Game Scoop! 833: Full Steam Ahead

Summary

Game Scoop! 833: Full Steam Ahead

Date: November 13, 2025
Host: Daemon Hatfield (IGN)
Co-hosts: Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis, Mark Medina

Main Theme & Overview

This week, the Game Scoop crew dives into Valve’s renewed push for living room gaming, discussing the new Steam Machine, controller, and VR headset. They also give deep impressions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, break down the implications of the GTA 6 delay, marvel at the $60 price of a retro-styled Terminator game, and share thoughts on the latest in gaming and pop culture. As always, there are plenty of retro throwbacks, sharp debates, and a challenging round of Video Game 20 Questions.

---

1. Valve Goes Full Steam Ahead—Again

(00:47–24:13)

Key Points:

• Valve’s Steam Machine Returns:
  Valve is making another attempt at conquering the living room, buoyed by the modest success of the Steam Deck. The new Steam Machine, controller, and VR headset (“Steam Frame”) aim to marry PC gaming power with console convenience.

• Steam Machine History:
  Recap of the failed 2015 Steam Machine initiative – "It didn't exactly set the world on fire" (Daemon, 08:01). The main issues were a confusing vendor approach and poor controller design.

• What’s Different This Time?

  • New hardware is designed and made by Valve, no third parties muddling the waters.
  • Steam Big Picture Mode is much improved, offering true plug-and-play for TV gaming.
  • Controller design mimics Steam Deck’s input, with added touchpads aiming to bridge controller and mouse/keyboard experiences.
  • Estimated price is around $800–$1200; not ultra high-end, but aiming for an accessible balance.
  • SteamOS and integration aim for simplicity and instant access to your PC library.
  • Instant access to the massive Steam back-catalog at unbeatable prices.

• New Steam VR Headset (“Steam Frame”):

  • Standalone headset that can play both native VR titles and traditional PC games in a virtual environment (a la Apple Vision Pro).
  • The crew expresses skepticism and notes the challenge of VR adoption and price.

Notable Quotes:

“They want… to make another run at the living room and they’ve got a new Steam Machine…emboldened by its hardware success with the Steam Deck, which I love and play every day.”
—Daemon (09:35)

“This is what’s different… now Valve is making it, and it has custom internals designed for this. As of this show, we don’t have the price... but people guess a thousand to twelve hundred bucks.”
—Justin (11:04–11:46)

“But you can get every Hitman and Assassin’s Creed … for like $6. You really can’t replicate that on consoles.”
—Sam (17:56)

“Usually Valve will make a game to accommodate their hardware… If they said, ‘We’re making Half-Life or Portal’…that would be really exciting.”
—Sam (16:25)

Memorable Moments:

• Crew jokes that the new controller looks “like a little guy that’s sobbing” (Sam, 10:23).
• Lots of nostalgia and laughter recalling the original Steam Machine’s demo sessions in the IGN office.

---

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7—Campaign Gone Trippy

(25:20–35:03)

Key Points:

• Mark’s Deep-Dive Impressions:
  Mark played over 40 hours, completing the campaign and digging into all content.
• Campaign:
  • The narrative is a full-blown psychedelic, “drug trip” experience with shifting landscapes, hallucinations, and a parade of over-the-top setpieces.
  • Features skyscraper-sized Michael Rooker, building-sized swords, floating cars, and wild visuals.
  • “The entire campaign is just like, it’s a drug trip. It’s basically a fantasy campaign.” (Mark, 27:10)
• ‘Endgame’ Mode:
  • An extraction-style open-world mode unlocks after the campaign.
  • Strong PvE focus—“no PvP, just guild enemies and stuff.”
  • Fill your map with objectives and risk losing progress if you don’t ‘exfil’ in time. Both Mark and Justin compare it favorably to other extraction shooters.
• Multiplayer:
  • Mark personally prefers Battlefield for multiplayer but praises Call of Duty’s campaign innovation.
• Zombies Mode:
  • Continues to expand—including wild bosses like the “Z-Rex” (giant zombie T-Rex) and Liberty Prime from Fallout.

Notable Quotes:

“I give it a COD out of 10. I’m not reviewing it, so whatever, they’ll figure it out.”
—Mark (26:03)

“I’m losing my mind. I’m seeing things I shouldn’t be seeing…they’re floating, it’s weird.”
—Mark (27:10)

“I can’t wait for people to check it out.”
—Mark (33:38)

Memorable Moments:

• The team marveling at the scale and weirdness of the campaign.
• Mark admits: “I played 40 hours of this game.” (30:08)
• Sam jokes, “We’re all rooting for you, tiny Activision. Get your little game off the ground…” (35:04)

---

3. Grand Theft Auto 6 Delay: The Wait Continues

(37:44–42:44)

Key Points:

• Another Delay:
  GTA 6, once expected to have already launched, is now pushed to November 19, 2026.
• Industry Impact:
  • The delay leaves a "gigantic vacuum" in the release calendar; developers are reshuffling launches to avoid GTA’s orbit.
  • Speculation over economic and cultural impact—millions will likely take time off work, and global internet infrastructure will be tested on launch day.
• Potential Causes:
  • The team discusses the possible connection between recent Rockstar layoffs (including reports of potential union-busting) and the delay.

Notable Quotes:

“If you live in the United States and work in games, you’re going to have a busy Thanksgiving next year.”
—Sam (37:59)

“There’s big games, there’s gigantic games, and then there’s GTA…”
—Justin (39:31)

Memorable Moments:

• Jokes about Star Wars movies fleeing the GTA 6 launch window.
• Justin likens GTA’s launch day to “when the last Harry Potter book came out,” with everyone’s lives on pause.

---

4. Terminator 2D: No Fate—Retro Boldness, Steep Price

(42:45–45:41)

Key Points:

• Retro-Style, Modern Price:

  • Upcoming 2D pixel art Terminator: Judgment Day run-and-gun—heavily ‘Contra’-inspired.
  • The team is shocked at the $60 price: “Red Dead 2 was a $60 game. Silksong was $20.”
  • Daemon: “I could not believe it when I learned this was $60.” (45:31)

• Niche but Appealing:

  • License targets older fans; “they know the audience…must have people pushes price up.”
  • Most of the crew thinks Bitmap Bureau’s play is overconfident but hope the game is great.

Memorable Moments:

• Discussion of mothers saying, “We have Contra at home!” about the $60 price (Sam, 45:27).
• Group laughter at the game’s surprising amount of pixel nudity during a trailer (45:41).

---

5. Retro, News & Pop Culture Segment

(47:47–57:25)

Highlights:

• Predator: Badly Dance

  • Both Daemon and Mark recommend it—“the first Predator movie with the Predator as the protagonist.”
  • Mark: “Elle Fanning’s comedic timing…is not lost on me at all. The movie is laugh out loud funny.” (49:25)
  • Crew notes the film is PG-13, heavy on quips, and successful at the box office.

• Pluribus

  • Daemon praises the new Vince Gilligan show as his “new Severance”—high concept sci-fi, reminiscent of X-Files.

• Frankenstein (Netflix)

  • Mark and Sam both loved Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation: “Some of the best sets…Oscar Isaac kills it as Frankenstein.” (56:35–57:21)

• Gremlins News

  • New movie coming November 19, 2027, with Chris Columbus returning.

---

6. Video Game 20 Questions: Stumper!

(62:09–81:18)

• The game: Titanfall (original, Xbox exclusive).
• The crew struggles, hilariously circling around but not hitting the correct answer until Mark’s late breakthrough.
• Key clue: Apex Legends is in the same universe and lives on modern platforms.
• Notable moment: “Nice. Because Apex is the … thing that Apex Legends is available on modern consoles.”
  —Sam/Mark (81:18)

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7. Other Noteworthy Discussions & Timestamps

• Steam Deck Sales Stats (24:14): "A little over 4 million sold—a modest success."
• Valve Hardware Nostalgia Tangents (7:00–9:24): Memories of old controller demos and phantom hardware like the “Phantom” console.
• Mortal Kombat Documentary (20:04–20:50): Sam is working through the games and found the documentary outstanding.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Bring E3 back, show it at E3, and then put [Elder Scrolls 6] out six months later.”
  —Daemon (06:17)

• “What I want from Elder Scrolls 6—just don’t talk about it again, and then show it.”
  —Mark (06:07)

• “It’s literally just a console you plug into your TV and play PC games. My dream of the 90s.”
  —Daemon (13:08)

• “I think you have to be over 30 to think Terminator is cool.”
  —Daemon (44:50)

• “We have Contra at home!”
  —Sam (45:27)

---

Summary Takeaways

• Valve is making a serious, coordinated push back into PC-living-room territory, with lessons learned from the past and some cautious optimism from the hosts.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s campaign is wild, weird, and ambitious, winning back the crew with its trippy fantasy approach and a meaty new extraction endgame.
• GTA 6’s latest delay reshapes the entire game release calendar and will likely become a global cultural moment.
• Retro gaming nostalgia is alive but faces modern pricing dilemmas, as with the new $60 Terminator 2D game.
• The pop culture catch-up and TV/movie recommendations are as lively as ever, keeping the tone conversational and fun.
• Video Game 20 Questions remains a highlight, with the crew’s banter and close calls bringing laughs and relatable frustration.

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For New Listeners…

This episode is a perfect encapsulation of Game Scoop’s trademark: equal parts expert analysis, nostalgic tangents, and gaming camaraderie. Whether you crave hardware talk, want blockbuster impressions, or just need a dose of gaming culture, Scoop Nation always delivers.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

Valve is making another run at your living room gaming setup. Plus we've got impressions on Call of Duty, Black Ops 7, GTA 6's Big Delay, Terminator 2D, no Fate and more coming up next on this week's Game Scoop. Why do most of us want to learn a new language? It's probably not about memorizing grammar tables or topping a leaderboard. It's because we want to speak it out in the real world with real people. Babbel gets you there fast. Start speaking a new language with confidence thanks to Babbel's conversation based technique that quickly teaches you useful words and phrases about the things you actually talk about in the real world. There's over a dozen languages available to learn at your own pace so you can achieve your goals with material tailored to your individual proficiency level, interests and time availability. Handcrafted by over 200 language experts, Babbel's lessons are voiced by real native speakers and built with science backed cognitive tools like Spaced repetition and interactive features to fit any learning style. Babbel's tips and tools for learning a new language are approachable and accessible. It's like having a private tutor in your pocket. It's that time of year again and Gamescom is coming up, so I should probably use Babbel to brush up on my German. I love that it uses voice recognition to listen to my pronunciation and give feedback. I use Babbel. And if you're looking to learn a new language, I think you'll dig it too. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription 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. What's up everybody? Welcome to IG and gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[B]

Hey, it's good to be hosted by.

[A]

Damon Hatfield, Justin Davis Scoop and Mark Medina.

[C]

I'm back. Damon, it's been a while.

[A]

That's kind of like a mix of yours and Nick's catchphrase and I oh, that's true. I don't think Nick's gonna be happy about it. I don't know.

[C]

He can fight me and he would win. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

[A]

Well, we've got a great show for you this week and so much to get through. There's so much happening in fact, while we're recording This, a Japanese PlayStation State of Play is happening right now.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

Thankfully, it does appear to be very Japanese in nature. And nothing.

[C]

They're showing Katamari right now.

[D]

There's a new Dynasty Warriors. New Dynasty warriors dlc.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[D]

But we do have to be careful because they might announce some megaton at the end and then we'll look like jerks for like.

[A]

That's true.

[B]

But it really is happening in real time right now. It is. We'll update you, Dear Lister.

[C]

It's on my other screen.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Mark is monitoring the situation.

[C]

I'll just start screaming if something cool happens.

[B]

But Mark.

[D]

Or if you get bit by a snake.

[B]

He'll be watching. Watching but not typing.

[A]

Not typing. Nobody. Nobody is going to be typing. So much to get through this week. I think Mark spent like a whole week playing Call of Duty last week.

[C]

My goodness.

[A]

You may have heard that a certain anticipated 2026 game has been delayed and got another delay by.

[B]

That's all this episode.

[A]

It's all this episode. Plus today is an auspicious anniversary. Anyone know what today's auspicious anniversary is?

[B]

I think.

[A]

I hope I'm using the word auspiciously suspicious. Correct.

[C]

Fact check on that.

[D]

11. 11. I can't think of it.

[A]

11 Skyrim.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

14 years old today. And the announcement of Ellis rules. 6. 7 years old.

[B]

And there's news on that this week.

[A]

Todd Howard. Yeah. The good news is that. Don't worry, everyone. Todd Howard says it's no, it's nowhere near being done.

[C]

Just, just, just, just get. Put it out of your brain.

[A]

Yep. Don't nobody think About Elder Scrolls 6 is what Todd.

[B]

But he also said it could be shadow dropped. So that means that he could be trying to surprise us by making sure that we. It's an actual Shadow drop. So maybe, you know. And he said that the Oblivion drop was a dry run. Right. So maybe it will be next year or tomorrow. And then we'll be extra surprised by his fate.

[A]

It'll be shadow dropped in 2031.

[C]

Every day I wake up thinking today could be the day.

[B]

I mean, it was pretty impressive that, yes, there were leaks and rumors a lot about the Oblivion remaster, but it really did come out of nowhere in the end.

[E]

There.

[B]

Did a good job with that. That's cool.

[A]

I'd love to get an Elder Scrolls sooner than later, but it sure doesn't sound like that game is anywhere near to being done.

[D]

This B roll we're watching is not canon, by the way. Oh, did nobody notice but me? All the dragons were. Thomas, the train.

[C]

Might be canon. I don't know.

[B]

I will accept in the interim, a Fallout 3 remake, whenever that happens.

[C]

Oh, my gosh.

[A]

Yeah, well, thought four Anniversary Edition is out today.

[C]

Yeah. And it's terrible. I hear it's really terrible.

[B]

I just thought it was unchanged.

[C]

No, it's super buggy.

[D]

Yeah. All the mods. So it's like. What's new about this one is it has these paid mods, these fan made mods that are in it that now you can pay money for. But like. But when you enable, you know, many of them, it just breaks the game and crashes it. So it's like the. The one thing you're paying for is just kind of like, not functional at the moment. Like, I. I believe it'll get cleaned up eventually, but it's not. Yeah, it doesn't sound like it launched in a very healthy state.

[B]

Well, we gave it a 9.5. Apparently. It's right there on the screen.

[D]

That's the other. That's the Anniversary Edition. Right. Or maybe the original.

[B]

Yeah, probably.

[A]

Yeah. I don't think we reviewed this.

[B]

We did not.

[A]

Although a 9.5 for Fallout 4. Would I raise an eyebrow at that?

[B]

Anyway, also, you would get in trouble because we don't do 0.5s.

[A]

But in Tony. But in 2015. Sam.

[C]

Yeah. Dan took the 0 point fives with him when he left IG.

[B]

You don't think that in 2015 you would have given Fallout 4 9.5?

[A]

No, because I got bored with it after a while.

[B]

Well, I know, but you were, you know, the hype was pretty.

[A]

Yeah, sure. I mean, it was cool. They announced it at E3 and then it was out six months later. So that was cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I never completed. I love games. I never beat it.

[A]

I never.

[C]

What I. What I want from Elder Scrolls 6. Just. Just don't talk about it again. And then show it at, you know, Summer Game Fest, whatever, and.

[A]

No, no, no, Mark, that's what I want with Elder Scrolls 6.

[D]

2.

[A]

Bring E3 back, show it at E3.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

And then put it out six months later.

[B]

Yeah. As we all talked about, I think last week, we want a really cold, dark room where you can take a 30 minute nap and wake up to the dragon showing up finally.

[D]

Yeah, I was in the room when Elder Scrolls 6 was announced. I was at that Bethesda press conference.

[A]

Yeah, the Bethesda press conferences used to go off the rails. Remember there was that one year, a woman was just screaming like, she was just, she was clear.

[C]

Like, I think she was like, I.

[A]

Think she was a Bethesda employee who was just drunk. She was just screaming out of her mind at every sort of every announcement.

[C]

It was great for Elder Scrolls Online. He's like, there's a new playable race.

[D]

Yeah. And like that's. I think, like, I think that they had a thing afterwards. You could play some of their new games. And I think Third Eye Blind was playing that party and like, that's not a brag. Like, I was so, like, I had to play the new Elder Scrolls card game and I'm like trying to get a demo and like learn the rules because I have to write a story about it.

[A]

No, I know, like during the show when it was like, we had this new horror game Evil Within. And now please enjoy a performance from Andrew wk. Okay.

[B]

Why did they get the ink spots?

[A]

I know. Why didn't they get the ink spots?

[B]

There was like at least five or six ink spots touring throughout the 90s and 2000s by that point. Not none of them original. You can listen to more on A History of rock and roll 5 minute songs by Andrew Hickey. Good podcast.

[A]

Man. We haven't even. We've gone on so many tangents. We haven't even gotten to my butt first, so. But first.

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

Well, it is fitting we were talking out Fallout 4 because that was out in 2015. And do you know what was out? What else was out in 2015? Valve's Steam Machine.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, 2015. And it didn't exactly set the world on fire machines.

[C]

There was like a ton of them.

[D]

That was part of the problem.

[B]

This is when they launched the controller and the, the box too.

[A]

The box.

[D]

Well, but it was, but they, they. It was a standard and Sorry, David. Like anybody could make a Steam machine.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Part of was that it wasn't.

[C]

It was like alien wear and all these different.

[B]

But the controller did distinguish this moment though, in 2015.

[C]

Yeah. But that controller was awful. Just awful.

[B]

It didn't have thumbsticks.

[D]

They've. They've cracked the code. I think maybe we can let Damon get to his point. Sure.

[B]

Let's go back to the Dreamcast. I mean, Skyrim.

[A]

Well, I, I still remember Justin or Sam. Do you remember the long running head of PR for Valve who we used to always deal with? He was there forever. I'm not sure if he's there anymore.

[D]

But Doug Lombardi.

[A]

Doug Lombardi, yes. Yeah, I remember him bringing the Steam machine and the controller to the IGN office. On Second street in San Francisco and like demonstrating it for us and being excited because. Does anyone else remember in the 90s there was a piece of Phantom hardware called the Phantom that was supposed to do exactly what the Steam Machine does and just be, you know, be a plug and play console that went under your TV and played PC games. Back then they would come on discs.

[C]

Oh, cool.

[A]

I always wanted that because I never, like, had a gaming PC, but I don't think that console ever saw the light of day.

[B]

So here comes that console could never get the Sound Blaster 16 working. That's why.

[A]

So then 2015, Valve releases the Steam Machine, but, you know, not a big hit. And I think they discontinued it all within a year. I think all in all, they sold like a couple hundred thousand of those things. The reason we're talking about all this is because the Steam Machine is back emboldened by its hardware success with the Steam Deck, which I love and I play every day.

[B]

Me too.

[A]

They want. They're going to make another run at the. At the living room and they've got a new Steam Machine. I got a new controller that just. It just basically has all the buttons and the pads that you'd find on the Steam Deck. And they have a new VR headset called the Steam Frame.

[B]

You see, what they did is they put those pads below the thumbstick, so now it looks like it's crying.

[C]

Can I also just say that that controller also just looks terrible? I don't know, but think of it.

[B]

As a little guy that's sobbing.

[C]

Oh, well, now I feel bad.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, this, this doesn't bother me because you can plug your Xbox controller into it and that's what everybody's going to do. So it's like, I feel like this. So just let's be super clear here. This is what's different about this Steam Machine, is that it's made by Valve, right? So Valve didn't make the last Steam Machine. So they said, we have a controller and we're going to make a TV like interface. And now Alienware and these other people, you can go forth and make Steam Machines sort of following this standard. And so it was really confusing and complicated and some were cheap and some were expensive and it just. And it was a little bit ahead of its time and the controller wasn't very good.

[B]

Some great camera work we're seeing right here.

[D]

It kind of flopped a little bit for that reason. And now what's different is the Steam Machine is a standard where Valve is making it, and it has, you know, custom internals that are sort of designed for, I don't know as of the time that we're recording this show that we have the price on what the Steam, you know, the new Steam machine is.

[B]

The price is comparable. PCs.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. But we know from the specs of the console that it's not ultra high end. Right. Like it's targeting something to be a little bit more affordable.

[C]

I think they said 40, 60 something maybe 50 60, which is like, probably puts the, the unit at like 1200 bucks.

[A]

That's what I was going to say. Big like PC gaming people at IGN have, have guessed a thousand to twelve hundred bucks around there.

[D]

Man, I'd be surprised. I mean, you know, they're, they're more in the know than me. That's on the higher end. Like I'd say 800 to a thousand is kind of what I expect, but you know, we'll see.

[C]

Yeah, I get, I guess the issue is, is that like a PS5 Pro is 800 bucks now. And so it's like, and this thing's going to be more powerful. The consoles are just, everything's just skyrocketed.

[D]

But the PS5 Pro. Oh, I was going to make a joke about how it can't play age of Empires 4, but I think there is a console port. The point is, the point is, and you know we're goofing on the Steam controller a little bit with the pads, but like, you know, it's trying to replicate a mouse like experience. Right. Like let you play mouse and keyboard games, let you. It's trying to be a marriage of that lean back on your couch console lifestyle with that, you know, lean forward at your desk PC gaming lifestyle and like, you know, TBD on whether they've cracked it or not. But like Valve is definitely building on what came before with the Steam deck. And like when I first, you know, heard this news, I was a little bit disappointed with the power level of the console. I'm like, ah, you know, I wish it was a little bit more powerful. I feel like they're kind of compromising a little bit. But as I've sat with it and sort of thought about it, I'm like, well I think that this is gonna do, it's gonna do the thing, Damon of like just plug it into your TV finally.

[A]

Yeah, like my dream of the 90s is think so?

[D]

Like I think it's gonna be like just plug it in and you know, you're always in Steam big picture mode and then just, you know, go Forth and play. You don't need to think about it. So that sort of brought me back around. I think I'm pretty into it after all.

[C]

Yeah, I, I think that, I think the, the big thing with this is the Steam Big Picture mode, which is what they didn't have before. And Steam Big Picture mode is just so good. I, I have a computer actually hooked to my PC and it launches in Steam Big Picture mode because like, that's, that's all that PC is for, is for. As for.

[D]

You have a TV hooked up to your.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Well, so, yeah, I have, I have two computers in this office. The one I'm on now and then I have one in the background.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And that one is hooked directly up to the tv. And when I turn it on, Steam Big Picture mode comes on. But what's also interesting about this is this is also Xbox's next console. And so it's really, really funny to see this.

[A]

They're gonna beat him to the punch.

[C]

Yeah, I, I, I think I, I mean, who knows what executives know behind the scenes, but it's like the thought was that Xbox was kind of going into this next generation unmatched with this PC handheld or PC console hybrid. And yeah, they're being beat to the punch by Steam and the Rog Xbox. Ally people are really, really liking it. It seems like a really cool device, but there are some drawbacks with the Windows, you know, functionality with it. And it's launching with Steam and having to do all these crazy updates and all these things and games crashing where it's like this. I don't know, it, it seems really cool. But I'm also really, I'm a big Steam Deck guy.

[D]

So I'm definitely, I'm gonna get one of these. Like, I'm right, right in the target market.

[A]

I am exactly the target demographic for this. Just like I said I've wanted, this is why I've always wanted just a simple way to use, you know, to play PC games. And especially I like SteamOS. I love the Steam Deck. Let me just lean back on the couch and play that. I'm exactly the target for this. But what about Sam?

[B]

Well, I'm having trouble thinking of a game I'd want to play on this. I like everything comes to the consoles I already own, and I have a Steam Deck. So it's like, if it's a small indie game that works on my Steam deck, I don't really want it on my television. And if it's a big game that requires a controller, I Don't play mouse and keyboard. And so that's not really a consideration for me. So if it's a game that requires a controller, I have, well, I have three of those systems in my living room right now. I don't really know what I'd play in it. Like if Cyberpunk 2 was only coming out for this.

[D]

It is a little bit like for me, part of the appeal for me personally is sort of these mouse and keyboard games that are not so precise that like that I would put up with the Steam Deck controller.

[B]

Like I played Civ for the first time ever this year, so that's probably a good example.

[D]

Civ would be a good candidate.

[B]

But I played it on Steam Deck. Yeah, great. So there are going to be things like that, but there's so few of them that like the, whatever price tag doesn't make sense for me. But there is something exciting about this. It's that usually Valve will make a video game to accommodate their, to accompany their new hardware. And if they said we're making a Half Life or a Portal or something like that, that would be really exciting. And I'm really hoping that follows this hardware announcement just to get people hyped for hardware because that's always fun.

[D]

I have no idea if there's anything behind this smoke, but there's been a lot of smoke around Half Life three over the last year or so.

[C]

You know, if they release the Steam deck next holiday or, or even summer. I, I, I'm, I'm feeling a summer release for this thing. If they release it with Half Life 3 or Portal 3, like it's over it, like it's over. They, they have entered the, entered the console market at, with a bank. Like people will buy this thing by, you know. Yeah, I think so.

[D]

Exclusive three is Portal three.

[B]

Yeah, they're gonna be combined and then, you know. But releasing that as an exclusive is kind of interesting. I mean, Half Life came out for everything, so, you know, I don't know. That would be an interesting move. I'd love that. I think it'd be an interesting news story to cover. I think it'd piss people off. But, you know, $1,200 console just to play Half Life is a really, really cool story to cover for us. I think that if that was the case, I'd definitely borrow one from work and play through that because that'd be really fun. But I also want to mention that there's another thing that makes this like, really cool, interesting and that's that the Steam library, everybody has first of all a giant back catalog of games they bought for 99 cents. And going forward there will be games for 99 cents all the time. You really, you really can't replicate that on the consoles at all. There's. There's definitely subscription services and all that. But like the fact that like, if you wait long enough, you can get every Hitman and Assassin's Creed and everything you've ever wanted to play for like $6. It's like, come on. Yeah, like that balances out the price of admission pretty quickly.

[A]

That's actually.

[C]

This won't have multiplayer costs, you know, won't have that. Like PS plus Xbox is all no subscription. The subscription.

[D]

Sorry, go ahead.

[C]

Sorry. The last thing. I know we're going to talk about GTA soon, but like the weirdest thing about this is that this thing is going to come out. It's going to be the big console next year and it is not going to play Grand Theft Auto at launch. So that's going to be a little strange.

[D]

No PC version announced, man. Like I mentioned several weeks ago that I was really playing and enjoying Two Point Campus. I got that game for $3. How does that make sense for anybody? How does, how does this profitable for feto? Lay these corporations.

[C]

I don't know what they're doing.

[B]

It's true though. I mean that's.

[D]

Yep. That's. Yeah, no, it's super true. They're like, do you like. Ubisoft gets all sweaty once a year and it's like, do you want to buy like 11 assassin's creeds for $8? And you're like, yeah.

[B]

And contrast.

[C]

I read our article talking about Fallout Anniversary Edition. They're like, it's like 60 bucks, but right now you can get it on Steam for 40 bucks. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure I got Fallout 4 on Steam for like three bucks like last year.

[B]

Contrast that to Nintendo who announced Pocopia as a digital download with a key card today for 70 or 80 bucks depending on. And. And it will never go on sale.

[D]

Nope.

[C]

Breath of the wild. Still 70 bucks.

[B]

But that makes people really inclined to buy their I know sounds cheap now 500 system. It doesn't actually sound cheap now.

[C]

What's next, David? What do you want us to talk about next?

[B]

Well, let's check the PlayStation news real quick.

[D]

That's what I just did.

[C]

I looked at the fighting game. What I can confirm about the state of play is on. Yeah, everybody on the state of play is incredibly good looking. That, that I Can confirm. What are they, Japanese? Yeah, man, they. These are some beautiful people, I'll tell you that. But so far, no. No games that I.

[B]

But they did show the Marvel Fighter again.

[C]

They did do that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That game looks pretty interesting.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Doesn't look like anything else out there.

[A]

Still working my way through the Mortal Kombat legacy collection.

[D]

Sam.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, just the documentary part.

[B]

I finished the doc. It was great.

[A]

I'm up to Mortal Kombat 3 now.

[D]

Cool.

[B]

Yeah, I just had. I have no point of reference for anything past three. Like, I never saw four, and it's all three D. And so. So janky. It's. And they. And belovedly janky, though, I think, to some people. And like, they're showing, like, they made, you know, I don't know, a couple hundred endings and they had to recycle the animations from everything else to make those endings. And it's just completely unhinged, you know, it's just like somebody with like a dangling arm because it's like you're not supposed to pay attention to that while they're doing something else because. Because they're using all the recycled animations. It's so fun.

[C]

They're showing Night Rain, but I assume it's just going to be like, all right, guys, the game's even harder than it was before. Well, I'm very annoyed by post launch. Night Rain.

[B]

The Night Rain DLC is not as a trickle. Right. And it's been maddening to find to people playing. So more DLC on the future is most welcome. It's just taking a long time.

[A]

Okay, so there's a new Steam machine, new Steam controller, and then there's the Steam frame, which is their new VR headset. It's a standalone headset, so it's a PC that you wear in your face. You can play your whole Steam library. VR games also, but regular PC games and like a virtual display, kind of what the Apple Vision Pro can do, which, you know. Okay, cool.

[C]

I don't.

[A]

They're. They're still trying to make this VR thing happen.

[B]

Yeah. I think standalone VR is the way to VR, for one thing.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I really hate tethering to a computer or even a console, so I do think that's really great. You know, obviously Meta is already doing it.

[D]

Yeah. I mean, The Meta Quest 3 is really good. That's the thing. Right? Like, so.

[B]

And nobody can afford Apple.

[D]

Yeah. Well, the Apple Vision Pro is doing a little bit of a different thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, it's hard to It's, It's. It's something that you have to experience for yourself. And how heavy does it feel on your face? And how, you know, how is the experience with, you know, how adjustable do the lenses and stuff feel like it's very kind of intimate and personal.

[C]

So, I mean, it looks comfy. Like, it's getting to that point where it's not like, you know, headphones, like, they don't have the huge, like, you know, where it's kind of weighing down. Like, it looks comfy. But, man, I'm not too much into VR gaming.

[D]

I don't have. Every single time I'm like, ooh, like, maybe this is the year I buy a VR headset. Then it's like, oh, but I know something better is, like, right around the corner, right?

[B]

So that's true.

[D]

I still don't own one. And it's like, I'm just waiting for that moment of like, you know, yeah. Yes. The technology is always going to improve, but, like, we've reached kind of a stair step of, like, what's a good jumping in point? And so, you know, I don't know. I mean, if the steam frame, I mean, it looks super expensive, you know.

[B]

The thing is going to happen that's happening with the electric car right now, which is like, at some point, the best electric cars in the world are going to be much cheaper than the average electric cars are right now. So it's like, you know, this is the type of technology that's going to shrink and get better and shrink and get better. It's kind of different than a computer. Right?

[A]

Kingo is always asking me about VR. Obviously, he's way too young. He's six. But he's interested because he knows Astrobot started in VR.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

And then we were at the aquarium in Long beach this weekend, and they had this VR sort of exhibit where you could go underwater. And he was curious about that. Like, no, no, no. We have to wait a little bit. So he may be the one to crack me in getting VR at some point. We'll see.

[B]

How does that work? Are there adapt? I mean, I understand why you don't want to put your small child in VR. I get all that. That aside, is there a technical solution for putting a tiny head in a VR goggle set?

[A]

I haven't looked into it.

[D]

Yeah, I don't know. What if you're just an adult with a tiny head? What do you do?

[C]

Yeah, interesting.

[A]

Okay. That's the C machine stuff. I think it's really interesting. What a Big push valve is making to get back into the living room and sticking with VR. The Steam deck. Like I said, I love my Steam deck. I would describe it as a modest success. Like, does anyone know how many units it is estimated to have sold?

[C]

It's just north of 4 million, right?

[A]

Yeah, it's estimated to have sold a little over 4 million, you know, and.

[D]

So that's a lot.

[A]

Well, Nintendo sold over 10 million Switch twos in three months.

[D]

Yeah, but that's not, that's all like, that's all. I don't know. I don't think that's the right way to think about it.

[A]

It's been out for like four years or three years now. Four, four million units. Three years. So that's why I said a modest success. That's what I.

[D]

Well, okay, yeah, I mean, I guess I understand. I, I just, I don't like. Nintendo is in the business of selling video game consoles where the Steam deck is like another way to experience what I would consider. Steam considers. They're like the core of their business.

[A]

Sure.

[D]

So it's like they made, what do they cost? Like 400 bucks, you know, so they made $400 million selling this hardware. Like, I don't know.

[A]

I guess I love it, it, I'm, I'm happy for my. I, I'm glad they're giving C Machine another chance.

[D]

I did that math completely wrong, by the way. So I'm like thinking about. Wait a second, that doesn't check out.

[A]

Mark, what do you think of Call of Duty Black Ops 7?

[C]

Yeah, Call of Duty Black Ops 7. I, I got the orange lights on. I'm all in the mood. Yeah, so I played it a lot. I played like 40 hours of it already. I know. I like it a lot. I, I, I really liked last year's Call of Duty. I don't play multiplayer. I'm not, I'm not a multiplayer guy. So I, I played exactly zero minutes of multiplayer last year. This year I've played a lot because when you go to these, you know, kind of preview events, you don't really get to choose what you want to play. And so it's Call of Duty multiplayer. I give it a COD out of 10. I'm not reviewing it. So whatever, they'll figure it out. And, and the other issue is I've been playing a lot of Battlefield and it just, it just doesn't stack up. Battlefield is just so, so good. And so, I don't know, you're saying.

[B]

You don't play Call of Duty. Let somebody Else evaluate it. But Battlefield is better. That's the battlefield is the reasoning that you just went.

[C]

My own opinion.

[B]

I just want to point out that Mark Medina is saying all this, not me.

[C]

I'm not ign. Not. Yeah. If you want to jump into your hard points and your search and destroys and whatever, cool, go for it. That ain't, that ain't for me. Yeah.

[B]

I have some questions that I've already asked you, but I'll ask you in front of the people here.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

So last year I really enjoyed Call of Duty. Single player. I like the little open world part. I like this almost like psychedelic level which was like, you know, kind of figured out how to get zombies into the game. What is like that in it for me this year?

[C]

Yeah. So yeah, I also really liked the campaign last year with that zombies level. So this year with those familiar with the like Frank woods and David woods storyline is you'll be familiar with the Cradle, which is a kind of a hallucinatic. I can't say that.

[B]

Hallucinogenic.

[C]

There you go. And it messes up your mind. And so that happens. I don't want to spoil too much, but it does happen like basically in the first mission where the, the cradle gets unleashed. And so the entire. For those watching, you'll see a skyscraper sized Michael Rooker. The entire campaign is just like, it's a drug trip. It's, it's, it's basically a fantasy campaign. There's. There's very little. It's not, you know, global, global warfare. It's. I'm losing my mind. I'm seeing things that I shouldn't be seeing. And what, what's really cool is, is. Yeah. So then there's zombies just all the time. Crazy creatures all the time. But also like, like crazy landscapes. Like. Yeah, in the first mission you're just in this normal kind of area and then you kind of hallucinate and then you're in an area where somebody's dropping giant swords. And when I say giant, I mean like building sized swords and stuff like that. And then you get to drop the giant swords. You'll go into a place where roads are twisty and weird and you have to like. There's like. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the game Only up, but there's like an only up section where you're like climbing up the top, like to the top of this building. But you're using like debris from this like exploded highway. So there's cars floating and stuff. I know it doesn't sound like I'm describing a Call of Duty campaign, but this is what. This is what it is. They're floating. It's weird.

[B]

What about the open world level?

[C]

So then when you're done with the game, there is an epilogue of sorts where it's like, okay, you saved the day, but. But Avalon is still messed up, so we need you to jump back in. And so it's called Endgame. It is an open world, very, very extraction, like extraction light shooter where you are. You're landing either alone or with a squad. There's no PvP. They're just, you know, guild enemies and stuff like that. And your attack map is just filled with things to do. So you're running around, you know, just taking out high value targets. You're taking out zombie targets, you're taking out drones. You're doing all these different things, stopping convoys, and you're leveling up as you do it. But nothing you do matters unless you exfil. So that's where the extraction comes in. Because then eventually you have to. The. The timer will start to run out and you have to kind of choose like, do I want to keep staying and keep playing and possibly lose everything or do I want to exfil? And so it's really, really fun. That was the highlight of the. Of the event.

[B]

It.

[D]

It's the craziest thing that they put this whole in game and you know, they're calling it end game, but like, they.

[B]

They're like.

[D]

They put a whole other game inside their game. Which, you know, I guess Call of Duty has been kind of doing that for well over a decade now, but it's still. It sounds really interesting to me, actually.

[C]

Yeah, I. I liked it a lot. Sorry. Go ahead, Damon.

[A]

You completed the campaign already?

[C]

I have not only completed the campaign, I already have like all the collectibles and everything. I've played 40 hours of this game.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

That's why. Yeah, we played it a lot. Yeah. The end game is really fun. I'm a little worried because for one, Arc Raiders is huge and that's a real extraction shooter.

[B]

But you don't need to be worried about any Call of Duty being successful. I think it'll do fine.

[C]

I'm not worried because I don't care if it sells. But. But the other thing is, like, when I think about the success of stuff like Arc Raiders and stuff like that, it's usually because your shrouds and ninjas and Tim the tap mans and stuff are playing it it with this being locked behind the campaign I do sometimes get a little worried that, like, are they gonna. Are the top streamers? Yeah, the top streamers usually dictate what's topping the Steam charts. So I'm curious to see if they're gonna play the campaign to be able to play this mode, but I like it a lot. And then there's zombies. There's more zombies.

[B]

Yeah. You talked about the Xerox in that, right?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, well, that's in. That's an end game, actually.

[B]

Oh, that's an end game. Oh, that's.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, the Xerox and. And Liberty prime and all that. Those were old zombie bosses from Shattered Vale. And so Endgame will continue to have, you know, world events. And so, yeah, the Z Rex, which is a giant zombie T Rex, and Liberty prime from Fallout is in it and all that.

[B]

So now that Call of Duty is the underdog and everything, and campaigns and shooters and everything, we all get to root for it again. And I'm really surprised that a year on after last year's game, it seems like they took all the things that were cool about it and did them bigger and better instead of just having an off year with some other completely different development studio. Making a Call of Duty game like that is. I just don't.

[C]

Treyarch. I don't see how they did this.

[B]

I don't either.

[C]

I don't really don't get it.

[B]

It's like, I thought, oh, maybe they'll just skip a campaign this year because how can they just do another game? You know, it's just like, nope, they made a better campaign with a bigger open world ending thing. Like, what? What?

[D]

I mean, I mean, I know. I know you were half goofing Sam about Call of Duty being the underdog, but, like, you know, a, there is some truth to that, but B, it'. It's getting. People are rooting for it again because it looks interesting and cool again after a decade of it just being kind of like. It was always crazy polished to a sheen from like, a gameplay standpoint. Right. But was just kind of like, you know, as someone that has been playing video games my whole life, like, kind of the bro y military thing, I'm like, I'm just not. I'm over it.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

Right. And so, like, it just, you know, it just. They've. They've figured out a way to like, bring these fantastical elements into the game while still keeping, you know, kind of like, you know, the. The dude bro military aspect that I'm sure helps sell, you know, helps them sell the, the, you know, tens of millions of copies every single year, but also bring people like me back around.

[B]

And that's also like, still like, multiplayer is untouched. Right? Like, it's like that, that's the core of that kind of traditional Call of Duty community. So, like, almost bringing in new audiences seems to be the goal of these campaigns, which is, I think it's really neat.

[C]

Yeah, the multiplayer's got your wall jumping, it's got your Omni movement and stuff like that. It's, it's people who like it will be there. But I, I mentioned it earlier, but yeah, in talking about, like how grounded and stuff it is, they, they got Michael Rooker for this campaign and, and he is, he is, he is Michael Rooker. He, he does his thing. And so like, if you're wondering what the tone is, it's Michael Rooker toned. It's, it's great. But yeah, I like it a lot and I can't wait for people to check it out.

[B]

I can't wait for a Tim Robinson toned.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. So Mark, your opinion, I think you said in one of our morning meetings is that Battlefield has the better multiplayer and Call of Duty has the better campaign. Is that right?

[C]

Correct. Yeah, the campaign for the world, the campaign for Battlefield is, is, you know, it's military stuff. That's fine. I, I, I don't know how much it grabbed people. I, I thought it was cool. I did the preview for it, but I, I, for the most part, I was like, okay, yeah, the Call of Duty campaign is, is so fun. But yes, the multiplayer, again, if you're Call of Duty and you want your, and you want those game modes, they're there. And then it also has Skirmish, which is a 30, 30v30 mode, which is like you're just kind of landing and, and taking points and, and doing tasks.

[B]

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's Battlefield esque, right? That's like kind of what that is.

[C]

Kind of, kind of. Battlefield just has so many modes now that it's, it's, I don't know, I think you're more, much more war, semi experience if you play Battlefield. I've been playing a lot of Battlefield, Gauntlet and Holy smokes, it's fun.

[B]

Nice.

[C]

I really like this video game. I like both video games, but yeah.

[A]

So if this is out on Thursday this week, Mark, is it Call of Duty out now?

[C]

Yeah, if this episode. Yep. Okay. We are living in a world where Call of Duty has released. Cool. It doesn't feel any different.

[D]

All Right.

[B]

We're all rooting for you, tiny Activision. Get your little game off the ground. Get it off the ground.

[D]

I was gonna make a joke about them being indie and then I remembered that they are owned by Microsoft.

[A]

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[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

We would be playing it right now. Delayed to May 26, 2026, and then late last week delayed it again. But at least it has a new release date now it's November 19th, so it's still over a year away.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

GTA 6.

[B]

Well, if you live in the United States and you live in the game industry, you're going to have a busy Thanksgiving next year.

[C]

Well, I just want to. I just want to play this game, man.

[D]

Me too.

[A]

It won't be busy if ever wanted. If you want to play anything else other than Grand Theft Auto next fall.

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[D]

I think based off of absolutely nothing, I think this release date's going to stick. I don't know. I just, I never, I always had weird vibes off the May release date. Like, like it just felt like they were hedging like we're going to say May, but secretly we're saying May because we think it's going to be.

[B]

It would have been the best summer ever, though.

[C]

Yeah, it would have been fun.

[A]

It leaves such a huge vacuum because.

[D]

Yeah, everything got out of its way.

[A]

There was no other game announced for May and there had been no game announced for June. Nothing wanted to be in June.

[C]

Well, yeah, they all got to move their dates back up. But it's weird because GTA 6 is seemingly going to be going head to head with Wolverine, which is pretty wild.

[D]

There is no chance.

[A]

There is no chance. I mean, even if it did, like, there's no contest.

[B]

I do think game companies can pad one month after or one month before and feel okay about it. Now I'm not saying they should, but I think they might still assess, give people one month of the gta, then put out our game because we have to have a quarterly result. Like I do see that happening. We could get like a bunch of December 11 games, stuff like that, you know.

[C]

Yeah, well, yote came out October 2nd. So it's like that. I think I could, I could see Wolverine landing around there.

[B]

Yeah, maybe.

[D]

We've, we've talked about this on Scoop before. It's like there's big games and there's gigantic games, but then GTA is just. There is nothing else like it on, on the planet. Right. Like this, the biggest entertainment thing to ever happen ever. It's like is this game. So you know, like they're like anybody is going to want to move everything. I mean, I guess it's not a big time for movie release dates anyway. But like anything that would capture the attention.

[B]

They already moved all the Marvel and Star wars movies to non existent.

[A]

That's. But there was the next Star wars movie was supposed to release like the Same week as GTA 6.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. In May, baby. Yoda got a reprieve.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[C]

That's actually, that's why, that's why it got delayed.

[B]

They're like, let's, let's help out, baby.

[C]

I, I watched a video and I, I don't want to quote it at all because I would be able to do it justice, but the video was basically an explanation of the economic impact that Grand Theft Auto is going to have both in like how many people are gonna buy the game, but then, but then how many people are going to, to take weeks of vacation off and stuff like that. It's just, it's just like preparing people for the possibilities of what this game will kind of do to the world.

[A]

But it comes out.

[C]

It sounds dramatic, but I don't know.

[B]

They'Re like based out of Scotland. It's like the GDP of Scotland changes.

[D]

Yeah. I mean it's probably like, I guarantee you, like global Internet, as everyone downloads the game, that day is gonna suck.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

We'll be affected. That reminds me a little bit. This is a weird comparison, but like when the very last Harry Potter book came out, I saw the mail carriers walking around my apartment complex with just like 25 copies of it of that box. Like, you know, dropping it off on different people's doorsteps. It's like that kind of thing.

[C]

Well, didn't Silk Song crash all the stores?

[B]

Because I think so did just happen.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. Which you know, is not the biggest game. There's. They weren't, they weren't prepared. Right. It's like they were running at their kind of normal speed, you know, and weren't ready for people to sort of crush their servers at that level. Yeah, I mean there is so it's like there's this controversy, right, because Rockstar fired a bunch of developers lately and then delayed their game. And it's like, look, we did not get worried, and we'll never get worried on whether those two things are connected. But it potentially stands to reason, right, that some core folks on this development team were. Rockstar's perspective is they were let go for, you know, gross misconduct. And then the employees perspective is that they were let go because they were organizing, they were forming a union, you know, and so, and, and then I, I don't know. I've been surprised more people haven't made the connection between that and the delay. It's like, well, you probably need those, you know, 40 plus developers to kind of finish off and polish and, and, and release your game on time, I would imagine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, we have a whole nother year to cover the lead up to this game now.

[B]

Great.

[A]

November 19, 2026.

[C]

Never going to end.

[D]

End.

[A]

Who knows?

[D]

This is, this is the one. It's coming out.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

All right.

[A]

Well, speaking of delays, there's Terminator 2D. No fate. That was also supposed to be out. That was supposed to be out Halloween and then it's supposed to be out in November. And I think they pushed it into December just to get all of their, the ducks in a row for their physical release.

[B]

Pretty close though.

[A]

And this game looks very cool. This is the 2D pixel art. You know, Terminator 2, Judgment Day game run and gun styles, you know, a Contra, like, if you will, with really, really nice pixel art. Does anyone know how much this game costs? Oh, no, no, dude, I could not. I just learned this. This game costs $60. Oh no.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Which again, this game looks very cool. I want to play it, but what, what is this? A 6D dollars for a 2D pixel.

[B]

Art Contra, like, I mean, likenesses. What's happening?

[C]

It's supposed to have like all these like decisions and stuff like that. Right. So it's, it's, it's bigger than just shooting your guns.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. I mean, sure, maybe it's a huge depth game, but like it's made by a developer called Bitmap Bureau. Can anyone name any of their other games?

[D]

Oh, boy.

[A]

No, they've done a few pixel art games. Old school, retro style games.

[B]

Yeah, there's so many Contra references I'm noticing in this. I know.

[A]

That's what I'm talking about.

[B]

That's funny.

[A]

Red Dead Redemption 2 was a $60 game.

[C]

Yeah. Silksong was a $20 game.

[A]

That's what that was. Another example Silksong was $20, 60. I just feel like they've shot themselves because like I'm the target demographic for this game. But yeah, I mean, first of all, the license. I think you have to be over 30 to think Terminator is cool. So they like, they've limited their audience reach that that way. Plus 2D pixel art. These are arcade shooters. It's fairly niche, you know, so I don't. Maybe they figured it out. Like the people who want this game, they'll pay $60 and that'll make up for the fact that it's.

[B]

They know the audience of. Must have people pushes their price up to premium. That's funny.

[D]

Yeah, maybe that true. It's like they, you know, it's like only Terminator sickos are going to buy this game. So let's just charge 60 bucks.

[C]

That's so mean. They're taking advantage of your weakness to resist Terminator games.

[B]

Try buying a pinball machine, Mark. They know. They know you could buy pinball machines.

[A]

I mean this boss is just, that's just a Contra boss.

[B]

That's just contra.

[D]

If you asked, you know what's too much to charge for this game, most people would probably say 40 bucks is too much. Like it should be 30 moms are.

[B]

Going to be like, we have Contra at home. Yeah.

[A]

Again, I wish them the best. I hope, I hope they made a really good game. I hope it's successful. But I. Man, I could not believe it when I Learned this was $60.

[D]

It does look awesome.

[A]

It does look awesome.

[B]

I didn't realize there'd be this much nudity.

[A]

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[E]

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[A]

Extracurricular Activities I and I know Mark saw Predator Badly Dance.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Any. Anyone else?

[B]

No, I really want to now, though. I was down on it last week, but everybody said it's good.

[A]

Yeah, I liked it a lot. It's a really fun.

[C]

It's.

[A]

It's wild to me that for decades nobody could make a good Predator movie, and now Trachtenberg has made three.

[D]

Yep.

[A]

In three years.

[C]

What's. What's the other one?

[A]

Because I've seen Prey, the animated anthology one on Hulu. Killer of Killers. Got it.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

It's great. I don't know. Some people have called this Predator Disneylands because it's PG13 and they've, they've slightly like, they're like, they're like Marvel style quips. There's lots of quips in it, but I think it works.

[B]

It totally by the Predator.

[C]

No.

[A]

Well, mostly by. Is it El Fanning or Dakota Fanning?

[C]

It's El Fanning.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

It's elephant, mostly by El Fanning. And then there's also fame, right?

[C]

Of death training. Fame. Yeah.

[A]

There's also a cute alien that they befriend and there's some comic relief that comes out of that too, but whatever, it totally works. First of all, there are no humans in this movie, so there's like visceral violence, but it's not being visited upon humans. So it just. There's no reason for it to be.

[B]

Rated R. That's the Marvel technique, right? Like we're just gonna kill a bunch of robots as Green Blood.

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

I mean, what do you think, Mark? I thought it was. It's just a really fun, totally different take on Predator. Like everyone else. Else when they. At the first trailer, I did not like the look of this Predator, but within five minutes. But the. The actress performance and the great facial animation work, I was totally on board.

[B]

Nice.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, so I'm a. I'm a huge fan of the Great. And so I. Yeah, so I. Elle Fanning's comedic timing is. Is not lost on me at all. So I'm. I was not surprised at all how funny the movie was. The movie is like, laugh out loud funny. It is really, really good. Good. Yeah. Also the first Predator movie with. With, you know, him as the protagonist, as, you know, a predator as a protagonist. I think it's cool. Yeah, I. I looked into it, and the actor, they made him do, like, a Predator ninja warrior to make sure he's, like, up for it and. And he killed it. The Predator's super cool. Elle Fanning is great. She plays multiple characters. I don't think that's a secret. And yeah, no humans there. There's like, four people in this whole movie. Movie. It's great.

[A]

More actors.

[C]

Yeah, four. Four actors in this entire movie.

[A]

Because there are synths. Wayland Yutani synths.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

But they're all clones of each other too, so they didn't need a ton of that.

[C]

All the guys look the same. All the girls look the same.

[B]

Yeah. So when you make a movie where the Predator is the protagonist, the Predator can actually win a fight once.

[A]

Yep. Yep.

[C]

That's. That's.

[A]

That's how it works.

[B]

That's nice.

[D]

Well, yes, I think that they, you know, it being quippy and funny is like, look, if this are like the same guy made Prey and that was like, the last fast live action. And that movie goes so hard.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Right. So it's, like, fine. Like, you can have, like, different. If this were like, oh, this is the direction of the franchise and it's gone Disney, like, that would be one thing, but it's like. No, no, we're just showing you, like, different things in this sort of world can exist.

[A]

All three of these Tractionberg movies are very different.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

He's not, like, getting stuck in a rut. I don't know. Maybe he needs. Maybe he wants a break now, and I wouldn't begrudge him that well, and.

[C]

I. I do want to amend something.

[A]

The.

[C]

The Predator at. He.

[A]

He.

[C]

What's his name? Deck. He actually does eventually start to soften up, and he actually does have a few quips. They just. They're different because he's all subtitles, because they use universal translators. So El Fanning speaks in English, but theoretically, she's speaking in. In Yaua, So. But it's still really funny. And then, yeah, Bud. Bud is the greatest. He's. He's their little, like, partner. And I don't know, they just do a lot of things to, like, humanize him. You know, he's very. Just like, no, predators work alone and blah, blah, blah, blah. And by the end, you know, it's. It's kind of flipped. I don't want to spoil it, but it's. It's. I. I thought it was so funny. Also, surprisingly, like, It's a tight 140.

[A]

I was gonna say it's very short. My guess is that it's. Because it's a heavily CGI movie. You know, it's an alien planet, so they can't just show regular ass grass. Has to be alien grass. And then every. Every shot of the Predator is this huge VFX shot of his face. So maybe they're just like, okay, let's keep the runtime a little tight.

[C]

Same with El Fanning. Most of El Fanning is cgi, so it's like. Yeah, it's pretty nuts.

[D]

They. You.

[C]

You'll see. I. I'm sure you notice, Damon, how much they shoot her from the, like, waist up, because it's like.

[A]

Yeah, it's fine.

[C]

You know, it's so much work to. To edit out her legs, man. It's. It's. It's really great. It's a really fun theater experience.

[A]

Yep. And it was. It did great on opening weekend. The biggest opening weekend box office for the franchise. So happy with it. And then switching gears, I also watched the first episode of Pluribus.

[B]

Yeah, you loved it, right?

[A]

And this is from Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad fame. This is the first non Breaking Bad thing he's done in, like, 20 years.

[C]

Still takes place in Albuquerque.

[A]

I didn't know that was coming to. And I was like, really? I guess, you know, they spent so much time in Albuquerque, I'm sure they have, like, connections, and it's just probably.

[C]

He knows about it.

[A]

Easy for them to work there. Yeah. Yeah. This is a really good pilot episode of a show. It's a crazy sci Fi show. Wait, so did Sam watch it?

[B]

No, I haven't seen it yet. But I know. I know what it's about and everything, and I'm really happy that it's. I'm really bummed that it's weekly airing, though. This seems like it's gonna drive me crazy.

[C]

Yeah, there's, there's two episodes right now, so you'll, you can get two and then, and yeah, that second episode's already up. And then the third episode air will be on Friday. Well, tomorrow, I guess, if you're watching Crazy.

[A]

I was gonna say it just, it has it more in common with the X Files than Breaking Bad, which Vince Gilligan was a, was a writer for this file, right?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

It's good. It's, it's a, it's a wild concept. I'm, I'm not going to spoil anything. If you watch the trailer like I did. The trail coming out of the trailer, I had no idea really what the show was going to be about.

[D]

Nobody did.

[C]

Honestly. Just don't even watch the trailer. Just, Just watch it.

[A]

Yeah, but it's great.

[C]

A couple of things, Things to know is like, for one, like, the shots are super long and that's. I love it. I love when they do that. There's a lot, there's not a lot of cuts. They just, they just go. And then also, like, these actors are technically extras, but they're incredible. They're so good. I, man, I, I, I had heard that this show was really good, and I left the pilot being like, well, that's, I mean, this is my new severance. Like, this is my new, like, thing I'm going to obsess about because it was crazy.

[B]

I cannot wait.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

It's a great concept. It's just, it's the kind of thing, man. I hope, I hope he's thought a little bit down the road and has some sort of a satisfying conclusion to all this in mind, because it's definitely a great setup. Yeah. And then the other extracurricular movie news we had to mention is because since this is a Bionic Commando podcast and a Final Fantasy 1 podcast, and I think you should leave podcast. It's also a Gremlins podcast.

[C]

Guest.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Give a release date to the next Gremlins Movie. They gave November 19, exactly one year after Grand Theft Auto 6.

[C]

Smart.

[A]

November 19, 2027. Which on one hand, I'm like, and I love Gremlins. I, I hope it's good. But they're, they got Chris Columbus writing and directing and what, what, what do.

[D]

You mean that's such a plus?

[A]

Is it? Cuz like, you think most of his cinematic output is fantastic or just Home Alone?

[B]

Just Home Alone.

[C]

What about, wait, he directed the first Harry Potter movie?

[D]

Yeah. Harry Potter 1 and 2.

[A]

Those are so bad. Those are so not. Yeah, they're way overly sentimental. But now I say that as someone who has not read the books, so I didn't. I didn't carry any sort of fandom into seeing the movies. And they're just. They're made for people who like the books.

[D]

Oh. I think he's a. I think he's a good guy to mix practical effects with vfx. I think he's a great fit. I just don't know. I think he's just. I think he's just like pretty old. And I don't. I'm not saying that to be mean, but, like, does he still have it? Like, I don't know what he's been making.

[B]

As long as he sticks to the gremlins. Books are fine. I had one with a little cassette tape that I used to read when I was a kid.

[D]

Bring back that weird spider Gremlin.

[A]

Bicentennial man with Robin Williams is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And that's Christmas. Like you said, it's got to be practical effects. It would just be inexcusable to make CGI Gremlins.

[B]

I think this is like a, you know, a requirement. But Spielberg is attacking matched in some, like, ancillary production way, which.

[A]

He's like a producer.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

He makes a good movie occasionally.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Anyway, can we do one more? It's. It's. The movie's not new, but it's new to Netflix. I saw Frankenstein and I thought it was fantastic.

[D]

Yep.

[A]

I know. I need to watch that too.

[C]

I know. Almost three hour movie. But some of the best.

[B]

I. I think about it a lot. And some of the best sets.

[C]

Sets.

[B]

It has really, really good sets. The tower that Frankenstein kind of sets up. Shopping is really good. And the icebreaker is really good. And just. Yeah. Every time they show these areas, you want to see more of them and they're just really well done. I mean, Del Toro is incredible.

[C]

Oscar Isaac kills it as he's really Frankenstein. He's really, really good. And then we talked about Predator with EL Fanning having a death stranding reference. This also has a different stranding reference because Gerald Mondo Toronto, when the monster is coming alive for the first time and they. They show it going through his body. Guillermo Dosoro said it was 100, a death stranding, like, baby reference. Interesting.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

Yeah, they do like the plunge down the esophagus shot.

[A]

Cool.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah, it's like frame really, really good. It's on Netflix now. Which is, which is how I watched it. And I, I think it's great. I love Universal Monsters.

[D]

So we watched kind of Target audience. We watched it two nights in a row, but my wife keeps hauling us asleep. So yeah, I'm like, I have to decide like, am I just gonna keep going or am I gonna pause and you know.

[C]

Oh, so you're, you're just pausing it as you.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Oh, well, what you're really doing is noticing she's asleep and going, okay, I can play Factorio.

[D]

Yeah, well, yeah, it's been Vampire Survivors lately, but yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, I'm back on my with Dude.

[C]

I can't stop playing. I can't stop playing ball Pulpit. I'm at like 60 hours. Geez, I need to be stopped.

[D]

Have you beaten it?

[C]

Oh, 100% I've beaten it and now I'm on PlayStation because I want to get the platinum because I just need something else to do.

[E]

The holidays are approaching and everyone knows that this time of year, the sooner you can get things done, the better. For both shoppers and businesses, the best time to score great deals during the holidays is during that Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. And if you have your own business, whether you've been around the block a few times or this is your first year going through the holiday sale rush, the most important thing you can have is a platform that can handle everything that's about to be thrown at you. This is a crucial time for your business and your customers. And with Shopify, you can be sure that your tools and platform are ready for anything that comes your way. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US US from household names to entrepreneurs who will be participating in their first Black Friday Cyber Monday this year. With everything else going on, you probably don't have time to spend hours poring over every little detail in your online store. That's why Shopify's thousands of templates and tools help you streamline website creation and make sure that your site isn't just aesthetically pleasing, but functional and easy to use. Shopify's expedited checkout shop pay saves customer information and reduces hassle. And the best part is that it's been proven to boost conversions, meaning you'll see less abandoned carts and more profits. You can also stress less knowing that Shopify's award winning customer support team is on standby 247 to help with any issues that arise, allowing you to get back to your business as fast as possible. This Black Friday joined the thousands of new entrepreneurs hearing for the first time with Shopify. Sign up for your free trial [e-mail] realm. That's shopify.com realm. Go to shopify.com realm and make this Black Friday one to remember.

[A]

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[B]

I think the game is Dr. Mario and it was the first game that, you know, it was a good puzzle game, but it was the only one he was ever good at.

[D]

That's a pretty good guess.

[C]

Revolutionized pill popping in a video goldeneye.

[B]

Luminous because there's a New Luminous out, right?

[D]

Luminous.

[C]

Dude, I want to play Luminous.

[D]

Luminous. Arise. I'm so glad the reviews are good.

[A]

Oh, I haven't even seen the reviews.

[B]

Really? They are good. I haven't seen them either.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, I haven't.

[E]

I don't.

[D]

I don't know about IGNs, but just broadly around the Internet, everyone's saying it's good.

[C]

Good. So love Tetris effect, so I can't wait. Let's see here. Okay, so does this. I'm gonna start with a weird one. Does this game have a multiplayer element?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

I figured the Golden Eye dream is alive.

[B]

It could still be Dr. Mario. We could get it in one.

[C]

Could be Dr. Mario. Could be Goldeneye. Okay.

[B]

Is this game. Is this game a puzzle game or a first person shooter? Shooter.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Let's go. Oh, no. I mean, what did I. I don't think Dr. Mario revolutionized anything. I'm feeling Goldeneye.

[D]

I'm gonna. I'm gonna. Can you play his odd job?

[B]

No. But it could be Tetris.

[C]

No way.

[D]

Can you play his odd job?

[A]

No.

[C]

Rip.

[B]

Is this a puzzle game?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay, there we go.

[D]

All right.

[B]

White the slate clean of all the puzzle games.

[C]

All right. So it still could be like Halo and stuff like that?

[D]

Yeah, many, many.

[C]

I mean, I'm trying to think of, like, revolutionary re. You know, games that kind of change. So like Call of Duty four, Band of Brothers.

[D]

Did this game come out in the 80s or 90s?

[A]

No, that's five.

[D]

Okay. It's not. Not Doom. Not. Not early FPS.

[B]

What was the other WW2 series from way back?

[D]

The what?

[B]

The other World War Medal of Honor. Medal of Honor.

[D]

Yes. Yeah, that was. Spielberg was involved in that one. Remember when they rebooted Medal of Honor and they were all beards? Yeah, it was like the. They were really leaning into that.

[C]

The only meta quest 2 game I played was a Medal of Honor. Oh, that's not true. I also played. Played the. Whatever. Super hot.

[B]

But would you describe this game as obviously a sci fi series?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Does this.

[D]

Yep. Game have.

[B]

Does this series have a game that's. That's out on the contemporary platforms including PS5 and Xbox Series X. PC.

[C]

Not Halo 6.

[A]

Is it. Can you ask your question again?

[B]

Is there a game in the series out for the contemporary consoles slash, PC generation?

[C]

Not Halo looking?

[A]

Yeah, we're gonna say yes. We're gonna say yes to that.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

That's seven.

[B]

Maybe it's System Shock or Marathon or something. No, no. Those are 90s, though.

[D]

Yeah. That. That answer weirds me out a little bit.

[B]

Yeah, me too.

[A]

It's because, you know, series don't always like sometimes they branch out and they. There are spin offs, but it's still.

[D]

That's what I assumed. It switched genres in some way. They're still bouncing around. A Clancy thing maybe so. Okay. And it's Sci Fi. Sci Fi FPS. We can do it. It maybe like I'm having a hard time. I'm really stuck on Halo.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, it's. There's Halo and then nothing else.

[D]

Well, I mean, because even there's like Kill Zone and there. There's the one insomniac made, but they're not still making those games.

[B]

Was. Was this a. Was this a platform exclusive originally?

[A]

You're asking me?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Yes. Okay. So that would be about.

[D]

What about Destiny?

[C]

Oh, yep.

[D]

Revolution revolutionized. What do you call it? The.

[B]

That wasn't multi platform.

[D]

Oh, was it? I can't remember.

[C]

I mean I just n. I think it was Xbox.

[D]

Right? I think it was Xbox only for a while.

[C]

No, no, no, it was definitely PlayStation. But I think PlayStation and Xbox.

[D]

Really?

[C]

Yeah. I played the beta on PlayStation.

[D]

Oh, not me.

[B]

Was this a Microsoft exclusive?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Oh.

[B]

I mean Microsoft doesn't have a lot of first person shooters.

[D]

No. We're sure it's not Halo. Halo. Halo Infinite came out on the Xbox series. Yeah.

[B]

That's why it's like maybe not counted as a mainline or something. Like.

[D]

I don't know.

[B]

I don't know what's happening. That's why I tried.

[D]

I'm trying to think about other Xbox exclusive of sci fi FPSs. If it's. If it's not Halo.

[B]

Perfect Dark, right?

[D]

No. Oh, except the original came out in the 90s.

[C]

The perfect dark Zero have multiplayer. I don't know.

[D]

The original might not have come out. It could be Perfect Dark Zero. I forgot. I literally forgot that game exists.

[C]

Everyone did. Yeah, but there's. There's nothing perfect dark contemporary like, like the last you heard of that game was Perfect Dark Zero.

[D]

Like other than.

[C]

Other than the failed, you know.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So there, there would be no confusion about that.

[B]

I don't know. I don't know if that's true.

[D]

Microsoft FPS. I know. I'm forgetting something obvious. They. Oh. Oh. They made. What was it? Not Shadowgate Shadow, the RPG series that they rebooted as that team based multiplayer game where you could play as the tree that healed people and you could play as those other characters.

[B]

What?

[D]

It's not Shadowgate Shadow?

[B]

Shadow Something Shadow.

[D]

And then no. And then they still made. They made isometric RPGs out of them. And that's what they were originally. Yeah, Shadow. And they made one in Hong Kong. Shadow.

[C]

Shadow Run. No, I don't know.

[D]

Shadow Run. Shadow Run. Yeah, Shadow Run. Okay, so they made a Shadowrun FPS on the Xbox 360. But it was an RPG series before and then was an RPG series after.

[B]

Was it multiplayer?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, it was. What made it. We can stop talking about this because it might not be this, but like what made it so far ahead of its time was it was deeply, deeply class based. Like way before. Like the characters played completely different. Like way before Overwatch was like doing that for example, like a decade before.

[B]

Well, you don't know when the series started though, right?

[D]

Shadowrun.

[B]

No. Well, I don't know when that one started. But we don't know when this series that we're talking about started.

[D]

We know. Not the 80s or 90s.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But we just know when this iteration came out. When the series started.

[D]

Right, True.

[B]

Like, was this the first name? Like, I don't know.

[D]

Did. Did this game originally come out on the Xbox 360? No, that's 10, not Shadowrun.

[B]

We're only at 10. So we're going to get the game.

[D]

Game.

[C]

And it wasn't. That wasn't an original Xbox game. Because sometimes the lines of Shadow.

[D]

Shadow Run. Yeah, they get a little blurry. Shadow Run was on the 360 though.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Man, I still thought I was on to something there.

[B]

Was this an original Xbox game?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay, so.

[D]

So it was an Xbox One game. If it's not. Oh, it is on contemporary consoles, but then it changed forms a little bit. That's what Damon was getting at.

[C]

So I'm wondering like what if it is? What if it's something like that's a pretty big four or you know, Halo five. Like what if it's like a specific.

[D]

Halo game but Halo Infinite is on the current gen consoles.

[B]

Why? We're thinking it. But is this a Halo game?

[A]

No.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Thank God. Away from that, we're out of that.

[D]

What? Xbox Sci Fi FPS came out last Crackdown. That was third person, but that's a.

[B]

Good nots from 360.

[C]

Crackdown 3 is Xbox One.

[D]

I think it is. I can't remember when three came out. I think you're right. But that's not first person.

[C]

Did we, we, did we say first person? I don't, I don't remember.

[D]

We did. That was our second question.

[C]

That it was first person.

[D]

Oh, okay. Yeah, we said it's an FPS or a puzzle game.

[B]

Did they make like an over game for some reason?

[C]

Which one?

[B]

Like an overwatchy type game? Like a, you know, cartoonish probably.

[C]

No, because there's battleborn, but that's not Xbox.

[D]

Oh man. Forgot about battleborn.

[C]

Everyone did.

[B]

Why is this so hard? This should be.

[C]

We thought we were gonna get this in three questions.

[B]

It should have been Dr. Mario. What's wrong with the person that sent us this, Oregon. Even real names of places.

[A]

But can I.

[D]

What else was this game? Was this game developed by a Microsoft owned studio?

[A]

No.

[C]

Dude. What is this game? It's a shooter. Xbox exclusive.

[D]

Why are third parties making Xbox one?

[B]

Obviously Sci Fi.

[C]

I didn't know Xbox.

[B]

Maybe it's a Rick type thing with something based on a license.

[D]

Was Prey an exclusive to the Xbox for some weird. No, definitely not.

[C]

I don't think it's multiplayer.

[B]

Is this game based on a license?

[D]

No. Rip. I don't even know. This doesn't go for it.

[B]

What about walking simulator type things? But you also shoot in them. Like. Yeah, like you're saying like prey. Like so.

[D]

Yeah, except it was multiplayer. But yeah, I don't. This doesn't count as one of my questions.

[B]

What's like. Like a. You know, like fire. What's a fire watch or whatever? Because you. If it had co op then that counts as obviously multiplayer.

[D]

Yeah, I don't think it did, but that's a pretty good. I like. At least it's something. Damon, are we gonna be mad if we don't get it?

[A]

Oh yeah.

[C]

And that's 15.

[A]

I mean.

[D]

Yeah, I mean it sounds like we're describing a mark game.

[C]

I know.

[B]

Yeah, mark.

[C]

Except for that you said Xbox and like. Come on now.

[D]

BioShock Infinite, did that have multiplayer?

[C]

Wait, but BioShock 2 had multiplayer.

[B]

Infinite did not for 360 though.

[D]

BioShock 2 was on the 360. I was infinite also on the 360.

[C]

It was.

[D]

No, that was next. That was the next gen, wasn't it?

[C]

I don't think so.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Should we ask if you play as a human? Is that obvious?

[D]

I don't even.

[B]

Can you build your character that type of stuff?

[D]

First person. Do we know it's a shooter? Do we know it? We said FPS.

[B]

Well, how about what you kill in it? Aliens versus Monsters versus.

[D]

I was thinking about. I was thinking about Minecraft there for a second because that's.

[B]

Oh, what about. No, that's not it. Deus Ex or Dishonored?

[D]

Dishonored. Those are all single player.

[B]

What's a Dishonored? Did that studio do exclusives for the Xbox One?

[C]

No, they're owned by them now. But they weren't at the time.

[B]

They weren't then.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I just want to live in a world where somebody's like, I'm really good at Minecraft. The first game I was good at.

[B]

What if this was a cross platform thing? So it's like, what's that game called? The vampire one that the Vesta made? Red. Red Dawn.

[D]

Or what's it called? Blood. Blood. Blood.

[B]

Blood.

[D]

Blood. Bloodlines. Blood Blood. No, it. It was called. Yeah, Blood Blood. That's. That's how the word is lost. That's how stupid we sound when we're describing videos.

[B]

The word is lost.

[C]

All mean.

[B]

Could that out for Xbox One, but there's not like anything out for the new bloodlines.

[C]

Bloodlines came out in 2004 and that's not.

[B]

No, no, that's not what I'm talking about. The vampire blood brain or something.

[A]

Hold on, I gotta.

[C]

I gotta.

[A]

I gotta make sure my kids are okay.

[B]

What's that game called?

[C]

Redfall.

[B]

Redfall.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Blood Bloodfall.

[B]

Blood Blood.

[C]

Red Blood. Oh, man. Dude, I'm stone.

[E]

Oh.

[B]

Or like the. What was the one with like, you warp in time and we like, loved it for Game of the Year. Oh, you play the game Over. That was an Xbox.

[D]

There's Death Loop. Death Loop. Oh, is it Death Loop.

[B]

Death Loop.

[D]

Does Death Loop have multiplayer? No. I don't know.

[B]

But it's like something more creative like that. Also, Deathloop doesn't necessarily have any sequels on the horizon in any format.

[A]

I'll come to get it when I'm done.

[D]

Okay, True.

[B]

What did you kill in Death Loop? I can't remember. Just people.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Beatrix is awake. Let's try to bring this home. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, you're. You're not anywhere close.

[D]

No.

[B]

And do you.

[A]

You know, this is. It was an Xbox exclusive, so it's like you guys are just. You're overlooking something that was huge.

[C]

Oh, Gears of War.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, but that's not a first person shooter.

[D]

No, it's not.

[B]

Did I not ask if it was a first person shooter?

[D]

What are we overlooking? That was huge. Doom. Did Doom come out? Doom came out on everything, didn't it?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Doom's not been exclusive since. Since the new ones. Could be Doom. Could be Doom.

[B]

Eternal Star Wars.

[D]

It's not licensed.

[B]

Oh, yeah, that's right. Look, overlooking something huge do you kill humans in this game?

[A]

Humans? Yes. That's 15.

[C]

Oh, and it can't be Gears of War because we said first party and he said it wasn't.

[B]

You don't kill humans in Doom. Kill demons.

[C]

Do not kill demon. Yeah, you kill demons.

[D]

Are you a human in this game?

[C]

It could. It could be a modern Wolfenstein.

[D]

Machine.

[B]

Games exclusive to Xbox then.

[C]

Not at the time. Their first exclusive was Indiana Jones.

[B]

Which is it in the ad? Jones?

[C]

No, I think. I think it'll be like Wolfenstein 2. Are those games a multiplayer? I don't even know.

[D]

No, no, they're not.

[B]

I wouldn't call them huge either.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

What are we overlooking? That's huge. Phone a friend? Need a lifeline?

[B]

Yeah, it's driving somebody out there crazy.

[C]

Ask the audience. Okay.

[B]

Vehicles. Open world. We can ask about open world.

[C]

Is this game open world?

[A]

No, shoot.

[B]

You do shooting it.

[D]

You do shoot.

[B]

Why are we so stumped here?

[C]

I don't know, but we're going to be met.

[A]

The biggest clues have been that it was an Xbox One game and this series exists on modern consoles in some way.

[B]

So that strikes me as like something.

[D]

That.

[B]

You know, PlayStation bot that Microsoft can't have. Or it's a strategy game now. Like XCOM type thing.

[D]

There was an xcom. There was xcom, but that was not huge. What about like, I don't know, Sea of Thieves.

[B]

Half Life. Yeah, Sea of Thieves is good. Humans. Humans. Humans. Obvious sci fi.

[D]

I don't know. I don't know if it's obviously sci fi. That doesn't really track.

[B]

No, I'm just recounting the clues that we have. Should we just ask things just to get this over with?

[D]

This developed in the United States?

[C]

Yes.

[D]

Oh my God. One more question and a guess, but not by Microsoft.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

Who made it?

[A]

What would have been a big sci fi shooter on Xbox One?

[D]

I mean. Yeah, that's what we're trying to figure out, David.

[B]

Cyberpunk.

[A]

There weren't that many of them.

[D]

Yes, Cyberpunk was multi platform and you're right, there weren't that many of them.

[B]

We got the Fable Studios, we got the Halo Studios. We got.

[D]

But it's a third party. It's an American third party.

[C]

Yeah, third party.

[D]

It's like EA or Activision or somebody released something only on Xbox for some reason.

[B]

Ea, where they do like bioware type stuff.

[D]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Could it be that? Could it be the. What was the.

[B]

Oh, I got Anthem.

[D]

Yeah, I bet it's Anthem.

[B]

But what's Anthem no, no, no.

[D]

It's.

[B]

Anthem's a third person game.

[C]

That's though also Anthem launched on everything.

[B]

Yeah, something like that.

[D]

I thought. I really thought we were on to something there. I don't know.

[C]

Got it. I got it. You know I got it, baby. Here we go. Okay. Okay. I don't even want to ask the question. Can I just guess the game?

[A]

Yeah, go for it. Go for it.

[C]

Is it Titanfall?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Nice. Because Apex is the. The.

[A]

The thing that Apex leg is available on modern consoles.

[D]

Is Apex in the Titanfall universe?

[C]

Yeah, it is.

[D]

Oh, I didn't know that. I don't.

[C]

Maybe I. Titanfall 1, Xbox exclusive.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay. I actually did clock Titanfall, but I was stuck on Titanfall 2, which was not.

[B]

I don't. Yeah. I don't remember this being an exclusive. That's fascinating.

[C]

It was same.

[A]

It never came. It came to PC, but never to PlayStation.

[B]

Crazy.

[C]

It didn't have a campaign.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

Oh my gosh. Amanda just messaged me. Jump Scare.

[B]

Who's the developer?

[C]

This is.

[B]

An EA published.

[C]

Okay. So it all makes sense now because it's like, yes, the game does exist, but it's in the Apex universe.

[D]

Yeah. I had absolutely no memory of Titanfall 1.

[B]

We should have asked you pilot a vehicle and then had a big argument about it.

[D]

You piloted a mech.

[C]

Yep. Wow.

[A]

Good save there, Mark.

[B]

That must have been very, very painful listening to all you Titanfall fans.

[D]

Sorry, I don't think it's like. I don't think it's like that obvious.

[B]

Well done, Mark.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

Great game.

[A]

Nicely Job. Thank you for the suggestion. Jesse from Klatt's Can I, Oregon viewers listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop.com and need to let you know that if you're looking for something new to play and a way to give back, head over to humble and grab eight amazing games for just $14.99 including. Including Total War, Warhammer 3, Another Crab's Treasure, no More Heroes 3, Etrian Odyssey HD, Pharaoh, a new Age Synergy, Spin Hero and Paleo Pines. Every purchase supports no Kid Hungry, a non profit that provides meals to students in need across the US So build your library, make an impact and help in childhood hunger. Head on over to humblebundle.com and start playing today. And that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you to Sam, thank you to Justin. Thank you Mark. Thank you to Jobert. Working behind the scenes to make this Episode possible. My name is Damon. We'll be back back next week. No, wait.

[C]

Damn it.

[A]

I always get these messed up. That's how next gen ends. My name is Damon. This is IGP and we're out.

[C]

We will be back next week though.

[A]

Yeah, that part's true.

[B]

What do you think this game revolutionized for the writer? Was it while running?

[A]

He said the genre first person shooters. This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Adienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Atienza. Technical production is by Marian Franzen and Amir Aqib. Audio engineering is by Amir Akiv 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.

[D]

I'm gonna play Arc Raiders tonight.

[C]

Hey.

[A]

Wow.

[D]

Well, I read about how it's. It's not bad solo, so.

[C]

It is not bad. So I actually prefer to play solo.

[D]

Yeah, that's what I'm hearing from people. And it has a solo queue, so.

[B]

Ah, that's why you're looking up quest.

[C]

Yeah. When you're solo, everybody's solo.

[D]

Right.

[C]

They're all a lot nicer.

[D]

It's still multiplayer, but you're not being matched up with randos. It's just everybody in the game is playing by themselves.

[A]

So is it like a server just for solo players?

[D]

Well, I think the game is active enough. It's matchmaking and so it's just there's enough people playing that it can keep the solo players together.

[A]

And then when you're actually playing it, what's it like? Is it like Borderlands?

[C]

No, Destiny. It's like Tarkov, which you also probably have.

[A]

It's extraction.

[C]

It's an extraction cheater.

[D]

Okay. Except there's a Don't shoot Emote. And what I read was that I read a story on Polygon about it. Everyone just spams the don't shoot emote when you're in. When you're playing in a solo game. Because technically it's PvPve, but it's mostly PvE and that's what most people seem to be there for. Yep.

[C]

Yep. You just run around doing don't shoot. And then somebody will have a mic and they'll be like, it's cool, dog. I'm not gonna shoot you. I. I love it. And then I play with friends and then I hate it. So to me, it really is just a single player game.

[D]

Yeah. Made me more excited about it.