Game Scoop! 815: Let's Check In With the Listeners

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 815: Let's Check In With the Listeners – Detailed Summary

Release Date: June 19, 2025

In Episode 815 of Game Scoop!, host Damon Hadfield, alongside the IGN crew—including Nick Limone, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis—engages with listeners by addressing emails and discussing a variety of topics ranging from industry news to gaming nostalgia. This episode, titled "Let's Check In With the Listeners," offers a comprehensive look into the current state of the gaming world, listener interactions, and insightful game recommendations.

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1. Gaming News

a. Microsoft’s Next-Gen Hardware Announcement

At [03:00], Damon introduces breaking news about Microsoft's continued development of next-generation Xbox hardware in partnership with AMD. The announcement reiterates commitments to "next-level performance, cutting-edge graphics, breakthrough gameplay, unmatched compatibility," ensuring full compatibility with the existing Xbox game library. Sam Claiborn questions the confirmation of backwards compatibility, to which Damon affirms, “Yeah, confirmed already” [03:55].

Nick Limone speculates on Microsoft's strategic positioning, suggesting that this move may be a reminder to gamers about their ongoing commitment to hardware innovation, especially after rumors about canceling their handheld devices. Nick comments at [04:14]: “Are still making another console and I guess it's maybe coming off the heels of them canceling their handheld in favor of the third party.”

b. PlayStation’s Future Console Strategy

Transitioning to PlayStation, the discussion pivots to the delayed releases of first-party titles and the lack of new exclusives this generation. At [09:43], Damon shares a statement from Sony’s CEO Hideaki Nishino, emphasizing the company's focus on both PS4 and PS5 ecosystems while hinting at future console strategies. The team debates the potential overlap between console generations and Sony’s plans for the PlayStation 6, with Justin Davis highlighting his preference for Xbox due to its controller and Game Pass offerings.

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2. Listener Questions and Discussions

a. E3 vs Gamescom: Why Did E3 Die?

A listener from Atlanta, Georgia, inquires about the decline of E3 compared to the thriving Gamescom. Sam Claiborn responds passionately at [26:02], praising Gamescom as an epic, fan-facing event, contrasting it with E3's identity crisis and eventual decline. The team delves into the historical context, noting E3's origins as a trade show for retailers and magazines, and how internal conflicts within the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) led to its downfall. Justin Davis adds that the rise of company-specific presentations and the pandemic accelerated E3’s decline, making Gamescom the dominant global gaming convention.

Notable Quote:
Sam Claiborn at [26:35]: “It's just a different thing. It's just what packs, you know, the United States was like, it is really like come, come play games and celebrate stuff.”

b. Gaming Challenges: Pre-2010 Action-Adventure Recommendations

Ethan Chapman from Pasadena, California, shares his excitement for GTA 6 and his challenge to play one game each week leading up to its release. He seeks recommendations for pre-2010 action-adventure games compatible with his PS5 and Switch. The panel enthusiastically suggests classics such as "Batman: Arkham Asylum," "Portal," "Ocarina of Time," and "Metroid Prime Remastered." Discussions highlight the enduring legacy and gameplay depth of these titles.

Notable Quote:
Nick Limone at [41:47]: “I would recommend Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, which are both on Nintendo Switch Online.”

c. Death Stranding: Original vs Director's Cut

Listener Ryan from Dylan, Colorado, asks whether to play the original Death Stranding or the Director's Cut in preparation for the sequel. The panel unanimously recommends the Director's Cut for its additional missions and quality-of-life improvements.

Notable Quote:
Nick Limone at [37:20]: “Director's Cut. Hands down. Not even a question.”

d. First-Person Games and Motion Sickness

Ethan Chapman also addresses the issue of motion sickness in first-person games, explaining that many first-person titles can induce discomfort. The panel discusses potential solutions, such as adjusting the field of view (FOV), and emphasizes the importance of playing games as intended unless adjustments can mitigate discomfort.

Notable Quote:
Ethan Chapman at [53:47]: “The vast majority of first person games make me motion sick... If it makes you sick, I totally get that.”

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3. Game Recommendations

The panel provides a wealth of recommendations for listeners embarking on gaming challenges or seeking to revisit classic titles:

• Action-Adventure Classics:

  • "Batman: Arkham Asylum"
  • "Uncharted" series
  • "Tomb Raider"
  • "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" and "Majora's Mask"

• Strategy and Simulation:

  • "Factorio" – A top-down factory automation game praised for its complexity and depth.

• Puzzle and Indie Games:

  • "Portal"
  • "Metroid Prime Remastered"
  • "Super Metroid"
  • "Castlevania" series

Notable Quote:
Damon Hadfield at [43:24]: “I would recommend all the GBA and the DS. Castlevanias. Can't go wrong.”

---

4. Game-Specific Discussions

a. Mario Kart World

Nick Limone shares his evolving perspective on Mario Kart World, initially finding it less engaging but growing to appreciate its multiplayer features. The discussion highlights the game's ability to bring joy to both gamers and non-gamers alike.

Notable Quote:
Nick Limone at [15:38]: “It's a lot warmer on it now... and I'm just counting down the days for Donkey Kong Bonanza.”

b. Final Fantasy Tactics Remastered

The panel expresses excitement for the upcoming remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, discussing the challenges faced during development, such as rebuilding the game from the ground up after losing the original code. They anticipate it to be one of the best RPGs of all time.

Notable Quote:
Nick Limone at [44:17]: “Easily one of the best final fantasies, if not one of the best RPGs of all time.”

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5. Video Game 20 Questions: Interactive Segment

Listener Alan from Cedar Park, Texas, submits questions for the Video Game 20 Questions segment. The panel selects a hard difficulty level, opting to guess an indie, top-down, 2D game playable on Nintendo consoles released within the last decade. After a series of clues and guesses, they correctly identify "Factorio."

Notable Quote:
Nick Limone at [65:14]: “You’ve crashed landed on a planet, right?... It’s Factorio.”

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6. Movie Discussions

The panel briefly touches on recent movie releases related to gaming, notably "Ballerina," described as a gender-swapped version of John Wick, and expresses enthusiasm for its action sequences.

Notable Quote:
Damon Hadfield at [57:38]: “It's a dad that's killed, not a dog out for revenge.”

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7. Upcoming Episodes and Announcements

Damon announces his upcoming vacation and the possibility of hosting an episode from London, with Sam taking over in his absence. The team expresses excitement for these future developments.

Notable Quote:
Damon Hadfield at [75:01]: “I'm actually heading out on vacation for a few weeks but I'm going to attempt next week we'll be in London and I'm going to attempt to host an episode next week from London from the IGN office.”

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8. Closing Remarks

The episode concludes with acknowledgments to the team and listeners, highlighting the collaborative effort behind each episode.

Notable Quote:
Damon Hadfield at [75:49]: “This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Avienza... Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen.”

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Conclusion

Episode 815 of Game Scoop! delivers an engaging mix of industry news, listener interactions, and in-depth game discussions. From delving into Microsoft's hardware ventures and PlayStation's strategic plans to providing heartfelt recommendations for gaming challenges, the IGN crew ensures that both longtime fans and new listeners find valuable insights and entertainment. Notable discussions on the decline of E3, the thriving nature of Gamescom, and the intricacies of first-person game preferences add depth to the episode, making it a must-listen for the gaming community.

Transcript

[Damon Hadfield]

This week we're checking in with the listeners and answering a bunch of your emails, Death Stranding, E3, old game recommendations, gaming memories, and more. It's all coming up on Game Soup right after these messages. Planning any exciting trips this year? I bet something you might not be planning is learning the local language. Well, with Babbel, you only need a few weeks to learn. This year, speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Babbel's quick 10 minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, get you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using practical real world conversations. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by the real life stuff you actually need when communicating. With a focus on conversation, you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. I took a trip to Mexico last year and used Babbel to brush up on my Spanish. Babbel is useful for learning an entirely new language, but also for those who, like me, hadn't used a second language in many years and needed some refreshers. Need proof that Babbel gets you talking? Studies from Yale, Michigan State and other leading universities continue to prove Babbel works. One study found that using Babbel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at College. With over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award winning language courses are backed by a 20 day money back guarantee. This year I want you to learn another language so I'm teaming up with Babbel to gift you 55% off subscriptions, but only for our listeners at babbel.com Gamescoop get up to 55% off at babbel.com GamesCoop spelled B A B B E L.com GamesCoop rules and restrictions may apply.

[Justin Davis]

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[Damon Hadfield]

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[Justin Davis]

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[Damon Hadfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN Games Group. I'm your host Damon Hadfield here joining me this week here in the nice studio. The Next gen consolewatch studio is Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'm back, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam is here.

[Sam Claiborn]

Hey, I'm here. It's feeling chilly in here because of all those cold opens.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. It is actually chilly in the office even though we're getting to. It's like it's hot outside in LA now, but it's cold in the office and I need a jacket and that's an annoying time of the year for me. And Justin Davis is here.

[Sam Claiborn]

Scoop.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is it, is it hot for you yet, Justin?

[Justin Davis]

Yes, incredibly hot. No. Really?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I was just talking to my dad on Sunday for Father's Day. Yeah, he was having a good sweat outside on the porch.

[Nick Limone]

Is it already humid? Because it was humid the last time I was there at this time.

[Damon Hadfield]

Always it's only like winter. It's like in the low 80s but with a 98% humidity. So it's brutal. We had a great show for you this week. You know we recorded last week's episode late in the week and now we're recording early in this week. This week. So there's not a lot of time for a lot of news to bubble up and at times like this we lean on you Scoop Nation. So we will be answering a bunch of your emails later on the show. We've got lots of good questions but first there's some news this morning. Microsoft has confirmed it's currently working on next gen hardware of all types. And I think this is not exactly new information. I think they have said before that they are working on next gen hardware. I think this is all about announcing that their partnership with AMD is going to continue. So their statement said, announcing that we're building the next generation of Xbox first party devices and cloud, including our future Xbox consoles together with amd. And they promise, I think this is just copy and pasted from the Xbox series X announcement. They promise next level performance, cutting edge graphics, breakthrough gameplay, unmatched compatibility. It also said everything it's working on will be fully compatible with users existing Xbox game library. So that's nice.

[Sam Claiborn]

But I mean backwards compatibility. Confirmed already?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, confirmed already.

[Sam Claiborn]

But series Y.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, so I think they've announced, they had already announced they're working on next gen hardware but maybe they just think like well we need to remind people that we are still going to be.

[Nick Limone]

A hardware company, console manufacturing, since we're.

[Damon Hadfield]

Basically a publisher now that is happy to put our games everywhere. We need to remind people that we.

[Nick Limone]

Are still making another console and I guess it's maybe coming off the heels of them canceling their handheld in favor of the third party.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's not official though.

[Nick Limone]

That's not, that's just speculation. Well, that's.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, the reports don't have a handle.

[Nick Limone]

Based on the ally.

[Sam Claiborn]

You know, like there is, there's still this future in which Xbox wants to put out exclusives in some window on their own system. Right. So it's like. Yeah, that's the one like really big business reason I can think of them wanting to still do that. Like, what if they change from this idea of like, well, you can play everything everywhere and kind of say you play everything everywhere but you're going to play Elder Scrolls on our system for six months. Like I can see them doing that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And there were reports earlier this year that they're targeting 2027 and that this console would be more like a PC than any other console before it and that it would support third party storefronts like Steam, Epic Games Store, good old games. So it's not.

[Sam Claiborn]

They're going back to CD Rom. That's how PC it is.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. They are going back to CD Roms. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

It's weird.

[Damon Hadfield]

So I mean that would be, that, that would actually be a selling point because you're, you know, you have the Xbox store, the ecosystem there. You like, you have all the other PC storefronts and you're also going to be playing every first party PlayStation game that they release on PC also. So I can see that there's a selling point there.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, we'd kind of previously talked about speculating what the next Xbox looks like and I think we all kind of came to a very similar conclusion of it would just be a very easy to upgrade console that had specific, specific parts that you would just upgrade over time as needed. And I kind of feel like we're kind of getting towards that sort of ecosystem.

[Damon Hadfield]

Justin, I know you're console agnostic, but don't you spend most time on Xbox these days?

[Justin Davis]

I do. The Series X is my favorite console. I mean the Switch two just came out. Right. But over the last several years it's definitely been out of the big three. That's been the one I've spent the most time with. Big fan of game pass. An underrated thing that I like about Xbox is I think that Xbox controller is perfect.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Like as far as like, you know, and Nintendo's obviously going to do it. Nintendo does and innovate and have weird waggle and mouse controls. But in terms of like a standard, like you know, dual analog stick controller, like they they perfected it as far as I'm concerned. And so, you know, I like it a lot more than the, than the DualShock for example. So yeah, like all else being equal, if the consoles are around the same power level, games are around the same price. Like Xbox is my platform of choice. So you know, like, I don't know what the market is like anymore for you know, like sort of the traditional. What's that?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, that's my question. Finish your thought. But that's, that was.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, no, no, yeah, sorry. I just like who. I think Xbox is taking a smart approach of. It's, it's, it. We don't know a lot, we're speculating a lot. Right, but is it going to play Steam games? Is it going to play, Is it also just going to be a PC that has an Xbox logo on it? Like to me that approach makes a lot of sense. I think that's, that's the, the, the future of, of what game consoles are going to look like.

[Sam Claiborn]

I just, I think. Go ahead, go ahead David.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I just, I, I don't know where the Xbox hardware fans are because we, so we know Xboxes are not selling today. They want to sell more Xboxes in the future with next gen hardware. But like when we write an article like this, there's not a lot of positivity in the comments. It's hard to find. People say, oh, I'm so, I can't wait for the next Xbox. I'm so excited. So I just don't know where the potential audience is in the Xbox. Hardware fans are, well, I mean hardware.

[Justin Davis]

Fans are software fans, right? Like anyone that says, like I'm a fan of the Nintendo Switch, it's like, I don't know, like yeah, I guess you can be a fan of the form factor and the joy con, but what usually people are saying is like there's this library of games that I really enjoy on that console. Right, exactly. And so Xbox being in my opinion very fan friendly. Right? Like Indiana Jones, it's on the PS5. Like you don't have to do that. They're choosing to do that. But it does sort of long term damage I think to their ability to sell hardware to people. Because why, like look, I just said it, Xbox is my console of choice.

[Nick Limone]

But like why buy one when everything is an Xbox? Why buy an Xbox?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a good question. Sam, what do you got?

[Sam Claiborn]

So AMD is interesting. You know, AMD is not the leading chip manufacturer in the world right now. Nvidia is. And Nvidia is doing all of this constant marketing of their innovation and it's like, you know, it's the biggest tech stock in the world. You know, it just. Amd, it's a choice, you know, it's. It's a choice that maybe was funded by amd. Like I don't know, like why is this happening? I'm unsure why and I. I don't like. It's an interesting announcement to commit to amd. It'd be cool if they switched because that would like tell us a story about like, oh, they're going after, you know, what Nvidia tells us a lot more about, which is like a bunch of like AI Hanky Panky happening behind the scenes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. A bunch of fake frames.

[Damon Hadfield]

We could probably start a new show called AI Hanky Panky. Meanwhile, over at PlayStation, PS5 does phenomenally well in spite of the fact that new first party PlayStation games have sort of been a trickle this generation. Right. Like even today marathon was just delayed without. Without a new release date.

[Nick Limone]

Today we got Death Stranding coming wild.

[Damon Hadfield]

You got Death Stranding? Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Coming soon.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is that is the original Death Stranding still? It's not an Xbox.

[Nick Limone]

It's on Xbox.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is on Xbox.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. I think that was like six months ago or eight months ago or something like that.

[Justin Davis]

I mean I read a report. I think it was Paul Tassi. If I wrote a thing today, this week that there has not been a PS5 exclusive this generation from Gorilla, Sony Santa Monica or Naughty Dog.

[Sam Claiborn]

Oh my God.

[Justin Davis]

So yeah, it's insane. And that quote is a little bit of a cheat because they have PS4 games that came out cross gen, yada yada. But like PS5 only.

[Sam Claiborn]

I mean Naughty Dogs released Last of Us 2 seven times since this generation.

[Nick Limone]

So I guess Death Stranding 2 will actually be the first one then. Because I don't think that's getting a PS4 port.

[Justin Davis]

Right?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, but there was Astrobot.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, that's Fair Productions is not owned by Sony though.

[Nick Limone]

No, but I wouldn't.

[Sam Claiborn]

It is an exclusive. But it's an exclusive. Like, like Final Fantasy 7 it was. Which I just don't count.

[Damon Hadfield]

Or Stellar Blade until it came to PC just recently.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

But they are thinking, at least thinking about the PlayStation 6 next gen. We've got a quote from Sony's Interactive Entertainment CEO and president Hideaki Nishino says we now have a large ecosystem of highly engaged players across both the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4 generations. So naturally, therefore there's a huge interest in our next Generation console strategy. While we cannot share further details at this stage, the future of the platform is top of mind. So top of mind. The future of the platform for them. Five years into this generation, 20 years.

[Sam Claiborn]

Into your career, Damon, are you still excited that you get to read those non answers every single time somebody asks about a next gen console?

[Damon Hadfield]

I think it's interesting that they still, they're still, they think this highly engaged PS4 audience is so valuable, you know, like they just, they can't. What are they thinking they're going to do? Like when they launch the PS6, do they have to straddle three generations the games that they release?

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, I mean it just looks good how many units they have out there.

[Nick Limone]

We know you guys really wanted a PS5 games and whatnot, but I mean the PS6 is just around the corner, so we're just gonna save them for then. All right, Is that cool, guys?

[Sam Claiborn]

Maybe.

[Justin Davis]

I mean it's these console generations bleed together and you know, Xbox seems extremely motivated to just sort of kill the concept of the console generation. You know, every publicly, you know, Xbox and Sony report on like monthly active users in their ecosystem now and they're a little bit less interested in, here's how many PS5s we've sold, here's how many active members we have on one generation versus another. And it's a little bit more important to say, hey look, 80 million people, you know, logged into a PlayStation console and played or bought a game last month or what, you know, whatever the stat actually is. And so, you know, they'll pull them across generations or they won't or, you know, they'll sell them a game on Steam and then you still have to sign into your PSN account to play it and it kind of, it just doesn't matter as much as it used to.

[Sam Claiborn]

So do we think next generation games now are pretty much for sure like Elder Scrolls, Witcher, Cyberpunk, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean Cyberpunk's well after the Witcher.

[Nick Limone]

This generation isn't.

[Justin Davis]

I mean Witcher might be cross gen if witcher is like 2027, right? Like it's hard to believe. I mean part of this is the pandemic, so it's not necessarily Sony's fault. But like part of it is the lack of PS5 exclusives of like the PS5 doesn't feel, it feels new to me, but it's like, nope, that console is almost five years old.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean it should be in its stride, right? Like this should be the time when like just developers have A grasp on the system and just great games should be coming out all the time.

[Sam Claiborn]

But there's, and then there's, there's a pro. I mean that's the most interesting thing to me is that like what, what, you know, what games are we going to regret not having a pro for if we didn't upgrade? Maybe GTA.

[Damon Hadfield]

GTA?

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, GTA 6 on, on PS6 though is going to be a great upscale. Upscale to 6000.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, yeah. The G. No, that's GTA 6 Remastered, Sam.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, yeah, totally.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, my great hope for the next generation is that developers once again figure out how to actually like get games out the door in fewer than 10 years, you know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yep.

[Sam Claiborn]

I guess my hope is that they become a little bit smaller and quieter and less you know, PC size like, but more you know, like Switch, you know, like in there. It's just like this last generation is still pretty, pretty silly looking and pretty bulky.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean Nintendo's figured it out. Like games do not need to look better than Mario Odyssey, but.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, well Mario Odyssey turned out needed to look a little better.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

Because it does look great now.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well that's how good, that's how good it is. Some of those crowd shots in like New Donk City are maybe a little bit sus. But like on, on balance, like you know, like that's. And like it's like the Witcher 4 tech demo. Like it's incredible. Right. Like I'm glad that there's people out there that are pushing the envelope but like just get them. Like you don't need to do that. Like there is, there is another way. If you want to do that, fine, but don't.

[Sam Claiborn]

You're asking them to fire their pine needle and I just think that's really anti human of you.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's true.

[Damon Hadfield]

To Justin's point, I think we only need like one of those games a year, every two years. So they just need to have other like smaller scoped games coming out on a regular basis and then the big one that with that amazing fidelity can come out every so often.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, well, I mean it's the thing without playing favorites. It's like yeah, CD Projekt Red. Maybe you do get to make the gigantic. You're the one multimillion dollar games like Cyberpunk, Orion and Witcher 4. But everyone else maybe Naughty Doug, you can get a, you can get a pass too. But everyone else, it's nice when they.

[Sam Claiborn]

Have a smaller team to do that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Sam Claiborn]

You know, I, I think Nintendo does That exact thing. Between the big Tentpole Zeldas, all of a sudden there's Echoes of Wisdom and Link's Awakening. And between Tentpole Marios, all of a sudden there's Mario Wonder and Bowser's Inside Fury and like, you know, legit games. It's really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, speaking of Nintendo and the Switch 2 and all that, Switch 2 is two weeks old now, Nick. How are you finding it and how are you finding Mario Kart World?

[Nick Limone]

Um, I was initially pretty lukewarm on Mario Kart World because, like, I beat the entire, like, all the Grand Prix in like one sitting.

[Damon Hadfield]

All you have to do is play. You don't even have to win them.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

To unlock Rainbow Road and then, I.

[Nick Limone]

Mean, I won them.

[Damon Hadfield]

I know.

[Nick Limone]

I'm teasing. No, but just, you know, initially I think. I think the shine was like, oh, well, I mean, it was really fun. I had a good time. But that was like a three hour experience. But where I've started to enjoy it more and more because I'm not a big online multiplayer guy. But I jumped in with some fellow IGN ers yesterday. I enjoyed the Nintendo Switch 2 game chat trademark and played a couple rounds of Mario Kart Grand Prix. We did some knockout tour and I had a blast. Just talking trash in game chat, you know, spamming. Oh, I'd like to take a photo in the in game, like text dialogue options, because that's the bad man. That's the BM thing to do now. And just when you are playing with friends and you are, you know, I'm watching my significant other play through the game and she's not a big gamer, so seeing her pick it up and fall in love with Mario Kart and just like, oh, yeah, this does rock. I love seeing people just have fun. And the game does a good job of cultivating that fun. So I'm a lot warmer on it now. And honestly, I'm just counting down the days for Donkey Kong Bonanza.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, that's coming soon. We're actually getting a direct on that tomorrow from when we're recording this Cannot wait.

[Justin Davis]

Did you have one of those moments, like the E3 scripted game chat moments where it's like, hey, everybody, watch me skitch this dinosaur. And then like, you did it. And you're all like, cool.

[Nick Limone]

I've had too many moments where I was genuinely surprised. Nintendo's game chat did not actively censor my microphone.

[Sam Claiborn]

So I wasn't able to make that. But I was wondering who got second and third place over and over again because I know who got first place? Everybody.

[Nick Limone]

IGN's Logan Plant walked away with first basically almost consistently. Other than that, it was either me or Jada in the top three. But everyone's, everyone's playing at the top of the game. It was a good, it was a good, good crowd to play with. Pear showed up. Oh wow. We had people from Social. It was a good time. It was really fun.

[Sam Claiborn]

Did you play the strung together battle mode? What's it called?

[Nick Limone]

We did not do Battle Mode. We just did Grand Prix or the Knockout Tour. But that said Knockout Tour.

[Sam Claiborn]

I meant Knockout Tour. I'm just trying to remember what it's called.

[Nick Limone]

If you're. Listen, this here's a little PSA for you. Do yourself a favor. When you're playing online, when it asks you what course you want to play next, don't just choose one of the two to three options. It makes you choose. Hit the little plus button and then you can choose any map on the world map. And you also do the real version of the map where it's the three laps as opposed to the. The straight, straightaway drive there and then one lap on the actual map. Yeah, it's way better.

[Sam Claiborn]

I mean I like both but I like going back to. It feels good to go back to lap sometimes because of like all of the. That calculating you do when you get to like I'm not going to do that again.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

And in lap three out of three it's going to matter more.

[Nick Limone]

And it's like that the like highway style. I need to get to the next map is fun the first time you do it but after a while you just realize I'm just driving in a straight line. Like I'm not really doing anything particularly fun. And I think Logan did a great job with his review kind of commenting. He and I were just chatting like non stop back and forth about what we like, what we didn't like about the game and I, I think if you wanted more insights, I think that review is an excellent one to check out.

[Sam Claiborn]

One thing for local multiplayer that's fun is just the, the reviewing the race replay mode. My, my, my house has been very into that mode. It's very funny rewinding and seeing like how did that happen? You know, right at the end. It's great. I love it. Been around for a while, but I love it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Apparently now you can escape the blue shell.

[Nick Limone]

There's a couple methods of ways there, there's. At least there is. Go ahead, Sam.

[Sam Claiborn]

Well, the easiest I'll go. I'll do the first one you can do the rest. So in single player only, you can rewind right when it spins above your your character and is about to swoop down. Hit rewind and it will totally miss you. And it's worth.

[Justin Davis]

That's devious.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you do lose a little bit of. A little bit of space. But I think it's worth it because you don't crash out and you can continue your momentum.

[Sam Claiborn]

You don't lose coins either. And some of these tracks coins really matter for top speed.

[Nick Limone]

Oh big time. Other other ways to escape is a well timed mushroom. If you have a mushroom and the blue shell is about to hit you as it's about to dive, trigger that mushroom and you turbo out of its impact range.

[Sam Claiborn]

And it's unbelievable.

[Nick Limone]

It's. It's real. You feel like a badass when you do it. It is the coolest thing you could do in Mario Kart. Apart from the nuts shortcuts I've seen people doing online with wall writing and stuff like that. And then the last one is the speaker box that we just saw in the B roll. That'll destroy anything that comes near you. And so if the blue shell is circling above, you want to see a speaker box.

[Sam Claiborn]

You want to be able to see the shell before you activate it. There is another just having a star. But like this game is not. That's very unlikely because a lot of things in this game take away your items. So like you would have to stash a star in like 8th place and then get all the way up to number one. You almost assuredly won't have that star by that point. That used to be a really tried and true method. But there's just a lot of ways that you're to going your item, your stocked items get taken away now.

[Nick Limone]

It's pretty punishing though. Like there's some stuff where I'm like, I know there's a stereotypical. I was in first and now I'm in 24th. What happened? But there's some stuff where I'm like, dude, this is borderline mean. What is happening to me in this? Like three shells that have been perfectly timed to hit me one after the other. I've recovered and I'm hit and then I get lightning bolted and then I get ran over by someone with a giant mushroom. It's all good. I'm having a good time. But man, like I said, the game chat does not censor active swear words.

[Sam Claiborn]

So guide's team has been doing some fun videos. And one of the things I didn't know is that you can mess with AI in the game by taking the first part of a race, whether that's a first lap or something, without doing speed boosts and power sliding. And then the character, the AI won't power slide because they kind of tune down to you. And then you can just. Just destroy them in the last.

[Nick Limone]

Good to know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nice.

[Justin Davis]

Good tip.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, that's a good way to get. If you want to get those. Like, there's a couple star ranking things for single player. Like, those are, like, harder to do unless you're kind of manipulating the AI.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Nick, we had Logan on last week talking about Mario Kart World, and I think we all agreed that it feels great. I think it feels as good as Mario Kart ever has. But in the. In the content side, the fact that this is the game that Nintendo decided is going to be $80, I kind of narrow my eyes at that.

[Nick Limone]

He gave it, what, an 8 out of 10, right? That's great. Like, I feel like it's an 8 out of 10 now. I could see it a year from now. Should Nintendo support it the way they did, eight being a 10 out of 10 with the addition of way new courses, new racers, and just new things to do. And I'm hoping, please give me something interesting to do in the free roam.

[Damon Hadfield]

We said that too. Yeah, you're just kind of aimlessly driving around. Oh, there's a P switch. Okay, I guess I'll do this short little.

[Nick Limone]

And the checkpoint race is fun, but it's just like. I don't know, I just wish there was a little more. It feels very un Nintendo. Like the way free roam is just kind of a feature. Whereas, you know, you jump into something like Forza Horizon and the game is just elegantly in media's res. You are in a race, you're skydiving out of a plane, doing free roam and just like sliding in and out of all the content the game has to offer. And everything here is just sequestered to menus. And it's just. I'm sure. I'm sure you guys talked about all that, but it just feels wrong to me.

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Nick Limone]

Local cell phone provider always has signs out in front that says get 45.

[Damon Hadfield]

New phones for $1 when you sign up with eight new lines for free. And then you go in there and.

[Nick Limone]

They'Re like yeah, here's your dollar. And then there's also this delivery fee.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then there's state taxes and then it comes out to being exactly how much you were paying before and then even more because they tacked on another.

[Sam Claiborn]

One for like the phone.

[Damon Hadfield]

But that is not going to happen with Mint Mobile this year. Skip breaking a sweat and break, get your summer savings and shop premium Wireless [e-mail] GamesCoop that's mintmobile.com GamesCoop Upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month New customer offer for first 3 months only. Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Let's check in with the listeners. Listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address. Game scoopgn.com just like isdyne did says I'm a longtime listener out of Atlanta, Georgia here. Thank you for the weekly dose of gaming goodness. As a 40 year old father of two girls and a casual gamer at this point of my life, one of my biggest regrets is to never make it to at least one E3 Summer Games Fest is nice, but in your opinion why did E3 die while Gamescom lived?

[Sam Claiborn]

Well, Gamescom is epic. It is doing a. It's doing good. Like it is an amazing event.

[Nick Limone]

It's quite literally the largest video game convention in the world and it is tiring to try.

[Sam Claiborn]

And E3 never tried to do that. Right. They only did to started dipping their toe in the. The all access water.

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

E3 was supposed to be for business, correct?

[Nick Limone]

For retailers.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, for retailers and for magazines. And Gamescom has always been about fans. It's always been a fan facing event. They have 10 huge halls for fans and then they have a tiny little business area that's, that's Gamescom. So it's like flipped from what E3 was. I mean there's a long, there's a long list of reasons why E3 died and it was. A lot took place. It slowly decayed over several years. You know, E3 was started in 1995 as a place for retail buyers to figure out what games are going to buy for the holiday season and for magazines to write about games and get the people excited to buy those games are coming out in the holidays. Right.

[Nick Limone]

So I think it's also the incentivization for publishers and console manufacturers to big build a big presentation for E3 as opposed to just doing it with their own internal production companies and just having a stream that pops up because ultimately they have way more control over that. So why wouldn't you do it that way?

[Justin Davis]

That's exactly right. They're going to pay millions of dollars to construct a booth and have a big stage show and have celebrities come out and be on stage, members of the Beatles and like you know, all this other insanity. And then they realize they're like wait a second, we can do this the week after E3. And people will be talking about only us instead of doing it at E3. You know. So I think that's a huge component of it. There's kind of, there's an inside baseball angle Here which is E3 is put on by the Entertainment Software association, the ESA, which Every game developer and publisher is a member of. They're all members of the esa. And there was kind of infighting about how the event was run and funded. And you know, these ESA members not really wanting just support, you know, and put on that event anymore. And maybe that's outside of the ESA's purview. And so like, there's some, there's some stuff like that going on under the hood, you know, and, and, and the, the argument of, well, if we're gonna spend this $8 million, like, we'd like the event open to the public. So, so then the event became a hybrid event for a few years of. There were days that, you know, passes were sold to the, to the public and then there were press only, industry only days and it just never really, that never really worked.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it had like an identity crisis.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I think there's also. Go ahead, Sam.

[Sam Claiborn]

Well, the decline was, you know, there's, there's a couple of years. It's kind of hard to remember this now, but like, you know, Sony just.

[Justin Davis]

Wouldn'T be there, right?

[Sam Claiborn]

And then it was like, well, who will be in that space next year? And then it was like Microsoft, Nintendo were across from each other one year, like, how weird is that? Sony's not here. And then it'd be like, you know, Activision or Disney or whatever wouldn't be there. And then once that started happening, you would hear like this kind of internal squabbling about like, you know, just the floor space was super expensive. But like, you know that Justin mentioned other costs too. Just like putting on a show and getting Tony Hawk there and stuff is expensive. But Jeff makes that work at the same time every year. Right? And he's doing that and you know, those are all possible. But like, I think like the actual like haul and the way the ESA was handling it doesn't seem like they really made it. Like they didn't think about their future. They thought they'd be like, well, they'll always be an E3 and they're gonna have to come crawling back or something. But like, it just, it didn't happen. People didn't do that. You know, they could have played their cards and be like, look, this year it's, you know, so much cheaper and we want to track this new thing and you're going to be next to like, like none of that seemed to be happening.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, even, even in the time that I attended D3, where I, I don't know how many I went to in total. 15 at least. You know, it went from almost every upcoming game was playable to almost none of them was playable. So like the concept of like a playable, like this beat of like, we have to have a playable vertical slice of our game in June and everyone can go Hands on with it. It's open to the public. And then like, you know, I would love to be a fly on the wall for these discussions, but like someone figured out, wait a second, like we like the risk of like making our game playable to the public and anything can go wrong. And all the time and money and expense of having this section of the game done, like, we don't have to do that at all. Our game will still sell exactly as well as it did. And so this transition from hands on demos to then it was behind closed doors, hands off demos of someone will play the game in front of you. It's still being played. And then it was, we're not even going to do that anymore. We're just going to show you a trailer of the game. And like they got the same press and same headlines and same attention. And so it just, E3 came from a place of video games are trying to be legitimized. And so it was the one time that they could punch through and like, you know, my dad would text me, like they talked about E3 on the 10pm news. Like, you know, proud of you son. Like it would break through in the mainstream and there would be an article about it in the USA Today. Right. Like, and, and like that just, it's just not a thing anymore. Like gaming took over the world and so they don't, they don't need to have that one big beat to sort of break through the noise.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborn]

So Damon, you mentioned briefly the idea of like why E3 existed. And though the oldest, oldest, oldest reason for E3 was CES existed already as like a consumer trade show. You could just see like what's coming up and people could talk about their wares and hype them. But E3's timing was specifically so Babbage's and Toys R Us and KB could make their purchase orders for the fall. And just to make sure, like, hey, this is act this stuff is actually coming out. And so the people that were actually like making those big, you know, purchases would go and like say like, hey, Sonic 3 is legit good. Like let's make, let's, let's make sure we order a bunch of those and maybe stave off some of the other ones. The, the press part of that was like an accident, you know, like, it was great. The press got in there and got to see games and give previews and stuff like that. But the whole thing also served, and this is a little bit nefarious, I think, of companies now served to expose these games and like, show the press were able to go and say, like, hey, this game kind of sucks. Like, what they're advertising to you is not accurate. It's not what. Like, that the role of the media there is gone now. And so we still do it. We still do previews, but it takes more access for us to, like, we're lucky IGN gets access to things early. People still want to do this with us. But, like, the person, the high schooler that gets to go to E3, which I think was Justin's case, or whatever, doesn't get to go and get a scoop or say, hey, I got to play a bunch of games that are really interesting and. And tell you about them. And, like, there's just. There's. I'm just trying to make a larger point about, like, taking that away meant that, like, they. That did get replaced with YouTubers, with influencers, with people that. And believe me, I think people on Gamescoop don't understand this a lot. YouTubers frequently have zero ethical obligation to tell you the truth. They just don't have that. That is not a thing. Like, I know that. That's something that like. Like, people just like, well, this person would never lie to me. It's like, well, that's how they make their money. That's how it works. That is the one difference between a free press, which is like, IGN and has a separate advertising department that has nothing to do with their editorial team, and somebody who just takes money and puts up ads in their things and does that for work and get flown.

[Nick Limone]

Out to the convention. They get wined and dined, and then it's like, oh, yeah, come check out a really cush lounge where you can play this game in complete privacy. Just like, yeah, of course they're gonna say something nice. You treated them well.

[Sam Claiborn]

So, yeah, there's this whole, like, new era of, like, how do we get the word out about games? Well, you can pay for that, and you don't need to show a version of your game playing well or not. Like, it's just a little bit underhanded, but it's smart. I mean, it's like, this is how marketing works. Like, this is. This is the inevitable thing that happened. There's no obligation for companies to be ethical. They don't need to say, like, well, we gotta tell people honestly that our game sucks. Like, that's nothing to do with, like, their interests, you know?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

So it's just it. It was an ecosystem that I think benefited everybody. It benefited consumers a lot, and it's gone And I think that's shocking.

[Nick Limone]

I just missed the cultural touchstones of giant enemy crabs. The kill zone three bullshots or kill zone two Bullshots.

[Sam Claiborn]

Hell yeah, bullshots.

[Nick Limone]

The dumping scandal. All of these things I miss those don't happen as frequent anymore.

[Damon Hadfield]

Tony Hawk holding the Tony Hawk board. Ride board. This board is full of technology.

[Nick Limone]

Or the, the Halo. The Halo 2 release date on the bicep. Like I. I miss that stuff, man.

[Sam Claiborn]

And no matter what they could do, no matter. It was a Robbie drums. Nobody can make we music look good. Nobody could do it. It was, it was impossible. And we, we all knew.

[Nick Limone]

But they did resurrect the Beatles. Microsoft resurrected the Beatles from the dead.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I was in the crowd for a giant enemy crab. And boy, that was a long, long, long E3 press conference.

[Damon Hadfield]

They used to be really long.

[Nick Limone]

What was that? Genji?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, that was Ridge Racer. There was a bunch of, a bunch of stuff came out of that one.

[Nick Limone]

Clap.

[Damon Hadfield]

I love the, I love, I love the awkwardness of some of the old ones. One final footnote on E3 is that throughout the 2010s, there's this growing discontentment. Big players like Sony start dropping out. Nobody knows like what to do with it, where it's going to go. And then what happened? 2020 pandemic hits, forces it to shut down. And then everyone's like, oh, the industry can thrive without E3. Okay. We don't need three anymore. It's gone.

[Nick Limone]

The prolife proliferation of the Internet and streaming media.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. But to answer the original question, Gamescom, just a different thing. It's just an industry fan facing event.

[Sam Claiborn]

It's. It's like what packs, you know, the United States was like, it is really like come, come play games and celebrate stuff. And like you know, that still is avoiding the United States. There isn't something like that. It's great that that gamescom exists. Like I'm. I was incredibly impressed by that and I, I hope that people in the US get a version of it someday. You know, like that, that, that's that friendly to gamers and is interesting because like seriously, the builds there was cool. Z3, they would have like a giant kingdom come deliverance, you know, castle, a medieval town.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

Stuff like that. Like a giant tractor that won a tractor competition and it was like two stories tall.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, I love games.

[Sam Claiborn]

Great.

[Nick Limone]

So much. Oh, I hope I get to go again. I love it so much.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, moving on. This is. Ryan says I just dove into PlayStation plus with the days of play Discount. I wanted to finally try Death Stranding, but which one is the better experience getting ready for the sequel, the original or the Director's Cut?

[Nick Limone]

Director's Cut. Hands down. Not even a question.

[Sam Claiborn]

I just heard good things about that. Yeah, it's interesting.

[Damon Hadfield]

I would be surprised if the original were somehow superior to the Director's Cut.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, Director's Cut just has way more sneaking missions. So if you like Metal Gear Solid, you will enjoy Director's Cut more because there's a lot more of that stuff in it. There's just a lot more quality of life features and the game is just overall streamlined and just packed full of more content, honestly.

[Sam Claiborn]

Well, I could. Mr. Damon's like, query, though. Like, it could be worse because it could be longer cut scenes. That sort of directors cut it in movies is. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Well, Kojima was also very pointed to say he doesn't like the nomenclature of Director's Cut because everything he wanted in the game, in the original game, was in there.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was gonna say he's his own boss.

[Justin Davis]

Names on it.

[Nick Limone]

That's what he said. That's all I'm saying.

[Damon Hadfield]

Maybe. Maybe like Sony, like, strongly encouraged him. Like, we. We have this data. It will sell better if we put Director's Cut on it.

[Nick Limone]

That's it. During the era of the Snyder cut, maybe.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Okay. That was.

[Nick Limone]

Kojima Cut would go crazy. That's what they should have called it.

[Damon Hadfield]

They should have called it the Kojima Cut.

[Sam Claiborn]

They could. They should just call it the Snyder Cut.

[Justin Davis]

I still like the implication that the original cut was not the Kojima cut.

[Damon Hadfield]

I know, I know.

[Justin Davis]

It's your company.

[Sam Claiborn]

I made me take it out. You're now making me put it back.

[Nick Limone]

Sam and Justin, you will be ashamed of your words and deeds. That's a. This is another Kojima quote.

[Justin Davis]

Is this game on? Game pass. I have an urge for some death stranding.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm gonna just wait a week or something.

[Nick Limone]

It comes out on the 26th, so I would just wait a little bit. What?

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. This is Lesh from Dylan, Colorado says I'm embarking on a gaming challenge that really has me super excited. Like a lot of other gamers, I'm super hyped for GTA 6. Definitely my most anticipated game. Now that we are just under a year away from the release, I am challenging myself to play one game each week leading up to the release. Each week, I will either play a game I've never played before, replay my most beloved titles, or do some trophy hunting and go for some 100% completion.

[Justin Davis]

So hold on. I don't want to take anything away from this gaming challenge, but if he's playing a new game or replaying classic games or hunting trophies, it sounds like he's just playing video games.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, sure. He's calling it the Grand Theft Celebration, so.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a celebration.

[Justin Davis]

It's got a theme.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, wait, I'm sorry, that's not the full title. The full title is the grand theft celebration, the 52 week challenge.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, good. He's got a wrapper around his.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, he wants this to be a year of celebrating video games and not just gta. So he says, I'm looking for some video game suggestions for this challenge. I started really getting into video games in 2010. I'm familiar with a lot of games post 2010, but I'm really looking for some suggestions from before that time when I wasn't playing a lot of games. I'm super into action adventure games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider to give you an idea of my gaming tastes. And I have a PlayStation 5 and a Switch. Well, let's just come to the right place. Looking for recommendations of old games. Pre2010 games. And he likes action adventure games and has a switch and a PS5.

[Sam Claiborn]

I mean, it'd be maybe nice to keep them on the short side because there's gonna be 52 of them.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean like, there's a lot of like what I'm trying to think about, like really good, standout, like 2000s video games. Okay.

[Sam Claiborn]

Commando Rearmed. There's just one.

[Damon Hadfield]

How about you got like, like Batman. Arkham Asylum.

[Justin Davis]

That's what I was gonna say.

[Damon Hadfield]

There you go. There you go. There you go.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Arkham Asylum.

[Nick Limone]

Portal.

[Justin Davis]

Modern Warfare 4, like Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, Half Life 2.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I don't think you can play Half Life 2 on Switch or PS5.

[Nick Limone]

I say play Portal, then you play Portal.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

Actually scares me. Can you play by a commander Rearmed.

[Nick Limone]

On any of this on the Xbox?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, maybe on PS5 it would have come to PS3. So maybe on PlayStation 5. How is that not on Switch? Right.

[Sam Claiborn]

Be so good. The Bionic Commando collection. And you only just. You can just play that one.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that one. Well, the original.

[Sam Claiborn]

I could just hear the music.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, this game is really good. Okay, I actually have a bunch of suggestions here. Feel free to chime in. I would recommend Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, which are both on Nintendo Switch Online. I would recommend Wind Waker, but that's only on the switch. 2 and I don't think he has a switch too.

[Sam Claiborn]

That is correct.

[Damon Hadfield]

Side note, there's lots of new games that I want to finish like Doom, the Dark Ages and About and Assassin's Creed Shadows. But I cannot finish them because I cannot stop playing Ocarina of Time, which I just started playing recently. And it's so good game.

[Justin Davis]

It's a good video game. It turns out we have a good.

[Sam Claiborn]

Reason to be playing this game. But I cannot stop playing it.

[Justin Davis]

I know that, that Miyamoto. Turns out he knows what he's doing. He's going places, he knows his stuff.

[Sam Claiborn]

You know that game though. Spiders everywhere.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

Just lousy with spiders.

[Justin Davis]

Skulltulas.

[Nick Limone]

A lot of wolves too.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. 3. They're Metroid games that you can play on Switch.

[Nick Limone]

Metroid prime. Like playing the first Metroid Prime.

[Damon Hadfield]

Metro Prime Remastered is on the switch. And then also Super Metroid and Zero Mission are on there as well.

[Sam Claiborn]

Don't miss those.

[Nick Limone]

Those are all zero missions. A masterpiece, these. Oh man.

[Damon Hadfield]

I would recommend which one called Dread.

[Sam Claiborn]

Dread.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh yeah, that one's more recent. Yeah. I would recommend all the GBA and the ds. Castlevanias.

[Nick Limone]

Yes, correct.

[Damon Hadfield]

Can't go wrong. They're all just similar shades of great.

[Justin Davis]

Play them until you're sick.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, whatever. You don't have to play all of.

[Justin Davis]

Them, but you've had enough.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm just saying you can't go pick one. Pick a couple and they're just great.

[Justin Davis]

Like 15 hours was Aria of Sorrow. Is that the third GBA one?

[Damon Hadfield]

I cannot.

[Justin Davis]

I think that was.

[Damon Hadfield]

I can never keep the order straight.

[Nick Limone]

That sounds about right.

[Justin Davis]

I think that was the best one. Whatever the third GBA one was, was my favorite.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, there's a collection of both series.

[Nick Limone]

Portrait of Ruin guy. I love Portrait of Ruin. That's in the DS collection, by the way.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Great games.

[Damon Hadfield]

We mentioned Batman, Arkham Asylum and then The Tony Hawk 3 and 4 remaster is about to come up. And I've never played four, but three is great. Three is as good as the series.

[Nick Limone]

So good.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's as good as 2. As good as that series ever was. And then another remake that's coming up is Final Fantasy Tactics. So if you haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics, might as well just wait for that. An all timer remaster coming up. I never. I didn't get. I didn't get your thoughts on the. On the. Extremely excited to.

[Nick Limone]

That said, I do not like their upscaling that they're doing for the pixel art. I think the original game is gorgeous and I don't. It's like I'm using an emulator for the first time. So I applied a weird anti aliasing that just made the game look worse. I was like, what are you guys doing? You have the beautiful pixels already there. Just do it again. Just. Also, I don't like that the quality of life improvements are only for the not as visually pleasing version of the.

[Damon Hadfield]

I want to play the pixel art.

[Nick Limone]

With the quality of life improvements and the updated localization. That'd be sick. But it's also. I didn't realize it. I. I saw a big interview with Kazuhito Maitoyo, the. The director of the game, who also was a director of Final Fantasy 16. And he basically was like, yeah, we lost the code for the square, lost the code for the game. So we just kind of built it from the ground up. War of the Lions is a great version of the game to play, which is what this version is building on top of. So very excited for people to play. Easily one of the best final fantasies, if not one of the best RPGs of all time.

[Damon Hadfield]

One of the best tactics games. It was kind of the gold standard for a long time. I don't know if anything has ever like Tactics.

[Nick Limone]

Ogre Let us Cling together is one pretty close. But dude, Final Fantasy Tactics just. Just hits different.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Okay. Les said he's a fan of games like Uncharted, so if he hasn't played Uncharted 2, I would recommend that one. I think that's like the. The high bar, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, two and four, dude. I mean we talk about it I feel like a lot on this show, but Enslaved, Odyssey to the West, I.

[Damon Hadfield]

Mean, yeah, that's a good. That's a kind of a deep bet. I haven't played it since it's. It was originally released.

[Nick Limone]

It still holds up. It has some 2006 level or jank, but it's nice. It's. It's charming.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, you know, like Heavenly Sword. Like there's this whole era of like third person action adventure games that are like. I wouldn't describe them as like B tier, but like whatever, whatever a tier in between. Like the top tier and B tier is. It's like Enslaved. This heavenly sword is.

[Nick Limone]

Dante's Inferno.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I don't know about. I don't know about that, dude.

[Nick Limone]

Near. Oh my gosh. Play near the original year. The original. You could play the Replicant version that's available on PS5, but dude, all time game for me. Super duper. Super duper. Good. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. But it is. You are evoking that level game to me.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Darksiders, dude.

[Nick Limone]

Darksiders one and two. Pretty solid.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Nick Limone]

Honestly, like, you've probably played God of War 2018 and Ragnarok. God of War 1 through 3. Those games rule. They still rule.

[Justin Davis]

Play the old God of Wars for sure.

[Nick Limone]

Heck, even Ghost of Sparta, I think got ported to PS3 at some point. Or PS4.

[Damon Hadfield]

That was a PSP game.

[Nick Limone]

That was the PS. That's the one. P. There's two. There's chains of Olymp. No, Chains of Olympus. And. And the one I just said. Yeah, the play the one I just said. Not Chains of Olympics.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam. Anything you want to throw in there?

[Sam Claiborn]

All the 2D Zeldas from this century are all good.

[Damon Hadfield]

From this century.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah. The Oracle games.

[Nick Limone]

Yep. Minish cap.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, that's not.

[Sam Claiborn]

This all the, like, the GBC GBA ones.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

And yeah, those are all really, really fun games.

[Nick Limone]

All fired up.

[Justin Davis]

Minish cap and did probably half the dungeons in that over Christmas break. And I forgot. I forgot how sassy the cap is.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

He's, like, always sassing me.

[Nick Limone]

I'm like, wow, dude, I want to see him back, man. I missed. I missed the cap.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, there it is. I think BioShock. Yeah, I think BioShock is.

[Sam Claiborn]

That'd be fun to revisit. I bet both Bioshocks are fun to.

[Damon Hadfield]

Revisit, you know, or all three.

[Nick Limone]

BioShock 2.

[Sam Claiborn]

I've never played 2. I've only played Infinite and BioShock 1.

[Nick Limone]

2 is okay, but 2's DLC. Minerva's Den is very good.

[Justin Davis]

They did a. There's a. There's that, you know, remake. HD remake of Okami.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was just. That was going to be my next suggestion, Justin. Yeah, Okami is really fun. It's a Zelda. Like, a great style.

[Nick Limone]

It's very Snake Eater. You should play Snake Eater.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Delta is coming out. That'll be available on your PS5. Definitely pick that up. One of the greatest action adventure games ever made.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then I was gonna say, since this is all about GTA 6 in the first place, if he hasn't played Vice City, I think that. I think it's a. It's a novelty. Right? Like, it's gonna look. It's gonna look dated, but it'd be cool to check out Vice City before you return to it in GTA 6. And just driving around with the Soundtrack is great.

[Nick Limone]

I'm really. I think GTA 4 is my favorite one in this series and it sounds like you might have missed it. I think that game is very cool. Very serious. Not as. I mean it still has silly stuff in it, but man, I just missed that game. And it was. That was the game. That red ring, my Xbox 360. So it will forever be in my heart.

[Sam Claiborn]

Never forget.

[Justin Davis]

You never got to take your cousin bowling.

[Nick Limone]

I was literally on the last mission where you do the Statue of Liberty when it died and I was like, well, I'm never playing this game again.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

Wow, this looks so funny. The least accessible of these games now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's too bad.

[Nick Limone]

It is. It is on PC. But yeah, you can't play it on modern consoles.

[Damon Hadfield]

Even on 360 with backwards compatibility. Or you can play Series X.

[Nick Limone]

You can play it on Series X. But he only has a PS5.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's right.

[Nick Limone]

Switch.

[Sam Claiborn]

Right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

[Nick Limone]

That's a bit of a bummer.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, my last out of left field Recommendation would be peggo 1 and 2 because peg is great and always fun. Yeah, it's always. Even if. Even if you played it, it's always a good time to just erase your save file and start playing Peggle all over again.

[Nick Limone]

And also, even if.

[Sam Claiborn]

Word out there.

[Nick Limone]

But Sam, even if you've already played the RE4 remake, you should just play the original RE4 because man, that game still rocks too.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh man, I haven't played that original in a long time.

[Nick Limone]

Still good.

[Sam Claiborn]

Oh good. Puzzle games. You got. You got all the Luminous and Medios and all that stuff. But then people really like Tetris effect. Yeah, puzzle games.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, they did just announce a new luminous game too. So like the original game still has a great Tetris effect, people. Yeah. Yeah, that's. I very excited. Is that Mizuguchi as well then? Very exciting.

[Damon Hadfield]

What's the name? Lumines. What?

[Nick Limone]

Arise, Isn't it? Arise. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Arise. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that just sounds like an anime subtitle. An anime game subtitle.

[Justin Davis]

Damon, did you see the Golden Tea Collection announced?

[Nick Limone]

No.

[Damon Hadfield]

For what?

[Justin Davis]

Digital Eclipse.

[Damon Hadfield]

Whoa. No, wait. That sounds like an April Fool's joke.

[Justin Davis]

Nope, it's real.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a June 17 joke. Or 16.

[Justin Davis]

It's six golden tea games and they're recreating. So you can. I don't. I didn't look into it in detail. So supposedly you can plug in a third party trackball and it'll work.

[Nick Limone]

That kind of rocks.

[Justin Davis]

But they also emulate. They have like fake trackball controls with a control stick. They put a lot of care into how you would replicate the trackball field.

[Nick Limone]

Use a PS5 touch sensor to.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, yeah, right?

[Sam Claiborn]

Oh, that'd be good.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's clever.

[Justin Davis]

It looks sick.

[Damon Hadfield]

Switch to mouse controls maybe?

[Nick Limone]

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that.

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Sam Claiborn]

You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice Progressive loves to help people make smart choices.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's why they offer a tool called.

[Sam Claiborn]

Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Give it a try after this [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

[Sam Claiborn]

Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, I like that question and it's any excuse to talk about old games.

[Nick Limone]

This is I got a lot of good games to play.

[Damon Hadfield]

I know. I don't know if we gave him 52, but he's got a lot.

[Nick Limone]

I think you'll figure it out after a while.

[Damon Hadfield]

Alesh, if you want to send us a follow up, if you play any of those games, we'd like to hear your thoughts. Okay. This is Ethan Chapman from Pasadena, California. Hey. Hey, Goose. Camp counselors. I just wanted to reach out and provide my two cents in response to Damon's comment or question about gamers not playing first person perspective games and why that might be. We were commenting last week. There's just like this subset of the gaming community that just refused to play first person games. Like when something like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is announced, they're like, oh, it's first person. And I. Why to me, it's just like I just can't imagine not playing a game. But anyway, Ethan says, I've been gaming since I was a kid. I'm 47. And for me the sad reality is that the vast majority of first person games make me motion sick. Yes, I know that probably sounds weird, but it's been a thing as long as I can remember. The few exceptions that I've been able to be okay with have been the Walking Sims, like what Remains of Edith Finch or Gone Home and puzzle games like the Witness. Anything where I have to spin around or move fast is a complete no go. I've actually heard from a lot of other games that this is more common than most would think. And yeah, sure, if it makes you sick, I totally get that.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

I just think that most people that are complaining about Indiana Jones being first person, that's not the reason. I think they just don't.

[Nick Limone]

They don't like first person games.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's the part that I can't. I just.

[Nick Limone]

Well, like Resident Evil Requiem is the, the new one where people are like, Capcom is offering the ability to play it first person or third. And everyone's like, oh, thank God, I can play it in third person. But it sounds like it's designed to be played in first person first. So I'm like, what is the author to get experience, intention.

[Damon Hadfield]

That is exactly what I said last week. It's like they made the choice to go first person with village or not with the village with just seven. That was like an intentional choice. So it's like.

[Justin Davis]

Well, yeah, no, I always like when they. They like there's usually mods that'll like mod third person into some game, you know, like I know Skyrim supports it natively, but like a game like that, that's like meant to be played in the first person. And then the characters are always doing really grotesque, like their arms are like stretching out because it's not meant to be seen from that perspective, it always makes sense.

[Nick Limone]

People still lament the fact that there was a prototype of Cyberpunk 2077 that was in third person, a la Witcher 2 perspective, almost identical to the Witcher 2 FOV. And yeah, it doesn't look fun. But also when they changed it to first person, people were like, well, what the heck, man? They showed us you could play a third person. I was like, dude, what are you doing? Like, take it easy.

[Sam Claiborn]

To me, I didn't know until David had mentioned this that there's like a first person backlash.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I. Well, and I'm sure, I mean, look like anyone that gets motion sick from first person. Sure, I'm sure, has been down this rabbit hole. But like, if. Just if. If you're the one listener that's never thought about it, like, often adjusting the field of view can make a big difference. Like, a narrow FOV can sort of trigger motion senses sickness in a way that, like, this is amazing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is this Cyberpunk third person?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

This is what I'm talking about.

[Nick Limone]

I am one of those people who does occasionally suffer from motion sickness with games. I first discovered it when Microsoft re released Marathon 2 Durandal on Xbox 360. And I was like, hell yeah. New Bungie game. Let's go. I played the game. I was like, oh my God, I cannot play this game. Fast forward to 2016. Doom 2016 on console could not play that game. I have since revisited those games on PC where I can adjust the resolution, I can adjust the frame rate, I can adjust the fov and I can sit closer to my monitor and brighten my screen. That has alleviated the issue. To me, there's plenty better resources than just me. But I know the pain of motion sickness. It is not fun. But play the games the way they're intended. Unless you can adjust the FOV for.

[Damon Hadfield]

Health stuff with Resident Evil Requiem, it's not even like on the fly. You have to go into the menu. Yeah. To switch it.

[Nick Limone]

They added third person perspective to Village and it was like, yeah, I don't want to play the game this way. It's not the way it was intended. It's crazy. It's like adding first person to the original Metal Gear Solid for a GameCube rerelease. And they're like, wait a second. We made the game way easier this way.

[Sam Claiborn]

One thing I like about third person for Resident Evil specifically is Perfected by four, which is the, you know, the. The hand to hand combat. Stuff which wouldn't work in first person. So I do like how you can conserve so much ammo by Leon doing that roundhouse kick.

[Justin Davis]

And what about.

[Sam Claiborn]

And body slams.

[Justin Davis]

And what about playing as a piece of tofu?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Or other weird characters.

[Nick Limone]

Let's see that in first person. You can't do it.

[Justin Davis]

Exactly. You can. They're just like your tofu now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Extracurricular activities. I saw a ballerina.

[Nick Limone]

How was it?

[Damon Hadfield]

I liked it. I liked it a lot, actually. We had a lot of fun.

[Nick Limone]

I'm curious.

[Damon Hadfield]

No one else has seen it. No one. Sam?

[Justin Davis]

Nope.

[Sam Claiborn]

No.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, it's good.

[Sam Claiborn]

Does it just feel John Wick like It is.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is John Wick. It is gender swapped John Wick. That's what it is. But all the action is great. It's got great kills. So. Got great kills. It has some surprises or some, like, very stereotypical action movie thing is happening, and then it's interrupted by something. I was like, oh, I didn't see that coming.

[Sam Claiborn]

And are there. Are all the pets okay?

[Damon Hadfield]

There are no. No pets this time, so you don't have to worry about that this time. It's a. It's a dad that's killed, not a dog out for revenge.

[Sam Claiborn]

Tense.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anna De Armas's character has all the depth of John Wick, which means she has about maybe 10 lines the whole movie. But it's good. Like, you know, the. You know, what I care about is the action. And the action is great. It totally delivers. I went with my wife and another married couple, and the wives were just having so much fun watching Anna Darmis kick everyone's ass. It was great.

[Sam Claiborn]

Nice.

[Nick Limone]

I'm excited to check this out.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's good you do it. It's. It's. It's operating in a very near the quality of level of John Wicks.

[Nick Limone]

This weekend. I envision ballerina. Oops, sorry. Ballerina. Bring her back. And 28 years later, what's Bring her back? Bring her back is from the horror directors that did what's the hand? Horror movie. I can't think of it right now.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

It's.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know what any of this is all about.

[Nick Limone]

The Filippo Brothers. We had them. Yeah. This. This one. It's supposed to be a real messed up horror. Yeah. Talk to me. There you go. Talk to me. Also great. But I'm excited to see those dudes. We had them at Comic Con last year and they're just. They started in wrestling in, like, backyard wrestling on YouTube. And then they got tapped to make one of the best horror movies I've seen in a minute. And this is their follow up. So very, very stoked for that too.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool.

[Justin Davis]

Cool. Damon, you're reminding me that I think we drug our girlfriends at the time now wives to see the Raid 2 in theaters. So that's how you know you found a keeper. If they'll tag along with you or get Fisher.

[Damon Hadfield]

Because the days of my wife going to see movies like that with me. Ballerina accepted. The Raid is like more hardcore and brutal.

[Justin Davis]

That's what. When you're dating, it's okay. I'll go with you. When you're married, it's. You are. You have permission to go see that on your own. Go see that with friends.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's exactly right.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is the new Predator thing out yet?

[Nick Limone]

It is. Killer of Killers is out.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is it good?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's pretty damn good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Pretty damn good. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Pretty damn good. It's on Hulu or Disney plus if you have Hulu.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

But highly recommend. It's a lot of fun.

[Damon Hadfield]

I gotta watch that.

[Justin Davis]

We. Can I do one more?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

It's. Well, it's actually not extracurricular, but I just. It's off topic. So anyway, like I am. I'm 45. Shrines back into Tears of the Kingdom.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh my God. Oh, cool. Starting from the beginning.

[Sam Claiborn]

Progress.

[Justin Davis]

So good. Yeah, I started over from the beginning. I love it. I shared, I think after we stopped recording last week or anyway, whatever. Like it didn't make it onto the show that when I first fired up the game, like I wasn't looking at a side by side comparison. Just like seeing the game after not seeing it for a year, I didn't think. I'm like, this doesn't look that different to me. Like I couldn't clock with my eye that it was different. But what really, really is different to me is the frame rate. So I know it's running at double the resolution. Like I can see it in the side by side screenshots, but it is like it was 30 frames per second on the original Xbox and a chuggy 30. Like 30, but really framey down to 20 or 25. And this is a locked 60. I've never ever seen it dip. It makes such a difference. Like just all. Everything that made Tears of the Kingdom, you know, a little bit frustrating and a little bit sure to play, especially in some areas of the map is just gone. Like it just. It's made it a perfect video game in my opinion. Oh man, I love it. And I'm. I'm yeah, 45 shrines in. And I'm just, you know, I'll. I'll report back next week, but I can't. I can't put it down.

[Nick Limone]

I'm replaying Breath of the Wild in that same vein on Switch too. And just did like watching the footage of Tears of the King. Every time I load into these Zelda games on Switch 2, it just gets me so excited to see all of the menu elements operating at 60 frames per second. Just like the game just feels so much better. Oh, yep, it's. It feels. It feels crip. Like it. Remember how I would always go on this tirade about how I resent my switch when I was like, oh, you don't work the way you're supposed to. It's. I take it all back, baby. I'm sorry what I said. I didn't mean it. Now it's better. You've improved yourself. I love it.

[Sam Claiborn]

Well, isn't it funny how Breath of the Wild, though, like, all your skills are so different feeling and so like retro now where you're like, oh, I wish I could stick these two things together. But nope, I can just do magnets. That's all I got. Oh, and I can freeze things and I use that 10 times in the game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, the HDR and the Depths is really good, which is what the B roll is showing now. Like, I don't notice the hdr. I'm sure it's on in the Overworld and in the Sky Islands, but the Depths is where you can really tell that it's on and it's. It's a real HDR showcase, actually. Like, it's one of the better implementations of HDR in a video game at least, you know, kind of on a, on a. On a console video game, you know, so high end PC excluded, but man, it's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

I also really like the new pro controller.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, love that.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, it's awesome.

[Damon Hadfield]

Great controller. Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from alan, who is 33, from Cedar Park, Texas, which is just north of Austin. And Alan says, I've been listening to the Mega Cops for the last 12 years. You all make my commute to work every week. Awesome. Keep up the good work. I also wanted to Give the panel four options for video game 20 questions this week, depending on how everyone is feeling. So he has an easy, a medium, a hard and an impossible option so you all can pick what you feel like to be.

[Justin Davis]

What would you recommend, Damien?

[Sam Claiborn]

Do you think we can get the impossible one?

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, we could just. Look, guys, we could just. We could just say easy and knock off a few minutes early.

[Damon Hadfield]

You could. You could.

[Justin Davis]

Whatever.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think the hard might be the most entertaining.

[Justin Davis]

It's presented to us as a choice, but I'm just saying it. It's not. It's not actually a choice. We're obviously gonna pick hard.

[Nick Limone]

Hard.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah, we're gonna pick hard. But I. I. Nick. I need the full powers of Nick. All right, Remember what Game Boy advance games you've played.

[Nick Limone]

All right, hold on. I got it. All right, I'm back.

[Sam Claiborn]

Get in your mind palace.

[Nick Limone]

What's this gentleman's name?

[Damon Hadfield]

Let me get back to the email. This is Alan.

[Nick Limone]

Alan's the same age as me. He's been listening to gamescube for roughly the same amount of time. I feel like we're one to one. We're tackling.

[Justin Davis]

Also, he's in. He's in north. He's north of Austin, Texas, if that makes a difference to you.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, I have the Wikipedia page pulled up with that. Let the questioning begin.

[Nick Limone]

Is a game from this century?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborn]

Or Bound.

[Justin Davis]

What? It'll be great. It's probably. Well, I'll save this question, but it could have been one of the ones that we just named in the long segment of 2000s games earlier in the show.

[Nick Limone]

We'll save that. That's pretty good, though.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I think so, too. Did this. Is this game playable on a Nintendo console?

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborn]

As an ex. Was it an exclusive to that console at any point?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is this an indie game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Is it playable on the GameCube?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. That's five.

[Nick Limone]

GameCube.

[Sam Claiborn]

Did you name an indie game on the GameCube?

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Alien Hominid.

[Nick Limone]

That's all.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, Alien Hominid. That's the one.

[Nick Limone]

Dang. You're not wrong. Would you want to live in this world, Damon?

[Damon Hadfield]

Hmm. So I don't have enough experience with it, but I'll say, like, this isn't one of those things where I'm like, no, heavens, no. Absolutely not. Maybe.

[Nick Limone]

All right. Not enough experience. That's the real nugget there. So it's not a day, Megan.

[Justin Davis]

Worlds I would want to live in, though, if I'm being honest.

[Nick Limone]

Not a demigod.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, even the villagers can be kind of mean and biting in Animal Crossing.

[Sam Claiborn]

What about that island, though?

[Justin Davis]

They'll wear your clothes if you send them clothes, though, which is cute.

[Sam Claiborn]

I wish that worked in reality.

[Nick Limone]

Indie game, playable on Switch. Not exclusive to Switch.

[Justin Davis]

We don't know if it's Playable on Switch.

[Nick Limone]

He said. Oh, you said Nintendo console.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is this from the last 10 years? So 2015 to 2025?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

All right. More recent. It was like an Undertale era. That's a game I would probably suggest. And me and him were one.

[Justin Davis]

We're locked in Stardew Valley seems. But this live in hard though.

[Nick Limone]

It's got to be something more obscure.

[Sam Claiborn]

I think Undertales like this game have pixelated graphics.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, he doesn't know.

[Justin Davis]

Hold on.

[Damon Hadfield]

Unclear. Hold on. Let me pull up a video.

[Justin Davis]

What about a short. A short hike? Does that count as pixelated? Is PS1 pixelated?

[Damon Hadfield]

You can see jaggy pixels on it.

[Nick Limone]

Jaggy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not this game. Short hike.

[Sam Claiborn]

Short hike.

[Nick Limone]

What's there? Was that Resident Evil like that released like two years ago that people were in love with? I loved it too, but I can't remember the name of it. It was a. You go to an amusement park. You play as a girl with purple hair. The game's like five hours long. Seven hours long. That's. I could see Damon having that struggle with whether or not it's pixelate. It's like that PS1 era looking.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

That's like shorter. I wonder if the. The situation here is that, you know, it's a 3D game and that's unusual. A little bit unusual for.

[Damon Hadfield]

I cannot answer the question.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is this a 2D game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, what about. So it could be like. Like Noita.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Although I don't know if that's on the Switch.

[Nick Limone]

That's. That'd be a hard one to get.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is it. Would you call it a side scrolling game?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I would.

[Sam Claiborn]

No, no, I'm asking.

[Justin Davis]

Did we just ask that?

[Nick Limone]

No, we didn't.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. You're asking is this a side scrolling game? No.

[Sam Claiborn]

Is it top down?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's 10.

[Justin Davis]

Could be. Could be Dwarf Fortress. Hell yeah. That's not on the 10 years. Not on a Nintendo platform.

[Nick Limone]

Does Damon like Kieran the Wanderer?

[Justin Davis]

Top down, last 10 years in this game, is there a bunch of little guys running around? Because if it's top down, there's either one. You're either one guy running around or a bunch of little guys running around round.

[Damon Hadfield]

From what I can tell, there are no guys. All right, that's 11th question.

[Justin Davis]

Is, what does that mean? What do the numbers mean?

[Nick Limone]

Is there. Can you spend currency in the game?

[Damon Hadfield]

I think so. I've never played this game. Okay, well, I shouldn't have said that.

[Nick Limone]

See, definitely not a damie game.

[Justin Davis]

We've earned the freebie to be Fair.

[Damon Hadfield]

There has to be. There has to be. Well, maybe not. I don't know. This is going to be really interesting.

[Nick Limone]

When indie game last 10 years playable on Nintendo hardware. There's no little guys. It's top down perspective. It's 2D, maybe pixelated.

[Justin Davis]

It makes me think of factorio. Except there is one little guy running around in that game.

[Nick Limone]

But you said guys.

[Justin Davis]

Well, but Damon said there are no guys running around. Was his answer.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, okay.

[Justin Davis]

He does not see any guys.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a critically acclaimed game? Yes, it's well renowned. So it's not an obstructure indie game.

[Sam Claiborn]

It'd be like Kerbals or something.

[Nick Limone]

Well, maybe Kerbal's not.

[Sam Claiborn]

Yeah. What's top down? 2D is really like what we got to stick to here.

[Justin Davis]

That's why, that's why I flashed on.

[Sam Claiborn]

Factorio and it's not obviously pixelated. And Damon's played factorial, right?

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. No, he hasn't.

[Sam Claiborn]

Would you call this a. You know, I don't. Is that a SIM game, Justin?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, factory game.

[Sam Claiborn]

Would you call this a sim factory building or what's another type of thing like that? Strategy game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, okay. Sim building, factory strategy.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. I mean, you know, there's a lot of those. It's playable on consoles. I'm gonna, you know, I'm picturing a PC game mostly, but an indie one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is, I mean, okay. Is this a, Is this like a conveyor belt factory automation game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

That's 15 guys.

[Sam Claiborn]

We know any of these?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I think it's probably factorio. There are other ones. Is, you know, I mean, there's a million of them, but there's not that many of them on the switch. Factorio is on the switch.

[Nick Limone]

Didn't factorio just get an update where you go to space?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, it was a dlc.

[Nick Limone]

Should we ask if it recently had a dlc?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Did this game get a. Get a big DLC pack recently? Within the last year or so?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, okay, okay. I, I mean, look, I, I.

[Sam Claiborn]

What are other factory games?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, I'm having a hard time.

[Nick Limone]

What if there's like. Does Justin really like this game?

[Justin Davis]

So there's.

[Sam Claiborn]

It's not factorial.

[Justin Davis]

There's satisfactory. But that one's 3D graphics, 3D, first.

[Sam Claiborn]

Person perspective, overcooked is kind of a factory game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Why don't we think it's factorio?

[Sam Claiborn]

Just because I just said it got DLC last year and then Damon looked it up and said he doesn't know if it has DLC last year. It'd be very easy to determine if. If Factorio had TLC last year.

[Justin Davis]

All right, all right, all right. I don't know. I. I am not sure what other factory games there are on that are playable on a Nintendo platform from the last 10 years that came, you know, came to consoles or a console. So I don't have a better guess. Okay. Are we calling it.

[Nick Limone]

You have five questions left. Wait, hold on. Have we talked about this game yet?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Does Justin really like this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Is it Factorio?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes, Factorio. Is it pixel art? Can't tell if this is pixel art.

[Justin Davis]

No, it's.

[Sam Claiborn]

Are there little guys running around?

[Justin Davis]

There's. There's. You have little robots. Logistics robots. And you are a little guy running around. But. But no, this. Is. All the buildings and trees and stuff are pre rendered. So I would not say it's pixel art. Yeah. Hand drawn.

[Nick Limone]

Justin, can you clarify, does this game have a system where you can spend currency?

[Damon Hadfield]

I guess you've crash landed on a planet, right? So I don't know where the currency would be coming from.

[Nick Limone]

I guess resources is your currency, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean the main goal of the game, you're building these giant factories in order to get science packs and then you're not expending the science packs, but you kind of are. Right. Like the science packs get consumed to unlock new technologies and then build your factory out even further. I would say. No, I would say there is no currency. Currency implies that there's some sort of economy and there is not. There is just you. I guess I was gonna say you fighting aliens, but kind of you're the alien. I'm pretty sure you're the bad guy in this game. And I've never really. I've never really thought too much about.

[Nick Limone]

You are invading a planet to extent. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

That's 100 and they. Actually, now that I think about it, they don't attack you until your pollution sort of wafts over there over their layers. So. Yeah, I think we. I think you're the baddie.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborn]

How's the. How is the impossible one?

[Damon Hadfield]

What do you mean the impossible challenge? Yeah, the impossible game. Where did I have it here? Who remembers the hit bowling game Ten Pin Alley?

[Nick Limone]

That.

[Justin Davis]

No way.

[Damon Hadfield]

PlayStation 1.

[Sam Claiborn]

That's amazing for PlayStation 1. That's incredible.

[Damon Hadfield]

I won't reveal the easier medium games because this would be good to use at a different time. But nicely.

[Nick Limone]

Job well done.

[Damon Hadfield]

Got there. Thank you for the suggestion. Alan. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop.com and I'm actually heading out on vacation for a few weeks but I'm going to attempt next week we'll be in London and I'm going to attempt to host an episode next week from London from the IGN office. So fingers crossed that will work out. But then the next the following week Sam will be your host and then I will be back the week after that. So please be excited for all that. Nick, thank you for joining me here in studio.

[Nick Limone]

Thank you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Thank you to both Sam and Justin. Thank you to Jobert and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Soup. And we're out. This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Avienza. Technical direction is handled by Gilbert Atienza. Technical production is by Marian Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Akib and post production editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen. Gamescoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network. 10 Pin Alley.

[Nick Limone]

That would have been crazy.

[Damon Hadfield]

How does he even know that game? Where did that. Where did that come from?

[Sam Claiborn]

Trying to think if I know a bowling game at all.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, really?

[Nick Limone]

Penguin bowling?

[Damon Hadfield]

Dude, is Nester's Funky Bowling a joke to you?

[Sam Claiborn]

Oh, yeah, Nestor's Fun. That's right.

[Nick Limone]

Bowling for the Wii or ds. One of those.

[Justin Davis]

Elf bowling.

[Damon Hadfield]

Elf bowling?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, Elf bowling. That's a DS1, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

It was bowling in Simpsons Junior. Yes, sir. CineFix Top 100 is back. It's time to pick up our quest.

[Justin Davis]

To watch 100 of the greatest movies of all time. If that sounds good to you. No.

[Damon Hadfield]

Good.

[Justin Davis]

Fine.

[Nick Limone]

Good.

[Justin Davis]

And season four is taking some time to appreciate family. This season, we're diving into movies about all the crazy things we do for family. About reconnecting, about fighting, and about finding family in unexpected places.

[Sam Claiborn]

I am your father.

[Justin Davis]

And what better place to start than with a movie that does a little bit of all of that, starring our favorite archaeologist who named himself after the family dog. And stay in touch with your Cinefix family every Sunday. For more of our biggest list yet, tune in to the CineFix Top 100, part of the Geek Media Network on YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Damon Hadfield]

For thousands of years, or at least since the 90s, PlayStation has been pushing the boundaries of the video game medium. And for almost that long beyond has been there, offering color commentary from the sidelines each week.

[Sam Claiborn]

Join a panel of passionate PlayStation experts.

[Damon Hadfield]

And enthusiasts, including Brian Altano, Jada Griffin.

[Sam Claiborn]

And your host, me Max Scoville.

[Damon Hadfield]

We unpack the latest gaming news, gush about what we're playing, chat with developers.

[Sam Claiborn]

And voice actors, and explore the ever growing world of PlayStation and beyond. Catch a new episode every Wednesday on.

[Damon Hadfield]

Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Beyond is produced by IGN and part of the Geek Media Podcast Network.