Game Scoop! 855: Can Resident Evil Survive Without Its Stars?

Summary

Game Scoop! 855: Can Resident Evil Survive Without Its Stars?

Date: May 1, 2026
Host: Damon (Daemon) Hatfield
Panel: Sam Claiborne, Miranda Sanchez
Main Theme:
A deep dive into the new Resident Evil film’s bold approach—telling a story in-universe with no classic “stars,” plus hands-on impressions of hot new games and listener Q&A on gaming habits and global trends.

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Episode Overview

The crew tackles this week’s burning question from the Resident Evil fanbase: Can the series survive and thrive on screen when its most iconic video game characters are nowhere to be seen? Alongside this central debate, Damon, Sam, and Miranda share fresh thoughts on recent and retro games, from the much-anticipated Pragmata and wacky Titanium Court to the pirate survival adventure Windrose. The show rounds out with a trivia challenge (video game 20 questions), and insightful listener emails on retro gaming and the globalization of video game development.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Resident Evil Movie Trailer – “Where Are the Stars?”

[03:14 - 16:49]

• A teaser for director Zach Kreger’s new Resident Evil film drops. The trailer is atmospheric, depicting the chaos at the onset of the Raccoon City outbreak, but notably features none of the classic leads—no Leon, Jill, or Chris.
  • Damon: Expresses faith in Kreger as a director after enjoying Barbarian and Weapons, and appreciates the movie’s new story angle.
  • Sam: Jokes, “Merriam Webster defines a resident…” and likens this approach to current Hollywood trends, where filmmakers get creative under a popular IP banner:

    “You need to make a video game movie to make the horror movie you want to make.” — Sam [05:16]

  • Miranda: Supports expanding the universe beyond the main characters.

    “When you try to do a story within universe that doesn’t encroach on the canon, it’s almost better... There are still stories to be told that are outside of these main people who matter the most…” — Miranda [06:18]

• They discuss pitfalls of one-to-one adaptations (Halo, Fallout, Last of Us, Sailor Moon), and the creative value in remixing a property—making it more “adjacent storytelling” rather than a “retread”.
• Damon notes some fans’ disappointment at the lack of recognizable faces but acknowledges the success formula seen in other recent video game adaptations.
• Sam and Miranda point out that the generic horror tone of the new trailer might be intentional, and speculate if the next trailer will tease Resident Evil “nods.”

  • “This feels almost more just like a really cool trailer for a horror movie rather than for a video game adaptation... probably the intent.” — Miranda [16:26]

• Fun speculation on Resident Evil inside jokes and features (herbs, keys, Capcom logos, and classic “master of unlocking” lines).
• Noted that the movie is set on the day of Resident Evil 2 (September 1998), but question the snowy setting in the trailer.

Memorable Quote:

“It is very easy in Hollywood to get a license and then make a really creative, cool film… that filmmaker is so good for this that like it doesn’t matter.” — Sam [05:36]

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Hands-On Impressions: Games of the Moment

Pragmata
[22:11 - 26:28]

• Damon, Sam, and Miranda are all enjoying Pragmata.
  • Cool shifts in gameplay as you venture outside on the moon (gravity, movement).
  • Praise for the structure, inviting level design, and dual-wielding “your brain” through combat/puzzles.
  • The characters are endearing, especially the child character (“not annoying, she’s so cute”).
  • Some nitpicks: Unanswered lore questions (“what is a Pragmata?”)

Titanium Court
[26:28 - 31:56]

• A quirky, intentionally weird, roguelike/strategy/match-3 hybrid with offbeat humor, “Tim and Eric” vibes.
  • Combination of match-3 gameplay with strategic “castle defense” elements.
  • Surreal setting: players cast as a newly crowned queen in a play-within-a-game overseen by business-suited fairies.
  • Forgiving roguelite mechanics and zany music interludes.
  • Addictive “just one more round” quality.
  • Rec: Great for bedtime—dangerous for your sleep schedule.

Windrose
[35:00 - 40:56]

• Survival pirate adventure, currently in early access.
  • Pirate theming with base-building, resource gathering, and challenging combat.
  • Highlights intuitive crafting and server design.
  • Supernatural threats: giant crabs, zombie-like sailors, “wet corpses.”
  • “Sailing is just fun. So it’s a gamble anytime you go out. And I like it a lot.” — Miranda [38:23]

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake Discussion
[38:48 - 40:56]

• Briefly discusses the recently revealed Black Flag remake.
  • Excitement for mechanics tweaks, recall of the thrill of ship combat.
  • Notes the developers insist the new title is not an RPG, sparking some incredulity.

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Retro vs. Modern: Listener Gaming Habits

[41:06 - 46:22]

• Listener Michael Reyes asks the crew about their balance between old and new games.
  • Miranda: About 2/3 modern, 1/3 retro—retro for “comfort” during stressful periods.
  • Sam: Plays retro for work (“Is It Still Fun?” series), plus lots of classic pinball/arcade machines off the clock.
  • Damon: Skews 90% new, 10% retro, often revisiting classics with his kid via Switch Online.

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Globalization & Regional Flavors in Gaming

[46:22 - 53:27]

• Listener Mark from London wonders if region-specific games still exist, or if global simultaneous releases and cross-market design are now the norm.
  • Damon: Digital distribution has enabled nearly universal global launches.
  • Miranda: Some Japan-only games persist, especially in eShop/Direct lineups, often due to translation costs rather than market vision.
  • Sam: Points out American-centric genres (“Xbox games”) and a continued flow of Korean MMOs and Asian Gacha games—some of which never come west.
  • Great discussion on art and packaging localization: the “airbrushed” US covers for games like Mega Man and Dragon Quest vs. the cute Japanese originals.

    • “The NES and Super Nintendo era was really funny for this because there is a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment at the time… So what do they do? They took all the amazing drawings... and they completely wiped them out.” — Sam [51:27]

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Video Game 20 Questions

[53:27 - 65:30]

• Game: Reservoir Dogs (PS2-era, based on Tarantino’s cult crime film, but not a direct adaptation of any contemporary release)
• The panel struggles to land on the title despite talking around it!
  • Memorable moment:

    • “Was there a Reservoir Dogs game?” — Miranda [63:01]

    • “I think we have to give up… Ooh, Sam. It is Reservoir Dogs.” — Damon [63:23]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Miranda on the new Resident Evil film’s approach:

  “There are still stories to be told that are outside of these main people who matter the most in this universe. And you don’t need to mess with them… That’s why we have [the games].” [06:18]

• Sam on adaptation exhaustion:

  “By the second season of Fallout, it was exhausting… this expands a universe and makes it look like what is the adjacent storytelling. Makes it feel bigger. Makes it not feel retread again.” [07:20]

• Miranda’s gaming comfort food:

  “Whenever I get really stressed, I just want to go be in places that I already know I enjoy.” [41:52]

• On Titanium Court’s uniqueness:

  “It just goes very strange and wonderful places. It has like that Alice in Wonderland vibes... if it were, again, slightly fantasy with corporate structures.” — Miranda [30:48]

• Sam on regional game marketing:

  “There’s a huge amount of games that are only made for the U.S. They’re called Xbox games.” [48:43]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Resident Evil Film Trailer Discussion: 03:14–16:49
• Pragmata Impressions: 22:11–26:28
• Titanium Court Discussion: 26:28–31:56
• Windrose Impressions: 35:00–40:56
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag & RPGness: 38:48–40:56
• Listener Q&A (Gaming Habits): 41:06–46:22
• Globalization in Gaming: 46:22–53:27
• Video Game 20 Questions: 53:27–65:30

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Summary

Game Scoop! 855 delivers an incisive, fun, and lively discussion about the evolution of video game adaptations—specifically, whether a Resident Evil project can stand apart from its icons and succeed as a horror story in its own right. The episode is loaded with banter, game recommendations (from the sublime to the absurd), and genuine insight into the state of the industry—both as creators and lifelong fans. If you like your gaming podcasts with energy, expertise, and a willingness to get a little weird (Titanium Court fans, unite!), this week’s Scoop is for you.

Transcript

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[Damon Hadfield]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's good to be here.

[Damon Hadfield]

I see you all from podcast Unlocked. Miranda Sanchez returns. I'm back.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Surprise. This is way sooner than I thought and it's a delight.

[Damon Hadfield]

Agreed. Way sooner than I thought too, but also a delight. And we've got a great show for you this week. There's man, lots of games still coming out. I'm still playing Pragmata. I know both Sam and Ren are both playing Titanium Court and a couple of the games, Ren is playing Windrose. But first, there's this new Resident Evil trailer out today. Not for a new game, it's for the new film from Zach Kreger, director of Weapons and Barbarian, which are both very good. And I think this, it's a cool trailer. And we knew going into it that Cragger is doing his own story. It's not. He wasn't gonna like tell the story of Resident Evil 1 or 2 or whatever. It's its own thing. But in universe, in the Resident Evil universe. And a lot of people are pointing out that, you know what, it seems like a cool horror movie, but I don't see what the Resident Evil ness of it is. I don't know. I think it's an interesting approach. My faith is in Zach Kreger, especially after Barbarian Weapons. Sam, I know you've seen Weapons, Rand has seen Barbarian. But have you. But not Weapons.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I have read the synopsis of Weapons. My favorite thing and favorite way to consume horror movies is by reading the synopsis and getting a super cut of all the jump scares. So that way when I do go watch the movie, I'm not scared because they just stress me out a lot. Like I just don't handle them very well. So in order to actually enjoy the story, I just kind of spoil it all for myself as the only genre I do it for. And I love doing it that way. It's so fun.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's cool. I respect that. This teaser trailer shows us there's a guy who's trying to. He's trying to get into raccoon City. And the events are happening the same day as Resident Evil 2. So it's the day that the outbreak spreads beyond the mansion into Raccoon City. And we see some, you know, there's a giant big bloated monster man in the sewer. There's a multi limbed thing here that's coming out of the house. And then you see some bodies dropping, which are presumably zombies, you know, throwing themselves out of windows or off rooftops and whatever. And that's kind of it. It's basically a tone piece just to let us know this is coming. But a lot of people are saying, you know, where's, where's Leon? Where's Jill? Anyway, Sam, what's your initial reaction to this?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, Merriam Webster defines a resident as a person that lives in. That's. I think that's the only connection to Resident Evil that we're gonna, you know, get out of this trailer. But I'm sure there's going to be nods and stuff like that. But I think that we see more and more that you need to make a superhero movie to make a genre movie or you need to make a video game movie to make the horror movie you want to make. That is what's happening is that it is very easy in Hollywood to get a license and then make a really creative cool film like Joker. Right. Or like the first one, Penguin. Two examples. Yeah. And then, you know, you get to the Penguin was like a crime series that's just like, you know, could have made a Sopranos like crime series, but instead he's just like, well, one guy's the Penguin. Did you know that like that's all it is, you know, and like that if that's that then the filmmaker is so good for this that like it doesn't matter. It's just a continuation of that filmmaker's like awesome horror movies is going to be great by itself. The fact that it's Resident Evil and if we get a few nods, that's gonna be kind of cool.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, in some way I think it's better that it's not here's Leon. Because one, you have to can and choose someone to be Leon in this, this era. And that's hard. And it's like what version of Leon is it? And like is it adapted well? And I think whenever you try to do a story within universe that doesn't encroach on the. I think canon is almost better because then you're exploring like the rest of the world, like how this impacting other people, like there are still Stories to be told that are outside of these main people who matter the most in this univers universe. And you don't need to mess with them. It's just not necessary. Especially when there's. The story of Resident Evil Wide is just so cool and interesting as its own horror story that there's no reason why you should just be chained down to. You need to use these characters and hit these plot points from these games. But you should probably focus on this game because that's what the games are for, right? That's why we have them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Halo and Fallout both did the look. Everything is going to look exactly like this video game and we're just going to cram it with things. And people liked Fallout. They didn't like Halo as much. But then by the second season of Fallout, that was exhausting. I think it was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm seeing more vaults and Brotherhood of Steel Maximum. Everything is just like. It's exhausting. Whereas this expands a universe and makes it look like what is the adjacent storytelling makes it feel bigger and makes it not feel retread again, which I think is cool. Both of them.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. An interesting point there. I Think Fallout season 2 has some parallels with Last of Us season 2 in that they started following beats of games a little bit more, but in ways that were really, I think, hard for them to convey or uninteresting. So the thing with Fallout though, it is more original than what we have seen with Last of Us, which is an adaptation of the game more directly with some skewed stuff. But I think you could see how the storytellers involved in that kind of fumbled it really hard and made the tie into all these different points less interesting. So when I look at like Halo also, which as a huge Halo fan, I did not like it. I know some people are like, here, that's cool. They're just going out of left field doing something completely different. But for me, because they want to take these characters and I think it's cool when you do reinvent them for a different platform. So for instance, there's this one. We're getting to anime really quickly. So Sailor Moon, you have the manga, you have the original like 90s anime. So different from the manga. So different. And then you have like the. The new anime series that is like one to one to the manga. But then you have the live action series which you can only torrent, like basically is not available anywhere else. And it is crazy different from everything else. But those are like cool Ways to reinvent that story and, and play with it. But a lot of times it felt like within character, like the actions they made. Here we go. This is it. If you're watching, you're. You're enjoying, you're enjoying the live action Sailor Moon show that only aired in Japan. And it is actually fantastic. Like, it is so much fun and like what they do with these characters and the way they expand their personalities is wonderful. And that's the same thing that 90s anime did. But when you look at like one to one recreations. Yeah, it is, it is, it is something. It's like Power Rangers esque and like, yeah, it's, it's a funny, I guess effects, but. But the thing is that you, you gain something when you take these characters and like the hardened essence of what they are in their storytelling and shift it completely different. And like it's like an alternate universe. Right? Rather than we're taking these people you like and we're changing them entirely. Like they're just different people. And that's kind of what they did with, with Halo. It felt like it's like Master Chief. This isn't Master Chief. This is just some dude you're calling Master Chief. Whereas like in this, like Sailor Moon live action, these characters are still them. It's just their circumstances are way different so they're having to react differently and like the way their powers come about are a little bit different. And so I think that is a really compelling way to reinvent something for a different platform. So when we're looking at this with Resident Evil, bring it back. I think them saying, okay, we want to not be constrained to what has already been said and be able to play in this universe in a fun way and letting this, you know, like, obviously quite successful horror storyteller, like, shine in the way he shines. That's just going to make for a better movie. And who wouldn't want that?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, Kruger's.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's my spiel.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, I think I agree with you. Craig has proven himself. He's an auteur. He writes his own stuff.

[Sam Claiborne]

100%.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, you don't really want him to like, be pigeonholed into just telling the story of Resident Evil 2 again, you know, something else it's not like. But I can also see from the perspective of a Resident Evil fan who's like, oh my gosh, there's a new Resident Evil movie out. There's a trailer for it. They're tuning in, hoping to see stuff that they get, you know, from Resident Evil. So I can understand that, too.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Mario movies go down that route because they're literally nothing. But, hey, you love Mario. How about this and this and this and this character and this guy and this lady.

[Sam Claiborne]

Speaking of, somebody must have liked the Resident Evil movies because they made, like, six of those Mila Jovovich ones, right?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. There's the old ones if you want something else that's a little bit more. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Real quick. We've talked a lot about the Super Mario Galaxy movie recently. But, Miranda, what did you think?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Eh.

[Damon Hadfield]

On that camp. I've grown to like it more and more since I've. Since I've seen it. Now I have.

[Miranda Sanchez]

You really like it to see it more times?

[Damon Hadfield]

I saw it twice.

[Sam Claiborne]

More than once.

[Damon Hadfield]

I voluntarily took the kids twice.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

I like it. It's fun. I'm not gonna die on that hill. But I liked it.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I think it's fine. Yeah, it's fine.

[Sam Claiborne]

Miranda did the strategy guide for Mario Odyssey, and I think. Never wants to play a Super Mario Brothers game again.

[Damon Hadfield]

What?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, but famously. Famously does not like 2D Mario, which is really great, because someday she's gonna be. That's gonna be the desert island situation where she's going to be stuck and she only has an emulated copy of Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3, and she's going to have to play through it all, and then she's going to say, like, wow, this really is the best game ever.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I would be so.

[Sam Claiborne]

That raccoon transformation. Sam was right.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I did not grow up with those games in particular, so I kind of missed them. And when I got to them, I was like, why isn't this 3D? I want more space. I want to go run around a platform, not just this limited thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's funny you bring that up of. I'm going on a tangent here. Kingo's been playing a lot of Smash Brothers. So through Smash Brothers, he's learned about so many different, you know, games and franchises and characters. And he's really interested in all this stuff, like, you know, Mega man and Pac man and the older Mario games, Birdo. And just. He wants. He's like, really? It's interested in all this stuff. And then he wants to, like, play these older games and check them out. And every single time he spends two or three minutes with it, and he's like, no, I don't like this one. As every. Every single time. Oh, he's really into, like, Mega Man. And I actually have some advice for Capcom. We talk a lot about how successful Capcom has been. The modern Capcom, man, they just, they, they rarely ever miss. They're one of the only developers that knows how to consistently deliver great AAA video games. But Kingo got really into Mega man and just like learning about all the Robot Masters and Dr. Wily and Dr. Light and all the different powers and levels and the which power is strong against which robot master. It's like Pokemon. Because, like, they just. Kids just love this stuff. They love filing away all this information. Like, if I told you, if you had never heard of Pokemon Sam, ever, if I told you there's a new Pokemon game coming out, it's about catching all these monsters, would you like, there's thousands of them. Would you like me to tell you about every single Pokemon? You'd be like, no way. But Kingo would say, yes, let's sit down. Tell me about every single one. So I think Capcom should make a Mega man game. Like more for kids. Just imagine Mega man, but Astrobot, just kind of an easy breezy platformer, 3D platformer with mega Man, I think kids would go crazy for that. That's my one little tangent. Anyway, I have a couple things about Resident Evil. Anyway, we just learned before we filmed this, if anyone was wondering who this lead character is, it's the junkie guy from Weapons. And I was like, oh, that's great, because he was really funny in Weapons. Anyway, Sam is right. Looks very different here. Number two, this is out. I think it says September 18th, later this year. That's only a year after Weapons. I don't know how these directors can deliver a movie a year. That seems crazy.

[Sam Claiborne]

I guess if it's more practical effects and indie sized and you get a really good horror movie out of it, then it's not that kind of expectation of spending $200 million on a resident Evil movie where you're running through a lab at the end or whatever. That's expensive, Sam.

[Damon Hadfield]

If it's possible to release a movie a year, we're owed like 30 Tarantino films.

[Sam Claiborne]

Let me just raise the stakes there. That probably 50 or more star wars films.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true. That's true.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

And finally, this takes place the day of Resident Evil 2, which is in September. So I don't know why. There's snow on the ground and he's wearing a beanie. So that's a little. That makes me scratch my chin just a little bit.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, September. Okay. Well, you know, you never know with weather these days.

[Damon Hadfield]

But this is 1998. This is September 1998.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe they did their research, and they discovered that in September 1998 at this time, there was actually a dusting of snow. And they kept it too.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, they did. They did the research.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. It would be really. I mean, first of all, like, if it is set in universe, and there's, like, this is, like, outside of Raccoon City or partially, it's cool to, like. It'll end with, like, what happens to Raccoon City, which is, like, a very visible, cool thing that could happen.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna guess that will not be portrayed in the. In the movie.

[Sam Claiborne]

It would be awesome, I think.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I don't know, actually. But I do think that whenever we get the next trailer, it will be a little bit. Maybe a little bit more Resident Evil Y. Like, maybe a little bit more of a nod to certain things that people would recognize. Cause this feels almost more just like a really cool trailer for a horror movie rather than for a video game adaptation. And I think that was probably the intent. It's like, look at this cool movie that's coming out from the sky that you like already.

[Sam Claiborne]

Horror fans, I'm gonna spoil Resident Evil Requiem. Whoa, whoa. So just skip ahead 30 seconds. All right? Not in an extreme way, but in the end of that game, Leon says just some, like, offhanded line like, where the hell is Chris? And that's all you get from Chris in the game. What does he say?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. So when they're rescued, whatever that. Like, I don't know if they're military, Whatever they are, they say, yes, like, Command Commander Redfield. Yes, Commander Redfield. And then later, when Leon is talking to the cleanup crew or something, he says, like, you know, he's out there busy out there somewhere. Something like that. He's mentioned, like, twice.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Anyway, Leanne mentions Chris, though, right? In some, like, offhand.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. So, I mean, that could be what happens in the end of the list. You know, it's like everything's resolved, everything happens.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then a guy comes home, gives him, you know, oh, Mr. Whatever your name is, I'd like to talk to you about the events that happened here. Here's my car. And it says, oh, Umbrella Corporation.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Or at the end, he gets a call, and he's like, that was my sister. She's a cop. Her name is Jill.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I kind of do hope they do something, like, kind of cheesy like that. I think it's really funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I mean, it's better than a master of unlocking Joke. We don't need those anymore.

[Damon Hadfield]

No. Apparently there's like, a green herb in the trailer somewhere. I missed it, but Gilbert said it was. And I was surprised nowhere. Even at the beginning of the trailer or the end. Capcom didn't get their, like, logo in there or anything.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, no.

[Damon Hadfield]

Capcom mentioned.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Do you know who's. Is it Sony that's doing it? I actually don't know, but the.

[Damon Hadfield]

We've seen it here like 15 times in a row.

[Sam Claiborne]

The logos and everything are pure Resident Evil, so that looks cool also. It looks like Evil within, though.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's true. Oh, I remember that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Oh, hey, looking through drawers, that's a

[Sam Claiborne]

big part of Resident Evil. That was.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. That is the most res. And there's a key.

[Miranda Sanchez]

There's a key. Yeah. Going for the key when they opened in that house, I was like, man, there's so many drawers looking right there. Like, look at all that stuff to rummage through. It's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I know. You just got to walk around till the X button appears.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then also when you go downstairs, that means There's a B1 map and a B2 map. This is just pure Resident Evil.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It'll probably end in a lab.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm excited. I'm excited just. Just to see the next movie from Zach Kreger and that it's not that far away. Only a few months away in September. So Resident Evil, Please be excited. So you want to learn a new language, but you're struggling to get beyond the basics. Stuck on free apps aimed at cheap dopamine highs. Well, then it's time to try Babbel, the language app that makes grammar fun and is really worth your time. Learning a language with Babbel is all about small steps, big wins and progress. You can actually track and feel. Their bite sized lessons fit easily into your daily routine and are also easy to remember. Just 10 minutes a day is enough to start seeing real results. Their courses are designed by over 200 language experts, real human beings to teach you relevant words and phrases you'll actually use so you can start speaking with confidence in as little as three weeks. Babbel lets you practice real life conversation step by step, without the stress. You'll build the confidence to speak up when it matters, from ordering a coffee to chatting with new friends abroad. And Babbel is more than just lessons. They even offer a large collection of podcasts where Babbel experts reveal language secrets and offer an inside look at local cultures. I've used Babel to brush up on my Spanish before traveling to Mexico and to learn a little Dutch on a visit to Amsterdam last year. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babel subscription at babel.com gamescoop get up to 60% off at babel.com gamescooop spelled B-A-B-E-L.com rules and restrictions apply. Look, we've all been there. You've got the angle, you've got the timing. But you still lose the trade. In competitive gaming, milliseconds aren't just a stat. They're the difference between a trophy and a gg. Next. That's why the team at Logitech G just changed the game again. With the new Pro X2 Super Strike. This isn't just an upgrade. It's a total reimagining of the mouse click. It features the revolutionary HITS technology. That's the haptic Inductive trigger system. They've ditched traditional switches for magnetic sensors that give you an up to 30 millisecond advantage. Think about that. You are literally clicking faster than the speed of human reaction. And the customization is insane. You can tune your actuation points across 10 levels and even adjust the haptic intensity. Whether you want a crisp sharp snap or a hair trigger rapid fire, the Super Strike adapts to you. Under the hood, you're looking at the Hero2 sensor, pushing a massive 44,000 DPI and a blazing 8K polling rate. At just 61 grams. With 90 hours of battery life, it's built to outlast your longest grind. If you're serious about climbing the ranks in Valorant CS2 or Apex, this is the weapon of choice for the world's best pros for a reason. Stop playing fair and start playing faster. Go to logitechg.com and enter code gamescoop25 at checkout to save 25% off Logitech G products. Just a quick note, some exclusions apply and the promo is non stackable with other offers. Grab the Super Strike today. The winning click is finally here. Let's move on. I'm still playing Pragmata. I'm Sam. Have you played anymore? I know you were playing, but you got distracted by I remember how far

[Sam Claiborne]

I said, but I started playing another game, but I'm still playing it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Did you make it to where you're like going outside on the moon?

[Sam Claiborne]

I am at the end of the the greenery area. Okay, so now that sounds cool though.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. After that you go to outdoor areas and it is very cool because you get. It's just a cool scene because you have Earth up in the sky.

[Sam Claiborne]

That sounds awesome.

[Damon Hadfield]

And your movement changes. You're slower outside in the lower gravity and you can jump higher and your boost is more erratic. So you have to sort of switch up. The way you're doing your jumping.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like those parts in dead space when you went into the zero grav. And then you have to actually use your rockets to like bounce across the place. And it works really well.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

God. Remember ea, they used to make pretty video games.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean occasionally they still do. They had. They did Split Fiction last year.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was EA Publishing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, everyone that has talked about this on the show has really liked Pragmata. Miranda, how did you find it?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I also really like it and I'm excited to get back to it. That's the problem right now is there's just so many games out and I'm just playing old games right now. Just like games of comfort. My cat got sick so I'm just kind of like comfort stuff. But I really want to get back to Pragmata. Like that's one of the ones that I think is at the top of the list to get back to and to finish. Because it does seem very easy to get through. Not like super easy, but easy enough to get through. I also just love the combat. It's so fun. I love puzzle games. I love like, it's like weird, weird saying like dual wielding my brain to do two things at once.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what makes it good.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's just so much fun. I love the collectibles and just the way the whole map is laid out as an invitation for you to kind of go explore more. Or you can just go to the objective. Like you don't have to. It's just. It's nice. It's the kind of game that I want right now. Amid I guess basically coming off of Procopia and Tomodachi Life, which are very open ended things that are happening. And having that structure is really nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I guess we can talk about this now. But it is interesting that the end of each level there's a robot boss. That's like the end of the forest area is Woodman and he gives you a shield. Surprised?

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam is goofing, scooping and goofing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Those are Mega man jokes.

[Damon Hadfield]

I have not.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I see.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, Pragmat is great and it's just regularly doling out new weapons and new abilities and there's so many hidden things to find and collectibles in every level. It's great.

[Miranda Sanchez]

But the one thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Go ahead.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say the one thing that I don't like so far, I'm still pretty early on, just a few hours in, is how Hugh doesn't want to listen to Diana when she's trying to say what a pragmata is. I'm like, what is it? And he's like, no, no, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear. I'm like, hugh, stop.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why did I disagree on this point? Because by that point in my game, he had said it. Like, she had said it seven times.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, in my game, she had, only she was introducing it first. He's like, no, I don't want to hear it. And I'm like, I get that he's panicking. Like, he's in a state of survival. So, okay, he doesn't want to hear technical stuff. The second time she does it, it's kind of chill. And he's like, no. And I'm like, dude, let her talk. What is. What is a Prague mod? I want to know. I'm sure it'll come later, but. But I like them overall. They're, like, really cute. I was kind of worried because, like, whenever you have a little kid character that's, like, really young, like she is, or seemingly really young, they can be kind of annoying. But she's so cute. She's so charming.

[Damon Hadfield]

And he's a. He's. We talked about this, too. He's a nice guy. So it's. It has a kind of a wholesome feel, like they don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

There.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, there's no arguing. And it's good. But I thought it was funny. Like, the whole thing is that he's trying to get off of the moon because this disaster has occurred here, and he's trying to contact Earth. He's trying to get off the moon. He tells Diana he's gonna take her with him. But, Sam, I saw. We put up a video on what to do in the end game or after you beat it. So I was like, oh, well, okay. I guess they're not leaving. Good to know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or maybe there's an explanation where maybe I don't. Yeah, maybe there's a. What is it called? A point of no return or whatever. So, like, maybe.

[Miranda Sanchez]

But, yeah, it's hard to say, like, what that could be. Like.

[Damon Hadfield]

I thought that was funny, but it's funny to both of you. I don't even know what Titanium Court is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, you won't know after playing it either.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, it's a. It's a weird game. Intentionally.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, yes, that's a good way to describe it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Intentionally weird.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it has like a very like Tim and Eric style of like absurdity and humor and it's not like gross or like, not like that type of it. But just like, where did this come from? Like it's a little bit off putting and it has this like really like stylistic presentation of like three or four colors. So just be aware that like that's happening and there's like infinite dialogue from characters and cats and things that like this is not what I was going to read.

[Damon Hadfield]

Expecting.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And then a lot of this stuff and then like, I don't know if this has happened to you, Miranda, but at one point you can choose like to like watch one thing or beat the. It's like you can either beat this level right now or you can watch this, or you do a boss fight or watch this. And if you watch it, I believe it's the creator or the musician that worked on the game doing like a 10 minute song about fish.

[Miranda Sanchez]

What? No, I have not seen that yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

So there's a lot of weird outside the box stuff. But basically what it is, if people were describing this to me in a way that I will not describe it to you. So you do play a puzzle game in almost like a Match three style. But what you're doing is while you're doing that and pieces are falling in and doing all the normal Match three stuff, you're actually setting up a strategy play field by which the castles and your castle and everything are placed in a way where then you have a rampart round where that turns on and all the people come to life and they battle it out. And you just do that over and over again. But it's a roguelite because your job that you play in it is either to send out a bunch of soldiers and you can buy units per level just like Balacho or anything like that. You're switching out weapons or cards or whatever. But other times you might be only. Your only skill is you set yourself on fire. So then you have to do the whole level so there's no water near you, there's a bunch of fire flammable things around you and it burns down. So that's all to say. It's like basically a roguelite strategy game with a Match three component and then like an exploration little castle component. And it's totally wild, it's absurd, it's

[Miranda Sanchez]

absurd in such a fun way. There is a story to this as well. So it's set up in almost like Asteroid City, if you've seen that movie, which I love very much, but basically Wes Anderson movie. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, this is a play and we don't have our lead anymore, so we cast someone new. And she doesn't know any of the lines, but she's here and so she's going to go in. And so then they get into this thing where it's this person that you're playing as gets lost in the woods and finds himself at the Titanium Court. And then they can't leave. And the court is now saying that you're the queen and you have to help the fairies win their war. And then every. The match three comes in, is like, every day you have, like, a tide, and so it changes what the field looks like so that you're constantly shifting that around.

[Sam Claiborne]

And the fairies are all business people.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, they're all very strange business people.

[Sam Claiborne]

They're corporate roles. Yeah, they don't have wings or anything.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, they're not. They're not cute. And that's. It's such a fun inversion. There's a talking cat. Like, there's like, this weird mystery. So, like, if you reach the end of, like, what is technically the map or battlefield, you get a night scenario where, like, the. The court is completely different. You have to explore. So there's like a mystery element to it. And, like, the levels of strategy are just so, so much fun. And at first it's really intimidating. But would you agree, Sam? The game's really forgiving. If you fail, it's like, oh, well.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it's the Roguelite, in which you absolutely get to use stuff after you fail. And you start amping up your level so you can take more and more stuff with you into them, but by that point, you're starting different roles. Like, I played a lot of this game, I've played 10 or 12 hours, and I get obsessed with one role. And then it's just like any of these games, you're like, well, I'm never going to play another one. This one's so fun. But this gives you a cap on that. It's like, you'll get to have somebody, like, a challenge. It's like, beat this boss as this role, and then you want to try another one after that. And another one usually is pretty fun, but they're really different. Like, I was just playing one where you're crawling around as an octopus. On the map and you don't even do any of the send out of troops and stuff.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's what I'm doing right now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crazy.

[Miranda Sanchez]

It's so weird. It just goes very strange and wonderful places. It has like that Alice in Wonderland vibes. But if it were again, slightly fantasy with corporate structures, it's definitely a.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just one more round thing. Like it's got everything going for it. Like if you play this game, you won't be. And you play stuff like this, you won't be disappointed. It's like, yeah, it's all really good.

[Damon Hadfield]

So you recommend it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

But like I gotta stop playing it because I need to play other things and it's like one of those things. Like if this was my only game for a month, it'd be fine.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, that's the problem is that there's just so many games out right now. This is the one that I play like when I'm getting kind of close to bed. And I've realized that's a big problem because as you said, it's just one more, one more battle. Like ah, one more day, it's fine. And I stay up to like 2:00am and it's like, well, great.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think, I think it's a very demi game. It's just like you can I skip a lot of the stuff? Like, like a lot of the dialogue. It's like crazy. But then like sometimes it's just so funny to watch. And like again that music scene and then the music is actually kind of nuts too. Like clearly somebody like did this kind of like lo fi guitar and drums music for the whole thing.

[Miranda Sanchez]

It's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

You, you hear it so much that you get sick of it. But then it's stuck in your head and you go back and play and it's a variation on it. It's just, it's a whole thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, I will, I will check out Titanium Court tonight. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money. Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers also seem to like keeping our money. After years of overpaying for wireless, Seth Macy finally got fed up with crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks that actually cost more in the long run and switched to Mint Mobile. Isn't that right, Seth? That is right, Damon.

[Sam Claiborne]

The longest part of the process, I'm

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Damon Hadfield]

and then Miranda, you've been playing a lot of windrows.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Miranda Sanchez]

So this is a. Yeah, there's just again, there's so many games to play right now and Windrows is another one that I have been into. So in vein of like Enshrouded and other survival friend games comes Windrose, which you Play as pirates and Blackbeard is ruling the seas and has destroyed your ship. And now you need to kind of avenge your crew, bring them back and go fight Blackbeard as you can. I guess that was kind of the stories I got pretty quick. It is still early access, so there are some issues, but it is so fun. It's just really satisfying and weirdly hard because you are playing on your own servers, though. You can kind of tune it down and make it as hard or as easy as you want, but it is just really intuitive in how a lot of its systems work. One thing I was so happy was. I think I've talked. No, yeah, I talked about it last time I was on the show was one of the things that I hate most is when you have these survival games that have a lot of crafting and I can't find where those resources are. This one, just. If you're within range of the base, it just pulls from all your pocket. Your pockets and all the chests around. You don't have to craft, like a special one. You don't need a special component. It's not enough where it's just default. I'm like, thank you, thank you. I will continue to play this game. And so it makes that really easy. But basically you start on these little islands. They're like different kinds of themes that you can find, but it's procedurally generated where they are in the map. And you start with a few easy quests of after having been shipwrecked, effectively rebuilding your crew. So, like, you have to make weapons, you have to make gear, you have to go kill boar for their food. There's like, dodos everywhere, and they're the most aggressive things ever. They're so annoying. And I'm like, you deserve to go extinct. It's great. Fighting enemies is, like a really big gamble because if there are three or four, you can get taken out so fast, which is weirdly, like, really cool. I like it when it's pressuring you to think about, is this encounter actually worthwhile? Should I go wait for my friends? And that's what I did, was my friends sort of just helped me guide me through the first bit because they had been playing for a few hours. And then we just were able to, like, divide and conquer parts of a quest and, like, proceed together. And, like, that's just such a fun way to play. By the time I ended, I had, like, a little, like, tiny sailboat for just myself. And we're working on building a big boat. But building bases is really intuitive and fun. I really like just the general design of the characters and the look of the game and it's definitely one I want to play a lot more of.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is there a supernatural or fantastical element to it, like some kind of monsters that you're fighting also?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, yeah, there's giant crab things. They're crazy looking. They're very aggressive. There's also like these zombie guys, kind of like they're just washed up, very wet corpses, basically. They don't look that scary, but they're. Yeah, they're pretty gross, like kind of bloated. So you'll see some of those sorts of things as well. And there is some sort of magic element, but not like you're casting spells or anything, but something with the story that I didn't quite understand with Blackbeard. So we'll see what happens there. But overall, still very cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

We didn't get to talk about. Go ahead.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I was just gonna say that the combat on the sea, it's like if you're watching, you can kind of see some people on a ship right now. So we didn't get the big ship yet, but it is really hard because Blackbeard's ships will just be in the water and if you get on your tiny ship, they will just like hunt you down. They start shooting at you like crazy. It's like, like chaos. It's really fun though because, like, sailing is just fun. So it's like a gamble anytime you go out. And I like it a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think the Assassin's Creed reveal happened after the last game scoop, right? Because we didn't talk about it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

And just reminds me, I think it looks really good.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, yeah, it does look good. I have not played Black Flag since it was released. So, you know, 12 years ago or something.

[Sam Claiborne]

I watched one of those like 15 minute, like breakdowns they did and like there's a lot they added and removed to like, to make it more like the contemporary Assassin's Creed games. Like, you know, they added characters and stuff like that, but like they. It just. I didn't remember too that it has a grappling hook, which is kind of great. It's like kind of makes it awesome. And then, yeah, they just like the ship combat, they added like new skill trees and stuff. And just like that was my favorite stuff. But it looks like, like, you know, in that game, I always wanted to just get back on the boat. I like, if I was only playing the other stuff so I could do like, get my Boat leveled up or whatever. I just really like to see combat in it. So I. I think this looks like a lot, a lot better tweak of that combined game plan. I can't wait.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ubisoft and the developer. The developers have stated multiple times that it's not an rpg, which I just think is. Well, because that's what the, the, you know, the last four have been, right? Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, and Shadows. But I don't, I don't know, I didn't think like the RPG ness was a part of it that anybody had a problem with. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I just don't see how it's effectively different. It's a giant open world game. Giant open world on maps and then also underwater maps and then boat maps. I don't really understand.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, again, it's been a long time since I've played this one, but maybe numbers don't fly out when you. When you attack.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they won't have that. But that new Splatoon game has numbers that fly out when you shoot enemies.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's an rpg.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Easy. Cool. Windross, Is that. Is it multiplayer, Miranda? It looks like all the footage we were seeing looked kind of single player, but I wasn't sure.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, it is multiplayer, but you can play by yourself. So if you don't have friends who want to join you, they can also just jump in if you're running your own server. So if you're hosting locally, whenever you're playing, they can just hop in.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it has a lot of players on Steam, like it's a big game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, let's check in with the listeners.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgn.com just like Michael Reyes in Portland, Oregon did. And speaking of, Miranda said she's playing lot of old games. Michael says. I'm curious to hear from the crew. In your own gaming time, what's the ratio of older games versus newer games in your rotation? These past few years, I've been playing classic and retro games through my Retroid and Miyu devices. Some for the very first time, such as Half Life, Mario 64, Star, Knights of the Old Republic, Diablo, and Link's Awakening. I'm also currently working my way through more modern games such as Expedition 33, Stardew Valley, and Tears of the Kingdom. Personally, my own ratio for how I spend my gaming time is one third modern games and 2/3 retro games. How about you all? What would you say, Miranda?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Dang. Nice I would say I'd probably flip that with my time. Like probably 2/3 modern, 1/3 retro. I. I've been recently getting back into my old devices, so I still have like my PS Vita. I have all of my dses. Like those are all ready to go. And I. I find myself sometimes getting back into the back catalog of Game Pass just to play some. Some old games that I really loved. Just like comfort stuff. I think whenever I get really stressed, I just want to go be in places that I already know I enjoy, rather than having to like, kind of stress about thinking about games for work. Because that's ultimately what happens. When I play a lot of new games, I kind of think of, oh, how does this going to impact what we're doing for the guide? Or is this one set? Or did we do this thing? Because this is hard for me, did we do that? So it is kind of nice to be able to like step back into games that are just so not necessarily applicable. Not that we don't have guides.

[Sam Claiborne]

You should be writing guides for those games too.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Not that we don't have guides for the old games and I don't know what the state of all of them are, but I can tell you we do not have a guide. I'm like 99.9% sure for Princess Debut, which is one of the games that I'm playing right now.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I don't know.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I don't think we would cover that. Which is a DS OTOME rhythm game, basically, which is a very specific. Yeah. Do we have a guide for just me?

[Damon Hadfield]

Do we have a guide for the first half? Life or Diablo?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes, yes and yes, we would have those. The issue with those is that they were written and then ported to like 3 or 4 CMS by now. So it's like whatever. The wiki version of this is probably pretty crazy.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. Formatting gets weird, but yeah, that's kind of where I sit. And I've been going back to Ball pit a lot. I know. I just. I talk about that all the time. I started that game.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's stolen my background.

[Miranda Sanchez]

It's so fun. It's just so fun to dip in. It's very meditative and that's kind of what I like about it. Like I can just kind of, you know, zone out for a bit. They just had an update too, so it's even, even more exciting.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I saw that update.

[Damon Hadfield]

How about you, Sam?

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it's. This is weird. I. First of all, I just played a lot of Parappa and I played a lot of Resident Evil 1 and a lot of Zelda because we did those for our new series. Is it still fun featuring this panel right here? And usually when there's an Eshop game out, a set of Eshop games, I'll go through and play those. I don't do as much of the. I don't have any devices that are like emulator devices right now, so unless I bought a bunch of cartridges, then I'm not going to go through and play that stuff. But yeah, it's not a huge split right now. I just have to do so much gaming for work now. The change comes. Why this is weird for me is that, like, I play old arcade and pinball machines all the time, and that's what I'm doing when I'm not at work. I'm usually working on those or, you know, I guess playing them, but like, playing them to make sure they work. And that's like an ongoing thing. So, like, in that sense, I'm not like, gaming, but I'm like, doing a side hustle, constantly getting CRTs to work. So that's fun.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool. Yeah, like, I. I usually have, like, one big game, one big, you know, recent game that I'm playing just, you know, to basically, for the show so we can talk about Resident Evil and Pragmata and stuff on the show. And then it'll be 007 and then it'll be Forza Horizon 6. So that's probably like 90% of my time. And then 10%, you know, just like checking out, you know, just picking up my Miu Mini Flip or something to play some, you know, whatever.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I guess you were showing Kingo games too, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's nice having those on hand. A lot of them are on, like, Nintendo Switch Online. He wanted to check out Mario versus Donkey Kong. And then we were checking out a bunch of Mega man games. So, yeah, I'll do that. But probably 90% of my time is whatever, the latest big game that's out now. Although, as Sam has said, we have this new show. Is it still fun today? That gives us a really good excuse to play old games for work too, so.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I couldn't. Those are the best games I've played all year. Like, seriously, that Resident Evil 1 was so fun. It was so fun playing that. And like, when we were playing Ocarina of Time, I couldn't put it down. Like, I looked forward to it each night. I was like, this is great. This is so fun. And I was thinking about It. I had like a print strategy guide, so that happens. And I. I actually did just play through all of Metroid Prime 2 before Metroid Prime 4, so, like on a Wii U. So, you know, I do do this stuff, I guess. So I would say it's a pretty healthy split. I probably do play, you know, 30% of my time playing old games.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. All right. This is Mark from London who says. I was curious what the panel thought about how regional gaming habits have changed as we have become more globalized and connected. I feel like habits around the world are starting to feel a lot more synced. An example for me is things like how Final Fantasy has moved away from turn based combat to maybe appeal to a wider audience and how games tend to come out everywhere now versus some that never came to western regions. Do you feel like there are still games that are made almost only for a region anymore or all games maximizing returns by trying to target everyone? It's true that I think, yeah, I think almost every game gets a worldwide, worldwide release now. I think that's largely because of digital distribution. Like, why not? I think it costs a Japanese publisher next to nothing to put their game in the eshop in the West. So why, why not do it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Right?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I think sometimes the answer to that is that that does still exist in some ways. So if you look at the Nintendo directs, the one in Japan or for Japanese audiences will sometimes be different. Like there are games that don't come here still or will come here years later, because even though it might not cost them a lot to put them on the eShop, they still got to do translation. Right? So like that's going to be where their cost is if they're not planning for that already. So I do think there is some aspect of that. But I would say, like if you're looking at say Final Fantasy and the transition from not being strictly turn based, it seems maybe like that could also be an internal preference, right? Like they could maybe just like developing a little bit differently where it's that kind of thing. Pseudo turn based with some elements of it, but mostly action oriented.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I don't think they're trying to Westwash that all Final Fantasy games have gone that direction. Weirdly.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No. I think if you look at Kingdom Hearts 2 and the success of that, and I think maybe just they saw something in there that they really enjoyed and wanted to kind of mix it up with Final Fantasy and just continued with it that way. So it's hard to say. And I think it would be a developer by Developer thing. But as far as global appeal, it's hard to say that developers really think that way because I think there is still a key market they're targeting and saying, these are the people who mostly pay for our games or will invest in them if it's a life service thing. So we're gonna make our things for them. And then I think if you see smaller studios, that they're just making what they want. Right. Not necessarily for a specific target audience globally, I guess you could say so.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a huge amount of games that are only made for the U.S. they're called Xbox games.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, my gosh. Hey, hey.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, those don't sell in Japan.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, my gosh. You know, you say that, but also, whenever we would go to tgs or I would go at least, and we meet up with our guys from IGN Japan, there was like one or two guys on that team that, like, loved Xbox teams. They were so excited because we could

[Sam Claiborne]

talk and they're working for IGN Japan.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I know. And so we would go talk about it. They're like, oh, yeah, people played as much, but they're trying. And I'm like, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, think of all the gotcha slop that we're not getting here. It's like, first of all, Korea is famous for MMOs, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

We get them years later. They're made for Korea, though. They're not really made for the West. Right. So that happens. And then there's the gachas that are like Genshin type things that really, like. A lot of those games are made for. For Japan or China. China in mind. And then they come here sometimes. But I, I. The vast majority don't, you know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. There's like, niche genres. I think there's still like, mahjong games that they don't bother releasing in the west.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or, you know, those are on the NES a bunch. I think that's really cool too.

[Damon Hadfield]

There's like the Denture Dego, like train simulation games or, you know, like, I don't. There's even. But there's also examples that we've seen on SAM with the Seal of Quantity, where there's just Japanese games being released here that aren't even translated. They're just. There's not even an English localization. It's just a Japanese game that's available here. And there was.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think it's cool. There's local sports games. Like cricket, you know, is big. I'm not saying that's like a small thing in the world. It's A huge thing in the world. It's just not in the United States at all. So it's like, you know, if you're going to make a cricket game, it's going to be huge in England and India and other territories that we will never even see here. Yeah, it's really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

There was, I think there was a time though, to Miranda's point, that I think Japanese developers were trying to cater to the west. Maybe in the late like 2008, 9, 10ish. Because, you know, Capcom, we had, I think Resident Evil 5 and 6 did that. Square Enix got into the Tomb Raider game. I remember being at a tgs, some Japanese publisher, like, I don't Tecmo. Someone like that had a Gears of War clone. Just like big burly cover shooter, bro shooter. It's like, why is this coming out of Japan?

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember when Bomberman got the Grady reboot?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, now, yeah, that was a little bit before that too. But then I think they realized to Japanese.

[Sam Claiborne]

Go ahead. You go first.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just to Japanese developers credit, I think they learned, like with Capcom in the start of Resident Evil 7 that they learned that they should lean into what, you know, what makes them Japanese developers. And I think they found great success doing that.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it's really cool in our lifetime seeing Biohazard and Dragon Quest become the names that are used in the west just a little bit sometimes. Like, Biohazard was used for Resident Evil 7, which I thought was cool. We still don't have Probotector here. So in terms of Westwashing, a term which I just coined on this episode, the NES and Super Nintendo era was really funny for this because there is a lot of anti Japanese sentiment at the time. There's a bunch of stuff in the news about Japanese cars versus US cars and production shifting to Japan. There's all this kind of anti Japanese sentiment. So this giant influx of pop culture from Japan happens and what do they do? They're like, we gotta make this not look Japanese. And how did they do that? They took all the amazing drawings that Keiji Inafune made for Mega man or that Shigeru Miyamoto made for Mario, and they completely wiped them out and then make them into like stupid. Like, I don't know, you would call them like. What is that called? The sprayed paint art.

[Damon Hadfield]

Airbrush.

[Sam Claiborne]

Airbrush crap.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I mean, that's how we got the original, the infamous Mega Man 1 box art. Right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And but a million of them, I mean, they're all like that. And some are really cool, like Contra and Castlevania have the best boxes ever made. Right. But like, that's not what the games look like. You look at the, you know, like the cute art of like, you know, Simon Belmont. Like, you know, that they would have drawn in Japan. So. Yeah, there we go.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I mean that I was trying to look up. Oh, dear Lord. Okay. I was like, what do you mean? Like, it's brushed. I was like, what is that supposed to mean?

[Sam Claiborne]

And you show the Rockman one box art.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah, that's if you. If you can do a side by side joker with the actual Japanese Rockman box art. I mean, the Rockman one just looks like the game.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's terrible.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. Like, Yeah, I mean, it was like this for everything. Like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest or anything. They made these like stupid he man looking characters. But in Japan it'd be like the super deformed, like cute characters.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's true. What time is it? That brings us to video game 20 questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, my gosh.

[Damon Hadfield]

Our suggestion this week comes from Nick from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, who says, damon always makes me happy when you rock a Sound Garden shirt. So I'm not wearing it today. So based on our mutual love of Chris C. And the gang, why not choose my suggestion for 20 questions? No need to thumb through any of the other submissions as I've got your scoop right here. Three, to be exact. So you can make the scoop crew choose. Well, I've chosen the second. He gave me three choices. I've chosen the second one because the first one is called something called echo night on PlayStation 1, which I've never even heard of. And the third option was Jersey Devil on PS1, which I know is a mascot platformer, but that's where my knowledge of that game ends.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just know there's an X Files episode about the Jersey Devil which is like a Bigfoot.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah, I only know it in that context.

[Damon Hadfield]

I have selected option number two for you.

[Sam Claiborne]

So with that, what could this possibly have to do with Chris Cornell? I don't understand.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about that. All right, with that, let the questioning begin.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Is it a PlayStation 1 exclusive?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Okay. I was like, the other ones are PlayStation claims.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's a good point. Is this from before the year 2000?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a 3D graphics game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, Miranda might have played it.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I might have played it. Is it a PlayStation exclusive game?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't believe so. Let me just double check and. No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Okay, okay. Just ruling that out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Did this come out before 2012?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's five.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

End of the Mayan calendar. No, I think we're. I'm trying to switch to that because I think that's when PS4 started.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's a good way to look at it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I might be wrong about that, though. But it's good to know.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Did this game win any major awards?

[Damon Hadfield]

Let's see. Did it? I don't think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's looking at the. What's the section called on Wikipedia? Reception.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's exactly what I'm looking at.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No, no. Game of the years.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Smaller game, probably. Not necessarily, but just not incredible.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this release on a compact disc? Medium?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

So not a cartridge. So not Game Boy DS or 3DS?

[Miranda Sanchez]

That's a good question.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or PC downloadable or whatever. Is this a PS2 arrow game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. This is a little hard for me.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I had a PS2 just for Kingdom Hearts. That's literally it.

[Damon Hadfield]

So

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think I ever played the first Kingdom Hearts. Definitely played Kingdom.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Is this game for a licensed property?

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, is it based on a license?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. Based on license. Okay. Okay. Okay, we're getting somewhere. One of those.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it based on a movie?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's 10.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, shit. Okay, that's good. Based on the movie. PlayStation 2. Not exclusive. Did not win any awards.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it based on a movie from around the time that the game came out?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, interesting. So that's weird. Maybe it's. Maybe it's the warriors by Rockstar, which is one of the best movies ever. I'm trying to. There wasn't a lot of games that would have been based on old stuff. Is the time. I. I. It's probably the warriors, but I don't. I thought that was a PS2 exclusive. But that could have come to Xbox.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Ask a question around it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Because I don't know anything to ask around that game specifically.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this based on a movie from the 1970s?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, okay. Is the movie. It's based on a fantasy movie?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sci Fi.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Nope. What? We're almost at 15. Dang. We're at 14.

[Damon Hadfield]

Miranda's good at keeping track.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I was like, keeping track.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. There's like, they made a Godfather and Scarface game and stuff. But those are all Wii games, right?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I thought this. But. But this. It's not an exclusive to PS2. It was just. Was on PS2.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Yes.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Disc based.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Is this a crime movie?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's 15.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, you might be Onto something then because.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think so. Godfather, Scarface.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Because I can't think of any other license games.

[Sam Claiborne]

But Godfather's a 70s movie. But Scarface is an 80s movie, I believe. So there's that later. I'm trying to. I don't know much about the game. I've seen the movie. Is it Alpha Cheetah?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I didn't even know those had games. So learn something new every day.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this based on a plot about a drug lord?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Miranda Sanchez]

So no drug lords, no fantasy, no sci fi.

[Damon Hadfield]

What could it be? Let me assure you, you have three questions and a guess. You are absolutely in reach. You're in reach here.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. Because maybe this was a. Maybe the game isn't about the same thing as the movie or something like that. Like it's not a retelling. Yeah, I'm trying to. What do we know about this? Well, I guess the setting. Because the setting would be the 80s, I think. I don't know though.

[Miranda Sanchez]

But we don't. Yeah, we don't know it's the 80s. Did the movie take place in the 80s?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm so confused.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I'm so. It wasn't from the movie. Did not come out around the same time as the game. So it was an older movie.

[Sam Claiborne]

How many questions do we have?

[Damon Hadfield]

Two and a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have we mentioned the movie or the game yet?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. So we just got to think of some. Some kind of crime movie that work that is in this, you know, but

[Miranda Sanchez]

it doesn't have to be like crime. The problem is I'm thinking of like

[Sam Claiborne]

we asked if it was a crime movie, right? Didn't we ask that?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I thought you said if it was a crime based game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, yeah.

[Miranda Sanchez]

And he said no.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, this is stupid. But like I could. I would call those spy things. But there's always Bond.

[Miranda Sanchez]

There is always Bond. I was thinking, because I'm trying to think of some other like, kind of big movies, but it's hard to say whether or not they're too old.

[Sam Claiborne]

But yeah, Spy. Spy Hunter is not a movie from that time. Yeah, I don't. Man, this is weird. I mean, clearly there was like some kind of like famous movie that got a game that probably wasn't that great.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know. I don't know where to go.

[Damon Hadfield]

You have one question and a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Miranda Sanchez]

There are some things where I'm like, was that then? And I don't remember. It's like that's the time in my life. Where did Time is strange?

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this movie have a sequel?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh,

[Sam Claiborne]

Lord.

[Miranda Sanchez]

A singular movie that had a game tie in.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, this is enough to get it. I just don't know what it is.

[Damon Hadfield]

Came from the PS2 era.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Based on a movie not from that era. A movie that did not get a sequel that's not from the 70s or 80s.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Not award winning game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not an award winning game. Crime theme.

[Miranda Sanchez]

It does have a crime theme.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was there any like 90s movies?

[Miranda Sanchez]

Someone out there shouting, I know you're out there shouting, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. We're about to let you down.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crime, though. It's like Matrix, you know, Crime movies would have been.

[Miranda Sanchez]

It's not Sci Fi. It can't be Sci Fi.

[Sam Claiborne]

Reservoir Dogs. Did that exist?

[Miranda Sanchez]

It did. That was in the 90s, I'm pretty sure. No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was there a Reservoir Dogs game?

[Miranda Sanchez]

I don't think there was a game. There could have been.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know. Yeah. I'm just gonna have to give up. We're just gonna have to get this one, I think.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. I don't. I am unfortunately not very helpful with crime movies. I don't watch that many of those. Specifically.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That are old.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think we have to give up.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ooh, Sam. It is Reservoir Dogs.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Oh, my God.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought there was.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I was like, sam, why don't we just say Reservoir Dogs just in case? I was like, I don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's okay. The stats keeper will make up a new stat for this, which is the last thing they guessed was the right game, but they didn't guess.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I had no idea that was a game.

[Sam Claiborne]

How was it?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, this is when IGN and IGN UK both gave their own review scores. IGN, we gave it a 3 out of 10 and IGN UK gave it a 7.5.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. And neither of us gave it gave of the year.

[Damon Hadfield]

But that's great. So like you're playing through the plot of the movie, but they don't have the likenesses of everyone. And they certainly didn't have the voice talent. I don't think so. What a weird project. What a strange project to exist.

[Sam Claiborne]

What? Yeah. What do you actually play?

[Damon Hadfield]

I think Drive. There's Driving and Shoot. It's a third person shooter and driving game is what it's described as a

[Sam Claiborne]

little bit of Grand Theft Auto DNA to try to get it to tell the story.

[Damon Hadfield]

But it is right at the same time that the Godfather and Scarface games came out too. So there's. Yeah, there was. Let's make a. Let's got to make games based on all these classic crime films.

[Sam Claiborne]

And this came out for Xbox also.

[Damon Hadfield]

Xbox, PS2 and PC.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow. Yeah. Definitely didn't have a waggle version on the Wii. It's too bad.

[Damon Hadfield]

But although Godfather and Scarface did. So.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Who made it this? It was published by Eidos, made by Volatile Games, which is no longer. Yeah, but. And they did a lot of license stuff based on Nickelodeon properties too, so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. This. This engine doesn't look terrible.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not for the time. Yeah, not for the time.

[Sam Claiborne]

When is reservoir dog set? Just 90s.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just. I mean, it probably came out in 91, 92. So it would just be set then, I think. Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, we got there.

[Miranda Sanchez]

You got there, Sam. Good job. Thank you for knowing crime movies, kind of. But get close enough, you know, we're Reservoir Dogs game now.

[Sam Claiborne]

We know. That was brutal.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I thought you had a better chance of getting that than Echo Knight or Jersey Devil. Nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

Definitely.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nicely attempt. What's up?

[Sam Claiborne]

What's this? Well, I don't get the story. Still, like, hey, there's no story.

[Damon Hadfield]

He just said he's trying to get me to pick his. He's appealing to the fact that I like Soundgarden to get me to pick.

[Sam Claiborne]

Got it. Got it, got it.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's all. Got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's all. Got it.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Got it. Got it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Thank you for the suggestion, Nick from Mount Juliet in Tennessee. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address game [e-mail] and hopefully everyone knows that IGN Live is coming up soon. IGN Live 2026 happening June 6th and 7th, downtown LA. Come hang out with us. We're gonna have a lot going on that weekend. Celebrity panels, game reveals, live stage shows, giveaways. We'll be doing the 20th anniversary edition of Game Scoop there. It's gonna be a really good time. You can get tickets right now at show clicks or live.ign.com They're 15 bucks a day, so please be excited for that. And that's our show. All the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Sam and Miranda. Thank you to Gilbert. Working behind the scenes, make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Soup. And we're out. There it is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, my gosh.

[Damon Hadfield]

How do you. Oh, man, that's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Look how great the art is, though. For the Rock Band, it's really.

[Damon Hadfield]

Today the technology exists to make a Rockman game that just looks like that. Yeah, that's what it should look like, but Astrobot. It's Astrobot, but it looks like that.

[Miranda Sanchez]

That'd be really cool, actually. I'd probably play that. What about the one on the left, though?

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, we do so much prep for Game Scoop. We have the writer's room and then we have rehearsal. Then we have dress rehearsal, and we got all the way to dress rehearsal without having anybody on the show. But with Damon and I. So. Thanks for swinging in there.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Thanks for stopping in.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

We showed up, and only then when we were getting mic'd up do we realize that no one else was coming.

[Miranda Sanchez]

So glad I could join.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it was great.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Thanks, everyone.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Thank you.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, thank you so much, Sam.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm going to pick up. I'm going to pick up my mom from the airport now. And then this weekend we're going to Disneyland.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nice. Is there a park hoppering plan or are you just gonna go to one?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. No, we're doing the Park Harbor.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's great. We were seriously considering tacking on a Disneyland thing to being down in Los Angeles for IGN Live.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it dumps us onto a Monday after that, and then it's just like a work week. And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I'm like. I don't know if that really is going to make sense.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I'll.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'll be behind on so much. Like the next weekend maybe. But we're actually traveling starting then. But, yeah, we're not going to. We have free tickets that expire in June and I think we're boned.

[Miranda Sanchez]

No, go now. What are you doing? Go this weekend?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's brutal.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Just go.

[Damon Hadfield]

They just flipped over Space Mountain. It's Hyperspace Mountain again.

[Sam Claiborne]

I love Hyperspace Mountain. It's so stupid. It's so, like, lo fi how they do it. It's like the things they project are, like, crappy looking and it's just great.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's fun.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah. No, that's my favorite.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. That'll be really fun. No, I do want to go, but I just don't know. I'm glad to go down to LA though, for that. That time for Asian Live. It'll be fun.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right. Thanks, everyone.

[Miranda Sanchez]

I'm excited.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thank you.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Thanks, y'.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

All.

[Miranda Sanchez]

Bye.