Game Scoop! 846: Requiem Is a Dream

Summary

Game Scoop! 846: “Requiem Is a Dream”

Date: February 27, 2026
Podcast: Game Scoop! (IGN / Geek Media)
Host: Damon Hatfield
Guests: Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne, Mark Medina
Special Guest: Sean Astin

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Episode Overview

This week’s Game Scoop! delivers a packed episode: the crew dives deep into the newly released Resident Evil Requiem, discusses the bombshell shakeup at Xbox’s executive ranks, and welcomes actor Sean Astin for a lively interview mixing the Goonies, Lord of the Rings, and video game nostalgia. Plus, plenty of laughs, retro references, and a hellishly tricky round of Video Game 20 Questions. For veteran scoopers and newcomers alike, it's a quintessential mix of game reviews, industry analysis, trivia, and pop culture geekery.

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Main Topics & Key Discussion Points

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1. Podcast Lineup & Energy Check

• Segment Start: [01:18]
• Damon hosts with Nick, Sam, and Mark; each brings playful banter and a bit of friendly chaos.
• Announced Sean Astin joining for a special segment.
• "We've got a great show for you this week. Sean Astin is here. Samwise Gamgee himself." — Damon [01:32]

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2. Parenting & Fortnite Talk

• Segment Start: [02:38]
• Damon’s son asks about playing Fortnite; panel jokes about how every generation “discovers” the forbidden cool kid thing.
• “I told him, it's not for kids.” — Damon [02:54]
• Crew debates appropriate age, parental controls, and parallels to "Faces of Death" and other kid rumors of yesteryear.

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3. Resident Evil Requiem Review & Deep Dive

• Segment Start: [05:12]
• Crew consensus: "It's so good." IGN gave it 9/10, with Sam saying “10/10” personally.
• Spoiler-free breakdown follows—focus on mechanics, atmosphere, and what makes it stand out from past titles.

Key Points:

• Dual Characters:
  • Grace: Scarce on resources, classic survival/puzzle horror, stealth elements.
  • Leon: Power fantasy, loaded arsenal; “Leon is like the revenge tour.” — Mark [10:14]
  • “It's like you're playing the end of a Resident Evil game as Leon and the beginning as Grace.” — Nick [11:10]
• Hemolytic Injector:
  • New stealth one-shot weapon, described as a “blood balloon” kill. Ultra-gory, highly praised. [10:31]
• Atmosphere and Scariness:
  • Heavily praised for tension and jump scares. "This is maybe the most scary Resident Evil's ever been for me.” — Damon [17:25]
• Replay Value & Pacing:
  • “It's more sandboxy than it lets on.” — Sam [07:09]
  • Discussions about section lengths, backtracking, and how the new game structure refreshes the formula.
• Difficulty & Dynamic Ammo:
  • Adaptive ammo supply based on playstyle, making each run unique. [13:32]
• Personality & New Protagonist:
  • Huge praise for Grace as a new Resident Evil protagonist: “I hope she stays around.” — Mark [19:57]
  • Observed animation details: Grace’s shaking hands, her swearing, personality growth as game progresses.

Notable Quotes:

• “The contrast between Grace and Leon’s gameplay is like a perfect homage to RE’s legacy.” — Sam [09:00]
• “Resident Evil is at its best when it’s the cat and mouse game, where the cat becomes the mouse and the mouse becomes the cat.” — Nick [12:05]

Timestamps for Key Moments:

• Leon’s Power Fantasy & Gore Animation: [10:14]–[11:40]
• Why Grace Stands Out: [18:58]–[20:06]
• Grace’s first big area/RE1 mansion parallels: [16:48]–[17:25]
• Save system discussion: [16:12]–[16:33]

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4. Capcom's Hot Streak & Modern Output

• Segment Start: [24:13]
• Praise for Capcom’s consistent delivery: “Every modern AAA developer should study what Capcom is doing.” — Damon [26:00]
• Discussion on RE Engine’s technical prowess and smart use of lighting and set pieces.

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5. Resident Evil Trivia Showdown

• Segment Start: [29:32]
• Damon quizzes panelists on obscure and not-so-obscure Resident Evil facts.
• Notables:
  • “What was the first non-mainline Resident Evil game?” (Survivor) [30:01]
  • “Which RE game got the lowest IGN score?” (Umbrella Corps, 3.8) [31:27]
  • “Best-selling Resident Evil of all time?” (RE2 Remake) [36:02]

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6. Xbox Leadership Shakeup — Analysis & Debate

• Segment Start: [39:42]
• Xbox bombshell: Phil Spencer retires abruptly, Sarah Bond departs, AI exec Akshay Sharma takes over.
• Team debates:
  • Was this Phil’s decision? Was he pushed?
  • Mark: “I think Phil was going to quit and the timeline got moved up.” [43:13]
  • Xbox’s future seen as shifting more to AI/corporate priorities than gamer-facing ones.

Business Analysis:

• Numbers cited: Xbox revenue/profit/active users (2014 vs. 2025), showing strong business growth.
• Panel questions what defines “success” for Xbox now: console sales, brand, or software empire?

Legacy & Cultural Impact:

• "He made some... great stuff. But over his tenure, there was never a very long period where something terrible didn't happen." — Damon [47:29]
• On the loss of “the face” of Xbox: "There's nobody that walks out and talks about Sony that anybody cares about right now, and definitely not Nintendo." — Sam [49:05]
• "What they need to do is make great games that shut down the Internet. They don't have that right now." — Mark [50:12]

Timestamps for Key Analysis:

• Phil Spencer's abrupt exit: [39:42]–[43:13]
• Financial growth & measuring “success”: [47:29]–[48:10]

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7. Upcoming Releases & Wolverine Discussion

• Segment Start: [60:00]
• Release date confirmed for Insomniac’s Wolverine (September 15), strategic slot after Phantom Blade Zero, before GTA 6.
• Reducing gore/blood as an option for kids? Panel doubts it, but jokes about Mortal Kombat “sweat mode.”
• “They invented new blood tech for this game, so I want to see the new blood tech.” — Damon [61:53]

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8. Cultural Sidebar: Recent TV & Film

• Segment Start: [62:16]
• Quick praise for the new Predator film, Seven Kingdoms Game of Thrones spinoff—lots of love for the “boots on the ground” fantasy take and violent tourneys.
• “Everybody's great in it. ...The stakes here are so much smaller than Game of Thrones, but a legitimate tragedy for the kingdom occurs.” — Damon [64:25]

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9. Special Guest: Sean Astin Interview

• Segment Start: [66:37]

Highlights:

• Astin discusses “Matter of Time,” his new indie sci-fi film about a game developer with a “magic ring” that manipulates time.
• Connections to gaming—director Jeremy Snead also made “Video Games: The Movie” and the docu-series “Unlocked.”

Notable Moments:

• Astin’s daughter appears in both “Matter of Time” and “Return of the King” (as Samwise’s daughter).
• Anecdotes about filming Lord of the Rings, lessons from Peter Jackson, and the joys (and perils) of re-reading Tolkien 20+ years on.
• Laments "Goonies II" NES adaptation—"It's the worst video game ever made. …It's basically bad Donkey Kong." — Sean Astin [81:53]

Quotes:

• “It's so simple, right? Like, that's the beauty of it. ‘Well, I’m back.’” — Astin on Samwise’s final line [73:16]
• On Lord of the Rings books: “I don’t think I ever, even after all the times I’ve read it, I don’t think I’ve ever disappeared in it the way I have with other things.” [79:40]

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10. Video Game 20 Questions

• Segment Start: [83:55]
• Game Stumped: Knack 2
• Hints led them toward a Japanese, first-party, PlayStation-exclusive platformer, but the elusive co-op angle and "Japan Studio" threw them off.
• “I guarantee you, you all know this game.” — Damon [98:12]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Hey, sometimes you get the scoops and sometimes the scoops they get you.” — Sam [02:09]
• “If you can beat me in Mario Kart, son, then whatever game you can destroy him in.” — Mark [04:01]
• “Resident Evil is at its best when it's the cat and mouse game, where the cat becomes the mouse and the mouse becomes the cat.” — Nick [12:05]
• “Every modern AAA developer should study what Capcom is doing and figure out what they have figured out.” — Damon [26:00]
• “You gotta change it to Game Soup.” — Sean Astin [83:06]

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Episode Flow & Energy

• The panel’s chemistry shines—mixing deep-dive analysis, playful debate, and plenty of in-jokes and asides.
• Sean Astin’s interview is warm and funny, offering new stories even for diehard LoTR and Goonies fans.
• The Resident Evil segment is a highlight: thoughtful, thorough, mixing nostalgia, developer critique, and excited speculation.
• The Xbox analysis is candid, bringing business insight and passionate views about industry shifts.
• Trivia and 20 Questions provide friendly competition and face-palming misses.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:18] — Panel introductions & banter
• [02:38] — Parenting & Fortnite discussion
• [05:12] — Resident Evil Requiem deep dive, review, mechanics
• [29:32] — Resident Evil trivia round
• [39:42] — Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer retires, company direction
• [60:00] — Wolverine release date and M-rated content
• [62:16] — TV/film shoutouts: Predator and Seven Kingdoms
• [66:37] — Sean Astin interview: Goonies, Lord of the Rings, "Matter of Time"
• [83:55] — Video Game 20 Questions (Knack 2)
• [100:48] — Show sign-off/music

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For Listeners New and Old

Whether you tune in for game reviews, the business of gaming, or geeky culture, this episode delivers. Resident Evil fans get a passionate (but spoiler-free) review, industry watchers get a front-row seat to the Xbox drama, and classic movie lovers receive a generous, hilarious Sean Astin segment. And if you like stumping (or being stumped by) game trivia, there’s plenty for you too.

"Game Scoop!" Episode 846: A perfect snapshot of why it’s one of the most beloved video game podcasts out there—insightful, funny, and endlessly enthusiastic about games, both new and old.

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Listen to the full episode for Damon’s signature good vibes, Sam’s deep cut references, Mark’s gamer dad wisdom, Nick’s retro expertise, and a heap of genuine gaming love.

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Mark Medina]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Mark Medina]

homedepot.com how doers get more done Wolverine.

[Damon Hatfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. Joining me here in studio is Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'm back, baby.

[Damon Hatfield]

We're also joined by Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, I wish I was there with you all, but it's good to be here.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Mark Medina.

[Mark Medina]

I'm here with Sam. No, we're not. We're not in the saber.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hi, Mark. We've got a great show for you this week. Sean Astin is here. Samwise Gamgee himself. Sam and I will be talking to Sean Astin in just a little bit. Resident Evil Requiem is also here. We can finally talk about that. We've all been playing it. It's very good. I can give it a 9 out of 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

So amazing.

[Damon Hatfield]

We'll have a spoiler free discussion on that. And there is of course, the gigantic news from last week of the huge shakeup at Xbox.

[Mark Medina]

Oh man, it dropped right after we stopped recording. Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. People have commented on that a lot. They're like, oh, you guys got this in right before.

[Mark Medina]

They're like, it's very clear. This happened before the news.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, sometimes you get the scoops and sometimes the scoops they get you.

[Damon Hatfield]

Phil Spencer, retired. Sarah Bond designed And now an AI executive is running Xbox. So I'll go, well, it's a human.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a human executive.

[Nick Limone]

You're right.

[Mark Medina]

AI is now running executive of Microsoft.

[Nick Limone]

Do we know that? 100%. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

We don't.

[Mark Medina]

We don't actually.

[Sam Claiborne]

We will return to buying Bungee.

[Damon Hatfield]

But first, before all that, you guys, it finally.

[Nick Limone]

It.

[Damon Hatfield]

It happened the other day. I picked Kingo up from school and he goes, daddy, have you ever heard of a video game called Fortnite?

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought you were going to say Roblox.

[Mark Medina]

Just tell him that I've never heard of it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Did you say. Did you say no?

[Damon Hatfield]

I tried to play it off and be like, yeah, I've heard of it. So how was your day at school? Then he was like. He was like, can we get that game? And I told him, it's not for kids. Then he was like, but kids told me about it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, the logic checks out there.

[Nick Limone]

He's tearing down your defenses left and right.

[Mark Medina]

Let's never speak of it again.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is like when Damon and I came home from school in the late 80s and we said, have you ever heard of Faces of Death? Kids are talking about it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Which apparently is coming back. We had a trailer.

[Nick Limone]

It's getting like a home release.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, but like with the original. Original or something new.

[Nick Limone]

It's the original. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, they shouldn't put that out. Stuff. That stuff's garbage.

[Sam Claiborne]

Literally. Oh, man. Stupid.

[Damon Hatfield]

They shouldn't do that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Anyway.

[Mark Medina]

I will say, though, I heard about it from other kids. Is an impenetrable defense.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's great. It's so funny.

[Nick Limone]

You.

[Mark Medina]

There's no way.

[Sam Claiborne]

Other kids told me about it.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's like, can we get that game? I said, you know, maybe when you're older. And then he was like, can we get it now? And I'll play it when I'm older.

[Mark Medina]

Dang.

[Nick Limone]

He's good. His debate club over there, tell him,

[Mark Medina]

if you can beat me.

[Sam Claiborne]

We all went through this with Nintendo.

[Mark Medina]

He had a politician on our if

[Nick Limone]

you can beat me in Mario Kart, son, then whatever game you can destroy him in. That's when you say, if you can beat me.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know, I've never played Fortnite. I know. It's like, I know kids play it and I know it's kiddie.

[Nick Limone]

It's very fun.

[Damon Hatfield]

And lots of kids, okay, this stuff is in there. But like, he's six should a six year old. He cannot play online with people. But even like you, basically, you can

[Nick Limone]

do like, there's offline, like, online stuff where you're in a solo lobby. You can also do the thing where you just.

[Sam Claiborne]

What's the game it launched with? That's like a single player.

[Nick Limone]

Save the world. Yeah. But you can also turn off communications as well. So there's no voice chat, no proximity chat or anything.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now he's going to watch this episode and then he's going to know all this stuff. So don't.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, we know he's a very avid Game Scoop listener.

[Sam Claiborne]

Here we go.

[Mark Medina]

Just give him Fortnite Lego and.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, what's the gritty? And how do I hit the gritty?

[Sam Claiborne]

He's going to come home when he's 44 and say, Daddy, have you ever heard of Game Scoop? The other men were talking about it. So this is what you do. It's April Fool's Day coming up.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

What you do is you have him walk into the room and you quickly turn off the television while you're playing Fortnite.

[Nick Limone]

That's very good.

[Damon Hatfield]

He hasn't brought it up since, so hopefully we'll see. We'll see. Hopefully. I don't. I. I don't want to go down this road at this point anyway. Resident Evil Requiem 9 out of 10 from IGN it's so good.

[Nick Limone]

It's very good.

[Damon Hatfield]

It turned out really, really good. So I know Sam is beating it. I haven't been yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mark, have you been going through my second play?

[Mark Medina]

I have beaten it.

[Damon Hatfield]

You've also beaten it, so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, nice, Mark, then you. Because the last time I talked to you a couple days ago, you were.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

You thought you were closer than you thought, but I think.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a little bit of a. You feel like it's almost over. And then the last section is pretty long.

[Sam Claiborne]

Which every good game should have.

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, as long as.

[Mark Medina]

But no, as long as it justifies it.

[Nick Limone]

Looking at you. Re 7 with your boat chapter.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, no. Every section. I. I don't want to spoil anything, obviously, but there is one section we're

[Sam Claiborne]

going to start with. Spoilers.

[Sean Astin]

Mark, come on.

[Mark Medina]

That. That Sam likes that none of the rest of us like. And I didn't really like it either.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

And that's the section before the, like, the last section.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not as well. It's just that there's. There's sections in the game that are about old, you know, school Resident Evil that they want you to play in first person with grace. And then there's these Leon sections and one of the Leon sections gives you a little bit of A Last of Us 2 open world area to explore. And I think it's great. I have no problems with it because that's when you get to use all the weapons you've been saving the whole time and just do a bunch of killing with Leon. That's what I think makes Leon feel powerful. I like that moment in the game for that reason. Other people didn't like it because I don't know why they didn't like it. Totally likable.

[Mark Medina]

To me, it's like a construction zone almost. And it just starts to look a little samey. But I guess you could kind of say that about any of the areas now. Now I will say you are right about the combat, though, because that is when you get to really just use his arsenal for a long time. And it's great because playing as Leon is so damn fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

So the difference between Leon games and that are like Resident Evil 4 is that sometimes you're in a place where you cannot back yourself into a corner and expend your ammo and get away with it. There's too many sides and too many everything. And the zombies fall from the top and they crawl up from the bottom and they're just everywhere and all over. And that's what that part of the game is good at. So I give it a total pass on that now. I think this game is an absolute knock out of the park. 10 out of 10. Wonderful game. I think it's so good. And I think it's like, I've never had more fun with Resident Evil besides the first time I played Resident Evil 4. And I love those remakes and I think they're just as good as this. It's just really, really great. And because of the mix, it's really good too. And then the replay value is just like, even better because it does that thing again where it's just like, you know, you played through it this one way and there's like, absolutely different ways to play Res Evil. It's like more sandboxy than it lets on.

[Mark Medina]

You know, I've not asked him. I know, I know. There's the whole thing where it's like, but this game got this and this, so that means it's worse than this. And usually the answer is it's different outlets or different reviewers. But Tristan reviewed four remake and gave it a ten, and then reviewed this and. And gave it a nine. And I would be curious what his rationale was because I. I agree with Sam. I. I Think this game is. I think it's a 10.

[Damon Hatfield]

You think? I think it's equally fun playing as Grace and Leon. They're very different.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I would, I would say so.

[Mark Medina]

I, I, I, I like the escape room stuff with Grace. I, I love Village. Village was such a, like, haunted house tour of the. All these supernatural things. I loved it so much. And I love the, like, escape room. Like, I never felt like Grace was too underpowered. I feel like she's just classic Resident Evil. You got to be good with your ammo and sneak around and solve puzzles.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the contrast that Leon has, where it's like, oh, yeah. By the end of Resident Evil, you are, like, loaded with stuff, and it's still difficult. So they. In this game, you don't have that progression. You go between those two things. You, like. You can actually, like, clear out an area that you've been in with Grace. It was really hard that you decided not to clear it. Maybe you left some zombies around, which you only last time I did that. This is so gross.

[Damon Hatfield]

That right there, what you just saw is, like, one of the best additions ever to Resident Evil.

[Mark Medina]

The hemolytic injectors or whatever, the mansion

[Sam Claiborne]

stuff where you leave zombies because you're like, I don't, I don't. This zombie is so stupid that you can just outrun it every time you go through. And you can manage it that way. I love that. And then, like, when you're playing as Leon, you have an incentive to kill more than the zombies than you need to do. Like, they knew exactly what they're doing. Contrasting the two types of Resident Evil gameplay and how smart. Like, I just, I can't believe they did this. And I think this is a better game than Resident Evil 4 Remake, which I think is one of the best games I've ever played. But I think Resident Evil 4, I still am like, go back to that as, like, you know, even a better game than a remake in that sense. But I think 2 and 3 remakes are better than 2 and 3.

[Mark Medina]

Leon is like the revenge tour.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It's like you're all scared, running around as Grace, and then you just double Machine Gun Leon just comes through and he's like, oh, Grace, you left all these zombies for me.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So, Damon, tell us about the gore. Because, like, I really like the gore in this, and, like, it is noticeable.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's so what we're just talking about this hemolytic injector for our listeners. It's a new consumable weapon that you can stealth one shot kill an enemy? If you can sneak up behind them, you stab them with it, and they basically pop like a blood balloon, basically. And not only that. And it stays. It splatters the walls and the floors and the desks, whatever is around.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's also a perma kill because can get up again.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, they're blister heads. Not quite crimson heads this time around, but it's like, let's be real. These are just crimson heads. Come on.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's great.

[Mark Medina]

You can do it if you push them over as well as Grace. Like, if you. If you hit them and then do the melee, you could jump onto them and get them.

[Nick Limone]

And not just to mention that hemolytic injector is great, but when you play as Leon, you get these special animations that went like. They're kind of random, but you can kind of put yourself in situations where it happens, where, you know, we're looking at footage of him using the chainsaw. There's a bespoke animation of him shoving the chainsaw in a zombie's chest and then just going to town. There's him using the Requiem gun, where he spins around a dude like John Wick style and executes the zombie point blank. And it's just effortlessly cool. And that's why the power. The way I liken to it too, is, Leon, you are playing the end of the Resident Evil game when you are fully powered up and your inventory is maxed out. His inventory is literally maxed out when you start the game, whereas Grace has the limited inventory that you'd be used to in a traditional Resident Evil game. And it is such a delightful. I said it in the Is it still fun? Podcast for Resident Evil. Resident Evil is at its best when it's the cat and mouse game, where the cat becomes the mouse and the mouse becomes the cat. And it is constantly fluctuating between making you feel like the prey and then making you feel like the predator. And that is such a good feeling in this game. Now, I genuinely love this game. I have not finished it yet. My biggest problem with it, and it was based on what they showed in the like. I think it was one of the Resident Evil directs that they had. They talked a little bit about the fact that you would go through areas again as Leon and you would be able to wipe up any enemies that Grace didn't finish off. But personally for me, I found it where I was like, well, I killed everything as Grace. Like, I didn't need to like. And I was. And I was chilling you know, I was like, I worked my way up, sure, but I killed everything. And so when I went through the area as Leon I was like, well, shoot, there's nothing to do here. As Leon and it's like, oh, I found a charm that makes one of his weapons more powerful. I was like, I don't need that for Leon. I need that for Grace. Dude, what's going on here? That's the only criticism I have. I wish Resident Evil could go back to the RE2 on PlayStation and N64 and give me the perfect zapping system. I know that's asking for a lot, but it felt like that's what they were trying to do here. And maybe I'm just too mlg. Maybe I'm too much of a capital G gamer, but that was the only problem I have. But I think nine or 10 for me. I haven't finished it yet, so currently sitting at a 9, but we'll see how it wraps up.

[Mark Medina]

You might be experiencing something. We were trying to test and we couldn't really figure it out. All the Resident Evil games, Specifically Resident Evil 2 remake, if you are trigger happy and you use a lot of your bullets, the game will give you more bullets. Oh, 100% could be happening.

[Nick Limone]

I think that's where you're the case here. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Where you're. You're. You're emptying your ammo so much with Grace that it's just giving you more bullets.

[Nick Limone]

That's probably what.

[Mark Medina]

So then you're just becoming a Grace powerhouse. But.

[Sam Claiborne]

But yeah, And I think that you'll. You'll be able to. On a more difficult mode. Never take advantage of that or something. But. But what's good is that they. They do stop that. That thing where you're like, you're just gonna go through this again with Leon. That only happens once.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, okay. That's good to know. That's good to know.

[Mark Medina]

But yeah. The Care center that.

[Nick Limone]

That said, the scares that I've had with this were very evocative of Resident Evil 7. For me, I think Resident Evil 7 is genuinely one of the scariest games I played apart from pt. And I think that the opening chapter, like, not the opening chapter, like the tutorial section as Grace, but the first time Grace gets to play in an actual Resident Evil game, you know, where you're finding items that opening moment is just so good at. Like, I feel helpless. I have no weapons. I need to figure out where I need to go to find a weapon. And that was such a beautiful, like, opening hour. To me. And I was like, this is the essence of Resident Evil and you die.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right. So you have to like, you know, this game has a little bit of like a liberal save system until you play the classic mode. So that does help with that. But I was so tense while playing this game. I have had house guests and like, you know, I would be. I'd be like, I have to go play this game for work. And then the house would be dark and then it would get quiet in the house. And then like my wife or a friend or somebody would come up behind me like, how's this going? I'm like, oh, my God. You cannot do that while I'm playing the scape. Really rare occasion where I was like, getting jumpy in my house. That never happens.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I highly recommend the intended way with first.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It works so well and I don't even notice.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I don't. I don't care.

[Mark Medina]

Me neither.

[Nick Limone]

It's so good. Also, they fixed the aiming for first person because the. The way it feels in first person feels so much better than it ever has in like Village or anything like that. Like the. My biggest criticism of Village is that the. It's like re2 remake.

[Mark Medina]

The.

[Nick Limone]

The enemies don't actually feel like there's any impact when you hit them with a gun. And so in. In this, the enemies stagger nicely the way they do in three remakes. And for remake, really cool. It feels very.

[Mark Medina]

Push them into each other. I love that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Super useful to push them into each other. That's a good pro tip.

[Nick Limone]

Also play. Play the traditional.

[Mark Medina]

What is it?

[Nick Limone]

Traditional mode, the classic mode or whatever.

[Mark Medina]

The one where you have to get ink ribbons.

[Nick Limone]

The one where you have to use ink ribbon specifically is Grace still basically auto saves. But the ink ribbons I think add a nice level of tension and you can actually craft ink ribbon. So it's not all that, like, difficult, but I think it feels nice and it feels like a more intended way to play the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Leon doesn't say auto saving either. Again, there's a huge part of the game, like the thing that everybody thinks that this game is. Is not what the game is. It changes to be a lot more separate ways. They said with ada.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So I'm deep into the like the hospital area, which.

[Nick Limone]

Playing as Grace, that's the opening area. Right. Like the.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, it's not the very first area.

[Nick Limone]

The Grace. The first time you're playing a Resident Evil game as Grace.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. First you go through. There's like a hotel where you're investigating a mysterious death. And then you go to this hospital facility, and it's set up just like Resident Evil 1. The mansion. Spencer Mansion, east and west.

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just like the Raccoon Police Department. It's got a west wing and an east wing. Two. Two levels. It's exactly like that. So it's great. Yeah. Playing as her in this area, I think it's maybe the most scary Resident Evil's ever been for me. And it, like. Like Sam was saying, like, I.

[Mark Medina]

It's.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's almost the point where I was. I was a little bit nervous to, like, start playing for the evening. So I'm like, okay, I got it. Okay, let's. I gotta suck myself up. Because, like, she's so. She's almost useless half the time. And I. I ran out of ammo completely for a long stretch, and I was just like, sneaking around, trying to run away from zombies and stuff, so. Oh, and there's also some, you know, hero enemies in this area too, that are just absolutely horrifying.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I think the singers are really spooky because you hear them from so far away and you'll be in other rooms and you hear.

[Mark Medina]

They also laugh.

[Sam Claiborne]

They singing.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're like, laugh.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, you haven't taken them out. You work around them for so long, and then finally you're like, I'm so happy I can get rid of this person.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. The zombies are very chatty in this game.

[Nick Limone]

I like it. Yeah, I like it.

[Mark Medina]

They retain their personality. I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So another thing, guy that turns the lights off. Yeah, stuff like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, too much light. A good tip there, too, is that they can't see your flashlight. I thought. I played the whole game thinking, oh, good to know. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

So go ahead, Sam.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I think the puzzles are really hard to the extent where, like, I always 100 these games, but, like, I couldn't. My first round, I was like, I want to. I want to move forward. But, like, several of the things of, like, there's like, literal scavenger hunts. I did some of them, but not others. And I was. I didn't know if it was like, do I have to loop the game to solve this? And it was like, nope, I just didn't do it. And I thought that was awesome. Rules.

[Nick Limone]

That's so cool. One small detail I really like about the game that again, I think it's goes back to what I was saying about when you play as Leon, you're playing as a veteran at the end of the Resident Evil game. Basically. And Grace, you're a newbie. Grace is. Whenever you're aiming with her, she's constantly shaking. She's very clearly terrified. And it's very evocative of Leon in the original RE2. RE2 remake as this rookie cop. This rookie who's been thrust into this weird situation of just extreme circumstances. But one thing I've noticed is as the game progresses, Grace starts to get a little more sure of herself. Not only in the dialogue, but also in just her animations. And I think that's such a nice little touch that just follows leon's journey from RE2 remake to RE4 remake and all these things. So it's really, really cool. Capcom did a great job with Grace and honestly, I think she might be up there in terms of re protagonist, really. At least so far.

[Mark Medina]

I hope she's stays around. She's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe with that costume you could. You can get with your pre order.

[Damon Hatfield]

She's always breathing heavily, like because she's terrified, right? Yeah, she's always out of breath. But they didn't record very many takes. So it's kind of always the same breathing that you hear over and over again.

[Mark Medina]

When she's running, she'll like trip and stumble too. But you don't see it if you're in first person.

[Nick Limone]

That's really cool. That's a nice touch.

[Sam Claiborne]

She drops F bombs in a really funny way.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like something will happen.

[Sam Claiborne]

She'll be like, what the F. Yeah, it's really funny. I think this is also just because my. You know, I love the Leon verse. And like, this is. If there was a. If Resident Evil was just a Leon series. I know there's other games he's in. I know there's spinoffs and all this shit, but like there is this kind of two, you know, for this game, which is like. Feels like he's in six.

[Mark Medina]

He's in six.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but I'm saying, like that's what I was saying. He's in other games. But like they're. You're not going to play those games, right? But they. These feel like the games, you know, like they feel like this like series that is. And then this one does like a series of just like best of and callbacks. Like, I do recommend playing 2 and 4 before flying this, like play that. I usually don't care. And if you play this, you can go back and play those two. But like, I wouldn't start here just because two and at least four. I guess two is essential too. But yeah, they just feel they. They Just feel like a perfect trilogy of Leon games.

[Nick Limone]

I saw that actually jump up in the Facebook group, I think it was this morning. They're like, I'm not a weirdo like Nick and Sam or Nick and Justin who have to replay all the Resident Evil games. But do I really need to play RE2 and 4? And I didn't want to chime in because I was name dropped, but be like, what are you doing? Of course you should play Resident Evil 2 Remake and RE4. Those are just good games. But I would. I agree with Sam. I think that this game. A lot of the beauty of this game is the fact that it is this kind of culmination of Resident Evil that I think you'll really appreciate if you played the games. That said, it is a fantastic games in its own right. But it is.

[Sam Claiborne]

But there is a series of infinite Easter eggs for part of this game where everything is referencing an old Resident Evil game. It doesn't matter if you've not played them, but if you know, you know. And it's really, really fun.

[Nick Limone]

And it's fun.

[Mark Medina]

There is a section later in the game that if I mentioned it wouldn't. Technically, it was in the trailer. I'm not gonna mention it, though. It is.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm talking about beyond that too. There's just like, just the neon ness of it.

[Mark Medina]

It's not just like you revisited an area you've been before. It like it re. It revisits an area you feel like you've played before. I don't know. I don't know how to explain it without spoiling it, but it is incredible.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, a couple story observations before we move on. In the first area, this Grace is sent to this hotel to investigate a mysterious death. The hotel's run down. It's decrepit, it's in horrible shape. She goes into the bathroom. It's absolutely disgusting. You can look at a toilet. It's like.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's just.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's the dirtiest toilet you've ever seen. And then she just lifts the lid with her hand.

[Nick Limone]

It's the first time I've seen dookie in a video game rendered with such high fidelity.

[Damon Hatfield]

What lifts the lid with her hand and then the sink, the. The faucets don't work. So she just has this, like, disgusting hand now. I wish the rooms turned green. The rooms don't turn green.

[Nick Limone]

They do not turn green.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, well, the save room music is nothing to speak of.

[Sam Claiborne]

They do show the items that were in that room if you get near them. So you can look back and be like, oh, there's blood here. There's, you know, a knife here and stuff. So that, that actually ends up being that version of it that's like Rs3.

[Mark Medina]

They don't turn no save room.

[Damon Hatfield]

We just replayed the Resident Evil one. That's why it's fresh in my mind. I remember where they stopped.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it is helpful.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Anyway, it's a fantastic game. Yeah. Like when this was first announced, I had a little hard time getting excited for it because I was like, you know, I loved the settings for both 7 and 8. And then I was like, well, we're just kind of in a city now. But no, no, no. This is just. It's another great Resident Evil game.

[Nick Limone]

I cannot wait to play.

[Mark Medina]

Gorgeous. I cannot wait to play even on Switch too.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's wild that this runs. Has near parity on Switch 2.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, and one thing we haven't really talked about, just the RE engine. It's what a feat of engineering. It looks so good always in this game. Oh my gosh. Even when you're looking at disgusting stuff. I was like, this looks incredible.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It just helps that they. They've, you know, there's no day and night cycle, anything like that. So they just are able to set up the lighting and everything perfectly every time. So every time you like look down a hall, you know that the developers are. Wanted you to look down that hall the way that you are and seeing everything how it is. But that's. That's been the last, like few games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. They hide zombies in the funniest ways with that perspective. They know there's like a dark thing and the lighting is so good that you don't see it. This is a Resident Evil game. A year now, right? That's what we're at.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like the 4 remake was last year

[Nick Limone]

and then the 4 remake was 2023. So it was like a two year break. Right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Two year breaks. Still absolutely bonkers delivery of Resident Evil games over the past five or six years.

[Damon Hatfield]

Capcom, they're one of the only devs that have figured it out. They're regularly delivering Incredible Games from 2019

[Nick Limone]

all the way through. I know people like to dunk a little bit on re3 remake granite. Revisit re3. I did that time.

[Mark Medina]

I recently just don't like it because of how short it is. I think because it's like four hours,

[Nick Limone]

it's short, it's cut content. But I'm like, dude, this game still rips. I played that game recently. I'M like, this is so fun.

[Mark Medina]

Well, when Capcom's not done, they got pragmata in a month.

[Damon Hatfield]

I know.

[Nick Limone]

Oh dude. And practice.

[Mark Medina]

The demo is fun.

[Nick Limone]

It's tasty.

[Mark Medina]

Demo is super good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Every modern AAA developer should study what Capcom is doing and figure out what they have figured out.

[Nick Limone]

Roundhouse kicks and leather jackets. That's all you need.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, and they didn't do mercenaries for this, but we presume there's going to be some modes added and stuff like that, which really makes these games these kind of like desert island games for me. Like if I had a bunch of time, I always love spending it with Resident Evil 4 back in the day. And just 100% oh yeah, man. You know, it's. It'd be great in this game too.

[Damon Hatfield]

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The longest part of the process, I'm thinking, is gonna be staying on hold with my current provider, trying to break up with them.

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[Sam Claiborne]

Resident Trivial. That's interesting because I remember it being really well received, so I'm gonna go with. But also sometimes there were contrarian. But I'm gonna go with. And it's out of 10, right? Yep, but with point scales, yes, but not with 8.8.

[Nick Limone]

How does fun factor play into this?

[Damon Hatfield]

That was Game pro.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I'm gonna go 8, 9, 9, 10.

[Damon Hatfield]

Whoa. So I asked you what average. What would that. Oh, that would be 9.

[Nick Limone]

9.

[Damon Hatfield]

EGM gave the original an on average 2 8.5 and 2 9.

[Nick Limone]

We rounded up to 9 this ign way.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's true. That's what we do here. All right, Nick, what is the name of the first non mainline Resident Evil game?

[Nick Limone]

Resident Evil Guide. No, wait, not. Wait, not spin offs you're saying?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

So not the main line.

[Nick Limone]

It's either Survivor or it's. It's Guidan. And I'm going to go with Survivor.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is Resident Evil. Survivor.

[Mark Medina]

Survivor.

[Sam Claiborne]

What is that game?

[Mark Medina]

It's like a first person.

[Damon Hatfield]

A light gun game.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's a. It's a light. It's a. It's a first person dungeon crawler where you have a gun and you play as a dude who thinks he's a serial killer. Kind of knows Leon a little bit, but then it turns out the serial killer sets you up. Sorry if that's a spoiler, but you should.

[Mark Medina]

I was just about to go back. You should look at the gameplay.

[Nick Limone]

The gameplay genuinely looks like it's not a great game to play. But it looks cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

It looks cool.

[Nick Limone]

Gaiden is the game boy game, I believe.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

But yeah, this is it. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, this is it.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a survivor.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's a first person.

[Sam Claiborne]

A lot better than I thought they would be.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's a cool looking game. It's just not that fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why do they still have the doors?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, look at him go. Look at those zombies.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, mark your turn.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

What Resident. What? Resident Evil game received the lowest review score from ign.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, man. Let's see. The lowest review score from ign. I mean, you would think it would be Survivor because it's not very good, But. But that game. Does that game predate ign? It wouldn't, right?

[Nick Limone]

No, no, it doesn't.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know where they like screwed up Resident Evil from porting it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I. I'm going to go with Resident Evil 6.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, I don't remember who gave that, but.

[Nick Limone]

Is it mercenaries 3D?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. Does anyone remember Umbrella Core?

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yes, that's the WWII game.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, 2016 PS4 on PC. It's like an online live service game.

[Nick Limone]

This is the game they made after Operation Raccoon City. I was like, well, surely they'll never make another game like this.

[Sam Claiborne]

This one bricked my PS4 and I've never been able to. I had to replace it entirely.

[Nick Limone]

You hear that Capcom?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, Brian Albert.

[Damon Hatfield]

Brian Albert gave this a 3.8. Wow. The lowest reviewed Resident Evil.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe I'll play this. This looks interesting.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was live service, so it might be shut down. Okay, round two. Sam, what is. What was the first Resident Evil game to allow 180 degree turns?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I think it's four, because I remember doing it in four and it was really fun.

[Damon Hatfield]

They added it in three. You do that in three.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow. Really? So you could flip around in a set camera angle. That's really cool. We should do the don't let anybody else do a spoiler cast. We should do that on Game Scoop because it would be fun to return to this once everybody's got to the end of the game and talk about the ending and what it means for us evil stuff.

[Mark Medina]

Because it's pretty cool. Cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

We'll do that for sure. All right, Nick, what was the first Resident Evil to include a Mercenaries mode?

[Nick Limone]

Resident evil. Well, technically, RE2 has something. RE2 directors cut or. No, RE2 does technically have something, but mercenaries mode would be RE3.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's right. Also, Resident Evil 3 had the mercenaries mode.

[Mark Medina]

Nice.

[Nick Limone]

It's also a really fun. It's a really fun Mercenaries. It's a little bit different from the modern one in that you have an objective that you have to find a certain NPC on the Raccoon City map and then you get points as you make your way towards them. So you have to basically know a hundred percent where you are at all times and know how the map is laid out. It's very fun and very difficult. And you can extend your time by helping out survivors that are scattered throughout the map.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's kind of like an arcade racing game.

[Mark Medina]

Yo, there's a DeLorean. What the heck?

[Damon Hatfield]

An arcade racing game because you can extend your time.

[Nick Limone]

Exactly, exactly. It's really fun. I played at semi recently and I was like, I could play this for a long time, but. But it's really hard to unlock all the extra stuff. You have to play like 40 times to unlock, like the unlimited rocket launcher and stuff like that.

[Damon Hatfield]

They must have added this because they knew RE3 was so short.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

[Nick Limone]

RE2 also has something similar where you, you know, like third survivor or fourth survivor on like the tofu mode.

[Damon Hatfield]

Right.

[Nick Limone]

But this is the one where it feels like they actually nailed it in terms of.

[Sam Claiborne]

And that's in Resident. They redid that in two and three. Right. Cause I remember there's like a 30 minute run that really hard to do.

[Nick Limone]

And that is that RE2 remake the fourth Survivor where you play as is. I think that is my favorite video game experience I've had since 2019. It is so fun to try to s rank that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we were in the office while that was out, and I just remember, like the days we're all trying to work together to just get to the end of it for the first time because it was not. Not easy.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, mark, Resident Evil 4 was first released on the GameCube in 2005.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

In what year was the PlayStation version released?

[Mark Medina]

2005. Let's see, let's see. The guy chopped his own head off in 2006, so I'm going to go with 2007.

[Sam Claiborne]

You.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm sorry. No, no. The PlayStation version was also released in 2005. They were nine months apart.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

It was fall, right?

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

January.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wii was 2006. I think it was right after that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, the Wii was released in 2006, so it would have been a launch.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I think it was like 2008 or 9 for the Wii version.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so it took a little while. It's so good. I love that.

[Nick Limone]

That one's really fun. A little easy, though.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, final round, final round. Sam, what is the best selling Resident Evil game of all time?

[Sam Claiborne]

I wonder if they're stacking at this point, but I'm gonna go with seven.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, it is the two remake.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, wow. I thought it was five.

[Damon Hatfield]

Resident Evil 2 remake is the best selling game in the franchise.

[Mark Medina]

Good, good, good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nick, both the GameCube remake of Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 0 were brought to the Wii. What branding did Capcom use for those versions?

[Nick Limone]

Resident Evil Wii Edition.

[Damon Hatfield]

Resident Evil Archives Archives. Resident Evil Archives.

[Mark Medina]

Resident Evil.

[Damon Hatfield]

Resident Evil.

[Mark Medina]

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I think that's what they use for the GameCube versions, right? Oh, yeah, that's what you just said.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

GameCube plus the Wii. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. And re zero. All right, and Mark, an easy one last question. Resident Evil Village was released in 2021 for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and one other platform. What was that platform?

[Mark Medina]

Switch Cloud Edition.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, it was not. It was Google Stadia.

[Nick Limone]

Wait, I knew it was going to be a Stadia joke.

[Mark Medina]

Sorry, I forgot Stadia ever happened, just like the rest of the world.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Brutal.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nicely job, everyone. Thank you for playing Resident Evil Trivia.

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[Mark Medina]

12th, Disney invites you to go behind the scenes with Taylor Swift in an exclusive six episode docuseries.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I wanted to give something to the fans that they didn't expect. The only thing left is to close

[Mark Medina]

the book the end of an era and don't miss Taylor Swift.

[Damon Hatfield]

The Eras Tour, the final show featuring for the first time the tortured poets department.

[Mark Medina]

Streaming December 12th, only on Disney.

[Damon Hatfield]

That finally brings us to last week's big topic. Phil Spencer retires. Sarah Bond is out. Matt Booty is promoted

[Nick Limone]

COO or cco, Chief Content Officer.

[Damon Hatfield]

And then Microsoft's AI exec Akshay Sharma is now the next boss of Xbox. In a literal huge Scoop from Ryan McCaffrey. Oh my God. What's crazy about this is that he feels just gone. Like other executives recently, like Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy at Disney, they announced their retirement in like later this year. I'll be stepping down. Like, nope, he's just gone today. Phil Spencer is no longer at Xbox.

[Nick Limone]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Well, hold on. I thought someone, I thought he was staying on as an advisory role until October.

[Damon Hatfield]

He was through the summer. He was going to be like help advising. But he's not. He's not the boss of Xbox today, you know.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not the boss anymore.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's just taking photos with everybody.

[Mark Medina]

Well, he always did that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Do we think wild. Do we think this was Phil's decision?

[Mark Medina]

No, no, no, no.

[Damon Hatfield]

Definitely not Sam. What does Sam think?

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that Phil would have had some kind of bearing on who succeeded him and his retiring plans. I think he had that much clout that he did have some say in this.

[Damon Hatfield]

But Mark, why are you so sure?

[Mark Medina]

I think he was going to retire. I think that was going to happen this year. The dude's worth like 30, $40 million. And I know that doesn't mean people are automatically going to retire just because the rich but he had been floating the idea for a while, but for it to happen so suddenly alongside the Sarah Bond resignation tells me that it was one of those if you're going to retire, I need you to do it now because we need to get the new CEO prepped for the console launch next year. And you retiring at the end of this year or whatever is not enough time. We need this to be done. That way we can start working on marketing plans and strategies and stuff like that for 2027's Magnus launcher, whatever you guys want to call it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nick, what do you think?

[Nick Limone]

I. Yeah, I think this is just the nature of the C suite executive world, right? Like I think, you know, when people are afforded that option, it gets telegraphed in advance. I'll add the Bob Iger and whatnot. And I think that when things don't go according to plan, I think is when it happens suddenly. And granted, I'm sure that, that Phil and Sarah have earned enough goodwill to try and go about it in the best way they possibly could. But to me this reads of this was not ultimately their decision to make and this was something that kind of happened that surely there will be some story about what actually unfolded 10 years from now or in that time frame, but nothing that we're going to learn about soon, especially coming from the fact that we know Microsoft as a whole is pushing its co pilot AI technology a lot more and the fact that they are kind of leading that charge in terms of having Asha is her name, if I'm not mistaken. You know, someone who is basically using that as I am ushering in this age of AI is just feels very corporate to me and very just. This is a Microsoft decision, this is not an Xbox decision.

[Mark Medina]

I want to be clear about something though. I'm not saying Phil was let go or forced to retire. I'm saying the timing, I'm saying that if he wasn't going to retire, he, he likely would have been around for a few more years. But because he was going to retire, I mean companies do that all the time, right? If I tell my boss who's sitting right next to me that I'm gonna quit right before GTA comes out. It's possibly in IGN's best interest to have me quit now so they could get someone trained in my role before GTA comes out. You know what I mean? And so I, I think that's what's happening. I think Phil was going to quit and the timeline got moved up. The Sarah Bond thing is the big mystery because she was supposedly the heir apparent to the IG to the Xbox throne. So for her to resign on the same day is wild.

[Sam Claiborne]

And like I think that it's not helpful and I've seen a lot of this is to speculate about like the palace intrigue here but, but to think about like and by the way, this is what the next gen console watch episode is about this week. Like what would you want Microsoft to do going forward and what can they do to correct things that, that are often perceived as like, you know, fans don't like it and stuff like that. There's, it's helpful to think about that. But then you have to remember that Phil's legacy is buying Activision Blizzard and Bethesda. It does not matter what Microsoft does ever again to sell a console, to not sell a console, to do anything. They have a software mega empire and those two companies, let alone all the other stuff that they are producing and own and all the, you know, I hate to use the term IP that they have now. Like if the outward things that you know we've talked about internally here with the shakeup is like there absolutely should be an Elder Scrolls game out and after Microsoft bought that company like making Starfield and not an Elder Scrolls game is bonkers. And, and whatever control Microsoft has over that is neat. What it that can be fixed by anybody. You don't need, you know, a 20 year industry veteran to be like hey maybe we should force Bethesda to make a Fallout game. Like that's just so natural and it's such like an obvious thing and now they're so far away from those games still that it's like there's that legacy of like what great decision making and buying these companies and then there's the what's happening right now mismanaging that that I don't know could be fixed.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know about ZeniMax, but I do believe that either the A, the B or the K are going to get sold off soon from Xbox. Yeah, I'm at A. I, I don't imagine them keeping them there. That was I, because it was just so expensive. To buy that $80 billion was such a.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sure. Those are just passive money makers though, because they. They develop and then there's subscribers and then they just make.

[Mark Medina]

That's why they. Of money makers. Except for that now. True. But Xbox is now funding the development of it. Right. So there's this whole thing, right, where.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I should have mentioned back there, Minecraft. I always forget that one. Sure, they brought Minecraft.

[Mark Medina]

They do have Minecraft.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like this is to talk about, like, oh, Xbox is showing signs of failure. No, Xbox is probably showing signs of like, we can do more with our incredible potential. Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. So I have a hard time answering the question. Did Phil Spencer leave Xbox in better shape than when he came in? Because he came in in 2014, a year after the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. He did a lot of cool things. Game Pass was a great deal for gamers at first. Whether or not it was good for developers or sustainable, that's a separate question. It was initially a great deal for gamers. He launched the Xbox Series X, which I think is a terrific console. He made some. He made these acquisitions, backwards compatibility. So he does all this great stuff. But over his tenure, there was never a very long period where like something terrible didn't happen or, you know, a perfect dark is canceled, or there's just long droughts with no games coming at all. That's been fixed also, by the way.

[Mark Medina]

But I have some numbers. But like, oh, okay, go ahead.

[Damon Hatfield]

I have some numbers. So when Phil took over Xbox in 2014, their revenue was $9 billion. Last year the revenue was 23 and a half billion dollars. But how much? What. What about profits, though? In 2014, Xbox made $700 million in profit. Last year they made $5 billion profit. Five billion straight into Microsoft, the acquisition pocket. That's exactly that. Also active users, 35 million in 2014, 500 million in 2025 because of King and Candy Crush and all that. So.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm just saying that when you look at these numbers, yeah, that doesn't look like a failure.

[Sam Claiborne]

And what we are measuring this as is Sony versus Microsoft and console sales. It is just not a big part of the equation. And that's why having somebody come in that maybe is just a good business and people manager that can handle a bunch of people that know about selling software is not that scary and it's not that surprising. And you know what I think they're losing is a figurehead which basically no other company has. Right now. There's nobody that walks out and talks about Sony that anybody cares about right now, and definitely not Nintendo. They've really tried, but even moving Miyamoto into Iwata was kind of awkward for a while. And then now after that, it's been like, yeah, there's a couple lead designers that come out by game, and Doug Bowser never became. You never walked out in a Bowser outfit. Reggie was the last time they had that. But who was it? Ken Kutaragi.

[Nick Limone]

Ken Kutaragi.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then after that, it was Sean. Sean, yes.

[Mark Medina]

Sean Layden.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes. Yeah. And even Xbox before, you know, had Peter Moore. Right. So it's like, there's always been these kind of people that are the faces of the companies and, like, already. And I'm saying, like, I'm not making any judgment on, you know, Asha's, you know, abilities to run this company, but, like, this is a figurehead. She's. It's been mixed and interesting. I mean, she's putting herself out there.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

She's responding to Ryan McCaffrey direct.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, she. I mean, they did the. That. That stuff's, like, kind of coordinated, in my opinion. Like, when she first came out and did her big article about, like, this is my vision or whatever. Like, people are like, she's saying the right things. And it's like, I mean, I could be the guy, could be the head of Xbox if that's all it takes. Like, I could come out and type a PR thing and then follow a bunch of people with Xbox in their name on Twitter. Like, I don't buy any of that as, like.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it's the right thing to do. It would be much more worrying if somebody came in and said, I don't need to know about this at all. I'm smarter than all of you.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think that's all fine. I don't think it proves or makes me hopeful about any sort of future of Xbox. Her following people on Twitter, I don't think that does anything. Or her saying stuff about, like, console first, like, because here's the thing. There she is. You know, they were exclusive Forza Horizon 5 and Starfield and Redfall and all these games, and. And it didn't work right. And so then they had to go more third party. I don't. I don't know. Because the big draw on what she said was that it feels like she's signaling that things are going to go exclusive again. And I just don't think that that is a winning formula. What they need to do is they need to make great games. Games, like Phil said. Like, you know, we're not gonna sail a trillion consoles by making great games. And I, I just disagree with that. Every Xbox has a lot of games, but none of them jump out at the screen at you. In my opinion, they, they need to figure that out. I, I love about as much as the next guy. I thought out of Worlds 2 was cool. They need to shut down the Internet with a game and I think Fable will be it. It. But until they do that, you know, of course, Forzas. Yeah, Fable. I'm not, you know, we got to see what it is. I'm not going to give the game a 10 out of 10 based on a trailer, but it's like that, that's what they need is like they need the games that are going to shut down the Internet and they just don't have that. They just have a million different games that just come out and get put on game pass and nobody's talking about them after the first weekend. And I think that that's what they need to solve.

[Nick Limone]

Elder Scrolls 6.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought Indiana Jones was really good. Yeah, it is Elder Scroll 6.

[Mark Medina]

I thought Indiana Jones was great too.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think just like there's like this third party like corralling that's like, yes, Microsoft can produce all these games that they've been producing for a long time, but just what they acquired, like, how do you get Call of Duty to be the most popular shooter of the fall? Like that takes a little bit of a reset, right? But like, probably should have happened a while ago because now they just have to deliver a Call of Duty every year. And I, I don't know, but the last two, two years ago, Call of Duty was really good. Yeah, it just was, it was really good. So, so they're, they, they have. There's just a different world right now.

[Mark Medina]

Call of Duty is just such a rough sell for them because no matter how good it is, people are just gonna be like, it's Call of Duty. It was called.

[Nick Limone]

I mean the last one though is pretty bafflingly different in a way. I was like, what? Anything but this one.

[Mark Medina]

They, they do need Fable to come out though, and it just be this incredible thing. I don't, I don't, I don't even know if Gears, if I were them,

[Sam Claiborne]

I would say like, look, you have the biggest, the biggest stock ever. You have the biggest company of all these resources. Put Elder Scrolls out next year.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's just do it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, you can figure this out. You can start like the Lord of the Rings was filmed in one year. You can do this. All three movies.

[Nick Limone]

Elder Scrolls 6 and then fast track Fallout 5.

[Mark Medina]

People are a little disenfranchised on Bethesda games though. And knowing that.

[Nick Limone]

Not for Elder Scrolls. I don't. I don't think so.

[Mark Medina]

I think there has not been an elder scrolls since 2011. We. We can't live in this world that Elder Scrolls is always just going to be perfect when there hasn't been one in 15 years.

[Nick Limone]

I don't even think Skyrim's perfect, but I think that's the game that's going to make gigantic waves. I, I think Skyrim actually, I think is kind of the worst one.

[Mark Medina]

Unless it, unless the characters look like. Like they did in Starfield and the game. I don't think that's true.

[Nick Limone]

I don't think that's true. I think the problem with Starfield,

[Sean Astin]

you're

[Mark Medina]

fighting for the audience that will just eat it up because it's called Elder Scrolls.

[Nick Limone]

I don't necessarily agree with that. I, I think I, I think this is a little bit of.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I just don't agree with the fact that because, because Elder Scrolls was once good. That every single one is going to be good after that when they haven't made one.

[Nick Limone]

I don't think that's what I'm saying. I'm saying that it's going to make gigantic waves.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Regardless of the quality, I think it'll make waves. It doesn't mean it's going to be good.

[Sam Claiborne]

The crazy thing Mark, is that everybody bought and played Starfield anyway. You know, like exactly the pedigree.

[Mark Medina]

And it damaged their studio though because everyone bought it and then people were like, this game kind of sucks. I think like loading screens every five seconds.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean it was ridiculous. I mean. But I just don't think it's. I don't think it damaged the hype for Elder Scrolls.

[Mark Medina]

I think it did.

[Sam Claiborne]

So another thing they could do is buy CD Projekt Red and then put out Witcher 4 next year also.

[Nick Limone]

And then Cyberpunk.

[Sam Claiborne]

Orion Cyberpunk. I mean seriously, like there's going to be better ways to produce these massive games and make them deliver on a non, you know, 16 year cycle. Like we Microsoft, if there's Sony can't. Microsoft is more likely to figure that out than Sony. They have more resources, they're bigger. They're just this massive company that can put things behind it and make it happen.

[Damon Hatfield]

This Seamus Blackley had these quotes this week also that he believes Xbox is being sunsetted. He's the code creator of the original Xbox. I don't believe that, but it is interesting. He makes a really good point that Xbox is the only part of Microsoft's business that is content. Read. Everything else is being pushed, turned into AI. Xbox is the only part of their business where they have to think like a Netflix or a Disney to think about content. And when you look at it that way, it is a little strange. But I think the fact they spent all this money.

[Sam Claiborne]

Let me offer you the most depressing counterpoint to that ever.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

What are billionaires on earth doing right now? They're buying content. Yeah, that's an insane supposition. That's like Microsoft wants to get rid of content because they want to only do AI. No, every billionaire owner on earth is trying to buy up all the content and Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are just buying sites and news sites. And this is a huge deal for prestige for a company like this. The margins are incredible. They, they, too bad they bought all these assets and now they're making content that could reach more people than Netflix.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, like, yeah, Xbox is, is one of Microsoft's only consumer facing brands. Like, I know everybody uses a Window machine, but for the most part that's like one and done. Right. You buy. Well, I mean most people use Windows

[Sam Claiborne]

machine, but it's been a while.

[Mark Medina]

But it's like you, you use a Windows machine, right. It's like you buy it once where it's like, like this is meant for consumers. Right. Consumers usually aren't out there buying, you know, Microsoft Word. But also, I don't, unless Asha is getting a huge bonus to do this, I don't think a person would take on the role of CEO that is meant to destroy a company. Which is basically what Seamus Blackley is saying.

[Nick Limone]

That happens all the time.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know if a person would do that.

[Nick Limone]

You think she would that? I mean, sometimes it's not up to them. People get sent out to die all the time. I don't think that's happening here.

[Mark Medina]

But that's would basically be using her as like a fall guy kind of person. That. I don't know. That seems mean. It seems mean to me.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, it's.

[Nick Limone]

Would you do it for $1 billion though? Would you be the, the, would you be the face of the person that Microsoft. For a billion dollars if she, if

[Mark Medina]

she, what's the price? She's getting some, like, if she's getting some secret bonus to be like, hey, this is like not going to probably look great on your resume, but we're going to give you $50 million to do this and you basically just have to be the fall guy for Xbox going out of business. Then she'd probably.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm trying to think of a company which even, I mean, Sega got out of the console business that was interesting. But their software became extremely valuable after that as a business for them. Yeah, it's hard to say like if there was a future in which it's just like we don't want to make Xbox as a platform anymore, would still have these incredibly lucrative sets of ip, I mean including World of Warcraft. And you know, it's just like they

[Damon Hatfield]

have their, like, I don't know the correct name for it, Umbrella Corporation or whatever. They have Microsoft Game Studios and Xbox is like part of that.

[Nick Limone]

So I mean, Microsoft Gaming, if they

[Damon Hatfield]

wanted to revert back to that, that's an option. But they're not going to like get out of the gaming business.

[Mark Medina]

They're definitely not going to get out of the gaming business. I also don't think they're going to get out of the hardware business either. I think, I think their heart, their future hardware will look a little different than a traditional console, but I don't think they're leaving the hardware space at all.

[Nick Limone]

It's going to look like Windows.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. I think it's going to look like the, the handheld just as a console.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Damon Hatfield]

Your little one grew 3 inches overnight. Adorable. Also expensive. Sell their pint sized pieces on Depop and list them in minutes with no selling fees because somewhere a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kids will outgrow tomorrow. And he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth. Bird budget secured. Start selling on Depop where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. All right, we got to bring the temperature down a little bit. Everything's getting a little heated here this week. We did get some fun news. We got the release date for Wolverine.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, we did.

[Sam Claiborne]

With a very so happy with that release date.

[Nick Limone]

Very exciting trailer, too.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was only like six seconds long. Yeah, I didn't even watch it.

[Mark Medina]

People are like, the ads were like, three times.

[Nick Limone]

It's like an end card.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyway, it's coming September 15th. If anyone's wondering what they'll be doing around that time, it's the week after Phantom Blade Zero. So that's what.

[Nick Limone]

Dang. I might still be playing Phantom Blade Zero.

[Mark Medina]

That's a toughie. That's a toughie right there.

[Damon Hatfield]

So it's great. It's good to know when we'll be playing this. Obviously, they steer clear of November and the GTA 6 of it all. But Cameron McKee in the game Scoop Facebook group asked an interesting question asked. Do you think Wolverine will have an option to reduce or remove the blood and gore effect? X And I, I had. I hadn't even thought of it. I, you know, I. I played Super Spider Man 2 with Kingo, but then when I saw this trailer, I was like, well, I'll just be playing this one by myself. But I don't know, maybe if you could turn the blood off.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, it seems like dismemberment's kind of important part of the game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, but they're like cyborg people.

[Mark Medina]

Insomniac is like, they're. They're kind of known for their accessibility. So maybe somewhere in the accessibility options, you could be like, make the blood sweat. Like Mortal Kombat stuff.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Mortal Kombat. I don't know.

[Nick Limone]

That sounds a little bit worse than seeing blood.

[Mark Medina]

I'm just sweating out of my arm.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it makes sense because there's an audience of people that are like, I love X Men and I love Wolverine and I want to play a Marvel thing. But, like, I don't, like, you know, disgusting amounts of gore that. That there's an audience for that. It's like turning off spiders, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Mark Medina]

I don't think so. I think the Wolverine's kind of just always been the exception in the Marvel, like, world. Right. Like, Logan being R rated and all that stuff. It's like, it's always. Wolverine has been the like, watch this. If you don't mind getting someone's. Seeing someone's face get ripped off. So I. I think that'll probably translate over into the games.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I'll just play with the. They invented new blood tech for this game, so I want to see. I want to see the new blood tech.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Will his spine.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, like, like, because they're cyborgs, it is funny. To think about, like, them being turned into, like, having, like, like bright neon, you know, predator blood or something.

[Nick Limone]

Will Wolverine skeleton get ripped out, by the way? Because that'd be pretty.

[Sam Claiborne]

I watched the new Predator movie and it was great.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's great, right?

[Nick Limone]

Badlands.

[Mark Medina]

It's so good.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a lot of fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was really fun. And like, yeah, I liked it a lot better than the animated movie, but just because it subverted my expectations and I just couldn't believe that they matched up the. The whale and Yutani universe. Yeah. It's all. You know, I know aliens and Predator have been together, but this was in a smart way. And it's confusing and mysterious and not overly explained. It's good stuff.

[Mark Medina]

And Elle Fanning is great.

[Damon Hatfield]

She is.

[Nick Limone]

She's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

She's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think the performance of the guy that plays the main Predator, he's great. Yeah, it's a ton of fun. And also the. A Night of the Seven Kingdoms ended well.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, great, great first season. I loved it.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I think. I think I want episode four. I. I just did the one. I just watched, the flashback episode, the one where he's a kid.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you're near that.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think I have, like a couple of penultimate episode.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, really?

[Nick Limone]

It's a short season. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's only six episodes.

[Nick Limone]

The book is also very short. I started reading the book, I was like, oh, shoot, this is like 100 pages. What the heck?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I went back to the book and I was like, is it. Did all this stuff really happen? Like, I barely. I remember two of the other stories better than that main one.

[Mark Medina]

But that was the episode you guys were talking about last week, right? Where you were like, oh, it's so bloody and stuff. Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

I love the.

[Sam Claiborne]

The melee. Yeah, the. The. The. The seven battle.

[Mark Medina]

It was brutal.

[Nick Limone]

That was cool.

[Mark Medina]

I was tired.

[Nick Limone]

It reminded me a lot. The entire season reminded me a lot of Kingdom Come Deliverance. I was like. I. I just really like this, like, very Boots on the ground story.

[Damon Hatfield]

The fact that multiple people were using flails, that just looks so cool.

[Nick Limone]

Also the shot, the. The camera shot inside the visor, the helmet is so sick.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, my gosh. Dude. I loved when it, like right there, where it zooms in.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, yes.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, it's so cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then there's a couple times where they'd be fighting on the ground and, like, an action thing would happen, but just in passing.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And I think you even see the guy get maced in the back of the head at One point. Yeah, yeah, that and the ending of the episode is just absolutely fantastic and sad too. It's like they didn't build these characters that much. It's.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's like the stakes here are so much smaller than they were in Game of Thrones, but a legitimate tragedy for the kingdom occurs. A legitimate tragedy.

[Nick Limone]

It reminds you it's a Game of Thrones show, right?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

It's set in the world of Game of Thrones.

[Mark Medina]

I love the Baratheon guy. He's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

I love him.

[Nick Limone]

Lionel.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's awesome.

[Mark Medina]

He's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Everybody's great.

[Nick Limone]

Egg is incredible.

[Sam Claiborne]

So well, too. I like to get upset.

[Mark Medina]

I started laughing because I was like, jesus, I love.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then just when he's watching the Tilts earlier too, and he's just like, yeah, yeah. He's going like. You can tell. He's just like. He's like a little gamer fan. It's so funny.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's so good. The. The. The friend with the apple crust. He's great, too. Everybody's great in it.

[Mark Medina]

My.

[Damon Hatfield]

My hype before the show was non existent and now it's just. It's so good. And then they played the trailer for House of the Dragon in the last episode. It's like, give me more of this. One more Night of the Seven Kingdoms, please.

[Mark Medina]

Time to get your boards back out to try to remember who everyone was.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like House of the Dragon, although I think season two was not as good. But it's like this is on a whole other level.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. This one. So if you're daunted by reading Game of Thrones or whatever, continue to be. These are really easy, fun novellas to read. And they go fast and they're funny and fun and. And cool. And the show, I think, translated them perfectly.

[Mark Medina]

More of the show.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Three seasons total.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, cool. Cool.

[Nick Limone]

I would assume each new, like, novella is its own season.

[Mark Medina]

Nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And then like George or Martin either said. I think he said he has eight to ten scenarios leading them through their entire lives.

[Nick Limone]

Scenario designer George R.R. martin.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's like. He's. He's like selling concessions at his theater and New Mexico and coming up with these ideas. And then his agent's like, did you get any writing done today, George? He just hangs up the phone.

[Damon Hatfield]

Scoop Nation. We are now joined by a very special guest. Longtime viewers and listeners know we are big fans of two things. Lord of the rings and the Goonies 2 on NES. So imagine our excitement to be joined now by Samwise Gamgee and Mikey Walsh himself. Sean Astin, Sean, welcome to the show.

[Sean Astin]

Thank you. I was just thinking of that song Dream the Impossible Dream, but instead with Goonies 2, it was play the Impossible Game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, that. That's exactly right.

[Sam Claiborne]

As soon as you go into first person, game stops.

[Sean Astin]

There was a first person in it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's where you have to punch the old lady five times. For real. Anyway, thank you for coming.

[Sean Astin]

I was like, I want to go play Pitfall on Atari right now. I'm tired of game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Pitfall is a much better game. Thank you for taking the time. We know you're a busy guy. You have got a new movie Matter of Time out this week, not to mention your duties as president of SAG aftra. So tell us about Matter of Time. I think there are a couple of connections to gaming. It's about a game developer. Anyway, I'll let you take it from there.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah, it's a. It's about a magic ring.

[Mark Medina]

Aha.

[Sean Astin]

But it actually is about. Oh, wait, there's the ring of which we speak. It.

[Sam Claiborne]

What.

[Sean Astin]

What it does, basically the conceit. The. The sci fi conceit is that freezes time or slows time or kind of slow freezes time. Basically you can do things in the amount of time, like, you know, you could run a marathon and then when you take it off, you did it in one second. I think that's right. Oh, that was my daughter. I don't know if you could recognize that one. Girl.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, credit in there. That's super cool.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah. So basically this young man is. And I'm kind of Yoda, I guess, or. No, I'm Ben Kenobi. You can see there. Yeah, see? Love it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or a little bit of Doc, right?

[Sean Astin]

A little Doc. Yes. No, I think they're going for Doc. Yes, yes. Oh, look, you see, the time is frozen. And he can move around in that little frozen space. But basically he's a game developer and he's trying to make a name for himself and he gets himself in over his head. And so he basically goes to his friend who is a. A D D master, owns a toy store. Oh, look, my daughter. See, there you go. And he.

[Sam Claiborne]

And he.

[Sean Astin]

He discovers. He learns of the existence of this ring which has passed itself down through the generations. And he. He gets permission sort of over time to use it to basically help himself deal with all of the things he has to do in his busy schedule, in his busy life and his inability to complete the development of this game and the prescribed time. But like a lot of these movies he's losing. He loses time as he goes along and it affects him in ways that, that are, yeah, unsatisfying and unhealthy for him. And ultimately he learns to. Yeah, he. Well, you got to see the movie. He learns an important lesson. But the guy, Jeremy Snead, who made this movie is my friend and he has been a video game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Sean Astin]

You could impresario video game master video game.

[Sam Claiborne]

He.

[Sean Astin]

He owns a company that does that works with all the big video game companies. When it comes time to sell their. Their games, he does like the, the ads for them. So when I met him first, he had decided that he was, you know, he had done that work with all of the big companies and he was ready to kind of do a documentary about the history of video games. And he wanted to interview me and we became fast friends and I ended up becoming a. An executive producer of sorts on that and helping him and he, he put together this. It's called Video Games the Movie. It's really cool. And then he want. He had enough footage for about 500 movies because he interviewed everyone and he went everywhere and then he, he decided to do a video game series called Unlocked. And, and that was seven episodes, eight episodes where there was kind of like three things each episode that people who love video games would, you know, see kind of in documentary mode, like video game design schools and just where stuff is built. And it was pretty cool. And this Matter of Time is his first feature film. And so of course the subject matter of the feature film of a guy who lived that life is about a young video game developer. And he kind of exists in that world. Of course there's the bad, big bad video game people who. The corporate. The corporate video game people who are demanding. But you know, for me it was really a chance just to support him. My daughter was in it. I really enjoyed playing this character. I like let my full beard grow out and, and just was kind of like this doc character and, and it was fun. We shot it pretty quickly. It was a lower budget film, but I just loved it. I just loved. I loved working with the younger, you know, crew. This crew that was smart and they had experience but like it was, it was a fast movie to do. Anyhow, I'm just enjoying watching the trailer here.

[Damon Hatfield]

I look good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, we got to break it down with four people too. Scene by scene.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is like a lot live, live reactions. This isn't the first time you've appeared in a film with your daughter. Correct.

[Sean Astin]

She was in the Lord of the Rings. She was in. Allie was in the. She played the little girl at the end of the Return of the King who runs up to Sam when Sam returns home. It's his daughter Sam and his. So she played Sam's daughter Eleanor. There she is. Oh, my.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's amazing. Was that.

[Sean Astin]

I like doing interviews where you can actually see this stuff being illustrated. Whoever's directing this gets, like, major kudos.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's Jobert. It's all Jobert.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Is this one of the shots that happened in sequential order so it was a pickup later, or was this, like, pretty early in the shooting and your daughter was older by the time the movie came out?

[Sean Astin]

No, I mean, she was two when we went down here in this. She's. She may even still be two here. She looks so young. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah, no, we filmed this sequence returning to Bag End in the normal principal photography. So probably halfway through or something. So she's probably three years old there and Sarah McLeod is there with her baby and. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Have you ever thought it was cool that you get the last line of the entire trilogy? It's you. You get the last word in.

[Sean Astin]

I'm back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Pretty good.

[Sean Astin]

Well, I'm back. I remember. It's just so simple, right? Like, that's the beauty of it. Well, I'm back. But I was so nervous because I was aware of the fact that, like, this massive, you know, experience was being over for people. And so I was walking around like, I'm back. I'm back.

[Mark Medina]

I'm back.

[Sean Astin]

I'm back.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'll be back. Nope, not that one.

[Sean Astin]

Well, that's different.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's the 25th anniversary of the Fellowship, so they put the whole trilogy back in theaters. My wife and I went to see Fellowship. Obviously, we just had the best time. I've seen it a million times. Great to see it in the theater again. But, like, no matter how many times I see it every single time at the end when Frodo's trying to leave and Sam runs after him and he's like, I made a promise. Oh, I was bawling. And it. I don't think I've ever not cried. It's amazing.

[Sean Astin]

Oh, I love it when he says, I made a promise, though. You made the end of Fellowship, you're talking about.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. At the end of Fellowship.

[Sean Astin]

That was. Yeah, that scene was not in there. Okay. Neither was this. This whole. Oh, no, that's the Ring Wraith. Yeah, that was in there. And Dumb Gollum. Oh. Oh, wow. The 25. I don't know if I've seen the,

[Sam Claiborne]

like, advertising that logo. It's cool.

[Sean Astin]

It's way cool. So, yeah, they sort of figured that out way, way, way into shooting. And I remember Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, his partner, and. And Philip Boyens, the other writer, had us come to a. They're like, pete and Fran want you to come to this diner. And we were in. I think it's Dunedin or something. We were south of the south island in New Zealand, and we were like, oh, we're in trouble. Like, so we. We went there and we're just hearts racing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, what, like you're reporting to the principal in a diagram.

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Sean Astin]

It didn't happen a lot that you got summoned like that. You know, everybody's pretty busy doing a lot of different things. And so we were summoned. And they looked like little school kids. And they're like, we want you to read this. And they handed us each. It was like a page. So they handed each of us a page. I think it was just a page. And we read it. And you're like, oh, my God, this is so good. This is so good. And we looked at each other and they just wanted to enjoy us learning about it, you know, I mean, if you think of it, Peter Jackson said at one point that if he had a wish, it would be to erase his brain so he could watch the movie and just enjoy it rather than always be thinking about all the things that a filmmaker thinks about. And I. And I think that's what they were doing with. With Elijah and me. They were like. They wanted to experience the, like, first person joy of. Of what happens when they. Because they hadn't nailed it, the ending of the film. In fact, I don't even know. I didn't know when one movie ended and the next one started. It all just felt like one long movie until literally when I saw the Two Towers, you know, when the lights went down and the screen opened and the movie started, I literally had no idea where it was gonna be in the story. You know, I'm like, did the spider happen yet? No, the spider didn't happen yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

Speaking of kind of wiping your brain, I've heard you speak about how you read the books three times, just kind of back to back in learning the character. But then you did. What was it, a book club later, and you revisited the books then.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah, there's this company that was. That was doing kind of ebook stuff, a book club. And. And so I. I joined it as one of the. You know, I think anybody could become an author or A, you know, whatever it is like a host or something. And. And so I, I got the three little leather bound edition. Have you seen those? They're like small but not so small that you can't read it.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's almost like a paperback leather, right? Yeah, those are really cool.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah, I don't have it here, but. Yeah, but they are. They're really cool. I autograph a lot of them actually. But so. And then I would. Yeah, I would. Yeah, just go through.

[Sam Claiborne]

You got to revisit the books like as a. Almost as a 25 years on. Like try to separate yourself out, I'm sure from the character and kind of read them as. Just reading them as a fan.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah, well, pre. Co. It was pre covered that we did that, but I think it was pre covered or middle of COVID But yeah, I, I definitely. I don't think you can ever not see it from the. When you've spent so much time doing. I don't. It could be a million years. I'm. I'm sure it's the same. But what always shocks me is like how much of everything else feels so new. Like, oh my God, I didn't even remember that this happened. And you start to get more and more. It sounds so stupid because there are fans of these books who have them memorized. Like Stephen Colbert, he could tell you Isildur and the Bane of this and something of that. And the fans that I've seen for 25 years at the conventions, they, they know all of it, but, you know, so it's like, well, I should probably know it better than I do. But then you do start to get familiar with. With some of the places and some of the names and the ideas that you, you kind of. Yeah, you, you really relive. I guess I, I think I'm ready to read it again now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's always a good time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Always a good time.

[Sean Astin]

Well, I knew this one guy who is a, A, A say a naval officer and, and he was Olympic. Olympic competitor and rowing. And he said that he read it every single year and reads it every single year. And he says he cries in the exact same spots. So he came to visit my house at one point and I like, I went into the backyard or something and I came back in and he's got the book open and he's. He's dropped in. He's just dropped in. He is in the book and he's crying in the same spot he always cries in. And I'm like. When I think about them, I'm like, all right, where's. I gotta sit down. What am I gonna be doing? You know, I gotta open it up. You can almost feel like the dust come off it. Read it and, and it's a. Not a chore, but it's like an endeavor to read it. But some people just, you know, the book is like turning on the movie. They can just look and go, drop in at any point and be in the story. That was my biggest feelings. I don't think I ever, even after all the times I've read it, I don't think I've ever disappeared in it the way I have with other things. And I don't know why. I think I, I'm. I'm sort of self conscious, maybe about not just as an actor, but like, I went to ucla. I got my degree in history and American literature and culture. And so it was pretty appalling that I had never heard of Lord of the Rings before. Like, I've done this.

[Sam Claiborne]

I got a degree in American literature too. And you don't, you don't get it because they don't do the British teachings in those classes.

[Sean Astin]

Well, I had a survey course in British literature where we got the Norton Anthology. Like these big Norton anthology. Yeah. And there's like, I read everything. How did I miss Tolkien? But, but there's something about the, the music in the language that is so. It's so expansive and immersive and sort of heightened that in a weird way, instead of just enjoying it, like putting on a song, I'm like, aware of it. So it's really kind of. I think it's a. Not a superpower. I think it's a really cool thing to have the kind of intellectual ability to, to see the structure and to under appreciate things. But it's really bad because I don't get to enjoy it the way it's obvious that other people are enjoying it. I don't know if that's too much, but.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, it's great. Before, before we let you go, we were talking about Goonies too. Did you do. Were you an NES kid? Do you have an NES when you're growing up?

[Sean Astin]

The video game?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Playing Nintendo.

[Sean Astin]

Oh, absolutely. But. Well, no, the most I've done with the Goonies video game is autograph it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sean Astin]

The time that I've spent actually trying to play it. Oh my God, look at that. Yeah, it's basically Donkey Kong.

[Nick Limone]

Well, right.

[Sean Astin]

It's basically bad Donkey.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's like bad Donkey Kong.

[Sean Astin]

It's bad Donkey Kong. It's with the vines. And it's sort of like, I don't know, like it wants to be Dragon Slayer, but it's not even that. Or it's like Wolfenstein. I don't know. It's the worst video game ever made. I honestly, I.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's. Then I want.

[Sean Astin]

What's the object? Where are you supposed to go? Are you killing things?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, the object is to rescue the mermaid.

[Sean Astin]

There's a mermaid?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. The Fratellis of.

[Sean Astin]

And there you kill some sort of a walrus. Why not kill the walrus where the bear is marching? Anyone knows what that there should be a bear there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Go.

[Sean Astin]

Hit tools.

[Nick Limone]

Take.

[Sean Astin]

Oh, my God. I mean, you've got to love. This is in our lifetime.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I know. And it's made by a Japanese developer named Konami. And no one was paying attention to what they were doing. Obviously. It's great.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But then they came around making great games.

[Sean Astin]

Came on pretty good after that, though.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, they did.

[Sean Astin]

This is. They were breaking their teeth with Goonies too.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, exactly.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I was gonna say it's such a pleasure to talk to you. Like, we're a big fan of yours and so many. So many of the projects you've been involved in. Not just Lord of the Rings, but Goonies and Stranger Things and Rudy and Ninja Turtles and so much more. So really, thank you for taking the time to chat with us here on Game Scoop. We're big fans.

[Sean Astin]

I'm telling you, you gotta change it to Game Soup.

[Damon Hatfield]

We'll do that.

[Sam Claiborne]

It'd be cozy. It'd be so cozy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I mean, so that's the show. We play cozy games and eat soup and talk and just chat.

[Mark Medina]

It's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

We will give you a title credit for that one.

[Sean Astin]

Sean, I need that. A credit's important. A matter.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Matter of time.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's out now. By the time this episode goes live. Check it out. And of course, it is always a good time to re watch Lord of the Rings. All right, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Mark esposito from Landing, New Jersey.

[Nick Limone]

Mark.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark says my suggestion for video game 20 Questions is one of my favorite games from the redacted. It was such a fun time playing through it. Redacted. I always suggest it for anyone looking for a great redaction game. And with that, let the questioning Dreamcast, some collection.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then back to Dreamcast stealth games.

[Nick Limone]

I don't know. Is this game in 70s, 80s or 90s?

[Damon Hatfield]

Nope.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, it's Splinter Cell. Boom.

[Mark Medina]

Done. We got it in two.

[Sam Claiborne]

Has this game appeared as part of a collection?

[Nick Limone]

No, not Splinter Cell.

[Mark Medina]

Let's see. Is this game exclusive to the platform it came out on?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, nice.

[Damon Hatfield]

That was a good one.

[Nick Limone]

Is this game on a Nintendo console?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

We got to figure out the era. We're still 26 years of video games. Let's see. All right, I'll just go PlayStation. Is it on a PlayStation?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, cool. That's fine.

[Mark Medina]

Just gotta figure out which one.

[Nick Limone]

So P.S. i guess it could be anywhere between any of them. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Damn it.

[Sam Claiborne]

So this means that it was. Wait, but it is multi platform.

[Mark Medina]

He said it is exclusive to the platform it came out on.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, the camera that it came out of. Great. Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Which was one of the places.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do we need to know if it's developed by Sony internally?

[Mark Medina]

Oh, yeah, that'd probably be good.

[Nick Limone]

We don't know yet.

[Mark Medina]

Is. Is this first party? Yes. Oh, okay. We are in business. I. We have five PlayStations to look at.

[Nick Limone]

It's also got to be like a game that's very like represents the genre. That's the vibe I'm getting from that email from Mark.

[Mark Medina]

Every time we get like five or six questions in I. I'm like, I want to hear the email again, knowing what I know now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you Can't. Can you play as a woman in this game? No.

[Nick Limone]

Is this.

[Mark Medina]

It's Uncharted.

[Nick Limone]

Is this game apart? Because I want to limit it to PS1. PS2 versus PS3. Is this game a part of the HD era of PlayStation?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so PS3 and up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Good way to.

[Mark Medina]

Is Vita HD? I don't think it is.

[Nick Limone]

Well, that's a great question.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I'm not actually. I'm actually not sure.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, I guess I. Technically it would be. I'm pretty sure it's like at least it might not be a 720P, but that's besides the point. So it's at least what 2006 and later.

[Mark Medina]

Does this. Is this game part of a series that is still existing today? Still running today?

[Nick Limone]

No, it's Resistance or Kill Zone.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Or stuff like Uncharted All Stars Battle Royale. Could be All Stars Battle siphon filter.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's true. That's true.

[Mark Medina]

Could be siphon filter now because. Was there. Was there modern. How modern did siphon filter go?

[Sam Claiborne]

How far did that go?

[Nick Limone]

There is a Vita one, and I believe there was one on the. I guess PS2 is the last one. Omega strain, but we're. What else? What else you play?

[Sam Claiborne]

Lair.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, Man,

[Mark Medina]

I don't think.

[Nick Limone]

I don't think anybody's going back to Larry, be like, man. I always recommend Lair as the motion controls. Really, really nailed it.

[Mark Medina]

Is the studio that made this game still making games today?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

And we know. Do we ask the Japan question?

[Mark Medina]

Okay, let's hear it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I guess technically no, but I want to say yes to that. Is a studio Spill around.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, wow. That's okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's technically no, but

[Nick Limone]

we do not

[Damon Hatfield]

know if that's 10, by the way.

[Nick Limone]

We do not know if it's Japanese, apart from it being just a party.

[Mark Medina]

We should. We should figure that out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this developed in Japan?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay,

[Mark Medina]

so it could be medium. No, medium molecules, actually. Japan.

[Nick Limone]

I mean,

[Sam Claiborne]

why am I drawing a blank on, like, what. What that would mean if there was Japanese studios?

[Mark Medina]

Maybe it's like, like, so who. Who did Concrete Genie and stuff like that? Is that like PlayStation Asia and stuff?

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, Like, I'm kind of.

[Mark Medina]

I can't remember.

[Nick Limone]

I want to limit this a bit more, but I'm getting like, Studio Japan vibes because technically Fumito is making games, but not under Studio Japan anymore. Or Japan Studio.

[Sam Claiborne]

So that would be. That would be the Shadow of the Colossus.

[Mark Medina]

Like Shadow the Shadow Colossus or Eco

[Nick Limone]

last guardian for PS4.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And he does have Eco were part of a collection, right?

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yeah, you're right.

[Mark Medina]

Part of a collection.

[Nick Limone]

Last Guardian was not.

[Mark Medina]

So it could be Last Guardian, but man, I can't remember. I can't imagine Last Guardian being anyone's favorite. Redacted.

[Nick Limone]

You do not. It's an okay game.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then did Sony internally do Heavenly Sword?

[Nick Limone]

I think that was. Wasn't that like Ninja Theory?

[Sam Claiborne]

Not sure that sounds right. So what does Sony Japan make?

[Nick Limone]

Gran Turismo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Gran Turismo, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Which is still very much like, Is it in development?

[Nick Limone]

Is this game a. Platformer?

[Damon Hatfield]

What if it's like, Is this game a platformer? Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

So, I mean, Last Guardian is a platformer.

[Mark Medina]

It could be Last Guardian.

[Sam Claiborne]

What if it's like Loco Roko or Patapon or something like that?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's true. But those were released as part of a collection where they.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, Patapon was. And Locoroko too.

[Mark Medina]

And Little Big Planet. Again, that's all Media Molecule, which is not Japan.

[Nick Limone]

What else can we say? We're at 11 questions you've asked.

[Damon Hatfield]

12. 12.

[Nick Limone]

Let's just.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is there a big floof in this game?

[Mark Medina]

You know, not Last Guardian.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so it's a platformer made in Japan in the HD era.

[Sam Claiborne]

It sounds like it could be even like a smaller game.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe it is like a Loco Roko or something. Maybe. Maybe because I could have swore they just released like a Patapone collection like this year or something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like what are there. Are there any like 2D platformers that they kind of went back to sound shapes? Well, let's just ask. How many do we have?

[Mark Medina]

You're like, we've asked 12, five questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Yeah. Is this a

[Mark Medina]

3D? I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a 3D game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark, you want to hear the redacted email again?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, let's hear it again.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's one of my favorite games from the redacted. It was such a fun time playing through it. Redacted. I always suggest it for anyone looking for a great redacted game.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it could be Vita R.P.S.P.

[Nick Limone]

you're hanging out with.

[Sam Claiborne]

We don't know if it's portable at all.

[Nick Limone]

We don't know if it's portable. Is this a portable game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, that's 15.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so

[Sean Astin]

former.

[Sam Claiborne]

And. And gta GT games aren't fun, so it wouldn't be that.

[Nick Limone]

Was this game reviewed well by ign

[Damon Hatfield]

can look right now. I have that up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you hear how many letters he's typing out?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, it was reviewed well.

[Nick Limone]

Was reviewed well. Now what? What does Damon determine as a good review?

[Mark Medina]

I got a 10 guys back then.

[Sam Claiborne]

The PlayStation team just reviewed everything.

[Mark Medina]

Well, that's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

Got the PlayStation bump.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

So well reviewed.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm really sure it's not death stranding, right?

[Nick Limone]

No, because it's not. That wouldn't say that's a platformer and that wasn't internal.

[Mark Medina]

Also very much in development.

[Sam Claiborne]

Could it be like a Sly Cooper game?

[Nick Limone]

There was a sly Cooper for PS4.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. But the thing is, is like.

[Nick Limone]

But that's insomnia. Naughty Dog or Naughty Dog.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, what about Naughty Dog?

[Mark Medina]

Like Otis.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about Ratchet and Clank?

[Nick Limone]

It's a good. I like the PS4 reboot of Ratchet and Clank.

[Mark Medina]

Well, Ratchet and Clank is insomniac, though. That's not.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

Those are their kind of platformer.

[Nick Limone]

Japanese platformer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you play as a human?

[Damon Hatfield]

You can.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I think Twist Jak and Daxter.

[Mark Medina]

Twisted metal.

[Sam Claiborne]

Twisted metal.

[Mark Medina]

That's not a platformer. That's a gun shooting game.

[Sam Claiborne]

What is this game? Is there like a heavy rain cup it now? Because that's not internal.

[Nick Limone]

European PlayStation exclusive. That's made in Japan.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a platformer series is gone. This could be licensed.

[Nick Limone]

But the dev. There's like a weird thing with the dev too.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I guess there's like bloodborne. I don't think it'd be fromsoft, though.

[Mark Medina]

No, we said first party.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, the first party thing should make this very easy. I just don't know what we're missing. You know,

[Mark Medina]

I mean, it's like I can think of a lot of first party games that don't exist anymore, but none of them are platformers. Like stuff like socom, stuff like Siphon Filter.

[Nick Limone]

Asobi's French.

[Sam Claiborne]

So there's like. There's a. But there's a male human in it. And then there's also not.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you have the option of being a male human.

[Mark Medina]

Maybe it is PlayStation All Stars.

[Nick Limone]

That's not a. I guess it is kind of a platformer.

[Mark Medina]

It could be the.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, wasn't there. You can play as some.

[Mark Medina]

Some girl that maybe you can't. They didn't have very many female mascots back then.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not a platform that's clearly a fighting game.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, do we want to determine like PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5?

[Mark Medina]

We could. Because. Yeah, I'm stuck in the PS3 era because that's what it feels like it would be.

[Nick Limone]

Is this in the PlayStation 4?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

It's a PlayStation 4.

[Damon Hatfield]

You've arrived at one question and one guess.

[Nick Limone]

PlayStation 4, Japanese platformer, where you have the option. Maybe platformers are two of a specific. Maybe that's putting me in too much of a specific mindset. Maybe because you.

[Mark Medina]

Because you would consider stuff like infamous a platformer, even though it's like 3D

[Nick Limone]

also, you know, it's 3D.

[Mark Medina]

Astro's playroom, but that's also a.

[Nick Limone]

So or team of Sobo or whatever. That's a French studio, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, it is.

[Nick Limone]

I believe so.

[Sean Astin]

I don't know, man.

[Nick Limone]

Plus, you would not name a PlayStation 4 game this should be in the next. Yeah, they didn't make like an ape escape or anything. Medieval. There was like that era, late PlayStation 4. They. I feel like they brought back a lot of old stuff that was like. Oh, that's. I haven't seen that. Like there was like a medieval reboot or something, right? What else?

[Mark Medina]

There was a medieval reboot. Hold on. Yeah, it might be medieval.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that was done by like digital clips or something, right?

[Nick Limone]

I have no idea.

[Mark Medina]

But. But if we're referring to the original studio, that would make it where it's a little like strange. Because it's a remake.

[Nick Limone]

Well, is there one other question that we can like? Is it a downloadable game? Like a download only game? Is it a. Like, was it a physical release? What else is it?

[Mark Medina]

The only question we have left is do you play as a skeleton?

[Nick Limone]

No, I wouldn't ask that one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why don't we just use the hack?

[Mark Medina]

Have we mentioned the game?

[Sam Claiborne]

No. Have we mentioned the series?

[Damon Hatfield]

You have not mentioned the game.

[Mark Medina]

Oh no. Oh no.

[Damon Hatfield]

And with that we arrive at your guess.

[Nick Limone]

PlayStation 4 platformer, where you have the option to play as a male dude,

[Mark Medina]

but not a woman.

[Nick Limone]

I can't think. Surely I have a PlayStation. I gotta have it.

[Mark Medina]

Damon, this isn't a question because this is. But like, are we about to be pissed off?

[Damon Hatfield]

You can only have yourselves actually.

[Sam Claiborne]

So yes, first part 19 questions to blame.

[Damon Hatfield]

If you don't have a guest, I can reveal the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Sean Astin]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean Nick. Nick would be the only person here that would have a guess.

[Damon Hatfield]

I. I guarantee you, you all know this game. Play it.

[Nick Limone]

That makes it hurt.

[Damon Hatfield]

Maybe not.

[Sam Claiborne]

What if it's like a Metal Gear Rising type game where Sony developed it? But we would have missed that. Our Final Fantasy or something like that jumping PlayStation game.

[Nick Limone]

What? There's not that many of them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Devil may Cry.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or I will.

[Nick Limone]

I think I. I think I must concede.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, I will read the answer. It was a Japan studio game. But I think maybe the tricky part is people don't realize it was. This was made in Japan. It is Knack 2.

[Mark Medina]

Oh no, I never considered knack.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought about knack earlier, but I.

[Mark Medina]

Which is crazy. The Knack Station 4. Yeah, never.

[Nick Limone]

Wait, so.

[Damon Hatfield]

So you play as Knack, but it's a cooperative game also. And does the other person play as a human? Does knack have a friend? That's what I'm thinking.

[Nick Limone]

I think it's like a little knack, Right?

[Mark Medina]

Or is this another knack you play as Mark Cerny?

[Nick Limone]

Well, damn it. So I always confuse. There's a studio Japan and also a Japan studio. Correct. That's two different studios.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know about that. This was Japan studio, which was just absorbed into PlayStation. That's why.

[Nick Limone]

That's why it doesn't exist. But it does. What was that?

[Sam Claiborne]

I just don't think if this is adult in Japan.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's because Mark Cerny is like the guy behind a Japan studio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the unredacted email. Is this one of my favorite games from the PS4 generation? It was such a fun time playing through it with my son. I always suggest it for anyone looking for a great co op game.

[Mark Medina]

Perfect.

[Damon Hatfield]

But maybe there aren't any humans in this. I thought he doesn't have like a

[Sam Claiborne]

little boy who says, oh, there is a boy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, at least in the first a little. Yeah, okay.

[Nick Limone]

I've never played a neck game I haven't played.

[Mark Medina]

Dude, dude, they're not, they're not great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I mean the first one was like a. Was a launch game, right, for PS4 and then this one came out in 2017.

[Nick Limone]

Those are some wild looking humans.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Knack 2. Well, nicely attempt everybody. This. Thank you for the suggestion. Mark in Landing, New Jersey viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgyn.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Jobert. Working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Everyone from the tech team working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Everybody have fun playing Resident Evil Requiem this weekend. I know I will. My name is Damon. This is IG and GamesCube. And we're out.

[Song Performer]

Ancient goblins and warlords Come up the ground I'm making a sound the smell of death is all around and the night when the cold wind blows no one cares, nobody knows I don't want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don't want to live my life again I don't want to be buried in a penitent cemetery I don't want to live my life again Fallen victor to the sacred place this ain't a dream I can't escape Molars of bangs, the clicking of bones Spirits moaning among the tombstones and at night when the moon is bright Someone cries something ain't bright I don't wanna be buried in a pet cemetery I don't want want to live my life again I don't want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don't want to live my life again. The moon is full, the air is still all of a sudden I feel a chill victorious grand the flesh is running away Skeletons dance I curse this day and at night when the wolves cry out Listen close and you can hear me shout down I don't want to be buried in a pen cemetery I don't want to live my life again I don't want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don't want to live my life but again. Don't Want to live my life. I don't want to live my life. Not again. Oh no.

[Mark Medina]

Damon, why didn't you tell them to have fun playing marathon? Cuz no one that there.

[Sam Claiborne]

How many people were on there? It was like 100k or something.

[Mark Medina]

There was a lot. There's a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

100.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's such high guard vibes. When you see that now 100k people,

[Mark Medina]

I'm like, what's it going to be at the end of the day?

[Sam Claiborne]

What is. What Was it like 18 hours later or something?

[Mark Medina]

That game dropped Horde. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Re 6, 9pm tonight. Is marathon good, Mark?

[Mark Medina]

I've only played like two matches.

[Nick Limone]

Did you play for 45 minutes and nothing happened or was it pretty action packed?

[Mark Medina]

If you're referring to arc Raiders, it's, it's. The rounds are much faster than arc Raiders. The maps are way smaller and yeah, I don't, I don't think it's, I don't think it's gonna be like arc Raiders in, in that sense. My biggest problem is that the menus are just atrocious. They're really bad and everything looks like a Lego. I don't know how much I like that. It's Lego Arc Raiders.

[Nick Limone]

Is it an open beta server slam? Like anyone can download it. Okay, I might check it out.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's free on every platform. You could just download it and play it. And I've had no server issues and 150000 people are playing on Steam, so. Wow. Should be easy to get in there.

[Nick Limone]

I was out last week so I didn't get a chance to talk to you guys about it. But dude, the Blue Point news was the biggest bummer of last week. I'm still like.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I'm actually still bummed out about that about it.

[Nick Limone]

Man. That's like the one of the stupidest moves I think I've ever seen.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like they bought them in 2021, never shipped a game under Sony and then just close them down.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's so much going on and we're past the Resident Evil embargo. That's great. I think Mark played marathon today.

[Mark Medina]

I did.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's crappy, huh?

[Mark Medina]

I don't think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

No. Oh, okay. Were you the person that said it looks like legos?

[Nick Limone]

It does.

[Mark Medina]

It does look like legos.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's not good.

[Mark Medina]

No, I, I, I think it plays fine. I've not played it enough though. So far the menus suck, but I also just don't know what any of them do. The menus in Arc Raider sucked. Too, when I didn't know what any of them did.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, the arc Raider menus are really bad.

[Mark Medina]

No, I think marathon is. I think it's. I think it's fine. I. I'm gonna play it more tonight with my. With my rivals crew.

[Sam Claiborne]

What Bungie, a company owned by PlayStation right now, really needs is a just fine game. That took.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Well, we'll see. We'll see if this is a. I did ask. Might be the end of Bungie.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's super fair to them, but like, man, that is what that is. That's what. That's. What they're counting on is like, that has to be the aaaest biggest thing ever, right?

[Nick Limone]

I asked Malcolm, so is this gonna save Bungee?

[Mark Medina]

And he goes, I don't think this is going to pull the arc Raiders crowd. I could. I. I could firmly say that.

[Sam Claiborne]

The thing is, is that Bungie could have just saved all of that Destiny money and then everybody could have retired a multimillionaire. They just could have just split it all up or walked away, or they

[Mark Medina]

could have made Destiny 3.

[Sean Astin]

Thank you, guys.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Thank you, Sean. That was awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thank you so much.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Sean Astin]

I think we spent more time setting up than actually doing the interview.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's probably true. Probably true.

[Sean Astin]

I'm just kidding.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Give us one second. Let me just double check the records.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. And Joe had a plus B roll going on there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I mean, found some good.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, I had a bunch more queued up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Up, depending on what you guys.

[Sean Astin]

That was top notch. B roll.

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

Experian.