] That's right.

[56] All right, Vinnie Carey.

[57] Actually, I didn't ask.

[58] Brad Shoemaker, how you doing?

[59] Terrible.

[60] Oh, no. What's going on?

[61] I'm fine.

[62] Oh, okay.

[63] Just looking for some contrast.

[64] Brad Nicholson, how about yourself?

[65] I'm doing okay.

[66] I'm doing okay.

[67] Excellent.

[68] How is it to be out on the West Coast?

[69] Where do you live normally?

[70] I live on an island in South Carolina.

[71] Really?

[72] I saw two oceans in two days.

[73] Really?

[74] Yeah, yeah.

[75] But I didn't know there were.

[76] Like your own island?

[77] Yeah, I wish.

[78] I wish.

[79] Lake Jurassic Park.

[80] Aren't you in Beaufort?

[81] Beaufort.

[82] Beaufort.

[83] Wow.

[84] You and me, the only people in this room who know how to properly pronounce that.

[85] Oh, Beaufort.

[86] Butford?

[87] Bufford.

[88] I mean, if you looked at it, it looks like Beaufort.

[89] Right, right.

[90] Oh, okay.

[91] And was, I'm sure, at one point in the past.

[92] Until it was perverted by whatever.

[93] Southern men like yourselves.

[94] Whatever dark forces dictate linguistic traditions down there.

[95] Brad Nicholson, it is a pleasure and a treat to have you here in the office out on the West Coast.

[96] We will get into your business in a little bit.

[97] But first, I want to talk to my favorite person, Vinnie Caravella.

[98] You want to get in my business?

[99] I want to get all up in your business.

[100] Oh, buddy.

[101] I want to know what games you've been playing, Vinny Caravella.

[102] So I made it through Bayonetta this weekend.

[103] I saw you playing some of that.

[104] How is that?

[105] You know how that is.

[106] How did you feel it was?

[107] I thought that game was great.

[108] Excellent.

[109] It's crazy.

[110] I really enjoyed it.

[111] Longer than I thought.

[112] That game probably took me about 15 hours to make it through it.

[113] I thought it was going to be about eight.

[114] I can't recall.

[115] I'm thinking and all I can recall are specific moments of insanity.

[116] It just keeps going and going and going.

[117] It kind of does.

[118] From watching you play it, I seem to remember it going and going and going.

[119] Yeah, that sounds about right.

[120] But I really enjoyed it and I beat it and then I bought it through Gamefly.

[121] I said, I like this game a lot.

[122] I like it enough that I'm going to, even though I just finished it, so are you going to play through it?

[123] Because that's where me and Bayonetta had to part ways.

[124] I enjoyed the experience a lot and it's got all sorts of buck wild shit in it.

[125] But I don't know.

[126] It wasn't a game that I was like, oh, I want to now play this on the harder difficulty.

[127] No, I don't think I'll play it on the harder difficulty.

[128] So it gives you that new game plus, and it starts on hard, and I just busted it back down to normal.

[129] And I was like, I'm just going to unlock the rest of these crazy things that they want to give you, like outfits and all those things I couldn't afford during the game because they're expensive, all the accessories and stuff.

[130] Oh, really?

[131] I had...

[132] There was a bunch.

[133] I feel like I had a good majority of those.

[134] I was able to buy two.

[135] Really?

[136] Yeah.

[137] Huh.

[138] And I bought some techniques, but like all the weird things like wristbands and stuff.

[139] I don't know.

[140] There's a lot of crazy stuff in that game, and I like it enough.

[141] Weird references to Resident Evil 4.

[142] Yeah, I was talking to Brad a little bit on the bus, and that's a good game to appreciate Japanese development.

[143] It's so crazy.

[144] I mean, it has that unique feel.

[145] It is the most Japanese -ass Japanese -developed game that I've played.

[146] But also kind of accessible in a weird kind of...

[147] It's not Japanese in the weird JRPG way, where you're like, ah, this...

[148] fucking jrpg conventions are weird this is just weird of the dudes like being weird yeah there's really hard jrpg conventions like fight and spiky hair but you know all the all the kind of tropes and like things that you're like i don't want to play jrpg because i know exactly what's right like you don't know exactly what's in bayonetta because it's fucking insane it's like Because it's Afterburner or something.

[149] Yeah, because it turns into weird...

[150] It's got the weird things that Metal Gear used to kind of have, or it's like, why would you even throw this weird thing in your kind of weird, serious game?

[151] Just a bunch of wild non -sequiturs, right?

[152] Yeah.

[153] Which I'm sure aren't non -sequiturs to them.

[154] Probably not.

[155] I don't know.

[156] The game has like six endings.

[157] Credits start rolling, and then it interrupts the credits, and you're like...

[158] well like like six sequential endings yeah after the other and then you do this like interrupts the credits like you're not done yet you gotta finish the game i was like okay and then like return of the king like lots of long fades to black and it's like oh we're just kidding here's another one it's kinda and then there's like a large dance sequence at the end and then god yeah it's really i don't know i really enjoyed it I have blocked out a good portion of this stuff.

[159] I remember it being very crazy.

[160] And also the story.

[161] There is one.

[162] It's a little weird and convoluted.

[163] On the strength of our bus conversation, I, too, bought Bayonetta this morning.

[164] Nice.

[165] It's on sale.

[166] It's like $15 or whatever.

[167] $15 on Gamefly.

[168] Gamefly.

[169] So I don't know what comes next.

[170] Something awesome.

[171] Cancel your Gamefly.

[172] What?

[173] That's the next step.

[174] I bought Bayonetta and I bought God of War 3 this morning.

[175] Brad, tell me about your plans to cancel your Gamefly account.

[176] As soon as those...

[177] Okay, first of all, so I bought Bayonetta, which has been sitting on my coffee table since April.

[178] Yes.

[179] It's now September, so $15 a month.

[180] Do the math.

[181] It's a lot.

[182] You paid too much money for that game.

[183] I've paid $75 or $90 now for Bayonetta.

[184] Bought Bayonetta, bought God of War 3, checked my queue to make sure there was nothing in there.

[185] Yep.

[186] There was.

[187] What was it?

[188] Frantically cleared it out so they wouldn't mail me another game.

[189] Ah.

[190] As soon as those games come in the mail, like, done.

[191] Done.

[192] Done.

[193] Just cancel.

[194] I mean, you can cancel it now.

[195] Yeah, but...

[196] And then they'll actually run you to, like, the end of your cycle.

[197] Oh.

[198] So maybe I should.

[199] No, they don't run you to the end of your cycle anymore.

[200] At least when I was canceling, it was like, are you sure?

[201] You got four more days on your thing if you cancel now.

[202] If you want to get the maximum amount of gaming, like the cancellation process is an awesome series of amazing buttons.

[203] No, you're right.

[204] That's special offers.

[205] And like, hey, what if the next month was only 15 bucks and you got to keep two games?

[206] See, I did that.

[207] Did you do that?

[208] I did that.

[209] They totally got me with that.

[210] You're right.

[211] That's exactly how the process was for me. And it was one of those, I'm like.

[212] Yeah, if it's for cheaper, then yes, I will hang on to it for one more month.

[213] And I held on to it for one more month and then canceled.

[214] And then they bust you.

[215] Okay, but you actually canceled.

[216] I actually went counting on you to just like forget.

[217] Nope, nope.

[218] I had like a – And then I got an email from the – like an automated email like yesterday saying like, hey.

[219] Want to come back?

[220] Right.

[221] Would you want to – bro, we haven't hung out in a while.

[222] We should catch up.

[223] You want to maybe like sign back up?

[224] I'm going to be in town.

[225] If you want to rent some games over the internet, just give me a call.

[226] I'm just going to be around.

[227] No, it's cool.

[228] Thanks for getting in touch.

[229] They have a very methodical system in place at Gamefly for customer retention.

[230] I'm surprised I was able to even do it.

[231] From the website.

[232] I thought I was going to click through all that stuff and it was like, okay, call.

[233] But make sure it's between 8 and 4.

[234] Eastern time.

[235] Eastern time on Thursday.

[236] I think they offer a decent service.

[237] I think for some people it's probably a totally fine service.

[238] We are not the right people.

[239] To be clear, this is not Gamefly's fault.

[240] It works well for what it is.

[241] It's just that we...

[242] We're bad at it.

[243] Yeah, that was the other thing is they kept saying, hey, we're faster now.

[244] We opened up more centers.

[245] We're fast.

[246] That's not the problem.

[247] The problem is that I just get your games and then never play them.

[248] I'm not fast.

[249] Months at a time.

[250] I am very slow.

[251] I mean, Netflix is the same thing, but at least you've got the streaming option to get some extra value out of it.

[252] Right.

[253] Oh, yeah, no, I've had that copy of JCVD sitting on my...

[254] That's in HD on the streaming.

[255] Yeah, I know.

[256] You should watch that.

[257] I know.

[258] I have Green Zone right now.

[259] I've had a copy of Memento since April of 2009.

[260] Yep.

[261] Dude, what?

[262] Yeah.

[263] So did you play all of Bayonetta over the weekend, or was it just like you already had a game going and you barreled through?

[264] No, I just got it when I sent back Terminator Salvation.

[265] Oh, Jesus.

[266] Yeah.

[267] It's fast.

[268] Cleaned up some Bayonetta.

[269] Nice.

[270] Well done.

[271] Again, I liked it.

[272] Good.

[273] I played some Shank.

[274] Not to get too personal, is your wife back?

[275] She came back on Sunday.

[276] Oh, thank God.

[277] Yeah.

[278] I made the house clean.

[279] I cleaned.

[280] I cleaned up the house.

[281] Your daily caloric intake is dropping.

[282] I hope so, man. I gained like 15 pounds while she was away.

[283] Shank, let's talk about Shank.

[284] Let's talk about it.

[285] Let's talk about Shank.

[286] Welcome to Shank Talk.

[287] How do you feel about Shank?

[288] I started burning out.

[289] About, I must be about 80 % through.

[290] Okay, how many hours would you say you put into it?

[291] Probably about two and a half, three.

[292] Yeah, that's about, you're close.

[293] And so I can tell just because the achievements are staggered for each boss, dude you kill, and you've only got one left.

[294] Is it one of those?

[295] Just play through the story and you've got everything?

[296] You've got a couple other ones.

[297] There's a few sundry ones, but yeah.

[298] I'm burning out on it.

[299] Yeah, yeah.

[300] I can feel you on that.

[301] I can see why that game would have a short play time because I'm pretty much done at two and a half, three hours.

[302] I think they've done some interesting stuff with the way the mechanics work of you have basically three attacks and how you have to constantly mix those up to keep your opponents on their toes.

[303] It's got a good pace.

[304] It's clearly mostly a huge, awesome graphical showpiece.

[305] It's all about the quality of the sprite work, the quality of the animations, how brutal everything looks.

[306] I don't think that ever lost the novelty for me of just how badass everything that happens in that game looks.

[307] But after a while, it's still a beat -em -up.

[308] It still falls prey to the issues that have always plagued that genre.

[309] And there are some weird things.

[310] With the animation being so good and the art style being so standout, it does make some of the rougher edges stand out when they crop up.

[311] Like what?

[312] Like sometimes the controls feel too prioritized for the animation.

[313] Yeah, there's some of that for sure.

[314] And you kind of have to be pretty quick on your feet.

[315] So sometimes it feels weird.

[316] And also just like weird buggy things like dudes falling off ledges or, you know.

[317] I think it takes a little bit of anticipation.

[318] I don't think it's.

[319] I don't think it grossly over -prioritizes the animation, but there's definitely some times where you feel like I need to be doing this other attack right now.

[320] I'm hammering the button, but I'm still playing out my last thing.

[321] Right, especially in the switching weapons part where you're caught in the middle of something and you're like, ah, Christ, there I go.

[322] Because it gets kind of hard.

[323] It does, absolutely.

[324] I was banging my head against that last boss for a while last week.

[325] And that's one of the things that kind of bothers me. I don't love the boss fights in that game, particularly like the big ones that just like the big dudes that are basically the same.

[326] It's like figure out the weakness, but they're just going to run back and forth.

[327] The fact that those are so similar is a little disappointing.

[328] I will say that game has way more story than I anticipated it having.

[329] I'm still kind of confused on the story.

[330] Maybe because I haven't seen it yet.

[331] I think it'll make more sense.

[332] Is he making it all up in his head?

[333] I think it'll make more sense once you get there, but it's definitely like it's a Tarantino Rodriguez -esque kind of just.

[334] Okay.

[335] Gritty tale of badassery.

[336] Because every time it just seems like he keeps killing people he thinks killed his wife.

[337] Right.

[338] So like every time you go after this one guy, it's like, you killed my wife.

[339] And then you kill him.

[340] Then suddenly you have a flashback and there's somebody else.

[341] And Brad's in the room.

[342] He's like, oh, I should go kill Brad.

[343] He was there.

[344] And he killed Brad.

[345] And then all of a sudden Ryan was in the room with you guys.

[346] Like, oh, you were there too.

[347] I'm going to kill you.

[348] There's some cool storytelling techniques.

[349] Like they have your kind of standard between mission cut scene stuff.

[350] But they'll also do cool stuff where they will like kind of a letterbox, like picture in picture something that's happening elsewhere.

[351] While you're playing.

[352] I thought that stuff was really cool.

[353] I only played through the first three levels or so.

[354] One boss fight.

[355] You saw some of that then?

[356] And I was kind of burned out on it.

[357] I'm a big fan of the initial impression that game gives, but it's really hard to keep up over the course of, I don't know, four hours.

[358] My feeling was just that it felt like the enemies took too long to die.

[359] It was just like, okay, these real basic guys, and I have to sit there and just jack these buttons for a lot longer to stab these guys like 60, 70 times or something before they die.

[360] And eventually, I think you come up with, you figure out which combination of buttons will engage you with a guy until his health bar is depleted.

[361] So how long you can string together a combo on one dude.

[362] I was getting piles of guys and stringing together like 120 hits and stuff like that.

[363] It's just like...

[364] Yeah, it gets a little tedious.

[365] Yeah, very tedious.

[366] But again, a big fan and supporter.

[367] It's just, you know...

[368] It's hard to keep it going.

[369] It's still a beat -em -up.

[370] I feel like people have been trying to reinvent or modernize the beat -em -up since they invented the fucking...

[371] I feel like we've spent as much time trying to figure out how to make that stuff work now as it was ever its own stand -up genre.

[372] Also, some of the weapons I was not getting into, like...

[373] The little submachine guns.

[374] Yeah, I don't love those.

[375] Once I got the shotgun, I really liked the shotgun.

[376] That's like the second weapon you got.

[377] Yeah.

[378] And I was like, oh, shotgun's pretty good.

[379] But I also went to machetes after I got that, after the chainsaw.

[380] The machetes are a lot of fun.

[381] But then I got the katana, and I was like, oh, that's kind of weird.

[382] I don't like the katana as much because, I mean, the katana's good because I can engage the big guys with it.

[383] Sure, but I feel like it should be stronger, and that's the problem I have.

[384] But it, I can't remember what it, there was a reason why I went back to the.

[385] Machete is something you can't do.

[386] You get the chains on your knuckles.

[387] I use that because you can then grab guys and use them as human shields.

[388] Oh, right, right.

[389] And that becomes pretty good for crowd control.

[390] I mean, that's all that game is about is full crowd control.

[391] I have to make sure to keep all these guys engaged or else the guy that's on the other end of the screen is going to start shooting at me and messing me up.

[392] Yeah.

[393] Uh, the only times that I got really frustrated, like I said, some of the boss stuff, uh, there was also a few sequences where they would put dudes on ledges above you.

[394] And when you shoot, you can't shoot like straight up, straight directly up.

[395] So you can only shoot like up at an angle.

[396] So it's like, you have to put yourself in this weird position to like, I feel like the, the shooting in that game is, is more akin to like a melee weapon than, I mean, that's kind of how I use the shotgun is it's like a medium range melee weapon effectively.

[397] There's a sequence in there too.

[398] So I have to do that shit.

[399] I just didn't care for it.

[400] Where like the missiles are coming down that I did not enjoy.

[401] Oh, on the train?

[402] No, past that.

[403] Like in the villa or something when you're fighting the priest.

[404] Oh, yeah.

[405] Because there are some times where you feel like random death of like, I couldn't do anything about that.

[406] It happened.

[407] But I also think that game is generally pretty good about checkpointing you.

[408] So it's like...

[409] Yeah, it's all right.

[410] Yeah.

[411] Only a few times did I feel like, fuck, I have to redo this one part that I've already done multiple times.

[412] Give me a break.

[413] So I'll probably finish that last half hour up soon.

[414] If that.

[415] And then I just was kind of refreshing Steam, hoping that they drop the last episode of Sam and Max, which didn't drop, which I guess drops yesterday.

[416] I gave you that review code.

[417] Yeah, I didn't punch it in.

[418] Oh.

[419] I want to play it on my Steam account.

[420] Okay, you want it to count.

[421] Yeah.

[422] Fair enough.

[423] I finished all the other four on there.

[424] Oh, okay.

[425] So, yeah, I want to finish.

[426] I'm really curious.

[427] Dying to see how that thing wraps up.

[428] And I understand Telltale might have more business at PAX.

[429] So we'll have more Telltale business for you.

[430] Yeah, real weird teaser image.

[431] Not too long from now.

[432] That they put out there.

[433] Oh, well, I didn't see it.

[434] What was it?

[435] It's like Tycho from Penny Arcade Adventures.

[436] Strong Bad.

[437] Yeah, Strong Bad.

[438] Is it Sam?

[439] No, it's Max.

[440] And like a Team Fortress 2 dude, all silhouetted.

[441] I don't know.

[442] Fighting game.

[443] Yeah.

[444] Look for it.

[445] I don't know.

[446] That's weird.

[447] That is weird.

[448] It'd be kind of neat if they turned all those TF2 comics into an adventure game.

[449] Because that stuff is way more exciting than TF2 is to me. I tend to agree.

[450] I think for a game that has zero narrative to it, all of the comic stuff they've made for Team Fortress 2 has been super entertaining.

[451] Maybe Valve's buying Telltale.

[452] Yeah, it just means Steam or something.

[453] Can they handle three games at once?

[454] I don't even know.

[455] They can handle a couple of games at once plus...

[456] Their labs, their weird skunk works operation that's working on Puzzle Agents.

[457] I wonder how that did.

[458] I wonder if that got the green light or not.

[459] That was the whole point with that stuff, right?

[460] With Puzzle Agent?

[461] Yeah, it was supposed to be a pilot program.

[462] It's still not on iTunes, which is kind of weird.

[463] Oh yeah, they were supposed to put it out for...

[464] Oh yeah, I was going to say, it's not an album, what the fuck are you talking about?

[465] Oh, you mean like the App Store?

[466] Yeah, the App Store, excuse me. What were they going to put that for?

[467] iPad?

[468] Yeah.

[469] That would make sense.

[470] I had to get the frame rate up.

[471] That iPad version of the first Sam & Max episode was...

[472] It's a way different game, though.

[473] Hedious.

[474] That's true.

[475] That's true.

[476] It's not quite as complex.

[477] From what I understand, it was built for the iPhone first, but then they just released a PC build to all of us, and it's still not even up there for just that platform to lead.

[478] Horror puzzle agent.

[479] So just a lot of scanning the...

[480] Scanning the background.

[481] Scanning the background.

[482] Hoping to find...

[483] In the meantime, I played Death Spank.

[484] I played through some of that.

[485] And then finally booted up Marvel vs. Capcom.

[486] Jumped in there.

[487] Yeah, that game is still crazy.

[488] That game...

[489] It's messed up.

[490] 2?

[491] Yeah.

[492] XBLA version.

[493] Bananas.

[494] Yeah.

[495] Scared the shit out of me. That sounds about right.

[496] Were you, like, trying to play online with people?

[497] No, I didn't even get that far.

[498] I just, like, got to, like, the characters.

[499] There's so many people.

[500] Fucking what?

[501] How do I choose?

[502] Who exactly is a Shuma Gorax?

[503] Forget it.

[504] I'm just turning this off.

[505] I, like, played, like, two matches, like, against, I don't know, crazy people.

[506] Play that game.

[507] So then that was about it, yeah.

[508] Jeff Gerstmann.

[509] Hi.

[510] How's it going?

[511] All right.

[512] What you been playing?

[513] I wouldn't play Halo Reach.

[514] I can talk about portions of it.

[515] Do you remember which part you can talk about?

[516] Yeah.

[517] It's some single player stuff and some multiplayer.

[518] I have the form here.

[519] It's really crazy because it's limited to specific maps.

[520] Right.

[521] It's two missions from the single player and then you can discuss all the Firefight, Forge, and competitive multiplayer.

[522] Limited to the following maps, Boardwalk, Bone Yard, Countdown, Forge World, Powerhouse.

[523] I think this might be all the maps.

[524] Limited to all of the multiplayer maps.

[525] Let me ask you this because we've seen a bunch of it already.

[526] Ask me anything about Hayler Ridge.

[527] What jumped out at you that you could talk about that as new that we haven't seen?

[528] Because we've been exposed to a lot of it.

[529] Well, I think that the...

[530] In the multiplayer, at least.

[531] Well, there's also some single player stuff.

[532] I think it's that those armor abilities are in the single player.

[533] Oh, I see.

[534] Okay.

[535] And that kind of changes it.

[536] You can kind of swap those out.

[537] You'll find different stuff.

[538] It's like the dash and the jet pack and stuff like that.

[539] Yeah.

[540] And the armor lock.

[541] drop shield, that sort of stuff.

[542] So you'll be actually using all of those, or you or teammates will be using them?

[543] Oh, wow, okay.

[544] So you can talk about any of that stuff.

[545] I mean, that stuff is in these two missions.

[546] Okay.

[547] You find them, right?

[548] Yeah, you start out with sprint by default in these missions, and you can find pickups to swap them out with another one.

[549] If you choose.

[550] So they're all like power -ups, then like load -outs.

[551] Yeah, so loadouts in multiplayer...

[552] I was talking about in the campaign.

[553] Yeah, there aren't really loadouts in multiplayer.

[554] You're just a Spartan kind of guy.

[555] Yeah, you're a Spartan.

[556] It's just one more thing that you can equip on your dude, just like the two weapons you can hold and the grenades.

[557] And it's one at a time, so you're...

[558] It's equipment, basically, but it's not just deploy one thing and go.

[559] So it's interesting because Sprint, I think, ends up being, through these two missions anyway...

[560] the important one because it speeds up the pace of the game so much.

[561] And I feel like, maybe this is just me, but I've become accustomed to being able to run in shooters.

[562] So, like, Halo's kind of weird because you kind of can't.

[563] So for them to add a sprint is great because you can, like...

[564] start moving at you know like a modern shooter speed or something for for short bursts you have to let like recharge and stuff yeah it does have a bit of a cool down does does this throw off my typical halo strategy of running a dude empty a clip and then when i get close to one run out of the clip i butt him with the my gun in fact it increases the of that strategy uh you can't shoot while you're running But, you know, so you just kind of run up on dudes, stop just enough to get the gun out there.

[565] I am a font of emotion over here.

[566] I am.

[567] I'm excited.

[568] I do your business.

[569] And then also.

[570] It's like a Roman candle shooting shit all over the ceiling.

[571] I can't shoot and run.

[572] So these missions kind of take place in the first half of the story.

[573] Basically, at this point, you kind of know the covenants there, but you don't know how many.

[574] So it's kind of a nighttime sneaking mission where you're going in and trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on behind enemy lines.

[575] You know, they've started landing on Reach and doing all this stuff.

[576] And you get out there and there are a lot of them.

[577] So the next mission is like this full on assault, big old cut scene of.

[578] just like a zillion warthogs racing towards...

[579] Kind of cool.

[580] Yeah, it's like a very impactful moment of just like, dude, they're going.

[581] They're going to fight.

[582] But of course, the book being what it is, it will all be for naught, right?

[583] Do they do all that stuff in the engine, or do they have big, elaborate CG cutscenes?

[584] It's all an engine.

[585] In fact, everything has to be an engine because you can customize the look of your dude, and that custom look carries over into the single player.

[586] um there's some things that are multiplayer only like you can customize like the the voice of your dude uh for for firefight so you can kind of buy different voices there and that's only for for firefight um do you see some of that stuff in the in the missions uh aside from in the cut scenes you see like the battles going on like are you walking through because you're with other squad mates for some of this right do you see like The war raging around you?

[587] No, not really.

[588] Okay, so you're kind of doing your own thing.

[589] There are parts where you're just like, oh man, there's a part in this big assault mission where you're kind of taking down anti -aircraft guns and as you do, then there's people dropping in, dropping bombs, going through bombing runs, doing stuff.

[590] It's not like there's a hundred dudes all around you.

[591] But yeah, it's not like scale -wise and gameplay -wise, they made a Halo game.

[592] Bungie is very good at doing this.

[593] They have done that again.

[594] But they didn't do something radically different from this.

[595] No, not at all.

[596] They talk about the squad mates and all this stuff and how you're part of a team and all that.

[597] In these two missions anyway, you're kind of like hanging out with one dude and if you leave him behind, it will teleport him up when you hit a checkpoint just like any other AI in any other Halo game.

[598] It's not...

[599] Do you give them any orders?

[600] No, you are the new jack on that team.

[601] So you are just kind of doing what you're told.

[602] What's the manner of their support?

[603] I mean, does a guy snipe and another guy is the heavy?

[604] They shoot guns.

[605] Do they specialize?

[606] There's one guy that has a gigantic chain gun the whole time and another guy who is ostensibly the sniper and stuff.

[607] I mean, in the marketing, they've really been...

[608] They've really been talking up, like, the team.

[609] Here is your team.

[610] Here's all the guys that you're running with.

[611] The story ends up pairing you up with different members of that squad at different times.

[612] But it doesn't feel like a class -based team.

[613] They all shoot the same weapons.

[614] What was it, Republic Commando?

[615] For a while, people were like, is this going to be another Republic Commando?

[616] It is a Halo game.

[617] It is not that game at all.

[618] That's a bummer.

[619] And they can't die, I assume.

[620] As far as I can tell, in these two missions, they certainly did not die.

[621] Well, this is not like a revive button where they're on the ground.

[622] Right, no. This is not like a Gears of War, like bring dude back.

[623] Dude, where are you?

[624] Or anything like that, yeah.

[625] Was there anything in it that, I don't know, that surprised you particularly that you can talk about?

[626] That's what I want to know.

[627] Good question.

[628] Thank you.

[629] I mean, I get the sense of like it's a well -made experience or whatever, but that, like you said, Bungie knows how to make a Halo game.

[630] Right.

[631] And so even the minor differences still sound like, well, this is going to have some familiar beats to it.

[632] Absolutely, yeah.

[633] I think it's a better -looking game.

[634] These missions in particular are probably two of the better -looking things that I can talk about right now anyway.

[635] You've got your kind of night mission where you're doing stuff, you're turning invisible, you're stealthing up and sniping guys in this whole kind of nighttime scenario.

[636] The second one just has that kind of larger scope.

[637] So parts of it have kind of a bigger battle feel, even if you're not necessarily seeing a ton of stuff on screen at one time.

[638] Do you see any ODSTs?

[639] Drop in.

[640] I can't.

[641] Can I confirm nor deny the presence of OSTs?

[642] This is before that game?

[643] This is before the events of OST.

[644] I have a pretty esoteric question.

[645] Does it feel like a game that's set before all the other Halo games in terms of the technology?

[646] You're talking about going stealth and stuff.

[647] Does it feel like we just retconned a bunch of cool stuff in there because it's a new game?

[648] Yeah.

[649] Yeah, I probably shouldn't say too much more about some of that stuff.

[650] But, I mean, you know, it's a new game, so they have to come up with new stuff, right?

[651] Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

[652] I think they can justify that by, you know, the idea of Reach being this, like, testing facility for Spartans or whatever it is.

[653] The book probably does a better job of explaining that.

[654] Well, I don't want to talk about Halo Reach anymore, Jeff.

[655] I don't want to talk about Halo 4.

[656] Oh, it's got all this multiplayer, too.

[657] Oh, you want to talk about the multiplayer?

[658] It's got multiplayer.

[659] Okay.

[660] So let's talk about Halo 4.

[661] Let's talk about Halo after Bungie.

[662] All right, it's fine.

[663] I think it was one of the things that you had said that was interesting to you.

[664] I'm not saying anything about Halo Reads necessarily, but what happens to Halo after Bungie?

[665] Because this is ostensibly their last one, right?

[666] Yeah, unless something weird happens.

[667] Like this is them closing the book on Halo and giving it over to the 343 team and saying, all right.

[668] We're going to go make games for Activision.

[669] You guys have fun.

[670] See you on the iPhone.

[671] Yeah.

[672] Right.

[673] See you on Windows Mobile 7.

[674] Yeah.

[675] Yeah, exactly.

[676] Like, where do you go from here?

[677] And I think that, you know, I think that it has to be a, I think it should be a dramatic departure from this stuff.

[678] Because, you know, it's like I said, the multiplayer will feel very familiar to fans of Halo.

[679] I mean, it's got a bunch of great new maps.

[680] Yeah.

[681] The multiplayer has become even more customizable than it has been in the past.

[682] Firefight, I think, is a totally viable mode now, whereas in ODST, without the matchmaking and just kind of this endless grind, I felt it kind of came up short.

[683] So you're saying they're not just packing in a copy of Halo 3?

[684] Oh, interesting.

[685] Yeah, exactly.

[686] They have built a full new game full of full new cool multiplayer stuff.

[687] Forge is a lot more customizable now, too.

[688] You have a lot more options for...

[689] building and editing maps.

[690] This is kind of their big finale.

[691] Yeah, this very much feels like Bungie saying, do anything you want.

[692] Here you go.

[693] They'll support it with DLC, and I wouldn't be surprised if a huge bulk of it is old Halo maps.

[694] Because you need to have these so that everyone can just play one game.

[695] We're not going to be able to make these once we're gone.

[696] So here you go.

[697] See you guys.

[698] But yeah, for their part, they say they are going to remain dedicated to supporting Reach with DLC for some chunk of time, probably however long it remains relevant for them to do so until they run out of ideas.

[699] I have to imagine that, yeah, those Bungie guys, regardless of whatever corporate maneuverings that we've seen, those guys have been working on Halo for a long time, and there's probably a close affinity for that stuff.

[700] to Lars at E3 about it.

[701] And he was, you know, just saying like, you know, I was like excited to, you know, because they were getting close to finishing the game up at that point.

[702] And I was like, you know, it's going to be really weird when we hand off that like last disc and kind of hand, it's like, all right, here's Bungie's last Halo game.

[703] Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's really scary as well.

[704] Like being like, well, here's this thing that we know has done really well.

[705] And like, let's give all that up and start something else.

[706] Like, let's take another chance.

[707] But I think that's the best thing for them.

[708] I think that's probably a good thing for the franchise moving forward even, too.

[709] You know, let's mix things up with Halo.

[710] They've put out a lot of Halo games that are, you know, that are telling this story arc and fitting this kind of multiplayer slot in a very specific way.

[711] But, you know, there's only so far you can go with that.

[712] So basically what I'm saying is Halo Wars 2, huh?

[713] How about that?

[714] All units edition.

[715] Oh, man. All units.

[716] All our units.

[717] All right, so I'm going to say 2012 at the latest third -person action game.

[718] Character action Halo game.

[719] I said announced, but then canceled.

[720] Never comes out.

[721] Now I say store shelves by Holiday 12.

[722] Like playable?

[723] Playable like you buy it.

[724] Like it's in stores.

[725] Holiday 12.

[726] Third person, no way.

[727] I'm going to say the announcement.

[728] Yeah, third person, no. That won't happen.

[729] If you want to have a radical departure, a change in perspective.

[730] What I want and what I think will actually happen are two pretty different things.

[731] I don't know.

[732] I think they absolutely could do that.

[733] He plays the Halo?

[734] Yes, you are the Halo.

[735] Cortana puzzle game for Windows Mobile 7.

[736] It's Bejeweled, except instead they're Halos.

[737] Cortana talks to you while you play it.

[738] She says things like...

[739] Good job.

[740] Nice.

[741] Nice move.

[742] And while she talks, she pauses the game so you can't play anymore.

[743] Yeah.

[744] Right.

[745] Exactly.

[746] I don't know what they – maybe they will make other Halo games, right?

[747] Like they have to.

[748] I mean they've been building this team of people, you know, engine programmers and all kinds of stuff.

[749] Like they – Microsoft is in the Halo business.

[750] Something fierce.

[751] Microsoft is deeply invested.

[752] Yeah, they've got a crack squad of people up there.

[753] Young Master David Ellis is up there.

[754] Actually, no, it was Ryan.

[755] You and I saw the...

[756] Michael Connor left Bungie to go to the Microsoft side to stay with Halo.

[757] Ryan Payton is...

[758] You and I saw that space combat part.

[759] We did.

[760] Well, yeah, they showed it at the press conference.

[761] Okay.

[762] But we saw a longer version of that.

[763] So we saw some of that.

[764] So maybe there's a Halo space.

[765] Maybe they're just introducing it and there's a Halo space combat game coming in the future.

[766] I mean, I think that they have already, you know, seeing significantly diminished returns on continuing making Halo first -person shooters.

[767] Well, like maybe, but at the same time, I think they've also seen diminishing returns on making games that ain't got Master Chief in them.

[768] Yeah, absolutely.

[769] If I were them, the first thing I would do is Halo 4 and, like, here's the planet he landed on.

[770] Let's keep going.

[771] Oh, you didn't know that the Spartans, they can rebuild from a genetic level if there's any part.

[772] The suit rebuilds them inside.

[773] It's in one of the books.

[774] That's why they never die.

[775] Yeah.

[776] As it turns out.

[777] Well, I mean, that's not even necessary because they wrote themselves an out at the end of three.

[778] I can't remember.

[779] He's just out there floating around.

[780] Oh, is that right?

[781] Yeah.

[782] Anything could happen at this point.

[783] Okay.

[784] They could send Master Chief to some far -off, far -flung location that has nothing to do with the existing conflict and have him work with natives to fight his way out.

[785] That would be my ideal.

[786] He could land on prehistoric Earth.

[787] The equivalent of.

[788] Landed in 1986.

[789] He's got to go save the whales.

[790] We already know he lands in Fable 2 because he can get that armor.

[791] I forgot about that.

[792] That's a post -credits thing, isn't it?

[793] Just like him.

[794] drifting in space.

[795] And that's canon.

[796] So it's them closing out the story arc because he started Halo 1 in that stasis state.

[797] So, you know.

[798] And I mean, I'm sure they could gin up plenty of good reasons to kickstart it again, but they kind of close out like the Halo thing also of like...

[799] Yeah.

[800] The Halo threat and the Covenant threat and all that stuff is kind of...

[801] I would love to see them go like the Tomb Raider route of just like this doesn't, I mean, we're just calling it Lara Croft.

[802] Sure.

[803] Master Chief Adventures, go.

[804] Right.

[805] And then, you know, we're working on some other Halo thing.

[806] Yeah, just, you know, the continuing adventures of Master Chief.

[807] I think that would be the most interesting thing possible because, you know, it lets them change a lot about the world and a lot about the conflict.

[808] Right.

[809] You know, because he's God knows where.

[810] They could kind of make that up.

[811] And then on top of that, you know, It gives them an opportunity to roll out a new engine.

[812] And, you know, if they wanted to change the pacing of the game, make it move a lot faster.

[813] That would be awesome.

[814] I do really like the idea of Master Chief as wandering hero from planet to planet.

[815] Just kind of.

[816] I think it was all this Quake 1 that we've been playing.

[817] Just wanted to pass your game.

[818] You can move.

[819] Like any game I'm playing.

[820] I've been alive for more than 10 seconds.

[821] Move, move, move.

[822] Did you play any more Quake over the weekend, Jeff?

[823] I did.

[824] Yeah.

[825] Nice.

[826] I played a little bit more Quake 1, but a lot more Nexius and Xenotic, which is the forked upcoming.

[827] I bet that starts with an X. It does.

[828] I knew it.

[829] That's not a ZZ.

[830] That's an XZ.

[831] Yeah.

[832] Xenotic.

[833] Fuck.

[834] I had to compile the source for that to get it to work.

[835] Oh, what compiler did you use?

[836] Oh, Jesus.

[837] They have a build system out, so I can just use Git to get all the stuff.

[838] It's kind of automatic, but right now it's just a lot like Nexus with some stuff.

[839] It's going to be interesting because the CryEngine 3 Nexus is going to be at PAX.

[840] I'm interested to see what that is and ask those guys, so are you happy with what you have done?

[841] What have you done?

[842] What have you done to the open source community?

[843] Brought this world to its knees.

[844] Yeah.

[845] I didn't play Atonement, but I set up my Quake 2 server.

[846] I joined your Quake 2 server over the weekend, and no one was on it.

[847] There's a handful of people that have been rotating through.

[848] Part of the problem is that I had it on CTF for the longest time.

[849] I think you had it set to Lithium just at regular deathmatch when I joined.

[850] I switched it to that, and then I also needed to.

[851] I am a poor, poor system administrator to my Quake 2 server, and those people who are trying to use it, I apologize.

[852] You're just running out of your home?

[853] I'm getting better.

[854] I'm getting better.

[855] I'm just tweaking settings more.

[856] There's a lot of things that you can set, man. There are a lot of crazy variables for a Quake 2 server, especially when you start dabbling in weird add -ons like the lithium stuff.

[857] Then it just turns Quake 2 into a message board.

[858] Some of that.

[859] How weird is that lineage, by the way?

[860] Very weird.

[861] Very weird.

[862] Like, we're making Quake and Quake 2 mods, and now we're making message boards, and now that's all we do.

[863] Especially weird because we know some of those people.

[864] Yeah, that's also...

[865] Also, I didn't realize that I knew those people before.

[866] I didn't realize those people were those people.

[867] I just remember all the time we spent changing off of the lithium message board software because it was too messed up to keep using.

[868] Yep.

[869] That's because they were too busy playing Quake all day.

[870] But yeah, I installed and started running my Quake 2 server.

[871] Because after Quake, I was like, well, for...

[872] Thursday Night Throwdown, the next logical step is Quake 2.

[873] The next logical step is Quake 3.

[874] But we're going to take a skip on that for this week.

[875] We're going to be playing MK2 and UMK3 on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, respectively.

[876] But after looking at and playing and looking at all of that Quake 1, it was super weird to go and check out Quake 2 because I, again, hadn't seen that.

[877] Probably way longer than I had seen anything Quake 1 related.

[878] It's such a strange sequel.

[879] Like just in terms of how different it looks and feels in a lot of pretty significant ways.

[880] It looks like a real game.

[881] It aged way worse than Quake 1.

[882] You think so?

[883] Yeah.

[884] It's like that default blaster.

[885] It's even the shotgun.

[886] It's like too many shots to kill guys.

[887] Like the weapons just don't feel right.

[888] It's just, I don't know.

[889] There's some stuff about it that I really like.

[890] The Hyper Blaster, I think, is a terrific one.

[891] I think there are some great weapon designs.

[892] That one's all right.

[893] I think most of it's fine in multiplayer.

[894] I just think I played a couple of single -player levels and just went, ah.

[895] The AI in the single -player is glaringly awful.

[896] Because they will duck when you're shooting at their feet, just because they're programmed to duck at intervals or whatever.

[897] I don't know what the actual logic is.

[898] I did not touch any of the single -player.

[899] I went straight into multiplayer.

[900] No, it's rough.

[901] It's just strange because of how hard and blocky.

[902] Like there's a lot more that's angular about Quake 2.

[903] And for me, it's a look that's also more defined by that era of 3D acceleration.

[904] Like Quake for me is all about like hard textures and everything looking super flat and super square.

[905] But by the time I got to Quake 2, I was like, okay, I got my voodoo cards going on.

[906] So I've got a lot more interpolated textures.

[907] So it's a lot more like – Yeah, a lot more colored lighting and – I mean that's what I was – That's all I remember about Quake 2.

[908] It's colored light.

[909] I think the thing is, it still looks like that.

[910] Right.

[911] In my head, it looks awesome, but I'm sure...

[912] You're dropping down into that sewer at the beginning of the third map, and your gun turned blue.

[913] It's like, oh my god, it's blue down here.

[914] When you shot your gun, the light traveled with it, too.

[915] Well, I mean, you know, Quake had mobile light sources, but they were not colored.

[916] I don't know.

[917] They're calling people into a room.

[918] It looks like a bad N64 game right now.

[919] It looks like a toy.

[920] Yeah.

[921] But I don't know.

[922] I think that it is not a great rocket launcher.

[923] But I think it's a great -looking rocket launcher.

[924] The design of the rocket launcher, yeah, totally.

[925] It looks like something that could fire rockets as opposed to the Quake 1 rocket launcher that just looks like a...

[926] It's a magic wand.

[927] It's a magic fucking wand that summons rockets.

[928] None of the weapons in Quake 1 look like weapons.

[929] They look like Quake 1 weapons.

[930] The stuff in Quake 2, I believe in that universe...

[931] At some point, someone sat down and said, like, yeah, this is...

[932] this would work as a gun.

[933] This is why this is doing, like, making this motion and doing this thing, and here is the result.

[934] All the Quake 1 weapons all look like they were forged by, like, some dark elder god or something.

[935] Yeah, the FOV on them, even when it's right, still looks wrong.

[936] It's like, why is this double barrel shotgun just looks like I'm eight feet away from the barrels?

[937] Also, it just looks like a block of iron.

[938] Yeah.

[939] I don't know.

[940] I always thought it was like super snazzy and high tech that the weapons in Quake 2 had the offset.

[941] Yeah.

[942] Like they came from the side of the screen instead of right at the bottom.

[943] That was one of the things that jumped out at me from playing Quake 1 is I'm like, man, just no Bob, no offset.

[944] That was crazy at the time.

[945] Right.

[946] Man, this looks so futuristic.

[947] Yeah.

[948] Actually, didn't Duke 3D have the offset on the weapons?

[949] Pretty sure it did.

[950] I don't recall.

[951] I think it did.

[952] They were not the first to do that.

[953] Yeah.

[954] Anything else post -Reach, post -Quake?

[955] No. Brad Shoemaker.

[956] Hi.

[957] Hit me with the hotness.

[958] I played some games.

[959] What'd you play?

[960] Shall we start with Metroid Other M?

[961] Let's start with Metroid Other M. That just came out on Sunday.

[962] You rather liked it.

[963] I liked it, yeah.

[964] After kind of a shaky first impression.

[965] Yeah, how so?

[966] It got a lot better.

[967] You and I saw that for the first time together at Nintendo a few weeks back.

[968] Yep.

[969] Three weeks back?

[970] Close to a month.

[971] Close to a month?

[972] Okay.

[973] The controls take some getting used to.

[974] Now, why is that?

[975] Some of our fears about using a D -pad in a 3D space came to bear.

[976] Some of that stuff was borne out by the game.

[977] But I don't know, you get used to it pretty quick, or I did anyway.

[978] Now watching you get deeper into it during the review process, I noticed that there was a lot more kind of the pseudo 2D where it looks like it's a 3D environment, but there is strictly a 2D path that you travel.

[979] Is there a lot of that stuff?

[980] There's a good amount of that stuff.

[981] There's literally these invisible tracks laid on the floor where she's running through a curved hallway, but all you're doing is holding right.

[982] And she follows the curvature without you having to zigzag on the D -pad.

[983] So that's nice.

[984] That stuff is nice.

[985] So at a certain point, that kind of makes all the 3D space just for pretty.

[986] In those instances, yeah.

[987] Those are the sort of in -between sequences.

[988] Those are what you do in between the big set -piece scripted monsters jumping on walls at you or big kind of...

[989] Combat rooms.

[990] Ninja Gaiden -esque, yeah, 3D combat spaces where guys just come at you from all sides.

[991] That stuff was fine after a couple hours, basically.

[992] I was used to it.

[993] It's got the auto -dodge, which seems to be a very...

[994] Man, what a divisive game, just top to bottom.

[995] The review scores are all over the place.

[996] People are going apeshit on message boards.

[997] There are cries of sexism from some quarters.

[998] Stakes is high when it comes to Metroid stuff.

[999] It's true.

[1000] It's definitely true.

[1001] And this is a weird offshoot for them.

[1002] I'm still not quite sure I grasp all of it.

[1003] But, yeah, like the auto -dodging stuff, a lot of people have just been like, oh, man, that just also plays the game for you, right?

[1004] I mean, it's like that stuff is necessary.

[1005] Right.

[1006] Because of the D -pad.

[1007] It's just a poor name for it or something.

[1008] It's accurate.

[1009] It just sounds like you can't get hit.

[1010] That's the part that gets me, though.

[1011] Like, it's necessary because of the D -pad.

[1012] It was like, well, then why?

[1013] Yeah, I don't know.

[1014] That should be in there as, like I was saying when we were doing the quick look, like as easy operation mode and then give people like a real.

[1015] way to control it.

[1016] I guess.

[1017] But there are ways you can use it to your advantage because if you hit the shoot button at the right time as you dodge, you get a full beam charge immediately.

[1018] So if you're dodging and timing that button press properly...

[1019] I'm not saying take out the dodge.

[1020] I'm saying make it more difficult to do and more rewarding.

[1021] I didn't have a problem with it.

[1022] You can obviously still get hit, right?

[1023] Yeah, I mean, let me put it this way.

[1024] The combat is plenty challenging even with that.

[1025] There's still...

[1026] Especially when you're having to go to first person often to do things.

[1027] It feels like a pretty good balance back and forth, I think.

[1028] But it's a Metroid game still.

[1029] Do you feel like I must have played like...

[1030] I mean, I just...

[1031] Yeah.

[1032] from hearing you say that it had a rocky start, I think I played right up until the part where you said it started getting better.

[1033] You told me where you left off and I was like, the first demo that I played months ago ended literally right before you said, oh, it gets way better after that.

[1034] That's right about the part where I really started off.

[1035] I left that demo just going like, what the fuck is this game?

[1036] I can't even tell.

[1037] Do you think Team Ninja will be invited back to the Metroid party?

[1038] I guess it really comes down to sales, right?

[1039] I mean, that's the ultimate determining factor.

[1040] I guess, but I always got the sense that Metroid doesn't really traffic in the same business outside of the U .S., right?

[1041] Yeah, that was part of it.

[1042] It was much bigger in the U .S. That was my understanding.

[1043] That's why Retro was given the Prime stuff to begin with.

[1044] It's kind of weird that they would backpedal to a Japanese developer then.

[1045] I agree.

[1046] They went with a Western developer and it did gangbusters.

[1047] Chair got bought, man. What are they going to do?

[1048] Yeah.

[1049] Yeah.

[1050] How's the narrative stuff in it?

[1051] It's up and down.

[1052] Again, like up front, pretty poor impression.

[1053] Like just a lot of kind of sort of nonsensical cut scenes and like pretty flat voice acting.

[1054] She's terrible.

[1055] She's not great.

[1056] I don't like what this game does to her character.

[1057] That's...

[1058] That's kind of where the accusations of sexism...

[1059] So wait, accusations of sexism are coming in?

[1060] Towards Team Ninja and Nintendo?

[1061] Essentially, yeah.

[1062] Towards Team Ninja.

[1063] Towards Team Ninja.

[1064] Like the writers or whatever.

[1065] You're crazy.

[1066] Well, I'm saying not sexism towards reviewers or something.

[1067] No, no, no, no, no. Talking about the game design.

[1068] Okay.

[1069] I've never seen those guys, you know.

[1070] We get it.

[1071] You want to keep going?

[1072] I just figured that all of that had been weeded out when Team Ninja split up.

[1073] I don't think that was all coming from old.

[1074] But apparently that's just inherent.

[1075] You need to picture him giving like a press guy.

[1076] It's part of our DNA.

[1077] We love bitches, man. Yeah.

[1078] I've never seen those guys do like a narrative in a kind of like cohesive.

[1079] like, compelling way.

[1080] Like, even all the Ninja Gaiden stuff.

[1081] It's all super goofy and crazy.

[1082] Just set up to go, right.

[1083] Like, something fucking messed up just happened.

[1084] Go and fight demons now.

[1085] This demon's got tits for eyes.

[1086] So hopefully that's in Other M. Absolutely.

[1087] Tits for eyes.

[1088] Top to bottom, yeah.

[1089] I mean...

[1090] She does look...

[1091] It's a Metroid that's got boobs on it!

[1092] Well, yeah.

[1093] Sexy Metroid.

[1094] Sex droid.

[1095] When you see her in that spandex bodysuit, yeah, she looks disproportionate like a Team Ninja character would.

[1096] But...

[1097] Giant crotch or something.

[1098] I think people's problems are coming more from, or at least the review I'm referencing, the problems come more in...

[1099] Her character?

[1100] What they do to her character.

[1101] They ascribe a frailty to her psyche in some situations that just doesn't make sense.

[1102] This is like a hard -as -nails bounty hunter who's cleared entire planets full of monsters, but all of a sudden she's terrified of...

[1103] She's got all these neuroses that she's trying to work through or whatever.

[1104] It doesn't make a lot of sense.

[1105] Feels very out of place.

[1106] She's been through a lot, man. Yeah.

[1107] But also she hadn't been through a ton of stuff at that point.

[1108] This is a little earlier on.

[1109] Early point, midpoint of her career.

[1110] I think this is toward the end, actually.

[1111] I think this is before what...

[1112] You haven't read my fan fiction.

[1113] I have.

[1114] She keeps on gaining all this stuff and then loses it at the beginning of every new adventure and then she collects it all again and then loses it.

[1115] Don't mess with your head, man. It's a cycle of losses.

[1116] Why do I even do it?

[1117] Why do I even do it?

[1118] And all of the creatures she had to murder to get that stuff in the first place and then it all goes away.

[1119] She has that stuff in this game.

[1120] I don't know.

[1121] I think it's...

[1122] I haven't seen the review in question that you were referencing here, but I don't know.

[1123] It's G4s, right?

[1124] Oh, is it?

[1125] Okay.

[1126] That's the sexism one?

[1127] I mean, it's a valid complaint.

[1128] It's a matter of taste.

[1129] It's entirely subjective.

[1130] I guess.

[1131] It's when you start getting into the conversation.

[1132] Well, do you want character depth or do you want...

[1133] You can't just throw the sexism claim out there like that.

[1134] I don't know.

[1135] It just seems like wanting it both ways.

[1136] Right, because otherwise she's just a male.

[1137] Yeah, it's like, what makes her a woman?

[1138] You just gave her all these male characteristics and then there's nothing feminine about her.

[1139] It's like, well, come on.

[1140] I think that's even worse.

[1141] Give Team Ninja a fucking break.

[1142] I mean, also, like, expecting Team Ninja to be able to handle any kind of emotional depth, I think, is asking a lot.

[1143] And, you know, you could argue it's also not a reasonable expectation for the Metroid series.

[1144] Maybe.

[1145] Well, I don't know.

[1146] That's only because they haven't really gone super crazy on story stuff up until this point.

[1147] So this was their shot to make it good, and it sounds like parts of it maybe not.

[1148] The stuff they do outside of trying to develop her as a character, really cool.

[1149] Like the scenario and stuff.

[1150] Yeah, I mean, what they add to the Metroid mythology or whatever.

[1151] You know, like the kind of greater universe and all the stuff that was going on back in the first game and that kind of thing.

[1152] Like, that stuff is neat.

[1153] If you're into Metroid, it's pretty satisfying.

[1154] But then they pronounce it Zebes.

[1155] Zebes.

[1156] What?

[1157] I always said Zebes.

[1158] Not Zebes?

[1159] Yeah, some guy.

[1160] I think I might have even said Zebes.

[1161] Some guy in the comments said Zebes.

[1162] I was shocked.

[1163] I want to say I heard Zebes, I think was probably what I heard.

[1164] They call her Samus?

[1165] No, they say Samus.

[1166] Samus Aran is how they say it in the game.

[1167] I always.

[1168] That was Aran.

[1169] Or Aran or whatever.

[1170] I don't know.

[1171] Man. Pronunciations of made -up words.

[1172] There's the controversy.

[1173] I don't know.

[1174] It's a weird, divisive game.

[1175] A lot of people will like it.

[1176] A lot of people will not.

[1177] I will simply just not play it.

[1178] That has nothing to do with the relative quality of that game one way or the other.

[1179] That's a valid course of action.

[1180] Gamefly.

[1181] So I can sit on my coffee table forever.

[1182] That's the most effective way to not play games.

[1183] Is anybody in this room besides me going to play it?

[1184] I'll probably play it.

[1185] You want to play it?

[1186] Yeah.

[1187] I got it in my bag if you want to play it.

[1188] Sure.

[1189] Is that the other M?

[1190] It's the other other M. Okay, yeah.

[1191] Oh, you got that other M. Word.

[1192] Does the other M make sense once you beat the game?

[1193] Is there some other M?

[1194] Yeah, kind of.

[1195] There's a lot of M's in the Metroid universe.

[1196] Yes, there certainly are.

[1197] There are even more after the end of this game.

[1198] Marvin, who is you?

[1199] You could interpret it more than one way.

[1200] I mean, whatever, it's a name.

[1201] No, it wasn't me. It was Mel.

[1202] Ah, the other M. I always get you two mixed up.

[1203] I appreciated it as a Metroid game before anything else, really.

[1204] That's what I liked about it the most.

[1205] That's cool that that can even be said about that game.

[1206] From what I played, that seemed like the part it was not going to necessarily get.

[1207] How long is it about?

[1208] I had like nine and a half hours on the clock when I finished it.

[1209] About ten maybe.

[1210] You think you could speed run it in like a half hour?

[1211] Yo, she's not naked if you do.

[1212] Awesome.

[1213] I'm not a big Metroid fan one way or the other, but I really, really dislike how often this Zero Suit shit has started coming up over the past few years.

[1214] I think Nintendo, more than anything that Team Ninja could have done with this game, is to blame for what has happened to the Samus character.

[1215] Whatever, man. She's got a body.

[1216] She can use it.

[1217] Yeah, I don't know.

[1218] It's like, here's a character that has always just been, like, yes, she is a woman, but that is not her defining characteristic.

[1219] And all of a sudden, it's like, she's just jumping around in this skin -tight, sexy suit all the time.

[1220] It's like, that's not the Samus I know.

[1221] Just solve that problem by not playing Smash Brothers.

[1222] Problem solved.

[1223] Or taking the suit off.

[1224] But it's out there.

[1225] And it's becoming, like, the dominant thing.

[1226] Default Samus for some people.

[1227] I don't know.

[1228] That bums me out.

[1229] In this game, when you die, the robotic suit or whatever evaporates from you and she's lying there in the cat suit.

[1230] She writhes.

[1231] You almost were there.

[1232] Hey, I'm going to play this.

[1233] Champagne.

[1234] I meant like sexy writhing.

[1235] Yeah.

[1236] A little cat.

[1237] Yes.

[1238] That's how she dies.

[1239] That's it.

[1240] Can you do that again for me?

[1241] Thank you.

[1242] Save that for later.

[1243] Brad Shoemaker, anything else that you would care to talk about, C's?

[1244] Federizing 2, Case Zero.

[1245] Oh, hell yeah.

[1246] Yeah.

[1247] Dude.

[1248] Drill Bucket.

[1249] Dude.

[1250] Drill Bucket.

[1251] I suddenly...

[1252] Sounds like a really bad porno mag.

[1253] It's a really good...

[1254] I'll lend you a copy.

[1255] Of Drill Bucket?

[1256] Yes, of other Drill Bucket.

[1257] Wow.

[1258] Samus showed me her drill bucket.

[1259] I showed her my other M. Dude, that girl's just a drill bucket.

[1260] You don't want none of that.

[1261] I'm shaking my head.

[1262] Tell me about your drill bucket.

[1263] That's my fault.

[1264] I did that.

[1265] Yeah, you set that up.

[1266] I set that up.

[1267] I apologize to everyone for that.

[1268] Dead Rising 2, Case Zero, huh?

[1269] Case Zero, yeah.

[1270] So this is the downloadable thing.

[1271] Yeah, this sounds...

[1272] Maybe coming out this week?

[1273] It is.

[1274] I'm pretty sure it's coming out.

[1275] Yeah, they have confirmed it is coming out in the U .S. this week.

[1276] It is coming out for sure.

[1277] Almost out by the time you hear this.

[1278] A matter of hours.

[1279] Five bucks.

[1280] Do they give it time?

[1281] I would think it would be actually out by the time you hear this.

[1282] Well, I mean, it's an XBLA game.

[1283] Those go up, like, super early Wednesday morning.

[1284] Except they said Tuesday.

[1285] Yeah, but...

[1286] Whatever.

[1287] Could be Tuesday night late.

[1288] Whatever.

[1289] You can watch our quick look.

[1290] You could.

[1291] That's not a not -so -quick look.

[1292] Yeah, that's a lot.

[1293] I'm impressed that you were able to spend that much time with it.

[1294] Really, though?

[1295] And there's a lot in there.

[1296] And not finish it.

[1297] And not finish it.

[1298] We were going after the story.

[1299] We were just screwing around.

[1300] There's a lot of stuff in there.

[1301] There's a lot of stuff in there.

[1302] How many put drill bucket on dude's head and then try and combine the shotgun with everything?

[1303] It sounds like ridiculous hyperbole, but I suddenly could not be more excited for Dead Rising 2.

[1304] I saw it happen.

[1305] Mission accomplished Capcom.

[1306] Dude, they did exactly what they must have set out to do with this thing.

[1307] Because before I started playing it this morning, I forgot that that game was even coming out this month.

[1308] And now that I've played through it, I'm just like, dude, give me that game.

[1309] So an effective piece of marketing.

[1310] Absolutely.

[1311] Five bucks.

[1312] Some of the progress rolls over into the real game.

[1313] Yeah, it does.

[1314] What did Drew call it?

[1315] A payquel?

[1316] A payquel.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] Vinny, you have to fire Drew now.

[1319] No, it was good.

[1320] I'm sorry.

[1321] He's now my boss.

[1322] You can deal with all this shit now.

[1323] I'm done.

[1324] It was weird starting it back up because it's been right about, what, four years since that first game.

[1325] Yeah, it's about that.

[1326] Like that's probably, at least for me, that was enough time to kind of forget what made a Dead Rising game.

[1327] And then I got in there and it was like, pee -pee.

[1328] Yeah.

[1329] Sure.

[1330] Yeah.

[1331] That one's it.

[1332] It was, you know, it was.

[1333] What did they say?

[1334] It was like a quasi real -time clock.

[1335] Right.

[1336] It was like having a deadline to do all this stuff.

[1337] It was being able to start the game over with a higher level.

[1338] Yeah.

[1339] So even in case zero, all of those.

[1340] It was saving in bathrooms.

[1341] Concepts.

[1342] Like everything.

[1343] Zombies.

[1344] Oh, yeah, right.

[1345] No, that was obvious this time.

[1346] It's weird.

[1347] It's weird.

[1348] You're fighting professional wrestlers this time, which is...

[1349] Well, I didn't really appreciate the...

[1350] We're calling them infected.

[1351] We don't like to say the Z word around here.

[1352] You mean Zeebies?

[1353] The other Z. Oh, yeah.

[1354] So this is like...

[1355] hours or days prior to the events of...

[1356] Well, get a load of this, Ryan.

[1357] If one Brad Nicholson is to be believed, it's actually three years before the forthcoming retail disc.

[1358] Brad Nicholson.

[1359] Yeah.

[1360] Who told you that?

[1361] Wikipedia and our giant bomb wiki.

[1362] Well, at least one of those is trustworthy.

[1363] It's weird, though, because playing it, it seems like...

[1364] I mean, it has the appearance of taking place, like, yeah, hours or maybe a day before.

[1365] Because, like, when he first rolls up in the truck, he's got, like...

[1366] The suit.

[1367] He's not wearing the suit.

[1368] Oh, what is the suit?

[1369] He doesn't have the jacket.

[1370] He doesn't have the jacket.

[1371] Oh, he doesn't have the jacket?

[1372] So he wears the suit.

[1373] Okay, similar colors, but he's wearing a shirt.

[1374] Yeah.

[1375] Okay.

[1376] So obviously, three years.

[1377] Yeah, it'll take years.

[1378] Count the rings.

[1379] Three years, that shirt grows into a jacket.

[1380] Okay, yeah.

[1381] So he's wearing like a ball jersey and jeans or something.

[1382] Yeah, yeah.

[1383] But the point is, I mean, the game is set in Vegas, and this takes place in like Fortune City.

[1384] Oh, is it not?

[1385] It's not in Vegas.

[1386] Oh, there's all that bullshit with the city of Las Vegas or whatever.

[1387] Although they do say...

[1388] I can't wait to play that game just to figure out how come sometimes I've heard Las Vegas mentioned in Dead Rising 2.

[1389] I swear.

[1390] Everything says, like in the game.

[1391] Yeah.

[1392] Like mentioning, actually in K -Zero specifically, they're talking about Las Vegas.

[1393] I would swear the words Las Vegas are spoken in that game.

[1394] I swear I heard that.

[1395] You're absolutely correct, which makes all of the Fortune City stuff that much more complex.

[1396] It's just like outside of Vegas.

[1397] I mean, you know, it wouldn't be unheard of for them to have Vegas and then also Vegas somewhere else in the state of Nevada.

[1398] So you're right outside the city limits.

[1399] Yeah, you're in this, like, tiny little town of Still Creek.

[1400] It's a population of, like, 750 or something.

[1401] Tiny little desert town.

[1402] 750 zombies.

[1403] 753.

[1404] Or whatever.

[1405] Maybe it's 48.

[1406] Plus two.

[1407] Plus your daughter.

[1408] The premise is you roll up in your truck.

[1409] You've got your little four -year -old daughter.

[1410] She is infected.

[1411] You've got to keep feeding her Zombrex to keep her from turning into a little girl zombie.

[1412] Which would be a first because there are no kid zombies.

[1413] I don't know if they can get away with it.

[1414] We're not there yet.

[1415] It seems like the logical conclusion for this thing, but Ken, what do you think?

[1416] I think if you let that happen, you lose.

[1417] You mean like let her become a zombie?

[1418] The mission objective says if you don't get back to her with the Zombrex, she'll die.

[1419] It doesn't say she'll turn into a zombie.

[1420] It just says she will die.

[1421] Maybe little kids can't turn into zombies in this universe.

[1422] I don't know.

[1423] But I haven't been following all the weird viral Zombrex stuff they've been coming up with.

[1424] I just think you can, as a developer, be shooting little kids.

[1425] Oh, well, I mean, those are two different questions of whether you can have kid zombies and whether you can murder kid zombies.

[1426] Sure.

[1427] Here's a better question.

[1428] Can zombies love?

[1429] Do we know that?

[1430] Absolutely.

[1431] They love to gamble.

[1432] They actually do.

[1433] It's just like the Vegas airport where everywhere you go there are slot machines.

[1434] There are slot machines in the lobby of the movie theater in this town.

[1435] Zombies love slot machines.

[1436] They actually will wander over.

[1437] When they see a slot machine, they go over and play it instead of trying to kill you.

[1438] It's a nice touch.

[1439] Brad Nicholson.

[1440] Maybe Chuck and...

[1441] the daughter, even though she's a zombie, they can still like each other.

[1442] Right?

[1443] I mean, if she can love him, then they have a relationship.

[1444] Maybe.

[1445] Right?

[1446] Maybe that's...

[1447] He could go out and help her get brains.

[1448] Yeah.

[1449] Which, you know, I'd imagine much easier to get a hold of than Zombrex.

[1450] Yeah.

[1451] Probably.

[1452] And probably a lot easier to get a hold of if you're not already a zombie.

[1453] And maybe she could be civil about it, like Louie in...

[1454] of that vampire stuff by Anna Rice.

[1455] Remember, Louie only ate rats, right?

[1456] So maybe she can just eat raccoons or something.

[1457] Nobody likes raccoons.

[1458] Yeah, nobody likes those anyway, right?

[1459] This seems like a really anticlimactic direction to take all of this stuff.

[1460] Would she eventually grow up to be an adult zombie?

[1461] Like want to borrow the car and get the teen issues?

[1462] I don't know.

[1463] I think when you start poking at zombies, much like time travel, if you start meddling with the specifics of it, just like don't...

[1464] Don't worry about these questions.

[1465] It's like, oh wait, this is all stupid.

[1466] Zombies are bad.

[1467] You should shoot them.

[1468] Don't worry about it.

[1469] Oh, they're people once.

[1470] Or hit them in the head with a baseball bat covered in nails or drop a bucket full of drills on their heads.

[1471] I don't know.

[1472] I love the drill bucket.

[1473] That was one of my favorite things I've seen in that game.

[1474] Dude, that's pretty good.

[1475] I like that lawnmower thing.

[1476] It is dead rising.

[1477] Mechanically, top to bottom, all the same shit except...

[1478] They've traded the photo mechanic for the item combining stuff.

[1479] And the item combining stuff is hilarious.

[1480] It's really good.

[1481] It seems like they've gotten some terrific mileage out of that stuff.

[1482] There's probably, what would you say, ten items in this game?

[1483] This is case zero, right?

[1484] In case zero.

[1485] There's probably, like, I've seen ten items or so that can be combined.

[1486] And there's only eight combinations that you can make in this game.

[1487] I keep wanting to call it a demo, but it's not.

[1488] It's so not a demo.

[1489] So how much time would you say you've sunk into that so far?

[1490] As you started over.

[1491] Totally.

[1492] Just overall in the game.

[1493] Have you gone through the story missions?

[1494] I haven't finished it all because I got to level two and I was like, huh.

[1495] It'd be more fun if I started over with a higher level.

[1496] So I did.

[1497] And then I hit level three and I did the same thing.

[1498] So I'm actually saved at the very first save point because I just keep starting over.

[1499] Nice.

[1500] Because you take your experience.

[1501] You take everything.

[1502] You take even like the stupid clothes.

[1503] Like I'm wearing overalls and a cowboy hat right now.

[1504] You take the cards with you that you find?

[1505] Yeah.

[1506] So it's a weird mechanic with the item combining stuff.

[1507] If you figure out an item combination before you find the card for it, you get a scratch card, which is basically good for nothing.

[1508] But if you find the combo card for it.

[1509] You get like a bonus when you use that item.

[1510] A PP bonus.

[1511] Well, sometimes I think, didn't you say you could also get like a damage bonus?

[1512] I think it depends on the card.

[1513] Yeah, it depends on the item.

[1514] But like there are strong attacks that you can only do if you have the card.

[1515] Right, right, right.

[1516] So it almost feels a little backwards to me because...

[1517] To be rewarded for...

[1518] Right, it's almost like they should reward you for figuring out the combination before you find the card.

[1519] But it's not really a matter of figuring it out.

[1520] It is for you right now, but...

[1521] Once that game is out, that's an easy fact.

[1522] And if you were going to then reward people for using a fact.

[1523] I mean, I get your point, but I see why they would want to do it that way.

[1524] Some of the combinations are very esoteric, though.

[1525] I mean, drills and buckets.

[1526] Yeah, I don't know.

[1527] You wouldn't just clue into that.

[1528] Like baseball bat and nails, sure, it sells itself.

[1529] Or nails and propane tank.

[1530] Yeah, okay, so, all right, I'll give you that one.

[1531] No, I mean, I kind of assumed there was such a limited list of items that each one would only be used once in this game.

[1532] Ah, no. But then, yeah, nails and propane tank.

[1533] Use the nails.

[1534] And that makes an IED.

[1535] Yeah, it does.

[1536] That's what it's called.

[1537] Oh, just like that's the description?

[1538] It's on the scratch card.

[1539] It's called IED.

[1540] I'm pretty excited about Dead Rising 2 now.

[1541] I'm really excited about it.

[1542] It's a case zero out this week.

[1543] We've got a quick look up.

[1544] Five bucks.

[1545] You should.

[1546] 43 minutes.

[1547] I can't think of a person who shouldn't just get that.

[1548] Unless you hated the first day to rise.

[1549] Someone under 17.

[1550] Like, yeah, sure.

[1551] I guess the demo for it must just be timed, right?

[1552] I don't know.

[1553] It's weird because you can't save in the demo.

[1554] Oh, or just run as long as you can?

[1555] I guess.

[1556] Or get achievements.

[1557] It's not timed.

[1558] It didn't look like it was.

[1559] Weird.

[1560] But, I mean.

[1561] Cookie.

[1562] It looks like the story you could finish in like 90 minutes, but there's all these optional survivors to get.

[1563] There's all the outfits.

[1564] You can do all the item combinations.

[1565] Other stuff.

[1566] Fantastic.

[1567] I'm pretty uniformly impressed with what I've seen in this product.

[1568] Good on them for making it five bucks and making it easy to get a hold of.

[1569] If it is at all representative of the full product of Dead Rising 2, that's going to be it.

[1570] I think a pretty kick -ass game.

[1571] Yeah.

[1572] I mean, you tell me if I'm inflating the controversy in my mind over this.

[1573] I don't know if there's anybody out there crying like paid demo or not.

[1574] You know, probably somewhere, but I think this is probably one of those cases where it best justifies itself.

[1575] Yeah, yeah.

[1576] I could have seen this being kind of like a prologue chapter in the game or something.

[1577] But not after they've...

[1578] I could see it have been like, oh, this is a small town that you drive through and you see some of this stuff and you're here for a little bit and this is tutorial and then you go.

[1579] I think it would have felt out of place.

[1580] Not having played the full game, it seems like it would.

[1581] I doubt it would be as fleshed out as they have since made it.

[1582] I think it justifies its five...

[1583] It seems like at least it justifies its five bucks several times over.

[1584] You get to level five and that's...

[1585] Yeah, it caps on level five, but you can carry that over into the full game.

[1586] That's a nice bonus.

[1587] Five bucks.

[1588] It's totally worth it.

[1589] Drop a drill bucket.

[1590] Good on him.

[1591] Oh, drill buckets.

[1592] It's so gnarly.

[1593] How weird.

[1594] Although I think my favorite part, Brad, of watching you play the demo was when you picked up the gumball machine and I declared that...

[1595] I think I said that I really want...

[1596] I said, is it wrong of me?

[1597] Is it too much of me to ask that when you hit a zombie with this...

[1598] gumball machine that gumballs go spraying everywhere.

[1599] Absolutely not.

[1600] As I was saying, like, oh, that's probably technically asking.

[1601] And then you hit a zombie with it and gumballs go spraying everywhere.

[1602] But then did they start slipping on the gumballs?

[1603] They didn't.

[1604] No, they didn't.

[1605] And then the gumballs disappeared.

[1606] Are you sure?

[1607] That was then my next hope.

[1608] I would have really liked that.

[1609] I'm going to queue it up in that quick look again.

[1610] I could have sworn they were doing a little.

[1611] The gumballs very quickly fade away.

[1612] I don't think they actually.

[1613] But they slip on vomit and stuff like that.

[1614] Oh, yeah.

[1615] So the animation.

[1616] Oh, man, they should have done that.

[1617] You've got to wait for the full version for gumball slipping.

[1618] Let's see.

[1619] I would like to talk a little bit about Kanan Lynch 2 multiplayer, Jeff.

[1620] Yeah?

[1621] I played some Fragile Alliance this weekend, and that's pretty neat.

[1622] Yeah, it's a cool idea.

[1623] I had a fair amount.

[1624] I think some of the things that you said about it are pretty spot on.

[1625] the length of the levels eventually becoming an issue because it's like four minutes on the outside of how long these things are.

[1626] But I was also thinking, like, at the same time, if you were in one of those maps and it were to take a lot longer than that and you died early on, like, the chances of you hanging out and waiting for the next round would probably be pretty slim.

[1627] Yeah, they didn't want the rounds to be fast.

[1628] I think it's a situation where they needed to vary up, like, enemy placement and some other things like that.

[1629] That didn't bother me so much just because, like, okay, that was kind of...

[1630] If you had played it for another day or so, you would be like, oh, yeah.

[1631] I was just kind of finding that the constant, like, that was the constant, but it was how the players that I was playing with would behave that kind of made those scenarios interesting.

[1632] Yeah.

[1633] You know, who's going to wig out on us or, you know, who's actually going to be dependable?

[1634] Are people going to run?

[1635] Because there's kind of multiple routes in most of those levels.

[1636] It seems like you can kind of run when you first approach.

[1637] It's like, okay, well, I'm going to...

[1638] provide support from up here or I'm going to run straight through on the ground into here.

[1639] Yeah, a good weekend.

[1640] I definitely not see playing that for...

[1641] I think undercover cop mode is probably the best thing that game has going for because in that mode you know someone's going to have to turn on you.

[1642] And that puts me on horrible edge the entire time.

[1643] Like Fragile Alliance is the regular mode.

[1644] I think it gets kind of frustrating because there are people that just turn on you at like...

[1645] dumb times for them to do so you're like oh so while a cop is shooting at you and everyone is standing right around you this is when you decided to shoot a player and then immediately die so now i am sitting out this round and so are you like thanks i guess i guess i didn't run into too much of that yeah i think at this point maybe that that crowd has shook out some but uh anyways moving on Brad Nicholson.

[1646] I'm sorry.

[1647] I was going to ask you this earlier.

[1648] What have you been playing, man?

[1649] I haven't been playing a lot, actually.

[1650] I knew I was going to be traveling.

[1651] I got this problem.

[1652] I'll tell you guys.

[1653] I go to the gym a lot.

[1654] I went 12 times in the last four days.

[1655] That's too much.

[1656] That's a lot.

[1657] Yeah, I know.

[1658] But I knew I wasn't going to be able to work out until Thursday, like this Thursday.

[1659] So I was trying to double that.

[1660] So you had to pack it in.

[1661] Yeah.

[1662] Does it work that way?

[1663] I wouldn't think of that.

[1664] You can lift twice a day every other day.

[1665] Okay.

[1666] All right.

[1667] Science.

[1668] I know.

[1669] As far as what I've been playing, it's a lot of the elliptical machine and free weights.

[1670] How's that going?

[1671] It's going pretty good.

[1672] I heard the back end of that gets a little boring.

[1673] You're telling me. You've got to have a good book or an iPad, I find, that it's bearable doing it so much.

[1674] It's just that grind.

[1675] Anything like that, you've got to work it out.

[1676] Level grind.

[1677] That's right.

[1678] Level up your tries.

[1679] I did try the Laura Croft XBLA game.

[1680] I heard you talking about it last week.

[1681] Yeah, I really liked it.

[1682] I played it about 20 minutes and said no. I loved it.

[1683] I'm done with that game very quickly.

[1684] Yeah, that's kind of where I was at with it.

[1685] Sexism, just rampant.

[1686] It's terrible.

[1687] I hate to see it invade this office.

[1688] My question is, though, she wasn't cooking at all.

[1689] Did I miss something?

[1690] Why is she not pregnant?

[1691] She has shoes on.

[1692] If your job is to raid tombs, as I proposed, or I'd imagine that hers is, why wouldn't you wear pants?

[1693] Right?

[1694] Because it's hot.

[1695] I mean, because it's hot.

[1696] You crawl around on rocks all day.

[1697] Your knees have got to look terrible, but they're perfect if you notice.

[1698] She's that good.

[1699] You also need the mobility afforded of extremely short shorts.

[1700] I think she rolls them up an extra inch too, right?

[1701] There's a little short cuff.

[1702] These aren't short enough.

[1703] I'd get the knife out, but what if I need to roll them down later?

[1704] That's right.

[1705] Our partner, though, he's even less dressed than her, if you notice.

[1706] He just has the...

[1707] flappy thing.

[1708] That's right.

[1709] He's like an ancient god.

[1710] He doesn't need really anything.

[1711] That's for Lara's benefit more than anyone's.

[1712] What does god need with a pair of revolvers?

[1713] Well, he's jumping around a lot, too.

[1714] Yeah, I'm sure that thing's flapping up every once in a while.

[1715] That thing probably stinks.

[1716] Oh, yeah.

[1717] It's been sealed in an Aztec tomb for thousands of years.

[1718] It's probably...

[1719] I didn't see the toilets in that tomb.

[1720] Who knows?

[1721] It's like he's been going to the gym forever.

[1722] This was what was racing through your mind as you were like, you know what?

[1723] This doesn't all make sense.

[1724] Well, okay.

[1725] That was the first thing that hit me, right?

[1726] This is the way I play games.

[1727] But I shot a couple of...

[1728] What are they?

[1729] Demons?

[1730] Demonic alligators or something?

[1731] There's some of those too.

[1732] There's just different kind of demons.

[1733] And then the first thought that popped in my head was, yo, this is Diablo, but with lower cropped.

[1734] I do not want to play this.

[1735] You're selling me more on it.

[1736] That was the pitch from the beginning, right?

[1737] Just didn't hit me right.

[1738] I need elves at the least.

[1739] Or dwarves.

[1740] I'll take an orc.

[1741] It's my favorite LL Cool J song, I Need Elves.

[1742] Yeah, yeah.

[1743] On his Christmas album.

[1744] Oh, so filthy, filthy record.

[1745] Oh, God, I know.

[1746] Uncle L at his worst.

[1747] Makes Christmas in Hollis look like Christmas in Queens.

[1748] Well, we're off subject.

[1749] Where's that spider at that I heard so much about?

[1750] It got scooped out of here.

[1751] It got scooped out?

[1752] Don't worry about it.

[1753] No more spider.

[1754] We're going to be okay.

[1755] We're going to make it.

[1756] However, we will instead touch on a topic that you might know a thing or two about, Brad Nicholson.

[1757] How about some news about Xbox Live subscription costs as of Monday morning, or at least the announcement was on Monday morning, that they are being raised effective November 1st.

[1758] Yeah, and I guess the reason they gave was to keep providing you this world -class service, blah, blah, blah, we have to do this, which I don't...

[1759] Really, what have they done to...

[1760] To Xbox Live.

[1761] The problem is that the things they've done are things that you have to pay for in addition to Xbox Live anyway.

[1762] Right.

[1763] So it's like, hey, it's cool that it's got Netflix, but you have to subscribe to Netflix, and it's not like Microsoft's servers are serving those movies.

[1764] No. Other than them probably developing the Netflix application, that's kind of, I don't know.

[1765] I don't think it's outraged of them to bump it up $10 after it's been, as much as it's been since the start of Xbox Live.

[1766] But I think that their reasoning on the public side has been very poor.

[1767] Their spin on it has been shitty.

[1768] If not non -existent.

[1769] This to me seems like them kind of sitting back watching what Sony does to figure out how Sony is going to play this out with this whole PlayStation Plus thing.

[1770] And after they watch them come out with this thing, they're like, oh yeah, we could totally raise it.

[1771] How much is Plus?

[1772] 50 a year.

[1773] 60 or 50?

[1774] 50.

[1775] But, I mean, you can play games for free and you can use Netflix for no additional charge and all that stuff.

[1776] And I'm guessing that that probably didn't move the needle enough for Microsoft to go like, oh, we've got to move our Netflix outside the paywall.

[1777] Or, oh, we've got to do something to get people into.

[1778] They're just like, oh, raise it, dude.

[1779] Come on.

[1780] We'll be fine.

[1781] What do you get now for your paid subscription?

[1782] Playing games.

[1783] Like get to play multiplayer games?

[1784] Against people, yeah.

[1785] Voice messaging?

[1786] Yeah, the voice messaging.

[1787] I mean, there's tons of demos and stuff you can only get as a gold number.

[1788] At least at first.

[1789] They usually wait a week and put them out and stuff.

[1790] Netflix, ESPN, whenever that launches.

[1791] Speaking of which, I don't know when that's coming out.

[1792] I don't know.

[1793] My friend's list has been using it.

[1794] Oh, yeah.

[1795] But it's still like a cable thing.

[1796] Yeah, but 99 % of people are covered.

[1797] I don't have it.

[1798] My ISP does not support ESPN3.

[1799] Living in the boonies.

[1800] Whatever.

[1801] Using a privately owned ISP.

[1802] My ISP has their own Usenet server.

[1803] Everything will be fine.

[1804] Then you've come out ahead.

[1805] Comcast dropped Usenet like two years ago, so you win.

[1806] So yeah, it's $60 a year now in the U .S., which I think is in line with what a lot of the rest of the world has been paying for Xbox Live Gold.

[1807] It's still...

[1808] A divisive issue that has people's blood up all over the place.

[1809] It's like when you increase that fee without attaching to it, and here's what else you'll get.

[1810] I think this might have been a good time for them to break out tiered levels of service.

[1811] Yeah.

[1812] And say, if you just want to play online and do the game -related and voice chat -related stuff, here's a lower fee.

[1813] But...

[1814] You know, it'll be 70 a year if you want Netflix and ESPN and all this other stuff.

[1815] Or like give good people unlimited friends, you know, like roll out some new features.

[1816] Yeah.

[1817] Like unlimited friends.

[1818] Talk about things that I would pay for, like a bigger friends list.

[1819] Oh, shit, I shouldn't have said that.

[1820] Now they're going to charge for it.

[1821] Well, just like, you know, like when you read, you know, here's all the new features that we're adding.

[1822] Like we're working on it.

[1823] I guess they have added features in the past.

[1824] And, you know, it's like the service.

[1825] It gives you more than it did when they launched it.

[1826] I don't like a lot of the things they added, like ads.

[1827] Yeah, how about an ad -free dashboard?

[1828] Yeah, that'd be nice.

[1829] Yeah, like the ability to opt out of any one thing.

[1830] Like, I don't want to see these videos on Twitter.

[1831] Like, they're actually, you know how they boot you up to the spotlight?

[1832] Yeah, there's actually...

[1833] There's a hack to get around that.

[1834] There's an audio ad as the first unit on this.

[1835] Oh, dude.

[1836] I thought it doesn't give you audio until you leave it and come back.

[1837] I'm pretty sure this one...

[1838] It's a Halo Reach thing.

[1839] If you turn the console on and don't touch anything, there's sound coming out.

[1840] I kind of agree with Jeff.

[1841] I remember booting it up.

[1842] I'm pretty sure.

[1843] You heard it.

[1844] Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

[1845] I heard it last night.

[1846] You know, actually, it might have been like dumping back from a game.

[1847] But even then, it's like, I don't know.

[1848] I don't care.

[1849] Yeah, I do not care for the ads.

[1850] The point is the advertising is getting more prominent and not less.

[1851] Right, and then raising the price of this service also doesn't...

[1852] Yeah, if they were to offset it by saying, like, and we'll let you opt out of any...

[1853] Get rid of this bar.

[1854] You know, we've broken up these ads into game -related, not game -related, you know, movie, TV.

[1855] You know, just say, like, I don't want to see promotional units for...

[1856] any of your videos or any of your content partner videos or like the Microsoft videos yes the other stuff no and then turn off all the car ads but let me see stuff for movies and for video games like that's you know like that would be cool 90 % of that's all it would take 90 % of that stuff I don't use at all like I use like the library stuff and I sometimes browse the arcade stuff but usually I know exactly what I'm looking for so like Yeah, because it's the newest thing that came out.

[1857] Yeah, so like 90 % of that stuff I don't even use.

[1858] So like on that system, on that dashboard, it's kind of just clutter.

[1859] Yeah, like currently with the NXE stuff, like I'm very unclear as to like what purpose, like what is it supposed to serve?

[1860] It sounds like the refresh for Kinect doesn't necessarily fix any of that stuff.

[1861] It just is rejiggers it.

[1862] Yeah, rejiggering some stuff to make it more Kinect friendly.

[1863] The stuff I do use, a lot of it I get through through the guide button, like checking out your friends or stuff like that.

[1864] I've come to rely more and more on that thing, and it's nice.

[1865] I mean, it lets you circumvent a lot of that crap.

[1866] Yeah, weird.

[1867] Quick launch.

[1868] Yeah.

[1869] I don't use that as much as I should.

[1870] I've never used it.

[1871] Quick launch is great.

[1872] You can be anywhere in the dashboard and launch whatever game.

[1873] I think it's like the last 10 games that you played.

[1874] Yeah.

[1875] Just launch them by popping that thing up and hitting two buttons.

[1876] It's not bad.

[1877] When I've used it, I've been happy I remember.

[1878] I think you could be in Netflix and launch whatever game is in your drive or a bunch of arcade games.

[1879] Cool.

[1880] Brad, what else is going on in news, man?

[1881] Monday Night Combat is getting a free DLC pack at some point.

[1882] Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

[1883] And a big patch.

[1884] The old balance updates.

[1885] Balance updates.

[1886] Oh, dude, there's a StarCraft update.

[1887] Now we can talk about StarCraft, you asshole.

[1888] There's the opening.

[1889] I never said don't talk about it, but now we have something to talk about.

[1890] Brad, what's going on in the balance update in StarCraft?

[1891] It's weird.

[1892] I mean, typically their balance changes are a pretty closely guarded secret that comes out when they put the patch out.

[1893] But for whatever reason, they went live with, like, here's a bunch of the stuff we're doing in the 1 .1 patch, thought you'd like to know.

[1894] When does it come out?

[1895] They haven't given a date yet.

[1896] Do they still run beta servers for people to?

[1897] No, not for StarCraft.

[1898] I don't think that's necessary.

[1899] you know it's not like wow it's not that large scale i'm sure they do their internal testing and sure uh and it's probably stuff that i'm i guarantee i'm the only one in the room that really gives a shit but you're but you are pissed about it no well yeah they actually yeah they really they really i don't want to say messed up but they changed the protoss early game dramatically Has this screwed up or will this screw up your build order?

[1900] You can't build pylons.

[1901] It's definitely going to change it.

[1902] Depending on...

[1903] Whatever.

[1904] It's definitely, depending on who you're playing against, it's absolutely going to change it.

[1905] You're going to see six pool against Protoss a lot after this patch, I promise you.

[1906] So what would be the new way to stop it?

[1907] Chrono boosting Zealots out faster.

[1908] I mean, what they did was change the build time on Zealots and also...

[1909] This baffles me. Also, the cooldown time on warp gates, which is how you get zealots out after you get warp gate tech, but that also affects every other unit that comes out of warp gates, which is a lot.

[1910] That seems kind of weird to me. This is all just multiplayer, right?

[1911] It has nothing to do with single player.

[1912] But yeah, I mean, whatever.

[1913] It takes you longer to get your units out.

[1914] That means that Zerg has an advantage in getting units into your base faster than any faction.

[1915] They didn't do anything for Zerg?

[1916] The Ultralisk is being impacted, which is weird because people hardly use Ultralisks anyway.

[1917] But it seemed like the general consensus was that the Zerg was fairly underpowered, all things considered.

[1918] The consensus in the pro community is that Terrans are overpowered.

[1919] Terrans are imba.

[1920] Are what?

[1921] As they say.

[1922] Imbalanced.

[1923] What have they done to the Terrans?

[1924] That's a really terrible abbreviation.

[1925] This is one of those things you've got to cross all these language barriers.

[1926] Totally.

[1927] I guess the biggest change for Zerg is that they have weakened the siege tank.

[1928] The siege tank was just fucking dominating Zerg ground forces.

[1929] I mean, as well it should to an extent, but it's real esoteric stuff.

[1930] They changed the way that it does damage versus different units, but it's probably going to change a lot of stuff in the...

[1931] Interesting.

[1932] The metagame.

[1933] I think everyone had to expect that a lot of that stuff would change.

[1934] A lot of it will change again.

[1935] Absolutely.

[1936] How long did they balance Brood War?

[1937] Years.

[1938] It just stopped a couple of years ago.

[1939] It's crazy.

[1940] If there are these perceived major injustices between the factions, you kind of expect people to wail about it a little bit, but people were screaming about this like it was set in stone and it was never going to change.

[1941] It's crazy.

[1942] Maybe that's why they felt the need to respond early.

[1943] I don't know.

[1944] I really want to go play that game now.

[1945] Thanks.

[1946] I played it on a 46 -inch TV this weekend, like sitting at computer monitor distance.

[1947] I was going to ask.

[1948] Like about a foot and a half away, like physically turning my head to see everything.

[1949] Sounds like it would make it a lot harder.

[1950] Actually, about, I don't know.

[1951] 30 seconds into a match, I just forgot what I was looking at.

[1952] I just, like, played.

[1953] It was...

[1954] Just close your eyes.

[1955] I didn't even think about it.

[1956] Like, that thing, I could play it on a 13 -inch screen if I had to.

[1957] If I could read the numbers or whatever, it's like it's the same game.

[1958] Whatever.

[1959] I like this challenge.

[1960] How far can Brad play StarCraft 2?

[1961] All right, Vinny, get the scan converter.

[1962] You had some, like, happy feedback, maybe, like, when you knew you couldn't build something.

[1963] Maybe.

[1964] Can you play StarCraft 2 at 20 yards?

[1965] On a postage stamp.

[1966] Oh, man. Underwater.

[1967] I mean, I've seen you guys play Blind MK2.

[1968] That's true.

[1969] Three, wasn't it?

[1970] Was it three?

[1971] Okay.

[1972] Jeff blew up the world without seeing.

[1973] Yeah.

[1974] Oh, wow.

[1975] Yeah.

[1976] That sounds like a heavy metal album.

[1977] Blow up the world without seeing?

[1978] Yes.

[1979] I think I was Stryker when we did that.

[1980] What?

[1981] I'm sorry.

[1982] I got lost with the blowing up the world business.

[1983] That's okay.

[1984] I distinctly remember you doing that Fatality.

[1985] Okay.

[1986] Yep.

[1987] I think I picked that one because it's easy to do at any range.

[1988] And then Monday Night Combat, there's a bunch of balance fixes.

[1989] You'll only be able to hack enemy turrets if your hacking is at level 3.

[1990] Really?

[1991] Yeah.

[1992] Interesting.

[1993] That's the only one I remember from that whole list.

[1994] There were a lot.

[1995] It's a big long...

[1996] Go look at the news story if you want more details because I'm not going to go through this because there's a ton.

[1997] Also, DS hardware price drops are happening.

[1998] The DSi and DSi XL are both being dropped.

[1999] 20 bone.

[2000] So it was $189 .99 for the XL.

[2001] So it's now $169.

[2002] And then the light, or I'm sorry, the regular DSi was $169.

[2003] Now it's $149.

[2004] The DS light remains unchanged.

[2005] So, you know, it's kind of out of the blue.

[2006] Price drops definitely make it sound like, hey.

[2007] Stuff's ready to go.

[2008] We got to get these out of here.

[2009] Yeah, we got to get rid of these things.

[2010] Everything must go.

[2011] We have a new thing we have to sell you.

[2012] Shortly.

[2013] They gave like a quarter release for Japan, but they haven't really said anything about U .S. releases.

[2014] No, they said...

[2015] Did they say...

[2016] I forget what they said, but they said something.

[2017] Fiscal...

[2018] Yeah, fiscal 2020.

[2019] It's my favorite time of year.

[2020] So it's like by March.

[2021] The fiscal quarter.

[2022] March 11?

[2023] Yes.

[2024] Oh, wow.

[2025] No. Yes.

[2026] Last March.

[2027] I thought you meant maybe like March 12th.

[2028] It's already out.

[2029] We have to build a time machine to go buy the 3DS.

[2030] I'm a little lean on news, guys.

[2031] Great.

[2032] All right.

[2033] It's been a little lean.

[2034] Games are going gold and getting ready to come out for the holidays.

[2035] That's where everyone is at right now.

[2036] I guess so, yeah.

[2037] It's not really time to announce games.

[2038] It's time to finish them and ship them.

[2039] That's right.

[2040] It's time to play Star.

[2041] Yeah.

[2042] Somebody must have said something ridiculous out there.

[2043] Nobody opened their mouth and said...

[2044] I think Jeff's point is accurate there.

[2045] Everybody's behind the doors.

[2046] No one's got time to open their mouths and say ridiculous stuff.

[2047] We discussed the great used game debate last week.

[2048] We didn't, but I feel like we've had that debate about 20 times now.

[2049] It comes and goes, yeah.

[2050] I can't remember.

[2051] Penny Arcade did a thing.

[2052] Oh, it was Corey Ledesma from THQ.

[2053] Oh, that's right.

[2054] That's a wrestling guy?

[2055] Yeah, he's the wrestling guy.

[2056] SmackDown dude.

[2057] Yeah, he said that it was like the out of context way that everyone is saying is that you're cheating if you buy a used game, which is not quite exactly what he said, I guess.

[2058] But it's...

[2059] Yeah, I mean, he's just kind of reiterating the point that when you buy games used, none of that money goes back to the people that actually made the game, which is why they're doing these one -time use codes, which is the wrong thing to get upset about.

[2060] Some people are like, oh, these codes are terrible.

[2061] Well, imagine PC games and how they've been for the last forever with serial numbers and all that other stuff.

[2062] Just kind of where they're going with this stuff, but the difference is it's only going to apply to the online side.

[2063] And way more annoyed at pre -order bonuses.

[2064] Yeah, that stuff's way worse.

[2065] That's exclusionary.

[2066] Smackdown's doing that too.

[2067] If you want to play the Tribute for the Troops Arena, you've got to pre -order from someplace specific.

[2068] Because eventually I thought all that stuff would dick.

[2069] Yeah, you've got to pre -order from Afghani.

[2070] Only Afghani Game Stops are going to have that.

[2071] At some point I thought all that stuff would trickle into DLC, but some of it hasn't.

[2072] Some of it does, some of it doesn't.

[2073] A lot of it's like, oh, we're going to put it out for real.

[2074] I think the Kano Lynch 2 stuff, some of it was pre -order bonus and they're going to put it out as packs for sale later on.

[2075] But it's even worse because it's all right on the disc and you're just going through the menus and it's all listed right there as you need downloadable content to play these three maps.

[2076] Well, how about fuck you instead?

[2077] How about I'm done playing it?

[2078] And that's way worse because currently there is no way to get it.

[2079] Right.

[2080] Right now, if you were like, Cain Lynch 2 super fan, but only because you just bought it and are super psyched, you're just like, yeah, well, I guess I'm totally bored.

[2081] Yeah, I hate that stuff.

[2082] Yeah, that's terrible.

[2083] No proposition on offer at all.

[2084] It's terrible.

[2085] Remember how much all the weird shit we went through just to get Mass Effect 2 costume stuff.

[2086] And that we were lucky enough to be in the position that we're in to get a hold of some of the stuff.

[2087] It is pretty cool, but yeah, it's like you can't...

[2088] So much of it is.

[2089] I would have bought it.

[2090] Retailer specific.

[2091] They're like, well, I can only buy this at one place.

[2092] I can only pre -order, you know.

[2093] I'm buying seven copies of the damn game to get fucking terminated.

[2094] And then sell the rest on, you know, Craigslist or something.

[2095] Oh, used.

[2096] Yeah.

[2097] None of that money goes to the.

[2098] Oh, yeah.

[2099] As I heard.

[2100] Well, you know, you paid all the money up front.

[2101] You would be selling new.

[2102] It's like you opened them all, enjoyed them, and then passed them along.

[2103] I would probably pass that money along myself.

[2104] Write a check.

[2105] Right.

[2106] And, you know, it's like some people like to bring up like, oh, you know, if I buy a car, I can sell it used.

[2107] I don't have to go.

[2108] Well, I mean, that's the whole games as goods versus games as a service.

[2109] Right.

[2110] Yeah.

[2111] Which is evolving over time.

[2112] So it's hard to address.

[2113] Yeah.

[2114] It's hard to see exactly where this stuff is going.

[2115] I need to write you a one dollar receipt on a piece of like notebook paper so you can go show it.

[2116] Yeah, exactly.

[2117] So I'm going to show it to Corey Ledesma.

[2118] See?

[2119] One dollar.

[2120] You just taxed me on a dollar.

[2121] Yeah, go ahead.

[2122] I mean, you could see the day coming in the far -flung digital future where everything is like Steam or Xbox Live, right?

[2123] Yeah.

[2124] Everything is licensed to an account that cannot be transferred.

[2125] I think that we'll see every single game, regardless of online, offline, start coming with a serial number like PC games.

[2126] Right.

[2127] before we go all digital, because if people really do perceive the used game thing as a huge threat, that's where it kind of has to go.

[2128] Well, the only thing stopping them right now is internet connectivity in the home, right?

[2129] In the console.

[2130] People who buy a disc, they need internet connections.

[2131] And people still like GameStop.

[2132] People still like their retailer arrangements and marketing dollars and all that stuff.

[2133] All right, Jeff.

[2134] All right, I got to go.

[2135] Thank you for your time.

[2136] I'll see you guys later.

[2137] I'll see you in a little bit.

[2138] Yeah.

[2139] Take her ease.

[2140] That was Jeff Grishman, folks.

[2141] He's going to go sell all his games.

[2142] Sit this video game crap.

[2143] Write about anime.

[2144] No one wants to write about anime.

[2145] New releases.

[2146] Let's talk about them.

[2147] Yeah.

[2148] Yeah?

[2149] All right.

[2150] I got no other news.

[2151] Unless you guys can think of anything.

[2152] Moving on.

[2153] Huh?

[2154] Shut up.

[2155] Yes.

[2156] We know that for a fact because Brad received a canvas version of the Metroid Other End box art. That wasn't a box art. It's just random character art. Oh, wasn't it?

[2157] Like random CG art. Okay.

[2158] That flipped me around on the issue, actually.

[2159] Now I know for sure games are not art. But dude, it was on a canvas.

[2160] I am perplexing.

[2161] It was like art. That's the weirdest thing.

[2162] That's the weirdest thing.

[2163] It's like CG animated, but it's on a canvas.

[2164] All right, let's talk about some new releases for this week.

[2165] All right.

[2166] You guys ready?

[2167] Wait.

[2168] Hold on.

[2169] I can probably guess.

[2170] All right, what do you think the new releases are?

[2171] Vinny, you're such a tough guy.

[2172] On the PSP, there are probably, I'm going to say at least two.

[2173] One would be Valkyria Chronicles 2.

[2174] That's accurate.

[2175] And the other one would be...

[2176] I know what that one is.

[2177] Oh, Brad, are you going to finish it off?

[2178] I'm getting some clairvoyant vibes from over in the Caravelle direction.

[2179] Let me send you my thought.

[2180] What do you think?

[2181] I'm going to say it's Ace Combat something something.

[2182] Nope.

[2183] Now, some of something came out on the DS.

[2184] Yeah, that's a different sub -franchise.

[2185] It's actually Ace Combat Joint Assault.

[2186] That's the one, yeah.

[2187] Close, though, with the something -something.

[2188] Also out this week, Disney Guilty Party, which, quick look, go watch it.

[2189] We have one.

[2190] Jared, that game seems really good.

[2191] It does.

[2192] I hear it's very clever.

[2193] It is.

[2194] And filled with lovable stereotypes.

[2195] I could probably go on about that game for at least seven minutes, but...

[2196] We'll skip that for now.

[2197] Also, this week is Metroid Other M for the Nintendo Wii, which we have spoken about at length already.

[2198] And Xbox Live Arcade's release is Dead Rising 2 Case Zero for $5.

[2199] And without further ado, throwing this over to Mr. Jeff Gershman for your Nintendo download releases for the week.

[2200] Jeff, take it away.

[2201] That's right, I'm here.

[2202] Hey, Jeff.

[2203] Hi.

[2204] a banner week this week.

[2205] I am very excited.

[2206] Stretch it out for drama.

[2207] One WiiWare release.

[2208] WiiWare.

[2209] Three DSIWare releases.

[2210] Starting with WiiWare.

[2211] Tales of Elastic Boy.

[2212] Mission one.

[2213] That's what's episodic.

[2214] From Lexus Numerique.

[2215] Numerique.

[2216] Numerique.

[2217] This is French.

[2218] Numerique.

[2219] Enrique Iglesias.

[2220] 600 Wii points.

[2221] Tales of Elastic Boy offers a totally innovative and unique style of gameplay that takes full advantage of the Wii Remote TM controller.

[2222] Has there ever been anything good that has taken quote unquote full advantage?

[2223] Shouldn't you just take like half into like quarter advantage?

[2224] To fulfill your quest and save your planet.

[2225] You'll have to travel through many lands, defeat various enemies, meet unexpected friends, and solve tricky puzzles.

[2226] Play in single player mode or with your friends and discover funny games.

[2227] This just sounds like, yo, it's a video game.

[2228] It has things in it and places and other things.

[2229] Use your stretching arms to swing and punch.

[2230] Roll as fast as you can or jump onto your enemies.

[2231] There.

[2232] There's something actually about real abilities.

[2233] Based on a powerful physics engine, Tales of Elastic Boy offers a truly original and entertaining gaming experience that's easy to learn but challenging to master.

[2234] Like all the best games.

[2235] Are we at the point where we can stop touting physics engines?

[2236] It's got physics and it's easy to pick up and play but challenging to master.

[2237] Okay.

[2238] Like every game ever made.

[2239] Like Othello.

[2240] Lifetime.

[2241] I don't know, man. Havoc does not license itself.

[2242] Or reversing.

[2243] It's true.

[2244] Next you're going to say like, oh, all these games with trees.

[2245] Not turn on Speedtree on me. Not here.

[2246] Not now.

[2247] I wouldn't be able to take it.

[2248] No, no. I have no problem with it.

[2249] But no one's ever said like, yo, and we got Speedtree.

[2250] We have trees.

[2251] It's like, well, you bought trees.

[2252] DSiWare Cosmos X2.

[2253] Two times the Cosmos from Saturnine Games.

[2254] 500 DSi points rated E for everybody.

[2255] Pilot the Cosmos X2 to defend your planet against an alien invasion.

[2256] Battle your way through the solar system to the alien homeworld to defeat their army.

[2257] Equip your ship with two weapons of your choice and switch between them at any time during the battle.

[2258] Your active weapon takes damage when your ship gets hit.

[2259] Defeating enemies regenerates energy in your inactive weapon.

[2260] The key to your survival lies in finding a balance in your weapon usage.

[2261] Battle your way through six levels of action and test your skills with three difficulty levels.

[2262] Three bonus modes provide additional challenges.

[2263] Didn't we establish last week that some of these are, in fact, taken from instruction manuals?

[2264] Or at least that one was.

[2265] That was what percentage of them are.

[2266] All right.

[2267] You thought it wasn't possible.

[2268] Oh, I did, Jeff.

[2269] I thought it wasn't possible.

[2270] I knew it was.

[2271] Oh, man, I looked at the sheet.

[2272] I knew in my heart.

[2273] My notebook.

[2274] Boom!

[2275] Pearl.

[2276] Fuck yes.

[2277] All the people that bought my notebook carbon just said, I hope it has like double the pages.

[2278] This is from no. And it's 500 Nintendo DSi points.

[2279] My notebook allows you to take notes wherever you go.

[2280] Just pop open your Nintendo DSi system and jot down your thoughts.

[2281] What about my notebook, though?

[2282] I don't want your notebook.

[2283] Make a list and cross it off or play your favorite pen and paper games, games not included.

[2284] What?

[2285] You can even personalize your notebook by drawing on the cover and changing the paper type with 24 different unlockable paper styles.

[2286] What do I have to do to unlock paper styles?

[2287] Yo, I don't get to tell you what you got to do to unlock paper styles.

[2288] Papal styles I'll tell you all about.

[2289] Okay.

[2290] You need a hat and then under it another hat.

[2291] Use the pen or pencil to make your notes or doodles and then erase the bits you don't like.

[2292] With five ink colors, you'll always be able to make your notes and doodles look stylish.

[2293] My notebook also includes 128 pages to write on and the ability to export your pages to your Nintendo DSi photo album.

[2294] I'm pretty sure that is the exact same block of text from my notebook.

[2295] That is.

[2296] So what is like the practical difference between?

[2297] like is it just different different paper stuff yo it's different pokemon yeah it's like this one's got squirtle but what like is that just like literally like the front of the notebook is a different color five in color that's worth it maybe it's five different ones right that's it's five bucks but it doesn't you can play that you can get my notebook or dead rising key zero what's your choice i am baffled i am baffled by the multiple my notebook products what do you think ballpark what do you think ign's gonna give us Somewhere in the twos, let's say.

[2298] I think they'll give it the exact same score they gave My Notebook to Harvest.

[2299] 7 .5.

[2300] But they probably should give it a lower score.

[2301] Oh, yeah, they did give it like a 7 .5.

[2302] Yeah, they gave it a crazy score.

[2303] Like, again, heart goes out.

[2304] Yeah, heart goes out to the men in the trenches reviewing DSiWare games.

[2305] You're fighting the good fight for the seven people that read those.

[2306] It's hard to make a sequel, man. You are.

[2307] Especially like a week later.

[2308] Our fallen heroes.

[2309] You change too much, you lose the whole crowd.

[2310] This is true.

[2311] Well, for a game that's so competitive online, you can't change that much.

[2312] Down, you know, a quarter circle forward and pen has to do the same thing in every game.

[2313] That's not my notebook anymore.

[2314] Music on, colon, learning piano from Abbey Light.

[2315] 200 Nintendo DSi points.

[2316] An entire orchestra follows your performance of 15 great classics.

[2317] By playing each day, your ability may increase.

[2318] We don't want to go out on a limb here and say you will get better.

[2319] We can't guarantee you're going to get better.

[2320] You might earn the bronze, silver, and gold medals for each song, completing each different level.

[2321] It also might just happen on its own.

[2322] A simplified music score is shown on the upper screen and a full piano keyboard appears on the touch screen guiding beginners note by note on their first steps.

[2323] Learn works by famous composers including Beethoven, Pachelbel, Bach, Strauss, and Verdi.

[2324] Angry Rod Sterling.

[2325] Also the Chopsticks guy.

[2326] Chopsticks dude.

[2327] Johnny Chopsticks.

[2328] Lil Wayne.

[2329] T .I. Biz Marquee.

[2330] Is that it, Jeff?

[2331] That is it.

[2332] That's it, that's all.

[2333] That's it and that's all.

[2334] That's it and that's all.

[2335] Thank you, Jeff, for something.

[2336] Yeah, sure.

[2337] Let's, gentlemen, take it to the emails.

[2338] How do you feel about that?

[2339] You know how I feel.

[2340] Brad, how do you feel?

[2341] Oh.

[2342] Emails?

[2343] Bombcast at giantbomb .com is the email address.

[2344] First email comes from Andy Gorman in Cincinnati.

[2345] Oh.

[2346] Hey, Giant Bomb.

[2347] Oh.

[2348] I feel like although Microsoft is really hoping for Kinect to do well as a product, I'm not sure they are marketing it very well.

[2349] Most of my friends, who this product is aimed at, are not very intense gamers who mainly only play Wii Party games and the Call of Duty series.

[2350] However, none of them have even heard of Kinect when I asked them of their opinion on it.

[2351] Many of their younger siblings also responded with confusion.

[2352] How do you feel Microsoft's advertising campaign is working, and have you noticed the things I have?

[2353] I guess I don't really feel like an ad campaign has really started in earnest yet.

[2354] Yeah, no, they've been kind of showing it to people like us and that sort of stuff, but their big mainstream push, I don't think it's really gotten underway.

[2355] I mean, they're just starting the mall stuff and Best Buy appearances and all that, so it's kind of underway.

[2356] The morning show circuit is two or three months off.

[2357] Their big gift guide push for the holidays and stuff, that'll be where you see it.

[2358] Everywhere.

[2359] Too early to gauge.

[2360] Yeah, I guess it's still, I don't know, it's still too early to try and create that sort of big awareness.

[2361] I would imagine that they would try to put this thing everywhere, like mainstream stuff, like try and get it on your morning shows and all that.

[2362] It is so, it is like such a, like that sells very easily to the mainstream.

[2363] Like you look at that thing, you're like, oh, there's the future.

[2364] It's like the Wii, but no hands -free.

[2365] That's the thing that you start selling to the mainstream the day that it comes out.

[2366] Yeah, if you show it to them now, they're just going to forget about it.

[2367] They'll be like, oh, that sounds neat.

[2368] Can I get that?

[2369] No?

[2370] What?

[2371] When?

[2372] It's coming out well enough ahead of Christmas for it to serve its person.

[2373] And it's great because video games have been getting so complicated.

[2374] So complicated.

[2375] My nephew has one of those.

[2376] I can't even hold a controller anymore.

[2377] And this is great because I could just move.

[2378] I could just.

[2379] Connect would be a really great as seen on TV product.

[2380] Or at least that's how they should do the ad campaigns.

[2381] Or just do infomercials.

[2382] Or just do the like.

[2383] Oh man. Couple it with those HD glasses.

[2384] Get a free shake weight.

[2385] Just thinking a lot of like, has this ever happened to you?

[2386] And then just like black and white fumbling controller in the air.

[2387] Like corn around your neck.

[2388] All these complicated controllers.

[2389] No more.

[2390] Just like throwing them all in the garbage.

[2391] That's right.

[2392] And then in full brilliant Technicolor comes the Kinect.

[2393] Microsoft Kinect.

[2394] See the world with the color and clarity of HD.

[2395] Speaking of which, Chris H. from Philly writes in to talk about high -definition madness.

[2396] And he references the HD vision sunglasses.

[2397] Oh, yeah?

[2398] Which are already like...

[2399] Yeah, high -definition as a term has rapidly lost any and all meaning.

[2400] Tell me about it.

[2401] You know a thing or two.

[2402] Anybody want to do anything for ADP?

[2403] Huh?

[2404] You mean enhanced...

[2405] Yeah, nobody ever said that was HD.

[2406] My EDTV.

[2407] That's ED.

[2408] What do these glasses do?

[2409] They make everything HD.

[2410] Yeah, it lets you see the world in HD.

[2411] I think there was like a – Brad Nicholson, maybe you can back me up.

[2412] I believe there was a like men's health issue recently that on the cover advertised HD abs.

[2413] I have not heard of this, but I like it.

[2414] 720 abs.

[2415] How do you get them?

[2416] I'm tired of my SD abs.

[2417] More importantly, my SD abs are tired of me. Yes, HD.

[2418] And then also, I guess it's Valspar is introducing HD paint.

[2419] High definition house paint.

[2420] To make your walls hide.

[2421] The company name sounds like they should be selling high definition herpes medication.

[2422] I do not take Valspar if you are in any high blood pressure medication.

[2423] 720 herpe.

[2424] There's definitely been HD audio around.

[2425] I've seen that.

[2426] It says HD audio.

[2427] I think that's actually, there's a standard with that.

[2428] That's not necessarily all fake.

[2429] What is that?

[2430] It's like a high sampling rate.

[2431] I think they use it to apply that it's like audio only.

[2432] So it's like CDs that are recorded in surround sound or audio that's recorded in HD audio.

[2433] So it's like here's an album you can buy and listen to on your surround sound gear via your DVD player.

[2434] But that's at least closer in the realm of something that would be high definition, not paint.

[2435] At least that's, yeah, that's a technical spec.

[2436] I don't believe that exists for glasses or abs or paint.

[2437] Whatever, dude.

[2438] I'm just saying if you're going to complain about audio, there are far bigger fish to fry in the devaluation of the words HD.

[2439] Next email comes in from Chase Martin, Bellevue, Washington.

[2440] Hey, Giant Bomb.

[2441] I'm super excited for the new version of NBA Jam.

[2442] When it was a Wii exclusive, I thought the day had come for me to finally cave in and buy that silly system.

[2443] So as you can imagine, I was happy to hear that it would be included in new versions of NBA Elite 11 for the 360 PS3, so I immediately rushed out and pre -ordered NBA Elite.

[2444] Here's where you lot come in.

[2445] I am super confused about what that NBA Elite version of NBA Jam will be.

[2446] I've looked for info, but have found it to be pretty scant.

[2447] I know it will.

[2448] I believe it's just classic mode, which is just, yo, you want to play some basketball.

[2449] I don't think it has any of the other stuff.

[2450] Like Domination, like all those other modes are modes that come out of the remix tour.

[2451] Okay.

[2452] The EAPR was very specific.

[2453] They wouldn't even call this version a game.

[2454] They called it three modes out of NBA Jam Wii.

[2455] Yeah.

[2456] I'm still struggling with a guy from the Pacific Northwest referring to us as a lot.

[2457] Okay.

[2458] Seems like a pretty specific angloism to me. Calum O 'Neill in Sydney, Australia.

[2459] Yeah.

[2460] Hey, Bombcast.

[2461] Hello.

[2462] I have only recently gotten into consoles after mainly using PCs and was kind of confused after trying to get my saves off my brother's console and onto my own that instead of using a cloud to store your progress, it's just local.

[2463] While it's not horrible, I'm sorry, did that make sense?

[2464] You looked at me weird, Vinny.

[2465] Yeah.

[2466] He thinks it's weird that he had to move saves around on a physical thing and that it's not using cloud computing.

[2467] Totally, because how long has cloud computing been doing saves on PCs?

[2468] And, like, how many PC games actually do that?

[2469] Like, not a huge number.

[2470] I think that's a lofty expectation.

[2471] Yeah.

[2472] We will get there someday.

[2473] I'm sorry.

[2474] I didn't mean to interrupt.

[2475] That's what threw me off was the expectation.

[2476] Basically, the question is, hey, what's up with cloud saves?

[2477] Oh.

[2478] They're new all around.

[2479] Get Steam.

[2480] I don't know.

[2481] And play the five games, you know, however many.

[2482] Play Torchlight.

[2483] I've still got a Torchlight character that I can't get into the cloud.

[2484] I don't know.

[2485] Steam Cloud is weird.

[2486] If it gets out of sync with your local files or whatever, it can be tough to get them to update properly.

[2487] Maybe we'll see it on the PS3 ever.

[2488] I don't know.

[2489] It'd be cool.

[2490] I mean, whatever.

[2491] It'd be a cool thing, especially for us.

[2492] We carry around our saves around.

[2493] PS3 needs it.

[2494] Yeah, I mean, how many people are realistically moving between consoles?

[2495] Yeah.

[2496] Well, Calum here is.

[2497] Xbox is nice because you can save directly to a thing.

[2498] Yeah.

[2499] You know?

[2500] Yeah.

[2501] PS3, you have to copy stuff back and forth, and some files won't go, and you have to compare timestamps to figure out which ones are which.

[2502] Ugh.

[2503] No, it's problematic.

[2504] And, you know, if you think back, it wasn't that long ago that that was the opposite.

[2505] I mean, you know...

[2506] Your Metroid Wii madness is probably the worst example of that.

[2507] Oh, yeah.

[2508] It's a real specific case that...

[2509] Normal people never would do.

[2510] Most people aren't going to have to do a video review and take footage of most of the game after they buy it, but Jesus.

[2511] 17 SD cards.

[2512] I employed three separate SD cards in backing up save files.

[2513] And two different Wiis at one time.

[2514] That's right.

[2515] You had to borrow my Wii.

[2516] Oh, God.

[2517] Because you needed more.

[2518] And at one point I saw you just, I thought you were losing your mind just staring at your desk.

[2519] I couldn't figure it out.

[2520] Just a pile of SD cards like, what do I do now?

[2521] Just because I had a 16 megabyte, a 1 gigabyte, and a 2 gigabyte card.

[2522] They all had files across them.

[2523] There's no way of looking at the memory management screen to tell which file is which.

[2524] There's no time stamp, no numbering scheme, no fucking anything.

[2525] You have to copy the file to the Wii and then load the game and then check what's in it in the game.

[2526] But if you don't know what files are on the cards and you need to back up the one on the system, you risk overriding your progress just to see what's on the fucking cards.

[2527] So I had to get your Wii.

[2528] Use that.

[2529] A copy to that.

[2530] One console future.

[2531] Oh, my God.

[2532] Awful.

[2533] But, you know, it's maybe not our lifestyle that much, but, you know, it wasn't that long ago that you'd go to your friend's house to fucking play games together or to show him some part of some game or whatever.

[2534] So I don't think it's too unreasonable to expect it to be fairly portable when it comes to your save files.

[2535] So I...

[2536] Yeah.

[2537] I see the expectation and I understand it, especially if you're a younger cat.

[2538] Cloud saves on PC seem like they've been going on for a really long time.

[2539] Really?

[2540] I'm saying if you are that young dude and for whom that seems like it's been going on for a really long time.

[2541] No matter of perspective.

[2542] Jesse from Germany.

[2543] I have recently been working on my final achievement in Fallout 3.

[2544] I have never gotten an S rank on Giant Bomb, though.

[2545] I held the 1 ,000 point mark in Halo 3, but that was before the DLC.

[2546] I thought to myself...

[2547] I thought to myself of a way to describe this subjective S rank I once held over Halo 3, and the S rank I will soon hold over Fallout 3, and I propose that achieving an S rank on retail versions of a game be called a primitive S rank, and that achieving an S rank on a game after all DLC is released be called a final S rank.

[2548] We've talked some about trying to break up some of that stuff, but I think it just leads to madness.

[2549] S rank is an S rank.

[2550] Yeah.

[2551] That's right.

[2552] Either get them all or don't get them.

[2553] Bummer, but...

[2554] Yeah.

[2555] It's how the system is set up.

[2556] You had to buy a thing to get the S -Rank in the first place, and in some cases, they're going to make you buy some more.

[2557] I'm a massive S -Rank.

[2558] Nine times out of ten, I mean, if you like the game enough to get all of them, you're probably not going to mind getting a few more.

[2559] Resident Evil.

[2560] RE5 is the one weird outlier that fucking sucks.

[2561] Because that DLC, that first DLC they put out, the multiplayer stuff, like who in their right mind?

[2562] Yeah.

[2563] That sucks.

[2564] That's a bummer.

[2565] Next email comes in from David Kerr in Sunderland, England.

[2566] With Microsoft's Game Room afloat and with Chrome Studios laying off staff, do you think we will ever get to see the Dreamcast games that they said would come to Game Room?

[2567] No, because Sega is putting out Dreamcast games directly for Xbox Live Arcade.

[2568] Oh, is that what's happening?

[2569] Yeah, Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi are just coming out as XBLA games.

[2570] Maybe somewhere down the road you could see something like that, but come on.

[2571] If they were just like, fuck Game Room, right?

[2572] And they were like, well, we have this code.

[2573] Well, now they're just like, let's fuck Jeff.

[2574] And they were like, well, we have this code and then we have people who bought it.

[2575] We'll let you launch games or something.

[2576] We'll let you pick your arcade games that you bought through Xbox Live and set up a Game Room there.

[2577] Would you be interested in that?

[2578] Like some kind of virtual interface to launch stuff?

[2579] No. You mean like Destination Arcade?

[2580] I don't know.

[2581] Something.

[2582] Something a little bit more useful.

[2583] I don't want elaborate launchers at all.

[2584] I think if Game Room did not have all that Avatar crap, it would be better.

[2585] Can't you launch everything from the menu?

[2586] You can, but in cases where you have bought all the games, there's no easy indicator to figure out where the new ones are.

[2587] So I just place the machines in my virtual arcade as I buy them.

[2588] Again, we here are exploring usage patterns that the typical person will never experience.

[2589] Such as buying all of the game rooms.

[2590] Such as buying any game room games.

[2591] Maybe you'll win something.

[2592] This was just a big social experiment.

[2593] At the end, I'll be master of arcades.

[2594] You'll go to space!

[2595] Master of all you survey.

[2596] And Emilio Estevez will come in.

[2597] Great going.

[2598] Here you go.

[2599] It's a beat -up berserk machine.

[2600] I don't really have room for this.

[2601] I'll take it.

[2602] Put it next to my beat -up missile command machine.

[2603] Well, you'll get trapped in game room.

[2604] Suck you in.

[2605] You'll be that dude.

[2606] Arms out.

[2607] Arms out forever.

[2608] Terrible nightmare.

[2609] I have to live that nightmare.

[2610] I know what it's like.

[2611] I want to be there.

[2612] John from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

[2613] Hey, guys.

[2614] A little familiar this time, not using the...

[2615] Hi.

[2616] The formal.

[2617] The formal bomb cast.

[2618] Hey, guys.

[2619] I find that when I play Super Street Fighter IV with my DualShock controller, the quarter circles I need to do for a lot of moves are easier if I am on the left side of the screen facing right than if I am on the right side of the screen facing left.

[2620] For some reason, my thumbs move a lot slower if I'm moving the joystick left.

[2621] A, am I the only person that has this difficulty or is this fairly common?

[2622] B, would getting a fight stick solve this problem?

[2623] Brad, you seem to be nodding knowingly during this question.

[2624] Not in reference to this specific scenario, but that's why I always played MK2 on the right side of the machine.

[2625] Oh, okay.

[2626] Just what you're used to?

[2627] Yeah.

[2628] I have the same problem.

[2629] And getting a fight stick doesn't solve it.

[2630] That does not help you?

[2631] It also doesn't make you better or make you play the game anymore.

[2632] It's just now you have a fight stick.

[2633] Yeah, I was always better from left facing right than right facing left.

[2634] And I always got really afraid, too, when somebody jumped over me and I was on the other side.

[2635] Oh, shit, I just got to work to get back on the other side.

[2636] I just got to curl up into a ball until he jumps over me again.

[2637] That's really something I'd never considered.

[2638] But, yeah, I guess it's a total.

[2639] It's all just execution.

[2640] You just need to practice.

[2641] Yeah.

[2642] I'm just bad.

[2643] That's pretty much what it is.

[2644] But you're saying, Vinny, that buying a stick is not necessarily the best first step here?

[2645] I think, like Jeff said, if it gets you to practice more, then you'll probably get over it.

[2646] But it's not like a – it's just a motion thing.

[2647] Just do more hurricane kicks when you're on the other side.

[2648] It's the same.

[2649] But it's different.

[2650] It's weird.

[2651] All right, last email.

[2652] This comes from Landon Smith.

[2653] On the July 1, 2008 podcast, a user wrote in asking, what's up with Vinny?

[2654] It's been two years since Vinny left us with, I'll get back to you on that.

[2655] Has Vinny or anyone at Giant Bomb figured this out yet?

[2656] So what is up with Vinny?

[2657] I'm still working on it.

[2658] He's still working on it.

[2659] I'll get back to you.

[2660] All right.

[2661] Let's check back in a little bit later, Landon.

[2662] That's it for emails.

[2663] Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

[2664] Bombcast at giantbomb .com is, once again, that email address.

[2665] And thus brings this gentleman to the end of our show.

[2666] I would like to thank Mr. Brad Nicholson for joining us again.

[2667] Brad, I hope you enjoy your time out here on the Westie.

[2668] That's great, actually.

[2669] And, yeah, keep making news.

[2670] And, Vinny, keep squishing your face.

[2671] We have PAX this weekend.

[2672] PAX is this weekend.

[2673] Giant Bombs PAX panel happening Friday night.

[2674] Pegasus Theater starting at 8 .30 p .m. And then going.

[2675] It's at 8 .30 p .m. Is it 8 .30?

[2676] Yeah.

[2677] Oh, crap.

[2678] I've been telling people eight.

[2679] Oops.

[2680] Well, it's probably want to show up at eight.

[2681] Get in line early.

[2682] Get in line.

[2683] We are off -site.

[2684] We are not in the convention center.

[2685] We are in the hotel near the convention center, which is where registration and all that stuff happens.

[2686] I think it's a Hyatt.

[2687] I can't remember what that PAX looks like because all I can remember is PAX East now.

[2688] And I'm like, oh, I know where that hotel is.

[2689] It's attached to the – oh, wait.

[2690] You'll be reminded soon enough, Jeff, because we're leaving here Friday morning, bright and early.

[2691] Yeah.

[2692] Bean bags.

[2693] Crash on some bean bags for the day.

[2694] Always.

[2695] And then the following week is...

[2696] Yes, and then the following Thursday is September the 9th, the Whiskey Media Big Live Live Show Live.

[2697] Holy crap.

[2698] Holy crap is right, Vinny.

[2699] So stay tuned for that.

[2700] And TNT this week, again, is UMK3 for the Xbox Live Arcade and MK2 for PlayStation Network.

[2701] If you want to get on that, play some...

[2702] rib cage assassins with uh flying back special to play that that's right jeff is jeff is leaving and then coming back i go play call of duty black ops multiplayer oh snap in los angeles we'll come back and tell us all about it i guess if you can yeah there's no i'll probably telling people about it while i'm there okay so uh i feel like wednesday night i should mention uh on thursday for our big live Live show live.

[2703] You can come join us after 6 o 'clock, I think, upstairs.

[2704] There's going to be a big block party happening in the neighborhood.

[2705] We'll have more information on that.

[2706] That's right.

[2707] Just so you know, if you want to come and party with us in our 21.

[2708] That's right.

[2709] I think you might be able to get in if you're in.

[2710] I don't know.

[2711] Well, there's no in, right?

[2712] It's just on the street.

[2713] It is a block party, but there will be alcohol there.

[2714] I think they have beer gardens and stuff like that probably.

[2715] There's so many permits.

[2716] Yeah.

[2717] Trying to do something in San Francisco.

[2718] Holy crapper.

[2719] Having to go to like hearings and things.

[2720] Melissa have a podcast about permits.

[2721] We can talk to her about that later.

[2722] But for now, we're going to sign off and this podcast.

[2723] Thanks, you guys, for sitting with me. Be sure to come back next week for another edition of the Giant Bombcast.