
Dispatch on Nintendo Switch 2, Baldur's Game 3, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Forza Horizon 6, Castlevania, and more.
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Damon Hadfield
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Sam Claiborne
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Damon Hadfield
Stay tuned after this episode for new music from me. What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN Games Coupe. I'm your host Damon Hadfield and joining me this week here in studio is Nick Limone.
Nick Limone
I'm back, baby.
Damon Hadfield
We are also joined by Justin Davis, Scoop and Sam Claiborne.
Sam Claiborne
Hey, I'm here avoiding the noise.
Damon Hadfield
Oh, no, you're supposed to avoid the noise. Look out.
Justin Davis
That's not. That's the opposite of.
Nick Limone
Your pizza's gonna get cold.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, yeah. Watch your pizza. Sam, we've got a great show for you this week. Lots of fun stuff to talk about. We've been talking about dispatch a lot recently and now there's reason to talk about it again. For a really, really strange reason, actually. And then we got some scoops. Some scoops this week were provided by listeners in our listener mail. We got some good emails with some things, information that I did not know. But first, Sam, do you have an update on your adventures in Baldur's Gate 3?
Sam Claiborne
But are the emails corrections?
Damon Hadfield
One of them is kind of.
Justin Davis
I'm very tickled by like a new section of the show. Things I did not know.
Damon Hadfield
I did not know that.
Sam Claiborne
Okay, so I've played a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 by now. Did you start playing again?
Damon Hadfield
Yep, I did.
Sam Claiborne
Oh, I got. You know, I'm still in the first match. I haven't actually resolved the problem between the Tieflings and the Goblins and everything, but I tried, but I've not resolved that yet. So right now I have wrapped my head around this game. I know a little bit more than before. I've used some as suggested, used some of our things you didn't know, tech guides and stuff like that. There's still. My biggest blocker to this game is that it sucks on Xbox. It is so broken.
Nick Limone
Really.
Sam Claiborne
It is so broken. It does not quick resume. If it quick resumes, buttons don't work, so you have to always back out and start it a million times now. It's done a bullshit Bethesda type thing where it's like, I saved the guy from the fire. The guy from the fire runs into a smaller fire outside of the fire and dies. I can't even talk to his corpse because he's too burned.
Nick Limone
They be doing that sometimes. Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
So all I'm doing is save scumming now. And it's not fun. That's not fun. But the game is amazing and I totally respect it. I know why everybody loves it, but I don't really have an option here. I don't really want to play in this way. There's things I want to do, there's things I'm excited about. But like, it's so buggy here.
Damon Hadfield
That's Too bad because I'm playing on PS5 and I don't have the experience. But there was that whole thing. It didn't come to Xbox at first.
Sam Claiborne
Right, right.
Damon Hadfield
Because of the series. S was supposedly holding it back.
Nick Limone
Yeah, yeah.
Damon Hadfield
But so what I guess I thought about that. Eventually did and now it's not. It doesn't run great.
Nick Limone
Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer. I will say despite the game being a few years old now by this point and it just got its, I think, quote unquote last patch, patch eight, which was supposedly adding a lot of bug fixes plus adding the new subclasses into the game. I was expecting the game to be way more bug free than it actually was. But once you get to ACT three like that cyberpunk trajectory like act one, for the most part, it's pretty, pretty solid. From my experience, it was pretty solid all the way through Act 2. But Act 3, because there's just, I mean it is a staggering amount of things that gets introduced in Act 3 where I was just like, yeah, I don't blame you. The game, there's a lot that can go wrong here. But I was, I was a little bit surprised by the. Some of the glitches I encountered.
Justin Davis
Sam, I have a spicy suggestion for you.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
Justin Davis
The. The game has cross platform saves. You make a Larian account and it's cloud saves. I played Baldur's Gate 3 on my work MacBook Pro.
Sam Claiborne
Okay.
Justin Davis
And it works like it runs natively on Mac. You don't have to do any weird Windows stuff. So like I don't know how new your work computer is. I have an M2 MacBook Pro. That's what I have and that's how I played most of the game. And it was fine. I mean it did get a little dicey in Act 3, but like Act 1 and Act 2 are completely different.
Sam Claiborne
What does Act 3 layer on the game that's so intense?
Justin Davis
Well, you're in a big city. That's very dense. And I was playing the game at launch when Act 3 was a real shit show and they've since, you know, kind of cleaned it up like so. But I don't, I don't. You know, I played it back then so I don't have a point of comparison. Supposedly they fixed the memory leaks and fixed a lot of what was causing Act 3 to run so poorly. But besides that, it ran great on just non gaming laptop.
Sam Claiborne
What I think that I'm having that's built into the game. That is a Little hard for me to stomach is that there's the suggestion of just go with the flow, let things happen and accept when things go wrong and then resolve it. When things go wrong for me, people all turn against me and kill me. So, like, that's not really an option, you know, Like. Like there's an example. There's in the goblin Hall. I escorted a goblin to the Goblin hall so I can get into the Goblin Hall. Like, I don't have. They're not enemies to me. Right. But there's a goblin priestess in there, and one of the quests is resolve this quest. Seek out help from the goblin Priestess. Well, the only resolution to that is the goblin priestess takes you into a room and murders you. That's the only resolution. Correct. So the only resolution that you have to know about before that happens by save scumming is to anticipate that by taking her in the room and killing her. Or at least being really ready, because otherwise she calls everybody and then it's a. You're never going to survive. Like, the whole place is against you at that point. So I don't like that. I think that's like a kind of a silly result, but it's funny. And like, some people, I'm sure, love it.
Nick Limone
I would. I would agree.
Justin Davis
Did you ever rescue. Go ahead, Nick.
Nick Limone
I would just encourage you to really take a look at your tools that are at your disposal, because there's ways you can make it so that people won't be able to call for help and almost certainly for sure.
Sam Claiborne
But I still have to kill her. And I did. I started that. Like, I did that. Like, that's where I. That's how I resolved it. I got her into that room.
Nick Limone
And I do think, though, like, to the point of kind of going with the flow, it does. I get where you're coming from. Where it's like, now everyone's aggroed on me in this, the goblin encampment.
Justin Davis
But.
Nick Limone
But I kind of like that. That's now your story for the goblin encampment.
Sam Claiborne
Well, that'd be fine if I could survive it.
Nick Limone
You should be able to. You should be able to. I would also encourage you.
Sam Claiborne
Can you flee? I mean, I see a button for fleeing, but it doesn't ever do anything.
Nick Limone
Yeah, when you flee, you can disengage and flee. And when you flee, you go back to your camp so you can kind of lick your wounds and then fast travel back to a different spot.
Sam Claiborne
So you disengage every character and then you fast travel back to Your camp.
Nick Limone
Yeah, you can individual people to escape, though. So, like, one of your people can stay in the fight and die if they want, and then you can resurrect their body back at camp.
Sam Claiborne
Okay. Yeah. See, I also just pushed any of that.
Justin Davis
I pushed. I pushed hella goblins into those bottomless pits. That's how I won everything there is. There's just bottomless pits everywhere. And then, like, I'd push one in and then the next goblin would wait. They'd all wait their turn and. Okay, now it's my turn to get pushed into the bottomless.
Sam Claiborne
That's great.
Justin Davis
Yeah, the goblins.
Sam Claiborne
I think I have to do that. I have, like, a battle with the goblins now outside of the. The druid area. And it's like, legit hard. Like, it's just a lot of waves of enemies and the NPCs suck. So I need to do something. I need to do traps or something. Where do you get traps?
Justin Davis
Did you ever unlock the mage? Did you get Gale?
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
Damon Hadfield
You pulled him out of the way.
Sam Claiborne
My character's a warlock, so he's kind of redundant for me.
Justin Davis
I was just worried about that.
Sam Claiborne
That was really funny. No, that was really funny. I got the devil lady, too, which is nice.
Justin Davis
Karlach.
Nick Limone
Karlach.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Damon Hadfield
Is that goblin encampment? Isn't it a big indoor area, like, kind of like a castle?
Justin Davis
Yeah. Okay, so that's where I'm indoor. Outdoor.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. That's where I'm on my way to now, because the Teeliths. What are they?
Nick Limone
Teelings.
Damon Hadfield
Tieflings. They want me to escort them out of the Druid camp, but they want me to kill this, like, major goblin person first. So that's where I am with everything.
Nick Limone
I'd encourage you to make use of the spell silence if you want to avoid attracting any unwanted attention while you get into combat with people. Because it creates a literal, like, circle of silence and so no one can scream for help when they're trapped inside the circle.
Justin Davis
You can also poison their stew.
Nick Limone
Yeah. Poison their grog.
Sam Claiborne
That's fine. Yep.
Justin Davis
Or, yeah, their grog.
Sam Claiborne
So in my game, they're all friendly. Another silly thing that happened to me there is that I. And I'll make this quick. I wanted to free the Druid Halsom, or whatever his name is, you know, couldn't find him. And his. His marker is not in where he is. It's not even close. It's like. It's like one of those area of an effect markers. And that's not where he is. Yeah. So What? What? It's just kind of the entrance to the one area which leads to another area. And then he's in a secret area.
Justin Davis
I don't.
Sam Claiborne
It's complicated. So I look it up and I look at multiple guides and it's like, you can go into this area through this secret wall. You can knock down, but you got to put all these people to sleep and then knock down this wall. So. So I do all that. I'm like, that just got me in the door. I can already get in because I already did something different to get in there. I don't need to do this. It took me forever. And I just was so annoyed. I was so dejectic, you know. And then it's like, well, the real answer is that he's in the back right corner of this place. But you have to go through a door I never saw, you know, like, it's just stupid.
Damon Hadfield
Well, I've been having a great time. I'm probably six or seven hours into it. You know, I played like up to Act 2 back when it first came out. So it's been a couple years. And there's a lot that I remember.
Sam Claiborne
That's the guy that caught himself on fire. Yeah, that was him.
Damon Hadfield
There's like a lot that I either just don't remember or is playing out differently than it did the first time. And it's just so, like, it is literally, you know, a single player Dungeons and Dragons game that you're playing. Literally. That's what it is. But like, what a sense of adventure. Just wandering around with your party. You just naturally sort of encounter people and get new quests and run into encounters and it's just. None of it is boring. None of it feels like a grind or a slogan. And then obviously the writing and the voice acting is just top tier. And like the sense of, like, just being outside. I'm playing with my PlayStation headphones on and, you know, you hear birds chirping and insects buzzing and the wind is blowing through the leaves. It's just like. It's like I feel like I'm outside on a fantasy adventure.
Nick Limone
It's what I want from a fantasy experience. 100%.
Justin Davis
I think the quests, the way that they're written and they unfold is really smart too. Where, I mean, not just because the fact that they can all be solved in a dozen different ways, although that's also neat, but just like you, your quest log. Like some quests are mutually exclusive. It feels just a little bit more true to life. It's like well, you know, figure out how to help these dudes. And like that's the quest. And the quest doesn't go here, do this, do that, do this. It's just like you have a problem to solve and then here's the game world and then, you know, figure it out. Like figure out how you want to solve this problem. Like you have a quest for the whole game almost that's like get the, you know, get this tadpole out of your head.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I like it. I don't know if it changes later on, but at least in the first two acts it's not a you have to save the world story. I gotta save my own ass.
Justin Davis
It's very personal and the way that it, and I won't spoil anything at all, but, but the way that it does kind of like, you know, the stakes change from like personal stakes to non personal stakes are really interesting and feel very kind of natural. And I didn't even notice it like when I was playing the game. I didn't clock this. And it wasn't until after that I reflected on it of just like that whole first act of the game is just survive, right? Like, like all the bread crumbing through the first act is like, I'm going to talk to this person in the Druids grove. Can they help me?
Sam Claiborne
Everybody wants your eyeball. Everybody.
Nick Limone
You should give, you should give someone your eyeball. At least you get a nice little treat for it. Well, one thing I do like genuinely, I hope you know, it's easier said than done, of course. But one thing I want a lot of RPGs to look at in regards to Baldur's Gate 3 is quest outcome and players being like there's, there's this like incessant need for most RPGs for the player to basically be the ultimate good, goody goody two shoes where there's always an optimal outcome where everyone's gonna be happy. And I really like that Baldur's Gate, some of these, like sometimes you're forced into a shitty situation and no matter which outcome you choose, you will make someone mad. And I really like that because that's, that's real life sometimes. And I like that the stakes aren't. You can't always please everyone. More games need to do that.
Sam Claiborne
So I just need to overcome some of these technical issues, which this is a good suggestion. And then I need to overcome a little bit more of my like, I don't know what the hell's going on at all times stuff. But like obviously the Game is like super amazing.
Nick Limone
Yeah. I don't think the intent is for you to see every single thing that the game has to offer in one playthrough. It's there if you would really want that experience. But I think it's.
Sam Claiborne
I feel like I need to grind a little bit because my battles are going terribly. And then I'll read like, you should be level five by now. I'm like, oh, okay. Like, I didn't, you know, I have no idea.
Justin Davis
Yeah, it's. I had a hard time. Like the few times I did want to use a guide In Baldur's Gate 3, I. I couldn't. They weren't even very helpful because the guide maker's game state was like so different than mine.
Sam Claiborne
That's what was happening with the one I was explaining with the Druid.
Justin Davis
They're like, go this and talk to them and do this. And I'm like, well, that person's dead and this person isn't where you said they were. And so it's like you're kind of like that. That helped me kind of like let go and just be like, okay, I'm on my own. I'll figure it out.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna keep playing, but I bet you anything the same thing will happen as last time. I'll make it to act two and then Resident Evil 9 will be here.
Nick Limone
Yeah, Resident Evil 9. Let's go baby.
Damon Hadfield
We gotta bounce.
Sam Claiborne
I cannot wait. So excited.
Justin Davis
Act two is the low point.
Sam Claiborne
Oh no, it's still cool.
Justin Davis
One is amazing. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Out of the three acts, it's the worst.
Sam Claiborne
Correct.
Damon Hadfield
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Nick Limone
Nintendo players can't look at genitals confirmed.
Damon Hadfield
But they can in other games like Cyberpunk.
Justin Davis
That's that's what's so weird. And the wizard Nintendo like oh Nintendo kiddie games, yada yada. But it's like that's not true. Like they, they have M rated Games all over their platform.
Nick Limone
How many games have the word Hentai in them on the Nintendo Switch eShop?
Damon Hadfield
At least five, Nick. Because I counted them. These are games available in the ESHOP right now. Hentai Dating Stories, Brief Hentai Academy, Hentai Make Love Not War, Hentai World, Hentai Vision and Pure Hentai Moments.
Nick Limone
All right, here's what we gotta do. I need everyone on the podcast to give me permission to expense all of these Hentai games and I will confirm whether or not there's nudity in them and I will report back.
Sam Claiborne
Sure.
Damon Hadfield
Okay. You have my permission.
Sam Claiborne
And it wasn't to reduce the rating of it. For some reason it doesn't have like A E for all or. No, see, it's mature still.
Damon Hadfield
And that's what the. That's what the rating is for in the first place. Yeah, so that the. The gamer can make their own decision whether or not they want to buy the game and see the content.
Nick Limone
Like, so very strange situation.
Justin Davis
My, my spicy take here. And I'm not anti. You know, I'm not approved of any kind. But I think Dispatch is better and funnier with this. With the censorship on.
Nick Limone
I do think it does.
Justin Davis
They're big aggressive black bars. Like, I think, like, I think it's just funny. Like, I think, you know, and like, I think that this policy is stupid because give people the option. But I also think people that are like, it completely ruins the game. I don't think. I think it kind of makes it better. Like, I don't have a problem with it at all.
Nick Limone
I mean, some people just really want to see an areola. I mean, that's about as lewd as it gets along with seeing someone hang dong a couple times.
Justin Davis
I mean, who does?
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, they also. They switched the sex sounds in a sex scene.
Damon Hadfield
Is that true?
Sam Claiborne
That's really funny.
Nick Limone
Dude, we gotta do a comparison. That's such a funny IGN video idea.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it's just such a weird, I don't know, decision. I don't know.
Nick Limone
It feels outdated just in general.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it just doesn't make any sense. Like why they would do this. Ad Hoc's statement was that they worked with Nintendo to get it onto the Switch 2. So it doesn't. Like it wouldn't be Ad Hoc's decision. It has to be Nintendo. But why?
Justin Davis
How? Like, how is this possible when there are Hentai games on the eShop?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Nick Limone
Maybe those Hentai games don't actually have nudity. Maybe that's what it is.
Justin Davis
That's true.
Nick Limone
How is it.
Sam Claiborne
Maybe we're entering an era of Nintendo going a little bit more stickler and old school. I don't know. Maybe this is new.
Damon Hadfield
I mean it was one person in the comments was saying that they have. There's a new head of Nintendo of America now that took over for Doug Bowser. So I don't know. Is this person more conservative and is taking a more conservative approach to what is allowed on the switch? I don't know.
Nick Limone
It's a weird stance to take such a prudish, prudish stance on something that's ultimately fine. Like it's.
Damon Hadfield
Plus they're already. It's. There's a ESRB rating on the box. There's a toggle to turn it off. You want. Why is it.
Nick Limone
It's because the game opens on. On Green Dong. That's the problem. That's like the first five minutes that was too intimidating.
Sam Claiborne
If you only have a switch you. I. I agree with Justin that it's not going to make the experience worse because they included it censored in their own version that you could toggle on. They. They made the creative decisions at least.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Well definitively the Switch 2 version is the worst version now. So by their own. By their own decision.
Nick Limone
It's a good game though. You should check it out.
Damon Hadfield
I mean it's a great game. Actually one of my favorites of last year.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, I think we. It would have been a great contender for the daymies.
Damon Hadfield
Yep. It would have absolutely made the demys.
Justin Davis
That'd be a good follow up. Damie is like game that would have been in the daemies if you had played it by the time the demys aired.
Nick Limone
Yeah, I love it also. Give me, give me. I know everyone's tired of roguelikes at this point.
Damon Hadfield
No, we're not.
Nick Limone
No, we're not this crew. But I'm just saying give me a roguelike of this thing right here where I can send out my heroes then slowly they die over time. That'd be sick.
Damon Hadfield
Yep. I would just play this game for a while by like halfway through the game I was really like in a.
Nick Limone
You felt like you got better at the job.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
You really do get better at the job. I love that idea.
Damon Hadfield
Okay, let's check in with the listeners. Hey listeners. Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgn.com just like.
Justin Davis
Oh God.
Damon Hadfield
Big Tony Styles.
Nick Limone
Big Tony Styles.
Damon Hadfield
Oh, he's getting a little greedy. He wants to be in every episode it seems. Well, he actually has.
Justin Davis
Okay.
Damon Hadfield
He actually has a scoop. That I wasn't aware of and I definitely wanted to bring up. So this is good. I did not know this. Bigdoney Style says. I saw that with the Switch 2 release of the Final Fantasy 7 remake, Square Enix is releasing a patch to unlock a God mode that lets you attack for maximum damage each hit. I didn't know this. This is enough for me to likely jump back in and replay the game since it would be a massive time saver and a fun way to experience the story again. I'd love to see more developers do this for single player games, just to give players the option to experience the world they built with ease. What games, if any, would the Omega Cops like to replay without any stress of potential essentially hitting the game over screen? Why do you think these types of God modes don't always make it into single player games? Do you know about this mode? It's also not just on the Switch too. It's also coming into the Xbox.
Nick Limone
Adding it to Xbox, PlayStation and PC. Yeah, yeah, I heard about. I was like, this is a great idea because it's a great way for one for Square to incentivize people to either pick up or replay Final Fantasy VII remake. And presumably this will also happen with Rebirth and then jump Into Remake Part 3 Whenever it comes out and be ready because everyone always wants to play catch up.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. And these are really big games.
Nick Limone
They're very, very big, very long. And honestly, you know, I have 100% of these games except for Rebirth, because I'm not going to do that last boss fight. But maybe I will now once they update it with Rebirth. But just there comes a point where it's like, if you really want to see everything the game has to offer, it can kind of be a pain in the ass to grind enough to get strong enough and you will miss out on some genuinely cool content. Rebirth specifically has a very good secret boss fight that not enough people have experienced. That I think is one of the greatest things Final Fantasy has ever done. And so now hopefully people will get to enjoy that.
Sam Claiborne
It's just a cactuar, everybody. Don't let Nick hype it up too much. He just really likes Cactuar.
Nick Limone
There's a certain somebody collecting treasure that you help throughout Rebirth that has an incredible boss fight.
Damon Hadfield
Is Rebirth the second part? I don't know.
Nick Limone
That's the second part.
Damon Hadfield
Okay, but are they adding the God mode to that?
Nick Limone
I think they will come to Switch two. I think it will once it comes to Switch two. Because it is coming to Switch Two. Okay, but this is, I think them showing like we're going to go back and make this all like an experience for everyone to enjoy. All the way up.
Sam Claiborne
But they're removing Tifa's bikinis.
Nick Limone
Well, to be fair, she has terrible taste in bikinis because that bikini looks terrible on her.
Damon Hadfield
Wow.
Nick Limone
She looks good in it. Don't get me wrong. But it's just. Come on, tv. Better design sensibilities. Come on.
Justin Davis
My answer to this question of which game should get this feature is just all of them. Video games are the only medium that we don't have control over. If I want to just watch the battle of Helm's Deep and skip through the treebeard sections, then I can do that. If I want to listen to only Holland 1945 and I don't want to listen to the rest of in the Airplane over the Sea, I can do that. Right. Like it's very bizarre. Like these games and especially role playing games that are 80 hours long, that they don't all have a chapter select, that they don't all have a fast forward button, that they don't all have a God mode option. Like, we all should have, you know, the freedom and power to go through our games how I want. And like, I understand that, that, you know, it's a different medium. It's an interactive medium. So if there's some kind of compromise of like, you know, turn off achievements or turn off trophies or, you know, I don't think I'm in favor of this, but maybe it's only unlockable after you've beaten the game the first time. It's crazy. It's crazy to me that certain video games, like, well, if you lost that boss fight, you're never going to see it again.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
So all I've taken away from this is that Nick doesn't like tifa, Justin doesn't like ants, and Damon doesn't like black bars.
Nick Limone
You take that back right now, Sam. I love Tifa. She just has bad taste in bikinis.
Sam Claiborne
So do ants.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
I would say there's games that have like, good.
Nick Limone
Sorry, I would say all the Resident Evil games because I've destroyed all of the Resident Evil games.
Sam Claiborne
But I was just gonna say that's the power fantasy. Well, you unlock this stuff anyway, right? You unlock like the Plagas removal laser or the Magnum or an infinite launcher.
Justin Davis
But I'm not.
Sam Claiborne
That's what's so fun.
Nick Limone
I'm not S plus in the game on my first time through and I'm like, really? I haven't played the game well enough to unlock an extra hip bag. So my inventory is a little bit longer. Like, come on, man.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
But when you do all of that in Resident Evil and you unlock Infinite Launcher, it actually is an interesting way to play the game because you can kill yourself with it by accident. And you have to solve these other issues if you just want to use the launcher. It's like a toy, right? It's a playground. And all games can use this. This is what Grand Theft Auto has. It's cheat codes. It's exactly why we should be able to manipulate games more without doing mods because mods can break all these other things. Just have the developers put that stuff in there so we can play with it.
Nick Limone
Make it dlc, that's free. You download it and whether you want it or not, it's there.
Justin Davis
Yeah. Which by the way, I like. And it's just fine. I just don't like that they don't say anything unless it takes a long time to say what.
Nick Limone
1. I think the first time I ever experienced this was the PlayStation 4 rerelease of the original Final Fantasy 7. They included a mode where you can toggle. You can click L3 to boost the game speed by like up to 10 times or something. And then if you hit both analog sticks, you had instant limit break every time. 9999 health and you did 9999 damage. And you could disable it and enable it whenever you wanted in and out of battle. It was really cool. And it was like I played this game eight times. It's a great way of just re experiencing the story and music.
Justin Davis
Trails in the sky on Steam had that same thing because it's the very original Trails in the sky role playing game. It was a PSP port and they added a turbo mode in the PC release. And so my in and all it does is literally fast forward the game. And so like your save file, like let's say you fast forwarded 10 hours. Their save file would still say 10 hours. But the Steam playtime is accurate to your real playtime. So that let me, when I beat the game, see how many hours I had saved. And like my save game was at like 48 or 49 or 50 hours. And my Steam play time was at 40 hours. I'm like, I literally saved 10 hours of my life just fast forwarding through the battle results screen.
Sam Claiborne
So there's other power fantasy games which are always going to be good for this. Like God of War, you're A God. Come on, give me God mode. It'd be really, really fun. And that game, when you do big moves for damage, just like Resident Evil, there could be really pulpy results and it'd be really funny. And that stuff is in the game because you can do that once you get crazy powered up. But it'd be fun to just rip your way through the game, right?
Justin Davis
Yeah. And bring back Big Head mode.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
Nick Limone
Yes.
Sam Claiborne
Just put the Incredible Hulk in there. Just for fun.
Justin Davis
Yep. I have DK mode.
Damon Hadfield
I have the Final Fantasy Pixel collection, so I checked, but they didn't put the God mode in that too. That would also be nice.
Nick Limone
Yeah, that'd be nice.
Damon Hadfield
Because I beat Final Fantasy 1 and then started Final Fantasy 3. But if God mode was in there, I'd probably just blast through all six of those games.
Sam Claiborne
But they do have tweaked. You can turn off encounters and stuff like that. You can turn off or down random encounters.
Nick Limone
That'll make your boss fights a little tricky, though.
Sam Claiborne
Here we go. This took a long time.
Nick Limone
It's a terrible bikini.
Sam Claiborne
Oh, shit. There's two, though.
Nick Limone
Yeah, the other one's better. But I mean, I'm not gonna get into it.
Damon Hadfield
Let's move on. This is enjoyable, Gubby. Last week we were talking about the Xbox developer Direct. Enjoyable, Gubby says. In last week's episode, during your discussion About Forza Horizon 6, Sam made a comment about why a station wagon. And another comment was made maybe by Justin, about shitty cars they have you drive for certain events to get you out of your comfort zone. I'm willing to bet the most car enthusiasts listening to your show spit out their coffee at that moment. Just to be clear, I don't hold it against any of you that you aren't car nerds. Just dropping you a friendly line to make you aware as you continue your car education through these games, that there are actually many, many car enthusiasts that love station wagons. Or prefer station wagons. If you look up tuner versions of Subarus Volvos, and they're my grandparents, they.
Sam Claiborne
Had one that was all panels.
Damon Hadfield
You might actually be surprised. It's a whole subset of car culture, actually. As manufacturers slowly stopped making wagons for the American market, they've only become more special and sought after. I once had a 2002 Volvo XC70 that could really surprise kids with giant spoilers that wanted to race. I love that Forza Horizon games let you get deep into these niche facets and play these games your way. And I cannot wait. Anyway, I love the show. I'm 48 years old and I've been playing video games since I was five and I love listening to your show. When I walk my dog, it's a celebration of cars.
Nick Limone
I love it.
Sam Claiborne
What is this correcting? Is it like a real, like people want station wagons in video games or is it that people like station wagons in real life? Because I have a friend that collects Volvo station wagons, so I understand that.
Justin Davis
I had a. I also, I owned and enjoyed an Audi wagon for a while. We had an Audi all sport. That was a very fun car to drive. What I was referring to with that comment was like the license tests in Gran Turismo actually, like they, they do force you to drive shitty old cars sometimes that are not fast, that don't have horsepower and are not a part of racing culture. And that's like part of the charm is like, well, in this truck, in this race, you're going to have to pick an old pickup truck, you know, and like, sometimes that would be a license test and like to me that's pretty different. I'm aware that like that was a tangent when we were talking about Forza Horizon 6. Like, obviously a lot of Japanese car culture on display with, you know, some of the hatchbacks and some of the other stuff that was in the B roll for the game.
Nick Limone
I think that's also part of the joy of the games is the juxtaposition of like, it really gets you to appreciate the difference in handling between, you know, these lower spec cars versus, you know, your, your McLarens and your Bugattis and whatnot. And you're just like, oh shoot, this is what oversteering means.
Damon Hadfield
Well, it's news to me that car enthusiasts have a particular fondness for station wagons. I didn't know that.
Sam Claiborne
Well, let me tell you all that in Red Dead Redemption, every horse has a big pair of horse nuts and you do not ride horses with nuts that maybe, maybe a Civil War captain would do that. He was really brave. But there's a reason why we have geldings and ride mares. So there's things you don't need to know about video games and there's things that you do. And one thing that I know is that I want to get the cool, fast looking cars and games and the, the old silly ones are fun for a little while. But that's why I skip those sections in Mafia game sports.
Justin Davis
It looks so good. I think I'm going to re.
Sam Claiborne
This seems crazy. Look at the sausage.
Justin Davis
I think I'm going to reinstall Horizon 5 or whatever. The last one was because I feel like I want to get up to some shenanigans. I can't wait till the next one.
Damon Hadfield
I can't either. I'm super excited. Game Scoop is usually very family friendly, but this episode we're talking about dicks and boobs and nuts and sex and. Well, we have black bars for that and bikinis too.
Nick Limone
So yeah, we're going to bleep the entire episode.
Justin Davis
It's all normal stuff.
Damon Hadfield
Normal stuff.
Sam Claiborne
Bikinis are just real life black bars.
Justin Davis
Enjoyable.
Damon Hadfield
Gubby sent a follow up email saying this is kind of goofy, but because I'm such a big Goose Camp fan, I also meant to tell you more about myself before I hit send on that last email. It's a New Year's resolution of mine to write your show on at least a semi regular basis. And now I'm at work waiting for my next meeting. Here are some fun facts about me. I'm a husband and a dad. I've been playing video games for 43 years and never stopped. My first video game system was an Atari 2600 that my dad bought for $106 when my mom, dad and I were still new immigrants that had fled communist Hungary. Wow. As a high school kid, I worked for Konami one summer and I'm in the credits as a tester for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo versions of Animaniacs.
Nick Limone
That rules. I played that game.
Damon Hadfield
I was once the proud owner of a Magnavox Odyssey in the original packaging with manuals, screen overlays, games and everything. Until my mom sold it for $60 at a garage sale without me knowing.
Sam Claiborne
That had a great box too.
Damon Hadfield
And I am a musician and an artist and I even had a chance to play bass for Damo Suzuki for a couple days. Does Sam know who? Damo Suzuki?
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, from Cannes.
Damon Hadfield
Yes. Singer for Cannes. Anyway, you asked for none of this, but it felt right sharing my origin story with you guys since I have been enjoying your show for so long.
Nick Limone
Happy to have you on board, man.
Justin Davis
Yeah, that was. That's awesome.
Damon Hadfield
I've never played Animaniacs. Is it good?
Nick Limone
I was a kid. Yeah.
Damon Hadfield
So yeah, definitely. Good then. Okay.
Nick Limone
This is.
Sam Claiborne
It's kind of set up like a brawler. It looks like I don't remember it at all.
Damon Hadfield
This is Vito in Boca Raton, Florida.
Justin Davis
Nice.
Damon Hadfield
Vito says with all these wonderful indie Metroidvanias out, my biggest question is Konami, are you out there? Does anyone on the panel know why Konami just refuses to make new Castlevania Games, dude.
Nick Limone
I've been saying that for a while. I mean if we ever see another Castlevania, you know, it's going to be a Souls like, right?
Justin Davis
I think, I think they'll do both. Like we've been talking about it on the show. They've, they, you know, Konami was on the ropes and had a few very rough years and then they've just been striking sort of pitch perfect partnership after partnership of like lining up the right developer with the right Konami property. And so I think that they'll do both, right? I think that they'll do a Souls like with, you know, with someone and then I think they'll partner with, you know, an indie developer to do a Metro 2D Metroid.
Sam Claiborne
That'd be amazing. That'd be the way to do it. Somebody with a good pedigree that's already done that. I think that they. Well, I just wonder too like how did Metal Gear 2. They just made a Metal Gear 3 remake last year. That would be an indicator of whether they're going to do stuff like that. But I think more like pairing with developers is the way to go.
Damon Hadfield
So Konami used to be a top tier Japanese developer along like very close to Capcom and Square Enix. But then in 2010 I believe they released a mobile game called Dragon Collection I think and it made way more money than anything else they did. So they're like, oh, this is what we do now. And we, we just put our franchises, we skin particular machines with our various franchises. And then their last also make gyms. Yeah, well they have their whole separate business. They're like workout athletic centers. And the last big triple A game before like their, before they went dark was metal gear solid 5, which also included a very public breakup with a beloved developer, Hideo Kojima.
Nick Limone
Very strange situations.
Damon Hadfield
And then they were just, they were just like seemingly done. They're just. Konami was not a AAA game developer anymore. But then in like early 2021 or 2022, they started putting out collections of their classic games like the Castlevania collections, Contra the arcade ones. And like Justin was saying, then they started partnering with other developers because I don't think Konami itself has much development talent left within it. They can partner with others to put together Silent Hill 2 remake and Metal Gear Solid 3 and everything. So yeah, that's where they're just like coming. They're just now starting to come back. In the last few years they what have they probably hit the ceiling on the mobile gaming and pachinko market. And they're like, well, let's, let's pivot back into gaming. But the question of where is Castlevania? Yeah. I don't know why. I don't, I don't know why. Because like there's. The Netflix show was a big hit.
Nick Limone
Yeah, it was great.
Damon Hadfield
There's an appetite for it.
Nick Limone
Who was the studio way forward. Give them the side scrolling. Give them a side scrolling shot at. At Castlevania and then Give Platinum Games 3D Castlevania.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Yeah. Or the. All the developers from the last Prince of Persia game that they. It's a good idea like you know, to petition Konami when you make games like Konami Games to see if you can get those licenses. It'd be really cool.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. This is making me want to play Symphony of the Night.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Nick Limone
Die Monster. Good game.
Justin Davis
Symphony of the Night is a candidate for the game that I have purchased the most number of times. It's up there that you. What I mean, I have it on PS1 and I have it on XBLA and then I, you know, and then I have it in at least one collection.
Damon Hadfield
The collection I have on PlayStation that's this in Rondo Blood.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
Do you have the Saturn version? That'd be fun.
Justin Davis
I don't have the Saturn version. I don't even know if I've ever played the Saturn version because that wasn't the XBLA version.
Nick Limone
I don't think it has more stuff in it, but I think it's genuine. Generally a worse version of the game.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. The more stuff is so cool. I mean I think that's included in collections.
Justin Davis
Maybe.
Sam Claiborne
I don't, I don't know if it's.
Justin Davis
I'm really, I'm always. I am really fascinated. Like the other game that really. This is a off topic. So I apologize. But like super. I think a lot about Super Mario 64Ds. How they just took one of the most beloved and well loved video games of all time and there's a version of it that just has 20 or 30 more stars that no one ever thinks about or talks about.
Nick Limone
And you don't even start as Mario, you start as Yoshi and he plays completely different. It's crazy.
Justin Davis
Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And like. And we'll never see it again. Like it'll never be ported. And that's a little bit like Castlevania. Symphony of the Night, the Sega Saturn version. You can go under the starting area.
Damon Hadfield
I never played the DS version.
Nick Limone
It's pretty. I like it.
Justin Davis
I like it too.
Damon Hadfield
They had to adapt it to a D pad, right?
Nick Limone
No, you use the touchscreen is how you move Mario around. You have to hold the.
Justin Davis
It had the thumb. The little thumb stylus. Yeah.
Damon Hadfield
Okay.
Justin Davis
Interesting minigames in it.
Nick Limone
I was too terrified of using the thumb stylus. I was like, I'm going to scratch the heck out of my bottom screen. So I just use the regular stylus. And the minigame.
Sam Claiborne
I think you can also use the D pad, but people prefer to use the stylus. Right? Isn't that.
Nick Limone
I don't think so. I think that was like. To control the camera. The D pad is very, very weird setup.
Sam Claiborne
There is no camera control in that game though.
Damon Hadfield
Not really, dude.
Nick Limone
But this footage is great. This is.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, this is probably Craig Harris. Craig Harris.
Sam Claiborne
Craig Harris.
Nick Limone
This was my first DS game and yes, it did have an excellent collection of minigames. But now I'm thinking back to our Dispatch conversation about Nintendo censoring. Dispatch. Would modern Nintendo censor this version of Super Mario 64DS? Because there's casino games in this version. You could play like blackjack and poker and stuff like that.
Damon Hadfield
Like actual.
Justin Davis
Yeah, yeah. It was a really weird game. It had 30 minigames that had nothing to do with anything. Like just regular ass blackjack. And then it also had more stars in the single player game.
Nick Limone
It had like a challenge Angry Birds like thing where you had to launch like a little ball and destroy a bunch of like Mario enemies. It's really fun.
Sam Claiborne
You can play with the D pad, but it's less precise.
Nick Limone
Ah, okay.
Sam Claiborne
Because it's. Because it's not analog. And Mario 64 was famously 3D using analog controls. So they took that out and it was a little bit controversial.
Justin Davis
I feel like I've talked about it on Scoop before, but I want to do a feature on like versions, like you know, versions of games that are trapped on like one console that have other stuff that no one ever thinks.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. 64. They put it out for as a, as a GameCube disc, but that's still.
Nick Limone
Extremely obscure for Master Quest, Resident Evil, Deadly Silence.
Sam Claiborne
Deadly Silence.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Nick Limone
Foreign.
Damon Hadfield
That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Caleb from Kansas City who says I've been, I've been reliving the redacted recently and I think this is my favorite redacted of all time. Even ahead of the Redacted the sequel.
Nick Limone
That sounds like what that last words wants to say.
Damon Hadfield
And with that let the questioning begin.
Sam Claiborne
Reliving. Reliving the 80s, maybe. So before we do that. This is a second episode this week, right? Because this is the.
Damon Hadfield
Well, yeah, but this is the main episode this week.
Sam Claiborne
Okay.
Damon Hadfield
We put up today. We put up.
Sam Claiborne
Are you gonna shout out. Go ahead, Go ahead.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Today we put up our AEGN 30 where we looked through some artifacts that IGN has collected over the years. We had Peron. And yeah, that episode is out there now.
Sam Claiborne
It's really awesome. Everybody should check that out. I'm sure you're going to see it in your feeds anyway, but not on.
Damon Hadfield
Your podcast feeds, because it wouldn't. It would not be an enjoyable thing to just listen to because we're literally showing you cool stuff that we've collected over the years. So find that one on YouTube.
Sam Claiborne
YouTube. And it's on Facebook. And stuff Damon posted today. It's really fun. It's like really crazy. Cool, unusual artifacts that Damon and Pear dug out of the. I don't know why it's censored.
Nick Limone
Speaking of censored.
Damon Hadfield
Because it was the inside Fleshlight doll that. But then it ended up not even being in the box.
Sam Claiborne
Right, Right. Yeah. But we.
Damon Hadfield
We.
Sam Claiborne
We had some things in here that we even followed up on, including a locked GameCube, which we can talk about after you watch this.
Justin Davis
Yeah, it was one of the more fun things we've recorded in a long time. If you do want to watch the video, it's not on this channel. It is on the main IGN channel.
Damon Hadfield
YouTube.com ignore and no audio version. That's right.
Sam Claiborne
Okay, so there's some. Does this game take place in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?
Justin Davis
Hold on.
Sam Claiborne
It'd be cool if it took place.
Damon Hadfield
Was it released in the 70s, 80s, or 90s? No.
Justin Davis
Okay, when does Kid Chameleon take place? That definitely takes place in the 90s. He's at an arcade. I think in the opening, the answer was no to 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Damon Hadfield
That's right.
Justin Davis
Okay, Is this game on the Nintendo Switch?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
Is this game a sequel?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Nick Limone
So he says, I like this game more than the original game is probably what he was getting at. Or what they were.
Justin Davis
Here's what I like about. Here's what I like the metagame aspect of Is this game a sequel? Sometimes we burn a question on Is this game part of a franchise and is this game a sequel? Gets you that same answer. But you also get a bonus piece of information.
Nick Limone
Okay.
Sam Claiborne
Is this a console exclusive?
Damon Hadfield
Can you. Can you be.
Sam Claiborne
Was this a console exclusive at launch?
Damon Hadfield
Like, was it exclusive to one console?
Sam Claiborne
Yes.
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
Multi plat.
Sam Claiborne
I don't Know.
Justin Davis
Was it made in Japan?
Sam Claiborne
Yes. That one of the time.
Nick Limone
Yeah, that was. I'm a little caught up on how he phrased that. Why? Yeah, let's see. So multiple.
Damon Hadfield
We can talk at that.
Sam Claiborne
Oh, God.
Nick Limone
Justin, you. You were gonna ask, you said.
Justin Davis
Yeah. Was it made in Japan?
Damon Hadfield
No. That's five.
Nick Limone
Was it made in Europe?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
Okay. That means it's Australian.
Damon Hadfield
Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm walking back. Yes.
Nick Limone
Oh, okay.
Damon Hadfield
Europe.
Sam Claiborne
Oh, it's British. Because now they're not part of Europe.
Justin Davis
Yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, it's from England. Exactly. That actually might be exactly what just happened.
Nick Limone
Chicken.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Is this a 3D game?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Sam Claiborne
3D graphics.
Justin Davis
I think it's Banjo Tooie. That came out after 2000.
Sam Claiborne
Console exclusive, though.
Justin Davis
Console exclusive.
Sam Claiborne
It's not. This is not a console.
Nick Limone
Not a console. Oh, well, I guess it.
Justin Davis
Okay.
Nick Limone
It's on Xbox. Technically.
Justin Davis
Yeah, but we have that release.
Sam Claiborne
Stick to that one.
Justin Davis
Is this game a platformer, RPG or shooter?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Sam Claiborne
Was this originally released for a Nintendo console?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
Is this. Does. Is the main character of this game still relevant to this day?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
That's irrelevant.
Sam Claiborne
Was this released on the platform? Was this available on a PlayStation platform?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Justin Davis
Do we call. I don't want to get anybody too upset about this. Is solid stake still relevant to this day? It's been a while.
Sam Claiborne
Designed in Japan, though.
Nick Limone
I mean, I guess technically Justin's right, but I know.
Justin Davis
It hurts my heart. Yeah, but you're right. That was the Japanese franchise.
Nick Limone
It's European.
Justin Davis
So what? Okay, so Rayman, I guess I kind of glossed over the European thing. Like, you know, could be. Could be.
Nick Limone
You get your.
Justin Davis
You got your Ubis, you got Rare, although all their stuff is console exclusive.
Nick Limone
So you get your. Your. Your French developers. Other French developers.
Justin Davis
Yeah. I mean, is this game developed or published by Ubisoft?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Sam Claiborne
Is this from before 2015?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Nick Limone
Or 2015. Multi plat. European dev. Character's not relevant anymore.
Sam Claiborne
Did this launch as a PS4 game?
Damon Hadfield
No.
Nick Limone
What are we. How many questions are we at?
Damon Hadfield
You've asked 14.
Nick Limone
Oh, shoot. We don't even know what, like, console era we're going for here, huh?
Justin Davis
Well, no, but that's not true. We know it's earlier than 2015 and we know it didn't release. What was the PS4 question?
Nick Limone
Not on PS4.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, so it sounds like PS3 or PS2.
Justin Davis
PS3. So we know roughly the era and we know it's a sequel. I mean, I don't know, man.
Nick Limone
Maybe. Let's what other game type?
Justin Davis
Maybe I tried. I tried. It's not a shooter, RPG or platformer.
Nick Limone
What is that?
Justin Davis
You all didn't go down that road with me.
Nick Limone
What does that.
Justin Davis
What does that leave? Nothing.
Sam Claiborne
Let's see. So do we have to force it that it's a PS2 or PS3 game?
Nick Limone
Yeah, we probably should.
Sam Claiborne
Or it could be Vita or something.
Nick Limone
Is this game available on the PlayStation 3?
Damon Hadfield
Yes. That's 15.
Nick Limone
So it's like 2006 to 2007 to 2014. About a seven year window there. And it's a sequel.
Sam Claiborne
Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter type thing.
Nick Limone
That's American. But I like where your head's at.
Justin Davis
Yeah, but they gotta be multi platform.
Nick Limone
Maybe like attacking the power of juju. No, that was Ubisoft.
Sam Claiborne
We don't know if it's like an adult game or anything like that. Right, just that it's 3D.
Justin Davis
It could be like a racing game. Like their character could not be relevant. Maybe it's like sports. Sports or racing or something like that.
Nick Limone
Main character is a car.
Justin Davis
Yeah, it's John Madden.
Nick Limone
Is this game rated M for mature?
Damon Hadfield
Probably not. No, there's no. There's no way.
Nick Limone
Okay, okay. Tier E.
Sam Claiborne
We really don't know anything about this game. If we. If we could get it based on the. That developer weirdness.
Damon Hadfield
100 confirmed, not rated M. Okay.
Nick Limone
And we're at. How many questions you've asked?
Damon Hadfield
Sixteen.
Nick Limone
Okay.
Justin Davis
What about.
Sam Claiborne
Where are we going wrong? Damon.
Justin Davis
What? Can I hear the redacted again?
Damon Hadfield
I've been reliving the redacted recently and I think this is my favorite redacted of all time. Even ahead of the redacted.
Nick Limone
Even ahead of the original and reliving.
Justin Davis
But it's not Ubisoft, so it's not Assassin's Creed. What about like. What about Fable?
Sam Claiborne
Oh, yeah, it's just not.
Justin Davis
Was that. Were those exclusive?
Nick Limone
No. Those are rated M though.
Justin Davis
Are they?
Nick Limone
Yeah, not on the PS3.
Justin Davis
Just because they got farts.
Sam Claiborne
They're not on the PS3. And not on PS3 period.
Justin Davis
Period. Yeah. What? And did we. So what about. I'm trying to start to think about your. Well, like Criterion. Oh, what about Burnout?
Nick Limone
Do we want to ask if it's. Do we want to like pair racing game with another genre?
Justin Davis
Yeah, we should do racing. Is it a racing sports or puzzle game?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Nick Limone
Oh, shoot.
Sam Claiborne
I bet it's racing too.
Nick Limone
And a guess, ain't nobody playing sports games.
Justin Davis
Is it a racing game?
Damon Hadfield
No, no.
Nick Limone
It'S a sport. I'M reliving every Madden and I can't believe I love Madden 2000 sports over the new one.
Sam Claiborne
Sp.
Justin Davis
Gonna guess puzzle game or sports game? It's a sequel.
Sam Claiborne
It's 3D, which is unusual for puzzle.
Justin Davis
We know roughly the era. We know it was made in Europe. Man. I was so sure it was because I was so sure it was Criterion sequel.
Nick Limone
What? Who is house, Mark?
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Nick Limone
What? What? Where are they from?
Justin Davis
Sweden or somewhere up there.
Nick Limone
Maybe they're playing like Super Stardust HD or something.
Justin Davis
But that's not a sequel.
Nick Limone
I mean, I think there is. I think it would be if there's a Super Stardust and this is a Super Stardust hd. I don't know, I'm stretching, man. I know it was popular on the PS3, but now we're conflating that it was popular on the PS3 even though it was multiplayer, which Housemark games were not, so. Nevermind. I answered my own question.
Justin Davis
European game developers. Sports or puzzle?
Nick Limone
Just cause I think they're like Avalanche Studios, right? That's like Swiss as well, I think.
Justin Davis
Yeah, that might be a good one. But that's not sports or puzzle.
Nick Limone
Oh yeah.
Justin Davis
I don't know. I don't know. I know Sega publishes them all. I don't know who develops football.
Sam Claiborne
What if it's the Rockstar series and it's like ping pong.
Justin Davis
Yeah, Rockstar table tennis was legit as Rockstar is in.
Sam Claiborne
In England or Scotland.
Nick Limone
Scotland.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Nick Limone
Well, you were saying something, Justin as well. I just want to make sure I'm operating on all information here.
Justin Davis
I was thinking about Football Manager, which I know Sega publishes, but I don't know who the developer is. And I'm just assuming table tennis is.
Sam Claiborne
Not a sequel either.
Nick Limone
But maybe they're like I'm playing every Rockstar game and I actually like table tennis over every Grand Theft Auto.
Sam Claiborne
It's not a sequel.
Nick Limone
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sam Claiborne
You don't have like meteos.
Nick Limone
Wait, what were.
Damon Hadfield
You don't have enough questions? But I'll. As a, as a, as a. A freebie. This franchise has been mentioned while we've all been sitting here.
Nick Limone
Damn. Cracking the power of juju, isn't it?
Justin Davis
What could it mean? That really throws me for a loop.
Sam Claiborne
I. I think it means it was mentioned before 20 questions.
Justin Davis
Yeah, that could be, but I don't.
Sam Claiborne
Know what we talked about.
Justin Davis
In this episode we record this.
Sam Claiborne
Could it be the original Baldur's Gate?
Nick Limone
Baldur's Gate.
Justin Davis
Could it be Baldur's Gate 3? Well, they're gonna say Baldur's Gate or divinity.
Sam Claiborne
Divinity.
Nick Limone
Divinity.
Justin Davis
I don't think it can be one or two, because they were made by.
Nick Limone
Yeah, by.
Justin Davis
What do you call. They were made in the United States.
Nick Limone
They were really Funcom. Right. Or something like that.
Damon Hadfield
Wow.
Sam Claiborne
Okay.
Nick Limone
Black Isle.
Justin Davis
It was. No, Baldur's Gate was the Jesus. My brain. It's the Mass Effect, the Bioware.
Nick Limone
Oh, duh. Yeah. Sorry. Brain fart.
Justin Davis
Yep.
Nick Limone
Okay, we. We didn't mention divinity original sin at all in this episode. I know.
Justin Davis
It could be Baldur's Gate 3. I will know because it's. No, because it's a sports or racing game. What? Sports or racing games? Did we mention.
Sam Claiborne
Sports are puzzle.
Justin Davis
Yeah, you're right. My bad.
Nick Limone
It's not a racing game. But yeah, sports are puzzle.
Sam Claiborne
And we would have mentioned it at some point.
Justin Davis
I mean, I mentioned football manager. I don't know who makes it. I only know if there's somebody listening.
Nick Limone
To this podcast who's replaying every football manager. That's a little unhinged.
Justin Davis
That's real sicko mode stuff. I'm gonna be honest.
Nick Limone
No judgment. But, hey, you. Do you.
Sam Claiborne
I mean, I don't think. Oh, what if it was one of the games we mentioned that was fun to do? God Boat for.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Nick Limone
Resident Evil. We talked about war.
Justin Davis
We confirmed it was PS3.
Nick Limone
Yes. It's on PS3, which would mean it would be contemporary with the Xbox 360.
Sam Claiborne
Where was like God of War. Whatever. Whatever developed, you know, like, not three, but the one after that Ascension.
Nick Limone
But it's not. It's not an action. It's a. It's a. It's a puzzle game or a.
Sam Claiborne
Right. Sports game back that. Yeah. We're both. We're so far off the mark, it's kind of unbelievable.
Nick Limone
Have we talked. What about a puzzle game, though?
Sam Claiborne
No, not that I know.
Justin Davis
What about Yo Noid Dragon?
Nick Limone
What was that? Konami game?
Sam Claiborne
What about a skating game?
Justin Davis
We did talk about some skating games.
Sam Claiborne
What about skate? Just Skate two. Does that meet these requirements?
Nick Limone
I don't know. I think skate is a. I think it's made by a French studio, if I'm not mistaken.
Sam Claiborne
Because that's talked about while we've all been sitting here. Because we talked about it before the episode.
Nick Limone
This is true.
Justin Davis
I like it.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
Nick Limone
And we did say the worst Skate.
Justin Davis
Do we want to. Do we want to burn our last question on. Is this a skateboard game?
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Or an extreme sports game?
Justin Davis
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this an extreme sports game?
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
Nick Limone
Oh, my goodness. Okay, there's like what, four sports skate games.
Sam Claiborne
It's got to be Skate two. I just don't know when or where that was developed.
Nick Limone
That was PS3. That was PS3. That Was Xbox360. And everyone loves skateboard two more than all of them. Do it. Is it skate two?
Damon Hadfield
Yes, it's skate two.
Sam Claiborne
How did we click?
Damon Hadfield
I gave you a pretty big.
Nick Limone
Pretty big hint.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, but we have total amnesia and we. That wasn't even from the episode.
Nick Limone
You got to include the, the. If we were recording. You got to include that now for context for people who are watching.
Damon Hadfield
If, if, if J recorded it, that'll be our post credits sequence.
Nick Limone
Yeah, but if it's not. We were talking. We were watching.
Sam Claiborne
Cool.
Nick Limone
Like a Japanese skateboarding competition thing.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. So much so that when we were watching that I was like, oh no, the 20 question is going to be too easy now.
Sam Claiborne
Yep, yep, yep.
Nick Limone
This is a skate game. Everyone says. Like one of our coworkers, one of the extremely talented, Kevin Capiella. Don't mean a doxia Kev Cap, but that's his name. He works here at ign. He's worked here about as long as I have. And to this day he says this is his high bar for skateboarding video games.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, it is so good. It is such a great skate game. Both this and one are great, but two is fantastic. So what's the full write in explanation?
Damon Hadfield
I said I would like to submit Skate2 as this week's 20 Questions game. I've been reliving the PS3 game library recently and I think this is my favorite skating game of all time. Even ahead of the Tony Hawk games.
Sam Claiborne
Nice.
Nick Limone
That's pretty daunting playing the entirety of the PS3. Or like I guess maybe not the.
Justin Davis
Entirety of it, but I mean, you know, just highlights.
Nick Limone
I get it.
Sam Claiborne
This physics is kind of mind blowing. This is like half life gravity gun stuff that you can push all this stuff around and trick off of it.
Nick Limone
Oh, I just love the way it feels like. I like that.
Sam Claiborne
That's really good.
Nick Limone
Just the feeling of doing a kickflip in this game. It just hits a little different than Tony Hawk ever did.
Damon Hadfield
This was developed by EA Black Box, which was an English studio.
Sam Claiborne
That's so cool. Okay, so Brexit changed the rules there.
Damon Hadfield
And this was 2009 for 360 and PS3 never came to PC.
Nick Limone
And it's never been.
Sam Claiborne
When we bring it up, it's because it's has thrasher in it.
Nick Limone
Yep.
Sam Claiborne
A great magazine that my band is in this month.
Damon Hadfield
Yep.
Sam Claiborne
Pick this up on store shelves right now.
Nick Limone
Wow. Well, well done, everyone.
Damon Hadfield
Also, my only hesitation on console exclusive is like, I've heard people refer to like GTA 6 as a console exclusive because not coming.
Sam Claiborne
They're smashing.
Nick Limone
Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah.
Damon Hadfield
So that's all. Well, nicely job. You made it there in the end. Thank you for the suggestion. Caleb from Kansas City.
Sam Claiborne
Are we complete winning streak right now?
Damon Hadfield
Nobody knows. There's no way.
Sam Claiborne
We'll have to have our stats people write in.
Nick Limone
Someone's about to do some calculus and.
Damon Hadfield
Determine what's that question again in 12 months. Sam, viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgn.com and right now at Humble, would you believe you can get Humble Choice for just $14.99 and score a curated bundle of PC games for January, including Sonic Frontiers, Tomb Raiders 4 through 6, Remastered, Hunt Showdown 1896, Etron Odyssey 2 HD. Nice day for fishing, Metal Slug Tactics, Settlement Survival, and Wizard of Legend 2. This month's choice is available through February 3rd, so head to humblebundle.com and start playing today. And that's all the scoops that we have here this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Jobert. Working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Right now, literally right now, after I sign off, we're going to record a new episode of Game Scope.
Justin Davis
Scoped.
Damon Hadfield
Please be excited for that. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamestop. And we're out. One for the eyes, two for the Queen. Here's to the end of the holocene. Live for the fight. Die for the green. Don't overthink the in between oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now now get up when we get knocked down oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now don't fail me now thanks for your order. Thanks for your time. Thanks for ignoring all the signs. Let's drink to Signal and pgv. Party like it's not just a fantasy oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now get up when we get home Knocked down oh, yeah Dreams don't fail me now don't fail me now. Oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now get up when we get knocked down oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now don't fail me now oh, yeah Faking it to make it out alive I hope we make it out alive oh, yeah Streets don't fail me now don't fail me now.
Sam Claiborne
Is still alive. He's like 98. He's like, what the.
Justin Davis
Yeah, Wait. Wait till I'm dead.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
That's 100% his angle.
Damon Hadfield
Isn't there, like, a zipline ride there now?
Sam Claiborne
Maybe at Fort Mason? I don't think there is. At the Ferry building? Maybe there is. There's a giant naked woman, David.
Nick Limone
Only there for the zip line.
Damon Hadfield
Free story for the zip line.
Justin Davis
You're. You're tugging on it, you're yanking it.
Damon Hadfield
He thinks it's his. Shut up, Mike.
Sam Claiborne
Oh, man.
Damon Hadfield
Where's that new season?
Nick Limone
He's a busy guy.
Justin Davis
I don't know if we're gonna get another one. I mean, I'm sure we will eventually.
Sam Claiborne
They come out of nowhere. Always, right. Because they're such short sketches.
Justin Davis
I think it's been, what, three seasons of it? But the first three were like, the.
Sam Claiborne
End of the paperboy track. At the end where they go into the dirt pile.
Justin Davis
Yeah, it is kind of like that. I.
Sam Claiborne
It.
Justin Davis
I feel like the fourth season, like, now there's a lot of buildup, right? People can be like, oh, I don't like these sketches as much. Yeah.
Nick Limone
Oh, he beat the other guy.
Sam Claiborne
Whoa.
Damon Hadfield
No.
Sam Claiborne
This looks so fun. What a fucking awesome idea.
Nick Limone
The one we were watching yesterday was sick. They're just in a ninja warrior style course where they have a grind rail that's set up over a body of water, and it's like a nuts long rail, and they see how far they can grind it. And, like, the furthest people got was, like 47% of the rail.
Justin Davis
That's the one that I've seen is it's always like the Red Bull challenges, right? Like, what was it when it was like running up a greased pole to grab the flag at the end and then. Yeah, I've seen the skateboard grinding of, like, it curves all around and then goes up and down. And everyone always felt this part where, like, it had this really tight kind of spiral turn at the end.
Nick Limone
Pen. Pen. That's the name of the penguin in Evangelion.
Justin Davis
Pen.
Sam Claiborne
Pen.
Justin Davis
There's the IGN 30 stuff has made it onto Reddit and the comments are clamoring for Craig Harris.
Damon Hadfield
Craig Harris.
Justin Davis
There's been a lot of IGN Pocket.
Sam Claiborne
Love, a lot of minefield.
Nick Limone
Literally the first way I ever discovered IGN was by typing in my URL pocket.ign.com cheats and then going to the Mega Man Battle Network cheat section and walkthrough section.
Sam Claiborne
What year would that have been?
Nick Limone
I was in middle school, so that would have been like 20. No. 2000.
Justin Davis
2004.
Nick Limone
2005.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
Nick, I can blow your mind. Colin Moriarty was running the cheat site those two years.
Nick Limone
I must have read all of his cheats. And then I discovered you could just, you know, click on the IGN button properly. Oh, there's more. Shoot Crazy.
Sam Claiborne
That's always how it was.
Justin Davis
Yep, that's exactly how it was. Every single person came in for Pokemon cheats and then said, oh, there's a whole website here.
Sam Claiborne
We're really hoping that's still happening for Roblox codes.
Nick Limone
That was crazy.
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. That was so smooth.
Damon Hadfield
Too tight, Booth.
Nick Limone
Like, that's what they do in a video game, not in real life.
Sam Claiborne
I know, I know. You might know this from Skate Skate Series, I think, but do you guys know what Thrasher magazine is?
Nick Limone
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
So my band has always been skate adjacent. So Thrasher just sent us a package. There's a little skater on it.
Nick Limone
Oh, that's cool, man.
Sam Claiborne
This is Thrasher magazine, and it has a bunch of buttons and stickers and stuff in it, which are really cool.
Nick Limone
That's sick.
Sam Claiborne
This type, like, swag, like this, like just. Just cool, cool. These little skate. Skate things, like little buttons and stuff. But the reason they did that is because they. We're in this. The. This month's magazine. Thrasher sent us a bunch of. Bunch of stuff. Yeah, no, it was weird. It's. It's from just before that. We were up in Seattle. There's my wife playing the keyboard.
Damon Hadfield
Nice. Very cool.
Justin Davis
That's awesome. That's.
Sam Claiborne
Wow.
Nick Limone
Congrats. That's rules, dude.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
And it's not the first time we've been in Thrasher. The guy that wrote this, actually, when we were really young, he had somehow, like, had some connection to Arizona. And he was like, oh, yeah, this. This young band is there and here's their record. And we couldn't fucking believe it. It's just a little blurb, but it was really fun. Yeah. Getting like, a photo and stuff was really, really an honor.
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
And I totally went to Amoeba and booked that. I thought the shelf and, like, the nearest employee is like, I'm in this. The one chance you get to do that.
Nick Limone
Yeah, yeah, take it every time.
Sam Claiborne
Guy didn't give as fuck.
Justin Davis
Casually, casually flip to the page that, like, has your photo and then just, like, point. Wait a second.
Nick Limone
Drop it on the counter. Oops. Oh, weird.
Justin Davis
Yeah.
Sam Claiborne
Every time there's somebody working there, just go up and buy a copy and just be behaving through it. Oh.
Episode Title: Nintendo Is Censoring One of Last Year’s Best Games
Release Date: January 30, 2026
Host: Daemon Hatfield
Co-hosts: Nick Limone, Justin Davis, Sam Claiborne
This episode dives into the recent controversy surrounding Nintendo's censorship of the acclaimed game Dispatch on Switch 2, alongside candid discussion about technical woes in Baldur's Gate 3, retro and modern RPG design, the explosion of user-friendly "God Modes" in games, Konami's strange silence on Castlevania, car culture in Forza Horizon, and a lively 20 Questions segment. Throughout, the IGN crew brings their signature mix of gamer expertise, inside jokes, and friendly debates.
(02:48 – 15:44)
Sam Claiborne’s Xbox Woes:
Sam laments severe bugs on Xbox, such as broken quick resume and game-breaking glitches making him rely on “save scumming.”
“It is so broken. It does not quick resume. If it quick resumes, buttons don’t work, so you have to always back out and start it a million times.” — Sam Claiborne (04:08)
Nick Limone’s Experience on PS5:
Describes the bug situation as “cyberpunk trajectory” — mostly solid until Act 3, where the complexity causes notable glitches.
Justin Davis’ Suggestion:
Encourages Sam to use cross-saves and try playing on Mac, highlighting the version’s reliability.
Game Philosophy & Player Choice:
Discussion on the game's philosophy of letting things go wrong and dealing with consequences.
“Sometimes you’re forced into a shitty situation and no matter which outcome you choose, you will make someone mad. And I really like that because that’s real life sometimes. And I like that the stakes aren’t, you can’t always please everyone. More games need to do that.” — Nick Limone (13:38)
Quests & Storytelling Praise:
Full admiration for the writing, world-building, and “personal stakes” that naturally escalate into bigger ones.
Notable Moment:
Multiple anecdotes about hilarious or frustrating quest outcomes, including goblin encounters and misdirected quest markers.
(17:53 – 22:51)
The Story:
The adult-themed indie game Dispatch arrived on Switch 2 with its sexual content and nudity forcibly censored—unlike previous versions, which allow players to toggle these features.
IGN Crew’s Reaction:
Dismay and confusion, citing Nintendo’s inconsistency given M-rated and even “Hentai” titles available on eShop.
“Nintendo players can’t look at genitals confirmed.” — Nick Limone (18:37)
“That’s what the rating is for... so the gamer can make their own decision whether or not they want to buy the game and see the content.” — Daemon Hatfield (19:31)
Is It Actually a Problem?
Justin offers a “spicy take”: feels Dispatch’s aggressive black bars make the game funnier, but stresses the choice should be the player’s.
No Clear Explanation:
The team speculates about new Nintendo leadership or a return to conservative policies.
(22:23 – 22:51)
(23:11 – 29:53)
Final Fantasy VII Remake Update:
Listener “Big Tony Styles” shares that a new patch will add an optional “God mode” (maximum attack damage) to encourage replay and help players see all content.
IGN’s Take:
Universal support for such options in single-player games for accessibility and replay value, drawing comparisons to cheat codes and chapter select in other media.
“Video games are the only medium that we don’t have control over... It’s crazy to me that certain video games, like, ‘well, if you lost that boss fight, you’re never going to see it again.’” — Justin Davis (25:38)
Comparisons:
Resident Evil “infinite launcher,” GTA cheat codes, and the wish for more playful developer-integrated options.
(31:05 – 33:42)
Listener Correction:
“Enjoyable Gubby” corrects misconceptions about wagons being “shitty” cars, sharing their cult status among enthusiasts and appreciation in games like Forza Horizon.
IGN’s Response:
Fond reminiscence of surprising in-game cars, with Justin noting owning an Audi wagon and the joy of driving unconventional vehicles in racing games.
(35:46 – 39:49)
Listener Query:
“Vito” asks why Konami refuses to make new Castlevania games despite indie Metroidvanias’ success.
IGN’s Insight:
After years of pachinko machines and mobile focus, Konami is partnering with outside studios for Silent Hill and Metal Gear, but no Castlevania news yet, despite clear demand and Netflix popularity.
Dream Collaboration:
Panel suggests indie devs (e.g., WayForward) or teams behind recent 2D games would do wonders with the Castlevania IP.
(39:29 – 41:41)
(42:18 – 59:39)
Listener Suggestion:
Caleb from Kansas City submits Skate 2 as “my favorite skating game of all time, even ahead of the Tony Hawk games.”
Key Clues & Guess:
Through clever deduction and a nudge from Daemon, the crew identifies Skate 2 as the answer:
“This is a skate game. Everyone says...this is their high bar for skateboarding video games.” — Nick Limone (58:14)
Post-Game Fun:
Celebratory talk about Skate 2 physics and IGN staff’s love for the series.
Sam on Baldur’s Gate 3 Bugs:
“Now it’s done a bullshit Bethesda type thing where I saved the guy from the fire. The guy from the fire runs into a smaller fire outside of the fire and dies.” (04:08)
Nick on Switch Censorship:
“Nintendo players can’t look at genitals confirmed.” (18:37)
Justin on Censorship Funniness:
“They’re big aggressive black bars...I think it’s just funny. I think, you know, and like, I think that this policy is stupid because give people the option. But I also think people that are like, it completely ruins the game...I think it kind of makes it better.” (19:52)
Andrew on God Modes:
"It's crazy to me that certain video games, like, well, if you lost that boss fight, you’re never going to see it again." (25:38)
Enjoyable Gubby’s Backstory:
Retro Gaming Fun:
The episode is lively, irreverent, and filled with in-jokes. The crew is playful, passionate, and self-deprecating, often veering into side tangents that illuminate their depth of knowledge and fandom.
Game Scoop! 842 captures old-school and modern gaming news and culture, from the absurdity of Nintendo’s censorship standards to deep dives into RPG design and the joy of player empowerment through cheats and options. Essential listening for anyone who enjoys debates on game philosophy and a side of expert trivia.