(upbeat music) - What's up, everybody? Welcome to IJN GamesCube. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. And joining me this week are Mark Medina. - I'm here, baby. Mixed out here. - What? (laughing) - Sam Clayboard. - Hey, it's fantastic to be here. - And Justin Davis, who? - We got a great show for you this week. So much going on. There's a Capcom spotlight happening right now that we can react to in real time. I know they already announced that PragMatta is being moved up a week. That's interesting. There's also a good news about Resident Evil Requiem doing very well right out the gate, $5 million, or $5 million copy sold at large. So that's, everything's coming up in Mill House for Resident Evil Requiem. But first, breaking news just today that coincides with what our headline topic was going to be anyway. Aasha Sharma, new CEO of Xbox confirmed today that the next generation Xbox is going to also play PC games. Justin Reveal has a codename Project Helix. So it's true, it's finally confirmed. - It's nothing that the umbrella corporation couldn't have come up with. (laughing) - It was crazy. I had such a busy day today. And I stepped away from my computer for 12 minutes to go eat the world's fastest, saddest lunch. And I came back and sat down on my computer to new Xbox console. (laughing) - He's never leaving his desk again. - And there's some details with this, right? - I mean, not really. - Kind of. - Well, just that it plays PC games, right? - Yeah. - So what you're telling me is that this entire time, we could have just made consoles that play PC games. (laughing) - That's a whole crime. - Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. Like I've said it many times on this show, I'm going to say it again. The Xbox Series X is my favorite console of this generation. I like Xbox, I like the franchises, but this announcement, it's so, they're so clever with how they, like yeah, we're making a new game console and new Xbox and by the way, it plays PC games. And I'm like, wait a second, wait a second. Like if it plays PC games, then it's a PC, right? This is a PC that plays Xbox games. - No, Justin, it's a console that plays PC games. - Okay. - Oh, awesome. - I'm a master race stuff. All the neo-naxies out there, better just play live in PC games. - So somehow, we didn't have to go through any of that. Just from the very start, they could have been like, oh, would you like, you know, MS DOS word processing, on your Super Nintendo, we could have done that. - Yep, understood. - Yeah. - That clears it all up for me. - They did put a couple of PC games on the Nintendo 64. - They did? - Starcraft 64. - Yeah, so it is funny to think about, look, first of all, like they have their own games for Windows. So it's like, they don't, they don't mean that like, the easiest thing to think about here would be like, oh, it just boots up, we could play Steam games on it. But it's not gonna do that. - No, I think it will, I think it will. - There's Epic Games Store, it's obviously, you know, we'll talk about that for a while. - I think it'll be Epic Steam. I think it'll be, it'll be their Windows full screen experience on other games. - The good old games on there? - Yep, they can be on there. - Any of them, Humble? Hey, honey. - Yeah, mouse and keyboard. - Mouse and or keyboard. - Yeah, you can do one or the other, can't do both. - Yeah, I think this long confirms what we've all known, right? Is that they're kind of going the hybrid way. I question the word console. I've long thought that I'm not entirely sure that there is going to be next Xbox console games. - Okay, well, all those joking aside, and I have a lot more jokes, just a lot more. - The console is a freaking PC. They're just computers, that's all they are, right? - Yeah, but they're closed. - What makes it play a piece, well, they're not, right? You can just put Netflix on your Xbox and all this stuff too. It's like-- - For some people-- - But those are approved apps, right? They're not like-- - But if you're saying that, the PC is closed too. It's closed to whatever works on Windows or Mac. That's nonsense. It's a nonsense difference. - No, I don't. - Here, let's get my point out. The point is that consoles are a lot freaking cheaper than a PC, and they plug into a television. That's what a console is going to be. - This thing's going to be $1,300. They've already, they've even said like, this is going to be a high quality experience. They know that this thing is going to be-- - What if it's not? - Over at the, I think it will be. I don't think there's any prayer that it's not. Anywhere from 12 to $1,500. There's also likely going to be multiple versions of it. - Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna buy it. I like Xbox, I like PC gaming, I'm into it. And this is, I mean, look, this is a thin announcement, so we don't have a ton to talk about, but not for nothing. I think that the code name and the font and the little logo are pretty slick. It passes that kind of first, that looks cool. I like all that stuff, but it's very tickled by like, yes, we're announcing our next-generation console, and it plays PC games, but that means it's Windows. This is a Windows machine. - And nobody likes Windows? - I, somebody likes it. - Nobody likes co-pilot. - When it says console and this is Xbox games, I think they mean Xbox Series X games. Because their whole play anywhere initiative, I think has been a way for people to start building up their Xbox PC library to soften the blow that the next console is just a PC, and that is where you'll play the game. So game, you know, I can't, you know, whatever. That year's Call of Duty will be for PS6 and PC, and that PC version will run on the Helix. - I think that like is. - Yeah, I think I probably agree with that. I mean, obviously we'll find out more in the months and years to come. I like, look, this is marketing speak. It's a two sentence announcement, but even just the commitment, the claim, like they say in their announcement, we will lead on performance. And, you know, look, don't take them at face value, watch IGN, watch other people to sort of do the benchmarks and see how these different games run. But like, even planting the flag of like Nintendo doesn't ever claim they're gonna lead on performance, right? So I like kind of the bold. - No, they brag about not leading on performance. - But Xbox always does that, right? So they've done that since one act. - But what I like it, I like that they're, you know, look, and I can say this is a fan, but Xbox is on the back foot, undeniably, right? And so I like that they're not giving up on their swagger, right? That they're like, no, like I like the statement. We're gonna lead on performance. It's, you know, it's console war bullshit, but I'm here for it. - Yeah, I think the device is gonna be cool. I think it's gonna be super powerful. I think it's, I think it's, I think it's gonna be super expensive. I refuse to call it a PC or a console. - Yeah, it's gonna be, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, I don't know. I think, I really do think console implies they're gonna get a bunch of stuff to be running a really high power for a cheap price. I think that's what that means. And the reason why console's not a PC is that a PC, you can open up, change a bunch of parts in it, make it a better PC. A console, there is an advantage to not doing that because you actually build a thing around these, you know, the set of parts that you can, as a group, save a bunch of money on. That's why when you buy like a, you know, in 2001, when you bought a gateway PC, it was cheaper than building your own PC because they like figured out all these ways to cut corners and cram everything in the box. That's what a console's always been. So if you cram everything in the box, make it really powerful, make it have some kind of ecosystem where you can play, it's seeming to be stuff, I don't think it'll be that expensive because I don't think anything's gonna be expensive if we ever solve the basics here, which is like, you know, either everything's gonna be expensive on earth because inflation's insane, tariffs are insane, AI is making everything expensive or like we solve all those things and then another console comes out. Like it's not gonna be because they want to make it the most powerful console. - This thing, this thing's gonna be $1,300 and it's gonna play PC games and the PS6 is gonna be $1,000. - That's exactly what I was going to say. Like I think it's going to be expensive, but compared to the competition, it'll probably seem kind of normal 'cause by then-- - Yeah, we're talking about big Macs, which will be $25, right? So that's the new one that the-- - The big archer, so that I don't know. I saw the video of the CEO eating it, and it was the worst, it was the worst thing I've seen. - See, that's when you have to be thankful of your new Xbox CEO when you see something like that. (laughing) - But, if you haven't watched that, everybody, go watch the new CEO of McDonald's and introduce the new, you know, what did he call it? - Yeah. - The new product. - Yeah, the new product. - The new product. - It's a product like 10 times. - Yeah. - I love this product. (laughing) - Like, I think that being the CEO of a video, you know, a Xbox or a PlayStation, it's an incredibly hard job, it's an impossible job. But what is not hard is saying, like, saying the right stuff is so easy. Just say, we're gonna have the most powerful console, and we're gonna have exclusive games that you all love, and then that's it. - He says, "I'm gonna eat this for lunch later." (laughing) - Yeah. - It's just a double-quarter pounder. - It's all it is. With some Big Mac sauce. - You know, according to fractions, it's a half pounder. - I feel bad that Justin tried to keep it on the rails there. - It's time. (laughing) - I just, I like the, yeah, I like the, (laughing) - Wow, yeah, but a good time. - Have you seen that picture of RFK on the plane with Trump, and they're all, like, they have all that McDonald's, and he just looks like, he just looks miserable. That's what this is invoking, but this guy's actually trying to sell the product. - The thing is, as soon as the camera turns off, I'm gonna eat the whole thing. (laughing) - It's like, even though this went viral for being unappetizing and sad, it still made me want McDonald's for the first time.
time in 25 years. I was thought about McDonalds until now. Yeah. I also love his quote. And of course, the pickles. You see that the box weren't looks a lot like a series X. Oh, I did. I just, I feel like you could add that anywhere you're listing things like the new Xbox play Xbox games and PC games. Okay, get back in that contract. So next Xbox plays PC games. There's a steam machine that's going to sit under your your TV and can play a bunch of Xbox games and a bunch of PlayStation games that have already been released. Whereas PlayStation, this was going to be our lead story today is sort of walking back their their strategy of bringing their games to PC some after some period of exclusivity on PS5. They're returning to console exclusivity at least for their single player games. It seems. So this comes from a report from Bloomberg says, while Sony will continue to release online games on PC single player games will now remain console exclusive. This is a significant strategy shift. Bloomberg suggested poor recent sales of PlayStation games on PC and the risk to the PlayStation brand were to blame for the policy shift. And in case anyone has forgotten, they have actually put out a lot of games on PC in recent years. Just recently in the last few years, PlayStation has allowed PC gamers access to Spider-Man 1 and 2 and Miles Morales, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Forbidden West, Returnal, Beyond Two Souls, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, Parts 1 and 2, Days Gone, God of War 2018, and Ragnarok, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Sack Boy, A Big Adventure Uncharted, Legacy of Thieves Collection, Stellar Blade, and Until Dawn. So they've been doing this a lot. And if they're changing, Mark, what do you think would be pausing the change of heart? Well, I mean, the article says poor sales, right? Which is, you know, of course. I think it's very short-sighted for them to put games on PC and be like, okay, we got however many sales, you know, $500,000, a million, whatever the number is. There are much smarter bean counters looking and being like, hey, less people are buying the PS5 because they think that the games will just come to steam. And so instead of chasing the short-term win, we need to force people to buy our console, because every game sold on their console, they get a cut-off, right? So it's like, you buy horizon on steam and PlayStation gets 70 percent of that. Well, Gabe Newell gets the other 30 percent. So it's like, it's just much more beneficial for them to put, have people in their ecosystem. But if someone buys Resident Evil Reckoning on PC, PlayStation sees none of that. Whereas if they bought it on PS5, they get 30 percent, right? Yeah. The games were, you know, single-player action, adventure games, and they were years and years and years old. Like, you know, buy this game that is four years old, you know, full price. We put it on a new platform. Like, it's nice. Like, it's nice if you're only a PC gamer and you have a high-end PC. Like, it's great to have the option, but like, it's not like, they shouldn't be all, like, surprised Pikachu face when the games didn't sell very well. Like, you know, they were old. They go, it's all old news, but the time they released almost all of them. The ports were also kind of famously bad. Well, some of them, like, like, mixed bags. Spider-Man 2, last of us, they came out and they weren't great. I think horizon was pretty good, though. That's what I'm going to say. So, hell-device 2 was a huge hit. It was a bigger hit on PC than PS5, which in this scenario would have still went to PC. Because that's a live service game. They're saying live service. Right, right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. And it was also day one. It wasn't a port of a old game. And I think the first single-player games that if the initial wave were big hits on Steam, I think it was Horizon Zero Dawn and got a war 2018. And even Days Gone was a surprisingly huge hit on Steam. But I think since then, I think they've seen diminishing returns because, like, I think the novelty of playing PlayStation games on your PC has worn off. Plus, you know, is the PC audience, you know, just waiting on Ratchet and Clank, Rift Apart, you know? Right, right. Probably not. So, if they're not selling that many copies on Steam, and they are devaluing the PlayStation brand because every time you put a game there, that's one game you don't have to buy a PS5 for. Yeah, maybe it just looked in the long run, it made more sense to keep games exclusive. Well, my games on Steam, I mean, Xbox can claim all they want. Like, oh, we just want as many people playing our games as possible. But like, no, like putting all your games on PC is it's coming from a position of weakness in the console market, right? That's the only reason you would do it. Like, you would much, much rather be selling millions and millions of consoles and having everybody in your console ecosystem. Like, it's really, it's really not that much more complicated than that, in my opinion. Like PS5 is number one. And so, they don't need to support the PC market. Yeah. It's a threat. It's a competitor to them, right? I was going to say the same thing. Like, like, even if it's not a financial thing, they let Xbox run the test on what this does for your brand. And I don't care how much people love Xbox, whatever. We know that that brand is diminished, given the fact that their games are everywhere, right? And so PlayStation might have looked at that and said, that's our future. If we keep going down this path, yeah, that people won't ever want to just get a computer. They'll just get the Steam Deck and the Xbox key licks. And they're going to play our games there. We don't want that. We want them to buy a PSX. They can also look the other direction and find an example of someone enjoying phenomenal success without ever putting a single game on Steam. Nintendo. It's Nintendo. Yeah. So, think of what a terrible week this is for PC exclusive fans. Well, I won't use the term. So, so this week, they get, you know, God of War, Ragnarok, God of, you know, last of us taken away from them in the future. They won't they won't have these games in their PC anymore. And they're totally getting cocked by Xbox, who's going to put all their friends, Slop exclusives and garlic like crap clones. You can only play on Steam. You can only play those on Steam on a console. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? What a terrible week. Yeah. What a terrible week to have a curse. What are the other PC exclusives these days? Is our graders and PC exclusives. I don't even know. I mean, it's. There you go. Anything early access. Like I just played win rows all weekend. And I'm like, man, I would love to sit on my couch and play this with a controller. Yeah. And we even care that the steam that the Xbox can play Steam games. I mean, the PC exclusives are like, you know, the games with little guys running around, like, you know, paradox games or door fortress likes is like all that. What about the factorials? All those nerd games where, you know, you just lured over your little minions with your keyboard and mouse. Those are PC games. Cocked by Helix. Well, interesting times ahead. Yeah. What has been happened? We still have there are still no news coming out of the Capcom spotlight. Well, they. Then let's talk about Resident Evil Requiem 5 million copies so far. We talked about this last week, so we're not going to dwell on it, but I'm still making my way through it. I mean, I've left the hospital and now I'm in that big open area with Leon. And I saw people in the Facebook group talking about how the first half of the game is like the best Resident Evil has ever been. And the last half of the game sucks. I don't know. And I know Sam was like saying this is not how he felt last week. And so far, I've done the first big boss fight that a lot of people are talking about. And so far, I'm not I'm not experienced. I'm still enjoying it so far. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. People that are saying that haven't played the game because the game literally goes back to that first part of the game two more times after the part that they don't like. Okay. Cool. I think you like it. I like it. I do. You are coming up in the part that people say that they don't like. But I think it's fine. Okay. And it's like two hours of kicking asses Leon. And it's really fun. Yeah. They bring back a character who I think we're it's from like Resident Evil Zero. Is that right Sam? We don't need to name the character. But like, I didn't know who this was. I thought it was someone else. And then Sam was like, no, no, no, this, this, this, this other person. I didn't know. It's like a look. It's like a look alike villain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is really confusing. Yeah. Any man has the same like powers and shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Resident Evil lore is someone that hasn't played a Resident Evil game in probably almost 20 years. The lore is just unbelievable. It's just like I, like, we, here'd be a fun project. A fun video would be like, is this a real or fake Resident Evil lore fact and like, you would never be able to tell that's because the game used to be about zombies. And it's not. I mean, there's still a lot of zombies in this, but there are a lot of zombies. There's a lot of other things too. And they call them zombies, which I always, yes. I saw Lee, Leon had just had a line of sign like, this place is crawling with zombies. Also, Leon always, was he always this cool? Yeah. I think I've just, only in four. And two, he's a new remember. So he's just learning the ropes and they're welcoming him to the police station. And four, he's a bad ass though. He's saving the president's daughter. That's true. And then he bad dude style takes her home by riding a jet ski across the land. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now he's just, he's, I love Leon. He's so great. He's, he's very cool. He's so cool. Is it the same actor from the RE4 remake? Do we? It is. It is. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. That's very cool. Yeah. Okay. Well, just
- What have you been playing instead of Resident Evil Requiem? - Well, I just started playing Pokemon Pocopia. And I love it, even as someone I'm not a big Pokemon guy. It's really cool so far. And like I like it even more. And you know, these are very early impressions. I played it last night in a little bit this morning. And I, you know, I knew I thought I would like it. It's like, oh, it's a Pokemon game that sort of crossed with Animal Crossing and crossed with Stardew Valley. So it's a little bit more of like a Lifesim. But I like it even more than I expected it to. Because what it actually secretly is, is it's like, it's a Dragon Quest Builders like. Which I love Dragon Quest Builders. And it's much more like that than Animal Crossing. I need to see that game boy, that's cool. - Yeah, it's super cool. So it's a little bit like, you know, like a Minecraft or again, you know, you have some freedom to sort of, you know, create terrain or destroy terrain or sort of build things how you want. But it's a lot more guided and directed. And what you're doing is you're trying to build these, these little puzzles to make a habitat for a Pokemon. And sometimes they give you a little clues of what the habitat is. Like you have to put four pieces of tall grass next to a rock or you have to put, you know, flour is next to a tree. And like I'm in the early game. So they're like very kind of simple habitats. I'm assuming they get a little bit more complex later. And so sort of meeting those requirements for like, what do I need and how do I want to build out my space? So the fact that you get to be creative and kind of build out your area, how you want. But it's still guided and directed is, I don't know, it's like, it's really compelling so far. And it's not annoying from the start either. It has a good first couple hours. And I think that, and like, and I say this with love and affection, but like this is a checklist game, right? Like just, it gives you a, yeah, it gives you a laundry list of kind of chores to do, like pick up these sticks and gather rocks and do this. But like, it's sort of the best example of that kind of game I've played in a long time. I would say so far. Dude, it's just so smart to be like your ditto. And that's your explanation for why you can do everything. Well, there's come like sad lore behind that ditto and like, where are the humans? And like, what's going on is all really cool. I think it's funny to compare it to Dragon Quest Builders because I've never been heard of that game. And so now I have a great, they made two of them. Yeah, that's great. I have a great game to play after this, which is great. Because I'm loving it and like, what I've taken away from it, most of all, is that. So you're doing, there's 200 or so habitats and 300 Pokemon. But so there's a lot to figure out. There's a lot of combos to do and a lot to sort. Well, you're doing that though, like so far, like everything, every time you unlock a Pokemon, they do something useful, right? So it's like, I'm really curious about the late game reasons for unlocking R and like, what the complexity becomes. It's super cool. I love that like, you know, I like games. This is a weird comparison to make, but it reminds me a little bit of a vampire survivors where like something weird unlocks something new and then that thing unlocks something new and then that thing unlocks something new. And like the connection, like the map of like, you know, I like to hit on Chan and that gave me this move and that let me do this and that let me unlock this and that let me unlock this. It's like really complex and cool and like, you know, it feels like you're kind of peeling apart layers of an onion. I really, I really like it and I feel like like I'm not a Pokemon person. I've actually never played any of the Pokemon role playing games. So it's like, you know, I know them as someone that's been in the video game space my entire life. But like, I feel like if I was a Pokemon fanatic, I'd be losing my mind over this game. And so they are, they are. Even just someone is like, you know, just as a fan of video games, like it totally works on that level too. So I also like really respect Nintendo's like seal of quality that they actually use for games like this. They bring it out once in a while where, you know, you can see the lessons they learned from Animal Crossing like that. Many of that pops up like looks like Animal Crossing, right? Like there's, there's things in this game and then there's like a sheen of Switch 2 graphics to it. Like things like, I know it looks kiddie when you're watching it in a video picture and picture on Game Scoop. But like when you see it like playing on your Switch 2, like it looks great. It just looks really good. It's not supposed to, it's supposed to be functional, but it looks really good. So I like that about it. And then there's also like the, why are you playing this game? Like to unlock Pokemon to make more things to clean stuff. There's actually a through line good mystery because I love Pokemon. I played all the RPGs except for maybe like, I don't know, two out of 20 or something like that. Like I know it really well. And it's always really boring to walk around and talk to NPCs. All they have to say is, don't you like Pokemon? Pokemon are your best friends. You know, I have an item that for you. Like that's all that happens in them and everybody's talking about prejudice. There's this overall thing. Like first game you get a team rocket. They always have this kind of, you know, villain set that you're beating in gyms and all that stuff. This is nothing to do with that. You're a ditto and all the humans are gone and it's a mystery. And that's cool. It's a cool set of because you're kind of in an apocalypse. Like there's like, everything's just destroyed. There's a destroyed Pokemon center. There's all these Conto region Pokemon. Like the reason for being there is like, it's just in like you as a ditto are imitating your trainer from the start and like all the Pokemon are surprised about that. It's just cool. Like that lore is like pretty good for Pokemon. It's not good for like humanity 'cause it's really stupid, but it's good for Pokemon. - Yeah, that's the mystery. - That track and I was lying, that was you? 'Cause I was wondering if he was like, he like turned it, I don't know. - You have, for so far I can tell it's Pokemon follow you and because your ditto, when Bulbasaur shows you how to cut or grow grass, then you just have that ability 'cause you can mimic that ability. Like right there, the ditto just use Cyther. - Yeah. - Like the, again, the early game impression is like I'm pretty invested in like the lore and storyline of like, where is this going? So yeah, I'm into it. - Nice. Well, I'm not a Pokemon guy either, but Kingo is, so maybe there's something we can check out together. - Yeah, there's a lot of, so you would have to, that's what I was gonna be my advice is like Nintendo, you know, for how family friendly they are, like modern Nintendo games, and I know this is developed by what Koi Tehmo, I think. But anyway, like, there's a lot of reading is what I was gonna say. So, you know, just something to be aware of a few of little ones. - Well, a little anecdote I could share that Justin, well, appreciate is Kingo is learning to read and he brings home books from school that are like meant for him to read to us. And like the first time he reads you a book, it's like you feel like it's complete wizardry, like my son can read. Oh my God, it's been really, really cool to watch. Anyway, that's not about what they learned to talk to. That's like what? - Yeah, several of those milestones. (upbeat music) Okay, let's talk about a game that's been in the news a lot this year, but we haven't really talked much about here. It's not the type of game most of us would play except for Mark, and that's High Guard, which was launched on January 26th, the day of Kings, and is being shut down March 12th. So 45 days, it's just yet the latest and a long line of live service failures that did not get much runway to try and succeed. This was of course announced at the Game Awards in December. It was a big finale for the show, and here we are. What? Two months later. - Yeah, and it's gone. So you actually played this mark, right? - I did, yeah. - Yeah. And we gave it a seven, it's apparently a good game, right? - I mean, what's, yeah, go ahead. - Games, you mentioned runway, right? And like having a chance to be successful, games set that for themselves. Nobody told them this game needed to come out in January. And the big criticism for the game was that I played it for one evening, and I was done. There was nothing else to do. And then they quickly rushed out a 5v5 mode that didn't change anything. It just made it where there could be more players. Yeah, I, I, I don't know, this is a weird one because people seem to be blaming the players a little bit on this one. You didn't give the game a chance, and it's like, nobody told you you had to come out in January with no content. So like, everybody gave the game a chance. The game had 150,000 people playing it on Steam. - That was such a wild day. - Yeah, and then they had half of that by the end of the day. By the end of the week, they had, you know, an eighth of that. And now they're in triple digit numbers. That is, that is, that's nobody's fault. We played it. It's kind of boring. And so then we stopped playing it. - These games are a little bit of a popularity contest, right? Of like, you know, you play it if other people are playing it. And if, and if, if it doesn't, if it doesn't feel like it's going to sustain itself, then anyone, like maybe there's this millions of people that are kind of high guard curious, right? And they're like, well, why bother? Like, even before, even before the announcement that it was shutting down and being canceled, like, do I want to, it's a risk to invest your time and effort and energy and money into a game if it's not going to, you know, if you don't have consumer confidence that it's going to stick around at last. Here's the part that I just, I just cannot wrap my head around. That it's a new studio, wild light, former like respawn devs. They hired 60 people. They work on this game for four years. But then, if it's not a hit right out the gate, they had to shut the whole thing down. Like I said, they didn't have a runaway of me, but I can't hear anybody anymore. - No. - Okay, stop then. Joe Rich, Mark has lost us. - We here. - I can hear him. - Yep. - I am, time. - Check, check, check. - Damon is just making a really good game.
- Good point though. - Rip, I just wanna leave and go play Pocopia. - I know. - Well, after this, we're going to Disneyland. Just Kim and I. - Oh shit, dang. - Disney after dark. - Is it a theme night? - I don't think it is. I think it's just a Disney after dark. Hello? - Hey. - Okay, sorry about that. All of a sudden my sound just completely went out. - Hmm. - Okay. - Okay. - Never had that happen. - Like, what business ends as a make to just spend all that time and all that money working on a game that has to be, it has to be a hit right away or else. I would think you, when you plan your release, as Mark was saying, you set it for time. When you have enough cash to give yourself a runway so that if things don't go smoothly right out the gate, you can tinker with it. You can listen to player feedback, you can pivot. But like, what if you're going to make a new restaurant, you build the building, you hire your whole staff, you hire your chef, you plan the menu, you get an interior designer to design the thing. And then if it's not a success in the first week, ah, shut it all down. I just don't, in what world, what sort of business plan is that? - Yeah. - Gee, because this sort of perverse and sad and wrong as the decision is, it makes a little bit more sense at a big company, at a big studio, because then it's like, well, you know, look, let's cut our losses and, and, and, you know, - Like Sony and Concord. - Yeah. - Don't do it like it's actually. - Literally with it, right? Don't actually write it off as part of their losses that year. - Yeah, so they can literally write it off and that staff, they're like, well, we should just have them working on something else. But if you're, if this is your whole company and your whole business. - What was the point? What was the point? Well, I mean, it has to be a tense thing, right? Because it was, it kind of came out that they were the ones funding it. So, Tencent is probably just doing what Sony's doing, which is like, all right, we're writing this off. Are you guys gonna be able to turn this around? Probably not. All right, then we're done. - All right. - And it does give you a, like, it does do a little bit to explain why so many things do in early access or do you probably part of Steam Next Fest and then do a alpha, then a beta and all the stuff instead of like, you know, this wasn't attempted as a, as almost a stealth launch, right? Like the surprise announcement, it's out right away. Like, it's an interesting experiment in that, but it just shows you that there's an ecosystem to building why people would care about your game and unfortunately paying influencers to play your game a bunch, right? Like doing all this stuff that gets in front of people is really hard to deal with without that. - That's exactly, and that's the Apex Legends model, and that's what these executives at this company, so it's like, you know, Apex Legends was surprised launched and they did exactly that, paid a bunch of influencers to play their game and sort of sustain interest until there is enough of an ecosystem of kind of organic interest from fans that it could sustain itself. And like, they tried to replicate that exact same thing with high guard and the market has just moved now. It's a different, you know, you build and launch interest in your game in a different way. - Yeah, and speaking of the market moving, like, it's super risky to put out multiplayer games right now. Like, if you thought, you know, two years ago that Marathon was gonna come out after a game that everybody likes a lot and it's gonna have to go up against a game called Art Creators, like nobody would believe that. That just wouldn't even be part of the conversation. And these are just such risky things because the whole idea of these games is that you're gonna make money off people for a long time, this is big, like, you know, kind of hang out platform that people are gonna buy stuff in and have as a live service forever and everything like that's like, that's a lot to ask. Like, if you're making a AAA, you know, single player game and you're like, well, we're just gonna have to sell a bunch of copies of that. That's just a completely different model. - Yeah. - And I don't know what's more risky, but it does seem like right now that putting out these big multiplayer games is a little bit more risky 'cause boy, there's no community. You don't get to sell anything. - I mean, I think that there, I hope that these companies don't have illusions like they're not dummies, right? I think that it, I think that it's, you know, 99 of them are gonna fail and then one of them is gonna be Fortnite and make literally billions and billions and billions of dummies. Like, you know, and then it's like, hmm, if you're a Tencent, you're like, well, okay, like maybe we should, we can roll the dice on that. - Yeah, yeah. So like rolling the dice on these like kind of single player big experiences, I just don't know. Like, it seems to me it's a better choice. Like, I would, like, I would only be saying this if I hadn't known that like last year Mafia was this giant success for 2K, right? Like, what? - Was it? - Yeah. Yeah. - I don't know if it was a giant success, but because-- - I mean, bigger than Mafia should have been, right? It was like, you know, one of their top sales, like, situations for last year. Yeah, I think that like, you know, like, there's, we're seeing these big multiplayer companies get taken out of that game and put it into, you know, making these multiplayer experiences. And I just, I just wonder if that's gonna shift after the many, many times we've seen this fail. But maybe to Justin's point, like, you just got a gamble on that one out of 100. - There's, there's, go ahead. I was gonna say, there's, there's also something weird about perspective when it comes to these games. So you had Overwatch, right? Which is first person and, and like, people liked it. People love that game for a really, really long time. But something that more arrivals did different, which was going into third person, it allows them to make more money because it's worth it to buy the skins because then people get to actually see the skins that they're buying and it causes them to make more money, right? And so it's, I'm thinking about the Archrater's marathon comparison right now. Archrater's a lot of, not only is it fun to play, but a lot of the pursuits is to make your character look cool whereas marathon's first person. - Yeah. - I don't care what my character looks like ever. So I will never care about buying a skin or anything from that game. So it makes me wonder, you know, the longevity for that. And that's why Fortnite's so huge, right? Every time a new skin comes out, people buy it 'cause they want to be grace from Resident Evil and actually see your character. - That's an interesting, I mean, in addition to the economics of like, you know, how the game makes its money. There's, there's a game design, like the FPS, like for what, 20 years, FPS was like the dominant genre and obviously Call of Duty and Battlefield, there's still some of the biggest things on Earth. But like, you know, but like, look Fortnite's third person, right? It is not an FPS. So it's like, there's been this kind of shift under our feet, kind of in plain view, but until you kind of say it out loud, it's, like you don't think about it as much of like, maybe the era of like the dominant FPS is just kind of like, it's just maybe it's over. - People want to see their characters. - They want to see that butt they bought. - Well, and like, even like a game like Cyberpunk, six years later, we made a video about Cyberpunk, like a month ago and all the comments are like, but did they, it was like, and everything that's been added to the game that's since lunch and all the comments on that video are still, did they make it where you could play it in third person now? And I'm like, I wouldn't want that, but like. - That makes me sad. I feel like that's people that don't get it. - No, I know, because I think Cyberpunk is wonderful in first person. I think games like Skyrim and stuff like that in third person are not great. - And that's different. There's a difference between an FPS multiplayer shooter and a decision to be experiencing this world from a character's eyes and the storyline of the game takes place in that character's head. And so it's important for you to sort of see out of that character's eyes and be immersed in the world. So, you know, I don't know. I don't know, let's sleep cyberpunk out of it. (laughing) - Even a while. - Yeah. - So with High Guard, some people were saying it was being the last big reveal of the game awards that doomed it from the start. I don't know. That didn't do any favors, but it's a new studio that nobody knows, a new IP. They have to partner with someone to make the announcement. Otherwise, they're just, it's just less developer on Twitter that nobody knows saying, hey, we have this new pre-play game coming out and no one's gonna pay any attention to it. - Right. I think you could theorize all this stuff. Did Jeff Keely kill the game, blah, blah, blah. I think at the end of the game, at the end of the day, if the game was good, people were playing. - Yeah. - But I think that's all the boils down to. - I mean, there's a lot of hindsight, you know, and sort of backseat, you know, backseat driving of like, yeah, in hindsight, there's all these op-eds and think pieces around how that reveal doomed it in Yada Yada, and then how weird it is that they revealed the game awards and then never just never updated their social feeds again for weeks and weeks. But Damon, I think I agree if like, you're an indie dev, you're a small dev, you know, like reveal your game with the game awards, yes or no, like, you know, who's not picking, yes, in that scenario. - There's also just been from the dev's discourse about like, yeah, about it being written off from the start because of that announcement. But like, I just don't buy it. They had 180,000 people playing on day one. I think it was quite, it was not quite 100. It was like 99 something. Regardless, people tried their game. They gave it a shot and they didn't like it. Blame it on whatever you want. - So just to make sure that nobody thinks I'm crazy, Bafia outperformed sales. I think it did, we reported that it 800K in the first month that it was out, but it seemed to have done 1.2 million or more after that. And then there was a call in which Strauss Elligic said, if you give consumers great narrative experience, it's a lot of fun, somewhat contained and out of fair price, then you can have a perfect result. So they were chalking it up to the cheaper price for that. And then they said it outperformed the company's expectations and they compared it to a high point in their, in this article written by some site called GameSpot. They said it was the high point of the take to earning call because of the GTA delay causing the company's stock price deployment. - I'm sure, especially after Bafia's three, I'm sure.
that they were stoked with how well this game performed. - Yeah. - I also really like this game. I think it's great. - Me too, great game. - Still a very good looking game. But remember, Sam, Resident Evil did 5 million right out the game. - Yeah, well, we can't all be Leon S Kennedy. - Certainly can't. (upbeat music) Okay, we've got breaking news out of the Capcom spotlight. - Oh, no, what do we got? - As is tradition, they held a contest for Capcom fans to pick to design a boss for a Mega Man. - Good. - Oh, no. - I've done this going all the way back to at least Mega Man too. I don't know if they did it for the original Mega Man. So they had over 10,000 entries. Capcom picked the best 20. And then the community chose the six winners. But only one of these winners will actually be in the game. Anyway, here are the winners. You would like to hear their names here. - Yeah, yes. - Clint Cleanser, man. - You're right. (laughing) - Wait a minute, I'm just putting this together. Sweeper woman. - Oh, wait. Hold on. - Hold on. (laughing) - Hold on. Okay, recycle man. - Okay. - Cactus man. - Okay, that's got to win. I love Cactore. - Juggle man and valve man. And I can't believe there hasn't already been a valve. - Well, there's already been a guy that pumps his own head. (laughing) - I was in a valve man. - I think Gabe Newell is valve man. - Yeah. - Why did the first three have such a cleaning based theme? I thought that was gonna be the whole theme. And then a cactus. - Well, if man's a very clean country, to walk around those streets, you can't even throw stuff away in a trash can. - There aren't any of you, there aren't any of you in trash. - So who's there? - That's Sweeper woman. - Sweeper woman, Sweeper woman, got it. - So that'd be the second woman after Splash woman? - I would agree with Sam. I think Cactus man sounds the best here. - Oh no, they're Sweeper woman. - Oh, that's sweet. - She's a maid, she's a maid of it. Well, if there's a community vote, that's just gonna win it. - She's gonna fight. (laughing) - I'm a cactus. (laughing) - You cycle, man. I think cactus man and juggle. - That's just Captain playing it as a robot, okay. - Yeah, okay. - I could have done a better cactus man, but I'll take it. - That looks like a boss that would already exist in. - It does. - Yeah, exactly. - They also showed a new, a gameplay overview trailer for O'Neamoocha, but no release date. - Which way? - That's just a character from Arms, the juggle man. Oh, this one too. These are just Arms characters. - He's a fire man? - He's a, oh. Yeah. - That's funny. These are really cute. - Yeah. - Okay, I do like 'em. - Cactus man has to win. - Let's check in with the listeners. - Hey, listeners. - Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address,
[email protected], just like Mason from Texas did, who says, with the shutdown of High Guard just announced, after it had only been live for a few months, I'm more ashamed than ever to say that I am a games as a service fan. - Don't be ashamed of that. - So am I. - But it's obvious for everyone to see. - Only Mark should be ashamed. - I don't want to, it is none of my business. How much money I've spent on Marvel rivals. I don't want to know. Don't talk. - It's obvious for everyone to see that this business model isn't sustainable for anyone other than Epic, maybe Blizzard. I know there's lots to say about the art style, gameplay, monetization, et cetera, but what I would like to offer is a solution to the service games industry. And for your conversation consideration is this, would games as a service games be more successful if they released with an end date in sight? Like if a game like Destiny released with a content roadmap for three years, and then said that was the story they were telling, and after that, they're moving on to again. - Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We already solved this. The solution is see more butts, okay? That's the solution. See more butts. - I think that the, it's all right. It was a question done, it was there more. - Do you think gamers would respond to that? That's all. - I think the problem is the exact opposite. Is they want to believe that this is a treadmill that will last forever. The party will never stop. And all the time I'm investing and the loot I'm investing and the money I'm spending is it's actually, it's the exact opposite of that. Of the moment there's an inkling that, hey, this in memo might be in trouble. This gotcha game might shut down or this live service game might not be around in a year or two. You've instantly destroyed your credibility and your ability to sort of keep, keep your, like I said, it's consumer confidence. They need to have some confidence that there's intrinsic value in the money of the skins and stuff they're putting into the game. And so I think if they knew that this was only gonna be around a certain amount of time, then nobody would care. They wanna believe in the fantasy that this is a forever game. - I want to believe. I'm gonna take the opposite. I believe what Justin's saying. I agree with them. I'll just plead the other side. So the other side of this would be, it'd be really cool to do a countdown game where there's like a countdown to an apocalypse or something where you are actually like working that into your narrative and at the end of it, somebody wins a million dollars. - Yeah, that's a Peter Mollenew joint for sure. A Peter Mollenew game, 100%, it's like in five years, this game's gonna shut down and the world's gonna blow up and then something insane happens at the end of it and nobody can ever play the game again. That's such a cool idea. - Whatever. - What about if at the end of the game, your final character, they printed a little plastic model of it and it's all of the stuff you put into it and all of the things that you added to that character are become a visual 3D printed model that you get at the end, little plaque or something. - Yeah, yeah, here's what would happen. Mason from Texas, here's what would happen if they announced, if Bungie Nets is Destiny 3 and they're like, "We have a three year roadmap and then we're gonna show it down." If Destiny 3 is successful by the time that end date comes around, Sony is gonna be like, "I don't think so." I don't think so. - Thanks to the power of friendship and all of your efforts combined, great news, everybody. - The world's the same. - Yeah, the world's been saved another three years. - Yep. - Now, I think humans are, I think we like collecting things, like the whole thing with the console generation between PS4 and Xbox One is Phil Spencer said, we lost the worst generation to lose because everybody built up their digital libraries on PlayStation and I have my 25 or so platinum trophies over there. If the PS6 and Project Helix came out, they were like, "No backwards compatible. No trophies, no nothing." Then there would be quite the decision on which console you go for. But right now, I'm a lifetime Sony man because that's where all my games and stuff are. And same with rivals. I don't know if my account's not worth anything, but I'd like to know that in 10 years, all of my work is still there. And if you told me from the start that rivals is only gonna last for three years, then yeah, I probably wouldn't spend any. - Modern video games are toil, right? And it's work and it's checking off boxes and the idea of that all being, quote unquote, not for anything. - What? (laughing) - Celebrate, we're all going to do that. It's horrible for gamers to contemplate something like that. - I mean, it's all aggrined. - That's human existence though. That's the human condition. We're all grinding for nothing. And even our progenitors will all be dust one day. It's all warm food in the end. And you cannot take your fortnight skins with you when you come out. - But I hope that my rivals-- - You killed so many things with gold. - I hope they persist long after I'm gone. It's gonna be one of my will. - Did you, are you happy with this? The answer Mason, are you happy? (laughing) - What have we told you? There's only gonna be 1,500 episodes of Game Scoop. Would you be happy to-- - Would you still watch? - Instead of-- (laughing) (upbeat music) - Okay, well, instead of looking forward, let's look back a little bit. This is Charlie Gadson, our friend in San Diego, says, "Last week in response to Justin, "Mark mentioned he would go back "and listen to old Game Scoop episodes "while working a warehouse job." I don't believe this is an uncommon practice. The Everloyal Game Scoop fan sees the show like one of their favorite bands. It's always fun to go back and listen to their old stuff from time to time. Over the years, I've listened to the whole Game Scoop catalog three or four times. - Wow! - The most recent happened a couple years ago while grinding through the harder VR battles and Final Fantasy VII rebirth. I even took the time to write down some recurring segments inside jokes or overall themes the show had in the earlier days that have gone extinct. I plan on sharing these in full when the show officially hits the 20 year mark this summer. In the meantime, here's one for Scoop Nation. Damon needs to confiscate everyone's phones before the show started as he demanded 100% focus. - Oh, as he should. - As he should. - It's this sort of dedication to the craft that has allowed the podcast to survive all, well, literally all of the gaining podcasts have gone the way of the dinosaurs. - I hate clicking on podcasts and you just see everyone there just all on their computers. I hate that. Take my phone. I agree with that. - Damon, I don't write, I'm only saying 'cause I don't remember listening and hearing that. Was that a thing that you did? - That must have been very serious. - Because it was like a policy or something like that? - I think Greg probably just like annoyed me by looking at his phone one time. - I was like, this is 100% a great thing. - I have a very distinct memory of Damon being like, do you really need to be on your phone right now? I was like, well, some have gotten troubled. - The worst thing about that is that you were the actually the person that suffers there 'cause you had to touch everybody's phone and they took it into the bathroom with them, just minutes before that. - Just get a basket, put your phone in the basket. - I mean, dude, I was. - Asking a bleach for Clean Man, Fins or Man. - I'm glad this topic came up because I represented my opinion poorly, which is like, I completely get and I respect the first time we love all of our fans and thank you so much for going back and listening to old episodes. But the part that was a little bit baffling to me was people that go back to episode one. And like, all right, back to one. And I'm going to really listen to the whole thing. - 'Cause they think they should start with your first episode as well. - It's like picking random. - Like picking random.
things, episodes here and there and going back and like, you know, doing reruns, like that totally makes sense to me and I respect it. But the, but the, you know, let's just run it back and do it again. That's, that's the part that like, man, I just, it's, it's, it's amazing that there's people that, um, that will, you know, give us that much of their time in it. I'd like for someone to tell my wife that they've listened to me tell the same jokes more than she has. And they enjoy it. You think you got bad tried being a game scoop fan. Okay. So that settled. She's not going to listen to this episode. I'll tell you that much. That's, that settled. Let's put that one to bed. So this Nick from Wisconsin, in episode 845, Justin asked, what was the point of going back to listen to old episodes? We want people to like our show. What do you lose us doing? Lesson said it didn't make sense. Damon countered that there's more than just news that it's discussed, which is very true. I personally have gone back to listen to old episodes recently as I was looking for more things to listen to while I drive and have found it quite interesting to see how the show and hosts have evolved over years. I originally started listening to gamescook around 2016. I missed out on the early years. So when I went back, I started as far back as Apple podcast has available, which is July of 2010. Wow. It has been quite interesting to hear people like Damon from back then to see how much he's matured over the years. I think it's true. Wow. It has also been fun to hear when people who are still at IGN joined the podcast for weeks, such as I recently heard the first episode, Sam was on as well as a few with Brian Altano. I believe first episode. I was always there somewhere. I believe I, there was also an episode I listened to recently where one Andrew Goldfarb wrote into the show as a listener. Also, I would argue that those old episodes actually had less topical news and more veered into games, flavored entertainment shows with things like knocking boots, frequent recurring discussions of bathroom etiquette, general partying, and also just general antics of Greg Miller. And even the video game news from then, I do find interesting because the PS3 and 360, they're blind spots for me since I only owned a Wii at that time. That was more of a waning of my video game hobby during those years. Any who thought I would throw out my thoughts on why us listeners find it interesting to go back to old episodes. Who is this? Keep up the great work and scoop and that was Nick from Austin. I hate you. I like how Nick from Wisconsin recounted that episode. It was like, and Damon, looking a little hurt. It's pretty good. I just want to say again that I apologize and it didn't look, this is an extemporaneous podcast where we're speaking off the dome and I didn't represent my point very well on that episode. Very glad that everyone. And I do, like, obviously, I'm good for it. Like, I do genuinely understand why people would go back. It's just the, it's just the listening to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. That's the part that like, it just, it's miss a lot of jobs are really, really boring. I just want to be on the record and saying that I always thought that Damon was very mature. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Compared to the other chuckleheads I worked with at the time. Okay, okay. That brings us to video game 20 questions and our suggestion this week comes from a John Peacock who actually has an anecdote here. We'll find out his location at the end. It's just required. I just listened to the most recent gamescube episode and heard about your six year old son asking you to play Fortnite. Oh, yeah. As a fellow dad, I thought I'd share my experience for a bit of a background. I'm 48 years old. Same. And though I played shooters pretty regularly back in the 360 generation, my current taste in games is a fair bit of overlap with yours, mostly retro indie games, card games, strategy, tower defense, etc. So when my son just turned six, he came home from school in December of 2018. So dad, why won't you let me play Fortnite? To be clear, he had never asked me to play Fortnite. We had never even talked about the game before. I told him I knew very little about the game, but we could check it out together to see if it was appropriate. I was thrilled to find there was a split screen mode on the Xbox. So we downloaded it, turned off voice chat, muted the other players and jumped into a game. We had no idea what we were doing, but played a few rounds because he was enjoying himself. And I was enjoying hanging out with my son. After a couple matches, we moved on to something else, but he let me know how much funny he had. So a couple of times a week, we would play a few matches in split screen. Before long, we began to figure out the map, learned how to revive each other, started completing quests, etc. And soon we were both having a blast with our regular gameplay sessions. After about a month of this, my wife started to come hang out with us while we played. My son really wanted her to try what she did. She's not much of a gamer, had never played a shooter, began to enjoy completing quests, reviving teammates, unlocking characters and dances, etc. Before long, it evolved into my wife and me playing split screen on the Xbox. While my son played in the same room on the Switch, all in the same cross-platform game, Lobby, playing family Fortnite matches every night after dinner. This went on for 2-3 years until eventually my son became more independent with greater interest in other games. And the family play sessions became less and less frequent. But to this day, playing Fortnite with my son and wife are among some of my favorite family memories. And now as an annual tradition, when my family asks what I want to do on my birthday, I reply order sushi and play some family Fortnite. Once again, last month from my 48th birthday, we sat down and played a single round of Fortnite together after dinner and got a victory royale, the perfect ending to my day. I will also mention the various crossovers in the game like Marvel, Star Wars, etc. led to my son becoming interested in other cultures that I enjoy. Because of this, we started regularly reading comics together and watching movies with much greater frequency. And then years later, when Epic bought harmonics and integrated their version of rock band into one of the Fortnite game modes, it helped expose my son to some of my favorite music, as well exposing me to some of my son's favorite new music. So I have no idea if your experience with Fortnite will be as positive as it was for my family and me. But if you do give it a try with your son, I hope you both have as much fun as we did. Nice. And end in story. That's amazing. I mean, what like we've been kind of goofing on live service games a little bit to show, but like definitely shows, you know, the power, cross-fat platform multiplayer, no barrier to entry, just download and play. It's very sweet, very awesome. Just the quickest extra curricular thing. I watch the light magic season, the second one. Yeah. And there's an entire episode about the Jar Jar reaction, which is like an amazing documentary to watch the internal team at Lucasfilm produce an episode about something about how people the backlash are. Yeah. It's incredible. Like just watch that. It's like kind of hard to watch. Yeah. Really good. Yeah. It's like kind of a, you know, it's kind of a bummer watch, but also just super interesting. And because it's about light magic, George Lucas is like, you don't need to care about what people say about the character. All they're saying is that it looked realistic. Yeah. And also, you know, if he really said this, they say something like, you know, he said, in 20 years, they're going to love it, which is true. Yeah. It kind of happens. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, yeah, I thought it would happen more than it did, but it has happened. And then the other thing is that there's a new Lucas gift shop in San Francisco that just opened the procedure to like no fanfare, but it's so cool. It's right by the Yoda fountain. And they sell wine made just from the vines at Skywalker Ranch. Oh, cool. Just brought home a bottle of wine made at Skywalker Ranch. It's like, nice. There's not a lot of vines there. It's really cool. Anyway, okay. John Peacock says PS in 2024, I submitted a list of 20 question game suggestions on behalf of my son, Loa, who is now 13, Jedi Survivor was selected, which the crew got in 20 questions. Wow. At the risk of being greedy, I will submit my favorite redacted that has never been on the show redacted. And as Sam and Justin will surely want to know, I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I've been listening to Game Scoop since year one of the podcasts. Nice. And with that, let the questioning begin. Great show at Xray Arcade in Milwaukee. The summer is really fun. I love that. Milwaukee's a great city. We got good hints from that redacted. So I appreciate that. We also lost last week. So we need a grip. Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll be serious. Did this come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s? Yes. Great. Oh, can you see, can you see your button this game? No. Oh, it's golden. I maybe it's golden eye. Yeah. Yeah. But you can see your butt. If you were screen sniping like your multiplayer opponent, you don't, you can't see your butt start to see theirs. That's true. We don't know who you are in StarCraft. You're the commander. Your public. Okay. Did this game come out in the 90s? No. Wait, you already asked that. You said 70, 80s and 90s. Yeah, but he asked about the 90s specifically because the answer was yes, the 70s, 80s or 90s. Oh, it was. Oh, okay. Okay. Let's see 70s. But how many games can you not see your butt from the 70s and 80s? Well, if you're in a helicopter, you can't see your vehicle. To be spy hunter. You don't see your butt in that. I want to put that on a shirt. It could be spy hunter. Did this game come out on the NES? Yes. Sweet. Is it all? Yes. It was also an arcade game at some point. Yes, it was. That's five. That's why it's 100s alive. Yes. Are you? Are you most prime? Are you controlling a vehicle mostly in this game? Yes. Okay. That's why that's why you can't see your butt. It could be cobert triangle. Is that an arcade? What? Blaster. Blaster. That's the boat game, right? I don't think that's the boat game. That's a cool one. Yeah. Blaster as there was not in our kids. So. Yeah, this is this is my blind era was just a
- Was it developed in the United States? - Was it developed in the United States? No. - Does this game take place in, is this a sci-fi game? - No. - It's not a space, you're not in a spaceship. It's not life force or grattiest or. - Is the via, we determine you are in a vehicle for most of the time, right? - Yeah, you can probably look at a plane, maybe a plane, is it a drive-e car? - No, it's not a car. - Not a car, not a spaceship. Could be co-opatron, could still be co-opatron. - Okay, I mean, are you, are you in an airplane? - Yes, and that's 10. - B-17 bomber. - Yep, 1941, 1942, Capcom. Is this a Capcom game? - No. - But an airplane game, could be what space carrier? But you know, I know you definitely see a button that afterburner, not on a yes. - No, you're right. I was thinking 80s, that might have been 89, I don't know. - Well, maybe afterburner was on the NES, maybe it got more than made a face. - I don't think afterburner was on the NES, was it? - I don't know, it could have been a black cartridge game eventually. - Really? - Is an afterburner made by Sega? - Yeah, but says Vindicators or what, not Vindicator, sorry. There's a series of Sega games that made it onto the. - Yeah, what, yeah, yeah. - What's the one called? - That's interesting. - Interesting bit of trivia there, it's called. Okay, NES and Arcade. - Was this made by Sega? - No. - Okay. - NES and Arcade, airplane games. - Time pilot, I don't think that came to NES. - I would also call time pilot a sci-fi game, I think. - Yeah. - I don't think there were, I would know if there was any support. - Wait, I'd love that. - If you top down our side scrolling. - Yeah, that'd be helpful. - Is this top down? - No. - Some side scrolling. - And tail spin as a Capcom game. - You may have just narrowed it down to exactly one game. - Yeah, I was gonna say, like, yeah, I think so. I think it could be like a really, well, I'm trying to think of like, it could be like a really early arcade game. - Side scrolling. - plane game. - plane game. I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't have an NES mind palace the way that Sam does. - Yeah. - Would not made in America. - Well, is this based on a license? - No. - 'Cause I thought maybe it'd be like a, they'd port in some movie to that. - How many questions do you have? - You have five questions and a guess. - Okay, it was, yeah, yeah. So it probably made in Japan. - I came out of arcades. - Grady. - Like there was a lot of cyber rolling. - And any of these games are cool. - Shooter things, there's that game Stinger, but I think you're like a little spaceship in that, right? - Yeah, I was thinking about Zevious until I found out it was side scrolling. Stinger is so cute. Is that Konami? I don't, I can't picture a Stinger. You're like a little ship with like, you can shoot and stuff, but you have like, for some reason, like boxing gloves. It's a good, good little cute series. - All right, five questions and a guess. - I know we're trying, David. I don't even know, like I said, I don't have a great NES. I know a lot of NES games, but not the whole library. I don't even know if it was developed in Japan, but I presume it was. - I presume it was. - Is this company still around? - Yes, that's just 15. - Is it Konami? - Nope. - So Capcom? - We already asked if it was Capcom. - Yeah, we asked about Capcom and Sega, but the Namco, Namco would be, let's see, let's think of the Namco games. I can't think of any claim, like DigDug Pac-Fan. - Yeah, Rally X. - Stupid. - Bappy. - I mean, Nintendo. I was thinking about if there was an Nintendo game. - It was the Pilot Wings. - Not balloon fight, or they actually have this, okay, this is not the game, but they have a game called like Skypilot or something like that that they made. They didn't come to that, yes. - Yeah, maybe it is, maybe we did Nintendo make a flying arcade game. Not that I, I mean, maybe, I don't know. - Mm-hmm. Am I gonna be mad if I, if I can't recall what this is? - Yeah, I can't think of the Nintendo situation, that would be it. - Is it made by Nintendo or Namco? - Yes. - Two questions to the yes. - Maybe regret phrasing that question that way. (laughing) - I think it's a Namco game. I'm just having trouble figuring out what that is. - Yeah. I mean, I can't remember who made Time Pilot at this point. But that's not really side scrolling. That's kind of like on a single screen, right? - What else did Namco make? - Yeah, I can only think of their like early, like early NES games. I don't know what they were up to in like the late 80s. - Mm-hmm. - Is Namco? - Is Namco one question and a guess? - Okay. - There's these games that are like, I'm trying to think of even the names of them. They're like, you know, they're about like prop plans. Like Red Baron is a vector game. - Yeah, but it's not. - Yeah. - And then there's like, yeah, I might not know what the game is 'cause it's like so, it was so unappealing. It was probably a game about flying called High Flyer. But I'm thinking it still could be like World War II theme, do you know? Or World War I theme or bombing or strafing or something like that. - They did Namco, like they were all like, they were Galaxian and Galaga and, you know, all those. What do they do that wasn't sci-fi? 'Cause they were Zeevius too, that was Namco. - And Side Scrolling, which is interesting, right? - Yeah. - Yeah, I don't know if we know this one. - All right, time to land this thing. - Yeah. I'm out. I was never in. (laughing) - What was it like with the Vis Namco museum? - I'm trying to picture games. I don't even know if this game was in that. - Yeah. Yeah, I don't really know where to go. Like, I just, I'm kind of curious if it was a World War II game, but I don't think so. All right, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to say. - I gave up, man. - Does everyone give up? - Yeah. - Yeah. - All right, well, you came very, very close. I believe this is a World War I game. It, like I said, this is the only Side Scrolling game where you fly an airplane that I can think of on the NES. And what's even more interesting is that you, the screen scrolls from right to left. - What? - It is Sky Kid. - Sky Kid. - Sky Kid. - I was trying to think of that name 'cause I could picture like, there's these kind of generic sounding games like that. - This is weird, going the other way. - Why are you going this direction? I don't like it. - It's just a little bit weird. - It's probably like a prop plane. You always have to pick up a bomb and then drop it on a target. I wouldn't have thought of this as a arcade game either. I thought it was a game out of this. - Arcades in '86 came with NES in '87. - Yeah. - I don't know this game. - Looks goofy. - Developed by NAMCO and then published on the NES by Sunsoft, actually. I just thought it was interesting. This was his favorite NES game. - Yeah, looks fun. - It looks pretty nice. - Sam, do you have a copy of this in your house? - Absolutely. - It was the other dollar-bending that everybody has. - The box art has like a guy. Let's see if they show it. - At the end, there's like, anyway. The box art has like a pilot, like a World War II fighter pilot. - You're actually a bird as you can see at the top of the screen. - Oh yeah, you're actually a bird man. - But the art in the United States was a man-man. - Yeah, yep. But the arcade flyers showed birds fly. - Yeah, that's really fun. - The United States was ready for bird man. Some corrections. Copatrangle was a rare game just made for NES in our Cades. - And after Werner came to NES alongside Alien Syndrome by I think-- - Alien Syndrome. That's what I was trying to think of. - Tengan, Tengan published them on the NES. - Yes, I did not know Afterburner was on the NES. I don't think I've ever seen the NES version of it. - Yeah, it's a black card Tengan. - Well, nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion, John Peacock. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address,
[email protected] and that it's all the scoops that we have here this week. Thank you Mark, thank you Sam, thank you Justin. Thank you to Joe Wurt, working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon, this is Icon GameSoup, and of course, there's the pickles. - I'm waiting an hour to say that. ♪ I shoot you in my dream ♪
♪ As hard as I can stand ♪ ♪ When I stopped you, fell away ♪ ♪ Pockets closing ♪ ♪ Waking up on a world away ♪ ♪ Cutting through the air ♪ ♪ Seven thousand miles to kill ♪ ♪ I'll see you when I'm there ♪ ♪ I've been modified ♪ ♪ I've been modified ♪ ♪ Well, I guess it was worth a try ♪ ♪ But I've been modified ♪ Which one's no time to die? Is that the most recent one? Yeah. Like the. Have you seen it, Mark? Yes, I have. Um. So, James Bond just gets blown up by a bunch of missiles. That's how he goes up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And like, I thought. 'Cause I knew that he'd died in it, but I'd never seen it. I've never watched it. And so, I thought that they'd, like, leave it slightly ambiguous, and it's like, no. You see him get blown to bits. Yeah. Yeah. They so went out of their way to just make it completely. Like, there's no wink, like, uh, maybe. It's like, nah. He dead. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I mean, look, I didn't. I didn't love it. But I liked it. I thought the bad guy layer was, like, really good. Like a really cool, evil guy layer. Who's the back? Is that Rami Mollock? Yeah. Okay. No character. Skied all is Javier Bardem, right? Yeah. Yeah, I like that one. Yeah. I like Skied. It is funny. It's like people really like the Daniel Craig Bond era. But in hindsight, it's like, there's five movies. You know, two of them are very good. Like a real Skyfall. Yeah. And then Quantum of Solace is. Quantum of solace is terrible. Terrible. I definitely didn't see all five, but I can't keep it straight. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one. What am I. No. Specter. Oh, yeah. Specter. See, that's what I mean. It's like people like people are like, oh, yeah. I like this era of Bond. But it's like, yeah, but like the batting average is two out of five. Are good. Although I like no time to die. But I like. Look, I understand why people don't like it. I like it because I think they leveled up the action. And I think. I think James Bond action had been kind of like outclassed by like John Wick. And movies like that for a long time. And this one, like the Anodarmus action sequence in Cuba, I thought was like really well done. It's like. There's a really good wonder where he's like fighting his way up the stairs that felt very modern at the end of the movie. So, I don't know, I liked it. They just went too hard with Casino Royale. Yeah. It's too hard out the gate. I do like that one. They could never live up to it. It's just too good. I watched all five because they're all on Netflix. So I watched all five of them the last couple weeks. It's like. Terrible. It's actively bad. Is that the second one? Yeah. That's. Yeah, that's the second one. Well, it's incredibly. The world is going to end. But it's incredibly low stakes. Nothing that's happening in that movie matters. It's like the bad guy's plan is just to steal water. He's just trying to steal the water in Bolivia and that's it. Yeah, that one. Yeah. They pushed up the release date of Pragmatto. They did. April 17th now. I just like that they. That card that they kept using for all their delays. They got to use it for a. Yeah. I'm pushing it up now. Yeah, we were going to inform you. You can play our game earlier. Like, I'm still not done ranting about Quantum of solace. Like, the bad guy is stupid and not intimidating. He's like just a little dweeb. Yep. Yeah. And, you know, and. But the real sin is that it does. Granted, this is an artifact of what it came out. But it does that like shaky cam. Like, none of the action is comprehensible at all. It's all just, you know, cut the camera every second. It's all shaking everywhere. And I'm like the sucks. Yeah. That's the born movies. I've tried to go back and watch them because. Yeah. It's also Batman Begins, it's the same way. I just. I love Matt Damon and the born. I love the original born identity. Yeah. Yeah, when we were younger. And so. But they're unwatchable. I never watched this for the last one. Like, the one where they brought him back. I didn't ever see that one. So, what is this guy doing? I haven't been watching. He's showing off some sort of I can snatch things. It's like he's trying to. Are they just. Is he trying to get them to just land? You know, he's just trying to snatch them really fast. Yeah. Oh. And he's trying to not knock over the other place. Okay, that was fast. Holy shit. Oh! Oh! Okay. It's pretty fast. I hadn't. Oh, he's best. Yeah. Get it together, bro. This is your thing. He's me sitting there with a full bag of Doritos. You want to lose her? Yeah. It's me watching the Olympics every time. Like, you suck. I like how, you know, when you sit down to watch a video and you need to explain to you. You say, "What's happening here?" Joe Burt's description was, "He's very fast." Yep. Nothing more. It needs to be said. Joe, you should have been on Sega's marketing team. You fucking nailed it. He's fast. This is the kind of thing, though, where since you have never actually tried this, if you were to try this, you would probably be just as good as this guy. I don't know, man. He just thinks he's very fast. I don't know. It seemed pretty fast. Well, I'm pretty slow. I can admit it. All right. That's square to it. Jesus. That's crazy, yes. Joe Burt, this might be the best one yet. It's very fast. It's better than the girls that are trying to inhale cockroaches. But maybe he'd be fast. I missed that one. Thanks. I had just forgotten about that. I missed that one. Oh, yeah. Well, don't look it up. Yeah. I won't. You should look it up, actually. You know what? We all have to be on the same page without that terrible was to watch that. Well, that's one I saw was the shopping carts one. Imagine instead of pushing shopping carts, people were pushing cockroaches into your mouth. There's also, there's an element of like, you know, when he puts some really close to frame like that, like it makes it look faster. There's like a perspective trick almost. What about his weird little flinches before he does the attack? It's like, I see my cat do that. Yeah. Just any of you played Resident Evil yet? No. And I will not. But I've played Pocopia. Okay. I'll ask you about that. I did the spider battle last night. It was annoying, but it only took me one time. Oh, it's not freaky. It's freaky. That's only, yeah. That battle is not difficult. It's just, it's almost QTE. I mean, there's a lot of part where you're on the building. But yeah, I don't, I don't remember having too much trouble with it. But yeah. It's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. I don't know how surprising the spider is. It's really good at surprising you. But yeah. It's also like popular right now because of how she lopped like that spider is. Like, I can, I can handle like Resident Evil 2 moving the dude's head and it's like jaw comes off. That's what yeah. What? Who's in this? That's like one of the group. Oh, I know. You can go to a skeleton. It's like, it appears as jaw is missing. Yeah. The spider is also referenced or is evil too, right? Well, they're worse spiders, but not a giant spider like that. What do you mean? They weren't that big and they just crawl around the sewers and they only take a shot or two from your shotgun. Okay, but they're bigger than a dog. Yes. All right. Those are big spiders too. Yeah. They did grow up by this game. What were the things in the little liquors were in the original Resident Evil and the sewers in the game too? Yeah. I hated those fuckers. Didn't the liquors start in Resident Evil 2? I don't think so. I think they're in, well, they're in remake. That's the last Resident Evil I played. Who's Resident Evil remake? They're basically zombies that crawl around, but they also are blind and so they're there. It's funny. Yeah. If you're slow and quiet, they won't know you're there. But this game places a strategically placed broken glass on the ground and it's very mean. Great. I wish I could talk about Crimson Desert.
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