Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / Gaming on a budget, Star Wars Zero Company vs XCOM, and the strange concept of Pokémon banks | Respec Ramblings

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Gaming on a budget, Star Wars Zero Company vs XCOM, and the strange concept of Pokémon banks | Respec Ramblings · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

0:03
The heatwave is back again. Is it a heatwave
0:06
if it feels like it's basically constant with
0:08
a few days in between? And it's so hot that I
0:11
haven't even written a proper introduction for
0:13
this week's podcast. It's the Respect Ramblings
0:15
podcast with me, Alex Donaldson, and joined by
0:19
Mr. Tom Ory once again. How you doing, dude?
0:23
All right. It is hot. I had to do a ridiculous...
0:26
Before we started recording this, I thought,
0:28
my son needs a haircut. We're on holiday next
0:31
week, so I thought... Well, my wife said, he's
0:33
got to get a haircut today. So I was like, fine,
0:36
I'll do it before I start working. I'll get out
0:38
early. I had to walk miles to get there. There's
0:41
this one place he goes to and it has to be this
0:44
one particular woman that cuts his hair, get
0:46
there, bang on, the door's opening. Is this lady
0:49
in today? No, she's not in. So I've just traipsed
0:54
around mile and a half just to do, just for a
0:57
bit of heat. That was all we got out of it and
0:59
I had to buy them. some stuff from the newsagent
1:02
because they were whinging. I had a man come
1:06
to repair a chip in the car windscreen, which
1:09
is in itself a disaster because I had a whole
1:13
new windscreen because of a crack one month ago.
1:18
This is the new windscreen that's been cracked?
1:21
Yeah, and the first were chipped. And the first
1:23
trip I did down the M5 with my brand new, shiny,
1:27
beautiful windscreen that... Thankfully, my insurance
1:30
paid for it. But had the insurance not paid for
1:32
it, it would have been thousands of pounds. And
1:35
first trip down the M5, great big stone, pop.
1:39
And now I've got a lovely new chip that even
1:41
after repair is going to be a little bit visible.
1:43
And I don't even know what to say to it other
1:45
than, well, I know everything in our country
1:49
is falling apart. The roads are crumbling to
1:51
pieces. And so one month of brand new windscreen
1:54
lasted. It's hideous, but hey -ho. as if the
1:59
chaos in the world of video games wasn't enough
2:02
which is what we're going to talk about a little
2:04
bit this week and some good stuff as well not
2:07
all bad although it does feel like at the minute
2:09
we're in a period of time for video games where
2:11
every week we've got at least one thing that
2:14
is suboptimal to discuss but I wanted to talk
2:20
to you about you've been doing a fair amount
2:22
of you did a good amount of research on gaming
2:27
on a budget and that sort of that sort of coincided
2:32
with an article I wrote and a video version as
2:35
well if you're watching this there's a video
2:38
version of this article on the channel about
2:40
the Series S and about how I for a long time
2:44
felt like the Series S was actually a really
2:45
special piece of hardware even though a lot of
2:47
developer friends I knew hated it and you know
2:51
I really thought the Series S was gonna be a
2:54
big deal for playing gta and now the prices have
2:57
gone so ridiculous you know it's it's just so
3:01
stupidly expensive that you might as well save
3:07
a little bit longer and get a ps get a ps5 i
3:11
mean it's weird it's like a because the price
3:13
different between the series s and the ps5 is
3:16
about the same as it's always been. But I think
3:18
that price difference becomes a lot less when
3:21
you're talking about 400 and something pounds
3:23
than when you're talking about 200 and something.
3:26
It's the classic, oh, I'm spending 400, so why
3:29
not spend 500? It's the classic talking yourself
3:32
into that little thing. But when it's smaller
3:34
numbers, everything is just, percentages are
3:36
bigger, right, when it's smaller. But yeah, Series
3:39
S, we talked about this a bit last week, right?
3:41
When they launched that or... showed it off i
3:44
felt like it was a smart move right it felt like
3:47
a sensible thing like i get the arguments from
3:50
people that feel it caused problems etc and maybe
3:53
it did maybe it didn't but from a development
3:56
point of view or whatever else but from a like
3:59
a purely like consumer particularly family oriented
4:03
point of view it felt like a sensible thing to
4:06
have this option for people that didn't want
4:08
i mean even back When the console was launched,
4:11
they were 450 quid, right? It wasn't cheap by
4:13
any means. And having a 250 quid option just
4:17
made sense. But yeah, it just wasn't, I think,
4:20
who knows? Like, I wonder what, if Sony had released
4:23
a budget PS5, would that have flown off the shelves?
4:27
We will never know, probably. But I think it
4:29
may have done a lot better. Well, I spoke to
4:32
Dringo about this because when I was writing
4:33
an article, I wanted to check in with, you know,
4:35
he's got access to all the, at least the European
4:37
sales data. And I said to him, how does it split?
4:40
And he was saying to me, well, initially it was
4:43
much more heavily weighted towards the Series
4:47
S than anyone, including Microsoft had. That
4:52
didn't mean that Series S was the majority, but
4:54
it meant they were selling more Series S's by
4:56
some way than they anticipated. And I don't think
4:59
it'd ever be the majority because people generally
5:02
want the shiny option. It's like with cars, like
5:05
if you go and statistically look at it, a company
5:08
like Ford, let's say, you can see those numbers.
5:18
It's quite rare for the base model, the cheapest
5:21
one, the one where they advertise on TV from
5:23
23 ,000. It's quite rare for most brands for
5:27
that to be the one that sells the most. People
5:30
usually go at least one step up. And I think
5:32
that'd be the case here, but I still think they
5:33
would have sold absolutely loads of a cheaper.
5:37
uh ps5 and i sort of expect especially with the
5:41
idea of this handheld and all that sort of stuff
5:43
which we're going to be running at a lower power
5:44
and maybe we will get that sort of thing with
5:47
the ps6 from those guys but it's just a shame
5:50
the price has just become so um so ridiculous
5:54
yeah but this is why we've looked at well i've
5:57
been looking at the budget gaming options and
5:59
stuff and i've seen a lot of people say like
6:02
i'm just going to sit out the next generation
6:05
I'll be happy with what I've got. That's fine.
6:08
Obviously, lots of people listening to this probably
6:10
have a PC or a console of some sort that they're
6:14
happy with and can sit on and sit out maybe another
6:18
four or five years even until things hopefully
6:20
get better. But I guess from a point of view
6:22
of people that are looking to get, I don't know,
6:25
their kid a first console or something, we used
6:28
to have loads of options, right? Things were
6:29
cheaper. This is around the time where the PS5...
6:33
in that life cycle would be looking at the cheap
6:36
options you get it near the end of the life cycle
6:38
it's reduced massively from what it would have
6:42
been at launch but that's just not happened so
6:44
if you've got like a like an eight -year -old
6:47
or something or you're just wanting to get into
6:49
games you're like well this just looks fucked
6:52
basically i'm not spending 500 plus quid on a
6:56
console that's going to get replaced next year
6:58
potentially um what are your options and i mean
7:02
But PS4 is still, I think, a viable games console
7:08
in many ways. You're not going to get new games,
7:12
right? Really. I mean, there's the odd game that
7:14
pops up that still comes out on a PS4 or an Xbox
7:17
One. And you did get quite a lot of early gen
7:21
games come on PS4. You can pick up a PS4 for
7:25
about 70 quid secondhand. So it's compared to
7:28
current consoles, dirt cheap. Games. relatively
7:32
cheap like 10 quid often for decent games so
7:35
i think a ps4 is a if you're looking like my
7:40
kid wants to get into games i don't think there's
7:42
any you can't really go that wrong with a ps4
7:45
you could spend 100 quid and get a nice little
7:47
package together probably particularly off ebay
7:49
or something um i mean even looking at like i
7:53
looked at the xbox one x's because that's a really
7:57
good console like the the build quality the like
8:00
the overall thing was really well done surprise
8:03
like very powerful still compared to some consoles
8:06
out there like it's still not getting the new
8:08
games but it runs that generations of games better
8:11
than anything else um plus you get a lot of bad
8:14
quality stuff you get a lot of the old xbox games
8:18
running at higher resolution um and that again
8:22
surprisingly about not that different to a ps4
8:25
in price like if you can get one for under 100
8:27
easily games are cheap etc plus those mean game
8:32
passes become less of a deal than i guess it
8:36
used to be but still like you could in theory
8:39
sit on that for a while there's still quite a
8:41
lot of games on that still work on uh the older
8:44
generation xboxes um the tricky part about like
8:48
all this is like there's you're never going to
8:50
get there's never a lack of games like how many
8:53
games released on the ps4 like a ridiculous amount
8:56
of games are available right like if you've never
8:58
played a ps4 or that generation you could sit
9:01
on that for years and still have stuff to play
9:03
there's no you're not going to run out of games
9:06
by any means it's just that like are you going
9:08
to feel that i guess the FOMO of like oh this
9:11
new the new god of wars come out well i can't
9:14
play that etc i can't play the new resident evils
9:17
can't play all this other stuff but i think it
9:19
depends on who you're buying for like if you've
9:21
like a kid, like my daughter's just started playing
9:24
on the Switch. Like she's five. She's seen the
9:27
Switch, the old Switch in my office. She's like,
9:30
that's my Switch now. I'm like, fine, that's
9:32
your Switch now. And she's just messing around
9:35
on like pretty much a lot of the Nintendo online
9:39
stuff. She's playing Mario Kart 64. She's playing
9:41
Mr. Driller 2 on the Game Boy Advance. Like there's
9:45
just like a Switch is still a good option. Like
9:48
particularly... A Switch Lite, although you've
9:51
got to be careful with Switch Lites because they
9:52
look, a lot of the listings for those on eBay
9:54
are super ropey, like they'll have cracks, they'll
9:57
have smashes in the corners. Clearly, they're
9:58
a kid -focused option of a lot of people. So
10:02
they've been thrown around a bit. But you can
10:04
get them reasonably cheap, 60 -odd quid if you're
10:07
lucky, often with bundles of games and stuff.
10:09
And I think if you're looking for like, I don't
10:12
know, Christmas is coming up or whatever, your
10:15
kid doesn't, if they're little, they do not care
10:18
about. new stuff. They have no clue what's going
10:20
on. They just want something, particularly if
10:22
they've got an older sibling or something. They
10:23
want to be like them. They want to have their
10:24
games. They want to play something. Don't spend
10:27
on a Switch 2 for a six -year -old or seven -year
10:30
-old. I don't think it's worth it. It's not worth
10:32
the money. Get them something cheaper. Get them
10:34
a Switch Lite. Particularly if their likelihood
10:38
of playing on a TV is slim. I don't think there's
10:41
any issue with a Switch Lite. Check it looks
10:43
decent condition because obviously you can't
10:44
just... slot new controllers on the side or anything
10:47
yeah um and it doesn't plug to tv but if you
10:49
know that i think that's a good option an original
10:52
switch is still under 100 quid um just look for
10:56
bundles i think i came across loads of bundles
10:58
where people just throw it in in the description
11:01
but don't make a big deal of it and they say
11:02
oh it's got four games included no one sees it
11:05
because it's not in the headline and stuff um
11:07
so i think yeah last generation is still it has
11:12
dropped i mean these are old systems now right
11:14
like when did the ps4 come out like 13 years
11:17
ago or something now 12 years ago yeah um so
11:22
they're old but still perfectly good like you
11:25
look at something like let's say god of war the
11:28
first god of war yeah sort of the norse one where
11:32
they kind of redid it all um still holds up perfectly
11:36
fine like that's a modern game by all standards
11:39
really that's the kind of experience you get
11:41
on a ps4 that generation And I think for most
11:43
people, if you particularly haven't played console
11:46
games in a while, I think that's perfectly fine.
11:50
If you're like thinking, well, I've played all
11:52
that, what do I do? I mean, retro stuff is quite
11:56
complicated. Like I'm forever almost buying a
12:01
PS2. Like so many times I've been like, I've
12:04
got one in my basket on eBay, 40 game bundle
12:08
or whatever. I'm like, do I buy it? Do I buy
12:10
it? And I'm always like. How do I actually play
12:12
this thing? Because I haven't got an old TV.
12:15
I haven't got like a way of plugging it in really.
12:19
And then I look into it and even like a single
12:22
cable to plug it, like a good cable to plug it
12:24
in properly for 80 quid. And that adds to the
12:27
cost. And then if you want to go actually like
12:29
decent beyond that, you're talking hundreds of
12:31
pounds for like an adapter box thing. You know
12:34
more about these things than I do. But yeah,
12:38
it's the retro stuff. I'm constantly torn to
12:40
it because there's a load of stuff I missed out
12:42
playing. I played a lot of stuff, but there's
12:45
always stuff you miss, right? Particularly on
12:46
the PS2. I'm always thinking about the SNES because
12:50
I never had a SNES really. I bought one years
12:53
and years later and picked up a few games, but
12:57
there's so many games I never played. I'm always
12:59
tempted, but then there's always like an extra
13:01
level of cost that isn't... unless you look into
13:06
it. I mean, you've got like the proper sort of
13:09
retro, modern retro consoles, right? But there
13:12
are a whole other league of costs. Yeah, well,
13:14
the thing about those is they can be quite expensive.
13:17
Probably the best one at the moment in terms
13:24
of value, especially the analog consoles. which
13:30
I highly recommend. But the analogue is the gaming
13:33
equivalent of, it's like vinyl records, right?
13:36
People who are into retro games are like people
13:38
who are into vinyl records, which means there's
13:40
different classes. There's like the class of
13:42
people who buy a cheap record player from Argos,
13:45
you know, with built -in speakers. And those
13:48
are the people who've been buying like the Super
13:50
Nintendo Mini, the Mega Drive Mini. And I bet
13:53
if I just like, you know, this is live research.
13:57
But if I go to Argos and type in the words retro
13:59
game, lo and behold, you know, some Evercade
14:04
stuff comes up. That's another good example is
14:06
Evercade. Evercade's got some really reasonably
14:08
priced stuff. The other end is obviously people
14:14
who go and buy super, super, super high -end
14:17
audiovisual AV setups to listen and get their
14:23
maximum. audio benefit out of vinyl and to the
14:26
gaming equivalent that is analog stuff so like
14:28
the analog 3d which is the n64 the analog sg
14:31
which is the mega drive the problem with these
14:33
is they are all individual so they only do one
14:37
system and they're all quite expensive so um
14:40
oh they sort of only do one system you can you
14:45
can finesse that right but it requires a lot
14:47
of work but an analog 3d for instance is 270
14:50
dollars and then if you're in the uk you've got
14:52
a you've got a getting the whole for for customs
14:56
as well the one that's a bit interesting if you
15:00
are desperate for retro game stuff right now
15:02
is um so there's a console called the polymega
15:05
now i've talked about polymega before because
15:08
they were they were naughty bastards they did
15:11
take an enormous amount of money off people and
15:15
then took ages to ship and so i bought a really
15:18
high -end polymega and it was literally like
15:22
the better part of a gram. It's like the one
15:24
with all the different plug -in things that changes
15:27
the system. The modules, yeah. And they had that
15:31
money of mine for four years before I physically
15:34
held a product in my hands, which is not acceptable
15:36
in my opinion. And they weren't communicating
15:38
what was going on as the Viva. But they've released
15:41
a new device called the Polymega Remix. All right,
15:44
yeah, I saw this, yeah. Yeah, that's 150 quid.
15:47
That requires another machine. But assuming you've
15:49
got a laptop or a Steam Deck or something like
15:52
that, it doesn't need to be a powerful machine.
15:54
What the Polymega Remix does is you plug that
15:57
into your Steam Deck or your laptop via a USB
16:00
cable. And then you can put your original PlayStation
16:04
discs or whatever into that and play them on
16:06
your PC. And then obviously it takes all the...
16:10
The way the Polymega works is it's like a base
16:12
unit. The base unit takes... cds but then you
16:17
can slide a piece of it off and clip on modules
16:21
so if you clip on the n64 module that gives you
16:24
four n64 controller ports and an n64 car slot
16:28
and so you can basically use that in tandem to
16:34
play n64 games on the pc and and things like
16:37
that obviously All that is, and it's compatible,
16:40
by the way, NES, Super NES, Mega Drive, TurboGrafx
16:44
-16, N64, Atari 2600, and 7800. So there's a
16:49
good number of the modules. But again, you're
16:54
looking at 150 -odd quid for the Remix. Then
16:58
you've got to buy any modules that you want.
17:00
So say you do want the N64 module, that's another
17:02
60 -odd quid. stock is also quite difficult to
17:06
find at the minute but that's probably the most
17:08
interesting one other than obviously you can
17:10
get um like those a and neo devices and stuff
17:15
like that and that is actually a genuine consideration
17:17
where those things aren't cheap but those are
17:21
if you are if you can find yourself content with
17:24
with older games with retro games and maybe play
17:27
mods and rom hacks and things like that and and
17:29
that becomes your your gaming bunker for the
17:33
period of time that this stupid part shortage
17:36
and cost madness goes on, then maybe you spend
17:41
250, 300 quid on one of those, and you're going
17:45
to obviously have a much greater library to toy
17:47
around with than you would if you bought any
17:49
one of the current consoles. Yeah. I've got one
17:53
of the cheaper... Is it an Anbernic? Anbernic?
17:57
Yeah, yeah. But one of those ones that looks
17:59
like... It's the same... They did one that looks
18:01
like a... game build advance sp but then it's
18:06
the wide version of that so it plays like up
18:08
to playstation quality game like level games
18:11
i think and it cost me like 50 quid it's probably
18:13
gone up now because everything's more expensive
18:15
but the problem i have with those is that i end
18:18
up just it's almost like it's the novelty of
18:22
it is i just skimmed through loads of stuff I'm
18:26
just testing it out constantly. I'm just testing,
18:28
oh, does this run? How does this run? I'm going
18:30
to try this. And I was like, I was putting like,
18:32
same with my Steam Deck. I was trying out all
18:34
the Model 2 and 3 arcade games on it, right?
18:38
Just because you can. So I was like, I'll try
18:40
these constantly. I never play anything properly.
18:43
Whereas I think if I had an actual, this is why
18:46
I constantly look at PS2s. I think if I had one,
18:48
I'd be like, I'm playing this game now. I put
18:50
it in the thing, I'm playing it. and i'm going
18:52
to actually dedicate time to it whereas the the
18:54
handhelds i find i just i'm just skipping between
18:58
stuff i've never invested because it's just there
19:00
um which it depends what you're like right maybe
19:03
you're the kind of person that would be like
19:05
yeah i've got this i'm going to stick and play
19:06
30 hours of pokemon or whatever um but yeah i
19:10
think retro stuff like i thought i looked into
19:13
like how expensive 3ds is and stuff because the
19:16
3ds is a good with a lot of good games, but they're
19:19
quite expensive still. 3DS is, the games are
19:23
expensive as well. Like, 3DS is a library where,
19:26
because the emulation isn't 100 % reliable in
19:30
a lot of cases, the cost of certain carts is
19:35
through the roof. Yeah, yeah. I think that's,
19:38
particularly Nintendo's, this is the other thing
19:40
with the Switch, obviously, if you're looking
19:41
at getting Nintendo... games they still are reasonably
19:46
expensive even on the original the original switch
19:48
whereas a lot of the games on like the ps4 the
19:51
xbox are dirt cheap now like they don't hold
19:53
their value anywhere near what nintendo games
19:56
do but it depends what you're if you're buying
19:58
for a child i mean a switch is a great option
20:01
it's just the cost overall will probably be greater
20:03
because some of the games are more expensive
20:04
but yeah like it's a tricky period right like
20:07
we're we're probably i mean assuming we're still
20:11
running respec and stuff in the near in the next
20:14
few years like there'll be new consoles and they'll
20:17
probably come out costing like over a grand probably
20:19
i mean who knows um and then at that point like
20:23
it's hard it's hard to be like covering them
20:27
from a uh like is this good but then also like
20:30
is this good enough to be spending upwards of
20:34
a grand on this in the first place plus the games
20:37
who knows how much they're going to end up costing
20:39
um it's a very tricky time like in terms of like
20:42
excitement around next gen is going to be heavily
20:46
impacted by just who can actually buy these things
20:48
well also it's weird right because the thing
20:51
about our next gen is and i think it's the thing
20:53
about this generation as well there was an interesting
20:55
comment on the website from someone on my xbox
20:58
piece where they were like i think this this
21:01
generation has been like the the most the least
21:05
essential generation And that's because, you
21:09
know, we've had so much cross -platform stuff.
21:10
It's mad. We're six, you know, we're six years
21:13
into this generation and it feels like we've
21:15
barely had any really big exclusive games. And
21:18
some of the biggest wins have been stuff that's
21:21
been Cyberpunk upgraded and things like that.
21:26
Obviously, there are some great exclusives. And
21:30
even where there's exclusive is like Final Fantasy
21:32
VII Rebirth is like brilliant, but it's also
21:35
very much this. this iterative step on from Final
21:39
Fantasy VII remake. And yeah, they couldn't have
21:43
necessarily done that. They couldn't have done
21:45
that to the quality they did it if they were
21:47
still on PS4. But you sort of look at it, it
21:50
feels more iterative. And I think next generation
21:52
is going to be even more so for two reasons.
21:54
One, these consoles are going to be so expensive
21:56
that there's going to be concern about install
22:00
base and stuff and devs aren't going to want
22:02
to shut out last generation. people so a really
22:06
good example is like i just mentioned cyberpunk
22:08
city project making cyberpunk 2 they've obviously
22:10
got the witcher 4 first so you know they're not
22:14
gonna be talking about cyberpunk 2 for a while
22:16
i think in the past that game would have targeted
22:19
the next generation exclusively now i would have
22:23
i would assume it's all but certain that it will
22:26
be on the current gen and then significantly
22:30
enhanced on the next gen and so So we're heading
22:34
towards this. And that's where, around the time
22:37
they released the Xbox Series S and X, someone
22:40
at Xbox, not on the record, but just sort of
22:42
in a casual conversation, sort of intimated to
22:45
me. They were like, well, you know, one of the
22:47
things we're thinking about with this naming,
22:48
because I was saying the name sucks, is that
22:51
the generation structure might be going away
22:55
and it might go over to something more like a
22:57
phone where maybe not every single year you have
22:59
a hardware revision in games, but... if you think
23:02
about it if you if you've still got a five -year
23:05
-old iphone that is still basically a current
23:07
iphone um and then there comes a point when your
23:12
iphone hits a certain age and they begin to withdraw
23:15
support for updates and things like that and
23:17
at that point you've got to go out and get a
23:19
new one and i could see a world in which you
23:21
know you get a hardware refresh every two years
23:22
and actually the hardware does get more powerful
23:24
over time um but it's it's i don't know it is
23:29
a mess and it's hard to i thought your article
23:31
was really good at sort of actually breaking
23:33
down some practicalities of of how you can get
23:35
into playing games i think we could all do better
23:38
to realize that there's a very rich beautiful
23:40
history of of games to be mined and you don't
23:45
necessarily have to spend loads of money to enjoy
23:47
to enjoy games um i think the nintendo switch
23:52
online retro offering is actually surprisingly
23:55
good like if it's a slow build right they've
23:57
been building that up for quite a while but you
24:00
look at it now and there's a lot of stuff on
24:01
there that and it's quite varied like there's
24:04
a stuff on there that you wouldn't think is on
24:05
there the stuff that you would think obviously
24:06
some of the bigger nintendo stuff's there like
24:08
zelda's mario etc um but there's other stuff
24:12
that you might think well i didn't expect that
24:14
to be there if you weren't paying attention so
24:16
i think that's worth looking and nintendo switch
24:18
online and then obviously there's the more expensive
24:21
option but you get a lot of the how would you
24:24
get like the the the pre -gamecube stuff is all
24:27
on the basic membership is that i think um and
24:31
that's there's a lot there that you can spend
24:33
a lot of time in without spending that much money
24:35
um and that probably is the cheapest way of going
24:39
about playing some of those things if you don't
24:40
want to spend out on real hardware and everything
24:42
else um but yeah like i think you could you could
24:47
get away with buying an old console and picking
24:53
out the games that you you want for years and
24:56
you'd be fine it's just i think the the big thing
25:00
for publishers is going to be and particularly
25:02
the platform holders is what are they going to
25:04
put on these systems that make you want to spend
25:07
the money because we've had system sellers have
25:09
always been a thing they were less so this generation
25:12
i think um but i think if you're if you're going
25:14
to want if you're going to like whatever the
25:17
next xbox playstation is like It'd be interesting
25:21
to see how they sell them to people because we've
25:25
got the fast loading, we've got the 4K, we've
25:29
got games that look about as good as people probably
25:33
want them to look in many ways. So what is going
25:35
to be like, I don't know what Sony's going to
25:37
launch their next system with, but say it's got
25:39
like a new Horizon game or something, who knows,
25:43
what's it going to offer that you can't get on
25:46
the PS5? I think that'll be an interesting thing
25:48
because... Like it's lots of people just saying,
25:52
oh, it's got better image scaling or image reproduction,
25:56
whatever, AI image reproduction, like DLSS version,
26:00
PSSR, whatever. That isn't going to sell a console
26:03
to most people. So it'd be interesting to see
26:05
what they actually, what they say about these
26:07
things. Yeah, it's also unpredictable because
26:12
the problem is, you know, we just don't know
26:14
where things are going to land in 18 months.
26:18
We don't really know where things are going to
26:20
land into those components and stuff in two months.
26:23
There's never been a less stable time. But that's
26:25
a great reason to revisit old games. And also,
26:29
you know, it's naughty, but the state of emulation
26:32
has never been better. There's a lot of vibe
26:35
-coded BS ports and stuff showing up, admittedly.
26:38
But, you know, all things like those N64 decomp,
26:42
I was playing the decomp of Banjo -Kazooie the
26:46
other day. um on pc great like widescreen and
26:50
looks gorgeous and um and obviously he's running
26:54
natively and running brilliantly um that's the
26:57
sort of thing you have to ask yourself like if
26:58
you're the sort of person who doesn't own a switch
27:01
2 and is i mean we haven't seen it right but
27:04
if you're the sort of person who doesn't own
27:05
a switch 2 but he's absolutely and he's absolutely
27:07
like chomping at the bit to buy one for ocarina
27:10
of time remake but money's tight that pcd comps
27:14
there and it's pretty damn good and there's some
27:16
pretty damn good mods and options means i don't
27:18
might not necessarily like it but uh tough times
27:20
call for tough measures i think yeah well yeah
27:25
but it's a good article i highly recommend that
27:27
folks check it out um you know just especially
27:30
if you're thinking about what your path is going
27:33
to be for having some affordable video games
27:36
um video game action um it's definitely got some
27:39
interesting suggestions uh for sure um what else
27:44
this week i played uh a bunch of star wars zero
27:48
company um there is a preview on the site um
27:52
but i figure it doesn't hurt to touch on it a
27:56
little bit here it's interesting one because
27:58
so this is a bunch of x for axis guys who worked
28:02
on xcom and worked on midnight suns and they
28:05
literally left there and said we want to make
28:09
that sort of game again More XCOM than Midnight
28:11
Suns. And they pitched Lucasfilm, LucasGames
28:16
rather, and they got the license and they've
28:20
made a Star Wars game set in the Clone Wars era
28:23
where it's small squad based combat stuff. And
28:29
if you like those sorts of games, it's a real
28:35
good version of those sorts of games. Does it
28:38
feel... I mean, XCOM, I had a period where I
28:42
got into, I think the first, when they rebooted
28:45
XCOM, the first one that was like on, was it
28:49
PS3 generation or was it PS4? I can't remember.
28:52
But that first one that hit consoles, I'd moved
28:56
away a bit from PC gaming by that point. So it
28:58
worked well on console. I got into it a bit,
29:00
but I just found it became too much. Like I was
29:05
a bit more casual. Like I got on better. Gears
29:10
tactics, surprisingly. Like, I found that more,
29:14
like, I took this play a bit more casually, I
29:17
suppose, but I liked the XCOM. The XCOM, sort
29:19
of, that reboot. Is this, like, is it, like,
29:23
it's going to sound harsh, but is it essentially,
29:25
like, a reskin of that? Or are they doing anything
29:28
that makes it stand out from those games? So
29:30
what I'd say is XCOM can be pretty brutal. Even
29:33
if you do things like turn off permanent death
29:35
and stuff like that, it can still be pretty brutal,
29:37
and that's by design. They've tried to retain
29:40
that, but they've definitely made a lot of steps.
29:44
There's a lot of allowances and contrivances
29:47
to sort of make sure this can appeal to a broader
29:49
audience, i .e. people who are buying this because
29:52
it's a Star Wars game, not because it's a game
29:54
from the people who made XCOM. So for instance,
29:57
I'll do the smaller things first and then go
30:01
on to the bigger thing. So smaller things like
30:03
permanent death, you can toggle that on or off,
30:06
but even if you have it on, The way it works
30:09
is when a character gets downed, that's like
30:12
a strike and they get a wound. And the wound
30:16
will forever affect their combat ability and
30:18
stuff like that, but they live. And they get
30:21
a second wound. That will also reduce their combat
30:23
ability. If you get a third wound on that same
30:25
character, then they're dead. And so you can
30:29
see there that's an allowance for rather than,
30:31
oh my God, I didn't see an enemy over there.
30:34
One shot, one kill. that's it you've lost that
30:38
character you've been training for for 10 hours
30:41
there's been allowances made um i would say it's
30:45
broadly more accessible it's not grid based so
30:48
the movement feels a bit more fluid um but the
30:52
bigger thing actually is is the stuff surrounding
30:54
the combat because the combat does still feel
30:57
like x -com you're doing overwatch you know um
31:00
by which i mean the mode you set characters in
31:04
where if something moves in their line of sight
31:06
they shoot at it um you're doing overwatch you're
31:09
um taking cover you're shooting at stuff while
31:13
having a percentage come up telling you how likely
31:15
is that that shot's gonna hit and yes you can
31:17
have a shot hit one of the first things that
31:19
happened to me in the game was an achievement
31:22
popped for like having a shot that had like a
31:24
90 plus percent chance of hitting this i was
31:28
like great still x -com but um The other thing
31:33
they've done is outside of all that combat, it's
31:36
sort of Mass Effect -y. So you create a character
31:40
who's called Hawks. And Hawks is like, when I
31:44
say create a character, it's in that Commander
31:46
Shepard thing. So you choose if you want the
31:48
male voice or the female voice, but then you
31:50
get to choose their race and how they look and
31:52
their clothes and stuff like that. And a little
31:56
bit of their background. And then in between
31:59
missions, you have a hub base. that you're using
32:03
and that is actually you walk around it you you
32:05
actively use that base it's very very much like
32:09
the normandy from mass effect um you get to know
32:11
these characters which is great because with
32:13
that combined with the element of the permanent
32:15
death to make for some real jeopardy because
32:16
you actually begin to give a give a shit about
32:18
these guys um and they even use some of that
32:22
third person stuff in between in the combat mission
32:25
so like you know you imagine an encounter ends
32:28
and it zooms from the isometric top down view
32:32
in so you're over the shoulder of your character
32:34
then you can walk around a little bit and then
32:36
when you hit a zone where there's going to be
32:37
more combat then it zooms back out and I was
32:39
like that's really interesting because it makes
32:41
it feel more like a Star Wars character action
32:44
game in between the moment to moment so I think
32:48
I think it's it it seems like it stands a pretty
32:52
good chance of like splitting the difference
32:54
threading that needle yeah does it have I'm not
32:58
big on Star Wars I won't lie, but you said this
33:01
is Clone Wars. If you're like, I'm going to say
33:05
this appearing in a gang, that's like a cartoon,
33:07
right? Or an animated thing. Are there people
33:10
from, that people will recognize from that in
33:14
this? Or is it all new people? I obviously haven't
33:17
seen all of it, but what I can, you know, I've
33:19
seen a limited previous slice, but what I can
33:21
say is it's that Star Wars expanded universe
33:24
thing. A lot of this is dealing with. um new
33:28
characters who are operating around the fringes
33:30
of the things we know about but you are going
33:32
to see people and places that you know so like
33:36
the actually a really good example is the the
33:39
main base that you are returning to time and
33:41
time again is on a planet from rogue one um that
33:46
appears in that movie and also something they
33:48
have announced and talked about is anakin um
33:51
skywalker appears in the game and he's in it
33:55
and plays a role. Is Jar Jar in it? I mean, we
33:58
will see. He's around and alive in that period.
34:02
But it's actually funny what the setting is interesting
34:06
because one of the things about the XCOM formula
34:08
is I feel an inherent part of that formula is
34:14
this sort of insurmountable odds thing. It's
34:18
one of the things that really made XCOM 2 better
34:20
than XCOM 1. So if you don't know that series,
34:23
the way that sort of pans out is XCOM 1 is about
34:26
an alien invasion and XCOM is trying to fight
34:29
off the invasion. And XCOM 1 is really difficult.
34:33
And so when they came to make XCOM 2, even though
34:35
that game has a good ending where you've repelled
34:37
the aliens and destroyed the mother brain, whatever,
34:40
they made a really clever decision with XCOM
34:44
2 where they decided they were going to pick
34:46
XCOM 2 up. from a bad ending of XCOM 1. They
34:49
decided they were going to pick up from a failed
34:51
run of XCOM 1. So the aliens have been taken
34:54
over the planet. And in XCOM 2, you're operating
34:57
an insurgency. The opening of the game is the
35:00
new insurgent ragtag XCOM rescuing the commander,
35:05
your character, who had been captured at the
35:08
end of the canonical end of XCOM 1. And from
35:12
there, you've sort of... The point is, you've
35:15
never got... hardcore help you know you're always
35:18
got your back against the wall um you're always
35:21
outnumbered you're always outgunned you're sending
35:24
in strike forces of five or six soldiers to do
35:27
these really vital missions because that's all
35:30
you can field that feels weirdly less compatible
35:34
with um the clone wars era where everything's
35:37
on the line and so zero companies sort of um
35:41
put forward as a mercenary group hawks is ex
35:45
-proper army, ex -whatever, not separatists,
35:49
those are the bad guys, ex -republic army. So
35:54
you are put forward as a mercenary group and
35:56
the idea is you are small and you are ragtag.
35:58
But actually, I'm quite intrigued by their decision
36:01
to set it in this bit of Star Wars because as
36:04
I played it, I couldn't help but think that against
36:07
all odds, small teams element feels like it would
36:11
have made more sense with the rebellion. Like...
36:15
But I digress. And I don't know where the game's
36:19
going. Maybe they'll have a time skip. I doubt
36:21
it, though. And to be fair to them, the Clone
36:23
War era does give them more interesting enemy
36:26
stuff they can do because they've got all the
36:28
droids to draw from and stuff like that. It also
36:31
means you can have a few Jedi here and there.
36:35
I get the impression you won't have any Jedi
36:37
in your permanent squad, but maybe you'll have
36:39
them coming and going as part of story events
36:42
so you can control them temporarily. But yeah,
36:46
I mean, there's enough there, I think, to satisfy
36:50
people. And I'm not very up on my Clone Wars,
36:53
but I imagine someone who maybe has watched all
36:55
of the shows and all that sort of stuff and knows
36:59
that era of Star Wars better than I do might
37:01
be noticing more stuff than I am. But I noticed
37:04
a fair share of bits and bobs. Cool. Sounds like
37:09
it's out soon, right? A couple of weeks or something,
37:11
is it? Yeah, I think it's the 27th off the top
37:14
of my head. It's definitely the end of the month.
37:17
But I did have one of the elements of it that
37:21
I wanted to briefly talk about, which is I just
37:24
had a funny reaction to this, and it was very
37:26
similar to the reaction I had to Marvel's Midnight
37:32
Suns, actually, which was from Firaxis that some
37:34
of these guys worked on, which was I really enjoyed
37:38
it. I think it's really good. I think it's a
37:41
worthwhile successor to all the mechanics and
37:43
stuff that were expressed in XCOM that made that
37:45
so popular. But... And it's quite a big but,
37:50
actually. And I don't know if I'm just a weirdo
37:54
for this, but I spent the whole time that I was
37:56
playing it, much as I did with Midnight Suns,
37:58
thinking to myself, this is really good, but
38:02
I sort of just wish this was just XCOM 3. And
38:06
I don't think it's necessarily... I don't think
38:09
it's necessarily about my loyalty to that specific
38:11
franchise. I think it's about what has been created
38:15
with XCOM 3 is such a perfect fit for this formula.
38:18
And when you try to retrofit that formula to
38:22
something else, even if it's a very good fit
38:24
as Star Wars is, it doesn't feel quite as perfect
38:28
as the IP that was tailor -built for it. And
38:33
so that's a funny... I mean, hopefully this doesn't
38:36
have a similar fate to Midnight Suns because
38:37
it just didn't cut through in that way. And it
38:40
had a really, really weird thing going on where
38:42
it simultaneously didn't cut through with Marvel
38:44
fans, I think because it was this nitty -gritty
38:47
card -based strategy game. But it also didn't
38:51
cut through with XCOM fans because the stuff
38:54
they'd done mechanically... to make it more marvel
38:57
made it less xcom and it made it less of what
39:00
those people wanted this admittedly is closer
39:02
to xcom i think the ips are more closely aligned
39:04
but nevertheless that's a niggling thing that
39:09
that's that's itched around at the back of my
39:11
brain since i played it um but it is good obviously
39:15
there is the element of this would be an interesting
39:19
test also for The reaction to the EA buyout,
39:23
because this will be EA's first major release
39:24
since being bought out and being owned by, you
39:27
know, Saudi interests, Donald Trump's son -in
39:29
-law, et cetera, et cetera. So we'll see if there's
39:33
any, if they lose much in terms of public cut
39:37
through as a result of that. But yeah, I've got
39:42
time for it. Decent, decent. Yeah, that's good.
39:48
One other little bit of news I wanted to touch
39:50
on this week, just so people don't lose out and
39:54
don't miss out, to flag it to everyone, is it's
39:58
being announced that Pokemon Bank will stop working
40:03
on February the 26th, 2027. It's a funny date
40:06
to do it because I think that's Pokemon Day,
40:09
or it's right around Pokemon Day, i .e. the day
40:12
the games first came out that are a celebration.
40:13
So it's weird that they're going, hey, we're
40:15
shutting this thing. right around their big anniversary
40:19
celebration that they do every year. But this
40:22
is, you know, a relatively big deal. But also
40:25
I think Nintendo and the Pokemon company and
40:28
Game Freak and everyone involved really deserves
40:30
a big pat on the back because this is a shutdown
40:34
done right. They've announced it with plenty
40:36
of notice in the sense that they already announced
40:38
before that this was going and they've now confirmed
40:41
the date that it's going and they've done so
40:43
a good, you know, six months in advance. Basically,
40:49
Pokemon Bank had connectivity all the way back
40:54
to games released in 2003. So you could use this
40:57
to get Pokemon off really old games. And I think
41:01
because of the transfer, I don't, I'm not a total
41:04
expert on this, but I think because of the transferability,
41:07
because you could transfer up through the generations,
41:10
I'm pretty sure you could take a Pokemon from
41:12
a Game Boy original. all the way to a game that
41:15
was compatible with this. Then into this, and
41:18
then that, so you could bring a character, a
41:21
Pokemon from Red, all the way into XY, whatever,
41:25
or into Sword Shield, whatever. Obviously, that's
41:31
the main difference, is that this has already
41:33
been replaced by Pokemon Home, and Pokemon Home
41:36
is compatible with all the current stuff, so
41:38
Go and all the current console games. All the
41:42
rest, I'm pretty sure it's compatible with champions
41:44
to some degree. It's compatible with all the
41:46
current Pokemon stuff, Pokemon Home. But if you've
41:49
got any creatures trapped on older games, February
41:54
the 26th is sort of your deadline to get them
41:56
into bank and then get them back off bank onto
42:00
something that's compatible with Home. Bit convoluted,
42:02
but I think they also deserve credit for the
42:05
way they've done it. Yeah, I mean... This doesn't
42:11
bother me at all because I've never been bothered
42:13
by Pokemon, but I do like the idea of a Pokemon
42:15
bank, like an actual banking establishment run
42:19
by Pokemon, like all the different Pokemon at
42:23
the counters, someone helping elderly people
42:26
at the front of the queue. That could be like
42:27
Psyduck or something. I don't know. Psyduck wouldn't
42:32
be helping people because Psyduck would be too
42:34
confused and stressed. Well, that goes perfectly
42:37
with elderly people. That would be absolute chaos.
42:41
But yeah, this is like one of those things where
42:45
it's like people might be a bit miffed by it,
42:47
but actually they've done their bit to make this
42:51
a thing for a long time, right? It's got to move
42:54
on at some point to whatever the next thing is.
42:56
So I think hopefully most people will be okay
42:59
with it. You maybe look up if there's any banks
43:02
canonically in the Pokemon universe. There is
43:06
a bank run by... Persian, which obviously is
43:11
the evolution of Meowth, which makes sense because
43:13
Meowth does have a coin on its head. That's it.
43:17
That's in the Pokemon Rescue Team games where
43:19
you actually play as Pokemon. So who knows how
43:22
the humans deal with their money. Pokemon, a
43:26
world in which there are no banks, but there
43:28
are casinos, which is my sort of place. Just
43:32
holding it under the mattress. Yeah, yeah. Or
43:36
like... You know, is there a Pokemon you could
43:39
feed? Pelipper? They put them all in the, you
43:41
could put all your money in the pouch it's got
43:44
and it's, is that Pelipper? Is Pelipper the small
43:46
one? Pelipper is the one with the, yeah. Yeah,
43:52
Pelipper with the big neck. It's like a Pez dispenser.
43:58
Yeah, and then when you want some money, you
43:59
reach into its neck and take out, you know, a
44:02
50 Pokedollar note or whatever. anyway I thought
44:08
that was pretty I thought that's pretty cool
44:09
the way they've approached that and they've you
44:11
know these shutdowns are inevitable to some degree
44:14
and obviously you've got the stop killing games
44:17
petition making a big argument for stopping things
44:21
like this from being closed but they've gone
44:25
about it about as right as you could possibly
44:27
could which is fair enough but yeah but if you
44:31
want to get any old Pokemon of old games consider
44:35
this your warning obviously there is now going
44:37
to be new ways however to get old pokemon we've
44:42
got the versions of fire red and leaf green on
44:45
nintendo switch and they are going to be made
44:49
compatible with pokemon home right around the
44:52
time that this closes so that will enable you
44:54
then to get gen 1 pokemon and we have to assume
44:57
that a gen 2 re -release is coming and gen 3
45:01
and eventually you'll have all the pokemon games
45:03
on the switch that was something that someone
45:05
said to me in the run -up to switch to someone
45:07
who works at nintendo they were like yeah our
45:08
goal for this generation is to try and have all
45:12
of our every single entry in the main line of
45:16
all of our major franchises playable on the switch
45:20
to by the end of the generation so whether that's
45:24
through we talked about it a lot this this this
45:26
episode nintendo switch online whether that's
45:28
through um That's free re -releases like they've
45:31
done with Pokemon. The idea is they want to have
45:34
every single mainline Mario game, which they've
45:36
got to be pretty close to that on Switch 2 now.
45:39
Because we've had Mario Sunshine hit NSO this
45:43
week, last week. So what's missing? I don't know.
45:50
I'm pretty sure I saw the GBA ones are on there.
45:55
I assume I haven't looked at the NES and SNES
45:58
section, but I assume they've got... I just mean
46:00
the mainline Mario games. So Super Mario Bros.
46:04
obviously on NSO. Lost Levels on NSO. 2, 3 on
46:08
NSO. Land must be, right? World, yes, on NSO.
46:13
Land 2 must be. 64 is. Sunshine is. Galaxy obviously
46:18
has had a port. Galaxy 2 has had a port. So I
46:22
suppose it's just those handheld ones. New Super
46:25
Mario Bros. 3D Land. Well, there was 3D Land.
46:32
3D Land. As in, which one's 3D Land? Is that
46:37
the 3DS one? That was the 3DS one, yeah. So is
46:41
that not all anything? Was that? No, because
46:44
they obviously did 3D World, didn't they? But
46:46
that wasn't the port. No. So yeah, maybe that
46:50
is. But that's the point. So basically, they're
46:53
almost there apart from the DS games. Hmm. and
46:59
New Super Mario Bros Wii I guess so yeah like
47:05
that goes to show and if they can do that for
47:07
the whole for all those franchises the same for
47:10
Zelda right like all the old Zeldas are on there
47:14
the only stuff that's missing I guess now is
47:16
the Gamecube Wii era which Wind Waker's already
47:22
on NSO isn't it so it's just Twilight Princess
47:24
now yeah Yeah, it's a good strategy. It comes
47:28
back to, this has been the theme of this episode,
47:29
right, of Nintendo Switch Online slaps. And actually,
47:34
the way in which Nintendo is approaching their
47:36
back catalogue is really awesome. It sort of
47:42
puts Sony especially to shame. Microsoft, at
47:46
least, has a pretty good... In fact, to be fair
47:49
to Microsoft, we've only just this month had
47:52
original Xbox games showing up on PC. in emulated
47:55
form. So you've got to give them credit for that.
47:58
But it puts Sony to shame with the way they sort
48:02
of sell really bare -bones emulated versions
48:06
of PlayStation 1 games, some PS2 games and not
48:10
much else. And it's also a funny weird thing
48:14
of all the Game Pass talk, the best subscription
48:18
service in gaming in many ways is Nintendo's
48:21
retro. thing which just comes as part of your
48:25
online so yeah it's very good oh dear um some
48:31
last other bits uh just to point out some stuff
48:35
that's on the website um obviously there's as
48:39
previously mentioned there's tom's uh game uh
48:43
on a budget gaming on a budget article there's
48:45
my thing talking about the series s which is
48:48
also on youtube There's Dead Rising turned 20
48:54
years old last week, which makes me feel ancient.
48:56
I wrote a little love letter to that, talking
48:58
about how much I bloody love that game. There
49:01
is a new episode of Elden Ring where Tom is suffering
49:04
through, and I think he'd been getting some advice
49:05
from people in our Discord. Yeah, some people
49:08
offering help. I mean, I'm all for help, as long
49:11
as it's not like, be better. Like, if it's actual,
49:14
like... What I'm finding about this game is that
49:17
it's very... I find it quite obtuse in terms
49:19
of like, there's so many things in menus. Like
49:23
it tells you like you've, there's this, I've
49:24
got this, I've suddenly got this dagger. This
49:27
is the latest episode. It's really early on.
49:29
You get, this dagger lets you do something like
49:33
adds, in comics it's called enchantments or something
49:36
to weapons. But I've no idea, I've done it, but
49:39
I have no idea how to use this thing. And if
49:42
people can like, if that's obvious from watching,
49:44
like you're not doing this thing properly, just
49:45
let me know and that'd be helpful for sure. yeah
49:49
yes well you could catch up with tom's action
49:52
there on the side um and there's also a review
49:56
from rebecca of servants of the lake which is
49:59
a super like nice like uh nice looking i haven't
50:03
played it but that's fun because the impression
50:06
sounds very lovely like uh adventure puzzle phoenix
50:09
variety part of a big series as well the review
50:13
actually goes into quite a lot of detail about
50:15
the whole thing the whole like long -running
50:18
series that's all connected so it's quite interesting
50:20
to read about that stuff i like the art style
50:21
it looks nice i'm gonna i'm probably gonna try
50:23
that out after gamescom which um which i will
50:27
talk about in i'll talk about the gamescom plans
50:29
next week because it'll be right before we go
50:31
which where the hell did that time go um and
50:34
very quickly as always a little retrospective
50:37
uh gander uh this week we've got uh fruit ninja
50:41
connect turns 15 years old Which I just remember
50:46
that being a, you know, being one of the only...
50:51
Kinect, right? I think of Kinect as the launch
50:54
games and then Fruit Ninja, Fable, and shitty
51:04
integration into games like Mass Effect and nothing
51:06
else. You know what I mean? I remember one game.
51:10
Fruit Ninja, I do remember. I remember this game.
51:13
I can't remember what it was called, but you
51:15
used to like put your arms in a position to build
51:17
platforms for things. It was a bit like a lemmings
51:19
or something. You'd just stand there with your
51:21
arms up like branches of a tree and these things
51:23
would walk along you. Can't remember what it
51:26
was called, but it was like, this is a game that
51:30
I'm playing in my living room for some reason.
51:33
But yeah, Kinect, funny. It was a funny time.
51:36
I look back and actually think some of that stuff
51:38
was quite fun though. Like some of that, some
51:40
of that, even like PlayStation Move. Like I,
51:43
me and my wife play playstation move stuff quite
51:45
a lot like some of those games are quite fun
51:48
um and all the buzz games all that kind of stuff
51:51
was all an era that's gone now but you get some
51:53
of it like you get it's different now you get
51:55
the jack box party games and stuff they offer
51:58
similar experiences but not quite the same i
51:59
think but yeah it's an era that i'm kind of if
52:03
i had to pick i'm kind of i guess i'm glad that
52:05
connect isn't still a thing but it was it had
52:07
its moments so there was a horror game that sega
52:11
did Yeah. Like an exclusive horror game, something
52:18
nightmares. And such a weird concept, a Kinect
52:23
exclusive horror game, because how are you going
52:25
to be scared when you're doing all this? But
52:28
nevertheless. I remember there was a good Disney
52:33
music game as well. It was like a Dance Central
52:35
style game. Of course, Dance Central, that's
52:38
the other thing. God, how did I forget that?
52:40
Yeah. But yeah, so Fruit Ninja Connect, 15 years
52:43
old. Pokemon Rumble Blast, 15 years old. Good
52:46
spin -off. F -Zero is 35 and still no sign of
52:50
it coming back. Hopefully someone... I feel like
52:56
the best chances for F -Zero at the minute is
52:57
someone at Universal deciding to put an F -Zero
52:59
cameo in a film and a bit like with Star Fox,
53:02
light a fire under them. F -Zero being 35, however,
53:06
means... That also means that Pilotwings must
53:09
be 35. And Super Mario World must be 35. And
53:13
the Super Nintendo itself. This is the 35th anniversary
53:16
of the Super Nintendo hitting North America.
53:19
Obviously, it and all those games have been out
53:21
in Japan for a little bit longer. But, you know,
53:24
happy 35th to a console that I don't think is
53:27
as good as the Mega Drive, but I do appreciate
53:29
it a great deal. And Super Mario World is, to
53:34
this day, the best 2D Mario game. I will take
53:37
no... I would accept no substitute on that front.
53:40
I get the Mario 3 love, but it's world. It's
53:44
always world. Yard of Cerberus Final Fantasy
53:49
VII is 20 years old. One of the worst pieces
53:55
of garbage I've ever experienced in my life.
53:58
Just a terrible third -person shooter. With a
54:03
bad story, just a bad idea across the board.
54:06
That was a game that was so rubbish, right? Years
54:09
and years and years and years ago, Square Enix
54:11
moved office in the UK and they opened an old
54:15
cupboard that hadn't been opened in years. And
54:17
they found this cupboard was just stacked high
54:20
with old games. And someone at Square messaged
54:25
me and I was... rpg site right and they said
54:28
we found this massive cupboard people in the
54:30
office have taken what they want and we're gonna
54:33
like put the rest in the trash but we thought
54:37
we'd see if you wanted it so i was like yeah
54:39
yeah okay just send me box me at whatever send
54:41
it and then they sent it all and then we gave
54:44
it all away on rpg site over the course of about
54:47
a year and it was great because this was this
54:49
was years after all this stuff had come out but
54:52
there were like limited edition crisis core psps
54:55
there were ps2 games there were ds games wii
54:59
games all sealed still in the shrink wrap um
55:02
i think there when they opened the cupboard there
55:05
were ps1 games in there but they never made it
55:07
so far as me i think the people who worked at
55:09
square were pretty bloody quick on those ones
55:11
which fair enough so will i be but uh anyway
55:14
i digress i gave all this stuff away and the
55:16
one thing i couldn't get rid of was copies of
55:19
dirge surplus like people literally did not want
55:22
it so i've still got about 25 copies of dirge
55:24
in my loft because i could not get rid of them
55:28
um which tells you all you need to know about
55:31
the quality of that game um and lastly quick
55:38
point out quick shout out to 99 nights which
55:41
is 20 years old which do you remember this being
55:43
a big deal in the 360 they're making a big is
55:45
this the one was this the one with all the characters
55:47
on screen like the enemies like loads and loads
55:49
of them was it that one yeah i think it was yeah
55:51
i think it was this the game but they were like
55:54
where the guy got up at e3 and went 1 million
55:57
troops something like that yeah i remember it
56:00
i remember playing this and i don't remember
56:02
if it was any good or not like i think it was
56:03
okay but yeah i remember the big thing about
56:06
all the on -screen enemies and stuff it's like
56:10
a is it like a dynasty warriors type it's it's
56:13
a dynasty warriors it's a dynasty warriors and
56:17
like yes i mean the big thing was it's weird
56:19
because like it was produced by um such a mizuguchi
56:23
so mizuguchi is the res guy and the space channel
56:26
five guy so it was produced by this truly legendary
56:30
you know um but it's so unlike anything else
56:33
that he has made um And I can't remember, maybe
56:39
it isn't the One Million Troops game, because
56:41
that was Tak Fuji. I'm sure they made a deal
56:44
about a big point about the amount of on -screen,
56:47
the massive armies and stuff. Sorry. So there's
56:51
our answer. The One Million Troops game was 99
56:54
Nights 2. So it was the sequel. But I wanted
56:57
to shout this out because I just, this era of
57:00
Xbox Man, when they were just giving Japanese
57:02
publishers money and Japanese developers and...
57:06
putting out, publishing Japanese games that,
57:08
yeah, they weren't going to set the world on
57:10
fire, but they released a lot of like seven and
57:12
eight out of tens that were like great library
57:15
fillers. Like I've got fond memories of 99 Nights
57:19
2. I wish Microsoft would do that again. I wish
57:28
any of them would do this again, where they actually
57:31
put money into new, interesting stuff. Yeah.
57:35
Seeing like it's happening. Yeah, it's... Yeah,
57:40
I mean, doing this is always better than it's
57:41
ever been, but it doesn't mean that we can't
57:44
have other games in that realm. But yeah, 20
57:47
years since 99 Nights, which... Yeah, that was
57:50
a game I think I... I don't think I probably
57:52
bought it at launch. I think I probably got it
57:54
for nothing. I'm looking around to see if I can
57:56
see it on the shelf, but I can't. I bet it's
57:59
still there, though. But yeah, so that's 20 years
58:02
old, which really tells me... The heyday of Xbox
58:05
was 20 years ago. But it was. It definitely was.
58:10
It was a fun note to end on. Yeah, so we're going
58:13
to duck out now for this week. A bit of a shorter
58:16
one this week, but it's been a quiet week really,
58:18
isn't it? I guess everyone's got their powder
58:22
dry. We're going to have some big episodes off
58:24
the back again to come based on what my schedule
58:27
looks like, which we'll talk about a little bit
58:29
more next week when I've actually reviewed what...
58:34
when i've reviewed what i can and can't talk
58:36
about um obviously if you're a patron stick around
58:41
in your feed you will have the patron exclusive
58:44
or you can head to patreon to get it if you're
58:46
not a patron you can go to patreon .com forward
58:49
slash respect net r -e -s -p -e -c -n -e -t and
58:54
you can sign up and you will get the lovely warm
58:56
fuzzy feeling inside from supporting independent
58:58
games media in a week when we've had some nasty
59:01
layoffs and stuff at other outlets And hopefully
59:04
we can, you know, if you back us, we can use
59:07
some of that money to give freelance to some
59:10
of the people who are brilliant people who've
59:12
been cut by short -sighted corporate dickheads.
59:16
And if you can't afford that sound, you can visit
59:19
our website at respect .net. Plenty of free content
59:22
on there on our YouTube channel. All the links
59:25
to that are all on the site in the header and
59:28
our Discord server where if you want to come
59:30
and hang out or shout Elden Ring tips at Tom.
59:34
totally possible so yeah that is it from us for
59:38
this week and we'll see you next week until next
59:42
time everyone see ya