[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he's like sitting there smoking a cigarette on the beach. She's like having a beer while he's talking to us. He's to get the dog running around. I mean, that's the way to do an interview for a podcast. He's, he's really crushing it. So, well, we're going to cut over to that now. This is, uh, Graham Struthers, co-founder of Devolved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well, we really appreciate you joining. Um, obviously Graham was there at the very beginning of Devolver and it's an interesting story because Devolver right now is easily the number one indie label on the planet and it's just consistently


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Banging out bangers. I don't think that's how you should say it, but it's a thing. The strike rate for this publisher is pretty crazy. I think it's, there's a pretty remarkable ability to pick winners. I don't know of any publisher that has the same success rate that Devolver has displayed over the last little while. So really interested to hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where that all began, that journey, some of the major beats, like your Hotline Miamis and your Fall Guys and what that was like. And uhm, also just kind of get your view on the indie scene because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, obviously it's rapidly changing and, and, and you're at the center of all that. So, uh, for the benefit of those that don't quite know you very well, would you mind sort of introducing yourself and your history with Devolver, et cetera, the top line stuff?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. So then when you say that, uh, gathering it, cause I remember gathering and developers and, and as I understand you sort of talked about the idea that it was founded to make sure that developers got a better deal, but you said that didn't really work. What, why didn't it work? Like what was the major hurdle there?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. Okay. So those same value and aspirations were carried over wholesale into Devolver at its founding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So those, uh, early years were quite focused on serious Sam from memory. That was like the bedrock foundation of Devolver. How did that all happen? And then like, how did that lead to, how did that get the company through that opening window?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It went pretty well for a while, but then all of a sudden Hotline Miami came along and kind of put things into another gear. Is that, is that, is that correct to say that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] soundtrack to this day. I mean, still, I don't think I can't to this day unparalleled really, but there's just nothing that's been quite like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously, uh, that was a big sort of like shot in the arm in terms of validating that strategy, going the indie label path. And it kind of, it looks like that you sort of leverage that for the next few years. Cause after that you had like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean I'm sort of condensing six years here into like a few bullet points, but I think that at that point Devolver started to establish itself as


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, a label that really knew how to pick winners, uh, it really knew what the secret source was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that right? So is Nigel sort of like the main game scout that is out there just like or was even and it's different now, like how that, that process.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, right. Yeah, cool. And it was around this time that, uh, you started doing the E3 showcases. That was, uh, how did, how did they get their start? And I think Nina, Nina Struthers, right? I think that's, that's her surname.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nintendo as a company seemed like they wouldn't really take a joke well. They just get that vibe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you guys also would attend E3, but you'd do it across the street in a car park with the, with the devolver balloon. Uh, that was always the coolest place to be. It always had the best food, nice vibes. It was always a bit hot, but it was, it was a great little setup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think, uh, uh, obviously Hotline Miami was a real sort of like boost and a real milestone for the thing, but the next really gigantic one was surely Fall Guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, tell us the story about how that was discovered and how it was brought to market and what the aftermath was like when it went absolutely crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you disappointed then to have seen it make the jump over to the Epic Games Store becoming exclusive in that way?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And is that, is that scaling up mainly on the technical side in terms of the live ops, just keeping the game running at the backend or is that also the marketing and PR? Like is it, what is that exactly? That scale up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And was, was there anyone on the team that predicted that level of success? Was there someone sitting at the back kind of just going like, trust me, this is going to be big. Or was it that much of a surprise to everyone?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, um, I think the big thing that's happening these days obviously, uh, is subscription services. They are taking over. You had, uh, game pass and you've got your PS extra now and all sorts of stuff. I'm probably forgetting like eight other services.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But right now you guys aren't taking a bath on subscription deals. You don't feel like you're being put over a barrel and you know, you feel like right now it's, it's actually working out pretty well net positive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, you're right. Uh, the other really big thing that's affecting you guys directly is that you guys went public a little while back and you guys are worth like a billion dollars now, if I'm not mistaken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is still worth a lot of money. Okay. That's, that's the thing. And that obviously the public thing shifts the priorities of a company in the way in a company works. Um, shareholders have different expectations and they apply pressure in different ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How resilient do you think Devolver will be to that sort of pressure? What's gonna stop Devolver from?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well look, uh, it's been fantastic talking to you. Uh, I know we're all fans of the output of Devolver and have been for a long time. And, uh, if it can keep on keeping on the way that it is, then I think everyone's going to be pretty happy because you know, it's, it's always a good time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's always just fun talking about, uh, devolver stuff. Cult of the Lamb was great. Uh, we got, uh, Monkey Island Soons. That Stick It to the Stick Man looks like a good sign. It was just unveiled. It looks nice. So there's always, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, look, we won't take up any more of your time. We can see the sun is setting there and, uh, we want to let you get back to it. But look, thank you so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so that was Graham Strullers from Devolver Digital. Uh, thank you very much for joining us from your beachside location. Awesome chat. Really great to hear about that company. And as we were saying at the end, we all just love this stuff and it was nice to hear how the sausage is made. No, it's so nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who knows? We might have one or two Tories watching us who are like, actually, I'm really glad that Liz Truss got the nod. I think she's going to be great. Um, let's move on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, let's move on. So we've got, uh, one thing we haven't talked about yet is major game releases for the week. Um, there were quite a few. Actually, I've had to chop out a few from this list just to focus on the ones that, you know, we might've played or we might be able to talk about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a song. Uhm, cool. All right. Well, now that we've done that, now that we know that, and we'll have to leave a link to that podcast below, I suppose. Uh, let's talk about some video games. Uh, one that came out this week that we know Gene was playing was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection. Uh, Gene, what's the deal here with this one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's awesome. I'm actually, I've actually just booted up the Shredder's Revenge just this week. Yeah. Cause everyone was singing his praises and I was just like sitting there on my steam deck. I'm like, yeah, flicking through. I'm like, yeah, this one, this is perfect. I played through the first seven. I'm like, yeah, I see why people like this. It's nice. It's, it's cool. It's fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like a lot of my memories about the turtle games aren't specific memories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So worth your, what is it like? It's like a discount. So it's like 50 bucks for the 13 games. Yeah. So you give it a ringing endorsement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, right, sure. Sorry, 50 Australian dollars, so you get 35 US, uh, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Video game discourse. Hey, let's talk something that we hear that everyone loves. Tinykin, cause I know that, uh, that has been doing the rounds in the last little while. I hear nothing but glowing praise and, uh, turns out you played it loose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just to interrupt, what are the Pikmin? Cause obviously the Pikmin in Pikmin were like little sproutling things. What are they here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so, it's so interesting, cause you could just make another Pikmin game and it'd be kinda shit, but it's like, well we're not getting any other Pikmin games, so this is, you just take what you can get. But it sounds like they made a Pikmin game, but they're like, actually we're gonna make a really good Pikmin game, and you know, we'll take it from here, thanks very much Nintendo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had actually planned to check this one out cause it, as I said, when every time I'd heard anything about it, it was just nothing but glowing praise. And, um, yeah, you've obviously sold it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm definitely, um, it's on, it's obviously going to be on Steam. I'm going to grab it. I'm going to play it on Steam deck. You played it on your Steam deck, didn't you, Luce? The Steam deck that you have. You played it on that, didn't you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crazy, isn't it? It's truly crazy. Yep, yep, yep. Immortality was another game that released this week. No one here has touched that one yet, except for Lucy, who had it with her COVID brain and noped out of it pretty fast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, uh, is reviewing spectacularly well though. 91 on Metacritic, if I remember correctly. And, uhm, everyone really loves it, so I'm really keen on that. Because I actually really love that guy's game, Sanbarlo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, with Last of Us obviously hit, we've already talked about that one to death. We're not going to be talking about that anymore. Temtem hit on the 6th. Uh, no one's played that other than myself, but I played it during the early access period at launch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really liked it. It came at a time when everyone was really pissed off with how stagnant Pokemon felt. Cause this was before like Legends of Arceus or whatever. Sword and Shield had just dropped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it got like ridiculously high reviews, even though it sucked. I'm sorry. It's not the, these days I don't buck, I don't buck much, much against review scores, but no Pokemon Sword and Shield sucked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was like, what? Cause I reviewed it and I was like, this sucks man. So did you, do you have a soft spot? Am I wrong here? Did you guys love Sword and Shield? I liked it a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, sure, sure, sure. But Tim Tam came along at that time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seamless co-op multiplayer, updated visuals, like all sorts of new systems. It was kinda like, hey, this is what Pokemon could be like if Game Freak were to do something with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, I really enjoyed it. Separate from the dunking on Pokemon thing. It was just in itself a really like good game that I enjoyed. That was two years ago. Since then it's got a bunch of updates and it's out now on 1.0 so you can check that out if you like your monster hunting, monster training things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gloomwood hit PC on the 6th, that's from New Blood Interactive, the guys behind all those sort of like retro-y sort of games like Ultra Kill and Dusk and that sort of stuff. Dusk is so good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's an immersive sim and I haven't played it yet. Well, I did play the demo, but I haven't played the full release yet, but it's apparently really good. Disney's Dreamlight Valley. Is anyone planning on picking this up? It's, it's, it's Animal Crossing with Disney characters. Does this ring anyone's bell? Definitely not for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, right. Uuuh, Steel Rising, this was one, you guys remember, okay, Spiders, the team that made Greedfall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, Grateful had a lot of fans for a lot of reasons, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very much in that Bioware mold at a time when similar to Temtem and was like, oh, this is what we really need right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that great fall arrived when Bioware was putting out Anthem and like everyone was like, we really need a Bioware game, please. And it was, it was that, but it was really only good I think for about the first 10 hours. And then they copy and pasted a lot of stuff after that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, you know, it just, the writing was not good. There was a whole bunch of stuff, but a lot of people really liked it. It was a solid game that I think deserves a future. They have announced a sequel for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but still rising was their next project and it's a souls like with the whole kind of like automaton thing going on. You pay like a puppet thing, whatever. It looks kind of cool, but reviews are a bit middling for it. It's kind of sitting at that seven out of 10. Yeah, we gave it a seven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, yep, yep. And uhm, the only other release this week was Splatoon 3, which I haven't got my hands on yet. No one has their hands on it yet, but Gene is fiending it. He's, this is gonna be his. Okay, let me just say this, Gene.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've actually never, not say, but ask. I've never really understood the appeal of Splatoon because I've played little bits of it and I'm like, okay, this is kind of fun. I guess I'm spraying the thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is the thing that makes you love Splatoon?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, outside of that, those are all the big releases. Uh, the only other things that people have been playing include, uh, I've been playing too much Destiny. Sadly, there's a new season out. Uh, it's very good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'm old 4, don't forget X. I mean, I know it's not, uh, it's not quite Chronicles, but so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it though? I can't be sure of anything with Nintendo. It's like there's such a mercurial pain in the ass. There's only a handful of games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] God bless you, Steam Deck. God bless you. Saving the day. Uh, so, that is very cool. Uhm, I think that's all the things that we've been playing this week then, if I'm not mistaken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, actually, no, I can't. That shouldn't be on there yet. So we will come back to that. So there was something that I actually have been playing a few things under NDA right now. That is one of them. I meant to mark that as NDA. So apologies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, let's do two quick listener questions, uh, before we wrap up the show. Uh, just gonna choose these at random.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you have any questions, hit them on contact at friendspersecond.com. Also on Twitter, you can hit us up there. We do have a Twitter, uh, we are onto the Twitter. So, uh, do hit us there for questions. Let's do this one. Uh, WD40 asks,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the host, I know right, if the host, it's spelled W like the letters WD and then the word 40. If the guests only had one controller to use forever, which controller would it be?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I love it cause it's, it's big and I like I have bigger hands and so it's like when I pick it up, I'm like, ah, yes, this is the right size controller. I love the feel of it. Plus I love all its bells and whistles when they actually work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, I mean I would say PS5. But yeaah, the Elite Series controller is also fantastic. The Elite Series controller has such a premium feel to it. It weighs so much. It's like such a chunky boy and it's like you pick it up and it's like cast iron metal almost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got it. And you're like, you paid almost a little too heavy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not this one. No, there are other controllers I've seen where you can adjust the weights, but not this one. No. Uh, all right. Other question comes from Jake W. He asks, uh, if you weren't in gaming, where would you be? What would you be doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Imagine, I can't imagine what it would be like to do the Washington Post Twitter handle. Like, the things you would read, the things that would come back at you every time you post anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so, yeaah, right, interesting. Uh, how about you Jirai, what would you be doing, man?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, I think sadly I would probably just be some corporate drone working in a consulting job doing incredibly boring powerpoint work, that would be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what I was doing before. Why not just keep doing that for 30 years and then retire? That'd be sick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyway, that's, that's that. Thankfully we're not doing that. Hey, you know what we're doing instead? Playing video games and we've been doing it for a while. Uh, Gerard, why don't you tell us what we were playing like when we were young, 70 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a great time. That was a great game. Afro Thunder was my boy. Yeah, totally man. It's time to dance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, uh, thank you very much for that. And, uh, I want to say a really big thank you to Gene for stopping by this week for, uh, coming in clutch and saving the day, uh, replacing Jake while he's off, Galavant and about the barren waste of Iceland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you. And, uh, we will definitely hit you up and have you back in the future when, uh, the last of us three comes around, you know, let's just dive deep into that. When, when that gets announced, we'll have you back. I played it 20 times. That's right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been out for six days. I've already finished it 20 times. Okay, cool. Um, all right. Well, thank you very much. And, uh, Gerard, Lucy, thank you as always a pleasure. And, uh, you guys got anything big cooking at the moment you want to shout out right now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, uh, you enjoyed the show, don't forget to sub to the shell up channel. But more importantly, go and hit up the RSS feed on your podcast platform of choice. So you can listen to this on the go without having to pay for YouTube premium. That's, that's handy. That's nice. Uh, but thank you very much for tuning in and we'll see you in two weeks time with Jake Baldino back. Looking forward to it. And remember.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude, I have the smallest ears in the world. Like whenever I'm doing hosting stuff, I cannot get an IFB that fits me. And so when I put these in and I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's going to happen again, isn't it? And they just fit. I walked around, nothing falling out. It was amazing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So go to buyraycon.com slash friends today to get 15% off your Raycon order. That's buyraycon.com slash friends to score 15% off buyraycon.com slash friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Friends for Second podcast. Uh, it's a bi-weekly, which means every other week podcast where four pals get together and talk about the ins and outs of the video games industry. Your very own Jetlag Lucy James. Jetlag James is pretty good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] FPS origins, or at least our personal origins and how we all got to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is such a weird thing to talk about, I guess. Uhm, but also we are joined by, uh, interview this week is the one and only Jason Schreier. You might know him from his work on Kotaku, on Bloomberg, uh, maybe his book or his podcast, but obviously,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It will absolutely come through in the OBS recording because Google is clever enough to get rid of it. Um, but no, so we had a lovely chat with Jason chatting about his work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in the industry and some of the trends that he's noticed over his time. Uh, but like I said, the theme of this episode is games media content creation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but no, so we're in it. We're talking about our origin story. So we have, we have a user question from multiple people, but, uh, so ONF, Dan P, Yousef H, and Ben.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Number one, how did each of you end up in your current career paths and what inspired you and what important events guided you to this point? Who wants to go first?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's amazing. So those are Jake Origins. Yeah. Ralph.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so I, uh, so to, to better understand me as a person, uh, at school, I was, um, very try-hard teachers, not teachers pet, but like I would always do the work. I would never really get into trouble. Sounds like teachers pet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but no, so I, I, but I got to the point where I made myself anxious because I also was in a school where you were asked to leave if you didn't perform, it's, uh, it's one, it's a, it's a good school, don't get me wrong, and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, my parents paid for me to go there, and so I felt a lot of pressure, and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would be playing games and stuff, but then, you know, that was never really seen as a proper viable career path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I didn't really know what else to do. It was a science, the one that I could...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could ask me anything that was on the syllabus and I would be able to tell you, but when it came to university, that is flipped on its head and you have to do all your own research and all of like looking into stuff and just explore learning your own way. I wasn't built that way. And uhm, hey today, I was very anxious. I was doing a course that I didn't really like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but then one day, uh, and this at the same time, I had a group of friends who were gamers and like, I could explore that passion of mine more with these people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I kind of was introduced to places like GameSpot and IGN that I'd never really explored before. Uhm, I realize the way that I phrase that makes it sound like a weird sexual thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then one day I had a lecture and I believe it was speech and language development.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was something I was really interested in actually. That was a part of the, my degree that I thought was really interesting. It's the development of language. And, uh, they played a blooper from an, a British gaming show called Game On.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which Johnny Chiodini and Nathaniel Lippert worked on, uhm, and I randomly, I like tweeted them and I went, oh, hey, this is really weird. They just played one of your videos in my lecture. And Johnny and I, uh, talked a bit and I said to them like, oh, hey, you know, off chance, if there's any internships or anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would love to come by ITN. And they said no, uh, no, no, they said, sorry, why don't we do that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I am going to a different place that does have internships. And they recommended that I, you know, I wrote a bit so I wrote for the university paper. I wrote for a blog called 7 bit arcade for robot geek. There was a website at the time, I can't remember what it's called in the UK, where they would basically put the call out for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like news writers and whatever on games websites and you'd get paid nothing. Literally nothing. It's like working for free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and so when Johnny went to GameSpot, they took my CV, my resume.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, I went to London for the interview.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got it, and I was an intern for a month. Uh, I left university to go. They didn't notice I'd gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, no, I was in London, I paid my way to stay in a hostel for a month and at night I was doing all of my university work, doing all of my assignments. My dad, funnily enough, didn't know this, uh, and he told me when I saw him last week that he heard me talk about it on a podcast and I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, so I, I did this week, uh, this month of, you know, my second day on my internship. I went to an EA event and I got to play Mass Effect 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I got to speak to like Mike Gamble and I got to do like a dev visit, um, with Creative Assembly came to the office.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, Danny O'Dwyer, Cam Robinson, Seb Ford, Johnny Kidini taught me how to edit video. I did, uh, an episode of Bluffer's Guide, uh, with Danny. Jane taught me how to like be on camera. Jane Douglas, who's now outside Xbox.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so it was at the time, you know, this kind of like, all-star GameSpot UK people, and they all took me under their wing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And by the time my internship was over and Guy Cocker and Chris Bowman and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alex, Sassy and Kobe and everyone and by the time it was over at Mott Walton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I was like, oh shit, I have to do this. I'm afraid. This is it. And so, went back to uni, finished my degree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Move down to London without a job. Stupid. Stupid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Caroline O'Donohue, who is now...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like a New York Times best selling author, but I knew Caroline when she worked at a job agency and she got me an agency job as a cleaner at the Lawn and Tennis Association.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was crying because I was reading The Road. Don't know if you've ever read The Road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Incredibly upsetting. And, uh, I was kind of crying a little bit while I was reading it and, um, Greg Rosetsky, who is a very famous Canadian, uh, tennis player who plays for England, I think, or the UK, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the thing is that job was, you know, I had to travel for two and a bit hours per day. My train fare was almost as much as what I made that day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, TV company called Jinx, not to be confused with Jinx the clothing brand, but Jinx with a G. Uhm, and I started doing some freelance work there. I worked there for two years and then I ended up at GameSpot again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, ask wha- where is the most important place to stop?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not just media, it's kind of tech as a whole as a complete hellscape right now. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wouldn't want to discourage people from doing it, but I would also want to recognize that I was exceedingly lucky when I came up as were most other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When they were coming up and I was lucky enough to get...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It as a job and sustain it hopefully touch word for many years to come as a job with the way things are looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now, who knows what the space is gonna look like, but that's not to say that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Working in it or like working towards it as a goal doesn't have kind of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Starting writing for your own blog or you're starting making content for yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if it is the be-all and end-all job, but I think when Shannon Lau, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the closure of Launcher, I think she tweeted like the dream games journalism job doesn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also don't call myself a journalist though. I work in video production, so I think it's a bit of a different, uh, go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me personally, just because I've never existed in that space. I interview people, yea, but I don't write stuff. I don't, last game I reviewed was Persona 5, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, making documentaries, getting to telling stories and that's the kind of, that's where I really enjoy. So that was a long window and sort of saying that I don't want to be the person to say no to people, but I also think people have to stay realistic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are not that many jobs and there are a lot of people vying for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I will say as well, I've been a hiring manager multiple times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is wild. Like every time we post a job, obviously it's very competitive, hundreds of people apply. The amount of people who will apply...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With no proof that they can even perform the role is staggering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had one, I had one guy who, uh, their entire resume was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I, I've been to a Ren fair. So I could host a, like a Renaissance fair where you, like in America, like where they dress up and stuff. And he was like, that's my whole experience. And I was like, well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If one of those dream jobs does open up somewhere, and that's not just the same games media, right? Because there are so many places like PlayStation, Xbox, they all have those in-house video teams if you're looking to go down the same kind of path as I have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is just going to get you rejected straight away out the door. Like even if you've worked in a different field, you have so many skills that are transferable. Please rewrite your CV and resume to reflect that. I've taken a chance on people, even if they haven't worked in games before, because they, I've seen something either in a video they've made or even something that they've said in that cover letter, um, or even in their resume, um, to kind of reflect that, yeah, they do actually know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About video games, cause yeah, the amount of stuff you'll get through that's, I don't know, you could be applying for a nursing job and, yeah, you would use the same CV. We could obviously talk about this for hours.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, if you have any more questions, uh, we will hopefully answer them on a future episode. Uh, Ralph?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Contact your friends for second.com for all your user questions. But now over to the interview with Jason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, so book leave doesn't count as any kind of, uh, no conflict of interest, but you know how sometimes employers get funny if you kind of have things going on the side? They're totally fine with that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's a bit more of a zoomed out question because obviously Twitter is such...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An important tool, I guess, for all of us. It's how a lot of people network in the industry. A lot of news comes out of Twitter. Uh, you're very active on there. You are very visible. How has your relationship changed with Twitter recently? Uh, changed over the last couple of years, especially given the seeming demise of the platform.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This podcast is also brought to you by Babbel. It is a language learning app that has sold over 10 million subscriptions and counting. Boys, what languages do we all speak?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's great when I'm at Gamescom because I can order taxis for people and beers. So I definitely need to keep going with my German. Babbel teaches languages in fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bite-sized 15-minute lessons, so none of the terrible long verb lists that I remember when I was learning languages back at school. Uh, so you can learn on the go. These lessons are built around real life with a focus on genuine practical conversations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very easy to use. There's also speech recognition technology that can help you out with pronunciation cause there's nothing worse than learning a language, going to the country and discovering you're saying it wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, well, let's go over then to game releases. Ralph, I'll throw it to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I only played a little bit, um, so I downloaded it for the flight, but unfortunately I, um, took two Benzodiazepines and, uh, passed out, baby.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so I did play a little bit, I did not anticipate it to be more of a graphic novel, uhm, which is wild and also like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Music by Dan Lasak, which is wild, because I used to listen to- Who's that? I don't know who that is. Uh, Dan Lasak versus Scubius Pip was big in the UK, kind of indie scene in the, uh- Right. When I- in my formative years. Uh, soundtrack is great, uh, really well written, written by Mike Bithell. Mike's a legend. I'm not very far in, so I-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My, yeah, mic's great, but I, like, I can't speak too much to it yet, uh, other than the fact I was not- I was very amazed that it was a graphic novel. A graphic, uh, yeah, not a graphic novel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, sure. Interactive novel. Really stylized, uhm, kind of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I will say that I don't know jack shit about Tron, guys. The only Tron I know. I've never seen a Tron movie. I love the Daft Punk album to legacy. And I've played Kingdom Hearts 2, so I've been to the space paranoid, bitch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is it, the domestic control program? That guy? I know, the Trons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't seen it, so I've been in the UK. I haven't, I haven't done anything or seen whatever, unfortunately. So, uh, let's go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but there has been another new Minecraft game, Minecraft Legends, which Ralphie and Jacob have been playing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well hang on, wait, wait, wait. Is it within the context of the story? Like, I think I know who it is. Yeah, you probably know who it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 17 years ago, in Japan, on April 20th, released one of my favorite games of all time, which is Okami. Oh yea, 17 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, so Okami was a game that I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Discovered because I would be on... Did you guys have teletext?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The place that I would get my gaming news from before I discovered Gamesport, IGN and the internet, cause my mum had really, really tragic, terrible internet for a long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so I would use teletext and there was a gaming forum, teletext by the way is like a special channel you would go on your TV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this forum kept talking all the time about Okami, and so I eventually went into town one day and I was just like, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fed up hearing about how great this Okami is, so I ended up buying it and I just immediately fell in love with it. It is, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, so it's a Japanese game where you play as the sun goddess Amaterasu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And basically what has happened in your absence is there is this giant monster who is sucking the soul and the beauty and all that's good out of this world and as your, your tail is a brush and it's up to you to paint the, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Paint the life back into the world and you do that in various ways. You can, um, you know, make, uh, make the sun come out, make the moon come out. You can, um, use it to complete puzzles and kind of vine whip and, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spider-man yourself around things, or you can use it in combat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's so beautiful, the soundtrack, I got it on vinyl a few years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my god, it is gorgeous, and it even-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even back then it's the painterly sort of art style, uhm, kind of looks like Japanese watercolour and they've re-released it, remastered it a couple times and it's just such a strikingly beautiful game. Full of humour as well, like Ami is a little bit of a brat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I think one, oh yeaah, one of the moves you can do in battles, you can piss on the demons to insult them and then you get like extra bonuses at the end of each battle and it's, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Clover, Clover Studio Game. Uhm, Ikumi Nakamura worked on it too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I believe she worked in the art department on that game. Um, and yeah, and so actually one of the collectible things in the game is, is you have to find a bunch of clovers, which I thought was always a very nice little call back to Clover Studio.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just kind of stood in anguish, uh, cause that's what you're supposed to do as a Metal Gear Solid fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would love to introduce Ralph. Ralph is also known as Skill Up who is graciously lending us his YouTube channel to host the video version of this podcast and we are eternally grateful for that. He's a top tier game reviewer who, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd say when, uh, what would you say? You went a little bit outside of your comfort zone with your newest review, Power Wash Simulator, which- A little bit, a little bit-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But like as a person who talks about games and thinks about games and how to talk about them, seeing you do that was cool. I was like, that takes a little something. That's not one you can do on autopilot. So props to you, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a word for British people about talking, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, it led to like a freak out sesh because it started to like all kind of pop up like all these names of all these other games and it was like oh wait other assassins creed games might be affected like when it turned out to be more of like a DLC offering and like all these contents added that you're not going to be able to access.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was kind of like, oh shit, like for stuff like, uh, I'm looking at the list, like Splinter Cell Blacklist, uh, Deluxe Editions and like DLCs to it, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's what it seemed like is popping up, yeah, uh, which is weird because it's ownership stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, look, I don't know how games are made and hosted and listed and maintained, but when it comes to like customer stuff and ownership stuff, like there has to be a better way to figure this stuff out. I understand licensing makes things so complicated. Like that's part of the reason why right now you can't buy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, remakes and re-releases and stuff, but the reality is is that we're seeing a lot of those because of licensing issues and because of little things and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There has to be something, you know, almost like a non-fungible...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I think there's a danger of things being kind of conflated where...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you ever, you ever search for a game on Steam and you find the wrong thing or you scroll too far and then you're just scrolling through the endless little nickel and dime DLC elements for that game listed as individual items.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like that stuff, if that stuff disappeared after a long time, for me, who cares? I still think if you bought it, you are entitled to still have access to even the smallest things like that. But I feel like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They could very easily be like, oh, we get rid of that stuff, but then you could also lose access to something like a committed character that you bought, that you've put a bunch of time into. Like that's, that's where that line is like super blurry, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's something, for me it's like a historical and it's like a preservation thing, like even just for the work people put in, like for games that say, like Ralph mentioned, games that exist more just online, more...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, games that eventually will disappear because they were a service, right? But like I still think like, let's say, uh, the people who built


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the division. The open world of the division. I thought they crafted like the most incredible New York City. And I would love for people to be able to just boot up and wander that New York City 10 years from now. 15 years from now. Long after the game completely dies off in every single digital way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stuff like that I think like needs to be preserved at the very least.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's almost like we need, we need more of that, like, because it's, it's like, there's the early days of that where it's like, Doom, all the Doom creations, early days of Quake, even just like basic Halo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When people love a game enough and they have some skill or some technical know-how and they have the passion, like the sky is the limit and that's so cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I very much think that like, at least from what they've said, it sounds like they're putting a good amount, like a good amount of work into it. And I always think that like people's work should be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like there's like as much as I don't want to pay up for this, uh, I think they have a good pitch that they, they should have shown right away. And that's essentially Joel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moving like how Ellie moves in The Last of Us Part 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you guys, did you guys all lose it when, when Irons is briefing the STARS members and then he turns and looks and Leon's there and he's like, what are you doing here, Leon, get the fuck out of here. I think that's the funniest thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good team up. I think ReapPop does put, like, as someone who just likes going to PAX, I'm a PAXer person, uh, also a Star Wars celebration person, like, they put on good events, and then there's a lot of people, like, there's people behind the scenes involved in this that I think are pretty qualified and pretty good. Uh, they have a lot of old ReapPop people, they have some,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's like, I don't know, I feel like, just in terms of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like they're aware of that, like they gotta be thinking if they do want the publishers involved, they have to be thinking like, oh, we gotta really do something to get them in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or they're just gonna go a complete opposite direction, because like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think about it in terms of like as a, as a fan, as a viewer, and like I talk to so many people who are like, what happened to E3? Why can't I just sit on my couch and stream YouTube two whole days of just cool events? Now it's all over the place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's almost like I don't think E3 can wrangle that all back together and make it really feel like this umbrella thing. So I'm kind of more like just blow it out and make a unique event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe for fans, open to the public, whatever at this point, because I think it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole idea of like sitting down and gobbling up a bunch of announcements over like, you know, I would like take off work for two days and like watch it on G4 on the TV channel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, you know, now that's like, there's no way we can get that back. So it's like Keely, the publishers, they're going to be all over the place. I feel like it's too much to wrangle that back. So just make a cool of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But just like even fun stuff like the year it opened, like one of the years they started opening it up to the public, having fans come in and stuff. Uh, IGN I think was doing like recording live reactions of people coming out of a booth after playing a game. I think it was like for Destiny 2 or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. And, uh, or, or some active, something Activision. And I remember walking out and like an IGN intern with a camera was like, hey, do you want to record reactions? And I was like, sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, alright, like, it's like, maybe it's like the last two years and how like, I don't know, the world ended like three times or four times, so like everything's different, I don't care. Yeah. It's like, let's all just go nuts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm, I'm biased cause I'm always just like, I love video games, everything's great all the time. But, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean like, it feels like for the past like, I guess this half a year, it feels like we've had a little less on the horizon. You know, like we've been dealing with like pandemic stuff and delays and stuff, but like this is the first time I think, maybe last year a little bit too, but really looking towards the fall and going, oh wow, a couple of things. But the first half of the year, like I was kept


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really busy with things. I like, and I always say that like, just because there's not like a AAA game releasing that month, there's like a billion other games that come out that are like probably pretty awesome. And there's been a lot of things keeping me busy. I've also been on like a hardware kick. I'm working on a video right now for my channel, like a mid year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Recap. And, uh, I'm also mentioning not games, like the playdate. The playdate has been keeping me busy. I've been tinkering with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you liking it? Uh, it's the game experiences aren't always as compelling as I was hoping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I still really, really like the idea behind it. I also love the hardware design. I'm a sucker for design and stuff. So it just is like a looking at it thing. It's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a luxury. It is expensive and it is super niche. So like I can't really recommend it to people unless like you're an insane weirdo like me where like if I didn't work in video games, I would have bought this. I would have put it on a credit card and put myself in debt just because like I like I'm always looking for that taste, you know, that that new thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So things like that at least have been keeping me pretty satisfied and then that and then the steam deck came around and just playing and experiencing things on the steam deck and like one of my favorite games to play on the steam deck is of course just like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also you play so many games, right? So I feel like if one isn't memorable, it's like, it hurts even worse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a lot of good stuff, but it's also kind of weird because it's a lot of, uh, it's a lot of third party where it's like, you look at like what's show like Xbox. If you look at Xbox and PlayStation, it's very like specific where PlayStation is God of War.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, I guess the last of us is like, which like I, I like, I, if I sound like an asshole, but like I don't totally count, um, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also there's still some things that like we don't have dates for that are still slated for Q4 that might actually make it, like we don't know. Like, so. Like which ones? Uh, what do I have in front of me right now? Atomic Heart is still amazing. Oh yea sure, is that still this good?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's that other one coming out with guns in it. That's gonna be way better. Roller blades with guns.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so Sea of Thieves, uh, it's like the whole presentation was like all the loops and all the gameplay stuff and I'm like, I can't really watch a video of menus and get excited. I have to like see if I'll actually play it and get hooked on it. Like, I don't know man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the loop is good. The loop is good. Like just like getting that like, you know, oh, okay, I washed off a rock and then that you cha-ching and you get $5 and the numbers keep going up and then you can hop into the shop and buy more soap to make some of it go faster. I just, I just hopped into it before this podcast. I had two hours and I was like, all right, let me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, it's, it's like well made because I've played a lot of these where like there's no good tangible feel to it. Like house flipper was okay. PC builder was like, okay, but like this has a little bit more of like a tactile like oomph to it from the sound effects to the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even just like the, the distance you are to the object and how much water is actually blasting it to the way the water looks, uh, to the different options. Like there, there's so much more going on that like will...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty, pretty immediately gage you, and then it lets you figure out some stuff on your own, like how to use soap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How did different attachments work? Uh, did you guys, so for me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you, did you feel like immediately daunted once you started to hit like a big level? Cause very quickly it's like, here, spray a truck, you little idiot. And then the second level is like, here's an entire backyard where a nuclear bomb went off. Good luck. And I was like, oh man, like how's the pacing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What clicked for me with the satisfaction of like what Ralph is talking about with cleaning things and like the completion was like getting a post level kind of like time lapse of your characters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I played through Cuphead, the delicious last-course DLC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's a really good value. I think it's like worth a buy. I think it's eight bucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you get a whole new island for Cuphead. You get six bosses. I believe it's all focused around bosses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you get new power-ups that are actually pretty significant. Uh, charms for your character that are pretty significant. Uh, also just incredibly well-designed, beautiful bosses with better animations than ever. Uh, they've like upped the frame count, like drawing per...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Work hard and be a real gamer and get through it to just see everything they made. And they've, you know, they've done a good job, like making a lot of this stuff a little bit more accessible to folks and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's nice and you get to see so much here, like they've changed up, like I said, the animation styles, but also they've done almost like Rankin and Bass style, like old school, like real stuff, like, like claymation, but not really. Like, so like it's just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm really excited to see what they do next. Like, I think if you played Cuphead and you loved it, like, it's seriously a no-brainer. It's like so cheap and you get a little more Cuphead and it's like really well made and it's like they're firing on all cylinders. It's their best shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, so the idea is that, I don't know, but like, you know, you hear about the way her stuff works, so she has a little bit, she has a couple more benefits, she has like a dodge roll, she has an automatic double jump, and uh, she has one more hit of health, and she has one other thing I, off the top of my head I'm forgetting, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kind of like the easier character, like it should make things easier, you would think. Uh, but because some of her advantages and her movesets are like different enough, you have to like break your cuphead brain, your cuphead habit to learn how to succeed as her, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I kinda like it, I kinda hit a wall for a while with her, but it's still, it's still, she's different enough where it's cool. Also she looks cool, she's very cutesy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would love to see them be pioneers of, you know, like celebrating that type of stuff because I am a fan of old cartoons and stuff and I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like, you don't really, like, we had the, what did we just get? The Rescue Rangers movie, and that felt like, oh, holy shit, this feels a little bit like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's just, it's just Mad Max applied to the open world formula. That's it. But there's something about it that just really, really works. So I played, so this release


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kind of Arkham style combat, uh, but a little simpler, but also a little bit more like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the opposite of pull your punches? Like you can hold the button to control how hard you want to pop a dude. Uh, so it's a lot of that. The combat is so much give and take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's just clearing out bases and stuff, but I think it's also the fact that you're hopping in a car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And driving away and then there's car combat out in the open world too. And they did a really, really good job with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not only the car combat, but also how it progresses, how you get more abilities for it and how it just becomes more and more satisfying and more and more challenging. It's, it's, it's really wild. And then it's just, they built like a really beautiful, sad, lonely world. It's not totally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A rip of Old Mad Max. It's not totally just Fury Road. It's kind of like all of it. And it's, it's just been nice to play. Like I like progressing and getting a cooler jacket for Max and then like trying to get the V8 for the car. Like there's a really good upgrade tree like progression for all of it that just kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How it ran on Xbox Series X and it runs 60 frames per second. So I just played it on that and uh, loving it. Highly recommend. It's definitely, I'm going to make a video eventually. Like it's one of those like underrated gems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I'm kind of with you, for some people listening, like, I did play it, I talked about it on our first episode. Played it at Summer Game Fest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thought it was like oh pretty cool like it's like it's fresh and nice it's crisp it's like it's like a nice remaster. Yay clinoa but like once it started to sink in and I hopped into it a little bit this week. Where you know I played it in a demo setting I didn't have a lot of the sound now I'm playing it like in my house with the sound the feedback everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yeaah, it's just really, really simple. And I think some people, like Klonoa fans, like Die Hard fans can really still play it for the vibes, I think especially the second one in that collection, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like, it's painfully simple. And now it kind of makes me worried. Like, it makes me look at my nostalgia goggles and be like, aw crap, like what else is like this? Like, next are you gonna tell me Tomba is like, is tame? Like, is not that great?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, so I'm with you, with it, feeling- When was the last time you played Tomba Jake? A long time ago. That's- Yeah. Oh no, don't tell me that. No!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's just really, really simple and I, I think, uh, once I started to play it a little bit this week, it kind of set in where I was like, ah, this is a little too simple for me for what I'm looking for now as an adult gamer man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What a good, like that was, it was that, and it was, uhm, Hellblade send you a sacrifice. Where it's like, those are the type of games, like that, like, I, like, I am, like, this is gonna sound ridiculous, but like, this is like, why I'm here. Like these are, those are the types of experiences, like, I really, really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep coming back to it. I'm like, oh yeah, video games. This is what I love about them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very, not, not, not a lot of sleep right now. It's just a lot of video games. It's, it's, it's a lot. But it's going well. That's what I have to say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a preview of how I will probably be for the rest of this podcast because I have not slept in six weeks, okay? So if I trail off into the distance and just start doing thousand-yard stairs, you know why it is, okay? Just FYI.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I don't need glasses, I can see, you know, into the distance, that's fine, but just don't take my wrist from me, man, I need those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What a great start to the show. So stoked to be here. Very on point. Welcome to the Dunkin Donuts, uh, RSI, uh, podcast brought to you by the medical lobby and the fast food industry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 300 cans of coke. I don't know. But the point is, it's a lot of fucking money. No one is looking at that and thinking, oh, that's pretty cheap, I'll buy one of those. Everyone's thinking, holy shit, that is expensive. Just like, in American dollars as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the sense that, you know, you like, you like your very classic sort of Tony Hawk and, you know, like your video ass, your video game ass video games. Your video ass. I'm surprised, I'm surprised that you're really into VR. Like what, what, what, how's that, how's that come about?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I, um, I, yeah, I've had two headsets, two Oculus headsets. I've also got the latest one, the MetaQuest 2 or whatever. I mean, I'm interested in what Sony's doing here. I think it's cool because it shows that there's a major player like Sony.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's some sort of, you know, commercial product now or something, I don't fucking know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Point is that VR is not going to happen out of Xbox. It's happening on PC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, it's happening around social games and social experiences more than anything else, like VR chat for example, and uhm, these VR YouTubers like the boys, I don't know if you guys know these, go and check them out if you haven't, some of them are Australian, they're based in Australia actually, really funny guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, making just really fun, cool, interesting, weird VR content, you know? Uhm, and, but core gaming though, yeaah, it's not picking up. And I think that Sony getting, Sony putting their money on the line on this is a big statement to the rest of the industry. It is going to attract development and hopefully you will start seeing some more great apps come through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The challenge though is that like the MetaQuest I think is just a fantastic device and it's, it does the job well enough and I don't necessarily need a more expensive headset


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To plug into a console. When I play VR, I don't think to myself, oh I really wish the graphics were better. That's not it right now. It's more about like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really wish they're just developing better experiences for me. I think the technology is already sufficient with the meta quest and I'd rather play untethered all the time. Like having a big fucking cable dangle out your back is so annoying when playing VR.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do think that the PSVR2 faces some stiff competition from Meta. Uh, as much as I dislike that company, they make a really good headset, you know, and, um, I think that's more likely to be my headset of choice in the future rather than a PSVR2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be fair though, they did say, I have heard from a few different places that supply side challenges on consoles will ease over the coming quarter. And they actually expect to be pretty much caught up by quarter one next year, as in by the end of quarter one next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think, is that true? I haven't heard that. I heard it was just not possible at all. Is there some sort of workaround?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Upgrade. It's safe. It's a good idea. It's a good story, you know? Yeah. So I, I mean, I can understand why people might think that maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is Sony just saying, Hey, we're going to milk people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 850 Australian dollars, so it's like, yea, it's a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because obviously there's a difference between Metaverse and VR, obviously. For sure. But we talk about them in connected terms because certainly one vision of the Metaverse is one that we, is one that we access through VR headset and we kind of live in these worlds like Ready Player One style. Uh, I don't know, Sony, I'm not sure if


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know Sony have contributed money to Epic Games and earmarked it for the purposes of building the Metaverse. I remember that. They gave them like a lot of money in fact. So I know Sony are interested in this stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I wonder whether or not they have plans for this on the social side, because that would be the ultimate gateway into Metaverse. Like if you can get VR chat, and you can get it really popular across the PSN, then you can start building some big stuff on that, you know? So, I do wonder if they've got that in their view at some point, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, an eyeball, it really buzzed me out to hear that statement because I just don't agree with any of it. Like, I just, I really don't agree with the idea that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The work that they were doing was not extremely valuable, uhm, and, you know, he said something like, oh, it was not me that was popular, it was the work that I was doing. And it's like, well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Same for most of us. I mean, like, I don't know, like, I don't really, I mean, partly, look, I don't think, I think people watch me, for example, for the work that I do. I don't think they watch me because they're like, I really like Ralph, I wanna hang out with him. You know what I mean? I don't care what you had for dinner, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, but I still think that that is a thing that I contributed and I'm happy with that contribution. I'm proud of that contribution. And I think he contributed a lot, like just a lot. And to be able to curate news at that level for so many people, surface so many things in such a timely and concise fashion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is an actual skill set. That is a thing. You pay top dollar for that. You know what I mean? It's like, if I was running an outlet, I would hire Nibel in an instant. Immediately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I just disagree with, I mean, obviously maybe they have other stuff going on in the background, their lives, but I really disagree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I'm saying is that I think if he's of a view that he is not valued, that is incorrect. If he's of a view that his skills are not valuable in the marketplace, that is not correct. I think judging your value on the basis of a Patreon is a bad idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and I think that there are other ways for him to, there would have been other ways for him to make a career in this and stick with it. And I don't know. Nybal, if you're watching, please come back is what I'm saying. We need you, man. We need you to just do your thing. Come on the show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree. And I think as well, there's been lots of commentary about the fact that a platform like Twitter should ultimately be rewarded. Every other social media platform will generally reward you if you are at the pinnacle of it, uh, for the content that you create. Whereas now, if you're at the pinnacle, you have to pay $8 a month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I will be engaging less Twitter now, I think, as a result of Nibelian's absence. You know, I think that. And so, and it's like if Twitter was smart, they would have found a way to find those, to reward those people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Twitter does not do that, and uhm, it's a shame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope they come, and I as well, I reckon if Nibel comes back now and just says, guys, I've heard what you said, I'm going to try and come back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well again, it's like, I didn't know that Naiba was making that value equation in his head. You know what I mean? Like I was, I didn't know, if he was saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I need to think about how I'm putting where I'm like putting my time and how I'm allocating it. And I need to see some return. I'd be like a hundred percent. I need you now. Well, here's some money. You know what I mean? Like a hundred percent. I would have done that. And I regret that I didn't, but I didn't know. And so now that I know I'm like, yeah, if he came back and opened up his shit, I'd be like, yeah, take some cash, dude, please keep doing what you do. Uh, so just for,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, right. Well, I was going to say just, I mean, in the absence of that or like in general terms, what do you, yeah, right. Uhm, what are you, where do you guys get your news in general terms? Like what is it? What's the, like the general news hoovering routine for you guys?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Interesting. Yea, right. Yea, no, I mean, I have, like, obviously, Twitter. I have, like, tweet deck and, like, I have certain lists set up for certain categories of things and I've got, obviously, like, fucking every gaming subreddit and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so it's terrible, it's very, very bad habit, very bad for mental health, I'm sure, but uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't know, just, I find reddit is, I find reddit is the best means of getting it though, because just so much of it gets surfaced at the top. Like the game subreddit, uh, PC games subreddit is not great. It's like, it does its job, but it's got some real trash on there. Gaming circle jerk is nice for cathartic release. I strongly recommend that one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm on that one a lot. Yeah, that's good shit, man. When I'm like, when I've had enough of my day, I'm like, alright, the day's work is done. Let's laugh at some dumb gamer memes. And then I go to gamer's gaming circle jerk and I'm like, haha, that is pretty funny. Nice Don Cheadle meme.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we don't, I mean, obviously we all don't use TikTok, but like TikTok's a thing, like a lot of people, some people I speak to are like, yeah, I get all my gaming news from TikTok. I just browse and stuff pops up and it's like, well, yeah, it makes sense. Really short videos, straight to the point, just punchy, like, hey, PSVR2 is here. He's a, he's a picture of it. He's the stuff. Bye. You know, um, yeah, yeah, that works. I can see that being a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like, what does that actually mean in terms of working with these studios? Cause you hear about this like head of Xbox studios, but what does it mean to manage all of these studios? And what's kind of like a day in the life of Matt?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we're back in like the post game now. We're back from the interview. Anyone that's listening to the podcast. Out of the animus. That's right. And, um, and, uh, I really, actually I was thinking about like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Matt's job is like basically my dream job where I would get to go around to different studios and being like, yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, I work very independently personally, uh, I know it's different for you guys because you have a few more people around you in your different roles, I'm very much just like a solo operator, and I think, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've always wanted to like, be able to work as part of a team, making a game. You know what I mean? That's just something I've always wanted to do. I know that'll never happen now because I've reached that point in my career where the idea of making a game is impossible. But I am always very-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's also that, but I think as well, it is that kind of thing where I definitely imagined that at the start of my YouTube journey, like maybe I'll end up working in game work one day. Because I do think it's a very romantic notion of being able to like create stuff and I'm always very, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the envious of developers that get to do that. And it's a hard life for them. Don't get me wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are there any examples you can share of like some cross-pollination that like, you know, that we would know and be like, oh, that thing that you really like from that game, actually it came from this other place. I mean, anything like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did not like state of care. I don't know why, I hear some people are really all about it, but I just, and it's like they play for hundreds of hours, but I just, I really bounced off it super quick. I don't even know why to be honest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do some, you know, some weird stuff, put some weird stuff out there that wouldn't otherwise probably be commercially viable in inverted commas. Obviously Game Pass has its detractors as well though. People worry about things like game ownership or the way that Game Pass might evolve business model supporting games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you say to those sorts of criticisms? What do you, what might you see as the negative, the possible negative sides of something like Game Pass?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's true at the same time. They're obviously not doing it out of the kindness of their own hearts. Cause I think some numbers leaked recently where, you know, I think they're making like $3 billion a year on Game Pass at the moment. So they're doing really well. And I know that Phil also just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It makes a lot of sense totally, um, but I do think as well, yeah, I agree with that. And in terms of it does make it a lot easier for people to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was what, that's the thing that I like about Game Pass, but I know that a lot of people are nervous about it in terms of the long


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the long-term impact of it, because I think if you look at streaming services,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It hasn't been a universally good story for music. It hasn't been a universally good story for film. People worry that it will be the same thing for video games. You know, I think in music, um, artists are being paid less depending on how it goes. Uh, I think in the world of movies, there was a really interesting, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I just wonder how that goes with game pass in the longer term. You know, I don't have the answers to that. I don't know. We don't have a crystal ball, but I can certainly see that becoming a risk. If, um, everything moves onto these subscription services, I can see that becoming a bit of a problem in the longer term.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So obviously Halo Infinite is having a rough run. It hasn't quite landed in the way that, or it landed well, I think, but since then it's really struggled quite a bit. So what is Microsoft or yourself put that down to and what is the general approach for the next little while to get that back on track?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so we're back, post game now. Uhh, I mean, I actually appreciated that Matt was pretty upfront with Halo, and he's like, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have retrenched people and we've made changes to leadership and we're, you know, it's, he wasn't like, actually Halo is excellent and we're really happy with it. And we just had like, he was like, yeah, it hasn't hit the mark. And so I appreciated that. That was cool. I mean, you could have definitely gone another way in that conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I mean yea, like it's a bummer that Halo is where it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, obviously we've talked it to death over the last little while. I think everyone's talked about why Halo is where it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess we're just waiting now for those changes to sort of take effect. Um, it is encouraging to say that, to say that he started talking about like how Microsoft is going to be more focused on that live service delivery model when they drop stuff. Clearly this was like a big.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember, I played uh, Wasteland 3. And that was the first time I played a wasteland game. It was the first time I think I played anything from in exile. And I was like, hang on a second. This is like really super good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it feels like that studio is actually kind of really underappreciated and unrecognized because I certainly, I wasn't paying attention to them, right? So they're working on something different now at the moment. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could you share any information about what that is and or at all? Can you tell us like, do you think that's going to be the one that actually people really go? Oh, here they are. Now I've noticed this studio because they, even then I don't think wasteland even hit that, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I think generally the reception to that has been positive for sure. People are excited. I think a lot of some other people are like, oh, it's just kind of like Skyrim in space, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you think it's Skyrim in space? If it's not Skyrim in space, like what do you think really sets it apart? Like where, where are you seeing that that, that really evolves that Bethesda Game Studios model?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's one of those, uh, I dunno, do you like grand strategy games where you have to conquer Europe by, through mercantile and threats of military action without actually any military action? Is that your jam? Sometimes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you like lots of spreadsheets and tables? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, it peaked at 610 concurrent players on Steam, so it did not sell very well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is such a cool image. Backwards cap. What a rad 10 year old. Fucking legend. Got a big future ahead of him in content creation. Or getting banned from platforms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is, essentially, imagine vampire survivors. Oh no. But instead of, yep, instead of vampires and basically Castlevania, it's kind of more, you know, sort of like wizardry and magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And instead of being the 2D top down thing, it's actually a slightly isometric 3D look. Like it's 3D graphics, right? Uh, so it's cool actually. I played it during the next festival.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played it during the NexFest. I liked it. I think I've played quite a few of those survivor clones and most of them don't really do much. They're just kind of like, hey, it's the same game. Buy it again if you like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got some slightly different visuals, I guess. But this one has a very different visual look. It is in 3D. It has very different sets of powers, like, and upgrades that really do play quite differently from Vampire Survivors. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't quite love the perspective in the tens- I think it's a- I think Vampire Survive is so clear. You can really see it. Even when it's just a complete clusterfuck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally, you can still see what's going on versus, versus this one. I was finding it a little bit visual, visually noisy, but of all of the survivor clones that I've played, this is the only one where I'm like, okay, this is an actual video game. There's something here. This is, this is interesting. You know what I mean? So, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that's right. Yeah, that's a fun one. I like that one. I haven't played that one. That's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other one that's missing from this list actually is Signalis, which I thought was Signalis, but it's apparently Signalis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, that apparently is excellent. It's a, like a PS1 style survival horror game. Um, all the reviews are super positive. I think I've seen some 10 out of 10s around for that one, like that high. Um, but it's definitely one of the better indie titles of the year. And if you're into your classic,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] PS1 era survival horror, then every chance that you're gonna love that. I didn't realize that's what it was. Holy shit. And I played the demo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, yeah, Game Pass, you're right actually, totally forgot, yep. I played the demo in the Next Fest and it was one of the best things I played in the Next Fest. Just immediately sucks you in with its vibe, it controls beautifully, it looks fantastic. Uh, I think this is, well, I mean, I haven't played it, but the reviews certainly say it's all, it's all that. So, yeah man, that's another one to put on your list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I'm still interested to play it because I, I, I liked the seven DLC, um, a lot. And I know what you had, the way you described it's very different clearly, but, um, and I actually wasn't a huge fan of eight. Like I respected what it was, but I didn't really connect with it because it was so different from seven. I was really into that kind of like, like, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That swampy horror from 7, you know, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I just think it's, I want to see the story through. I really do believe that Ethan Widges is probably the worst video game protagonist I've ever had control of, but I still have to see his story out, especially if it's like a three hour conclusion, man. You know what I mean? Like we've been enough, we've been through enough together for him to, for me to owe him three hours. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I saw the team behind it is, uh, like the former AAA developers. Cause the presentation factor on this is huge. The way you're describing it, you imagine most of these little like, like potion games or you imagine something looks very simple, like pixel art almost. And this is not, this is like really, it's a really good looking game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I really, really, really enjoyed it. I'm not a massive character action spectacle fighter fan as they call it. Uh, but I like these games always have. Um, I've really always enjoyed Bayonetta games. Um, and this one's no exception. Uh, have any of you guys had a chance to play it yet?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nope. Have you guys played the other Bayonetta games? Yes. Okay, cool. Are you into them? Are you a bit like, eh?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, yeaah, it's just this, it's this very, it's this very choreographed sort of spectacle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but also deep enough that it's very playable, you know, and the combat systems on display are always industry leading. This is no exception.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, biggest change here is that they basically have added kind of like kaiju to the game, where at any point in time you are fighting with your normal like combos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's uh, well, it's all connected to her hair, but yes, ultimately. And uh, and now she, now you're controlling this demon and this demon has like combos and you move it around the battlefield and you beat up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The camera issues that this creates, not great, and also the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The depth of that demon combat is nowhere near as deep as is controlling Bayonetta herself. But, it's fun, you know, and if you don't want to have to summon those demons, you don't have to because you can just still beat on enemies with Bayonetta herself, that works fine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeah, overall, I think it's great. It runs pretty well on the Switch, like quite well actually, I would say. But it looks like shit. It really does. Like, uh, the Switch is old and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bayonetta is such a perfect showcase for why Nintendo needs to update their hardware, because Platinum have had to squeeze all of that system's power into performance, as in making this game run smooth. And they've done a good job of that. And character models look good, enemies look good, and the action is smooth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The environments look terrible. Like they're so bad. It's just, it honestly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is not, this is a problem, you know. So, uh, that's a shame because obviously Platinum are such visionaries. They have so much imagination. They could deliver so many incredible environments if they had the hardware headroom to do that. Uhm, and so that really does, I think, let that title down. It's the very first game I've ever reviewed that while I was reviewing it, I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no, it's never gonna come to PC. Of course, Nintendo just don't rock that way. So, but you know, maybe in the next console generation, they do a remaster of it and they touch up the environments. I doubt it though. Platinum are not, platinum have enough


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah, so there's a little side mode with Jean, who's another one of the Umbra Witches, and she has like a fun little 2D side-scroller stealth game, where it's kind of, imagine a grid-based format where she's moving through kind of like an office building or a scientific complex, and she moves from space to space trying to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sure, sure, sure, sure. Uhm, and then the other one is Viola.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who is a new character and she is, yeaah, she's her own person. She's, she wields a sword as opposed to anything else. She only has that one combat style as opposed to Bayonetta who has lots of different weapons. Bella is just a sword. Uhm, she's not as fun to play as Bayonetta, but she's a nice change of pace because you can only play her on certain, uhm, on certain areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's cool. Great personality. I really like the voice actress for, uh, Viola. Her name's like, Brizzy Voices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, right. There you go. She is super talented. I saw her years ago. She has this video where she does this like cartoon rap or something. So imagine


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That there's like every letter of the alphabet, someone's written this kind of like this little sentence and all the words start with A and then all the words start with B for the next sentence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then she will do it one time in the voice of a Powerpuff girl and in the next sentence she immediately switches to the voice of Jessica Rabbit and whatever. It is remarkable. Alphabet, uh, aerobics rap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's right. And it has 27 million views on YouTube. And like, I must be a couple of a hundred of those views. Cause I just keep watching it just being like, how do you do this? It's incredible. Um, and yeah, so amazingly talented and really nails it in this role as Viola. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's uhm, it's cool. Look, look, if you don't like Bayonetta, you're not gonna like this. If you like Bayonetta games, you're gonna like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do think that really hardcore character action are fans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe a little mixed on it, because I think it's additions aren't that purest combat focused stuff. It's more about spectacle, it's more about like, hey, look at the giant kaiju battling in the streets of Tokyo, whatever. Yeah, that's not what I go to that series for. Yeah, if that's the case then I think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you'll find then that you probably won't love these additions as much. Like yea, you should probably stick with something like Devil May Cry or whatever, so yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Interesting, interesting game despite all the dramas with old mate Helena Taylor. It just keeps getting from bad to worse. But I think that story is finished now, surely. Let's hope it is anyway. Yeah, shut the book on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is, it is that kind of movie. It's like, I stepped out of it with a friend and he's like, that is the best Marvel movie I've ever seen. And I'm like, I really did not like that. I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've heard that monetization is an arse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, at one point the monetization was ass. Cause I remember the narrative around this game where it was revealed. Everyone's like, this is sick. And then they made some changes to monetization. There's like, whoa, they fuck this. And then they spun it around and now everyone's like, yo, this is like the best monetization out there. Well done. You know, it's like, it's been a ride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did play it at the start and I was like, yeah, this is cool. I like it. But also I feel like because I played so much Hearthstone and I was playing card games before that as well. Um, I forget the name of what I played, but I played for a long time actually and whatever. Um, it's just nothing about Snap really said to me, I should, I must continue playing more of this. I think I must've put,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, let's say two to three hours into it, right, over different days. But I think because that card thing was so played out into my head, it just didn't click for me. So I'm going to try again though, because everyone is all about it at the moment and it'd be fun to be in on that while everyone's enjoying it, you know? But uhm. I'm a follower, not a leader, so I'm downloading it right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep it safe, don't worry. Yep. Totally spoiler free by the way. Cause some reviews that I've read are like quite spoiler free, but there's still some stuff in there that they spoil. And I think this one is going to be like a hundred percent spoiler free. We're going to, we're going to play it real close to the chest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember that surprise. That was incredible. Cause obviously I was reviewing the game before it was out. And I think that was one of the most fucking hype moments that I've ever experienced in a video game where I was like, I can't believe how much they nailed this, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, when I, what I said in my review was that I actually don't think you should conceive of this as a sequel. I feel like this is part two of a two part saga, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like Kill Bill 2 is not the sequel to Kill Bill, like Volume 2 is not the sequel to Kill Bill Volume 1. Do you know what I mean? It is a continuation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I agree, and I absolutely agree that the spectacle is bigger, the combat is better. The video gameyness is bigger. The video gameyness is better. But I don't actually feel, I don't walk away from this and think that was a great sequel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think of it as that was a great conclusion to this saga. Because I know a lot of people are going to be like, oh, how different is it from the last one? And I think the answer is not that different. It's kind of very similar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that in terms of setting people's expectations, I think going into it at, with that volume two mindset,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does, big time. And I, and I think, I actually think the, and I, cause I roll credits, uh, FYI, uh, 37 hours is what I spent for my playthrough. That was a very meandering playthrough. I did pretty much every bit of side content I could do until I kept getting pushed back onto the main path, because there are certain parts of the open worlds that are locked down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that you can't talk, that you can't access until you have to come back later, right? But as I was playing, I really just did all the side content, 37 hours to roll credits. Uhm, I would say that, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biggest accomplishment of this is I actually think it makes God of War 2018 better. Because I think that's the power of a good ending.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it makes the, the proceeding journey more valuable? You know, and I think that this nailed and I know like you guys have different stages of completion on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I think it nailed it so spectacularly well that immediately I was like, I have to go back and play 2018 again, you know? And you contrast that to something like Game of Thrones, where because they fucked the ending so hard, no one talks about Game of Thrones anymore. It's just like, it's been erased from the popular consciousness. Who wants to go back and watch Game of Thrones now? You don't because you're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It ends so badly and it feels like the whole saga of Game of Thrones is undermined