Game Scoop! 864: Death By 3,200 Cuts

(upbeat music) - What's up everybody? Welcome to IJ in Game Scoop. I'm your host Damon Hatfield. Joining me here in studio is Parrish Knighter. Hello Damon, and Nick Limone. - I'm back baby. - And Sam Claiborne returns to us after a two episode hiatus. Welcome back Sam. - Oh, it's been two whole episodes? - Yes. - Oh, guys been two episodes. - I'm so happy to be back. - We got a great show for this week. We can finally talk about Assassin's Creed Black Flag recent and I have the July 1991 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. - Oh wow. - Oh no. - But first, Sam, you've missed a couple of episodes. Do you have any questions about anything that happened in your absence? - Well boy Damon, I'm glad you asked because news has been really rough, right? It's been bad. So I've been trying to avoid all the headlines, but keeping up with the scoops. But I, you know, all this crazy darkness at Microsoft has got me thinking at the very least Sony and other companies will be making games for a long time. And I can't wait to crack open each box and pull out those physical discs and put those in my system. That's not going away in time soon. - I have some back news. - Yeah, you're looking for it to smelling the manuals. - Yeah, it's exactly. Well, so if there's no more physical discs in the future, that's a tomorrow problem, right? But at least this fall, my pre-order of Grand Theft Auto was one last time, right? That's gonna be great. - Yeah, one last big game, one last time, right? - Okay. - Yeah. - Okay, he's got more. - I have more jokes, but I just had one other thing I wanted to say, and at least they won 20 questions last week, right? - We do. - No. - You did? - Didn't we? - Yeah, we did. We got it like pretty quick. - It was a footsah. - Okay. - Oh, okay. - People were mad that we didn't know which country the footsah was. - Original footsah. - That's really difficult. - Totally. - I totally forgot about the Mediterranean footsah. - Yeah, yeah. - Totally like lost. - Are you a human in footsah? - Yes. - You play as a human? - I mean, fortsah horizons specifically, yes, you are. That's right, that's true. - No, it's good to be back. - Although in the modern, the most recent fortsah is that it's possible to play as a human, that's more machine than man now. - That's right. - Okay, the physical disc issue was last week's, that's old scoop, that's last week's scoop. This week, we've got the layoff set Xbox that we've been waiting for. - It was the quote unquote blood bath that they had mentioned, but their words. - Does sound like a blood bath. I don't think it's their word. - I think someone said their blood bath. I was like, I feel like our colleagues even just like a reporter together or something. I don't think I was just talking like that. - It's gonna be a blood bath. - Sometimes the way they treat these PR blasts, I'm like, yeah, I probably wouldn't have said it that way. - It was like corporate lighter head. It's his re-blood bath. - So I told him 3,200 jobs, 1,600 jobs this week alone and then another 1,600 over the next year, which I don't know what that does for morale Xbox. People have to come into work every day, and they're like, "Is today the day?" I don't know. Is the day the day me and my friends get laid off? I don't know. We'll see. - It's so awful. - I mean, there's just so much negativity that I can throw at this. We know they're focusing on AAA games, which is something that I think we want, right? They want to focus on the older scrolls and thoughts, stuff like that. Nobody wants that to be the expense of small games, but also they have these giant, huge, successful games. Like Doom, that should be fine, right? - You would think one would think, but no. - Such a troll. - From a famous, also apart from being a game developer, an actual software engine developer, famous for the id software, just the technology that Doom runs on it runs on everything. What if we made them transition over a Unreal engine? That's the plan apparently. That's nuts. That's crazy. - It's making killer games, just perfect games all the time. It's worth noting, they have not shut down any studios, and it's by the fact that they're laying off a lot of people. They're saying goodbye to four or five studios, letting them become independent again. That's double-fine, compulsion, engine theory, and dead labs. - That's good. - On dead labs. - And they get to keep their IP. - Yes, that's for a club, right? - Those all make sense. None of those developers were making games that were making any money for Xbox. That makes total sense. But then, like you said, Sam, they didn't close id software, but they apparently laid off more than half of the team, more than half the team that did the Doom trilogy, which everybody loves. - And the piano. - Sometimes we talk about the magic of the team is what's important here, right? It's like, they have this gel that's made these crazy cool games, and they're putting out DLC for them, and they're doing all this stuff, and it's just crazy. It's a crazy twist in this. - Doom The Dark Ages also just got DLC yesterday. - Yeah. - At the beginning of the day, and then this news hit at the tail, it's nuts. - Yeah, look, it's really good too. - I think it's all about sort of resetting and balancing the books, and then hopefully building a newer company, right? I would not know what I would do if I were in charge of this behemoth, right? There's so many studios, so many projects, there's hardware, all of that stuff, and then the world around this company, and the studios is changing constantly, right? Like there's this sort of the AI apocalypse and coding as well. There's the hardware, cost rising, and shortages, and all of this stuff. It's difficult. I can only imagine that with a company of this scale, it's not about like, oh, we don't need that person right now, or maybe that we can table this project. It's more about, gotta bring the cost down, and we gotta reset, we gotta restart, and I think the unfortunate thing with this is, first of all, obviously it's real people affected by this, so you know, and we're worried about their future and finding another job, but then it becomes a sort of, like the teams have to figure out how to actually do the things they wanna do, right? And so everything is like disrupted, and like the sort of game creation engine, like sometimes there's an amazing level designer now missing, or somebody who knows how to solve technical hurdles, and like there are these gaps now in the team, and it takes a long time to come back from that and reset. Or you don't, right? Like this is why the games like Mass Effect go away forever, you're like, well that team, it's just not the team that made Mass Effect. And I will, no hate or shade here, but it's like rare, the company rare is very different today from what it was back in the days, right? They were key people who exit it, and it took them afterwards much longer to make games than they used to, obviously, lots of things changed. It's like some of these studios may never be, may never be the same because that sort of balance has been upside, and sometimes you gotta trust that maybe the studio leads know how to downsize and how to kind of preserve what made these company special, but like at this scale. - Well, they know because that's like a cyclical problem in the game industry, right? Like that's the unfortunate thing, is that the series is like, build the team, put out the game, lay off the team, it's like this, - True, true. - But think of Hollywood, where it's crashing into every movie, right? Like, - Well. - Spy everybody. - Exactly. Exactly, and that's become the differences that you find a new project every six months in Hollywood or every year in game industry, it's really hard to do that every seven years. That's just different, right? You've moved and had a Catecator 2 by then, like it's just sucks. - Hollywood literally plays the tax game where they create companies, like if you ever watch these, you know whatever, like Samuel L.A. Junk, Broncovic presents, right? Like that company exists for that movie when it's a lost leader is gone, right? Like it's a very different business. And like, you know, I'd like to think that the game's industry is better, but obviously it's coping with some challenges. - You're talking about this like going forward, like challenge for Xbox and that's what Josh is facing down. - Yeah. - The thing that I cannot unstick myself, like I can always think about it is how good and bad the strategy was that everybody copied from Netflix, which is we need content for a subscription. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna give all of these creative people blank checks and then what happens? Well, that actually could have worked for Netflix. If Amazon hadn't done the same thing, Disney, you know, NBC and everybody tried that. And then there was just like a streaming subscription war. We all know that story. Xbox, like just modeled themselves and that exact thing. They said let's buy a bunch of studios, let's do these games, but like the length of time it makes to take, to make a game, the expense of it. And then like how few subscriptions they apparently got was like not even close to being the same business. And we're not, and Netflix is fine, you know. - But they, but they're fine. - But like they killed a bunch of people's careers though by hiring them and then, you know, killing the projects and all that stuff. So like Netflix is the same effect. - Killers show that you like after a season as well, right? Like there's a lot of stuff, hard ache there. Where creative projects are not finished. And I do think, you know, within the Xbox umbrella as they bought all these different studios, you literally had an indie studio that makes a game with a walking lighthouse sitting next to the people might have the biggest shooter on the planet, right? And like what are the expectations when you release these games into a subscription network and you still sell them and all of that? And like, you know, a studio that makes the walking lighthouse game may have been better off as an indie where people rally behind them. [BLANK_AUDIO] Because it's so crazy and unusual and and they're seeing as as you know, not basically not being triple A, right? And like I think all of that that changed This is my interest that we just saw a glimpse of you know like a valid and stuff and it's like yeah I know we'll talk about about in just a minute Okay, another detail in this it's off where layoffs a detail that seems specifically designed to punish me That apparently they're prototyping a new perfect art game. Yeah Well, once again, it's just it's cursed. It's cursed to be to be a perfect dark fan. Yeah It's a no pain to no pain and be alone, but they're also workshopping a Co-op doom game. Yeah, and there was one other title I believe something they said John Mcinspired We're have gunplay and martial arts. It's like they're working on all this cool stuff. They're a super talented team gutted, but a team that's like original creators from back in the day that have somehow carried this brand and this team Through all these arrows of games and it feels like the setback wasn't done by them It was done by their owner to them and that's what makes it feel so much more like icky to me I think in a specially painful part of the it thing that I mentioned a little bit earlier is that they laid off their entire engine development team So like the thing that it is basically known for and they are being encouraged to adopt unreal engine for all games moving forward It's like we're getting to this point in the gaming industry where everything's going to start using unreal engine And nothing's going to feel unique and that worries. Well, and the engines are going to be a I quote it And it's a reality, right? And so that that is leveling the playing field But I mean it's it's it's unfortunately a dollar since Yeah, where they go does all that R&D work in the end give us an advantage, right? It's like it's a little bit like NASA It's our R&D into rockets going to pay off and they said no, we'll use a private company instead, right? And yeah, it is a bummer and I so you think that it because of the choice to like focus the layoffs on You know that team or whatever and then some of these other Well, none of that I'm answering my own question. I was hoping like are we still gonna get video games out of this company? Because you know, they're gonna be able to switch to unreal and then put out whatever they want But no, not if they're not if there's like these games that they were prototyping that are definitely gone now, right? Like that just means we're getting three fewer games from the company I mean it is it gonna make the next halo game because they were exploring a possibility where halo or was gonna be made by Activision at some point. So like is this what's gonna happen? Do I want that? Does anyone want that? I don't know I want people to have jobs. I want to play cool games, but it seems we can't have both I mean There's layoff said Bethesda which calls into question how they're supposedly making elder scrolls You would think that would be one of the largest teams that they needed and then at obsidian they've reportedly cancelled about two and now we'll focus on a new followed game Which you know, this is something we've said it for a long time at the top not well Yeah, the top comment on this article on IGN is something like a new fall a game should have started the moment the contract 100% and now it's like six years later and they're just starting it now about to the game that got Decept reviews, but nobody bought. They're like all right, let's start a vow to I know it's a Who's even available to say like who has the authority to even say like well, we'll do it fall out But like let's wait till about two. Yeah, well like that's just weird to me. Yeah, it's on the one hand obviously we want new IP Yes, but it's like you know about it. It's been over 10 years since the last followed game I know and that's confusing when you have like the people who made one of the most beloved followed games entering the family And they're like let's not put them on that and not just that it's easy to make fall out it brands love the word synergy As any company loves a word synergy and they've put out two seasons of a Fallout TV show with no game to align with the subsequent release of Those very critically acclaimed beloved TV show. So what's going on? How many games is Bethesda actually put out like But that's the soft works put out since they were acquired by Microsoft service, right? It's a curse of Fallout 76 Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls online It's a lot of work to keep those going. It is a little bit of a creative paying audience, so I totally get it Yeah, but like Yeah, okay, so this is Arcane to our game is out there. Yeah, it's blade. I'm gonna happen up in the air because it's a French company and there's like legal Stuff they have to go through. So there's no dishonor news right now. No, I don't think that they're working on blade again Who knows if we'll even get that? Oh blade. Yeah, yeah, okay What about Starfield? Was there Starfield stuff in here? That would be Bethesda. I think Starfield done I think they've finished up with Starfield with that Okay, I just thought it'd be funny if we heard that the Starfield 2 is put on hold just just so they could get back to Elder Scrolls now because That sounds so about like what's been happening Okay, so the reset has begun although I don't really know we know what's happening But I don't know what the in-game is like you were just saying your term like you don't know what you would do if you were the head of Xbox right now Like all these cuts will save them some money, but it doesn't solve Xbox's main problem, which is Nobody wants to buy an Xbox. Yeah, how do they solve that problem? Well look they they they had a very successful platform with 360 I think Sony smartly eroded the software advantage at Microsoft had with that that hardware and and you know Obviously hardware advantages with later consoles too. So yeah, it's it's a tough one right when you're the third player and Nintendo has like that casual audience lock down the sort of hybrid handheld audience locked on and then PlayStation is like power machine cool machine Awesome brand and lots of lots of good first party games Um, I was like before PS4 like the PS3 age I was completely Xbox I was 100 years old. I never owned a PS3 about every game and I was like there was a bit of a sense of loyalty But it was more about like I firmly believe the games were best and the online experiences was better on yes And then they completely changed with PS4 and I sort of you know Yeah, it that became my my number one console. So that said though if you go back and you look at the gaming industry For every Nintendo Switch and a Wii there was a Wii U and a virtual board, right? And like just Just because they were number three here and they're sort of struggling to catch up with the other two doesn't mean that it has to be like that if they come up with the right Concepts the right price and the the right software lineup. I think they're everything is an Xbox obviously eroded that sort of adventure where people said Oh, yeah, I love these games. So I'm gonna play it on PC. I'm gonna play it on another console I think secretly in the very beginning Microsoft was hoping that one day you could do Xbox game pass on a PlayStation, right? And like those walled gardens did not open up Certainly the Apple app store did not open up the way that epic wanted it to open up to and so I think the If they're the problem with your framing of that Damon is that They didn't ask that question for a couple years They asked how do we get more subscribers and instead of asking how do we sell Xbox is Those became at odds. I didn't expect them to become at odds that that extremely But they are and and they're still putting out game pass games, right? And like it's not that's not going away but If you wanted to like get at selling Xbox is then you have to do the ps2 strategy Which is as many exclusives as possible and as we said on the show before they're so made in the shade to do that If they wanted to and and again like you have to like calculate like is this going to piss people off more than anything Then they begrudgingly all by Xbox then Xbox has a great console generation Maybe but like they can certainly All it all off is like like Paris saying and and and and just go completely You know Nintendo right and that's not a bad model. There's this working for Nintendo. They have the franchises Just go back to actual exclusives. Absolutely. You want to play Elder Scrolls fall out. It's on Xbox Make but they also have to solve the affordability issue. They have to get the price down big mess But I mean to Paris previous note you like we are losing so many people from these teams that made the games So special so they are kind of a bit of a shambling corpse of what they once were unlike Nintendo Which you know Nintendo has had issues in the past with terms of like Reducing company or reducing smaller teams getting rid of people But it's very few and far between them for the most part people who work at an Nintendo own company stay there until they retire Allah Koizumi I believe just retired and he's been that the company for years to Kashi-Tazaka all of them So it's like the the people and the knowledge is still there at Nintendo And I think they're in lies the difference between stuff that we're seeing at Microsoft and Sony that you are now It's a very good point now you're okay Now you're getting a halo potentially made by us people who have never had their hands on a halo before Yeah, but the creator you know the lead on Fire Emblem obviously is no longer with the company right like they they were just really good at Adapting two things as well right and they brought in retro to take over the Metroid franchise right like We're because Mr. Yokoi died right so there there are changes that they're able to adapt to and I will say you know Obviously Bethesda is is proof that you can do the same with franchise like Fallout right like it's not the original creators making that game and even Obsidian were not the you know the original team coming coming in to continue it so I think all of that is is doable. I think you just have to find the purpose, like, what is this brand supposed to be in the future? And like, I think this sort of knee-jerk reaction to, we got to shift gears and do something new is always, well, let's play on nostalgia and bring back the green logo and bring, go back to that. And it's like, Atari tried that too a couple of times. I did work, right? Because this sort of nostalgia is a fickle beast. And like, when people feel like, oh, I love the Nintendo brand and I love the PlayStation 5, I love the PlayStation brand, is there room for a third thing, a third brand in gaming that people rally around the same way? And, you know, like, you don't see a lot of people wearing steam shirts. And it's an incredibly popular company, right? Huge platform. Will they be utility and great gaming experience? Or will they be passion brand in the future? And I, I don't know. Doesn't everything that they hear? What's that? I would just say, everything that Osh is doing, doesn't it paint Phil Spencer's mysterious exit in a different light? Like, I think, I always thought it was weird period that he just was gone one day. He's so visible to Xbox fans, always speaking to them at their conferences and showcases. And then one day he's just gone without making any sort of announcement, thanking the fans, anything like that. So it seems like eventually the other shoe dropped and Microsoft just said to him, look, everything you've tried with Xbox over the years, it's not working. So either you have to try complete different things. And he was just like, I'm out. And you know what? I'm out. I mean, we don't know how much of that is Phil wants to do this versus leadership saying, like, hey, this didn't work. Let's try something different. Yeah. It's an expensive business within Microsoft, right? And we've heard rumors a couple of times in the past where they're like, maybe we're not going to do another Xbox, right? Like we're selling that. I want this is I wanted to bring this up to you. You talk about it's an expensive business. Yeah, selling the Xbox brand, who they spent just 70 billion on Activision, just Activision. So it's going to be like well over a hundred billion dollars to buy Xbox. Who's who's my Xbox? I don't I don't really see that as a. Yeah, it seems like a thing that they just have no buyer for. Yeah. I think there are a couple of things in, you know, what what Asha shared that make me hopeful that there's an understanding, like for example, King, King is a company, just like, you know, when when EA bought the makers of plans versus zombies, right? Like sometimes these great casual companies that have something figured out are being put in the umbrella of something of a company that makes games, but it's a completely different animal of games and like taking King out of the Activision umbrella and giving it like room to grow and breathe. I think is a smart thing. And so denesting some of that stuff is smart. But yeah, I don't I don't know. I don't know what any of this means. And I like the funny thing is whenever we were talking about it, like we're like armchair CEOs, right? Like we all love the concept of Game Pass. Like sure, not having to buy games and you get these games day one as part of this affordable subscription that is heaven. And there were a couple of people out there who said, well, as a business model, that can't possibly work. But we're approaching it from a consumer angle and to do papers as well. Good for me, justified. Like for me, this was awesome. Just like in the beginning, when I didn't have to pay for satellite TV anymore, it was like 300 bucks a month to get an HBO and all of that. I'm like, oh, a card. A lot of cards sounds awesome, right? And then it bites us in the butt because a lot of cards for like 10 different channels all going up in cost is obviously not the solution that we were hoping for. It's making monkeys pop. And Disney plus launch, they locked me in with the four dollars a month for three year contract to Disney plus. And now I'm what it's like over a hundred dollars a year for that. And yeah, and you can watch every Disney movie and every Simpsons episode and every Star Wars and all of that that sounded heavenly. And then you watched them all and you're like, where's my new stuff? Yeah, what else is there? What else is there? What's my new stuff? So anyway, like I would never count any company out. Like the games industry has gone up and down and like different company has been on top. It's hard to imagine how it could ever change. But I mean, we heard rumblings that maybe the next PlayStation is going to be a switch like console, right? Like they're constantly changing. There was a huge disruptor with a pandemic where everybody said, oh my God, gaming is going to be so huge. They thought that was the new normal. We cannot. We have to keep investing and feed the beast and it's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then, you know, fun's over. Dreams gone. Stas size is passing us over. Pokemon go is over. And it's like everything gets reset. And you see companies like Nintendo dealing with that too. They invested heavily in mobile games. And now they're very, very quiet about that. That's actually just announced they're shutting down Mario Kart tour. There you go, right? And they're now to Zelda mobile game. You've never seen it, right? They announced a Zelda mobile game. Yes, they did. There was even a logo. I don't know. I just stuff just goes up and comes down and they adjust. And maybe Microsoft wasn't fast enough to rain in things after after that bubble. Okay. Well, the great Xbox reset has begun. Details continue to emerge about that. So it'll probably be talking about that for a while. But let's move on to Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Re-sinked. Okay. They're by now. We give it a 9 out of 10. And it's getting great reviews across the board. I think it has an 84 on open critic. And it's also off to a strong start on steam with around 100,000 concurrent players more than any other Assassin's Creed in the franchise to date. So really doing very, very well, though, which is why I feel a little bit like I'm on crazy bills with this one because this one did not click with me. What? Yeah. Why? Well, like many people, I have great memories of playing Black Flag 13 years ago, but I haven't played it since. And I've played a lot of Assassin's Creed since. So I sat down with my copy of Re-sinked. I was all excited, but it did not take me very long to realize I would really rather be playing Odyssey or Shadows. I just I feel like this was a big step forward for the franchise at the time, but it's taken additional big sets since then. And I just I like the more modern games more. You don't think the adaptations, the modernizations are apparent to you that to make it a little bit more like those games. I mean, you're using the trigger buttons to fight, you know, it is a little bit more like this. But Sam, I just like the settings of Odyssey and Shadows more. I like those protagonists more, Cassandra, and now I like the variety of weapons more. Like Caribbean is awesome. So I had a little bit of that experience with Mirage when it came out. And lots of people were saying like, Hey, these games, these games turned into the Witcher 3 rather than being like, you know, Assassin's Creed, the original and two, they became true open world games with just lots of stuff to do. And not everything is very unique that you do. And gets kind of boring, right? Like, and I saw that criticism. And I was like, yeah, you know what? I don't have that much time. I always play these games spend way north of a hundred hours on a new Assassin's Creed game every time. And I was like, I'm ready for a smaller one. And then I played Mirage. I'm like, yeah, it doesn't overstay. It's welcome. But it's very much like a, oh, yeah, I was already tired of this formula by the time Assassin's Creed 4 came out. But it was, it was very, it was competent and I liked the setting, but it just didn't click to me. Like, first of all, Argent is the permit. You can beat. I think origin is my favorite of the modern trilogy. I like characters on the, in the Greek, the Greek islands. It was, I love that setting. And especially the characters and like this sort of twinkle and like sense of humor about, you know, the, the, the, what are the creatures real or not? Like, it played it really well. And those, those two games are my highs. And so I have not been able to play this yet. I'm, I'm going to download it tonight when I get home. I mean, I'm in the minority on this, on this one. It's, it's a gorgeous looking game. It's so vibrant. It's definitely one of those like, I just want to let it run on my TV and my computer and just like, wow, this looks really damn good. But yeah, the water and beaches and trees are causing back when this came out during the PS4 generation. I was already kind of over the Assassin's Creed formula up at that point. I had played through every single Assassin's Creed game. And I was like, all right, I think I'm ready for something new. And then I finally played origins. And that was the great reset that I was like, okay, I'm back in. This is all really cool. But revisiting for now with this recent version, I do lament some of the changes like the removal of the, you know, not Ubisoft game developer modern day storyline. I think that was such a unique, interesting thing. I'm a sucker for the modern day storyline. I do, but I think you remember it as being something cool. And you forgot that it was literally just walking and looking at somebody's computer. It's walking and looking at people's computer. But there's like, I don't know. It's just, it changes up the pace of the game. And in the way that every time I go back to Kenway, I'm like, oh, it's a breath of fresh air again because I'm doing something a little bit different. And I think you need those pace breakers in games like no cut scenes that do this. This sort of when you when you load into the game, they do like the M. What is it? The animus? What is that? What do they call it now? It's like the heel, heel stick system or whatever. But basically the catch all launcher for every assassin's game. And it's framing it as you are launching this launcher where you can, if you have other assassin's creed games installed, you can launch them from within here. Infinity. That's what it's. I love the concept of it being this sort of like a meta text story, meta story. But like every time you had to play in the modern world, I like, I like national treasure. I'm a sucker for I think the Dan Brown books are terrible, but I can't help but read, you know, law symbol angels and demons like I devour them. I know they're not great, but I enjoy them. If it had been, if the modern age had been like this whole thing is about DNA, right? Like if it had been about like leading a dig into a temple and finding the remnants of a character, then you get to play it that character like something more meaningful. It would have been way more fun than the constantly walking around in these sterile office buildings and looking at somebody's emails. Very fair, very fair. Which is what happened in this game like multiple times. Sam, have you spent any time with ReSync yet? Yeah, I have so I my favorite Assassin's Creed game is shadows and I think it improved the formula And I love the setting and you know, it was tied for my favorite game last year So love that game and I'm also like a little bit tired of that formula now I think it's so Relieving to go back to a game where you just click a button and like everybody's just read that you can Assassinate and you always know you can be above them and kill them without any consequences You always know you can hide behind things. You always know you can be in bushes There's nothing you don't have to send an eagle up in the air to like the skin everybody like nothing like that It's just all just video game. You're just you're just playing a video game So I like that about it and then also who cares about all that crap you do ship battles in the scheme That's not of this matters Why are we even talking? We just spent five minutes not talking about ship that that is insane And that's a problem with this because you do have to play a lot of this game before you get to them But it does start with them and what you that first broadside that you're doing where it's like just click this button and sync these ships It's so cool. It's just awesome. Yeah, the audio is amazing. Yeah Yeah, so I just can't wait to get back into that part of it And the rest of it is just bubble gum popcorn easy video game stuff for me totally happy with it But I totally get why it's weird to compare to other games now But I'm fine going back and I didn't like Mirage that game sucks. Oh wow It sucks. I wouldn't say it's it sucks. It's it's it's like the best version of the old formula No, this is the best version of the old one. Okay, all right Well, Kenway is a good protagonist. I think him and Etsy are tied for some of my favorites I'm at storytelling's kind of funny. He's like well I'm gonna he's like first. He's like I'm leaving my wife to go to be a pirate for two years And then he's like, but maybe if I steal this assassin's cube I'll be able to trick a governor and some money but he killed in us. Aren't these assassins supposed to be the biggest badasses in the world Yeah, and then then he kills like 70 of them. Yeah, right in a row I'm seeing really and walking through the sound of a Templars and all the assassins are just like Oh, you said miss understanding that this is not real life This is somebody jumps into the DNA Oh, yeah, why why from the very beginning can Edward Kenway do the eagle drop? How does he know that? That's what pirates do He's not even an assassin at that point. He can just do it right from the beginning of the game And then I'm like, they're like we're gonna we're gonna test you because you have your assassins daggers now And we're gonna do a little test to make sure you're an actual Templar and then of course you just like can do everything perfectly like you get inside a hey bail and then like do it x It's just so stupid. Speak for yourself. My character's always fall off stuff I mean, this is also coming from the same organization that approached a random bartender in New York and assassins creed one Desmond like hey, you're actually a super important part of this assassin's Templar situation come with us and he's like all right Sounds good Oh, man, well when they were like well the Templars are the good guys. That happened to one of these games I know was that assassin's creed rogue? I think that was rogue. He made me a rogue. Maybe it's right Well, I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum. I'm if I hope scoop nationers is enjoying the game It did not click for me. So I'll just be over here playing Something else. I'm looking forward to it. Surely you have some more shadows to play right? I actually was thinking that I should just place. I never finished shadows. So I should display the no one's finished that game Yeah, but of course I will have no idea what I was doing or how the controls work. Hey demon can I can I show you the other big news? Oh, yeah, yeah, Pierre had to show and tell ooh biggest news of the week you guys completely ignored you guys good you guys remember on Meebos There's a news You don't want to get too close I mean with so king ddd. This is the smash brothers version Thank you for zooming in I just want you guys to know Size difference is now weighted here. We'll do the load of the rings thing. Oh, it's next to the other thing No, um, he's ginormous like I don't know you can definitely tell is this but what so what when did they get 10 threads? What's happening who cares? Oh, could be airwriters. No, it's career writer. So it comes apart look It's it's it's two toys in one and so it costs three times what the other toy costs. Yeah, these are these costs as much as freakin Video games now, but yeah, Nintendo is making these Isn't there a ddd variant where the hammer has like a sparkle coating on it. Yeah, there's there's more ddd Yeah, something like no, don't tell you about they're like the actual manufacturing of a chain. Oh, I see I see I don't know about that. There's a variant. Yeah, anyway, it's a huge right? Yeah, that's a very impressive More about a me go. Yeah, that's it. Let's see a new amoeba for the month, but what does it get you though? Uh a whole of $50 in your wallet Oh wait, I know wait these do something What do they I think you're supposed to use them in Kirby's airwriters, right? Yeah, that's right Okay, Joe, but let's bring up our our magazine for the month. This is the July 1991 issue of It all like trying to give me monthly. What movie was the biggest movie in the world in summer of 1991? I Hope it was Street Fighter to the movie. It wasn't wasn't that don't we bring it up judge red There you go It did judge in the title Sam Yes, which we're coming up on on the 35th anniversary of it and then it's putting it back in theaters I'm definitely gonna try to see what a movie later this summer. Oh, I would love to go see that in the theater That's I think it's late August my wife's favorite movie. I want to go see this so do you remember a clay fight or two judgment clay though? Yep, I remember that one Sam. They've got first picks of Castlevania 4 in this issue new for Nintendo That's super Castlevania, right? Yeah, super Castlevania 4 I already had my my copy editor brain back then and I cannot tell you how many times I've seen judgments built with an e Incorrectly. Oh, they have so many judgment days with an e in a All right, so watch our forces cover here. This is gonna be a good issue. Yeah, that's some good. I mean, it's a great cover All right, do you ever let's let's get into the issue and now this is a two-page spread for this publisher renovation renovation does what nine-year-old want So they're playing on the Genesis does what Nintendo don't had campaign But it doesn't really word nine-year-olds one word Genesis does what you put that together is even does what nine-year-olds want like what that's really bad like It sounded like a good idea to somebody taking a shower in the morning And they're gonna love this and look at this kid nine-year-olds like I thought the whole thing of the Sega Genesis They're they're really trying to say that Nintendo's for babies. This is the this is the cool system for yeah for grown ups and teenagers Yeah, that looks like the looks like the farmer from Clarkson's farm. This doesn't really work. This ad does not work Maybe this was a colds or kid. I don't know. Well, what what what were they promising? What what are the kids want Gary's game ground Wallis tree Kids want vales. All right, maybe the kids are cooler than I thought. Okay, we get into the like I like their inclusion of the The game pro and EGM scales. Yeah, yeah, that looks wonderful. I would imagine that we're in EGM So I think the including a game pro in their prize was annoying to them back then So getting into the letters who invented video games help I am working on a research paper and I'm stuck It is on the history of video games I have been able to obtain info on all the older systems in their games What I want to go back even further? That's my problem. I can't find any information on the history of video games One story talks about Nolan Bushnell and other mentions Ralph there. Who are these people? They invented video games. This is the best part. Remember. This is the July issue since you are the authority on video games Can you help me hurry the papers do make Leet time Face down the tree Oh, that's so good. They came up with someone that I actually had never heard of they said it was this guy that helped He can buy the atomic bomb. Yeah, he can buy them and I had never he actually made the first like tennis for two I would have thought it was Ralph there. He made an oscilloscope space war game and then Nolan made the sort of arcade concept right like So it depends on what what you define as the first game, but there's even word games and tic-tac-toe that are not So there's not for a first to anything, right? Yeah, yeah, they're little toys with lights that light up that predate them and yeah All right, the next stage we have an ad for Adventure Island 2 and remember. This is 1991 So it's pretty late for the NES. Yeah, so Sam. I just would have thought we'd be on Adventure Island for what I mean Beautiful. Yeah, that is weird that it's so late, but I think the ad is running late I think this was out already But this this game is fantastic and you can like actually do the thing that the emoto couldn't figure out and super Mario Brothers This is why they needed make do to make the super Nintendo which is you can ride a dinosaur in it You ride all these dinosaurs and you collect them and it's really great. Plus this is has this really interesting origin and that being You know, uh basically a Hudson real person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like that that we called Master Higgins here But in Japan was a celebrity who can hit a video game button very fast Yeah, I like how in the corner says enjoy Hudson. Yeah, I was just trying to figure this out if this was like their their US brand at the time Or no, they're just this is there. They're sort of corporate slogan. What a chill add those that's also the right box The logo is so good the island. I love the like wow. It's that gradient in the clouds. That's that blue style. That's good Yeah, it is so clean and then if you see the the game map for this It's like kind of Mario World like also like I think this game was a pretty big inspiration. Oh, yeah Yeah, that looks real world that would have me hyped if I got this in the mail Yeah, that little world map screen is incredible. I'm also still recovering recovering from that previous letter I just saw the word S dash and yes, and I'm like still Judgment And look it's called dinosaur kingdom in this copy time. Cool. Okay, more letters to people right in asking how they can hook their genesis up with With our gb. Dang these kids are cool, man What instead of that is composite you can't right? Yeah, instead of composite Rf switch rf. There you go And then they have a little side-by-side comparison about how the text in this Batman game is easier to read with RGB That's pretty cool for the time. That's really yeah, talking about composite. Yeah, composite. Yeah, wow Okay, and then someone writes and said I just had a chance to see Sega's new game gear the unit that was set up for playing the store had a different screen image than what I saw in their Advertising in all magazines Sega and their game gear ads shows a game screen that is much clearer than what it actually is How do they do it and why? Hmm is he says you're right? The screen image is different than that in the ads, but Sega is not alone in this practice Thumb through all the game boy ads, and you'll see the same thing the game boy picks are taken off special industrial wide-boy systems The game gear photos are taken off similarly complex development systems the companies do this in order to be able to clearly show the details in the game and sometimes they're just made up Yeah, that screenshot looks fantastic of mapyland by the way Yeah, mapyland looks great here. Yeah, I know that is not nearly what mapyland probably ended up looking like and we call those bowl shots now Which I think is one of the funniest terms bowl shots was ever invented and I hope IGN invented it But I'm not sure do you think it was one of you all fair. It was one kill zone two was first shown, right? I thought bull shots came from that. Yeah, cuz it was like a super impressive cinematic I was like this is real gameplay. It wasn't Yeah, it came from the IGN boards probably remember the my favorite bowl shots of all time must be red steel Because of all the believe that like Ubisoft was making like a 360 quality for the Wii game Yeah, before launch and it looked amazing. I believe eGM carried this one. So it was a fantastic era Yeah, yeah, someone with the name zero to 30 bit MC wrote an eGM rap, which I won't I won't actually Oh, man, but then below that this is weird ad are you game for this start your own used video game mail order company? The homework game international exchange makes it as easy as selling magazine subscriptions This is like some we're like like pyramids gave me 100% of pyramids selling use we won't sell you the first 12 games All right, then we get into review crew. They did not like villain Ted on NES Sam 4533, but then do you know like that game? Bogus they said Then do you know this pinball game? It's an NES pinball game called high speed. I don't know this Yeah, yeah, so there's the high speed and pinball our actual Williams midway arcade game. Yeah, valley midway Williams that were the same at the time, but they're yeah, they're actual arcade machines that they You know, we're able to digitally recreate on the NES They're not well done, but it's just interesting that they're trying to co-market them on the NES. These are pretty good scores too I have to come back for the play choice in here That my friend Scott gave me, but it's sealed in the box their original like play choice Oh wow, I've never taken it out because it has like the manuals and how to install and stuff. It's just all but it's just really cool Cool Next page they did smash TV for the NES six six four five. They say oh yeah, wait first of all have you played this one Sam with the two controllers setup Yeah, yeah, it was very confusing. Yeah, they say smash TV is pretty good translation of the arcade my main complaint is that the graphics seem like they've been shrunk Down to microscopic size the gameplay is almost intact using two pads gives gives it better control a good two-player game If you have four controllers, what a why like wait crazy thing is you use the deep heads also. They were wrong This is not a good version of smashing I guess if that's all you had at the time then I'm fair But there is a good the super NES gen if there's a genesis one of shirts good too Yeah, the 16 bit ones are pretty okay Then they like two other sort of like cult classic NES games base wars and scats. They got to have a better name in So you know special cybernetic attack team God Base wars is the robot baseball game where the robots can overheat and explode on the field. It's great. Base wars sick That's great music just like every old game Yeah, I think Damon and I share an obsession for this game. Just look and feel and the robot designs We used to put this on the off plate in the old live this feels like it would have been like a steward Gordon like robot jox era style Like cheesy sci-fi movie like they needed to have you beat each other up that rules. Yeah, like you can like It's like hockey where you can go at each other and stuff and yeah, and then yeah, and then scat is like a shooter He's got it's good. It's kind of like for I think it's called forbidden worlds the the Capcom game You're like floating and it's two-player and it's from not to me. Yeah, which at the time they also had like shadow of the ninjas They were doing good stuff on the NES at this time. I know this one. Yeah, they're different not to miss right? There was the actual developer and then there's the publishing house in the US the tiny publishing house Go to their holiday party. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and but the developer not to me was behind behind harvest moon Yeah, the original team. Yeah exactly. Yeah, and here it is I'm looking it up. Oh wait because in Japan, it must it must be an adaptation of like a like an anime or something right that they cover it up here Now it's called final mission though. I don't know. I don't remember my Next page here does it's EGM's review of Sonic the Hedgehog which they don't think they even mentioned on the cover Yeah, there was no mention of Sonic probably too late Sonic the Hedgehog got into late straight nine or it was old I I think Sonic actually remember from console wars. I think Sonic It came out and then they spent some time hyping it and then it took off like it wasn't a Out the gate hit I think I think they'd been hyping it up in the magazine for months. Yeah, but they say Definitely without a doubt positively the most incredible action game ever created for the Genesis Sonic is the best game ever cut into the Genesis Yeah, Genesis has hit been hit by Sonic boom looks like Sonic was always good Well, I'm just gonna say when this is how we know EGM never had good tasting games What's a each person? So it's not across the board Everybody docked a point and that was clearly because you couldn't play as tales in this game, right? That's right Great great music and Sonic great music great music great sprites It is a little bit BS and you get all the kid you gotta get all the emeralds to get the real ending that it's not fun Especially the the tilting levels. Oh my god. This vomit city Yeah, he next at next pages an ad for software, etc. Which I just think is interesting They're offering like a ten dollar rebate on Genesis systems and five dollars on games So you there means just like hey the Genesis is ten dollars cheaper at our store Thought that was kind of just someone has written a phone number down here. Maybe that's their local software, etc Do you know how great this summer was when Sonic and uh, Terminator 2 yeah, we're out at the same time and this super Nintendo was like it was awesome imminent Yeah, that's hype right there. That's hype. Yeah It was it was great summer On the next page they review ninja guide in for the Atari links And this is it's based on the arcade version which I actually like. Oh, okay. I like this game They give it to treat eights and that's it's pretty good port. That's a bowl shot on the Atari links They explained it earlier in the in the letter sections and how they got such good screenshots. Oh, it's from a wide boy. It's a wide boy Okay, and quarter man's gaming gossip They talk about how the Genesis They were dropping the price of the Genesis down to 150 bucks. Was this true? Did they end up doing this? Oh, yeah, because they did before the super Nintendo came out Which I was probably gonna launch it for two hundred dollars But then they also say in the Nintendo camp the decision has been made to place Mario in charge of leading their 16 bitters Move into the market super Mario world the awesome 16-bit super Mario adventure That the head ed terminated on the last page of eGN's June issue I don't know what that means We'll come and each and every box just that it'll be a pack in game for super Nintendo man if you're a kid in 91 This is great video games just get cheaper and cheaper. I can't wait for video games 30 years from now Graphics 16 was 99 dollars at this time and I love that system now it's the inverse. That is a great system. Yeah Next page there to talk about the super Nintendo is gonna be making it's day view at the summer c. Yes, that's right Summer c. Yes Do you ever go to c. Yes, no, well, I've been to a modern sea down a sea of classic sea Not the pre-eat we started as a corner of c. Yes, I've seen photos, but I've never been That's an airbrushed mockup. It's so cool like look how bright the super is It's also like curved on the top, which is a little unusual. That's kind of sick More like the Famicom that looks like the redesign super and he has like with a rounded corners Dude the super Nintendo will be in stores this fall What what a time I take me back. I do think the super Famicom has the superior design But like I still just the nostalgia seeing that gray and purple still hits me. Yeah And when it was still gray and not and not tan smokers tan Smokers tan exactly they show like Pictures of like all the chips and the sound chip and the memory Stuff it's really interesting that they would want to show that and then there's one screenshot of Zelda 3 The long rumored Zelda 3 is out of the S NES. It's a crazy way of saying it and so s NES - Mario World Super Mario 4. - And Mario 4. - This time, it says Mario 4. - There's that hyphenated S. - Oh, that screenshot looks great. - Dude, that trips me up, I'm so glad they got rid of that dash. - I know, it's so fun when you go back and like, Paper Mario was Super Mario RPG. - Okay, all these names. - Well, if you guys like airbrushed images, check out the next one for Robocop on Game Boy. You know, it's just the familiar Robocop poster with some screens, but then what is this on the Game Boy art that they've added here? - With this Giant Mario Skinning image in the middle of the screen, it's like weird. Why is this here? - This is also probably old news by now, and I think everyone knows this, but Robocop has incredible, on the Game Boy specifically, incredible title music, on its, it's so good. - I'll put it in this, I'll put it in this episode. - It's so good that they stole it for a commercial for like a washing machine, I believe, yeah. - That's great. - Okay, I'll put it in this episode. Also, this Game Boy has like headphones plugged into it. I just don't know why it's here. It's just a strange thing to include in their ad. - Yeah, that's a weird, that's because I wanna listen that badass title song from Robocop. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Poor shadowing. - Clip art from someone else. - Also that, again, to your logo love, that ocean logo is really good. - It's so good. - I love the old ocean logo. - It's got a clean of the chrome. - It's really cool. - It's really fun. - I mean, it literally looks like something sprayed on the side of a van in the screen, right? - Yeah, yeah. - And it has a little bit of a tinge of colored pencils. It's not perfect. - It's just great. - That's good. So the next page is all about how they, the lowing the price of the Turbo Graphics. So the Turbo Graphics was $99 now. But the CD-ROM, it had been $400. Wasn't that crazy? The CD-ROM, a peripheral cost four times as much as the base system. - God. - But they were even dropping that $100. - Is that where you could only play, what is it, the Castlevania Dracula X, on the CD version of it? - Yeah, yeah. - Dang, I would have wanted that. Damn. - Actually, yeah, I had a friend who had like an older brother who was already like working and unmarried, so we had lots of disposal income and he had the CD-ROM. - Oh, that's so cool. - Yeah. - You always gotta find one of those friends when you were a kid. - The next page is never saw that back in the day. - The next page is an ad for Vice Project Doom on NES. This is infamous box art, because look, this lady, she, I'm sorry. Apparently she's been rescued, but the lights are on and nobody's home. She's already then converted to the lizard people. (laughing) - Yeah. - Because one eye is slightly off, too, right? She's like, looking for a fly to catch. - Yeah. - Yes, exactly. - It turns out the Project Doom was inside us all. - Yeah, that's true. - Yeah, that's true. - Shoot to thrill. - Yep. - That's the grit, this is also a great game. It's on Nintendo Switch Online. This game has a cold open. You play through a whole segment before the title screen. - That's great, nice. - Cinematic Storyteller. - It's very bond. - Very cool. The next pages are preview of Castlevania 4. - A G-Burn. - A G-Burn. - Very glowing. This is a hot one. We'll probably be one of the best super Famicom titles of the year in Japan and the US as well. - That is a great game. - It wasn't. - What an awesome game. - What's it called? - Sam. - What? - Castlevania 4 is great. - Oh my gosh. - It's so good, man. - It does somebody cool visual. - I like how you can dangle the whip. (laughing) - That's funny. - You can deflect shots. You take that back, sir. - The opening of the title, like where you walk up to the castle and then the music hits once you're in one, one, one. Oh my god. (singing) - All the modes seven, they're like, we've got modes seven. - He gets to hear all of the Super Nintendo audio channels. Oh, it's so sick. - The organ assignments too big. It makes it difficult to move around in the game 'cause they've tried to make cool. - And Castlevania 3 was so much better. - These screenshots are all wrong. I'm not gonna argue it's better. - The colors are completely wrong. - Yeah, the colors are completely wrong. And also I agree with Sam in that point. Castlevania 3 is the best. - It was a bummer. It was kind of like going back to the one model and I thought it was a little too ghost and goblins for me. - That's what I think. - Well, speaking of, the next page is Super Ghouls and Ghosts, which they say definitely a candidate for game of the year. - I love Super Ghouls and Ghosts. When a game like Ghoul and Ghost could be definitely a candidate for a game of the year. - What a game. - It's really cool. - This game's so hard. I love it. - Yeah, it's so hard. - But he had to beat it twice. - Some incredible music. - The ship music. - The ghost ship is so good. - And the sprites too, like there's just gorgeous. - Look at that. - Look at that. - And like how that-- - Yeah, I can hardly believe it. - How that sound chip could make bone sounds. - Yeah. - Like the rattling bone sounds. - Yeah, it's so good. - Yeah, I love that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Is there everything's the same? - Joe and Mack was a really good arcade port from the Sarah too. Remember how good Joe and Mack was at SNES? - Yeah, but screw this game, it makes me so mad. The next page has Super Adventure Island. But then what I wanted to point out is they got, they have Sim City in the corner and they say Nintendo is bringing out a 60 minute version of the popular computer and NES Cart. That's just a weird, like it never came to NES. Why would they call it a popular NES Cart? - I know there was like a, it's like unreleased. - There's box art, yeah, it was unreleased. It's very strange. - So they must have played the Famicom. - Maybe, like prototype or something, I had a time. - Yeah, it's weird. - I just thought that was weird. - Okay, speaking of Valus 3, the next ad, who's this mom that they got to play the title character in Valus 3? - I mean, that's pretty good cosplay, I don't know. (laughing) - This is like, this is renovation again. It's like, oh, we forgot to take the photo for our ad. Courtney and reception, can you just come in here? Put on this outfit. - You know what, keep the scarf. - Yeah, you can get it. - Yeah, the scarf works, let's do that. She looks so awkward, like she doesn't know how to, what do I do with my hands, I don't know. It's great, I love it. - Clearly she's never had a halberd before. - I like the music in the Valus, but I think they put out a collection of this semi-recently of like the first three or four games. - I have no memory of this game. I know the name. - I have no memory of this. - Yeah, I don't know this. - It's the third one. - They're kind of boring side-scroller that you're just kind of like-- - Like a Haggithlash game. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty straightforward and kind of boring, but it's got its charm. - The sword popping out of that box art is just, that's the bee's knees though. - Yeah, that's pretty good. - I would have been into that sword. - Okay, the next page is a full page ad for it's crazy. Black and White ad for verdict, teller reviews, incorporate them. They proudly present eyewitness news from the summer consumer electronics show in Chicago. If you want the latest news on what happened in Chicago, you've got to call VTR. We've got reports on all the systems, all the games, all the coming attractions in the video gaming world, and it's available today. You can be among the first to know the hottest gaming info in the world, so don't waste another minute, or another second, call VTR right now. And there's a 900 number. And then all these codes to component to learn about NES action games, or Genesis hot rumors. - Wow. - So like, is the internet ruined everything? - This was all this one problem. - And it's all this one problem. - It's one thing. - It's laid to ad placement. - Well, it's laid to ad placement. - EDM would be reporting on CS in three issues, but verdicts, teller reviews that you can learn about whatever's happening right now. - Right now. - Yeah, zoom in on the eyes for a second, next to the headlight, it's fantastic. (laughing) - It's all from like print shop. - Yeah. - It's like these elements of like manual layout. - I wouldn't have used those. - But, and Joeber, go to the train at the bottom. It says, the VTR news train. - Catch it. - I love that. - That's just the monopoly train. (laughing) - Catch it. - They need to work on their tagline. - Okay. All right, we got this. We gotta make a sure that the train says, "The Game Scoop News Train." - Catch it. - It's like a buck for a minute of listening. - Dude, that's brutal. - Yeah, for the first minute. - Yeah. - No, since three traditions, over $10 now, right? - I would have gotten in so much trouble if I called it 1-900 numbers. - Jesus. - All right, and the final image from this issue is for Sam. It's for a burger time deluxe on Game Boy. - That's an ad right there. - That's great. - The burger time, but it's a great ad. - That's such a good ad. - Look at that angry weeny. - Oh, that's a good looking burger too. - That's the burger you're actually looking at. - That's just a good, yeah. - I've never played this burger time on Game Boy. - Me neither, but it looks good. That egg is pissed. - Game link compatible? - Two players. - Whoa. - Yeah, I think I'm, all right. That was the delight. - It was so unusual to have a fried egg on a burger back then. I must be a Japanese thing, but it's really, really good. - No. - Now. - I think I have those. - Great. - That was the delight. - Sorry, sorry. - Two max. - 91 issue of BGM. (upbeat music) - That was a good one. - Okay, real quick, extracurricular activities before we're getting to video game, 20 questions. I finally saw obsession. - And? - I loved it. - You think? - I loved it. You've not seen it, Sam? - I can't wait to see it. I'll go see it right now. - You should go see it right now. It's so good. - It's excellent. I really like it. - I think it's streaming right away, too. - It's on demand now, yeah. - You can pay 20 bucks. - Okay, I'll watch it tomorrow. - I can't wait. We'll make a fried egg movie at home 'cause I'm so jealous. - Yeah, David already warned me that my wife would probably not take this movie. So I'm gonna have to watch it. - I just want to, I won't even say anything. I'll just be like, you'll like this movie. - Just saying, it's about a guy who has a crush on the girl and he makes a wish that she falls in love with them. And his wish comes true. - Really romantic movie. Really romantic. - I know I'm sorry you wanted to watch this. We had to choose between this and back rooms when we saw back rooms, but it was great to choose them. - Yeah, I still need to see back rooms. - Yeah, this movie is so good. No, I'm not gonna, we just won't get into it. But I was supposed to take the family, it was last Friday off for the fourth. I was gonna take the family to see the minions and monsters movie. But then we woke up that day and my wife was like, let's take them to Chuck E. Cheese instead. And I was like, no, how about you go to Chuck E. Cheese and I'm gonna go see something in the movies and I ended up seeing obsession and it was great. - Wow. - Very, very good. - That's great. - Okay. - I also just like the story of the movie, 26 year old first feature film, No Big Stars, made for the film. for less than a million dollars. Now I think it's over 400 million now. So I just, I love it. - Amazing. - I love when Hollywood is just completely embarrassed. - Yeah. - That's great. - Yeah, that's great. - Great script. - I think Hollywood likes it. - It is a great script. And also, although there are no big stars, the girl, the main girl on here, Indie, Navarroda thing. She's going to be a big star now. - She was a twitch streamer and stuff, like beforehand, yeah, yeah. - She's incredible. - Excellent. And I am actually gonna take my wife to see it tomorrow night. So I'll go see you in a second. - It's just like, it's like exactly what you want from a Twilight Zone-esque movie. It's so good. - Yeah. - You can't recommend it. - I know we have to move fast here, but Game of Thrones is pretty good. - Yeah, it's really good. - Yep, it's three good episodes. - A lot of this has been said, but it's like season two is only eight episodes, right? So it's kind of like, yeah, these should have been episodes nine and 10. - Yeah. - Season two. - I enjoyed the bear too. I know the bear did not get the highest reviews, but I thought it had some really good moments. - Halfway through it. - Right there. - Yeah. - I saw the roof episode, which is pretty funny. - Yeah. - And then on Damon's recommendation, I'm more than halfway through Dungeon Crawler Carl's first book, and it is so good. - Oh, I'm so glad you like it. - I'm so glad you like it. - I'm still glad you like it. - Nice, that's great. I'm glad you just passed the interview segment, which is a cool reveal. - That is a cool thing. - Yeah, it's a good, the premise is not what I expected, and I won't go into it. And it's totally worth it, and everybody that listens to this show will understand this book much more than anybody in my adult life, because I would not recommend this to any of my friends, but it works so well for what I know in my life. - I mean, isn't it so cool that they really get into the nitty-gritty of their stats and experience and what they're gonna spin their skill points on, but it's not boring. It's crazy. - Yeah. - It's presented well. - Whenever it's introduced, do you think like, "Oh, how are they gonna use this and why is it in there?" And then there's some reveals about why some of that stuff's happening, which is cool. But yeah, no, it's not overly clever, and it's not stupid, and it's plot driven, and that's what makes it fun. It's like, even though it's a video game RPG-esque like, you know, thing, it's still like, I think happens all the time over and over again, and that's what makes it buttery. That's what makes me have a thrones for buttery too. It's a perfect summer book. I read it on the beach, I read it on the plane, I read it to fall asleep with jet lag, and it was like so perfect, so. And it bought it in the plane bookstore on the way out of town. - Hey, there you go. - Which is like, "Oh, it's a good sign, there's, I mean, there's, you know, it's just sitting there on the shelf, so it's blowing up." - Yeah. - We all need that. - I'm just about to wrap up the third audiobook, and I'd heard from like Justin that it's considered the weakest one, but I still really enjoyed it, so. If that's the weak one. - Good to go. - I'm excited to keep going. - Great moments in there. And finally, I am watching Widow's Bay, which I think you had talked about earlier, Sam. - So good. - I love it. - Yeah, it's very good. I just did like the origin episode where they show, like whatever, hundreds of years ago, what happened. - Nice. - That was good. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, one's really cool. That's a little bit lost like that. I love the main. He's so, like anti-charismatic, in the most opposite way possible. And all his decision making and faces and everything are just so funny. - Yeah. Yeah, if for anyone, it's on Apple TV, like there's so many great shows on Apple TV, but no one watches them. This is like kind of a horror mystery about an island called Widow's Bay that something's wrong in the island. But it's like, a little bit of a monster of the week, but it's all, there is a through line. And it's, it's funny too. It's like really fun. - It feels really Stephen King. - Yeah, it's very. - King likes it. - Yeah. - Stephen King and Jaws. - Yeah. - Like that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's good. - And that's what makes it so good. And they nail the Jaws part because the setting is so cute. And like there's like these great wood-panelled rooms and nice locals and kids that are drinking. And it's just so fun. - It's the next Martha's Vineyard. - Yep. - I'll tell you what, it's the best, like it's almost like, it's as stranger things, like when that first stranger thing season came out, it fell fresh, right? And then stranger things did stranger things too hard for so long. (laughing) It's like a sick of it. (dramatic music) (upbeat music) - Okay, and that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Blake Walsh, who says, "Scoop, greetings from South Dakota. My recommendation for video game 20 questions is redacted. The redacted in that game has spoiled every game for me since. My friends call me crazy for having it in my top 10, top five games of all time, but I stand by it." - The twist in that game. - Multiplayer in that game. - Oh, okay. - Soundtrack, the music in that game, the voice acting in that game. - It's the banjo chewy multiplayer. There we go. That's what we nailed it. - Oh, yeah, that was bad. I did my end kickball. Was there a, so last week it was Forza, so we know it's not that. - Yeah. - I mean, it could be a Forza Horizon 6. - He's not gonna do another one. - We know it's not the, you know, the Ford pickup really messed me up in that game. - Oh, I see. - Okay, maybe it was a boss battle, it was hard. Let the question him again. - Yeah, was this released in the '70s, '80s or '90s? - No. - Okay. - More contemporary. Maybe is this exclusive to its console at launch? - No. - Okay, multi-plat. - Is this based on a licensed property? - Oh boy. (laughing) We already got a glitch in the matrix. - Ooh, shoes. - Well, let's just have you reword it. Like ask it, it's a based on a licensed property from like movies or, oh, I mean, it's a sports game. And if LNHL license. - Angels in the outfield for the, no. - Wait, so what you're asking me to do is waste five questions instead of asking one? - Or, no. - Okay, it's just based on a movie. - No. - Oh, great, thank you. (laughing) - Is this based on a popular consumer product that you can buy in a supermarket? - Oh, no. - No, okay, all right. I just wanna make sure we're not going the seven-up and Coca-Cola game. - Gotcha. - Oh, I guess we're just gonna go for these six questions. All right, is this based on like a comic book book series type situation? - No, that's five. - Yeah. - Great, great, okay. - TV show? - No, it's not gonna be anything like that. It's gonna be like NFL license. - Got it, okay. - Or maybe it's-- - Let me give up what's the game. - Oh, maybe it's forward racing challenger. - Gotcha, okay, okay. - I told you that truck. That truck changed this guy. - Let's just say no. - What is that? - Let's just say no. - What is it, Beetle Bug? - Do not, Beetle Bug. - Okay, as you proceed, do not assume that this is a license game. Don't even think about that. (laughing) - There are a lot of four questions and have me ask that question that I asked. - Man. - All right, is this-- - It's a statement. - Is this in the Xbox 360 generation of consoles? - No. - Man. - So, 2006 to 2015, 2012, eliminated. - Was this out on an Nintendo platform? - Yes. - Okay, multi-plat, but also on Nintendo. - That was rare. - Well, maybe it's modern. - Is this in the current line of consoles? - Yes. - Okay. - Uh-huh. - Hwa. - And what, how many questions are we here right now? - That's nine, but we can be, we can be a little fuzzy. - Okay, okay. - Oh, boy. (laughing) - I like this is gonna go down as the fuzzy episode now. - I got already feeling it. - Was it released for this generation of consoles? - Look at that. - Not originally, no. - Okay. - That's 10. - So, maybe it's like a PS4 remaster kind of thing. - Yeah. Maybe it's like this destroy all humans or something. - Yeah. - Repro-dedition. - Yeah. - To walk with something. - Maybe this became a license. - Should we try genre? - Maybe it's, yeah. - Maybe this has a movie TV show or series based on it. - Thoughts. - Is this a shooter or an action game? - Yes. - Shooter and/or action. Great. Do you play as a human? - Yes. - Okay, so it's not destroy all humans, sad. Play as a human, it's an action shooter, release, roughly PS4 generation but also available on modern consoles. Is this game made in Japan? - No. - Is multiplayer main focus of this game? - Yes. - Yeah, see that's something. - I think it's a battlefield or called duty. - But it's something that's crazy for him to be as, in his top five as friends said, what? That's why? - Yeah, it's probably like Kevin Spacey's in a call. (laughing) And he's just a big fan of, they never mind. (laughing) Let's see. - I don't need to carry that joke any further, but it would be surprising. - I do like that call duty. Let's see. - This seems so obvious and big for a game to guess. But I mean, it is technically becoming a movie, right? Maybe that's where Damon was getting at with the licensing stuff of it. - Is this a triple lay video game? - Yes, that's 15. - So it's a big expensive one. - It's a big one. (laughing) - There's one of those, there's one of those games stand for Activision Developed or Published. - There's one of those games. - Stand for-- - Is this an Activision game? - No. - Not Call of Duty, okay. Or Spyro. - Then we can go to EA. - And EA's not a Japanese company. So that would hold Star Wars, you know Battlefronts. - Battlefront. - Jedi Fallen War. It's not it's not based on a license. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. Oh, but weirdly, well, no, you didn't say it's not Well, you use five questions to get that it's not a goddamn Star Wars game And we just asked if it was a Star Wars game. So EA you be soft. Who else is putting out triple-a games? Ironman fully destructible with my gun now I'm not asking that but that could be red faction that is true red faction Armageddon. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, only that it could become a triple-a game then there would be a lot of people. Is it a sci-fi themed game? Yes. Okay, sci-fi theme. Well, maybe it's just bungee. Is this it's is this from others not twist this from electronic arts. Yes. Okay. Mm-hmm. Oh, I don't feel that wrong, but they had a couple more that mirrors edge and stuff. That's not shooter. No multiplayer edge and Anthem would be a crazy one to be a top five. You do play as a human Which one in Anthem? Oh, yeah, I You can play as like a really big human. I like I like flying around in Anthem and we had Titanfall already once as a yeah, but The big no it can't be Anthem because it's not playable on modern consoles anymore Correct, and that was like a big point. So I don't think they would do that. What's the problem with Titanfall? Oh No, there's no with Anthem. It was a Titanfall. I heard you. Yeah, but Titanfall can't speech. I don't know. I thought we had Titanfall ones. No That is EA, Titanfall, Titanfall 2 and then there's apex legends. Yeah, which are playable on modern consoles battlefield and battlefront and Battlefield is it sci-fi though, I guess Titanfall is definitely in battlefront is too. I mean is Is this game in a We mentioned this game yet. Yes, okay. Like like a thousand times. How many questions are we at this is your 20th question? Well, let's just call it 21 questions this week. I mean, I think it's just One more question a battlefield game. You can guess or is it Titanfall? I guess yeah, it's not battlefield because it's not sci-fi. I mean There is a sci-fi battlefield. There's battlefield 2142 and then also battlefield the previous battlefield was a Let's see. How do we does this game feature mechs? No, so it's not Titanfall. Oh, no, we have a guest. So should we ask if it's battlefield 2142? Well, there's mechs is not always there. I think so. But Damon wouldn't know. So it's a it's an EA game You play as a human. It's still playable on modern consoles, but it didn't originally release. Multiplayer focus There's battlefield four five well battlefield five battlefield one Are there any weirdo games like and is or something like that like sci-fi shooters that are you're you're forgetting a crucial piece of this puzzle and that's that Somebody at one point mentioned a license near it or something. Yeah He doesn't want to send us down that path anymore. He's recanted. Yeah, I mean I should have just all right Let me replace that We were missing a crucial bit of information. We'll just edit this. Remember I said this game We have said a license in this nobody fucking knows We have said the name of the game so it can't be like battlefield one or battlefield I say it again. That's all you have to do. Do we do it's battlefield like it's got a battlefield and It's a read did they read? It's a modern one. So there's battlefield Four five and one only all the ones you mentioned four five and one that I mean those are the only modern ones apart from six Did you mention one? I don't think you mentioned one I? Don't think I mentioned one by the time he said we had mentioned it so Is I mean I like the campaign in battlefield one is it battlefield one? It's a pixel legends What was the license could be just based on Titanfall? That's why I was like I regret it immediately regret I should have just said no. Yeah, she said no. Oh my god Okay, yeah, apex legends. I do love that's what's what's the letter about this? He loved the movement in this game. Okay, that's not a crazy thing a lot. It's a normal thing to like But it's it's in his top five games of all time. Yeah, that's appropriate. I feel like that's all right That just means you're a hardcore game or dude. Yeah Yeah, okay, apex Legends apex Legends rules. I just came so good first release in 2019. It's available on everything shadow drop too. Yeah All right, so that's why we're on game school. They're not mix. Yeah Yeah, that is weird. Yeah, that is weird So next week if pair or Nick are on this and we have you know, Justin on or Mark or something and they asked did you get 20 questions last week? Just say yes, okay Yeah, okay, or you can say maybe would have gotten it, but I kind of screwed them over But Sam really messed us up Look, I knew you hadn't mentioned battlefield one. I knew it couldn't have been that Well nicely attempt and thank you for the suggestion Blake Walsh in South Dakota viewers listeners You may have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions email them to me at the email address Game scoop at IGN.com and that's all the scoops that we have for you this week Thank you pair. Thank you Nick. Thank you King DDD For joining us. Thank you Sam. Thank you to Jover working behind the scenes to make this episode possible My name is Damon. This is IGN game scoop around I For God donkey Kong 64 ends in a boxing match with Kay rule and You have to fight him with every single Kong as everything in that game and each each fight is a different puzzle Each one of them feels like they could have worked on it a little longer Is the end of Bonanza a callback to donkey Kong 64 then yeah, that's nuts Yeah, because I recently replayed donkey Kong country one and two and you don't you just fight them on a ship and those Bonanza you choice definitely much more big. Oh, it's way more fun. Yeah I don't think that's a game. I will replay at some point. Yep. I'm not quite the same with donkey Kong 64 No, it's I go between a six and a seven out of ten though They're like some really good things on it, but then I like the 3d world like that feel of it is just a thing that you don't really get anymore Same with like banjo Kazooie and banjo to it's but it's such a huge step down from banjo. Oh, yeah That's the frustrating part. It's like they did it. They did it better before. Oh my good. Look look at any Richter He's old is there is there an angle where you can we see where you see what's on the table? Gilbert I like can you all hear me? I've been here if I were to show if I we can hear you now. I want to show an amoebo You can also hold it up. You can hold it. I'll hold it. I can also I can also get a Up and zoom in. Oh, no, that's just fine. It's fine. It's all informal. It's more to see what you guys think Damien was giving me shit for not being here, but I've just been just listening to you guys talk about donkey Kong 64 Torturously unable to answer He's the Walter White trap in the And the final boss battle. I'm doing that one now. Do you know what's more popular than donkey Kong 64? I mean, I mean sorry Well, I fucked that up It's more popular than the new Star Fox game and guides. Yeah, whoa Everyone's got to find those bananas. Yeah, they're going absolutely donkey Kong for bananas. Oh my god Sam what was the the pinball side scrolling metroidvania game again? Okay, you can all express my dude. I'm on gamescube each week. I play I played that and my my dogs were just standing in front of the TV and their heads just go Animal the entire time for like an hour. It's good. That's so cute That does seem like a really good cat game. It is. Yeah, they're basically cats. Dang that game needs to see. Well that game is so good Nobody played it. Yeah, I hope they're doing okay. Everybody. I'm sure everybody got laid off Yeah, we did our best to sell Yokeu's Island Express. Yeah, we did and uh and that Legend of Zelda shooter Crossbow the crossbow training that Damien had ignored mini shoot. Oh mini shoot great. I played that you played that Sam can you believe David? is ignoring Star Fox because it feels like he would love it because it's just a schmup. Look, Damon hates frogs and any game with a frog ever since Blaster Master. I did not know this, Damon. Look at that one's called the Slodog. Yep. I don't want a Slodog. That does not sound appetizing. I want a Slodog. I love hot dogs. Don't get me wrong. Well, it's great. You're not a Kohl Slod fan? No, I'm not a Kohl Slod fan. Neither am I. What about, uh, I mean, I guess I like it on the it has to be really, really sour crafty for me to like it. Kohl Slod is great. Put a little limon in it. I mean, that does make it a little better like sour crap. Yeah. Yes. There they just call it. I don't know. Salad. We're all trying to find the guy who did this. That's a good point, Pear. Donkey Kong was never good. I love. I actually like our arcade game. Yeah, everybody does. We will talk about a game. It's perfect. We will talk about a game that was never good. Oh, no. Oh, so which Sonic game? Oh, I'm sorry. That pico park. Yep. Wait, wait, you're not rolling on this, right? You're, please don't, please don't publish this. I like Sonic Adventure 2. We can always do a phase. That's a expensive game now. We can do a phase. Replace with Justin's face. Are they going to keep making physical copies of a Mibo? What do you five bucks? That's the most physical an object can be. If people are buying this, then I'll. Yeah, they should keep making them. A Metro won't be sick with the Samus' ship, but that would be. I mean, yeah, I mean, they didn't make a Star Fox R-wing or something. You think they would? Why are they making DDD? Wasn't he got a prototype to the R-wing? Yeah. Isn't it kind of like huge in Japan? I think it's as Nintendo of Japan thing, right? Because Kirby is just such a popular cute character there that everybody loves. I think it's whoever is influential at Nintendo. And they like. They just like King DDD. No, they got, they like, maybe the Smash Brothers creator said, "I will make another game if you give me more DDD toys." Is there enough? Yeah, this seems like I don't know who's going to buy this. Like, I only bought it because I bought everything. You're committed at this point. All right, we can't even get Damon bus Star Fox. Bye. Welcome back Sam. Hi Sam. Thank you. It was my pleasure to be. Thank you. Thanks for being my scenes. Bye, y'all.