Game Scoop! 788: One Week With the PS5 Pro

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 788: One Week With the PS5 Pro

Release Date: November 15, 2024 | Host: IGN

In the latest episode of Game Scoop!, hosted by Damon Hatfield, Emmett Hadfield, and featuring guests Justin Davis, Sam Claiborne, and Mark Medina, the team delves deep into their week-long experience with the highly anticipated PlayStation 5 Pro, explores new gaming releases, and engages in lively discussions about upcoming titles and gaming hardware innovations.

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1. Introduction and Guest Welcome

The episode kicks off with Damon Hatfield introducing the panel and welcoming Justin Davis to the show.

Justin Davis [00:55]: "You know what, I feel welcome this week. Thank you."

With Mark Medina and Sam Claiborne also joining the conversation, the hosts set the stage for an engaging discussion ahead.

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2. PlayStation 5 Pro Review: A Week in the Life

Mark Medina shares his comprehensive hands-on review after spending a full week with the PS5 Pro.

Mark Medina [03:06]: "I'm here and I'm excited. Damon got a great show for this week."

Physical Design and Build:

Mark begins by highlighting the physical differences between the PS5 Pro and the standard PS5. Notably, the Pro is smaller and lighter, making it easier to handle.

Mark Medina [03:12]: "It's a tiny bit smaller. So for the viewers, if it were a regular PS5, the regular PS5 would probably be like right here. But it's way lighter."

However, he points out the absence of the stand that typically accompanies the standard PS5, attributing it to personal preference.

Mark Medina [04:28]: "I like it like this. It feels sturdy enough."

Performance Insights:

Mark discusses the PS5 Pro's performance with various games, noting mixed experiences:

• Lego Horizon Adventures:

  Despite being a standout title, Mark expresses disappointment with its optimization on the PS5 Pro, particularly in quality mode where it runs at 30fps, which he finds subpar.

  Mark Medina [05:15]: "Nothing like getting your brand new PS5 Pro and then booting up first-party game, Lego Horizon and being like performance or quality mode? I'm like, are you kidding me?"

• Spider-Man 2 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

  While Spider-Man 2 showcases impressive visuals with improved ray tracing, Dragon Age doesn't visibly benefit from the Pro's enhancements when played alongside someone on the standard PS5.

  Sam Claiborne [08:49]: "There’s two ways to evaluate something like this."

Mark also praises other titles like Final Rebirth and Dragon's Dogma 2 for their stellar performance and visuals on the Pro.

Mark Medina [11:27]: "First being Final Rebirth. Incredible. Dragon's Dogma 2 runs it like a perfect 60 and looks gorgeous."

Storage and Future-Proofing:

Addressing storage concerns, Mark emphasizes the PS5 Pro's 2TB SSD, which alleviates the need for additional storage upgrades often required with the standard PS5.

Mark Medina [12:24]: "If you could sell your PS5 and get a discount on this thing, do it. If you don't own a PS5, just get it right."

He concludes by recommending the PS5 Pro for new buyers, citing future game optimizations and upcoming exclusive titles that will fully leverage the Pro's capabilities.

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3. Microsoft's Xbox Handheld Announcement

The conversation shifts to Microsoft's confirmed plans to release an Xbox handheld device, though it's noted to be years away from launch.

Damon Hatfield [14:33]: "Speaking of new gaming hardware, this week Microsoft confirmed its plans to release an Xbox handheld."

Industry Context and Speculations:

The panel debates Microsoft's timing, especially amidst the success of competitors like the Steam Deck and the aging Nintendo Switch.

Sam Claiborne [15:36]: "There's a lot of options for handhelds now, but an official Xbox handheld still seems like it's missing something."

Speculation around the handheld's features suggests potential advancements in cloud gaming and connectivity, aiming to distinguish it from existing options.

Justin Davis [16:05]: "Maybe they're waiting on some tech that they're reserving and getting right for this."

Market Impact:

Mark raises concerns about Microsoft's branding strategy, referencing their "everything is an Xbox" slogan, which might blur the brand's distinct identity.

Mark Medina [16:31]: "If everything is an Xbox, then nothing is an Xbox."

Conclusion on Xbox Handheld:

The group remains cautiously optimistic, acknowledging the competitive landscape and the potential innovative features Microsoft might introduce.

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4. Digital Eclipse's Tetris Forever: A Deeper Look

Damon Hatfield offers his insights on Digital Eclipse's latest package, Tetris Forever, which combines classic gameplay with documentary elements.

Damon Hatfield [25:15]: "I have spent a couple of evenings watching all this documentary footage and I'm still not done with it yet."

Historical Accuracy and Storytelling:

The team discusses the documentary's portrayal of Tetris's history, distinguishing it from the dramatized version seen in the Tetris movie on Apple TV.

Sam Claiborne [39:52]: "They have created a new medium. They’ve made a new art form."

Gameplay Experience:

Mark praises the collection for its interactive approach, allowing players to explore the Tetris legacy through playable game segments and historical narratives.

Mark Medina [43:29]: "There's a lot of cool footage, and it really enhances the overall experience."

However, Sam points out limitations due to licensing, noting the absence of certain versions like the NES/Game Boy editions.

Sam Claiborne [43:29]: "They are commercial products, so it's not a complete history."

Overall Recommendation:

The panel highly recommends Tetris Forever for enthusiasts, highlighting its blend of gameplay and documentary storytelling as a unique offering in game preservation.

Sam Claiborne [41:33]: "I think they’ve created the new medium... It’s an interactive retelling of the history of that medium."

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5. Xenotilt: A New Video Pinball Experience

Damon Hatfield introduces Xenotilt, a fresh entry in the video pinball genre, inspired by classics like Demon’s Tilt and Alien’s Crush.

Damon Hatfield [44:21]: "Xenotilt is finally out, which is 1.0 version."

Game Features:

• Visuals and Soundtrack: Xenotilt boasts a synthwave aesthetic with a dynamic, Sega Genesis-style soundtrack.
• Gameplay Mechanics: Features multiple tiers with unique bosses, vibrant effects, and a blend of traditional pinball with bullet hell elements.

Justin Davis [45:38]: "It's really, really flashy... it's got a Sega Genesis style soundtrack."

User Experience:

Mark notes the game's high-energy visuals can sometimes make tracking the ball challenging but overall finds it super fun and engaging.

Damon Hatfield [45:57]: "It's a good teacher."

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6. Television Takeover: Discussions on "The Penguin" and Beyond

The hosts transition to discussing recent television shows, starting with "The Penguin", a spin-off from the Batman universe.

Mark Medina [48:16]: "I thought it was great. It was a very, very good show."

Show Reviews:

• "The Penguin": Praised for strong performances, especially by the lead's mother and the antagonist, enhancing the narrative connected to the Batman lore.

  Mark Medina [48:34]: "I did not expect his mom to steal the show. She is incredible."

• "What We Do in the Shadows": The panel shares their appreciation for the humor and character development, noting the show's ability to maintain quality across seasons.

  Sam Claiborne [50:01]: "I think this season's really good... It’s great."

• "Star Trek: Next Generation" Rewatch: Sam Claiborne reflects nostalgically on the classic series, emphasizing its blend of tight storytelling and endearing, albeit quirky, episodes.

  Sam Claiborne [53:02]: "Television is objectively better now than it was then."

Closing Thoughts on TV:

The discussion highlights the enduring charm of classic shows and the panel's personal favorites, showcasing their varied tastes and the lasting impact of well-crafted television narratives.

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7. Video Game 20 Questions: An Attempt to Guess

In a playful segment, the hosts engage in Video Game 20 Questions, trying to guess a listener-suggested game. Despite their efforts, they struggle to identify the game, highlighting the challenge of guessing obscure or newly released titles.

Damon Hatfield [59:36]: "Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions. Email them to me."

The game in question remains unresolved, adding a humorous and relatable moment for the audience.

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8. Closing Remarks and Final Ads

As the episode winds down, the hosts briefly touch upon upcoming episodes and encourage listeners to submit their own game suggestions.

Damon Hatfield [74:23]: "That's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you Sam. Thank you Justin. Thank you Mark. Thank you to Jobur and everyone else working behind the scenes to make this episode possible."

The episode concludes with a mix of lighthearted banter and final promotional segments, wrapping up a week of insightful gaming discussions.

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Notable Quotes:

• Mark Medina [03:12]: "It's a tiny bit smaller. So for the viewers, if it were a regular PS5, the regular PS5 would probably be like right here. But it's way lighter."

• Mark Medina [05:15]: "Nothing like getting your brand new PS5 Pro and then booting up first-party game, Lego Horizon and being like performance or quality mode? I'm like, are you kidding me?"

• Sam Claiborne [39:52]: "They have created a new medium. They’ve made a new art form."

• Justin Davis [45:38]: "It's really, really flashy... it's got a Sega Genesis style soundtrack."

• Sam Claiborne [53:02]: "Television is objectively better now than it was then."

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Conclusion

This episode of Game Scoop! offers a thorough exploration of the PlayStation 5 Pro, insights into new gaming releases like Tetris Forever and Xenotilt, and entertaining discussions on current television shows and gaming culture. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or a casual enthusiast, the host panel provides valuable perspectives and engaging commentary to keep you informed and entertained in the ever-evolving world of gaming.

Transcript

[Mark Medina]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Mark Medina]

Snacking never felt or tasted so good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop original popcorn today. What's up everybody? Welcome to IG and gamescope. I'm your host Emmett Hadfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Justin Davis]

You know what, I feel welcome this week. Thank you.

[Damon Hatfield]

You won't yet. You certainly are most welcome here. Justin Davis joins us. Scoop and Mark Medina.

[Mark Medina]

I'm here and I'm excited. Damon got a great show for this week.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark has spent a whole, a whole week, seven days with his PlayStation 5 Pro. He says he has some thoughts. I'm excited.

[Mark Medina]

Me too.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm excited to let him share those. We've also got the latest package from Digital Eclipse, Tetris Forever, which I've been, I've spent the last couple nights with, I think, and I'm enjoying it very much. But first, it's almost that time of year again. It's almost game of the year time. Everyone will weigh in on their what they think is the best games of the year. And of course, the whole season culminates in the Damies, the most prestigious video game awards. But there's also a game of the year awards sort of vote going on over in the Game Scoop GameScoop Facebook group, which I think is very cool and very fun. I want to see what Scoop Nation out there thinks are the best games of the year. If you haven't joined, I urge you to join. And I have, I will acknowledge I know there's nothing cool about Facebook. Facebook is so super, super lame. But this one group is pretty cool.

[Justin Davis]

The games one interesting thing about Facebook is that people not in the United States use it a lot still. And so our game Scoop fam on there is very international, which I think is really cool because you know, finally you have one gaming podcast and that's enough for the whole world.

[Sam Claiborne]

We also, it's like my own personal opinion on Facebook has done a full, a full 360, you might say, because it was cool and then it was the Worst place on earth. And then I was back on Facebook for the first time in years, and it was nothing but my closest loved ones and friends sharing like, baby pictures and recipes and like, all these nice updates about their life. And I'm like, oh, man, this place is great. So it's like, yeah, maybe we were wrong the whole time.

[Justin Davis]

And I like our group. So I just pulled it up just now and I will go check out that poll shortly.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So I'm excited to see what scoop nation out there picks for game of the year. Okay, Mark, lay it on us. PlayStation 5 Pro 7 days. What do you think?

[Mark Medina]

Well, first off, I grabbed it. It's right here for the. For the video listeners. Oh, cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Don't drop it.

[Justin Davis]

A little smaller, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

A little smaller.

[Mark Medina]

It's a tiny bit smaller. So for the viewers, if it were a regular PS5, the regular PS5 would probably be like right here. But it's way lighter. And that's what I.

[Justin Davis]

Mark, they told us that the fins made the graphics better, but they made the fins smaller. So I don't understand how the technology is working.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know. Well, mine just sits on the fence. Cause I was too cheap to buy the stand.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like how when you're. When you're showing us the visual of how much bigger it is, I know that you have at least one PS5 in your house and it's like, no, I couldn't possibly also have had that to show you.

[Mark Medina]

I can't lift it. I'm not strong enough.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just have to hold my an inch and a half above the pro.

[Justin Davis]

Like Justin, most people only have one furniture dolly in their house. And to get a PlayStation into the other room, you just gotta pick.

[Mark Medina]

Exactly. Amanda was in meeting. She has to hold the other end to carry it in. And I can't do it on my own.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wait, so Mark, you don't have the stand, you just prop it up on its own fence?

[Mark Medina]

Just give me back the full jobert. This is how she looks.

[Damon Hatfield]

Is there a cat in your house?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I just.

[Damon Hatfield]

I would see. So worried.

[Mark Medina]

It comes with the like, little metal thingies that like make it where you can lay it down. I don't know what I did with them, but I don't know. I like it like this. It feels sturdy enough.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I would just. I would just say, Mark, don't set a floofy little mousy toy on top of it ever. Right.

[Mark Medina]

I did that a ton with my old PS5. Old habits are hard to break. So we'll see how that goes.

[Justin Davis]

Keep the cat treats in another room. Yeah, don't actually set him down there. Okay.

[Mark Medina]

So actually like, oh, my camera's all screwed up now. Performance wise, you know, Damon, it ain't all that. It ain't all that.

[Justin Davis]

To be fair though, you just got the most PlayStation 5 Pro optimized game, Lego Horizon, right?

[Mark Medina]

Lego Horizon, yeah. Nothing, Nothing like getting your brand new PS5 Pro and then booting up first party game, Lego Horizon and being like performance or quality mode? I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, dude. And I put it in quality mode and it runs at a super chuggy 30fps. I'm like, you're killing me with this thing.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So unfortunately Horizon is not optimized for the PS5. But you've been playing plenty of games.

[Mark Medina]

That are maybe one day. Yeah. So what I did was with my PS5, I have a 2 terabyte SSD, so I loaded it full of games. They had like 50 gigabytes left. Loaded it full of games on all these games I want to try. So I got the PS5 Pro and before even turning it on, I took off one of the fins, threw in the SSD and had all my games ready to go, which was awesome. And this thing's great because it's got a two terabyte hard drive built in. So now I got more space for more games. So let's go over what I tried. Spider man, it looks great.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's one or two. One or two.

[Mark Medina]

Spider Man 2. I was like up against a building and I was like, yeah. I mean it looks super reflecty, but without a side by side, it's kind of hard to like know. Right. Another one I've been playing a ton. I'm at 98 hours for Dragon Age, the Veilguard. Great game. I thought I was like, whoa, this looks amazing. And I'm playing in the same room as my wife who's also playing Dragon Age. And I was like, yo, this looks sick. PS5 Pro. And I look up and her game doesn't look any different than mine.

[Justin Davis]

I'm like, okay, you're saying that in Spider man though, like that, that mode it's ray tracing, right? So yeah, yeah. Did they do anything more than did they add new features to Spiderman or is it just like you can run ray tracing at a high frame rate?

[Mark Medina]

Basically. So the Spider man was one of the more interesting ones. And in comparison to the next game I'm going to talk about. So Spider Man 2, it's like a PC game now there's like all these different modes, all these different sliders, it's like 120Hz, blah blah, blah. Like all these different sliders that you could turn on. It feels like you're looking at a PC menu now. So that was cool because it's like if you want those options, another game that's like, that is Hogwarts Legacy. There's, there's all the like built in modes but then there's all these sliders underneath that you can just be like, I want ray tracing on, I want unlocked frame rate. I want all this stuff. And like that kind of stuff's cool. It's. I don't know how much console gamer, like I, I guess they want it, console gamers, they kind of just like to be able to like, well, can.

[Justin Davis]

You, can you run Microsoft Excel on it? Because if that was the case then.

[Mark Medina]

No, only in, only in quality mode. Everyone's saying 15 frames a second.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean I really, I really value and respect this sort of impressions that you're giving of like what the actual like boots on the ground, the experience of playing the PS5 Pro. Because there's, there's two ways to evaluate something like this. And both, both are valid to be clear. Like there's the Digital Foundry way of like look, we're going to count every frame in the particles and like look, now it has ray tracing. Then you can see light reflecting through a character's earlobe. And like I'm not making fun of that. Like that's valid. Like that's a legitimate way to evaluate something like this. And then there's also like I have played this game for 90 hours and when I'm booting it up on my Pro without a side by side, I can't tell a difference. Like that's also a valid way to evaluate something.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I mean I, cause I, I've watched a few videos that we put out and Digital Foundry put out and I was like, I love these side by sides. But it's like, yeah, what's it like actually owning the console? And that's just kind of how it's been. So the next two are the really cool ones, which is Star Wars Outlaws. So if you'll remember, if you played Star Wars Outlaws on console, there are a bunch of different options. There's like a 40fps mode. If you boot it up on the Pro, there are no options anymore. There's like Motion Blur. They just said they took all the.

[Justin Davis]

Sliders and they just put them all up.

[Mark Medina]

Yep, they're like the.

[Justin Davis]

I have so much respect for that. That's the coolest thing and I think that is. It'd be great if you could. I mean it's fine to like add the stuff in just if people want to tweak or something like that. But I love the idea of like this is why you have a PS Pro.

[Mark Medina]

Right?

[Justin Davis]

Is because you want all those sliders to be up at the same time. And they just.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

They just announced an update for that. Right. Which has a bunch of gameplay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. On the 21st that game is suddenly they're just changing everything about that game. They're like, it's like, yeah, they're like.

[Justin Davis]

They're doing a bunch of stealth updates and game.

[Mark Medina]

They're getting rid of. They're not getting rid of the stealth but they're basically being like if you don't want to stealth anymore, you don't have to. You just kill everybody.

[Sam Claiborne]

Half that game is stealth.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know it's very stealthy.

[Mark Medina]

They just, they went through and changed it all the stealth.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was good.

[Sam Claiborne]

People had big babies.

[Mark Medina]

You can still stealth. But the update, we haven't played it because the update comes out on the 21st. But the update says like play the game your way if you want to stealth.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Mark Medina]

Or I think they mean blasters out.

[Justin Davis]

I think what they mean is that there are a few fail state stealth missions, but there's plenty of which aren't like that. There's plenty where you can sneak or if you get caught, just go ahead and shoot. But I would reset them because I wanted to stealth. So yeah, I think that's what they mean. But there are the early missions where they're.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was just going to say I am convinced that everyone's complaints about this game stem from those one or two early missions where like if you veer slightly to the left, you just insta fail. It's like the rest. The other 50 hours of the game are not like that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And it's. It has that same GTA playground feel where it's like, okay, get as far as you can with one method and then if you want to switch over, it's fine. Or you can kind of control sometimes and be like, well if I kill everybody in this room, I can start stealthing in the next. Which I like again, respect.

[Mark Medina]

I'm like, I'm stoked for it though. Cause it's like I want to. I want to play the update and then after booting it up on the Pro and like I was just like oh, it runs at 60fps. And I went to go mess with the options and they're just not there. And I was like, okay, I'm just like, kind of ready to. Because I only played like five or six hours of that game and so I'm kind of into it. So I'll end with the two most impressive.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

First being Final Rebirth.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's the one.

[Mark Medina]

Incredible. There's just like. There's like a performance Pro mode. It's kind of cool. That game does it. What? And a few other games do it too, where you can still play in the old mode, but then they have the, like, the Pro mode and it looks great. Like it's not blurry anymore. I was in the like, what is like the Greenlands or whatever that. The first, like, area. It's not blurry anymore. It looks great. It's running at 60fps. It looks wonderful. And then the other One was Dragon's Dogma 2. You can run that game in full quality mode and then click to unlock the frame rate and it just runs it like a perfect 60 and looks gorgeous.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that had issues. So that, that's.

[Mark Medina]

That game had. That game had a lot of issues on consoles.

[Justin Davis]

And maybe those issues have been rectified in the past couple months for, you know, PlayStation 5, you know, I don't know. But that's good. Good to hear.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

So, so basically my, my ending recommendation is, is like if you could sell your PS5 and get a discount on this thing, do it. If you don't own a PS5, just get it right. Because a PS5 costs $500, $500 or so, but comes with a 800 gigabyte SSD. So the first thing you're going to do is go spend 100 plus dollars on a new SSD. You're. You're right around $700. Now just get the print that just.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's actually a pretty good. That's a good perspective that I hadn't considered before, which is, you know, there's two, there's two potential customer segments for the FS5 Pro. People that own a PS5 and people that don't. And like, if you already own a PS5, it's like, well, maybe the Pro is too tiny, you know, too tiny incremental to like, consider it. But if you don't own a PS5, should you spend 500 on the PS5 or 700 on the Pro? Then it's like, well, you know, whatever. Everyone decides what to do with their own money. But like, The Pro being worth it. If you're starting from scratch, that argument actually makes a lot of sense to me.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, because you're going to, you're going. The first thing you need to do is buy an SSD. 800 gigabytes is not enough storage space for games. Call of duty Black Ops 6 alone is like 200 gigs. So it's like, if you're going to spend that money, you might as well get the Pro. Also, we are in the like, you know, early adoption phase where it's like a bunch of games are just getting patches. Next year we have AC Shadows, Ghost of Yotai, Grand Theft Auto 6 and Death Stranding 2. And it's like you hope that these games are kind of like, kind of building for the Pro now instead of just getting some like, you know, okay, we'll go in and patch it type of deal. And so I, I look at it as like, it's cool now. It's going to be really cool in 2025 because like, Ghost of Yote, PS5 exclusive, it's gonna, it's gonna sing on this machine. I have to assume it's gonna be beautiful. So that is it. That is my PS5 Pro. Thoughts? I think it's cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Thanks for those hands on impressions.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, good research, Mark.

[Damon Hatfield]

Speaking of new gaming hardware, this week Microsoft confirmed its plans to release an Xbox handheld. We've pretty much known this is happening, but this is like the most official confirmation that we've got yet. However, it's still years away apparently, which to me seems like, I mean, what are they doing if they plan to do this? I feel like they're missing the boat here. It seems like this is the moment for gaming handhelds right now.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I agree. Like they're kind of killing it right now with Steam Deck and Rogue Ally and all that stuff.

[Damon Hatfield]

The Switch is seven years old.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it's interesting seeing so many because like the Steam Deck, you know, there's even, there's retro ones too. Like I have a retroid pocket that I like a lot. Like, you know, OLED screens or LED screens have gotten inexpensive enough and like, you know, tiny little SSDs have gotten inexpensive enough that like all of a sudden like, you know, we went from these devices not really being very viable or being kind of janky to like now they're everywhere and there's several great options.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's cool. Yeah. Do you think they're, do you think they're waiting to see what Nintendo does with the Switch 2?

[Sam Claiborne]

No. My read on it. So they announced their ad campaign today of like everything's an Xbox or whatever. This is an Xbox. Of like I'm assuming that this is going to, that their handheld is going to come with a new and improved sort of Xbox cloud. Something like, you know, some new version of Xbox the Nvidia one does.

[Justin Davis]

That's my thought too, is that there's some tech that they are excited about that they're reserving and getting right for this that might be, you know, it could be amazing thin battery technology, you know, something that's like, well, why would I even have a Steam deck anymore? It's so chunky. Like that is a step that one of these companies is going to take at some point and people are going to be like, oh, this is like barely bigger than an iPhone. It's great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But it could be a streaming thing like Justin's saying, or could be a connectivity thing or it could be. There's all kinds of stuff but like I suspect they're waiting on tech then. The other thing I was thinking about is that they might be waiting on some sort of like library, you know, something that like makes like Steam is so good for Steam Deck. So like at some point like Microsoft is going to be like, hey, we have a really good set of maybe even exclusives for handhelds. And I know they're not exclusives because they're on PC also. But like, you know, maybe they have like a really cool library plan for game or whatever.

[Mark Medina]

Couple of things. For one, if everything is an Xbox, then nothing is an Xbox. That's just, that's just, that's just how that works.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean it makes me think that.

[Mark Medina]

Maybe they're waiting for the next like a few years out. I mean we're going to be talking about PS6 a few years from now, right? And so it's like, is this their? Nintendo eventually got to the point where they couldn't really compete in the like normal console market, right? So they had to go weird and make this hybrid thing that really worked out for them. And it's like, is that what Xbox is trying to do is are they trying to be the high end version of Nintendo where it's like, yes, a Series X versus a PS5, we couldn't compete there. And so instead of making the next Xbox versus PS6, it's PS6 or this like high end handheld that's like a hybrid. Like this could just be their next console.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean I'm into it. I've said it before on Scoop I actually like Xbox Cloud and granted I have really fast, really stable fiber Internet in my house, so I'm really lucky in that way. But like, like I don't know how many other gamers are like this. I have an Xbox Series X in my house and I will still play games on the cloud because using the work computer that's right in front of me right now, I can boot up an Xbox Series X game and be trying it in two seconds. Like I don't have to download a 60 gigabyte game. Like I can just pop into and try anything. And so cloud, like I'm a believer on like that. Is it the future of video games or whatever? Like, I don't know, but it's definitely know perfect for my use case and it makes me a lot more interested in this handheld than I would be otherwise.

[Justin Davis]

I just love handhelds. I just wanted to say like, from anybody, like, I just wish there was a handheld competition that was beyond the Steam Deck clones and Switch right now. Like those, those all feel old to me now. Like even the new Steam decks and the Steam Deck clones, like, whoa.

[Damon Hatfield]

Why do they feel like what. What feels new then?

[Justin Davis]

Nothing. There's nothing new.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about the play?

[Justin Davis]

I can't wait for a Switch too. Playdate's amazing. Yeah, it's a good call.

[Mark Medina]

The play date, that's the one with the like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, right?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I've never played one.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, the analog pocket's amazing, but all that stuff is just exciting and cool and feels very video gamey to me. And I just, I just, I miss the idea that like the PSP was going to become the Vita and it might be awesome and then like the DS became the three ds. Like those, those were crazy times, you know, and it wasn't just. You were always excited for these alternating games and yeah, it's kind of like that with Switch right now, but also kind of nice. I kind of play a lot of games on my, on my tv, even with my Switch. So yeah, it's just, it'd be great if the console race came back to handhelds, but it might never again because we're really close to docked phones being able to do, you know, everything that a console could do. Like those things are converging so quick.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, they basically can't. Like what's the little controller that snaps onto. It's at the back. Is that what.

[Justin Davis]

And especially with what you're talking about with cloud streaming and stuff. And I know I'm actually like skeptical. That's still everything I Don't think like, you know, because we're talking about connections and everything but like it would be, we're so close to being able to be like, well, can you believe people even had switches? Like, why didn't they just put their, plug their phone into their TV and do it that way? You know, it's crazy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know if you guys have ever, if anybody here has ever held the, what is it called? The PlayStation Portal. It's a great feeling. Handheld. It's just a thing I know that has one.

[Justin Davis]

Loves them.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, they're great. I love it. I bought it and I thought I would never use it and I use it all the time. It's got a great screen. The screen is super thin and then it really is. The joysticks are a little smaller. But the controller itself, it just feels like a dual sense. It looks funny but to me it's the most comfortable handheld that I've ever used.

[Justin Davis]

Mark, let's just try a Game Boy Micro before you make that call.

[Sam Claiborne]

You can put it on your belt buckle.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, like it's omagotchi.

[Damon Hatfield]

I can't think of a use case for the portal. For me, I can't think of how I would use it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, because you don't have a single TV that might be dominated by other members of the family, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, just the use. The older and older my kids get, there is more fighting over TV space and TV time of like, you know, and not just amongst the kids but also the adults too. It's like my daughter's playing Minecraft and it's like, well, I wanted to watch an episode of Star Trek, now I can't.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah. Maybe one day down the line.

[Emmett Hadfield]

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[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. We mentioned Lego Horizon Adventures earlier in the episode. We gave it a seven and that's actually what it's getting across the board. I think it has like a 73 on open critics. So everyone agrees the game is good. But does it need to exist though? That's the question. Mark. You've been playing it.

[Mark Medina]

I have been, yeah. This is the Mark episode. Yeah, let's do this. So under instruction from Damon yesterday, who slacked me and said, I need you to spend your whole evening playing Horizon. So you talk about it on Scoop. Now be like, sir, yes, sir.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, welcome back. I've just cut something out. Sam said something he wasn't supposed to. Please continue, Mark.

[Mark Medina]

So, yeah, so I played a bunch of Lego Horizon and like, you know, it's fun. It's the Lego game. Like the really good things is like, if you, if you like Horizon, it's. All of the characters are voice acted from their voice actors from the main game, except for obviously Lance Reddick.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So they're not doing like the Lego babble. They're. They're fully voiced. I mean, I remember seeing that.

[Mark Medina]

It's, it's Ashley Burch sounding a little like Tiny Tina because they've kind of like, Aloy is this like stoic warrior. But in this game she's a very excitable, like, oh, we're going to go to the town, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. And then like she talks so fast that it kind of comes off as Tiny Tina.

[Justin Davis]

That's kind of cool. I mean, I like those twists on characters that LEGO does. I mean. Yeah, that's always, yeah. Traditional rights from Star wars onwards.

[Mark Medina]

Well, and like Rost is like, you know, he's this like super Serious dude. And he's the narrator. And so it's like, as far as, like, the humor goes, it's there, right? They make a ton of jokes. It's really funny. I captured the first minutes of the game and a lot of people are putting a timestamp for the eight minute mark. And I'm like, what is happening at the eight minute mark? I click it and apparently I jumped off a clip at that point. And if you take. You don't take fall damage, but if you jump from too high, she'll just like land on her face and she'll just be like, out my face. And it's like she does a lot of reactive stuff like that. If you go around shooting stuff, she'll be like, I'm just destroying everything today. It's really, really cool. The humor is totally there. Graphics gorgeous. The game's beautiful. I can't believe how good Lego game looks. Like everything's got a shine on it. The vistas, the skybox. Everything looks really, really cool. And all the animations are great.

[Justin Davis]

I like how, like, some of the plastic effects are a little bit translucent. Do you see the shine? And then a little bit of translucency. Like, it's. It looks so good. Like, I can't believe how good it looks.

[Mark Medina]

There's a lot of, like, see it in the background. There's like fire. And the fire is just the fire piece of Legos. And it's just kind of see stop motion move. Yeah, yeah. And it's great as far as the game goes. Like, it's Lego. And so then that's when you hit that point where you're like, as a Horizon fan, which is more of a serious game. Do I want to play a Horizon game that's like a Lego game? Or as a kid, do I even know what Horizon is for this? Why would I play this over LEGO Star Wars? Right? And so it's like, to me, the answer to that question is it's for adults who like Horizon that want to play a Lego game with their kids. Right? It's like kind of like meeting in the middle. Like, I will say, I love Horizon. I don't know if this game would be worth that. It's super short. It's very easy. I've cranked the difficulty up. There's five difficulty settings. I've cranked it all the way to the highest, and it's insanely easy still. It's like you get moves. It's like you could shoot a bow. You could shoot a bow through the Fire. And that'll hurt them more. You can scan and see their weak points. You get like, boots to, like, blast and hurt them. And does it all these, like, does.

[Justin Davis]

It just recount the first Horizon game story arc? Is that basically what it is, like, as far as.

[Mark Medina]

For the most in, like, a less gruesome way? Yes. It's like, spoilers. Ross dies and it's like. But in this game. Well, actually, so in Horizon, he dies from the attack after the like, all heart, all mother's heart, like, battle thing. In this game, he gets blown to smithereens. So maybe it's a more gruesome retelling.

[Justin Davis]

But I guess what I'm saying is they don't just like, all. It's not like an anthology game, like, where you're like, Forbidden west was just being clear. Like, you know, the Star wars games will have like a whole trilogy in them, for example. But this is.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, no, this is a retelling of the first game for the most part. This is where we're at.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, so this is. This game's for. This game is for kids and families. Right. Like, and that's what, like, look, the number of, like, kids movies that I have watched that weren't aggressively horrible, but they were fine. You know, they were fine. And then we watched it as a family for family movie night. Yeah, that's what. You know, there is a market for video games that are like that. And like, yes, there's nothing wrong with holding kids media to a higher standard. But like, not everything can be a Pixar movie or, you know, the original Lego Movie or something, you know, like Spider Verse, something that, like, really punches above, like this, Like a lot of. I've seen a lot of kind of snark online of like, why does this game exist? Like, there's no reason for, like, it exists for younger gamers. Right? Like, that's. And like. And that's okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, of course that's okay, Justin. But I think the git fusion comes from. There's a pretty long list of properties that haven't gotten the LEGO treatment yet. Like, why, like, why Horizon before all of this?

[Justin Davis]

Well, and it's like, did these kids cut their teeth on Horizon, Forbidden west, and now they're ready to check out a Lego game like that. It's just a different stretch than, like, I watched a bunch of Star wars movies. Now I can play a Lego Star wars game. It's. It's a little backwards.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sure. Well, and like, well, and Damon, like, you know, all these Lego games So, like, we keep invoking these other LEGO games, but this isn't Traveler's Tales, which I have brought up on Game Scoop before. Like, it's so strange that, like, you know, they didn't, like, they didn't make a LEGO game. They made it. They. They made a game that looks and feels and plays like, another company's games.

[Justin Davis]

But it does have all those things. It has gold bricks and red bricks and stuff. So it.

[Sam Claiborne]

But that's what I'm seeing the.

[Justin Davis]

It's so weird. It's even weirder. Like, and so. And they're sticking to the exact same game.

[Mark Medina]

What you're seeing on screen is like, every time you go into a mission and when you come back, you're at, like, the All Mother's Heart, which is like your base, and you're building, like, buildings and stuff like that. And you could change their skin and do all this, like, make them look horizon and all these different things, but you can just click R1 and make them look like LEGO Underground, Lego Ninjago, Lego. Like all those other, like, LEGO properties.

[Justin Davis]

Are those are in there?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, they're in this game. You can make your buildings look. You. Like, you. All of a sudden you can have, like a spaceship and stuff like that because it's like LEGO City and all that stuff is.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm Ann.

[Mark Medina]

Those are all in this. No Batman, that you know of.

[Justin Davis]

Can you just use heart meters like this? Is that allowed? Can you just use the heart meter?

[Mark Medina]

That. That is your health. Yeah, that's pretty.

[Damon Hatfield]

No hearts remaining.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. There's universal truths, right? Like, mana bars have to be either green or blue. Help, help. Help is red. I don't make those rules.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

So, yeah, I. I think it's. I think it's good. I. I can't imagine wanting to play it other than with, like, a kid. You know what I mean? Like, that's. That's just where it is for me is. And that's. That's where I totally agree with what Justin saying, but I also agree with what Damon's saying, which is where it's like when you LEGO games are usually based off, like, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones or Star Wars. And it's like, if a kid doesn't know what Horizon is. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Are they going to be compelled to play this? But as an adult, even as a Horizon fan, you're like, this is a little. Little expensive for what you're getting. Because I.

[Justin Davis]

What if they become like, horizon curious after playing and you're like, well, you can't play the Next game. Until.

[Damon Hatfield]

For 10 years. Like, 18.

[Mark Medina]

It's too violent.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And also, the only Real Life Horizon Lego sets are for adults.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Are they really?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I mean, like, you know, any big, complicated one. Yeah, it's like the tall neck. Yeah. It might be just the tall neck. I don't know if they made more.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, well, those are my thoughts.

[Damon Hatfield]

Thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mark. I will now share my thoughts on Tetris Forever, which I've spent the last couple nights with. And this is another one from Digital Eclipse, the makers of Atari 50 and the making of Karateka. Karateka. Not Karateka. Jordan Mechner. Yeah, it's great. It was a little bit less confused going into it, right, at first, because everyone's like, well, I know the story of Tetris. I've seen the Tetris movie on Apple tv. Plus, I know what happens. But it goes into a lot more detail, and I think it's a little bit more truthful telling of what happened. They took a lot of dramatic liberties with the Tetris movie, and it also goes into a lot of Hank Rogers backstory that I wasn't aware of. He started bulletproof software in Japan. He's a Dutchman who grew up in America, learned about computers in Hawaii, and then followed a girl, in his words, to Japan, where he started bulletproof software and started publishing games. But then, apparently, according to him, he created himself the first RPG video game to be released in Japan. What's it called, Sam? Is it the Black Onyx?

[Justin Davis]

Black Onyx, yeah. And they did a giveaway where you could have. He was in the gym in mineral trade industry through his father.

[Damon Hatfield]

His father was. Yes. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And he worked for them for a while. He said, like, six years or something. He was in the industry. So he sorted out that you could find a password in the game, send it away, and then you'd get a Black Onyx. But it was a hit before Dragon Quest on Famicom.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. He was a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, thought there was an opportunity to create a game like that in Japan. So he himself, he didn't speak Japanese and he didn't even know much about programming, but he just taught himself and spent a year or whatever just making a full RPG game and then released it. And then it went on to be a hit, and he became.

[Justin Davis]

It was like the number one game. Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

He was like. He was like a known game designer in Japan. It was crazy. I like that story. One of the things, one of the more preposterous Scenes in the Tetris movie, I thought is when Hank Rogers snuck into Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto in order to meet with Hiroshimachi, the head of Nintendo at the time. Which is like, I found that very hard to believe, that once he was found, he would not be thrown out at the very least, or even made, maybe disappeared by the Yakuza. Hiroshimachi is like, famously a very, very. What's the word? Like a.

[Justin Davis]

He's like a stoic.

[Damon Hatfield]

Stoic businessman. Yeah. Who probably would not suffer gaijin sneaking into his building lightly. But apparently he. That was long before.

[Justin Davis]

But the real story is crazier than that. Did you hear the Go part that he tells?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's the real story. It's completely crazy. Go and tell it. It's nuts.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, yeah, he. Yeah, well, I was. What I was going to say is he had published many games for Nintendo, with Nintendo, long before Tetris. He already had a good relationship with the mouse. Well, I guess. But I forget something crazy, but he wanted to publish a Go game for.

[Justin Davis]

He said that for. For the rest of. So, see, see, see, he knew Yamuchi liked Go, so he was like, well, to just get a game published in Nintendo, I found a guy who made Go work in a smaller grid in the uk, which is a miracle on a processor similar to the nes. So got Go working and then got an appointment because Yamuchi was like, oh, go. Interesting. So Yamauchi's handlers put an NES controller in his hand and they start playing Go. And it's clear to Hank that Yamuchi has never held a game controller. This is years into the nes, several years, because. Because he didn't give enough. He just like, go, fine, I'll check this out. Right? So he's personally evaluating a game instead of just sitting in a boardroom and looking at it, Right. And he can't really figure it out. So he's telling him what to do. He beats him. And then Hank, from there on out, would book appointments with him that were at the end of both of their days. He would check with his, you know, schedule and say, like, hey, are. You know, does he have anything after me? And then he'd bring a Go board over, and him and Yamuchi would play Go.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And he said he just were friends. They were actual friends. He's like. He's like, nobody else had that relationship.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

That's incredible.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So you can't tell that in, like, a Tetris movie, but, like, you know, when you say, like, oh, the story of Tetris is crazy and dramatized and Tetris, like, that's also crazy and it's what really happened. Right, so.

[Mark Medina]

Because where would they fit in the car scene if they fit all that? Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So what I would. I would say, though, is that this is this story, that the human parts of the Karateka story made it a wonderful package. Right. Watching a man, his father, talk about creating a game together when he was a kid, it's, like, amazing. So that touching, I think, relationship is in this. It's weird to talk about a video game this way. I know, but, like, Alexei and Hank are, like, that close of friends.

[Damon Hatfield]

You can tell they're really good friends.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Just like. And the story of wooing each other is like, they just liked each other and they got each other. Like, it wasn't. But there's all this, like, gross corporate interest. So the difference is that the story is really convoluted and they did a great job. But, like, I am far into this, and I'm like, my eyes glaze over and I'm. I'm the key audience for this. Right. But as soon as, like, you have Spectrum, Holobyte and Alarm, Mirror Soft and, like, Mirror Soft, all. All of them being interviewed and talking about it, and then, like, it turns out, like, two old guys running one company sold the rights to the console, something, and they traded it for something else for Blaster. Like, it's so confusing. So whatever is still, I think, riveting in its own way. And the only thing that leaves you so, like, that's reason to play it. And before we get any further, just to refresh people on what these are, these are collections of video games that have a playable timeline where you can interact with parts of this timeline by watching a video, seeing a 3D representation of a reproduction of box art, and you kind of play through a chronology of, like, a museum, and it's. Nobody has ever done it before. And Digital Eclipse is getting cooler and cooler games to do it with. And there couldn't be a cooler game than Tetris to do this with, in my opinion.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just can't stress enough. I haven't checked out Tetris yet, but I loved the Atari one, you know, And I like, they. I don't know if this is overstating it or too grandiose a statement, but I think they've created the new medium. They've, like, made a new art form of, like, you know, before I had played Atari for myself, I didn't realize how much of it was documentary film. Like, you know, it is a collection of retro games and a documentary film at once. And, you know, they're going to talk about a version of a game and talk about the making of this, and then you get to play it, and then you're going to watch another video and another interview and you get to play that and you get to bounce around chronologically and like it's, you know, video games are an interactive medium, right? And so to have an interactive retelling of, you know, the history of that medium, like and, and, and sort of the Avengers that they've assembled to produce these, you know, these pieces of art, like, Digital Eclipse is the best at what they do when it comes to game preservation and, you know, ports and, you know, but then they're partnering with Companies like Area 5 on the film production, you know, component and in the documentary film production side of things, like, just the group of people that they're managing to assemble to get some of this work done is incredible. And, you know, you were alluding to it a second ago, Sam, like, I don't have line of sight into how they're selling or how they're doing commercially, but, like, the thought of, like, you know, I guess games don't get much bigger than Tetris, but like, you know, even bigger, more popular mass market games is like, I would love for there to be 100 of these things by the end of my life.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know, I know. And they have crazy footage. Like when Hank Rogers went to Nintendo of America in the 80s, he brought a little camcorder along with them, and he's just filming inside their office and they let him do it. And now all these years later, we have that footage. It's completely insane to see. Here's where the gameplay counselors are working. We have 85 gameplay counselors here taking calls from.

[Justin Davis]

There's a 10pm Then he goes to like some pre CES show where they're just showing all these people play games in 1988, which is really cool. There's all this footage of them traveling around and then there's a really neat, like, I maybe like circa turn of the century set of footage where they get the. So the Soviet computer that Tetris was made on up and running and Alexei plays on it and like, you know, like to put. To explain how difficult that is. Like, they couldn't get that together in 2023 when they're producing this or 2024. Right? Like that, like that might end up happening. Again, you know, and so. But they have footage of it, and it's really cool. And so then the game collection, this is the other thing to talk about. There's a bunch of Tetris games. They do not have anything that's not published by Bulletproof. What's the company? Bulletproof. So, weirdly, Bulletproof published Tetris in Japan. It's a little bit different than the for Famicom than it is for nes. So they don't have the NES version that we played here in the US and they don't have the Game Boy version.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that is One downside to these Digital Eclipse collections is they are commercial products. Right. So it's not a nonprofit. It's not someone that's trying to tell the complete history of something. They're telling the history of what they have available to them. Right. And so since, you know, they didn't the NES or the Game Boy game available to them, like, it influences, you know, how deep and heavy they're able to go on a certain subject. Same for, like, who they're able to interview and who they're not.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's, that's the one. That's the one downside is, like, they, you know, they talk a lot about the Game Boy version and the NES version, and they tell the story of that, but they don't have those versions playable, so they don't have, you know, arguably the most important versions of Tetris in the package, which, you know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. But to play, like, the crazy Soviet ASCII version of it, like, emulated the best as possible, is, like, truly magical. That's really cool. The early DOS versions are really fun. And then there's, like, a bunch of 90s, like, weird bombless games. I like Bombless.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're fun. I never played Bombless before. It's cool.

[Justin Davis]

Super Tetris 3 was cool. I played a little bit of that last night. Like, I don't know, it's just, it's cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

The hook in Bombless is that lines don't clear when you, when you complete align, they all. They'll only clear if there's a bomb in them that will explode, and it will create chain reactions to other bombs there, and you have to clear the entire screen. It's fun. I like that one. Sorry, Mark, you're gonna say something.

[Mark Medina]

I, I, I don't know if Jobert can find this screen, but I want to know why this man has a DeLorean with the knight Rider, Lights with the Ghostbusters.

[Justin Davis]

I think that's the author of Ready Player One, I believe.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, is that this car's got it all.

[Justin Davis]

Because I think. I think he took that DeLorean to like, the ET Dig site and we had footage of it from that.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, funny. I was just like, it could be.

[Justin Davis]

Somebody else with the DeLorean.

[Mark Medina]

The longer I look at this car, the more just like different things I see. Is great.

[Sam Claiborne]

They made a Digital Eclipse. Made a Llamasoft. Jeff mentioned version of this too, that I haven't checked out yet.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I haven't checked that one out yet either. Anyway, Touches Forever is great. I recommend again, I've spent two evenings watching all this documentary footage and I'm still not done with it yet. I'll continue my journey with it tonight. And then another game I wanted to shout out is Xenotilt, which is finally out, which is 1.0 version. And I think this is relevant to both Sam and Justin's interests. Xenotilt is a follow up to Demon's Tilt, which was a spiritual successor to Alien Crush and Devil's Crush back in the day. So cool. Really cool video pinball game. It's. This time out, it's got like an alien, like sort of cyborg theme.

[Justin Davis]

It looks so much better than I thought it would look.

[Damon Hatfield]

It looks.

[Mark Medina]

It's.

[Damon Hatfield]

It looks so good. It's actually. It's really, really flashy. Lots of flashy effects. It's a little bit easy to. A little bit too easy to lose track of the ball in the midst of everything, because there's even like bullet hell stuff going on. But it's great. It's super fun. It's. It's like probably the most synth wave game of the year that I've played so far. It's got a Sega Genesis style soundtrack, three tiers up on the table, and each tier has its own boss that you have to complete or to defeat. So I'm having a lot of fun. The rules aren't explained very explicitly within the game, so I'm just. But one of the things that I like about pinball and video pinball is that just if just by playing the game, you'll eventually just learn how to make things happen just through your experience. Cool.

[Justin Davis]

So it's a good teacher.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Yeah, I like it. It's a good one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anything else anyone has been playing they want to shout out?

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've been playing a game called Core Keeper. That's really cool. It was in Early Access for a long time. I played it in Early Access maybe two years ago. It's like part Minecraft, part Stardew Valley and part. I guess I'm not quite sure what the third part would be, but it's pixel art and top down, like Stardew Valley is. But then the gameplay loop is like Minecraft of like, you know, you running around, mining things out, you know, making a base for yourself. Yeah. And it's. It. It finally came out in 1.0. Oh, and like, I know I've talked before about how I'm such a huge fan of Game Pass, but I have one of those great moments where, like, I knew that Core Keeper came out a few months ago and I'm like, oh, you know, I think I want to go buy it. And then it's on. It's. It's on Game Pass.

[Mark Medina]

So that's.

[Damon Hatfield]

I love, I love when that happens.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. What a great feeling. Although I will say, like, obviously this is this. Well, maybe I shouldn't say obviously, but like, it is best with mouse and keyboard. It's a little bit tough on controller, but then.

[Damon Hatfield]

Got it.

[Mark Medina]

No, I'm still playing Dragon Age, trying to get the platinum trophy, which is. It's scratching an itch right now. It's just the platinum trophy in that game is do everything and I'm like, perfect. I can do that. So enjoying it quite a bit still.

[Justin Davis]

I just defeated the Prophet of Regret and it's very funny because you have to jump on his throne and punch him in the face a lot.

[Damon Hatfield]

That is that. This is the Dragon Age boss.

[Justin Davis]

No, it's in Halo 2.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, okay.

[Mark Medina]

@ home.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sorry. Ready? Go. Watch out.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know if we're going to talk about TV at all, but Penguin's over.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. So extracurricular activities now that Penguin is all over. What do you think, Mark?

[Mark Medina]

I thought it was great. I thought it's really, really good. Has anybody here finished it or even.

[Damon Hatfield]

I've still only. I watched the first episode and liked it, but just haven't. Haven't continued. I can't wait.

[Mark Medina]

I did not expect his mom to steal the show. She is incredible.

[Justin Davis]

That's something I heard.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, she's really good. And then also, of course, the Hangman. You know, I don't know the actress's name, but she's really good as well. But I thought the show, you know, it takes place about a week after the Batman. I recently rewatched the Batman, if anybody remembers the end of that movie. He's like monologuing and he's talking about, like, actors or, you know, crime bosses. Rising up. And there's that 360 scene of the penguins looking at the window. That is how the show starts is in that scene. And it ends where it just feels like it's just handing it right back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Over to Batman 2.

[Mark Medina]

It really just feels like that. I think that they've put the official timeline on when things take place, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's like Batman 2 takes place just right after that. But I thought it was a very, very good show and that if you liked the Batman, then there's. There's no reason why you wouldn't like this. Austin's really good.

[Damon Hatfield]

I was thinking about this recently. Is Colin Farrell. Is Colin Farrell our best actor right now?

[Mark Medina]

No, he might be.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's great, right?

[Mark Medina]

He's so good in everything between that and Sugar. What a year.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I think Margot Robbie's amazing, too. I think she's really good and everything.

[Damon Hatfield]

She is also very good. Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Top actor right now.

[Damon Hatfield]

What do you think about what we do in the Shadows?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I like it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I kind of soft like it after watching three episodes. I don't think it's quite as funny as it's been, but, you know, I.

[Justin Davis]

Love the new character. I love the office setup. I like. I don't know why people are.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think this season's really good. I think the quality of that show is U shaped. Right. Of the first two seasons are incredible. And then maybe a little shaky in the middle. And last season was good. And now I think this season's great.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I like it a lot.

[Mark Medina]

I'm liking it. I think it's fine.

[Justin Davis]

I'm really sad that these characters were saying goodbye to them. I mean, it's just like. Yeah, it's crazy that the show's coming to a conclusion.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I just. I hope it feels significant enough, you know, to end on like. I like, give. Give some kind of closure. No, these characters, I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, they just. They bumble through.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, I know what the show is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just. I like. It's going to end with him having no idea what's going on and being confused.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I still think the season one episode where they go out, like, partying on the town with the Vampire Lord. It's like New York still one of the. Maybe the funniest episode of television I've ever seen.

[Mark Medina]

I recently watched the season two Jackie Tate, Jackie Daytona episode.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, I mean, that's incredible.

[Mark Medina]

It's just like 20 minutes of perfect TV. It's got Mark Hamill and it's just Tucson, Arizona. What do you mean? This is how we all talk in Tucson, Arizona. He flees from him and then is instantly a volleyball coach. Yeah, Damon, I want to see these girls go to state.

[Justin Davis]

They're always. Is it like they. The humans have found out about my dark secret?

[Mark Medina]

What is it called?

[Justin Davis]

I forget what they call it.

[Damon Hatfield]

That looks really good.

[Justin Davis]

They're always trying to hide that. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But this season, just seeing Nandor, like, care so much about his janitorial job that he's terrible. It's like mopping their monitors.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

He always uses a whole roll of paper towels.

[Justin Davis]

It's crazy that Tim Heidecker has been in it too.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

To see the one that they had to wake up.

[Justin Davis]

No, he's the boss in the office.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Oh, got it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

The actor that they woke up, I think he's a stand up. I forget his name.

[Damon Hatfield]

He thought he was. I think he's really funny. Yeah, he was great too.

[Justin Davis]

He's just a good character. He's a good straight. Straight vampire.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep, he was great.

[Mark Medina]

He just doesn't understand what they've been doing, which is like. I mean, that's the audience, right? It's. They've taken over a street on State Island.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sam, Justin, any shows, Movies?

[Justin Davis]

Well, I'm watching WandaVision and you know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, wait, WandaVision or Agatha all along.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, sorry. Agatha all Along.

[Damon Hatfield]

I have zero interest. Agatha all Along.

[Justin Davis]

It has some good ideas in it, but I like the main actor in it. And Aubrey Plaza is fine. It's got that going for it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I'm off the Jinx. I'm off of Marvel stuff at this point.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

What am I watching? I'm watch it. Well, so I'm watching a lot of Star Trek Next Generation right now. I'm back on. Back on that train. Jordy got turned into some weird lizard I like, you know, so here's the deal. Television is objectively better now than it was then. Like these really tight, really well constructed to 10 episodes that are just incredible and riveting all the way through. But I miss the days where, like they had to make like 26 episodes in like no time at all. And so they'd be like, let's do an episode where Dr. Crusher is haunted by a ghost. Like, let's. Let's do an episode where Geordie turns into a lizard and like, look like. Yeah, like. No, I want to be clear. Like, they're bad episodes. Both of those are real by the way. But, like. But there's still something about them. And, like, you'll listen to interviews with, like, the creators where they're just like, yeah, we tried something and it didn't work at all. Like, we're like, okay, well, we're going to make 25 more this season, so don't worry about it that much. Like, and, like, there's something very comforting about that. Like, you kind of. You don't even really. Like, I've watched it all multiple times, so it's like, you only need to, like, half pay attention. It's great.

[Justin Davis]

I love it so much.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

My family watched this in syndication every night throughout, like, maybe middle school and high school. It was crazy. That's what's, like, part of my childhood.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's become. Nobody in the house watches me. So it's become a thing of, like, you know, what happened in the last episode of Star Trek Trek you watched? It's like, well, they all got addicted to a video game, and then it just. It was kind of like drugs, and then it, like, took over the whole ship. And then they're like, oh, cool.

[Justin Davis]

See, Data got a cat and they just followed him around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. That day. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

He took, like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was there any conversation, conflict? Nope.

[Justin Davis]

You just.

[Damon Hatfield]

I've never watched Next Generation, but we're looking at footage here, and I'm surprised. It. I think it looks pretty good.

[Sam Claiborne]

They read around.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, it's reimagined. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it looked like this. Yeah, it looked like this originally, too. Yeah, it's very. The last thing I'll say is, like, the show span. The farther and farther we get from it. It's like, it's 2024 now. It's like, it's a very 90s show. So, like, everything is carpet. And, like, that didn't jump out of. Don't forget the beige carpet and wood paneling. And, like, when I first watched the show, like, we were close enough to it that it didn't feel weird yet. But now in, like, 2024, I'm like.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, it looks like a hotel you don't want to stay in.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, the. The Enterprise is a Hilton that hasn't been modeled in 30 years.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's really funny. Um, there's an episode where they just find Data's head under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and it's the best thing that ever happened. And, like, they have to explain why, and it's really amazing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, exactly. So that's. That's what I love about these old shows, is there'll be an episode where Jordy's turned into a lizard. And then the next episode is the most, like, mind blowing, incredible piece of like science fiction storytelling you've ever seen.

[Justin Davis]

And then Hard gets converted to a Borg and then has PTSD on a wine in a winery. And it's some of the best writing that TV has ever had. It's just incredible.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

And then, and then right after that, they're like, we're going to play Robin Hood in the Apollodeck for our episode.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. I'm watching two anime shows on Netflix. They're both great. I recommend them both. The first is Dandadan. Anyone know anything about Danodon?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I know. It's like, it's the anime of the moment.

[Damon Hatfield]

Something brand new and like. So, okay, this is it. Like a lot of anime shows, it's a very strange and sort of complicated setup. It's a high school show following two high school kids. The girl is like, she's cool and has friends. Not the most popular girl in school, but she's cool and has friends. And then there's an otaku boy who has no friends at all, but they form a friendship because they both are into like, weird things. She believes in ghosts and he believes in aliens, but they don't believe in the vice versa. So they both dare each other. She dares him to go to this, like, place that's known for ghosts, and he dares her to go to this place that is, you know, people have seen strange things in the sky and of course they both encounter ghosts and aliens. And then they have to deal with just being two high school kids that know ghosts and aliens exist. It's great. I think the best, like, the best part of it is that Momo, the main girl, is. She's just so cool and likable.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

And the other one is Ranma one half. They just remade Ranma one half.

[Sam Claiborne]

What?

[Damon Hatfield]

One of like, you know, one of the like most famous old school animes of all time. They just remade it and it's so good. I like, I watched ranma in the 90s. Haven't watched it since then. So it's also like really nostalgic to go back to it. And they don't. They did not change anything. They're not introducing new characters. They just remade the anime and they have all the same voice actors back. And it's so good.

[Justin Davis]

What does.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyway, does that. Does anyone not know the premise of Rama 1/2?

[Mark Medina]

I sure don't.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

It was unavoidable. In the 90s.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Ranma is a martial arts expert who he's, he travels around training with his father and they go to China and they both fall into cursed pools where they make you turn into whatever died in that pool when you get hot, cold water. Poor audio. So every time Rama falls in cold water, he turns into a girl. And every time his dad turns gets, falls into cold water, he turns into a giant panda. And then. But they'll turn back into a human if you pour hot water over them. And Ranma's dad promised Ranma to a friend of his to marry his daughter Akane years ago. And so they finally returned to them and they introduced them like, you guys are gonna get married now. But of course they don't want to do that. And that's it. That's it. That's the premise of the story. They all live in a house together and Rama and Akane go to school together and they meet all these other different kids who want to fight them all the time. That's, it's really, really great. And there's like, it's not, it's, it's not a pervy show at all. There's like nudity, but it's like RB nudity. There's no details or nipples or anything. And none of it is played for any sexuality. It's just goofy, silly comedy stuff. It's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

And you would be surprised at how often you end up getting cold water poured on you. I'm, you know, I almost never get cold water poured on me, but for some reason, the characters in this show.

[Damon Hatfield]

It'S almost like it happens every single day.

[Justin Davis]

You can't do that on television. Rules. We don't make them up.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I, I just every so often IGN will take a part of a podcast and put it on our main channel as like a breakout. And I, I, I'm pleading to Jobert to make just, just the headline Damon explains Ron Mill one Upload the last two minutes. So I, I need to know what the audience thinks.

[Damon Hatfield]

The audience does not need that explained to them. I guarantee you, everyone out there, they all already know. They already know what? Rama one Half is so good.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, but they don't know the daemon explanation.

[Damon Hatfield]

I probably didn't explain it very well, actually. I don't know. It's great. Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. And I thought it might be fun. Every week I, you know, I see everyone's emails and I don't, there's lots that I don't pick. I'M gonna start sharing some of those. Here's this week's reject. John wrote in, suggesting a game called Harley's Humongous Adventure on the Super Nintendo.

[Mark Medina]

Here's this week's reject, John.

[Damon Hatfield]

John's not the reject. His pick. His. His suggestion was rejected. Yeah, viewers, listeners, it's super easy to pick a very obscure game that they would never guess. So I don't pick those games. I guess this is it. I guess we're looking at Harley's Humongous Adventure on the Super Nintendo.

[Justin Davis]

It looks great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Looks like I'm going to guess. Harley got shrunk down and now he's has to navigate a world of giant LEGO bricks, stuff like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it should be Harley's tiny adventure.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Okay, so that's the one we're not doing. This week's actual pick comes from Claire Hardaker in Adelaide, Australia. Says, I've been a listener of GamesCube for nearly a year now. I watch the video version every week and I love tuning in. A while ago, I watched Sunny on Apple TV after Justin mentioned it on the show. It was amazing. I was looking for a new show after finishing Sugar, so the recommendation came at the right time. Yeah, I still need to watch Sunny. Okay. My. Claire says My suggestion for 20 questions is redacted. And with that, let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a spooky game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

See? Did this game come out after 2010?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

January 1, 2010.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you play as a human?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, I don't. Let me look into that. You can continue asking questions.

[Justin Davis]

Is Master Chief human?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Would you say Master Chief is a human?

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe he's more human than all of us. Sam, are there different biomes you can go to this game? Can you go to, like, a desert snow land or, like, a lush forest land?

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know enough to answer that question.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh. I want a game where you can go on all kinds of different lands.

[Justin Davis]

This is a game that Daemon has not played for us.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

Is this game exclusive to one platform?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, but.

[Justin Davis]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, no, no, no, no.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know. I don't know about the human question.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Does this game have roguelike elements?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Would you call this an independent game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. That's five.

[Sam Claiborne]

They're really only five human.

[Mark Medina]

Let's see.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, we don't know if we're human.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, we'll put it. We'll put it.

[Mark Medina]

Right. Right. It's probably Stellar Blade, because nobody knows if she's Human. But that's kind of.

[Damon Hatfield]

I assume she was. Not that. Not true.

[Mark Medina]

I don't think she is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why?

[Damon Hatfield]

Hmm.

[Justin Davis]

Can you play this game on the Nintendo Switch?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you play this game on the PlayStation 5?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

But can you play it on PS4?

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm pretty sure. Double check. Yes, you can.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

I want to try to. I'm making it. I'm making it a goal to ask more like in game questions instead of out of game questions.

[Justin Davis]

Would you say that multiplayer is a focus of this game? Nope. As an example of one of those questions.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Although I do find it harder to win when I make my questions in game questions.

[Mark Medina]

But that's why I'm here. I'm the. I'm the basic one.

[Justin Davis]

Could this be Genshin Impact?

[Sam Claiborne]

Could it be? Yeah, sure. Is this game. Is this game free to start?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. That's 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not an impact.

[Mark Medina]

Nope.

[Sam Claiborne]

Could be Minecraft. No, that wasn't released in the last 10 years.

[Mark Medina]

Also Minecraft. Steve, obviously a human. He's played by Jack Black.

[Sam Claiborne]

Man. Minecraft is such a good game. What do we know? We know it's on the PS5 and.

[Justin Davis]

The PS4 and probably on series also.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. It's multiplatform. We don't know if you play as a human and that. It's all we know.

[Mark Medina]

And very single player. Not free to play.

[Justin Davis]

It's not an indie game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. I have an answer for the human question if you want to ask that.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, we don't want to ask that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you shoot guns in this game? Oh man.

[Justin Davis]

Come on.

[Damon Hatfield]

Let me see you.

[Justin Davis]

Hello.

[Mark Medina]

Don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know. Oh no.

[Mark Medina]

What are you in this game?

[Justin Davis]

Did we ask if it was licensed?

[Sam Claiborne]

No.

[Justin Davis]

This is based on a licensed property.

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you get. Do you have a. Is there. Are you jump. Do you jump in this game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, I might need to go back to asking more out of date questions.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

It is hard.

[Mark Medina]

Do you play this game like third person?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Okay. Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

But we don't. We don't know if you jump or not.

[Justin Davis]

Do you violate a vehicle in this choice?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's Goat Simulator 3. Although then you're obviously a goat, so never mind.

[Justin Davis]

I wish it was Goat Simulator.

[Sam Claiborne]

I wish most con. I wish minigames.

[Mark Medina]

Was this game made in Japan?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I got to ask some out of game questions or I'm going to get completely stuck. Well.

[Justin Davis]

If it's a Japanese game that's on a couple systems and single player, could it be a Souls like Or Monster Hunter, like. Or something like that.

[Mark Medina]

Right. Something from Capcom or from.

[Damon Hatfield]

I have an answer for the jump question if you want to ask it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. Do you jump?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, you can jump.

[Mark Medina]

Great.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's 15.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's Sekiro Shadows Die Twice.

[Justin Davis]

Do you think is boss combat a focus of this game?

[Damon Hatfield]

What do you. I mean, what do you mean, focus?

[Mark Medina]

Our boss is a.

[Justin Davis]

Like, like.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

They are significant boss battles in the game.

[Justin Davis]

There we go. There we go.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now I am.

[Justin Davis]

We got something going here.

[Mark Medina]

Souls, like, because here's the deal is like in Dark Souls, you do kind of have to ask like, are you a human? And like, you can jump in those games, but it's really weird. You have to be sprinting and then you.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, same with Monster Hunter, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

You're probably not technically a human, but you're some hollowed and like.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, don't. Don't overthink it. Do we. I didn't play Black Myth. Wukong is that game of Souls, like, kind of. That's what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, isn't it like a Boss Rush game?

[Mark Medina]

It kind of is. It's not for PS4.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh.

[Justin Davis]

But it's not spooky.

[Damon Hatfield]

And you're also pretty obviously not human in Black Myth.

[Justin Davis]

Well, that's true. That's true.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's good.

[Mark Medina]

I'm just gonna ask. So is this game, like. Would you consider it part of the Souls, like, genre?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this games in it?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. You have one question and a yes.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, gosh, that can't be right.

[Sam Claiborne]

We got to have at least eight questions left.

[Justin Davis]

I think it's Monster Hunter World. Is there anything that would eliminate that? But it could be into a game where, I mean, it's an open world game, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, we didn't ask.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not really. I mean, it's sort of semi open. You pick areas and go hunt monsters in it. We could ask if it's a Capcom game or we could just. Or we could ask if it's a Monster Hunter game. I think we should ask if it's a Capcom game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Okay. Is it a Capcom game? No, no. Like what other. Like Konami Square.

[Sam Claiborne]

And we really. We really don't know anything about this game. We really kind of botched.

[Mark Medina]

I'm trying to like hone in on the boss fights.

[Justin Davis]

What's the game that came to PlayStation? That's rhythm, boss fights and everything. That was an Xbox exclusive. The cartoony game.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, hi, Fi. Rush.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Could it Be that.

[Mark Medina]

Not on the old consoles.

[Sam Claiborne]

And that was not made in Japan.

[Mark Medina]

No, was. That's Tango.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh. Hey.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I can't. I can't. I don't know. This whole, like, boss fight thing is. It's like there's only so many games that it's like the bosses are like a big stand.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not. Not a Souls. Like, so we don't even know if.

[Justin Davis]

It'S a 2D game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we don't.

[Justin Davis]

We.

[Damon Hatfield]

We.

[Sam Claiborne]

We really. We really screwed this one up pretty.

[Mark Medina]

Didn't I say third person? Like, you run around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. A 2D game is third person. I mean, what about. So what about like a. So what about. It's not Resident Evil because that's Capcom. But like, it could be a survival horror game.

[Justin Davis]

No, it's not spooky.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, it's not spooky. And also, I don't think you can jump in very many of those. You can mantle, which is not the same as jumping.

[Justin Davis]

What about like an action game? Like Devil May Cry type type games?

[Sam Claiborne]

Climax action.

[Mark Medina]

Also Capcom.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but what about games like that? Like.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, because it's like, it's like you think of like Bayonetta, but I would. I would think that David would know for sure that you can shoot guns in Bayonetta.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, but it's also on the PS5.

[Justin Davis]

Could it be the very game that we've been talking about this whole time? Stellar.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, and not on Switch, which I'll.

[Sam Claiborne]

Could it. Could it. Could it be stellar blade?

[Mark Medina]

Not on PS4?

[Sam Claiborne]

Are you sure?

[Justin Davis]

Really?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Should I reveal also, it's not on Xbox.

[Justin Davis]

Are we even close?

[Damon Hatfield]

You're nowhere close.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have we. Have we?

[Mark Medina]

Have we. Like, this isn't a question. We're done. But have we even said anywhere? We haven't said the game.

[Justin Davis]

You said whenever close.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, you've not said the game. You've not said the publisher or developer.

[Mark Medina]

Are we going to be sad You've.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not said the genre.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it's Xenhal Zone Zero.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is Clara's favorite game of this year. You tell me if there's any gun shooting in this game. This is metaphor refantatio.

[Mark Medina]

Is there a gun shooting? I guess. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Rpg.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wasn't sure about that jump button. But there is a jump.

[Sam Claiborne]

I played this game for 30 hours probably at least, and I could not tell you if the game has a jump button. It has a jump button.

[Damon Hatfield]

It does. And then you're supposed to be like a human, like, race because there's all these different races. So I think they call you human, but you look at human.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, you're not a human.

[Mark Medina]

Everyone's alike.

[Sam Claiborne]

Everyone's incredibly racist against you, too. And they're really blatant and really mean about it. They're all mad that you're around in their city and the other thing. So I honestly don't know about the jump button, but you can, you can hop on a sword that floats around and that's like this game's. Yeah, that's this game's equivalent of like a skateboard or like a motorbike is like, you ride this floating sword all around town. It's pretty cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I played like 10 hours of this and then stopped for Dragon Age. But I should go back because this.

[Justin Davis]

Game was a good trick that people kind of find with us, is that we're really bad at guessing games that are out this year.

[Mark Medina]

So we should ask that, is this going to win Game of the Year? Like, I.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's why I think I've only played a few hours of this. I need to go back to it, too, because I think it's, it's absolutely going to be in the discussion for Game of the Year.

[Mark Medina]

I. It's like, I try to think of. Because, you know, we're, we're, we're kind of in the, like, preliminary start and, you know, Game Awards, they're announcing their stuff on Monday. And I'm like, I am so curious what's going to be in there.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, it's tough because Little Big, Little Kitty, Big City came out this year.

[Mark Medina]

So, yeah, it'll be a sweep.

[Sam Claiborne]

I cooled on metaphor a little. I mean, I really liked it. It got, it knocked itself out of Game of the Year contention because, like, the more hours I spent in, I was like, waiting. The story is not uninteresting, but it just, it wasn't really building or evolving. And I'm just. I eventually was just like, I'm good.

[Mark Medina]

Our co worker, Ronnie Barrier, beat it and he. It took him 93 hours, which is just an unfathomable amount of time.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, how many hours do you have in Dragon Age?

[Mark Medina]

98. But here's the deal. Actually, never mind. I. It's. It's just, man, the game is really long.

[Damon Hatfield]

The game I played the most this year is undoubtedly Balatron. But I would be. I would be very happy to see Astrobot win Game of the Year. But that's a conversation for a future episode. Nicely attempt this week. Thank you for this suggestion. Claire in Adelaide, Australia. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions. Email them to me. Email address gamescoophyn.com that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you Sam. Thank you Justin. Thank you Mark. Thank you to Jobur and everyone else working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN. Gamescoop and wrap.

[Unknown]

Family Vacation 19951995 Change the station Now I can drive Now I can drive My girl is waiting for me at home she's moving with me yeah, she's moving with me she hates it when I leave her alone I'm all she can see I'm all she can see dad turned 40 that year we got a CDs we got a CDs. His reaction was pretty severe. The smithereens the smithereens and now we're playing games in the dark how many can we get? How many can we get? Not everybody has that spark no one was upset no one was upset we drove Colorado to get me to my.

[Damon Hatfield]

Show.

[Unknown]

Was at that girl's house the one I told you about she thought we were on a date but that was a mistake Everyone sat on the stairs all of our friends were there a sticker on the back of your car? CGC9 CGC9 proves what a big fan you are. This is the sign this is the sign and now a plan shows in the dark Everyone is red Everyone is red now everybody has that spark Bob and is dead the band is dead we drove Colorado.

[Damon Hatfield]

To get me to.

[Unknown]

My show it was at that girl's house, the one I told you about. She thought we were on a date but that was a mistake. Everyone sat on the stairs all of our friends were there.

Listening to a podcast should be time well spent, and I promise it will be if you'll give this podcast a try. It's called Something youg Should Know. I'm the host, Mike Carruthers, and in every episode I talk with leading experts on topics I know you will find fascinating from why people can't keep secrets, what your favorite music says about you, why your pet acts in strange ways, and so much more. Something you Should Know is designed to give you information you can use in your life and give you great intel that you can share with others. I'm told it's a binge worthy podcast and with over a thousand episodes, there's a lot to binge on. Something you Should Know has been ranked in the top of the Apple podcast charts consistently for a long time. I know you're going to like this. I just need to get you to try it. Something you should know. It's available wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hi, I'm Jennifer, a founder of the Go Kid Go network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called the Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for the Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.