(upbeat music) - What's up everybody? Welcome to IJ and Game Scoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield, and joining me this week are Sam Clayborn. - Hey everybody. - Justin' Davis. - Scoop. - And Mark Medina. - I'm here, Damon, morning scoop. - Morning scoop. - We're going this bright and early on Friday morning. It's been a bit of a slow news week. As someone who produces a daily video game news show, I can tell you. - That's the fruity slow news week. - But all of a sudden here on Friday, there's stuff going on. And it's all Friday. So yeah, we will, we got a great show for this week. We've got, but does this road map finally revealing the road map I would say should have been revealed 10 years ago, but better late than never? I guess it would have been the same 10 years ago. - They're viewing it as bad news 'cause they put it out on a Friday. But I'm not, I think it's good news. - We'll get into that. I've also been, I've been playing up with this game. I've been revisiting Fallout 4, and I have, I have a tale to tell. That, and there's really bizarre, recasting news for the God of War show. - Oh yeah. - Very surprising. - It's crazy. - I know, yeah. - But first, housekeeping. I want to give everyone a heads up. There will be no episode next week because next week is Comic Con. And huge part of the company, the entire video team will be going down to San Diego to do our big live show from Comic Con. So please be excited for that. Please tune into all that coverage. But yeah, we'll be back in two weeks for one more episode in July, after next week. It's just Justin, you're the only one going to Comic Con? No, Sam, no, Mark. - Yeah, I'll be there. David, we can hang out. - Okay, we'll hang out. - You could just, I mean, you could do a rogue episode from the hard rock event, or Mark and I could do a rogue episode from San Diego. - San Diego Comic Con is a great time. If you see us, if you find us, say hello. I think, I was giving a hard time. Kim gave me a hard time. I said, if I could live any, in any city, I would choose San Diego and she's like, really? And I'm like, no, I look like, and I do, I've been reflecting on that thought and I think half of that's just fish tacos. I just love them so much. - But that is the correct choice. That San Diego's great. - Yeah, but then it was like, what about Paris? What about, I'm like, okay. Like, I'm not thinking like, what about is, yeah. Okay, let's get into it. But they've revealed their big roadmap. I think that, what are the broad strokes here? They say the big thing they're working on is eldest girls six. - What? - Yeah, I think they, they, they list. - They're finally getting to work on it. - Yeah, I think they're going to do our shows about just make Fallout games 'cause there's a lot of Fallout games coming in. - Yep, there are a lot of Fallout games. - There's two new ones and two remakes, right? - Yep, so Fallout 5. They say that, like, that's like their ultimate destination, I think they would say. - Yeah, it's in pre-production. - And then Obsidian is making something Fallout. And then there are remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas. - Perfect, I mean, the remasters, so the remaster rumors have been around forever to the point that like, some people thought a game would shadow drop or just be out any time. And then the-- - Being what the Elder Scrolls shadow drop was kind of like, right, with the, yeah, exactly. - And then the Obsidian rumors are more recent, right? Of just like, you know, Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xbox saying, hey, like, look, no shade against devout, the game was well liked, but, you know, why do you have this talent working on, you know, be to your franchises instead of just working on our bigger franchises and having them come out more often, which is a valid, you know, an Obsidian-made, New Vegas, which obviously everybody loved and is really beloved. And so that's been, it wasn't, I got the impression that today's memo was just kind of affirming and shining a light on stuff that we all kind of assumed was true, was really heavily rumored but hadn't been like, officially, officially fully confirmed. - Which is surprising because it's like, really positive, great news to tell fans of these games that have not been getting them for a while. I think there's a really interesting sci-fi take on this where you could send John Connor back in time with this memo and fix a lot of problems that have happened over the past decade or more or two decades because like, this feels like the thing that like should have been the unsaid thing that's just happening behind the scenes, but instead they waited this long and just said it and now we have to wait even more. - That's the thing. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, yeah, I wanna play these new follow games and I wanna play Elder Scrolls 6, but like, come on. We should have already played all these games. They should have already been out years ago, like, okay, nice, it's nice, it's happening now but we're still have to wait years for all this stuff. - I think Damon cracked the code. Everyone thinks that Asha Sharma just watches Twitter all day. I think she watches games here. And she's like, oh, I mean, it's kind of an open secret that Asha Sharma is big toning stuff. - Big toning stuff. There's also some bad news buried in this and that they're gonna keep on developing for Starfield. - Oh, no, yeah, yeah. They buried the lead on that one. - They didn't, they started with it. Which I think is the weirdest. That was the lead. - They should have buried it. - It's like this giant announcement about Fallout and Elder Scrolls and they're like, but first Starfield is perfectly safe in our hands. We have a lot more coming for it and Fallout 76, please be excited everybody. And then the Fallout 76 thing was kind of a bummer because it sounds cool. Like it's like a Fallout 3 prequel in Fallout 76. Like that's awesome. - I mean, a lot of people don't remember that like Obsidian, they started as their very first game was Knights of the Old Republic II, right? It's a BioWare made Knights of the Old Republic. And hey, this-- - That's the Knight Camera movie. - Yeah, people like it too. It was, yeah, it's shipped out. It's actually a very similar Obsidian story. - Yeah, that's very good. - Yeah, less so in their modern history, but like for the first 10 years of the studio, their reputation as all their games are immaculate and incredible and very well written, but just kind of a little rushed and didn't quite have the time to like solve all the bugs and solve all the issues. But like, so their identity, their DNA as a studio is like, you know, fast follow with sequels to things that everybody really loved and like they did it with Kotor II. They never went to Knights II, they did, and then they did, you know, obviously. Yeah, you've got to guess. So like, why, like, it's just such an obvious and just such a natural, especially when Xbox owns them both. It's like, okay, so we want our Fallout games and Elder Scrolls games to feel really special in premium and that takes a long time. I'm glad that they're able to take the time that they need. But like, we don't want to wait a decade between releases. It's like, trade off, this kind of trade off go every other one, you know, Activision does this really effectively with Call of Duty, right? That's how they have a Call of Duty game come out every year is because they rotate studios. Like, each Call of Duty, even the one comes out every year, they take three years to make because you're off cycle. You're working on your game the other two years and the other ones coming out. So it makes a ton of sense to me, I am very excited to get Elder Scrolls games, you know, at least get Fallout games more often and I hope they apply the same thing. I speak, so these are two very Elder Scrolls and Ballad are very famous series for iterations and evolving and now there's the fact that we've missed a decade and a half of that, like the actual like, what does Fallout look like every three years or five years even? What does Elder Scrolls look like? Is a problem because the modernization of them has missed steps and I've been thinking about this a lot this week, there's, you know, there's these games that have been around since the '80s like Zelda that has had ups and downs. I really has, like it's had, you know, some people don't agree, but it's had these years with Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess might be like, considered its down years when it really bounced back. But it had to have those years to have something out for us to play and then also for have something to like bounce, you know, the new ideas off of and iterate on and like, I'm really worried about these gaps with these series. Like it, obviously it's better, I think for everybody to have games delivered all the time and I'm saying that knowing full well that people get mad that, you know, called duty is out every year, but like it does allow them to be like, well, this worked and this did. - Yeah, I think that's kind of the issue though, right? Because with Halo, you know, the big Oshasharma reset is like more Halo, Elder Scrolls fall out and then forts will continue. And a lot of the sentiment I'm seeing around Halo is like, does Halo even matter in the big 26? And it's like, the reason it wouldn't matter is because they're so far infew between. And so Xbox's new job is to try to make these things matter again. - Elder Scrolls has missed two entire console generations. - Yeah, and you know, Nintendo knows this part of it, like they like from the horrible business lingo side, IP, which is their intellectual property, which is Mario and Zelda and they're things like that they need to keep those relevant, right? And like they know that they need to put out little games and big games and keep Mario in front of people and just keep doing it. And that is the stewardship of these series. Like that's why we get excited for games like Ball of Shelter, which apparently has an unscripted show coming. I guess that means the television show. - Yeah, it's a reality show. I think they announced it last year. - Yeah, yeah, but you know, it's like that type of stuff, it keeps generations of people interested, which is helpful for them. But then again, for us, it's like, I like this one but not this one and like, oh, I'm really excited for the next one. Like there's just a natural progression. Also, there's another example set here, which is really funny that's happening right now with it's like Marvel movies, right? Like people aren't exactly excited for new Marvel movies anymore. And I don't know if it's because they lost quality. If there's too many of them, they're, you know, like what is the exhaustion based on? And this is the exact opposite problem. So like who's doing it just right? Who's getting the, who's not exhausting their audience and who's like, you know, delivering at the right time? Like it's a balance, but they didn't know. - Although, yeah, like part of the thing with Marvel movies sometimes we have to do it.
go too long between seeing characters. So so some of that analogy does track of like, you know, what's going on with Shang Qi? We haven't seen him in like eight years like, you know, so it's like that's and there is a what was it? What was that like? Was it Nintendo with Pokemon a few years back of like it's taking so long to make mainline Pokemon games that it's like, you know, Pokemon needs to hook kids when they're like six, but it's just missing, you know, it's missing some generations of kids these days. But it means they think about it, right? They think about what that means for generational success, you know? Yeah, there's definitely a balance between you want the games to come out infrequently enough that they feel like events and they feel really special and it feels really premium, but you're not waiting so long that it's just like, well, I've gone without this for a decade, so now I just don't even care anymore. Like Star Wars movies also need to strive. Yeah, I think two to three years seems like a sweet spot to me. Like that's a good chunk of someone's life two to three years. Like that's if you love this this game series, that seems to be about the most amount of time we should have to wait in between playing these two games. But for giving lending further evidence to this idea that Asha is a member of scoop nation, it seems like they're doing something that we've also recommended on this show many times is to copy Capcom because now they're they're just going to do everything on creation engine three so that everyone in Bethesda game studios can bounce from project to project, which is exactly what Capcom does with the RE engine. Yeah, I'm pretty awesome. You should close term memo with As-Cop Biko. Yeah, that's what we call a channel. We've got some stuff to fix here at Xbox, so we're going to go mop a sec. I think I think Miley worries there is the RE engine is not equivalent to creation three in the sense that like creation three is is I don't know, I I almost feel like I'm I'm very much against Unreal Engine five. I feel like they should just go on Unreal Engine five and just go there because creation is just so slapped together. It's all right. You're yeah. Well, yeah, the new I think the newest game is like on 5.8 and then and then Rocket League will be on six. But it's like creation is still just this like taped together version of the GameBrio engine from when we were kids, and it's like they keep reiterating on it, but yeah, yeah, and and I'm kind of like, you know, I don't know, I don't know if I won't fall out five that still looks like Starfield's like characters. I think this would be on that. Like the improvement iteration issue is that they're going to get stuck in these like well, the last time we put out a fallout game, it had the faces that looked like a fallout game and they're just not going to move beyond that now because they haven't had a bunch of criticism for 15 years or so. It's definitely stuff. I mean, look with game engines like, you know, anything is possible with any game engine, right? So like there's these things. There's a feeling of a Bethesda game that like if it was really important to them that in dialogue, the camera doesn't get sucked into the NPC space engine. Like that's that's solvable, right? But there's just certain stuff that like, you know, there is a field to a Bethesda game for sure that like, you know, they'll need to they'll need to put some time into if they wanted to feel modern. Yeah, the fields have little haircuts. It's mostly the, did you say that like court hearing? I don't know, it was like a Senate meeting and the lady stands up and the camera like zooms in on her. Bolivian here. But the the thing that they need to solve is the loading screens though, right? Like when you have a game like Cyberpunk, where every once you're in the game, it never has to load again type of deal unless you're fast traveling. Like we can't keep living in a world where going to a vendor is for loading screens away. They got to open the doors. They got to make it where I could just go in and leave. And that's my biggest fear. Are you feeling that Damon and Fallout 4? Like I remember they go up to the barn doors outside of stadium and you're like, oh my god, I got to wait a little bit. That's not the part that bugged me. Yeah, we can jump into Fallout 4. Yeah, so I'm in between games right now. Justin, I don't know if I mentioned this when you were on, but Black Flag Resync did not click for me. It made me realize I'd much rather play the more recent games. So anyway, I'm in between games. So I was like, let's talk about Xbox and Bethesda and fall out. I'll replay Fallout 4, which I haven't played in 11 years. So here's how that went. I have it on disc speaking of all this physical disc talk. I put the disc in my PS5. The first thing it does is saves the game. It's not installing it. It saves the game to my console. That took a few moments, whatever. That's fine. But then when I launched the game, that's when it starts installing. And there's a big splash screen that says installing. And it took 15 minutes. Do you think it's just downloading the game is installing like a euphemism for like we're just why didn't it shouldn't even take that long? Like 15 minutes to install a PS4 game on my PS5. I mean, okay, yeah, I did this whole, I like the character creation scene where you choose the husband or the wife in front of you. That's a clever way to handle all that. So anyway, after I go through installing it, then on its like splash screen, I see there's an option for a free PS5 upgrade. But it's like, okay, why didn't it do that in the first place? So, okay, I'll install a PS5 version. It goes through that whole process. And now there's just two copies of the game on the PS5 version installed. That's kind of a argument we had a few weeks ago, which is like having a disk game, you know, yeah. It's not as seamless as you would think. Anyway, it's just all kind of messy and ineligant, but whatever. Get into the game and I'm enjoying myself. I played two evenings of fault for having fun. I made it to that first big town where valentine, the robot detective is there and there's a reporter that you didn't have a stadium, right? That's like a basement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm just going around the town and there are arms guards around the town. But I'm just, you know, talking to people, getting information, going on quests, I go into a bar and talk to some people. And then when I exit the bar, for whatever reason, every guard is hostile towards me and attacking me. Yeah, that's Bethesda for you. Yep. Did you, maybe you accidentally stole something? I really don't think I did. Plus, I would have been inside and, you know, yeah, that outside is the weird thing. Anyway, that's why I stopped playing a blivian remaster. I was like, I'd never played a blivian, not really, at least. And I was like, dude, this is so much fun or whatever. And then all of a sudden, I was like, it was like, I was in a cave with those like cult members. And I thought I answered a question correctly. And I just stuck everybody wanted me dead. And I was like, I forgot that I hate this. I've never played it again. Like somebody watching me playing a Fallout game and they're like, dude, you're saving so much. I'm like, that's because it's get a bug out. And then you got to have a save for the bugs. That's the way I'm going to hate you. Yeah. So yeah, I know that I could load an old save. But this is an in-between game. And I wanted it to be a little easy breezy. So that's it. I bounced. And I actually got me to go back to something I'm in meaning to, which is Final Fantasy Tactics, the evilest chronicles. Now I feel like that's my game that I'm going to be dug into until whatever the next begins. And then someone dies permanently in his party. And he's like, I bounce it again. He'll go to the next game. And nobody dies permanently. I'm playing Mark. I remember having the kind of save exhaustion and Fallout and being like, oh, man, this town all turned on me. But like, I just don't care. I'm just going to leave. And then it like really haunts you for the rest of the game because something else takes you back there. And you're just like, now I'm like 20 hours past that save bug. Yeah, where like I should have reset. It's like a faction member moved, but their code is still telling them that they hate you. Yeah, exactly. And so you're just like an inner house or a field after all. I do love the VAT system. It's kind of like the Nemesis system. I just wish more games would use something like this. Yeah, and it's like riding a bike, right? You just get back and do it. You're like, I know this so well. Yeah, Fallout 3 and 4 in New Vegas don't get enough credit for like, you know, Fallout 1 and 2. They inherited that franchise, right? They didn't start life as a Bethesda franchise. And like their ability to kind of modernize it and make it more shooter-y, but you can also pause and target body parts with VATs. It's like, it's really clever. That's why VATs exist. Cause they knew that Fallout 3 shooting was not good. And they were like, shit, we gotta do something about this. And now it's now it'd be weird to not have it. Yeah, well, and you know, it's something that is carried over from the old isometric, you know, the old PC Fallout 1 and 2 as well. It's RPG, right? Like that's what makes it the RPG. It's almost like real-time term base. It's just cool. It's also like Fallout 3 coming to consoles was, you know, that was like the 360 and the PS3 area. That was like the first time that he's traditionally PC games could come to console. And they were technological marbles despite being buggy. It was like, wow, this entire PC RPG is on console. Like it felt really cool. They figured out how to map controls for a controller, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about Cod's worth. Watching this footage. Is it Cod's worth? Isn't the voice what's his name, Matt Berry? Is it really on the show? Yeah. Not in the game. Not in the game. I'm going to look it up. Anyway, that's what I've been playing. Sam, anything you've been playing that you can share? No. That new stuff I've been playing, but I did continue playing Assassin's Creed until I got to the ship combat and it's awesome. So good. And just like cruising around and upgrading your ship and everything. It's just I love it so much. Cool. And Justin has played in the last two weeks has played two full work weeks of factorial. It is. I do have something else I can talk about though, but just I do like just for scoop nation. It's bad. I'm back in the factorial. It's bad. I've played 75 hours of factorial the last two weeks. And I thought like before scoop, I'm like, I'll look this up and that'll be a fun little like nugget of like, oh, how much factorial. And then I saw the stat and I was like, "Oh my." (laughing) - And the opposite of that.
Yeah, I might need to like, I might need to like examine like this. Not good, but like not the game I actually want to talk about is I bought and I've been playing with my family rhythm heaven group So cool switch and we just we absolutely love it. What a great family game And like there's no new insight like everybody knows it rhythm heaven super rap Yeah, but it's just nice to have a reminder It's just so weird and quirky and we just don't get as much of that kind of like I was gonna say we don't get that as much from Nintendo, but like Tomodachi life is also that so maybe that's not true But like I just love when Nintendo sort of allows themselves to just like just this weird humor We're kind of off-kilter and I don't I don't know enough like I don't know if it's like Japanese humor or what it is But like it's just I just I love it. I love it. It's that kind of warrior-wear-esque But like warrior-wear games haven't been good for like a decade and it reminds me of like you know back in the day What that kind of vibe used to be of just weird and random and funny and fun and we just we love it and it makes my whole family laugh You're making me want to get this too. It is I will say and like the the game on board to it calibrates like You know because it's the rhythm time like it's really serious about the timing of the button presses and because of modern HD TVs They do have you know however many milliseconds of lag that like when you start the game you time It's like press the button when you think you should be like on the beat and like and then and then like I got in my head about that Of like well, what if I'm just not doing a good job of pressing the button and then I felt like I wanted to go through it again and recalibrate and like It's so like that took a little bit, but like it's it's great. I can't recommend it and I think you're I think your kids would like replaying Parapa. I was just gonna say that Parapa desperately needs that calibration. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. My dad's gonna bite me Mark anything I did dive back into pow world 1.0. I started over. It's great. I haven't seen anything new only because Just the rate I'm playing it at I'm playing like an hour maybe two hours a day if even so it's like I'm still kind of early so people are really excited for the new stuff. I haven't seen anything I feel like I'm just playing all the other stuff, but something else I've been playing is There's been this destiny craze because they yeah, it's funny when it when they say the games over That suddenly everybody, you know, feels this urge to go and play it. It's like yep should done that a year ago Yeah, game wouldn't be over probably, but I'm playing through the renegade DLC and it is so fun It is hilarious because I thought it would be kind of Star Warsy. No, it's Star Wars. It's it's so funny because it's like They had to have gotten some sort of like license, right? So they did it. It was like Okay, they call them lightsaber. Okay. Oh wait. Well, so like is there was eight. No, so that's the thing It's not Star Wars in the sense of like None of the characters are like there's Kylo Ren his name is not Kylo Ren There's just like the stormtroopers are not called stormtroopers, but it's it's straight up is Kylo Ren, right? But what I'm very cool about it. No, they call it it's licensed I mean, I'm paraphrasing the press release, but they're like, you know in partnership with Star Wars We're doing special, you know a special story pack for Destiny like it's not it's not you know It's like melding the two together in a way and it was official. It was all like a buff board I'm I'm not saying it's not licensed in the sense of like yeah, cuz they would get sued for for being like but like that character That's not Kylo Ren his name is not Kylo Ren It's not You don't go to Tatooine and so you go to Venus, but like when you go to Venus, it's dig a box. That's what it is When you go to certain parts and Mars, it's Tatooine, right? So every level is kind of a recreation of a Star Wars It's really creative. I like that. And that's what's really really cool about it is you're like wait I'm on Dagobah or I'm on Hoth or I'm you know on the Like that was the Sar like pit, right? They don't call it the Sar like pit But that's where you are. You're doing the ending scene from Return of the Jedi type of deal and it's it's super like it's super cool to kind of guess where in the Star Wars saga you're at and then see them kind of recreate it in the destiny story When did this come out? I don't know how this completely escaped me. Maybe a year ago. Yeah, you're crazy This was the old DLC. Yeah, no, but it is it is so much fun I I'm loving it a lot just be just because it's just like Again, you just you go into a level and you're like oh, I'm You know, I'm a I'm in Return of the Jedi or I'm in I'm in Hoth I'm in you know, it's so it's like it's just it's super fun to see the levels kind of recreated But in this like destiny setting. So I'm I'm having a lot of fun with this cool in That actually sounds really cool. Yeah, yeah in my opinion because the way destiny is set up now You can just install the game make a character and then just jump right into this if you want it won't make a ton of sense because it's not making a ton of sense to me if you didn't play like edger fate because it's like kind of a sequel to edger Fate but if you're there just for some fun shooting and and you want to see kind of Star Wars-y type of stuff then It's a no-brainer to jump in and play it. It's I think it's super fun. I have another Game just to mention that I didn't play but Mitchell played but we just put up the preview of the Castlevania Belmont's curse Yes, so cool. They show the map which is like obsession for me because I want to be able to you know uncover the map It's just right everything's just right in it I'm cool my most anticipated game of this. Yeah, yeah, the whip is a traversal thing You don't use it to fight use different weapons. It looks like dead cells, but kind of slower. There's a pretty good reason for that mark right right The last thing to say about Bethesda is that Todd Howard in his like Mimmo today dropped that Skyrim is sold 65 million copies Which is just a weird way to share that information like it's not a press release or in like a financial earnings It's just Todd Howard just saying it. Okay. Yeah, trust him. Okay. I guess we'll take your word for it Well, I get the impression and look this is just me speculating so I don't you know, but like I get the impression that Todd Howard and Bethesda were told Hey obsidian's gonna be making a follow-up game right so it's like you know You like we would love to have you announce this and sort of say it on your own terms But like this is happening. That's that's kind of the vibe that I got but you know There's been these weird things just internet stuff where people have been saying that like this is what's gonna Push Todd to retire because Todd is so precious about these franchises and now his parent company is gonna be like well Other people are now going to be able to make the things that usually you're leading and so he says in the press release He's like I'm very happy that obsidian is making a follow-up game. There's no bad blood at all and stuff like that so Yeah, how weird is the arc of the the story here where all these studios got snatched up and the scare there is like Oh, they're gonna be forced to make a bunch of games. They don't want to make and then like Exactly the opposite. Yeah, you guys can do whatever you want we're gonna put it out for basically free Nobody's gonna make any money because subscribers That was the plan. We're gonna spend seven years making a vowed and then when it's a middling success We're gonna start a vowed to right away. Yeah. Yeah, nice guy filled thought like it was just one of those things Where it's like people are gonna make whatever they want. It's all gonna supplement game pass and it just Then work out We talked about with Netflix Okay, let's move on so this broke last night the God of War show is currently filming. This is gonna be in Amazon Show it's been filming for four months and now this the actor his name escapes me. He played Ryan Hearst Yeah, he played opian sense of anarchy and actually played Thor in the God of War games He's Kratos. They've been filming for four months. I believe four episodes are done But he had an injury he tore his bicep and they're gonna recast him It's crazy. It's so crazy, right? Well, and that that show has been a little bit cursed It was just in pre-product it felt like one of those shows that was never actually gonna happen because the showrunner changed over and all that other stuff And then but then they got you know Ronald D. Moore who made battle-star Galactica and made Yeah, for all mankind like one of the and if you don't know those shows for that name like one of the most in-demand best Amazing talents in the world of like, you know linear TV stream or story telling today. Yeah, yeah, Star Trek D space nine is how you got a So yeah, so like you know it looked like everything was looking up and I mean and I'm not saying it's not looking up now But like the fact that they're just recasting yeah, I'm like how serious like for the bicep injury and the ad have surgery and all that stuff But like it's got to be crazy serious, right that like yeah or or maybe they weren't unhappy and now this is kind of a good excuse and that's just I don't know Yeah, but but the the the term torn bicep is one of the grossest things I've ever heard Yeah, and like what tore it is usually the bone which is really gross and it just freaks me out. Yeah, so it's either you're right It's either one of two things either a the injury is so serious and the recovery is gonna be so long You know weeks and months. I think they said like it was gonna be like well over a month that they're like look We got it, you know, we got to recast the role or you know in just asking questions mode like maybe it was like maybe they were like kind of 50 50 Like fence sitting on like And now this is their opportunity to have another crack at like, you know, casting the role. I don't know I mean He's the main character. They're gonna have to reshoot most of it right like
four episodes. I mean, the kids going to be got a four two age by that one. It's funny to think of like the mood board for like what people care about for crados and like biceps is the biggest word on it. It's true. It is. They are important. I assume it's also probably some sort of like, you know, the whole like a broken skateboard can never be fixed type of deal. It's like even after he recovers. Is that a thing? I've never heard that thing. Well, it's like he's a marketing. It was when I was growing up, but it's like, you know, people would try to fix their skateboards, you know, if they broke down the middle, but it's like, you can never fix it. It will always just be weakened. I love seeing people tried to do to fix skateboards. That's really, really funny. I grew up in a really poor part, California. Like adding like like metal rulers to both sides of it. Yeah, it might just be a mark, uh, central valley of California saying, but uh, scoop lore now. Yeah, you can't fix a broken skateboard. I mean, it makes sense, though, right? You can't fix a broken skateboard. And so it's like, I'm wondering if they're like, thank God, this happened now and not several seasons in because like we need this guy in peak physical form for the next 10 years. And he heard himself four season like four episodes in. And like even when he recovers, the injuries still just going to exist forever. And this is going to be a very demanding role. I think it did. I think after you recover from a torn bicep, the rains, you know, it doesn't have, it doesn't get back to a hundred percent, right? Right. It did escalate quickly. I mean, this, this news did come in to drop first. It was. Hey, you know, there's an injury and the show is going to have to stop down and he's going to have to have surgery. And then like 24 hours later, they're like, where we cast him, you know, there's another option here where the actor said, exactly, this production sucks. Yeah, I can't believe I got injured. I quit. That's exactly what I was going to say is maybe he's furious. And he's like, Hey, I'm going to I might sue or I'm upset or you know, like understandably, right? Like this is you only get one body. You're only on this earth one time. You know, so it's like, you know, like that's a very serious, like he's been injured at work. Like that's it, that's a, that's a serious thing. You know, so there is that component of this as well. I mean, I will say there's an intangible, like if you're watching the show, we have the one screenshot that they were able to betray us and and Kratos. And like, there were a lot of criticism at the time, including for me, if like, it just looks a little weird. It just looks a little off. And it's kind of intangible. Like I can't even really articulate why. But like, this is similar. All we've seen of the Zelda movie is like two or three screenshots as well. Um, stills, excuse me, not screenshots. And like, it just like, what's the difference between like the real thing and something that looks like really authentic cosplay. And it's like, it's such a fine line. And like, I always thought that God of War looked slightly weird. I can't tell you why. Whereas I thought that the stills that we thought from Zelda looked a little bit more sort of true to what I was expecting. So I don't know, maybe that's an unfair comparison or no one else feels that way. I think I did. I think Kratos has a body type that very few people have, right? You have your even Dave Bautista doesn't even have that body type anymore. But it's like Dwayne Johnson. And then, you know, and so it's like, if they want star power, it's really only Dwayne Johnson. You know, you'd have to kind of go into the more unknowns. Yeah. Yeah. We're finding the fading star power. We're gonna say we're fine. Dwayne Johnson is not the box office draw that he used to. Yeah. But it's hard to like, you know, you have like, you know, Kratos is a God, right? And like can be made to look and act and move however they want him to in the in the games. But then when you have to turn that into like a real actual human being needs to play the role, that's, you know, that's really tough. Yeah. Crazy news for this show, which I didn't have a lot of confidence in. Although, you know, like we're saying, Ronald Nemours is a great showrunner, but like, it's a very, very like special effects heavy CGI heavy, yes, just huge over the top action set pieces. And then, you know, constantly fighting monsters and this accident you can throw and come back to him. Like, I don't it's a really hard thing to pull off. But they threw all that money at rings of power. So I guess, I guess they're happy to throw money at shows. Yeah. Let's check in with the listeners. Hey, listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address,
[email protected], just like Glenn Kirby and Barnsley, Mary Old England did. This is Hi, David and the scoops. As you may or may not be aware, I've sent a lot of emails these past 12 months, which is no doubt, no doubt due to me listening to old scoop every day upon completing the backlog for a second time. I must my God. I must say to Justin that I have no regrets. Other than not counting how many times he has told us super Metroid is his favorite game. He's never going to live it down. Thank you guys for all that you do. And though it may be many years away, I've no doubt that I will relisten again as with only one video game podcast available. What is a guy to do? Man, what an idiot, right, Justin? I can't find nothing better to do with this time. Stop. I'm not getting involved. We listen to it all twice. Good. Please do it. Please do it three more times. I want to hear what his favorite season and storyline is. Yeah. We've got some great stats from the new game 20 questions. Guys, I've been octad. Oh, no, always happens when you least suspect it. Let's just throw this password back in here. Greg Kelly says, hello, Damon, I would, I thought I would send in some six months video game 20 questions stats. So we can check in how the guys are doing so far this year. So I feel like poorly, but I'm curious to have that validated or not by the stats. So overall stats so far this year, you played 24 games of 20 questions with 14 wins with a win rate of 58%. That seems quite low. Your average questions for a win is 17.4 questions. Your quickest win this year was in February. It was Mega Man 2 and you got it in nine questions. Okay. That was a good one. Your longest winning string because streak has been five games. Very good. Individual stats. Sam has played 22 games. Win rate 64%. Justin has played only 15 games. Justin's missing a lot of scoops this year, but you still have a win rate of 60%. That's good. Yeah, that's the key. Mark, you've played 12 games. Win rate of 58%. Nick has also played 12 games. Win rate of 58%. Wow. Our rotating fourth chair is neck and neck. Yeah, at least it's consistent. He says, yes, a bit of a bumpy road so far compared to previous years. Here are the overall win rates for the first six months of the past few years. 2025. Your win rate at this point was 66%. 2024. You're at 82%. 2023. You're at 77%. He says, that's okay. This is a show where everything is made up and the points don't matter. That's right. The points are just like an Xbox exclusive. Oh. Xbox catch and strays. We did it. Yeah, this is great. He only made that joke. He says, if you don't go to me just a little more. I've been waiting. I've been wanting to deep dive into the stats of the actual video game metadata from this segment. And I just did this. So here are the five oldest video games that have ever been selected for video game 20 questions. So in March of 2016, we did Oregon Trail. Yeah. What do we call three eighties? In December 2015, we did pong. In March 2023, we did breakout. In May of 2022, we did asteroids. And in January, 2020, we did missile command. Those are all wins. Both 1980s. I was wondering about pong. I didn't know if we had it. I couldn't. I didn't remember if we'd done pong. Mark, did you ever play Oregon Trail? No. Have you ever played pong? Yeah. Have you played break out? I mean, what is breakout? Like it's like brick annoyed. It's with break out is the game with bricks at the top and a paddle at the bottom, the ball. Oh, then yes. Sure. Of course, we had we had Oregon Trail on our school computers, but all I would ever do was hunt the Buffalo and just get thousands of pounds of Buffalo meat that then you can't like, it's too much to take with you and it all spoils. But like I forget, I forget what they were called, but I even played the the Colin Moriarty breakout games. I thought that they were fun. I don't know. I don't remember. No, he made it. He published a breakout like video game. There was two of them, like game called Shatter. There was like a PSN game. Oh, yeah. And I think he was. So did he make a game like that? Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. And then he, they just did it like a Castlevania type game. Cool. All right. Back to Greg Kelly. These are the five newest games you've used to date. And these are also all wins. We've in January 2024, we did Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown in June of 2025. We did this is last June. We did Nintendo Switch 2. Welcome to her. I completely forgotten. We did that like right when the Switch 2 was launched. Yeah. It's great. In August 2023, we did Baldur's Gate 3. I think that'll also have been right when that was released. November 2022, we did God of War, Ragnarok. And then in November 2019, we did after party, which I don't even remember what that game is. I don't remember a game called after party. I don't know. I can't remember either. It's at the Oxen free. Those are all wins. So you guys said, Greg Kelly says you guys are very good at guessing very old and very new games. Yeah. I will say we've been doing video game 20 questions for so long now. What over a decade? I think probably that like there's 10 more years of video games now than there was back then. So the game only gets harder every single week. That's true. That is one way to think about it. We have the same number of questions to narrow in on thousands and thousands of more video games than before. You guys are going to like this one. He broke down your win rates by game release.
decades. So for games from the 70s, you have a hundred percent win rate. You always get games. For games in the 80s, you have a 72 percent win rate, 90s, 75 percent. 2000s is your lowest. You have a 69 percent win rate for games of the 2000s. Nobody remembers what it was. Well, it's also because there's overlap the 64 in the in the console. The goes into the 2000s. 2010s, 73 percent in the 2020s and 81 percent win rate. Oh, I think for every decade we do this show, we should get another question and the game should be 21 questions now. That seems to help somebody's lost. We've had recently. Some people do write in. It's very common for people to write in saying they have a suggestion for 21 questions. So I think it's actually a regional thing. I think in some parts of the world, they call it 21 questions. Like you get 20 questions and then you get your guess. You screwed us out of a question this entire time. No, I go by the official USA rules, American rules, league rules. This is also good. He also stats by game publishers. So for Capcom games, you guys have a 96 percent win rate. Sick. Yeah. What? Yeah. That's so. I mean, you guys, I, I, G, and live got Resident World Requiem off of a gray blog. Yeah. They got a million points of that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Lucas Ritz 92 percent 2K games 88 percent. I'm not going to go through everyone. But this is interesting. Nintendo for Nintendo games, you have an 84 percent win rate. And apparently we've done 117 Nintendo games. I have breathed the sigh of relief whenever I have Mark on in a Nintendo game because I know it's going to be easier. You guys are not good at guessing Atlas games. You have, you have never correctly guessed an Atlas game of which we've. Oh, no. Of which we've done four. Was it just this guy? Oh, I don't know. Persona, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty game. Persona or a Catherine. Oh, yeah. And make a chin. Uh, and pretty easy. Finally, stats for the most common video game platforms. You have an 88 percent win rate for Sega Genesis games. Cool. Cool. We don't get a lot of this. You've done 25. You've done more Sega Genesis games than Switch games. I can't even name 25 Genesis games. You have an 87.5 percent win rate for Switch. Uh, your lowest is for Mac games. I don't understand this. It says Mara. 39 percent win rate for Mac games. And so we've done 33 Mac games. Greg Kelly, you're answering. What would you mean by that? What? I don't know. Marathon. Yeah. Marathon and nothing else. Yeah. That's a little interesting shuffle put cafe. Oh, I'm a little bit alarmed at how much scoop. Well, I'll tell you, like, I'm gone for work. I travel for work a lot now. And usually Thursday is like my travel travel day. And that's why I'm missing missing the show quite often, unfortunately. All right. Before we get into the 20 questions, let's do an extra curricular activities. Well, I finally got to see the furious. Is anyone familiar with the furious? This is kind of this year's big action movie people call it. It's it's it's like the rate taken. It meets the raid. Now, it's not quite the raid, but it's very good, very fun. And it's it's interesting. It's an English language, Hong Kong film from a Japanese director. Wow. Yeah. Interesting. We've got two main protagonists. One guy is looking for his kidnapped daughter. The other is looking for his missing wife, who is an investigative journalist. And together, they beat up everyone they encounter and their questions, rescue their loved ones. That's it. That's the whole plot of the movie. And it's great. No, the action scenes are so good. They're doing, using like kind of a different fighting style that we haven't seen before. One of the main bad guys is this like big burly guy. And he, like, runs around on all fours like an animal and just burrows into people. It's totally fun watch. I watched it on a prime video. Totally recommend if you're an action movie fan. Why are people taking, taking kids? It's much more fun to make them from what I understand. Yeah. From my understanding. Yeah. Look at this. This is this 100% used. It's so good. Oh, gross. It's great. So I recommend that. And then Sam, you earned your double O. I did two O's. So I saw obsession, which I loved. It was really fun. It feels like a great college movie. Like it's right on the edge of being, you know, it's not artsy. It feels like it is a little bit. It's made by students. Like there's, there's a couple characters, which are casted, which seem like the friend of the director. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the friend. Also, the line of the magic show. The character of Ian is the director's, like, creative partner. They do this huge channel together. I'm a huge, yeah, that guy in the hat. I'm a huge fan of that's a bad idea. So like, do you see this movie work? I've not seen the movie kind of see it. Because I love their skits. Man, they are so funny. I mean, this movie is really good. Well, man is so good. And she has these like kind of like dynamic ranges where she'll like be really quiet and really loud. And it's like really scary at times. And also just like really funny. Like it's a movie you like laugh through a lot. And like people make bad decisions over and over again, which you know the outcome too. It's like one of those movies. And you can kind of put together what's going to happen with the twists and turns. But you want to watch it because like she's so, she's just so fun to watch. Yeah. It's interesting to think like like what's she going to do next? Like how do you follow this up? It's going to be crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's the actual gross up. First of all, cat warning. Like there's like, that's what happens to cat in this. And it's not great. Like it's, I don't want to see that on film ever. And then it just, they just triple down on it, which is just like, wow, all right. This is how you're getting your grips out. So that's a warning for people because that is troublesome. But yeah, it is really funny. This party called that they call it a litter warning. Yeah, litter warning. Exactly. Party scene is amazing. And then just like you just kind of the kind of soccer or psycho aspect to it. It's good. Yeah. So the other movie I saw was the Odyssey, which is like a total blast to go see as a like a giant iMac's eye watering in your face experience. You know, like it's got that going for it. It's, it's a great monster movie. Like the monsters are like, are not what I pictured, right? And like really fun and gross is very reminiscent of how good the big gross monsters are. And what's the, what's the Xbox exclusive series about Nordic people? Hellblade. Yeah, there's some some because they go to like an Iceland like setting and this and stuff like that. Like it's really has a little bit of like gross out stuff like that. It's just the Troy retelling of the horse is like really cool. It's really different and thought out in a crazy way. And then the other nice thing I have to say about it is that all the boats are so cool. It's like after playing Assassin's Creed and seeing this like those are practical boats. They like threw boats on the ocean, used a iMacs camera, which only films for three minutes at a time, reset for these seats. Like it's incredible. The special effects of everything are like a lot of them are practical like Lord of the Rings. But it doesn't always look good. And it definitely doesn't only sound good. The script is just awful. Like people just say bad lines over and over again. And they're embarrassing. You know, like watching Matt Damon deliver bad lines over and over is just stupid. But like it's, you know, it's like they're trying to channel like, you know, this is an epic poem like literally a poem with a, you know, kind of beats in pentameter. It's like it's just like it's like doesn't, doesn't make sense when you're watching it. And the casting is all a little bit goofy because it's everybody you know from all the fun. But you know, it looks really cool in the screen. I don't know where this is going to go. Do you all think it's going to be a big movie this summer? Like I can't. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. It's been on sale a year ago in sold-outs. Yeah. And iMacs is only doing it the 70 millimeter way and like 41 cities in the world or something. That's cool. I'm seeing it tomorrow at 30 p.m. So great. I kind of like for me. Yeah. I've tickets on Sunday. But I don't have a, I do have, I have like a digital iMacs theater near me, but it'll look great. It's too far away from me for. Yeah. I don't want to drive this. So I'm just watching it regularly. My theater isn't iMacs. They call it giant screen. Giant screen. That's cool. I have a giant screen. This movie, are you seeing it in iMacs? No, no, no. I'm seeing giant. It feels long. Like, you know, like everybody reads the Odyssey in school or has read the more recent translations. And like the storyline, there's like a frame to it and like they have to tell that story too, which is like what happens when Odysseus like comes home. And like the most interesting stuff in the Odyssey is like stopping on an island. It's like a video game, right? It's like a prototype for so many modern things. And then like what's on the island? And it's always something like absolutely crazy. It's like a monster of the week thing. Nothing good on it. Yeah. Nothing good. And then he gets home and so, you know, and then they have to tell that story. That story feels really long by the individual. Oh my god, I can't. I mean, Oppenheimer is the same way, right? The climax is when they test the bomb. You're like, oh my god, that was incredible. And then there's an hour and a half left to just keep talking in rooms. Yeah. Just court scenes. And then there's another funny thing, which I want people to pick up on when you watch this. There's a little bit of like repeated. This happened with the last movie I was complaining about. I forget what it was right now, but where they always in Star Wars, the Star Wars movie this summer, they kind of repeat the plot points a lot, like you're not paying attention the first time. But one of the funniest things is that they're like Odysseus is the guy from John Barrenthal, the place of Punisher, is a character in it and he's like Odysseus is the smartest man I've ever known. And the movie is literally a series of Odysseus making the suit this mistakes and his and his crew trying to, mutiny against it, but that's the plot.
Like, yes, he did a Trojan war thing that was clever, and then he makes a bunch of really, it's just, they don't play that up though, they like say it like really seriously, they didn't like, they show him making a bunch of stupid calls over and over. Look out for that. It's funny. Man, I'm gonna have to, I want to watch it when I'm at Comic Con, I'm gonna try to find a 70-millimeter screen and see if I can sneak out. I don't think the previews look good at all, and the movie, you know, it's a lot more fun than the previews. And then, Justin, I'm on book four of Dundring, Carla Carl. Wow. Yeah. Cool. Like, we talked, you said like three is kind of considered the low point, but I still really enjoyed three. Yeah. It has really great moments, especially with Katia and Mordekai and that guy Frank. The thing that bugs me about three, and maybe this is a common thing, the iron tangle is just way too complicated. That's possible. That will follow. There's none of it makes lines and stations and the abyss and it's like, oh my god. None of it makes any sense, and then I'm sure the copy that you read, like there's a little forward, the author added like a forward to the book after that's like, look, I know this is really complicated, and don't make any sense, doesn't make any sense, just don't worry about it that much, just like keep keep reading. And like, and then it's true, like, because when I'm reading a book, especially sort of a video gamey style book like Dundring, Carla, I want to be able to map out, I need to know when my head, like they're here and they're going here and it needs to kind of fit together. That's one of the parts of the pleasures of reading it. Yeah, and like, but this is like the one exception of like, don't try to read that book that way, just read it and let it wash over you. I have trouble with, so like I, there's another part was hard for me to picture, which was the pig sphere boss fight. Oh, yeah. And I was just like, they gave the device and then the ball gets rolls up and over. I have no idea what's happening to that. I just like, then they all fall apart into like an orgy of pigs. I like that part. That's funny. But like, I have no idea what's happening. They're describing the building of like the thing that stops it very confused. I like that one. I like that boss fight. It's fun. But I just did, I just to your point of like not being able to picture it. I was like, yeah, yeah. That happens when the rings like they'll like go way out to describe what Helm's Deep looks like in the book and you're like, I have no idea what he's talking about. And then the movie you're like, oh, I see it. And then yeah, and then you see a modeler set and you're like, oh, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They talk about the inner ring and the outer ring. Yeah. And you're like, none of this gets a lot in Bailey design that's meant to do blah, blah, blah. Yeah. No book for I mean, so book like I will whatever I just what I'll say is I think that they get like if I were to rank them next, it would be like four or five six seven eight. Like they just get better. You're better and better. That's cool. Well, I hope I had hoped going into book for that after the complicat the complicity, you know, how complicated book three was that it'd be a little more straightforward in book four, but no, it's also complicated. This like bubble wrap spheres. It's a whole like there's different biomes in each one. I'll say, okay, this I don't know. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Okay. So I'm not as far as you and I love it, but I don't want this to be a TV show or movies here. I mean, that's a thing. It's like saying TV show. It's like you're talking about how it's hard to translate God of war. Like this is even crazier. Yeah. I mean, I just don't want to say talking cat ever. So there's that. There's a whole talking cat. And Sam, when when everyone picks a class on the second and third floor, there's like basically no humans left at all. Everyone's a different weird alien creature thing. Everyone. Yeah. It's what's like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is it is going to be insane and even and even princess donut. It's like, you know, starts off largely comic relief, but then as more and more depth as she goes and like real depth and real pathos and it's like this cat's going to talk and it's like boy, like that's going to be and like, it's not like every once in a while. It's not like a cat's cat. Yeah. I don't know. And like, it's not like 2020 chopper thing about that. They're like, don't change your race when you change. Yeah. She says a cat, but it's like she's just very prominent. Probably has more dialogue than Carl does. So it's like, I don't know how. But I do. I mean, like Seth MacFarland is deeply involved. So it's like, I guess if there's someone that sort of gets this off-kill, too, it should be animated. Yeah. I think so too. Yeah. And I mean, that just sure, if it was an animated show, I'd be like, yeah, let's do this. Yeah, get this to you. That doesn't vincible to do it. Yeah. And then so I'm doing the audio book and there's at the end of every book, there's some bonus material there. Oh, cool. Like at one point, you know how Sam, you know how they go and we'll do interviews. They leave the dungeon to do interviews. One of those parts right now. For one time, they leave to like narrate a documentary about humans on earth. Like they're supposed to narrate it. And I forget what segment Carl's supposed to narrate, but it's just it's total bullshit. And he like refuses to do it. So the producer's like, okay, we have these other segments you can pick from and he picks like to do a segment on arcades. And then so, but they know you never hear it in the book. But do you talk to that? How he's going to frog or something? The bonus material at the end, they like, I don't know. It's like, it's like you go back to the producer talking about how difficult Carl was to work with and the other person's like, okay, well, let's hear what he recorded and they cut into it and he's talking about Cuba. And then he's like, this is all supposed to give me something else to read about. And then it's so meta. He's like, supposedly reading a segment about an author and the author is bitching about how he spends so much time writing the book and then the narrator of the book just has to walk up and read the book and he gets all the glory. So it's it's yeah. Wow. It's written like Jeff Hayes, the voice actor. It's like he's reading dialogue that's making fun of him. That's great. Yeah. I mean, when the book's clever, it's clever, you know, and so that's the type of stuff that I think people really latch on to and it's just plot driven, right? And I keep seeing thing after thing. They keep seeing more and more posts scoop nation. Everyone is discovering Dungeon Curler Carl. And it's cool they're all like doing this at the same time too, although Justin didn't know. Well, not yet, but like last year. And they're still, I mean, they're almost done. What do we? I think I think there's one book left, but it's being split into two. So there's multiple levels in each book. So it's not based on that. Yes. And like, and it does feel like, I mean, you know, knock on books, it's not completely done yet, but like they've been coming out at a really good clip and like it just feels like it's just going to wrap up and conclude. And like that's also kind of rare these days, right? That like something finishes on time and just kind of drama free. So that's rad. But Sam, like no spoilers, I'm on book four. And I think it's on level five. I think there are 18 levels in the dungeon. But no one's ever made it to 18. So I know it's been past 11 or 12 or 13. I think there's a lot more than that. I think the story gets insane. I mean, I'm not going to spoil anything, but like it get it really goes. I mean, yeah. The fact that there's there's the dungeon, but there's this whole other level about what's going on. It could it could go anywhere. It could literally go anywhere. And then the planet. Mark, you should check it out. Yeah. All right. That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestions are this week comes from Brandon and Fresna, California, who says what's up, Goose Camp. I've been a long time listener. Finally thought I'd send in a suggestion for 20 questions. I'm 32 and I've been playing redacted with my 11 year old son to put some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. And it's thanks to this game. I also want to thank you guys for being the best part of my week and making my work day a lot better. I mean, I think it's paper boy. We should just go ahead and guess. So sorry. Did you say Fresno? Yeah. Oh, okay. It's not going to put his name as Brandon. So you know him. I was going to guess. I was going to guess that it's manhunt or manhunt. I got to put him in the mark mindset. Yeah. Okay. He lives 30 minutes from me. So let's see. All right. Let the question begin. Think of all the Brandon's you know, and it's just going to be one of them. Yep. Yeah, Brandon will Brandon Hunn is the only Brandon I know. And Fresno. Yeah. Okay. Did this game come out in the 70s? 80s or 90s? No. Okay. Let's see here. Can you play this game on the Nintendo Switch? Hold please. I think it's Fortnite. Okay. I don't think so, but just to clarify. Oh, God. Wikipedia. No. No. Not donating anything right this second. Thank you. Just do it. Come on. From donations. From you. Support with the website alive. Okay. Don't do it as tears going to roll down Jimmy Welles's face. No, you cannot play this on Switch too. Or a Switch. Okay. Oh, okay. Is this part of a series? No. Is it an indie game? That's kind of interesting. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. We're rails. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Was this game made in America? No. That's five. Was it made in Europe? No. Probably Japan should be spent a question on Japan. Was it made in Japan? Yes. So what was it made by was it made by Capcom Sego or Namco? No. Well, so if we're we're looking at Indies, right? So need to figure out what generation. So let's say, uh, is this did this come out during the PS4 Xbox One generation? No. What are some of the Japanese? Was this game made by Konami from soft or? It's indie. Yeah, but they have with those those don't count as indie. I don't think so. I think this has to be like cave story or something like that. All right. Well, okay. I don't agree, but that's fine. I think Konami's not is an is an indie. It's like one of the biggest game publishers on Earth. But this is why like, like, what does that mean? Yeah.
Is Indie a vibe or is Indie like I know because then it becomes this thing where it's like technically CDPR is Indie. Yes, it's like if they are Okay, is this a ps5 generation game. Yes, and that is 10 Not a franchise 32-year-olds playing it with this 11-year-old PS5 era game Made by made in Japan by it is this game 2D. No Is this primarily played as a co-op game? Uh, I can't answer that question Okay, can you play it as a co-op game? I'm looking I don't know. I don't know Nope, no, maybe nobody knows No one ever tries his multiplayer the primary mode of this game. I don't think so Oh, okay. All right. Maybe it's maybe it's a strand type game. Maybe it's dead stranding Kajimu, could you move productions be considered an Indie? Yeah, for sure. Is it PlayStation produce them? Yeah Like okay, whatever I'm I'll move off this topic, but why would kajima productions be Indie but not Konami? Um, okay If they self-produced it, it would be Indie like CDPR, but PlayStation produced them. Okay Not 2D I'd like to know more about what type of video game it is. Is this a Desherated clearly a co-op game It Yeah, the other player plays sidekick mode is a little robot on your shoulder and you get to choose where you kind of blink and flash your thing Um What are some other genres? Is this a Souls-like or RPG? No I kind of think of Japanese Indie devs I don't know that many is this uh, but it's not 2D. I was gonna ask if it's like a Metroidvania But I feel like they're all 2D and like platformers. Yeah, that's a good point I want I want to know more what are what are the what are some video game genres that exist? Shooters So we said no RPG or Souls-like action RPG puzzle that we do then use yeah, is this a is this a puzzle action A puzzle or an action game It would fall into the very very wide umbrella of action That was nice that you gave me that for free even though puzzle puzzle was in there. So I appreciate that Is is combat a main focus of this game? Yes, and that's 15 Yikes I mean, I don't like what about a fighting game although that would be clearly multiplayer rights in every mind PS5 era I don't know man sci-fi game. Yeah, that's helpful. Mm-hmm No Feel like we really botched this one. I'm not I'm not quite sure what we could have or should have done differently But I'm not feeling great. We burned through a lot of what you say that it says retro style graphics. No Even if it's not 2d It's the action thing is like kind of throwing me off because so probably a 3d sword or fist or gun combatty game Yeah, I don't know like we as Sega indie No, oh did my second was one of the developers I asked about right Oh boy PS5 I mean it came out it came out when we all worked here. I'm sure we know what this game is That's um like I'm I'm thinking of my PS5 library. It did did did did this game get positive reviews? Yeah From IGN not not not burning another question on that. I'm just the wanting to know. Yes One of us might have reviewed it. Could it be a platinum game? You have one question in one guess by the way Yeah, we're platinum. They do mostly franchises though Also, what were they up to last year? Are they are they gone? Is platinum dead? They still don't know they're they're working on turtle's game or some Okay Are they were are they doing avatar is that one of their new ones? They're doing good. And my team is the last runin. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right Under the broad umbrella you would broadly consider it An action game It's gotten it's got fighting and combat in it Could be a soul's like Oh, do you act strictly that's like okay Do we like Do we burn a question asking because if it is platinum then we could just think about what platinum games there would be But it's like nobody knows if it has co-op in it or not Because there's stuff like an ninja guy didn't but like ninja guy didn't it's not Indie and if that's not broad action. Let's We're in trouble Yeah, I think we are in trouble. I don't know. Is there like a hail Mary that might completely narrow it down if we get that and then the next thing Not part of a series Please plan it with this kid So it can't be anything too crazy Where was our world made maybe it's our world mm-hmm That's not a horrible guess That's not a that's not a that's not a bad guess. It's obviously like Isn't that I don't think that's obvious. It's not on the switch. That's for sure. You wouldn't have to look it up though I don't I don't I don't mind that mode of thinking I've been thinking a lot about console games But kind of like, you know, Japan is doing more and more kind of like PC centric stuff Not saying it's power world, but like something in that like Vibh Yeah, like a gotcha game maybe Yeah, I mean, I know it's yeah, that's South Korean, but yeah, yeah, maybe like a gotcha ish game or Something like that or like a Japanese MMO. Why don't we just hail Mary is this a gotcha game and then try to guess it Because I don't know what else we're gonna do. Okay, is this a gotcha game. No Okay, do we want to guess power world? Yeah, sure. It's a power world. Yes, it's power world And I was worried because Mark mentioned it earlier in the episode. I was like oh might be too easy now But yeah, it's great. Yeah, so I've never played it well done us and the Wikipedia page says nothing about co-op So yeah, it's a hundred percent co-op. It's it's a survival game Well anything out. Yeah, but I played it solo. So I mean yeah, well sure you can play it solo Mark and I are dealing with this right now because it's really hard to set up a server to play with your friends Yeah, I figured out how to help people with that Yeah, dedicated server like you could you could play just you know like it's it's one of those it's one of those games Where it's like if somebody's online you can join their world But what people want is dedicated servers so that way just always exists, but yeah Great game. I think it's yeah, this game got done a little bit dirty I mean, so first of all they completely ripped off Pokemon. So whatever like they didn't get done dirty But like remember when this game was new and everyone's like it's Pokemon with guns, and I'm like that's not really Like that's just so inaccurate like what they've built and what they're trying to do that like you know That's more craft survival. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a base building game. It's where I mean, it's rust. It's valheim Yeah, where your zerglings are lambs Yes, you know, that's that's just kind of how it is um, yeah, there's But it does have the it's true that when you say Pokemon guns Like the vibe of it is like violent do nasty things to these Pokemon instead of just care for them and keep them Yeah, I mean, there is there is an element of gark humor of like you're you're exploiting to Pokemon, right? But it's done with kind of like a wink like you know, it's it's on anyway I played pow world in early access and I really really liked it But it was it was like very early access like right when it was brand new and I think Yeah, just when the base building was yep, and so basically all you could do and so now that 1.0 is out Maybe this is the game that can like me suck me away from yeah, it's funny because like the one who really made me think This was pow world and 20 questions was that it suddenly occurred to me that the meta was like we barely ever Pit games that are like hot right now and like this is one of them, but it's not it's complicated because it came out a few years ago and early access Yeah, yeah, so this game the numbers for this game are unreal if you had no interest in this game And don't know anything about it like just know that like it has like the biggest team numbers. It's crazy popular Yeah, yeah, it's funny. They wouldn't change. Yeah, it's great. They changed a few pal designs But like that's actually not what they were even being sued over. I'm sure that was like kind of in there It was like that I thought the game was glitched because when you throw out your your sphere The Pokemon just or the pals just
appear next to you now. And I was like, I think it's like doing some weird server stuff. No, it's something they had to change. They had to like basically pretend that your pal doesn't live in the sphere. Even though you catch them in a sphere, it's funny. It's funny how much they've avoided a copyright lawsuit. It's by changing. You throw this fear at them to make them your friend, but they don't live in the sphere. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny that like in 2026 that this is like, but like one of the traits that they can get is work slave. Yeah, it's not good. But that's what I mean about the wild. It's a little bit. It's meant to be. I don't know, but funny. It's carrying around this fox and it's a fox launcher. Yeah, it becomes a flame throw. Yeah. That's where most of the guns come from. Like you can eventually get a gun, but like the first gun you'll get is there's like a little grass-type pal and you know, you build him a gun. And so then he sits on your shoulder and shoots a gun for you. It's great. What a great game. Yeah. And I know they've been in a lot of hot water with Nintendo, but I wasn't 100% sure if it was on Twitter or not. So that's why I did it. It is not. It's on PS5XBoxPC. Yeah. Well, nicely job. Yes. Oh, and pocket pair is the independent Japanese developer and publisher of this. Yeah. Nice job. Thank you for the suggestion Brandon and Fresno, California viewers. Listeners, if you have your own suggestions for a video game, 20 questions, email them to me at the email address
[email protected]. That's all the scoops we have for you this week. Remember, we're going to be off next week down in San Diego, but then we'll be back with Fresh Scoop the week after that. So thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to Joe Bird, working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is hygiene gamescoup and we're out. So last week, the question came up. Is this game licensed? And Damon said, yes, no, don't ask me that question. And that's all we could think about for the rest of the episode. Sometimes that happens, man. One question just gets you. And we did not get it. What was the game? Well, if I tell you, then you might have this stuck in your head for this whole episode. But Sam, I don't feel bad because you guys knew it was on Switch. But I should have known that battlefield has never been on Switch. I know. Well, I also knew that we had another we had another at the end of the episode. I said another thing that what it could have been battlefield for. But we had said the name of the game too. So that's always, I don't know why the why the confusion with the license. I fully agree. I just I fully agree. This was a mistake on my part. Yeah. The game was apex legends. Yeah. So when they asked us at license, I was like, because it was like baseball, but is it licensed? In truth, no, it's not licensed. Like here, respond to not license this property from anyone. So there was a very funny moment. Does this game because we thought it was Titanball and it was like, did this have Max in it? And it's like, no, and that's that's true for events, right? Yeah. It might have a singular mech. I don't know what the fighters are doing in that game, but not a not a mechie game. It's like a prequel or something like that. It's in the same universe. I don't know about the lore of like when it takes place. They're big robots. Suites. That's a good. That's all. I'm constantly asking myself that. Yeah. The matrix didn't seem so bad, honestly. I don't know why people wanted to break out of it. People are retconning Cypher, the one that betrays him. I was just saying, Sam's a Cypher defender. Yeah. Wait, what? He turns his bliss. He's the one that betrays him to get put back into the matrix. His mind knows that the steak isn't real, but in yet it still takes you to see it delicious. What movie is the matrix? The first one. It's in the first one. Yeah. Yeah. It's a whole point. I can't get more than halfway through that movie anymore. What are you talking about? It's still a great, it's still a perfect movie. No, it's not. It's great. It is. It is. Yep. You're wrong in this, Sam. I agree. I agree with Sam. Part two is way better. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think the matrix does seem pretty good because it's locked in 1998, which was, you know, 99 even had a kind of fun year. It had bullet time. No, there's that line in the matrix of like, there's a line in the matrix about how I'm paraphrasing now, but like what, it's the, it's the late 90s, which was the peak of civilization. And that's why the robots like, you know, made the matrix knock to this time. And then when the movie came out, everyone was like, now here we are 30 years later and it's like, that was it. That was the apex. Yeah, it was not so bad. Nobody could have predicted that year. The last Elder Scrolls game came out. Yeah. The biggest thing we had to worry about is our computer is not being able to tick, tick over to the year 2000. Yep. That was it. How hot is it there? It was, it was 109. Yeah. Oh crap. We're going to be a little cooler and by cooler. Too hot. Maybe 101. Too hot. Last night was the first time we went to bed where, what I had my AC said to was what the temperature in the house was usually for the past week or so. About struggles to get down to the temperature. It's like 80 here. And I'm like, this is too hot. Yeah. Well, it's cold in Wendy in San Francisco. Nothing. Oh, I know. I was like, San Francisco. Doesn't go on Friday. And I had like hours to kill. I went to the Nintendo store, which was fun. But I was just in Union Square. And it was like freezing. And I did not bring a jacket or anything. Yeah, last week it got down to 55 during the day. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. I was just, I was just soaking it up because I knew hours later. I'd be back in the 100 plus degrees. Yeah. The tourists and their shorts are just like what the fuck is happening all around the wharf? San, are you off to your music fest? Yeah. Yeah. I'm doing that all weekend. And the pavement's playing tonight, which is pretty exciting. It's really cool. The eggie pop tomorrow and Bikini kill the headlines. But then the coolest thing is on Sunday, one of our headliners is Sleeter Kenny. It's the people for it's Fred Armisen and Perry from Portland, yeah, doing a full Ramones cover set. Oh, wow. That's so cool. Yeah. And it's called the return of Jackie and Judy. So there's that. And then a bunch of the, you know, the smaller indie bands that Helena I work with, but we're doing the driving for the most of those big acts. So that's what I'm doing this week. And maybe Ad Rock will be there because Kathleen Hannah's or Ad Rock's wife. And Bikini kill. So that's really exciting. But yeah, just part of that, that whole crew getting started tonight. Cool. He's doing driving right now for a band called Wednesday, which is kind of weasered like with a girl singer. I don't know them. All right. Whatever gets everybody can grab some 20 questions. I was insane. Yeah, that was great. Bye. Well, we can't talk about it at all in this episode. But imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Delta mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. 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