[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a, the central conceit of the game is that you're bringing, you can sort of summon heroes from previous Fire Emblem games, you know, like Roy and Marth and these sort of things, and they become these avatars that fight alongside you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they feel like a really wasted opportunity because they don't really say much. They're kind of just like, they're almost like stat sticks, which is a bit of a bummer. They look great. They're really well animated in combat, but they don't go much further than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, look, I, it's a good video game, for sure. I, I ended up recommending it because I think there's plenty in the package to appreciate. Uh, I think my review, a lot of people were like, oh, this doesn't sound like you recommend this. But I'm like, well, it's really not a case of I don't recommend it. It's just a case of I thought Fire Emissary House was so much better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But this is still a decent enough game, you know, and if you into Fire Emblem, especially if you're a long-term fan, then you know, there's a very good chance you'll enjoy this. So have you guys played Fire Emblem games in the past? I'm guessing Gerard, you must have been a Nintendo fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My knowledge of Fire Emblem comes way more from Smash Brothers than it does from Fire Emblem. Like, that is how I know Fire Emblem characters. So, uh, no, that was very much the case. But also I think that was part of the reason why it was a bit disappointing, because I wanted them to introduce me to these characters, to tell me a little bit about their story, to like, have some rapport with those, those close heroes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and I understand why they didn't and they do some things by the way, like there are some paralogue missions that you can go on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those were just some characters that I met like the others, no big deal, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's uhm, I've heard that's good. I would like to jump into that one at one point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but yeaah, I mean, I, I, it's a fine, it's a perfectly fine game, as I said, I, I recommend it, but it, it left very little impression on me, uh, I have no desire to go back and play more of it, and it's just, that's a video game that I played this year, like that is how I will park that one, as I recall it, you know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Interesting, I think there's something to be talked about with regards to the exceptions game, but anyway, let's, I think we should come back to that, cause uhm, that's a really interesting point to touch on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause also I think, from what I, the clips that I have seen, we bring, like, it's such a specific way of talking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is, it really just sort of like grates, you know, like just the, the, the, the, the lines themselves and the delivery of those lines. So often you're just like, Oh God, no, stop. Right. And so I think if you were to just listen to that in a different language and just focus on the words themselves, your imagination could then, could then apply the tone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then you contrast that with something like Final Fantasy XIV where the voice acting there is incredible, right? They just totally nailed it. So uhm, I wonder if Square's just working with the wrong people with some of the, you know, voice acting stuff and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It all needs to be through that British studio that they do with Final Fantasy XIV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really like plain, not marble, but just like almost like concrete.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My, yeah, my theory on that sort of stuff is, or my thoughts is like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is full of really generic ass side quests. We're talking like, go and kill five monkeys. Oh, cool. You've killed five. Go and collect five fruits off the ground. It's like MMO level shit in a video game released in 2022 or whatever. I'm still playing through Xenoblade 3 slowly by the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I don't really care about that stuff because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Directs you towards that, and there's no way around it. So my question is, does Forspoken force you to do all of that boring ass shit, or can you just totally ignore it and just focus on the beeline?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny because I actually found the same thing when I was playing through the preview build. I was like, ah, this combat's pretty cool, but it's not really working when you're fighting the small dudes, but when you fight a big dude and you can really like settle into some combos and start building some synergies, like it, yeah, it was, it was good. That was the part where that really clicked for me. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm curious though, do you guys feel as though all of the dunking on social media about the dialogue in this game, is the overall game as bad as people have made it out to be? Like, is it that terrible in terms of its dialogue or not?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, it's just, look, I, one thing I would say is I respect Square for making a game like this, you know? Yeah. To their credit, this is v-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the past, they have taken some swings of stuff. Look at Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, which sure, obviously Marvel is a safe license or whatever, but the way they made that game and how much money they spent on it and all that sort of shit, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really respect that a lot. But at the same time, it also is a bit sort of head scratching, like why did you make this specific game in this way? Because there's a lot that just seems very tone deaf and just odd that's gone into it, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100%. I mean, I totally respect that, but at the same time, it's a really good example of why they don't do demos these days because people played that demo and then just proceeded to shit all over the game. Fair enough, by the way, like that's their opinion, that's their opinion. Totally. But that is why many publishers don't do it because it's risky to show what you actually have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, unless you're really confident in it. You know what I mean? Like you could release a Titanfall, like Titanfall 2 demo of that fucking level. You know, the time traveling level and everyone's buying Titanfall 2 after that, right? If you release a slice of this, it's kind of like, how's that going to go? You know? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know some people were like, this is gonna suck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't walk into it with expectations one way or the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was definitely blown away by how good a job they did. Like from the minute I booted it up, I was like, what the fuck is going on here? Like just visual uplift, uh, and immediately how good it felt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, how faithful it was to the original, um, and just as you get further and further into it, just seeing all of the tiny little details that they have added, like, you know, like that, that skin peeling system on the, on the necromorphs when you're shooting them and you can see that happen and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, all of the changes that they've made to puzzles, you know, new areas to explore, new puzzles to do, just all of it. I just constantly, every step of the way being like, oh, I'm so glad they added that. Like there was no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing that I saw where I'm like, oh, that kind of sucks that they changed that, except for the voice, which I know a lot of people have different opinions on. Most people I think find it's an upgrade. Uh, but for me, I was like, eh, I don't really think his voice added a lot to proceedings. He was just kind of a bit of a dude, just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just a dude doing a thing and I don't know, that was the one thing where I was like, I don't know, but it also, it makes sense in the scene because in the sequels he's voiced and I can see that continuity. Plus him having a voice opens up, opened up the narrative a lot. It allowed them to tell a bigger story, a better story, I would say. And so I understand why they made that choice for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, but yea, definitely overall very stunned by how good it was. Not because I didn't expect it to be, but just because I didn't really expect anything at all. So yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember seeing a headline saying Dead Space was like twice the number of players or sales or something versus Callisto Protocol. Don't quote me on the exact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is based on the weekend. Again, don't quote me on the headline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay. There it is. You're right. So I mean, Callisto I know sold has, they, they're trying to sell 2 million units in the first year. And they said that'll be tough. So you got to guess that maybe it's sold 1 to 1.5 million Callisto, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Dead Space has much longer legs. Hopefully, uhm, you know, it'll obviously be discounted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's also available on EA subscription service, by the way. Anyone out there wants to be able to play Dead Space for really cheap. You just pay like 15 bucks for one month of the EA thing and you can do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then later on, it'll also end up on game pass because, um, EA put their back catalog in their second tier of their like subscription service and that tier of the service is synced to game pass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you can definitely get your hands on Dead Space at some point at a price right for you. And, um, I really hope they.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make a sequel. I don't know who will make it though, because Motiva right now are working on, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Iron Man. So I don't know which studio is free to do that. It's going to be a challenge. Cause you don't want to, I don't think you want to give it to a new studio because that studio knows what to do now. Like it just seemed like it would seem very silly to hand that off to a new studio to have to learn it again. But who knows? I mean, EA have their own pipeline and whatever. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool. This is our 10, 10 tracks, 10 levels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's all the way through, man. They never let up on that. It's not just like at the open where they're like, they blow their load. And then after that, it's just coasting. Uh, and some of the cutscenes and scenarios are so clever and so fantastically animated. I remember seeing something that like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and, oh, here we go. It's no wonder Beautiful, I got Beautiful Joe vibes from Hi-Fi Rush. The lead game designer was the director for Beautiful Joe 2. It was also the game designer, oh, is that, that's not what I saw. He, I think I might have seen the game designer actually shouting out the, some of the artists who worked on Beautiful Joe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But regardless, uhm, yeah, there's a lot of that DNA. And yeah, the presentation factor on this is absolutely, like, off the charts. It looks incredible, just amazing from the actual


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the art to the way it's animated is just flawless all the way through the cutscenes. Um, yeah, I mean, look, I, I'm also a massive sucker for rhythm games. The first rhythm game that I can really recommend playing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need to feel the music as you are playing Rez. If you do not feel it and you are not feeling like you are an extension of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got, um, uh, mental health singer, you got BPM, whatever else. I really feel like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi-fi rush has been the best one that I've experienced so far in making me feel like I need to be feeling this music, otherwise I'm not going to succeed. You know, it's every swing of the guitar, of your guitar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Adds to the track and every off beat creates that little like clap sound and the combos have different sounds that they weave in and when you summon in your allies all of a sudden with a press of the trigger, that's a different sound. The way the enemies wind up their attacks and the way they telegraph that, that's a sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so if you're just trying to play this as a game that you can see and that you can understand based upon its mechanics,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not going to play it correctly. It's not going to click, right? There needs to be a moment where you just start listening to the music and listening to all the sounds you hear and then responding to that. And then that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is when it comes together and it becomes truly amazing. And, uh, it's, it's, yeah, when it clicks, it's so good. It, it's beautifully deep while being so accessible, you know, the way it puts combos together and how they work is just fantastic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you've got to, you know, move between different floor panels while also staying on the beat while also dodging enemies and they're trying to set you on fire. And it's just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just builds up and up and up and up. And then I'm not done yet, but I know it ends at track 10 and it's done. And it's like, it just steps off when it's finished.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's fantastic. Again, like the game can be completed in around eight hours. Uh, and you just, you're, you're, you're gonna, well, I'm sure I'm at the point now where I'm nearly done. I know I'm going to feel so satisfied at the end of that because there's been no fluff, no like fat or guff or whatever. Just pure top shelf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crescendo all the way through and then you're done. And I, I just, I love that so much, you know? Uhm, I really feel like this is this generation's Jet Set Radio, right? The way that we talk about Jet Set Radio, this is how...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People, you know, like, the kids today, the Game Pass kids, will talk about Hi-Fi Rush the same way 20 years from now. Like, I really believe that because there's so much of that same DNA coursing through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and also the circumstances of its, of its release elevate that status further. The way that it's just like, here you go. And you're like, woo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can play this for like 10 bucks right now. Let's go. Um, that adds to its, to its mythos almost, you know? So, um, yeah, truly, truly spectacular. Sorry. I just realized I was like gushing for like five minutes there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, also you think about Square Enix's marketing bill on Forspoken. They must have spent so much


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make a good game and it sells. Like it's, it's not always true, by the way. I, I know plenty of good games that, that exist that don't sell, but having a good game certainly helps. Uh, and, uh, they certainly have a very good game in Hi-Fi Rush. So they were smart to, to drop it the way they did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there was the video store, you know, like you go to Blockbuster, a civic video we had in Australia, which was like, you know, and you're higher, whatever you can get your hands on. And so you had to play whatever was in front of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at the same time, and obviously compare that to now, where when you say one free game a month, I mean I literally do a list every month of free games. Oh yea, there's so much more. There is at least around 20 free games available every month, and at least 10 of those are going to be very good video games, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and that's for getting all of the free to play titles, which is what most kids are playing these days, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I definitely look back on like MMOs for example, when we started out with like World of Warcraft back in the day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but my point is with that, like, we didn't know how to even equip items in that game, and we didn't know anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over time, all of these systems evolved outside of the game that taught us how to play better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as a result, the way that we interface with MMOs and most video games has rapidly, has evolved considerably. The way that audiences can now break through new content in those sorts of games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think it's the same with criticism, you know, and I think there's just so much more discourse out there that, um, creates a sharper, uh, sharper consumer with higher expectations. Is that a good thing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, to be honest with you, the jury's out on that. Uh, there was beauty in our ignorance when it comes to how we used to enjoy games and that's lost forever. Um, but at the same time, the standard of the industry continues to rise in some instances, not in many others. Uh, and so you just kind of take the good with the bad, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, when you say critic, critic is a specific job. Covering the industry of video games is a secret thing. So how many people in the Washington Post are covering the entertainment industry, the film industry, TV industry, whatever? Is it still just that one person doing it all or what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's interesting because I think a lot of people would instinctively go like, well, independent YouTubers do it all on them, do it all on their own and they get by just fine. But what YouTubers do is very different to what


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys do, right? I think a lot of what we do is about content aggregation. It's about finding the reporting that's already taken place and then kind of like bringing it together and telling a story in a way that works for our audience. But we don't have the ability to do anything investigative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Companies, generally speaking, don't want to talk to us because there's just, there's a lot of layers to that, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We do not have anywhere near the level of access that, you know, a mainstream publication does, especially a publication like Washington Post. So while, you know, one person in the world of YouTube makes a lot of sense, it seems like one person


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Washington Post, one of the largest best financed publications on the planet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That seems really dumb, right? Am I wrong in that reading? I don't know if you can agree with that without getting in trouble, but that seems super dumb to me, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you think it's a case of people who want gaming news aren't getting it from the Washington Post, they're not seeking it out there, and therefore the ROI, as Washington Post perceives it, just wasn't there? Like, what do you think really drove their decision to want to wind this up like that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I'm just curious to see why, why do you think they made this decision? I mean, you might assume it's because people aren't getting their news from the Washington Post or the gaming news, I should say, but what is the, what is it you think that, why do they do this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I definitely, one of the things I saw after all this was a number of people laid off and otherwise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, people who have, who are still working in games or they've already left games media cause they didn't see a future on it. And a lot of people were saying the dream jobs that I aspired to when I was coming up, those jobs no longer exist and they will never exist. It's the landscape is, is changed forever. Um, it's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Erased in many aspects. What's your view on that? Like what do you see as the future of, of games media separate from the world of content creation?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think as well, a lot of that personality stuff, it, it does, I think there's such an important case for truly investigative journalism that is like unafraid to, as you said, like would we, would we burnstein your way through stuff, right? Uh, and,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of that personality stuff is just not in that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other people who are working away in the background who were like following the money and they're reading the reports that are being filed to some obscure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and there's precious few people breaking it, and it seems like there's going to be fewer opportunities for those people to do that in the future, because no one will hire them. Again, you could just become your own independent, uh, reporter, sure, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where are you going to get your money? How are you going to do that? Right? Like it's just to be able to properly do that job. You need to be paid for it. Right. And you need to have practice doing it. You need to cultivate sources. And it just seems as though the market for that kind of thing is shrinking so rapidly. And it really bums me out because again, I do not believe that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh man, I think that's a bad idea. Do you know what I mean? Like, I really want that to continue to exist because they need it, but I look at the shrinking job opportunities. I look at the pay in that space as well. And, um, you know, like general job security, all that stuff, plus the fact that you usually just get yelled at by your audience because like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gaming journalists bad, you know? There's a lot of reasons why I might say to someone


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an important career, but don't do it. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I mean, so what would, what advice would you provide to someone who was coming to you saying, should I go into games media? Like what would you actually say to them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 14 years later. That's right. You showed, you showed FromSoft, didn't you, Jake? Yep, yeah, I got them. That, uh, that guy's never gonna amount to nothing. What's his name again? The director guy? Who can even remember his name? He's such a minor player. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's quite impressive for them to have shown that level of foresight. Cause I remember reading, it's funny going back and reading all Demon Souls like reviews and they're like, this thing fucking sucks. It's so badly designed. It's like, you know what I mean? Just basic game design principles not adhered to, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember being in retail during that period and like, cause I think one of the things that made this seem so successful was how.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And most of the people buying it were females, you know, and it was just a whole new thing. We're coming, like having women walking into the EB games or games, what did you guys call it? Uh, just because that game had found a way to connect with female audiences in a way that I don't think any game to that point had done so. Certainly not from what I've seen based on my time in retail, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so that's, that, I remember that was the highest selling game of all time for a long time. Uhm, because yeaah, I think they just found a way to crack the other side of the fence, which, you know, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know, that's exactly why I chose it, man. That's why I chose it. Just because it was so fun, right? But, uh, yea, man, still, that was my first Resident Evil game, and, uh, obviously, uh, unbelievable. Couldn't believe it was a thing. I did rent that. Every major game that I played,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other than maybe Nintendo 64 games I think, those I think my parents bought for me, but most games outside of that were rentals, and that was definitely a rental, and just like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so yeah, and then, and then three, actually, I think I might've enjoyed three more than two because of Nemesis and just how fucking scary he was to have him like following me around and shit. Um, but yeah, man, 25 years. I can't believe that's wild.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a curated list of 20 PS4 games that are no longer being made available for free. That's different to that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's published by Epic on the Epic game store. And rather than try and release it on Steam in the hope of giving it another crack, they're just deleting the game. It wraps up like next month and the game will be unplayable. It's such a waste. It's such a waste. All that work that goes into that. It's like, just release it on Steam. Maybe it doesn't work. And I, someone's made the point as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, you're right. We have had big conversations about stuff and just cause we're really excited about it and it's, it's continues to be a really long term thing for us. Like we don't think about it in terms of like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ralph? I am LaShillup. You will find me here on this channel if you are watching on the Shillup channel, otherwise, uh, on Twitter, still, unfortunately. So, I wanna follow your example and get off Twitter, Jake, but it's not gonna happen anytime soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All it takes is one person to sh- to poop in the bed and here we are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, okay. Jake, when you were doing tech, I sent...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's in our chat. Uh, it's this, it's like this, I want to say it's like Swedish, these, just this guy and this kid. And they're just like watching model trains and, and, and there's techno music playing and they're just doing, you know, like that, like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That early 2000s like, yo, welcome to the station. Like, I'm, I'm DJ Rozelle. Like that kind of thing. It's that, but it's just this guy and this kid and they're commenting that over watching model trains and stuff. And, uh, at one point the kid just goes, okay, let's go. It's like really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very delicate and subtle. We're gonna put that in the show notes and, uh, and Stu, if you feel ambitious, I allow you to just show that one second clip, but this is not my channel, this is Ralph's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm, I'm, I'm pretty good. I certainly am. Yeah, I'm, I'm feeling good. Lucy, how are you feeling?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's cool. What's your, what's your favorite kind of magic trick? Is it cards? Is it hold your breath for 400 hours or even by a timer?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jake, hold on Jake, can, can I, I have one question. Didn't you just move to this new neighborhood?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look with, with the strike, they, they need to make a lot of unscripted content real quick. So for those of you who like, uh, murder mysteries and documentaries and whatnot, and, and even weird shows like, uh, love Island or whatever prepare. Cause the flood isn't coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Scripted or not, imagine the ramifications of not trusting your partner enough that you're gonna watch a show that has, even if it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is the price? If they did it, you get a million bucks? Great. And then my relationship is over? Like what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I went, I, I'll let Lucy go first because I went only on the last day. So I felt like all of the, the good stuff, the good announcements, the good reveals, whatever you want to call them, already happened throughout the weekend. Um, so I'd love to hear what, what Lucy experienced, if at all anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, I went on Sunday and, uh, I, I only came for Sunday because I got invited by, uh, uh, a friend of mine through a game company to come and check out the show floor. So I went last year to Comic Con cause I got to debut, uh, episode one of God of Work in front of a live audience. So that was really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so the return to Comic-Con in like not an official capacity this year was different and weird, cause you're used to having your badges that just let you go everywhere. Uh, this year that wasn't the case for me, so I just kinda walked around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tried to visit friends that I knew were at the show and that was a mistake just because I forgot that a lot of the friends I was trying to see were like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I was like, whatever, that's, that's, that's fine. Um, and so I just shot him a text and was like, Hey man, I wanted to come by and say hi, but you were slamming music. Oh, we'll grab a drinks next week. And I'm like, all right, cool. Uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then I did the same thing with Jamie Lee Curtis, cause I know Jamie Lee Curtis. She, uh, was not at Comic Con when I arrived, but they had this huge banner with her face on it. And I wanted, I went to her booth and was like, you know what? I'm going to buy a copy of Mother Nature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so Jamie wanted to, she partnered with a bunch of people to make Mother Nature a graphic novel. She wanted to originally make it a film. And so, uh, that's kind of how it adapted. And so I've known about it for quite some time because she's always, when she visits the office,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Full disclosure, for everyone wondering why I know Jamie Lee Curtis, uh, her daughter works for me, and she's working for me for many many many years, so Jamie's like a second mom to me. Uhm, and uh, yeaah, so I walked over to the booth to like try and buy a copy of Mother Nature, and uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always try and look like the professional Gerard jacket gamer guy, but like jacket gamer guy to get jacket gamer guy compared to comic con attendee. Sometimes from far away, if you, you know, just like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it cake or not? You can't tell. Is it homeless or not? And so, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went over to Jamie Lee Curtis' booth to like say hello and buy a book. And, uh, the way that, I guess the way that I was just being so like nonchalant about it, it really, it made it very unc, yeah, they were like, I was like, Hey, is Jamie here? And they're like, no, she's not. And I'm like, Oh, okay. And I was like, is she gone for the day or, and they were like, Oh, she was only-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was like, no, it's not like that. Uh, can I buy a copy of the book? And they were like, we're sold out. And I was like, oh, all right. Well, thanks. And they were like, uh-huh. Anything else? And I was like, no, I'm good. I'm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm good. So that was, that was, that was like the two weird interactions I had at Comic Con cause I'm a weird dude. Uh, and then I just walked the show floor. A lot of Funko pop stuff, a lot of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a blockbuster? They had like, they had, there was two blockbuster exhibits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yo, I'm about to, I'm about to make you guys depressed. Yo, Jake, I think you would love this play that is an unofficial play. It came out in 2004, in August 2004.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it is called Dog Sees God, Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. And it is about how all of the peanuts gang has grown up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is dark. It is very dark. It is, uh, I, I love it because it's, it's this weird artistic expression type. It's so good. It's, it's uncomfortable because it does things like it has drug use and, and abuse and suicide. It's like a huge, like real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Real adult piece about the peanuts, and I feel like you would love that Jake, because it's so weird. I absolutely would. Incredible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're getting weird this episode. Without Ralph, we're weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what, that's actually a great transitioning point because next up...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't, don't tell Raph this, as our editor, every time that Jake brings up Tony Hawk Pro Skater, at any point, I ju- I need you, it's not a visual thing, just play the Tony Hawk Pro Skater special, like you just did a special move sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, every time he brings it up, just play it for me if you remember. If not, no big deal. And the comments will roast you for forgetting, but either way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, uh, okay, so I complete games, so I have to see everything, right? That's just what I have to do. Uh, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tend to do a lot of the Ubisoft, Ubisoft games that do that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have in the last probably eight years stopped playing Assassin's Creed games. Um, I get paid to promote them a lot because my audience likes Assassin's Creed, but I just kind of been lackadaisical to completing them because they just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And, uh, I, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And none of it mattered. And then four was like, Hey, so you're a computer nerd that works at this company called Abstergo and like there's VR and connecting and stuff. And like, I was like, okay, so we're going to try it again. No, they just kind of, it just keeps getting sidebarred.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, right. And I feel like, and I think the pull of it all was like, we have to just keep pumping out Assassin's Creed. It's printing money. Keep going, keep going, keep going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I feel like when it comes to this whole situation about like, applying that to other games, right? Far Cry, uh, Far Cry 3 was perfect. Absolutely. Uh, I enjoyed Far Cry 4, parts of it. Far Cry 5, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really enjoyed what it was supposed to be, but like, you start to kind of see the paint on the walls and you're kind of like, hey, I think I'm going to be doing a lot of the same thing over and over and over again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the ability to pl- I don't know. Make the game you want to make, team. If that's what you want to make, then make it. Uh, just make it meaningful. Because if you're like, there's 3000 collectibles, then that sucks. And that just extends experience for no reason. But if that's your vision, then that's your vision. What are we gonna do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the hardest, the hardest, I mean, what was the budget of Cyberpunk? Do we know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I mean, it's, I, obviously these are, this is just basic math. I'm not hammering it to the wall here, so don't, I'm not a mathematician or an expert. But, uh, I mean, if I'm correct, the, the things say that it sold 20 million copies since 2023. September of 2022.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I imagine that it's sold more this year, given that there's more patches, the new DLC is about to come out, the updates, but if we're even doing 70 bucks, which is obviously not the full retail price for everyone, but it's just the average of what it's set at 20 million copies, that's like what? $1.4 billion?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're right, you're right. So let's, let's get rid of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that, that's the wild hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the fact that, I mean, just correct me if I'm wrong, but were there layoffs when cyberpunk debuted?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think there was any, and if anything they've turned it around and they've sold more copies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's never, it's never a fun time to see people let go in any industry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, I mean, you kinda saw that too, right? With, uhm, freaking Days Gone II, right? Like, I think that was a game that came out to Lukewarm reception. I was the one guy that loved that game. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, well, no, no, in that there was going to be a sequel to Days Gone. There was going to be a sequel, but it was based off of the sales and reception of the game. And because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sales and reception of the game weren't, uh, even though it was profitable by the end, and they did fix the majority of the stuff that people were experiencing, uh, and there was a fan base there, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I think that game had a seven year production cycle of hell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, they did, uh, they, they did, they worked on the Uncharted, um, Vita game and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they had some other titles as well. Uhm, but yeaah, you know, it's a shame, right? Because, uh, I liked Immortals Fenyx Rising. Uh, I liked Days Gone. I thought both games were great. Uhm, I think that they came out at wrong times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was announced and released in the pandemic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's true, but here's the thing. If we're on his YouTube channel, if you're on the podcast feed, you're right at home. But if you are on the YouTube channel, which a majority of you are, uh, we have to respect Ralph and what he's built. We don't have to respect him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I mean, you guys are his audience, and you, you know, with, without, without your, your, your guy here, we could potentially make you hate us, we could potentially hate his channel, there's a lot of power and responsibility here, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I-I'm fine with the name. I think it's just one of those things where naming conventions is so important, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Castlevania was so important to so many people on Netflix, they just simply called it Castlevania. So, I mean, I'm sure there's, there's a, Nocturne is an appropriate title, but, uh, you know, it definitely made me go, wait, is it DLC? Is it a new season?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, uh, well first off, the game is out today, so as you guys are listening to it, you can go buy it on your Nintendo Switch. It is a exclusive. Uhm, it is a four-player combat-less Metroidvania.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You play as, as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and you're on this island, uh, that is inhabited by these race of people called the Hoken, and they have a leader named Token, and Token is like, hey, yes, exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No. Well, that's the only one with a name. Uh, that's like any important. Essentially, uh, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tolkien convinces everyone of our four friends of Disney to come to the island for a picnic. He basically tricks them and says, hey, we need your help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there's these, uh, three tomes of knowledge that supply all of the source of our land and information, and they've been taken from us, and we need them back, and we need your help. And so, immediately the four friends go, yo-ho, and they do their thing. And so, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's fascinating how fun this game was for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Despite there being any kind of actual violence or...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or combat acquired, right? Like, you don't, the point of the game is to not attack every enemy next to you. Every enemy is an obstacle that you have to jump over. And so this game is all about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's another mechanic? My brain's not working. I've been playing this game non-stop, so it's definitely on my mind, and my video should be out by the time this podcast is out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can wall jump and wall climb, which is really fast. No, no, not climb, but like wall jump a la Mega Man X. So it's a lot of like sliding down walls and in different areas. Um, and the nice thing I like about it, cause I did play the whole way through in multiplayer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that it doesn't have that new Mario Brothers Super Mario 3D world issue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're running around, you're, you know, if you hit each other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing happens, you just kind of walk through each other and that's really great because usually what happens in New Mario Bros. Multiplayer is you're running, you run into each other, you grab someone, you accidentally throw them. It's kind of like that fun chaos and then you realize that oh that's not nearly as fun. That's fun for like 5 minutes when you're playing like a, yea it gets gold really quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the, Lucy you'll love this, one of the, one of the fun mechanics in the game is, uh, when you're playing in multiplayer, uh, every player can ask for a hug.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so Mickey will put his hands out and he's smiling. Minnie will do a cute one. Uh, Goofy's is depressing. He's just like, can I get a hug? Like it's really sad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, and then Donald is like, I guess I'm asking for a hug. And uh, when you, when you're, when the characters hug, you get a temporary hit point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, collectibles are really fun. If you're a completionist, you're going to like the game. It's, it's really interesting. It's, it's meant for, for, to play with friends. It feels like that way. One of the kick-ass things that I really enjoyed about it is, uh, when playing in a full group,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You kind of like walk into, the camera stays locked on player one, uh, but when you go into certain rooms, it then kind of zooms out and the room has the camera and you see all the collectibles and the enemies and the secrets all kind of in front of you and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time, like a couple hours into playing the game, my friends and I just understood what to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was like a, it was like a mad dash. Like I'd go up and collect things here. You know, my partner would go top left and do everything there. You know, my, my friend would go down underneath and it's almost like all of you guys are just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, it's a fever dream of collect-a-thons, like the three, two, one break. We would never tell each other what we're doing. We're just going to go do the thing. And it just made it so fun because you're, you're all just kind of trusting each other to do it. How intense does it get?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels very much for kids, but the difficulty does amp up towards the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but it's the kind of game that if you are getting better and better at using the new metroidvania-esque mechanics you unlock, then you're going to scale with the game, uhm, relatively quickly. Uh, I did two full playthroughs and it took me 14 hours to complete the whole thing, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's achievements in the game. They're called accomplishments because it's Nintendo Switch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're all really fun. Like the, the, you're, you're going to have a good time with it. Um, it's just, it's, the selling point is difficult just because it's like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no combat and you hug people and it's, but honestly, I, that never once stopped me from enjoying it, especially me being a huge Disney guy, like the collectibles, there's, there's hidden Mickey's, you know, like, yeah. And, and every time you, you find a hidden Mickey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I highly recommend you play with friends. It's gonna make that much of a journey. It is local co-op only, uhm, but honestly, I don't think that's a bad thing, cause have you tried playing a game online, Nintendo Switch? It's not the greatest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I really enjoyed it. If, if you like platformers, you like metroidvanias, uh, you're gonna have a good time. It's very well written, very well performed, and it, it, the art style is from the, the modern, uh, cartoons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, uh, the, the, speaking of just like the nostalgia of Disney, one of the, one of my favorite things about the game is that, uh, there's a collectible that is called Memorabilia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know, right? Uhm, the memorabilia, it's like usually three items that are categorized to be from a Disney short or from a Disney animated film. Question? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hot dog! I don't think, I think there might be a reference to that. Okay, good. But I don't, I don't know 100%. Uhm, I mean...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Goofy's, uh, ascend animation is him squirting a bottle of mustard. So that's very good. Yeah. All of Goofy's things are food. Like everyone has like a fun gimmick. Like Goofy is Goofy's whole bit is that all of his moves are, are food themed. Um, Donald's is like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's like, he's the one that gets all the short end of the stick. So like all the stuff that he gets is like, like his flying animation is he holds two pairs of feathers to like help him elevate because his arm


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very beautifully animated and uh, the game doesn't take itself too seriously. It's, it's very fun. Um, but the memorabilia stuff is so interesting, right? Like you, you'll see like something from a modern day Disney short that came out a couple of years ago. And then it's like, oh, this is from the Chris, the Disney Christmas special where.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This particular snow globe or this particular hat that you just found.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, or like Steamboat Willie, right? Like these different, uhm, these different moments throughout Disney history. So if you're a Disney nut and you like those things, like it, it feels good to kind of look and see those collectibles and all the little excerpts are really well written too, so it's just, it's super fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like it is designed for kids by default, but if you are a Disney adult, which here in California, many people are, they, they, you know, we all have annual passes and when we have friends fly in from out of state and you want to go to Disney.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We all go to Disney together. So, uh, it, it, it definitely feels like a love letter to, to Mickey and friends, which, uh, is really great. It's super fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Forward, core, circle, forward, punch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what the animation looks like. If you look at it in the, in the, it looks like a Z.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really like the vibe. World, world tour mode will let you, in my opinion, it'll kind of teach you the different characters. Yeah. Right, like you mentor them, you learn. Uhm, I, I, I loved world tour mode. Uh, I thought it was, it was a little long. It's very, it's, it's a bit long. Is it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Lucy, if you have any interest to play Street Fighter VI, I will gladly spar and teach you how to play the game. A long time ago I did a series called The Dojo with my friend Brett and Santel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I, but I then I lost my next set. So it was very interesting to kind of have that energy and vibe in the room. Um, but yeah, I could definitely sit down with you and teach you some of the basics if you'd like. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if, uh, since, uh, Tam's your Ryu and I'll be your Zangief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm getting a lot of like, I, I, I understand the, the Dark Souls comparison, but I think the way that the, the combat even looks in the animation reminds me a lot of like Gears of War, where it has like this kind of like dodging and, and. Yea, it's Gears of War with no coverage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, but I will say the Dark Souls part is very evident when you see the enemies approaching. They just have this like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would be down. I, I, I'm a fan of sticking with the, with the squad that, that would try something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That person, that person uses that same image on all their thumbnails, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, the for you device is right underneath that. And it looks like, okay, look, if you want to have a fun little experiment, uh, type it into YouTube, everyone, and then just look as the dinosaur is, is mouth opening, trying to consume the booba.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm okay playing shorter games. I like big games too, but I also like breathing. I like going for walks and playing with my dogs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so, no, hold on, hold on. No, hold on. So, where is the dog in this? Are the users the dog?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other perspective could be, and it's not like union busting by any means, cause they're obviously, you know, there should be video game unions as they've been popping up the last couple of years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I also think that the studios are fearful, are possibly fearful of giving the ball


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe that wasn't the right idea for either party in that instance, uhm, just of how it all kind of panned out. All of us were like, Kojima can do no wrong, we'd love to see another Metal Gear, so on and so forth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The minute he was gone from Konami, they were like, hey, member Metal Gear, Kojima, it's not a Hideo Kojima game anymore, like that was a purposeful thing. And on the other side of the, of the coin, you've got the Toby Foxes of the world, the one man, you know, the Dan Salvatos of the world, these guys, these, these creative visionary people who are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, with, with the team of obviously a few, trying to, uhm, intrinsically...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Build a creative vision from the ground up, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they are the vision, right? You know, it's, if you are going to creatively direct something, like it has to be done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The person, it's almost like, uh, if you're doing a school project with someone and someone in the group is like, Hey, I have the idea, the vision, the execution, but I can't execute everything. That person's going to take on majority of the responsibility themselves. And at that point, the person in the group is probably the person who you want to be doing it because they're the ones that have that creative force.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It works in some instances, right? But when you have massive teams of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people working on a single game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's way more complicated, and I think if you- I wouldn't even know where to start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, if, working at somewhere like Santa Monica Studio, where they...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and it's just, it's crazy. And, and I think how, and as the game industry evolves...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You kind of talked about it earlier, Lucy. It's a revolving door. A lot of people are tired of working on one title for four or five years, right? Production babies. You know, films take nine months. Traditionally speaking, whether, you know, estimation wise, games take four times that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's a different beast altogether. Uhm, you have to really believe the person in charge who is at the helm to make it work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I think, I think that's hard to, to just kind of, you can't just like throw a dart at someone and go like, and now you're in charge, right? There, there's a level of pedigree and, and, and, um, respect kind of attached to it. What are your thoughts, Jake?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This day in gaming, or as we call it this week in the way back, this is celebrating games, uh, within this week. Anniversaries to make us all feel old or feel young, depending on who you are. Uh, Lucy, let us start with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good game. It's one of my favorites, honestly. I was, I was gonna pick Pax Payne. Uh, but that's okay, cause I'm gonna, I'm gonna, my game I'm gonna pick is gonna make all of you feel incredibly old. Are you ready for this one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here we go everyone. July 20th, 1983. Can I get a guess from anyone?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, da da da da da, that's not the original. The original is this arcade game called Mario Bros. Starring Mario Luigi and a bunch of Koopas and Krabs. 40 years ago, everyone. Can I ask you guys a question?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, it's not, it's, it's, it's meant to be a simple arcade thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The progression is nonsensical. There's no narrative. You're just, you're trying to get the other player to mess up and miss time at jumping and hit by a Koopa shell or run into an enemy that's on its back. Like that's, it's, it's a versus game. It's not meant to have a lot of depth to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's up to you. This is, this is for the description. It's up to you to kick punch and knock out these sewer pests before time runs out. But beware just when you think you got rid of all of them, they come back for more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I skipped ahead. Mario and Luigi are doing some underground plumbing when all sorts of weird creatures come flying out of the pipes. Turtles, crabs, and even fighter flies attack the helpless Mario bros. All right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They do in New York apparently. Watch yourself. You haven't got any serial killer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 1983 New York, you don't know where those crabs are at, my dude. It's a different time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, my video on Castle of Illusion, that's the original. My video on Disney Illusion Island is out right now, so if you want to go watch it, if you don't want to buy it, you can watch my video. Uh, I guess mine's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not before you buy, but like, you don't wanna buy. But you wanna watch it anyways. I guess that's the vibe of my stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Intrigued, intrigued to look at it. You can watch my video. Uhm, also, if you are in PAX West this upcoming September, uh, I'm doing my one man comedy show, The Completionist's Legacy, uh, with Kat Icarus, the YouTuber, as my opening act. September 1st, tickets are available right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tickets are only 30 bucks. Uh, they're more expensive if you buy them at the door. Uh, but if you're in Seattle, come on by. And for those of you who are in the UK, I am doing a one time only performance in London, September 24th at Dingwalls, which is a pretty like iconic, uh, music venue I've heard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so if you're in London, come on by. I never go to London. I'm never there for anything. Uh, so please come on by. And again, tickets are pretty cheap. I'm just a guy talking. I'm telling stories, doing comedy. It's a fun ol' time. What about you, Jake? What do you got going on?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am skill up. I work at skill up and I have a YouTube channel called skill up. So it all lines up quite neatly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like, cause think about how many things have to happen for a media outlet to get wind of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I heard that figure from some article that was like, it was 200 people employed on this. Is that true? Is that, do you know anything about that? Is that true?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He looks so much better in the original. I just don't understand. He looks such a weird downgrade. And I just think that whole trailer was not right. The whole thing, I was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, Silent Hill is a memory that we all have if you played it back in the day. It's so vivid. Even though you may not be able to remember its specific components, you remember vividly like what it feels like and just kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vibe. And that trailer did not capture that. And then you compare that to Resident Evil, which we'll talk about in a second obviously, Resident Evil 4, and you're like, you got it, you nailed it, that's it, you've done it, thank you very much, you know?


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[Assistant] So, I really was not feeling that sign.


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[Assistant] Yes, for sure. CRTs make a difference with regards to consuming old games. Over the Mortal Kombat 30th, the anniversary they were talking about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I mean, I obviously hadn't looked at it in a CRT forever, so I couldn't say, but like, yeah, it makes sense if he says so, I trust him.


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[Assistant] I look, I'm not in that cause obviously people have different problems with Bloober Team. I think some people think they're hacks in that they just kind of copy tropes and apply them. Some people have a lot of issues, have issues with the way they portray mental health because they've definitely done some


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weird shit at the backend of their games with regards to those topics. I understand all that. I'm not in the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hate blooper camp, but I'm in like, eh, they're okay camp, you know, and I actually kind of enjoyed Medium despite its issues.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think I really went into this being like, let's give Bloober a chance. Let's, and I'm still feeling that I'm still, but I'm, I'm actually actively skeptical now where the having seen that trailer, because I'm just like, I don't believe that they really nailed the vibe of this. And it's a big, that's a big red flag for me based on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Transcendence? No, I think it was like transcendence or something, but like I think it was the transcendence word, but it wasn't that.


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[Assistant] With the greasy hair? Is that the one? Is that the scary girls with the greasy hair? Yeah? Is that the one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Garlic behavior. I love it. Okay. And it's a gamer size as well. I love it. I can actually wear it. Fantastic. It came with other stuff. There's also a cape in here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a vampire cape. A vampire cape. That makes sense. And, uh, some cards, like the cards that represent the thing, some gloves, and of course, the garlic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So cool. They said that they didn't see it. They said that anytime you turn the camera to look at his face, he looks away. He's just doing these ones the whole time, just ignoring you, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, the Resident Evil DLCs are typically pretty good. Like most games, the DLC is like, yeah, you didn't really need to do this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The factory, you didn't like the factory? Show up with those goons with the shoot them in the sink. Yeah, I hear that. Um, yeah, the whole thing just didn't quite click together for me the way that seven did. I was so about seven and this just felt a little bit like, I don't know. And then, but it also wasn't the classic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I was very disappointed about when they announced the collector's edition? What's that? No chainsaw controller. I'm like, come on now, please. That's a free win that you just missed right there. I'm so bummed.


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm ready for it. I bring it on. I'm, I'm down. Yeah. And I think, I think this, I think that is what's next. I don't think they, I'll do it. I don't think they do five and six. I think it'd be kind of silly for them to do it, to be honest. There's just not enough affection for them. You'd have to do some serious reworking of five setting and it's uh, and it's, and it's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, but just top line, what are your, what are your thoughts?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you seeing that bump by the way? Do you know anyone that wasn't playing Overwatch before but is now playing Overwatch with the release of 2?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can play it when Lightfall, when uhm, when the new expansion comes out, okay? I'll drag you all, we'll go through it all together. Unfortunately though, it's three man party, so someone's gotta do it. I'll do it, I'll do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For sure. And it's funny cause I went back and played, I played some Overwatch this week and uhm, I was just like, just to see. I was just like, okay, what's up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I was like, I literally at that third round, I was like, I can't do any more of this. And I, and I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I understand what everyone's saying. I understand the subtle differences and improvements and whatever, and I believe all that. I think it's there, I'm sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I look at Overwatch and I'm like, yo, this is the same fucking game. Why are you playing this? You know? And it's just, it's just not for me as well. But also cause I actually don't like the shooting mechanics at all. Like I was playing with Soldier and Reaper and I'm like, these shooting mechanics are pretty basic. I don't know. Just not a lot of feedback going on. He doesn't feel great. I think I'm a little bit spoiled by Destiny in that regard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so that was my Overwatch 2 experience, but my brothers are big Overwatch fans. They love it and they're playing a lot of it and they're, you know, they're not like, oh yes, this is incredible. God bless Blizz. They did it, but they're just like, look, it's more Overwatch and that's all I wanted. And it just, there's a, there's a roadmap now which I'm interested in and that's it. So I think that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This succeeds as a product for those already playing Overwatch. It seems to have pulled in at least some other people, but I think on balance though,


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[Assistant] It has to be, personally I would say it's a bit of a flop only because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The narrative around this is very much like, well, it's the same. There's no real reason to check it out. Like it's just, it's the same. And I think all of the improvements that it objectively brings aside that narrative surrounding the release of your sequel, like the number two behind it, that is just, that's a huge L I think for Blizzard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is mario rabid's sparks of hope by the way, did we say the name of it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played the preview and I played the beginning. Is this the evil enemy attacks? Oh no, evil enemies here. Let's, let's go fight it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's good. I mean, I would want to make time. It's just, release season's so busy, this is one of the ones that I got a code for, but didn't have time to boot up, because you just have to make choices this time, and I'm really bummed, because I really love the first. I definitely plan to play this at some point, but I just haven't had time yet, so it's cool to hear you describe it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember playing the preview and just being like, okay, this is cool and it's better than the first one, but holy shit, the soundtrack is next level. It honestly was, and it's, I can't remember a preview I've ever walked away from where my number one takeaway was, holy shit, the soundtrack is so good. You know what I mean? But it was that level good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wondered, so my theory with this is that, so there's so many things wrong with this. It's yeah, hard to know where to start, but basically it feels like a live service game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Enemies have so much HP and you know, they have like the health bar above their heads and that's very much how those sorts of games work when you're grinding an open world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this crafting system with all this terrible gear, these shitty stats and the mods that just, they throw so many of these fucking mods at you and they're exactly the same icon, just a different color and a different number. Poorly explained.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and so I think that if you were intending to make a game like what they said they were making, this kind of narrative-led, you know, as in intimate co-op game where you could play with one or two other people, whatever, I don't know what the original plan was,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know, a real sort of bat family comic book story game, you would not design it like this. Like there's so much of this, you'd be like, no, get rid of that. Don't need that. Redo that. Like you just would not make.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This game, unless it was to sell stuff in a store. Like that is it. Just nothing will convince me otherwise on that. And I'm almost certain it was that pivot away when Marvel Avengers flopped and the whole live service model really kind of flopped in certain aspects. Like obviously live service does really well in some areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People really hit fatigue around that Marvel's Avengers point. And it's possible that they just said, we can't repeat that. Let's, let's redesign our game. But they were too far along and you've got all these weird relics in there. That just seems so out of place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was gonna say this knighthood system where you have to fucking unlock the ability to glide, you know, after doing 10 open world missions per character.


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[Assistant] I mean, yeah, like you can, you can just feel it. And it's just, I don't understand. It's just, it's such a shame that they didn't spend more time to redesign the core of it because there's so many things that you look at and you're like, this is obviously not fun. Like, did you guys unlock fast travel in this game? Yeah. Okay. Oh god. The drone scanning the drone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, obviously gamedev is hot, okay, for sure, we hear that and I know and I agree with that, I 100% do, I never discount that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you've got something like that that is so obviously terrible. It's so obviously does not belong. It's like, how did it make it through every single stage gate in the entire game development process? And this is the way that you decided you would unlock fast travel in your video game. It's like, how do you arrive at this? Cause it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was that level of, you're literally a bat, you're a bat person staring at drones, politely and patiently waiting for them to land so you can continue to look at them when their shields are down. Like, how does that make it into your video game? You know what I mean? I don't understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, I was gonna say, as a- someone that's actually not intimate with this world and meeting these characters for the first time, I actually liked it. I thought it was cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I've read a lot of people who are actually connected to this world, know the comics, know the court of hours and they're like, yo, this sucks. This is not how this should have been written, whatever else. And I can understand that. But for me personally, who's just pretty new to this, I actually really liked


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This story. Mainly because I like the characters. I think they're super cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like, I feel like the discourse that I've seen to this point has been mostly like, eh, it's okay. Some people are like, you know, it's not very good. One review was like, oh, it's, it's up there with Elden Ring and it's like, I don't know about that man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's such an interesting game to talk about because, uh, it's, I can't think of a game that has taken the same level of step up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From its kind of pseudo indie double A origins to what is really a massive big triple A blockbuster. You know, it went from being this kind of almost niche thing to being what is essentially a Naughty Dog game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, I really liked that Naughty Dog game that they made. I enjoyed it a great deal. But at the same time, I was very much, I very much miss that other thing that the game used to be. Like that kind of intimacy and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] focus on history, the period piece angle. I've really loved that about the first one. So yeah, I'm, I'm on balance a hundred percent and you know, I, this is definitely going to be one of those game of the year contenders. No doubt. I really believe that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, it's just, it's just interesting for me personally because of how different it is versus the first one, uhm, along so many different vectors. You know what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so the first one is set in 14th century France, it's the Black Plague, it's in a certain place, you know, like the Hundred Years War is going on in the background. It was very grounded, it was about the aristocracy, it was about the Inquisition, the clergy, uh, citizenry, et cetera, you know, it was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly, and yeaah, it's a bit very grounded. And then obviously that third act gets really crazy cause you have like the Ratnado and all this shit and shit and the Rat King battle and whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This Plague Tale Requiem is essentially Act 3 of that game, right? So it really leans into that kind of, the rat storyline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's not set in a place and time. It's a swashbuckling adventure. It is. It's like a pirate adventure essentially and it sends you off to a magical, mythical, non-existent island full of weirdo cultists doing some weird midsummer festival thing and you know, you're like literally looking at


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like an Indiana Jones Uncharted vibe where it's like, oh, the map points to that secret temple carved in the, in the, in the mountainside. Let's go. And there's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People doing demonic rituals there and all sorts of shit, right? So just so different from the first game for that reason. The first game was like, Hey man, being in France during the plague fucking sucks, right? Yeah, I know. Totally. This one is like, Whoa, we have a pirate ship. Let's go. You know, it's, it's a very different


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole ludonarrative dissonance thing that comes out of Uncharted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's right. And well, I'm allowed, we're allowed to do it when we're talking about Uncharted. Okay. That's the one exception, but it's, it's different here though, because it actually does leverage that within the story. It talks about the fact that Amicia is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause there's like a subtle morality system in the game, because if you


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[Assistant] I suck. Why am I murdering fools? For no reason. I'm going to be more stealthy now. And I think that's such an interesting little game design tidbit about how you can guide your player just by like whispering in their ear, hey, don't do that thing, you know, by judging your player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it didn't. Ah, there you go. No, you're not, you're not about this. Sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You did not like this joke, correct?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, totally. I, I agree with all that. I think everything you said is 100% correct. And I think most people will agree with that as well in the sense that I don't think anyone's really arguing about how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What this game is, if that makes sense. No one's being like, oh actually, no, the combat is good. Everyone's like, yeah, the combat kind of sucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I feel like it's really about which parts hit for you and how hard they hit, you know? And for me, that exploration side, that the art design being so incredible, that hands off approach to exploration, all of that just hit so strongly that I really didn't care about all the other stuff that was kind of jank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the combat, obviously, and there's complaints about level design as well, where people are like, Hey man, these are really confusing levels. And I'm like, I know, right? They're awesome. Yeah, totally. So, um, I think again, it just is about how you respond to the different components, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really like that they made a game that doesn't neatly fit into, into a bucket, right? Most of what we play, like Gotham, we're like, it's this part of this with that part of that, you know, add some Spider-Man, some Arkham, some Marvel's Avengers, add in some live service bullshit. Boom. There it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with this, there is no clear sort of strap line for this one or tagline or whatever you want to call it. It requires you to really engage it, to think about what it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Orifice. It is an orifice, I would say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's great. I love it. So, uh, yeah, now that's cool. And it's, it's messed up. It's on Game Pass. Go and try it for yourself. That's the best advice I can give you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think this is really a situation now where uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the, I think the burden of proof is on what's her name? Taylor. Uh, where it's like, listen, you've made some claims. Cool. Willing to listen. Absolutely. And, uh, obviously willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, at least at the start of the process. What people reputable people have come out and they've got receipts and you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These are people that are not, they have no incentive to lie. None of them have any incentive to lie and they're like, Hey, we've seen the documents that prove that you got offered a lot more than that. And then when presented with that, she's basically like, no, that's a lie. Now I just want to move on with my life. And it's kind of like, well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're going to call the refusing evidence a lie, then you kind of need to prove yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, look, I don't know man, that whole situation is a real bummer, because obviously I previewed Bayonetta this week, and last week I played about 5 hours of it or so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, I really liked it and I have a preview up that's kind of like, hey Bayonetta rocks! Get excited for Bayonetta everyone! And then obviously this shit happens and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's kind of like, whoa, that video has aged badly. And now obviously it's like, well, maybe it hasn't aged that badly because it turns out that she hasn't really been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems as though she's not presented us the full truth. So uhm, it's a bummer. Uh, who knows? She also talked about her own mental health struggles. Uh, who knows if she's sort of going through some stuff. I suspect that it's probably a really difficult time for her now, but at the same time, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think as well, people are like, oh, you know, what if she did get paid $20,000? Is that enough? I'm like, well, some people are like, that's a thousand dollars an hour. It's like, yes, I agree. That's a lot of money, of course. But you know, at the same time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nintendo or Platinum, you know, they're making billions of dollars. Platinum's not making billions, obviously, but Nintendo's certainly making billions of dollars in profit as the publisher of that product.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no one's doing an hour calculation on the amount that shareholders are earning on that, you know. Uh, I think in general, like games workers and voice actors are generally not paid enough. And so at least this, this raised that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That conversation, I think that was healthy to have that, to be more informed about that stuff. I certainly learned a lot about how people in the voice acting industry are paid as a result of this. So that's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyway, Bayonetta's fun. I played it. It's cool. I rec- I- I'm probably gonna recommend it. Unless something really bad happens at the back end of it. Uhm, it's just a really-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it looks shiiiit. Like, this is the first, this is the first, uh, Switch game I've reviewed in, like, forever. And, yeah man, like, the Switch is old now, it's old, and these guys are...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, yeah, it's noticeable the, the drops because obviously this is trying to go for a really high frame rate for the action. And as a result, and first of all, it can't maintain that frame rate at all times. And secondly, to maintain that frame rate, they've sucked all of the life out of the environments. The environments are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing, they are so bare and bland and like, huh, terrible, just the worst. Characters and the action, like the enemies you're fighting, the spectacles, particle effects and all that shit looks fucking awesome, like that's fantastic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But overall as a package, if you would ask me, does Bayonetta look good? I'm like, no, it really doesn't. It looks old at this point. And I think that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are so constrained by this device. Imagine what they could have created for us if they didn't have those constraints. So uhm, yeah, but look, it didn't stop it from being fun. I was definitely digging it, you know, and uhm, I'm looking forward to playing the rest, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I'll go first because I've only played the first like 30 minutes or so because I've been so busy with whatever. So I've literally just booted it up and did the opening section and then cried a little bit because I was like, Oh my God, it's amazing how.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Emotional it is, right off the get go. Um, yeah man, I just, I can't, like, it really,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so interesting how they film their shit and how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't think of another game that is able to communicate so much emotion so easily, other than, I don't know, like, people feel that way about The Last of Us, and I do think, yeaah, okay, sure, but I don't connect with those characters as much as I connect with Kratos and, uhm, and his son, so, like, it's just, I don't know, man, I just felt


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That opening sequence was so incredible. Such an amazing combination of spectacle and intimacy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I secretly think that, oh sorry, I secretly think that they're gonna pull it off. As in, I secretly think they're gonna find a way to meet what they did before. Which,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you'd asked me that a few months ago, I didn't think that would be possible. You know, but seeing that trailer that they did, seeing this opening, I'm just like, holy shit. This is, yeaah, so far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. So I'm very excited and extremely hopeful. But as I said, don't want to overhype it. I don't want to build up expectations. I've only played 40 minutes. Okay. So don't listen to anything I have to say. I haven't seen shit. Lucy has played five hours though. So you will be able to tell us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's uh, contact at friendspersecond.com or you can just tweet at us and we'll just, and we'll do a sweep of the Twitter. Ask us anything. The Twitter is in the descriptions of the podcast or on the YouTube channel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just want a game where I play as Epona in the Ocarina of Time, but no links around. Like, so I'm just Epona, running around Hyrule Field, doing shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was always an 8 person. 8 was the first I played. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was like- That's very cool. It was so cool and I, and I really would love to see them remake 8 to be honest with you because-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I loved how adult it was in a weird way and yeaah, stylistically, thematically, the world it was set in, I was, I loved 8 so much and I still to this day, that's my favorite Final Fantasy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was just so interesting and it's so weird that it's been left dormant. Like imagine if tomorrow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I heard actually, recently someone sent me a headline, uhm, that Devolver


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Graham Struthers, the guy that we interviewed has hit up Square Enix to try and get the Vagrant Story IP so he could do a remake on it, but they kept rebuffing him or something. So like apparently that was a thing and it's never going to happen obviously because Square's never going to farm out their IP like that. But man, like I don't know why they won't revisit it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, uh, Jarrah H says, Everyone I know who is interested in games has their own ideas for a game they would love to see made. If you were the director,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I basically just want an open world, uh, game like Spider-Man except Robocop. That's it. Okay. You start out as the basic Robocop. You just fresh off the line and then you go around fighting crime and you get cool, sick upgrades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are sick villains who, you know, blow shit up and do lots of drugs and swear a lot and everything is fucked up and dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if, I wonder if, like, think about it, Hollywood, right? I think if you asked Hollywood...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 10 years ago, is there going to be a crash in Hollywood? Probably say no, I don't know, but now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They really fit with what we are doing now, how we consume content now, what we, you know, like books, who reads books now? Not enough people, sadly, but it's just a fact. Magazines, same deal, you know, uh, like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're like, hey, and I, I agree. I think, I mean, cause I've been watching this stuff since it started and I'm pretty sure that it's, it's almost done. I mean, I'm sure there's going to be like last little spurts and whatever else here and there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's the same as like that great loot box war of 2018 where there was this thing and it could have taken over the entire industry and then everyone's like, nah. And then look, you still have the loot boxes in some games, but by and large in core games, not mobile for sure. But in core gaming, everyone said loot boxes, fuck off. Even Overwatch now is like, that's the last one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That has had mixed, that has had mixed results to be fair. Everyone's calling for the loot boxes to return it seems, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yea man, it's like, it's, uh, it's, it's just, that's how it's gone down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It actually works, it actually works. It's a trick I learned from Egoraptor, uh, Aaron Hanson. Uhm, and he mentioned it on his show, and I was like, that can't work, he's crazy. Like, like he's just a YouTuber, a gamer, whatever, you know? And I tried to, I tried to add a work, yeah exactly, and it worked the whole time, exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's true, that's true. If you got the hiccups, uh, close your eyes, uh, have your arm parallel like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, you know, uh, I had my, my cancer removal treatment in the end of November and I took a month off and I went right back to work because, uh, our publisher, Fred Ryan, uh, basically said that hearings would lay off 10% up to, up to 9% of the staff, which is like 200 people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that scared the shit out of like everybody, uh, in, in the newsroom. Uh, and I was like, well, I was, I wanted to come back and start 2020 off like working, but I definitely didn't think I would like go so hard. You know, I opened with like a interview with Neil Druckmann and covering The Last of Us, which is of course like the story, the story of the moment right now.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and yeaah, just the other week, we got news that my entire section


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[Assistant] And one of them is staying to move to another section, um, called the next gen section. And I, I will be, uh, moving on to the style section of the Washington Post. So style section is basically the features, arts and entertainment, uh, uh, section of the Washington Post, which, uh, frankly, I think that's a good idea to have video games coverage there.


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[Assistant] Uh, I just wish I had my whole team with me. So, you know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's basically it. Like, and, you know, to be fair, like, we have like one movie critic, you know, we have one TV critic that we just hired and I'm forgetting her name, but I hear she's wonderful. Uhm, and so that is it. Then there's one game critic or game writer.


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[Assistant] No, no, no, uh, uh, like, the one person would probably do a lot of the heavy lifting, but there is a whole team of like general assignment reporters, and they would cover like,


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[Assistant] If the TV writer can't do it, then they'll cover other TV shows or they'll cover other movie stuff. Uhm, so yeaah, there is other staff covering it, but I don't... Again, I'm new to the department, so I don't know exactly, like, who is made up of what. I still don't even know who my editor is, you know? Uhm, so...


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[Assistant] Uh, I'll figure that out, but there, but I do know that there, there isn't just one person writing about movies. There are several, but there is like the one, but there is the one movie writer, Ed Hordaday. And she like does like the, the, the big profiles with George Clooney that she did, uh, uh, I think last month, um, stuff like that.


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[Assistant] I think it's going to be tough for me to like cover like, you know, stuff like, you know, I wanted to do a story on like the rappers who, who did the trailer for Street Fighter VI. Like that kind of stuff, that kind of smaller stuff is going to be a little bit harder. So like.


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[Assistant] I do, we haven't talked about it yet, so I don't really know exactly what my coverage area will be or what that will look like, but I imagine that I will probably only have to stick to the big hits like, you know, your Zelda and your Final Fantasy 16, uh, at least in terms of reviews and in terms of like, you know, game releases.


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[Assistant] And, uh, yeaah, I mean, I've got a lot, I have a lot of other things planned, and I did have a lot of things planned, uh, within Launcher. And now I'm just gonna have to do it all by myself.


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[Assistant] Which is why I tweeted the other day, uh, uh, that, that video of Joe Renato, the, the one man ban who, one of the few men who can, uh, who can, uh, operate an American photogram, photogrammer


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[Assistant] I mean, I made my feelings known that I think that it's not a great decision. Uhm, at the very least, some of our staff would be nice, not all of them, you know? Uh, like, you're like, Christ, like, I really could use the video editor, you know?


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[Assistant] Going back to your point about creators, you know, there's so much to talk about in terms of like how creators have disrupted the game's journalism space, right?


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[Assistant] Uhm, and you're right that a lot of them do do aggregation, you know, like, uh, you know, obviously Jason Schreier is like kind of the gold standard of like getting getting all of these scoops.


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[Assistant] Uh, and, you know, like, who would, what would the Halo content creators have to talk about if Jason didn't break that story confirming the Unreal Engine stuff? To be fair, that was actually confirmed several months ago by another creator.


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[Assistant] So there are creators still doing pretty good work out there, of course, right? And like, I just don't want to like throw them under the bus too. But you know, like we have the power of like lawyers, you know, that can look over our work and make sure that, make sure everything's okay.


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[Assistant] There is a thing about access, you know, uh, I can tell that like Sony PlayStation chief, Jim Ryan, uhm, I'm gonna sneeze. Bless you.


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[Assistant] I mean, you can tell that Jim Ryan enjoys being in like the more prestigious publications, right? Uhm, so we have that advantage where like Jim Ryan would love to have an interview in the Washington Post and see his name in the Washington Post.


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[Assistant] And, uh, you know, I could, I could probably, you know, tap Doug Bowser and see if he might be available and he would probably be a little bit more available to me. And, you know, those are still the things that I hope to still take advantage of, uh, when I, when I'm covering, uh, as I move forward with my coverage. But, um, like.


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[Assistant] All the stuff about crunch and like unionization and stuff like that, uh, those are stories that, one, I'm not that interested in doing, but two, I do think are important, like, or maybe one, I do, I think they're important, two, I'm not that interested in doing, right?


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[Assistant] Uhm, and that sucks because now, like, the coverage is just less, not even multi-faceted, it's just faceted, it's just, it's just gene-faceted, you know? Like, uhm, and...


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. So, you know. Yeah, that, that, it's.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and there's a, you know, Nathan Grayson, uh, who came from Kotaku, like he is an expert in like, uh, covering Twitch streamers. Like he really knows that that's based very well and like look at what's happening this week with Atriok and like,


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[Assistant] And everything else, like, like all of that stuff could be, you know, like Mr. Beast, the Mr. Beast thing, you know, like all of that stuff could use some good writing and some breaking down and we're getting rid of him, you know.


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[Assistant] You know, it turned, like, the Washington Post shut him down and not Kotaku. Kotaku's still around. That sucks.


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[Assistant] You know, I don't know, maybe I'm speaking too much. I'll just say it, whatever. They told me that the Washington Post is very good at innovating in the periphery.