[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you're hanging out on your feet all day, you're seeing games, you're talking to people, you go out at night, have a couple drinks the next morning, you do it all over again. It's very important to stay hydrated. Which is why we're very happy to say that this episode of the Friends per Second podcast is brought to you by Liquid IV, the number one


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Powdered hydration brand in America. It has three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink plus eight vitamins and nutrients.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] vitamins and nutrients, uh, and it hydrates two times faster than water alone. Uh, Gerard, we have a bunch of flavors, uh, available. I've got here the lemon lime, which is my personal favorite. Uh, what, what are you enjoying?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hell yeah. Yeah, it reminds me of, uh, there used to be like this lemon lime cordial that I used to drink when I was a kid and can't get it over here, but this actually tastes exactly like it. So I like it a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't yet. Um, I'm, I think we're doing something with work with Street Fighter. So I'm staying, isn't like a cool new series that we're doing, but it requires me to be taught Street Fighter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Justin Wong on a stream this week, so like, if I'm learning from anyone, technically I'm learning from Justin Wong by Tam. But no, Tam is, we had, we had Street Fighters, we have a big cabinet in the office.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where we have a PC and we had Street Fighter on there. And I did have a little go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, I have always been kind of scared of fighting games just because they are so technical and you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Picture, like pixel perfect kind of stuff. And so I was kind of afraid of it, about trying it. And then yeah, I was playing and I was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, speaking of card games very quickly, are you interested in Lord of the Rings Magic the Gathering?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We talked about it a little bit, uh, a couple weeks ago. Ralph said it was a Lucius game. You're so correct. But it is... Not that being a Lucius game is any kind of negative badge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so good. The gameplay loop is phenomenal. Basically, you are the eponymous Dave the Diver and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of the day, uh, the morning and the afternoon, you go into this...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That changes every time you go in, so you're not revisiting the same place over and over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You go fishing, you, uhm, explore the depths, there's obviously, it's the sea, there is a great mystery of a civilization lost, uh, to the waves underneath there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's your morning and your afternoon. And then in the evening, you are the manager of a local sushi bar. So you have to hire staff to keep it running. You serve customers. There are special VIP guests who come in and you have to make a specialty


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dishes for them which require specific dives or, you know, specific fish that you have to go collect purposefully.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, loop-wise, you're always doing something, you are, there's essentially, they have a version of Pokemon cards in there where you're, every fish that you catch gets added, and they, they basically, the guy who introduces that to you is dressed like Ash Ketchum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are different weapons to get, so there are different weapon caches to open, and if you collect them a few times, uhm, your guy, your weaponsmith, who is just a nerd, and at one point his anime statue has been lost into the sea and you have to go dive in and get it for him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's, yeah, it's so full of characters, so full of charm. The guy who runs the sushi shop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the sushi restaurant, every time you, uh, upgrade a dish or if a VIP guest comes in, he has this little...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Underwater mechanics as well. So the thing I said earlier about loving it when games give you these incremental updates, uh, you bring in money from the restaurant, you use that to upgrade your suit so you can carry more fish, so you can have more oxygen, so you can dive deeper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are different, uh, obviously all the different fish you can find, but there are different levels of the fish that you can find, you know, like three star guys or, you know, one star. There's different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dishes to find, dishes to make, people to hire and train, uh, you're bringing in money. There's a mini social network, which is basically like their version of Instagram. And so every day when people come in, they rate you and they take pictures and they tag you in it. And so you can go through your social media and just like everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also that is a different level in itself and so getting more social media followers brings in more people. You can decorate your restaurant. It's basically everything I've ever wanted in a cave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was playing in, I was waiting for something to install on my PC and I was like, oh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If this gives you any indication of all users at home listening, it scratches the same itch as the Cabaret Club minigame from Yakuza 0.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hell yeaah. I hope you really enjoy it. Uhm, that's what we've been playing. We've got another user question. Uh, again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No! Honestly, so I watched, uhm, all of Silo over the weekend, which is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, so good, loved it. However, my apartment has so many windows, and this, I don't, I don't want to sound, you know, like, oh, woe is me, I have so much natural loan in my apartment. However,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was genuinely, I was, I was texting my friend and I sent him a picture and he said, is your TV off?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So believe me, when you're talking about battles with the sun, I understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I will be, I'm not ashamed by saying that I saw Lee pace and that's why I clicked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, they talk about shagging in the suits and whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Timothy Chalamet, what have you slowed up for? Anyway, we got another listener question, user question from Dubzy Ubsy. What a great name. I loved Battleborn from Gearbox Entertainment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it felt like it was never given a chance to succeed and build a player base. Did any of you play it? What did you think of it? Are there any games you loved that sadly died before their time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I didn't realize how closely it launched to Overwatch. It was yeaah, beginning of May and then Overwatch is the 24th of May. Correct.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would say, the thing is is that like, I feel like I can't say evolve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it did get brought back, and people still didn't play it, but I really enjoyed playing Evolve. I mean, it was on the cusp of more asymmetrical multiplayer modes really taking off, and I think the concept was super cool. Everyone had a role in bringing the monster down, and if you were playing as a monster, it was super fun. But yeah, I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was the 4v1. No, it was the four dashes and the one dash. It was so smart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, producer Rich says, uh, he left a little note and he said, Rich producer loved Battleborn 2, not a single game was populated in Australia about a month after release. That's, that's devastating. That's a great question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We used to do .5s and I remember we got rid of them and then in the fractured but whole trailer they said won't do anything less. The South Park fractured but whole.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Comma, but whole. Uh, trailer, they said we won't do anything than a 9.5 from GameSpot and we were like, oh, sorry lads, we just got rid of all that. We don't do the 0.5s anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but anyway, before we go into the week, this week in the way back, a nice little detour because we want to talk about older games. Uh, Gerard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you wanted to talk a little bit about, uh, something from the Video Games History Foundation that's in the news and more people should be talking about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kind of, I mean, not to, we're already kind of going a bit long, but you know, it's kind of terrifying just to see the way the content is being wiped out. You know, HBO and Max just- Sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deleting things, I mean the heartbreaking thing or the people who are making it and just kind of go, oh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our show just aired, it just finished and it's already been deleted and you can't buy it anywhere. And like, I am a person who...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I could have more physical media, I could, but as someone who literally moved continents and is starting from scratch, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then I guess I'm doing it without really thinking of the repercussions down the line. And so I am thankful for folks like the Video Games History Foundation and you Gerard, like, calling attention to it because it's something that yeah, we all, we all do for ease. We're just gonna buy it and online and yeah, it's in my library. I'll forget that I even own it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, you know, what if we wanted to say to our kids one day, Hey, remember when I played that? I don't know. I used to have a merry golem game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, literally any Lord of the Rings game prior to 2000 and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eight? You can't buy, you know, Battle for Middle Earth, I don't think anymore. You definitely can't buy the old, um, EA ones, like the Return of the King in Two Towers, unless you buy him a secondhand copy on, um, eBay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All those FIFA games lost like tears in rain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Purely because I refuse to believe that it's nine years ago. Uh, but nine years ago, Rocket League came out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where to even begin? It was, I guess, the first huge success story of a game going on PS Plus and just everyone having it and everyone playing it. I mean, even in the GameSpot offices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I still play it occasionally. I know, um, Jeff Bacalar's kid, Dylan, obsessed with Rocket League. Just such a-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Such a smart game, simple to play, difficult to master.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, bright colors, cool sound design.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Controls exceptionally well, the feeling of scoring a goal and then all the clever tie-ins they've done over the years like the Batmobile or even the DeLorean and stuff like that and like the Ghostbusters stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything about Rocket League, so smart, and it's endured for so long, uhm, I can't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Believe like the success story and I hope it is still immensely successful for them because what a game. And I, yeah, it's upsetting to think. It's epic now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I, when I, when I typed it in on the website, it said, uh, 2014, and then I went into it and it said 2015. So I was, I was misled. I was waylaid. I'm sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, thank you everyone, uh, for listening, for watching. We'll be back again in a couple of weeks. Um, it's been a very fun episode. Blessing. Where can folks find you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I'm lucyhamsgamesoverwhere, I want thread. Threads? Threads? Is it thread or threads?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm posting my crochet pictures over on threads, I'm on Twitter, uh, YouTube, you can find me in GameSpot and Giant Bomb. I am gonna be at San Diego Comic Con next week. I'm gonna be hosting a panel for Immortals of Avium.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I'm very excited about. That's going to be really fun. So if you're going to Comic Con on the Friday, I think it's 12.45 to 1.45. Um, I'll tweet it out and everything. Um, on that Friday, please come along. It'd be a good time. Um, and yeah, I, we don't have our lovely Jake Baldino with us today, so I'm going to do my best impression, which is tie your shoes and go to bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're not on, are we? This isn't real. We are on, we are 100% on man. Here's the thing though, here's the true thing though. What was the question that you just asked, Ralph? Uhm. Whether or not we treat ourselves to 19...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is, as we've been talking about it, I've just indulged in purchasing about 19 inches of venom. I forgot to buy the collector's edition and you just reminded me, so now I'm buying it. Thank you very much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, well I just did my one man show over at the Crocodile Theater.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, uh, Lucy and Tam came and saw at least the first half of the show. They had their giant bomb panel at the same time, so they had to duck a little early. But, our boy Ben Starr and the cast of Final Fantasy 16 came, uh, and they were so sweet and they were so kind. Shoutouts to them. They made- Shoutout to Ben.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they made my day, uh, that my week, uh, cause they shouted me out in the Final Fantasy 16 panel. Uh, that, and that was not something I was expecting, so that was really sweet of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you Lucy. Uh, I purposely don't tell people what the show is about, but I'll tell the users at home. Uh, it's a show called The Completionist Legacy and it is about my life before YouTube. It's about how I became The Completionist and all of the kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's, it's about my relationship with my father and how he's kind of always been the shadow figure in my life. And whether I like it or not, I have this connection with him and, and we all have connections with our parents. And it's, uh, just kind of this, this, this one man show where I talked for 90 minutes about, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the crazy wacky things that have happened in my life. And you know, it's, it's, it's funny. It's sad. There's, there's laughter. There's crying. Um, and, uh, and, and, and self selfish plug. If you're in the London area, if you're in Camden, uh, September 24th, Sunday, you can come see the show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, yeah, for you UK users out there, please come see the show. It's the only time I'm going to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a kind of a little bit of a relationship with. A lot of content creators were there. Uhm, and of course the cast of Final Fantasy 16, which was, uh, just a true honor to perform for, for really everyone, so. That's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Kansas City, Missouri, cause I've got some friends who help me produce the show who live out there. And then I'd like to do one final like curtain call show in LA, just kind of to wrap the whole thing up. But, uh, yeah, it's just, it's such a special thing. It's so fun and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I'm, I'm glad that I can knock people off their butts with expectations. Cause they have no idea what they're signing up for until, until I start. So it's real fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jake, have you seen the Back to the Future musical that's on Broadway right now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You went to a haunted puppet bar, did you bring puppet Lucy with you? I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh man, I mean honestly, uhm, and this is not to be like, hm hm hm, uh, most of my packs is me walking around meeting fans and signing autographs and taking photos, and that's honestly the most important thing to me, uhm, just cause it's the one show where if you're a content creator and you're there to see people, like, that it's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's nice to go because you feel like it's the first time that you're seeing, it's not the first time, but you, you feel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I will say though, one of the most interesting games that I did see, that I really think you guys should definitely, if you're a fan of it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh man, where's my business card? Let me get my wallet. I don't want to ruin the name. I want to get it right. And of course I don't have it on me. Give me one second. I know. Let me check my email real quick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My friend Carrie wrote Pacific Drive. Did they? She's amazing, she wrote it, yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the game that I saw at PAX West, which I didn't know existed until I saw it, and let me tell you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a trip is a game called smack studio. Have you guys heard of this game? Imagine super smash brothers, but you, the player can create your own character via pixel art and 3d design. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This game looks and feels and plays just like Smash Bros. I picked it up, never playing it before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all of the characters in the game were user-created people at PAX West they put in. So I got to play as MrBeast fighting, fighting Swole Doge Dog.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fighting chat, no, no, no, no, no. Uhm, but this game is incredible. It's in early access right now. Uhm, it's eight players.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It has a full-on character creator in it that has its own rigging and pixel art, and it's this like faux 3D aspect where you can design it in a three-dimensional, uhm, plane, but it is a pixel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what they tried. Uh, but uh, yeaah, it's, it's truly an amazing feat of technology. Uh, a small indie studio, 8 player battle, really kick ass game, highly recommend if you get a chance. It's in early access right now. Um, and uh, yeaah, it's fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, then Lucy and I both played, uh, Mario Wonder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played an hour when I was a Nintendo, and I played 15 minutes when I was at PAX West.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I essentially play the exact same stages that I got to play when I was in New York. In New York, we got to play some NDA levels I can't talk about, but for the most part, it was just to show off, um, some of the newer like badges and, and, and functions in stage. But, um, I play the exact same thing that you did, Lucy. And, um.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, it's a Mario ass game. It's really fun. Like it, it, it's cool. It's, it's unique. It's very weird. It gives me the vibe of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you like Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island with the Baby Mario, that weird kind of color pastel aesthetic, each stage feels like it has the ability to have its own art style depending on whatever the Wonder Seed does. So every stage has a Wonder Seed that you have to collect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And every time you touch the wonder seed, it does something to the atmosphere, whether it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're kind of having a cave-in collapse underneath you and you have to like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, there's also going to be a very robust online system that players are going to be surprised by. Like, uh, whether it's like online competitive play, doing challenges, or like, you'll see, um, like digital standees of like where players


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah, for sure, for sure. Uhm, but yeaah, it's gonna be real fun. Uhm, it has, you know, I think it has the most playable characters in a Mario game ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Peach daisy, two toads, four yoshis, and nabbit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a pretty, pretty fun time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, any game, no matter what it is, it could be Horizon, it could be Animal Crossing, whatever it is, she takes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The best goddamn photos I've ever seen. It's, it's purely a talent and I absolutely admire her for that. And that's the kind of stuff that I dig. I can't make the photo, but she makes it look amazing. So I'm happy that it exists in games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, so a couple of weeks ago when it was boys night and Lucy was not here, I promised you all that, uh, he would be sitting down with, uh, Terry Boulanger, who is the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The creative director and, and, and really over the mastermind over at Sabotage Studios, uh, who directed and wrote and produced and everything about Sea of Stars. Uh, not Starfield, Sea of Stars, another title that has stars in the title of the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was a really fun interview. Uh, we asked some great questions, got some cool, insightful information that no one really knows about that Terry shared with us. Um, but overall, uh, you know, Terry is a good friend of mine and it was an honor to have him here on the show. So let's go ahead and take a look at that interview.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone, please welcome to the show. I'm going to ruin your last name, even though I've rehearsed it a billion times as I always do. Terry Boulanger. Did I do it right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Boulanger, I love it. Terry, thank you for joining us. And, and once again, before we even start, congratulations, not just on Sea of Stars, but 250,000 copies in the first week. Tell me how that's got to feel for you and the team, man. That's gotta be special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Congratulations, man. That's, uh, obviously, uh, I and many people out there were super hype on, on, uh, The Messenger and now Sea of Stars. Uh, this has been kind of your, your, your, your child, I would say, since when, when, when did production start? 2019? Or 2018? I always forget.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk to us about how uhm, you know, with the messenger, obviously, this is a game that, uh, is very much, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ninja Gaiden-ish, but not quite, you know, very much em, emboiled in the Metroidvania. And, and for you and the team, you said, you know, we're going to switch from action platformer that's, you know, nostalgic to the NES and Genesis era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To Chrono Trigger and these RPGs, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, what was kind of the, the decision you guys made to, to make that shift to go from, you know, you could have made the Messenger 2 or, or, uh, even changed genres completely and instead you, you really went into, hey, we made our, our Ninja Gaiden-esque game, now we're gonna make our Chrono Trigger game. What was that, what was that kind of, uhm, uhm, process inception for you guys?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember when you showed me the Sea of Stars Kickstarter, you were so nervous because you were like, oh man, like, this isn't The Messenger 2, this is a whole new genre. And I remember seeing it and just kind of telling you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude, this is, people have no idea what's coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and, and sure enough, you know, the game's out now and yeah, they, they had no idea and everyone's playing it. I feel like I have investment in the game just cause we're friends. And so I'm, I'm also watching streams and, and, and watching videos and impressions. And it's always funny seeing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, what you guys kind of meant for players to pick up and take and, and, and seeing what they didn't pick up and take and, uh, it's gotta be interesting for you guys as a team now that you've been working on this game for the last four years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How's that been for you guys to watch all these streams and all these people play and enjoy these moments or get confused by them? How's that been for you guys?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I was gonna say, I see a lot of people saying, oh man, this is Paper Mario, this is Golden Sun, this is Chrono Trigger, and I feel like you guys have kind of striked the perfect balance of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Appeasing to those fans a little bit, but also making it your own so that obviously the inspiration is Chrono Trigger, but uhm, I, I, it just felt so unique in how it, it paid homage to Chrono Trigger that the rest of it didn't really matter. It just was like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is its own type of ironclad genre now, especially because you guys took a swing where most people haven't, right? There hasn't been, you know, aside from maybe one or two other titles, the Chrono Trigger swing at the RPG has been very, very, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Garl is exact- Garl's- Garl's perspective and journey throughout Sea of Stars is exactly as you just described. You see that-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the friendship of, of, of, of the Solstice Warriors and just how everyone rallies behind Garl throughout the entire, like in the beginning, you're always concerned with, you know, in Garl's introduction, you're like, oh, he's just a big doofus or he's just a, he's like the, the, the funny character, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that refreshingness that you described as Chrono Trigger and what you find is embodied in Garloth the entire game. And so, it makes sense to me, whatever you're putting down, I'm picking up. Great, great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I want to talk about, uh, a little bit on obviously this game was made during COVID times, you know, we all kind of experienced it, but your team specifically was ramping up to make, to make this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, obviously the Kickstarter's in 2019, and you're six months into production, then the world shuts down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, what were some of the challenges that really affected you guys, if any? And, and how, and how did that affect you guys as a team? Because this is a team effort. You look at this game and you can see that there were so many passionate hearts and minds that were applied to Sea of Stars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think one of the more peculiar things, and I know you can't really tell us how, but it's something to definitely kind of marvel in, is you're one of, you may be the first game, if not one of few,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was able to publish day one on both game pass and playstation plus. That's crazy to me that you're able to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know you can't really talk about the particulars, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How, how do you do that? Like that, that not anyone with, without a publisher nonetheless, you know what I mean? Like how, how are you able to achieve that kind of, that, that crazy goal? Cause already out the gate that's exposed to so many new players who maybe didn't play the messenger or let alone are excited for Sea of Stars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Terry, uhm, you and I were talking about it before we started recording, but uhm, this is something that I talked about in my video, and it's so funny because when I made my video, my 15 minute long, winded video about Sea of Stars, uhm, I didn't tell you anything that was going in the video, I just said I'm gonna make this thing,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm probably got some things wrong, but I'm going to like make it and kind of surprise you and the team just because we are friends. And I like to think that I made this video, uh, for, for you and for content creators. Um, but there was a moment in the video where I talked about how you and I differ regarding achievements and how we structure them and how.


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[Assistant] In the end, we kind of like full circled encompassed and felt the same way, especially as you go on the journey of completing sea of stars. Um, let, I would love to talk about.


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[Assistant] How you feel about achievements in games, what's important to you when introducing achievements to the players, especially because now you've had the Messenger and Sea of Stars.


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[Assistant] And, and kind of dive more about how, uh, you, you created the achievement system and, and how you were kind of shadow guiding the player to complete the game without them even realizing it, uh, throughout the journey.


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[Assistant] But see if stars, you've not only figured out the balance between letting the player get these achievements in a fun and creative way. You've kept it mysterious throughout, you know, keeping the bigger achievements to story beats, but even just in terms of completing the game, you, you, you've made the player go, Hey, getting all the achievements.


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[Assistant] Is a part of the narrative, is a part of the journey without making them feel


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[Assistant] Grossed out at the fact they have to get a thousand kills in a game or, or a hundred hours in a game. You, you've kind of found that balance.


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[Assistant] And I think that's the thing, you know, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sea of Stars is, has one of the best completion processes I've ever played in a game in the last decade. And, and if you end up loving the game the way that I did, like you'll, you'll see that perspective through and through. Uh, and, and I think, uh, in the end.


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[Assistant] Uh, once I was there and I was like, holy, holy crap, this is, this is phenomenal. And it didn't feel strenuous. It felt earned. It felt like, uh, I, I, I've been, um, enjoying that journey. And it's so interesting cause I, I've been again, reading what everyone's saying.


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[Assistant] And the people who are, are struggling to even do the, uh, the achievement of, of reflecting, uhm, the moomerang, moomerang 25 times. That was one of the first things I did right away.


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[Assistant] And, and I did it instinctually because I played so many of those games, but to see so many people like struggle or be like, how do I get this achievement or why can't I do it? Uh, it's just so interesting because, uh,


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[Assistant] You didn't want to make it difficult. You made it very achievable and yet people are struggling and it kind of shows you the difference between


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[Assistant] When you're enjoying something so much and you're focusing on it versus just kind of.


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[Assistant] Zoning out and going through it and I think you just found such a great balance.


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[Assistant] And that achievement specifically, I realized now more than ever that I probably pulled off more 25 plus moomaring moments.


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[Assistant] Because I remember, okay, that achievement stuck out to me in the beginning. I have to do that once.


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[Assistant] And I practiced and practiced and when I finally nailed it, I was defeating bosses in instances with that because I just, I knew the timing and, and, uh, you taught me the skill of how to do this really cool thing because you made an achievement. And once I accomplished it.


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[Assistant] It was just a mini game every time. Oh, now I understand how to do this. I'm just gonna keep doing it passively over and over again. Good.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so we're running out of time, uh, but, uh, Terry, thank you so much. Uh, I, I have one dumb question left, but Ralph or Jake, do you want to ask any more questions before we wrap things up?


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[Assistant] Do you have plans to make wheels an actual game? How do we make wheels a kick-ass tabletop game?


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[Assistant] I lost hours to playing this game without, and it was like, it just because instinctually I figured it out so quickly that I would just beat champion mode over and over again because I found it so fun.


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[Assistant] Awesome. Terry, thank you so much. Once again, congratulations to you and the team, uh, for, for everything with Sea of Stars. And thank you again for, for spending some time with us today.


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[Assistant] If Nintendo was keen to maintain the characteristic voice of Mario and AI, and it reached a level where it could perfectly match his voice, would you want to have Mario's voice stay the same forever? Of course, I'd expect residuals to be paid to the actor and their family, along with stipulations about how it can and cannot be used.


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[Assistant] As long as the actor is okay with it, I think that's the most important thing. And whether or not the residuals will be coming in, of course are a big deal.


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[Assistant] However, I also love the idea, at least in the case of Mario specifically, that we have different voice actors for Mario. I don't think it needs to be Charles Martinet until the end of time. We've had several characters, several people, uhm, take up the helm of Sonic, uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, at this point, we've had at least two people do Snake, regardless if you're a fan of, uh, of Jack Bauer's version of Snake.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's okay. Uh, yeah, I- I think it's as, you know, I'm- I am all for...


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[Assistant] Allowing people to try different takes, uh, let them give it their best shot. It's okay if it evolves forward. I'm even down for like, you know, an art aesthetic version. Like if we have Paper Mario has a different voice than 64 Mario, then then- French accent Mario.


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[Assistant] French accent Mario for whatever reason. Uhm, as long as it's not Chris Pratt Mario. I'm good with Chris Pratt. We've had- that's fine. The movies can have Chris Pratt.


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[Assistant] But yeaah, at the end of the day, as long as everyone's getting paid what they want and everyone's happy, that's the most important thing to me.


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[Assistant] And that's what I fall in line with Jake, more or less. I mean, I'm not- I'm not-


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[Assistant] As an actor, as a performer my whole life, I'm not in favor of AI overall. I just don't want it. But...


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[Assistant] To me, as long as the performance is tied to the ability of like the family and friends of the persons involved.


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[Assistant] And they have all of the say and the power and the ability to control how much AI, how much money, all that stuff. That's the most important thing to me. Like whether or not if Charles Minnett's like, Hey, I don't want AI for my voice.


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[Assistant] I'm cool with that. If they want to recast him, sick, I'm cool with it. No matter what, as long as Charles Martinet and his family is getting that bag and it looks like faithful to his performances.


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[Assistant] Then I'm, then I'm for it because it means that the actor who did this role for 30 plus years


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[Assistant] Is- is rightfully gonna be paid for all of the hard work that he used to do, slash, did. And we'll go forward. At the same time, I'm also for anyone trying a new stab at Mario. I'm- I'm fine either way.


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[Assistant] Just, just finished Sea of Stars, and I am only a couple hours into Starfield. That's, Starfield's gonna be my game that I focus on for the end of the year, but, you know, everyone's gonna be playing it, so I'm not alone. Yeah, totally.


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[Assistant] Alright everyone, this week in the way back, what are we all celebrating? I will go first.


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[Assistant] Everyone, the date is 9, 9, 99. The Dreamcast is released and the launch title to go with it is a one Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. The original Sonic Adventure.


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[Assistant] With the debut of crush forties open your heart, which I would love to sing for you all, but there's not enough time in the podcast. Uh, one of my favorite games of all time, despite how janky it is aged. I love it to pieces. That is my choice. I'm gonna throw it over to Lucy. Lucy, what is your choice for this week?


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[Assistant] That's this week in the way back, back to you Lucy.


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[Assistant] Uh, you can find me on ThatOneVideoGamer on YouTube and TheCompletionist on everything else.


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[Assistant] I think like, um, the, the big thing that I like to see is it's a good opportunity for devs to meet each other because it's been so long in isolation outside of a pandemic scenario, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We get the score or like we weren't, you know, we wanted a higher score, but like we read the review and it was justified and it's also humanizing for us in the press. And I don't know how much of you guys had it, but like you get a good feeling of it's not as antagonistic as it can feel. You feel like sometimes you can be like,


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[Assistant] It's also a good opportunity to kind of, sometimes a lot of developers or people in the industry can


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[Assistant] This person, this comment section or this community is the way it is because of the person that cultivated it. Whereas, you know, if they get some FaceTime with people, especially for that, it works for us as well, where it's like, we're a faceless kind of almost. So when they speak to us and, oh, your games are awesome. You have like a more human conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean the only ads with the vape that is there, they're always there. The ads were like kind of stealthily positioned as trailers. So there was the Grubhub skin by Wendy's. So like this B.C. tear kind of reveals. The Rocket League.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and also like movies are a big deal, but like people spend five years on this stuff.


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[Assistant] It's also like, people hate on it, but like, I don't care how bad it gets for like, the profile that the game awards has, I think is important. And especially if we like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Industries like celebrating, uhm, their kind of creativity on this scale is, is kind of a big part of not legitimising it, but like having people think of it as a bigger thing, you know, and take it seriously. And like,


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[Assistant] The one thing you have to give Jeff credit for is he's putting in the work to make it, like who else, like not to be rude, but like you look at a dice, you look at a GDC awards.


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[Assistant] This is the sponsorships, the agreements and like the, you know, the advertising. It's something that pretty much every part of this industry does. Like behind the scenes, like.


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[Assistant] This is happening. So like the moment he showed up, I left it a few seconds, and then Al Pacino started, and then when it was winding down, I was like, oh my god, Al Pacino is coming to Fortnite.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it looks very payday-ish. Yeah, but we don't know if it is.


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[Assistant] Which, that's kind of automatically cool. I do wonder what that, like what, if the writing is going to be, like who do you, like everyone's going to be competing, voices-wise, like it's going to be so weird, but, it's interesting.


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[Assistant] It's a new crash game? It's a team based crash game.


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[Assistant] The thing that they're doing, like, people love that game for its gameplay, but like, the characters are what people are after, and like, I couldn't, I was watching it, I was like, uh, but gamers are gonna be unbelievably horny, like, it's just gonna be insane. And like, that's kind of like the secret source of that game, that Hades is like, incredible writing and characters, and I don't think Supergiant has done a game that


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[Assistant] And I don't want to boil the fact that a second Hades game exists down to like the first one made a lot of money because it's a artistically and creatively speaking an incredible achievement.


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[Assistant] But also like, it's like an indie game. An indie studio rarely has the opportunity to turn an indie game into a


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[Assistant] Obviously it's uh, written by a former Gamesport managing editor and they're all top 10. Really? All Gamesport managing editors are phenomenal writers.


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[Assistant] Could be, like, I think, like, the most intriguing part of this is, like, obviously, you prob-, people out there are Armored Core fans because there's fans of every weird thing that exists. Sure. Uhm, I think, like, that it's been many, many years since they've put out a Armored Core game, and it's been even probably longer than since they've put out a good one.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think to a degree is, to the, of that, uhm, is the Armored Core fanbase, or the legacy and the kind of, uhm,


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[Assistant] In our, in certain regions, six carries more weight than a reboot. And also like people have been kind of driving towards, we want a new armored core in the series as opposed to, we want you to reset armored core. And there's also like things like, Hey, if we reset armored core, we're creating the expectation that we're completely changing what it is. Yeah.


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[Assistant] It sounds really reductive, it sounds really simple and to some people might even argue like it's uninteresting. Just apply this old formula to, to Armored Core. I really would be so surprised.


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[Assistant] I think people are waiting for Sekiro too. I feel like best case scenario, we get something akin to the left field or like the very focused gameplay mechanic exploration that Sekiro was on armored core.


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[Assistant] And I think it might be around like long range, uh, gun combat and also maneuverability. Um, so that, cause that's the strength of mechs and that kind of stuff. And if they can take those two pillars or something like that.


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[Assistant] And do what they did with sword combat for Sekiro. That's gonna be special.


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[Assistant] I would have given best direction to God of War and Game of the Year to Elden Ring.


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[Assistant] So you're with Jean on this. Have you seen why people thin lips? No.


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[Assistant] It's the worst thing, like, it sounds really damning, but it's so, like, comfortable and so safe that it feels soulless. Which is a problem because every part of it is created with love and care.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that party by the end was good. Yeah. I think they just got caught like in a year where their competitors were either excelling to a degree that they just didn't reach or they were innovating in some other way or involving in some other way. This was kind of like safe.


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[Assistant] I think, I think like when you do know the games, it's still like, it's got three endings in that trailer, but you realize, oh, they're revealing something that's cool. Like, yeah, like it's like, oh yeah. Return of the King. It ends and then you're like,


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[Assistant] Oh, there's Sam. You don't expect him to be bad. And then it does another big reveal with the whole, uh, draw bridges and baby and that kind of stuff. Yeah. So it is long, but also like, I think that is going to be a stealth game.


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[Assistant] In the original game, uhm, so, but I feel like they moved towards it because now that the title is like both the stick and the hoop or whatever it is, like the other one was like something similar to that where it was like your one part of the equation. I feel like there's going to be vague Melga solid vibes to it.


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[Assistant] I think, I don't know if we put it up, but I suggested in the last, like, I was like, this story needs to have the headline, animal from muppets is horny for millennia. Yeaah. And like, people are like, I don't know if they've used it. They should have. They should definitely should have. Like, he was very horny for millennia.


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[Assistant] Why would he be up on stage right now? I think that's why his mic got popped back up. Right. Because they thought, oh, it's gotta work.


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[Assistant] We don't get a lot of insight into directors and what they like and stuff. You speak to a director or any developer and they're like, I don't have time to play games right now because I'm making games. But one of the most refreshing things about the interviews that you've been doing is you've been very open about, I love Castlevania and that kind of stuff. And you mentioned that they're with Dead Cells. And when we spoke to you at our office,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we learned that you were very into fighting games. You're like super like OG fighting game. And that was fascinating to me. Can you like, I mean, it's a rare opportunity to talk about your personal history with games itself. And also like, how does any of that inform?


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[Assistant] The game you make, obviously there's, it's not easy for people to look at a game like God of War and pick up that you're like, die in a wall, OG, like fighting game, arcade, that kind of person. And that's like fascinating for people, right?


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[Assistant] I guess like the interesting thing was that like a disc or the discourse back then was, I mean a lot of it around action games was the West doesn't really know how to make action games. Remember it was like a lot of Japanese people do it. And I remember playing God of War and


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[Assistant] So you mentioned that you had the three phases of, where would you think the...


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[Assistant] God of War, the reboot and Ragnarok 4, do you think you're in that innovation phase? Because when I played it...


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[Assistant] I think those two games felt more like a fighting game than Ragnarok especially because then you can like mid-air cancel and switch weapons and that kind of stuff. Do you feel that you got the series, especially with those two games to the innovative phase or do you still feel there's more to do around it?


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[Assistant] I guess like, it could be, for me the value in having someone like you, I guess I see more value in having someone like you take the knowledge of fighting games, which is extensive enough to make a game, but try and bring that knowledge to another genre. So when you like,


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[Assistant] I mean, how do you feel about that auto conversation? Because it's one that is currently running concurrent to like properly crediting people within


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[Assistant] I think one thing that people don't really think about in development is like when you pass on someone like Cory giving that role to someone else, it's not an easy decision to make, right? You are basically like, this is my child, please take care of it.


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[Assistant] Internalize them. And I played CVS2 for years and years thinking I was good. I'd beat everyone.


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[Assistant] I played Sekiro. So what you just described, it reminds me of that.


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[Assistant] The evil worst thing is actually like, I described it as the fundamental of that combat is built around, you know, God of War where Kratos activates and it launches them. And then when you hit punt or attack, he does a Superman punch to punch them. It's entirely built around that mechanic and it works. It's the first time I've seen it outside of God of War where it's actually feels like that.


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[Assistant] Miyazaki Wholesale Berserk. Like, Berserker is adapted into Miyazaki's games. There's whole enemies that are from there. Plotlines, like...


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[Assistant] I mean, does that kind of shorthand persist through like iterations of the game? Because I imagine it's definitely gonna be there when you're starting a game, right? Uhm, and you're like figuring the basics of it, the fundamentals out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does that come from like a, just a, an ethos of just like being free, jazzing it or is it?


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[Assistant] Where's the value for you? Do you feel like, cause you talked about Castlevania would be cool. And my brain is like, I would love to see Eric do Castlevania, but another side of it's like, but I kind of want to see something entirely new from you. Like, do you?


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[Assistant] Random pop, sorry. Random thing popped into my head. I have this thing where...


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[Assistant] There's certain games where I know there's a specific thing that I can do with it that just makes me feel good. Uhm, in Bloodborne it's the visceral attack. I know you love Symphony of the Night, like I sometimes turn that on and just do the backdash.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah. Shield cancel backdash? Yeaah. Do you have anything in a game that you know, like, when I do this thing, when I touch this thing, I know it's gonna set off the endorphins in my brain. Yeaah. And it's gonna pile driving someone. Thank you for that.


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[Assistant] I love that she sees what people can really be. There was someone that pointed out, I know it makes perfect sense. Like he was like, Oh, the prophecy. Um, you look at it and that could be, instead of Kratos on the floor, that could be Odin.


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[Assistant] And you look and you're like, oh, I had a very specific perspective of where I thought this was going. And now that I look back on it, maybe I was just wrong the entire time. And then you're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's kind of what Kratos just went through, like his entire journey was that. He had a very, you know...


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[Assistant] It has a momentum and a dynamism to it that you don't expect from either card based games or like for access style games because they're very stop start they feel like, but they managed to be quite dynamic and always involved because of the environment stuff that you can do, which I really, really liked. But yeah, and also really good.


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[Assistant] Translation of characters to abilities and combat feel, so everyone feels kind of distinct.


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[Assistant] I played a little bit of it. It's, it's fine. Like it's, it's, I think like Need for Speed had a period where it was like bad. And now it's in a period where it's like, it's okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some sort of like star in it or something like that. But the story is completely forgettable and like A$AP Rocky is just saying random shit in it. But the driving is still fun. It's got like a different style of like NOS usage and stuff like that and drifting is fun and that kind of stuff. But I think like it's still, it's a functional and good


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think like, I'm a little more bullish on


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[Assistant] Functional. The first time you do it, it's kind of like, okay, I see this as like a bit of weight to it. It feels kind of, and then.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's no- it doesn't have a gimmick, which I don't think it needs a gimmick, but there was nothing like-


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean like, and the thing I have is like, a lot of people are letting it slide way further than it deserves because it looks really nice. And it definitely looks really nice. It is beautiful. It is a beautiful game. Lucy's favorite part is the teeth. She loves teeth. They look so good!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm glad. I mean like, it looks really nice, and I, it just, I stand back from it, and I feel like it's, it feels like a lot of underbaked ideas, and like, and also the combat style, face to face, up close.


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[Assistant] It just doesn't work for that kind of, like, look at every game that is in its style, and the thing that you're trying to do is create space and move away from enemies as much as possible, and I appreciate that they went for this, but like, you fail once,


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[Assistant] Death is the end of the loop when it comes to building and release of tension. And if you're repeatedly dying, all it takes is one encounter and you stop engaging with that game as if it's a thing that you, you feel jeopardy in because you're like, oh, I'm just going to come back and be frustrated again.


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[Assistant] Yeah, my highlight is Steam Deck, I think. That was 100% I think that has been, I think a lot of people are going to be talking about it, or already talking about it in a major way, but like, I think Valve finally


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It took a lot of risks with hardware iterations up until this point, like the, uhm, steam controller, the steam, what's that thing, link, those failures or whatever you want to call them, those experimentations needed to happen to get them to where they were, which is steam deck. Like the controllers, like the touchpad stuff, that is an iteration of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The controller and like the whole thing where you can stream a game from steam on a, on a desktop to your steam deck if you want to and that kind of stuff and connecting it is like very, very


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a big moment for them and for them to make what is effectively a new gaming piece of hardware is...


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[Assistant] Kind of a big deal. No one enters the console or the hardware market in a meaningful way anymore. The big three have that locked up.


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[Assistant] Turn it upside down, like very, very counterproduct, not counterproduct, um, programming happening here. And like turning...


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[Assistant] The idea that there are console gamers and there are PC gamers and there are portable gamers and completely blurring the line between them. I know multiple people on the Gamesport staff that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a piece of hardware that until now, you know, indie games were home on Switch or Nintendo's devices. And they also worked on consoles, but you know, you always wanted a portable version of it. They created a device that works for both AAA, AA, Indie.


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[Assistant] And also emulators. It's like, like that's a leg- allegedly. Who knows whether you can click one button and have every emulator along with roms and all the artwork on it. No one can say. No crimes. No crimes. I've never committed a crime.


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[Assistant] The fact that they've been able to create a piece of hardware that allows all those to exist in one spot.


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[Assistant] And make it as accessible as it is, especially now that it's easily available. They're so available, they're giving away one minute at a time. If you're watching a stream, it's like, yeah, it's like a monumental achievement from them. And I'm just hoping that Gabe has more knives out of this. Like he's just, I'm going to buy a million knives now.


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[Assistant] I hope that he's got all the live knives. But yeah, like the Steam Deck is an incredible piece of engineering and design and you had, was it Lawrence on here a little while back and like the stuff that he and his team and everyone at Valve have done to kind of homogenize all these disparate kind of initiatives into one thing is like, it's quite special. It's truly incredible. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Also, it's like, for a lot of fans, like, they're finally giving one of the coolest parts of that franchise the attention it deserves, which is the summons, the espers, aeons, whatever you want to call them, like, and they've always been the thing that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the franchise has grown to become more and more like bigger and more ambitious,


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[Assistant] And that's why I was like, that's what I was going to where it's like, and the fact that they've made such a big deal of that in the MMO.


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[Assistant] It's been incredible, but now that they're bringing it back to a, a place where let's be honest, like MMOs are popular, but like they're not as accessible as a straight up, like start, finish console or PC Final Fantasy experience and building off the bones of the last mainline entry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, to, to realize that is like super exciting, cause since I was a kid I wanted to know like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do these summons mean, man? Like, what is it? And I don't have the heart to, like, play through A Realm Reborn yet again. Because I've, like, had a rough time with that, with, like, account stuff. Oh, the account stuff and that stuff is terrible. So, like, when they analysis, I was like, oh, this is


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[Assistant] It was Final Fantasy. Oh, it's not Armored Core. I mean like it is, Armored Core is the one that is like, I don't know enough about Armored Core to be like, I'm excited about it. I'm excited for literally anything FromSoftware does. But like, I don't.


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[Assistant] Starfield is one where they, they're talking a bigger game than ever before and we have to kind of reconcile what we know they say versus what we know they deliver. And they deliver amazing games, but we gotta keep that expectation in check. That's how I'm...


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[Assistant] We're not gonna spoil stuff, don't worry. Uhm, for people who, uhm, maybe haven't dug in yet, but I'm...


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[Assistant] So I was at Timur's place with Jake Tu, who, uh, who edits the show, and uhm, this one, not HBO's, The Last of Us, uhm, and we decided to do all four in one go, and that episode happened, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna absolutely not spoil what happens, but it's a very, very beautiful, very well done episode of television and


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[Assistant] Oh, there was some manly fucking tears going on in that room. Like everyone got emotional. Uhm, what about you guys? Did you guys cry? Hell yeaah.


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[Assistant] Especially when they do, I love it that not everything is line for line, but when they do, there were certain things that they did, you know, you know, when, when Joel falls asleep on the couch and then he wakes up like that, when they do like, they mirror certain things. I do the Leonardo DiCaprio, oh, pointing at the screen every single time.


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[Assistant] Oh, it's so, and I, and like, using the music, I think.


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[Assistant] Perfect. I don't think how you could have changed that at all. Uhm, I think Bella Ramsey.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I think the two of them riff off each other so so well. I think so.


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[Assistant] Destination programming. It's been...


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[Assistant] And then you get something like the last of us, which is getting critical and commercial success, not just from gamers, but just, you know, the TV critics as well and just kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I am British because, you know, Americans not chill about spoiling.


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[Assistant] Uh, 2 to 4 a.m. depending. Oh, of course, so similar cards, but everyone's a safe.


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[Assistant] I would love it if season two was just Abby.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I fucking- I, going for Chaos, would love that. And then Season 3, you bring, uh, Ellie back into the mix.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I'm just like, I'm in that, I mean, I don't know, I think there's levity to Breaking Bad for sure, but if I, if you watch something maybe like, uhm, Leftovers.


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[Assistant] Leftos. I would say that's uhm.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the first season, two, actually also the second. Yeaah, all of the leftovers were very bleak. Sure.


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[Assistant] I think the thing that it does well is that it balances


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[Assistant] And I think that's, I think if they don't lose that, and I think they've actually managed to do it a lot better in the show than you can maybe portray in a game where, you know, you're not beholden by animation and stuff, you actually have two humans interacting, uhm, doesn't matter how good the vocal performances are, but there's just something very tactile about seeing two humans interact. And so I, I,


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[Assistant] I don't know, he can get his tea if he wants.


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[Assistant] My, my thing is that I, the way that I prefer to be playing games is on the couch, so I will opt for console rather than PC most of the time.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I usually get a little glass of wine going. Uhm, but in terms of an actual platform,


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[Assistant] I agree with Gerard that PlayStation, like, if you're trophy hunting, whatever, just like, feels cleaner. I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, and I, and I really like, it looks nice, and I mean, with all the bells and whistles, yea sure, but I can't justify that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I want, but I can't, I can't buy it. I can't have it in my house.


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[Assistant] I have a, I have a, the steam link app is on my TV. So before I got my steam deck, uhm, I would just, and it uses the same network as well, so it's pretty.


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[Assistant] I, and until I started working on that video, I had no idea just how many of those games never made it to the West at all. And so, I mean, Ralph, do you, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean Awakening was great and like that was huge in the UK when that came out and so that's the one I play that's my jumping off point.


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[Assistant] No, no, dude, I was jewel wielding that with Dead Space and I, and at the time, because I was of the four of us, I was the only one who had pre-release code and I was like, I owe it to the friends per second to keep playing this game.


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[Assistant] No, that's, that's the thing is that I am not, I don't hate this game. No, I...


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[Assistant] Love it, and I think the fact that it elicits zero reaction from me is...


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[Assistant] The narrative is so heavy handed in certain ways and then completely obtuse I feel in others so for example the very beginning of the game when you're playing is fray.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The archive so you there's a there's a point in the beginning of the game for example where phrase it in court and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A character giving you maybe a bunch of interesting quests to double out the plotline, like what exactly happened with these people, what the break is. You go into a library.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The characterization though is so weird and I was doing the quick look, uhm, over Giant Bomb and Tam and I were talking about it as we were playing but it's like, Fray is a character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this game is so weird because it's made by Luminous. There is so much weirdly...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your look into this world is free.


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[Assistant] And she's just so negative about everything and she's, you know, there is some of, some of the language in it is like very, oh, have you heard a real person speak before? People don't talk like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing is, is that on the flip side, you have a character who is written perfectly for the setting that he's in, even though he is also a stranger to this world, and that is Kuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cough is genuinely, like, I really enjoy that character, I think he's really well written, despite the fact that he has a fucking bracelet. He's, like, well written, he reminds me a lot, and uhm, I know I just said marvellification as kind of an insult, uhm, but I think he reminds me a lot of vision.


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[Assistant] Very similar sounding voice, very uhm, like playful way of being, I'm, I'm better and I'm more learned and we should calm down and do what I say. Uhm, but he still has jokes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wildly different direction than other people. Let's just put it that way. It's so uneven. It's wild. But at the same time, I'm playing it, and I'm just like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a podcast game. I'm just gonna zip around. I don't know. Yeah. Combat is like fine. It's, it's spells and shit and I love spells and shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I started playing Crysis Core and I started playing it in English and I was like,


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[Assistant] The thing that gives me about that state is that like, at least to the point where I was playing in the game, uh, Frey's not allowed to use her powers in there, so you have to walk around normally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot of pop in as well in that city of like people just randomly popping in. And uhm, and I don't think you would notice that. I think you would forgive it a lot more if you were allowed to use your powers, but there's some random story reason, even though they see her use her powers very early on and then they still don't let you use your powers on them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fates to black are so egregious. They are wild. It fates to black all the time. And there are so many, especially when you're out in the open world and you're getting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no, it doesn't do an elegant job of like slowly introducing you to the side content. It's you go past it, pause, uh, tutorial appears on the screen, uh, here's a way to do it, and then, you know, just, just tapping through stuff, uhm, and it's,


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[Assistant] Yeah, inelegant is probably the way I would describe it. It just takes you out of the experience to tell you stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really, I really want to play the Resident Evil 4 stuff that people played a couple months ago.


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[Assistant] I didn't, it's that funny phase, right, where you're kind of, we're kind of always like, oh, I hope to see something new in gaming, but then something comes along and just tickles those nostalgia bones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm just like, oh yeah, I really, I didn't realize I had such a big affinity to the original game. And it's kind of like, and I've used this example before, but you know when you're a kid and you're playing Pokemon?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though it's not, it's a remake of the game that I played.


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[Assistant] It's just, yeaah, I think they made so many smart changes. I agree with you a little bit about the, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About the voice, I like, I, I could have been totally fine if he'd just remained silent the whole time and just done his little sad grunts if I ever got him killed or whatever. Cause as well, like, with a horror game,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You as, you as the player, like your reaction to scares is the most important thing. But then when you have to factor in the way the character reacts as well, and so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes, you know, I would get scared by something, but then I would look at Isaac and he just wouldn't have reacted or he wouldn't have said something. And I think there's like a weird distance there, but that's the most minor of minor gripes. The only gripe I actually have is that I wish there was a photo mode.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like, I, yeah, okay, I, I, I like that, I agree with that. I, uhm, it'll, cause also, like, if you go back and play the original game, it's very much just like, hey, Isaac, what if you just go over here, turn this on, you know, he's just, he's just being pulled around for hours.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone's named after T for some reason, like the main character is called Chai.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yeah, basically everything in the world is to the beat, and when you are attacking, if you keep- that's the thing, doesn't matter if you fuck up, which I really enjoy because I am terrible, like my rhythm is awful, but all of your attacks land on the beat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you, like the whole world is basically this one beautiful, moving is one type thing and then you're attacking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you have these big boss battles, and yes, okay, I'm a little biased because the first big boss battle is to 1 million by Nine Inch Nails, but they do such a cool thing, like they kind of take the song, and they, uhm, like time up specific boss moves to it, and then you're attacking on the beat, and then when you line up the big attacks, and it becomes like a big thing, and oh, that's fucking cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, please, I can't think of a way, it's the end of the day. Uh, I like, my brain was like, Moshe, I was like, yeah, beat good, uh, you know, music fun, hit enemy, it's, no, it's just, it's genuinely like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moments sadder because you kind of counter balance with the stuff that just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree. Yeah, I think that's a good way of looking at it. I think as well, you know, back then, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was, there's more of a novelty factor to it, right? At least when I was a kid, you know, I didn't have, I couldn't just go to my TV and play a game, like that was something that was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want something that respects your time? At least that's how I feel as I get older and I think I have less patience for stuff that is not. That's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So do you know what your remit is now? Like, launcher just got into the nitty gritty of all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think about, and I, I don't, I kinda wanna say this upfront, it's like, I don't see myself as a games journalist by any means, I'm a video producer, I work, I feel like I work in a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is kind of like, everyone kind of defaults to Indiegogo and Patreon for sure, but like, that is a new wave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Couple times a week, but I can pay and I can get the extra shit that I know that they're working on and like sub stack to me is just this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm not saying that this is the path and that people should aspire to it because in this world, who knows what's going to last, but it's really interesting to see. Like there is one sub stack that I follow when it's basically every couple of weeks, they cover a period of time and they are doing the entire history of man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's just like the most interesting shit to me. Oh, there's Ryan Broderick in garbage day and he's just covering like internet weirdness, right? And you know, and there's just this whole other thing. Yeah, there were blogs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, DemonSoul's got Game of the Year from GameSpot, uh, all the way back when. That's quite impressive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, a Kevin, a Kevin Van Oord, uh, special back in 2009. Uh, nine out of 10, superb. The good, amazing, unique online features, blah, blah, blah, blah. The bad, extremely difficult.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, from playing just games with other people with my family and my friends to playing, to fully being like, dad I'm afraid I need a PC and this has to be mine and I never got my own PC, it was on the family PC but like, this was the game that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where you would make little stories in The Sims and then upload it to the gallery. People would have, uhm, stories. Like, this is, this is how weird it was. Like, so there was no YouTube. So if you didn't know how to do things in The Sims, you would have to wait for someone to, like, take the screenshots of the storybook.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like, as a kid at this point, who didn't really have much online literacy, I remember stumbling across this stuff and stumbling across like meshes and skins that people were making and just thinking,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do I not know about this? I feel like I stumbled upon a gold mine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think just from there, it opened my eyes to so many different things and I've spent thousands of hours on The Sims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, and just seeing the way that the Sims team and Maxis itself has changed over the years, I also think they are one of the best studios in terms of keeping an open dialogue with their audience, uhm, and the fans and the way that they tee up new content, they listen to the way, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like celebrity tie-ins, they've been so smart about that. I think the biggest string in their bow certainly is the expansion backs and the fact that that's just the never ending.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, do bad memes and jokes, uh, in the name of video games. No, I'm, uh, Lucy James games and everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's at least one other person I know of. Yeah. Yeah. There's Nathan Grayson and Shannon Liao. Um, and, uh, I was the first one. So sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty good man. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here on this beautifully named podcast. I understand Lucy came up with the name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, it's kind of like, uh, like an Avengers of, of, of people here, you know, creators here. It's amazing. You know, I'm sad Jake's not here and Jake's another guy that I've admired for a long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was pretty good. I had to like retweet him and I was like, man, like, like that was a good game. That really like went under the radar after Phantom Pain came out on the same day, basically. But it did! It did, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'm on the mend, you know, uh, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, uh, a couple of months ago. And, uh, to be quite honest, you know, like, like I didn't know what it was up until the diagnosis. So I thought I was really, really sick. Um, but now that I've been getting treatment, I've actually felt better than I've ever have like this whole year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, I'm doing podcasts, you know, like, like I've never sounded like this earlier this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, so I, I do feel healthier and, uh, I'm, I'm on the mend. You know, doctor says things are looking real good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I'm kind of halfway, passed halfway through my treatments. Uhm, no side effects. You know, fingers crossed. Wow, that's fantastic. That's huge. That's huge because the doctor was like, you know, it's about now that you start feeling everything. And it's like, are you sure you're okay? And I was like, well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's the thing, I've gotten chemotherapy hiccups, which is a thing. Uhm, and, uh, that's been the worst side effect, that the hiccups would just kinda come up. Uhm, and the great thing is that I actually have a perfectly foolproof trick to get rid of hiccups. It works every time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, sure, yeaah, yeaah. I actually learned this from Aaron Henson, uh, egoraptor over at The Game Grumps. Uhm, and I've repeated this trick, uh, so many times. Uhm, what you do is, uh, if you want a video, you close your eyes, hold your breath, and then you take your pinkies,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it, you very, very try to lightly touch your eyelid. Like, it needs to be like a microfiber of like, like, like, like, you can, you're, like, you're barely touching your eyelids. Like, hold it up, like, like, like up to your, your elbows up to your shoulder length.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And apparently that like moves your diaphragm and your muscles enough and like you're focusing so much on like trying not to touch your eyelid that it actually just heals your hiccups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It works every single time. Uh, it is a magic trick at the bar when I meet a girl who has hiccups and I'll be like, Hey, I can save your night right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I kinda agree with Lucy that he's probably just like, uh, just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know, like I also agree with Gerard, I just feel like he just threw a grenade in a room and it's just like, he just wanted to see what happens. Uh, but also like it just sounds like he's trying to buy for time, you know, uh, to, to, to kind of throw it out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I, you know, he didn't need to say anything, you know, like, like Phil didn't really say anything that we didn't really already know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like his, his, his citation of Phil Spencer putting out in the public was like, well, we knew that like several, like several months ago, like we, Phil hasn't said anything new since the news that Activision was being bought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I don't know what he was trying to accomplish other than like just really trying to just make the case and trying to stall things, I guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also think, you know, that Ralphie tweeted earlier, uh, about how, you know, it's rich that he's saying this when Sony has been locking exclusives for decades now, basically, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like he's a smart guy, like I'm sure he knows it, you know, uh, uh, you know, and to be clear, I like Jim. I've always enjoyed my discussions with him and he likes to talk to me for some reason. Uhm, so I do think that he's smart and I think he doesn't care that it sounds hypocritical. He's just saying what these governments might hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny that there's all this discourse about Call of Duty when I think both Phil and I think the books show that, uh, Call of Duty is not the biggest money maker for Activision Blizzard. It's the mobile division, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think a lot of people are wondering, like, what do we do with a problem like Activision? And it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There wasn't much else to do, I guess, other than take over the company and change the company, you know? Uhm, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Microsoft will probably lose to the public in that regard too because it's like, okay, well, that's, that's too much, man. You know? Yeah. Cause it's already a lot like, like, like Jeff said the other week, like that's half of E3. That's it's already so much, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, I always hear all these reviews and say, you know, like, like Greg Miller or Lucy, and I say, oh yeah, I played it three or four times, like, total, right? And it's like, I played The Last of Us, like, over and over again on the PS3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly, and like, I look at The Last of Us as, you know, and I don't mean this as an insult to the game itself, but like, you know, I look at it as a simple Resident Evil 4, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where like, like, like, there's just not a lot going on in the gameplay besides punching and shooting zombies and walking through environments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like picking stuff up, you know, you don't have to worry about where the stuff goes anywhere. You're just hoovering up stuff, you know, and like, it just like connects to a lizard brain stuff of mine. Like I have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Infinite like, like crafting options on when I played The Last of Us. And I'm still going around picking stuff up, you know? I don't need any of that stuff, but like, like I'm pretending that Joel needs to say, oh, let's look around and see what's, what's around here, LA. And then I do that because I like playing the role of Joel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going around picking stuff up, Ellie, you know? Like, like, that's fun to me, you know? Because I like these characters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I like doing that over and over again. So that's why like in my review in the Washington Post, like I likened it to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like, like playing a role play, like, like you're, you're, you're playing a role, you know, and I think Noah Gervais, uh, on, on YouTube and even Tim Rogers has also kind of made that, uh, that comparison where it feels like you're playing like, like a role in the theater and you're, you are Joel and Joel is a fun character to kind of be and he controls better now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the gameplay modifier stuff, like, it's very specific to my taste, but I love slow motion bullet time effects.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the fact that they added that in, uh, to The Last of Us, uh, as an unlockable after you beat the game once. That's why I beat the game twice, because it's like you unlock all that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After you beat it and then say, okay, well, let me run through the game again with full loot, full loadout, which is an option that was not available in the first game. So you can shoot those first guys at test shoots with an assault rifle as opposed to your little pea shooter, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I'm just running through the game, shooting everybody with my assault rifle in slow motion, like, like I'm Neo, Neo Joel, like, like, like Neo is a, is a hobo, you know? And he's just running through and just killing everybody he sees, and that's just so fun to me, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For someone like me, it's, it's, it's not really much of a question, uhm, if I really love The Last of Us, and I do, which is such a weird thing to say because it's not even one of my favorite games of all time, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But like, I just love playing it, and uhm, and I love playing Last of Us Part 2 too, you know, like just going around murdering all of Seattle as Ellie is just so much fun too. Uhm, and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My thought is, uh, well one, if the PS4 remaster didn't exist, then I feel like the conversation would kind of change. I agree. If it wasn't playable on PS4, and like a 60 frames per second good version already didn't exist, then this probably wouldn't be a problem. Because the PS3 version looks old as hell, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can you go back to your question, Ralph, about why we don't talk about this, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like, it's kind of like, you know, obviously it's art, right? Like, like that's not even commerce to engineering. But it's like, it's, it's also a technical product. It's a, it's a, it's a feat of engineering. Um, and maybe to some folks, it's kind of like buying a 2013 Camry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ooh, that's an interesting question. Uh, I'll start first. Because one thing I noticed about this game is that I think I noticed Joel smiling more. And I feel like they added those faces in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a moment when Joel like opens a grate and a big rat comes out and Ellie's like, oh, that's a big rat. And then like Joel kind of looks back at her and smirks. And I'm just like, I don't remember that from the PSV version. So I feel like that they added.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like a few more moments of warmness in- well obviously in their faces during the acting, right? But like even during the gameplay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it kind of makes me appreciate part two even more, because like, you know, like, I really do feel like part two really respected their relationship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and where it was going. So I do feel like that so much of what happened, what happens in part two makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like, like, people will be like, oh, I wish Ellie was joking more. I wish she wasn't so murderous. And it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude, like, like, she immediately hit Bill after, after he handcuffed her. Like, like, she is like, she is like jumping at people to fight and like stab them and murder. But she was going to stab Joel, right? So when you see that, you're like, oh, okay, of course she would go to Seattle and just kill everybody. You know?


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[Assistant] Because she's that kind of person. She's been that kind of person. She's lived in this world for such a long time. You know?


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[Assistant] Let me add real quick to be critical of the remake. Uh, I do think that, you know, it obviously would have been a lot more fun if they added like dodging and prone and stuff like that. And like, I feel like that they could have.


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[Assistant] Jane, do you wanna kick us off? Sure, uh, I gave the campaign a 10-10, uh, and a lot of people like to, to, to, to go after me for that. That's a big number. It's a huge number, it's a huge number. I really like the campaign, and I still do. Sure. And, you know, like, a lot of people make fun of me for saying that it's a game that I'll play for decades, and it's like, you know what?


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[Assistant] I played the Halo Infinite campaign two nights ago, you know. I played all the way through. I enjoy it, you know. Uhm, you- as you guys heard, I enjoy replaying games over and over again, you know. So, uh, I-


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[Assistant] That's why I love you so much. So, I enjoyed the campaign and I still do. And obviously, you know, every single time anyone criticizes Halo Infinite, you always have to say, oh, but the core gameplay is good and the fundamentals are good. Because it is, it is, it is objectively good.


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[Assistant] And you know, I called it one of the best first best feeling in first person shooters and it still is.


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[Assistant] And I think one of my Twitter followers said earlier today, it's like, we wouldn't be wanting more content if this was a bad game.


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[Assistant] Because the game is so fun, we want to do, we want more stuff to do in it. They just haven't done that at all.


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[Assistant] I think the outrage is more, uh, about...


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[Assistant] The broken promise rather than the missing feature.


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[Assistant] Uhm, cuz, you know, like, like, I'm not gonna play it, you know, a lot of folks might not, but then, you know, a lot of folks will, because, you know, like,


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[Assistant] So many thoughts, Gerard, definitely, uh, I definitely echo Gerard's in that, you know, like, Gerard, you're a Nintendo fan. Look at how Nintendo treats Mario, you know? Uh, so, you know, we're getting a Ubisoft game, a Ubisoft Mario game in a couple months, you know? That's awesome!


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[Assistant] And it's a wicked game, and we get to see Ubisoft's RTS take on Mario. And we don't get that in Halo, you know? The only Halo game we get is the really broken message that 343 puts out every 5-7 years. That's it. That's the only Halo that we ever get.


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[Assistant] You know? Uhm, there's no, like, Obsidian Halo, like, I love a Halo RPG, you know? Uh, Halo Kart, you know? Why not? You know? Like, the game is all about vehicles, you know? Like, why not?


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[Assistant] And then for me, in terms of like Fire 343, uh, you know, I'm not in any position to tell anyone who should get fired or who should not. Uhm, I definitely, you know, don't feel qualified for that. I do... Here's my hot take. Just unrelease Halo Infinite for fuck's sake.


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[Assistant] Just take it offline. Because the live service thing is not working and the more they keep trying to catch up on the live service thing, the more that they are so behind.


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[Assistant] And there's so much debt that they had to catch up on. It's like, dude, just put a pause on the whole thing. Made the campaign available offline, which it isn't, you know, because it's got goddamn DRM attached to it, right? And then just keep it offline and release a Halo game. For fuck's sake.


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[Assistant] We're all content creators, you know, like to a much smaller scale, but then when you create content, like Ralph, when you do your YouTube videos, like, like you have a content calendar, you know, what's going to come up next, right? Like, like we plan to talk about this now.


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[Assistant] Where it's like, okay, well, it sounds like they got things right. Sounds like they're gonna get it. And we're all still waiting.


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[Assistant] The theater doesn't even work. The custom games browser doesn't work. I mean, there are actual features in the game that just don't work. Period.


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[Assistant] You know, so there are tabs in there that are pointless.


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[Assistant] He's right. I was just saying, Ralph, that theater mode doesn't work. Custom games browser doesn't work. So there are entire tabs in the game, in the game's UI that just doesn't work at all. Like there are features in the game that are missing that are supposed to be in the game.


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[Assistant] I want to meet the people who discovered near-automata through Fall Guys.


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[Assistant] Uh, 13 games, uh, Konami games, classic games released from the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, uh, or just Game Boy games, and it's fantastic. It's such a good year for Ninja Turtles fans. Uhm, I've been playing, uh, just Turtles in time.


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[Assistant] Uh, I, I, I can now definitively say that it is better than the arcade version because I can play both.


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[Assistant] Together at the same time. You know, I played it in Arcade and I played it in Super Nintendo and I was like, I think the Super Nintendo version is better when I was like 13.


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[Assistant] That is correct. Gene has the correct take. That is correct. It is correct. It feels better. The music kind of hits harder. There's more stages. There's more stages of course. You can throw the foot soldiers a shredder. That stuff didn't exist in the arcade.


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[Assistant] So yeaah, it's just a fantastic game. I never played the Hyperstone Heist on the Genesis, so that's kinda fun.


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[Assistant] Uhm, not as good as Turtles in Time, but it's still fun. Uhm, and I, I think, uh, you know, a lot of people missed the Manhattan Project, which was like the last Konami Nintendo game ever released. Uhm, and that was really good too. Uhm, and even the Tournament Fighters for NES was also really good, cause it has kind of like a-