Stay tuned after this episode for new music from me. What's up everybody? Welcome to IJ and GameScoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. And joining me this week here in studio is Nick Lemone. I'm back, baby. We are also joined by Justin Davis. Scoop. And Sam Claiborne. Hey, I'm here avoiding the noise. Oh, no, you're supposed to avoid the noise. Look out. That's the opposite of what we're doing. Your pizza's going to get cold. Yeah, yeah. Watch your pizza, Sam. We've got a great show for this week. Yes. Lots of fun stuff to talk about. We've been talking about dispatch a lot recently. And now there's a reason to talk about it again for a really, really strange reason, actually. And then we've got some scoops, some scoops this week are provided by listeners in our listener mail. We've got some good emails with some things, information that I did not know. But first, Sam, do you have an update on your adventures in Baldur's Gate 3? But are the emails corrections? One of them is kind of. I'm very tickled by like a new section of the show, of things I did not know. I did not know that. OK, so I played a lot of Baldur's Gate 3. By now, did you start playing? Yep, I did. Oh, OK. I got-- I'm still-- I did that part in the first match. I haven't actually resolved the problem between the T-flings and the goblins and everything. But I tried. But I've not resolved that yet. But so right now, I have wrapped my head around this game. I know a little bit more than before. I've used some, as suggested, use some of our things you didn't know, guides and stuff like that. There's still-- my biggest blocker to this game is that it sucks on Xbox. It is so broken, really. It is so broken. It does not quick resume. If it quick resumes, buttons don't work. So you have to always back that and start it. A million times now, it's done a bullshit Bethesda type thing, where it's like, I saved the guy from the fire. The guy from the fire runs into a smaller fire outside of the fire, and dies. I can't even talk to his corpse because he's too burned. They be doing that sometimes, yeah. So all I'm doing is save scumming now. And it's not fun. That's not fun. But the game is amazing, and I totally respect it. I know why everybody loves it. But I don't really have an option here. I don't really want to play in this way. There's things I want to do. There's things I'm excited about. But like, it's so buggy. Here, that's too bad. Because I'm playing on PS5, and I don't have the experience. But there was that whole thing. It didn't come to Xbox at first, right? Right. Because of the series S was supposedly holding it back. Yeah. But so what? I guess I'm not about that. Eventually did, and now it's not. It doesn't run great. Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer. I will say, despite the game being, you know, a few years old now by this point, and you know, it just got it's, I think, quote unquote, last patch, patch 8, which was supposedly adding a lot of bug fixes, plus adding the new subclasses into the game. I was expecting the game to be way more bug free than it actually was. But once you get to act through, like that cyberpunk trajectory, right? Like, act one, for the most part, it's pretty solid. From my experience, it was pretty solid all the way through act two, but act three, because there's just, I mean, it is a staggering amount of things that gets introduced in act three, where I was just like, yeah, I don't blame you. The game, there's a lot that can go wrong here. But I was a little bit surprised by the, some of the glitches I encountered. - Sam, I have a spicy suggestion for you. The game has cross platform saves. You make a layering account and it's cloud saves. I played Baldur's Gate 3 on my work MacBook Pro. - Okay. - And it works like it runs natively on Mac. You don't have to do any weird Windows stuff. So like, I don't know how new your work computer is. I have an M2 MacBook Pro. That's what I have. And that's how I played most of the game. And it was fine. I mean, it did get a little dicey in act three, but like act one and act two are completely fine. - What is act three layer on the game? That's so, well, you're in a big city that's very dense. And I was playing the game at launch when act three was a real shit show. And they've said, you know, kind of cleaned it up. Like, so, but I don't, you know, I played it back then. So I don't have a point of comparison. Supposedly, they fixed the memory leaks and fixed the stuff, fixed a lot of what was causing act three to run so poorly. But besides that, it ran great on just non-gaming laptop. What I think that I'm having that's like built into the game that like is, is a little hard for me to stomach. Is that like, you know, there's this suggestion of like, just go with the flow, like let things happen. And except when things go wrong and then resolve it. When things go wrong for me, people all turn against me and kill me. So like that's not really an option. You know, like, there's an example. There's a, in the goblin hall. I, I escorted a goblin to the goblin hall. So I can get into the goblin hall. Like, I don't have, they're not enemies to me, right? But there's a goblin priestess in there and one of the quests is resolve this quest. Seek out help from the goblin priestess. Well, the only resolution to that is the goblin priestess takes you into a room and murders you. That's the only resolution. Correct. So the only resolution that you have to know about before that happens by safe scumming is to anticipate that by taking her in the room and killing her or at least being really ready. 'Cause otherwise she calls everybody in that it's a, you're never gonna survive. Like, at the whole place is against you at that point. So I don't like that. I think that's like a kind of a silly result, but it's funny and like some people I'm sure love it. - Did you, did you ever rescue, go ahead, Nick? - I would just encourage you to really take a look at your tools that are at your disposal because there's ways you can make it so that people won't be able to call for help. And almost certainly-- - For sure. But I still have to kill her and I did, I started that. Like I did that. That's where I, that's how I resolved it. I got her into that room. And I do think though, like to the point of kind of going with the flow, it does, I get where you're coming from where it's like now everyone's aggroed on me in this goblin encampment. But I kind of like that, that's my, that's now your story for the goblin encampment. - Well, that'd be fine if I could survive it. You should be able to. I would also encourage you-- - Can you flee, I mean, I see a button for fleeing, but it doesn't ever do anything. - Yeah, when you flee, you can disengage in flee and when you flee, you go back to your camp. So you can kind of lick your wounds and then fast travel back to a different spot. - So you disengage every character and then you fast travel back to your camp. - Yeah, you can get individual people to escape though, so like one of your people can stay in the fight and die if they want, and then you can resurrect their body back at camp. - Okay, yeah, so I also just push-- - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I pushed, I pushed hella goblins into those bottomless pits. That's how I want everything there is. There's just bottomless pits everywhere. And then like I'd push one in and then the next goblin would, they'd all wait their turn. And okay, now it's my turn to get pushed into the bottomless pit. - That's great. - Yeah, I think I have to do that. I have like a battle with the goblins now outside of the druid area. And it's like legit hard. Like there's just, it's just a lot of waves of enemies and the NPCs suck. So I need to do something. I need to do traps or something. Where do you get traps? - Did you ever unlock the mage? Did you get gale? - Yeah. - You pulled him on the road. - But my character's a warlock. So he's kind of redundant for me. - I was just worried about that. - That was really funny. No, that was really funny. - I got the devil lady too, which is nice. - Karla. - Karla, yeah. - Yeah. - Is that goblin encampment? Isn't it a big indoor area? Like kind of like a castle? - Yeah. - Okay. - So that's where I'm indoor outdoor, yeah. - That's where I'm on my way to now. 'Cause the what the tea lifts, what are they? - Teaflings? - Teaflings, they want me to escort them out of the druid camp. But they want me to kill this like major goblin person first. So that's where I am with everything. - I'd encourage you to make use of the spell silence. If you want to avoid attracting any unwanted attention while you get into combat with people. 'Cause it creates a literal like circle of silence. And so no one can scream for help when they're trapped inside the circle. - And also you can also poison their stew. - Yeah, poison their grog. - That's fun. - Yeah, or they're yeah, they're grog. - So in my game, they're all friendly. Another silly thing that happened to me in there is that I, and I'll make this quick. I wanted to free the druid, house some, or whatever his name is, you know. Couldn't find him. And his marker is not in where he is. It's not even close. It's like one of those area of an effect markers. And that's not where he is. So what it's just kind of the entrance to the one area which leads to another area. And then he's in a secret area of that. I don't, it's complicated. So I look it up and I look at multiple guides and it's like you can go into this area through this secret wall. You can knock down, but you gotta put all these people to sleep and then knock down this wall. So I do all that. Like that just got me in the door I can already get in because I already did something different to get in there. I don't need to do this. It should be forever. And I just was so annoyed. I was so dejected. You know, and it was like, well, the real answer is that he's in the back right corner of this place where you have to go through a door I'd ever saw. You know, like it's just stupid. - Well, I've been having a great time. I'm probably six or seven hours into it. You know, I played like up to act two back when it first came out. So it's been in a couple of years. And there's a lot that I remember. - That's the guy that caught himself on fire. - Yeah. - That was him. - A lot that I either just don't remember or is playing out differently to the first time. And it's just like, it is literally, you know, a single player, done just a dragon game that you're playing. Literally, that's what it is. But like what a sense of adventure, just wandering around with your party, you just naturally sort of encounter people and get new quests and run into encounters. And it's just, none of it is boring. None of it feels like a grind or a slog. And then obviously the writing and the voice acting is just top to here. And like the sense of like just being outside, I'm playing with my playstation headphones on. And you know, you hear birds chirping and insects buzzing and the wind is blowing through the leaves. It's just like, it's like, I'm just like outside on a fantasy adventure. - It's what I want from a fantasy experience. 100%. - I think the quests, the way that they're written,
and they unfold is really smart to where, I mean, not just because the fact that they can all be solved in a dozen different ways, although that's also neat. But just like your quest log, like some quests are mutually exclusive. It feels just a little bit more true to life. It's like, well, you know, figure out how to help these dudes. And like, that's the quest. And the quest doesn't go here. Do this. Do that. Do this. It's just like, you have a problem to solve. And then here's the game world. And then, you know, figured out, like, figure out how you want to solve this problem. Like, you have a quest for the whole game almost that's like, you know, get this tadpole out of your head. Yeah. I like it. I don't know if it changes later on, but at least in the first two acts, it's not a, you have to save the world story. I gotta save my own. It's very personal in the way that it, and I won't spoil anything at all. But the way that it does kind of like, you know, the stakes change from like personal stakes to non-personal stakes are really interesting and feel very kind of natural. I didn't even notice it. Like, when I was playing the game, I didn't clock this. And it wasn't until after that I reflected on it of just like that whole first act of the game is just survive, right? Like, like, all the breadcrumming through the first act is like, I'm going to talk to this person in the Druids Grove. Can they help me? Everybody wants your eyeball. Everybody. You should give a, you should give someone your eyeball at least. You get a nice little treat for it. Well, one thing I do, like genuinely, I hope, you know, it's easier said than done, of course. But one thing I want a lot of RPGs to look at in regards to Baldur's Gate 3 is quest outcome and players being like, there's, there's this like, incessant need for most RPGs for the player to basically be the ultimate good, goody, goody two shoes where there's always an optimal outcome where everyone's going to be happy. And I really like that Baldur's Gate. Some of these like, sometimes you're forced into a shitty situation and no matter which outcome you choose, you will make someone mad. And I really like that because that's, that's real life sometimes. And I like that the stakes aren't you can't always please everyone. That more games need to do that. So I just need to overcome some of these technical issues, which this is a good suggestion. And then I need to overcome a little bit more of my like, I don't know what the hell's going on at all times, stuff. But like obviously the game is like super amazing. Yeah, I don't think the intent is for you to see every single thing that the game has to offer in one playthrough. It's there if you would really want that experience. But I think it's like, I need to grind a little bit because my battles are going terribly. And then I'll read like, you should be level five by now. I'm like, oh, okay, like I didn't, yeah, I have no idea. Yeah, it's, I had a hard time like the few times I did want to use a guide and Baldur's gate three. I couldn't, they weren't even very helpful because the guide maker's game state was like so different than mine. That's what's happening with the one I was explaining with a druid. They're like, go this and talk to them and do this. And I'm like, well, that person's dead and this person isn't where you said they were. And so it's like you're kind of like that that helped me kind of like let go and just be like, okay, I'm on my own. I'll figure it out. Yeah. Well, I'm definitely going to keep playing. But I bet you anything the same thing will happen as last time. I'll make it to act two. And then Resident Evil 9 will be here. Yeah. Let's go, baby. I'm not so excited. Act two is the low point. Oh, no. It's still cool. One is amazing. And yeah, yeah, yeah, out of the three acts, it's the worst. Correct. Okay, let's move on to dispatch. The news is that it's come to Nintendo Switch two this week. But unfortunately on Switch two, it is censored. And there's no, there's no option to untoggle the censorship. So on the other versions, you know, so this game has some sex and violence and nudity. In the other versions, you can toggle that if you don't want to see it. But in the Nintendo Switch version, it's that's always toggled on and you can't untoggle it. Nintendo players can look at genitals confirmed. But they can in other games like Cyberpunk. That's that's what's so weird in the way. Nintendo, like, oh, Nintendo kitty games, yadda yadda. But it's like, that's not true. Like they, they've embrated games all over their platform. How many games have the word hentai in them on the Nintendo Switch e-shop at least five, Nick, because I counted them. These are games available in the e-shop right now. Hentai dating stories Brazil, Hentai Academy, Hentai Make Love Not War, Hentai World, Hentai Vision and Pure Hentai Moments. All right, here's what we got to do. I need everyone on the podcast to give me permission to expense all of these Hentai games. And I will confirm whether or not there's nudity in them and I will report that. You're okay. You have my mission. And it wasn't to reduce the rating of it to for some reason. It doesn't have a like a e-for-all or no. See, it's mature still. Yeah. And that's what the rating is for in the first place. Yeah. So that the the gamer can make their own decision whether or not they want to buy the game and see the content. So very strange situation. My my spicy take here and I'm not anti, you know, I'm not approved of any kind, but I think dispatches better and funnier with this with the censorship on. I do think it's big, big, aggressive black bars. I think like I think it's just funny. Like I think, you know, and look, like I think that this policy is stupid because give people the option. Yeah. But I also think people that are like it completely ruins again. I don't think I think it kind of makes it better. I don't have a problem with it at all. I mean, some people just really want to see an ariola. I mean, that's about as as loot as it gets along with seeing someone hanged on a couple times. I mean, who does? Yeah. They also they they switched the sex sounds in a sex scene. That's true. That's really funny. Dude, we got to do a comparison. That's such a funny IGN video idea. Yeah. It's just such a weird decision. I don't know. So it feels outdated just in general. Yeah. It just doesn't make any sense. Like why they would do this. Ad hoc statement was that they worked with Nintendo to get it onto this the switch to so it doesn't like it wouldn't be ad hoc. It has been Nintendo. But why? How like how is this possible when there are a hen-tied games on the eShop? Yes. Maybe those that games don't actually have nudity. Maybe that's what it is. That's true. How is for entering an era of Nintendo going a little bit more stickler and old school? Well, I don't know. Maybe this is new. I mean, it was one person in comments was saying you know that they have there's a new head of Nintendo of America now that took over for Doug Bowser. So I mean, I don't I don't know. Is this person more conservative and it's taking a more conservative approach to what is allowed on the switch? I don't know. It's a weird stance to take some like such a prudish prudish stance on something that's ultimately fine. Like it's plus they're already it's there's an ESRB rating on the box. There's a toggle to turn off you want. Why is it? It's because the game opens on green dong. That's the problem. That's like the first five minutes. That was too intimidating. If you only have a switch, I agree with Justin that it's not going to make the experience worse because they included it censored in their own version that you could toggle on. They made the creative decisions at least. Yeah, well, definitively the switch to version is the worst version now. So by their own by their own decision. Completely game though. You check it out. I mean, it's a great game. Actually one of my favorites of last year. Yeah, I think we would have been a great contender for the Damies. Yep, it would have absolutely made the Damies. That'd be a good follow up Damie is like game that would have been in the Damies. Yeah, I love it. Also, give me give me I know everyone's tired of Roguelikes at this point. No, we're not. Not this crew, but I'm just saying, give me a Roguelike of this this thing right here. Where I can send out my heroes and then slowly they die over time. That is sick. Yeah, I would just play that this game for a while. But by like half way through the game, I was really like in a you felt like you got better at the job. Yeah, you really do get better at the job. I love that idea. Okay, let's check in with the listeners. Yes. Listeners. Remember, you can always reach us at the email address
[email protected] just like. Oh God. Big Tony style. Oh, he's getting a little greedy. He wants to be in every episode. It seems well. He actually has he actually has a scoop that I wasn't aware of. And I definitely wanted to bring up. So this is good. I did not know this. Big Tony style says I saw that with the switch to release of the final fantasy seven remake. Square Enix is releasing a patch to unlock a god mode that lets you attack for maximum damage each hit. I didn't know this. This is enough for me to like the jump back in and replay the game since it would be a massive time saver and a fun way to experience the story again. I'd love to see more developers do this for single player games just to give players the option to experience the world. They built with ease. What games, if any, would the Omega cops like to replay without any stress of potentially hitting the game over screen? Why do you think these types of god modes don't always make it into single player games? Do you know about this mode? It's also not just on the switch too. It's also coming into the Xbox. Adding it to Xbox PlayStation and PC. Yeah, yeah. I heard about it. This is a great idea because it's a great way for one for square to incentivize people to either pick up or replay a final fantasy seven remake and presumably read this while so happen with rebirth and then jump into remake part three whenever it comes out and be ready because everyone always wants to play catch up. Yeah, and these are really big games. They're very, very, big, very long and honestly, you know, I've I've 100% of these games except for rebirth because I'm not going to do that last boss fight. But maybe I will now once they update it with rebirth, but just they're there comes a point where it's like if you really want to see everything the game has to offer, it can kind of be a pain in the ass to grind enough to get strong enough. And you will miss out on some jay.
and you only cool content. Rebirth specifically has a very good secret boss fight that not enough people have experienced that I think is one of the greatest things Final Fantasy has ever done. And so now hopefully people will get to enjoy that. - It's just a cactuar, everybody. Don't let Nick hype it up too much. - No. - She just really likes cactuar. - There's a certain somebody collecting treasure that you help throughout rebirth that has an incredible boss fight. - Is rebirth the second part, I don't remember it. - That's the second part. - Are they adding the godmo to that? - I think they will. - I don't remember if I'm gonna switch too. I think it will, once it comes to switch to you 'cause it is coming to switch to. - Okay. - But this is I think them showing like we're gonna, we're gonna go back and make this all like an experience for everyone to enjoy all the way up. - But the removing Tifa's bikinis. (laughing) Well, to be fair, she has terrible taste in bikinis because that bikini looks terrible. - Wow. - Not, she looks good in it. Don't get me wrong, but it's just, come on TV. Better design since it's already. Come on. - My answer to this question of which game you should get this feature is just all of them. - Just like all of them. - It's video games are the only medium that like we don't have control over it. Like if I wanna just watch the battle of Helm's Deep and skip through the Tree Beard sections, then like I can do that. If I wanna listen to only Holland 1945 and I don't wanna listen to the rest of in the aeroplane over the sea, I can do that, right? Like it's very bizarre like these games and especially role-playing games that are 80 hours long that they don't all have a chapter select, that they don't all have a fast forward button that they don't all have a God mode option. Like we all should have the freedom and power to go through our games how I want. And like I understand that it's a different medium. It's an interactive medium. So if there's some kind of compromise of like, turn off achievements or turn off trophies or I don't think I'm in favor of this, but maybe it's only unlockable after you've beaten the game the first time. It's crazy. It's crazy to me that certain video games are like, well, if you lost that boss fight, you're never gonna see it again. - So all I've taken away from this is that Nick doesn't like Tifa, Justin doesn't like Ens and Damon doesn't like Black bars. - You take that back right now, Sam. I love Tifa. She just has bad taste in bikinis. - So who ends? - Yeah. - I would say all the-- - There's games that have like, good. - Sorry, I would say all the Resident Evil games 'cause I've destroyed all of the Resident Evil games, but I was just gonna say that's the power fantasy. - Well, you unlock this stuff anyway, right? You unlock the Plogus removal laser or the Magnum or the Infinite Launcher. - But I'm not, that's what's so fun. - I'm not as plus in the game on my first time through and I'm like, really, I haven't played the game well enough to unlock an extra hit bag so my inventory's a little bit longer. Like, come on, man. - Yeah, but when you do all of that Resident Evil and you unlock Infinite Launcher, it actually is an interesting way to play the game because you can kill yourself with it by accident and you have to like solve these other issues if you just wanna use the launcher. Like, it's not, it's like a toy, right? It's a playground and all games can use this. This is what Grand Theft Auto has. It's sheet codes. It's exactly why we should be able to manipulate games more without doing mods 'cause mods can break all these other things. Just have the developers put that stuff in there so we can play with it. - Make it DLC, that's free. You download it and whether you want it or not, it's there. - Yeah, which by the way, I like, and it's just fine. I just don't like that they don't say anything unless it takes a long time to say. - I think the first time I ever experienced this was the PlayStation 4 re-release of the original Final Fantasy VII. They included a mode where you can toggle, you can click L3 to boost the game speed by like up to 10 times or something. And then if you hit both analog sticks, you had instant limit break every time, 9,999 health and you did 9,999 damage and you could disable it and enable it whenever you wanted it in an out of battle. It was really cool. And it was like, I play this game eight times. It's a great way of just re-experiencing the story and music. - Trails in the sky on Steam had that same thing 'cause it's the very original Trails in the Sky role-playing game. It was a PSP port and they added a turbo mode in the PC release. And so my, and all it does is literally fast forward the game. And so like your save file, like let's say fast forward at 10 hours and if their save file would still say 10 hours, but the Steam play time is accurate to your real play time. So that let me when I beat the game see how many hours I had saved. And like my save game was at like 48 or 49 or 50 hours and my Steam play time was at 40 hours. And I'm like, I literally saved 10 hours of my life just fast forwarding through the battle results screen. - So there's other like power fantasy games which are like, oh he's gonna be good for this. Like God of War, like you're a God. Like come on, like give me God mode. It'd be really, really fun. And that game when you do big moves for damage, just like Resident Evil, there could be like really pulpy results and it'd be really funny. And like that stuff is like in the game 'cause you can do that once you get like crazy powered up. But it'd be fun to just rip your way through the game, right? - And bring back big head mode. - Yeah, yeah. Just put the incredible Hulk in there just for fun. - Yep, I have DK mode. - I have the Final Fantasy Pixel collection. So I checked, but they didn't put the God mode in that too. That would also be nice. - Yeah, because I'd be Final Fantasy 1 and then started Final Fantasy 3. But God mode was in there. I'd probably just blast through all six of those games. - But they do have tweaked. You can turn off encounters and stuff like that. - Yeah, you can turn off or down random encounters. - That'll make your boss fights a little tricky though. Here we go. This took a long time. - It's a terrible bikini. - There's two though. - Yeah, the other one's better. But I mean, I'm not gonna get into it. (laughing) - Let's move on. (upbeat music) - Let's move on. This is EnjoyableGubby. Last week we were talking about the Xbox developer direct. EnjoyableGubby says, in last week's episode, during your discussion about Forza Horizon 6, Sam made a comment about why a station wagon and another comment was made, maybe by Justin, about shitty cars they have you drive for certain events to get you out of your comfort zone. I'm willing to bet the most car enthusiasts listening to your show spit out their coffee at that moment. Just to be clear, I don't hold it against any of you that you aren't car nerds. Just dropping you a friendly line to make you aware as you continue your car education through these games that there are actually many, many car enthusiasts that love station wagons or prefer station wagons. If you look up tuna versions of Subaru's, Volvo's and-- - Yeah, they're my grandparents. That one that was on the panel. - You might actually be surprised. It's a whole subset of car culture. Actually, as manufacturers, slowly stopped making wagons for the American market. They've only become more special and sought after. I once had a 2002 Volvo XC70 that could really surprise kids with giant spoilers that wanted to race. I love that Forza Horizon games let you get deep into these niche facets and play these games your way and I cannot wait. Anyway, I love the show. I'm 48 years old and I've been playing video games since I was five and I love listening to your show when I walk my dog. - It's a celebration of cars. I love it. - What is correcting, is it like a real like, people want station wagons in video games or is it that people like station wagons in real life? 'Cause I have a friend that collects Volvo station wagons so I understand that. - I had a, I also, I owned and enjoyed an Audi wagon for a while. We had an Audi all sport. That was a very fun car to drive. What I was referring to with that comment was like the license tests in Gran Trismo, actually. Like they do force you to drive shitty old cars sometimes that are not fast that don't have horsepower and are not a part of racing culture and that's like part of the charm is like, well in this truck, in this race, you're gonna have to pick an old pickup truck, you know? And like sometimes that would be a license test. And like to me, that's pretty different. I'm aware that like that was a tangent when we were talking about Ford, so Horizon 6. Like obviously a lot of Japanese car culture on display with, you know, some of the hatchbacks and some of the other stuff that was in the B-roll for the game. - I think that's also part of the joy of the games is the juxtaposition of like it really gets you to appreciate the difference in handling between, you know, these lower spec cars versus, you know, your McLaren's and your Bugatti's and whatnot. And you're just like, oh shoot, this is what oversteering means. (laughing) - Well, it's news to me that car enthusiasts have a particular fondness for station wagons. I didn't know that. - Well, let me tell you all that in Red Dead Redemption, every horse has a big pair of horse nuts and you do not ride horses with nuts. That maybe a civil war captain would do that when he was really brave, but there's a reason why we have gildings and ride bears. So there's things you don't need to know about video games and there's things that you do. And one thing that I know is that I want to get the cool fast-looking cars and games and the old silly ones are fun for a little while, but that's why skip those sections in Mafia. (laughing) - Game sports. - It looks so good. I think I'm gonna re-install. - This seems crazy. Look at the sausage. - I think I'm gonna re-install Horizon five or whatever the last one was 'cause I feel like I want to get up to some shenanigans. I can't wait 'til the next one. - I can't do that. - I'm super excited. Game sports is usually very family-friendly, but this episode we're talking about Dix and boobs and nuts and sex and-- - Well, we have black bars for that. - And bikinis, too. - Yeah. - We're gonna bleep the entire episode. - It's all normal stuff. (laughing) - Normal stuff. - Bikinis are just real life black bars. (laughing) - It's pretty good. - Enjoyable gubby. - I sent a follow-up email saying this is kind of goofy, but because I'm such a big goose camp fan, I also meant to tell you more about myself before I hit send on that last email. It's a New Year's resolution of mine to write your show on at least a semi-regular basis and now I'm at work waiting for my next meeting. Here are some fun facts about me. I'm a husband and a dad. I've been playing video games for 43 years and never stopped. My first video game system was an Atari 2600 that my dad bought for a hundred and six days.
when my mom, Dad and I were still new immigrants that had fled communist hungry. - Wow. - As a high school kid, I worked for Konami one summer, and I'm in the credits as a tester for the Sega Genesis and Super Antindo versions of Animaniacs. - That rule says, "I played that game." (laughing) - I was once the proud owner of a Magnavox Odyssey in the original packaging with manuals, screen overlays, games, and everything until my mom sold it for $60 at a garage sale without me knowing. (laughing) - That had a great box too. - And I am a musician and an artist, and I even had a chance to play bass for Domo Suzuki for a couple days. Does Sam know who Domo Suzuki is? - Yeah, from Cannes. - Yes, singer for Cannes. Anyway, you asked for none of this, but it felt right to show you my origin story with the guys since I have been enjoying your show for so long. - I'm happy to have you on board, man. - Yeah, that's awesome. - I've never played Animaniacs, is it good? - I was a kid, yeah. - So yeah, definitely good, then. (upbeat music) - Okay, this is kind of set up like a brawler, it looks like, I don't remember it, though. - This is Vito in Boca Raton, Florida. - Nice. - Vito says, "With all these wonderful Indymetroid venias out, my biggest question is, Konami, are you out there? Does anyone on the panel know why Konami just refuses to make new Castlevania games?" - Hey, I've been saying that for a while. - I mean, if we ever see another Castlevania, you know it's gonna be a soul's like, right? - I think they'll do both, like we've been talking about it on the show, they've, you know, Konami was on the ropes and had a few very rough years and then they've just been striking sort of pitch, perfect partnership after partnership of like lining up the right developer with the right Konami property. And so I think that they'll do both, right? I think that they'll do a soul's like with, you know, with someone and then I think they'll partner with, you know, an indie developer to do a metric, to Demetroid venianizing. - That'd be the way to do it. - Somebody with a good pedigree that's already on that. I think that they, well, I just wonder or two, like how did Metal Gear two? They just made Metal Gear 3 Remake last year. Like, that would be an indicator of whether they're gonna do stuff like that. But I think more like pairing with developers is like, like, so Konami used to be a top tier Japanese developer along like very close to Capcom and Square Enix. But then in 2010, I believe, they released a mobile game called Dragon Collection, I think. And it made way more money than anything else they did. So they're like, oh, this is what we do now. And we just put our franchises, we skin particular machines with our various franchises. And then they'll also make gyms. Well, they have their whole separate business. They're like, workout, athletic centers. And the last big AAA game before they went dark was Metal Gear Solid V, which also included a very public breakup with a beloved developer, Hideo Kojima. - Very strange. - And then they were just like, it's seemingly done. They're just, Konami was not a AAA game developer anymore. But then in like the early 2021 or 2022, they started putting out collections of their classic games, like the Castlevania collections, Contra, the arcade ones, and like Justin was saying. Then they started partnering with other developers 'cause I don't think Konami itself has much development talent left within it. They can partner with others too. Put together Silent Hill, two remake and Metal Gear Solid, three and everything. So yeah, that's where they're just like coming. They're just now starting to come back in the last few years. They probably hit the ceiling on the mobile gaming and Pachinko market, and they're like, well, let's pivot back into gaming. But the question of where is Castlevania? Yeah, I don't know why, I don't know why. 'Cause like the Netflix show was big hit. - Yeah, it was great. - There's an appetite for it. - Who was this, wait forward. Give them the side scroll and give them a side scroll and shot at Castlevania, and then give platinum games 3D Castlevania. - Yeah, or the all the developers from the last Prince of Persia game, - Yes, yes, yes, yes. - It's a good idea to petition Konami when you make games like Konami Games to see if you can get those licenses. It'd be really cool. - Yep. - This is making me want to play Symphony of the Night. - Yeah. - Die monster. - Good game. - Symphony of the Night is a candidate for the game that I have purchased the most number of times. It's up there. - Then you what? - I mean, I have it on PS1 and I have it on XBLA, and then I have it in at least one collection. - The collection I have on PlayStation, that's this and Rondo Blood. - Yeah. Do you have the Saturn version? - That'd be fun to have. - I don't have the Saturn version. I don't even know if I've ever played the Saturn version 'cause that wasn't the XBLA version, I don't think. - It has more stuff in it, but I think it's genuine, generally a worse version of the game. - Yeah, the more stuff is so cool. I mean, I think that's included in collections, maybe. I don't know if it's, I'm really fascinated, like the other game that really, this is the off topic, so I apologize, but I think a lot about Super Mario 64 DS, how they just took one of the most beloved and well-loved video games of all time, and there's a version of it that just says 20 or 30 more stars that no one ever thinks about or talks about. - And you don't even start as Mario. You start as Yoshi, and he plays completely different. It's crazy. - Yeah, that's pretty interesting. - It is crazy, and we'll never see it again, like it'll never be ported, and that's a little bit like Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, the Sega Saturn, Ration. - You can go under the starting area. - I never played the DS version. - It's pretty, I like it. - I mean, I had to adapt it to a D-pad, right? - No, the touch screen is how you move Mario around. You have to hold the thumb, the little thumb stylus, yeah. - Okay, interesting. - Yeah, I was terrified in many games. - I was too terrified of using the thumb stylus, like I'm gonna scratch the heck out of my bottom screen, so I just use the regular stylus, and the minigame. - I think you can also use the D-pad, but people prefer to use the stylus, right? Isn't that how it was? - I don't think so. I think that was like to control the camera, the D-pad. It was very, very weird setup. - Where is no camera control in that game? - Not really. - Dude, but this footage is great. - This is, yeah, this is-- - Probably Craig Harris, Craig Harris. - Craig Harris. - This was my first DS game, and yes, it did have an excellent collection of minigames. - Oh well. - I'm thinking back to our dispatch conversation about Nintendo censoring dispatch. Wouldn't the modern Nintendo censor this version of Super Mario 64 DS, 'cause there's casino games in this version? You could play Blackjack and Pokerly stuff like that. - Like actual, but it was really, yeah. - Yeah, it was a really weird game. It had 30 minigames that had nothing to do with anything, like just regular As Blackjack, and then it also had more stars in the single-player game. - It had like a child just like a angry bird's-like thing. We had to launch like a little ball and destroy a bunch of Mario enemies. It's really fun. - You can play with the D-pad, but it's less precise. - Oh, okay. - 'Cause it's not analog, and Mario 64 was famously 3D using analog controls. So they took that out, and it was a little bit controversial. - I think I feel like I've talked about it on Scoop before, but I wanna do a feature on versions like, you know, versions of games that are trapped on like one console that have other stuff that no one ever thinks of. - Yeah, 64-GD operating. They've put it out as a GameCube desk, but that's still extremely obscure for MasterQuest. - Resident Evil Deadly Silence. - Deadly Silence. - Yeah. (soft music) - Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Caleb from Kansas City. Who says, I've been reliving the redacted recently, and I think this is my favorite redacted of all time, even ahead of the redacted. - The sequel? Well, that sounds like what that last word wants to say. - And with that, let the question begin. - Re-thieving. - Re-thieving the 80s, maybe. So before we do that, this is a second episode this week, right? Because-- - Well, yeah, but this is the main episode this week. - Okay. - We put up-- - Today we put up-- - Are you gonna shout out? Go ahead, go ahead. - Yeah, today we put up our Aegean 30, where we looked through some artifacts that Aegean has collected over the years. We had Paron, and yeah, that episode is out there now. - It's really awesome. Everybody should check that out. I'm sure you're gonna see in your feeds anyway. - It's not on your podcast fees, because it would not be an enjoyable thing to just listen to, 'cause we're literally showing you cool stuff that we've collected over the years. So find that one on YouTube. - YouTube, and it's on Facebook, and stuff Damon posted today. It's really fun. It's like really crazy, cool, unusual artifacts that Damon and Parr dug out of the, I don't know why it's censored-- - It's being censored, what's going on there? - 'Cause it was the inside fleshlight doll that-- - Uh, but they ended up not even being in the box. - Right, right. So yeah, but we've had some things in here that we even followed up on, including a locked game cube, which we can talk about after you watch this game. - Ha, ha, ha. - Yeah, it was one of the more fun things we've recorded in a long time. If you do wanna watch the video, it's not on this channel, it is on the main IG and channel. - YouTube.com/igm. - And no audio version. - That's right. - Okay, so this is a game take place in the 70s, 80s or 90s? - I mean, what's the problem? - Hold on. (all laughing) - If you cool for take place. Was it released in the 70s, 80s or 90s? - No. - Okay. - When does kick, chameleon take place? That definitely takes place in the 90s. He's at an arcade, I think, in the opening. With the answer was no to 70s, 80s and 90s? - That's right. - Okay, is this game on the Nintendo Switch? - No. - Is this game a sequel?
Yes So he says I like this game more than the original game is probably what he was getting at or what they would like about Here's what I like the meta-game aspect of is this game of sequels sometimes we burn a question on is this game part of a franchise and is this game of sequel? It gets you that same answer, but you also get a bonus piece of information It's just a it's just a console exclusive Can you can you be was this a console exclusive at launch like was it exclusive to one console? Yes, no Multi-plat I don't know was that made in Japan. Yes, that was I'm a little caught up on how he phrased that why? Yeah, let's see So multiple you can talk at that God yeah, just you you're gonna ask you said yeah, was it made in Japan? No, that's five Was it mating um you're up No Okay, that means it's Australian Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm walking it back. Yes. Oh, okay Europe. Oh, it's British because now I'm in a part of Europe Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's from England exactly that actually might be exactly what just happened Alfa chicken. Yeah, is this a 3d game? Yes, I think it's banjo 2e That came out after 2000 console exclusive console exclusive It's not this is not a console. Oh Well, I guess it okay. It's on Xbox technically. No, but we don't that release Stick to that one Is this game a platformer RPG or? Shooter no Was this originally released for an Nintendo console? No Is this does Is the main character of this game still relevant to this day. No, that's irrelevant Was this released on the Was this available on a PlayStation platform? Yes At what do we call I don't I don't want to get anybody to upset about this with a solid stake still irrelevant to this day It's been a while designed in Japan, though. I mean, I guess technically Justin's right, but I Know it hurts my heart Yeah, but you're right. That was the Japanese. It's franchise So what okay, so Rayman? I guess I kind of glossed over the European thing like you know could be could be you get your you be you got rare Although all their stuff is console exclusive, so you get your your French developers Other friends Yeah, I mean is this is this game developed or published by Ubisoft? No Is this from before 2015? Yes 4 2015 Multi-plat European dev characters not relevant anymore Did this launch as a ps4 game? No What are we at many questions we have you've asked 14. Oh shoot We don't even know what like console era we're going for here, huh? No, but we know it's earlier than 2015 and we know it didn't release what was the ps4 question just that yeah, so it sounds like ps3 or ps2 PS3 so we know roughly the era, and we know it's a sequel I mean, I don't know man What other game type maybe I tried I tried it's not a shooter RPG or platformer What is that you all didn't go down that road with me? What is that? Hmm Let's see so Do we have to force it that it's a ps2 or ps3 game? Yeah, we probably should or it could be Vita or something Is is this game available on the PlayStation 3? Yes, that's 15. So it's like 2006 to 2007 to 2014 About a seven-year window there And it's a sequel Sly Cooper or Jack and Daxter type thing that that's American But I like where your head is that yeah, but they got to be multi-platform Maybe like a tack in the power of juju that was you be soft We don't know if it's like an adult game or anything like that, right? Just on we could be like a racing game like their character could not be relevant because maybe it's like sports sports or racing or something like that make characters a car Yeah, it's John Madden Is this game rated M for mature? Probably not. No, there's no there's no way. Okay. Okay T or E We really don't know anything about this game if we if we could get it based on the That developer weirdness 100% confirmed not rated him Okay, and we're at how many questions you've asked 16 got What about a where are we going wrong, Damon? What can I hear the redacted again? I've been reliving the redacted recently and I think this is my favorite redacted of all time even ahead of the redacted even ahead of the original and relive it But it's not you yourself. So it's not assassin's creed Hmm, what about like What about fable oh Yeah, it's just not was that were those exclusive. No, there's a rated M though. Are they yeah, not on the piece just because they got flights They're not on the PST like period period. Yeah What and then we was it what about a I'm trying to just start to think about you were like criteria on well, what about burnout? Mm-hmm Do you want to ask if it's do we want to like pair racing game with another genre? Yeah, we should do racing sport. Is it a racing sports or puzzle game? Yes. Oh, shoot. I bet it's racing Do questions and again, nobody ain't nobody playing sports games Is it a is it a racing game? No It's a sport. I'm reliving every man and I can't believe I love mad in Sports puzzle question and a guess puzzle game or sports game It's a sequel. It's 3d, which is unusual for puzzle. We know roughly the era. We know it was made in Europe Man, I was so sure it was because I was so sure it was criteria sequel. What who is house mark? Yeah, what what where are they from? Fred Sweden or somewhere up there. Maybe they're playing like superstar dust HD or something But that's not a sequel I mean, I think there is I think it would be if there's a superstar does and this is a superstar HD I don't know. I'm I'm stretching man. I know it's popular on the PS3 But now we're conflating that it was popular on the PS3 even those multi-plat which house mark games were not so never mine answered my own question European game developers Sports or puzzle just cause I think they're like avalanche studios, right? That's like Swiss as well. I think Yeah, that might be a good one, but that's not sports or puzzle. Oh, yeah, I don't know I don't know I know Sega publishes them all. I don't know who develops food if it's the rock star series and it's like ping pong Yeah, to rock star table tennis was legit as rock stars in in England We're Scotland Scotland What would you were saying something Justin as well? I just want to make sure I'm operating on all information here I was thinking about football manager, which I know Sega publishes But I don't know who the developer is and I'm just assuming table tennis is not a sequel either But maybe they're like I'm playing every rock star game and I actually like table tennis over every grantefato. That's not a sample. Oh, yeah, yeah You don't have like mediums. Well, wait, well, we don't have enough questions, but I'll as a as a as a freebie This franchise has been mentioned while we've all been sitting here. Damn Park in the park, dude, you isn't it What could it mean that you're that serious me for a loop? I think it means it was mentioned before 20 questions Yeah, that could be but I don't know what we talked about in this update blackout every day we record this Could it be the original Baldur skate?
But it couldn't be Baldur's Gate three. Well, they're gonna say Baldur's Gate three or Divinity, Divinity, Divinity. I don't think it can be one or two because they were made by, um, yeah, by what are you called? They were made in the United States. They were, really? Funcom, right? Or something like that? No. Black Isle. Black Isle. It was, well, no Baldur's Gate was, um, uh, the, uh, Jesus, my brain, it's, the mass effect, the Bioware. Oh, duh. Yes. Sorry. Brain fart. Yep. Okay. We, we didn't mention Divinity, original synod on this episode. I know that for a fact. It could be Baldur's Gate three. I will know because it's, no, because it's a sports racing game. What sports racing games do we mention? Sports are, sports are puzzle. Yeah, you're right. No. It's not a racing game, but yeah, sports are puzzle. And we would have mentioned it at some point. I mean, I mentioned football manager. I don't know who makes it. I only know there's somebody listed his podcast, he's replaying every football manager. That's, like, little, like, that's real sicko mode stuff. I'm going to be honest. No judge, but hey, you do you, I mean, I don't think, well, what if I was one of the games we mentioned that was fun to do God-bode for. Yeah. Resident Evil, we talked about, we confirmed it was PS3. Yes. It's all on PS3, which for me, it would be contemporary with the Xbox 360. Where was like God of War, whatever, whatever developed, you know, like not three, but the one after that ascension, but it's not actually, it's a, it's a, it's a puzzle game or a sports game. Yeah, we're both so far off the market. It's kind of unbelievable. Have we talked about a puzzle game though? No. Not that I know. What about, um, you know, I'm trying to see dragon. What was that Konami game for, uh, let's see, yeah, what about a skating game? We did talk about some skating games. What about skate, just skate to, does that make these requirements? I mean, I think, I think skate is a, I think it's made by a French studio, if I'm not mistaken. Because that's talked about what we've all been sitting here because we talked about before the episode. That's true. I like it. Yeah. And we did say it was skate. Do we want to, do we want to burn our last question on is this a skateboard game? Yeah. Our extreme sports game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is this an extreme sports game? Yes. Oh, my goodness. Okay. There's like what four sport skate games. It's got to be skate too. I just don't know when or where that was developed. That was PS3. That was Xbox 360 and everyone loves to do it two more than all of them. Do it. Is it skate too? Yes. It's skate too. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Well, did we catch that? I gave you a pretty big hit. You gave it a pretty big hit. Yeah, but we have total amnesia and that wasn't even from the episode. You got to include that. But if we were recording, you got to include that now for context for people watching. If, if, if Joe recorded, that'll be our post credits sequence. Yeah. If it's not, we were talking, we were watching cool, like a Japanese skateboarding competition thing. Yeah. So much so that when we're watching that, I was like, oh, no, there are the 20 questions going to be too easy now. Yep. Yep. Yeah. This is a skate game. Everyone says like one of our co-workers, one of the extremely talented Kevin Kappiella that don't mean a doxy of KevKapp, but that's his name. He works here at IGN. He's worked here about as long as I have. And to this day, he says, this is his high bar for skateboarding video games. Yeah. It is so good. It is such a great skate game. Both of this and one are great, but two is fantastic. So what's the full writing, uh, I would like to submit skate to, is this a week's Tony Questions game. I've been reliving the PS3 game library recently. Wow. And I think this is my favorite skating game of all time, even ahead of the Tony Hawk games. Nice. That's pretty daunting. Playing the entirety of the PS3 or like, I guess, it's not the entire library. Yeah. You know, just highlights. Yeah. This physics is kind of mind blowing. This is like Half-Life Gravity Gun stuff that you can push all the stuff around and trick off of it. Oh, I just love the way it feels. Like, I like that. Yeah. That's really good. Just the feeling of doing a kick flip in this game, it just hits a little different than Tony Hawk ever did. Is this was developed by EA Black Box, which was an English studio that did a lot around it? That's so cool. Okay. So Brexit changed the rules there. And this was 2009 for 360 and PS3 never came to PC. And it's never been. Well, we bring it up. It's because it has thrasher in it. Yep. A great magazine that my band is in this month. Yep. Pick the stuff on source shelves right now. Wow. Well, well done, everyone. Also, my only hesitation on console exclusive is like, I've heard people refer to like GTA 6 as a console exclusive because it's not coming to me. There's thrasher. Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah. So that's all. Well, nicely job. You made it there in the end. Thank you for the suggestion Caleb from Kansas City. Are we, are we complete winning streak right now? Nobody knows. There's no way out of our stats. Well, if that were stats, people were right now. Someone's about to ask some calculus and determine that question again in 12 months. Sam, viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for a video game, 20 questions, email them to me at the email address,
[email protected]. And right now at Humble, would you believe you can get Humble choice for just 1499 and score a curated bundle of PC games for January, including Sonic Frontiers, Tomb Raiders 4 through 6 Remastered, Hunt Showdown 1896, Etrin Odyssey 2 HD, Nice Day for Fishing, Metal Select Tactics, Settlement Survival, and Wizard of Legend 2. This month's choice is available through February 3rd, so head to HumbleBundle.com and start playing today. And that's all the scoops that we have here this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. I'm Robert, working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Right now, literally right now, after I sign off, we're going to record a new episode of Game Scope. The Scope! The Scope! Please be excited for that. My name is Damon. This is I.J. and GameSoup, and round. Don't overthink, the end between, oh yeah, streets don't fail me now, now we get up when we get knocked down, oh yeah, streets don't fail me now, don't fail me now. Thanks for your order, thanks for your time, thanks for ignoring all the signs, let's drink a bit, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink, let's drink,
some idea. Oh, the one we were watching yesterday was sick. They're just in a ninja warrior style course where they have a grind rail that's set up over a body of water. And it's like a nuts long rail. And they see how far they can grind it. And like the furthest people got was like 47% of the rail. That's the one that I've seen is it's always like like the Red Bull challenges. Right. I like what was on it was like running up a greased pole to grab the flag at the end. Like and then yeah, I've seen the skateboard grinding of like it curves all around and then goes up and down and everyone always felt this part where like it had this really tight kind of spiral turn at the end. Pampin, that's the name of the penguin in Evangelion. Pampin. There's the IGN 30 stuff has made it under reddit and the comments are clamoring for Craig Harris. Craig Harris. There's been there's been a lot of IGN pocket love. A lot of mine feel that literally the first way I ever discovered IGN was by typing in my URL pocket. IGN.com/cheats and then going to the Mega Man battle network, a cheat section and walk through section. What year would that have been? I was in middle school. So that would have been like 20, no 2000, 40, 2005. Nick, I could blow your mind. Colin Moriarty was running the cheat site those two years. I must have read all of his cheats. And then I discovered you could just, you know, click on the IGN button probably. Oh, there's more. Crazy. So I saw it was. Yep, that's exactly how it was. Every single person came in for Pokemon cheats and then said, oh, there's a whole website here. We're really hoping that's still happening for Roblox codes. That was crazy. Yeah. That was so smooth too. Type booth. Like that's what they do in a video game, not in real life. I know. I know. You might know this from skate skate series, I think, but do you guys know what thrash your magazine is? So my band has always been skate adjacent. So thrash, you're just sent us a package. There's a little skater on it. Oh, that's cool, man. This is thrash your magazine. And it has a bunch of buttons and stickers and stuff. And which are really cool. That's sick. It's like swag like this. Like just just cool shit. Cool. These little skate skate things, like little buttons and stuff. But the reason they did that is because they were in this this month's magazine thrasher. Well, I sent us a bunch of a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Oh, the door for Japan too. No, it was weird. It's it's from just before that we were up in Seattle. There's my wife playing the keyboard. That's very cool. That's awesome. That's, yeah, congrats. That's rules, dude. Yeah, and it's not the first time we've been in thrasher. The guy that wrote this actually, when we were really young, he had somehow like had some connection to Arizona. And he he was like, Oh, yeah, this this young band is there and I'm and here's their record and we like couldn't fucking believe it. It's just a little blurb that is really fun. Yeah, getting a like a photo on stuff is really really honor. Yeah. I totally went and I totally went to a me button book that I thought the shelf and like the nearest employees like, I'm in this. The one chance you get to do that. Yeah, yeah, take it every time. Just fuck casually casually flip to the page that like has your photo and then just like point. Wait a second. Drop it on the counter. Oops. Oh, weird. Yeah. Every time there's somebody working there just go up and buy a copy and just be phasing through it.
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