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[Assistant] Let's move on to our first user question of the day. Uh, this, you can submit questions to contact at friendspersecond.com. Lucy, thank you for putting that in the notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is always very difficult because we got a lot of really like insightful thought provoking questions. So thank you guys. Uh, this one we're taking right now is from Chris from El Paso.


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[Assistant] He says, I was recently thinking about my favorite games of all time. My list might change later, but I was able to narrow it down to the top three. Tears of the Kingdom, Last of Us, Prey 2017. A question that popped into my mind while thinking about this was, will I ever play these games again?


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[Assistant] I had such an amazing experience with these games. Everything from the story, the gameplay, my personal life and surroundings was just right that I do not want to replay them and tarnish the memories I made with these games. So my question to the friends is, do you all replay your all time favorite games again or will you?


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[Assistant] In a lot of ways, like, uh, Elder Scrolls Morrowind, where that was like time, place, lonely kid, discovered this weird game completely on my own, didn't know anything about it, went in blind, fell in love with it, got absorbed in it. Now I go back and play it.


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[Assistant] Different life, less time, I can't put, I can't touch every inch of that math. I can't fall in love with it like I did. Uhm, also it's like, it's like, it's like crappy now.


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[Assistant] Like conversation, nap, questing, navigation stuff, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Sometimes I like it though, like I said, I'm like a weird pervert, like with the new Tomb Raider 1-3 like re-release, seeing the discourse of some people being like, why is the jumping like this? Why is it so precise? And I'm like, it's cool man, it's annoying and it's cool.


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[Assistant] Well, thank you for that question, Chris. That was, that was good. That was, that was really fun. Got myself thinking a little bit next up. Let's jump into what we are playing.


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[Assistant] More about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I wanna ask you some questions.


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[Assistant] Now this is a new car- a new thing I recall. I don't remember. Yes. There was something else in the old one.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's kind of interesting because I feel like that I haven't really seen too many


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[Assistant] Uh, opinions or insight from people yet who don't have ties to the original. It's like everybody who jumped in as a reviewer.


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[Assistant] I agree, like, there can be an audience because some of it is good enough, but I personally, actively, strongly disliked it. Like, just deeply unhappy playing it.


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[Assistant] So for me, the biggest thing is, uh, the


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[Assistant] Yeah, any, any value to any of it and then like couple that with like no world building, caring about anything.


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[Assistant] Which is fine, not every game needs that but like the game will give you characters talking for a while about what the fuck ever and like I don't care. That's so annoying. And I'm like just give me a big gun on my ship because that's what this is all leading to anyway. So.


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[Assistant] That stuff just really, I, it was like, it was like an instant, like, I'm like, ah, it's this. It just feels so...


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[Assistant] Arcady, I guess is the word of the, of the pirate ship combat. I think like the effects of the weapons and like all the different types of weapons are very cool and very satisfying and it's all super fast. I know a lot of people are comparing it to like AC4 Black Flag, but, uh,


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[Assistant] AC Black Flag is like kind of slow compared to this. I still prefer that better but I don't think this is like an incorrect way to do some sort of ship


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[Assistant] Uh, I just wish there was more. Like I, it's hard not to compare it to other pirate games, but there's no level of swashbuckling. And swashbuckling doesn't necessarily mean I have to jump on other ships or free roam with a gun and a sword, but it has to have something else other than a ship


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[Assistant] And then clicking on men, you know, like I'm walking around, I'm on foot, but it's, it's, that part felt meaningless or like kind of like a little more afterthought to me.


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[Assistant] I think there's something there. I think they could almost like tap into like real pirate history and pirate stories and like make that a cool thing because it almost feels like it's, it's built for a lot of it. The first pirate town you start out in


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[Assistant] As much as there's no, like, compelling characters in it, it just is riddled with shit.


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[Assistant] Like just pirate guys drinking, everything is trash, everything is a mess, and it just feels like a real good like, you know, scoundrel-y pirate island. Even when you find random outposts, you park your boat at places you can walk around, they feel like empty vessels for NPCs and, and


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[Assistant] You know, uh, vendors and stuff, but if you just look around, there is a lot of like cool beauty and detail. So it's like, it needs to be populated. Do the Assassin's Creed thing and have like, hello, I'm Benjamin Franklin. And like have him, not Benjamin Franklin, but like the pirate equivalent of that.


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[Assistant] So for context, just for context, uh, the head of Ubisoft, Eugimo, uh, in an interview described Skull and Bones as a trip, not a, not a triple A game, but a quadruple A game.


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[Assistant] I kind of interpreted it as, I was like, I think I know what he means by saying quadruple A. He means that because of how much money they spent on it. 10 years worth of just, just dumping cost that I was like, yeah, quadruple A in terms of price tag.


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[Assistant] Anyway, the other thing from this week that we've been playing is Pacific Drive. This is that sci-fi first person car game.


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[Assistant] Finally out, it's on PC and PS5, and I absolutely enjoyed it. Uh, I think you have to be a specific type of gamer for it because it demands a lot of you.


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[Assistant] Uh, but I think it is just a really creative and different thing. And I'm going to always like kind of like go to bat for that. I'm like, this game takes a minute to describe what it actually is. It's unlike anything else on the market.


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[Assistant] And I will always present that to people who are like, I'm bored of games. Why are all games the same? Why are all games release? They're not. Here's a good one. You drive a fucked up car through a post-apocalyptic, uh, like a, you know, like a Chernobyl-esque like


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[Assistant] It got even harder than it already initially was. Uh, I had been kind of trained in the game's bullshit and the tricks it can pull, but also I had worked hard enough to get a bunch of cool equipment.


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[Assistant] And how to deal with every task that made me pretty satisfied. It is definitely a game that is like,


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[Assistant] Designed to, so it's like hard, difficult, it's hard to describe because it's almost more just like constant annoyance and frustration.


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[Assistant] More than just raw challenge. And I think it, the game tries to push your buttons intentionally. Because you could be driving down a road and then it's like, uh oh, radiation cloud, your car doors are rotting off. And you go, okay, that's fine, I'm gonna, I have this tool, that's gonna help me out with that. But then it's gonna be like, uh oh, also your tire blew out.


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[Assistant] Part of the fun with all that, like the game just like trying to ruin your life constantly, uh, is, is the discovery and kind of figuring out all these weird anomalies and how you kind of have to get effed by them to understand what they are.


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[Assistant] Because a lot of these things are so vague, it's like, oh, it's a floating rock or a weird little wisp of wind.


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[Assistant] It's like scientific achievements, like you feel like you're figuring things out and like you're like, it's like you're a DeLorean like time machine, like you're slapping all these weird scientific parts on it as you're figuring it out. And it's, it's, it's really satisfying.


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[Assistant] The one thing I didn't touch on in the before you buy video, I'm working on like another video cause I want to dive into this stuff is the.


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[Assistant] The, the car itself and there's something to it, like how you get used to it and it's its own thing, but also aesthetically, uh, atmospherically rather, I should say, uh, it's the game I found that most accurately captures


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[Assistant] Being in a car in the rain. We've experienced like story games, games that like you're in cars and you're in the rain, but there's something about the sound design.


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[Assistant] The, the darkness, the visual, the sound of the wipers, that they just so accurately capture what it's like to be sitting in a car at night in the rain. That really is a really good juxtaposition with like how the game is just trying to like, again, ruin your life. But then it's got so many moments of like, you want to stop and pull over and hear what these characters are saying.


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[Assistant] You wanna just look at the raindrop, let's hit the windshield, like, it does a lot for me, man.


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[Assistant] Next up, another user question. This one comes from Jacob Silvis, uh, who says, my question is, if you could choose to make the restaurant of your dreams based on a video game,


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[Assistant] What game would you choose for the theme? I think something horror themed would be interesting like Resident Evil, but also something Nintendo-ish would be fun. Thank you so much if this question gets picked.


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[Assistant] Okay, I don't need to read that part.


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[Assistant] Thank you, Jacob. Also, you have a nice name. That's adorable. I can start with this question. Video game themed restaurant nom, uh, Jacob suggested something Nintendo should be fun. I had Bowser's Big Bad Meatball in


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[Assistant] I think for a video game themed restaurant I really am really really into Palico stuff from


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[Assistant] Well, we still gotta talk. Uh, let's go over to show and tell so we can eat. Uh, this is the section where we all bring different random things to the table to talk about. Uh, Lucy, let's start with you.


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[Assistant] Lucy's review, perfect. Uh, Ralph, what do you bring this week?


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[Assistant] I had a rare, like, like, take on a current event, uh, and I tweeted it. Some people actually took this as me being pro-AI. I'm not really into it, uh, but kind of what you were saying with like our parents' generation, like,


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[Assistant] The average person isn't having ethical debates about this, they're just like, oh cool.


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[Assistant] You put that on a computer and just made that? Awesome. Cool. When's that going to be the next Marvel movie? Like people don't give a shit. And that's upsetting. And I think that's why it's more like, okay, like what do we do now? Like we need to figure this out. Um, I think I also just come at it from,


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[Assistant] I, you know, I majored in English and I majored in art history and I flip-flopped back and forth. So like, I like art.


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[Assistant] Think art is important. I also think tools are important.


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[Assistant] Toolsets are important. Game makers, artists of all kinds use all different types of tools. These tools always evolve. But...


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[Assistant] I don't know, it still comes back down to me just like an artist learning how to use a paintbrush and practicing and training and


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[Assistant] Also just having that creative spark. As someone who doesn't have a creative spark, I respect creativity so much and I also don't want to


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[Assistant] We need a bit of that. This weekend I cozied up in a snowstorm with a good book, or really a good compilation of comic books. I love that. I read, uh, like a shit ton of the original The Darkness run.


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[Assistant] So I had kind of dabbled, I had been aware of the darkness, uh, but I really loved the game.


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[Assistant] I fell in love with the game. I was like, this is sick and this is so much cooler.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but just recently, uh, my friend just picked me up like the volume one compilation of the Darkness comic from like the late, the mid to late 90s, early 2000s. It's Garth Ennis and...


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[Assistant] But then also like, it's like every time he murders somebody, it's like, look, he ripped off his head and he said like, fuck you. Like it's very 2000s.


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[Assistant] But, uh, it's got a lot of cool like lore. It's got like a lot of like angels and demons things and factions and, uh, Jackie Estacado and like the mob stuff is very different here from how it is in the game. The presentation of the darkness and the darkness's abilities are very different.


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[Assistant] I'll report back with more darkness stuff, but now it makes me want to replay the game, even though we had a conversation earlier.


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[Assistant] About not always being able to replay the games and I don't know if I'm ever going to replay the darkness, but it still has one of the best lines ever written in a video game.


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[Assistant] Um, there's a side quest where you need to go, I'm going to butcher it, but there's a side quest where you're like in the subway and there's like a guy like busking, like playing a harmonica for tip jars.


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[Assistant] And there's some dialogue options and Jackie Estacato threatens the guy. The voice actor is so good. I don't know his name.


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[Assistant] He says, he says, uh, you like magic tricks? He says, I'll, I'll rip, I'll rip your...


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[Assistant] I'll rip your face off and I'll pull a rabbit out your fucking ass.


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[Assistant] Liking the video version and all the nice comments on the YouTube video version is very appreciated, but also the people who review on all the podcast platforms. It's great. We appreciate that. Not just iTunes.


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[Assistant] But the women and children too, no, but the, um, the other, uh, like weirder podcast platforms, I do see people review on those as well. And those go a long way too. So thank you if you use.


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[Assistant] Pocket cast, pod bean, any of those, thank you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we're here every other week. We got some cool things cooking in the next couple of weeks and months, so keep your eyes peeled. But, uh, I'm Jake Baldino.


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[Assistant] That's Lucy James. That's Ralph aka Skill Up. See you guys next time. Tie your shoes and go to bed, alright?


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[Assistant] That's interesting. Okay. Like he wouldn't be like supportive. Like, oh yeah, that's fucking


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[Assistant] I worked with a guy that had that same thing.


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[Assistant] ...adapted to their life, you know what I'm saying? It's more than a lifestyle, than a way of life, you know what I'm saying? It's a religion. True, real down-ass Juggalos know that magical fucking feeling you get when bumping this shit. You know what I'm saying? Who's behind the Juggalo powers? You know what I'm saying?


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[Assistant] That people stand before, you know what I'm saying?


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[Assistant] You know, everything that is the ghetto and what have you, the traveling, you know, here on this earthly realm, it's like, you know, I'm saying you got the holy trinity and shit.


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[Assistant] You gotta sing the motherfucka, the way the motherfucka shit was supposed to be sang!


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[Assistant] And these are the words that came to me at that time. Okay, you wrote a song, an original song then. May I share them with you, Facebook? Yes. Thank you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, for me, it's not a surprise when the initial rumors came out about things like Hi-Fi Rush or Starfield. Uhm, I'd commented at the time saying, hey,


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[Assistant] In the past with things like, uh, Minecraft Dungeons or Ori, that they're willing to put games on other platforms. But it's to the point of these, the Jeff Grubs of the worlds and the Tom Warrens of the world, when they started saying things like Gears of War and Halo,


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[Assistant] Potentially going. That raises an eyebrow because I think


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[Assistant] Halo is your flagship. There is no Xbox without Halo. So if Halo were to now start showing up on your competitor's platform, I think you start losing some of your identity as being an Xbox. So I can- Sure.


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[Assistant] But even, let's just say it's Gears. Let's just go with that one. Even if it's Gears, you start losing some of your identity because these are your flagship titles. These are a reason that you would want to go jump into an Xbox ecosystem. So, excuse me.


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[Assistant] That's where it started raising the alarms of, alright, what are they doing? Are they going full third party? Are they going to stop making hardware? Things like that. So it just raises a bunch of questions, but I think even the phrasing that we're seeing sticking with Gears, like Grubb saying it's under consideration, it would not shock me at all that


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[Assistant] Internally, they're talking about it, but are they actually gonna execute something like that? Excuse me. That would be surprising to me. I could see the scenario. Again.


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[Assistant] That your Xbox Game Studio games?


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[Assistant] Excuse me. My opinion on all this has been, let's just wait. Let's just wait until they officially say something. I think when you had so many media sites starting to talk about this over the weekend, Phil Spencer had to acknowledge it. So that's why we saw the tweet that we did. But I would rather wait.


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[Assistant] No, and I think that's part of the point why it's going to be interesting to see what the strategy is going to be because if


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[Assistant] I, if I already own a PlayStation and you're just telling me I need to wait a certain period of time and those games will eventually come.


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[Assistant] I don't know, they're gonna need to do some great messaging around that because I think a lot of people are just gonna see, well, even if you're gonna continue to make hardware, I don't need your hardware, I'll just get the competition.


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[Assistant] It goes against what their messaging has been over X amount of years, right? Talking about bringing these quality experiences. This is why they were doing certain acquisitions that they did like Double Fine.


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[Assistant] It would seem to me, and again, I'm not clearly not smart enough to be in these rooms to make these decisions, but it would seem to me that they would want to keep a hand on the wheel when it comes to hardware so they can kind of dictate.


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[Assistant] What, what hardware is doing? So if, if there's certain innovations and things that they want to be able to do with their games, but, but to Lucy's point, maybe it's, maybe it's cloud. I don't know. Maybe it's cloud and AI that that's a direction that they're going to go to continue to deliver certain innovations on games. But, but to your point,


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[Assistant] I mean, if they were to just go completely third party, they're now at the mercy of whatever Nintendo's going to do, whatever PlayStation's going to do from a hardware standpoint, and that is going to dictate what their games are going to look like moving forward. So, they kind of got to answer these questions. Maybe they'll start answering them somewhat next week.


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[Assistant] I, I would hope, knock on wood, that they would actually be up to doing some, some interviews so people can ask these questions and try and get some definitive answers and clarity on that.


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[Assistant] What I've seen over the past 48-72 hours is that concern that the games that we thought we were going to be getting from Xbox, you know, with all these acquisitions and the things that they've already announced like a Clockwork Revolution, The South of Midnight, are you going to continue to have that commitment towards those?


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[Assistant] Versus just being another Sega. Because, I mean, that's kind of the word around the campfire. They're just going to be Sega, not make hardware anymore, and just make third party games.


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[Assistant] Again, it comes back to that brand loyalty of like, I am a fan of Xbox. Are you losing the identity of everything that I liked about Xbox? Right? Do I have to now go get a PlayStation? Am I no longer gonna have?


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[Assistant] You know, an Xbox console under my television is Game Pass going away. Like, am I still gonna have achievements now for my games? Are you just stripping all that out and you're just gonna simply make games moving forward? So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, this is why, and I know I kind of DM'd you this a little bit before we started, that I was saying part of the problem with Xbox, and it has been for a very long time, has been their communication and their messaging. They've always been very reactive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And here we are in February now and really the only reason that we're seeing a response to it is because it got to the level of a Tom Warren or a Jeff Grubb actually starting to report these things now versus


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, let's get out in front of it. Yes, we are going to make some business changes. Yes, we are going to talk about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are my, the, the ecosystem that I've invested in with all these digital games, if you're gonna stop making hardware, is that gonna translate over to whatever the next platform's going to be? Am I going to be able to keep these games? And clearly, Xbox is headed towards an all digital future, so I think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The community wants to hear some reassurances when it comes to that as well. And I do too. I want to make sure that all the digital games that I have that I'm not stuck just having them on a Series S or an X, whatever the next thing is going to be, they're going to follow me wherever I go.


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[Assistant] I obviously remember that interview very well and I know what you're talking about in that context because he also added in there, it wouldn't matter if Starfield was an 11 out of 10 when he was talking about that. But the point that he was making was they lost the last generation, which was the start of the digital ecosystem.


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[Assistant] And it's going to be very hard for them. Just releasing great games is not going to be enough for get, to get someone to basically abandon all their digital games that they have over here and now jump over here and basically start all over because you have great games. But, but I will add in this part, which kind of goes back to something you were saying before that that would be the sad part of all of this. If, if,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This completely disrupts because you could see Xbox


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[Assistant] Building up to this point from 2016 to where they are now as far as infrastructure, adding all these services, the game path, all the things that they were doing and that missing piece.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which both Phil and Matt Booty had been talking about in the last couple years is the content, the games, where even in that interview, he mentioned he was like, we're so close, I can see it. And in the, in the phrase, both of them have repeated is we want to get to the point where we have a major release every quarter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And even from this Dev Direct, you could see, wow, we're actually getting to that point now. And then obviously 2025 and beyond. Here we go. We're actually getting the games. Everyone's complaining about getting games. You're getting games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It sounds like even that's not enough. They can't just rely on having great games thinking that's gonna get people to invest into their ecosystem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, that's for the next thing we're gonna do. But who do we have now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so excited to talk about that one.


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[Assistant] Gabe, thank you so much for joining us. I am curious about your background, uh, where did you start in gaming and what led you to CD Projekt RED?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so when they typed you up specifically, it was for like, was it for DLC or were you kind of coming in the end of, uh, 2077 to help them out?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then you took that momentum into, you know, seeing, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A grander reveal of Phantom Liberty, Idris Elba being in it. Uhm, I remember, so at Summer Game Fest this year, I took a cyberpunk appointment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was like a 90 minute hands-on, and we were just like, oh, it's just gonna be Phantom Liberty.


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[Assistant] And then it felt like you guys really buried the lead because Pavel was literally like, oh, by the way, we've kind of overhauled a hell of a lot of the game. So can you talk about like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The decision to going up to 2.0, uhm, what did you, what did you decide on what was gonna be overhauled? What was not gonna be overhauled? And what was the kind of approach to presenting it? Because are you, were you wary about over-promising or was it just more of a, you know, this is a cool thing. We just want to talk about it, but we'll be cool about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where did the uhm, cause obviously there's a bunch of new music in Phantom Liberty and Idris has, is it Impulse? Like a radio station? I know he's a big DJ. Did that idea come from your side or from his side? How did that come about?


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[Assistant] I mean the one, the one moment that at least in what I've played so far that really stuck out in terms of like nailing.


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[Assistant] That genre is the party sequence. Uhm, again, try not to spoil too much because it's really cool. Uhm, but like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I just really enjoyed like the fact that it's one of those missions where you take your time to set it up and like there's key kind of bond influences in there. Can you talk a little bit about how that mission came together and how you balance, you know, the slow kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the anticipation of the approach and then the actual, uh, like event itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's really cool. It also like, I know you worked at Bioware, but you know, like having the ball in Dragon Age Inquisition, like it is the moment that people remember, so I was kind of-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always, I always love it in a game where you have like that moment and you kind of just get like a little bit of time to... I don't know, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Explore the world and hear more stories in it and also one of the favorite things, my favorite things about cyberpunk is the names of all your quests.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he's, he's the main guy, it's Idris Elba, but I've been really enjoying, like, I didn't expect to spend so much time learning about Alex, for example, or Songbird or even Myers. And so, I mean, what's it like, you know, bringing more characters to the plate, but also kind of keeping it, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, keeping it within a limit so it's not, you know, spilling out too much and kind of keeping the story focused.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where's the line? But also, I mean, like, how do you decide if you're looking at the spy genre or the thriller genre, like, are there particular roles that you want these characters to play, or do you want them to have a little bit more shades of grey?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the sequel, there's a new studio being set up in Boston, uhm, you know, kind of building a new studio. Like how many folks from Poland are coming over versus how many are you looking to hire within the US? And like, you know, is it, is it scary to set up something on top of just, you know, making another massive AAA game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, I use that for the same reason, because yeaah, we get everything in America, but we don't get all the good British stuff. I wanna watch, you know, we've talked about this before, come down with me! Come down with me!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, yeah, I was playing pre that patch, but we saw that patch in action at Gamescom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So originally it was like really badly communicated as well because it's like, how does game pass feature in that? So you're going to be running at a loss because people, and also, uh, Rami, uh, Ismael mentioned that like, Hey, you can review bomber games on Steam, but now you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't make, we don't, uh, make statements usually. That's how bad you fucked up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, to my point, you know, the disclosure here is that I hosted the Comic Con panel. I worked with the team closely to put that together and it was just like, I know I haven't spoken about my experience with the game, but I was playing it before that and I was like, I'm actually having a really fun time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's original window was perfect and then it got delayed into, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I know it was, it was meant to be, it was meant to be that Comic Con weekend, like end of July, and then it got delayed into mid August.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, okay, so Terminator 2, because it is the greatest action movie ever made, uh, still holds up to this day. Even the effects, the show is wild. Um, The Princess Bride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As you wish. As you wish. Endlessly quotable, fun, family romp that I watched multiple, multiple times when I was a child. Oh yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then eternal sunshine of the spotless mind because being sad can be very beautiful sometimes. True. Great soundtrack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, I remember I had all of the Sims 1 expansions and in the Making Magic expansion, they had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sims 4 has come a long, long way, but Sims 2, if you look at the animations, if you look at the way that the Sims worked and like they had memories and wants and needs and aspirations and fears and everything, that was just, it was, it's the perfect game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Television host Drew Carey would come. Wow. Avril Lavigne was in, and so was Jon Bon Jovi was in Superstar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the boring answer is, my apartment has a lot of windows. And that is incredible. I love having so much natural light. However, it is a nightmare for someone who does video content. Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm afraid I'm not that much of a gamer. I only, I know, I do, I do have a little remote, but I can only, uh, do my key light.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, I'm the same. There is a place in San Francisco called Cheat Pete, and I went, and it's a San Francisco institution, and it's a framing shop, and I walked in, I went, pffft, how much? I felt like my mother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, no Jake, uh, you went on that segment, uh, it was so bad that I felt myself just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, my shoulders clenched. You know, I regretted it immediately. I probably blushed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did a Tambo Shrimp. Uh, but we've got a packed episode, uh, as always for you this week. I'm Miss James, joined by Ralph aka Skill Up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Please welcome to the stage on this podcast, Hideo Kojima, he's back, no. Uhm, no, so yea, good call out, next episode is gonna be a little dead, it won't be too long to wait, and we will let you know as soon as we're gonna put it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yeaah, we've got a packed episode this week, so we're going to be kicking off by having a chat about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with Gene Park from the Washington Post and Tomohi Hussain from GameSpot. Uhm, and then you guys spoke to the Pacific Drive team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But let's kick off then, uh, by having a big in-depth chat about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Don't worry, we don't spoil the ending.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Actually, no, that's not, no, so Charlie Brown, that was, that'd be Pigpen. Pigpen was the one. Come on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I had to stop because I had a meeting and, uh, I've been in meetings and doing my, my job for the rest of the day and now we're here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we're here to talk about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, so you know where I'm at in the game? Uh, Tamar and Gene, you've both finished it, completed it, Tav, you reviewed it for GameSpot. Gene, did you end up reviewing it for Washington Post? I sure did, yeaah. Hell yea, you did. Uhm, and Ralph, you are?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so weird to hear you say that you're like completing it and not like just getting through. I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The kind of new direction in terms of like open-ish world, I'm not gonna call it open world, but there are definitely these huge open areas, and a lot has been made of the fact that these open areas and the things that you can do within them can take in the Ubisoft formula, towers, and like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things popping up on your map. Uh, but they made them good. Panel, would you agree?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jean, uh, we talked, uh, a couple weeks ago at DICE, you'd already finished the game, you kinda mainlined it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you gone back to it? How much of the side stuff have you done?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause we're gonna talk a lot about the plot and the characters and everything. I just wanted to get this kind of, not out of the way, but there's a lot of side stuff too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been a lot of chat about, and especially in reviews and stuff where people didn't- we're not gonna spoil the ending here. I don't even know what it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a lot of people are kind of saying, yeah, love this game, love this game, but the ending is kind of... weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for some people it soured the experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not gonna lie, for me, Chapter 11 onwards has soured the experience because the pacing there goes off a cliff, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't have the context of playing the original Final Fantasy 7.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming at it from, I know the broad strokes of the ending, I know the broad strokes of the events, um, how did, obviously Ralph and not for you, but Gene, Ian, Tam, how did the ending sit with you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even, even in the uhm, the recap of Final Fantasy VII, there are such key things that they miss even from remake. I was playing it and characters were popping up and I was going, who the hell's that? And I played that game, I just didn't play the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like, we were on the giant bomb thing, Tam, and like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I was gonna say, I wish I was there with you. I genuinely feel like I'm on such a back foot because I don't have this relationship to the original game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other thing to do with the pacing is it's like, I like a lot of the minigames, I think they're really fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The reason I'm calling out chapter 11 specifically is there is a moment where...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just kind of went, I am actively not enjoying playing this and I'm only pushing through, like, because I don't have that tie to the original, I'm playing this to talk about it with you guys. I'm playing it so that I can be a part of the zeitgeist and know, I think if I was playing this game of my own accord, I would have given up the first time that Kate Sith had to throw a fucking box.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had, uh, Hamaguchi-san, uh, Tam and I interviewed him last week, the director, and he basically just said, yeah, they made a little


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, time for a user question. If you have anything that you want to ask us, uhm, please email it over to contact at friends per second dot com. Someone emailed, I just want to say, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't have to read this on air. Just want to say a quick thank you to Lucy for mentioning the show Titanic in New York.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and uh, he said, my husband and I went to New York to celebrate our anniversary with some friends and they decided to go see the show and everyone loved it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so shout out to Carol, like, if you're emailing that. Uhm, and he sent it to ContactFriendsForSecond.com. Uh, just like Harvey Brown did. He said, Hi guys, absolutely love the podcast. You make my long commute to the office so much more bearable, and I'll forever be grateful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My question is, being in my thirties with a full-time job sadly means having less and less time for gaming. The big AAA titles are too damn long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can see why I put this in after the Final Fantasy chat. Uh, so I'm naturally gravitating towards the smaller games. Do you have any short game recommendations or maybe even recommended suggestions on how to continue playing the long games when my day is mostly filled with a boring job? Thanks guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, Netflix has a lot of really good games that they have put on mobile that no one knows about and that no one...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know. It's not. You can open that Netflix app and it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not really screaming about the games that they have, but they have some really cool shit on there. They've got like immortality. They've got, um, uh, what's the, the tile based one with the, the mechs and you push stuff. Um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, there's some great games on Netflix, so great games on your phone, there are things like xcloud, playstation, you can stream to, uhm, you can use remote play and everything. So there are ways of like, fitting gaming into your life that you don't have to be at a PC or a console for. I think in terms of, as someone who's in their thirties with a full time job, and also yes, I don't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty vigorously. Like I plan out my evenings so that I don't waste time scrolling or if I know that there is a game that I have to prioritize for work or for FPS.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have it in my calendar, so it's like, tonight I'm gonna spend two hours playing Final Fantasy, then I'm gonna put half an hour aside to cook and have dinner, and then I will play, I will watch a show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm a chill person, I promise, but it does help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the indie scene in particular, there are some really great short narrative driven experiences like Venba, for example, like finish that in two hours. Um, oh, what was the other one? Uh, no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, next up, we have got an interview with Seth from the Pacific Drive team. You guys want to tee it up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Time for another user question. This one is from Morgan Mohala.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the evolution of gaming, value propositions have historically been tied to multiplayer capabilities, like the N64 having 4 controllers, online experiences,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like Halo 2 multiplayer. Enhanced graphics, like PS1 through 2, 3, 4, 5. Expansive game lengths, like Assassin's Creed Origins. And cultural significance, like Fortnite and Roblox. However...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With graphics reaching a pinnacle, I am so full of cold, I'm so sorry. And the saturation of remakes and sequels, the current landscape demands re-evaluation. Can the panel discuss, I love it, it makes it sound like we're debating something on a TV show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can the panel discuss some things they feel adds value to a game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And some things they feel detracts from the value of a game, with the players in line.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And get, get your foot in the door by charging them less up front and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a complicated relationship with the term value. I've said, I've definitely said this on the podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something that Kyle Bosman, formerly of Game Trailers and Easy Allies,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Said, years ago has always stuck with me, which is even a 0 out of 10 game has value. And I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Value is such a weird thing because I can be playing a game and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe Suicide Squad, perfect example, where at some point I thought that the gameplay was really clicking for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was actively having fun and I was engaged with the combat, but everything about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other aspects of how the games as a service model have been implemented were just turning it off, turning, turning me off it and made me want to, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't getting value out of that. I wasn't engaging with the system that had, like this entire elaborate system that had been put in this game, and I was getting zero value. So it was like this weird balance. And so I think something that, when I'm thinking about games,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Critically, when I'm thinking about games that I've connected with emotionally that I've loved, it's something that has created a memorable experience for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that could be a storytelling beat, that could be a gameplay mechanic that I've never experienced before, or it's a clever implementation of something that I have experienced before. I think that immediately creates so much value because right now, not to get too deep, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attention span is just being pulled in so many different directions. If there is something in your game that makes me stop for a minute and just fully


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Invest in the game, like invest in its story or decide that hey, I'm gonna clear my calendar, I'm just gonna play this, you know, because I really want to experience the end of it. I think that is so much more valuable than


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So much of the throwaway media and tweets and videos and news and everything that we're bombarded with every day. And I think video games...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, thank you for another great, uh, user question. Like I said, up above, uh, contact your friends for the second dot com. Chuck them our way. We love, we love chatting about them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played some on Sunday, it's really fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Helldivers is fun, I've been playing a little bit, uhm, cause we used to have Overwatch was our catch-up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, it's just part of growing up, I guess, and not having so much free time. Uh, and speaking of things why I don't have as much free time anymore is I played Bellatro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have no interest in poker, right? I go to Vegas quite a bit, usually me and my friends will go after E3 RIP.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago for Dice. I don't really gamble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do the thing where you sit at a blackjack table and they serve you drinks and you get, you just tip them once. You know, I just kind of, you know, I don't gamble. Uh, so I don't really know how to play poker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I was playing the original Red Dead, my brother-in-law would play poker because uhm, on the game for me because it was a trophy or achievement that I wanted to get. I don't know how to play poker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can argue that I still don't know really how to play poker, but I am so all in on Bellatro, which is a game where you play poker and you have, uh, three rounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the final one is a boss. And you're like, okay, you're just, you're just playing as, playing as Poké. But there are these modifiers, these little joker cards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then these joker cards will be like, oh, well, if you play a hand that is under three cards, then you will double the modifier and you, and every card represents like a certain amount of chips. And so there's chips with a multiplier and you get points that way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And baby, when I tell you some of these cards, when they come into play, I can play like two cards and I'll get like thousands of points and I feel like a genius. I'm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Be like, oh, this is the small bet hand, and I play one hand, and I like, get so many more points than I'm supposed to to get to the next hand, and then I'll get to the next hand, and I get another card, another modifier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like, okay, so if I discard spades, then I get more points this way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Impact modifiers you have, so if I have this hand that is somehow amazing if all my cards are diamonds,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They could, they could be a boss that's like, oh, your diamond cards or these, or cards that you've used already in this run won't have impact in this one. Or they'll be like half as many points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so good. And it's like, the music is, um, just like really, like just, just like this really great background music. Genuinely my only complaint about this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that the play hand and the discard hand are right next to each other. It's X and Y. And I was on a plane to LA with Taya.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone's playing it. We were on this press trip and we were with Jordan Midler from VGC. I was talking to him and we got him a code.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he messaged me today, he was basically like, I can't stop playing. And I said to him, I feel like I've given you the gateway drug and that when you're, you're dead, I'll feel guilt about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's time for Show and Tell, which is something that is not a video game. We've all seen- We've all seen June.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, however what the preview ended up actually being was us just watching the direct that they showed, like a few days later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool mix of a survival game and an MMO, which is really interesting. Like they had like, I think I want to see more of it. It was kind of a bit top line from what we actually saw of it. And then we went into, into watching the film and I.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always worry about long films. I get in my head where I'm like, what if I need to pee? What if I need to pee? And for a, for a film that's all about how the fact that there is no water, I was like very cognizant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I just sat and I was so enthralled by every single frame. Everything was so beautiful. The sound work, the sound design.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The acting, like Rebecca Ferguson, good lord, I could not take my eyes off her every time she was on screen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obviously no spoilers in case people wanna see it, but like there is a fight sequence in black and white that was-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna see if I can go, cause sadly the showing that we had was not in IMAX and I'm gonna go I think this weekend hopefully to see it in IMAX cause I just, I'm


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Blade Runner and 49 are like two of my favorite films as well. I have a Blade Runner tattoo, you know that. I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think, when it comes to sci-fi, I'm halfway through reading June. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing about sci-fi that really gets me is like a sense of place and a sense of grounding. And I think that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Manages to do that so well. Obviously he and his team. And I think with Jun part 2, with the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where is this one? Because they spent so much time focusing on the characters themselves and their motivations and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you just throw the Benny Gesserit into the mix and they have a whole fucked up deal. It just felt when everything started coming together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was just so, I could not take my eyes off it. I was just so desperate to know how it, what was going to happen. And like every single, like there was no duff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's that tweet, uh, where it's, I would not be able to believe Ben Affleck in a period drama because he looks like he knows what a cell phone is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because people have work done and like, I just see something in the day where it's like, you know, his teeth, he hasn't had veneers. So he looks appropriate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, to the fact that he doesn't live in this world where people go to Turkey and get the turkey teeth. You know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the weaker side of things, maybe not selling it as much, I would have said Xiaomi there. But I think in this one, there's one scene in particular where he's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was like, Oh damn, I get it. Yeah, dude. He's, yeah, he's got me. I'm believing all this, but yeah, I don't know who else it could have been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, other thing I've been watching that I really want...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys to watch just cause it's so good and it's like prestige tv with a huge budget that's actually incredible. Shogun. So it's on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like Disney, Disney Plus, probably Disney Plus, I think that's what it's on in the UK.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's phenomenal. I see the first two episodes, uh, based on the book from, when was the book from, like the 70s?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now I know that. Okay, cool. Yeah, right. So basically, there is, uh, this one lord who's in charge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he has a son, but he dies, and his son is not old enough to take over, so he kind of leaves this uneasy peace between his other lords that are around him. I think there's five of them. And of course, machinations begin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost immediately, there's Catholicism, there's Christianity, there I is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Portuguese, there's a secret place in like Macau and then one day an Englishman rocks up to Japan and the whole


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not. His name is- Damn it. John- John Mike Thorn. I am so sorry, I'm getting over a cold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's basically about the fact like, he's getting used by these people of power to get one over on the other lords, uhm, and ultimately like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two- three deep now, uhm, ten overall I believe. But it's just like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so fed up of TV and movies that just think the audience is stupid and I think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's obviously awesome that they've, that they've done this, but it's like, the Japanese stuff is in Japanese, it's not in English. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they have Japanese, active speaking Japanese, and it's subtitled. And it is so weird to applaud something for doing that these days, but it feels like sometimes we get the dumbest, watered down version where everything is in English. And actually, to be fair, the Portuguese and Spanish speaking, that is all in English. And so I wish they'd really fully committed. But, you know, there are these machinations going on. There are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, they're not handholding and like taking time to explain it, show everything to an audience and they're setting up so much intrigue and it is beautiful. It's, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Costume design, set design, all stunning. The one thing they do that I don't really like is they have the fucking little blur bits everywhere. That's like this new thing that was a lot in, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Poor things, and I know it's a stylistic choice, but I kind of wish there's so much detail in this world that they put in and like, built.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a word I've only ever seen in Premiere Pro, when I'm putting stuff. Anyway, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's great, and I miss this like prestige TV game of thrones at the very beginning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, just good HBO stuff. Like good HBO shit before- Westworld. Yeah, like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well they really just go, oh sick. Well they really just go all in on something and, uh, one of the guy, the guy who's brought it to TV is one of the co-writers of Top Gun Maverick, which is so weird because that is not the vibe of this show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also if you have sent us, if you have listened to the show, watched the show, sent us a question, left us a review on Spotify or iTunes or any of your podcasts listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, apps of choice, we appreciate you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Uhm, you can find me on Twitter at least JamesGames, Ralph.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've heard a lot. Well, you're welcome. Uh, we'll see you in a couple weeks. Jake takes home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Travel will be on Friday, and you can see what a pleasure it is to be with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely. Growing up in a house of five boys, I had lots of Barbies in the house, for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, right. No, no, no. I actually watched that Barbie movie for the first time just last night. So, and I, I liked it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, totally. I actually, cause at the beginning of the movie I was like, ah, Ryan Gosling, he's okay, he's not doing much in this. Like everyone's like, but then I, by the end I was like, he absolutely crushed this role. He did such a good job. He's actually really funny. Like I think he, he crushed that, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I was very late. I prioritised Oppenheimer as in the Barbenheimer equation.


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[Assistant] I, well, I mean, it's, you know, it's got its problems, but, you know, it's still.


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[Assistant] I really want to get, um, one of those Ken shirt, uh, jumpers that he's wearing that just says, I am Kenuff, right? But it's all colorful and I realized that I'd never wear a shade more bright than like this shirt. So it just really looks very odd to me. Let's do a black, black tee with white lettering version. It says I am Kenuff.


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[Assistant] There's a cool, there's a Ken that's like a 1980s obsessed Ken. You know, and he's just into like retro gear and garb. I reckon that would, I would buy that Ken. I would buy that Ken. He just has all these ironic accessories. He's got like the hoverboard from Back to the Future 2. He's got an Auto 9 from Robocop. And a pager. He's got, and a page. Yea, and a page. Or no, a cell phone in a bag.


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[Assistant] Jake, Jake, your accents man, they're just like, we need a Jake accents like comedy special where he just gets up and does really bad British and Australian accents for 15 minutes.


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[Assistant] British. But I really don't have any uniquely Australian words. Our thing is more abbreviations. Like we didn't say pregnant, we say like preggers for example. We say preggers but we don't say


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[Assistant] Still middle of the day for me baby, I love it. I love it, it's perfect. I love it.


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[Assistant] When it became clear that there was issues of widespread harassment in the industry, I think it was definitely incumbent upon him to use his platform to speak out against those things.


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[Assistant] Um, but I think when it comes to this stuff, it sucks. Don't get me wrong. And you know, we obviously, I speak about it every single week in my show for sure.


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[Assistant] But at the same time, for an award show to talk about, I think that is different because


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[Assistant] I think that reality is being talked about, and I think by us, for example, and by other people, and I think that


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[Assistant] Certainly awareness of that will be elevated when it comes to like, yeah, nominating a team who has just been, you know, a lot of them have been sacked.


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[Assistant] Jeff coming out there and like talking about, I don't know, like, I don't know what, what could he say? What could he say? He's like, it's very sad to see so many job losses in the industry this year.


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[Assistant] No, I think, look, I think you partly convinced me, I guess. Like I, you know, if Jeff were to get up there and just sort of say it is sad to see, you know, how much of the industry has...


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[Assistant] Is no longer there this year in terms of like job losses, how much it shrunk, how many people have affected being affected by layoffs. It's disappointing.


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[Assistant] I don't think he has to say that, but you're right. I think if he did say that, that is like a moment that does draw awareness to the fact that we've had a really fantastic year for games output. Games this year have been remarkable. This is one of the best years of video games that we've ever had full stop in the history of this medium.


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[Assistant] I think that's the same, it's the same with us though. Like when we talk about it, like it doesn't move the needle per se, but I think talking about it, it matters in some contexts. And so, you know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I would say, just in personal, final view, I would say, I don't think he has to say something, but I also agree with you that if he did say something and he found the right words, that it would be a good moment to raise awareness for something that is going on in this industry, parallel to all the success that we've seen. We've also seen a lot of people lose their jobs and that sucks, so.


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[Assistant] There is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cocoon, Dave the Diver, Dredge, Sea of Stars, and Viewfinder. Okay? So, all of these, uh, games are published by...


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[Assistant] Okay, the only one that is actually self-published at a true indie game is Sea of Stars. Okay?


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[Assistant] The rest of them are all under a label. Cocoon is Annapurna. Dave the Diver is Mint Rocket which apparently is owned by Nexon.


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[Assistant] Dredge is Team17, and Viewfinder is Thunderful Publishing, right? This discussion about


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[Assistant] Whether the term indie should mean a truly independently published game. I think it does matter in part.


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[Assistant] I, I do think that because I think it is a big thing for a studio to not only make it, make a game on their own, but bring it to market on their own. Like that's a big thing for them to accomplish. And so I do think there is some benefit in protecting the meaning of that category for sure, you know? But then at the same time,


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[Assistant] You then get Baldur's Gate that falls into that category, or previously before this, Bungie would have fallen into that category when they were publishing Destiny.


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[Assistant] Is there like a cutoff with budget or something? City Project Red! City Project Red! Uh, you know, with whatever, Independent Studio. So, I think, I don't know what the phrasing needs to be, but I do agree that there should be a category for truly independently self-published games. I do believe there should be another category for...


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[Assistant] Smaller titles that aren't AAA games that aren't swinging to sell a billion copies that are made on smaller budgets. I have no idea what the phrasing or title of that is, but we all know what that feels like. That list of games there, they all fit into that list of games. Like that all feels right in terms of what that category is, but it's not labeled


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[Assistant] Correctly, in a strict sense. So I think it's a worthy discussion to have, for sure.


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[Assistant] But that actually, in some way, that actually kind of, in a weird way, works. Yeah. Because like, Indie is a label now that we apply to these smaller titles from


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[Assistant] Independence or smaller labels or whatever, and it's like it feels that. And then if it's truly independent,


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[Assistant] Yeah, you're right. It is a ridiculous conversation. Don't get me wrong. But I can actually feel like that is actually making some progress in figuring out some verbiage around this for sure.


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[Assistant] So, but I would say, look, that, that aside, that discussion aside, I do think these indie game nominations are really good nominations, you know?


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[Assistant] I've just started playing Cocoon actually and it's fantastic.


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[Assistant] It's really good. Uh, Day of the Diver I played through, loved it. Dredge as well, loved it. Sea of Stars I've only just seen, I haven't actually played that one, sorry, I've only just kind of seen big chunks of gameplay. And Viewfinder I played as well, absolutely loved it. So those are some great picks for indie, indie game for sure, for sure. So they did, they did well with that category.


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[Assistant] It's done well, even though this year's been a massive year for AAA and big titles, I still feel as though we've seen some really great indie titles come through and bubble up to the surface. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I agree.


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[Assistant] Yeah, couple of you had to play it. Yeah, yeah, no, so I think they did really well with their category.


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[Assistant] Uh, somehow like, taxed by the broader games media and get lower review scores because they're Xbox games and that's why there's a real shortage of Xbox titles in the nominations list. Obviously, the biggest


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[Assistant] And it really, it only got one nomination and that nomination was for best RPG. Uhm, didn't get a look in for direction or game of the year. Uhm, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Yes. No, for sure. And I think another one in that discussion is like Final Fantasy 16.


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[Assistant] Um, where, you know, like obviously I didn't love Final Fantasy 16, but a lot of people really love Final Fantasy 16. Like it was absolutely their game of the year. Um, and there's, there's a lot of people that fall into that category, you know, and so they feel very much like, you know, what the fuck happened here, whatever.


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[Assistant] But... But yeah, I mean the Xbox... Sorry, go on.


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[Assistant] Yep, what a dude. Actually, he got the golden joystick, so very well deserved.


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[Assistant] I would have liked to have seen Hi-Fi in this whole, like, Xbox tax discussion thing, which I think is ridiculous. Hi-Fi Rush got a lot of love. Hi-Fi, Hi-Fi Rush, it got nominated for Art Direction, uh, Audio Design, um...


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[Assistant] It got a whole bunch of love and I think I'm really glad to see that because that is a fantastic game, uh, that absolutely deserves recognition and it's awesome to see it, you know? And it's nice that also because what happens often with these awards things is that people forget about what gets released earlier in the year.


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[Assistant] And, but, you know, people remember it. And so, yeah, do I think it was a Game of the Year nominee? Not against this other stuff.


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[Assistant] But in another year it probably would have been, to be perfectly honest. If the game, if DC was not so thick with releases, I reckon Hi-Fi Rush probably would have been in my top five. Uhm, and it's nice to see that it got some love in so many other categories. And I really hope it picks up at least one or two awards. Like art direction,


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, I think, I think it's more of a, I think it's far more a indictment on like Starfield as a release than it is on the Xbox brand as a release, as a, sorry, as a label, right? Because I think, you know, Xbox does put out excellent titles, like there's no question about that. So I think any,


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[Assistant] Um, and I, my main takeaway from this whole awards thing is that like, obviously Starfield has not met many people's expectations, that's just life, but Hi-Fi Rush, I think, well and truly exceeded people's expectations. It's fantastic. And I'm really pleased to see that it got like so much love. So, yeah, I think, um, I think that's it. So, um.


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[Assistant] I only played the preview and I enjoyed what I played but I'm actually really keen to return to it. It's definitely on my...


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[Assistant] Uh, very high on my pile of shame. I'd like to get back to it before the end of the year, actually. Uhm, but yeah, I mean, I can understand. Again, that's one of those games that engenders that kind of very fierce love and devotion to it, uh, for a variety of reasons. Cause of the, cause of the studio, cause of the franchise itself, because of the genre, you know, like it's, it's,


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[Assistant] It's brought mech games back in a way, like you could definitely see other studios choosing to make a mech game now because, uh, FromSoft are out there bringing this, bringing this thing back and that in itself is important. So, um, yeah, I would hopefully.


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[Assistant] I'm really, um, I'm really keen to play more of it, so. I think it's also interesting, 004 didn't get too much of, didn't get too much love, I don't think?


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[Assistant] Okay, right, sure, sure. I think that's got a sting a little bit for Blizzard as well, similar to like, you know, with Bethesda and Starfield. A lot of hype behind that one. A lot of like, you know, marketing spend and Diablo games are.


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[Assistant] But, you know, obviously the hardcore community were not super thrilled with Diablo. I think most casual players, and I would put myself in that broad bucket of like casual Diablo enjoyer, I actually really liked it. And I'm still playing it to this day, in fact.


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[Assistant] Not seriously, I'm just kind of mucking around with it, but yeah, but again, would I?


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[Assistant] I would actually say Diablo might be in my top 10 games of the year, uhm, but it's definitely not in my top 5. And so I'm not surprised to see that it didn't get too many gongs, or not gongs, but, or nominations I should say, uhm, for this year. So, here's a question.


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[Assistant] Uh, Cyberpunk. Do you guys think that, uh, Cyberpunk... Okay, so it's not nominated for Game of the Year.


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[Assistant] That is quite silly. I do not think that should be there. Uhm, but look, Apex Legends, Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite, Genshin Impact. Yeah, I see those. They all make sense. We're obviously talking about


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[Assistant] Would you guys, what about, if, if you saw, would you, do you think Cyberpunk would be eligible for a game of the year nomination this year? Like it's not, but do you, would you guys think?


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[Assistant] I didn't know that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on now. Ah, okay, fair enough. Whatever. We're not gonna get into that now. We're not gonna get into that. I've been through enough. I've been through enough.


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[Assistant] That's right. Uhm, no, but look, personally, like, yeaah, again, I, I really do feel as though, again, uhm, Final, uh, Cyberpunk is one of my games of the year, for sure.


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[Assistant] And I personally wouldn't have a problem with it being nominated for Game of the Year. It sounds probably really contradictory, you know, but like, yeah, it just feels like...


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[Assistant] It feels like that expansion and what that added to the game, it just felt like a


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[Assistant] I don't know, I just, I can understand how, and the fact that so many people got to experience it this year for the first time in that context.


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[Assistant] I think there are arguments for and against why you might include, why you think it might be eligible for that category. I can understand why someone's like, nah, nah, nah. I'm like, okay, yeah, fair enough. I see it. But I also, if someone wants to argue passionately for its inclusion, I'd hear that argument too. There have to be rules. Otherwise it's total anarchy. That's right. Maybe, well.


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[Assistant] It's got a classic, best influencer, best content creator Jake. That's going to be you man. That's it. That's going to be you. People make games got in there and I was impressed to see that.


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[Assistant] People are usually the content creator of the year. Okay, these are the content creator of the year nominees.


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[Assistant] Okay. It's much safer to call them that than in the other thing I suppose.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so yeah, no, it's good to see that sort of content creator get a nomination. Uhm, really, really love that. So, yeah, uhm, but then, I don't know, like,


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[Assistant] Uhm, the Last of Us TV show, which I feel like is, you know, a clear look on that one.


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[Assistant] But then the Mario movie is also really popular, but at the same time, like I think critics are going to be drawn to The Last of Us TV show as a better annotation. And I would personally agree as much as I actually love the Mario movie, but I would say The Last of Us.


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[Assistant] I hope the orchestra, like, they have like a choir that just suddenly appears out of nowhere, or like Sam Lake himself just rocks up on stage, you know? Does his moves, yeaah. I think, yeaah, just wrapping it up, there's the two main categories, game direction,


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[Assistant] Is, uh, they're very similar categories. Are they one to one? No, they're slightly separate. Game direction is Alanway 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Tears of the Kingdom.


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[Assistant] The only difference in Game of the Year


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[Assistant] Is that you swap out Spider-Man and you swap in Resident Evil 4 Remake. No wait, sorry, that's a lie.


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[Assistant] That one has five, that's why it's different, sorry. So it's the same, except for Game of the Year, you add Resident Evil 4 remakes.


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[Assistant] Uh, so I feel like that's a pretty good list, I think. As in, you know, yeaah.


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[Assistant] It's what I expected. I think that's what most people would have expected for, you know, looking at the quality of releases this year. So, I mean obviously, game of the year, there's no question, it's Baldur's Gate, let's be real. Like we can try and pretend there's gonna be some other


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[Assistant] There's not. It's Boarder's Gate 3 and it should be Boarder's Gate 3 because it's extraordinary. It's the best of the games. So, um, but I was very glad to see Resident Evil 4 Remake get a look in there as well because I did wonder how your cat is doing it.


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[Assistant] It's, uh, one of those things where, you know, at the beginning of the year, you kind of, people may have forgotten about it or maybe they thought, oh, it's not eligible because it's a remake or whatever. But it's like, no, this is a really extraordinary video game. It was definitely one of the best games I played this year. So I was really happy to see it, um, get a nod there for sure.


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[Assistant] Oh, Dead Island got a nomination for action. Wow, what an idea.


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[Assistant] Sounds like a reasonable role description. I'm sure you can fit that all in.


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[Assistant] Um, wow. Okay, so their, so their idea was they would promote this person who has done great work on the escapist to run their entire video department. And then when that person wasn't able to do this miraculous turnaround for all of the channels and deliver, you know, 100% growth in six months, they're like, let's just fire this person. Yeah. That's business genius right there. That really is.


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[Assistant] And look, providing some context from the outside, I mean, you guys don't want to blow your trumpet too much, I'm sure, but like, I definitely saw


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[Assistant] The way the escapist was talked about over the years changed significantly. The way the recognition of this website over the last three to four years, it's huge, you know, and it's definitely been one of the biggest success stories in a space that is, I'm not going to say in decline, but it's really struggling. You know, like you guys were actually making it work somehow.


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[Assistant] Um, and, but equally blown away in, in for different reasons to see the loyalty that you had inspired in your troops and the fact that as this happened, everyone's just like, well, if he's gone, so am I, you know, and that's pretty rare to engender that kind of, um, loyalty for the people that you're leading.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I coming back to something you said earlier about, you know, like creator owned media collectives or whatever. It does seem as though that's kind of like the future of where all this goes because for me personally,


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[Assistant] It's very clear that the corporations have no interest whatsoever in what this is. Like, properly covering video games, they couldn't give a fuck. I think they might have cared at some point in the past, as they were getting into this thing, cause they're like, ah, well, you get the right people on board, you build something up, whatever. But that desire for perpetual growth is...


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[Assistant] Usually they're in the vicinity of like four or five people, like Aftermath just recently was what, five people? Um, so it's usually smaller than that. Yeah.


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[Assistant] And I think as well, like, we talked about, uhm, the broad-based support for the Escapist brand over the last few years. It's not just Zero Punctuation, it was other things as well. But I mean, specific to Zero Punctuation, I mean, Yahtzee, you've been doing this for how long? How long has that series been running?


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[Assistant] So again, it's always uncomfortable to blow one's own trumpet, but like, why do you think Zero Punctuation has had the staying power that it's had? And then like, obviously, it's not just cause it's funny, but like, I don't know, what do you think has made that work as well as it has?


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[Assistant] So you've been, sorry Jake, I'll just ask one more question of Yasi, because I think you've been reviewing games for 16 years. There's very few people in this business who have been reviewing video games for that long. Most people make an exit before the 60, well before the 16 year mark.


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[Assistant] I'm too stupid, not me. I was gonna say, the only reason I'm a YouTuber is because I have absolutely no skills in game making. I mean, that's it. Otherwise I would love to make a video game, but I just have zero capability and zero creative faculties. So, you know, that's why I'm here.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so earlier you said that you're not running a website. Uhm, is this an entirely video-led initiative and do you plan to have the written word up there at all in any way shape or form?


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[Assistant] We actually, could you give us an overview of how much you've achieved on these fronts and the numbers that have emerged? Because we've mentioned them in different ways throughout, but if we just give us the dump on how you guys are tracking right now, how Second Wind is going.


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[Assistant] Sure. I listened to, um, I'd never heard a cold take before, right? But like while this is happening, I, everyone's like, oh, cold takes are so good. They're so good. They're so good. I'm like, I better listen to a cold take.


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[Assistant] That fucking guy, he sounds like Christopher Walken if he was playing a film noir detective and the thing he was investigating was like video game bullshit. As soon as I watched it, I was like, this is content.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I guess that was what I wanted to ask about your sort of more long-term ambitions because you've got your existing platform show formats, I should say, and you've got your existing talent. Um, you know, you've obviously financially sustainable is the goal to.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and it really, I mean, the whole story just kind of makes me realize just like how ridiculous, silly, stupid, short-sighted a lot of the larger media entities or corporate entities are about this stuff. Like Washington Post shutters its, um, gaming coverage because they're like, we can't make it work. It's like,


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[Assistant] Yes, you fucking can. You know what I mean? Like you just need to make sure that you put some money behind it and hire the right people and-


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[Assistant] You know, like support them and off they go. Like New York Times doesn't really have any problem. They've started to do some stuff, but not much. You see all these other corporate entities constantly downsizing all their teams and whatever. And it's just like, this is the largest entertainment medium. This is it. This people want to hear about this stuff. They want to,


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[Assistant] Learn about it, endlessly. And if you can't figure out a way to make that work, then why are you in business in the first place, you know? So...


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[Assistant] Well, you guys rock. Very, very excited to see how well this has gone for you guys, truly.


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[Assistant] Just get a dude and then make sure he wears like Robocop t-shirts, Back to the Future t-shirts, Metal Gear t-shirts, and then that's like 50% of the battle. That's 50% of gaming media.


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[Assistant] But yeah, I mean, look, I would say, uh, anyone that's watching this, please go and check out the Patreon.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I really do believe in, uhm, the idea of creator-owned media, games media. Uhm, I do believe that we should pay for it, you know, and I'm subscribed to a number of different patrons who do this kind of work, like Noclip, like yourselves.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and some others. So yeaah. I think it's great. Uhm, and I think you guys are really fantastic creators who have produced fantastic content over the years and will only make better content. So anyone that's watching, uhm, go and check, go and check out what they're doing. Uh, I think you'll find you probably will want to support it cause it, uhm, it genuinely is that good.


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[Assistant] I used to love this shit back in the day. NBA Jam with my brothers. That was, that was, that was our shit. Like we used to, that was back when we used to play sports games. So like, and I feel like maybe the reason we don't see a lot of these things now is because the sports game category itself is just so,


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[Assistant] Yeah. I used to play like the mutant ones. Remember the ones that were just like, your mutant NFL or whatever? Where you just, you have to like, you have to like sack the, sack the ref or whatever. Like do all this crazy shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are the ones we used to really like. Again, within the extreme sports category.


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[Assistant] Uh, riffing on, but back then, like I used to buy Madden on PlayStation kind of like every year, even though I'm not even a fan of American football, we used to play it with my brothers and whatever. Cause we're like, it's just fun to just play these sports games that are just straight up sports games.


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[Assistant] Nah, I wouldn't touch any of that shit with like a 40 foot barge bowl. You know what I mean?


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[Assistant] And like, do you put SSX under this label as well? Do you think this is like, I think so. Yeah, I think it's, I think Tricky was under the EA big label. So yeah, I mean, that was a cool label, but like, don't forget we had just recently Writer's Republic.


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[Assistant] And I like that was actually very good. So it's not quite the same as like an NBA jam or whatever.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I, yeah, I don't think we're gonna, to answer the question more pointedly, I don't think we're gonna see a return to this space because, uh, unless it's like indie titles that maybe wanna mess around with it and have a bit of fun.


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[Assistant] You know, I don't see a publisher suiting up to do like another, like, I don't see EA rebooting the big label, for example. That's finished for them because they can't monetize the shit out of this.


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[Assistant] I can absolutely see Devolver doing something like that. I mean, they had like skate games, they've had Olly Olly World recently and they've had, they're working on Skate Story. They had Roller Drone for example, which I think absolutely fits into this broader category that we're talking about. Except that wasn't Devolver, that was, um, Roll 7.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so yeah, like there's little pockets of this, but again, we're never really talking about like the classic sports title, like ball sports. Are we going to get more ball sports shenanigans? I think it's highly unlikely unless the label really wants to mess around.


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[Assistant] Excellent. Legendary. What delivery. Absolutely. Every line that Clarence Potica delivers is so masterful. Flawless.


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[Assistant] It's an interesting discussion, which we have to have like a sidebar conversation one day about the remake, cause it's actually...


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[Assistant] Sure, sure, sure, sure. And I think as well back then, when it first came out, everyone was like, wow, this is so different from the original. This is total garbage. And I think that was probably my reaction.


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[Assistant] It does. I really think in, like, especially because Rubber Cop 2 is kind of very similar to the first film in many regards.


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[Assistant] Robocop 3 is an absolute train wreck disaster.


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[Assistant] It doesn't exist. The remake actually kind of really engages with the source material and actually kind of like asks some interesting questions about where you take some of these elements. It doesn't get all of it right, but it gets enough of it right that it's definitely worth it's worth your time, I think. But uhm, don't watch 3. It's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, what did you think about Louis and her depiction in the game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, totally, totally, totally. I was so sad. And I, look, she was awesome. Yeah, in the movies she's fantastic, but like in this game she's really just nothing. She's just this vapid, like, little robot. Oh, that's a shame. But, and, but also for, for Murphy himself,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just don't think- I've- cause you said you like the writing and the tone and I'm like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like some parts of it because it's really hamming things up because Robocop 1 is very dark. It's a very dark satire and it's just, I think it just nails this absolutely perfect tone. And then 2 gets a little more silly, right? It's just, it's having a bit more fun with it. 3 is so off the rails, it's embarrassing, right?


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[Assistant] But I think Rogue City kind of finds a way to be very absurd and ridiculous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it works in the context of this being a video game and you having to do stupid video game bullshit and so the game arrives at a new tone that is absurdist. It doesn't feel


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Classic Robocop, like I don't feel like this feels like Robocop 1 or even 2. I feel like it's way more silly or over the top. But I still feel like it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but I didn't quite like the way that Murphy was written as well. I think he talks way too much. I would much rather him just kind of not talk as often.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The little bands from the people in the streets is actually really great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeah, but I mean, I think the, the writing and the, I think the RPG stuff is also kind of a bit awkward. Like you're right. There's a lot of decisions. A lot of them don't feel very clear or impactful. And it's just, there's a lot going on in the narrative of that game as well. Like there are seven stories between this rookie cop you have to handle and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So all of that I think is a bit messy. I enjoyed it, but I think it's a bit messy. But I think on the combat side of things, it's just like perfect, absolutely flawless. They couldn't have done a better job of it. It really is so simple, but it nails so many fundamentals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really wish that this was a time cri- I wish they sold this as a time crisis game. Oh my god. Imagine getting a package in the mail that has an auto 9 in it and you take it out and that's how you play this video game. Imagine how fucking cool that would have been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so, yes, unfortunately that's never gonna happen, but this is the next closest thing, and I think they did a great job on the gameplay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they got the balance right on that part. It does play fairly often. I think if it played more than that, it would probably get a bit sick of it. So, but yeah, bummer though that we can't, that's like copyright claim music. I really wanted to use that in my review, but you can't cause it's actually the original theme. And so yeah, they'll just get claimed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, yeaah, like I think this is, if you, you're right, Critic Brain, what do I think this game is? I think it's a 7 out of 10. I think it's got lots of chunky problems in its like narrative and RPG front and the pacing front and I think combat kinda wears a little thin by the end. But yeaah, excuse me, as a Robocop fan, I'm like, yeaah man, this is a solid 8 and a half, maybe even a 9.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I loved it. I had a great time with it. Uhm, really so impressed with this developer. Imagine if this developer had money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you get the feeling that they have the tiniest little budget and they're so good at stretching it and making every dollar count. And I just imagine what it would be like if these guys had a big bucket of money and then they got to make a die hard game for example. Right? That would be sick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know, but Nacon aren't like a big publisher, they don't have lots of money to throw around, but you can just tell by watching this game as well that it's made on a budget, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You should watch Robocop 2 first though. Because it actually has, there's lots of beats within this. You don't need to watch anything else, but once you've watched 2, you're covered, you're all good. Is he blue Robocop or is he- Then you can watch the red-letter media reviews and just like have them in the background and be like, ah yes, there's my boys. There's my boys.


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[Assistant] You can, there's a skin. No, isn't it only like a deluxe upgrade that you choose or something? Like the standard edition doesn't?


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[Assistant] Look, it is remarkable. Uhm, I said that about the first team deck, but this is just better in literally 37 ways. And, uh, it's so fascinating to see how Valve have rolled this out, because- Because I said they weren't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, when I first heard about this, it was from someone who I won't say who, and they're like, oh hey, what do you think of the new Steam deck? I'm like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then this person told me, oh, it's the same form factor. It's just got an OLED screen and better battery. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, first of all, that's very exciting because an OLED screen is a big upgrade. But what that person said to me was only