Game Scoop! 857: Horizon Permitted East

♪ ♪ What's up everybody, welcome to Ijin Game Scoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne. I'm back, Damon. Mark Medina. I'm here, Damon. And look who it is. Look who made time to join us on Game Scoop. It's Justin Davis. - He lives. - He lives back. The comments started getting. There's some conspiracy theories. Oh no. And I did almost. I had some family stuff going on today. It was like 50/50, I don't want to call it. When you say family emergency, people always imagine an emergency, but a minor, I had a family thing pop up, and it was like 50/50 if I could do the show. So I'm glad that I'm glad that it worked out. - Did the conspiracy theories involve Mix Tape? - It was just like, they always have these theories about like, "Oh my god, Justin's fired or quit." - Yeah. - He hates Damon. - Yeah, Mix Tape gets out of town. - The industry flat wasn't as on Game Scoop. - Coincidence? - Yeah. - South of the zone. - Look, they're just connecting the dots. - It's one yard thread. - We're just asking questions. - Yeah. I'm just asking. I'm not saying it is because of Mix Tape, but it makes you wonder. - Nope. - Yep. - Well, we've got a show for this week. Great show for this week. Absolutely packed. So much to talk about. Our review of Forza Horizon 6 is out. It's yet another third tent in a row for that series. It's 75% of us have been playing that one, but Justin Zoro's still been playing Smother. - You're all playing up with me? - Yeah, yeah. We've all been playing up. - You were at a family emergency. What do you want from us? - Well, yeah, but I didn't know that Forza was on the table. - You said it was minor emergency. - I finished Pragmat. I just want to share some of my final thoughts on that earlier like that game. But first, oh, also, we have an extra critical activity coming up that I've literally been waiting weeks to talk about. I'm very excited about this. - Oh, wow. - All right. - I can talk about Punisher. I also talk about Punisher. I watched that. So, I've been waiting weeks to talk about that. But first, speaking of weeks, we're only three weeks out from IGN Live now. IGN Live, 26, happening June 6th and 7th, Saturday and Sunday in downtown LA. It's going to be so great. Lots of like game reveals and presentations on stage, Black Flag, or Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Recent is going to be there. I know of at least maybe an unannounced something that might show up too that I think will be relative to everybody's interest. And of course, we're doing the big 20th anniversary taping of Game Scoop, and that'll actually be on Sunday. So, if you were only going to go to one day of IGN Live, I would recommend Sunday, the 7th. We've kind of become of a tradition that Game Scoop closes out the show. So, that'll be really fun. Anybody, you can get your tickets now live.igin.com and if you use the promo code scoop 10, you'll get $10 off. And they're only $15 to begin with, so. - So, you said that's just in three weeks? - Three weeks. - You know, what's interesting is that we work so hard in this and we work so long that we got all our work done. And now for the next three weeks, we can just kind of chill. - Yep. - That's going to be a really fun summer. - Yep. - All right. - Exactly. - Exactly. - IGN Live was a lot of fun last year. It was so fun meeting so many Game Scoop fans. And, you know, this is year three. Year two was a little bit bigger than year one. And year three is going to be a little bit bigger than year two. So, you know, it's building. If you're in the LA area in June, you should definitely come hang out with us. - Yep, we will be doing some meat and greets as well. - Oh, he's in those food truck lunchlines. Is there things? - We do our meat and greets in the food truck lunchlines. - Yeah, that's where we do that. The coffee line. God, I hope that coffee truck's back. That was like-- - That was a good one. - Yeah. - That was a good one. - I had a good matcha from there. - Yeah. - Okay, okay. Forza Horizon 6. Not quite out yet, but our reviews out 10 out of 10. So, here's my thought on this. You know, this is the follow up to IGN's 2021 Game of the Year. Forza Horizon 5. It feels exactly like Forza Horizon 5. And it's set in Japan, my favorite place in the world. So, I kept thinking to myself, I wonder why I'm not having more fun with this. - What, not that it's bad at all. It's just not like, I've played other games recently that really grabbed me a little bit more. But I know Marcus played a heck of a lot of it. And I think maybe Sam is a little bit more leaning my way. - But you surely am. - Surely it being, if it's just Forza Horizon 5 but in Japan, that's gotta make it in 11 out of 10 off the charts. - You would think, you would think. I don't know, but Mark, you've played more than me. So, last night I was like my third night of playing it. And it finally started to like, "Oh, okay, now I kinda, I'm, "it's getting a little bit more of it hooks me." I like doing the hunt for the cars, the treasure cars or whatever they call them, where you just have a photo and you have to track them down. That stuff is cool. - Yeah. - I don't know, it doesn't feel super Japanese to me. - Well, yeah, so something I'll always say is like, so the series you know, started in Colorado and has been to Australia, UK, Japan, and Mexico. And to be honest, all of the maps, and this isn't a knock, all of the maps are kind of the same. You know what I mean? - It's like, it's beautiful. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It shows the blossom trees and stuff at the beginning. And then you're just like, I could just be in Australia right now and I wouldn't know the difference. Just big green landscapes. That's fine. - What about Mt. Fuji? What about the Tori Gates? - Mt. Fuji is there and the Tori Gates. - Yeah. Oh, guys. - I mean, you're racing. You're going through the scenery very fast. So, you could almost be anywhere except for the occasional. - I think they resisted adding some of the temples and stuff because like you shouldn't really be driving through those. - Oh yeah, sure. - You know what I mean? Well, no, but they, you know, there were some controversies with it. - There was some street around that and because you're climbing on them, but like there's no reason not to include them. They were like the historical artifact sites that Assassin's Creed's all about. But this, they kind of resist that, I think. And like, yeah, you're right, the foliage and the, you know, the streets and stuff. They're not specifically that Japanese looking. - Yeah, and Sam, you're worth. - You're saying maybe like last week or something that it's not a great representation of Tokyo specifically. - Yeah, and then Tokyo, I just thought, I mean, first of all, it necessarily feels small because they made a giant map of countryside that you're zooming through around Tokyo, but you are in and out of Tokyo really fast. I did play some missions where you're like driving food truck around and so like those take you to, like more of like the, you know, it shows you all of the stuff they did design for it, which is cute, but it's like, you know, Tokyo, Tokyo is overwhelming. It is, you know, probably the biggest city I've ever been to because, you know, even New York is separated by bridges and stuff like that. Tokyo is just like massive. It just goes on and on and on and on. Doesn't really feel like that. And then, yeah, I don't know. I mean, that, again, like I can't knock a game that's like found the formulas so well, it's gotten a 10, three times. That's incredible. What a feat. Yeah, you know, yeah, this definitely, go ahead, Jason. Well, I just, there's something to be said, like this is one of those franchises that like, some games get knocked for being kind of samey and then some are like, I will just take this every five years, release the forts of Horizon for the rest of my life and then like, that's just fine with me. And then that, that seems to be kind of the vibe here, at least it is for me. It's like, I can't wait to play and like, look, maybe I'm gonna come, maybe I'm gonna come back next week and say the same as you, but like my hype levels are off the charts right now. It is good. Yeah, my thing with this series has been like, I don't even need to see trailers or gameplay or anything. They could just put out a blog post and be like, the next forts is in May and it's in Japan. And I'm like, go, I'm there. Yeah. This is the first time Mark has not been playing forts in a long time. Yeah, yeah, this might, my first time right now. Right back to it, the mold with this stuff right now. Like you, you know, Mark works on assignments and deadlines and he blew past all those and just did all the stuff he could possibly do in this game. Like you love this game, right? Yeah, yeah, my thing is like, as a manager at this company, basically we all get the same, you're doing it right now too. I just won't say for what, but like we all get this, we all get that like one or two games a year where we're like, manage yourselves. I'm gonna go work and play this one game that I'm very excited for. And this was mine. This was like, I don't even know if my employees know my name anymore because I've just been in the forts of cave playing it. I'm like a level 150. I played like 60 hours. Yeah, I can't stop playing. I think it's really, really, really cool. To satiate any worries that people would have as far as like the Japan setting, the game has two progression paths. Well, this is four, but you know what I mean, two. One is the Horizon Festival, which is the like sanctioned races that like, you know, they're barriered off. And it's to be able to unlock the next wristband events, which in this game, they're all really, really cool. And then there's the Discover Japan, which is if the forts are horizon stuff is the main quest, this is the side quest. And those are like the Toge battles, which is like racing down a mountain, one on one again, somebody which is like, you know, the end of Tokyo drift, or let's see, like joining a drift club, or you go on these like May Day trips, where you like learn about Mount Fuji, or like a castle, or a town hall, you know, Torrey Bridge and all that stuff. And so there is that like, there is that like celebration of Japanese culture when it comes to the cars and stuff like that. And the setting, like there's a whole storyline about that. Yeah, there's a whole storyline about them taking manufactured cars from different areas and like turning them and erasing machines and stuff like that. And so like you'll go on a day trip and you'll be in like a Ford Escort because those were really popular in the 60, or not the 60, sorry, like the 90s and stuff like that. And so then they'll kind of give it a little bit of a history lesson and stuff. So those are, those are really, really cool. So those are more for like the Japan of it all. And then the forts are horizon, the horizon festival stuff is just like, What's your name? breaks. I mean, I will say like, okay, I guess I don't want to speak for you. I play this game in a little bit more of a casual way. And I'll play it for dozens of hours, but I'm not a hardcore racing nerd, right? Like I'm racing around having a good time. And like that's the way that I enjoy the game. And like, but we do have, you know, Luke Riley reviewed this for us and gave it a 10 out of 10. I'm not a Luke Riley might know more about racing video games and maybe anyone on the planet Earth. And he's reviewed, you know, if you go to his author page on IGN, he's reviewed maybe 100 racing games. And so, you know, in his review, which, you know, I watched that YouTube video, say it's really well done. Like he does talk about the kind of nuance of like, you know, the cars feel like they can't even, I can't even repeat it because I'm not a gear head enough to repeat it. Like he talks about that like hardcore racing nerd shit of like, you know, the tire grip and like this and that that like, they did make improvements under the hood that to someone that just wants to like, you know, run around and race. It's kind of like lost on me. Like, but it's there if you're kind of like, you know, that hardcore racing racing type of person. So Mark, yes, I mean, horizon. Sorry, I was just going to respond to that really quick. Horizons always, it's a spinoff from motorsport, right? Even though it's like now overtaken it. So you need motorsport anymore, right? I don't, I don't think so. And so it's, it's one of those things where it's like, that sim simulation racing is there if you want it. It's also not how I play. Yeah, I've always played the NPCs are on above average, which is their difficulty. And I just all the default driver accessibility stuff, which is like, you know, any lock and all that stuff. I was racing against you last night, sim. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the balance like, because the game is not as Arcadia and our review talks about this too. Like, it's not as Arcadia's burnout. Like, it is more realistic and you do need to care about your grip and your traction, but it's not as hardcore as like Gran Turismo. And like, it just, it's perfect for me. I love it. Yeah. Mark, give me some live game help. Do you use the racing guide? Oh, yeah. Like the line. Okay. Yeah. So I do. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's, it's a blue line. You follow it. And then it turns red. You have to break. But I, but I just, I don't know when I break, should I let go of the gas or do it just hold, just hold that down all, all, always. You, you, so the line is, is, uh, you know, contextual. So if you break, the line will change colors. Well, it will return to blue when you activate the, it'll return to blue. So, so you break, I would let go of the gas, especially depending on the, it has different effects. If you hold down the gas, it does something different while you're breaking, like just like a real, I just don't know what, which way, yeah. I think you're, I would let off the gas and break into the car turns into, into the line turns more of a yellow blue, then do more on the gas. But sometimes you also just kind of want to thread the gas opposed to just being like, okay, I break it enough. Now I'm just going to, you know, full send it into this corner because then you'll get out. Yeah. That's what I do. I look at the racing line. I have, I have a complicated relationship with it where, uh, I get, I get kind of addicted to the racing line. And then after I've played like 30 hours, I'm like, I don't need the line anymore. And then I turn it off and then I am a thousand percent worse. I'm like, no, I need to be told when to. Yeah, because they're looking at them any map or whatever. You can see when the next curves are. But that's the best way to see them. Like, if my car had that, I'd be a better driver, you know, like it's really good with that. So, some of the maps are so small, though, that you actually can't tell some of the wristband events. It's just like a square and it's just all road. And I'm like, I actually don't know when the turns are. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Hey, it's us. Yeah. For me, like, I want to play more of this and get into the stuff that Mark's talking about more because I did like how, like, first of all, there's like really goofy races and there's the historical stuff. Like, that's all a lot more appealing to me. And this game drew me in. Like, I do like it and I do like playing it. But I had to have like a talk with Mark because I play so many arcade racer games. And I'm like, am I really for this whole game, just going to accelerate and break to go around corners? Like, I love power sliding and boosting. Like, I love. When you ask me, like, how do I lock the booths? I don't know. I didn't say that. I was like, is there like any arcade stuff like boosting in this? It's like, just breaking. And that's not like for the gameplay side that's like, just takes this to a different tier. But I do like the open world driving. And like, I love burnout paradise. Like, I love that game. And, um, you know, I like collecting in it. And in this game, I still like that too. I like finding the mascots and running through them. I like finding the XP. The only other like thing that like, I don't really understand is that like, I just have infinite access to the best cars. And like, that's something that I think I wanted. But now that I have it, I'm like, why am I playing this? Like, the money means nothing. It's like every car you have, you get to like default to the best car for the race or upgrade a little bit. And then everybody else is racing the same car as you. So you don't have an advantage over them. Or if you try to get an advantage, it's not really clear to me that I, why I should do that or how. So maybe that's like the fine tuning and stuff. But like, I don't know, just improving my breaking around corners doesn't seem like my favorite type of gameplay. So the money, but beyond buying cars, which of which there are 500 of them, uh, is to buy houses, which give you different bonuses. Look at that. That's so cool. Uh, chaser zero. I got to play into that part at least. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the third wristband event. So it's actually not too far in. Uh, if you count the prologue as the first wristband event. So technically, this would be the second, uh, buying houses, but they're also like the barn cars. Uh, barn cars. You can find them. Yeah. Yeah. But then you have to, you have to then that's really restore them. And that is that wiped out my money. I had like nine million dollars. That's cool. And then I had to grind for the video to get the final car. I had to get like a million more dollars. So that'll wipe out your break. Yeah. Really quick. No, that's right. The treasure cars are very clear. I'm not saying I want ways to spend money. What I'm saying is there's, you're always going to have a pretty good car to take on a race. And like I felt like in some other games, the progression is like, I'm terrible until I get a great car. And then I'm really happy that I have this great car that I can use for a while. Now the other point here is that the races are so different from each other. Like you have like races where you're like in a Ford F-150 in mud. And it's like, that's really fun. I think that's really cool. Like I think it's really different. Like obviously like getting the best, you know, 60s muscle car I can find is not a good idea for that. So I get it. I get all that. Yeah, because you could, you could set the MPC difficulty, but then also like you could set the difficulty by your car, right? So if you, if you pick a car that's like really fast, that's what the MPCs are going to be driving as well. So you have to be okay with the fact that like you have to be better at corners and stuff. Or like they just showed that giant Ford Bronco. Like if you pick that, that's what they'll all be in. So it's everything. There's never really. It's just not that kind of game where it's like what's the best car? It's like that almost means nothing in a game like this. Let's be up. Let's be in that. I can't wait till the 19th place from now. But then the upgrade, the upgrade costs $60 if you have game passes. It's 60. Oh, I thought it was like pretty. Oh, wow. What's the upgrade? What do you mean? To play the player? The early unlock is the premium edition. Because it's out right now. But the game pass release date is right. And yeah, the premium edition is what comes with that early access. So when you start a race, you can pick one of your cars as your own or you can buy recommended car. When I choose that, it shows me like 10 cars. It might just assume any of these 10 would be suitable. Any of those 10 is at yeah, because if you are doing a race that has like crazy corners and your only cars are like super cars, that's going to suck, right? So the game is telling you, look, if you want to drive your super car with a speed level of 10 in this race, sure, but like all the NPCs are going to have that too. So I recommend pick any of these cars. And again, you don't have to necessarily pick like the best car out of that list because all the NPCs will be driving cars equal to that level. Okay, two more thoughts on this on not feeling super Japanese, you know, everyone you speak to is speaking English. And a lot, I think the most of them are you have British accents. I don't know what could be done about that. Is there even like a Japanese radio station where like the DJs speaking Japanese? There is. There's a lot of Japanese music. I don't think there's speaking Japanese in the radio station. Like the DJs Japanese. Like the DJs not, but there are a lot of Japanese songs. Yeah, yeah. That's what it looks like. I had no idea. That was Luke. I've worked with him for nearly 11 years. I have no idea what he looks like. All right. There's a sub pop radio station, which I thought was cool. Yeah, sub pop is cool. And the final thing is that's great. I've added, I've added like six songs to my iPod. The music's great. Nice. That Taiman Paul's song, Dracula, is really good. Oh, yes. What was I going to say? Oh, yeah, it's just the vibe of the game and the philosophy of the game is the polar opposite from something like Eldenring, right? Or, yeah, it's all like that demands you meet the game on its own terms. This game is just like, do whatever you want, have fun doing whatever you want. Here's a qualifying race. Oh, you came in last. Great job. You still qualified. It's like the overly positive nature of every character. It's so funny. There's no crime here. You do like something and you're just, and by the way, we haven't mentioned this. The rewind button is exactly what you're talking about here. You can rewind. Yeah, just rewind any time. it's so fun. I love that. That's my favorite like video game part of this. I think it's really fun. And then and when you beat a race or you don't beat a race or you come in eighth place, like, you know, you can also just keep this car. I mean, I have so many cars from playing a few hours. But then you play it just to your point that you play racists like pick your best car. It's like I'm always buying one for twenty thousand. Yeah. Everyone's just happy to be here. Yeah, in this game. They're just thrilled. It's the hot air balloons. They make everybody happy. I think I've got two wristbands. So I'll try to do that Gundam wristband tonight. Nice. I also beat pragmatic, which, you know, we talked a lot about. I like that game quite a bit. It took me 16 hours. The final boss is I think harder than the other. It's probably the hardest boss fight in the game, but not unmanageable. It took me four tries. And I figured out a way to lightly cheese the final boss. Really? Yeah. I can give some live game help here. This is, so do not engage the final boss directly. Don't like engage. She has a very predictable loop of moves that she'll do. She'll spit this slow moving lava, lava bubble at you. That'll chase you. And then she does a dash at you. So you're in like a circular environment. Just run in circles while you're charging up Diana's whatever loop, loop, loonament, destroying thing, whatever it's called. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When then when the boss charges at you, it'll be frozen there for a moment. That's when you use her ability to knock all the stuff off her. Then you have a good long window to hack her. And then she'll be stunned even farther and you can deal damage. Just rinse or repeat. It'll take you about 10 minutes. That's how I do it. And by that point, you have a way to build that meter a little bit faster. Like you've augmented that a few times. So it's a little, it's a little, yeah, we're just running around as totally an option. That's great. I love it. Yeah. But Mark, I mean, we don't want to get into spoilers here. But I, for me, the ending leaves some questions. And it leaves some questions about, so like, you know, this has been a big hit. And calf comes like, we've got a new franchise in our hands. I'm like, well, yeah, I don't really know how we do a sequel now, but okay. I don't know. I can't answer that. That's boiling. Anything. But I, I think it's, I think it's fairly clear how they can do it. What did you find the ending? I think what you're all hinting at is that Dr. Light needs to step in at this point. Yeah. Because the robot bosses set up in the end that are based on animals are really scary. Exactly. Yeah. I think, I think Diana is the main character, and she will be the through line for any pragmatic games. Yeah. Forward. Okay. Yes. But also where she ends up, I don't see how. Yeah. I just don't see how you guys got, you guys got, you guys got to stop. Okay. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't really like, yeah, talk about it. Oh, I didn't want to blame up that that Damon's other main criticism of this game is that the New York Park just doesn't really feel like New York. Did you, did you like the ending? Well, like I said, I don't, I don't have, I was surprised, I was surprised by the direction it took and then it leaves me with these questions about, I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen now. That's all. Yeah. Great. Great game. And because I feel like I need to explain that joke so people don't get mad, there's a part in the game early in the game that's imitating downtown New York. Yeah. I'm not talking about a spoiler. There's just to think that's what moon station. Yeah, this moon station has the biggest most sophisticated 3D printer. There it is. Yeah. Yeah. They can 3D print New York City. Cool. Pretty much. So big hit for Capcom. Capcom just released. It's a fiscal year financial results. I guess I'm assuming that ends in at the end of March. Fiscal year, not calendar year. So there's some interesting stats here. I love how transparent Capcom is about all this stuff. So first things to be noticed here, there are most recent fiscal year ended 13 consecutive years of profit growth. Wow. 13 years in a row, just making more and more profit. Gang. That's Capcom. Well, that's that party's never going to end, huh? Oh, well, just these companies just need to call Capcom and ask, how do we do this? We're going to talk about that in just a minute, Sam. The answer is make good game. Over the past fiscal year for Capcom, 84% of its games sold were what they call catalog games, meaning not release that year. Older games. Okay. It's only about 15% of Capcom sales are games released that year. And of all the sales, 93% of its sales are digital. Wow. Oh, 93%. That's a lot. Yep. And listen to this, only 10% of its sales come from Japan. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That doesn't make any sense to me. What a monster hunter. Yeah. What about monhun? Yeah. Well, but see that was that when that when that was that it's peak in Japan. It was when it was a portable game. Yeah. Only 10%. I mean, you know, I guess so here's the thing is like, I don't know what percentage of like the global gaming audience is Japan anymore, but probably more than 10%, which means that probably Capcom games like over index elsewhere in the world. Like they're like they're more popular in the United States or Europe than they are in Japan, which kind of surprised me. I guess for us in the evil, you know, obviously those games were were in our very big in Japan, but like, you know, they are, they are kind of like, you know, American. Yeah. It's American centric. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's worrying. What if Japan just got more into dating and sports and doesn't play video games anymore? Oh, no, are we? Oh, no. We're a bunch of college and everything changed. Yeah, they've grown out of it. They're different kids. Yeah, just he says at some point, they realize they have to take their life seriously in Japan. Yeah, they play one dragon quest game every day. I'm not there yet. That's it. They've gotten too old for my trip. Oh, no. Maybe I've gotten there. The best selling game over there past fiscal year was Resident Evil Requiem, seven million copies. Then some updates on older games with the Resident Evil 2 remake is that 18 million units sold. What? 18 million already to be GTA. That's crazy. But this is the comparison between Resident Evil Street Fighter Street Fighter 6 is at 6.7 million. So that's nothing to sneeze at for games these days, but it's nowhere near where Resident Evil's numbers are. I think Street Fighter is so much less accessible, you know, like it's just it is Street Fighter, but we all played Street Fighter 2 and I think half of us played, you know, left half but Street Fighter 3 dropped half the audience and then half the audience and half the audience since then. I just don't think it's like that. Yeah, I wonder what a what a comeback for Resident Evil. The Resident Evil 5 and 6, I mean, especially 6 are like, it's pretty bad. It's not. And then it's like, man, they pulled it back right from the brink. I wonder if there's ever been a franchise. Well, never mind. I immediately thought of two Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat also came like that. And that probably got even worse before getting good. And then and Zelda was never bad, but like Zelda also has had this sort of you shit like Skyward Sword. It's a whole point. It hasn't spanned a while. That's like a high point. Yeah, that's true. You're going to get so much trouble for them. I'm not in trouble at all. Please don't write that. I was in trouble. They confirmed, "Only Mooshie is coming this year." If they had announced that before, I had missed that. So that's good. Could we possibly get three great Capcom games in one year? Unbelievable. And then they updated the updated cumulative series unit sales. So the Resident Evil series, cumulatively has sold 201 million copies. Wow. Monster Hunter has done 127 million. Then Street Fighter has done 59 million. And then Mega Man has done 44 million. It's his Capcom's fourth best selling series. And they don't even make Mega Man games. There is a new one on the way. They got many Mega Man games sold for like, you know, flip phone back when remember when they somehow got Mega Man to you on on no key flip phones. Yeah. Well, it's the new one on the way. What is it? Dual something. Dual syndrome. I forget. They now sell the games. Oh, right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. They're finally going to tie the story together with Pragmata. And weirdly, it's on the DS and Nintendo DS, which is an odd choice, but yeah. It's surprising. You know what they're doing. The Devil May Cry series is at 38 million, Dead Rising 19 million Ace Attorney 14 million tied with Dragon's Dogmat 14 Marvel versus Capcom, 13 million Ohni Moussa 9.1 million and Okami 4.8 million. So that's like over Okami, the Wii port and what Okami 2 was on DS. Yeah. I know there was a spin off called Okami Den. Okami Den. Is that what it was? Okay. Yeah. And then it got ported to like everything after that. There is an Okami on the horizon. Yeah. But now seeing that, it's like, it gets Capcom's like, we're selling series. I don't know. Well, they got to get after those Mega Man numbers. DMC was another one where three and four are not very highly regarded. And then five came out and was like incredible. And then there's the DMC Devil May Cry. And then there's then there's DMC five. They must have just had a meeting where they were like, everybody stopped. Well, they had a meeting and they said, yeah, good game. They good games. And they were like, oh, oh, good game got it. And then they just crazy son of a bitch. And they're like, that'll never work. I feel like I die review it. 11? It would have been 11. Did I have a rewind button? I think it did. I think I liked that a lot. No, the legacy. I also actually had a rewind button. - Did it? - Yeah. - But maybe you-- - I like this game, Julie. - Maybe you're on set. - It's such a great way to go through an old school. - And if they want to limit it for a new game, then you can always make it like some kind of meter. You can only use a few times, like that stuff's great. That's what Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time. - Sam, you reviewed Mega Man 11 and you gave it a 7.5. - Okay, was that the last one? - The last decimal days. - The main one, yeah. 2018. - Was it when we only had decimals for 0.5 stuff? - I think so. - Oh, maybe, yeah. - Yeah. - Would we call that at the 20 point scale? - Yep. - Yep. - Capcom also shared how it's using AI in game development and one thing it's working on is using generative AI to make interactive manuals. And I thought about this. I don't think I have a problem with that. (laughing) I think that's okay. But like, you know, I don't want generative AI in my games. I don't want to listen to AI music. I'm cool with AI saving, you know, freeing up humans given them more time to be creative. But I don't know, just a manual that's in the game, the go in the pos menu. I don't think I have a problem with AI making that. - Anyone think I quite understand. I don't know that I understand. I need to, I need to know more. - I don't want a drawing Mega Man with. How many fingers does he have? - Yeah, yeah, that's it. I don't want it making art for the manual. But if it's just, then again, Nintendo Power, one of the best creators of game help of all time, they weren't really good with fingers as we saw last week. - Well, yeah. - Okay, all right, all right. - Now, as you see somebody commented that they're like, "No, I can't use circles always had three fingers." They're like, "Yeah, that was the joke." - Yeah, yeah. (laughing) - I didn't see someone calling, that's good. - We don't. - Actually. - Yeah, they'll probably have to use AI, it's impossible for humans to come up with any more robot masters in Mega Man. So they just, they're gonna have to be AI generation. - They don't know. - They don't know. - Since like the '80s, they've always had submissions for that in Japan, basically. And then they're doing, they did that for this new one too. - Yeah, we talk, I remember that on the show. - It's really cool. - Last year, whenever that was. - Oh yeah, if you try to come up with which ones were submitted by little kids, you're always wrong. - No, like somebody, you're the food I have myself came up with snake man. - It's spaghetti man. (laughing) - Have you tried this new mode in Rockweam Sam? Leon must die forever? - No. - I haven't done either. - I don't understand what it is. - It's something like that. - It's a roguelite. - Yeah, it's a roguelite moment. - It's like the replacement for mercenaries, but it's a different thing. - You just, you just go through it, get better weapons, stuff like that. - But it's P-D-E. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. You basically just like go through settings, like rooms for the most part. They released it with a map. - I'm worried that my chops as Leon have just faded after playing the exact number of games that let's you fit, you know, where that fades. Six or seven since then, yeah. But yeah, I don't know, they can't do wrong as far as I'm concerned. Leon is so fun to just beat up zombies with. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So, it looks great. (upbeat music) - Capcom has enjoyed 13 consecutive years of proper growth by releasing a lot of single player horror games. And now we have a dead space producer who worked on the first three games saying, now A, we'll never make a dead space for it. The numbers just aren't there. Nope, it's impossible. It's impossible. His quote, he was on some podcast. Chuck Beaver is his name. He says, "Any of the resident evils "are selling around seven million. "That's a pretty good number." And that's what they sell at launch. And then over there, he sold catalog copies for years and years and years, up to 18 million. He says, you know, companies now are looking for the next fortnight. They need something that is a perennial money maker, something like a single player package game with no live service offering. That's just a dinosaur fossil of a business model. - That's crazy. - That's why we got an anthem 10 years ago, right? Is this, is this just like a-- - That's so cool. - A ruster and video game producer, just openly demonstrating how they just don't get it. - Biggest game this year is Crimson Desert and Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmatta. Like, it's like, right now it's Subnautica. Like, it's so silly. - I mean, it is budgeting and tooling and engine. Like Capcom is definitely, I mean, we were kind of goofing about it earlier, but it's actually true that they have figured some stuff out about like Pragmatta uses the Resident Evil engine and like, you know, they're making these games quickly. And, you know, I don't know how many people they have working on them, but based off the pace that they're turning them out, like in a cost effective, like, you know, seven million copies sold is like enough for them to be like, okay, like we'll just keep doing this forever. - I mean, presumably that's what happened with Deathspace 1, 2, and 3, right? - Yeah. - Like, and a Wii game and then, you know, there's-- - I thought the remake was really good. - I loved it, right. - No, that it didn't-- - I think that was them testing the waters and it probably didn't sell as much as they thought it was. - Yeah, so I could define-- - I know, I couldn't find an example of EA ever sharing any sales numbers for the Deathspace remake, so. - Yeah. - Okay. - Pragmatta. - Also, it's the reach for the moon engine. - Well, the Deathspace remake? That's what they call it? - No, no, no, the RE engine is the reach for the moon engine. - Hmm, is that a real thing? What are you saying? - I don't know what's going on. - I don't know. Most people think it's called the Resident Evil engine. It's not. It's the reach for the moon engine. That's why the logo isn't a hand reaching for it. - I'm still not 100% sure if this is a bit. This is a real thing. - It's a real thing. - Okay, I've never, I've just never heard that before. That's really interesting. - I knew it didn't stand for Resident Evil, but reach for the moon also doesn't make sense. Whatever. - So EA is working on big single-player games. They're working on a mass effect, right? That's how-- - That's presumably-- - And it is the Star Wars game on Star Wars game. - Not-- - Oh, yes, exactly. Not fate of the public. - Well, that's not-- - Well, that's not. - I mean, the next Jedi game would be EA. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. I was talking about the case he had someone. I didn't know that that wasn't EA. - They're not publishing the, I mean, total vapor aware, Knights of the Old Republic. No, remake, right? - No. - That game doesn't exist anyways. - Right. I don't know why EA and BioWare wouldn't be involved in publishing that since-- - Well, they were making it all-- - It was a spire. And then it was saved it and then who knows if anyone's working on it today. - So, I mean, maybe Lucas, 'cause Lucas games exist now, right? Maybe they're publishing like I thought it. I guess, like, I don't think that game, even if it wasn't vapor aware of those. - But my point is there's a very clear example of someone making these single-player games. And there are also very clear examples of publishers chasing these white whale money printing for night like games. Like, think about Concord and then Sony just had to admit that it's lost just hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars betting on Bungie, like, yeah. - But I think both can be true, right? Like a single-player game selling, you know, four million or five or seven million copies. Like, might not be enough for EA, but it is enough for Capcom based off how they're, you know, how long it's taking them and how much money it's taking them to make these games. - I mean, everybody wishes they were our creators right now. Like, that one really well. But it's like, it seems like more of a gamble than relying on your tried and true franchise. It's exactly like Resident Evil that sells like crazy. - You are chasing, you know, these big live service games that make billions of dollars. It's a slot machine pull and the pull costs you $100 million to make the game. And then maybe, like, is it worth it? Like, spend 100 million and you have a whatever percent chance that like, you're gonna make something that makes, you know, $50 billion over the next, you know, 10 years, or like, you know, maybe it won't be that. Like, so it's hard to know, or, or you can make a single-player game and like, break even plus another whatever percent. So it's like, this tough video games are tough business to be in. - Like, you do see the clamor for single-player adventure games and why that's, and the reasoning behind it from like every type of gamer, or like, it's 100 percent C. And so like, that's why I think that the Assassin's Creed Black Flag announcement, like, that went so well for Ubisoft. Like, they haven't had a win in a while, but like, boy, people are hyped for that game. - It's true, the live service pullback is super real. Or, you know, look, like, live service games are more popular than ever. But like, we've talked about it on the show before. They take so long to make that, like, the market can have moved under your feet of, like, you're working on one thing. And then, whoop, now, extraction shooters are all anybody cares about. So it's like, this balance between, you need to have something that's really AAA and premium feeling, but you have to move fast enough to, like, get it out and not be off-trend before people have kind of moved on is a challenging space to be. - I mean, I kind of feel like that happened with Marathon, right? Like, Marathon is, the gameplay loop is pretty similar to arc-raters, like, as far as, like, the kits go, the free kits and the mission structure and stuff like that. But, they came out after arc-raters. So, people jumped in and went, well, this is just, like, I, all of my time has already spent in arc-raters. Why would I then reinvest in this? I'm just gonna go back. - I think that's, you touched on something else important, which is everyone wants a piece of this live service pie, but the pie isn't infinitely big. And people are already playing, you know, it's like if you're playing Fortnite or arc-raters or whatever, like, you're trying to peel people away, you know, Dota, whatever it is, right? Like, you're trying to peel them off of, you know, where there are these days. it's like getting someone to switch from Android to iOS or vice versa at a certain level. The game becomes your platform and it's tough. That can be a really, really tough thing to do. Yeah, I actually see a lot of that with the Project Helix and PS6. It's like, what can Xbox do? I see just see their discussions on social media. It's like, what can Xbox do to get people to switch to Helix? And I'm like, I don't know if that's like a world we really live in anymore, where like the two new consoles come out and somebody goes, which one is just better for me? They just kind of stick with what they do, right? Like I own 800 PlayStation games. I really don't know what the Helix could do for it to be like, that's now my main platform, like my trophies and everything is all PlayStation. So it's a tough thing. And it's the same with like games as well. Me and my group, we were big on Overwatch and then we switched to rivals. And we've been playing rivals since release. We play every week, several times a week. And Overwatch is doing a lot of cool stuff. They released a bunch of heroes and I was like, should we like, and you know, check it out? And my entire group was like, no, like I'm here, right? Like I've already spent all this time learning these characters, buying scans, not going back to just a different hero shooter again. Like we're here. We're staying. Let me make one more plea for more Dead Space. You have this really cool thing with horror games, where you can release them in September and then they're your spooky season bump. And that's not happening a lot recently. A lot of times we get our horror games and other seasons, especially Resident Evil, because I think they get delayed out of that season. But boys, is it a boon when you're like, you're that Halloween game that everybody wants to play? I think it's really cool in Dead Space. It just has that extra thing going for it. Also, if you want to expand your horizons, like Chronos the New Dawn is very close to kind of how Dead Space is. Pregnata is actually cut. Yeah, I think it's not really kind of. No, it is. It's like, I think it's a, you know, the combat's a lot more fun, right? And it's a lot less gross. But that's because the, the, they're, it's not bio horror. It's like bot horror. But the bot horror is pretty cool sometimes. We made a baby bot. What does he do? It must be, you know, it's, it's using big building blocks to build stuff. Okay, moving on. We talked a little bit about Mix Tape last week. Sam was telling us about it. I played a little bit of it. So I have some sense of what it is. But Justin, you finished it, right? Yeah, finished it. Loved it. I didn't tend to love it. Like my personal score would probably be like close to an eight. I think it's a great game. You know, I thought that Cardi, you reviewed it from us as argument for why I thought it was a 10 and you felt really emotionally affected by it was, you know, well argued like I can understand how someone would love it that much. I think, I mean, Damon, I'm curious to get your thoughts because the, the, the nostalgia in this game is like a laser beam directly into my brain. Like there's elements, like there's so much stuff in that game that I'm like, I lived that. That was my life. You know, the whole games building up to is going to be a small spoiler for people that haven't played it. It's on Game Pass. It's like three hours long. Please play it. Like, but the game's building up to this big party. And then the party happens. That's like the climactic event in the game. And it's like that, that part of the game is so well done. Like the conversations you over here and the little vignettes and moments that you see just the camcorder effect alone there is incredible. It's incredible. And so, and the reason the game isn't maybe a 10 out of 10 for me is because then because then you're exposed as kind of like, like people didn't talk like that, right? So it's got to pick a lane. It's either trying to be like super, super true to life or it's trying to be like a video game version of a John Hughes movie. And it's kind of like trying to do both of like a lot of characters kind of monologuing and talking at each other and talking in quips and like not really using like 90s language, which again, that would be fine except the other half of the time. It's trying to be like, you know, incredibly kind of like slice of life true to the real lived experience. And so that that jared me a little bit, but overall, I mean, you know, and obviously like what kind of like any game that has like, you know, Joy Division and Porta said on the soundtrack. It's like, we're just really, really spoiled for like how just the vibes are absolutely unmatched in it. So overall, yeah, I mean, I loved it. I don't it's not on my game of the year short list, but I'm like really, really glad that I played it. And you know, and, and yeah, it was great. That little, they're kissing little, they're not games. They're just little many things to play around with, but it's gross. Yeah. It's like, it's like Brandon Stimpy, right? Yeah. It is. I like that. Yeah. Gross moment. Damon, I'm curious to get your thoughts. Do you think the main character? I find her unlikable and that kind of bothers me. Like she, well, the other characters are a lot more likable, right? By comparison. The main character you play as is a little bit of a note at all. And then even, you know, one of the big conflicts of the game with her and her friends is that they were all going to go on this road trip. And she kind of breaks up the road trip. Like she messed up their friend plan and like they don't end up going on this road trip because she's going to go do something else. And like, there's no, he's really mean to that other girl too. And the road trip thing, though, is like, it's never resolved. Like, it's never like, I don't know, that part just really kind of, I just don't like her. No, I get that. I also think a teenager like being obsessed with becoming a music supervisor and knowing, even knowing who an established music supervisor is would be unusual today, much less than the 90s. Yeah. That occurs. This is very, you know, it's an amalgam of like, it's sometimes 90s and sometimes 80s, which I think is kind of interesting too. I mean, overall, it's like, look, if you're listening to the show and you're between the ages of like, you know, 40 and 50, it's like, you're probably going to have a good time with this video game. It's like, it's almost impossible not to. I loved it. I thought it was great. I thought it was really polished. Like, it's just like, when I'm reviewing and looking at these, I'm like, wow, I can't believe like, you'll be focusing on something in the game. But when I look at it from a side, I'm like, wow, they really drew these 3D environments that you run sideways through for a really long time in it, you know, and stuff like that is cool. There's an element, like I already said, sometimes it's like so realistic, but it's like, you know, when people are like, you see these social media posts of like, this is what the 80s was like and it's all neon and it's all that pattern of like on the Styrofoam cup with like the the teal colors. And it's like, no, that's not what the 80s like. We're like, the 80s were like brown and it was like brown carpet and brown walls and like, wood, paneling. And that's what the actual 80s were like. And so so it is with mixtape, in my opinion, a little bit. It's sort of like an idealized or sometimes kind of like a fake version of nostalgia, but then other times it is incredibly true to life. And so it swings back and forth between the two. Yeah, I like what I've experienced so far. I wouldn't. I don't know if it's a game. It's something that you interact with, but maybe maybe there's more gamified moments later on. Is this still in your queue to play more of or are you just done with it? I mean, it's so short. I feel like I should finish it because I do like it. I recommend finishing. Yeah, I think it's sort of and it does end strong. I think that the very, very ending beats are like one of my favorite. The party alone is like worth getting to just because it'll take you back to going to a really awkward high school party. But this is done better than like I think of like, you know, Freakson geeks did it and Freakson geeks did it the best I've ever seen. Yeah. And I'm not going to talk about the end except to say that I do think I do think it ends really strong. So, you know, ends on a high note. You know, obviously the soundtracks incredible. Okay, that's mixtape. That brings us to extra curricular activities. Just it. I've been a little annoyed with you. Where have you been? Yeah, you've been absent. And I have been I have had nobody to talk to about dungeon crawler Carl. Oh, yeah. So happy. Yeah, reading it. I'm doing the audio book, which a lot of people seem to think that's kind of the way to do it because the guy had his name for the guy's name. He's so good. The guy that reads the book. I have it right here on the phone. He starts in book one. He's very Patrick Warburton-esque. And then he kind of then he kind of like modulates like it becomes kind of more of his own unique characters. So the books are written by Matt, what, Dinaman, Matt Dinaman and then the Jeff Hayes does the book and he does unique voices for everyone. It's so good. And then he even his female characters are so well. I think at first people like were sure it was he like had someone else doing the voices from them. He does all the voices. It's great. Really? Yeah. And I keep I keep hearing about like how popular Scott and I Ijin has written articles about how it's grown in popularity, but no one else I know is as has read the very thing. You're the only person just and so I've been waiting for you to come back. They're great. I'll look at you right now. To book two. I mean, the audio books, they're like 15 hours each. So like I have an hour commute. I have an hour commute each way. So now I'm sure this is a cliche. I've gotten into this audio book and now I'm looking forward to my commutes, but it's till each year. Yeah. Yeah. I have assigned. I don't think I have it in arms for each, but I have book one and it's signed by the author and it's one of my more prize, prize possessions from recent years. I have not seen this imagery. This like manga style. Look so I it's not how I envision the story looking. I can my head. I mean, they're doing. Yeah, I was going to say they're doing like official webtoons. There was a comic book on free comic book day. I know collectible cards. These are all these like franchise extensions coming out now. Yeah. I mean, they're great. I would say I would say it gets better as it goes except for book three. Like and everyone and even the authors are like, you know, maybe, maybe miss the market a little bit on that one, but in general, like, it starts strong and then just builds and improves, which is uncommon, you know, you're already experiencing this a little bit Damon, but there's more kind of like, so if you don't know the premise, it's like, you know, this guy basically gets sucked into a video game, but everything's real. Like if you die in the game, you die in real life, but as the franchise goes on and I won't spoil anything, but you learn more and more and more about what's happening outside of the game and the stakes of like, you know, you get to kind of peak in the beginning. The drama is all about like, he's in this dungeon and he's fighting goblins and like, how is he going to survive and how is he going out of this, but like, it does build and the world building is so good and so satisfying and so strong, um, and you're just, I mean, I know you're kind of starting to get into that a little bit now, Damon, but like you end up like around half way through the series, it shifts like why you're into it and why you're reading about it. And then it's like, oh man, now I want to know all about these organizations behind the scenes and, you know, yeah, it's great. Yeah. I mean, you learn a lot of the stuff in the very early pages of the first book, but I don't know if they consider spoilers, you know, I'm just saying, you learn a lot about what's happening very early on, but all the people know is that this is like a guy's in a video dungeon girl in video game, but there's like a lot more to it than that. I mean, it's called, so it's called RPG lit, right? Yeah, lit RPG lit RPG, okay. And there are other other series in this sort of like genre. Yeah. There's a million of them. Okay. And they're all, they're all usually have pretty good audio books and they're also, they're almost all on Kindle Unlimited. So if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can usually read them for free. So the moment to moment action, Sam, and Mark, it's like you're playing a role playing video game. Like in the dungeon, Carl has hit points and he gains experience from killing monsters and he gets loot and he has an inventory. It's like, and then the book literally spends hours going through his stats, talking about him leveling up, him deciding what racing class to pick, but it's not boring. It's not boring. Achievements. Achievements. Yeah. It's crazy. It's not boring. And so it is, like, it's not one of those things of like read three books and it gets good. Like I think book one, I think it's good immediately. But like the level on which I enjoy it kind of deepens in book one, it's very pulpy and just like a page turner and it's funny and silly. But then like the characters end up being much more well-rounded and like these kind of, Matt Deneman is incredible. Like there's joke characters that like you end up kind of like deeply caring for three books later they end up like really kind of fleshed out as, you know, and have good arcs. So it's great. I don't have enough, I don't have enough things to say about it. I'm loving it. I did. Yeah. I'm doing the audio books. Matt and Mark and Sammy might have seen that Carl is in his boxers and he's barefoot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He gets, because of where he is, when he gets sucked into the dungeon, he's barefoot in the dungeon. And so that leads him to just sort of like lean into being like a brawler class. Like that's kind of like his fighting style that he gets into. And actually, if he ever were to find boots and put them on, they would be like a detriment to him, because he's strongest when he's fighting with his bare hands and feet. He's got lost when he's barefoot because the AI that runs, that runs the game as a foot fetish and so it's encouraging him to like not ever. Is that real? Yes. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yep. Yep. Okay. And so they've announced the TV series. I think for peacock. Yes. This production company and I think Matt, Denim, liked going with him because they've got experience doing Ted and having a CGI character. Oh. But I don't know. This is like a huge sprawling saga. Everything would be a CGI shot. His carol's best friend and partner in the dungeon is a cat that can talk. So it's like, everything, it would be really, really expensive to do it justice. I don't know. We also, I mean, I know you're only on book two, but each floor of the dungeon is a different theme. Yep. And so it's almost like a completely, like just thinking about the logistics of making a television show. It's like, now you're in a fantasy land, now you're in, you know, a completely different setting, like completely, completely different, you know, so you're in a jungle in one of them. And it's definitely not an animated series. I think they're, I don't know, I think they think it's, I think the intent is to do it live action. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It would probably be the way to go, but anyway, it comes with my highest recommendation. If you like listening to this show, I think you'd probably like dungeon crawler, Carl. Now, speaking of, speaking of crawlers, Justin, a few weeks ago, we were talking about vampire crawlers. Yes. The game, maybe it kind of came and went. I was really hot on it at first, but I think it kind of fizzled out a lot faster than other, other roguelites, like, you know, your body rolls are inspired. I think, I think it's too easy. I, I loved it. I loved it. Every minute I played it, but I got to the point where I was like, this doesn't really feel like a challenge anymore, and I got to the point where I could, could start looking up builds and stuff. And I was like, nah, I think I'm done. Yeah. I think, I mean, and I also think it's okay. I mean, you know, I played it. I played it and I beat it. And then it was like, I think it's okay for games to just kind of end like, we're all used to our condition to like, slay the Spire, Bilatro, or Monster Train of like, now there's 10 prestige levels to go through and do this and do that. Like Vampire Crawlers is, you know, what does it cost $10, and there's 20 or 25 hours of gameplay. And like, so I don't necessarily see it as a criticism of like, you know, you play it and beat it and move on, but just people have been conditioned to expect something different from like card game dungeon crawling games. We have, but Vampire Survivors is like that. Like that. You can play that forever. Right. So just maybe that's why I was expecting a little bit. Yeah. It's the next game from Vampire Survivors. It's not a grind forever game. I took it as like the Vampire Survivors people were like, Hey, there's, we want to make a card game like the, all these card games are coming out. And so like, let's put something together. And I think they did something really unique and it's cool, but I think survivors are still kind of like their main thing. Yeah. And this, this, it feels like a spinoff. You need a cool spinoff. I think we need more of like, I just think that's a really healthy thing to do. Yeah. I agree. And it's also, I don't, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't even bring it up because we're recording a podcast. But I think, I think it, I think a different company made the game. I don't think it's, I don't think it's punkle. I don't think it's a vampire survivor steps. I think like they partnered with, like, I don't know which came first. Someone was making a card game and then they made it vampire survivor's theme or what the order was. But there's, there's definitely another kind of creative group involved in this project too. But I don't, I don't have those details. Sounds. You notice they have the little gnomes from Goldnacks in there. I saw that. Yeah. That's true. And I'm so mean to those nouns in that game. Well, how are you going to get your potions him? They talk to him from you. And then this really quick speaking of crawling, I just noticed today a new game coming to console and PC soon, it's called pin crawl and at a glance, at a glance, it looks pretty good. I don't know if you can bring this up. But at a glance, this is cool pixel art dungeon crawling pinball, roguelite game. I do a pin crawl in my neighborhood because a bunch of my, uh, it's San Francisco is close to each other. My neighbors have really great pinball machines. And so we'll do a crawl with beers through people's garage gates and call pin crawl. Fun. I should have trademarked it. Well, maybe developer, developer, so romantic, I'll use some royalties. This is pin crawl. See how the glasses looks good, it gets good, high detail pixel art. Yeah. That is cool. We'll see. That says it's coming soon on its steam page. And uh, Sam, you watched Punisher one last kill. Yeah. I liked it. I liked it. Yeah. That was a, is it going to be removed from Disney plus because it's so violent? I mean, it's crazy. So on one hand, I liked it, unbelievable. I liked it. And if you like the Punisher or if you like brutal action, like the raid or John Wick, you'll like this too. But also, it's like, I just can't, I'd love to know the thinking behind the scenes, why they, why they wanted to go this way, especially since he's the next time we see him is going to be in a PG 13 Spider-Man movie, yeah, I don't know. But we talked about this in another meeting, um, well, in a meeting. And uh, I had this like, you know, I remember the Punisher being the big kid's comic from Marvel and like, it was a little bit different and it was like, when the Punisher would appear in the Spider-Man universe, he was kind of like a rogue threat and like never like an owl. It wasn't like the daredevils and an Avenger now, like that never happens with, or sorry, uh, Punisher is an Avenger now, it never happens with it. So it's like, you know, it's probably changed because that was 30 years ago, but like, I do like that about this is that it feels like late 80s Punisher height of popularity, Punisher, where it's like about killing drug lords, you know, and Spider-Man's like, oh, well, there's a lizard man loose in the city, you know, it's just different and like, and this, this gets at that. And boy, yeah, it's trying to do the John Wick thing like to a, to a kind of herotic point. It's like, you know, like very thoughtful gun work and enclosed type spaces, that sort of thing. It starts with an unfortunate, uh, casualty. There. Yeah. There's, yeah, it's just all that. And then it really ends really quickly. It's like, whoa, it's that was it. Well, the whole thing is 45 minutes long. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really like, it's, it sets it up too much to be effective this way, but like, if it was just him fighting out of a building, it would be like that dread movie, like that type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not, it's not just that. There's a lot of like psychological John Barrenthal like staring at his stuff. in a mirror scenes, which I don't think are very good, but the action is what it is. That shot is there. That's a bad shot. They're going to have to fix that one at some point. Yeah. Very strange. But yeah, but it's so watch your level, like the I haven't watched the, I haven't watched the now. He just shows up in his e-mo for a couple of minutes in a daredevil episode. He's like, I'm not that chute at life from who's the boss. So crazy. She's like the bad guy in this. It's crazy. But he is in that weird episode of the bear from last year. I was just going to say that like John Barrenthal is such a good actor. And then they dropped the surprise bear episode on us. He's having a, he's having a, did you watch that? Yes. Yeah. Dude. Incredible. I don't even. So for some reason, his characters are converging. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's so mean in that episode of the bear. Like it's done, but the ending is unbelievable. It's hard to watch. Yeah. This is a little bit harder. You're talking about the like the surprise episode. Yeah. Okay. So wait, if I'm not caught up on the bear, can I still watch it? Oh, it's kind of standalone. But you should just be caught up on the bear because that shows incredible. Yeah. And it was the most recent season of the bear. It's just, yeah, it's just, it's a, it takes place in the past. It's like going on a fun boys trip. That doesn't end up being very fun. But the, yeah, every John Bansall bear thing is in the past. Yeah. That's true. But yeah, this, this has like a ton of just brutal like gun violence headshots. And there's like a, like a, like a sexual assault scene. There's like all kinds of like crazy stuff. It's like very unmarble and dipping into that, like kind of like super violent, you know, movie stuff that, that, you know, this talk, this podcast always recommends to people. So that's what it is. It's just jarring. Yeah. To be, just to be loading up the Disney channel. And like, you want to watch Lilo and Stitch or this. Yeah. It's fun. I think it's, I think it was kind of a passion project of John Burtles. He, he co-wrote it. He got his buddy to direct it. He got his buddy to shoot it. They filled it in like one city block over probably two weeks. And so I get the impression, I get the impression that like, you know, Disney was just like, okay, dude, go nuts. Like, we're going to give you this tiny budget. If you want to go do this, we're not going to say no. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I may be hallucinating it, but I actually do think that that's like the official like, I'll come back to Marvel. If I get to do like the actual Punisher thing first, maybe. And then I'll be your cartoon character. I think, and I'm caught up, but all, all the Marvel TV series, including in all, all the, like, the reason they did have to do this is that he was just sulking and brooding in this universe. That's all he did. So like, they had to make him the Punisher again. So they did have to set this up. Otherwise, he would have to do that in a Spider-Man movie, which would be insane. Yeah. I mean, you know, they'd cut away from Tom Holland, like, smile and swing around and be like, and then he's like stared in a mirror and punching it. It's like, come on. Like, I'm into that in Spider-Man. The whole point of this, you know, I, I don't think this is fun. The whole thing is he's, he's choosing to move on. Put that, my trauma in the past, I'm going to be the Punisher. I'm going to take my anger out on the bad guys. It's like going forward and out of this, he can actually just be the Punisher and maybe not deal with so much psychological trauma. He's almost like the juggernaut in that sense here. You know, when juggernaut shows up in Marvel, you're like, well, all that that character is going to do is run through walls. You know, like, all the Punisher is going to do is murder people. And all the superheroes are like, we don't murder people. Like, that's the, that's the interesting thing that the simple, interesting thing about Punisher. So they set that up. All right. Mark, you said you have a show until oh, yeah, yeah, I do. So I, you know, I love new tech. I love new hardware, you know, official hardware. And so I happen to be sitting at my desk when one of my co-workers was like, the steam controller pre-orders just went live. And I was like, okay, I'll go ahead and and try to get in there. And it was the whole like kind of a nightmare scenario where I'm just clicking, continue over and over and over. And I got three. And I was expecting it to be canceled in three days later. Here she is. She, you know, can we hear the easter egg? I tried, I think it's because my computer's not on it. So it needs to, I think it needs to be connected to steam, make picture mode for it to actually do it. But I, I provided the footage for our social video. Yeah, if you drop it, it does a well-helmed screen, which is fascinating, figuring there's, there's no speakers on it at all. So it's, it's doing the well-helmed screen just from the, you know, vibrations and, wait, wait, wait. So to clarify, it's not like playing a recording of the famous well-helmed screen. No, no, no, that's not it. Yeah. So if you, if you drop the controller, sorry, Justin, if you're not caught up at all, I knew, I knew that, but I didn't realize I just assumed it was playing an audio clip. No, no, no, there's no speakers in this, on this thing at all. It's, it's using the vibration and the haptics and stuff like that to more or less emulate the sound. That's insane. Really cool. Yeah, and it sounds just like it, it does sound like a speaker, which is cool. But you have to be using a speaker to do the rumble, basically, because what are speakers there just vibrating films? Right. My, my other reservation for it was that I thought it looked huge, and it's actually not. So here's an Xbox controller. Yeah, that's pretty kind of, you know, compares. My, my criticisms with it, I'll get the bad out of the way first, is the, the face buttons are exactly like the steam deck. They are very, very small, and I have very big hands. So I don't love how small the face buttons are. They feel great, but I think that they're a little small. Also, the sticks are a little too high for me, in my opinion. And so unless you disable these guys, which are the touch pads, it's very, very often that you'll be playing something like Forza, and you'll accidentally hit it. And the camera will just go flying like crazy, because it's, it's simulating a mouse movement. I think there's a way to disable them in the game, but I, I think I just kind of got used to it to making sure I don't, you know, kind of slip. Other than that, I think it's, I think it's really a, a great controller. It's probably get a screwdriver under there and just pry those off. I would definitely do that. The sticks are the stick drift proof, new tech that they came out with, where it's essentially magnets. And so there's there's no sort of springs or anything that that are, can make it work and have stick drift. And the, the, the best part about it for me is that it is a wireless PC controller that works 100% of the time. So what I mean by that is, so this is the normal, this is the, the Xbox Elite core, which is what I normally use for, for PC gaming. And then it has that like, microsoft dongle that you can sync it with, but like it disconnects all the time. So I just end up using this wired. Right. And I think that's how most people play their PC games, where this comes with this little puck thingy. And what this does is it charges the controller for one just just with a magnet. And it's really cool. If this is sitting on the table, you could just slide the controller and it'll pop up and screw up and do it. And then this is also the wireless receiver. So this needs to be plugged into the computer via the USB-C. But then it can just sit there. And I've yet to have any sort of latency I've tested it using Doom. The dark age is playing at, you know, 200 FPS and it feels great. I played all of my forts at time. I'd say the last half of my forts at time was with this. And it's never disconnected once. And it's great. As far as the like PC functionality, you know, it's, it's, the whole dream is supposed to be like making your PC more console like. And I would not say it does that even in the slightest. Right? Like you still have to type in the pin when you, when you, you know, when you turn your PC on it, this can't turn your PC on wirelessly. And then my PC is set up to automatically open in a steam big picture mode. But if you don't have it like that, you double press the steam button and steam big picture mode opens up. There is ways to use like this is a mouse on your desktop and do all these like, this is old tab and blah, blah, I just know. I don't, it doesn't work that great. In my opinion, I still think that the, the ultimate PC setup is still going to be having to have one of these by your side. There are times where the game opens up in a weird window or whatever. And you're like sitting there with your steam controller and you're like, all tab on my keyboard. So this does not, so this does not make your PC a console. That's apparently just impossible to do. But I would say my, my, my official recommendation is if you have an Xbox controller and you are totally fine with that and you don't really mind wired. Probably don't spend your hundred bucks on this. It's probably not worth it. And you'll probably find it less comfortable than an Xbox controller. But if you're looking for a really good wireless solution and you need a PC controller, then it might be worth it. That's it. That's my show and tell. I like it. They should probably announce the price and open pre-orders for the steam machine. Yeah, yeah, that'd be great. Probably about time for that. That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Brinton S, which says I'm 41 and writing in from, it's either it's Paduca Kanducky or Pataka Kanducky. Kanducky, no, no, which one. And as long time listener, I wanted to send in a game I think really deserves a turn on video game 20 questions. And with that, let the questioning begin. it's a hint. So it's funny because I'm 41 and I'm recording gamescube right now. Hmm, coincidence. I think I'm just I'm just asking questions. Just asking questions. Is it that's that's the that's actually the theme of video game 20 questions. Is this a console exclusive? Yes. Is this I'm just going for is this game turn based? No. No, that wasn't a hint. Is it a Nintendo exclusive? Yes. Well, they're a turn based. Nope. Is it exclusive to a Nintendo console that used cartridges? Yes. Oh, is it a portable system? No, that's five. So let's see. NES Super Nintendo 64 and 64. Is it switch and switch? Is it exclusive to a console that had you that had 63 or fewer bits? No. Wow. Wait, hold on, but this is going to be Nintendo 64. Yeah. Oh, no, that that's why I asked it that. It has to be Nintendo 64, right? No, could be switch. I don't know because we established it. It wasn't affordable. He Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm I'm just going to presume I'm going to continue assuming it's an Nintendo 64 game. And I will apologize for phrasing my question that way. I think it's quest 64. I think they're lying about the turn based. Was this game developed or published by Nintendo? Yes. Cool. Is this game have a sequel coming out on switch that's been announced? No. I think it's Mario Kart 64, which somehow I don't think we've ever had it. Is the characters in this game on the Smash roster? Yes. I think it's Star Fox because it doesn't have a sequel. It's a remake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could be Star Fox 64. So wait, yes, in the Smash roster. Yep. It doesn't eliminate much action. Has this game been remade or is it getting a remake? Not Star Fox. Yeah. Yes. Yes. That's been. Ocarina of time. Yeah. Mario 64. Majora. Majora. Yeah. It was mature. Masked remade. Yeah, for three years. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They did. Yeah. Okay. This is set in Zelda universe. No. Same question, Mario. Yes. Oh, Mario 64. We have a, I don't know. Mario Kart was Mario 60. Was Mario Kart remade? I don't know. Oh, that's right. I also just hate the ad. The idea that we're calling Mario 64 to us a remake. I can't. I can't. Why? I just can't. We had this discussion last week. Oh, while I was in on the show. Does Mark get out of this game sometimes? I feel it's a terrible game. Hold on, Mark. Hold on. I'm asking a question for video game 20 questions. Got it. Okay. Do I get angry about this game when it's brought up? No, sorry. Do I get, do I get angry about the remake when it comes up? Yes. The, the remake. It's just Super Mario 64. Super Mario 64. Yeah. Cut there. Yeah. 14 questions. Yeah. I was surprised. This has never been picked. We've never had this game. Surprise. Yeah. I probably just always thought it'd be too easy. And yeah, it's pretty easy. What a great game. This game changed my life. This game is the reason I am a video game journalist today. Kids these days will never know games looked like Super Mario World. That's what video games were. It's unbelievable how different this was when you saw it. Toys R Us. Yeah. You would never, there was a before and after you first saw Mario 64. I mean, I still maintain that like, this is the best platform I ever made. I don't think any other game. Hold on. I don't think any game has, has nailed the things that Mario can do as far as movement and tech. But I, I am biased. I played this game over 2000 hours. So. Well, it's just I do like Mario. They made that movement. Nintendo made the first 3D platformer and they got so much right the first time. Like pretty much everything except that camera. Although, yeah, I didn't mind it at the time, but I find it really difficult today. Camera is perfect. Yeah. Don't change it. Somebody had a good suggestion though, Damon. They said that if they were to do a remake of Mario 64 because it, because one has never been made, that, that they should do a, you know, a classic camera slash Odyssey style. I can be okay with that. So you're going to have to do the credits without me and the victory after that me because I got to go. Okay. Oh, no. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much. Bye. I mean, we're going to wrap it up there. Anyway, I just want to remind. It's all our scoops for today. Yeah. That is all the scoops anyway. I just want to remind everyone to join the new IG and discord. There's a whole game scoop room in there and you can chat with us. We'll be doing like regular office hours and any fun stuff in there. So I'll put the link to the new IG and discord in the description here. Hope to see you in there. And yeah, that is all the scoops out we have for you this week. So thank you, the ghost of Sam. Thank you, Justin. Good to have you back. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Joe. We're working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IG and Game scoop. Never out. Family vacation 1995 1995 change the station. Now I can drive. Now I can drive. My girl is waiting for me at home. She's moving with me. Yeah, she's moving with me. She hates it when I leave her alone. I'm all she can see. I'm all she can see. Dad turned 40 that year. We got it CDs. We got it CDs. His reaction was pretty severe. The smithereens. The smithereens. And now we're playing games at the dark. How many can we get? How many can we get? Not everybody has that spark. No one was upset. No one was upset. We drove all around. To get me to my show. It was at that girl's house. The one I told you about. She thought we were on a date. But that was a mistake. Everyone sat on the stairs. All of our friends are there. I've been playing a game on steam. I didn't get a chance to shout it out but it's called "Scrichy Scratchy" and it's about scratching off scratch tickets. It's like an incremental game where eventually you get a tool that lets you auto-scratch the tickets and then you kind of like eventually you're making a bunch of money and buying tickets. I never realized that there's like YouTube channels dedicated to people just buying scratchers and scratching them. Whether they win or not, it's entertaining to watch it. I was like, dude, that's like an infinite money glitch, right? If you're getting the views, you're being paid to hopefully win a million dollars. This is the game. This is the whole game. But you can see he's got the thing down in the corner is automatically scratching his ticket for him and then you get upgrades to do it faster. You get a bigger coin. That's a very satisfying moment. I was playing something called Slots and Dagger's, which is just like Slots and Dagger's. It's okay. I don't think it has much staying power but it's kind of cute. I was kind of the same. I was like, oh, this might be the next. What's the inscription? And I was like, because it's kind of got that kind of creepier vibe. What was the PS1? Was the creepier Slot machine game? I mean, I played a lot of it. I just, I'm blanking on the name now. The one that's got PS1 pixels and you're trapped in a dungeon and you're doing Slot machine stuff. Not sure. You know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure. Is it on PS1 or PS1 graphics? No, no, no, no, no. PS1 graphics. It's on steam. You would definitely know. Ah, anyway, it's gone. I can't think of it. The other one I was doing was Ganbananza. Ganbananza. Anyway, it's blotter. It's blotter but chess. That one seems better. That one might have more staying power. That one just came out like a couple days ago, right? I think it's fairly new. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's the one I was thinking of. Clever pit. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I never played it. No, no, no, I didn't play Goverbit. Yeah, it's a pretty good game. It's great. In Slots and daggers that I didn't play much. Yeah, but yeah, Clover Pit school. Ganbananza seems better than Slots and daggers, but Slots and daggers is a better title. So what are you going to do? All right, thanks everyone. Are we good? Yep, we're going to see you. All right. Bye.