Giant Bombcast 08-30-2011

[0] It's Tuesday, August the 30th, 2011, and you are listening to The Giant Bobcast.

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

[2] Vinny Caravella's here.

[3] I'm Vinny Caravella, getting softer and softer.

[4] Keeping it tight.

[5] Keeping it tight.

[6] I'm still looking pretty good.

[7] You look pretty good.

[8] Thanks.

[9] Patrick Klepik's here, nice and shaggy.

[10] Putting the news in news.

[11] Jeff Gristman.

[12] Straight out of Dog City.

[13] Dog City?

[14] Biggest regret of bags still.

[15] Not visiting Dog City?

[16] Absolutely.

[17] Absolutely.

[18] And Brad Shoemaker is here.

[19] Hello.

[20] I brought my post -convention voice.

[21] Yeah.

[22] I think we all brought our post -convention everything.

[23] So PAX happened.

[24] This past weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

[25] I feel like it happened to us.

[26] It happened all over my face.

[27] It was inflicted upon us.

[28] Yeah, you've been paxed.

[29] Yeah.

[30] We caught pax.

[31] Jeff, are you feeling okay?

[32] Yeah, I think so.

[33] I'm a little...

[34] I've thus far heard zero reports from people that I know that went to pax of...

[35] I haven't seen a PAX flu outbreak yet.

[36] Yeah, I've got like a slight twinge in the back of my throat that could just be from all the talking and yelling.

[37] Yeah.

[38] And I'm a little warmer than usual, so by the time you hear this, maybe I'll be horribly ill. Maybe the stand will have happened for real.

[39] Bring out your dad.

[40] It's impossible to know right now.

[41] I'm just kind of, you know, fingers crossed, hoping that it's more tired than sick.

[42] Yeah.

[43] Who slept the most last night?

[44] I got nine.

[45] I got eight.

[46] Yeah.

[47] I got nine and a half.

[48] But you didn't sleep the night before.

[49] But the night before, I did not sleep at all.

[50] You got like seven last night?

[51] I went to bed early, but I don't know if I slept.

[52] It was a lot of kind of like...

[53] I went home and ate a ton of nachos my wife made.

[54] She basically texted me and was like, making nachos.

[55] I hope you're hungry.

[56] Did she buy a wooden nacho press?

[57] Yeah, she made her own nachos now.

[58] And it was just a ton of food.

[59] And then I was just kind of...

[60] So full that you can't lie down kind of thing.

[61] Just like laying on your stomach just hurts.

[62] So I had a tough time sleeping.

[63] I didn't eat anything.

[64] I just got home.

[65] We had those combos in the car.

[66] That's right.

[67] Yeah, those combos.

[68] And I got another Diet Mountain Dew.

[69] Started my day with a Diet Mountain Dew.

[70] Ended it with another Diet Mountain Dew.

[71] Did the combos taste test.

[72] Yeah.

[73] Four different flavors.

[74] Pizzeria was the winner.

[75] What are the other flavors?

[76] I like the jalapeno cheese the best.

[77] Pizzeria was my winner.

[78] The tortilla.

[79] That was my winner.

[80] My realization is that you can eat roughly six combos before the feeling of eating combos makes you feel bad about yourself.

[81] But that doesn't stop you.

[82] No, no. I'm just saying six is the number where it goes from being like, these are okay to, why am I eating these still?

[83] It just turns immediately.

[84] How many are in a bag?

[85] Depends on the size of the bag.

[86] Yeah, these are the very small bags.

[87] So there's probably like 18, 15.

[88] Something like that.

[89] Like 20.

[90] Whole ones.

[91] Not 20.

[92] 15.

[93] One or two just broken ones.

[94] I see 15 tops.

[95] Put the combos in your eyes.

[96] High combos.

[97] Dogman.

[98] Yep.

[99] I see meat everywhere.

[100] I didn't ask for this.

[101] So you could tell it was a good PAX because of the gross number of inside jokes that were spawned from the show.

[102] The number of stories that are not appropriate to be told on podcasts.

[103] That's what happens at PAX.

[104] Middle Earth.

[105] I feel like we should just throw out all of the...

[106] the jokes and references and just let the audience extract.

[107] You go ahead, Middle Earth.

[108] Figure out what that means on your own.

[109] We have to get the bird hammer in here before.

[110] Oh, you want to drop the bird hammer?

[111] Yeah, we'll send out the call.

[112] I think this is Middle Earth.

[113] What do you think this is?

[114] Yo, you want a freestyle rap battle?

[115] No, I just don't have minutes on my cell phone.

[116] What does that have to do with it?

[117] Also, I think there were games at PAX.

[118] What?

[119] I think I saw some games.

[120] Did you see some games?

[121] Yeah, I saw.

[122] I saw some games and some gaming.

[123] So I just want to say that first, you know, our panel I thought was a success despite losing a half hour.

[124] of time out of it.

[125] Yeah, thanks for everybody for showing up.

[126] Issues, yeah.

[127] And the patience when the issues.

[128] Nice full house and also the patience of us starting just a little bit late.

[129] Apparently that queue room where people were lined up before the panel was about as hot as the sun.

[130] Oh.

[131] Apparently it was like no ventilation or anything.

[132] So, you know.

[133] Thanks.

[134] 800 people standing in this room for an hour and a half.

[135] Warming up the crowd.

[136] Now they know what recording a podcast is like.

[137] Yeah, yeah.

[138] They've had the experience before.

[139] No, that sucks.

[140] I'm sorry.

[141] Yeah, that sucked, and I mean.

[142] Anything we could do.

[143] It was one of those things that probably the PAX people who hadn't run it like this before couldn't even anticipate because.

[144] They probably know it sucks too.

[145] Yeah, yeah.

[146] They probably.

[147] Those guys are really helpful.

[148] There were some dudes that actually had to like leave the room because of.

[149] because of the heat, but they were still able to get into the panel, so I was happy to hear that story.

[150] And, yeah, big shout -out to the Enforcers.

[151] They enforced.

[152] They enforced like crazy.

[153] And I also want to echo Will Smith's comment that he made on Twitter of it's awesome that the PAX Enforcers are constantly on the lookout to keep, like, bottlenecks from happening.

[154] Yeah, traffic jams.

[155] Like, making sure that people can always walk through any pathways.

[156] Just keep it moving.

[157] Do not stand here.

[158] Yeah, yeah.

[159] It's like this is not a place for you to stand here and talk or, in our case, film stuff.

[160] Yeah.

[161] We got moved a couple times, but it was like – Which is great because I was telling Jeff on one of those escalator trips, like a huge fear is like getting off that escalator into an unmoving crowd.

[162] What happens?

[163] Right.

[164] What happens on that escalator, especially when there are six in a row?

[165] It just piles up, right?

[166] Yeah.

[167] Yeah, I was thinking about that, the escalator cascade effect there.

[168] I can't even imagine what the hell, just people start walking backwards on an escalator.

[169] Like, ugh.

[170] Yeah.

[171] That did not happen, though.

[172] That did not happen.

[173] But yeah, panel was fun.

[174] Enjoyed it.

[175] Thanks to Paul and Carrie for coming up on stage.

[176] My, again, sincerest apologies to Dave Lane, Jonathan Yocky, and Adam Boyes for not...

[177] Allowing them up onto the stage.

[178] Though Johnny was still a pretty big factor in the panel, I'd say.

[179] All things considered.

[180] Johnny's always a factor.

[181] Also, thanks to Phil Reno and his friend Joel and John Drake from Harmonix for providing their sounds for our live show band.

[182] which hopefully you'll catch a little glimpse of in the panel video.

[183] Definitely, which should be up now.

[184] If it's not up, then something bad has happened, and we'll be up soon.

[185] Yeah, yeah.

[186] So we've got that.

[187] So if you didn't come out to PAX and didn't see the bomb cast live, we have the whole experience there.

[188] And it looks good.

[189] I saw a little bit of it.

[190] Yeah.

[191] It looks better than I remember that room looking when we were in it.

[192] I look better than I remembered looking.

[193] Drew's working on some of the audio now, so the audio might not be that great.

[194] Apparently the drop out of the board maybe had some problems, so I apologize in advance if some of the audio is weird, but we're working on it.

[195] A little echoey, right?

[196] Something to issue of the...

[197] A combination of things.

[198] It was pretty echoey when we were up there.

[199] I couldn't understand some of what you guys were saying.

[200] The drop out of the board was maybe a little lower than we had expected it to be, so a lot of...

[201] A lot of hiss or something when you bring it up.

[202] Maybe having to boost it a little bit.

[203] Yeah, which brings up a lot of...

[204] NR.

[205] NR.

[206] Just some room tone.

[207] And some pops.

[208] Yeah, those are very poppy mics.

[209] Yeah, super directional, too.

[210] We should bring our own mics next time and all wear Bobby Brown wraparound hits at mics and do the whole panel standing up.

[211] Okay.

[212] Yeah.

[213] All right.

[214] Good.

[215] Great.

[216] But you have to, like, get rid of the table.

[217] Yeah.

[218] I would kick the table off.

[219] Yeah.

[220] And just walk around like an infomercial.

[221] Basically.

[222] Get some charts.

[223] A lot of graphs.

[224] Pie graphs.

[225] Wear a suit jacket over reflection.

[226] Yes, definitely.

[227] I want to look like I just stepped off the surface of a UFC sun.

[228] Yeah, so panel happened.

[229] That was fun.

[230] Vinny, let's talk about your PAX experience.

[231] Sure, okay.

[232] How did the show go for you, sir?

[233] It's fantastic.

[234] It's one of my favorite shows aside from PAX East.

[235] Yeah.

[236] What do you like better?

[237] I think they're the same thing at this point, right?

[238] But what do you like better?

[239] Rank them.

[240] Yeah, which one's prettier?

[241] Which one's prettier?

[242] You guys are jerks.

[243] You know which one's prettier is whichever one Vinny is in.

[244] You know, I think they're both still looking good, and I think they're both pretty tight.

[245] Yeah, they're both keeping it tight.

[246] Keeping it tight?

[247] It's good.

[248] No, Brad's right.

[249] They're both very similar, so it's impossible to rank.

[250] The crowds are both fantastic.

[251] I always get them mixed up now with like, no, we didn't have a band here yet.

[252] We did that last year, right?

[253] No, that was PAX East.

[254] I'm like, oh, okay.

[255] That was six months ago.

[256] Not a full year ago.

[257] Holy crap.

[258] That's before there's a third one.

[259] I did think – wait, is that happening?

[260] PAX London is the rumor.

[261] Oh, okay.

[262] Oh, PAX UK.

[263] Oh, man. Oh, no. That's next week.

[264] Can we just be professional PAX goers?

[265] When it gets to the point where there's, like, one a month.

[266] Yeah, if there's one a week.

[267] Just work in the PAX circuit, you know.

[268] I can't drink that much.

[269] Like, that would replace, like, oil rig roughneck as, like, most dangerous profession.

[270] Professional PAX tour.

[271] Life expectancy of professional PAX guy is, like, three years.

[272] Liver augments.

[273] You'd need them.

[274] Just a rolling dialysis machine just to clean it out for you.

[275] Sticker with Dancing Gabe and Tycho's on the back.

[276] We'll put it on the back of the car.

[277] Yep.

[278] I like it.

[279] Keep on Paxing.

[280] So, yeah.

[281] I will say the one thing that...

[282] I thought was not as good as previous years this year, and I'm not really sure why.

[283] It's my personal opinion, but I'm sure some others share it.

[284] It was moving the PAX 10 actually off of kind of the main drag.

[285] It was shared by the developers themselves.

[286] That feeling?

[287] Upset.

[288] The idea that it had been moved was the sixth floor, right?

[289] Yeah.

[290] It was two floors up from the main show floor.

[291] Because the concept of the Pac -10 was giving exposure to these unpublished, unpicked up games.

[292] Fantastic stuff up there.

[293] Until you got over to the AAA stuff that has a big marketing budget.

[294] To the point that in the past, I think they situated it such that you had to walk through it.

[295] Yeah, or at least it was in peripheral vision.

[296] It was near one of the main doors, for sure.

[297] Yeah, so it was cool because Firefall was there instead.

[298] Firefall.

[299] Firefall had half of the floor in one of the halls.

[300] Every booth around there, they all had something very snide to say about the Firefall experience.

[301] I mean, if I'm not mistaken, it was like really Twisted Pixel was inside the Firefall booth, right?

[302] It's like literally inside.

[303] When I saw Mike Wilford like bitching on Twitter about like, oh, the Firefall booth is so big.

[304] I was like, fucking Wilford.

[305] Quit being in prima donna about it.

[306] They got a bigger sign.

[307] You've seen Firefall at previous PAX.

[308] and other conventions and stuff.

[309] Because that's the only place that exists.

[310] So it's like, oh, I've seen what their presence is like.

[311] He's got to be blowing this out.

[312] It's like, no, this thing is, it's not even just that it's a big block.

[313] It's that it has these tendrils, these arms that snake out around, like three sides of the twisted pixel booth was Firefall.

[314] Like, only one side.

[315] Ensconced in Firefall.

[316] Yeah, yeah.

[317] It was odd.

[318] But, yeah, having to kind of hunt out the PAX 10 stuff was...

[319] And it's not...

[320] We had to ask the Mega64 guys.

[321] We were like, we think it's up here.

[322] Do you guys know where it is?

[323] Like, yeah, go back there further.

[324] Well, they were in the same boat.

[325] Their merch stuff was up there, too.

[326] I mean, the PAX 10 stuff did seem to draw a pretty big crowd when I was up there, but you're right.

[327] Like, you wouldn't know where to find it unless you went looking for it.

[328] Well, if it was your first time there, like, if you weren't aware of the PAX 10, like...

[329] I'm sure they lost some people.

[330] They weren't getting the foot traffic from just accidentally stumbling upon it.

[331] They were getting it from just the people that would check out indie games already, probably.

[332] And it was kind of just like six or seven tables all clumped together, and it was like a little spot.

[333] And that's kind of all it ever is.

[334] But I think it felt like it was partitioned out a little bit better in previous years to where you're like, oh, yeah, that's the Paxton right over there, and that's the Ninja Turtle van over there, or whatever else was going on.

[335] I, yeah.

[336] Concerns from past years, from last year's PAX specifically, of when they opened up that side hall and 2K and EA having really big booth presences there.

[337] I'm like, that's kind of...

[338] Hey, PAX, get yours.

[339] I understand.

[340] From that regard.

[341] And if those companies that are bringing those booths are bringing big unreleased games for people to play, no harm, no foul on that front.

[342] No, and obviously people were interested.

[343] There was a four -hour line for Borderlands 2.

[344] There was a bunch of people wanting to go see the Mass Effect 3 stuff.

[345] I think the four -hour ended up being an exaggeration.

[346] When we shouted that out at the panel, people were like, no, it was more like an hour and a half.

[347] So that four -hour number we heard from 2K.

[348] Maybe a little inflated.

[349] I just feel like it's...

[350] I'm not doing the politics of it or whatever.

[351] I just wish – you're right.

[352] If people can go and play new games there, that's great for the big companies.

[353] I wish that power were used for good to draw people past that PAX stuff because they can't compete.

[354] They're not going to have any marketing.

[355] For most people that are going to PAX, they're games enthusiasts.

[356] They want to see games.

[357] They don't go to E3 and see this stuff.

[358] So for us, it's like, oh, I saw that at E3.

[359] I'm going to see – our agenda is decidedly different than that of the average PAX goer.

[360] And the PAX 10 stuff is, you know, that stuff has the opportunity to be really big.

[361] It's not like it's stuff that will only come out and kind of disappear on the PC or something.

[362] Bastion was a PAX 10 game.

[363] Yeah, Super Meat Boy.

[364] Retro City Rampage, which was there too, and it's coming out next year.

[365] So, yeah.

[366] Yeah, so that stuff.

[367] Fez.

[368] Yeah, Fez is part of the PAX 10 this year, and fuck.

[369] Yeah, Fez looks pretty neat.

[370] Fez looks goddamn amazing.

[371] Yeah, so PAX 10 this year, if I can remember off the top of my head, let's see.

[372] Jamestown was in it.

[373] That's been out for a while.

[374] So has Adam Zombie Smasher.

[375] Adam Zombie Smasher.

[376] Wordfighter was there.

[377] Like you said, Fez was there.

[378] Antichamber.

[379] Yeah, Antichamber.

[380] I'm working on the name of Jean Reno.

[381] Vanessa St. Pierre Delacroix and her nightmare.

[382] There it is.

[383] That's the full title.

[384] Which...

[385] That guy needs better art assets, but like...

[386] Really interesting concept.

[387] Yeah, like what that game actually is.

[388] Jon Renau in it.

[389] I hope so.

[390] Like it or not, the name is attention -getting.

[391] Yeah.

[392] I thought.

[393] Even if you can't remember it, you try to remember it.

[394] Yeah.

[395] The...

[396] I really don't mind the...

[397] Non -Euclidean...

[398] It's florid.

[399] Yeah, that was Antechamber, right?

[400] Was that one?

[401] Oh, that's one of the...

[402] Well, they're all...

[403] Yeah, the two main themes.

[404] So we went and talked to people from all of the PAX 10 like we did last year, and the two recurring themes were game elements that came from a dream, either titles or mechanics or whatever, and using the term non -Euclidean to describe the...

[405] Geometry or some gameplay.

[406] Phil Fish eventually explained it.

[407] It just means it's impossible.

[408] Call it that.

[409] It's more fun to say he's a way cooler term.

[410] It is.

[411] I'll give him that.

[412] Solar 2?

[413] We did a quick look at that a while ago.

[414] Yeah, we definitely covered a good number of these games in the past.

[415] Some of these games, like in years past for PAX 10, are games that have been released.

[416] Altitude.

[417] Yeah, exactly.

[418] And then there was the...

[419] This is going to sound mean because I shouldn't compare it to it, but it was the VVVV game.

[420] I can't remember what it was called.

[421] It was the DigiPen game.

[422] I looked that up this morning and I've forgotten the name since then.

[423] Jumping something.

[424] It's the VVV mechanics with different art. And if I'm forgetting anybody, I'm sorry.

[425] That was a DigiPen student project and those guys said we had not seen or heard of this other game, but it has one of the fundamental...

[426] Oh, I walked past that.

[427] I saw that.

[428] That basic flipping gravity mechanic is the same, but how it's triggered is different, and it seems like that's different enough to...

[429] If it's DigiBend, that means you should be able to download it for free from the website, too.

[430] Yeah, you totally can.

[431] And that game from the Israeli developers, the one with the blob...

[432] The Splatter.

[433] Was it the Splatters?

[434] The Splatters, right?

[435] The Splatters.

[436] Yeah, that's right.

[437] That's got a cool look to it.

[438] It all looks like Claymation looking.

[439] Yeah, it was neat talking to those guys.

[440] So I guess one of the guys, the guy that we talked to, he originally was working in medical software simulations.

[441] So, like...

[442] So he'll be owned by EA.

[443] EA will pay $800 million for him.

[444] So he wanted to take his experience with simulating fluids and elasticity and translate that into games.

[445] And also just interesting talking to him about making games in Israel, like what the scene is like there and just the idea that you can...

[446] What is the scene like there?

[447] Small, unsurprisingly, but growing.

[448] It seems like there's a...

[449] Yeah.

[450] But just that notion that...

[451] You know, game development can spring up from fucking anywhere.

[452] Also, his kind of...

[453] Can game development bloom on the battlefield?

[454] Also, his realization as we were talking to him.

[455] Developed games in Dog City, if you like.

[456] Damn.

[457] About Bioware, and then...

[458] Oh, Bioware.

[459] Yeah, we...

[460] Oh, you're kidding?

[461] Oh, wow, that makes so much sense.

[462] You did not know that the doctors had originally started Bioware doing medical software.

[463] So I'm like, oh, so like...

[464] Well, no, I didn't make games, so...

[465] Yeah.

[466] It blew his mind a little bit.

[467] And then Snapshot of Paxton?

[468] Yes.

[469] And that looks cool.

[470] Yeah, that's interesting.

[471] What is that?

[472] That's like you take pictures of...

[473] I guess taking pictures is a bad way to describe it because it's not like a dude with a camera.

[474] You're a little robot and you kind of select a portion of the map and kind of like copy it.

[475] And then you can paste that.

[476] Other places, it's kind of solid.

[477] The cursor almost looks like a Polaroid picture frame.

[478] And then so like if you capture a segment of something in motion and then paste it, the motion will continue.

[479] It's like a boulder is falling.

[480] You can paste that and it will fall.

[481] But you can rotate it so that like if it was falling down, you can then use that energy to then fling that in another direction.

[482] That's cool.

[483] It seemed cool.

[484] It had a nice art style to it.

[485] I'd say the craziest, the one that I still – I have no idea what the fuck is going on as anti -changer.

[486] Yeah, I walked up to that one and just turned around.

[487] And whatever, I talked to that guy for like 10 minutes, and I'm like, I still have no idea what the shit.

[488] And I watched him play it for a really long time.

[489] I'm like, this is amazing.

[490] Yeah, it sounds amazing.

[491] It's just I want to play this in my house without people around.

[492] Yeah, I had no idea what was really happening either.

[493] He's raring to go, though.

[494] Is that coming out?

[495] Does it have a distributor?

[496] I think he's still shopping around.

[497] I think that was at GDC.

[498] Wasn't that part of the IGF?

[499] He sounds like he has been every time.

[500] He was part of the IGF.

[501] He's been like, yeah, he was IGF, like, GDC China.

[502] He actually rattled off, like, a dozen places.

[503] So his basic thing was, like, yeah, like, people keep saying, like, oh, you need to make this more commercial.

[504] I'm like, no, for one.

[505] But also, like, you know, people are like, oh, are you afraid?

[506] You know, you've been working on this for so long.

[507] You know, like, what if this is a failure?

[508] He's like, I've, you know.

[509] been around the world and met thousands of interesting people because of this.

[510] Even if the game never comes out and no one else plays it.

[511] It's already a success for me. Yeah, this has already been good for me. And that's why I think the PacSense stuff is so fun because you get to kind of talk to these guys or kind of going out and figuring it out, trying to make those decisions of how much do I...

[512] Ben to make a commercial or looking for publishers.

[513] I wonder, what is the barrier to entry on Steam if you're a guy like that who has the game and it's finished and it works?

[514] Do you need somebody to back you?

[515] No, they have curators.

[516] My understanding of it is that they look at it and then the Steam curators make basically a value judgment on whether it fits in their service.

[517] I don't think he's done.

[518] But if he does finish it and nobody picks it up, he theoretically could just publish it on Steam himself.

[519] If he so desired.

[520] Seems like that's where that would go.

[521] Did you see that they're doing that third Penny Arcade game developed by the guys who did the Cthulhu Xbox Live Indie game?

[522] Cthulhu Saves the World.

[523] Yeah, that's an awesome choice.

[524] I agree.

[525] That's great.

[526] I'll play that.

[527] Maybe it'll play well this time.

[528] I am bummed by the loss of the...

[529] I loved the adventure RPG kind of combo that Hothead had done, but Hothead has clearly moved on to just making Deathspank over and over again.

[530] So...

[531] Awesome!

[532] Sorry, I felt if we didn't insert some sort of dig about the Death Spank franchise there.

[533] It's the baconing now.

[534] It's totally different.

[535] Our quota here, we have not met.

[536] Our talk shit about Death Spank.

[537] But the sensibility seems like it's totally in line.

[538] And I think it's crazy that they are just continuing the story.

[539] Like, yep, episode three.

[540] And that just looks like a 16 -bit RPG.

[541] That's cool.

[542] Fucking great.

[543] It would be cool if they pulled a bit trip and just every sequel is a different kind of game.

[544] Yeah.

[545] Same narrative, you know.

[546] They're all continuing the same story.

[547] That was a racing game.

[548] I never saw or spoke to either Mike or Jerry during the show, so I'd be curious to see what their...

[549] Because after they were just like, no, fuck game development.

[550] It's like...

[551] The few comments that they would make after episode two made it sound like it was such a nightmare experience for them.

[552] They would never, ever consider doing it ever again.

[553] So what changed?

[554] I'm curious to see what changed.

[555] Yeah, they said it was going to be a comic book.

[556] I read one interview with them.

[557] They were just like, well...

[558] This thing made sense.

[559] We had no intention of doing this.

[560] We had no intention of making a game again, but this developer seems pretty cool, so all right.

[561] We saw Tycho leaving the show one day, just walking out.

[562] I didn't know they could get away with that anymore.

[563] Yeah, it just wasn't mauled.

[564] Yeah, I thought that if those guys tried to go anywhere around there, they would just get...

[565] They have some secret back exit out of that place.

[566] They managed to get around fairly...

[567] I saw Gabe just playing a D &D game, not swarmed by people.

[568] I think they just don't really draw attention.

[569] You know what I mean?

[570] I'm sure someone pointed it out.

[571] Sure.

[572] But they can kind of – I'm sure a very, like, small percentage of PAX goers could actually identify them on site even.

[573] That's true.

[574] They may know who they are, but – Identity is hidden.

[575] They do a decent job of that.

[576] They don't put their faces out there.

[577] If they have a T -shirt that says, like, I'm Tyco, then maybe things would be different.

[578] I'm going to wear that shirt.

[579] Yeah, we should start putting that.

[580] Hey, nice to meet you.

[581] Yeah, it's been a really crazy show this year.

[582] Thanks.

[583] That sucks this year.

[584] You should just not go back.

[585] Go ask for a refund.

[586] Tell them that I said it was okay.

[587] So should we dig into Fez a little bit?

[588] Because that's definitely one of the Pac -10 things.

[589] Yeah, what do you do in that game?

[590] It's a 2D platformer.

[591] In 3D.

[592] Jump on dude's heads.

[593] So yeah, we went and Phil Fish, the guy who's been, I guess, the main guy.

[594] Is that his real name?

[595] Yes.

[596] All right.

[597] Go on.

[598] He had a suite.

[599] So they were showing Fez as part of the PAX 10.

[600] Also, they had a little booth space alongside Warp that they were also showing up there.

[601] But Phil had a larger build of the game that he wanted us to play.

[602] So we went to the suite, and it's a 2D platformer.

[603] No enemies.

[604] It's just...

[605] platform around.

[606] It seems like at least the areas that I was in were very vertically oriented.

[607] The thing is that you can press the left or right trigger and it will rotate the world so that you see another plane.

[608] There's four planes to every world that you're in.

[609] It only rotates 90 degrees so you're always hitting a side.

[610] It's like they're square shaped.

[611] It's like one of those things where everything is kind of flattened and elongated in different ways.

[612] I think the reason that they're built so vertically is because the levels are rotating about an axis.

[613] So if you were to view the level from overhead, it would just be a square shape for even sides.

[614] So you're only ever jumping left or right on a 2D plane.

[615] So things that now, once you rotate the level that were behind you, now become kind of 2D platforms.

[616] It gets kind of weird, and things line up differently once you rotate it.

[617] Also, from where you're standing, you can see different...

[618] If you're standing at one point on a level and you rotate it, or if you're standing at another point on that level and you rotate it, you will see different things.

[619] It's smart that the character can go behind walls.

[620] You can rotate around without your character being on the front -facing side at all times.

[621] You can kind of see a little silhouette.

[622] It's one of those things where, right, there's a 3D world, but at any given time, everything is flattened into 2D.

[623] So you're never, yeah.

[624] Sort of like Crush.

[625] Which is like, not exactly like it, but similar playing with perspective.

[626] It's almost like a Paper Mario, I thought.

[627] Like where you're like, yes, but you're like now this 2D thing interacting with these 3D things.

[628] That's why I had the weirdest moment with that game where, like, every screenshot I've seen of that thing has really failed to inspire that much excitement.

[629] And then I was walking by that little booth thing they had and, like, seeing it from, like, 30 paces.

[630] And just seeing the rotation happen.

[631] The first fucking time I saw it rotate, I was like, all right, sold.

[632] What's really incredible to me, or tons of things really impressed the highlight of me in that game, the fact that it's just all exploration, the fact that it's this huge nonlinear world.

[633] Like, it's kind of like Metroidvania in scope of, like, worlds leading to other worlds.

[634] and branching off, and then backtracking to get to another place.

[635] Because you're trying to collect these parts, and collecting these parts allows you to open these doors that allows you to access...

[636] Yeah, I was going to say, what sort of...

[637] I got ice boots.

[638] No powers.

[639] I think you just jump.

[640] And they're puzzles, but even he was saying, it's not really about...

[641] puzzles either.

[642] It's just exploring a world that you can manipulate.

[643] And those are kind of puzzly by design.

[644] Basically, it's all about just figuring out how to get through the world using the 2D, 3D shift.

[645] Which to me feels like a puzzle game.

[646] I know we're just dealing in semantics here now, but that is a puzzle game.

[647] I've been splitting hairs on the idea of what a puzzle is.

[648] I reached a puzzle that I couldn't finish and he was like, well, you haven't found the solution yet.

[649] So there's a puzzle in it for sure.

[650] Oh, that bell.

[651] I rang that bell.

[652] It was really cool.

[653] So he's ringing this giant Liberty Bell -sized bell, and when you whack it, it starts swinging back and forth.

[654] And when you're looking at it in 2D, it just looks like a 2D game, right?

[655] So he hit it one way and then quickly rotated and hit it another way, and then it started sort of swinging in an arc. Like off -axis.

[656] It's like all of a sudden you're reminded that it's actually a 3D world because things start behaving in 3D.

[657] But that's one of the things that really impressed me, is that it...

[658] This is a polygonal world, right?

[659] But everything still – it still has – it's kind of hard to fake that 16 -bit look.

[660] When you're dealing with trying to map stuff onto polygons, this does that really successfully.

[661] Even when it rotates.

[662] Even when you're exposed to the fact like, okay, this is a polygonal world.

[663] There are simple, but there's still...

[664] Does it just look like mode 7 when it rotates?

[665] Yeah.

[666] Even that bell moving looked like an animated sprite almost.

[667] Kind of, yeah.

[668] The edges seemed to alias or stay really jacky.

[669] I think he said this.

[670] Everything is kind of built out of blocks.

[671] the world.

[672] It's almost like a 3D tile set, basically.

[673] In 2D, it kind of reminded me of Terraria.

[674] It sort of has that look to it.

[675] And it sounds fucking amazing.

[676] What's the term?

[677] Chiptune Vangelis.

[678] Say it again.

[679] I had to say it.

[680] Chiptune Vangelis.

[681] That was a term that he used to try to evoke the...

[682] the very ambient, ethereal sound that it had, and it was just...

[683] Trying to avoid, like, the normal, like, chiptune beats, which seems to be...

[684] Yeah, it's got, like...

[685] Usually what chiptunes is.

[686] It's like, yo, man, we got the Konami drums.

[687] Remember from the Metal Gear?

[688] We got those.

[689] There's, like, almost no percussion to it.

[690] It's just all these sort of droning...

[691] It's like long...

[692] Like, soundscapes.

[693] The way he...

[694] I love the way he told the story of getting that musician for it, because he...

[695] Oh, that's right.

[696] He enlisted the guy...

[697] Actually, what was it?

[698] They, like, went to one of the guy's shows.

[699] Yeah, they went to some guy's show.

[700] And met him, and he knew who they were.

[701] And he was like, oh, man, I can't wait for Fez.

[702] And he was like, well, how would you like to do the music for it?

[703] He asked, like, how would you like to do a track for it?

[704] Oh, that's what it was.

[705] And the guy said, no, I want to do all of it.

[706] But he said he basically gave him the chiptune Vangelis pitch.

[707] And, like, a day later, he came back with this track.

[708] And Phil said he was, like, almost in tears when he heard it.

[709] It was, like, so perfect.

[710] So, yeah, like, just.

[711] extremely impressed.

[712] Brad, I'm kind of with you where I'd seen screenshots of it and I'd heard people talking about Fez and I'm like, okay, obviously this has some sort of indie cred.

[713] It's not a thing you get until you see it.

[714] Yeah.

[715] He was even saying they're trying to figure out how they're supposed to market it because, again, it doesn't sell itself very well in individual screenshots.

[716] You kind of just think, oh great, someone's making another indie throwback.

[717] I guess they're going to...

[718] Bring back, like, QuickTime VR.

[719] Like, they're going to make screenshots that you can, you know, sort of...

[720] Like, drag around.

[721] Drag around.

[722] Like, the sports flicks where they just print out lenticular cards.

[723] And then Wade Boggs swings the bat over and over again.

[724] So it was really cool to meet Phil in person for the first time.

[725] He's much calmer than he has been in the past.

[726] He seems very...

[727] Because they went content complete, like, a week ago.

[728] They buy design, so they buy app hacks.

[729] Now they're just polishing and getting it together.

[730] But, yeah, Phil Fish is an intense dude, but that is the calmest I have seen him in years.

[731] And so I'm just happy for him because it's one of those games that when I saw it years and years ago, I was like, I hope this turns out right.

[732] Because it's a great concept, but, you know, it's a lot of those indie games going from great concept to, you know, a full -flesh game where it doesn't just beat that mechanic into the ground.

[733] And the world is huge.

[734] It seems like it could be a huge, huge, huge game.

[735] world map, and it's just...

[736] We played it for an hour?

[737] We were probably there for like an hour, yeah.

[738] And just scratched the surface.

[739] And he also expects something between 50 and 78 % of the content of the game you will never see.

[740] He's purposely burying like 50 % of the stuff in the game to appeal to and drive mad people like Vinny.

[741] Completionists are going to have...

[742] A really fun time, but also fucking nightmarish.

[743] And also, you know, it seems to have...

[744] It's weird.

[745] It's kind of got this mix between a somber tone, but kind of tongue -in -cheek.

[746] It's kind of whimsical, yeah.

[747] Yeah, there's some clever jokes in there that are not dopey, stupid jokes.

[748] That's actually pretty clever.

[749] That's a smart move.

[750] Well, it's like a self -aware world that it's a video game world, so they'll make jokes about cheat codes.

[751] But cheat codes are part of...

[752] part of the world it's not like they're almost like a mythology yeah it's part of the mythology of the world like you go find a book that has a cheat code in it and then have to do it to access the next area or something like cheat codes are like like like give power to the user in that world.

[753] We didn't say it actually employed, but it was implied that it would be actually explained.

[754] This is a self -aware video game world, but not in a wink -wink, joking sense.

[755] It's taking that as though...

[756] Deadly seriously.

[757] What if that was?

[758] What if our world was just a simulation and the way the mythology within a world would evolve if it was just inside a 16 -bit video game?

[759] There are...

[760] hidden Tetris shapes kind of throughout there.

[761] It seems like not necessarily with any overt significance.

[762] It's just like that is part of the fabric of this world.

[763] Well, that's right.

[764] Some of the constellations in the night sky are like Tetris pieces, but not smacking you in the face with it.

[765] They're just kind of lightly there in the background.

[766] I remember he remarked, like, most people aren't probably going to notice them, but I spent so much time on those.

[767] But we noticed them, so it made them happy.

[768] Is that on any kind of timetable?

[769] Is that out?

[770] It sounds like they're aiming for the end of the year.

[771] But it's – I mean now it's – Phil Fish is an attentive man. But he is – they are at least on the – after your content complete, like Microsoft has very strict guidelines that you can't stop.

[772] Fix it now.

[773] But they are self -publishing.

[774] So it's kind of at their discretion.

[775] But once you start – pushing around dates you start getting out maybe three six months after you know they just have gaps they can put you in so it's not that far off considering it's been at the end of it will be have five years of his life most of his 20s will have been spent making this game but it seems like it's going to be worth it uh yeah there was definitely still bugs uh i got actually we got to play it on the laptop that it was made on which uh which was uh kind of a weird touch to that whole experience it was a macbook so it was like extra weird Okay.

[776] See this XBLA game running on a MacBook.

[777] Give me this Xbox 360 controller and play on this MacBook.

[778] But running Windows.

[779] Yeah, it was boot camp.

[780] So yeah, there's still bugs, and they're hoping end of the year, but they have no date.

[781] It's downloadable games.

[782] How it goes.

[783] So you and I saw a warp.

[784] Right before the show.

[785] We did.

[786] We did.

[787] We should have an interview someday soon.

[788] What did you guys think of that?

[789] The demo they had, I guess it was PAX East that they had that demo, right?

[790] Yes.

[791] I thought it was really cool then.

[792] That's one that I see the potential.

[793] It was one of those, okay, I get the concept.

[794] I understand what you're trying to do with this.

[795] A little kind of top -down, old -style metal gear.

[796] Yeah, it was sort of like the aesthetic of Portal meets the...

[797] Like the appearance of Metal Gear Solid 1, kind of, if that makes sense.

[798] But with extreme violence.

[799] Right.

[800] Really bloody.

[801] With warping into soldiers and then blowing them up as you burst out of them.

[802] Was that in there?

[803] Pax East?

[804] Yeah.

[805] Was it?

[806] Okay.

[807] That is the mechanic of the game.

[808] I mean, I know you could possess them, but I couldn't remember if you could like...

[809] You can't really possess them.

[810] You don't control them.

[811] It's just you shake the stick to blast out and blow them apart in the process and then blood all over the walls.

[812] Also, you can shake the stick to make the other soldiers think something weird's going on and then have them shoot dead.

[813] Or you warp into a drum and shake around and make them come over.

[814] So it kind of feels like it is like an oddly stealth action game, but it's more puzzly than that?

[815] I like the extreme violence.

[816] I've heard that about you.

[817] I like the idea just that, oh, I need to get over to this room.

[818] Oh, there's no door that I can use from here to there.

[819] Oh, well, I just warp right through it.

[820] What sort of implications that has for game design for those guys?

[821] The little touch in that game I like is that after you blast out of a guard, you are covered in blood.

[822] And then the first time you teleport after that, the blood doesn't teleport with you.

[823] It just falls to the ground.

[824] I didn't notice that.

[825] It just flops.

[826] That's good.

[827] That's pretty awesome.

[828] And that's one of those things where the demo that I played was pretty short.

[829] Yeah.

[830] So this is from EA?

[831] Yeah, EA is publishing this.

[832] They just pick it up or is it internal?

[833] Yeah, they picked it up.

[834] No, it's a partner.

[835] It's Trapdoor.

[836] Yeah, Trapdoor is the name.

[837] Oh, they're partnering with Phil Fish.

[838] Right, right.

[839] Yeah.

[840] Transition.

[841] Exactly.

[842] Sorry.

[843] No, no, it was seamless.

[844] I just ruined it.

[845] No, I don't think it was even deliberate.

[846] Well, yeah, I knew they were right next to each other.

[847] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[848] Trapdoor is involved in Fez to a degree as well.

[849] Yeah.

[850] But, yeah, it's kind of hard to see, like, how well does this play over the course of an entire game?

[851] Like, you know, what other – because there's other abilities and other stuff that they aren't revealing yet about what the – the creature will be able to do over time.

[852] Also, I think there's a, correct me if I'm wrong, there's an upgrade path for some of the abilities as well, wasn't there?

[853] You'll be able to put some points into some of your warping abilities and the other things that they were saying were coming up.

[854] Oh yeah, like you could warp further.

[855] I don't know if it was warp further or faster, like the cooldown or something.

[856] Because if you warp further, then they basically, the way they stop you from basically going to areas you can't go is make the walls double thick.

[857] Right, right.

[858] So then you can't warp across.

[859] So if you can warp further.

[860] No, the thing that he was saying was that warping from inside one object to another is faster than just the open air warping.

[861] I'll have to go back to the interview, but I thought there was like an upgrade path.

[862] It seems neat.

[863] Yeah, I like the basic mechanics of it.

[864] Yeah, the aesthetic's cool, and it seems like there's some nice animation and artwork going into it.

[865] Also, scientists are evil.

[866] Evil, yeah.

[867] Still evil.

[868] Cowering scientists.

[869] Eric Walpaw would approve.

[870] We also saw during that little pre -PAX fun some Burnout Crash, which we'll have a quick look roadshow of that up later in the week.

[871] Cool.

[872] Look for that.

[873] We play some of the Kinect stuff and show off some of the regular stuff, too.

[874] I will play that game.

[875] Yeah, that was a fun little appointment.

[876] Yeah, yeah.

[877] They've taken the crash mode, they've ripped it out of Burnout, and just boiled it down to the, like, all right, forget that it's a driving game anymore.

[878] Like, this is just...

[879] It's more like pinball.

[880] Like, they say, like, yeah, the pinball inspiration is much more apparent once you kind of take away the...

[881] the layer of it being inside a driving game.

[882] I played a bunch of Wordfighter.

[883] We all played a lot of Wordfighter.

[884] I was kind of bummed because I didn't get to see the single player stuff they were showing on the floor.

[885] I kept kind of hovering around there to see if I can catch a glimpse while we were shooting the rest of the stuff.

[886] I heard it was wave based.

[887] When they were here showing it to us last week, they made the...

[888] salient point that if you're playing bottle against computer computer already knows every word on the board right so walking the tight wire of trying to make it seem validly human but not too easy you know like or too hard like they just didn't want to take that on they just came up with something else it's very surreal being on the airplane and brad and i are playing word fighter while The designer, what's his name?

[889] Guion.

[890] Yeah, he was on our same flight.

[891] Right in front of us.

[892] He's in front of Brad and I working on sprites for the single player game.

[893] In Photoshop.

[894] In Photoshop while we were playing.

[895] We're sitting here playing a build of this game while he's making the game in front of us.

[896] In between matches, he's like, whoop.

[897] I mean, the game was a lot of fun, but I was almost more interested in seeing what he was doing there.

[898] So I played a bunch of that.

[899] It's funny.

[900] That was the only iOS mobile game as part of the PAX 10 there.

[901] But just how nimble and how quickly that mobile development seems to be able to move.

[902] That single -player campaign there is not even in there really that much yet.

[903] And they're like, yeah, we've got like six weeks.

[904] We'll build it out.

[905] Don't worry about it.

[906] They started making that game this year.

[907] Yeah, like January is when they just said, let's make this game.

[908] And they seem to have something that's pretty fucking cool.

[909] It's a lot of easy fun.

[910] It's super easy to get into.

[911] And you get it in moments.

[912] Well, I mean, super crocheted, easy to learn, hard to master.

[913] So one of the things that he mentioned that we had been talking about beforehand was the dictionary that they're using to determine.

[914] like what words are valid or not.

[915] They haven't settled on anything yet, but basically once they have decided what dictionary they're going to use, they're going to be extremely transparent about that and tell people, hey, this is the dictionary.

[916] OE or nothing.

[917] So whether it's OE, whether it's like the official Scrabble dictionary, which I think they're interested in, but it sounds like they don't know what licensing.

[918] requirements that would have yeah or you know maybe it'll remain like an open source some open source one or whatever so people since we put up that quick look and stuff people have been coming up with so many good ideas for DLC characters like just endless oh yeah yeah Hunter S. Thompson Somebody mentioned Raymond Chandler.

[919] Think of the abilities that you could assign to authors like that.

[920] It could be fun.

[921] It could be fun.

[922] What else did I say?

[923] I got to see you guys jam on some Charlie Murder.

[924] That was fun.

[925] The dudes pulled out cell phones and checked their Twitter followers.

[926] Fake Twitter feeds.

[927] Which was a real weird moment in that demo.

[928] And then he did it.

[929] They're pulling up Windows phones.

[930] Oh, they are?

[931] Yeah.

[932] Great.

[933] Yeah, great.

[934] So Silva did it, and then you just see all the other three characters just start doing it at the same time.

[935] Once he said, hey, you can check your fake Twitter feed to see how your popularity, how Charlie Merger's popularity is.

[936] Is that like while the game is still running?

[937] Is that dynamic based on your actions, or is that just like, can you affect it?

[938] I think you tap up on the D -pad.

[939] But I think it's like that's...

[940] Oh, but it's the leveling.

[941] Yeah.

[942] It's how many followers you have.

[943] Like number of followers equals experience points.

[944] But it's not even just like a number of followers.

[945] It's like literally tweets.

[946] Like you see the fake Twitter feed and everything.

[947] It was really, really funny.

[948] So, yeah, that's Scott Studios.

[949] That's the dishwasher guys.

[950] Congrats to James Silver.

[951] He proposed during the show.

[952] With his game.

[953] Yeah, so he – Oh, I missed this.

[954] Yeah, so I was going to go by.

[955] Unfortunately, we were busy with another appointment.

[956] But, yeah, on Saturday he – was trying to, like, he sent, like, he sent me an email to, like, try and forward a line.

[957] He's like, hey, I need a bunch of people to come for this big crowd, but, like, don't, don't say that you're coming, but, uh, so, like, he had a special build of the game there that he switched over to during, uh, the middle of the show, and he, uh, then girlfriend Michelle was helping him show it.

[958] And then in the middle of that demo, is the main character's name Charlie Murder?

[959] That's the name of the band.

[960] It's also the name of the lead singer.

[961] So anyway, the main character at that point, like in the middle of the demo, and she thinks she's helping him with this demo to show for like a video, then gets down on one knee and proposes in the game, and then he did that in real life.

[962] And she said yes.

[963] Congratulations.

[964] That's awesome.

[965] It's a really nice story.

[966] James is a really sweet dude.

[967] I was there when he got his first $10 ,000 check for winning for Dishwasher, and so it's been cool to see him get where he's at.

[968] And this game seems really sweet.

[969] And they were also able to shine in the light of Firefall.

[970] Yes.

[971] That was truly the most magical moment of the entire...

[972] Just beacons of hope within Firefall.

[973] And we should maybe hopefully have a quick look roadshow, Charlie and Brunner?

[974] That is in the compressor right now.

[975] Oh, great.

[976] Okay.

[977] That's punching through.

[978] I know there's some of the challenges of shooting stuff on the show floor at PAX because it's as noisy as any other convention.

[979] You will be able to hear Nazi fire commentary.

[980] That guy is shooting the guy.

[981] They don't even know what's going on in that game.

[982] It's just like, it's running.

[983] I don't know.

[984] Why are we here again?

[985] Firefall.

[986] Firefall.

[987] So, yeah, I will say I kind of know less, I think, about Firefall even after all of that and kind of walking through that booth a hundred times than I did going in.

[988] You don't want to look at it just out of spite.

[989] I went into that show being interested in...

[990] Finding out more about it, and then, like, a sort of a malaise kind of set in.

[991] But just kind of watching it, it was just like, I'd watch one screen that was all first -person, then I'd watch the second screen, which was all, like, third -person guy running around.

[992] Well, no, you can switch on the fly.

[993] I actually did go up and check it out for just a minute.

[994] So is it, like, Unreal?

[995] Like, is it basically just, like...

[996] The engine or the gameplay?

[997] No, no, the gameplay.

[998] Because it looked just like a really fast, kind of, like, death -matchy...

[999] Yeah, it's...

[1000] But with jetpacks.

[1001] It's hard to see.

[1002] Yeah, there's that.

[1003] You know, it can be first - or third -person, like, the...

[1004] The only weapon I remember seeing looked a lot like a rocket launcher.

[1005] I'll tell you that.

[1006] Animations look nice.

[1007] Yeah, it looks like a nice game.

[1008] I mean, it's microtransaction -based.

[1009] Spent a lot of time in that booth.

[1010] Yep.

[1011] Padded carpets.

[1012] Yeah, best carpet of packs.

[1013] Yeah, Wilford would say, like the Twisted Pixel guys, as much as they were resenting the Firefall booth, would go over and stand on the nice carpet and then go back to their booth.

[1014] The XBLA booth might edge them out on that one.

[1015] They had some real thick carpet over there, and it was orange.

[1016] Bright orange.

[1017] I want that.

[1018] I don't know if that's for my house.

[1019] I'm trying to think if I personally just saw anything else, but I think...

[1020] I think those are the big ones that are just jumping out in my mind right now.

[1021] Let's see here.

[1022] We went to see Sony stuff.

[1023] Talked to David Jaffe for a little bit.

[1024] Played Ratchet and Clank.

[1025] Yeah, we played all 4 -1.

[1026] Four -player, all 4 -1.

[1027] So what kind of game is that?

[1028] It's like a brawler, puzzle, shooter.

[1029] It's a Ratchet and Clank game, but adapted to a fixed perspective.

[1030] Off of side -scrolly.

[1031] Okay.

[1032] There's a lot going on in that game.

[1033] Not necessarily a lot going on in the game mechanically.

[1034] Yeah, you're not saying it's difficult, but there's a lot happening on the screen.

[1035] The interface.

[1036] So did you find yourself unable to keep a track of your character?

[1037] Yes, a little bit.

[1038] I wasn't sure if that was a color blindness thing on my part where I'm just supposed to know that these icons represent Ratchet or the colors represent Ratchet because there is some of that.

[1039] Yeah, when you're switching your weapons, everyone gets their own weapon wheel and it just...

[1040] It's hard to keep track of that weapon wheel.

[1041] Also, that weapon wheel size changes based on where you are relative to the front of the screen.

[1042] Oh, it's like floating on your character.

[1043] Yeah, and I also kept screwing up that when you pull up your weapon wheel, you're just supposed to move the analog stick in the direction of the weapon you want and let it go as opposed to hitting a confirm button.

[1044] Sometimes the wheel will get in front of another wheel behind it.

[1045] Yeah, and the game will actually pause if all people pull up their weapon wheels at once, but that's virtually impossible to communicate.

[1046] Unless you say, hey, let's do this.

[1047] It's busy.

[1048] It's a busy game.

[1049] It's very busy, and I found that kind of detracted from my enjoyment sometimes, even though it's a really pretty game.

[1050] It's nice looking, yeah.

[1051] There's some neat tandem puzzle stuff, you know?

[1052] Like having everybody interact at the same time on different places of the map to do stuff.

[1053] I wonder if they surface that weapon wheel stuff if you're not playing locally.

[1054] I wonder if you're playing over the internet or something, if you only ever see your own weapon wheel.

[1055] That would be a good idea.

[1056] Well, you'd probably want to know that someone else was using their weapon wheel.

[1057] Does it change gameplay a bit?

[1058] If they're stopping.

[1059] I don't know why they're stopping.

[1060] I guess that makes sense.

[1061] Maybe it's not that big a deal, but it wouldn't hurt either way, I think.

[1062] And you guys are playing with the regular controllers?

[1063] Is that a move?

[1064] Is that a move?

[1065] No. It's 3D, but I move.

[1066] Seems alright, though.

[1067] Did you play any Vita stuff?

[1068] I played Sound Shapes.

[1069] Still good.

[1070] I played a little bit of the Little Big Planet thing, but we talked about it on the panel, so people can look at the panel and hear my thoughts on that.

[1071] And Twisted Metal looks like it might be awesome.

[1072] Yeah.

[1073] Still kind of comes back to that whole, like, yeah, canned car combat.

[1074] Bloom on the battlefield.

[1075] Bloom on the battlefield.

[1076] I think they've...

[1077] But it also has helicopters and friendly cruise missiles and all kinds of other ridiculous...

[1078] It seems like they've...

[1079] They've gone a long way to make it so it's not just deathmatch, deathmatch, deathmatch.

[1080] A lot of objective -based modes and just...

[1081] huge, huge maps.

[1082] The map that we saw when we were talking to Jaffe was not even one of the larger maps and it was still significant in size.

[1083] But they're still being smart about scaling that depending on how many players you have so it's not just like, I have this massive map and three guys in it.

[1084] How many people play?

[1085] 16?

[1086] I think it looks good.

[1087] I think it goes up to 16.

[1088] I want to like it.

[1089] And it's coming out on Valentine's Day, which kudos.

[1090] That's a solid match.

[1091] Score one for Sony marketing on that one.

[1092] If they were to do a lot of marketing for that game, they could market it as a Valentine's Day massacre.

[1093] I like it.

[1094] Brad, you and I went to the Uber booth, talked to those guys for a minute.

[1095] Didn't get to see Super Monday Night Combat.

[1096] No, but that game sounds like it could be great.

[1097] Yeah.

[1098] Based on what they did with the first one, which was already pretty great.

[1099] And all the stuff they're adding to it, but yeah, we need to see more.

[1100] We need to play it.

[1101] But it sounds like closed beta is happening soon, so we'll hopefully get in on that and see what's going on.

[1102] Seems like they're going more Dota.

[1103] Yeah, definitely.

[1104] Free -filling their Dota quota.

[1105] Free -to -play and Dota.

[1106] So many Dota games.

[1107] Oh, God.

[1108] It's ridiculous.

[1109] The Global Agenda people, Hi -Rez, are making one called Smite.

[1110] Somebody told me I didn't see it, but supposedly Petroglyph might be making one.

[1111] And the League of Legends booth was off the fucking chain the entire show.

[1112] It was crazy.

[1113] League of Legends cosplay.

[1114] The line was legitimately wrapped around that booth, and people were pumped up for the new stuff they were showing off there.

[1115] Yeah.

[1116] Good crowd for League of Legends.

[1117] Dota is the new lens player.

[1118] That girl that Johnny was arguing with was a League of Legends cosplay player.

[1119] It's true.

[1120] She was.

[1121] That spear.

[1122] Man. That spear.

[1123] I already used the one in -joke I remember from that exchange.

[1124] I don't even want to mention any of the others because it's a family podcast.

[1125] Do you guys have anything to say about Borderlands 2 that isn't covered in interview stuff?

[1126] We talk about it on the panel.

[1127] We talk about it on the panel.

[1128] Yeah, I mean, it's too early.

[1129] Basically.

[1130] There is not enough information out there about that game yet.

[1131] It looks like a...

[1132] How can I say this?

[1133] In a sense, it just looks like a way better version of Borderlands.

[1134] Borderlands is more like it.

[1135] The only thing that they are...

[1136] Showing...

[1137] Abandoned that one.

[1138] His AI looks better.

[1139] Like, they can climb ladders, they can jump up on ledges, stuff like that.

[1140] They made a big deal of that.

[1141] I mean, the other thing is, like, there's a new character class in it.

[1142] New class, new gun, like, they rewrote the gun system.

[1143] Yeah, yeah.

[1144] Although it didn't look that different.

[1145] Right.

[1146] That's the thing.

[1147] Nothing about it looked that different.

[1148] Right, that's what I'm saying.

[1149] The first Borderlands was lacking in, like, three or four key ways.

[1150] And it seems like they're fixing all those things.

[1151] They did say when we did the interview that there was at least one more type of customization that they had not announced yet.

[1152] That's cool.

[1153] I was kind of inquiring along the lines of like, is there armor now?

[1154] Can I craft?

[1155] Like, what's the deal?

[1156] And he did say there were one more.

[1157] Hopefully he's not just talking about the artifact stuff, because I think that was just in Game Informer.

[1158] The way the artifacts work are different.

[1159] Is it picking up right from Borderlands?

[1160] Five years.

[1161] But it's the same four characters in the first?

[1162] No, no. You don't play as any of those characters, but they are in it.

[1163] So the mission they were showing is you actually saving Roland from a robot prison.

[1164] These are like an energy jail cell.

[1165] Interesting.

[1166] So the siren ran up, and so they were like, so here's Maya.

[1167] I think it was Maya.

[1168] That sounds right.

[1169] She's the new siren.

[1170] They're like, yeah, here's our new siren.

[1171] And it's like, you can tell she's a siren, but she's definitely a different character.

[1172] Okay.

[1173] I could totally see them just going, like, even just calling it Borderlands 2, a totally separate story.

[1174] But this is like a...

[1175] Continuum.

[1176] Oh, yeah, definitely.

[1177] That's cool.

[1178] Hanson Jack has taken over the Hyperion Corporation, and he's taking credit for opening the vault and wants to take care of the old vault hunters.

[1179] And these four new characters kind of step up to the moon.

[1180] Also, he has a giant moon base.

[1181] Yes, he has.

[1182] Yes, that actually was super awesome.

[1183] Maybe the best part of that demo.

[1184] Launching.

[1185] like robots in from the moon and you actually look up at the moon and just see rockets just coming in.

[1186] Like this base on the moon is almost the size of the moon.

[1187] It's like this gigantic metal castle jutting out of the side of the moon.

[1188] Fantastic.

[1189] And you see Dr. Wily.

[1190] You see like rockets launch out of it.

[1191] Yeah, that is super awesome.

[1192] It's like part of the skybox or whatever.

[1193] It's not even like in the game world.

[1194] But then when the rockets launch, like 30 seconds or even less, a few seconds later, like these canisters hit the ground and robots come out of the moon.

[1195] That was really neat.

[1196] But yeah, they're redesigning vehicles and making sure that they're all four -player and they handle differently and have suspension and the gun system might be different and stuff like that.

[1197] The enemies have physics on them, so when you hit a skag, it'll go flying over the car instead of just splatting.

[1198] But I feel like the things about that game that will separate it from the first game and make it really stand out.

[1199] probably haven't been announced yet.

[1200] There's probably a lot to announce because they just said this game existed two weeks ago.

[1201] It's way too early to condemn it at all, but everything that's new about it is kind of stuff you wish was in the first game.

[1202] Yeah, like when they announced, and now you can get all four characters in the vehicle, it's like, way to go.

[1203] That's...

[1204] It was running on big old PCs and it looked like better than Borderlands, but not...

[1205] a generational shift.

[1206] Think about how much you liked Borderlands despite its manifold problems.

[1207] Don't take that to mean that I'm not excited about this game.

[1208] It's just that if I sat here and told you everything that they told us in that appointment, you would probably just shrug and go, okay.

[1209] Right.

[1210] You know, it's, like, none of that, none of the stuff they've talked about, none of the stuff that's in, like, Sea Change, or a cover article or anything like that is really huge.

[1211] We talked about it a little bit before.

[1212] It reminds me of the same specific scenario that happened with Left 4 Dead, where the first Left 4 Dead came out, and it was, like, it was amazing, except, except, you know?

[1213] Right.

[1214] Like, there was, like, just a few little things, like, it wasn't quite all there, but then they come back around with a sequel that is very clearly better in every way, but a little bit of, like, sequel fatigue has set in at that point you know where it's like largely it's just a better version of the same game but when you've got two of them in a short period of time I mean I hope that they have grander plans for this game that they just have yet to reveal We'll see.

[1215] Like you said, they just announced that it exists.

[1216] I would have liked a little more information on some of the weapons.

[1217] Even just like a DPS thing or something that was just like, all right, this is easily the better weapon than this one.

[1218] Yeah, that's like HUD stuff and redesigned menu that is better at telling those stories would be...

[1219] It's one of those small things that could have been like, okay, this is way easier.

[1220] Maybe you'll have that.

[1221] It didn't.

[1222] It has the PC version.

[1223] That was the PC version.

[1224] That was the official PC version.

[1225] They were playing it with an Xbox controller.

[1226] They're adding Steamworks to the first game.

[1227] Are they?

[1228] Yeah, they're going back and patching it.

[1229] Wow.

[1230] And they're adding new balance tweaks.

[1231] Borderlands 2 will have Steamworks.

[1232] They didn't say that, but Borderlands 2 will have Steamworks.

[1233] If they're putting it in the first one this late.

[1234] I think Borderlands had Steam achievements from the get -go.

[1235] No, they added them later.

[1236] Okay.

[1237] It was really weird.

[1238] Yeah, now they're going back and adding all this stuff and adding some new balance things to kind of bring it up to speed.

[1239] But I think that would tell you that they're taking the PC version a little more seriously.

[1240] That is a good idea because a lot of people got really burned by that first game on PC.

[1241] And they gave free copies of Borderlands 2 to everyone that went to the Gearbox panel.

[1242] That's pretty cool.

[1243] Yeah.

[1244] Jeff, talk to me about Counter -Strike 2.

[1245] Wait, did you say free copies of Borderlands 2?

[1246] I have to talk to you about that.

[1247] One point ago it was...

[1248] Two.

[1249] Two.

[1250] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1251] They gave out vouchers for free copies of Borderlands 2 at the...

[1252] When the game comes out?

[1253] Yeah.

[1254] But they're already ready to roll.

[1255] That's crazy.

[1256] Yeah.

[1257] Wow.

[1258] I'm sorry.

[1259] Someone tell me about Counter -Strike Go.

[1260] All right.

[1261] I played it and...

[1262] Patrick and Drew got worked in a round of that game.

[1263] And I'll talk to Chet about it a good bit.

[1264] We've got an interview going up.

[1265] Very good.

[1266] How's Chet?

[1267] On the website.

[1268] Chet's doing well.

[1269] Good.

[1270] Yeah.

[1271] He's not playing Dota 2.

[1272] Yeah.

[1273] I'll tell you that.

[1274] Oh, yeah.

[1275] Yeah.

[1276] Did he find himself alone in the office?

[1277] Probably.

[1278] He said that's just not really his game.

[1279] He's more into shears and stuff.

[1280] And also told us that Gabe's estimate of 800 hours is probably really conservative.

[1281] Really?

[1282] Yeah.

[1283] Wow.

[1284] He said that's all Gabe does.

[1285] Wow.

[1286] I'm glad I went to see Counter -Strike go because now I know what it is, which makes me not really want to play it anymore.

[1287] What is it?

[1288] It is Counter -Strike.

[1289] I mean, is that the part that won't?

[1290] The question was how much are they changing?

[1291] They are hewing really close to what that game was and still is.

[1292] So what is the purpose of it?

[1293] My impression is let's tweak things here and there.

[1294] I think they're tweaking Dust 2 a little bit.

[1295] For example, here's a map everybody knows will change.

[1296] No, I'm sorry.

[1297] Dust 2, I think, is getting left alone because it's still really popular.

[1298] I think Dust 1 is the one where they're like, all right, we can see some ways this map needs to improve.

[1299] It's old.

[1300] Everybody's tired of it.

[1301] But the purpose of that project, as far as I can tell, is to take this really popular game and move it onto modern platforms and put all the modern trappings around it.

[1302] And when you say modern platforms, you specifically mean consoles?

[1303] You mean, like, super different or better computers?

[1304] Both consoles and, well, not, no, because Counter -Strike runs on anything.

[1305] It's getting it into Steam.

[1306] It's getting, well, I mean, CS Source was there already, but, like, getting it hooked into modern matchmaking frameworks and that kind of thing.

[1307] Because this is going to play against at least PS3 right now.

[1308] if not also Xbox.

[1309] It's a weird thing for me with the Valve stuff when it comes to consoles because they iterate so quickly on so much of that stuff on the PC that within almost six months it's unrecognizable from the...

[1310] But now they can do that on the PS3.

[1311] On the PS3 with Steamworks.

[1312] They'll let them push through.

[1313] That's the whole point.

[1314] They're making a play on the Xbox.

[1315] Gabe is making a very public statement saying they should let us do it.

[1316] They should let us do it hoping to increase price.

[1317] I think they won't.

[1318] They have no real incentive to let Valve do that.

[1319] As it stands now, it's hard to kind of recommend that kind of game on the 360 as they do really just change so much.

[1320] TF2 just got left behind.

[1321] And also for that sort of platform interoperability, you need mouse and keyboard support, which the PS3 version will let you do.

[1322] But Microsoft has been so staunchly against letting you plug a mouse into an Xbox just because they don't.

[1323] The old reason has always been that they never wanted people to confuse it for a PC or anything like that.

[1324] Now that seems a little silly, but I bet there's still some legacy of, like, no, no way, no mouse ever.

[1325] That's the whole point.

[1326] No mouse.

[1327] I can tell you that Valve's stance on, like, how do you deal with mouse and keyboard versus controller is, like, we don't.

[1328] Yeah, exactly.

[1329] I asked them, like, are you going to be able to tell in a match who's using what?

[1330] No. Are you going to be able to filter, like, who you want to get matchmade against?

[1331] No. Oh, wow, really?

[1332] Like, it's just, it is totally level playing field to them, and it's all going to be skill -based matchmaking.

[1333] Like, honestly, that sort of, well, skill -based matchmaking, maybe that'll...

[1334] Basically, they're just saying it'll work itself out.

[1335] Like, if you're super good with a controller and you can hang playing against people on PCs, then you will just get matched against those people, and it won't matter.

[1336] There's no auto -aim on the consoles or anything.

[1337] They're not, like...

[1338] Right.

[1339] They're not...

[1340] arbitrarily limiting the PC people, and they're also not, like, they're not handicapping the PC people, and they're not buffing the console people.

[1341] That's just, it is what it is.

[1342] There's no auto -aim, then.

[1343] There's really not a whole lot of argument, you know, other than if the console guys just get slaughtered.

[1344] Right, yeah.

[1345] But if they do, then in theory, they will just get mashed against each other.

[1346] Get mashed up at console people, or bad PC players.

[1347] Right.

[1348] All right.

[1349] Sure.

[1350] Same difference.

[1351] Yeah, yeah, taking a look at that game for a while, that definitely...

[1352] I don't know what I expected either, but you look at it and go, yeah, that's some Counter -Strike.

[1353] Yeah, yeah.

[1354] One time in my life, I fucking loved Counter -Strike, but that was like 10 years ago.

[1355] I just wonder if this is going to end up being their big play to try and finally get people off of 1 .6 and Source and get them all into a new game.

[1356] You try to bring as many people as you can with you, and the others there don't come.

[1357] You were never going to convince them anyway.

[1358] You know what I mean?

[1359] There are certain Counter -Strike player bases that...

[1360] Yeah.

[1361] Because they aren't going to buy hats anyway.

[1362] Or maybe this is a new platform for them to sell hats to Counter -Strike people.

[1363] Maybe they will work that stuff in, microtransact for real in Counter -Strike.

[1364] Did you see any eSports hooks in there or anything like that?

[1365] The HUD definitely has evolved to the point that...

[1366] So we were playing on the Xbox version, and at the top between, I think it was the counter, like the timer in the middle, and on the sides were a row of five gamer tag icons, like gamer pictures.

[1367] I'm sure you know it would show your Steam icon.

[1368] steam or whatever but it literally just shows like who's still alive it's like a quick reference of like all right here's the five people and it's like the i think the icon blinks out when the person dies okay so you can still if you know whose icon is what you can kind of see who's still in the match and that sort of thing does ghost stand for anything is that an global global offensive offensive ops more fun to call it the grocery grocery outlet yeah sure it's creative suite grocery outlet Finally.

[1369] And they got all the old gun names, like the real gun names back.

[1370] It's been so long.

[1371] I think that was about the time I stopped playing Counter -Strike is when they ran into legal issues, yeah, and they had to drop all the gun manufacturer names.

[1372] But they licensed all that stuff, so it's back in.

[1373] So AWP for everyone.

[1374] And also you said, this may be reiterating, but you said that there's a kind of...

[1375] casual mode where you get a bunch of money at the start of the match, and you don't have to worry about ramping up each time to buy a bunch of weapons.

[1376] There's like an auto -buy.

[1377] At least that's what I saw.

[1378] They had auto -buy in Source.

[1379] You shot that interview, right?

[1380] No, no, that was Drew.

[1381] Did you see the footage?

[1382] No. I don't want to get this wrong, but I'd have to go back and check.

[1383] I think it was Drew that had mentioned that to us.

[1384] Okay, I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

[1385] I think it's just, if it's not unlimited money, it's just a shit ton of it.

[1386] It's like you start out being able to just buy as much of whatever you want.

[1387] Okay, maybe it was Drew that I was talking about.

[1388] So it's not like you have to work your way up round to round.

[1389] No, yeah, that's how normal CS is.

[1390] Right.

[1391] It's also a taser.

[1392] What?

[1393] It's a taser.

[1394] Why would you want to tase someone?

[1395] It's a one -hit kill.

[1396] Oh, okay.

[1397] But the ammo is one.

[1398] And it's super fucking expensive.

[1399] Were the knives not one -hit kills?

[1400] I think they...

[1401] Probably a little farther away with the taser.

[1402] I can't remember.

[1403] I can't remember.

[1404] It's been so long, but...

[1405] Crazy.

[1406] The taser is just, like, super high risk versus reward.

[1407] You want to talk about Nintendo stuff at all?

[1408] Yeah, we should talk about that.

[1409] Yeah, we went over there...

[1410] Did you play with a golden controller made of real gold?

[1411] Sorry.

[1412] Wait.

[1413] Sorry!

[1414] Is that really what they announced?

[1415] No, no. Well, there's a gold Wiimote, and then they put a little asterisk in the press release just to be clear, like, hey, this is not made of real gold.

[1416] But on their website, there are two statements.

[1417] The normal one on the press release is like, not made of real gold.

[1418] Right.

[1419] On the website, there's the exact same statement.

[1420] which is the added word of sorry.

[1421] At the very end.

[1422] The very end.

[1423] Period.

[1424] Sorry.

[1425] Sorry.

[1426] Period.

[1427] Yeah.

[1428] Sorry.

[1429] Yeah, it's like, it's golden color, but there is no actual.

[1430] I just love that, like, yeah, some Nintendo .com editor, like, saw that and was like, yeah, that does suck.

[1431] They're going to be really disappointed.

[1432] Sorry.

[1433] Or it's sarcastic.

[1434] Yeah, it's not made of real gold.

[1435] Sorry, guys.

[1436] Is everyone trying to hoard as much gold as possible?

[1437] I know, yeah.

[1438] You'd have people melting down their Wii remotes in the future.

[1439] Well, don't, because you'll just have melted plastic.

[1440] Sorry.

[1441] Sorry, I'm melting them down regardless of what you say.

[1442] Sorry.

[1443] Sorry.

[1444] Sorry.

[1445] Tell me about Skyward Sword.

[1446] Dazzle me. Without saying it's a Zelda game or anything like that.

[1447] No, no, I don't know what else to say.

[1448] It is an epic action adventure.

[1449] So return to Hyrule where the star is you.

[1450] Now how about this?

[1451] It's a new Zelda game.

[1452] Sorry.

[1453] Sorry.

[1454] That works right.

[1455] No, it seems way better than that.

[1456] Also, I am sort of, like, it's formulaic, but I'm sort of, like, I didn't finish Twilight Princess.

[1457] Yeah, I didn't touch it.

[1458] I'm sort of ready for, like, another.

[1459] Me and you, I think, me and you are both ready.

[1460] For like another 3D action.

[1461] And some of the new tools you have, like there's one, it's like a little beetle that you shoot out and then you guide it along the environment to like make, you know, I almost saw that in the Nintendo demo at E3, that part, except it didn't work.

[1462] So I think I know what you're talking about.

[1463] It's neat.

[1464] Yeah, like you fly this thing around, it can pick up items and bring them back to you or it can hit switches that are up.

[1465] high stuff like that yeah i didn't think the sword combat was as like it was nowhere near as one -to -one as they had had portrayed it as yeah yeah that was a i wasn't able to do exactly what i especially wanted to do especially the one where the The poke.

[1466] Yeah, the poke is like a noticeable lag.

[1467] There's a noticeable lag between you thrusting out with the remote and having Link thrust the sword.

[1468] It also wouldn't work every time.

[1469] I mean, I'm standing up, I'm not sitting down, so I'm not in a comfortable position like I normally would be playing a game like that.

[1470] Who knows at a trade show with all the other RF signals flying around everywhere and stuff.

[1471] Most of the enemies that you see have some kind of like...

[1472] Vertical or horizontal opening mechanic to him.

[1473] You have to make sure you slash the right way.

[1474] Sometimes doing a horizontal swipe would not reproduce that on screen.

[1475] He would not connect.

[1476] That's what happened the year they...

[1477] I guess that wasn't even this year's E3.

[1478] It was last year's E3.

[1479] When I played it, it just seemed like that was the thing they had come up with, was this guy's going to open a very specific way, and you need to slash a very specific way, and if you don't slash that right way, it clangs off it, and you're doing no damage.

[1480] And the Wii Remote is your enemy, not your friend.

[1481] Right.

[1482] I fought a skeleton, like a Stalfos or whatever, and he had two swords or whatever, but it's going to be hard to describe, but he would literally hold them both like...

[1483] vertically to the sides, or he would go like this, where his arms were horizontally.

[1484] Parallel either vertically or parallel horizontally.

[1485] Yeah, like it looked really stilted.

[1486] An equal side or a number 11.

[1487] Yeah, it just looked really stilted.

[1488] It's like, why would he actually fight like that?

[1489] Like he's voguing or something?

[1490] Yeah, he totally was just a voguing skeleton.

[1491] I don't know what sword training for skeletons is like, so I can't tell.

[1492] That's fair.

[1493] Skeleton Sword Academy.

[1494] Is that Motion Plus?

[1495] You graduated from Skeleton Sword Academy.

[1496] Sorry.

[1497] Motion Plus required.

[1498] Required.

[1499] Sorry.

[1500] It seemed like they pulled back on the art style a little bit.

[1501] It was a little bit less painterly looking than the first time they showed it a year and a half ago.

[1502] A little bit more realistic.

[1503] Pure as Zelda fans, ruining it for everyone again.

[1504] Just go full Wind Waker.

[1505] Just give me full Wind Waker.

[1506] I know.

[1507] Let's do it.

[1508] Come on.

[1509] Just make a 3DS one.

[1510] I played that on 3DS.

[1511] When's that coming out?

[1512] Is that this year?

[1513] November 20th.

[1514] That's cool.

[1515] I'm excited for that.

[1516] I could jump back in.

[1517] See what happens?

[1518] I think it'll be cool.

[1519] Do your gold Wii remote.

[1520] Do my giant bomb bag.

[1521] Using the bow and arrow was not terrible.

[1522] Yeah, that looked really awkward watching you try to do it.

[1523] Trying to get a feel for it the first few times.

[1524] You literally have to hold the remote out to aim and pull the nunchuck back as if you're drawing a bow back.

[1525] I can't remember if that was in Twilight Princess.

[1526] Yeah, pretty much.

[1527] But it feels a lot.

[1528] Well, I didn't play that, but this feels pretty responsive.

[1529] In that game, I didn't play.

[1530] I can't say this feels more responsive because I didn't play that one, but this one feels precise and responsive.

[1531] With the Motion Plus, it has to be doing something.

[1532] Yeah, it feels pretty good.

[1533] Wait, so it's not a pre -order.

[1534] It's like a deluxe edition thing for the gold Wii Remote, right?

[1535] Soundtrack disc, gold Wii Remote.

[1536] No, soundtracks in all of them.

[1537] It's in the first production run, and then it's $70 for the gold Wii Remote and $50 for the regular.

[1538] So there's not a gold nunchuck to go with it?

[1539] I think so.

[1540] That one's real gold.

[1541] Sorry.

[1542] Does it have a gold?

[1543] That sucks.

[1544] Does it have a gold?

[1545] Now I've got a sweet gold Wii remote and then just a plain -ass white nunchuck.

[1546] I'm not going to be wrong.

[1547] I don't know.

[1548] Colored in with a gold Sharpie.

[1549] There was not a picture of a gold nunchuck in the image of that.

[1550] Then there's not a gold nunchuck.

[1551] Does it have a gold slip case?

[1552] Gold condom?

[1553] Gold condom?

[1554] Yeah.

[1555] Because that would be even worse.

[1556] You get your gold Wiimote and then have to wrap it in this white.

[1557] You still put that on there?

[1558] Yeah.

[1559] Totally.

[1560] Well, I don't have the integrated...

[1561] Vini Caravelle says, always put the sock on the pickle.

[1562] Word.

[1563] I keep it tight?

[1564] Yeah, you do.

[1565] Yeah, you're still looking good.

[1566] In joke.

[1567] So many.

[1568] Such a...

[1569] Anything else from the Nintendo booth?

[1570] Star Fox?

[1571] Star Fox is out next week.

[1572] I haven't played Super Mario 3D Land, which should really just be fucking called Super Mario Land 3D.

[1573] I don't know.

[1574] It just doesn't really roll at the top.

[1575] Come with me to 3D Land.

[1576] Okay.

[1577] Yay, Super Mario.

[1578] I don't want to go there.

[1579] Long story short, I just hadn't seen...

[1580] I was afraid that the 3D not taking off was going to...

[1581] distance Nintendo from not even trying to do anything interesting with it and just abandon the concept, but they had one of these secret puzzle rooms where if you have the 3D on, the blocks are an optical illusion, and you can see the optical illusion and understand why it's an optical illusion in 3D, but if you're playing it in 2D, it just feels like a bunch of blocks that you can't really jump upright.

[1582] They're all stacked on each other, and you can't understand why you keep jumping up, and you just...

[1583] You should be able to jump up to the next one, but when you put it in 3D, you realize that it was actually spread out and it's on a vertical space above you.

[1584] And then if you figure that out in 2D, then the perspective changes so that you understand why it was an optical illusion the whole time.

[1585] But in 3D, you see the optical illusion from the beginning.

[1586] What if you're one of those people that can't see 3D?

[1587] Don't buy this game.

[1588] No, that's the thing.

[1589] It's just the slider makes it work.

[1590] So the slider lets you know that it's an optical illusion from the moment you enter that room, and then it's not a puzzle.

[1591] So it's a puzzle in 2D, and then when you get to the top of it and you've solved the platforming puzzle, the perspective changes to tell you, actually, this was just an optical illusion the whole time.

[1592] In 3D, you understand that optical illusion from the beginning.

[1593] So there's secret side rooms, and it sounds like they're using 3D effectively, but it's only the secret stuff that you kind of get an extra benefit for watching in 3D.

[1594] Can anyone play Luigi's Mansion 2?

[1595] All the 3DS stuff there was straight from E3, so we didn't really spend a lot of time on it.

[1596] We saw all that stuff before.

[1597] I don't know if Luigi's Mansion was there.

[1598] I actually didn't even see that game at all.

[1599] And no Wii U on the floor at all.

[1600] I ran to one of the dudes from the developer.

[1601] Next level?

[1602] Yeah, from next level.

[1603] You guys did the punch out.

[1604] Punch out.

[1605] They're fans, so.

[1606] Hey, guys.

[1607] Alex said that game was really good at E3, so.

[1608] Yeah, that was, if it was from that, that I was curious to see if anyone else had gotten it.

[1609] Empire 3D is really great in that game.

[1610] Got hands on it, and so.

[1611] The weird legacy for that game, I feel.

[1612] Of, of a, of a fonder remembrance has grown for that game than I think it received.

[1613] It was, again, stupid Nintendo fans rejecting a game that was actually pretty cool, just because.

[1614] They wanted something else.

[1615] No real gold.

[1616] Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[1617] Is that Miyamoto?

[1618] Sorry.

[1619] Put a handle on it, sorry.

[1620] A fair amount of cosplay at the show, as per usual.

[1621] A lot of booty shorts.

[1622] Yeah, I saw a dude wearing...

[1623] Booty shorts.

[1624] And that dude was Jared Ray.

[1625] No, no. He was dressed as someone from Guilty Gear.

[1626] Yeah, which I saw pictures of him in that costume from Evo.

[1627] He was very explicitly trolling the PAX fan base.

[1628] Yeah, PAX deuce.

[1629] Several times some male showgoer would come up behind him and as he rounded him to the front, just saw his expression change, he was just like, oh, never mind.

[1630] That's awesome.

[1631] That's good stuff.

[1632] That's good stuff.

[1633] I like that.

[1634] But, man, I wanted to get a picture, but I was on my way to something else.

[1635] That Krogan was fucking amazing.

[1636] I didn't see that.

[1637] Holy shit.

[1638] It's like a good seven -foot tall costume.

[1639] I don't know that tall.

[1640] It was pretty big, though.

[1641] That guy was big.

[1642] Yeah.

[1643] I'm saying, like, in costume.

[1644] We don't know if that's official or not, right?

[1645] That was an official EA.

[1646] I don't think that was.

[1647] No, no. Very well.

[1648] No, because he was rolling with, I think he was rolling with that woman who does, that's part of that team that does all of that Mass Effect cosplay and weapon gear stuff.

[1649] Because she was there as well.

[1650] Because there are other characters too out there.

[1651] I feel terrible.

[1652] I don't know any of these people's names, but I've seen them.

[1653] I don't know.

[1654] There was such a thick corporate presence at this PAX, which is for better or worse.

[1655] I start feeling a little suspicious of some things that I saw.

[1656] There was a very obviously professional R2 -D2 and C -3PO that showed up at one point by the Microsoft booth.

[1657] Standing in front of Disney Adventures.

[1658] They had a guy dressed up like Carmine from Gears of War.

[1659] laying on the ground up against a wall.

[1660] Was that a cardboard sign?

[1661] I don't know if it was.

[1662] That one, I think that one was just a fan, I'm pretty sure, because it was really clever.

[1663] Yeah, it was pretty good.

[1664] The way he was laying there and he was only moving his head and his arm as if he was actually in a video game because that's probably all they would animate on that character model.

[1665] Yeah.

[1666] The sign was just like, brothers killed in war.

[1667] Yeah.

[1668] Help.

[1669] Not bad.

[1670] Anything else?

[1671] Any PAX -related wrap -up closure that we need to get here?

[1672] Jeff Grissman?

[1673] Eat it, dicks.

[1674] Yeah, go back the other way.

[1675] Stop it, eat it, dicks.

[1676] I went to that Warhammer Online Wrath of Chaos panel.

[1677] That was Paul and Carrie's panel, which originally we were talking like I was just going to be on that panel.

[1678] I was like, maybe you guys should actually just talk about the game.

[1679] Not have me come up there and jackass it around.

[1680] Yeah, because I don't even know what a skaven really is.

[1681] But that's what people voted for.

[1682] They were letting people vote for what the next hero is going to be.

[1683] I guess they're going to have like 25 characters in all when they're done or something.

[1684] That game sounds kind of interesting, and the people there seemed interested in hearing about it.

[1685] Oh, and we also last day Sunday went to the tested panel, and that was good.

[1686] Those guys did well.

[1687] Congratulations to Will, Norm, and Gary having a successful PAX panel.

[1688] Decent turnout and some funny stuff in their thing.

[1689] I believe they...

[1690] I think they're still in the process of recovering the audio, but if and once they do, you should be able to hear the whole panel on Tested.

[1691] Learn a lot of great things about what Norm would or would not do.

[1692] And he was wrong.

[1693] I'm sorry.

[1694] His answer was just straight up wrong.

[1695] And he answered it twice.

[1696] He had time to rethink about it.

[1697] He was like, nope, stuck to his answer.

[1698] That's the wrong choice, Norm.

[1699] I'll say one of the best things, the meetup stuff after the panel, after our panel, is a lot, a lot of fun.

[1700] And also it's just great to dialogue with people instead of like, you know, you say these things on like the podcast or something, then sometimes they get misinterpreted or like, why do you hate this?

[1701] No, I don't hate this thing.

[1702] You're a terrible person.

[1703] And like, why don't you like this thing?

[1704] And like, this is stupid.

[1705] Your opinion on this thing.

[1706] It's great to be able to like have them ask you that because it's bullshit.

[1707] That's why.

[1708] I fucking hate it.

[1709] And you're terrible too.

[1710] And then I punch him in the face.

[1711] Then I sign out and disappear.

[1712] Ninja smoke.

[1713] Maybe moon him.

[1714] But yeah, it's a great thing.

[1715] Yeah, why not?

[1716] That's a great way to solve your problems.

[1717] Someone talks shit about you on a panel, show them your ass later.

[1718] In public.

[1719] In public.

[1720] Where somebody might see it.

[1721] Was it up against a window?

[1722] It was up against a window.

[1723] And decent exposure might be.

[1724] Fucking Johnny.

[1725] Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah.

[1726] So, yeah.

[1727] Anyway.

[1728] Having a dialogue.

[1729] Yes.

[1730] And having a conversation is fantastic because you get to actually kind of talk back and forth and hopefully, you know, you come to an understanding or something about like, oh, that makes sense.

[1731] Yeah.

[1732] I spoke at length about.

[1733] Dynasty Warriors for a little bit and started getting some answers about why people like that game.

[1734] Yeah, it's good.

[1735] That part's really fun, and I wish everybody could make it out there, but obviously travel.

[1736] But PAX's keep popping up all over, so wait five years.

[1737] One will be in your town.

[1738] I'm going to PAX Omaha.

[1739] All right.

[1740] Isn't that where Phil's from?

[1741] Yeah.

[1742] He doesn't have to travel.

[1743] Yeah.

[1744] Look out, Phil.

[1745] Yeah.

[1746] Sessler, get his hat.

[1747] No. Oh, shit.

[1748] Damn it, really?

[1749] He never showed up.

[1750] I never saw Adam Sessler once.

[1751] You should have just given it to me. I saw him, and he was very excited about getting the hat.

[1752] I thought Phil gave it to him.

[1753] I saw him signing stuff, and I briefly thought about just, like, bum -rushing him in the middle of the signing, because he had, like, handlers around him, sort of, kind of, while he was sitting down at a table.

[1754] Got him full -circled to PAX East?

[1755] No, I believe it's now in the UK.

[1756] What?

[1757] I believe the hat is now...

[1758] Adam was so close to his hat, and now the hat has left the country.

[1759] So maybe it's like Firefall.

[1760] It only exists at press conferences.

[1761] I think it's just going around the world.

[1762] The hat doesn't exist anywhere else.

[1763] Adam Sissel's hat world tour.

[1764] Got to take a picture of that hat at the Grand Canyon and the Coliseum.

[1765] Got to get a pass for that hat.

[1766] But is it still in friendly hands?

[1767] Yes.

[1768] Like it could still come back?

[1769] It can.

[1770] It can be recovered.

[1771] The dream is still alive.

[1772] Absolutely.

[1773] Next time.

[1774] Yeah.

[1775] It'll come back.

[1776] I'm just saying.

[1777] PAX East will have to make a concerted effort to reunite this hat with its rightful owner.

[1778] I mean, it was on the show floor.

[1779] Yeah, yeah.

[1780] Madame Cessor's hat.

[1781] Misconnection.

[1782] Went to PAX.

[1783] You, my hat.

[1784] Me, owner of you.

[1785] Neater of hats.

[1786] Yeah, he left it here at GDC.

[1787] When he came for the podcast, that's how...

[1788] Was that where it started?

[1789] No. Yes.

[1790] Yes.

[1791] And then you brought it to PAX East?

[1792] Yeah, I brought it to PAX East, and at one point I gave it to Phil because he was bringing a bag with him.

[1793] And I'm like, I don't want to just carry around a hat, put it in a bag, and then it got forgotten to be given to Adam Cesar there, so then it ended up in...

[1794] So it's been in Omaha for a while.

[1795] Yeah, yeah, and then it came to Seattle so that it could be reunited with Adam, and that never happened, so I believe...

[1796] At one point, Phil was talking about giving it to his friend in Alaska, so it was going to go there, but I don't think that ever happened.

[1797] But I'll have to check in, but I believe it's in the U .K. now.

[1798] All right.

[1799] It's worth more there.

[1800] Yeah, exchange rates.

[1801] So that's good for the hat.

[1802] Well, good for Phil for remembering to bring it.

[1803] Adam Sessler's hat.

[1804] Oh, he was giddy about that whole thing.

[1805] He's enjoying the Adam Sessler hat saga, I think.

[1806] The hat antics.

[1807] Yeah, anyway, that was PAX.

[1808] It was awesome, as usual, exhausting.

[1809] I recommend if you get the opportunity to go and you have not gone, check it out.

[1810] At one point, I had to pretend to be able to taste wine at a restaurant.

[1811] You had to pretend?

[1812] Yeah, that's good.

[1813] Yes.

[1814] That's a good vintage.

[1815] Very grown up.

[1816] My strategy there is to just always say it's good.

[1817] I've never said it was good.

[1818] That was my play.

[1819] Yes, this is fine.

[1820] This will do.

[1821] Yes.

[1822] Well, I've once or twice done the second sip just to make sure, but I had no idea.

[1823] Just to take the sip.

[1824] I just threw it all back.

[1825] Just dump it out?

[1826] No, I just went.

[1827] There was no second sip.

[1828] Did you check the nose?

[1829] Yeah.

[1830] Did you swirl it?

[1831] Yeah, I did.

[1832] Tried to go through as many motions as I could think of.

[1833] I think this is right.

[1834] Hold it up to the light and see what the color's like.

[1835] You're just an interloper in high society.

[1836] Everybody's relying on me for this.

[1837] It's not that hard to know how to taste wine.

[1838] No. It's not that haughty.

[1839] But see, I don't necessarily like the taste of any wine.

[1840] So if it was really doing it, I'd be like...

[1841] Bring back a Diet Coke, you fuckface.

[1842] What are you doing?

[1843] Or you don't want to be like, no, no, that's good vintage.

[1844] And everybody tells me, I think it's dirt bad.

[1845] Yeah, I think this has gone to vinegar.

[1846] Right.

[1847] Yeah, if you can at least tell that it's not gone sour.

[1848] It tastes like wine.

[1849] This is fine.

[1850] I can determine this is wine.

[1851] It tasted like wine.

[1852] Okay.

[1853] Yeah.

[1854] Yeah, like I said, I think if you have a chance to go east or west, it still is an awesome show.

[1855] It's becoming one of my favorites, actually.

[1856] Absolutely.

[1857] Absolutely.

[1858] Who knows where it'll be next year.

[1859] We'll all be in a Firefall booth in two years.

[1860] PAX will take place inside of Firefall.

[1861] I'm looking forward because if they expand to new cities, yeah, like PAX Firefall, I think, is going to probably be the hottest new location.

[1862] Just log in to Firefall and go to PAX.

[1863] No, they're buying a city.

[1864] And renaming it to Firefall?

[1865] Yeah.

[1866] Firefall East.

[1867] Seoul.

[1868] Korea.

[1869] They're renaming it.

[1870] Very good.

[1871] Patrick, is there any sort of news we want to talk about here before we carry on?

[1872] I mean, there wasn't a lot of big nonsense at PAX.

[1873] Halo 4 is called the Reclaimers Trilogy.

[1874] Reclaimer Trilogy, yeah.

[1875] Oh, yeah.

[1876] We went to Halo Fest.

[1877] Popped in.

[1878] That was the first night.

[1879] Yeah.

[1880] Thursday night.

[1881] We got there early to go to Halo Fest.

[1882] There's an interview with David Ellis waiting to be cut.

[1883] Fantastic.

[1884] By Drew.

[1885] By Drew.

[1886] By...

[1887] Halo expert, Drew Scanlon.

[1888] Is that what his lower third is going to read?

[1889] Probably.

[1890] It is now.

[1891] Drew played a ton of it.

[1892] He played through all the maps.

[1893] I played some of it.

[1894] It's a little confusing to me. I don't want to spend too much time on it because I feel like there's not really that much new stuff coming out.

[1895] But just the way they're kind of...

[1896] splitting stuff off or pushing stuff around.

[1897] I was a little confused, and I think I have a handle on it now.

[1898] So there's the Halo Anniversary Edition, which comes with multiplayer.

[1899] It's like six maps and one firefight map or something like that.

[1900] Engine, yes, for the multiplayer.

[1901] It's a separate engine by Saber Interactive for the single player.

[1902] Not sure how it comes yet with the discs, though, right?

[1903] If it's two discs or one disc, I'm not sure about that.

[1904] But you put in that, and if you buy that, you're playing basically Reach multiplayer stuff, the engine on these old maps, and then people who own Reach can get the maps.

[1905] Yeah, I believe it will come with a code that you can use to get those anniversary maps in Halo Reach.

[1906] In Reach.

[1907] So you can have the full experience, all the maps at your disposal at all times.

[1908] Wait, does that mean people with...

[1909] Reach can play against people with anniversary maps in those hoppers or whatever.

[1910] First of all, are they going to sell those maps to Reach owners if they don't buy this thing?

[1911] That I don't know.

[1912] Okay.

[1913] I couldn't tell if there was a free...

[1914] update coming?

[1915] I think there's a free update coming.

[1916] There's a title update coming for Reach that'll address some of the issues the community has been talking about for a while.

[1917] Armor Lock is going to change.

[1918] Okay.

[1919] And a handful of other things.

[1920] But I know Armor Lock is the...

[1921] I thought maybe they said there's DLC coming.

[1922] But again, there was kind of weird...

[1923] I was a little confused walking out of there like how this is all going to work together.

[1924] I'm curious if the game will show up as Reach on...

[1925] The dashboard when you're playing multiplayer.

[1926] If anniversary, like how anniversary shows up.

[1927] But yeah, like these, this other separate map pack will run in Reach very specifically.

[1928] And they've got two versions of these maps.

[1929] They've got kind of the original classic versions.

[1930] Which are still redone.

[1931] Right, still redone graphically.

[1932] but then they also have updated versions that are meant to work better with the armor powers from Reach.

[1933] Different paths.

[1934] Different paths, additional, because you've got jetpacks, so they've got to make a map that works that way.

[1935] That stuff seemed cool, and then they were basically just showing the multiplayer stuff.

[1936] They did that single -player demo where you hit the back button and it goes all crazy.

[1937] Draw a distance.

[1938] Geez.

[1939] Or they start with the map, and you're like, yeah, and then you hit it, and then you're suddenly like, what did you do?

[1940] It's never looked this bad.

[1941] You guys did this.

[1942] You guys messed this up.

[1943] Yeah.

[1944] So.

[1945] It's some Halo.

[1946] That Halo Fest thing seemed, if you were way into Halo, that room seemed to be really nice to you.

[1947] You don't get more Halo than that.

[1948] The big old room of Halo.

[1949] Man, I couldn't, I'm walking around there.

[1950] There were rooms I didn't even see until the very end.

[1951] There's more Halo back here?

[1952] You're crazy.

[1953] Those dioramas set up, which were kind of cool.

[1954] Oh, they actually had those dioramas in the commercials or whatever?

[1955] Are they in the commercials?

[1956] I don't know.

[1957] I don't know if those are the actual one from the commercial.

[1958] It's similar to that.

[1959] Got it.

[1960] But yeah, those are cool.

[1961] They had like Xboxes set up playing Halo and they had like all this memorabilia and tons of merch.

[1962] Most amazing set of Halloween costumes I've ever seen.

[1963] So they took those down.

[1964] I know they did.

[1965] Oh, I'm glad we shot our interview in front of them before they took it down.

[1966] It was determined that there was...

[1967] We did not represent the Halo brand that well and were brought off of the floor.

[1968] They were not of the standard the Halo franchise is known for.

[1969] What were these?

[1970] Just shitty Halloween costumes.

[1971] I will say that to clear David of any, he did protest being in front of those.

[1972] I can't believe we're doing this in front of these.

[1973] What are you doing?

[1974] I was like, do it here.

[1975] Have something behind you.

[1976] Come on.

[1977] Yeah, these look great.

[1978] What are you talking about?

[1979] He's like, look, we have this whole...

[1980] Well, they were really well lit.

[1981] We have this warthog.

[1982] It's all the way from New Zealand.

[1983] We have this life -size warthog made by Weta Workshop.

[1984] Nope.

[1985] No wing costumes.

[1986] Well, that was taken.

[1987] Yeah, well.

[1988] That spot was taken.

[1989] I think we came out ahead on that one.

[1990] Yeah.

[1991] Exclusive.

[1992] All right.

[1993] So that was PAX.

[1994] Let's talk a little bit about some news.

[1995] Sure.

[1996] Things did happen between the last podcast and now.

[1997] PAX, name one.

[1998] I just don't remember.

[1999] Well, there's that whole Deus Ex GameStop fucking calamity.

[2000] Oh, we didn't talk about that yet?

[2001] That's all new?

[2002] Yeah.

[2003] Yeah, we didn't get a chance to talk about that.

[2004] The best PR campaign that OnLive could have ever asked for.

[2005] I don't know.

[2006] I know it's second best because they were giving out free OnLive consoles at PAX.

[2007] But those things are like $40.

[2008] It's not like it's...

[2009] You say free.

[2010] Yeah.

[2011] So if you haven't been following, Deus Ex Human Revolution came out last week, and the PC version came packed in with a voucher for a free version of the game on OnLive.

[2012] So you get the full version that you can play on your personal computer, and it's a good hook to get people to try out the OnLive service.

[2013] Well, that game is Steamworks, so that means your save is going to go in the cloud and everything.

[2014] The OnLive version apparently does not work with Steam.

[2015] Really?

[2016] That is a shame.

[2017] But apparently this was news to GameStop, which sent out a mandate to all the stores to open up all PC versions of Deus Ex Human Revolution and remove the coupon for the free on -live code as GameStop is trying to launch its own cloud -based remote streaming video.

[2018] Computer game -playing thing.

[2019] Competitor.

[2020] Yeah, basically they said this is a competing product.

[2021] We don't want to sell a competing product.

[2022] So, you know.

[2023] There we go.

[2024] I think people were less upset that they were not getting their online coupon, more that GameStop was opening them up and then selling them as new, when if a consumer was to do that, that is now used, and it's lost 30 % of its value.

[2025] But that's also standard practice at GameStop before any of this happened.

[2026] Right, with employees taking games home, and if you're buying the last copy of something, they're sticking a disc back in a box going, here you go, give me 60 bucks.

[2027] The difference is people are always looking for use to throw GameStop under the bus, and this was a very egregious version of this that was public, had evidence.

[2028] It's not just random GameStop employees saying, well, yeah, this is what we do.

[2029] This is GameStop issuing a statement to the press saying, yeah, we're doing this.

[2030] Hell yeah.

[2031] Sorry.

[2032] Well, first Square Enix says sorry.

[2033] They're like, sorry.

[2034] Right.

[2035] We should have been better communicators.

[2036] We dropped the ball in this.

[2037] It should have done a separate production line of the game.

[2038] And then GameStop said, hey, anyone that got affected by this, here's a $50 GameStop gift card and free two for one.

[2039] Or buy two, get one free.

[2040] Buy two, get one free for used games.

[2041] But you eventually came to that.

[2042] This got so negative on them that they actually did feel the need to do some kind of make good.

[2043] Because their first comment was not...

[2044] Like resealing open copies of games and selling them as new and all that sort of stuff.

[2045] No, you don't get anything.

[2046] They just got caught in a way more dramatic way.

[2047] Buy two used games.

[2048] The profit margin on that alone.

[2049] Exactly.

[2050] Hey, buy 10 used games and get 15 free.

[2051] We don't care.

[2052] I don't know.

[2053] Whatever you want to do.

[2054] We'll give you every PS2 game in the store for $8.

[2055] By the way, every PS2 game is Madden.

[2056] I got this $800 worth of PS2 games here.

[2057] I give it to you for $30.

[2058] It's one of those Dog City.

[2059] You got Dog City in there.

[2060] I got R. Kelly.

[2061] I can't believe you guys didn't buy those CDs.

[2062] Oh, man. I was trying to buy a hot dog.

[2063] That guy had tattoos on his face.

[2064] The longer I think about this, the more disappointed I am.

[2065] The guy with the watch had tattoos on his face, I thought.

[2066] It was the CD guy.

[2067] I'll give you a quarter.

[2068] Seattle's a good place.

[2069] I can't have this watch.

[2070] But they put cream cheese on the hot dogs.

[2071] I don't want the watch.

[2072] And he just walked off like I had somehow offended him even more.

[2073] Yeah, man, Seattle Street dogs.

[2074] He was trying to conduct a business transaction, not beg for money.

[2075] That hot dog was like a magic fucking elixir because I was way...

[2076] Well, you didn't see the hot dogs at Yappy Hour.

[2077] What's that?

[2078] You didn't see the hot dogs at Yappy Hour.

[2079] Oh, my God.

[2080] So we haven't broke this to Matt Rory yet, but the hotel that we were staying at, which was pretty far from the convention center but was in an awesome, awesome neighborhood.

[2081] Lower Queen Anne.

[2082] Yeah, Lower Queen Anne.

[2083] Represent.

[2084] That place was radical.

[2085] It was a breakfast place in Mecca.

[2086] Yeah, Mecca.

[2087] The French name.

[2088] Toulouse?

[2089] Toulouse Petite.

[2090] Toulouse Petite.

[2091] Yeah.

[2092] That was really good, too.

[2093] Yeah, and then Dix was up there.

[2094] That was fucking awesome.

[2095] And Jaboos?

[2096] Yeah, and then Jaboos.

[2097] Oh, yeah, Jaboos.

[2098] Reppin' Jaboos.

[2099] Hard.

[2100] Good brews?

[2101] Great brews.

[2102] God damn you.

[2103] So I don't think anyone else.

[2104] I think you and I were the only ones that saw this.

[2105] And Adam and Johnny.

[2106] Right, right, right.

[2107] So midday, I guess it was Friday.

[2108] Apparently there was this regularly scheduled event where they basically have, like, a fucking dog meetup in the lobby of the hotel that we were staying at.

[2109] They call it the Yappy Hour.

[2110] Oh, please tell me you filmed it.

[2111] No. No. It's just for our eyes and minds only.

[2112] And there was, like, a hundred fucking dogs.

[2113] Like, people with dogs.

[2114] And there's an adoption truck outside that's full of dogs.

[2115] And they're selling hot dogs, which is maybe a little perverse.

[2116] They were in the lobby?

[2117] Oh, yeah.

[2118] They were everywhere.

[2119] They were all over the fucking place.

[2120] You know that bed they had set up?

[2121] Yeah.

[2122] I think it was for the dogs.

[2123] Yeah.

[2124] There were just hella dogs all over the place.

[2125] Did it smell like dog in there?

[2126] No, it was all right.

[2127] We kept it clean.

[2128] Like, bowls of water on the ground.

[2129] I just walked out of the elevator and completely confused.

[2130] It was like, it wasn't like this when we went up, and then we came back down.

[2131] There's like a hundred fucking dogs in this place now.

[2132] All shaped sizes?

[2133] Yeah.

[2134] Little tiny dogs, big dogs.

[2135] Tiniest teacup poodle.

[2136] Someone stuck gum under this table.

[2137] What?

[2138] I just touched it with my hand.

[2139] Is it like fresh?

[2140] No. God damn it.

[2141] Fucking animals.

[2142] Fucking animals.

[2143] Middle -earth in this table.

[2144] Good lord.

[2145] This table is in Middle -earth.

[2146] What else is news?

[2147] What else is news?

[2148] Kim Swift and Airtight Games announced Quantum Conundrum.

[2149] Kim Swift, the co -creator of Portal.

[2150] There's a couple of kids.

[2151] There's three of them, I think.

[2152] She was part of that in our bacular drop team.

[2153] Joined Valve to do Portal and then departed before Portal 2.

[2154] I don't know if she had anything to do with Portal 2.

[2155] Involved in the sense that reading Jeff Keighley's story, as they were trying to figure out what to do with it, but not in the version it became.

[2156] Right, and it sounds like some of those ideas she...

[2157] that she had she took with her and you could like this game there's a there's a short like seven minute gameplay video of this upward that she's narrating and it uh kind of explaining some of the gameplay systems and this is clearly not portal but you can see the sort of 3d environmental logic puzzles yeah i mean it's a it's a first person puzzle game yeah yeah like the That this came from someone who was involved in Portal before is very, very apparent, but it has...

[2158] Do you get a sense if the game is meant to be funny or not?

[2159] If that aspect...

[2160] You want to see how much Valve was part of Portal?

[2161] Or if that's the style they're going for, if they're like, oh, well, we obviously can't nail that, so we'll just go for the gameplay.

[2162] It's more cartoony.

[2163] It doesn't have that same aesthetic.

[2164] It doesn't seem like, or at least...

[2165] I felt like they were much more concerned in the first blush on this to just show you the systems and explain, like, this is the kind of game this is, and this is how the logics work in this world, which is basically you gain access to different dimensions, and you can switch between dimensions, and when you do so, things behave differently in the environment.

[2166] In the regular dimension, let's say there's a chair over there.

[2167] You walk over to that chair.

[2168] There is a chair over there.

[2169] You can't pick up that chair because it's too heavy.

[2170] No, I can.

[2171] They're not that heavy.

[2172] Well, not this chair.

[2173] You just said there's a chair over there.

[2174] I'm looking at the chair.

[2175] I can lift up the chair.

[2176] It's too heavy.

[2177] Not with Patrick in it.

[2178] No, the chair behind him.

[2179] He's still looking pretty good.

[2180] That's not the chair I'm talking about.

[2181] I'm really not that heavy.

[2182] I can probably still pick up that chair.

[2183] But Jeff's got brittle bones.

[2184] But so in a regular dimension, you could not pick up that chair.

[2185] But you can switch over to the fluffy dimension where suddenly everything is made out of, like, everything is one -tenth the weight that it is in the regular dimension.

[2186] So you can, like, pick up this giant safe.

[2187] Let's use that as the example instead.

[2188] How about that?

[2189] Big fucking safe.

[2190] There's no safe in this room.

[2191] So that's coming.

[2192] Anything else good announced?

[2193] Not a lot of new games on this show.

[2194] Fuck you, Jeff.

[2195] That game looks cool.

[2196] I'm not saying it doesn't.

[2197] The third dimension that they showed was a slow motion dimension.

[2198] The obvious mechanics of I can't pick up stuff in the regular dimension, but I go into the fluffy dimension and I can pick stuff up.

[2199] You go to the meat dimension and you just eat your way out.

[2200] Easy to figure out.

[2201] But then there's stuff where you have to pick something up.

[2202] in the fluffy dimension, throw it, and then while it's in midair, go into the regular dimension or go into the slow -mo dimension and then run into another room to trigger some sort of switch or lever to allow the thing that you threw...

[2203] to keep moving and not be disrupted.

[2204] Like there's.

[2205] Sounds cool.

[2206] How do you switch between dimensions?

[2207] It looked like, it looked like it was just like, it's not a matter of like, go find a big button in the room and stand on it.

[2208] No. Well, there are these like within each room, there's this like battery terminal and you find batteries that allow you to access these different dimensions.

[2209] Okay.

[2210] So it's, it seems like it's like, okay, in this room, you will only have access to the, to the fluffy dimension.

[2211] Where in this room you'll have access to the slow -mo and the fluffy dimension.

[2212] Is it actually called the fluffy dimension?

[2213] That's what she calls it, the fluffy dimension.

[2214] And everything goes, like, literally you see there's this, it takes place in like this laboratory, sorry, laboratory slash manor house.

[2215] So like, you know, big, huge, there's this big, huge painting of the scientist inventor who's one of the main characters in the game.

[2216] And he's standing there looking all serious with, you know, big rubber gloves on and, you know, white coat.

[2217] scientist shit, that kind of thing.

[2218] When the game switches to the fluffy dimension, he's suddenly in like a big pink bunny suit.

[2219] So it's like there's an aesthetic change to everything as well as a physical change.

[2220] So it seems playful and interesting.

[2221] Of course, that game is going to be dogged with portal comparisons from now until release, which I suppose they're inviting, but also is probably going to.

[2222] hurt that game in some capacity.

[2223] You don't think it's a good thing for people to get...

[2224] Especially if they're trying to be funny?

[2225] I don't know.

[2226] I can see...

[2227] That could be tough.

[2228] It's pretty hard to compare favorably to Portal.

[2229] Well, I'm just saying if you're like, hey, I was one of the people that made Portal.

[2230] But not comparisons like that.

[2231] Which, what, the funny stuff?

[2232] No, it's just...

[2233] No, it's not.

[2234] This is not like from the mines that brought you Portal.

[2235] But it kind of is.

[2236] It's one person from that portal.

[2237] That's a mine that brought you Portal.

[2238] That was responsible for one aspect of that game.

[2239] Sure.

[2240] I feel like it's different enough.

[2241] I know what Patrick is getting at.

[2242] Yeah, people will constantly make comparisons to Portal.

[2243] But I also think it's a double -edged sword where you're going to get a lot of press.

[2244] People will look at that that would not have looked at that at all.

[2245] Oh, yeah, that's for sure.

[2246] One of the people that made Portal made this.

[2247] Absolutely.

[2248] I don't know if it's going to be as good as fucking, you know, Airtight does not necessarily have as good a track record as...

[2249] Airtight does not have as good a track record as Valve.

[2250] So, you know, there's...

[2251] Yep.

[2252] Wait.

[2253] What?

[2254] Dog City.

[2255] Damn.

[2256] Taking you to Dog City.

[2257] Can we stop talking about that?

[2258] Bumming me the fuck out.

[2259] $800.

[2260] And we were going to give them $20.

[2261] Less than that.

[2262] The idea after was that we were going to give the CDs out of the panel.

[2263] Except for Dog City.

[2264] Yeah, hang on to a copy of Dog City.

[2265] Said so much regret.

[2266] Temptations.

[2267] Brad was so upset when I called him back, though.

[2268] So much regret.

[2269] He started walking on the street.

[2270] He was across the street.

[2271] You hollered him back.

[2272] You're like, what kind of CDs you got?

[2273] R. Kelly.

[2274] At which point I almost said, keep going.

[2275] Temptations.

[2276] Temptations.

[2277] Dog City.

[2278] It very clearly said Doggy Style.

[2279] Oh, wait, really?

[2280] It was Snoop Dogg's Doggy Style.

[2281] It was not an actual album called Dog City.

[2282] I don't even have a copy of Doggy Style.

[2283] We should have bought those.

[2284] Not to mention Dog City.

[2285] It's the rare variant.

[2286] We gave away the panel.

[2287] I could have just expensed it.

[2288] Can I get a receipt from him?

[2289] Yeah, sure.

[2290] Can I get a receipt for this clearly not stolen stack of just loose CDs you have?

[2291] Sir?

[2292] Seattle's awesome.

[2293] Also, the weather in Seattle was...

[2294] Oh, it was so great.