Is Steam Coming to Xbox?! w/ Ben Starr - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.21.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Episode: Is Steam Coming to Xbox?! w/ Ben Starr
Release Date: March 21, 2025

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Guest Spotlight: Ben Starr

Timestamp: [00:25] - [07:15]

In this episode, host Blessing Adeoye Jr. welcomes Ben Starr, known as the first Berserker, to discuss his recent projects and experiences within the gaming industry. The conversation kicks off with Blessing admiring Ben's recent performance at the GDC Awards, highlighting his ability to blend serious, gruff characters with his inherently goofy personality.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [02:00]: "I saw your GDC Awards performance from a couple of days ago. It was incredible."

• Ben Starr [03:07]: "I love being able to engage with a community that has given me so much. I'm staying in this sandbox because people have given me a playground."

Ben delves into his role as First Berserker Kazan, emphasizing the depth and intensity of the character while maintaining his authentic self. He also touches upon other projects, including his involvement in Date Everything, a game where players can "date everything in the house," showcasing his versatility as a voice actor.

Timestamp: [07:15] - [15:11]

The discussion transitions to Atom Fall, a new survival action game set in a post-nuclear disaster Britain. Ben shares his enthusiasm for the game's unique blend of survival mechanics and storytelling, expressing hopes for a successful sequel similar to how Kingdom Come: Deliverance spawned a beloved follow-up.

Main News Stories

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1. Is Steam Coming to Xbox?

Timestamp: [18:48] - [26:02]

Blessing introduces a hot topic sourced from Tom Warren at The Verge: Microsoft's potential integration of Steam into the Xbox ecosystem. Early mockups suggest that Xbox may allow players to access their Steam libraries directly through the Xbox UI, blurring the lines between console and PC gaming platforms.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Starr [19:26]: "Xbox wants you to play everywhere. It's a strategy to make Xbox synonymous with gaming, providing everything in one place."

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [20:31]: "Xbox is simplifying the user experience by allowing players to access all their games, regardless of the platform they're originally on."

The hosts discuss the implications of this move, pondering whether it could eventually lead to cross-platform play with PlayStation games and further dismantle the traditional console wars. They express optimism about a future where gaming ecosystems are more unified and accessible.

---

2. Split Fiction Movie Adaptation

Timestamp: [27:00] - [35:21]

A thrilling update from Jennifer Moss at Variety reveals that a film adaptation of the co-op game Split Fiction is underway. A bidding war has ignited among top Hollywood studios, with Story Kitchen, now part of Amazon, spearheading the project. The team is actively assembling a cast, writers, and directors to bring this beloved game to the big screen.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [29:03]: "Hazelight Studios has redefined co-op gaming, making them prime candidates for a successful film adaptation."

• Ben Starr [33:24]: "It's a fascinating development, but the true test will be how well they capture what makes Split Fiction special."

While the hosts remain excited about the prospect, they also express skepticism about Hollywood's ability to faithfully translate interactive storytelling into a linear medium, hoping that the original game's creators will have significant input in the adaptation process.

---

3. Atom Fall Reviews Roundup

Timestamp: [35:21] - [53:12]

Blessing presents a comprehensive review roundup for Atom Fall, a survival action game set in a ravaged Britain. Current scores hover around 76 on Metacritic and 77 on Open Critic, with critics praising its engaging exploration and immersive setting.

Notable Quotes:

• Tristan Ogilvie (IGN) [45:48]: "Atom Fall is a compelling post-apocalyptic survival story that blends your choices and discoveries seamlessly."

• Nathan Warby (Dexerto) [45:48]: "The gripping central story and wonderfully realized setting make Atom Fall stand out in the sci-fi mystery genre."

Despite some criticisms regarding enemy AI and combat mechanics, players like Ryan Reynolds find the game's open-world exploration and narrative-driven quests highly addictive, comparing it favorably to titles like Fallout and Elden Ring.

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4. Accessible Games Initiative

Timestamp: [53:12] - [56:43]

Evan Campbell from GameSpot reports on the Accessible Games Initiative, a collaborative effort by industry giants like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Google, EA, and Ubisoft. This initiative aims to standardize accessibility features in video games, introducing 24 tags across auditory, gameplay, input, and visual categories to help players identify games that meet their needs.

Notable Quotes:

• ESA President Stanley Pierre Louis [54:55]: "Tens of millions of Americans have a disability and often face barriers to experiencing the joy and connection that comes with playing video games."

• Ben Starr [55:16]: "In 2025, more people can play more games in ways that are accessible to them. This is where the industry is headed."

The hosts commend the initiative, highlighting its potential to make gaming more inclusive and encouraging developers to prioritize accessibility in their game design processes.

---

5. WE News: Quick Updates

Timestamp: [56:43] - [65:08]

Blessing and Ben cover a series of brief news bites under the WE News segment:

• Devolver Digital and Francisco announce Pixel Art Survival Horror RPG Look Outside for PC, available now on Steam for $10. The game promises a unique blend of 16-bit RPG aesthetics with survival horror elements.

• 3D Realms and Onshar Studios reveal a reimagined Painkiller for PS5, Xbox, and PC, slated for a fall release.

• Valnet faces backlash for blacklisting over 400 freelance writers who criticized their pay rates, sparking discussions about the state of game journalism and freelancer exploitation.

• Pokemon TCG Pocket Booster Shining Revelry launches on March 27th, introducing shiny Pokemon and characters from the Paldea region.

• Monster Hunter Wild's first free title update scheduled for March 25th, with a new DLC named Ichiban's Holiday launching on April 10th.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [59:50]: "Valnet's attempt to silence freelancers is a desperate move to control the narrative, but it'll only backfire by stifling quality content."

Ben and Blessing express a mix of excitement and concern over these updates, particularly highlighting the importance of fair treatment in game journalism and the continued evolution of beloved franchises.

---

Listener Interactions: Super Chats

Timestamp: [41:34] - [65:02]

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage with listeners through Super Chats, receiving messages of support and fan interactions. Notable highlights include:

• Zeke Speak: "I fucking love you, Ben. You're such a star."

• Jordan and Dal: Inviting Ben to their podcast to discuss favorite games like Final Fantasy 16.

• Mr. Hawks: Praising Ben's presence at TGS and his role in the community.

Ben graciously acknowledges each message, emphasizing his appreciation for the support and the strong connection he shares with the gaming community.

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Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, Blessing and Ben encourage listeners to support their content through memberships on Patreon and YouTube for an ad-free experience and exclusive shows. They tease upcoming segments like Game Showdown and a live stream featuring Dungeons and Dragons, underscoring the dynamic and interactive nature of the Kinda Funny Games Daily community.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Starr [65:35]: "Play the first Berserker Kazan on the 27th. It's a really neat video game, and the team has put a lot of work into it. Enjoy!"

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [65:22]: "There you go. The game looks cool. I played the demo. Really like the demo. Looking forward to the first Berserker Kazan and I hope you guys are too."

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Stay Connected:
For more game news and updates, visit Kinda Funny Games Daily.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It's not just for celebrities.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.

[Ben Starr]

I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first three months only.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Today's stories include is Steam coming to Xbox? A split fiction movie is in the works. And Atom fall reviews are in. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Friday, March 21st, 2025. I'm one of your hosts. Blessing Adio Junior. And joining me is the first Berserker, Ben Starr.

[Ben Starr]

Thank you so much. That's my official title. I always wondered how you do the cold open.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, yeah, we just go. We just go for it.

[Ben Starr]

You flew through that, but thank you. It's really good.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I, I Pride myself in 95% of the time getting it. And then there is that 5% where I old where I just flub it like crazy.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. Because you got to style it out.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You got, you got to like. I mean, there are those. You're a voice actor.

[Greg Miller]

You're performing.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

So you're. Since when you're an actor.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You're an artist. Right.

[Ben Starr]

So.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

So, you know, there, I think there are those days where you might just not have the energy or you might just not have, like, you're not as sharp as you are on your peak days. And every now and then I wake up and it's just a random Tuesday where I re. I try to read a thing and it just doesn't go my way.

[Ben Starr]

It is so embarrassing when you have those days.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yes.

[Ben Starr]

Where you think you're absolutely it and you just biff the whole thing.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You just trip over yourself.

[Ben Starr]

I get nervous now because I'll go, I.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You get nervous?

[Ben Starr]

I get very nervous. I get very, very nervous.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I saw your GDC Awards.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Performance from a couple days ago.

[Ben Starr]

People are calling that a performance. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It was incredible.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean, listen, it was a performance to me. Damn it.

[Ben Starr]

I didn't see that back until you guys showed it back to me. And I went, oh, no, what did I do? I think I reacted to. I think Stella posted something on. On X about it. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Stella posted something on X and went, oh, God, did I really do that? I just. I blanked out and then I just ended up presenting the award.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I watched it. So I' Tim showed that. Played that back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw it.

[Ben Starr]

I saw it. And I went, okay, cool.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Because I did add it to the dock here, and I was like, ah, Tim's probably already doing it. And so I'm glad I didn't double dip. But I did watch it back, like 10 times this morning.

[Ben Starr]

Wow. Thank you.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. Just because I was like, this is such a. Ben, let me tell you, I admire the fact that, you know, I became aware of you after Final Fantasy 16.

[Ben Starr]

Yes.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Much of the gaming world, I think, became aware of you after Final Fantasy 16. Yeah. And you've done the thing that I always dream of. Of. It's the Eminem lyric. If you have a shot, take it. That's not how the lyric goes, but that's essentially the energy of it. Right. You were put on the map, and then from there you're like, I'm gonna be. I'm gonna show the world who peak Ben Starr is.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And you are just that over and over and over again.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And I love every second of it.

[Ben Starr]

Thank you so much. I love it. I love video games. I love the community. I listen to you guys every day. I love being able to engage with a community that has given me so much. So I'm staying in this sandbox. You know, people have given me a playground, and I just want to stay there. Like, I love that when. When they asked me to host the Golden Joystick Awards, I went, cool, but I want to make it weird, and I think that's cool. I'm trying to kind of be almost shamelessly authentically myself. And if you like it, great. If you don't, I totally get it. You know, there's other people.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

What I think works about it the most, though, is when I see you, when I hear you in games.

[Ben Starr]

Yes.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You're often these very serious, very gruff characters. We're going to talk about the first Berserker Kazan in a second. Because, of course, it is GDC week. That's the big reason why you're here. Right. You're here showing off and talking about the first Berserker Kazan.

[Ben Starr]

Yep.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Which I guess while we're here, we do have a clip.

[Ben Starr]

We do. Of First Berserker Kazan. We've got a First look, which is just a really cool trailer. I mean, there have been a lot of First Berserker Kazan trailers come out over the past week or so. But this is, I believe, called the Masters of War one, which is. Which we. Which. Which we play Bob Dylan over the top. I play Bob. I'm Timothy Chalamet. No, it's just a re. It's just a really cool trailer and a really cool, cool game. And I think, because First Berserker, yes, it's in the DNF universe, but it is. It's almost like, you know, reintroducing this franchise to people and making sure that people can kind of get into. Here it is.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. Barrett's showing the visual right now. I forget I don't have audio up.

[Barrett Courtney]

If Bob Dylan is playing, just because I feel like we might get claimed on that one.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Okay, that's fair. That's fair. But yes, like, no, but it's the.

[Ben Starr]

It's actually. They've kind of changed. I think you might be able to play the audio.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Let's see if we. Yeah, can we play this with audio? Here we go.

[Ben Starr]

Here we go. Destroy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You.

[Greg Miller]

Play with my world.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Come on.

[Ben Starr]

Quite hype, isn't it?

[Barrett Courtney]

That's super avid fan of Bob Dylan. I never imagined his music would be used for a hype character. Action.

[Ben Starr]

I'm going to say it's what he wanted. You know, this is why. This is what he hoped for.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

But the fact that you're in games like this, you're portraying characters that are super serious, super gruff, but you are a super goofy dude.

[Ben Starr]

Yep.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You are a very funny man.

[Ben Starr]

I'm just a. I'm just a weird little guy. I saw that on Twitter. Someone said, oh, Ben plays all these really gruff characters, but ultimately he's just a silly little guy. And I love that because I take my work very seriously. First berserker Kazan, coming on the 27th of March, 2025. Yeah. And I love that I have the ability to do that. And people take the work that I do very seriously and recognize that, like, when I do something, I want to be as honest as possible. Clive is a very, very serious character. Kazan is broken when you first meet him in the game. And it's. It's. There's an incredible intensity to it. So I kind of want to offset that, really, by being just silly and me.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And I think you can be both. Like, I am not those characters. I am a person.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. You're Ben Star.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. And I will do weird stuff for you. If you want.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, man, I got a list.

[Ben Starr]

I will do weird stuff for you.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Let's go. But yeah, of course, first Berserker Kazan is a game that I, I know many of us, Andy is looking forward to, played the demo. You look at the art style you play the combat, and it's like, oh, this is going to be one that's going to hit a hit. Hit for us. Yeah, I'm super excited for it. Where are you at? Of course, like I mentioned, you come through. You're in. You're Clive, Right. Since then, I see you get rule after rule. You're in Hades. You're in First Berserker. You're in Date Everything.

[Ben Starr]

Yes.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

What's it like to be Ben star in 2025?

[Ben Starr]

It's crazy. It's really, really crazy. I, I, I've kind of dissociated from the work a little bit where I just turn up and I do it and then I get to come on stuff like this. Um, but I think it's, I think it's really cool. I just love what I do. I really love it and I want to do more stuff. And Yeah, I play 17 doors in a game called Date Everything.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

So, like, 17 different doors.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I mean, that they, I mean, I don't know how to kind of describe it. Dorian is, is all the doors in the house, but there are different versions of Dorian. So Date Everything is a game where you can literally date everything in the house and you have people like, I don't know, Laura Bailey and Neil Newbon playing various objects that come to life that you can choose to date if you want. And I play all of those. But the fact that I can do that and then do a game like the first Berserker Kazan in video games, you can have that kind of, like, diversity, and you can play whatever you want. And I'm really excited, I'm really excited for people to play the game because you get a little nervous. I get a little nervous. I really hope that fans resonate with the work that we've done. I've spent a, I've spent so much time doing this, guys. Can you like it? But I just really want people to enjoy it. And I love seeing the gratification that people get from the work that we do. I love seeing the fan art. I love seeing the cosplays of everything. It's just so cool. And I've had so many people come up to me and say, what it is that you did has affected me in some capacity now that doesn't happen with everyone, but that is a very, very rewarding experience. And in video games, I feel like it is heightened, you know, because you are not just a passive agent. You are an active agent of change in those games. You are playing characters, and that is just really, really cool.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Well, we got a lot of super chats coming in. Of course, people are very excited that you're here. It's to for 9,000 writes in and says, love, Ben Star. Your latest square ad spot was amazing. Thank you for Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 8 forever.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I know. I mean, they, that, that Square Enix thing was a very silly thing, and I'm glad that they let me do it. I was insistent that I write in that Final Fantasy 8 is the game that you should play all the time. Yeah, what a cool, what a cool thing to get to do.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And that you got to do the Balatro ad spot as well.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I'm, I'm selling you games. Guys, Balatro is weird because Balatro, as I call it in the trailer, it is a game that doesn't have any talking. And now I am kind of the de facto face of that video game. And that's just, I'm so proud of the team. Like, I've become really close to them because I see them all the time. And God bless. Wout if you're watching shout out. Wout. Man, that, that guy is getting some steps in every time he accepts an award. Every single time. The GDC awards just went round and round and round and round and round all the time.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Amazing.

[Ben Starr]

There you go. That's me as a clown. I was really proud when you used that picture of me for the game of the year thing, for the Balatro thing. That was cool.

[Barrett Courtney]

You said that earlier. And I will say it's because, you know, the way the desk is laid out, we have like, a very thin area to represent a game. And when I got the results, I was like, okay, Balatro. It was really hard to put a card there. And I was like, are there any, like, just people? And I was like, ah, Ben, Ben is a people.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, a lot of people don't know that that's me. I, I, they, they just see it as a silly joker, which is great as well. But yeah, what a, what a cool thing. They also announced that they have playing cards.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I know. Yeah, I have, dude, I don't know why. This is the thing where all week people are like, oh, have you gotten the Balacho playing cards? I love that people associate with me with card Games now. But, yeah, I'm like, no, I've not gotten.

[Ben Starr]

I should have brought them with me. I should have brought them with me to show people. I got. Given them. Local Funk gave me some. And then he went, wait a second. I don't even have any. And I was like, oh, you can have it back. But, yeah, that's. That's cool. I think that there is. When. When a game is good, you can kind of do what you want. And their kind of marketing is so subversive. And again, that's. That's what it is, right? Is I want to. I want to be a part of good games. Like when I was cast in the first Berserker, I. I saw the first trailer ever at the Game Awards, and I was like, I want to be a part of that game, because that looks cool. And so that's kind of my story into it is kind of being from a fan of when I first saw it in 2023 to where I am now, where I get to talk about it and be a part of it. I think it's just really neat.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And Is there a game or a franchise that you would like to be a part of? This is your chance.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. Mass Effect. Oh, no. Mass Effect and Love and Deep Space. This is canon. I want to be in love and deep space.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Love and deep. Can you tell me what that is? Love in deep Space.

[Ben Starr]

It's an atomy game. Those who know, know.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Love in deep. I'm typing it out right now. Love in deep space.

[Ben Starr]

It's official.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, all right.

[Ben Starr]

You can date. You can date. Oh, my God. Am I bringing. Am I bringing love and deep space to Games Daily right now?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Listen, Barry, can you look up Love in deep Space? Oh, can you? I don't know if I want to.

[Ben Starr]

I don't think you can.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, let's get him into love and deep space, everybody.

[Ben Starr]

Can we.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

All right.

[Ben Starr]

Can there be a campaign? I commented underneath, because I've got. I've got to thank Rebecca Ford, the creative director of Warframe, for introducing me to love and deep space. And I just think it's so. I think it's really cool. It's very sexy. You can. You can romance people. The. It's very graphic.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

But, yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And it's hugely successful. And I love that video games can be that. Where they can cater to the. Cater to an audience that want catering to. And I. And I think it's. There we go.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean, this is an audience that needs catering to.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And I think this is an audience that would welcome Ben Starr and it would be.

[Ben Starr]

I would. I would have such a nice time. I commented goatee under one of their things and people thought Ben Starr in Love and Deep Space. I'm not, but I'd like to be. I got.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Man, I. I'm sad that. This is kg.

[Ben Starr]

It has a period tracker, by the way, just so you know.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It's funny. You did just do. Oh, that's awesome.

[Ben Starr]

It's. That's incredible.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

That's awesome. I know. You just did a game Games cast with Tim that'll go up sometime next week. I wish this was a games cast because I do have so many things I just want to talk to you about. But of course we do. Got to get into the news.

[Ben Starr]

Oh, my God. Yes. Sorry. Games Daily. Welcome.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Well, it's Games Daily. We're going to get into the news, but also I just want to shout out for audio listeners who didn't get to see the video thing. Right. Love and Deep Space is a 2024 Chinese 3D Atomy game. It was developed and published by Paper Games, which was and was released for Android and iOS on January 18, 2024. If you're more curious, you can check that out. Before we move on Bear, I just remembered that there's a thing I want to show. So I'm going to give you a second to get back to your station so I can talk about this. Because right before the show, Andy Cortez came in and was like, hey, did you catch the Future game showcase yesterday?

[Ben Starr]

Yes.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And I was like. I told him, sadly, no, I missed it. And he said, hey, you got to check out this new trailer for this game, Metal Eden. Yes, Barrett, it's in the dock. Barrett has it pulled up. We are watching the trailer right now. This is again for Metal Eden.

[Ben Starr]

These rings store thousands of citizen cores. Future inhabitants of Eden.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, this looks cool.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, it does. The top chamber and break the last remaining seal. Dropped straight into a hostile zone. This is exactly what hyper.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, this is hot.

[Ben Starr]

Unleash your hyper power.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Rip their cores out.

[Ben Starr]

You know you want to. In the name of courage and truth.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah, this is what I want.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Protect the citizens.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Listeners. This is giving cyberpunk doom.

[Ben Starr]

It's giving. It's giving heavy doom.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Just like, you know, first person shooter.

[Ben Starr]

Chunky, Chunky weapons.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Chunky weapons. All the gameplay we're saying is just this action shooting. You're getting a free demo on April 8th. Oh, the game is out May 6th. That's awesome.

[Ben Starr]

That looks amazing.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

That looks that I love. Andy knows me so well, Andy, if Andy sees the game and he's like, oh, that's a blessing game, he'll make sure it gets in front of me. So I appreciate that.

[Ben Starr]

Indy Cortez, is that, is that single player game or is it multiplayer?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It looks to be single player.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Everything we just saw there looked like it was single player. So I'm assuming single player. That seems like it's very much going for the Doom Doom style combat in a cyberpunk world.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Which I'm all about.

[Ben Starr]

It sounds chunky. Shout out to the Future Game Show.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Shout out Future Game Show. We're going to talk a little bit more about things that happen in the future Future Game show because remember, this is Kind of Funny Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube and now on Spotify and Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Remember, we're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Gamescast just happened and it was Greg and Raj talking to remedy about Control 2 and FBC Firebrick. Today after KFD you're going to get game showdown with some fun special guests. One of them sitting right here right next to me. After that is going to be AVP Alien versus Predator in review. Then after that is the stream which is more of that Pokemon Nuzlocke. If you're a Kind of Funny member, today's Greg Way's 18 minutes about FBC Firebricks, Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Deal. Thank you to our Patreon producers Delaney Twining, Karl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays, Meundies and Factor. But we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have five stories today, a baker's dozen, starting with our number one. Is Steam coming to Xbox? I'm pulling from Tom Warren at the Verge. Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it's combining the best of Xbox and Windows together for handhelds. And now the company is starting to drop the first hints at what that UI might look like in a blog post about Xbox. Opening quote, opening a Billion doors, Microsoft briefly revealed a new Xbox UI that looks a lot more console like across multiple devices and even appears to list Steam games. After briefly posting an image of a new Xbox UI across multiple devices, Microsoft quickly removed it once the Verge inquired about it. The image has a new Xbox UI that can be seen on a TV where you can clearly see the Steam label listed. The same UI with the Steam mention is also shown on the tablet and handheld versions. While the image appears to be a mockup with owned games listed twice as well as action adventure titles, I don't think the Steam label here is necessarily a mistake. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell me the company is currently working on an Xbox app update that will show every game you have installed on your PC that includes games from Steam and the Epic Games Store, and I understand Microsoft will label these games accordingly until Microsoft is still in the early stages of this Xbox app update. So the company might never ship the feature to list all your Steam games. But this mocked up image shows how they might show up eventually. Xbox chief Phil Spencer has also previously hinted that PC stores like Epic Games Store and itch I.O. could one day arrive on Xbox consoles. Ben, first of all, what consoles slash platforms do you tend to play on? Are you a PC person? Are you an Xbox person?

[Ben Starr]

I have a PlayStation 5 and I played PlayStation since I was a kid and I recently got a Steam deck, so I am now obsessed with my Steam deck. But this, well, this makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Because Xbox are clearly pivoting to, I want you to play me everywhere. Let's forget the box. Ironic that it's called a box because that is not what they're doing. Yeah. I mean, whether this is true or not, I imagine that it is. It is a strategy where you say, everything comes to Xbox, everything is filtered through us. We are the place where you can play everything. We have Game Pass, we have Steam, we have. Thank you. Yeah, this is it. Like, it's.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It's.

[Ben Starr]

They, they. They want to be absolutely everywhere. And what it means is that, like, oh, I play on Steam, don't worry, you can play on Steam through Xbox. You can through Xbox because that's what they're providing now. They want to provide a service and they become synonymous with that, which is, I think, fascinating.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

We've been talking about it for years now of the shift of Xbox where they're going, it being more of a platform that just a box. You know, that is a talking point that I feel like we repeat every week on this Show. That said, I think getting to the place of seeing the mock ups of oh yeah, organized by your Steam games, even though you're playing on an Xbox platform, I think is it's at first blush interesting, but then gets deep the further you go with it, right? I think at the first blush thing, I almost view it in the same way of I can. It's a weird example, right? But I have Spotify on my phone. If I want to, I can listen to just local files on Spotify, right? And like, I'm not necessarily like listening to content through the Spotify service at that point. I'm listening to content I own separately outside of Spotify, but just using Spotify as sort of the conduit, right? Sort of just the player.

[Ben Starr]

We're lazy, we are late. We every human beings are lazy and we're getting lazier and we want. We want ease of access. So basically they're saying that, guys, you don't need to go anywhere else but Xbox because we have everything there. Because what, what is it? It would be extra clicks to go from Xbox to then go to Steam to then go to here. It's like, you don't have to leave, you can stay here.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I think is actually a really good future if we're able to get to a place. Because I think the biggest. One of the annoyances when it comes to PC as a platform is how everything is split up. There's Epic Games Store. The Steam is obviously the most popular one that we're going to go to most of the time. But yeah, there's Epic, there's Xbox, right? There's Itch. IO, there's this, there's that. And I think in a lot of cases that can be a good thing because it's not IO I go there for a specific kind of experience, right? But then it's like, all right, Epic Games Store. I'm only coming here for Fortnite. All right, cool. The Ubisoft Store. All right, cool. I guess I'm coming here for Siege. And then it gets to a thing of my PC at home. I have so many launchers installed and my games are so split up between all these different things. If Xbox is able to simplify it to where, hey, if you're somebody who just wants to be in the Xbox ecosystem, guess what? We have made it so that you can boot up your Steam games through the Xbox ecosystem. I think that's good, like user interface stuff, right? I think that's good, like user experience stuff.

[Ben Starr]

It's so simple, but it's so effective.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yes.

[Ben Starr]

You know, it's, it's they, we use Xbox ecosystem as a word. You don't really call PlayStation ecosystem because they don't really push it because they want you to buy the box.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yep.

[Ben Starr]

You know that obviously there's an ecosystem. It's the trophies. It's, it's, you know, it's naturally there. But they're really, they push it. We talk about it all the time. Every time I listen to the show, it's always, you know, Xbox ecosystem. That's what they're creating. Something that is self sustaining, something where you don't have to leave. And what happens when you go to Steam, when you click back out of Steam, you're going to go back into Xbox. You're going to go back into the, you know, the, the user interface that they have there. That's it. They want to keep you there because there's money to be had there and they're providing a very small convenience for you. That means that this is possible. I think it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a matter of time, isn't it, before this happens? Interesting. Also, you know, there are rumors of this, this, this Xbox Handheld. Right? Yeah. Well, we're going to be playing, you know, it's, it's what they want to make it as easy as possible to do that. And they are clearly pivoting to something that means that we have changed our business strategy. We've recognized where we are in the industry and we're trying to do something different. We are zigging, we're zagging and you know, more power to them.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Ben, can I get crazy for a second?

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. We get naked.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Can I get.

[Ben Starr]

I mean, is that what we're doing right now?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Can I get buck wild for a second?

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Right. This is going to be me putting on my.

[Ben Starr]

You love a tin. You love.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I love my tinfoil. Have you got Barrett take me to. I have a lot of tinfoil.

[Ben Starr]

Speculation station.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Speculation station. Because we talk about Xbox, we talk about the shift, we talk about PC, we talk about how you're leaning back.

[Ben Starr]

Right now for audio listeners.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

He is like, oh, dude. Because here's the thing. I'm trying to make this conversation fun.

[Ben Starr]

Okay, great.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

We talk about all this.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. I need to lean back to.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Ben's also leaning back in Xbox. Me. My phone's vibrating like crazy right now. I don't know what's going on in Xbox. Shifting toward this more. Hey, we're a platform.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

There have been talks about Is the next Xbox like hardware thing going to be more of a, hey, you can download Steam on here if you want and play Steam games, right? You can download like different launchers and just play your PC games on your Xbox type thing. Is that a gateway to be able to be able to play PlayStation games on your future Xbox? Because PlayStation is putting the games on Steam. Would there? I guess the question I'm asking is.

[Ben Starr]

Well, you're saying if you can get through Steam and if they're going to put games on Steam, you can play, you can play, you can play God.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Of War games on your Xbox. Is that crazy to say?

[Ben Starr]

No, because obviously that's, that's just another click, isn't it? Why would that, you know.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

But it's also weird. It's also not, I guess, not weird. I think it's one of those things where it's hard for me to, to imagine PlayStation lets that go like that. PlayStation lets that go through. So what is like the line that's, that's drawn?

[Ben Starr]

I think, I think this industry is so entrenched in the idea of console wars, which, you know, executives have recently admitted that they actively play into because that was the best way of selling something to you. Because ultimately it only matters so much as we sell units of something. And I think what's very, very clear over the past couple of couple, couple of years is that in order to achieve the infinite growth that we so wish, you know, there is a cap on how many consoles can be sold. We know that.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

You know, we're not selling more consoles than the last generation. The console market isn't growing exponentially. So we need to figure out ways of doing that. And clearly the executives have done have got more data than they can ever have before and they go, you can play it on different platforms. That's the best way because we're only going to sell what maximum. We're not going to sell more than the PS4. We might get up to that. So we know that the cap of consoles is there, but we still want the curve to go up. We want to make as much money as possible. So we'll put it elsewhere. Why does it matter as long as we're all making money for our shareholders. Yeah, who cares where you play?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

1,000%. My hope would be that by the time we get there where it is, okay, you can download Steam on your Xbox. PlayStation would stop looking at Xbox is such a direct competitor where they're like, we can't put it, we can't allow anything to be Played on Xbox.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. Yeah. And like, you know, I think that'd.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Be the dream if you can play anything anywhere.

[Ben Starr]

There is an incredible brand loyalty to PlayStation, you know, and I said that. What do you play? I play PlayStation. And, and they have created over the past 10 years an undeniable fingerprint that is. There is something so you can't really, you can't explain it, but, you know, it's a PlayStation game.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

Maybe X. You know, like we're comparing these companies because they are in competition. I don't think they're in direct competition anymore. I think they realize that maybe we need to play a little bit nice because actually we, if, if we play nice, we'll make a little bit more money. It played good in the Xbox 360 PS3 era. It played, you know, the openings of the PS4 and the, you know, handing off the discs and everything like that. But now that's not the messaging that doesn't benefit.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I'm, I'm still waiting for the day they announced Hell Divers is coming to Xbox because I'm convinced it's going to happen.

[Ben Starr]

I mean, what was it, what was the one that really shook it? Mlb, the show that was the one where, where, where that was the. Oh my God, is this going to happen? It may be. That's, you know, that's the, that's what broke the dam because it just kind of slowly went, oh, this is what's happening. And you know, we've got Indiana Jones coming to Expo to PlayStation soon. People don't care. They just want to play good games. I don't care where they play it as long as they get good games, you know, Expedition 33 coming day one, game pass also. You can play it anywhere else. Yeah, you can play anywhere else.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The, one of the announcements from today, right, fbc Firebreak, the new game that's coming from Remedy, it's coming to P. Is going to be launching on PS plus Extra and on Xbox Game Pass. Like, that's incredible.

[Ben Starr]

That's cool. Everyone's playing nice. Everyone gets to play the game because that's what we want. We want people to play games because playing games is fun. We want opportunities to express our joy and pleasure and have fun. And really, you know, that's what we want to do. So play wherever you want to play. And, and hopefully, you know, this is, this is another step for Xbox being pioneers at. I mean, they're smart. Phil Spencer is a very, very smart man. Aaron Greenberg is a very, very smart man. They know their audience and they also can see stuff that we can't see. They have access to analytics that we, we can't possibly comprehend. So they're doing stuff for, for a reason.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And I trust them.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I'm looking forward to seeing what the future has been. Let's talk about the future some more with story number two, A split fiction movie is in the works. A bidding war begins for the rights. This is Jennifer Moss at Variety. A film adaptation of Split Fiction, the hot new co op game from It Takes Two, developer Hazelight Studios, is in the works, Variety has learned. Sources at GDC in San Francisco have confirmed that the media company Story Kitchen, led by the same team that shepherded the It Takes Two game into a film project now set up at Amazon, is putting together the film's cast, writers and director into a package as offers for the rights keep coming in from multiple top Hollywood studios. Variety, which is on the ground at GDC this week, is continuing to monitor the bidding war with more details on the project to come. There's another one that we talk about as far as video game adaptations. Video games being turned into TV shows, movies. This one I think is fascinating just for the fact that Split Fiction just came out, which I view more as one. I think the game came out and had great reception.

[Ben Starr]

Right.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Especially great critical reception, but then also just the cachet that Hazelight has as a studio. Yeah, I think no matter what, this was going to get adapted because Hazelight, they're the there that is that studio right now.

[Ben Starr]

Yep.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

They are in the, in the spotlight.

[Ben Starr]

They're it. Yeah. This doesn't surprise me. Look, when you, when you are, what's been so amazing, There's a lot of the Hazelight team walking around GDC at the moment, which is cool to see the, the Hazelight hoodies and Split Fiction hoodies. So shout out to them. They're really kind of doing a bit of a victory lap right now, and rightly so. This is what happens when you put a huge amount of hard work into redefining what it is to play a co op video game. They are, they are true, true, true pioneers. I really want to give a shout out to Brothers of Tele 2 sons as a game that when we talk about Hazelight like that game, I remember playing that for the first time and thinking that is, that is a special video game. And they have only kind of taken that idea of the idea of having two characters and how we can interface with those two characters and they've expanded it again and again and again and again and again. And Split Fiction with the reviews, clearly, you know, it's. It's crazy. And I really hope that people continue to recognize it and, and they are. This is not necessarily. This is. This is game is popular. Let's turn it into something else and absolutely. Hazel, like, get your bag. Yeah, this. I mean, is this being turned into a. I, I read this. Sorry to be really cynical. And it's like a Hollywood package. We're packaging stuff together. Takes a long time to make a film. Takes a long time to like. How many, how many times have we been hearing about whatever IP is being snapped up? It's being snapped up because they want to make some money, and rightly so, but is anyone going to do anything with it? I don't know, but they want to make sure that no one else does.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah, I think it's funny because, yeah, the IP as far as releases existed for like two weeks. You know, it's not had time to like build a groundswell. We don't know in what two years when this movie comes out. Are people still caring about Split Fiction like that? Are we talking about The Split Fiction 2 being developed? Right. These things are hard to predict. The thing I will say in a little bit of opposition is Split Fiction, I think is a wonderful video game. But my main complaint with it is that I don't think the story does a great job of being about what it's about. Have you played Split Fiction yet?

[Ben Starr]

I literally, when I get back to the uk, I will play it because I need a person to play it with.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The premise of Split Fiction is that you have two writers, two story writers, that essentially their minds get merged and you are going back and forth between their different stories. The problem I have with it is a lot of the time, moment to moment in this game, is that the stories that we're hopping into aren't good stories. They're good gameplay segments. And so you hop into a fantasy gameplay segment and it's, oh, I'm riding a dragon. And then you hop into a sci fi gameplay segment and it is, oh, there is the sun's exploding. Oh, shit. But they're not really getting into the stories that are being told. And it feels like they're. I hate to use the ludonarrative dissonance sort of thing. Right. But there's a little narrative dissonance of, okay, these stories that we're hopping into are way more fun to play as video games than they are interesting as these storytellers that are diving into these things. I think if you're making a movie, you could remedy that. You could actually make these storytelling segments about actual interesting fantasy stories and actual interesting sci fi stories that make it more about the writing and how that loops back into what these characters are going through. Because that's, that's the one thing where I'm like, I don't know if you nailed this in Split Fiction, even though the gameplay is on, is, is, is fantastic from beginning to end.

[Ben Starr]

That's because it's a video game. You know, it's a, it's a perfect execution of a great video game. And they are very, very clever because they have gone, how can we have a two player game that you can have one person buy it and then you can both play it and, and it does it so well. Clearly the gameplay. Everyone talks about how highly it is, how, how they speak so highly of it and they basically say how good it is and that it feels like the, the perfection of a formula they've been working on again and again. Again, because they work in video games now. You put that in a film, you just recontextualize whatever story that is. Also. Yeah, Blessing. They did a Battlefield film with Rihanna. You know, like, not battlefield. A battle ship. No way. This is kind of a battlefield. They did a, yeah, they did a Battleship film with Rihanna. You can turn, oh, anything into a film. I think I would love to see the team who worked on this game have some narrative say in it because I think that's very important. But this is, this is, this is just people buying stuff because they want to buy stuff. Good luck and get your bag.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I do. Do you think there's going to be a bubble that bursts with all the video game adaptations happening where people are like, ooh, actually maybe you should just adapt things because they're video games or because they're going to be canceled.

[Ben Starr]

Like, you don't like film and tv, so this is a bit of a rant. Film and tv, so many projects are developed. Development, development takes years and years and years and years and years. And some, some happen quicker. You know, this idea of packaging up things. Do we get X directors to do X, Y and Z? But these announcements are there to create hype. These announcements are there to be. Like, people are bidding. Is there a bidding war? Absolutely. But this is to enhance the bidding war.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yes.

[Ben Starr]

Like, this is, this is a project that will. You even said it. There's an It Takes Two thing in development. It Takes Two came out a long time ago. Like, we all, we all just want to take IP because IP Is something that. Again, I'm so sorry. I feel cynical today. Money, money, money, money, money.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean, you're right.

[Ben Starr]

That's what it's about.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

You know, and I. More power to them. They've made an amazing video game and I really, really hope that this, this, you know, this comes off for them. But what does this mean in essence? I don't know.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. I'm also like, what are we building to? If. If Split Fiction was a franchise or if It Takes Two was a franchise, then I can kind of see the, you know, the businessy franchise synergy aspect of it and all this. Right. I don't get a sense that there's going to be a split fiction 2. I don't get a sense that there's going to be an It Takes Two two. I think they're probably going to make the next, like their next IP co op game.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Which we're all going to be excited about and play. Right. But if there's not going to be a franchise of this, do you need to turn both of these into movies or. It's a thing that I'm very curious about.

[Barrett Courtney]

Something clicks in my brain. Bless. We're in the opposite of the mid-2000 2000s where every movie got a video game adaptation.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yep.

[Barrett Courtney]

And now it's just like, whoa.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. It's weird.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's weird how things switched in the last 20 years where, you know, we were getting Batman Begins the Game, and now we're getting Split Fiction the movie.

[Ben Starr]

And. And we. We. You are in. You are in the business of making content. And I feel that film and TV is moving in, is very much moving in the direction of content because there is literally stuff to fill streamers. Everyone needs an opportunity to sell their platform, so they create content. And how do you create content is by building up ip because it takes. It costs money to create an entirely new ip. So if you can bring in an audience to play something, you know, to watch something, then you just. You just know that you're going to have an audience that are going to watch it in the first place. That's all people won. It was comic books, and now it's video games. I mean, it's always been video games, you know.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. But now, I mean, the video game movies started getting good.

[Ben Starr]

They're great.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And then they started getting so good that everybody's like, all right, now let's make bad ones again.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Let's just greenlight everything, which is gonna lead to more bad ones. But hopefully, I mean, and I. And I. I think surely it's also gonna lead to good ones. The fact that we got a Fallout TV show that was excellent.

[Ben Starr]

Yep.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Hey, I'll take two bad, you know, video game movies or video game TV adaptations for one good one any day.

[Ben Starr]

That's because Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan did Fallout. And if anyone's a Westworld fan, then just that some of the. Some of the work that they did on Westworld, particularly the second season, is actually sensational. And they are people who understand it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And they understand how to translate video games in the power of what video. Video games can present to the screen, and they're playful with it. I think it's. I think it's a sensational TV show, and I really hope that people take it seriously. They don't take it as a cash cow. They don't come along and be like, we've come a long way since Pac Man. I want. I want, like, I don't play games. I'm doing this. I think I want people to understand the material and more importantly, why it resonates with people.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And so why is it being bought in the first place? I. It really. It really upsets me because I feel that, like, a lot of people go, I don't play games. I can't play games. And you shouldn't have to in order to make something, but at least understand it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. What is special about this ip? What is special about this story? What is special about Metal Gear Solid or God of War or. I think Last was a good example of. All right, cool. You kept Neil Druckmann on the project. Somebody who understands what makes. Last was special to work on the Last of Us TV show with somebody who's talented in the. In the TV industry as well.

[Ben Starr]

Right. And now what is it? It's the most watched trailer for HBO Max ever, because people want to watch it. And you get brilliant actors giving brilliant performances in a. With a script written by people who genuinely care about it. Don't be Richard Gear in Pretty Woman and just pluck it or tear that thing apart. You know, like, if anyone doesn't know, there's a Pretty Pretty Woman reference where Richard Gear comes in and buys companies and tears them apart and guts them for parts. And I feel like that is what's what it is. Sometimes they want the name, but they don't know what the name represents.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

They just use the ip, but not actually what the essence of that is.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Ben, I want to keep talking about more video game news, but before we do, I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com/kind of funny games where you can get the Kind of Funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[Greg Miller]

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[Blessing Adio Junior]

And we're back and we're going to talk about Adam Fall. But before we do, Ben, I checked the super chats. We got a lot to get through. I want to throw some of these at you. Zeke Speak writes in and says two things. One, I fucking love you, Ben. You're such a star. And two, Ben, how much money can I give you to stream a party game with Jen English, Lucy James and Alana Pierce? Content gold right there for you.

[Ben Starr]

Royalists don't give me any money. I'll do it for free. They're really lovely. They're three of my favorite people. So yeah, I do that.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Hell yeah. Nycha writes in and says was surprised to see Ben in you season four.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I was in you season four. I loved, I loved doing that. And I want to say that the cast of that show is. Is wonderful. And so yeah, I was, I was. I play a. A billionaire in it and I come on and I thought it was a real kind of pinch me moment. But yeah, the cast are incredible. You come onto a show like that when it already exists and you just think, oh, how's everyone gonna be? And just the nicest.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Can I tell you? Delighted me to see you and you just because I love you.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The UTV show is since season one coming back.

[Ben Starr]

It's coming back new season.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Do we know when has been announced yet?

[Ben Starr]

I think so, yeah. Yeah, it's been announced.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I can't wait.

[Ben Starr]

They're great. Also the team are really lovely and they know what they make. You know, they've made a. It's A crazy. It's a wild show. That season four is wild.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. Because it's garbage for people like me. But it's good, dude. And it's such good junk food.

[Ben Starr]

It feels good. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Jordan and I writes in and says, hey, Ben Starr, we're both from Bristol and I'm a massive fan. With this knowledge, can I entice you to come onto one of my podcasts? You've worked with my good friends Neyman from playstack and Matt Phillips from fgs.

[Ben Starr]

I have. I have worked with both of us. Yes. What we're going to do just like best places to go out in Bristol.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Bristol.

[Ben Starr]

The Bristol.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The one. Yeah. The two people are going to do a whole podcast on Bristol.

[Ben Starr]

We'll do it. We'll do it live from. From Cabot Circus. That's a real Bristol reference right there.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh yeah. JMZ B47 writes in and says, thanks KF for the laughs and being a point of connection. When I Met Ben at Oticon among many FF fans, it was fun to chat about KFC E33 and S O.

[Ben Starr]

T E. There you go. Like I. One of the really neat things is people who haven't played games that I'm in just know me from kind of funny. They're like, you're Ben from Kinda Funny.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I love that.

[Ben Starr]

Which I love. Yeah, dude.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I was at. I mean I've been playing a lot of magic recently, as you might have heard. And I went to a magic pre release to, you know, just play some games at a card shop and I ran into a guy that's like, hey, you're blessing. And I was like, oh yeah, what's up dude? And he's like, oh yeah. You know I loved you from that one episode of FPS that you're on the Friends per second podcast. And I was like, oh, that's fudgeing awesome. Like you don't even know from me from kind of funny. You know me from when I guessed it on one episode of a different show.

[Ben Starr]

I think I'm going to butcher him. I think his name is Killian. He throw Terminal 5. Before I flew out here, he recognized me from Giant Bomb. He's like, you're Ben from Giant Bomb?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Hell yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And I was like, great. And he doesn't play. He doesn't really play many games. He's just like, he loves Giant Bomb.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ben Starr]

And I'm like, yeah, great.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

He loves the quick looks. Yeah. Like, oh, it's Ben. And then I'll do this last one from Sort by first Name who writes in and says, just paying my birthday tax as I turned 30 yesterday. I've actually spent the week away in. In Ben's Ends with all my family near Kingsham. Technically Kingsham, Bristol adjacent.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. Cool. I'm loving these Bristol references.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah, A lot of. I don't think I was super aware of Bristol.

[Ben Starr]

No, I mean, Bristol is beautiful. Oh, my God, Bristol's amazing. I went to Queen Elizabeth's hospital. It sounds really fancy, doesn't it? That was my school and I was head boy.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Can I get. Can I get a happy birthday to Sort by first name, but as Clive.

[Ben Starr]

Sort by first name. Have an iconic birthday. Do it for me. Do it for you. There you go.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I love that. That was fantastic, then. All right, it's time. Let's hop into story number three. Adam Fall, we got a review roundup for you to set the stage a little bit. I'll read from the Steam description. A nuclear disaster has left an area of Britain in tatters. Atom Fall, a new survival action game, will see you explore, scavenge, craft, barter and fight your way through beautifully recreated scenery in search of answers. Right now on Metacritic, it is sitting at a 76. On Open Critic, it is sitting at a 77. Greg Miller has played some Ataval, so he's going to come join us for a second. My best friend, a little bit about it.

[Ben Starr]

You're my best friend, aren't you, Greg?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I am. Ben, I love you so much. Yeah, thanks for playing around with me, you know what I mean? Just have some fun about it. Don't get all tight about it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh, you had to boot it up on the Portal.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I mean, I've been playing. I've been playing.

[Ben Starr]

Been playing it on the Portal.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I love the Portal. If you hear that, you can play it.

[Ben Starr]

I have. I have a Portal.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hell, yeah, you do. You're my man, you know what I mean? I've always liked you better than Lucy James.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

To set the stage some more, I'm going to read a couple of reviews here. I'm going to start off with Tristan Ogilvie at IGN, who gave it an 8 out of 10 and says Adam Fall is a gripping survival action adventure that takes some of the best elements of Fallout and Elden Ring and synthesizes them into its own fresh mutation. It presents a p picturesque chunk of English countryside littered with alluring structures to peak and reward your curiosity, eccentric locals to meet and absorbing mysteries to unravel, and uses classic iconography from British sci fi and horror to consistently unsettling effect. In spite of some enemy behaviors that are occasionally less stable than a reactor in meltdown, Atom Fall is a compelling post apocalyptic survival story that satisfyingly blend or satisfyingly bends to your choices and discoveries no matter which direction you take. Then I got one more from Nathan Warby at Dexerto who gives a four out of five stars to the game and says Adam Fall shakes off the fallout comparisons and stands on its own as a captivating sci fi mystery. The gripping central story and wonderfully realized setting makes it easy to forget about its shortcomings. And the lack of hand holding is a refreshing change that other open world games like Elder Scrolls or Assassin's Creed should take note of. Then Greg pointed back at the computer.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You got one more. The Rock Paper Shotgun. Give it to.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Oh yeah, I'll give you the Rock Paper Shotgun. When they gave it an unscored review and says Adam Fall looks and sometimes plays like a middling survival shooter, but its passions truly lie in exploration and investigation and it's much better at both.

[Ben Starr]

Hi.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Hello Greg.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How are you?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I'm doing well. How are you doing?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm great.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Now, what are your thoughts on Adam Fall? You want me to read that last one was. Is that for a particular reason? Is that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, I think the other ones are. I think the other ones are very glowing.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And then that one's a little bit more like yo. It doesn't. It's middling survival shooter stuff here because that's my. My takeaway. I'm only four hours in so GDC has been kicking my ass. We've only had a little bit of time with this one. But there's something there. There is something there. It's that thing where it's like it gets like. I think I'm running around and I'm like going from place to place. I feel like the environment can be pretty empty and I'll stop off and check in buildings trying to loot. And I'm like all right, there's one bullet here. I'm like that wasn't as rewarding but what they're doing with the leads which is what they were they're hinting at and talking about there right. Of like rather than get a quest and have the big diamond to go to you get a lead. Like I, I, you know I went and talked to the baker and the baker mentioned of course that her I was already had this main mission from the start of the game that I won't ruin the main lead.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Baker then is like oh yeah. My husband did this and now he's acting funny and he thinks he found this thing over there and it's like, okay, cool. And even when I track the lead, the lead isn't going bing dot over here. It'll say like, oh, you should go check the control. You know, the baker mentioned the control room or something like that. But then I got to find the control room. I got to go dig for that.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

So a lot of comparisons to Fallout.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Like leading up to this and you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Got to throw that shit out.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

That was gonna be my question.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

In watching the trailers, I get Fallout, but I also don't get Fallout.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think there's plenty to compare to Fallout, obviously, from even perspective. You know, there's a disaster with this Adam Planter. Right. So it's all sounds kind of like this, whatever. But the faster you get away from that, the better. Like when I started playing it, I literally played the first 45 minutes, paused it, and then went and watched one of the developer videos to see how they talked about it. And they talk about being a first person survival rpg.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Like there's. I don't really. Even in the Steam description or even in the reviews, I don't see the words RPG thrown out. As much survival action feels like.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Exactly right. And so when I'm playing this, it feels way more like the games I'd see, like Rust or, you know, like what Snowbike Mike and the Jabroni boys would play and go off and chop wood and build their little communities and whatever playing together in this survival setting. Except this one, it is by yourself. The Fallout comparison is apt, I think, in terms of, like, when you're talking to people, you have all these different dialogue options that can lead and do different things and stuff like that in terms of how you talk to them and then what you get for your lead and so on and so forth and like.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And also, to be fair, they called the game Atom Fall. Like, of course we were going to compare this to Fallout. And on.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, when I'm on the main quest, it does feel very Fallout of, okay, I've infiltrated right now where I'm at. I've infiltrated this prison, I've talked to this doctor that I knew a lot about. I've been trying to find or whatever for a while now in this game, what happens from there. And there is a go. You get skill points, you go in, you apply them to these buffs and things like that. But it is way more like, my inventory is super limited.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I can't. I Can't carry everything I want to carry. I'm dying in combat a lot like you are. I'm dying a lot. Getting into this because you're going to die in this game and figuring stuff out there is a lot of cool. Like, if this. Then that kind of stuff happening that is fallout to a degree. But it's like, I talked to the baker, and she wanted me to help her husband when I went up there instead with the key. I had just beat her husband to death. And then she came up to fight me, and I beat her to death. You know what I mean? It's like, then the world does that. And even in this prison section I'm in right now, right? I was wandering around because I had approval, because I did this guy's mission that I wouldn't have had to have done. I could have snuck in and do this, but I did that. Then I'm there. I'm like, okay, what's this? And I open the door, and it's like, oh, this is the yard. And all the prisoners start coming up the stairs to go, you're not a guard. Why is the door open? And then they all just rush out. And then the alarms are going. I'm fine. I'm not in trouble. But, like, they're shooting the prisoners in the street. Like, okay, that's a cool little twerk, you know, quirk of where we're going with this.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You might have sold me on this, because that sounds fucking awesome.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think there's plenty around the edges that I think's rough, but it's also. It's rough in the terms of onboarding. I think if I sit down and I play this all weekend, and it's the game I play all weekend, I think on Tuesday, when I come back and talk to you about it, it'll be like, okay, I've got the vibe and I've got the flow, because what I did initially was, okay, I'm gonna treat it like fallout. I have this, you know, backbone for what it is. And now I'm just gonna go off in all these different directions. And so then all of a sudden, I'm running into this weird purple beehive, and these bees are coming at me. They're actually doing damage like, ah, this fucking sucks. And then it is like, again, long stretches of like, there's nobody. And then I get into combat. I'm like, this combat, does it feel great? Like, I don't love the combat so far, but again, maybe as I figure out what this game is, it'll be a different story.

[Ben Starr]

I ask you a question?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, you may.

[Ben Starr]

Kingdom come. Deliverance was a game like that, which was incredibly popular and was rough around the edges, ultimately spawned a sequel, which people seem to be absolutely obsessed with. Do you think that something like Atom Fall can do a very similar thing where it's going? This is a great first proof of concept, and we want to see a.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sequel to it 1,000%, 100%. I mean, you're going to see, I think already what they have here. You're going to see a lot of people go to this and get behind it, because again, in the. It's the same thing we're talking about with Hell Is Us. Hell, the upcoming shooter. That's like, we're not gonna hold your hand. Like, that's what this is, right? Of like, figure it fucking out. Like, we're not. We're not going in and giving you the waypoint. Not doing this. Like, you know, I was at a fucking Hoover Dam, like, power plant probably way earlier than I should have been, but you can do whatever and, like, trying to figure out what it is. And then, you know, an hour later, I get a device. I'm like, oh, that would make this. You know what I mean? Like, there's all this stuff that the game's doing that's really interesting.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

That's awesome.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

All right, well, you've kind of sold me on Adam Fall.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Okay.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I was kind of. I was coming into this episode not as like, I'm going to play this.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Kind of thing, because I definitely think it's worth trying. I think it's a trial. And then even then it might be a. Give it a couple hours, like, to see if you warm up to it, if you do it. Because again, like, I put it down a couple days ago and then picking it back up today, I was like, okay. Like, there. There's. Yeah. I think if I just give it a chance, I'm going to get hooked and really be into it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

All right, well, thank you so much for joining us.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Great problem. Thank you for hanging out, Ben.

[Ben Starr]

You're so welcome.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How long are you here?

[Ben Starr]

Forever. I leave tomorrow.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Okay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, they're ordering pizza, so I didn't know.

[Ben Starr]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Is it Square Podcast?

[Ben Starr]

Oh, this. How long am I here today? Long time.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Patreon.com kind of funny. Please help. I want Square Podcast, guys. Story number four. Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation are teaming up for Accessible Games initiative. This is Evan Campbell at GameSpot. The entertainment software association has unveiled the Accessible Games initiative, which aims to help people understand accessibility features available in video games. The US based effort came about from some of the biggest companies in the industry Nintendo America, Sony, Microsoft, Google, EA and Ubisoft. The Accessible Games initiative is kicking off with 24 tags. So far they're categorized under four different features auditory, gameplay, input and visual and then specified from there. For example, there is a full input remapping tag, meaning the game offers the ability to swap button actions, joystick functionality and other controls. This differs from the basic input remapping tag advertising only buttons can be reconfigured. Other official tags include narrated menus, playable with mouse only, color alternatives and large text. These should start appearing on digital storefronts and product pages in the near future. Quote Tens of millions of Americans have a disability and often face barriers to experiencing the joy and connection that comes with playing video games, ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre Louis said in a press release. Specifically, the Accessible Games Initiative website points out that 44.1 million US residents have a disability, with reportedly almost half of them playing video games. The ESA states that Amazon Games, Riot Square, Enix and WB Games have joined the Accessible Games initiative. Ben, this is awesome.

[Ben Starr]

Yes, yes, it's a good news story.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It gives you the vibe of what they do with esrb. Right of which is also an ESA organization thing. Right of hey let's combine forces. Let's give people the visibility on what they can expect to experience in this game and hopefully use that as encouragement for devs to include include more accessibility options. Now that we're standardizing putting this on store pages, it's just cool.

[Ben Starr]

We're in 2025 now and more people can play more games in the ways that they are able to and I think that's really important, you know. And this is hopefully representation of representative of where we're going in this industry where more people can do stuff. The IGF Awards you have the I think it's control alt something about the award for basically like different types of controllers that you can do and about how differently we can interface with video games and how inventive they are. I know you saw that there's the cat slapping game that everyone saw there but I think that finding different ways in which we are able to interface with those games and whatever our accessibility accessibility needs are and also if we can't see certain things on a game things that we may not necessarily understand because I'm very lucky. I'm not colorblind. I am. I have all of my limbs that are fully usable. It's. It's like, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing to see that we are recognizing this and we're making it easier for people to understand how they can play these games easier than ever before. I just think it's just neat and you can tell, like, this is the way we're going. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Google, EA and Ubisoft.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

All the biggest names that you need there.

[Ben Starr]

And we're all in. We're all in. And we should be all in.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yep.

[Ben Starr]

And continue to.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I think this is very smart, I think this is very awesome and I think this is very big news. But Ben, if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[Ben Starr]

You go to our last story, the WE News Channel. We cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Story number five. It's WE News. FBC Firebreak has gotten a new trailer and is coming to PS plus Extra and Game Pass ultimate in the summer. We talked about it with Remedy on today's kind of funny gamescast. Go check that out. From Gematsu, devolver Digital and Francisco announced Pixel Art Survival horror RPG Look Outside for PC and it's available now. Here's the thing. This is the Shadow Drop. I have played a little bit of Look Outside. Yeah, I got the email about this quite a few days ago. It's really cool getting an email for a game where they're like, like, hey, this ain't announced yet, but you can get a review code. And I'm like, oh really? So it is survival horror, but it's also a 16 bit RPG. Think like Earthbound or in any Final Fantasy, right? And is up. Like the first thing that happens is as your character, you wake up in your room from having a nightmare and your neighbor's like looking through like a crack in the wall and they're like, hey, don't look outside, don't look outside. And I looked outside. Just the scariest animation you've seen in 16.

[Ben Starr]

Saying this stuff.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

It is. This game is wild. I've not played as much of it because, like, honestly, I'll be. I'll be real. I was playing it at nighttime and I was like, I got. I can't do this right. I can't do this right now. This would stress me the fuck out. Oh, it's being published by Devolver Digital though. And so if this sounds up your alley, I'll say look it up massively does. It is, I think $10 on Steam. On Steam, yes.

[Ben Starr]

I will be playing this on the.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Flight home There you go. Yeah, I'm opening up the Steam page because I have it here. Yeah. $10 to buy. Look outside is out today and it looks absolutely wild.

[Ben Starr]

Incredible.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

This next One is from VG Charts. Publisher 3D Realms and developer Onshar Studios have announced a reimagining of the classic first person shooter franchise Painkiller for PS5, Xbox and PC. It'll launch this fall and honestly.

[Ben Starr]

Looks good. Looks good, look good.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I've never been a painkiller person, but I play this.

[Ben Starr]

This looks like 3D Realms, man. Iconic logo. I'm just saying, like, they make great games, but like the logo.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

No, you're right, though. They do have an iconic logo.

[Ben Starr]

They're keeping the logo. Is the logo still the same? God, I love it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

They better. South of Midnight has gone gold. Let's go from Aftermath via the wrap. This is a report. Valnet has blacklisted freelancers who complained about pay rates. I'm actually going to make this required reading for you. You. The article starts off. We wrote about Valnet's low pay rates in a previous article about how underpaid freelancers are popping up in games journalism. Today, new reporting by the Rep shines more light on what's going on behind the scenes of the owner of the sites such as Game Rant, the Gamer and Dual Shockers. The Rap reports that Valnet maintains a spreadsheet of blacklisted freelancers, which for 2025 contains over 400 names of writers barred from riding for the company for offenses such as posting Valnet rates on social media, calling rates abysmal, and suggesting Valnet put rates in job listings.

[Ben Starr]

Wait, does that mean that they'll blacklist me if I talk about it?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean. Yeah. Do you want to write a review for Game Rant?

[Ben Starr]

Will they blacklist me from talking about it and interviewing me?

[Greg Miller]

It's.

[Ben Starr]

It's. Okay, fine, whatever.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Ben Starr]

Thank God people are drawing attention to it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

That's. It's the sucky thing of where games, media and games journalism is at, where people are getting paid pennies out here and people can't even talk about the fact that they're getting paid pennies without being blacklisted from the websites that want to pay them pennies. You know, it's desperate.

[Ben Starr]

It's a desperate attempt to basically try and control the voices. But fundamentally you're trying to blacklist people who are very good at writing things. So good luck to that.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

They got AI That'll do it. It'll be bad. Oh, yeah, they Got AI that'll very poorly write their reviews for them. So we'll see what happens with that. Pokemon TCG Pocket Booster Shining Revelry launches March 27th. It'll add shiny Pokemon and Pokemon from the Paldea region.

[Barrett Courtney]

I don't need shiny Pokemon. Bless too many Pokemon already.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

But then, like, if it's shiny, you'll get even more excited. You'll get more dopamine. Damn it. If I open a shiny Pokemon, y'all are not gonna hear the end of it. I'm gonna be so hyped if I want to. If I open a shiny little Pikachu. Oh, man. Monster Hunter Wild's first free title update showcases set for March 25th at 7am Pacific time. Dave the Divers DLC Ichiban's holiday launches.

[Ben Starr]

My boy, Ichiban.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

April 10th is when we're getting that. You a Dave the Diver fan also?

[Ben Starr]

I am, yes. But I'm a huge. I'm a huge Ichiban fan. I think he is best boy. I love him.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

He's such a good character. I love him for the little bit of like a dragon and Infinite wealth that I played. Ichiban is so good.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, love him.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

And then lastly, Wuthering Waves is coming to Steam. And that is it for we News. Before we get out of here, let me take one more peek at the Super Chat to see what people are saying. P.S. witch writes in and says, thanks, Ben, for being you and a great representative. Representative for us gamers. Hopefully I'll see you at PAX east and happy weekend, KF Crew and Chat.

[Ben Starr]

You will. My D and D group is going to PAX east, so come and. Come and watch us live. We'll play some Dungeons and Dragons.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Ben, you're getting a lot of love in the super chats. Mr. Hawks writes in and says, I met Ben at TGS last year and it was the highlight of my whole trip. Super nice. Didn't hit me. Amazing dresser. Thanks for being.

[Ben Starr]

I didn't hit you.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Yeah, you didn't hit him.

[Ben Starr]

That's good.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean, everybody else must have hit him. Yeah, he's heard the stories.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I didn't. I don't hit people, I swear. But thank you so much. That's really lovely.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Unless you pay money, they'll hit you.

[Ben Starr]

If you want me to, I will.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Nando Tarichi writes in and says, hi, Ben. Are you attending any cons in Europe soon?

[Ben Starr]

Yes. There you go. I can't. I can't say anything more, but maybe.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You will be, you know?

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I don't like I do. I do some conventions, but I don't do others. And it's because I'm very busy doing other things. But I would love to kind of meet more people in person because obviously there are so many wonderful people out there who've supported me and I really appreciate it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Jordan and Dal writes in and says, and this is the person I was talking about their podcast earlier. They say we can talk about whatever you like on my podcast. Oh, And Final Fantasy 16 is my favorite. Clive forever.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, I love Clive, my boy also.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Love Final Fantasy 16. What a game.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah, man, I. It's just. It's the game, isn't it? It's the game that changed my life. So thanks.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I mean, you're welcome.

[Ben Starr]

Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I said it good. I said it's good.

[Ben Starr]

You said nice stuff.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I said, you know what good video game, that Final Fantasy 16.

[Ben Starr]

Thank you.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I like a game that lets me push buttons and just go crazy doing air combos. And Ben, that is all of the super chats. We're gonna hop into kindafunny.com you're wrong where you can write in. Let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong so we can correct it for those watch. Watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around the globe. We don't have much wrong here, it looks like.

[Ben Starr]

Is it just everyone complaining about my Pretty Woman reference?

[Blessing Adio Junior]

No, it's one person complaining about the games cast about our. Oh, I don't know if they're complaining.

[Ben Starr]

People don't complain. They're. That it's constructive criticism.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

They're saying stuff that doesn't concern me because they're talking about correcting Greg on Assassin's Creed Shadows, but I don't even know if what they're saying is good. And then Kebabs writes in and says Ben commented that he plays a clown in the Balacho trailer. He in fact plays a joker.

[Ben Starr]

I play a joker. I know. I. Yes, that is correct.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The joker is a clown, though, right?

[Barrett Courtney]

Jokers and clowns there.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I know.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

You're telling. You're going to sit here and tell me that there's a difference.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's a blurred line. Bless.

[Ben Starr]

There is. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

There is a difference because there's gestures.

[Barrett Courtney]

Who I feel like serve a different purpose than just a clown.

[Ben Starr]

Well, so Jimbo is a joker. That's who. That's who he is. He's a joker in the deck. So I've. I am. I'm really sorry. And I'm also sorry to the team at play stack that I've misrepresented their game and my role in it.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

The joker is the name of the. The clown on the card. See, that's the omg.

[Ben Starr]

His name is Jimbo.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

His name is Jimbo. But he's a joker. But a joker is a clown.

[Ben Starr]

Crazy, right? This is really great content. We had a great show, and now we're going to really kind of like, circle back onto this.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I'm holding back because I'm like, I'm trying to wait to see if I'm wrong about this. Corey PG just says, bless. You can be pissed about this. There was a fire growing.

[Ben Starr]

You're really angry. I need you to calm down.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Bring up Jimbo Barrett. Bring up Ben as Jimbo. I know we're going over now.

[Ben Starr]

No, I was gonna try and you're leaning. You're leaning back again. Are we gonna go to speculation station?

[Barrett Courtney]

Specifically made a point during the ad break to be like, I'm gonna get us out at this time.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I know. And I'm four minutes past it, but I need to see this. You're telling me that's not a clown? I guess I can see the jesterness of it, but it's both. You're a jester and a clown here.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, there's a difference.

[Ben Starr]

That makeup took so long to get off.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

We're gonna sign off.

[Ben Starr]

I just look at. I remember that day I had to get back on a train after doing that, and I was like, I just had white and red or I looked like I had eaten a human being because there was so much red around here. I couldn't get it off. Thank you, Ben.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily. I purposely kicked off Tim. Tim was supposed to be here with you.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. But I like it. Like, I spend a lot of time with Tim, and Tim is a very good friend, and I appreciate him, and I love doing new things.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

I got tired of Tim hogging all the bentime because I wanted to hang out with you, Ben.

[Ben Starr]

Yeah. And I want to take this moment to say thank you, everyone, for supporting me. But also, please go and play the first Berserker Kazan on the 27th. It's a really, really neat video game, and the team have put a lot of work into it. And maybe if you haven't played a hardcore action RPG before with souls like elements, this might be your first rodeo. So just have a good time.

[Blessing Adio Junior]

There you go. The game looks cool. I played the demo. Really like the demo. Looking forward to the first Berserker Kazan and I hope you guys are too. Of course this has been Kind of Funny Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and all podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. Watch, record them live and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy Game Showdown next and the stream after. But until next time Game Daily.