Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / GTA's Awards eligibility, vibe coded nonsense, and is Skylanders the pinnacle of 'Toys to Life'? | Respec Ramblings

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GTA's Awards eligibility, vibe coded nonsense, and is Skylanders the pinnacle of 'Toys to Life'? | Respec Ramblings · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

• 0:03
  Hello, everyone. We've had the launch trailer
• 0:05
  for Grand Theft Auto 6, even though it isn't
• 0:07
  out for a month. And we're here to discuss that
• 0:10
  and much more here on this week's edition of
• 0:13
  the Respec Ramblings podcast. I'm here again,
• 0:16
  Alex Donaldson, and I'm joined this week by Tom
• 0:19
  Ori and by Mikhail Madnani. And we may be joined
• 0:22
  by someone else, but we're not sure if they're
• 0:24
  American. And whenever we record this podcast,
• 0:27
  it's actually really late at night for them.
• 0:29
  And we don't know if they've fallen asleep. But
• 0:32
  wide awake is Tom and Mikhail. How are you doing,
• 0:35
  Tom? That's pushing it a bit. I'm here. You're
• 0:41
  present. That's fair. That's fair. Mikhail, how
• 0:45
  about you? You're represented for those on audio.
• 0:47
  Mikhail has some Nintendo Labo masking tape,
• 0:51
  which I did not know existed. Yeah, so like,
• 0:55
  yeah, I am a bit sleepy, but pretty wide awake
• 0:59
  because I have Resi 4 running on like 10 devices
• 1:01
  at the same time on the side right now. But yeah,
• 1:04
  like besides that, good week so far, like got
• 1:07
  a lot done. And as for the masking tape, when
• 1:11
  I was in Singapore a few years ago and went to
• 1:14
  this mall where my friend said, like, you get
• 1:16
  cheap games. And I was like, sure, let's go.
• 1:19
  they didn't have change. So I needed to like
• 1:21
  get some random cheap stuff when I was buying
• 1:23
  three games and this was the cheapest stuff they
• 1:25
  had. So I picked up two of these for like $1
• 1:27
  or $2 each or something. And I've not opened
• 1:30
  them. I actually, I was looking for, I didn't,
• 1:34
  I forgot I had this actually because I was looking
• 1:36
  for my No Man's Sky, some of my stuff. And this
• 1:39
  was behind one of those boxes. And I was like,
• 1:41
  yep, this is going to be the podcast thing for
• 1:43
  the week. Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. I, I,
• 1:48
  I, I reviewed Labo, so Nintendo obviously sent
• 1:51
  it through, and I opened it all and used it all.
• 1:53
  And then I actually, I'd forgotten I'd done this,
• 1:56
  and then quite recently, I mean, I had a bunch
• 1:59
  of unexpected out -of -pocket expenses, let's
• 2:02
  say, over the last month and a half. And so I
• 2:05
  was like, I'm going to get rid of some stuff
• 2:08
  that I'm just not using. So I had a lot of flight
• 2:12
  sim gear. During lockdown, I bought loads of
• 2:15
  Flight Sim stuff on a mad, I'm going to get really
• 2:17
  into Flight Sims. And lo and behold, I did for
• 2:20
  three months. And then it all got put in the
• 2:21
  loft. And I was like, right, I'm going to eBay
• 2:22
  all this. And some other bits and bobs had a
• 2:27
  bad habit of just throwing old phones into cupboards.
• 2:29
  So I was like, oh, here's some old phones that
• 2:31
  are in perfectly good working condition that
• 2:33
  I can check on eBay. So I sold a bunch of stuff.
• 2:37
  And when I was sort of taking bits of my house
• 2:39
  apart, looking for things to get rid of. Things
• 2:42
  that just, I rushed to buy the Steam Deck dock.
• 2:46
  And then what dawns on me is I'm never going
• 2:49
  to dock the Steam Deck. I've got a really good,
• 2:51
  I've got multiple really good PCs in this house.
• 2:54
  So I was like, looked it up and I was like, that's
• 2:57
  40 quid on eBay. I might as well do that. That's
• 2:59
  pretty cheap actually. Yeah. I think I paid like
• 3:03
  110 when I bought one over here. Was that from
• 3:06
  Valve though? No, no, no. Valve doesn't sell
• 3:09
  over here. So I had to get it from like a reseller.
• 3:11
  But yeah, the dock is pretty expensive. Because
• 3:15
  I think it's only like 60 quid RRP, right? I
• 3:18
  think it's a bit more because they give you the
• 3:19
  charger as well. I think it's 70 or 80. No. So
• 3:22
  this is an interesting thing. The UK one doesn't
• 3:24
  ship with the charger, I don't think. Oh, that's
• 3:26
  why it's cheaper. The one I got was with the
• 3:28
  charger. But yeah, I have a funny story about
• 3:30
  the dock, which I'll get to in the podcast after
• 3:32
  this. Yeah, just a reminder. But yeah, so I sold
• 3:35
  a bunch of stuff. Anyway, back to what I massively
• 3:37
  sidetracked my point. When I was searching through
• 3:40
  the house and through the loft, the attic, for
• 3:43
  stuff that I didn't want anymore, I discovered,
• 3:47
  and I'd forgotten I'd done this, that I had bought,
• 3:50
  as well as that Nintendo had sent us copies of
• 3:52
  Labo, and then I had bought and kept sealed all
• 3:56
  the Labo games. I think my thinking was, oh,
• 3:59
  maybe they'll be worth some money down the line.
• 4:05
  maybe they'll be worth a few quid because obviously
• 4:08
  once a Labo is opened, you can't put that genie
• 4:10
  back in the box because you build the cardboard
• 4:12
  and it's never going to unbuild. And so I came
• 4:14
  across a giant box that was like literally an
• 4:16
  Argos shipping box that had all the Labo stuff
• 4:20
  in it. And I was like, for just a hot minute
• 4:22
  there, I was like, do I sell all the Labo stuff?
• 4:24
  And I was like, maybe it's an interesting museum
• 4:28
  piece. I doubt they're worth any money. I'm now
• 4:35
  actually looking it up. I thought you'd looked.
• 4:38
  I was finding out live. Yeah, well, maybe I'm
• 4:41
  going to go, oh my God, it's worth thousands
• 4:44
  of pounds. No, it's... See, yeah, opened, they're
• 4:49
  worth absolutely nothing. But no, they're really
• 4:55
  not worth any money. In fact, I've probably lost
• 4:56
  money on them. Oh no, 78, 80 pounds for a brand
• 5:00
  new one. That's of the... of the main variety
• 5:05
  kit I think that's more than it retailed for
• 5:07
  so there's a profit on that I can see my one
• 5:11
  I bought from here we built I think we built
• 5:14
  the fishing rod one and maybe one other but the
• 5:19
  rest is still in the box probably never going
• 5:21
  to get done yes yes it's well you know it's not
• 5:25
  exactly it was not exactly Nintendo's greatest
• 5:29
  idea And in a similar fashion, I've got the cardboard.
• 5:33
  For some reason, I bought both the cardboard
• 5:35
  and the plastic Virtual Boy. And again, I don't
• 5:38
  know why I did that. Because the plastic one
• 5:41
  I have used, as in the Switch Virtual Boy, I
• 5:45
  have got a real Virtual Boy as well. And I don't
• 5:48
  know why I bought the cardboard one because I
• 5:52
  will never use it. But I think it was that same
• 5:53
  bug in my brain going, that might be worth money
• 5:55
  one day. They probably won't make very many of
• 5:57
  them, which is... a problematic bug that I get
• 6:01
  in my brain. Anyhow, let's jump right into this
• 6:07
  week's topics. We've got a few things to run
• 6:10
  through. First of all, just a short one to note.
• 6:13
  So the official nomination cutoff has been announced
• 6:17
  for the Game Awards. The big headline here is
• 6:21
  that Grand Theft Auto is eligible. This was a
• 6:28
  big question. before it was all announced. And
• 6:34
  there was a lot of speculation from some YouTubers
• 6:36
  and people like that, that it was not going to
• 6:39
  make the cutoff. But the cutoff is November the
• 6:42
  20th. And of course, Grand Theft Auto comes out
• 6:45
  on November the 19th, which means that it's in.
• 6:49
  There are other components to all this. The way
• 6:53
  the game awards. works is that the nominations
• 6:57
  are determined by a jury which is largely of
• 7:00
  um of of media and influencers and youtubers
• 7:05
  so that's everyone from your igns of the world
• 7:09
  and vgc and people like skill up uh the the brilliant
• 7:14
  aussie youtuber and these people come from all
• 7:17
  around the world um so it's quite it's interesting
• 7:20
  it's quite representative now i think like it's
• 7:22
  like 35 percent America 35 % Europe and then
• 7:28
  the rest is the rest of the world or something
• 7:31
  like that it's very English language heavy still
• 7:33
  but it's been getting better and better the makeup
• 7:35
  every year in terms of representing the whole
• 7:37
  world of video games so yeah GTA is eligible
• 7:40
  that probably means it may well be easier to
• 7:45
  predict what happens the Game Awards final result
• 7:48
  the the nominations are chosen by the voting
• 7:50
  jury but the final result is chosen by a mix
• 7:53
  of the public vote and the jury then vote again
• 7:56
  um and a little bit of exciting news for us is
• 7:59
  that we respect are on the jury this year for
• 8:03
  the first time it's not exactly a new thing for
• 8:05
  any of us i think because i think mikhail you
• 8:06
  used to do jury stuff when you were on touch
• 8:08
  arcade back in the day right yeah yeah and for
• 8:12
  me and tom we obviously did it on like VG247
• 8:15
  and Eurogamer, but it's very exciting. We're
• 8:17
  very thankful to be involved because it's such
• 8:20
  a big, great event. And that's pretty much it.
• 8:24
  I mean, do you guys think, I mean, we haven't,
• 8:27
  let's be clear, we have not played it, but what
• 8:30
  do we think the chances are now of GTA walking
• 8:32
  this? Because there's been a lot of outrage,
• 8:34
  I think, about people saying there's not going
• 8:36
  to be enough time for people to vote, for people
• 8:37
  to play it. But do we think it's likely to walk
• 8:41
  it? I think it just, I think it, It has a good
• 8:44
  chance, obviously, but I think it just depends
• 8:47
  who is getting it right. If one person from each
• 8:52
  of these teams gets it, it's going to depend
• 8:55
  how much that one person likes it, how much they
• 8:57
  can convince everyone else, because other stuff
• 8:59
  will get more people will play it right. It's
• 9:02
  hard to play everything. Frankly, getting everything
• 9:05
  at the end of the year is not ideal with any
• 9:07
  of this stuff. It'd be better to get more codes
• 9:08
  throughout the year rather than having it all
• 9:10
  dumped on you from October onwards, whatever.
• 9:14
  I think it's got a good shot. I think mainly
• 9:16
  because I'm trying to think of what else? What's
• 9:20
  the other option like Zelda? Zelda is going to
• 9:23
  be hard to get hold of as well from Nintendo
• 9:26
  probably for enough people to play it. But it
• 9:28
  is how Zelda at least comes out 12 days before
• 9:34
  the cutoff, 13 days, whatever it is. So it's
• 9:36
  a bit longer. I think the other thing with Nintendo
• 9:39
  is even for the folks who don't get pre -release
• 9:42
  code. They send them out on launch day. And like
• 9:44
  you said, right, that's the first week of November.
• 9:46
  So there is time. So there is time there. But
• 9:49
  for Rockstar, I don't know. But like, I've seen
• 9:51
  a lot of like quote unquote discourse about this
• 9:53
  on like reset era and stuff where people are
• 9:56
  like, oh, Jeff just chose the cutoff because
• 9:58
  of GTA when it's always been that specific time
• 10:01
  of the year, every single year and stuff. So
• 10:04
  I don't know about that. But then there's also
• 10:06
  another thing to keep in mind. Like Tom said,
• 10:08
  what else would be there? Like, I think people
• 10:10
  just... wrote off the awards when rdr2 was in
• 10:13
  assuming it would win and it didn't win lost
• 10:15
  to god of war yeah lost to god of war i think
• 10:17
  that year so uh but then it also depends on what's
• 10:21
  really big this year because like i was literally
• 10:23
  just thinking about this last week because uh
• 10:27
  i was like first venice like what am i gonna
• 10:30
  do about fire emblem because that shit is like
• 10:32
  150 hours minimum do i want to spend 150 hours
• 10:35
  of the rest of the year with one game or do i
• 10:37
  want to catch up with like six other games which
• 10:39
  I could have played and stuff and then I was
• 10:41
  like you know GTA is this big looming thing because
• 10:44
  I absolutely want to play that like I'll take
• 10:46
  time off to play that and then we've got to this
• 10:48
  point where now we have the launch trailer and
• 10:50
  it actually feels like it is legit coming out
• 10:52
  now there's no delay now hopefully it's real
• 10:55
  so yeah so it's like I don't know like in my
• 11:00
  case at least if it's more like GTA 5 which I
• 11:02
  absolutely love like yeah I can see it doing
• 11:05
  like at least for me but if it's like GTA 4 It's
• 11:08
  the only GTA game I've not finished. I just did
• 11:11
  not gel with that. I know that so many people
• 11:13
  tell me like I'll specifically like some of the
• 11:15
  DLC, but I just never got around to playing it.
• 11:18
  Maybe I'll revisit it. You know what actually
• 11:19
  pissed me off about 4 not to go off on another
• 11:21
  tangent? The PC port is such dog shit. You have
• 11:24
  to do like 40 different launchers to get that
• 11:28
  shit running and all. Anyway, so yeah, like I
• 11:30
  just think it depends on how many people have
• 11:33
  it like Tom said because if GTA 6 is the best
• 11:36
  game of all time but only like 10 % of the jury
• 11:38
  have it are they gonna they can't vote for that
• 11:41
  I mean you can do whatever they want but like
• 11:43
  that's something which you know that's what publishers
• 11:46
  and like developers have to deal with you need
• 11:49
  to get your game as long as thing is if it gets
• 11:51
  on the ballot that's really what matters at this
• 11:54
  point for it right so and then by the time the
• 11:56
  voting happens the public will have it right
• 11:59
  so right right I keep forgetting the timeline
• 12:02
  it'll depend on like like what else i'm trying
• 12:05
  to think of the other big games that would sort
• 12:08
  of be showing there's a good i mean it's been
• 12:10
  a good year right because it's often like the
• 12:12
  game awards i find game of the year you get four
• 12:15
  big games and maybe you get an indie or a weird
• 12:17
  off you know a weird aside sneak in it's like
• 12:20
  i think about this year and it's like you've
• 12:22
  got um trials in the sky second chapter just
• 12:25
  excellent um on that really good indie game sort
• 12:29
  of area you've got mina the hollower um There's
• 12:34
  Mugenics, there's Forza Horizon 6, there's Procopia,
• 12:37
  there's Fire Emblem, there's Requiem, there's
• 12:39
  Big Walk, there's SSM First Light, which I fear,
• 12:43
  for me, it's a Game of the Year candidate, but
• 12:45
  I fear it probably won't, based on all the names
• 12:49
  I've just said, that probably won't make the
• 12:50
  Final Five. You know what, I think there's going
• 12:53
  to be a fight between 007 and Control Resonant
• 12:57
  for a lot of folks. I feel like those two are
• 12:59
  going to fight for the same slot. so yeah possibly
• 13:02
  i think i mean gears might get a chance to be
• 13:05
  in somewhere i'm not sure but then i think i
• 13:08
  think there might be a surprise uh star wars
• 13:10
  galactic racer in game of the year because it's
• 13:13
  got a lot a lot of people that are on like will
• 13:16
  be panel on the panel so to speak love that game
• 13:20
  and it's things well it's also things like that
• 13:22
  will be eligible for best indie it'll be eligible
• 13:25
  for best indie debut that's a new studio So I
• 13:28
  expect we'll hear that name a lot on the night,
• 13:30
  but we will see. I mean, obviously there's a
• 13:32
  whole process to go through and then next month,
• 13:34
  late next month, we will hear what the nominations
• 13:36
  are. And yeah, and we will obviously be involved
• 13:41
  in covering it all. And we'll also have, we need
• 13:43
  to figure out a format, but we'll have our own
• 13:45
  personal respect game of the year thing as well,
• 13:48
  as well as for those of you who know RPG site,
• 13:50
  the usual nightmare eight hour deliberation podcast
• 13:54
  where they. try and decide i was like is it a
• 13:58
  easy year for the for that site but it probably
• 14:00
  isn't um which is a bit but then again anytime
• 14:04
  i think it's gonna be an easy year that podcast
• 14:06
  goes on and on it isn't an easy year because
• 14:08
  actually loads and loads and loads of stuff has
• 14:10
  happened and loads you know someone latches on
• 14:12
  to something but yeah so the game awards we're
• 14:15
  very um happy to be involved again as we were
• 14:19
  in our previous lives as corporate slaves um
• 14:23
  and now we are involved independently which is
• 14:27
  lovely next up uh just gotta talk about um epic
• 14:33
  has released a new version of the epic game store
• 14:36
  launcher which they have proudly described as
• 14:39
  being vibe coded quote from their announcement
• 14:43
  quote programming is hard so instead of doing
• 14:46
  that we vibe coded an epic a new epic games launcher
• 14:49
  that's way faster and more responsive than the
• 14:51
  current one and has a new look unquote Unsurprisingly,
• 14:57
  it is pretty buggy and shit. But here we have
• 15:03
  this. This news has arrived also at the same
• 15:06
  time as both an official announcement and a story
• 15:11
  from a friend of the site, Jason Schreier, about
• 15:14
  Epic going all in on AI assistance encoding,
• 15:19
  be that for things like the EGS launcher, but
• 15:22
  also on games. game that's apparently a partnership
• 15:27
  with Disney, which is going to involve both Marvel
• 15:30
  and Star Wars characters coming together in one
• 15:32
  game. Definitely feels like someone at Disney
• 15:34
  went, can we get the Fortnite guys while chomping
• 15:36
  on a cigar? But apparently that game has been
• 15:39
  delayed in order to literally overhaul and rethink
• 15:43
  it with AI. Tom, is this the future? I hope not.
• 15:49
  It's hard, isn't it? I think there is... it's
• 15:55
  i don't want to be defeatist but it feels like
• 15:57
  there is we're past the point almost where ai
• 16:00
  is like like it's everywhere right in terms of
• 16:03
  development and obviously there's some indie
• 16:05
  studios are quite proudly saying they're not
• 16:07
  using ai and that's i think that's great but
• 16:09
  i think if it's built into all the workflows
• 16:11
  for everything at studios it's going to get used
• 16:14
  even if you don't want to use it but i think
• 16:17
  it's how how it's used and to what extent i think
• 16:21
  is it feels like the current battle which is
• 16:22
  like The stuff Epic is apparently doing, which
• 16:26
  obviously they have not officially said what
• 16:28
  was in the report exactly. But I think one of
• 16:31
  the lines was how, and there's no handwritten
• 16:34
  code anymore, was one of the things in Jason's
• 16:37
  report, which I don't know. Like, it feels like,
• 16:41
  I don't, I mean, how that's going to work, if
• 16:46
  you need to talk to someone who knows more about
• 16:48
  creating games in the first place, but it feels
• 16:51
  like a disaster waiting to happen. I mean, the
• 16:56
  way they've gone about it is really strange.
• 16:57
  I saw the news about the launcher and I think
• 17:03
  lots of people assumed, I think it was Wario
• 17:04
  posted it on socials or quote posted it. And
• 17:10
  I was like, is he taking the piss because all
• 17:12
  the stuff that just came out and he'd written
• 17:14
  this fake little press release about the launcher.
• 17:17
  And then you go into the story and it's actually,
• 17:19
  that's what they've said. The actual wording
• 17:20
  from Epic themselves was this. like, we're so
• 17:23
  cool, we're vibe coding, et cetera, vibe, which
• 17:27
  was just really bizarre. I don't know who they're
• 17:30
  trying to appeal to with that kind of wording.
• 17:33
  It felt like, I mean, maybe they think there's
• 17:36
  this audience that is going to lap up the fact
• 17:38
  that they're vibe coding it all. Maybe that does
• 17:41
  exist, but it feels like it surely is less than
• 17:44
  the people that hate that stuff. I mean, people
• 17:47
  hated the Epic Launcher before this. like big
• 17:51
  time like it is it was rubbish it is rubbish
• 17:53
  um and now people hate it even more so it's it's
• 17:58
  a bizarre way of going about it because i mean
• 18:01
  to stop using steam to switch to epic it needs
• 18:06
  to be more than just a slightly faster startup
• 18:12
  for a launcher anyway i mean it's just the whole
• 18:15
  thing is bizarre like i don't know what the end
• 18:18
  point is it feels like the epic stuff is kind
• 18:21
  of a turning point in terms of what happens next
• 18:24
  because if this star wars marvel game whatever
• 18:28
  that ends up being comes out and is a massive
• 18:31
  success and is apparently built entirely using
• 18:35
  ai from top to bottom all the way through uh
• 18:38
  all parts of development i don't see a way back
• 18:42
  from that because they'll just carry on with
• 18:44
  that as a it worked we're not going to change
• 18:46
  but if it's a massive failure then things will
• 18:50
  have to change quite radically i expect there'll
• 18:52
  be multiple people in the shit at Epic if it
• 18:55
  goes all wrong. And that might sort of start
• 19:00
  a kind of turnaround, but it feels like this
• 19:02
  is it. Like this is the, AI has been using development
• 19:05
  everywhere a lot already, but this feels like
• 19:07
  the first real, like we're going all in if it
• 19:12
  works amazing for them, if not, not great for
• 19:15
  us anyway. But if it doesn't, that could be the
• 19:18
  thing that we kind of need for it to. kind of
• 19:21
  be scaled back at least if not binned completely
• 19:23
  it's hard right i mean they're all dead like
• 19:26
  it's all about bottom line for these companies
• 19:29
  right so if if it saves them an absolute fortune
• 19:32
  and it does well they're not going to change
• 19:34
  are they they're going to carry on down that
• 19:35
  path um whether or not the final result is as
• 19:38
  good as it could have been or not so i don't
• 19:41
  know it feels like all week like it's my point
• 19:45
  of view like i don't really play fortnight i
• 19:47
  probably wouldn't play this new game so what
• 19:50
  i can do to fight back against that feels quite
• 19:53
  minimal but like i have already blocked roblox
• 19:57
  in this house like it could be that fortnite
• 20:00
  is next if it if it continues down this path
• 20:02
  but i do think like i said on the website like
• 20:04
  kids that play like kids are the a major part
• 20:09
  of who plays fortnite right i know it's not just
• 20:12
  for kids but they're like my son and his friends
• 20:14
  all play fortnite that's their game um but they're
• 20:17
  quite discerning in many ways like they don't
• 20:20
  just take all the shit like if a season is bad
• 20:23
  for whatever reason they say it is they will
• 20:25
  stop playing it and switch to doing minecraft
• 20:27
  or whatever instead um so i think if the game
• 20:31
  does turn out to be significantly worse after
• 20:34
  all this ai development and if the star wars
• 20:37
  game is terrible they just won't play anymore
• 20:39
  and that like i think there is a chance that
• 20:42
  the kids might actually save us all in some ways
• 20:46
  um You wrote an article about this exact thing,
• 20:49
  right? I mean, we're going to talk about this.
• 20:50
  We were going to talk about this in the on the
• 20:52
  site section in a bit, but yeah, you, you wrote
• 20:55
  a thesis to this exact point. Yeah. Yeah. I think,
• 20:58
  I think there is a, who knows, right? Like it's
• 21:02
  anecdotal, like my son and his friends, but I
• 21:04
  feel like there is some, something to kids. Just,
• 21:09
  they're not as dumb as people might think they
• 21:12
  are. And they don't, there's so many options
• 21:14
  with kids now, right? Like, why would they stick
• 21:17
  with this game that, churns out shit when they
• 21:20
  could go and play something else equally free
• 21:22
  to play for them um so yeah like it just feels
• 21:27
  like whatever i'd mean this star wars game might
• 21:29
  be quite a way off yet we don't know when that's
• 21:31
  actually coming um well so jason i think jason's
• 21:35
  report said it was going to be a next year game
• 21:37
  but now it isn't yeah i mean but part of me is
• 21:40
  like morbidly curious about what this ends up
• 21:43
  being because it's like as much as like i don't
• 21:48
  want ai to take over game development i think
• 21:51
  there is particularly with like the artistic
• 21:53
  side of things i know like you can make arguments
• 21:56
  about all types of ai in development being bad
• 21:58
  etc but if it's generating assets and like it's
• 22:05
  not using a there's no human creative element
• 22:08
  involved there really apart from just going yeah
• 22:10
  this is good this is bad or whatever like what
• 22:14
  is that going to look like like it feels like
• 22:17
  it's going to be terrible. But they must think
• 22:20
  it isn't for some reason. Like, have they seen
• 22:22
  something we haven't seen in all this stuff?
• 22:24
  I don't know. Like, it feels like a real moment.
• 22:27
  They've also just got a CEO who is completely
• 22:29
  gung -ho on it, right? Like, so he's on, Tim
• 22:32
  Sweeney is on X. Of course, he's on X, not anywhere
• 22:35
  else. Very much like going hard on this and saying
• 22:39
  this is the future. And I've seen a lot of this
• 22:40
  from a lot of guys of that ilk. You know, for
• 22:45
  good or for ill, whatever you think of it, right?
• 22:47
  That's their reality that they believe is the
• 22:49
  case. And obviously, if you work for someone
• 22:52
  like that, then what you've got to do is get
• 22:58
  on board. It's quite scary. I don't know what
• 23:02
  it's like. If you're not one of those people,
• 23:05
  working there must be quite hard at the moment.
• 23:08
  But imagine if, say, trying to think of an equivalent
• 23:11
  in another industry like movies, right? I'm trying
• 23:16
  to think of someone. might do this kind of Warner
• 23:18
  Brothers for example said right all our films
• 23:22
  from now on AI top to bottom it'd be like an
• 23:26
  absolute train wreck I expect so I mean I think
• 23:30
  the other thing to keep in mind is that they
• 23:32
  like all for all the big talk they've done they've
• 23:34
  only tried this with the Epic Game Store which
• 23:36
  is like not even the most important part for
• 23:38
  them like if they had started if they had said
• 23:40
  like Unreal Engine 6 is going to be a full vibe
• 23:42
  coded engine I think that would have been like
• 23:45
  a bigger deal because there are massive companies
• 23:48
  that rely on unreal engine for their own work
• 23:50
  so you'd be screwing them over as well here you're
• 23:53
  just screwing over the store which most people
• 23:55
  just use for free games and fortnite like like
• 23:58
  when was the last time you used egs like for
• 23:59
  me it was when neo the world ends with you and
• 24:01
  ff7 were exclusive i've not touched that other
• 24:04
  than that that's just how things are and obviously
• 24:06
  anecdotal because i don't want to use that but
• 24:09
  i just feel like if they would have done this
• 24:11
  directly in unreal engine or directly in fortnite
• 24:14
  like For all we know, they probably are doing
• 24:17
  something with it in Fortnite, but they didn't
• 24:19
  say that Fortnite development is just going to
• 24:21
  be AI. They did it with the stuff they can take
• 24:23
  a risk on. So if EGS completely goes away...
• 24:26
  But how much did Disney invest in this? Like
• 24:28
  one, was it one and a half billion or something?
• 24:31
  Yeah, I think it was a lot. Even Sony invested
• 24:33
  in Epic, but I don't know if it was like Unreal
• 24:35
  Engine stuff or what, but I just feel like they're
• 24:38
  doing this with the aspect of their business
• 24:40
  where if it fails, it's not going to kill their
• 24:42
  business, I think. Well, actually, to your anecdotal
• 24:48
  evidence, let's just bring another story that
• 24:50
  I was going to talk about later in the podcast
• 24:52
  onto this, which is, so Control Resonant has
• 24:55
  sold 1 million copies in three weeks, which makes
• 24:57
  it the fastest selling game in Remedy's history.
• 25:01
  But I actually think a huge element of this is
• 25:04
  this is the first Remedy game that has launched
• 25:08
  into Steam. Because back in the day, obviously,
• 25:14
  You know, Alan Wake 1 was initially Xbox 360
• 25:18
  exclusive. And, you know, back in the day, Max
• 25:23
  Payne, that was at a point when Steam wasn't
• 25:26
  what it is today. Quantum Break was also Windows
• 25:31
  Store first. Then it came to Steam later. Yep,
• 25:34
  Quantum Break. I think Alan Wake's American Nightmare,
• 25:37
  but that was obviously a smaller game. And then
• 25:39
  obviously Control and Alan Wake 2 were Epic Games
• 25:42
  Store exclusive games. And so... no that fbc
• 25:47
  that fbc firebreak was day one on steam that
• 25:50
  oh yeah yeah yeah but that's sort of it's a service
• 25:54
  game it's a different sort of thing this is the
• 25:56
  first remedy game that's really like a remedy
• 25:58
  ass remedy game yep yep yep that has launched
• 26:01
  onto steam single player narrative etc etc and
• 26:06
  i think it's it's it's telling that it's it's
• 26:10
  also because a lot of people you know brains
• 26:13
  didn't like it so much but a lot of people really
• 26:14
  like what this game really picking up what this
• 26:16
  game is putting down and um it did 43k ccu on
• 26:22
  steam which is like not a small number it's not
• 26:24
  amazing but it's not a small number so like like
• 26:27
  you said right they don't have like an audience
• 26:29
  that expects their stuff day one so to do those
• 26:31
  numbers in a busy period and on a platform which
• 26:34
  you've conditioned to wait for sale is good i
• 26:37
  think like i think only musha did like nearly
• 26:40
  double but then Or Steam is like Capcom's main
• 26:43
  thing, so you expect that. But also I think it
• 26:46
  just speaks to where EGS is, right? Because I
• 26:50
  think, I guess what I'm saying is my belief is
• 26:54
  had Alan Wake 2 launched on Steam on day one,
• 26:56
  it probably would have done similar numbers to
• 26:58
  Control Resonance. but it was the egs thing because
• 27:01
  i think it will have been the pc audience that
• 27:04
  i mean who knows we'll see if um remedy talk
• 27:07
  about the platform split at all but my guess
• 27:09
  is that is that steam has been the difference
• 27:11
  maker for or pc has been the difference maker
• 27:13
  for resident and that will have been enabled
• 27:16
  in part because the thing about alan wake 2 is
• 27:19
  like resonant is a game which they self -funded
• 27:21
  or whatever and they had anna porna helping out
• 27:24
  right like they have a partnership but then alan
• 27:26
  wake 2 literally exists because of epic games
• 27:29
  like it's i mean this is true this is true so
• 27:31
  i'm just i'm just wondering like in terms of
• 27:33
  how much money they've made out of these two
• 27:35
  releases like which one worked out better for
• 27:37
  them i mean that's a different thing i'm just
• 27:39
  saying in terms of of course in terms of raw
• 27:42
  sale numbers both things can be true that both
• 27:44
  alan wake 2 wouldn't exist without epic but also
• 27:47
  it probably would have sold as well as Control
• 27:49
  Resident on PC had it been on Steam. No, that's
• 27:51
  for sure. That's for sure. Like, I'm 100 % with
• 27:54
  you that, like, Alan Wake 2 probably would have
• 27:57
  hit a million. Like, I don't think we had, like,
• 27:59
  numbers revealed for that until much later in
• 28:01
  some, like, financial stuff. But for Control,
• 28:03
  we proudly have, like, one million. Like, what
• 28:05
  is this? Like, Ace Combat 8, Onimusha, Blood
• 28:08
  of Dawnwalker, and Control Resident all announced
• 28:10
  their one million milestones in the last month
• 28:12
  or so. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad it's working for
• 28:17
  them because it's a studio that I really like
• 28:18
  and I've been fearful for them a little bit for
• 28:21
  a little while. So I'm pleased to see this happening.
• 28:26
  But yeah, it's an interesting time right now.
• 28:31
  And we come back to something I've said on this
• 28:33
  podcast before, which is the other thing is as
• 28:36
  someone who speaks a lot to developers in Japan,
• 28:39
  AI is being folded more into processes there,
• 28:42
  but they're just not really talking about it.
• 28:44
  because it's not really something that you see
• 28:45
  as even important to mention. It's just another
• 28:48
  tool, the same way that Speed Tree is a tool
• 28:51
  for making trees quickly or whatever, or Havoc
• 28:56
  for physics or what have you, which I think that's
• 29:00
  a cultural mountain that we all have to collectively
• 29:04
  climb and figure that out. And it's funny that
• 29:07
  this is all... reach it well i don't think it's
• 29:10
  at its height yet but it's definitely getting
• 29:12
  louder and louder as we also approach the release
• 29:14
  of tta which definitely feels like a game that
• 29:17
  is very much um there's going to be a human to
• 29:21
  touch on every single corner of it but that's
• 29:23
  because they had more money than god um so you
• 29:27
  know that's a good point because they i think
• 29:29
  there was an interview where they said something
• 29:30
  about it not using generative ai or something
• 29:33
  like that and this do you remember the game from
• 29:36
  last year 100 line last defense academy That
• 29:39
  game was probably one of the biggest quote -unquote
• 29:42
  AA games that exist today. And in their interviews
• 29:46
  and during development, they said that they feel
• 29:48
  like for them, this is going to be one of the
• 29:50
  last games of that scale, which is absolutely
• 29:52
  fully human -made because of what's happening
• 29:55
  in the industry. So yeah, that's a good point.
• 29:57
  GTA might be the last massive one. I had a chat
• 30:02
  with someone at a big company. And that there
• 30:07
  was a whole conversation about where the company,
• 30:11
  where this particular company, which shall now
• 30:14
  remain nameless, sees things going is bigger
• 30:19
  margins than ever before, but with less people
• 30:24
  than ever before. Because the idea is they will
• 30:26
  need less people. They will be able to do more
• 30:28
  with less people because of AI stuff. And I think,
• 30:32
  you know, whatever we all think about that, that
• 30:35
  may be a reality we are facing down. I think
• 30:39
  people are going to have to vote with their feet
• 30:40
  and their wallets, and we will see where those
• 30:43
  chips fall. On this topic, I feel like all the
• 30:46
  topics this week are quite connected. We flow
• 30:50
  straight into the next thing, which is what happens
• 30:53
  when this sort of shit goes wrong, which is Total
• 30:56
  War Shogun 2 Complete Edition has been pulled
• 30:59
  from sale. after it was found to be full of bugs
• 31:03
  and AI artwork. So this game was in development,
• 31:07
  was announced, was released, and upon release,
• 31:10
  fans pretty quickly noticed a bunch of AI stuff
• 31:15
  and seemed to... What is definitely AI -generated
• 31:19
  art, Sega has admitted as such, but also the
• 31:21
  game being so buggy that people began to suspect
• 31:25
  that perhaps the game itself had been vibe -coded.
• 31:27
  And it has literally now been pulled from sale.
• 31:31
  A message from Sega and developer Creative Assembly,
• 31:37
  although I don't think CA actually made this,
• 31:38
  I think it was outsourced to someone else. But
• 31:41
  a message from them nevertheless said, quote,
• 31:43
  we are aware that Total War Shogun 2 Complete
• 31:46
  Edition has fallen short of both your expectations
• 31:49
  and our own standards. We've seen your feedback,
• 31:52
  comments, reviews. And we agree that the current
• 31:55
  experience is not where it needs to be. As a
• 31:58
  result, we are working with platform holders
• 32:00
  to temporarily remove the game from sale and
• 32:03
  to reinstate the original game while we investigate
• 32:08
  the issues. Existing owners will still be able
• 32:11
  to play and access the game. We're working closely
• 32:13
  with our development partner to identify the
• 32:15
  causes of these problems, deliver improvements,
• 32:18
  and ensure that Shogun 2 Complete Edition meets
• 32:20
  the quality standards players expect from Total
• 32:23
  War. um unquote so yeah it's it's pretty it's
• 32:27
  a it's a pretty brutal it's unbelievable that
• 32:30
  they've let this happen like it feels like i
• 32:33
  mean i've known quite a few people that worked
• 32:35
  at creative assembly because they're they're
• 32:38
  like quite local to where i am and they're also
• 32:40
  like various people i've worked with have gone
• 32:42
  on to work there etc and they are as a studio
• 32:47
  so sort of detail oriented about what they're
• 32:51
  doing a lot of the time like the stuff they make
• 32:54
  has a fan base that expects like the best from
• 32:59
  all this stuff like it's obviously historical
• 33:00
  and there's lots of work goes into making it
• 33:02
  feel right right in terms of the eras and everything
• 33:06
  else and what's involved and then they've got
• 33:09
  a brand built on producing quality basically
• 33:13
  and they've always been ups and downs in terms
• 33:15
  of some of the games but generally they are quite
• 33:18
  loved by their fans um and then this feels like
• 33:24
  like i don't understand how no one stepped in
• 33:28
  at any point and went actually maybe let's not
• 33:32
  do this because it's just going to go down so
• 33:35
  terribly like does no one have a finger on the
• 33:38
  pulse of what's happening in terms of like how
• 33:40
  these things are being received because it just
• 33:43
  feels like an obvious thing that should never
• 33:45
  have ever been put out like i don't i just don't
• 33:48
  i can't i i can understand why things were done
• 33:52
  because it's seen as a way to save money or whatever
• 33:55
  but you they must have known that this how this
• 33:57
  is going to be received like i can't believe
• 33:59
  they didn't see what it was the product they
• 34:02
  didn't see this product they were shipping and
• 34:03
  go uh actually this is going to go down terribly
• 34:07
  let's not do this because it's happened now right
• 34:10
  like they they can fix it and they can go back
• 34:12
  and make it better and like maybe how it should
• 34:15
  have been but it's always going to be this thing
• 34:17
  hanging over them now to some degree that they've
• 34:20
  basically used ai in some form or other across
• 34:23
  the game to get out there i expect cheaper than
• 34:26
  what it would have cost otherwise um and for
• 34:29
  a studio that is built on the fact that they're
• 34:34
  like this kind of like relationship with the
• 34:37
  fans that they know they're going to get this
• 34:39
  kind of quality product across everything they've
• 34:41
  done they've not just done the historical stuff
• 34:43
  that was on the wallhammer stuff they're doing
• 34:45
  a like the isolation the new one coming as well
• 34:48
  like There's now question marks over all that
• 34:50
  stuff in the future about what's going to be
• 34:52
  involved in those games as well. So I don't know,
• 34:55
  it just feels like a complete disaster from their
• 34:58
  point of view in terms of how they've handled
• 35:00
  it. And yeah, I just don't quite understand how
• 35:05
  it got to this point because they could have
• 35:07
  avoided all this by just going, actually, let's
• 35:10
  not do that. They must have known it was going
• 35:13
  to have this reaction. I can't believe they didn't.
• 35:16
  I feel like whenever this stuff happens, this
• 35:20
  is where Steam reviews matter. It was immediately
• 35:23
  overwhelmingly negative. And when your game gets
• 35:27
  to overwhelmingly negative, it stops showing
• 35:29
  up. I think the algorithm is trained in a way
• 35:32
  where your game will start showing up less. And
• 35:34
  less people will buy it, obviously. And it's
• 35:36
  mainly released on Steam. So you've immediately
• 35:40
  lost access to your main audience. And the thing
• 35:43
  is, in the past, when they've remastered... They
• 35:46
  did Total War Rome remastered. They got Feral
• 35:48
  Interactive, who's like one of the best like
• 35:50
  UK devs right now, I'd say. I think they're in
• 35:53
  the UK. So they did Total War Rome for mobile
• 35:57
  and they had like proper assets redone and stuff.
• 36:00
  And because that was so well received, they got
• 36:02
  them to work on the PC remaster. So I'm like,
• 36:04
  why did you not just do that here? You work with
• 36:06
  them so often, like you have a studio. This is
• 36:09
  kind of like when... people say why did sony
• 36:11
  not do something and i understand they had blue
• 36:13
  point but they made them do something else like
• 36:15
  obviously feral is not owned by sega but you
• 36:18
  have these people you work with they're really
• 36:20
  good why would you do it this way and when they
• 36:22
  say it didn't meet our standards i mean that's
• 36:25
  kind of bullshit like you're the one who hit
• 36:26
  publish on the game well it's not some surprise
• 36:28
  this is well this is the this is the this is
• 36:31
  where you get into the nitty -gritty a little
• 36:33
  bit so yeah the so the so the the co -developer
• 36:36
  is a company called matabu um So Matabu, they're
• 36:40
  mostly a port and QA company, but they have done
• 36:44
  some other things. They were a co -developer
• 36:46
  on Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League. They
• 36:49
  were a co -developer on Gotham Knight, going
• 36:51
  well so far. They were, especially if they worked
• 36:56
  on the PC version. They did the remaster of the
• 36:59
  Sinking City remastered, but also they did the
• 37:03
  porting work on Stalker, Legend of the Zone trilogy,
• 37:06
  which was another. old game re -release that
• 37:09
  um came in for some ai criticism without ai use
• 37:15
  being disclosed and so i think that's the question
• 37:18
  is and i don't think we'll ever get the answer
• 37:20
  because it that turns into companies taking pot
• 37:23
  shots at each other and companies don't want
• 37:24
  to do that right but i think the question is
• 37:28
  did sega tell them that they're okay to make
• 37:31
  the game with this sort of workflow because those
• 37:33
  those unit portraits are clearly ai um have been
• 37:37
  ai upscaled or did they sign a contract with
• 37:41
  a partner who then did that stuff you know off
• 37:44
  the books without disclosing that that was what
• 37:46
  they were going to be doing and i think that
• 37:48
  that's the big question but the flip side to
• 37:50
  what you say mikhail is that doesn't absolve
• 37:52
  creative assembly or sega because at the end
• 37:54
  of the day there were there would have been milestones
• 37:58
  and deliverables and seemingly no one either
• 38:01
  spotted that that was the case in which case
• 38:03
  how hard were you looking or no one cared Which
• 38:07
  is worse. So that's the issue for them. Because
• 38:12
  I expect that is the truth. My anticipation,
• 38:17
  based on people that I know at Creative Assembly,
• 38:19
  is that they wouldn't have wanted AI used, and
• 38:22
  they probably didn't know that AI was used, but
• 38:25
  that is damning in itself, I would say. So, yeah.
• 38:33
  I mean, it's pretty grim. I think we're going
• 38:39
  to see a lot more of this because there's so
• 38:41
  much outsourcing now in games. There is so much
• 38:44
  talk of, you'll hear Dringo talk about it, Chris
• 38:47
  Dring talk about it often, of the concept of
• 38:51
  Hollywood development model, which is if you're
• 38:55
  making a movie, if you're making Matrix 4, which
• 38:59
  is something they're trying to make, or Matrix
• 39:00
  5, I guess, which is something they're trying
• 39:02
  to make for some reason. you will attach a writer
• 39:07
  and a creative director or whatever, and then
• 39:10
  you'll develop it up. And then when the time
• 39:11
  comes to begin developing it more, maybe you'll
• 39:14
  bring concept artists on, then you'll bring,
• 39:16
  you know, stunt guys on, camera operator on,
• 39:19
  and so on and so forth. And productions ramp
• 39:21
  up and then ramp back down. And then the logic
• 39:23
  behind bringing a Hollywood studio model into
• 39:25
  games is the idea that maybe a studio like, to
• 39:29
  pick a random example, I'm not... clicking on
• 39:31
  this for any particular reason but maybe a studio
• 39:34
  like a Bioware isn't a large ongoing concern
• 39:37
  of a studio maybe a Bioware is a core team of
• 39:41
  50 or 100 people who then that 50 or 100 people
• 39:45
  sort of stands up the core principles of what
• 39:47
  a Mass Effect game is and then you get a shed
• 39:51
  load of co -development studios to come in and
• 39:54
  help you and that is we're seeing more and more
• 39:57
  of that That has its pros and its cons. For the
• 40:01
  business people, I think it has pros. If you
• 40:02
  have less people on the books, we see this in
• 40:05
  media too. When we were working for companies
• 40:07
  like IGN, the logic would often be, well, we'll
• 40:11
  cut people who are full -time because they're
• 40:15
  a constant burden on the books. And then we'll
• 40:17
  just replace it. We'll give you some freelance
• 40:19
  budget. And on paper, it looked like, why are
• 40:22
  you cutting someone and then giving me their
• 40:23
  wage back as freelance? But the difference with
• 40:25
  freelance is you can move it up or down. at a
• 40:27
  moment's notice. It's not an ongoing concern
• 40:29
  for the business. And so it works for publishers
• 40:32
  like that. But then if you don't have teams together
• 40:34
  that stay together, the advantage of a team staying
• 40:37
  together, I think is evident in what Capcom has
• 40:40
  accomplished with the Resident Evil games over
• 40:43
  the last 10 years. What Square Enix has managed
• 40:45
  to accomplish with the Final Fantasy VII Remake
• 40:47
  trilogy, which has been one team staying together.
• 40:49
  I think they've only lost about 5%, only about
• 40:52
  5 % of the team. that was on remake is gone from
• 40:57
  Revelation. Like 95 % of them have stayed, which
• 41:00
  is unprecedented in Japan. Well, at Square Enix,
• 41:06
  usually people move around. Even if they stay
• 41:09
  at the company, they move from team to team.
• 41:10
  And so the problem with all that, gone really
• 41:16
  around the reek in there to say the challenge
• 41:18
  is if you're outsourcing that much, do you really
• 41:22
  know that these outsourcers are not using AI?
• 41:25
  And how often are studios going to think that
• 41:28
  that isn't the case and then enterprising users
• 41:31
  discover that they are and wham, bam, your game
• 41:34
  is a pariah. I think it's going to be a real
• 41:37
  problem over the next 10 years. Yeah. Maybe not
• 41:42
  10 years. I expect it'll all come out in a wash
• 41:44
  by the time we get to a decade, but the next
• 41:45
  five years, certainly. So yeah, AI, AI, AI, AI.
• 41:51
  It's a bit of a funny old news week. I have one
• 41:53
  question though. Go for it. Like what the? When
• 41:55
  was Matrix 4? How did I not hear about this?
• 41:58
  I thought there were just three of them. No,
• 42:01
  they, look, so this is probably going to be,
• 42:04
  maybe we'll talk about this more in the Patreon
• 42:06
  episode, but they did, there was an interesting
• 42:10
  thing that happened where Warner Brothers basically
• 42:12
  said to the Wachowskis, we're going to do a fourth
• 42:16
  Matrix film, whether you like it or not. This
• 42:19
  was probably three or four years ago now. And
• 42:22
  not both of them, but I think Lana was the one
• 42:26
  who came back. And I think it was like, well,
• 42:29
  if you're going to do one with or without us,
• 42:31
  we're going to make one. I'm going to make one
• 42:33
  that is sort of my answer to the fact that you've
• 42:36
  said that. And so it's really interesting because
• 42:38
  it is a Matrix film that is about legacy and
• 42:45
  about... So literally, the setup of this movie
• 42:48
  is that... The machines had somehow managed to
• 42:56
  save and revive slash save, whatever, Neo and
• 43:01
  Trinity. And in order to keep the Matrix stable,
• 43:03
  had reinserted them back into the Matrix. And
• 43:08
  Neo, they don't remember who they are. They're
• 43:12
  back to being Thomas Anderson, whatever. I can't
• 43:14
  remember what Trinity's real name is. Or, you
• 43:17
  know, dead name, whatever we're saying in this
• 43:20
  context. and um but in this context neo thomas
• 43:26
  is a game developer who made a video game of
• 43:31
  the matrix so there's this weird thing of the
• 43:32
  matrix exists inside the matrix in this fourth
• 43:35
  film but it exists as a series of video games
• 43:40
  and neo is being pressured to make a new one
• 43:44
  by the publisher and he doesn't want to make
• 43:47
  a new one but they're like you know this is what
• 43:50
  the people want you've got to make it It's all
• 43:52
  very meta. And I think what I would say about
• 43:55
  it is if you're going to the Matrix for the fights
• 43:59
  and stuff, it is not a good follow -up to those
• 44:02
  first three films. The fights are actually pretty
• 44:03
  poor. But in terms of the commentary it makes
• 44:08
  on the nature of franchise media and stuff like
• 44:11
  that, it's pretty interesting, I thought. But
• 44:17
  it really annoyed me on it. It really annoyed
• 44:20
  people, I think, because like I say, the fights
• 44:22
  aren't very good and it's sort of all, it's a
• 44:25
  bit meta. And, you know, you've literally got
• 44:29
  scenes where they're projecting scenes from the
• 44:32
  original Matrix onto the back of the wall of
• 44:34
  the set while other things are going on. It's
• 44:38
  a weird movie, but people who went to it wanting
• 44:41
  an actual continuation of the Matrix narrative
• 44:44
  did not really get that. What they got was this
• 44:46
  meta commentary on the state of franchise media
• 44:49
  in a post -Marvel world. But it's interesting.
• 44:53
  And now, anyway, they're making... Now they have
• 44:57
  that where Lana basically signed on to do the
• 45:01
  Matrix 4, which they asked for, and then Lana
• 45:03
  spat in their face. now they're actually they've
• 45:06
  got some guy who's done a lot of marvel films
• 45:09
  or something trying to like stand up a new actual
• 45:12
  actual but a new more traditional um matrix guy
• 45:16
  he's the guy who did um the martian which is
• 45:19
  interesting but yeah we will we will see but
• 45:24
  that's worth a watch that's worth a watch that's
• 45:26
  a bit of a tangent um but i it's you'll have
• 45:29
  to watch it and let let us know in next week's
• 45:32
  patreon podcast what you thought of it Sounds
• 45:35
  like a bland. Last little news story. It's all
• 45:41
  slightly not really video game news this week.
• 45:44
  It's all sort of behind the scenes stuff. The
• 45:46
  developers of Indie Darling Game, it was mentioned
• 45:49
  in the Game of the Year discussion earlier, Big
• 45:50
  Walk, have announced that they are not launching
• 45:55
  on Xbox as a direct result of the BDS boycott,
• 46:00
  which of course is related to Microsoft's involvement
• 46:03
  in... all the stuff going on in Gaza between
• 46:07
  Israel and Palestine. They said, quote, in June
• 46:12
  2026, we announced that the release of Big Walk
• 46:14
  will be limited to computers, Switch 2 and PS5.
• 46:18
  Since then, we've received many messages and
• 46:20
  comments asking about a future Xbox release.
• 46:22
  We'd like to address that. And then they go on
• 46:25
  to basically say they have made the decision
• 46:26
  to not release on Xbox in accordance with the
• 46:29
  Palestinian -led BDS boycott divestment sanctions
• 46:32
  movement's call to boycott Microsoft and their
• 46:34
  designation of Microsoft games and Xbox as a
• 46:36
  priority boycott target. And they provide links
• 46:39
  and all that sort of stuff on the House House
• 46:42
  website. You can visit bigwalk .game forward
• 46:44
  slash Xbox for the links that they would like
• 46:47
  you to read about this. I think it's. I wanted
• 46:52
  to include this story for two reasons. One, I
• 46:54
  just think it's interesting. I think regardless
• 46:55
  of your stance on the boycott, whether you think
• 46:58
  the boycott is justified or not, I think it's
• 47:04
  interesting to see developers doing this. But
• 47:07
  also what I would say in the indie space is my
• 47:11
  understanding is this is absolutely not the first
• 47:13
  major indie game where this is the case. But
• 47:17
  this is just the first major indie game where
• 47:19
  they've said it out loud. And so I wonder how
• 47:22
  much this is happening to Xbox behind the scenes.
• 47:25
  Because this is the stuff that I think that is
• 47:26
  actually damaging. Like if you've got Big War,
• 47:28
  which is a potential Game of the Year nominee,
• 47:30
  and it's not on Xbox because of all this stuff,
• 47:34
  this is where I think this bites more than people
• 47:36
  screaming on blue sky at people who dare to buy
• 47:38
  Gears of War. I think it hurts the platform.
• 47:41
  I don't know. I think I was thinking about, obviously,
• 47:45
  besides the reasons, I was just thinking that
• 47:47
  for a game like this, Xbox would have likely
• 47:51
  been the smallest user base right like that's
• 47:54
  just how these are for a lot of these types of
• 47:56
  games so I was just wondering that like in general
• 47:59
  like we already have some games which skip Xbox
• 48:02
  because you know like I don't know if you've
• 48:04
  been reading but there's like issues with publishing
• 48:06
  and stuff like that where people have had trouble
• 48:08
  getting dev kits or just getting getting their
• 48:11
  games on there when they want to so I'm just
• 48:14
  wondering like there's so much stuff happening
• 48:16
  behind the scenes like for where it's difficult
• 48:18
  to get your game on xbox and i feel like as xbox
• 48:22
  as a platform like should be doing much more
• 48:24
  because like at this point you need them more
• 48:26
  than they need you for a lot of games like you
• 48:29
  need to show people that you get everything on
• 48:30
  your platform so i'm just wondering like like
• 48:33
  with this asha reset thing which is going on
• 48:36
  like are they even going to start doing stuff
• 48:38
  like that to get smaller games on board because
• 48:41
  you know that this needs way more than this needs
• 48:44
  microsoft to see like i think it's a good test
• 48:48
  of how Microsoft sees Xbox because if Xbox is
• 48:52
  just I mean I doubt anyone on the Xbox sort of
• 48:57
  senior team is going to come and say anything
• 48:58
  about this but I expect they must know that this
• 49:02
  is happening right and there's a obviously the
• 49:04
  boycott and now this is very public from the
• 49:07
  team they're saying the reasons why they're not
• 49:10
  coming to Xbox and if Microsoft thinks Xbox has
• 49:15
  a shot of doing anything in the future substantially
• 49:17
  good and better than they're doing now like you'd
• 49:21
  think there'd be conversations happening about
• 49:22
  how maybe things could be resolved um but there's
• 49:26
  like i doubt any change is going to happen at
• 49:29
  the top of microsoft in a way that's going to
• 49:31
  change um the details of the boycott and maybe
• 49:34
  the xbox coming off of that because like we talked
• 49:40
  about before i expect the financial stuff involved
• 49:44
  is so immense that they're just not going to
• 49:46
  be looking at that as a possible option but it's
• 49:48
  definitely hurting xbox as a brand like on top
• 49:51
  of like everything else like there's like legitimate
• 49:55
  reasons just morally not to support it um and
• 50:01
  i think there's no there's no other i think it's
• 50:03
  great that they've come out and said this to
• 50:04
  be honest like i think it's um regardless i think
• 50:08
  there's been a few people online treating it
• 50:11
  almost like a bit of pr for the for the company
• 50:14
  just said it for the attention i don't think
• 50:16
  that's true at all i think you wouldn't say this
• 50:18
  and potentially put yourself in a position of
• 50:20
  like people turning against you because there
• 50:24
  is like a lot of people that would take this
• 50:26
  as a a big negative from the other side i think
• 50:29
  they've said it because they believe it and also
• 50:31
  because they they they want to try and make a
• 50:34
  change and i think i think it's a very brave
• 50:37
  move to be honest because as a studio like they
• 50:40
  haven't got like they're an independent studio
• 50:42
  there's no external backing as far as i know
• 50:46
  that's going to get them out of things if things
• 50:47
  go wrong and they're basically leaning on the
• 50:49
  fact that they believe their audience is going
• 50:51
  to go along with them i think they will um and
• 50:54
  support them with this decision um but i think
• 50:57
  yeah it's like what xbox i mean i don't expect
• 51:01
  any reaction from xbox or microsoft because of
• 51:04
  it but i wish there would be something because
• 51:07
  it's hard to like even talking about things like
• 51:12
  gears which i really like as a game like part
• 51:15
  of me is like it's hard to sell people i don't
• 51:19
  i can't tell people to buy this game because
• 51:21
  i realize lots of people will be unwilling to
• 51:24
  for the reasons the same reasons why this game
• 51:26
  isn't coming to xbox like there's a massive issue
• 51:30
  around xbox bigger than are they making good
• 51:33
  games i think it's like is it a company that
• 51:35
  should even be supported at all um And that is,
• 51:39
  I think, if a lot of other indie studios, I think
• 51:41
  there was one other, I can't remember the game,
• 51:43
  but I'm pretty sure another studio has already
• 51:45
  come out and said, this is the reason why this
• 51:47
  is not coming to Xbox. But yeah, like how much
• 51:52
  of an impact this will make. I think it's making
• 51:54
  an impact for the people. I think it's more of
• 51:56
  a consumer impact than impact from Xbox's side,
• 51:59
  like I doubt. I don't know. I think anything
• 52:01
  would change on that front. I was just thinking
• 52:02
  the only, like not to say that these are even
• 52:05
  remotely comparable situations, but just one
• 52:07
  thing like this got me to think about, remember
• 52:09
  when Baldur's Gate 3 launched on PS5 and after
• 52:13
  it came to PC and they didn't bring it to Xbox
• 52:15
  because of the Series S, like they couldn't get
• 52:17
  split screen working or whatever. And there was
• 52:20
  a rule behind the scenes that you had to have
• 52:22
  feature parity. And in the end, Microsoft did
• 52:25
  bend and let them ship it without split screen
• 52:27
  on Xbox Series S. So they did like bend that
• 52:30
  rule. Again, not to say that these are even comparable
• 52:33
  situations, but it did get me to thinking about
• 52:35
  that is one time that Xbox or Microsoft did do
• 52:38
  something about it to get the game on the platform.
• 52:41
  BG3 game of the year winner. You know, that's
• 52:44
  a different breakout, different kind of fish.
• 52:48
  But yeah. I think Microsoft have to value Xbox
• 52:52
  above how it values the... tools it's providing
• 53:00
  to Israel right like I don't see how that is
• 53:04
  a thing they're going to budge on unless it impacts
• 53:07
  a part of the business that they are so sort
• 53:11
  of keen to perform well if nothing happens they
• 53:14
  obviously rank it lower than other things in
• 53:17
  the business right so I think that I think that
• 53:19
  is it really like and whether or not they actually
• 53:21
  see this being an actual detriment to the future
• 53:24
  success of that whole business which I think
• 53:27
  it definitely is but they may not see it that
• 53:29
  way. I wanted to include it because I thought
• 53:31
  it was interesting. I thought it was an interesting,
• 53:32
  fascinating for a developer to just come out
• 53:35
  and say it. And like I say, I think this sort
• 53:38
  of calculation is happening a lot behind the
• 53:39
  scenes, but a lot of developers don't want to
• 53:41
  say it. I think, let's be honest, it's also helped
• 53:44
  by the fact that Xbox is by far the smallest
• 53:46
  market for these sorts of games. It becomes easier
• 53:50
  to make these sorts of decisions if the market
• 53:52
  isn't as huge, which has been the case for a
• 53:54
  long time for Xbox. We will obviously get into
• 53:57
  in the coming months. what the gta sales split
• 54:01
  is i'm sure that's going to be some not insufferable
• 54:04
  conversation about that one um yeah last notes
• 54:08
  uh on the site uh if you've missed it there's
• 54:11
  a review of castlevania belmont's curse which
• 54:14
  is um a really interesting game from a review
• 54:17
  perspective just in terms of um it's split opinion
• 54:21
  quite a bit uh james who reviewed it for us really
• 54:24
  liked it um It's had a 10 from some places, but
• 54:28
  it's also had like fives and sixes, which is
• 54:30
  usually, in my opinion, the sign of something
• 54:32
  that's got some real sauce. Overall, been really
• 54:35
  loved those. You can read that. There's a great
• 54:37
  article from Tom on AI, which we touched on earlier
• 54:39
  about how perhaps the kids are right and will
• 54:43
  save us all. And also, likewise, Tom touching
• 54:47
  on the absolute abject failure that was PlayStation
• 54:51
  VR. And also there's Mikau, as he mentioned earlier,
• 54:55
  taking a look at Resident Evil, the ports on
• 54:58
  the Nintendo Switch 2. And there is a wonderful
• 55:02
  preview from Mr. Chris Higgins of the Legend
• 55:04
  of Zelda Ocarina of Time remake. He went in and
• 55:10
  did a absolutely scientific deep look at sort
• 55:15
  of... not only how this remake plays, but how
• 55:18
  it differs and how the design has changed and
• 55:20
  things like the flow of the dungeons and, you
• 55:23
  know, things like he got to play the very start
• 55:27
  of the game, the Great Deku Tree, and then a
• 55:29
  little bit of Hyrule Field Exploration. And then
• 55:31
  finally, the entirety of the Shadow Temple. And
• 55:35
  like in the Shadow Temple, for instance, in the
• 55:37
  original, the way the keys are doled out is almost,
• 55:40
  you get a lot of keys all at once and then spend
• 55:42
  them as you work through the dungeon, where they're
• 55:45
  sort of... reorganize that dungeon so the the
• 55:47
  acquisition of the keys comes more bit by bit
• 55:50
  it feels a little bit a little bit more natural
• 55:53
  and so it does seem like while this is a one
• 55:55
  -to -one remake they are making a lot of sensible
• 55:57
  changes in amongst all that which there's a preview
• 56:01
  from him on the site and obviously down the line
• 56:03
  you can look forward to a review of the full
• 56:06
  thing but i highly recommend reading this preview
• 56:09
  which leads us to the retrospective as we close
• 56:12
  in on the end of this week's pod There's some
• 56:15
  interesting ones this week, and hopefully there'll
• 56:18
  be ones that you guys, both listening and Tom
• 56:22
  McHale, have some memories of. First up, Skylanders
• 56:27
  Spyro's Adventure turns 15 years old. Is that
• 56:31
  the first one? It is the first one, right? Yeah,
• 56:35
  it's the first one. Because that was the whole
• 56:37
  thing, right? It's almost like they had this
• 56:40
  idea of Skylanders and they tapped Spyro onto
• 56:42
  it. That was always my impression. I was always,
• 56:44
  as someone who liked Spyro, I was always vaguely
• 56:46
  insulted by it. But obviously this was, I guess
• 56:50
  this was the biggest success of the Toys to Life
• 56:54
  NFC thing, I would say. I feel like Skylanders
• 57:00
  was the one, yeah. Yeah, I feel like despite
• 57:02
  the fact that Lego Dimensions was better, it
• 57:04
  wasn't as successful. and yeah it's i don't know
• 57:11
  did you play this back in the daytime i didn't
• 57:15
  but i was i guess exposed to it because some
• 57:19
  people in the office at the time were quite into
• 57:22
  getting all the all the toys all the figures
• 57:24
  um it was one of those things that had it come
• 57:27
  out a bit later would have been because i imagine
• 57:30
  my son and now my daughter would be all over
• 57:32
  that kind of stuff um but yeah okay i guess it's
• 57:37
  it was at a time when things were not like these
• 57:41
  days those toys would be like 40 quid each or
• 57:43
  something and it'd be like impossible for that
• 57:45
  to stand up as a thing to sell but back then
• 57:48
  it was achievable um and yeah like i think it
• 57:51
  was a good and it wasn't a terrible like obviously
• 57:54
  it's a it's a it's a way to get people to buy
• 57:56
  all those little figures but actually the game
• 57:58
  was fine yeah it was all right like it's like
• 58:01
  a sort of diablo type thing right um it was perfectly
• 58:06
  decent and i play i think i actually played some
• 58:08
  of the later ones a bit more than the first one
• 58:10
  um yeah like i think it like of all those games
• 58:14
  it's the one people look back on and go yeah
• 58:16
  that was the good one as he's at least in terms
• 58:19
  of like it had some uh it stuck around for a
• 58:22
  while whereas also lego dimensions people liked
• 58:24
  but actually like it was there it was there and
• 58:27
  gone basically quite quickly after those couple
• 58:30
  expansion sets and stuff um But yeah, I think
• 58:34
  it was an interesting time that probably will
• 58:37
  never happen again for financial reasons. My
• 58:40
  primary memory of it is, I think I've told this
• 58:43
  story vaguely before, but this has to hold the
• 58:46
  record the entire Skylanders series, which also
• 58:49
  Skylanders Imaginators also turned 10 this week.
• 58:52
  So they obviously had a way, they clearly designated
• 58:54
  this week as the Skylanders week because they
• 58:56
  released two. You quite often find that with
• 58:58
  anniversaries. It has to have the record for
• 59:03
  the game like at E3 and Gamescom that probably
• 59:05
  had the highest appointment demand versus the
• 59:10
  number of people that actually wrote about it.
• 59:12
  Because if you went to see it, they'd always
• 59:14
  give you an exclusive Skylander figure. And I
• 59:21
  remember there was a chrome -plated figure of
• 59:27
  Spyro the first year they showed it. So that
• 59:30
  was only at E3. And even now, I've just looked
• 59:35
  it up while you were chatting, Tom, one of those
• 59:37
  has sold on eBay for in excess of £400 in the
• 59:41
  last month. There's one called Hot Dog. Jesus,
• 59:46
  one sold on the 23rd of August for £750? Bloody
• 59:51
  hell. I've got one of those somewhere. But yeah,
• 59:56
  I just remember people would like fight over
• 59:58
  those appointments because people wanted their
• 1:00:00
  crappy free Skylander. Which those were the days.
• 1:00:05
  I never played this stuff. I never played this
• 1:00:08
  stuff before. But Skylanders, my memory is always
• 1:00:11
  seeing a shitload of them at CEX. That's all.
• 1:00:14
  And I think Skylanders, they released them on
• 1:00:19
  Wii U and PS4 also, right? Like at some point.
• 1:00:23
  I just vaguely remember seeing a shitload of
• 1:00:24
  those specific versions in stores back then because
• 1:00:27
  the Wii U didn't have many games and this was
• 1:00:30
  just always there and that's all. Never bothered
• 1:00:32
  with it. I think the closest that came was the
• 1:00:35
  Ubisoft. That wasn't Skylanders, that was Starlink,
• 1:00:39
  right? Starlink. I do know a lot about Starlink
• 1:00:42
  because that is something my son played and that
• 1:00:45
  is actually a very good game. I think they released
• 1:00:47
  a version that didn't need a whole set. on digital
• 1:00:50
  whatever it was yeah that didn't use the the
• 1:00:53
  figures because it's perfectly good game without
• 1:00:54
  them but i think the toys are really cool for
• 1:00:56
  that like all the ships look really nice all
• 1:00:59
  the characters you plug in and the weapons and
• 1:01:00
  stuff that was the line that was maybe the last
• 1:01:03
  of all these games and it came just as everyone
• 1:01:06
  was going and we don't want these games anymore
• 1:01:07
  i always yeah i think there's quite a few there
• 1:01:11
  that happened to right that was the whole thing
• 1:01:12
  with lego dimensions for me where i was like
• 1:01:14
  if they'd launched that three years earlier that
• 1:01:17
  might still exist today but they just missed
• 1:01:20
  the boat unfortunately um and yeah i bought that
• 1:01:26
  i remember i got the starfox pack for that like
• 1:01:29
  where it was the game and the r -wing yeah switch
• 1:01:31
  and it was like three pounds from smith's toys
• 1:01:34
  yeah insane insane like the r -wing alone was
• 1:01:37
  worth that really um some other anniversaries
• 1:01:41
  um zoo tycoon is 25 um which i need to remember
• 1:01:46
  to tell My wife that because that's one of the
• 1:01:48
  few games she loves and she'll probably make
• 1:01:50
  her feel very old. Battlefield 2142 is 20. Great
• 1:01:55
  game. Not as good as BF2, but it's one of my
• 1:01:57
  favorite battlefields. Bully is 20. I just want
• 1:02:02
  Bully 2. I've wanted Bully 2. One of the few
• 1:02:04
  Rockstar games I've not played yet. I've owned
• 1:02:07
  it everywhere, but I've not played it. I think
• 1:02:08
  it's fabulous and I just want Bully 2 and have
• 1:02:12
  wanted Bully 2 for at least 18 of those 20 years
• 1:02:16
  since it came out. Um, and I just think now,
• 1:02:21
  I don't know, like it's almost like, uh, with
• 1:02:25
  Wednesday and shows like that, like the, and,
• 1:02:27
  and, and bloody Harry Potter coming back, whatever
• 1:02:30
  you think of it, um, in the TV show, we're in
• 1:02:33
  a, we're in a, we're in a world where boarding
• 1:02:36
  school antics are suddenly, are suddenly, uh,
• 1:02:39
  in vogue again. So let's have another bully.
• 1:02:42
  There's this, the, the interview that, um, Rockstar
• 1:02:45
  did with Jason Schreier. It was really interesting
• 1:02:47
  this week. I highly recommend. That's worth a
• 1:02:49
  read. But it was interesting because they were
• 1:02:51
  talking about how like GTA 6 had took them like,
• 1:02:55
  I think they said eight years in the end, which
• 1:03:02
  obviously is not as long as it seems. But what
• 1:03:09
  they were saying is they spent most of their
• 1:03:11
  time on GTA Online. So when they moved. Anyway,
• 1:03:14
  what they were saying was the long and the short.
• 1:03:17
  was that their next game won't take this long
• 1:03:21
  because they were saying, they actually described
• 1:03:23
  it almost as like GTA 6 is foundational in the
• 1:03:28
  same way that GTA 3 was foundational and allowed
• 1:03:30
  them to quite quickly make San Andreas, Vice
• 1:03:33
  City, and Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories.
• 1:03:37
  I don't think that means we're going to get a
• 1:03:38
  game in two years, but it means maybe we will
• 1:03:41
  get another GTA in four years, maybe, in half
• 1:03:45
  the time. If as part of that, this tech can be
• 1:03:48
  used for bully. And I don't know, I think of
• 1:03:51
  the, like all the Jason Lucia relationship mechanics
• 1:03:54
  they've got. Can we, you know, teenage, shitty
• 1:03:58
  teenage romances and love triangles at school
• 1:04:01
  and stuff like that. Surely there's a use for
• 1:04:04
  all that. Let's just have, let's just have bully,
• 1:04:06
  more bully. Am I, I know you haven't, you said
• 1:04:09
  you haven't played at Macau. Tom, do you have
• 1:04:11
  any strong feelings about? I like bully. I mean,
• 1:04:14
  it's not. I don't think of it like you do, I
• 1:04:18
  don't think. But I did enjoy it. I don't know,
• 1:04:20
  like, I don't know. Like, I don't think, I didn't
• 1:04:26
  love it as much as you clearly do. But I do,
• 1:04:30
  I would still like them, I'd like to see another
• 1:04:32
  one just to see how they handle it more than
• 1:04:34
  anything else really and what they do with the
• 1:04:36
  story and like how it differs from a game made
• 1:04:40
  20 years ago in terms of the world it is releasing
• 1:04:43
  into. Just think, there's something about there's
• 1:04:47
  something about the immersive sim idea of the
• 1:04:51
  whole thing about immersive sims right is is
• 1:04:53
  rather than you have a whole ginormous city to
• 1:04:55
  explore maybe you've got a couple of blocks but
• 1:04:57
  those few blocks are extremely dense and that
• 1:05:00
  was sort of the world in the bully occupied you
• 1:05:02
  know where in a post san andreas world where
• 1:05:04
  san andreas was three cities and huge you had
• 1:05:07
  this very small township but because you were
• 1:05:10
  getting around on a skateboard and because you
• 1:05:12
  were a kid the small bit you had access to felt
• 1:05:15
  huge. And I just think with today's technology
• 1:05:19
  and with some of what they've built for GTA and
• 1:05:20
  stuff like that, you could make an incredible
• 1:05:24
  dense but small open world. But I suppose part
• 1:05:28
  of the problem with that, for instance, is so
• 1:05:30
  much of the business for Rockstar now is online,
• 1:05:32
  for instance. And for online, you want the huge,
• 1:05:35
  enormous map. And maybe Bully isn't compatible
• 1:05:38
  with that, but I... I miss Bully. I would love
• 1:05:41
  a Bully 2. I don't advocate leaks in any way,
• 1:05:45
  but I'd love to see some of the Bully 2 that
• 1:05:47
  got cancelled. If anyone's sitting on any of
• 1:05:49
  that. Yeah, I really, 20 years since Bully. And,
• 1:05:55
  you know, I would be as excited for a Bully 2
• 1:05:59
  as a GTA 6 in a way. And I hope if what they
• 1:06:01
  say is true about GTA 6 enabling them to do iterative
• 1:06:05
  development, that Rockstar can look at other
• 1:06:07
  games that aren't GTA games. And for me, a new
• 1:06:10
  bully would be top of that list, personally.
• 1:06:13
  I know a lot of people would want Red Dead instead,
• 1:06:16
  but come on, we've done it. I mean, I just need
• 1:06:20
  the Red Dead 60 FPS patch on PS5 and Xbox. I
• 1:06:23
  don't even need a new game. How difficult is
• 1:06:25
  it to just do that? But anyway, I'll save that.
• 1:06:28
  I think a lot of people want that. I think a
• 1:06:29
  lot of people want a GTA 4 remaster. Last few,
• 1:06:32
  because it's quite a busy one, actually. Sam
• 1:06:35
  & Max Saved the World is 20. I remember when
• 1:06:38
  that was a big deal because it was the revival
• 1:06:39
  of Sam & Max. And now we're probably further
• 1:06:42
  from that than that was from the Sam & Max games
• 1:06:45
  that came before. Probably haven't looked that
• 1:06:47
  up, but probably true. Batman Arkham City and
• 1:06:49
  Payday the Heist, both 15 years old. Just think
• 1:06:52
  that. And Rocksmith as well. All of those tell
• 1:06:56
  a story of a certain time, right? You've got
• 1:06:58
  pre -disaster Rocksteady. Well, no, that wasn't
• 1:07:03
  Rocksteady, was it? Was Arkham City Rocksteady?
• 1:07:05
  No. City was, wasn't it? City was the middle
• 1:07:12
  one, wasn't it? And then, so there's Asylum City
• 1:07:17
  Night, and then Origins. That was the one. Yeah,
• 1:07:21
  Origins was the one made in Canada. You've got...
• 1:07:24
  Payday, you know, an indie game that became a
• 1:07:27
  whole series, whole franchise. And you've got
• 1:07:30
  Rocksmith, which is like Ubisoft's answer to
• 1:07:32
  the death of the plastic instrument craze. And
• 1:07:39
  I think it's funny in that sense that that is
• 1:07:43
  15 years old right as we are getting a new plastic
• 1:07:51
  instrument game, right? We're getting a... I
• 1:07:54
  forget what it's called. It's called Stage Tour
• 1:07:56
  or something. Stage Tour, yeah, yeah. Which I'm
• 1:08:02
  really excited for. I'm genuinely really, really,
• 1:08:04
  really pumped because I've just got a really
• 1:08:07
  good feeling about it. I like there's a new trailer
• 1:08:09
  I saw and it's quite funny because there's a
• 1:08:11
  bit in it where the guy is playing on a controller
• 1:08:14
  like it's a guitar. It's quite funny. I think
• 1:08:17
  it says, play how you want to play. And it's
• 1:08:19
  like some people with the guitars, this guy is
• 1:08:21
  just holding an Xbox pad like it's a guitar.
• 1:08:26
  What I'm curious about with that game is probably
• 1:08:32
  a bit naughty, but as someone who spent probably
• 1:08:34
  thousands of pounds over the years on Rock Band
• 1:08:37
  DLC, this is on PC. And so if there's a thriving
• 1:08:43
  Steam community where you can provide your own
• 1:08:45
  MP3 files legally and insert the music chart
• 1:08:50
  that someone else has designed and add whatever
• 1:08:52
  song you like, I will be... all over it that's
• 1:08:56
  out december 10th so i'm quite looking forward
• 1:08:57
  to that um battlefield one 10 years old and uh
• 1:09:03
  yeah that's that's it battlefield one what's
• 1:09:08
  crazy to me about that one is that tells us that
• 1:09:10
  we're 10 years from the start of this whole ray
• 1:09:12
  tracing revolution in a way because that was
• 1:09:15
  the game i remember going to gamescom nvidia
• 1:09:17
  flew us out to flew me out to gamescom um specifically
• 1:09:21
  to sort of sit in a gigantic room And it was
• 1:09:25
  all the like, oh, a guy's coming around the corner
• 1:09:28
  in Battlefield and you're going to see his reflection
• 1:09:30
  real time in the car and be able to turn around
• 1:09:33
  and cap him before he gets you. Which we never
• 1:09:37
  quite got that future, but it definitely did
• 1:09:39
  improve the look of games quite a lot. So I'll
• 1:09:42
  take it. I like Battlefield 1. That's up there
• 1:09:44
  as well for me in terms of Battlefield games.
• 1:09:48
  The recent one has left me. A little bit cold.
• 1:09:51
  But yeah, have any of those made you feel old?
• 1:09:53
  Do let us know if you've got any particular memories
• 1:09:55
  of any of those. Let us know on the Discord or
• 1:09:58
  you can drop us an email. We'd love to hear your
• 1:10:01
  memories. Were you someone who was that into
• 1:10:04
  Skylanders that you went on eBay and paid extortionate
• 1:10:08
  grifter prices for someone's E3 exclusive? I
• 1:10:11
  want to know about it, if so. And who sold it
• 1:10:14
  to you? Anyway, I think that's it from us this
• 1:10:19
  week. We will be back next week. I'm trying to
• 1:10:22
  think about what embargoes are lifting when and
• 1:10:26
  what I can talk about, but I can't remember.
• 1:10:28
  So I'm not going to promise anything, but there's
• 1:10:30
  definitely some reviews coming down the pipe
• 1:10:33
  that we'll be able to talk about in detail. So
• 1:10:37
  look forward to that. Anything else from you,
• 1:10:40
  Mikhail? I was actually just trying to think
• 1:10:44
  of what I have to do this weekend besides a family
• 1:10:47
  party. Probably just, yeah. lots of work looking
• 1:10:51
  forward to taking off taking time off for edge
• 1:10:53
  runners too for sure like i'm just gonna like
• 1:10:56
  turn off my phone and watch it for like five
• 1:10:58
  hours in a row when is that out it's i think
• 1:11:01
  it's on 20th or 22nd and i believe it unlocks
• 1:11:04
  midnight pacific which would be like noon my
• 1:11:07
  time which is perfect for me yeah that's so i'm
• 1:11:11
  definitely gonna watch that i'm gonna have a
• 1:11:13
  big i'm gonna have a big review on but that might
• 1:11:16
  be a great um second screen while taking screenshots
• 1:11:19
  or something experience um when it's something
• 1:11:23
  that's really branded where i don't have to focus
• 1:11:24
  on the game very much at all yeah i should think
• 1:11:26
  about that um tom anything else from you this
• 1:11:29
  week no i'm just i've been playing it's gonna
• 1:11:33
  be playing a load of older games for this tga
• 1:11:35
  stuff probably in the evenings can't be playing
• 1:11:38
  lego batman it's an interesting game we should
• 1:11:43
  talk about that do you get that on yeah i want
• 1:11:45
  to play that as well do you get it on switch
• 1:11:47
  too Probably not. PlayStation. Yeah. It's a lot
• 1:11:52
  of trying to get all these games. I feel like
• 1:11:54
  I need to play at least some of them to get a
• 1:11:57
  sense of what has been. But interesting. Yeah,
• 1:12:01
  I feel like there's some games have slipped through
• 1:12:05
  the cracks a little bit, and that was one of
• 1:12:06
  them. Well, we should revisit some of that stuff.
• 1:12:11
  Perhaps we will do it on our Patreon -exclusive
• 1:12:13
  podcast, which we are recording. right after
• 1:12:15
  this if you are a supporter thank you very much
• 1:12:18
  and we will continue to talk to you after this
• 1:12:20
  episode is over if you are not you can join us
• 1:12:23
  for just a couple of pound couple of dollars
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  a month you can join the crew and you can support
• 1:12:27
  independent games media help us to pay the bills
• 1:12:30
  and keep the lights on but also you get some
• 1:12:32
  nice exclusive content as part of that including
• 1:12:36
  a weekly exclusive podcast including regular
• 1:12:40
  exclusive articles that are only for patrons
• 1:12:42
  and all that sort of stuff and in addition now
• 1:12:44
  we haven't done the full launch of this it's
• 1:12:47
  sort of in early beta but um people who back
• 1:12:50
  us on patreon get ad free access to the respec
• 1:12:54
  .net website so it means when you visit the website
• 1:12:56
  it's very clean there's no advertising in sight
• 1:12:58
  it's just you and our words about video games
• 1:13:03
  which is, you know, I think the best benefit
• 1:13:05
  of all. And in addition, you will begin to notice
• 1:13:07
  in the coming months, coming weeks rather, ads
• 1:13:10
  begin to appear on this podcast feed as well.
• 1:13:13
  Similarly, the backers on Patreon get an ad -free
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  podcast feed also. So yeah, you can back us at
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  Respec. and click the Patreon link or you can
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  go to patreon .com forward splash forward slash
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  respec .net R -E -S -P -E -C -N -E -T so yeah
• 1:13:35
  that is it from us for this week we will be back
• 1:13:38
  with more video game news next week hopefully
• 1:13:39
  less AI chatter next week hopefully we can just
• 1:13:41
  get into the games a bit more but that's it from
• 1:13:44
  us until next time everyone